Progress? Maybe.

OOOOPS

The 6 second drum

Very interesting video relating to a drum loop that has been sampled so many times it has created subcultures.

It Felt Like A Kiss

Slightly behind the times I may be, but nonetheless the film below is worthwhile watching, since the installation has long since finished.

It Felt Like a Kiss is a collaboration between master documentary maker Adam Curtis and Punchdrunk, with music by Damon Albarn.

It charts the story of America’s rise to power in the golden age of pop, and the unforeseen consequences it had on the world and in our minds. Beginning in 1959, the show spotlights the dreams and desires that America inspired during the ’60s, when the world began to embrace the country and its culture as never before.

The installation ran back in July as part of the Manchester International Festival and sprawled across 5 floors of a disused office building in Manchester. The experience blended music and interactive theatre with documentary; a disorientating whirl of a fairground ghost train, soundtracked omniously by Phil Spector's wall of sound.

Link to Adam Curtis' blog with 50 minute film It Felt Like A Kiss

He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss) - The Crystals

Come Fly With Me....

You know that feeling when you’ve recently done a mix and you happen across an amazing tune merely a few weeks later………………

Jan Turkenburg and his pupils of the Geert Grote School – In my spaceship

Radiohead Return

The best band in the world™ returned last week with their first release since the critically acclaimed 'In Rainbows' album. The track, a tribute to Harry Patch, is a noble gesture but comes over as a little too Band of Brothers for my liking. A second track, which seemed to slip under the media radar, is quintissential Radiohead: avant-garde production, melancholic melodies and apocalyptic vocals.

The news this week that the band will not release any more albums was met with dismay by some fans, but with singles like this, Im not sure it matters:

Radiohead - These Are My Twisted Words

The Greeks

The Greeks are famous for many things:

*Philosophy
*Pythagoras
*Mount Olympus
*Mousakka
*Samaras

And more, but one of their biggest and best exports comes in the shape of Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, better known as music composer extraordinaire Vangelis.

His most famous work is perhaps his synth-tastic Blade Runner score, with the title track spawning various remixes and "edits" over the years.

Below is the lead track taken off of one of his solo albums, Spiral.

Enjoy.

Vangelis-Spiral

Meth Disco: Two

1. Dj Overdose – Face Down In The Water
2. Kelpe – Sickly Situation
3. Subway – Lowlife
4. Blancmange – The Game Above My Head
5. Ajello – 2k Lightyears (Altair Nouveau Version)
6. Michael Moorcock – Time Centre (Ivan Smagghe Rough Edit)
7. Moon Unit – Part Two
8. Colder - Colder

Meth Disco: Two by Padwantwo

Daft 'n' Disney

After a widely acclaimed world tour, Daft Punk are back in the studios, working on the soundtrack for Disney's Tron Legacy scheduled for release in 2010. The title track has been re-worked by Punk chum Cryda Luv and whilst the track does not represent a massive departure from the Parisians' typical style, it is a marked improvement from their last legacy-sullying album. The track in question has the same down-tempo, head-nodding qualities of 'Da Funk' and elicted much excitement at a recent nerd convention where basement-dwellers were temporarily allowed out of their usual enclosed abodes to salivate at the unveiling of the bike from said movie.

Daft Punk - Tron Legacy Theme (Reworked by Cryda Luv)

This Is An Heart Attack

Everybody will remember the moment it happened. Where they were when they heard the news, what they were doing and who broke it to them. As you will be no doubt aware by now, Neil Buchanan has died of heart failure and the art world is in mourning. He revolutionized the genre. Forget Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and all the rest of the turtles, Neil Buchanan was the Splinter of his trade, the finest drawer since the Ikea Galant. Neil takes to the grave a multitude of trade secrets – how did he manage to do his Big Art Attacks ? how was someone so aesthetically talented unable to paint over that hideous mole on his face? And why did he have that handicap-with-a-ice-lolly expression on him throughout the whole show?

Neil - you will be in our thought and prayers. As a tribute to the great man, I have crafted a mix out of paper mache, pritt stick and a few tunes. I know Neil would have loved it:

Juan Kerr presents This is an Heart Attack

1) Johnny Greenwood – There will be blood
2) Sidwho? – Time to go
3) Greg Hawkes – Niagara Falls/Twenty-seven shirts
4) Parva – Mossem-e-gol (the time of the blossom)
5) Thomas Bangalter – Club Soda
6) Lindstrom – The magnificent
7) Who made who – The plot (Noze remix)
8) Bat for Lashes – Pearl’s dream
9) Ada feat. Raz O’hara – Lovestoned
10) Syclops – Where’s Jason K
11) Speedking – Millionth monkey
12) Friends of Matthew – The calling (the other planet)
13) Peaches – Lose you
14) Au Revoir Simone – Shadows (It’s a fine line remix)
15) Cold Cave – The trees grew emotions and died
16) SIS – Trompeta
17) Two man sound – Que tal America
18) Bibio – Jealous of roses
19) Dusty Springfield – Baby blue
20) Flatt and Scruggs – Nashville blues

The Tube: Night In NYC

Can't say I've ever wanted to spend a night out with Jools Holland or Leslie Ash, but this video has got me thinking otherwise.

Taken from a Tube Special in 1983, they are taken around 3 of the big NYC clubs Danceteria, Roxy and Paradise Garage, before the cabaret licenses came into force.

Some quality interview footage of the Peech Boys, Arthur Baker and Quando Quango too.

Space Cake Mix

Selective Walking - Andrew Weatherall
Dubbed Out Games (Trentemøller's Unreleased Mix) - Chris Isaak
In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song) - David Lynch & Pete Ivers
Tatoo - The Rats
Lorelei ( Album Version) - Tom Tom Club
Suspiria - Goblin
Do It To The Max - 6th Borough Project
Vansbro Boogie - Västkustska Ryggdunkarsällskapet
Angela (Pilooski Remix) - Jarvis Cocker
Cosmos - Altair Nouveau
Prepare to Energize - Torch Song
Woman (A Makhnovshchina Repossession) - It's A Fine Line

Premier space cake by adamsrob

Download: Space cake mix

Alice

Seen this video a while back and totally forgot it existed until today, so I thought I'd share it.



Made up almost entirely of sounds from Alice in Wonderland by a guy called Pogo.

If that hasn't spooked you, then this will.

Briliant stuff.

Seedy Amor

French crooner and ultimate seed-athon Serge Gainsbourg has always been a man associated with poppy French love songs with a hint of sleaze sprinkled in there for good measure.

And in 1986 he showcased his true abilities to swoon the ladies with a drunken approach to the then superstar Whitney Houston on national television in France. Clearly pumped full of Bordeaux's finest, the lothario professed his intentions from the off in this delightful little video you can see HERE.

But this brazen sexual claim was clearly not a one off for Msr. Gainsbourg. A quick look at some of his album concepts are undoublty some of the seediest but hilarious ideas ever.

The album Histoire de Melody Nelson released in 1971 had this concept:

"The Lolita-esque pseudo-autobiographical plot involves the middle-aged Gainsbourg unintentionally colliding his Rolls Royce Silver Ghost into teenage nymphet Melody Nelson's bicycle, and the subsequent seduction and romance that ensues."

The popular French song "Les sucettes" was written by Serge for France Gall in 1966 and the song went on to become a national success, but what France Gall did not know was that the song was interwoven with innuendos and sexual motifs, and this might not sound too bad, so far it sounds like a normal chart song, but this was in fact a childrens song. Had Serge crossed the line? Maybe. But his ability to craft sleaze-drenched love songs was a talent.

A quick scan of his (C:) Drive would have been in order had he been alive today but we can't knock this French Adonis as he is far too much of a hero to many men and he made some excellent music.

Serge Gainsbourg-Cargo Culte

Français what you see

Living in Madrid, I have noticed that English is seen to be the ‘cool’ language. If you want have your finger on the pulse of the plaza, then you need to have the admirable ability to sporadically thrust English terms into your day-to-day chit chat. It goes without saying that technology has a huge influence on this linguistic invasion (email, internet, fax, etc. are all acceptable terms in Spanish), but you do find that many other terms are used incorrectly – someone is called a ‘freaky’ rather than a ‘freak’ and a service is known as ‘alto standing’ which means ‘high level’ – no surprise then that Spanish came bottom of the league in an EU survey in 2006 with a mere 22% classing themselves as able to speak English fluently.

Are the Brits any better? Don’t be daft. The Anglophonic inability to speak a foreign language is matched only by the colossal arrogance of many Brits abroad who expect to be spoken to in English wherever they go. Yet paradoxically foreign languages have penetrated the upper echelons of the English language. Open any high-brow newspaper and they will talk condescendingly of Schadenfreude, cause célèbres, and aficionados. Indeed, don’t even bother reading anything by those patronising pricks at The Economist unless you have four foreign-language dictionaries at hand.

Anyway, the point is that musicians have adopted this trend too, believing that dropping some foreign lingo in their tunes will give them that extra kick in the cool category. Madonna famously apologized in 5 languages for kidnapping African children at the beginning of Sorry, Kylie famously told the French nation in this song that she wasn’t aware of the reasons for which at the age of 68 she still looks like Dick van Dyke’s daughter from 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', and Dublin’s finest diva and philanthropic cockbag Bono showed the Hispanic world what a penis-face he was (as if anyone else was in doubt) by failing to count beyond three in Spanish at the start of this dreadful track.

Fortunately some bands have taken the foreign influence in the correct manner. Step forward the eloquently named Au Revoir Simone whose brilliant new album Still Night, Still Light is so warm-hearted and affectionate, you will feel like your head is being gently stroked by a group of Egyptian slave-ladies at a pyramid-period party.

This is the opening track:

Au Revoir Simone – Another Likely Story

Altair Nouveau

In City of Glass, the first part of Paul Auster's mind-bending New York Trilogy there is a storyline about a man who longs for a language that is not already loaded with meaning. It is a reasonable desire (if a tad futile). But, instead of writing a scholarly essay on the subject, he has a kid (not on his own), who he locks in a basement room, only ever feeding, though never communicating with. Unsurprisingly, this did not result in said child achieving lexical putiry, but created a very pasty, oddball who had the father locked up at the first opportunity.

Nevertheless, there is the seed of a very good idea in this. Not the language part, which is an awful idea unless you are an overly zealous disciple of Jacques Derrida. Even if the kid stumbles upon a lyrical clarity, they will merely be using a bunch of sounds, all but meaningless in the outside world. At best this will result in severe bullying at school, at worst it is a one way ticket to Hermitsville.

For the record, the good idea is not the locking up of the kid part either, let's ditch the child bit and the locking-up side of things too. Although we are being strictly hypothetical, there is no need to do so in a way that may mistakenly alert the authorities. What it got me thinking about was, what it would be like if you could completely control the musical influences of a musician, so that the only ingredients that went into their music were of your choosing.

This makes for a very enjoyable game that you can play with friends on those drunken evenings when everyone keeps stopping each other's tunes halfway through, going "no, honestly, this is amazing..." The way it works is that you get a pen and a bit of paper and before putting on a track you write down a maximum of three influences that you, as hypothetical musical overlord of the act you are about to play, allowed them to listen to when growing up. You play the track and your listeners have to guess at least two of the three influences (they can be acts, genres, single tracks, whole albums etc.) you have written on the paper. If they do not guess right, you get to play a track by each of the two or three influences they did not manage to guess. If your compadres feel strongly that you are wrong, or that they too, see threads of influence in the music then they can also play tracks.

The following is an example:

Say the tune i am playing is Cosmos by Altair Nouveau. Before having done so, I would have written on a piece of paper the following three things:

Logic System- Unit

A Guy Called Gerald- Voodoo Ray

Omar S- Psychotic Photosynthesis

Download, listen and once you have the jist of it, then play with friends. The overall objective of this wonderful game, is to allow you and your crew to get knee deep in each other's musical worlds.

*Please note that the people you play this with must be relatively close friends who you know are into music. It will be a disaster otherwise. Also, do not play this at parties, as you and your friends will seem like muso wankers and everyone will hate you.

Tinklin' the Ivories

They say everything is cyclic, and that often tends to be true. But periodic function has a lot to answer for, who could have foreseen the re- emergence of flourescent gym socks or Peter Andre?

What with the inevitable fall-out of the economic climate only now starting to come to into focus, what can history teach us? A recent expose of Thatcher's legacy in The Guardian offered a broad landscape of opinion that her anti- culture stance actually acted to create a fertile environment for some fine British independent films and music.

But come 2009, with a sleaze- ridden cabinet, inevitable vultures circling round No. 10 and rise of the BNP what can Gordy do?

Get some musical accompaniment and maybe take a leaf out of the PNP in Jamaica.
They were boosted by the vocal encouragement of one Cutty Ranks, seen here in raucous form at a PNP Rally in 1986...



So with Gordon on the rocks and his concern for recent #BGT finalist Susan Boyle, surely a sly ploy to boost his ratings and provide his D- REAM moment, may I suggest he takes a look in the history books and see a return to piano- driven house is surely on the cards...

Two recent efforts from Aeroplane and Joakim, heavy on the ol' joanna.

Baby I Can't Stop (Aeroplane Remix) - Lindstrøm & Solale

Joakim - Watermelon Bubblicious

Bin Laden and his Bush

In pre-9/11 days, when the world was free of terrorism and evil-doers, Peaches had the filthiest mouth in the global playground. She could deflower a ninety-year-old nun with one flick of her acid tongue and stoked controversy by rapping about Fatherfuckers in support of mistreated paedophile priests. Yet after the September 11 attacks, Peaches suddenly found that she was moved down the pecking order as Osama bin Laden took the title of jihad jobby-mouth, splurging out expletives against infidels and beardless barbarians in videos shot in glamorous mountain locations. Peaches embarked on a halal-style beef with bin Laden to regain her cred, which culminated in a ‘rap battle’ between the two in a Dubai nightclub. Bin Laden, under his hip-hop pseudonym ‘The Desert Diss-troyer’, prevailed after a series of memorable lines which left Peaches in tatters:

“I’ll pull down your pants the way I pulled down those towers,
Make your career disappear like a female Dane Bowers.
You live in a mansion, but I hide out in my cave,
Smoking opium all day; more drugged-up than an early-90s rave.”

But there was someone in the crowd that night with a weapon of mass destruction. It was Cupid and he fired his arrow straight through Peaches’ heart. From that day forward, she was infatuated with bin Laden and the gray-haired guerrilla instantly appeared at the top of her ‘most wanted’ list. But it was not to be. Bin laden fled into the mountains of Tora Bora that same night, leaving Peaches with only a note that contained his address and msn nickname. It is said that Peaches, a sufferer of an acute form of dyslexia, was last spotted in Ibiza, weeping outside the famous seaside nightspot Bora Bora. She wrote this song as a tribute to her Saudi soul-mate, in the hope that their paths may cross again one day:

Peaches - lose you

Big Apple Reppin' (via Brooklyn, Stockholm + Goteborg)

Many apologies for my tardy return to the heady climes of this blog, times are a tuff out there, got to make an honest crust. Enough of my grim up north chat though! - here are some top drawer NYC inspired tunes I've been digging recently.

The Phenomenal Handclap Band have been quite highly regarded for some time now - and rightly so - just the right amount of Old Skool/ Art School NYC aesthetic pioneered by Tom Tom Club with just a whiff of New Yooik attitude.

Anne Margret has been a Hollywood staple since the 1960s when the Stockholmer got noticed on the arm of Elvis after Viva Las Vegas (1964) and subsequent appearences on the Flintstones and the Cincinnatti Kid. She pursued a recording career blighted by record company comparisons as the female Elvis; luckily she was still recording by the time the 1980s swung around - with this belter being a result. There are actually two versions of this tune, this one with the disco drums, the other (Part 1), a more soulful subdued affair, email if you want a listen.

Finally, a remix from Anton Qlint one half of Tiedye and one third of the excellent Västkustska Ryggdunkarsällskapet. I've been a big fan of both these Swedes and even more so DJ Kaos following his 2005 opus Hello Stranger. Think this may be a grower.

The Phenomenal Handclap Band - 15 to 20

Anne Margret - Everybody Needs Somebody Sometime (Part 2)

Love The Night Away (Tiedye Remix) - DJ Kaos

Stockholm Syndrome

Back in 1973, some Swedish desperados robbed a Stockholm bank at machine gun point, holding four people hostage for nearly five days. When the whole thing was over police and Swedish society were shocked to find the captives defending the captors. The bond that had been struck during the siege was so strong that one of the women held later became engaged to and paid for the defence of one of her captors. Psychologists, as is their wont, noticed this to be a pattern and decided to give it a name. Thus, was born Stockholm Syndrome, which was given its most famous moment by American millionairess Patty Hearst who, after being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army actually ended up joining forces and robbed a bank with them.

Fast forward to the Eighties, and a guy called Buffalo Bill was knocking people off in and around Baltimore, after having first held them captive for a while and before eating them. These were truly horrific crimes. One of his victims Catherine Martin was captured leaving a nightclub and then bundled into a van, before spending several weeks at the bottom of a well under Buffalo Bills house. Luckily for Catherine she was saved by pasty, tomboyish FBI Agent Clarice Starling, who with help from popular cannibal Hannibal Lector managed to track down the killer. Catherine was free.

You may be familiar with the tale, as it was made into 1991 horror film Silence of the Lambs. Though, due to society’s tendency to focus on the most morbid, lurid angle of any given story Catherine’s tale has been largely relegated to a bit part in the story of Hannibal Lector, about whom there have been a string of movies. Catharine’s tale is one worth telling though. Whilst Agent Starling managed to rescue Catherine from Buffalo Bill’s cold basement, she could not stop her from falling in love with him. Catharine’s tale is textbook Stockholm Syndrome.

Having been trapped in Buffalo Bill’s cellar for a long and no doubt terrifying period, Catherine began to foster an attraction for Buffulo Bill. His behaviour went beyond that of the usual captor, as night after night he tucked his Johnson between his legs and minced around in front of her and the mirror to the sound of Q Lazarus’ Goodbye Horses, pretending to be a lady of sorts. It is debatable whether it was Buffalo Bill’s curious mix of Michael Bolton meets Otto the bus driver good looks or simply the enigmatic, ethereal beauty that is Goodbye Horses, but love captured the captive’s heart. Did Bill feel the same? We will never know.

It seems hardly to matter, as the type of love experienced by those suffering Stockholm Syndrome tends not to need reciprocation. Indeed, given that the Swedes earlier mentioned spilt-up after a short while, it is arguable that the love is stronger if it goes unrequited. What we do know is that Catharine Martin’s love is as strong as ever.

In the wake of Silence of the Lambs’ success she changed her name to Walter Jones and moved to New York to avoid any potential publicity. Having taken up music on the advice of her therapist, she has been producing electronic music as a way of channelling the effects of her captivity. Last year a couple of her tracks graced the nifty Nobody Knows Anything on Xaver Naudascher’s Supersoul imprint. Her links with the electronic music scene mean that she has record promos given to her all the time. In 2008, she found a disc of vinyl with a white label, on her doormat. When the needle hit the groove, her heart almost melted. It was the Krikor edit of Goodbye Horses. Since then she has been locked in the studio with memories of Buffalo Bill.

That is, until now. DFA have just released I Will Always Love You, which sees her address those dark days and the eternal love she feels for Buffalo Bill. Available, for the moment, on vinyl only, it is a swooning, hypnotic, heartbreaking slice of new wave house, that is not only the best thing to have come out of a hostage situation, but one of the best tracks released by anyone, anywhere this year.

Listen here.

Goodbye Horse- Q Lazarus.

Meth Disco

1. Tuxedomoon- The Waltz
   
2. Brian Eno- In Dark Trees
   
3. Principles of Geometry- Golem
   
4. Moderat- A New Error
   
5. Brassica- The Centre
   
6. J. P. Decerf, G. Zajd & T. Cerrona- Black Safari
   
7. Whomadewho- Raveo
   
8. New Look- So Real
   
9. Sebastien Tellier- L'Amour et la Violence (Allure mix)
   
10. The Glimmers- Music For Dreams
    
11. Desire- Under Your Spell
    
12. The Chap- The Health of Nations
    
13. The Big Pink- Velvet (Gang Gang Dance mix)
    
14. Tones On Tail- Twist
    
15. The Tropics of Cancer- Mood Swings
    
16. Thick Business- Smoothest Runes
    
17. Animal Collective- No More Runnin'
    
18. Chloe- Paradise
    

Meth Disco

Savage-Don't Cry Tonight

After hearing the aforementioned tune on this mix, I thought I would track it down and add it to my ever expanding folder of serious guilty 80's pop/italo pleasures.

I know that this kind of music is deemed "trendy" or "faddy", but the simple fact is, this is good music and the original 80's gear is always miles better than the rehashed attempts of Messrs Feelmybicep, Serge Santiago and other modern "italo" producers.

This is as 80's as it gets. Rumour has it, Molly Ringwald is the exectuive producer here and Judge Reinhold is the lead vocalist of this cheddar masterpiece.

Savage-Don't Cry Tonight

La Música Tremenda

I’ve been listening to lots of music lately. As per usual, most of it has been uninspiring dross, a positively steaming pile of derivative shit which could be used soundtrack my demise to hell, when the time comes (Yes I did listen to Tiga’s new album). Fortunately, throw enough shit at the wall and some of it is bound to stick. And so with this ethos in mind, I bring you a few tracks which I have had on heavy rotation of late. Particular attention should be paid to Señor Stevens’ effort, which is probably the most creative track I have heard all year. Reworking his label mates ‘The Castanets’, Sufjan produces what I perceive to be his answer to Bohemian Rhapsody – a ten-minute epic which traverses various genres and keeps the listener constantly guessing on where the track may go next. The other tunes are rather good too.

Sufjan Stevens – You are the blood

Who Made Who – The Plot (Noze remix)

Faze Action - Dannae’s Journey

Bottin – No Static (Main Version)

Love and Romance and a Special Person

The problem with love and romance is that it is so very hard to tell when someone is truly special. Everyone could probably recall at least one burning passion that lit up a few nights, but grew cooler over time, as we discover that what we thought was love, was little more than lust. Things cool down as quickly as they got hot and that person, who should never have been anything other than a fling, gets chucked.

This also happens with music. If you take an honest look at your record collection, you will be sure to come across a few acts that you fell head over heels in love with, raved about to all and sundry, before realising that they were not really what you were looking for. Once you get passed the shiny beats or the spiky guitars, they become a bit repetitive, or have little to say lyrically; in short, like the hot airhead or the intelligent munter, they are just not ticking enough boxes.

Entire genres can be like this too. Like disco. Its re-emergence a couple of years ago was exciting and the right record played at the right time was enough to sex up even the dullest of nights. However, the allure has proven too much for the public at large and it is D-I-S-C-O every which way you turn your ears. That is not to say that the genre is a washout, far from it, but what was a glittering affair should have remained that. Stretching those moments of guilty pleasure over whole nights is stretching them thin.

Despite this, or perhaps in spite of this we keep on searching for that special someone or something that lasts, that is not only all the things we want, but has the capacity to surprise and excite time and time again.

Like Joakim (and the Disco).

Joakim and the Disco- Love and Romance and a Special Person

Burial/Fourtet EP

The recent release from the secretive Burial and the percussion overlord Fourtet has been met with a warm response.

It's unsure exactly who makes what track, but what is sure is that both tracks on the EP are of a very high standard.

The opener Moth is a fuzzy, deep house number that you would expect to hear from the Sonar Kollektiv camp, so it's a bit of a departure for both Fourtet and Burial, although it does have some elements of Burial littered throughout it(reverb laden vocals).

Wolf Cub is probably the best of the two. From the first second the Aztec-like drums are already warming your cockles, but it's not until around the 2minute mark that the song turns upside down and glitchy kick takes over. I've got a sneaky suspsicion that this is a collaborative effort; the haunting faint vocals associated with Burial are embedded in this track as is the organised drum chaos that Fourtet does so well.

Overall this EP has delivered and one can only hope that this duo have something else in the pipeline.

Support your local record store by buying HERE.

A Baltimore score minus the Bmore bore

Being an artist in Baltimore must be tough these days. The unadulterated success enjoyed by 'The Wire' has meant that the media spotlight now shines on a hitherto unknown corner of the US. Baltimore is perceived by some as the 'new' New York and as such any cultural output is now prone to critical scrutiny. Step forward Dan Deacon, who fearlessly dives head-first into the dangerous waters of the ‘difficult second album’ and emerges with his head held high.

Just like his counterparts at the HBO smash hit, Deacon is acutely aware that individuality is a more admirable creative path to take than that of simply following the crowd. He first came to my attention after Huntleys and Palmers rinsed the much-lauded ‘Wham City’ and although I didn’t love that track, I knew that this guy was onto something. With his latest offering ‘Bromst’, Deacon avoids the pitfalls of many other musical residents of his city by shunning the dross, monotonous sounds of the Bmore genre and opting for inventive, fresh and avant-garde sounds that at times make the listener feel that he has mistakenly boarded a malfunctioning waltzer (minus the vomit of course).

The prevailing sentiment to be taken away from this album is that you are listening to someone with an abundance of creativity and talent, who may be but a few short steps from reaching genius territory. ‘The Wire’ may be gone for good but rest assured – plenty of magic will still appear from way down in the hole.

Dan Deacon – Build Voice:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/58776628658499a7/

Dance Mother

Any excitement gathering around Brooklynites Telepathe last year was public executed with a live show that suggested broken beats are made with broken instruments. Cheap ones. Melissa Livaudais and Busy Gagnes wailing out of time and tune with each did nothing to help their cause either.

Thus, despite the Chrome’s On It and Devil’s Trident e.p.s being two of my favourite releases of last year, I lost the inclination to get to bothered about their debut album Dance Mother, a feeling compounded on seeing that three of the nine tracks on it came from the aforementioned releases.

Perhaps there is something to be said for the role expectation plays in our eventual opinion of things. Whatever the case, Dance Mother has blown me away. Having not listened to Chrome’s On It, Devil’s Trident and the other previously released track Lights Go Down for a while, they sound startling, especially Devil’s Trident on which they growl aptly “it was a basic sensation, it is a basic sensation”. It sounds both futuristic and primal.

These songs sound like they have come from a future when the only musical influences that have survived are Eighties synth-pop, nursery rhymes and hip-hop beats- which have been reclaimed from the hands of so many turgid rappers and taken once more as the innovative tool they used to be. Take Trilogy- Breath of Life, Crimes and Killings, Threads and Knives with its barrage of low-riding gangsta synths; it is like a classic West Coast hip-hop track, albeit one with the BPM’s reduced to the pace of a pounding heart, a sound that befits the ache Telepathe infuse it with.

That said the real strength of the album lies in the way the girls utilise Dave Sitek’s production. Due to the school talent show style of their vocals, Telepathe are never going to sound slick, a fact that means Sitek’s production can never sound too polished and end-up overwhelming, as on TV On The Radio’s last album Dear Science. More radical though, is the effect generated when the girl’s adolescent vocals combine with his wall-of-sound construction; this combination causes the music to swell with an odd nostalgia which is completely heart-breaking. This is especially true of the stand-out tracks In Your Line, Can’t Stand It and album highlight Michael, which seems to use the Aurora Borealis as a backdrop for the chorus. It is at these moments when their glitchy futurism reveals itself to be something more ethereal.

In a year when strong albums are coming out of the left-field at a dizzying rate, Telepathe have created something unique that demands your attention.

Seek.

Telepathe- Can't Stand It

Telepathe- Michael

Der Raeuber Und Der Prinz

Naming your new band after one of your all-time favourite tracks is a very risky move, as it invites, perhaps even demands comparison, giving said new act a lot to live up to. This is especially true of Ralf Beck (Unit 4) & Sebastian Lee Philipp (Noblesse Oblige), who have named their new project Der Raeuber Und Der Prinz after the seminal DAF (Deutshe-Amerikanishe Freundschaft) track from 1981.

Both acts hail from Dusseldorf- which if their music is anything to go by, is an industrial hinterland- but share more than geography. Clearly Beck and Phillipp are inspired by the EBM (Electronic Body Music) movement that DAF pioneered. EBM, also known as industrial dance, came about at the turn of the eighties taking its inspiration from punk’s DIY ethic, lacing it with desire to move away from the instrumentation and rock style of punk. This quickly caught on and gave us the likes of Throbbing Gristle, Fad Gadget, Cabaret Voltaire and Nitzer Ebb.

Der Elektrische Reiter is an exceptional example of people taking their influences and crafting something that manages to move beyond imitation and homage into genuinely fresh territory. A lot EBM and the industrial music of the time felt like it had been steeped in the atmosphere of the Cold War (whether that was a fear of Nuclear War or an escape from the doom and gloom), Der Raeuber Und Der Prinz do is replace this with the claustrophobia of our surviellance society. Building on a primitive drumbeat the track builds tantalisingly, helicopters swoop over-head, guitars, voices and electronics drone below, all the while managing to include the folksiness inherent to much of Krautrock. There is more than a hint of Glaswegian drone rockers Mogwai and London’s Balearic shoe-gazers A Mountain of One, in there too.

Starting off with Stevie Wonder-like keys, Torpedovogel crafts many of the same elements into a buzzing, menacing track centred around a metallic melody, that rewinds itself, about half-way through then lurches forward again with even more menace than before.

Enjoy.

DAF- Der Raeuber Und Der Prinz

Der Raeuber Und Der Prinz -Der Elektrische Reiter

Der Raeuber Und Der Prinz- Torpedovogel

Sleep Mix

I have a playlist on my iTunes called Sleepy, it's made up of ambient, folk-y, IDM type stuff, so I thought I'd get Ableton on the go and do a "mix" of sorts with some of the tunes that help me get to sleep.

1. Samoyed-Making Snow
2. Brian Retzell & Roger J Manning-Shibuya
3. Headless Heroes-Hey, Who Really Cares?
4. Joe Hisihashi-The Merry-go-round of Life
5. Brian Eno-Another Green World
6. Grizzly Bear-Granny Diner
7. Mogwai-Now You're Taken
8. Scott Walker-Boy Child
9. Fleet Foxes-Meadowlark
10. Boards of Canada-Over the Horizon Radar
11. Philip Glass-Truman Sleeps
12. Boards of Canada-Dawn Chorus
13. Team Sleep-Ever
14. Fever Ray-Triangle Walks
15. Jesus and the Mary Chain-Just Like Honey
16. Icasol-Ongou
17. Belle & Sebastian-If You're Feeling Sinister

ERRL FLNN-Sleep

Rainbow Arabia

With shades of Gang Gang Dance, The Rapture (circa Echoes, not the shitty second album) and Crystal Castles, L.A.’s Rainbow Arabia sound like the in-house band at a Moroccan asylum, fronted by a lusty witch. Like so many bands coming out of the States at the moment, they manage to weld experimentation to pop sensibilities in a way that no band in Britain can come near to at the moment.

Let them Dance could be the theme tune to a North African remake of Knight Rider in which Kit is replaced by a whooping camel that races purposefully around a congested Casablanca. The object of each episode always being to get several Moroccan nu-ravers to a party where they are playing a peak time Zouk set, the highlight of which is the electrifying Omar K. It is intoxicating stuff.

Unlike most folks, Rainbow Arabia don’t get the photo album out for friends, on return from their travels. Instead, they get home, roll up the magic carpet, get the electric guitar out, plug in the old Casio and write songs to sing to their friends, over a shisha and some minty tea, as evidenced by the lovely Holiday In Congo.

Having released two e.p.'s on the increasingly essential Merok, there are unconfirmed rumours that the husband/ wife duo are shacked up in a Harem with Ali Baba working on an album. Definitely confirmed as happening is a May tour of Europe, which if it is even half as mad as the picture up top suggests, will be amazing.

Let Them Dance

Omar K

Holiday In Congo

http://www.myspace.com/rainbowarabia