2 Many Scenes

Villalobos Radio Promo

2007-09-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

Villalobos - Clip from Fabric 21st July 2007 [mp3]

Lots of people have been waiting for Villalobos to drop his Fabric mix. How it's finally out there it's causing a fair bit of trouble. Is it boring or just difficult to comprehend?

I'm gonna give it a few more weeks to worm its way into my brain before passing judgement, but by way of a slightly easier to digest piece of Villalobos' work, I've posted the Fabric promo above. It's a clip from 21st July show he played, which by all accounts was a good night. The excerpt just gives a glimpse of his mix-mastery so give it a go, and keep plugging away at the Fabric mix until it unravels.

Little Dragon

2007-09-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

Late night vibes from Yukimi Nagano's new band Little Dragon

Little Dragon - Twice [mp3] (Little Dragon)

After hearing an inventive little live set on Gilles Peterson's Worldwide show, I've been getting into the deep, late-night vibes of Little Dragon. The band features the vocal talents of sometime Koop collaborator Yukimi Nagano backed by a tight selection of piano, percussion and electronics. Yukimi's vocals flit between a lulling Dani Siciliano, confident Roisin Murphy and a slight softer version of Ms Winehouse, while the tunes revolve around a deep-jazzy sound, somewhat akin to Jazzanova. The production's solid, but not overly staid, keeping things a little more liquid than the usual Nu-Jazz thang. Beautifully chilled and highly recommended.

If you like, don't forget to buy. You can get it duuurrhm free from 7 Digital.

Anger is a Gift

2007-08-28T12:11:00.000-07:00

Prancehall on the 1s and 2s...

Jammer vs Britney - Toxic [mp3] (Anger is a Gift)

I made Prancehall angry on the internet once. We were discussing his sometime magazine employer over on a popular music geek forum and things got like totally moody, internet style. I'd like to think that incident added a little something to this record, but truthfully he probably forgot about that when he reached the dizzy heights of the Guardian's top ten "rap blogs."

As for the music, there's a fair record bag's worth of exclusive content, probably by way of the fact he seems to bump into Grime MCs at every turn of his daily life. Refreshing to hear a mixtape that's actually mixed too. There's obviously been some consideration for the composition and it pays off. Certainly up there with Plastician's Rinse FM CD from the other year.

There's a nice run down of the mix and the full 'tape is available to download free from Prancehall.com

Passion is Not Fashion

2007-08-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

First Field Day and now a 'Classics' CD. Bugged Out must be money-makin'

Classics is 3 CDs deep and full of techno, electro and nu-ravey bits. There's a bit of a booklet in there too, with flyer artwork and a useful little chronological run down of the tunes and what's special about them. The commentary is a little sensationalist, but there's obviously passion in there somewhere.

For me its quite an ear-opener to hear all the electroclash book-ended by 1990s techno and later minimal/nu-rave. Being a relative youngster its a part of house music that passed me by. Fischerspooner and the like seemed pretty ridiculous to me at the time but they obviously have their place in this club's history (and Emerge is a stupidly good track).

2003's Wasp by Kiki and Silversurfer caught me off guard today. It's a slow burner but builds to a nice synthy stab. The remainder of the tracklist features Claude von Stroke, Digitalism, Tiga, Wink, Freeform Five, Nathan Fake, Chemical Brothers and a ton more... Check out the Bugged Out! website for more innit...

Kiki & The Silversurfer - Wasp [mp3] (Bugged Out! Classics)

Grime Mega-Post

2007-08-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

... Been months since I did a Grime post, (or any post), so here's a few bits I've been enjoying over the last cupple months.

Stryder dropped his album the other week. Well actually this week, but most people seem to have had it for time. Of course my copy's fully legit and I recommend you guys cop it from Itunes (or if you don't like being ripped off by DRM, elsewhere). For the release he did a live set with Fuda Guy on Logan's Kissss show which I've upped. Nice-icle. Check the vidz and of course dun' know the myspace - Myspace/Youtube.

I clocked that Nigerian MC Afrikan Boy passed his A-Levels yesterday. Hopefully when he's got student loan and the money from MIA's album he won't have to rob from Lidl and Asda... Can't believe no-one's posted this on the Hype Machine yet, so here it is for a limited time only.

Afrikan Boy - One Day I Went to Lidl [mp3]

Lee Brasco's been moving too. He did this tune ages ago produced by JME, which sounds like a kid on Ribena playing a SNES with one of those cheap auto-fire controllers. Lower End posted it a while back but I can't stop playing it so here it is again for a limited time!

Lee Brasco - Computer Girls [mp3]

'sall for now.

Late of the Pier

2007-08-16T10:08:00.000-07:00

Yeah I'm late on these guys...

We caught Late of the Pier down at the wonderful Field Day festival in London-town the other weekend. They played a bit of a blinder, full of energy, bare chests, Peter Crouch dancing and a bonus witch wondering the stage. On record they're obviously lacking at least 3 of these qualities, but the music stands up pretty well. Still early days for these lads so it'll be interesting to see how they develop their sound in the future. I'm so late on this that its on plenty of blogs already. Check them via Hype Machine.

Big-up JonesMonster on Flickr 4 the pixxx.

Electroma

2007-07-17T12:54:00.000-07:00

Sebastien Tellier - Universe [mp3] (Electroma)

I saw Sebastian Tellier live in a support slot for Air when I was a wee secondary school student. The tour was around The Virgin Suicides album and to be honest the whole gig was a little disappointing for me, being a 15 year old who just wanted to hear the bigguns off of Moon Safari.

Sebastien Tellier was a bit of a curio though, performing with world-renowned Theremin (apparently an instrument, not a prescription drug) player Pamelia Kurstin. Their set involved some wailing while strange sounds were being emitted from odd instruments and, most memorably, a woman in red collapsing at the final note.

Looking back on it the whole ordeal was pretty Lychian in style. Apt then, to some extent, that this Sebastien Tellier track Universe was used on the closing scene of Daft Punk's new picture Electroma. Without a doubt it accompanies the most powerful scene in the flick, and as the closing piece lingers on in your mind together with the strong images. So two days after seeing the movie I'm posting it up here.

Don't spoil it for yourself by watching the end scene via utube. Check it out at the cinema or on DVD.

Videos

2007-07-15T04:09:00.000-07:00

mytube.

zZz - Grip [utube]

Another one take video, presumably playing on the much lauded OK! Go! effort from last year. This one's a bit special though, involving a trampoline, acrobatics and humour so geeky even b3ta would embarrassed. The video already seems to have a bit of a following, so click the link above to view it now and stay ahead of the game.

I ended up at the zZz video via Walsall based graffiti artist, Chu's myspaz page. Also on there is an amazing, fully inked, 9 carriage Virgin Pendalino train. The design is there to promote something to do with Gorillaz, Jamie Hewlett etc but don't let that put you off if you're not a fan, this is really quite an intriguing bit of design. Check out Chu's video of the train's maiden voyage as it travels into Euston station, here.

Diggin'

2007-06-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

A few things I'm currently diggin'...

This old dubstep and grime podcast from Blackdown is gooood. My interest in dubstep is picking up a little now with the crossover into minimal, but I'd say the more 2steppy vibe of this podcast was it for me.

Just in case you hadn't noticed from the battering its getting from the blogs, Justice's new album came out yesterday. It's not really doing much for me at the moment, but I'll give it some time to sink in. At the moment I feel there's a bit too much filler sounding like Waters of Nazareth playing backwards. What I am digging though, is their essential mix. Download it courtesy of Slap You in Public. It's very much a post-2manydjs mix of bare eclectic styles.

I missed The Forest of No Return, a concert curated by Jarvis Cocker in which artists such as Pete Doherty, Beth Orton and Nick Cave sang Disney songs. Sounds wicked doesn't it? Well I haven't been able to find any audio, but check out the following for wonderful reviews and pictures: Intermezzo, Let's Kill Music.

That's about it for now. Might be some more music later in the week though! Here's hoping...

Clocks

2007-06-16T11:14:00.000-07:00

Cool post-rock, straight from the Fridge (euurgh)

Fridge - Clocks [mp3] (The Sun)

The idea of Fridge returning put a smile on my face quite some time back. The Sun hasn't disappointed, with a surprising but reassuringly conservative take on the Fridge sound. With Kieren Hebden's new spiritual approach to music, and Adem's recent avant-garde collaborations the project could have gone in an extremely experimental direction, but we instead see an effective upgrade to the 2001 masterpiece Happiness.

This track Clocks sounds like an extension of Five Four Child's Voice off of the previous record, beginning with a slow introductory couple of minutes that line you up beautifully for the melodic sweeping post-rock mid section. It's a tried and tested approach, but carried off to the highest level. This leaves the record as a whole a significantly more accessible affair than the recent Four Tet output, which are challenging in the best possible sense.

So, perhaps not pushing the boundaries, but if you like post-rock you're in for a treat. Don't forget to buy it if you like it.

What's a Girl to do?

2007-06-13T02:56:00.000-07:00

Bad names, good bands...

Bat for Lashes - ~~What's a Girl to do? [mp3]~~ (Fur and Gold)

When I was in primary school we had this whole assembly about not judging a book by its cover. It involved volunteers from the audience having to pick different chocolates to taste. Surprise, surprise, the one in the ugliest wrapper was the tastiest. I was obviously too busy thinking about football stickers or shiny pogs, because even too this day I seem to dismiss whole swathes of bands just because of their rubbish names.

Yet yesterday when I was, in an extreme turn of laziness, rendered unable to change the channel from MTV2's "Spanking New Music," I saw videos by three bands I would otherwise not have bothered with. Namely;

Tokyo Police Club: Could a name sound any more contrived than this? Exactly the kind of "we're so wacky" name that signals a middle-of-the-road indie band. Like Kaiser Chiefs.

The Rakes: "The" anything is just annoying. I fully assumed they'd be rubbish.

Bat for Lashes: To my mind, this could be nothing more than horrific Kate Bush loving electro with a slightly flirty edge trying to cover a lack of musical depth.

I was wrong on all three counts. To make amends, I'll big up Bat of Lashes' What's a Girl to do? and its excellent video . They claim influences like David Lynch, chamber music and Donnie Darko. For once in press-release history, these influences actually seem vaguely relevant, with a lovely harpsichord playing in the background and suitably dark lyrics and noises all over the rest of the track. The video is clearly a mish-mash of Lynch and Donnie Darko too. Natasha Khan's vocals remind me of Tracy Thorn from EBTG, which can only be a good thing. Buy some brilliant genre defying music from Brighton - just try to ignore the crappy name.

Idealism

2007-06-12T06:45:00.000-07:00

Digitalism get idealistic

Digitalism - I Want I Want [mp3] (Idealism)

Anticipated dance albums don't always turn out well. Due to the nature of the genre, dance tunes are created to make you wanna shuffle your feet and often that doesn't translate well to a full length disc. The Chemical Brothers demonstrated that there are two good ways around around this. Firstly to segue tracks, treating the LP like a DJ set. This admits that material cannot be looked on as individual songs, but negates the need for solid song structure. Secondly, you can modify the music to direct it towards the home environment, adding vocals and pop song structure with choruses etc. The Chems used both these techniques pretty successfully on their album Dig Your Own Hole.

Digitalism have gone for the latter approach, and worked it well. When Pogo popped up on the internet a while back, sounding like Digitalism gone indie, I was instilled with a bit of hope for their album Idealism, in that they understood that stuffing an LP full of club tracks does not make for good listening. Justifying my optimism, they've definitely come through with a good selection of tunes, with enough variety for home listener and casual clubber. On this count the first half of the album is much stronger than the second, with current "nu-rave" fav Zdarlight, a stunning opener and indie-styled I want I want. The second half falls a little more into the dance album trap of indistinguishable noises, but has a strong finish via the storming Jupiter Room single.

So while there are some bland moments, the highs occasionally surpass even the sample stealing structure-light Daft Punk records they are so often compared with. Aye, they might have the same vocoder noises and slightly retro-future stylings but they manage to use these effects in a much more cogent and structured way. Idealism - a nice punchy dance record you can actually listen to.

Buy it here.

...

2007-05-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

I've been doing exams so it's been quiet.

We'll be back next week with a bit of Grime, some nice electronic indie and a few other bits and pieces....

Stageshow Business

2007-04-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

Skepta and Roll Deep provide a Grime litmus test...

Roll Deep - Rinse FM March 07 [mp3]

Over the last year a few people, myself included, have been caught umm-ing and ahh-ing over the future of Grime and quality of what's being produced. Retrospectively it would seem to be that these people, including me, have just been falling in and out of love with what is a varied and occasionally difficult genre. This is then being mistaken for a fault in the music or scene, rather than the listener's own musical rut, resulting in all manner of big pronouncements on blogs and the forums...

If you could be arsed to scroll back through the last month or so's archives here you would see that I've been in a Grime lull of my own, despite having purchased a silly amount of mixtapes. The whole genre got kinda lost amongst the stupid amount of other music I follow. Fact is though this Roll Deep set has propelled the whole thing straight back onto centre stage for me.

I propose this as a kind of Grime litmus test. If you listen to this set and feel nothing then that says more about a personal rut than one in Grime, cos it's pretty obviously hot. Karnage warms up with some vocal tracks (watch out for Stryder and the Skepta version of 21 Seconds... too much!) leading up perfectly to Skepta dropping his new Stageshow Riddim, which just destroys the set for a good half hour or something ridiculous. It's A LOT.

Big up to LowerEnd for this one, eye on the grime all the time!

Get Down

2007-04-12T17:25:00.000-07:00

Arena dance in foot stampingly good form

Groove Armada - Get Down [mp3]

Had the old DAB tuned to Radio One the other day while chowing down on my Sainsbury's pitta bread, only to be drawn to the LCD to catch the title of one little dirtily vocaled electro banger. Que my surprise as Groove Armada scrolls across the screen as the artist. Obviously pays to listen to daytime radio once in a while!

To be honest if I saw Groove Armada on a blog I probably wouldn't give it a second look but this is worth your bandwidth. It feels like a mix of the vocals from Warrior Queen's absolute dancefloor destroyer Almighty Father with beats like Para One doing a bad impression of Bugz in the Attic or something. Scene hoppingly derivative but a proper speaker destroyer!!

This one's strictly limited downloads cos its too fresh n so mainstream for me to be sticking up on zshare or something. Still, more music on the weekend...

Jetlag

2007-04-09T21:26:00.000-07:00

Jetlagged fueled flight around the blog world

I'm suffering from some pretty serious jet lag right now, leading to a 4:30am scouring of the internet for new tunes. It turned out pretty fruitful though. I have two big recommends as follows...

I read on Fluokids that Digitalism are taking a new 'indie-rock' direction n thought it sounded like a bit of a waste but the track Pogo which they posted up is pretty much bang on good indie-pop. You can still hear the electro influence but its come with extra added accessibility via some catchy vocals and guitar play. It's certainly up there with their remix of The Futureheads and I've been listening to it on repeat since obtaining the mp3.

Still in an electronic rock cross over type trend, but in a totally different style is the taster for the new Fridge LP. This one was posted up by pitchforkmedia and the tune's called Eyelids. While similar to the old Fridge sound, it leans a little more towards traditional post-rock than the screwed up electronic sound of Happiness. Still looking forward to seeing how Adem, Four Tet together and the third member(??) produced project will turn out...

Just quickly...

2007-03-31T08:55:00.000-07:00

Two posts in one day, it must be Christmas... Heard a lot of great new stuff today but I must exercise some restraint, however I couldn't resist posting this.

Hands up who remembers Stretch and Vern of "I'm Alive" fame? Turns out they've not vanished - instead they've been creating a rather beautiful proggy-trance mix of the title track from Thom Yorke's album "The Eraser" (they've probably been doing some other stuff too, after all I'm Alive was back in '96...). Reminds me of Junkie XL's take on Dave Gahan's Dirty Sticky Floors, and as with that track, it's all about the moment when the riff kicks in.

It's apparently rare but Google (as ever) delivered the goods, so here you are: Thom Yorke - The Eraser (Stretch and Vern Edit). There's a cool video of it being played by Sasha on Youtube too. Enjoy!

Signatune rocks

2007-03-31T06:07:00.000-07:00

Time for another tune. This one has already been posted on a few blogs, but I only discovered it last night and haven't stopped playing it since.

At 2:58, ZZZ's mix of DJ Mehdi's Signatune is pretty short, but very sweet. A big anthemic riff quickly gives way to glitchy mayhem, with one eye (ear?) firmly fixed on the dancefloor, and by the time the strings kick in around 0:50, you'll be in love with it - but there's more to come; the final minute cuts the track left, right and centre with stutter edits and turntable stops galore. It sounds like Daft Punk on steroids, and is remarkably difficult to take off repeat play.

There's a Thomas Bangalter mix around making it more DJ friendly (lets face it, 3 minutes isn't that long to try and match another tune to something so unpredictable, and you need at least one minute dedicated solely to bouncing around to this), but it seems to lose some of the crazy energy of this version. For you wanna-be DJ's, I recommend either: a) just stop the other track and play this - it's so insane, no one will notice anyway; b) create a re-edit (I suspect James Zabiela may have done this, he's charted the track this month, and I might have a go myself); or c) if you are feeling adventurous mix it into Duke Dumont's killer version of "We Run This" - it sounds rather good if you get it right!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy Signatune as much as I do, I can't wait to hear it out and about :)

P.s. I realise that "Daft Punk on steroids" is a horrible music magazine cliché and has probably been used to describe countless other artists. Whatever ;)

Audion in the mix

2007-03-22T01:22:00.000-07:00

Greetings, I'm Tom, hopefully soon to become a semi-regular contributor to 2manyscenes. What better post to introduce myself with than with a link to a mini-mega-mix [MP3] (taken from his website) of some of Audion's tracks by someone called R. Elliot.

I don't think I recognise any of the tracks (not without checking anyway) but you can't really go wrong - Matthew Dear is on a roll, and it's definitely worth getting hold of his Fabric 27 CD for more of the same.

Enjoy the mix, and I will be sure to post up more quality stuff in the near future!

Fight Like The Night

2007-03-21T04:13:00.001-07:00

Malcolm Middleton - Fight Like The Night [mp3] (A Brighter Beat)

Checked out Malcolm Middleton live the other night down at a club in my city n I have to say he's the most reluctant front man I've witnessed in all my gigging years. He avoids eye contact while racing through songs as if he doesn't want the audience to have to endure the noise. This is all quite unnecessary though, as his tunes are wicked, lyrics clever and band on top form.

What this gig did confirm to me is that the melancholy he drenches his albums in is entirely real. This is no frontin' emo crap, but genuine melancholy coming through. In a way it's kind of comforting to know that it's genuine feeling, but if you listen to the lyrics it's also a little on the worrying side.

I don't remember luck, I don't remember love, I remember failure after failure after failure

The tune I've posted is about as Bright as Malcy's Beat gets and for me is the stand out of the new album. Jenny Reeve formerly of Eva and now of Strike the Colours adds a nice counterpoint to Malcolm's voice and lyrics. I'm guessing she represents someone worth fighting for, which is where the positive spin of this particular record comes from. All in all a great track and album.

People Be Happy

2007-03-20T03:57:00.000-07:00

Matthew Dear all over the Four Tet, Steve Reid experimental project...

Kieren Hebden & Steve Reid - People Be Happy / Rhythm Dance (Audion Remix) [mp3]

If you're wondering why this mp3 is all over the net at the moment I'll tell you: it was a Domino Records mp3 promo sent out to the blogs. Don't have to make any excuses for posting a track of this quality though... Heavy stuff.

This Hebden Reid project has been throwing out some mixed results - a real musical magic eye. When it comes together the results are totally on point but the rest of the time it sounds sorta out of synch. Nevertheless I've enjoyed the previous releases and the latest, Tounges, will no doubt have me drawing for the Maestro card. In the mean time Audion's turned the meandering inprov of Hebden and Reid into a focused torrent of four four on this remix. How much of the originals remains, I couldn't tell you, but I care not at the moment cos it stands on its own two feet. It'll be interesting to deconstruct the mix when the originals are about...

I Know

2007-02-18T12:39:00.000-08:00

Glittering synth-pop...

Sally Shapiro - I Know [mp3] (Disco Romance)

Tape first posted about Sally Shapiro back in January, but I only got hold of the album, Disco Romance, last week. Pure quality.

I would be hard pushed to find an album of music more plastic and pop than this, with fey vocals and unapologetically repetitive electronic backing. It works wonders though, and I've had I Know and single I'll Be By Your Side going round my head like a disco merry-go-round for the last couple of days.

If you like Saint Etienne/Annie/Ada you could do much worse than grab the album Disco Romance off of iTunes or from the music retailer of your choice.

We're back...

2007-02-16T08:54:00.000-08:00

After a wrist-slap, much deliberation, and a little relaxing, 2manyScenes is back with a bit of poetry...

Aidan John Moffat - The Boy That You Love [mp3]

2manyScenes has been running for just under a year now, and with a post on average every 2.5 days it was high time to take a break.

Here's a little bit of poetry from Arab Strap's Aiden Moffat to ease us back into things. The lyrical style doesn't seem that far from traditional Arab Strap, albeit with the music rather more toned down.

This ones due for release on Chemikal sometime this year, and should make for an interesting project.

Back in 5 Minutes

2007-02-08T14:43:00.000-08:00

2manyScenes is takin' a break for a minute
BBS

Guilty Pleasures

2007-02-04T05:54:00.000-08:00

More men with guitars and electronics

Dave.i.d. - Guilty Pleasures [mp3]

There seems to be quite a trend for hip-hop influenced solo male vocalists with guitars at the moment, which to me is an oddly specific fad. Recently we've had Plan B, Jamie T, Jamie Woon and now Dave.i.d.

While this combination can be a recipe for disaster *cough*jamiet*cough* there's also been some success and Dave.i.d. fits into that latter category. Where Plan B fills his music with a large helping of frightening in-your-face anger, Dave.i.d. is on the inwardly brooding, paranoid tip. This track Guilty Pleasures almost sounds like a suburban Tricky. The easiest comparison to make would actually be with former Massive Attack signings Day One who did the The Streets thing, but with guitars and less gimmicks back in the 90s.

I grabbed this track off his myspace. It's worth checking out the other bits and pieces on offer over there too.
yousendit