Sonic Process

Monoceros "Tales From Late Night Remixes"

2008-12-13T20:25:00.001+01:00

Artist: Monoceros
Album: Tales From Late Night Remixes
Label: Imaginary Nonexistent Records
Release date: 1 April 2008
Genre: Electronic
Style: Glitch/Ambient Techno
RIYL: Kettel, Xela, Telefon Tel Aviv

Tracklisting:
01. Background Birds [Flotel Remix]
02. Happiness [Betelgeuse Bipolar Remix]
03. Tales For Silent Nights [Macroeconomics Remix]
04. Warm [Maps And Diagrams Remix]
05. Little Pieces [Heezen Remix]
06. Happiness [An On Bast Remix]
07. Northern Lights [Spoweck Shadow Remix]
08. Tales For Silent Nights [Crisopa Remix]
09. Depression And Vortex At Jan Mayen [Soundhacker Remix]
10. Happiness [Flüor Remix]
11. The Day We Become One [Leon Somov Remix]
12. Warm [The Boats Remix]
13. Happiness Edit 2 [DARK.SINUS.WAVE]
Total running time: 73' 00"

[Monoceros - Open MySpace page]

"Monoceros is Joan Malé. He lives in St Martí d’Empúries, a little town in Catalonia, the north of Spain. He has recorded many albums and Ep’s in Expanding Records, Phonobox and recently in his own label Imaginary Nonexistent Records. He also performed in sonar 2005, producing electronic music classified as “IDM” or electronica. He also uses other names, like Salad (sonar 2006), .Exe (with a EP on Dpress Industries) and Lumière (and old project with Xavi Lloses) who released an EP in 2000 and 2 tracks in US label Basiclux." [source]

Sonic: Free releases rarely come as good as this: gathering a host of glitchy electronic artists Monoceros' remix collection not only stands very strong on its own, but provides us with an excellent starting point to discover many of the artists that have helped to make this such a great record. Highlights include Maps and Diagrams' Warm remix, with its glitchy beats and warm synthesisers that recall Xela's "For Frosty Mornings and Summer Nights". Crisopa's Tales For Silent Nights' remix, with its up-tempo beat and acid sounds, reminds me of Kettel's "My Dogan". Flüor's Happiness remix manages to pull out the difficult blend of ambient pop with classical piano to great effect. An On Bast's own rendition of Happiness is a much meaner affair, with its saturated beats providing for some good but way too short head-bouncing moments. Recommended.

[Download]

Karma "Thrillseekers"

2008-12-12T07:49:00.000+01:00

Artist: Karma
Album: Thrillseekers
Label: Spectrum Works
Release date: 1999
Genre: Electronic
Style: Downtempo/Nu Jazz/Drum 'N' Bass
RIYL: Kruder & Dorfmeister, Tosca, Peace Orchestra

Tracklisting:
01. Overture
02. Let's Go Thrillseeking
03. Del Mar
04. Romance
05. Got My Mojo Working
06. Drunken Hero
07. 24 Hours Of Le Mans
08. Comeback
09. The Ballad Of Evil Knievel
10. Five Fourth Of A Whole
11. Fittipaldi
12. Danny's Break
13. Bateria E Baixa
14. Stupid Accident
Total running time: 71' 45"

[Karma - Let's Go Thrillseeking - Video Clip]

[Karma - My Resting Place - Video Clip]

"THRILLSEEKING, Karma's second album, is quite the improvement over their first, PAD SOUNDS. For one, the production is much smoother. Secondly, their songwriting is much tighter and more focused. The laidback grooves are still present, from "Let's Go Thrillseeking" (with its revving engine sounds) onwards. "Del Mar" has a strong rhythmic sensibility matched with jazzy undertones, while "Got My Mojo Working" takes the basic 12-bar blues and crafts it into a driving force. Wisely, the Karma boys keep the tracks developing throughout their length, in order to reduce the stagnation that hampered PAD SOUNDS. My favorite track, "The Ballad of Evil Knievel," mixes heavier sounds in with an easygoing rhythm and spacy synths. "Five Fourths of a Whole" goes for pure lounge atmosphere, while "Danny's Break" adds some scratches by the dextrous Danny Breaks. "Bateria E Baixa" increases the rhythmic content but keeps things grounded with a nice plucked bass. "Stupid Accident" ends things on a wandering note, a slow drive through a desert. A wonderful album, through and through." [scoundrel@discogs]

Sonic: I have listened to this album countless times, and I have yet to grow tired of it. It's the perfect soundtrack for when driving around at night in your car with the volume up to eleven: bliss! This one comes highly recommended if you like the nostalgia of Kruder & Dorfmeister's sound.

[Download]

Kammerflimmer Kollektief "Cicadidae"

2008-12-12T04:47:00.001+01:00

Artist: Kammerflimmer Kollektief
Album: Cicadidae
Label: Staubgold
Release date: 14 April 2003
Genre: Electronic/Jazz
Style: Nu Jazz
RIYL: Triosk, Nils Petter Molvær, Eivind Aarset, Jaga Jazzist

Tracklisting:
01. Neumond Inselhin
02. Sie Tranken Regen
03. Über Die Wasserscheide
04. Blood
05. ...Denn Nacht Ist Jetzt Schon Bald!
06. Sie Tranken Regen (Version)
07. Mantra
08. Eiderdaunen (Gerupft)
09. Irgendwann: Frühling
10. "There's A Weight On You, But You Can't Feel It"
Total running time: 42' 35"

[Kammerflimmer Kollektief - Open MySpace page]

[Kammerflimmer Kollektief - Gras - Unofficial Video Clip]

"This lot have been one of Germany's most interesting musical exports of the last few years. Like a lot of bands from Norway to Chicago to Manchester, they've been exploring the murky hinterlands of electronics and real-time playing that draws from jazz and free improvisation, but the results are very much their own.

Previous Kollektief efforts have hinged around the shimmering, humid soundscapes generated by Thomas Weber's guitar, piano, harmonium and processing. These are prodded and sometimes torn apart by the restless yet simultaneously restrained contributions of the rest of the band, particularly double bassist Johannes Frisch.

On Cicadidae, bass and drums provide restrained slo-mo pulses and fragile, resonant jazz stylings, which are often looped and treated to frame Weber's yearning guitar lines and cloudy atmospherics. Often ("Mantra", "Sie tranken Regen") the music sounds like a 60s Blue Note session beamed in from a parallel universe. Dietrich Foth's saxophone unfurls smoky, hesitant lines and gentle, abstract flutterings, while Frisch provides deep, resonant throb or occasional muttered creaks with the bow. The rhythms are gentle, yet insistent.

An exquisite, all too short reading of Annette Peacock's "Blood" is the album's highlight. Vibraphone and bass sketch the hymnal melody, joined by lush violin figures and soft digital crackle. It's exqusitely lovely. Having said that, there's little here that's not beautiful; there's much that's mysterious and opaque too, which gives the music its power. The same goes for the cover, which is one of the oddest to drop through the BBC letterbox for some time; it might be a still from an early David Lynch film, marked with a kind of surrealist, opulent decadence. Recommended." [BBC]

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The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble "The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble"

2008-12-11T16:19:00.003+01:00

Artist: The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble
Album: The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble
Label: Planet Mu
Release date: 24 April 2006
Genre: Electronic/Jazz
Style: Nu Jazz
RIYL: The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, The Cinematic Orchestra, Amon Tobin

Tracklisting:
01. The Nothing Changes
02. Pearls For Swine
03. Adaptation Of The Koto Song
04. Lobby
05. Parallel Corners
06. Rivers Of Congo
07. Solomon's Curse
08. Amygdhala
09. Guernican Perspectives
10. Vegas
11. March Of The Swine
Total running time: 69' 07"

[The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - Open MySpace page]

[The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - The Nothing Changes - Live in Budapest, 2007]

[The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - Goya - Live in Budapest, 2007]

"Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble (KDE) might be new to some, so first off a quick introduction. They are a duo consisting of Jason Kohnen (Bong-Ra) and Gideon Kiers (Telcosystems). They formed KDE in and around 2000, and started out by creating soundtracks to moody silent films such as Murnau's Nosferatu and Lang's Metropolis. Mainly being a Kohnen/Kiers project, they’ve also added some new members for this album such as Hilary Jeffrey on trombone, Nina Hitz on Cello and Edwin Loman on guitar. The album is apparently heavily inspired by Philadelphia filmmakers and surrealist animators The Quay Brothers, and it is their second release as KDE after their remix for JMX's ’1.2.AB’ 12” released on Life Enhancing Audio in 2003. And what an album it is. Take a piece of The Cinematic Orchestra’s cinematic jazz, a dash of The Broadway Project’s dark/noir, a hint of Amon Tobin’s twisted mutant jazz and a little Freeform Arkestra orchestral ambience. Throw in a minipinch of Dj Shadow and Major Force West, and a good dose of Planet Mu-ism and you’re pretty much there. As you might have understood by now, it’s a very versatile album.

Take the opening track ’The Nothing Changes’ for example. A simple shuffle/percussive backdrop with a heavy upright bass to kill for, sweet strings, a haunting guitar and horror cinema horns on top. Pure quality! ’Pearls for Swine’ hints towards Dj Shadow, although with a little more sophisticated electronics. Track tree is pure cinematic jazz loveliness, and having a big soft spot for TCO, this is one of my favourites on the album. ’Lobby’ is probably the most progressive track on the CD, starting off smooth with only cellos and muted shufflebeats, adding twisted keys and sound effects as it progresses and builds itself to a horror flick climax of noise at the end. Massive track! Onto even more sweet TCO like cinematic jazziness on ’Parallel Corners’, while ’Rivers of Congo’ takes us deeper and darker into Darkjazz noir landscapes. The imaginary motion picture soundtrack continues along a fine cinematic jazz red line until the next to last track ’Vegas’ stirs tings up again to Squarepusher-esque heights, before the epic grand finale that is ’March of the Swine’ sets in. A 20-minute long journey that makes this album from The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble complete. I would love to see the movie... " [Beyondjazz]

[Download(part1.part2).Buy]

Bohren & Der Club Of Gore "Dolores"

2008-12-11T15:34:00.000+01:00

Artist: Bohren & Der Club Of Gore
Album: Dolores
Label: PIAS
Release date: 10 October 2008
Genre: Jazz
Style: Ambient
RIYL: The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation

Tracklisting:
01. Staub
02. Karin
03. Schwarze Biene (Black Maja)
04. Unkerich
05. Still Am Tresen
06. Welk
07. Von Schnäbeln
08. Orgelblut
09. Faul
10. Welten
Total running time: 58' 24"

[Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - Open MySpace page]

"Four drunk Germans formed Bohren & der Club of Gore one night in 1992 with a single goal: "The audience," Morten Gass told the metal zine Maelstrom in 2003, "must have the feeling of being in a grave." Naming the band inspired debate. "Bohren" means "drill," like what people do to other people in horror movies; "gore" means "gore," like what seeps out of people when they're drilled, and like a Dutch instrumental band they all quite liked; and "and der club of" made them think of jazz. Jazz, they agreed, was cool. It was urban and dangerous-- they liked the idea of it. Stated influences were Black Sabbath and Sade. "As I said," Gass confessed, "we were drunk." Cheers to auspicious beginnings.

The music Bohren makes is slow, quiet, and pretty. It's too structured to be jazz and too vivid to be ambient, but it taps into the ideals of both. They play their instruments like they're worried of waking babies asleep at their feet. Christoph Clöser's saxophone parts leak from the bell of his horn. You can almost see Morten Gass wince as his fingers sink into his keyboard. Drummer Thorsten Benning lives with the task of supressing every teenage dream of beating the shit out his drumkit like the wild animal I suspect he sometimes wants to be. But in near-stasis, there's drama-- each beat becomes a cliffhanger for the next. Bohren don't play dead, they play mortally wounded.

They're the gentlest black metal band on earth. They're anti-social cocktail music. They're exotica, but only if we agree that vacant alleys are exotic places and lying face down in one of them would constitute a vacation. The restraint in their music creates as much tension as it does calm. At best-- 2004's Black Earth-- Bohren sound like they're passing through darkness, palms out and eyes open, in search of a lightswitch. It's the same eerie, bloodless quality of ersatz jazz that David Lynch depended on for club scenes in Mullholland Drive or Audrey Horne's twirling in "Twin Peaks", where the mellow becomes queasy and relaxation sours into uncertainty – when what's supposed to relax you starts to actively upset you.

Creeps? First-rate. But they're strangely affectionate, too, a quality brought to the fore on Dolores, their sixth and latest full-length. Absorb the title and cover art-- a woman's name, glowing; moths pouring from the neck of some sexless, celestial being. It's cozy, leaden music. Songs have shortened to three or four minutes. Some of the melodies aren't just memorable, but actually hummable. Call this their "standards" album-- More Near-Static Ballads of Death's Sweet Embrace. Bohren aren't fabulous enough to be goths. They keep it austere. The grave might be a lonely place, but the dead always downplay its warmth." [Pitchfork]

[Kudos to jazzever for this link.]

[Download.Buy]

Black Lung "Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars"

2008-12-10T09:46:00.002+01:00

Artist: Black Lung
Album: Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars
Label: Dorobo
Release date: 1994
Genre: Electronic
Style: Ambient/Industrial
RIYL: Snog, Soma, Celluloïd Mata

Tracklisting:
01. The Banque Of Worms
02. Theme From The Black Lung Pt. 2
03. The Trilateral Commision
04. Prozac Parade
05. Somatime
06. Rex 84
07. Ridjeck Theme
08. The Battle Of Brazil
09. Supermarket Dream
10. Everything You Know Is Wrong
11. Theme From Black Lung Pt. 1
12. Death Squad Blues
13. Meat Manager
14. The Bilderberg Group
Total running time: 73' 11"

[Black Lung - Open MySpace page]

"Black Lung is an electronic and industrial music project by Australian musician David Thrussell, also known for his industrial bands Snog and the more ambient Soma.

The first Black Lung album, 1994's Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars, was mostly composed of instrumental tracks taken from Snog's first album Lies Inc. and the Hey, Christian God single. A year later, the album was also released on Germany's Machinery Records as Silent Weapons for Silent Wars. Thrussell disowned this later release due to the incorrect title, changes made to the artwork, and the fact that the tracks were in the wrong order, destroying the album's continuity. Several more albums followed in subsequent years, eventually outpacing the number of albums Thrussell was releasing as Snog.

In 1999, Thrussell collaborated with John Sellekaers from Xingu Hill to produce the 10" EP The Andronechron Incident, purportedly a soundtrack for an obscure Italian science fiction film. A full-length CD of the same title, containing many more additional tracks, was released in 2002 .

Thematically, Thrussell has used the project as an opportunity to indulge his fascination with conspiracy theories, with many album and track titles referencing conspiracies. Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars, also used by Wu-Tang Clan, refers to a document which came to light in the mid 1980s detailing a New World Order plan. Rhic-Edom is a direct reference to the acronym RHIC-EDOM: Radio-Hypnotic Intracerebral Control & Electronic Dissolution of Memory. The albums' liner notes frequently contain essays on various esoteric subjects, excerpted from conspiracy books or written by Thrussell himself.

Since 1999, nearly all Black Lung releases have been on German industrial label Ant-Zen." [Wikipedia]

[Download(part1.part2).Sold Out]
[password: niceolum]

Arpanet "Inertial Frame"

2008-12-09T07:12:00.001+01:00

Artist: Arpanet
Album: Inertial Frame
Label: Record Makers
Release date: 20 November 2006
Genre: Electronic
Style: Experimental Techno/Abstract
RIYL: Dopplereffekt, Drexciya

Tracklisting:
01. Universe Oscillation
02. Großvater Paradoxon
03. Axis Of Rotation
04. Infinite Density
05. Zero Volume
06. Twin Paradox
07. No Boundry Condition
08. Schwarzchild Radius
09. Event Horizon
10. Chandrasekhars Limit
11. Ergosphere
12. Lorentz Contraction
13. Gravitational Lense
Total running time: 47' 47"

[Arpanet - Open MySpace Standalone Music Player]

[Arpanet - No Boundry Condition - Max/MSP + Jitter experiment]

[Arpanet - Infinite Density - Video Clip]

"As part of Drexciya and Dopplereffekt Gerald Donald can often be found in the catalogues of labels like International Deejay Gigolo, Warp and Tresor. In fact his track ‘Z-Bozon’, which he produced while hanging out with his Dopplereffekt Friends, is set to appear as the opening track of Gigolo boss DJ Hell’s upcoming mix CD “Misch Masch vol. 3”. But for this new album under his Arpanet guise, Donald returns to Air's Record Makers label for more scientific madness.

Taking the name Arpanet from the progenitor of today’s internet, it isn’t hard to guess that on his second album Donald once again looks at music more scientifically, not solely in the naming of tracks like ‘Event Horizon’ and the “Inertial Frame” album tile itself, but also in his choice of futuristic synths, computerized samples and spaced out pads.

Arpanet fans, that’s the artist not the Internet’s father, will possibly be confused, confronted and bewildered by the amount of vocal tracks on “Inertial Frame”. While it could be considered a stretch to call it singing, Donald intones lyrics on numerous occasions for example the reticent tunes ‘Zero Volume’ and ‘Twin Paradox’ as well as the only infinitesimally more verbose ‘Event Horizon’ and ‘Gravitational Lense’.

Recently Arpanet’s ‘NTT DoCoMo’ was picked up by Laurent Garnier for his half of the “Kings Of Techno” compilation. While there is plenty of well produced music on “Inertial Frame” there aren’t many that would be immediately picked up for “techno” mix CDs. ‘Axis Of Rotation’. ‘Infinite Density’ and ‘No Boundry Condition’ are obvious exceptions however and most pieces on the album leave a lot of room for other artists to interpret them as they like into dancefloor ready remixes. The chilling vocals of ‘Twim Paradox’, one of the albums highlights, would sound especially good pumping out speaker stacks over a banging four-four beat." [HigherFrequency]

[Download.Buy]

Bitstream "Domestic Economy 7"

2008-11-27T22:31:00.000+01:00

Artist: Bitstream
Album: Domestic Economy 7
Label: Modern Love
Release date: January 2005
Genre: Electronic
Style: Experimental Techno
RIYL: Autechre, Clark, Aphex Twin

Tracklisting:
01. Ice Core Laboratory
02. Come And Play With Us
03. Open Sesame
04. Chain
05. Bass Lobe
06. Dragon 32
07. Orange Room
08. Geodesic Space Dome
09. Skymon
10. Test Tube
11. F Codex
Total running time: 54' 30"

"When it's taken you the bast part of ten years to complete your debut album, it better be sick!! 'Domestic Economy 7' is a pummeling beast of devastation from the brothers Steve and Dave conner, a blistering assault of darkest electro grinds and industrial machinations falling appart at every joint and seam. Having never been confined by any mediocre or slapdash IDM templates, this music can be illuminated by its guiding influences - old school electro, Detroit Techno, choral transmissions as perfected by Penderecki and Ligeti, the ability to fuse the tricks of the old turntablist masters with the advanced digital techniques that lend everything on this awesome record such an uncompromisingly dark, twisted scale. The few people who have already heard 'Domestic Economy 7' have been totally floored by its unusual, uncompromising bass brutality - Andrea Parker has already described it as "the sickest electro album I have heard for time.." while even Depeche Mode's Martin Gore has been spotted spinning Bitstream 12"s in Berlin. In an age where inspired fractured electronic music is an absolute rarity - Bitstream not only re-define the agenda, they not only rule the show, they goddamn OWN it." [Boomkat]

[Download.Buy]

Anders Ilar "Sworn"

2008-11-27T20:38:00.000+01:00

Artist: Anders Ilar
Album: Sworn
Label: Level
Release date: 9 May 2008
Genre: Electronic
Style: Techno
RIYL: Efdemin, Ellen Allien, Isolée

Tracklisting:
01. Hillside
02. Colors Of Rain
03. Icarus & Pegasus
04. September Nights
05. Made For Us To Love
06. Imaginary Trees With Silver Leaves
07. Tomorrow Never Came
08. Can't Force A Tree To Grow
09. Path To The Sky
10. Brokenhearted
11. Lakeside
Total running time: 78' 22"

[Anders Ilar - Open MySpace page]

"Minimal techno albums have a propensity for using nearly the entire available 80 minute runtime of the compact disc. Deep immersion is a prerequisite to fully appreciating the nuances of a meticulously wrought, long-form minimal groove. But the beauty of minimal is its versatility; use it for background music and it polishes a room’s atmosphere to the icy, Teutonic cool of a Berlin nightclub; coil up with some headphones and a comfortable chair and you fall into it like a dream; and of all the musical idioms regarded as synergistic with drugs, minimal techno is the most unsung.

An on-form Anders Ilar metes out 79 minutes of wan, hyperborean micro-tech and svelte minimal in his latest full length, his fifth, Sworn. The first track, Hillside, sets the tone with melancholy, pelagic strings floating dreamily above a deep bass hook and a mid tempo 4/4 kick drum. A seesawing processed keyboard loop lolls into the spectral reverberating ether. Delay-soaked bleeps stutter sublimely in phase with the beat but at slightly unstable intervals. Eight minutes passes too fast. Colors of Rain, the second track, evocatively and aptly titled, mines similar territory but is busier with flickers of snare drum and hi-hat fulgurating in counterpoint to an epic, meandering, minor key keyboard solo that slips into different tonal shades courtesy of minutely shifting filter envelopes. The attention to detail Ilar exerts on tracks like this is staggering, following the lively percussion around the keyboard and pulses of bass is a demanding task. Icarus and Pegasus recalls Martes era Murcof. A ghostly piano refrain sweeps through the track; notes slur and tug on each other, teasing your ears with their peculiar texture, and land slightly off the timing of the clinical beat. Low in the mix but streaked with reverb are synth tracers flying through a hooky coda and glitching out. Sampled 50s dialogue dissolving in soft static conveys you to the album’s crucial fourth track, September Nights. Muted, crackling spangles of feedback garnish this sweet emotive pair of bass and synth loops that play lambently back and forth. It’s the most minimal track on the album and it’s my personal favorite. When the liquid piano comes in its ping pong delayed patter wobbles like a little wave and will thrill anyone infatuated with Pantha du Prince’s recent album on Dial. September Nights is unaccountably expressive; it feels sad but hopeful, sort of recalling the downcast euphoria that Burial shot for with Untrue. Absolutely timeless.

This expressiveness unfolds like a silent narrative throughout the album. On Imaginary Trees, the sixth track, Ilar redeploys some more beautiful twining keyboard and jumps between major and minor keys with the clarion rattle of an electronically stretched hi-hat mediating and oozing the first wintry isolation and then cool vernal shade. The last three songs, Path to the Sky, Brokenhearted and Lakeside, are a departure from the musical paradigm of the previous eight. Brokenhearted is a straightforward piece of sinuous house, its mix is a little weaker than the rest of Sworn but it eschews the direct and obvious payoff of a blinding melodic hook for a complex weave of texture and rhythm that gradually gains currency with listens. Lakeside would be at home on a pop ambient compilation with its dense sonic gauze but tacks away from the Kompakt aesthetic with a propulsive Detroit bass and vaguely menacing synths. Masterfully executed." [experimusic]

[Download.Buy]

Fax "Yo Recuerdo"

2008-11-20T18:59:00.002+01:00

Artist: Fax
Album: Yo Recuerdo
Label: Static Discos
Release date: 13 May 2008
Genre: Electronic
Style: Ambient Techno/Downtempo/Shoegazing
RIYL: Farben, Murcof, Anders Ilar

Tracklisting:
01. Intro
02. Cuarto Para Tres
03. Concreto
04. Cielo Rojo
05. Rota
06. Yo Recuerdo (I Remember)
07. Bosque
08. Tormenta De Arena
09. Millas
10. Cuarto Para Tres (Dance Mix)
Total running time: 51' 39"

[Fax - Open MySpace page]

[Fax - Live]

"Moments of heartbreak, the slow-burning return of memories and evenings spent all night wired seem to all appear and flow through Fax’s latest release Yo Recuerdo. Moving away ever so slightly from his earlier, darker recordings, Ruben Tamayo, who is Fax, reduces the beat ratio in favour warmly treated guitars and synth haze. Closely related to Fourtet’s “Rounds” of a few years back this album appears slow and sweet whilst washing in wonderful swathes of rounded, reverberating sound.

As mentioned above, the tracks feel like the hours just prior to and surrounding sunrise. The beats are soft and warm, like knocking blocks of wood together while the bass travels long and low beside. The album picks up the pace about half-way through on ‘Rota’, a thudding heart-beat around which a simple guitar line is allowed to flutter and slide. Its so rare to hear an electronica artist utilise this many guitars in their recordings and it seems that wherever they can be drawn out by the ear they shimmer and move lightly through and occasionally appearing at the fore as major motifs. The two vocal tracks ‘Yo Recuerdo’ and ‘Tormenta De Arena’ feature Uriel Villalobos of Mexican rock group Perdutto, and the Argentinean singer Florencia Ruiz respectively. Both tracks are given to the singers as dreamscapes almost, their voices being allowed to move through the songs in a similarly sleepy wandering way. Which is not to say they sound tired or pedestrian, its more like they’re running through their nostalgias in the hours before sleep, allowing Fax to create the mood and setting.

For all its night-time visions and breathy remembering the Yo Recuerdo is wonderfully bright as a release. Its soft and warm and light and airy and makes you want to quickly opt out of this interminable winter in search of some Mexican wonderland of warm, eternal dawn." [Cyclic Defrost]

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Instructions to download this one:
1. Open the ifolder download page
2. Click on the link in small font and bold: cкачать
3. Click on any sponsor link and then wait 30 secs
4. A new window should open: enter the code that is given to you
5. Click on the link that shows up and the download should start

Helios "Caesura"

2008-11-12T04:29:00.001+01:00

Artist: Helios
Album: Caesura
Label: Type
Release date: 11 November 2008
Genre: Electronic
Style: Downtempo/Ambient
RIYL: Goldmund, Ulrich Schnauss, Arovane, Xela

Tracklisting:
01. Hope Valley Hill
02. Come With Nothings
03. Glimpse
04. Fourteen Drawings
05. Backlight
06. The Red Truth
07. A Mountain Of Ice
08. Mima
09. Shoulder To Hand
10. Hollie
Total running time: 49' 11"

[Kudos to Obscure Sound for the mp3 files.]

[Helios - Open MySpace page]

"Keith Kenniff has been with Type from the very beginning, and now as Type is well into its fifth year he offers us his fifth gorgeous release. In five years Keith’s style has evolved constantly, with his drifting piano compositions taking the Goldmund label and the Helios sound moving out from undreneath the clipped beat-heavy electronics of ‘Unomia’ and into a more unique place, even incorporating vocals on the ‘Ayres’ mini album. ‘Caesura’ however is his ‘proper’ follow-up to the acclaimed ‘Eingya’, and sees Keith return to the instrumental sound he knows so well. In fact in many ways ‘Caesura’ is a more electronic work than its predecessors, blending layer upon layer of synthesizer and adding his assured drumming to come up with the perfect meeting of indie-pop and ambient music. The haunting cinematic element is still present of course, but these songs are more rounded and confident than any in Keith’s career.

From the delicate bliss of ‘Hope Valley Hill’ which opens up the album with gauzy nostalgia and, as the title promised, hope, through the chunky pop of ‘Come With Nothings’ it is clear that Keith’s music is as arresting as it ever was. Taking cues from the lilting indie-electronics of Ulrich Schnauss and the unfussy ambience of Brian Eno, Keith manages to inject this with his knowledge as a composer. The epic harmonies of ‘Backlight’ for instance reveal a lightness of touch rarely heard in the genre with sweeping synthesized chords buzzing alongside Keith’s signature guitar.

Accompanied by more gorgeous artwork from Matthew Woodson, ‘Caesura’ is a glowing record for the winter months, and a glimmer of hope to keep the seasons at bay." [Type]

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Sylvain Chauveau "The Black Book Of Capitalism"

2008-11-10T17:00:00.000+01:00

Artist: Sylvain Chauveau
Album: The Black Book Of Capitalism
Label: Type
Release date: October 2008 [original release: 2000]
Genre: Electronic
Style: Modern Classical/Ambient/Downtempo
RIYL: Max Richter, Goldmund, Eluvium

Tracklisting:
01. Et Peu À Peu Les Flots Respiraient Comme On Pleure
02. JLG
03. Hurlements En Faveur De Serge T.
04. Le Marin Rejeté Par La Mer
05. Dernière Étape Avant Le Silence
06. Dialogues Avec Le Vent
07. Ses Mains Tremblent Encore
08. Ma Contribution À L'industrie Phonographique
09. Géographie Intime
10. Je Suis Vivant Et Vous Êtes Morts
11. Mon Royaume
12. Potlatch (1971-1999)
13. Un Souffle Remua La Nuit
Total running time: 44' 29"

[Sylvain Chauveau - Open MySpace Standalone Music Player]

[Sylvain Chauveau - Nuage - Video Clip]

[Sylvain Chauveau - Never Let Me Down Again (Depeche Mode cover) - Video Clip]

"Sylvain Chauveau is one of those artists we hear mentioned a great deal, yet he has proven strangely elusive when it comes to tracking down his work. Best known (and easiest to get hold of) is his seminal Fat Cat album 'Un Autre Decembre' which set him up as one of the world's premier exponents of the electronic/classical sound, but Sylvain had already been releasing records long before that album hit the shelves. 'The Black Book of Capitalism' originally appeared in 2000 on the French DSA imprint and sadly never hit UK shores, but Type (Sylvain's new base of operations) have managed to put together a gloriously remastered and repackaged version for the wider world to hear at last. Those of you who have been enamoured with the artist's stark, minimal sound might be shocked at first to hear the variety on offer; 'The Black Book of Capitalism' is far from a mere classical record, and shows a breadth of sound never again seen in Sylvain's catalogue to date. From the mournful, delicate piano-work of 'Et Peu a Peu les Flots...' we are transported through a veritable sideshow of gallic musical expertise, with the doomy almost Bohren-esque jazz of 'Hurlements en Favour de Serge T.' and through a chiming fairytale with 'Derniere Etape avant le Silence'. There are almost traces of Angelo Badalamenti's work lost in the grooves here, with the gauzy world of European cinema seeping from every crack and punctuating Sylvain's compositions with both confidence and a deft humour. It might be over eight years old now but nothing of the album has been lost with time, it has matured with age, showing new depths and character with every year that has gone by. With 'The Black Book of Capitalism' Sylvain delivered his most widescreen work so far and it's an absolute pleasure to be able to hear it again in all its glory." [Boomkat]

[Download.Buy(vinyl only)]

Max Richter "24 Postcards In Full Colour"

2008-11-09T14:35:00.001+01:00

Artist: Max Richter
Album: 24 Postcards In Full Colour
Label: 130701
Release date: 25 August 2008
Genre: Electronic
Style: Modern Classical/Ambient
RIYL: Sylvain Chauveau, Library Tapes, Jóhann Jóhannsson

Tracklisting:
01. The Road Is A Grey Tape
02. H In New England
03. This Picture Of Us. P.
04. Lullaby From The Westcoast Sleepers
05. When The Northern Lights / Jasper And Louise
06. Circles From The Rue Simon – Crubellier
07. Cascade NW By W
08. A Sudden Manhattan Of The Mind
09. In Louisville At 7
10. Cathodes
11. I Was Just Thinking
12. A Song For H / Far Away
13. Return To Prague
14. Broken Symmetries For Y
15. Berlin By Overnight
16. Cradle Song For A (Interstate B3)
17. Kierling / Doubt
18. From 553 W Elm Street, Logan Illinois (Snow)
19. Tokyo Riddle Song
20. The Tartu Piano
21. Cold Fusion For G
22. 32 Via San Nicolo
23. Found Song For P.
24. H Thinks A Journey
Total running time: 33' 43"

[Max Richter - Open MySpace page]

[Max Richter - Circles From The Rue Simon – Crubellier - Video Clip]

[Max Richter - Song - Video Clip]

"Following eighteen months after Edinburgh-based pianist / composer Max Richter’s last album comes the release of the gorgeous, intriguingly framed ’24 Postcards In Full Colour’. Richter’s fourth album is a dazzling conceptual exercise of great beauty and emotional resonance. Certainly his most concise, ’24 Postcards…’may also be Max’s most coherent and compelling work to date. Beautifully played, richly textured and detailed, the album foregrounds Max’s sheer class as a composer and producer.

An attempt an exploration of the ringtone as a vehicle for music performance , ‘24 Postcards…’ is an experimental work made up of 24 classically-composed ringtones, set to be premièred in various gallery spaces. The première is intended to be in the form of a series of installations where pre-registered audience members switch on their phones to receive SMS messages, each message alert playing back one or more of the tracks, so making up the performance. In tandem with this release, will be a micro-website hosting 24 photographic images, one accompanying each track. As Max explains: “Thinking about how we listen to music today, I wondered why it is that ringtones have so far been treated as unfit for creative music… Who says ringtones have to be bad?.. It’s like saying LPs or CDs are bad – its just a medium….”

“Because the piece is a collection of tones, where I have no control of the order, I made a structure that holds together by use of shared material – like a cloud of pieces, or a handful of confetti, or a constellation of fragments – to be navigated as you like…” Max views the writing process in similar terms - shuffling basic elements into new constellations. The palette Max limited himself to consists of string quintet; solo piano; 16 track 2 inch tape; transistors; found shortwave radio; vinyl clicks, dust, scratches and rumble; and acoustic guitars. The players on the album are Louisa Fuller (violin),Robert Mc Fall (violin), Natalia Bonner (violin), John Metcalfe (Viola), Ian Burdge (Cello), Chris Worsey (Cello), Sua Lee (Cello), Preston Reed (Guitar), and Richter himself on piano.

Fragmentary and partial by nature, these 24 brief tracks work as a varied collection of evocative miniatures - each offering a glimpse into potentially much larger pieces. The longest track here is just under three minutes, whilst the majority clock in at around just sixty seconds. Each bearing its own particular weight and measure, these haunting vignettes come across as a series of sketches on the (fugitive) nature of time and memory, stitched together to form a series of jump-cuts and foldbacks in time (the album continually reprising itself and filling the listener with a sense of deja-vu).

As though extracting the absolute essence, simple, plaintive piano and string melodies - no excess, no waste, pure concentrate - butt up against passages of rich, borderzone ambience - radio static / voices leaking through dense, shifting drones. At points recalling the likes of Boards Of Canada, Bibio, and Gas (in terms of depth / grain rather than sound or style), at others Minimalism or the Elizabethan instrumental music of Henry Purcell, there’s also something about its nature that brings to mind authors like WG Sebald, Marcel Proust and filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky." [FatCat]

[Download.Buy]

Wassup 2008

2008-11-04T13:05:00.000+01:00

It's been eight long years since the boys said wassup to each other. Even with the effects of a down economy and imminent change in the White House, the boys are still able to come together and stay... [60Frames]

Vote For Change: Saul Williams

2008-11-02T12:35:00.001+01:00

Saul Williams has written a poem for Vote For Change.
Check it out!

Click here for more videos from Vote For Change.

"Dear History,
For too long have I pondered your meaning, memorized dates of battles, years of servitude, decades of injustice, named eras after movements, mourned the extinction of species, cursed founding fathers, worn vintage suits and cloaked myself with references of your hold on me.

I have walked through museums wondering how it is that greatness had lived and died all before my time. Parts of me feared becoming great because it seemed to include a price of death and a postmortem glory that my memory could never resurrect. I've stared at paintings dying to catch glimpses of the painter, closed my eyes to listen to songs that drunken ghosts dance to, and all the while I've fought to FREE the present to BECOME.

In 1995, I stood with poets in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge, barking metaphors at the new moon of the summer solstice wedging words into it's craters, sewing seeds through nightly wind.

In 1996, I forced the ocean back with words, fathered planets, climbed pyramids, and began to decipher the sirens song to conjure the dream-filled Children of the Night.

In 1997, I stood with prisoners in our nations capitol bending bars with the power of thought as wordsmiths served sentences and Hip Hop diddy-dandified itself: stealing golden calves from the Old Testament to smuggle into the lavish crib of Pontius Pilate for it's birthday party

In 1998, I swallowed fear and sun-danced on film reels, projecting a me that had not been into a me that ever shall be.

And HERE I stand, ten years the difference and witness to changing hands.

Dear History,
I beat you. I stand a generator of generations bearing witness to a world that we are holding accountable for past actions. Me and my friends, we're changing our diets, re-inventing marriage, check-mating capitalism, re-defining ethics, replacing cruelty with compassion, and have sworn not to re-elect the sins of the father.

We are casting our votes for so much more than a lesser of evils, but for change, and greater insight, for wisdom out of the mouths of babes, for races that bleed into ONE.

Dear History,
You are behind us and we are no longer looking back. We are standing on the threshold of new times, new days, new worlds, and charging forward without battle cry or trumpet, while cynicism, apathy, and cowardice take their place beside you, behind us.

Dear History,
We no longer believe in you. We have invested our our thoughts and dreams into the present moment and opportunity to shift our reality into one that does not resemble your dog-eared books.

We stand on the shoulders of those who have dared to dream and on the necks of those who have wasted their time and ours proclaiming a past past its prime.

Dear History,
Blitz! It's my turn now. You can have your mounds of flesh, leather boots, cannons and sabers, nooses and guillotines, warships and fighter planes, trails of tears and blood, genocides, dungeons and dragons, ghost stories and fairy tales..........

Come on guys! Help me out! ~ Saul"

Flight Of The Conchords

2008-10-28T13:25:00.001+01:00

Another couple of comedy videos from the brilliant Flight of the Conchords' TV series. You can download the entire Season 1 on BitTorrent using this torrent. You can also find a free videocast on the iTunes Store.

[Flight Of The Conchords - Business Time]

[Flight Of The Conchords - Inner City Pressure]

Ugly Billy's Docu-blog-umentary

2008-10-28T10:23:00.001+01:00

I rarely watch any vlogs, except when I discover something as hilarious as Ugly Billy. I'm including a bunch of videos, if you like them you can get the rest of them right here.

[Ugly Billy - My Girlfriend]

[Ugly Billy - My Mouth]

[Ugly Billy - How I Got My Name]

[Ugly Billy - My Docu-blog-umentary]

Paavoharju "Laulu Laakson Kukista"

2008-10-23T00:19:00.001+02:00

Artist: Paavoharju
Album: Laulu Laakson Kukista
Label: Fonal
Release date: 14 May 2008
Genre: Rock/Electronic
Style: Freak Folk/Experimental
RIYL: Múm, CocoRosie

Tracklisting:
01. Pimeänkarkelo
02. Kevätrumpu
03. Tuoksu Tarttuu Meihin
04. Italialaisella Laivalla
05. Alania
06. Uskallan
07. Ursulan Uni
08. Kirkonväki
09. Salainen Huone
10. Tyttö Tanssii
11. Sumuvirsi
12. Untitled
Total running time: 35' 03"

[Paavoharju - Open MySpace page]

[Paavoharju - Kirkonväki - Video Clip]

"For any band with the willingness or capability to write actual tunes, critics and fans are apt to see anything else-- interludes, instrumentals, experiments-- as a digression. I understand and partially accept that this is what you are choosing to do when you are not singing me a song. These are the aural equivalents of John Steinbeck's turtle, often treated with the indifference and puzzlement afforded the itinerant reptile in your average high school book report; folks were known to edit off the ambient bits of even Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, an album renowned for its meld of song and abstraction. Finnish collective Paavoharju are obstinate in their attempts to buck this trend, scattering Europop, pastel electronics, and woolen drones like a tossed deck of Bicycle playing cards. The greatest achievement of Paavoharju's Laulu Laakson Kukista, though, is not its dexterous balance of song and sound but the way it invests you as heavily in field recordings, dub workouts, and quasi-classical think pieces as in the band's foreign-language hookmaking.

Ostensibly a "songs" album, Laulu only gradually reveals their scarcity: count six using the standard "Could I maybe put this on a mixtape for my coworkers if, in fact, my coworkers were into entropic Nordic dance-pop?" benchmark. In place of half of a classic pop album, Laulu doesn't redefine out-music so much as find clever and inventive ways to incorporate it. Like its predecessor-- Paavoharju's 2005 debut Yhä Hämärää-- Laulu opens with "Pimeänkarkelo", a track that ceases to be an "intro" around the two minute mark and carries on for twice that anyway, ultimately serving as a palate cleanser for the surprisingly tart headrush of "Kevätrumpu". Kinetic synths and lovingly cheesed-out drums bleat and whir like dancin' music at a 1992 rollerblade disco. A stressed, sexed female voice coos and circles and punches like she's got Madonna's biceps but not those under-eye bags. And then...variations on a plinky piano melody in the form of "Tuoksu Tarttuu Meihin", which mulls and ponders amid a static curtain. When the band later remembers the melody on the album's two shortest tracks they feel less like interludes and more like rounding back to an earlier conversation after a thorough and fulfilling detour.

Downtempo dub. Song. Weird pastel electronica. Song. Laulu is structured much like Yhä Hämärää and the line between should be drawn using confidence, or perhaps perseverance. Mulish is too ugly a word for Laulu, whose compositions are stubbornly given room to flower and expand but are always appropriately reined; instead let's say that Paavoharju have a well-developed internal clock, or are otherwise familiar with "The Ugly Duckling". "Kirkonväki" outgrows its watery piano and malfunctioning click-track to blossom into a goth-rock prom, replete with organs in waltz-time stumble. "Uskallan" features a male lead so clear-throated and dramatic that the song sounds like one of the early 90s Latin-American hits that increasingly populate Chicago's jukeboxes. "Sumuvirsi", a rhythm-less, female-led hymn whose second-most prominent sound is a cackling raven, hues closest to the psych-folk traditional to Fonal's roster, but even it seems more theatrical and dramatic, like Paavoharju have been taking their cues both from Eleanoora Rosenholm and high-school drama productions.

The tiny honking synths that augment the rusty guitars of "Tyttö Tanssii" suggest a more literal reading of the Bicycle metaphor from above: a hill of two-wheelers, disheveled rubber, tassels, and bells. Laulu connotes this youth, motion, and playfulness in various states of repair and construction, and it does so by alternating well-formed, multi-faced pop songs with abstract head-scratchers, each component as warmly evocative and strangely necessary as the last. " [Pitchfork]

[Download.Buy]

Babe, Terror "Babe, Terror"

2008-10-21T09:39:00.000+02:00

Artist: Babe, Terror
Album: Babe, Terror [EP]
Label: Unsigned
Release date: 5 September 2008
Genre: Rock
Style: Experimental
RIYL: Animal Collective, Panda Bear, Avey Tare & Kria Brekkan

Tracklisting:
01. Winnie Peg From Winipooh
02. My Olympic Films 1980
03. Mount Dorothy
04. Nasa, Goodbye
05. Os Santos
Total running time: 29' 06"

[Babe, Terror - Open MySpace page]

[Babe, Terror - Nasa, Goodbye - Video Clip]

"If you are a fan of either No Age or Animal Collective, or wish there were an act that fell between those points, you may enjoy Babe, Terror, a one-man band from São Paulo. Mr. Terror is not of a piece with much of the music posted here, where catchy tunes and perceptible timekeeping are the order of the day. Babe, Terror speaks to my love of a certain kind of noise. Because this music doesn’t involve form in the way verse-chorus songs do, I have a hard time pinning down the variables. There’s usually a drone involved, bits and bobs pop up, and things move at a leisurely pace. But that’s an equally good description of terrible music, so don’t write it down. The Babe, Terror song (song?) “Nasa Goodbye” on his MySpace page does the trick, whatever it is. (Insert struggling metaphor here: an birdhouse caught in a flatbed scanner; a dress fitting inside a wind tunnel filled with acorns; etc.)

I e-mailed Mr. Terror, and his response is below. I like the fact that he introduces himself only after introducing his neighborhood:

"I live in Perdizes, a quarter with great contemporary hippie and (old) Italian influence in the city of São Paulo. One of the major Brazilian soccer teams, Palmeiras, which was established by the Italian community in São Paulo, is settled there, four blocks down from my home.

There are some pretty odd places in this neighborhood, places that seem to have been forgotten by the rest of the city, tiny hidden spaces, and ramps that would freak out even the most daring skate rider. Most of all, it is a beautiful, mystical and peaceful neighborhood, an inspiration for some of my musical ideas. I am Babe, Terror. My name is Claudio and I’m twenty-eight years old. “Terror” could be roughly translated a “horror” in English.

Babe, Terror started in early 2008, mainly due to my desire to make some homemade music, to attend and to give sense to this stage in my life. It was a simple and irrational musical impulse, which then became a conscious effort of creating music for people (me included) to listen to on a really cold Saturday afternoon, at home, through some big earphones. Therefore I began trying to create a kind of “musical fiction”: stories about love, childhood, love during childhood, and memories, which are told though the voices of those fictional characters within the songs. These ideas remind me of the meaning of the Portuguese word for “horror.” A kind of horror in a poetical and lyrical sense, though.

I make my music in a really homemade, crafty way. Every sound is based in some hand clapping, table beating, voice distortion, microphone, digital effects."" [Sasha Frere-Jones]

[Download]

The Remote Viewer "I Can't Believe It's Not Better"

2008-10-19T14:36:00.001+02:00

Artist: The Remote Viewer
Album: I Can't Believe It's Not Better
Label: Mobeer
Release date: July 2008
Genre: Electronic
Style: Ambient Pop/Downtempo
RIYL: Epic45, The Boats, Marsen Jules

Tracklisting:
01. Untitled
02. Untitled
03. Untitled
04. Untitled
05. Untitled
06. Untitled
07. Untitled
08. Untitled
09. Untitled
10. Untitled
Total running time: 39' 32"

[The Remote Viewer - Open MySpace page in a new window]

"It's been over 3 years since the Remote Viewer's last album "Let your Heart Draw A Line" so it's been quite a wait - but from the instant you start playing this amazing set of tracks you find yourself comforted by the familiar yet forever beguiling sound this band makes. Delicate percussive underlays, pops and whirrs, tinkling melodies, banjo strums, loose piano arrangements and an assortment of found sounds mingle in with deep, almost gargantuan basslines that accompany many of the Remote Viewer's finest tracks. There are some surprising treats in store too - with band member Andrew Johnson allowing his singing voice to be heard properly for the first time in years, while faithful family member Nicola Hodgkinson contributes some of her vocal magic to proceedings. With packaging to die for (it took the label endless late nights to get all the elements together - more or less everything has been hand made) we're thinking that this is one of the most beautiful and sublime releases we've laid our hands on in a while." [Boomkat]

[Kudos to idm trade for this link.]

[Download.Sold Out]

Four Tet "Ringer"

2008-10-19T14:35:00.000+02:00

Artist: Four Tet
Album: Ringer [EP]
Label: Domino
Release date: 21 April 2008
Genre: Electronic
Style: Techno
RIYL: Pantha Du Prince, Efdemin, Lawrence

Tracklisting:
01. Ringer
02. Ribbons
03. Swimmer
04. Wing Body Wing
Total running time: 31' 33"

[Four Tet - Open MySpace page in a new window]

[Four Tet - Smile Around The Face - Video Clip]

[Four Tet - She Moves She - Video Clip]

"Four Tet returns with four tracks of techno (not techno). The Ringer mini album is a 32 minute, four-track excursion into the kind of wide-open spaces you might find if you set out to make techno with an afrobeat/krautrock sensibility.

Ringer locks together gloriously rich synthesizer arpeggios; ‘Wing Body Wing’ slips from crisp clusters of disco percussion to Steve Reich polyrhythms; and in between are another two euphoric ripples of sound, ‘Ribbons’ and ‘Swimmer’. These are tracks that make you think of Berlin – Dakar – Detroit - but they could only have been made in London. All four are headphone epics, but are mixed in such a way you know you have to hear them at Plastic People or The End.

The techno heartbeat comes from Kieran Hebden’s regular DJ residences over the last couple of years – but also from his ongoing collaborations with legendary jazz drummer Steve Reid. Whether in the studio or live, Kieran and Steve often click into the kind of deep 4/4 grooves that can depart in any direction with a little adjustment.

Ringer carries that minimal pulse over into Four Tet, and while Kieran’s trademark recuttings of jazz breaks may be less in evidence, his feel for harmony and melody is, as always, unmistakable." [Domino]

[Kudos to nodata.tv for this link.]

[Download.Buy]
[password: no-datta.blogspot.com]

Max Tundra "Parallax Error Beheads You"

2008-10-08T01:35:00.000+02:00

Artist: Max Tundra
Album: Parallax Error Beheads You
Label: Domino
Release date: 20 October 2008
Genre: Electronic
Style: Electro Pop/Experimental
RIYL: Psapp, Tunng

Tracklisting:
01. Gum Chimes
02. Will Get Fooled Again
03. Which Song
04. My Night Out
05. Orphaned
06. Nord Lead Three
07. The Entertainment
08. Number Our Days
09. Glycaemic Index Blues
10. Until We Die
Total running time: 41' 47"

[Max Tundra - Open MySpace page in a new window]

[Max Tundra - Will Get Fooled Again - Video Clip]

[Cooking With Max Tundra - Interview]

About Max Tundra by Owen Pallett
(Final Fantasy, ex-Arcade Fire, Last Shadow Puppets arranger)

"Max and I met in Barcelona in 2005 at Primavera Sound. His slot was at 4am. He put on a mask, wrapped himself up in tape, and played forty minutes of music made mostly using Amiga sample tracker software from the late 1980s. There was virtuosic melodica playing, Pointer Sisters-style singing, and an eight-minute version of “So Long, Farewell” from The Sound Of Music. I was wasted and ended up passing out on a beach in my underwear. When the sun rose, I woke up with dried merengue and sand glued to my hair, and in a daze, I realized that I had just witnessed nothing less than the best music performance of my life.

What sets Max Tundra apart from any other band in the world is his attention to detail. This album is impossibly full of ideas, seeking out every imaginable sound in the world and giving each their own curtain call. When you listen to this album, you'd think that it was made by an eccentric millionaire, with every name-brand pop music producer in the world contributing their own two seconds of material. Upon closer inspection, you'd realize that it's been six years since “Mastered By Guy At The Exchange”; in that time, Max probably hasn't had a single good night's sleep.

I can't compare this record to any record I've ever heard before. Even Max's previous records are a distant echo. It is dance music, it is discourse, it is teen sex comedy, it is a video game, it is a dance troupe, it is a thirteen course meal with Amontillado. It is shock and awe. Listen and be humbled." [Domino]

[Download.Buy]

The Bug "London Zoo"

2008-09-15T16:21:00.004+02:00

Artist: The Bug
Album: London Zoo
Label: Ninja Tune
Release date: June 2008
Genre: Electronic
Style: Dubstep
RIYL: Boxcutter, Kode 9, Burial

Tracklisting:
01. Angry
02. Murder We
03. Skeng
04. Too Much Pain
05. Insane
06. Jah War
07. Fuckaz
08. You & Me
09. Freak Freak
10. Warning
11. Poison Dart
12. Judgement
Total running time: 37' 12"
[MP3s courtesy of Allan's World of Music]

[The Bug - Open MySpace page in a new window]

[The Bug - Skeng - Video Clip]

"All the great British writer/producers of the past two decades have found their own trademark equilibrium between guest vocals and backing tracks. Massive Attack's first three albums all achieved this, as did Tricky's. All three Leila albums come to their own unique internal understanding, and the Chemical Brothers have never lost the knack of integrating a wide range of co-conspirators into a coherent scheme. But rarely has such a formidable array of vocal talent been so effectively marshalled as on this third album by the Bug, aka veteran noise artisan Kevin Martin.

From the subterranean rumble of Roll Deep Crew alumnus Flow Dan to the elasticated larynx of Roots Manuva helpmeet Ricky Ranking, London Zoo provides the perfect showcase for its colourful menagerie of MCs and singers. And the Bug's no-nonsense clank and grind production fosters a rare intensity of focus on this album's higher purpose, which is to take the eloquence of Linton Kwesi Johnson and Michael Smith's Eighties dub-poetry, and blast it into digital hyperspace.

It's probably fair to say that the UK dance subcultures that yield the richest musical harvests tend to be those whose creative terrain is most extensively irrigated by Britain's reggae tradition. And while dubstep started out feeling like a retreat from the upfront personal drama of grime, into a vague ambient netherworld of noodling sub-bass, London Zoo confirms its welcome drift into dub's turbulent inner space.

From the Taliban to Hurricane Katrina, this album's lyrical concerns fall on the darker side of doom-laden. But when you're living through times that make the Book of Revelations look like Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack, it's reassuring to hear music with the courage to face up to that. And from the mordant humour lurking in the rhyme scheme of Killa P and Flow Dan's 'Skeng' ('Evil... Worse... Nurse... Hearse') to Tippa Irie's commonsensical summing up of George Bush's betrayal of New Orleans ('America is a big superpower/They should have been there within the hour'), London Zoo puts a 21st-century twist on reggae's Babylonian rhetoric.

The rampant accessibility of the Bug's new music will come as just as much of a surprise to those who have followed Martin's cacophonous career since the halcyon days of God or Techno Animal, as it will to those for whom the idea of a British Bill Laswell means absolutely nothing. In its own apocalyptic fashion, London Zoo abounds with inspired pop touches. Like the way Warrior Queen's 'Insane' lapses into her own magnificently out-of-tune interpretation of Tears For Fears' 'Mad World', or Tippa Irie's 'Angry' starts out as something Xenomania might come up with for Girls Aloud. But it's in daring to ask the big questions like 'How did we get here, and where do we go now?' that this record's rage-filled exuberance evokes the spirit of such classic state-of-the-world addresses as Specials, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and Black Flag's Damaged." [The Observer]

[Download.Buy]

Lindstrøm "Where You Go I Go To"

2008-09-11T19:50:00.000+02:00

Artist: Lindstrøm
Album: Where You Go I Go To
Label: Smalltown Supersound/Feedelity
Release date: 18 August 2008
Genre: Electronic
Style: Disco/Downtempo
RIYL: Lopazz, Bjørn Torske, Hercules & Love Affair

Tracklisting:
01. Where You Go I Go Too
02. Grand Ideas
03. The Long Way Home
Total running time: 55' 06"

[Lindstrøm - Open MySpace page in new window]

[Lindstrøm - The Long Way Home (Prins Thomas Edit) - Video Clip]

[Lindstrøm - Interview]

"Hans-Peter Lindstrøm is pictured with an ear-to-ear grin on the cover of his first proper album, and on the strength of it, he has every reason to considering he has just produced the most ecstatic, uplifting and bloody perfect electronic record in years. End of.

Lindstrøm has been making serious waves all the way down from his native Norway to the coolest dance floors in Europe and beyond for some time now with his highly personal take on classic disco, fed on big dollops of Giorgio Moroder and Cerrone and seasoned with warm analogue electronics a la Ash Ra Tempel/Klaus Schulze. Lindstrøm’s first foray into the music scene dates back to 2003, and since, he has released a number of EPs, which were compiled into an album, It’s A Feedelity Affair, in 2006, an album with Prins Thomas in 2005, and has also been spotted remixing anyone from LCD Soundsystem to The Killers.

With Where You Go I Go Too, Hans-Peter Lindstrøm chose a very different path to the one he has graced until now. While his trademark electronic sound more than ever forms the backbone of this record, he has opted here to develop his tracks much beyond what any twelve inch allows and created a magical journey which stretches over just under an hour, with the title track clocking at almost thirty minutes alone. In fact, Where You Go is haunted by the ghosts of Cerrone’s seminal 1977 third album Supernature and Manuel Göttsching’s 1973 Inventions For Electric Guitar and 1984 monumental E2-E4. Adopting a format that has been commonly used by Göttsching or Klaus Schulze over the years, Lindstrøm places his three tracks so there is a continuous flow of music and sound throughout the album. More than simply fading each track into the next, the pieces actually feels as they are intricately linked. Soundscapes spill over and the pace and overall mood remain pretty constant throughout.

From the initial calm brushes of synthetic soundwaves and reversed guitar which linger over the first few minutes of the opening track rises a highly polished sequencer feast which remains at the heart of the piece for pretty much its all length. Over it, Lindstrøm applies occasional electronic riffs which progress in smooth plateaux while an arpeggio develops in the background. Around the seventeen minute mark, the track reaches a clearing where the beat breaks for a few minutes to reveal rich atmospheric sonic layers. Interestingly, it is at this point that the soundscape is at its most abundant, and when Lindstrøm returns to the fully patterned sequences of earlier, he does so with much more bravado.

Where You Go slips almost imperceptibly into Grand Ideas, the shortest of the three compositions, their boundaries would be totally none existent if it wasn’t for the rhythmic canvas of the former piece progressively fizzling out into nothingness. Grand Ideas contrast with its predecessor by kicking much sooner into place and setting out its overall remit pretty much from the start. After a burst of reversed analogue electronics, the beat settles the score, left bare at first but soon surrounded by increasingly more overwhelming layers of sounds, including what sounds like a choir at one point. The sixteen minute epic The Long Way Home, which concludes, is another journey through blissful electronic sequenced textures, but it opens with a looped formation very reminiscent of Manuel Göttsching’s guitar patterns. After a first section, Lindstrøm strips his piece almost to the bone, only leaving a distant clatter to fill the space for a moment, then progressively builds up momentum again until a crystal-clear melody provides a lasting rush of energy and gets the piece back on track.

Lindstrøm set out to create something fresh and unique and it is very much what he has achieved with Where You Go I Go Too. No content of producing one of the most unashamedly electronic records in years, he has managed to capture the essence of electronic music as it was made over thirty years ago while still sounding utterly futuristic. Far from being overwhelming, his dense layering of sounds and his overall vision makes this record one of the most exhilarating offering you’re likely to hear in a very long time." [themilkfactory]

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Adem "Takes"

2008-05-29T18:20:00.001+02:00

Artist: Adem
Album: Takes
Label: Domino
Release date: 12 May 2008
Genre: Rock
Style: Folk Rock
RIYL: James Yorkston & The Athletes, Sun Kil Moon, Andrew Bird

Tracklisting:
01. Bedside Table [Bedhead cover]
02. Oh My Lover [PJ Harvey cover]
03. Slide [Lisa Germano cover]
04. Loro [Pinback cover]
05. Hotellounge (Be The Death Of Me) [dEUS cover]
06. To Cure A Weakling Child + Boy/Girl Song [Aphex Twin cover]
07. Tears Are In Your Eyes [Yo La Tengo cover]
08. Starla [Smashing Pumpkins cover]
09. Gamera [Tortoise cover]
10. Unravel [Björk cover]
11. Invisible Man [The Breeders cover]
12. Laser Beam [Low cover]
Total running time: 50' 48"

[Adem - Open MySpace Standalone Music Player]

[Adem - Hotellounge (Be The Death Of Me) - Live]

"Describing ‘Takes’, Adem has the following to say: "Making a covers record is like making a mixtape – how much time, love, effort and heartache is invested into side A alone? How to go about selecting the right message, the right combination, the new, the old, and the breadth of music? It’s a chance to show your influences and give people an idea of where your taste comes from. I’ve had to ignore entire genres and decades of music that should be on here; it’s just a glimpse – I hope you enjoy the view."

I’d been playing other peoples songs in my live shows for some time; they were stripped-down to basics, always me and a single instrument. On tour I’d been constantly asked for recordings of the tracks, of which I had none. At the start of 2007 I decided to go into the studio to try to document them. I wanted to capture the simplicity and atmosphere of the versions that I had been performing.

After having recorded these first few tracks, I decided to continue and make a full album, expanded, with more production. I enjoyed working quickly and instinctively - decisions that I would normally think important enough to consider over a couple of days were being made instantly, and constantly. Listening for gaps, I would arrange each track as it went along, its shape being gradually moulded and revealed. Whilst recording the double bass, I’d imagine a glockenspiel line, then a part for wood block or harmonium and I’d be hearing more as I recorded those. Layer followed layer. Takes, indeed.

At this point I decided to focus the remit of the record and only include music that was released from 1991 to 2001 – pretty informative years for me. It was difficult to pass over some of the tracks I’d been working on, but I felt that the record would be more focused and relevant. There’s no drum kit on this record, a floor tom and a legion of shaky and bangy things make up for it. I play a lot of instruments I’ve not featured before – Grand piano, vibraphone, an ebow (on loads of instruments it’s not designed for), a wurlitzer electric piano, appalachian dulcimer, violins among others. They all fit nicely with the usual acoustic guitars, double bass, hamoniums, glockenspiels, backpacker guitar, ukulele, banjolele, autoharp, bells and miscellaneous found stuff like cups and bike locks. I’m not brilliant at them all, but just good enough to not have to wait for someone else to come and then wait some more while I explain how I imagine it to be and then wait for them to do it…

In making this record I wanted to reference a specific portion of some of the music that has influenced me and that I’d loved and to present it in such a way that joined the dots between the original and my music. It was incredibly difficult to select tracks and in some cases I decided to combine a couple of my favourites by the same artist – Bedside Table ends with the end section of another Bedhead song from a later record, The Aphex Twin track combines the music of one track with the singing from a second. For these and other alterations I had to get permission from the various artists, all of who were very considerate and helpful. Thanks to all the bands and songwriters featured on this record from whose songs and music I’ve Taken.”" [Domino]

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