stuff im really feeling lately:

captain comatose- up in flames (playhouse)
superpitcher- today (kompakt)
va/ 4 woman no cry (monika)
spectral sound vol 1 (ghostly)

to be updated tomorrow when i navigate my way through a stack of new music.

everyone who loves music needs to read this interview/ jukebox jury with james murphy in pitchfork. fantastic.

US Rejects Russia's Allegations Of Espionage

...right. i love how, instead of just rendering them useless with their savvy counter-intelligence, Russia just kicked out the Peace Corps on a very public level a few years ago.

GHOST RIDER MOTORCYCLE HERO

OK! Off to check Mr. Negative at APT tonight, which should be really good. Then onto the underground resistance night at subtonic. I leave you with some music. bon week-end.

"Im sick of motherfuckers tryin to tell me that they're down with prince"
ha!

hot chip- down with prince (radio edit)
flying lizards- sex machine
prince buster- barrister pardon
miss kitten w/ goldenboy- rippin kittin (ellen allien mix)
suicide- ghost rider
the black keys- am automatic
theo parrish- anansies dances
squarepusher- port rhombus

My comrade at earplug.cc and flavorpill.net, philip sherburne, has a new column over at pitchfork. check it out here!

Also, Philip links to the "Kunstformen der Natur" mix by Jena Paradies available here. It starts with two of the tunes I'm always rambling on about on this here blogga: Pantha Du Prince "St. Denis bei Licht" and The MFA "the difference it makes" (superpitcher remix). so so so good.

Any doubts that Matthew Perpetua is one of the best music bloggers around? Check his recent post on Colder's Downtown. "[the track]feels like some kind of horrible rut in life made tolerable by excessive medication and cheap thrills. It seems so effortlessly desperate and emotionally barren that I kind of worry for the mental state of its author." Listen to the tune, and re-read that. So spot on.

From today's International Herald Tribune: Court allows Cheney to keep details secret in energy case

I finally had a spare second to transcribe the Glimmers interview that I did about two months or so ago. Two of the nicest guys I've had the pleasure to meet, and their musical knowledge is second to none. They were equally comfortable talking about everything from rare psych disco and new kompakt 12's to vintage acid house and baile funk, and their sheer enthusiasm for all types of music was really refreshing to see. What was most interesting to me is that their ecclectism was partially rooted in the fact that when they played parties early on, they had several different crowds to satiate, from the ravers, to the hip hop kids, etc.

On that note, I'm going to try and sort out an interview with JD Twitch from Optimo soon, which should be fun. Stay tuned for both. I'll try to post the Glimmers new 12' "Cassette" tonight.

SOME MUSIC

Linstrom- Drums of Life
...because everyone needs more psychadelic norwegian disco.
Kraft Punk- At my House
some weird booty of LCD soundsystem's "Daft Punk is Playing At My House", with loads of homework-era samples thrown in for good measure.
New Order- Age of Consent
my favorite track they've done. ever.
A Number of Names- Shari Vari
Random but addictive detroit techno track i've stumbled upon.
Primal Scream- higher than the sun (dub mix)
in anticipation of andrew weatherall's set at APT in NYC, here's some dubbed out goodness he produced for primal scream.

and, if you haven't checked it out yet, Captain Comatose- To My Song. Tune of the summer!

Woebot on classic detroit techno 12's. Well worth a read.

I love this ILM thread: Top 100 tearjerking techno. Or this one: Micro-Goth My fav gothy microhouse tunes: Dettinger "Tottentanz," "Phantom/Ghost - Perfect Lovers (Tobias Thomas/Superpitcher Unperfect Love Mix)," and Konrad Black's stuff on 240 volts. Also, picked up a good tip about my favorite electronic record last year, Pantha Du Prince, Diamond Daze. Evidently the man responsible has (another) psuedonym, and has put out a record called glühen 4 - das schweigen der sirenen: liquid identity fluid. Going to track this down asap.
In other news, still digesting Markus Guentner's In Moll, as well as the first Super_Collider LP. Really vibing on this 4 Women no cry comp, but more on that later.

My friends rule. An excerpt of a sunday aim session with Nate Cunningham:

EagleInYourMind: try to wrap your head around the one i'm sending now...electronic hole, golden hour iv...like spacemen 3 dying in quicksand in 1969 with harmonica

colinjnagy: thats nearly as good as your "rave inside a glacier" description of that alog track.

Checked Deadbeat's dj set at Nublu on Friday, and had the good fortune to meet up with two of Montreal's best and brightest producers, Akufen and Mike Shannon, as well as two of the nicest dudes in the music business, David Day and Jon Berry. Missed the next day's Mini-Mutek due to a last-minute decision to come home for mother's day, but as I peruse the listings at subtonic, it appears they're will be no shortage of great electronic music for the duration of the summer. I'm particularly excited by this gig:

8/12*: Falko Brocksieper (Sub Static, Treibstoff)
Sarah Goldfarb (Traum, Trapez, Treibstoff | France)

Also, picked up some new vinyl: The M.Mayer "Lovefood" EP, with a fantastic, vampish cover of Kylie's "Slow," as well as the 12' of Swayzak's "Snowblind." The Richard Davis and Matthew Jonson mixes are both stellar.

For a good overview of Kompakt's recent releases, check this Pitchfork roundup.

Please read Nicholas Kristof's Sunday Times op-ed on Pope Benedict XVI's stance on contraception, and its implications for the global AIDS crisis.

An excerpt:

"The Vatican has horribly undercut the war against AIDS in two ways. First, it has tried to prevent Catholic clinics, charities and churches from giving out condoms or encouraging their use. Second, it argues loudly that condoms don't protect against H.I.V., thus discouraging their use.

In El Salvador, the church helped push through a law requiring condom packages to carry a warning label that they do not protect against AIDS. Since fewer than 4 percent of Salvadoran couples use condoms the first time they have sex, the result will be more funerals."

Captain Comatose
Up In Flames
Playhouse
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Overhearing a Captain Comatose track from a passing car, you might be tempted to dismiss it as just another sexed-up electro-rock cut. But Up In Flames, the playful work of veteran hedonists Khan and Snax, is hardly so simplistic. Though the duo acknowledges a cheeky reverence for the '70s rock-dates-disco phase, the nostalgia stops there. "Poppertalk Blues" offers the figurative sound of amyl nitrate, complete with warped blues guitar and druggy mumbles, while "To My Song," turns to the '60s for a summertime anthem melding pumping pianos with garage-blues vocals over rolling drums (are those timpanis?); in the background, a synthesizer zippers like a kitten sliding down the curtains. It's a guaranteed hit for places like Frankfurt's Robert Johnson and New York's APT, but in a perfect world, it'd be blaring out of car windows. (CJN)

AND NOW FOR THE MUSIC

a random friday afternoon selection of things ive been into lately. no time for in-depth descriptions right now, but all are worth your time. trust me.

the rapture- i need your love (ewan pearson mix)
human league- do or die
ada-blindhouse
fad gadget-back to nature
sylvie marks and hal 9000- we electric
cut copy- saturdays
troubleman- strike hard
bloc party- banquet (phones disco edit)
lady sovereign- blah blah blah (cadence weapon version)
arthur russell- let's go swimming (walter gibbons mix)
freiland- hot love

oh, and if you haven't heard trevor jackson's playgroup dj kicks mix, you need to asap. used copies on amazon for like 8 bucks.
also, the psychonauts time machine mix is well worth hunting down on whatever format you can find it.

HEARTBEATS

My Boss:
i didn't make any changes to your (name redacted) memo - barely read the beginning and sent off to Jim
Me:erm, dude you said you were going to revise it...please tell me this is a joke
Boss: no, why?
Me: oh, something about purging the (name redacted) executive staff
and starting anew...i dont need this on my semi day off
Boss: what? holy shit!

Long, awkard silence (during which I start looking for a new job on mediabistro)

Boss:you've been punked
aiight bro...have a great weekend

no big surprise about the uk elections. however, one point of interest is rupert murdoch throwing his complete support behind labour. rumor has it that this came on the condition that blair not step down (and yield to gordon brown) before serving another full term. the back room negotiations had to be interesting, and makes one wonder how many much more media deregulation in britain will be on the horizon as a result.

on another note, my former london postcode, cities of london & westminster, voted as follows:
Conservative 47.3%
Labour 25.1%
Liberal Democrat 20.0%

Sasha Frere-Jones has posted a few new Lady Sov tracks here (3:25 on "the broom" is fucking hilarious) and here. I thought she'd blow up after random and cha-ching but there hasn't been the rabid media attention that MIA managed to garner. Hopefully it'll come soon, because its some of the best stuff I've heard this year. Ill post a few of her other selections tonight.

Deadbeat- New World Observer
~scape
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Inspired equally by the rhythmic slink of Jamaican dub reggae, and the clean, textured productions emanating out of Montreal’s techno scene, Deadbeat’s third album for ~scape, New World Observer, demonstrates an increased geopolitical consciousness and a wider palette of musical genres. Though his production style has long sought to gel dub, ambient and techno music into a cohesive new form, the album reaches farther for musical inspiration, notably the Middle-Eastern strings and rhythms on “N'importe Quoi.” In addition to the beautifully layered arrangements, Deadbeat’s production dexterity is most apparent in the gradual vocal manipulation of Athesia’s ethereal vocals on “Port-au-Prince” into individual, phonetic fragments. Deadbeat also samples from recent news media - from a pitched-down clip of a right-wing radio commentator justifying Abu Ghraib, to a distraught Palestinian woman on “O Little Town of Bethlehem” - proving that his observations of the world are as much political as they are musical.

Colleen- The Golden Morning Breaks
Leaf Recordings
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Colleen’s debut, Everyone Alive Wants Answers, is a soundtrack to viewing old, decaying film negatives held up to the light – a gentle, intimate record that conveys themes of childhood nostalgia through dusty, wobbly lullabies. Her sophomore effort was recorded live with guitar, strings, and glass glockenspiel - a departure from the first - which was based completely from samples and found sounds. The result is a more instinctive and organically formed record, but one that draws upon familiar textures. From the crackle of the tape on “The Common Sea,” to the sound of raindrops falling against a windowpane used as a subtle percussive element on “Mining in the Rain,” the attention to such minutiae creates an intimate bond with the listener, akin to a whispered secret that makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. Though the title is The Golden Morning Breaks, the songs best convey a sound suited to a moment just before.

I'm reposting this little piece I wrote back in 2002, because I think it is particularly interesting given some of the emerging pay-for-play PR scandals linked to the Bush Administration. As we now know, Hill and Knowlton was behind the infamous babies from incubators story that propelled us into the first gulf war.

I haven't altered this at all since its original publication:


August, 2002

The recent discovery of Al Qaeda videotapes by Senior CNN correspondent Nic Robertson documenting chemical weapons tests on animals is undoubtedly disturbing. However, one must question the timing and media coverage of such an event, especially given the questions being raised at the moment regarding further strategic action in the Middle East.

According to the CNN lead posted online August 18, 2002 at 10:48 p.m., "A collection of dozens of videotapes obtained by CNN in Afghanistan sheds new light on the inner workings of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror organization. The chilling archive includes footage of dogs being killed in poison gas experiments, lessons on making explosives, instructions on terrorist tactics and previously unseen images of bin Laden and his top aides.”

The question as to where the tapes were discovered remains unclear. According to the original CNN report, “Mr. Robertson and senior CNN executives declined to say precisely how or where they located the tapes, but they said CNN did not pay for them. Mr. Robertson said he drove 17 hours from the Afghan capital of Kabul about two weeks ago to view the tapes, which he said had been moved away from their original location…”

The tapes show various Al Qaeda activities, ranging from instructional videos on bomb making to various terrorist activities. According to both CNN, and the New York Times reports, the most disturbing scenes included the poisoning of various dogs by unidentified chemicals.

A story by Judith Miller run in the New York Times describes in detail the poison-induced death of a “white Labrador-like dog, wearing a green ribbon.” The article goes on to state, “The dog then tries standing; its head shakes violently, and its breathing quickens. Its hind legs appear to collapse. Seconds later, the dog falls and struggles to stand. Unable to control its front legs, it whimpers and moans. Then the dog appears to vomit. Its moan becomes a piercing wail.”
As horrifying as this is, the dramatic detail proves entirely unnecessary, and one must question what this sort of emotional appeal does for US public opinion in a time of divided interests. It brings to mind the rumors, and subsequent rampant media coverage of the babies in Kuwait allegedly removed from their incubators by Iraqi soldiers, thus rallying opinion towards strategic action against Iraq under the first Bush administration.

Such blatant emotional appeals, whether they be newborns or white Labrador retrievers serve essentially the same purpose. It paints the enemy as unhuman, and makes it entirely easier to sell any sort of war plan to the public. With a nation divided as to what will happen in the forthcoming weeks in respect to Iraq, these discovered videotapes may just serve that purpose. Media agencies, especially such bastions of journalism as the New York Times must remain cognizant of the fact that the US government has, and always will be mounting propaganda campaigns in times of war. To say that these Al Qaeda tapes might have been strategically leaked (or placed in an area easily found with an anonymous tip) might not be far from the truth. It’s purely speculation, but something to bear in mind given the circumstances.

One of my favorite bloggers, Dana Vachon (aka DNasty) just signed a $650,000 advance for a book deal. Details here (fourth item).

MINI MUTEK

Be sure to stop by Tonic this weekend, as there's a great Mutek preview going down. Details from flavorpill here.

Jamie Lidell- A Little Bit More

I posted the single "Multiply" from the Jamie Lidell's new record on Warp last week. Here's something else to stave off your appetite until the full album drops in June.

the smashing pumpkins-soma

good lord.

This is an interesting concept. Evidently, its launching today, and was masterminded by Mark Potts, who helped launch washingtonpost.com back in the day.

Jay Rosen @ Pressthink has more.

OF WAR AND TECHNO

two things: having read nearly every substantive iraq war reporting memoir, i can say that the two that strike me as most impressive are: generation kill by evan wright and Embedded: The Media At War in Iraq by Bill Katovsky, Timothy Carlson The least impressive? A fist in the hornet's nest by NBC's Richard Engel. Up next is Under Fire : Untold Stories from the Front Line of the Iraq War, a compliation of stories from Reuters correpondents.

on another note: having just completed my first listen it Isolee's We Are Monster, it is a blinder of an album. more to come on this...

Ok. A few nice psych tracks: Who knew the monkees could sound so blissed out? A little Roky action, and though I'm sure you're all tired of the mashups, and interesting one of superpitcher's heroin and the pet shop boys. its really, really good.

the monkees- porpoise song
13th floor elevators- slip inside this house
superpitcher/ pet shop boys- dry heroin

oh, and if you haven't heard the series of triple r mixes (friends, selection 2 and selection 3), then you must!
been really vibing on the latest installment.

Fareed Zakaria's (who's book i still haven't finished) NY Times review of Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat.

I found this particularly interesting:
"What created the flat world? Friedman stresses technological forces. Paradoxically, the dot-com bubble played a crucial role. Telecommunications companies like Global Crossing had hundreds of millions of dollars of cash -- given to them by gullible investors -- and they used it to pursue incredibly ambitious plans to ''wire the world,'' laying fiber-optic cable across the ocean floors, connecting Bangalore, Bangkok and Beijing to the advanced industrial countries. This excess supply of connectivity meant that the costs of phone calls, Internet connections and data transmission declined dramatically -- so dramatically that many of the companies that laid these cables went bankrupt. But the deed was done, the world was wired. Today it costs about as much to connect to Guangdong as it does New Jersey."

a few more tunes before bed:

m83- don't save us from the flames (superpitcher remix)
my bloody valentine- soon (andy weatherall mix)

FAVELAS ON BLAST
Like a goon, I slept on seeing Favela Rising at the Tribeca Film Festival. The trailer looks amazing, check it here.

RECORDS RECORDS RECORDS

this lovely little release is in the post, and on the way to me. i absolutely cannot wait. eskimo's been putting out some outrageously good compliations lately.

i seem to spend entirely too much cash at picadilly records, and with the exchange rate the way it is, tis a dangerous thing. these are two of my fav domestic record stores:
dusty groove: great for breaks, soul, old funk, etc etc. their descriptions are what set them apart from other sites. really on point writing that coerces you into buying that deep funk compliation that you'd never even heard about.

also, neptune records and forced exposure, are probably the best sites for european electronic stuff. they tend to carry everything that's kompakt- distributed, and beyond. both are really reliable.

WE ARE MONSTER
as i wait with baited breath for my copy of isolee's new LP, we are monster, ive been playing his mix of recloose's cardiology on repeat. check it!

recloose- cardiology (isolee mix)

also, if you havent checked recloose's entire LP, do it. amazing stuff, and he's got a new one coming v.soon, preceeded by this single:
Recloose- Dust

David Remnick on Tony Blair in today's Guardian.

a fairly random smattering of tunes for you this fine sunday in new york.

the smashing pumpkins- ugly
i dont think siamese dream and mellon collie left my cd changer for the duration of high school. this is a b-side from the 1979 single, but an a-side for many lesser bands.
spacemen 3- walkin with jesus
this is one of my favorite spacemen 3 tunes, from the forged prescriptions LP (which has a lot more studio trickery then the comparitively stripped-down perfect prescription). Described by pitchfork as "the anthem of a Polyphonic Spree crossed with Heaven's Gate."
quarks- i walk (superpitcher schaffel mix)
this came to my attention from one of colette's excellent comps. a nice little rock and roll swagger, with superpitchers glam schaffel beat chugging along underneath.
kaos- lessons in love feat. erland oye
cant get enough of this track. erland (from kings of convenience) has been collaborating with lots of electronic producers, from royksopp to phonique, etc. check out his dj kicks mix if you haven't yet.

yancey strickler with a brief but insightful post re: Boys on the Bus, Timothy Crouse's history of the White House press corps during Nixon.

speaking of which, the idea of careerism and the white house press corps (especially today) has always fascinated me. if you are a rabblerouser doing the type of reporting that reporters are supposed to do, then you're not going to last long in this administration's briefing room. its two-fold: you want to keep your high-profile position that will surely lead to something more lucrative (why do you think cnn's john king is still doing the obligatory white house west stand-up in front of the hay bale?), and if you write something that pisses off the white house communications office, bloomp! there goes your access. in essence, they have reporters by the balls, right where they want them. the solution to this? one positive is the development of people like josh marshall, bloggers who wont swallow mclellan's rhetoric from the podium verbatim, and have developed enough influence (hill and beyond), to set an agenda and keep things in the spotlight that need to be. its not the be all end all, but its a good start.

my question is, the way things are now, why even have a white house briefing room?

ROCK ROCK ROLL PLYMOUTH ROCK ROLL OVER
this came to me courtesy of an early smile bootleg that my friend karl briedrick passed along. much better than the version on the formal release, in my opinion...

the beach boys- do you like worms?

LABEL HENCHMEN GO AWAY

the new nine inch nails record, with teeth, is far from the disappointment i feared. i'm really, really vibing on it. buy it when it comes out on may 3rd, but here's a taste to whet the appetite:
nine inch nails- the hand that feeds
and
nine inch days- every day is exactly the same

I SAW YOU DANCING ON THE STREET

ok. this track has been getting a LOT of music blog attention from perpetua and the like. i didnt quite get it at first (likely due to the whole distracted two-second listen at work thing), but wow. i get it now.

captain comatose- to my song

ill be singing this on the street for the rest of the day. i can already imagine the music video in my head.

BREAKING

riff central interviews rex the dog. but not really

speaking of electronic music (as i often do), the new earplug.cc is out. please let us know what you think of it here.

RUN INTO FLOWERS

My friend philip sherburne on the new superpitcher remix of m83 and why (nova)mute is owning things right now. He's one of my fav music writers (to see why, click here to read his piece on new order in sf weekly), so read his blog if you dont already mmkay?

I WAS YOUNG I NEEDED THE MONEY.

i cannot wait until these, and these photos show up at a senate confirmation hearing in 20-30 years. the internet remembers. totes not SFW.

THREE FOR BURNT HEROES

jackson c. frank- blues run the game
big star- kanga roo
spiritualized- the ballad of richie lee

all three of these make my head spin. no other commentary. just download.

RUNON SENTENCES

I just hate their self-righteous “we are so so ethical and anti-sweatshop but will totally capitalize on the fact that our models look like they are 15 and bent over a crappy ping pong table in stoner daves basement," vibe.

MAGDA MADE ME FLAPJACKS ONCE, FOR REALS.

This is one of the best things I've come across in awhile.
A choice excerpt between Richie guys Hawtin, Magda, and Ricardo Villalobos. Apologies for the ridiculously esoteric minimal techno nerdiness.
Download a nice mix from the guy responsible for the site here...

Richie: Magda, when I found you I told you that I would be the wise one and you would be the grasshopper?
Magda: Yeah Richie I remember that and if I should forget, you remind me of it every day!
Richie: Well its about 3pm Magda and its time for a cup of tea! Can you put the Philip Stark designer kettle on please?
Magda: PG Tips?
Richie: PG Fucking tips? Im Richie Hawtin! I don't drink PG fucking Tips! Get me a cup of that Lapsang Souching and make it snappy grasshopper!
Magda: One day you're gonna be sorry for this Richie
Richie: Do I have to remind you that Miss Freaking Dinky is after a room in a trendy central Berlin duplex??
Magda: I'll put the kettle on.
Richie: Make sure its a minimal cup grasshopper.
Ricardo: Did someone say minimal?
Richie: Hey Ricardo!
Magda: Hey Ricardo!

Es gibt ein Pinguin auf meinem Schrank.

THE REALLY GOOD ONES

My roommate Greg K. played the stellar Kieran Hebden edit of The Kills' The Good Ones out the other night. We first heard about it on Ewan Pearson's blog, where he says, "...hopefully someone will do the same with 'Hot Wow'; it already has a rhythm track which sounds something like Plastikman through an AC30."

With a description like that, I had to re-listen to the track, and confirm now that he's dead fucking on. Have a listen for yourselves...and someone please fire up your Ableton and have a go at a quick dancefloor edit!

The Kills- No Wow

This one comes from Markus Guentner's new LP on Kompakt, 1981. It's easily the best piece of new electronic music I've heard yet in 2005 (though this might change when i get my hands on the new Isolee LP). Up there with Konrad Black's White Cigarettes as my favorite droney/ ambient house tune.

Markus Guentner: Jellyfish
I'm very keen to check out his 2001 release In Moll, evidently made when he was twenty years old...

The folks at Stylus magazine have a great section called The Stypod. Download the the Ants in My Trance Vol II Mix here.
Some highlights: YYY's Y Control (Tommie Sunshine Brooklyn Fire Retouch), Out Hud - "One Life to Leave (A Requiem), Roots Manuva - "Colossal Insight (Soft Pink Truth Remix)" (Big Dada, 2005)

Been looking back through stacks of CD's and crates of records, revisiting things I haven't heard in awhile.

...Enjoying the Trapist album Ballroom, that came out on Thrill Jockey around a year ago. Here's a little review I wrote for earplug

Artist: Trapist
Album: Ballroom
Label: Thrill Jockey

The first studio album from Vienna-based trio Trapist, Ballroom, is improv jazz first, electronic music second. The musicians — bassist Joe Williamson, Radian's drummer Martin Brandlmayr, and the prolific guitarist Martin Siewert — laid down the original tracks live, with no predetermined structure, and then went back to edit and overdub. What's notable about the recordings is the degree to which texture is made audible: a drumstick scratching back and forth over the snare drum head, the dull ring of a hand-muffled ride cymbal, perhaps even the creak of the drum stool. Silence is almost as important as sound, as evidenced by the vast, empty spaces of "Time Axis." Spacey yet restrained, chaotic yet rhythmic, Ballroom argues for the symbiotic relationship between electronic music and improvisational jazz. (CJN)

Trapist- The Meaning Of Flowers

Ed DMX, who's released on Rephlex and his own Breakin' imprint, lays down a nice electro breakz set for MP3 download here. Check out the tracklisting.

Lex records' Subtle remixing Beck's Farewell Ride. Really good stuff. Direct download here.

Dj Rupture's blog is probably one of the most interesting reads ive come across in some time. Everything from downloadable mp3 mixes recorded for german radio, to musings re: the implications of the new pope's anti contraceptive stance for the 120 million black Catholics in the AIDS-ravaged African continent.

hello to catchdubs readers!

im reposting this for your benefit. jamie lidell live in london. watch it now. trust me.

ACIDISCO

im convinced luke vibert smokes spliffs like cigarettes a la steve zizou. all of his stuff just blows me away, most recently his kerrier district disco LP

this is from his acid record, YosepH, which came out on warp in 2003. its not all blurty, nostalgiac 303 blurps though... you'll find there is a very modern sheen to things.

i love acid

people that grew up in/around cornwall (off the top of my head)
luke vibert
richard d james (aphex twin)
tom middleton
mark pritchard

all of which are stunningly talented producers/ djs.

And the light it blinds my eyes.

Underworld were one of the bands that served as my introduction to the house/techno side of electronic music (photek handled the dnb/ breaks side) back in the day.

Underworld: Dirty Epic

This track makes the hairs stand up on my arm. Its the feeling of a late night transatlantic plane ride when you're awake and everyone else is asleep.

The Guardian on the UK's "Happy Slapping" craze
Excerpt:
In a comment recently posted on a London community web forum, "Happyslapper2" described the craze as a "joke", writing: "If you feel bored wen ur about an u got a video phone den bitch slap sum norman, innit."

erm.

the folks at gomma have a great mix archive going on. i've been vibing on the munk and kiki mixes lately...check em asap.

been revisiting the absolutely brilliant super_collider record lately. it was far, far ahead of its time, and i hope people will get on it.
an excerpt from my friend aaron rietz' prefixmag.com review:

Opener "Messagesacomin" is the sound of an otherworldly elastic dance floor, stretching and confounding space-time. A sci-fi feel, but less Max Rebo Band and more a robo-funk Prince promising things about 1999, if you get my angle. The sonic minutia is astounding, similar to the last few Autechre records as a bar-by-bar evolving beast. It conjures up images of a giant swirling android floating among the wrecked and twisted debris of an urban dystopia. Gears a-whir, "Messagesacomin" picks among the surrounding trash, dull and shiny bits alike, while hovering about, processing the pieces, shooting them back at random. The whole thing coalesces into a maddeningly ephemeral rhythm. You want to dance, but to do so properly would only be to flail about and stutter. This is music to have a seizure to.


also, be sure to check super_collider TV, which is a series of short videos set to the music that influenced the record- from ESG to Del Shannon Ennio Morricone.

my friend nick catchdubs has really stepped up his djing game as of late. check his new mix: oh snap. i put it in about an hour ago, and im completely sold.

wha?
a really clever idea from the organizers of glastonbury. essentially, due to noise restrictions past midnight, they are handing out 3,000 sets of wireless headphones for people to listen to the DJ set with.

Emily Eavis, one of the organizers said, "I like the idea of people dancing in total silence," said Emily Eavis, one of the festival organisers and daughter of the founder Michael Eavis. "Imagine if you were feeling a bit worse for wear and thought, 'This would be a nice quiet place to sit down.'

"You would be completely freaked out to see 3,000 people dancing in silence. It's certainly quirky, but our big push this year is keeping the noise down because that's what the council is keen on."

Attention New York club owners! Spare yourself the money for the fuck off system that you'll never really be able to crank up due to pesky neighbors and noise ordinances. Buy tons of amazing sennheiser wireless headphones and do the aforementioned instead. I'll be there.

a creepy, yet timely, little interlude in boards of canada's geogaddi

energy warning
and
one of their more tripped out & percussive tracks
gyroscope

i wrote about marsen jules' debut LP a bit earlier in the week. here's a beautiful rework he did for autoplate artist arrial:
aarial- shiver (marsen jules rework)

hi to everyone visiting from sarah's blog. i hope you find something you like.

on to the music:

super_collider- messagescomin'
in anticipation of jamie lidell's new LP on warp, here's a taste of his earlier project with christian vogel. absolutely warped electofunk with soulful vocals.

****as an added bonus, check out this live video of lidell performing in london! jawdropping stuff.

joy division- love will tear us apart (squarepusher cover)
stumbled upon this the other day, and its fucking sublime. thankfully, squarepusher didnt decide to get all syncopated on us, and stayed fairly true to the original.

akufen- skidoos
my favorite track from montreal microhouse producer akufen's debut, my way. this is much more on the ambient house tip, and doesn't get too glitched out. a beautiful track

superpitcher- lover's rock
one of the best electronic producers at the moment, hands down. though he's known for his remixes (most recently of m83), this track comes off of his debut, here comes love. best described as melancholic pop polished to a sheen.

deadbeat- port-au-prince
another one from the montreal scene, most of deadbeat's productions can be best decribed as dub techno, in the vein of pole. this is off his to-be-released new world observer LP.

bollywood freaks-she rocks my prada, i dior her chanel.
a one-off cut they did for a collette compilation CD.
once, just once, do i want to hear this played on a new york city dancefloor. then i will die happy

Kompakt launches digital downloads
forthcoming in earplug.cc

Kompakt, Cologne's powerhouse techno label, distributor, and retail store, has announced the launch of a new MP3 download site, giving electronic-music fans around the globe access to the label's back catalogue, along with releases (and audio samples) from 50 associated imprints such as Traum and Areal. According to label co-founder Wolfgang Voigt, traditional wax remains the label's most important format, but new media offer an easy way to distribute music around the world. Additionally, Voigt suggests, the label needs to embrace a broader market: those who listen to music on their iPods, as well as the new class of digital DJs. Individual tracks may be purchased from the site for 1.29 Euro, and at reduced cost for full singles and full albums. Record crates just got lighter; and so did wallets. (CJN)

Check this absolutely amazing Seraph mix by Pablo from the Psychonauts.
Also, the free association mix is well worth checking out. Its pab mixing tunes from David Holmes' Free Association record that came out in 2003.

some tunes:

Gwen Stefani - What You Waiting For (Jacques Lu Cont's Thin White Duke Vocal Mix)
future misshapes anthem like whoa!

The Normal - Warm Leatherette
one of my fav tunes ever. released in 1978 on Mute and based around J.G. ballard's crash. piss-take of a song (or is it!?), but bear in mind this when this was made.

OMR- The Way We Have Chosen (Ellen Allien remix)
super punky slab of electro. amazing.

Halloween trance remix
Yes, that's right...a trance remix of the halloween theme. A karl briedrick partymix favorite, this was alledgedly done by a member of arab strap. dont quote me on that, but im pretty damn sure.

Rachel Stevens- Some Girls (radio edit)
schaffel-pop rumbler produced by richard x. one of the catchiest things to come out in '04

Boards of Canada-1969
Love this one, especially at 3:21 or so. check it and you'll see.

Lindstrom- There's a drink in my bedroom and I need a hot lady
Norwegian disco with colliding Moroder-esque basslines that sounds like Can doing disco remixes. This track rules.

Bone Thugs- Tha' Crossroads
I'm too tired for any commentary, but I think this one speaks for itself.

Jess Harvell's excellent Pitchfork feature on DJ Clever, one of the most important figures in the drum & bass scene today.

ewan pearson's latest music picks. guy's got amazing taste, writes well, and is one hell of a remixer. check it asap.

a little mix for april.
email me if you'd like a copy

No G.D.M. / Gina X
Trans Europe Express/ Kraftwerk
Pendulum / Broadcast
That's The Way I Like It/Pixeltan
Magnetic/Psychonauts
And Many More /John Tejada
Rise /Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom
To My Song /Captain Comatose
Got It Twisted Sister (The Rapture Vs. Mobb Deep)/Dopplebanger
Do They Owe Us A Living? (Crass)/The Soft Pink Truth
Ghost Rider/Suicide
Vitalic/ Fanfares
My Red Hot Car / Squarepusher
Hi-Jacked /Markus Guentner
Dexter/Ricardo villalobos
Love Will Tear Us Apart/Joy Division (Squarepusher cover)
Maps / Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Ada cover)

Marsen Jules
Herbstlaub
City Centre Offices
a version to appear in earplug

Though the literal translation of Marsen Jules' debut album is "Autumn Leaves," the album pulses with a vitality perhaps better suited to the budding leaves of an impending spring. Consisting of both live and sampled instrumentation, Jules has created a cohesive ambient work that draws equally upon electronics and subdued orchestral arrangements to convey a range of emotion, from warm childhood nostalgia and elation, to the doldrums of melancholy. The tracks unfold their limbs in an organic fashion, with no defined structure, but rather a hazy, open sprawl. "Tous Les Coeurs De Cette Terre," the album’s most emotive piece, consists of gentle string plucks nestled against warm tape hiss and understated swells of sound -- reminiscent in tone to Colleen’s debut LP, Everyone Alive Wants Answers. “Aurore” is considerably more uplifting, with warm, watercolor tones panning and surging. The track, like many others on the album, allows for vivid visual imagery, a testament to Jules promising talent as a composer.

Streams: DIRTY

Forthcoming in Flavorpill.net

Always quick on the draw for new music, the folks at Dirty have stepped up their considerable game to another level. The site now features in-depth interviews with ones-to-watch Hot Chip, as well as Chicken Lips Andy Meecham’s sci-fi disco prototype side product, The Emperor Machine. On the mix front, Richard Fearless from Death in Vegas, who’s new LP Satan’s Circus drops May 24, lays down a stellar dub set that’ll leave the heads satisfied. Dj Rupture mixes his twitchy blend of beats, breaks and machine funk on three decks, while the Optimo DJ’s present one of their splendidly eclectic sets from Sub Club in Glascow.

Richard Fearless: Dirty Mix
(Dub)

Dj Rupture: Dirty Mix
(Breaks/ Machine Funk)

Optimo: Sub Club live set
(Postmodern clubbing)

oh dear.
can't sleep.

some tunes:
ellen allien- down
from her forthcoming LP thrills. mmm. tunes for dark berlin basement bassbins.

mylo- in my arms
too fucking good.

beck- broken drum (boards of canada mix)
how often do the boc remix anything? last things i remember were their forgetable mix of clouddead's dead dogs two, and a super good remix of boom bip's last walk around mirror lake-- which is the most stoned out name for a track ever.

the best house track i've heard in a long time.
familiar to most as the opening track on mmayer's fabric 13 mix, and the closer

heiko voss- i think about you (original mix)


also, the soft pink truth- do they owe us a living

and the ada cover of yyy's maps

hm.
been awhile since any sort of actual update.
how about a session of feeling/ really feeling/ a la blissblog?

really feeling:
platinum pied pipers- triple p
silouette brown- self titled
colleen- the golden morning breaks (wow!)
fannypack- see you next tuesday
ellen allien- thrills
dedbeat- new world observer (wow!)
alex smoke- incommunicado
jaga- what we must
solvent- elevators and oscillators
markus guentner-1981 (wow!)
the glimmers- dj kicks
ellen allien- thrills


feeling- death in vegas- satans circus (have a feeling its a grower)
monika force comp
max hecker- lady sleep

singles:
lady sov- random
jamie lidell- multiply
maps (ada cover of the yyy's)
beck-broken drum- boc remix.

stay tuned for an mp3 blog in collaboration with nate cunningham.

Fluxblog

from 4/19 Flavorpill.net

Part of what makes music blogs so intriguing is that they enable you to dig quite a bit deeper than usual and revel in obsessive fandom. As such, Fluxblog is an essential daily read. Founder Matthew Perpetua mines genre after genre, selecting the freshest, freakiest, and finest tracks — based on pure merit and/or what's close to his heart — and writes a synopsis of each one, providing plenty of context for further exploration. It's a great way to discover new sounds, and Perpetua conveniently links to a purchase site for those who want to own the entire record. Curious to hear the original track that LCD Soundsystem covered when they played NYC recently? Want to read an insightful review of Annie's US debut? Fancy a cut from the forthcoming Fannypack LP? All this and more lies within the Flux. (CJN)

It's refreshing to see someone rewarded for his hard work and dedication to disseminating underexposed music. Since his early days as a student at NYU, Tim Sweeney's been doing just that as both one of NYC's hardest-gigging DJs, and as host of the Beats in Space mix show. Over the years, his guests have ranged from the turntable cut-and-paste dons Coldcut, to innovative DJs like Maurice Fulton, and beyond. The past few weeks have seen a high level assortment of musical talent, including Germany's Thomas Fehlmann (with a live laptop set), a new mix from Output's Trevor Jackson, and an in-studio appearance from Mu. (CJN)

Thomas Fehlmann: Live in-studio (Minimal/dub)

Trevor Jackson: Live(Electro-disco)

Mu: Live in-studio (Mutant disco)

Polymorphic Music was founded to showcase the label's artists, as well as to serve as a free, high-quality clearinghouse for the more experimental side of electronic music. It's not all spaced-out ambient and drone, however. Bands like Psapp feature handcrafted, textured electronic pop, while Kieran Hebden's influential post-rock project Fridge gets equal play. In this installment, check the new White_Line offering, featuring the astonishingly talented Marsen Jules, as well as Lusine and Taylor Dupree. Next, J. Auer showcases the best of the Detroit-influenced Boltfish and Rednetic labels, and finally, Hal's Assembler brings in electronica, jazz, and even krautrock. (CJN)

SI_COMM: WHITE_LINE 5 (Ambient)

J. Auer: Rednetic mix(Detroit house)

HAL: Assembler mix(Electro / krautrock)

Artist: Evil Nine
Album: You Can Be Special Too
Label: Marine Parade
Release: March 29

After a series of high-profile remixes for the likes of Steve Bug, UNKLE, and Ils, Evil Nine have taken their rough 'n tumble approach to breaks and applied it to a cohesive artist album. The duo's music features meaty, overdriven live bass lines and raw, organic drums that stand out as fresh amid a breakbeat sea of recycled sounds. "Crooked," featuring Aesop Rock, is the album's standout — a hip-house/breaks number blending rapid-fire vocal delivery and menacing synth stabs with big room atmospherics, it's a tune that could work in a sweaty hip-hop backroom, or on one of the world's biggest systems. "Pearl Shot" uses the same formula, with a more standard B-boy delivery over taut breaks and distorted guitar. Though a few of their technology-obsessed samples seem overdone, Evil Nine inject a much-needed dose of rock 'n roll swagger into the mix. (CJN)

Annie
Tribeca Grand Appearance
April 14, 2005

A version to appear on www.flavorpill.net

Norway’s Annie, much like M.I.A., has ascended to popularity vis-à-vis the international blogging cognoscenti. So quickly in fact, that Pitchfork named her single, “Chewing Gum” within the top 100 singles of 2000-2004 and “Heartbeat,” the best single of 2004. Her sound is pop with electro undertones, and quite simply, it’s the most addictive thing you’re likely to hear in some time. With high profile remixes from Royksopp and Headman, and some production on her forthcoming LP, Anniemal, from Richard X, the result is a perfect mix of studio-savvy and can’t-get-it-out-of-your-head pop sensibility. Tonight is her live US debut.

Note: Annie is joined by James Friedman, Max Pask, and the Misshapes Djs.

The Glimmers @ APT
March 19, 2005

Though their original moniker brought about a cease-and-desist from the
original Glimmer Twins, this Belgian DJ duo carries on-- albeit with a slightly truncated name. They cut their teeth early on in youth discos, starting with hip-hop and breaks, eventually branching out to disco and shiny pop tunes of the day. Like their countrymen, 2ManyDjs, the Glimmer's crates are deep and eclectic, but their sets shy away from the oft-garish mixes of the mashup movement. Instead, they focus on dead-solid party selections for a more discerning palate. This ethic is best seen in their exemplary Series Noire 2 DJ mix. Come, dance, expand your musical horizons, but just don't call them twins.

Smash TV Live
Forthcoming on flavorpill.net

Though they've been making music since 1989, it was meeting Ellen Allien -
queen of the Berlin techno cognoscenti - that served as the catalyst
to launching Holger Zilske and Michael Schmidt's career.
Following their Smash TV debut on BPitch, 2002's Electrified, Zilske helped
polish Allien's Berlinette LP and is currently at work on her forthcoming
effort, Thrills. With their latest, Bits For Breakfast, the duo constructs
pop techno with vocoded vocals and swaggering bass lines. While some tunes
have a clean German sheen, they also embrace gritty 8-bit textures,
crunchy beats, and lo-fi samples that bring a welcome density and intensity
to the proceedings. Though no televisions will be harmed in their live act,
your electro preconceptions may be smashed.

top five guilty pleasures feb 03:

The Knife- Heartbeat (rex the dog mix)
MIA- URAQT (diplo mix from piracy funds terrorism vol 1)
Tori Alamaze- Don't Cha
Bollywood Freaks- She rocks my prada, I dior her chanel
Lady Sovereign- Cha Ching

click the links for the download site

Kitty-Yo
Team Kitty-Yo
version forthcoming on www.earplug.cc

Perhaps best known for breaking Canadian ex-pats Peaches and Gonzalez, Kitty-Yo stands as one of Berlin’s most progressive labels since 1994. They’ve released everything from kitchy electro and minimal techno, to folk and post-rock. The breadth of the back catalogue spans from gentle, ethereal bliss to a soundtrack for debauched evenings. For example, Maximilian Hecker’s glacial “Help Me,” a song that brings to mind the dreamy atmospherics of Sigur Ros, is contrasted with the bounce and swollen synthesizers of Gold Chains and Sue Cie’s “Crowd Control.” It’s admittedly tough to switch gears in such an extreme fashion on one CD, but an equal testament to the openminded music policy. CD2 contains unreleased and rare material, highlighted by a 1996 jazz funk and electronic fusion track from To Rocco Rot, and Tarwater’s dreamy, melancholic, “Doppelganger.”

Simple One
Mixed by Will Saul
Simple Records
Released February 2005

a version to appear in earplug.cc

In its relative infancy, Simple has been putting out some of the most innovative breaks in the scene. Rather than being mired in the dark, techy rut of some producers, the label has achieved a difficult balance between being intellectually engaging and cutting it on the floor. Mixed by Will Saul, Simple One is a fluid mix of live-sounding percussion with distinctive jazz and dub elements and an overall emphasis on melody. Sideshow’s “Waiting in the Darkness” is a percussive groover with a piercing snare tone that sounds sourced from a taut marching drum. Austria’s Walkner.Hintenaus bring forth a live, electro jazz amalgamation with “Karma,” and for added variety, Matthew Jonson re-rubs Sideshow’s “Slide,” adding a bouncing analogue bassline and throbbing techno groove. On the darker side of the equation, Precision Cuts’ “Xylophone” applies a formerly geriatric instrument to a new context, while Saul ends things off nicely with Infusion’s barnstorming mix of his own “Cliff.”

Ubiquity
Rewind! 4
On Tour
variations to appear stateside in flavorpill.net

It's not the most original of concepts: various musicians covering tunes
from producers that have inspired them. However, fresh from being deemed
"Label of the Year" by Gilles Peterson, the Ubiquity crew demonstrate the
depth of their bench with the fourth Rewind! installment. To
celebrate the record -- featuring Platinum Pied Pipers tackling Burt
Bacharach and Nostalgia 77 covering "Seven Nation Army" -- Ubiquity throws a
multi-city bash. SF gets the best bill of the bunch, with the mysterious duo
Yam Who? -- known for their sought-after remixes of Amp Fiddler, Zero 7,
Pharrell, Dwele, and more -- dropping the tunes you'd kill to get your hands
on. Wrap your ears around'em instead. (CJN)

from johann johannson's excellent "Virdulegu Forsetar":
part 4

one of the most lovely things i've heard in quite some time.

cjn

From DNasty:

Mumbai and I

So Wall Street is outsourcing a lot of analyst responsibilities to Mumbai.

As I read of this whitecollar bloodletting I couldn't help but think that we have all been warned.

For certain there was NAFTA, Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan and a host of others. But I am thinking of an even more prescient Laocoon: Great Tiger in Mike Tyson's Punchout. Think back to his callous taunts:

"A kitten is no match for a Tiger!"
"So a pussycat wants to fight a Tiger?"
"Beware of my Tiger punch!"

And finally:

"I have purred long enough! Now hear me roar!"

This he often said before destroying me (Mac) with the aforementioned Tiger Punch.

I thought that I had left that punch behind for good when the firm bosom of a local girl broke me from the bliss of Freudian latency.

Great Tiger is back. He has an MBA from the Delhi Institute of Business Technology and Administration and he wants your job. He will work for 5 cents an hour and a medical plan consisting of band-aids and dental floss to get it.

What is corporate America to do?

An early policy paper leaked from the Brookings Institute has come up with only one plausible solution: A:B:Select-Start:007 373 5953.

The Heritage Foundation has opted to keep quiet on the issue after their disastrous policy recommendation re: The Iran Contra Scandal - Up:Down:Up:Down:Left:Right:Left:Right:A:B:A:B:Select:Start

Psapp
Tiger, My Friend
Leaf

Psapp blend soft vocal hooks with perhaps the most playful and creative approach to making music heard this year. Their sound is unique, but if pushed for a comparison, the duo bring to mind a variation of Stereolab; albeit one that plays with mildly abused garage sale keyboards and uses percussion made from bits and bobs around the house. Instrumentation ranges from glockenspiels and hand-plucked violin, to even a BB pellet plink-plonking around in an old coke bottle. “Leaving in Coffins” features a childlike melody and syncopated glitches, as if Aphex Twin hired a chanteuse to sing over his mayhem. “Chapters” is decidedly darker and tempered with romantic unrest, featuring thick, standup bass stabs and a frosty vocal delivery. Personable and highly innovative, it’s all too easy to forget Tiger, My Friend is a debut album.

CD REVIEW: John Tejada, Logic Memory Center
Plug Research
Released Nov 2004
$11.99 (Amazon)


Emerging from beneath the polished veneer of minimal house and techno, pop has been slowly bubbling to the surface of electronic dance music, as artists like Matthew Dear drop vocals over beds of complex microsamples, snaring a wider audience with their meatier hooks. On his 10th studio album, John Tejada strikes a balance between this formula and his trademark techy sound, honed over years of productions for scores of labels — and one high-profile remix for the Postal Service. "Strange Creatures" sets the alien, near-robotic cadence of vocalist Kimi Recor against thinly sliced samples that dash in and out of the soundfield; "Possessive Patterns" adds an assertive snare/kick to supple, off-kilter rhythms; and the album's most minimal cut, "Loose Change," demonstrates Tejada's compositional talent with a limited palette. (CJN)

DJ
Giant Step Holiday Bash feat. Dego and Platinum Pied Pipers
when:
Mon 12.6 (10pm)
where:
Canal Room (285 W Broadway, 212.941.0900)
price:
$10


One-half of the Mercury Prize nominees 4Hero, Dego's musical path has run the gamut, from sinister drum 'n bass early on, to the jazz/nu-soul styles illustrated on the duo's 2003 LP, Creating Patterns. Alone, Dego is seen as one of the most influential producers in West London's vibrant broken beat scene — for a taste of his sound, check "Got Me Puzzled" with Kaidi Tatham, an electrified, percussive shaker that shows just how grooving the genre can get. Tonight, he brings the latest in soulful, syncopated funk, and is joined by Waajeed and Saadiq of the Platinum Pied Pipers playing live cuts from their forthcoming record on Ubiquity. (CJN)

Daddy G
DJ Kicks
K7

A founding father of the Wild Bunch and Massive Attack, Daddy G was instrumental in defining the Bristol sound — a blend of reggae, dub, soul, funk, and hip-hop he originally showcased as a soundclash DJ in the early '80s. In this installment of the DJ Kicks series, the master lays bare the definitive influences of his style, which prove to be anything but the diluted downtempo that cluttered cut-out bins in the late '90s. From the opening strains of Willie Williams' dub classic "Armegeddon Time" to a rare Massive Attack remix of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and a Danny Krivit edit of Aretha Franklin, Daddy G narrates an auditory journey of record-box gems that encapsulates the heart and soul of the trip-hop sound he helped create. (CJN)

Various Artists
Compilation #2
DFA
Release:
November 2


iPod loyalists alienated by DFA's vinyl-only releases can rejoice once again. Compilation #2 pulls together the singles the label has released since Compilation #1, along with an exclusive track from Black Dice and '80s proto-electro act Liquid Liquid's "Bell Head." Pixeltan bring gloomy bass lines and pulsing disco drums with "Get Up / Say What" while former Major Force members J.O.Y. add the percussive funk swagger the label is known for. Refreshingly, the Juan Maclean get some long-overdue exposure, with new tracks "I-Robot," the dub-electro riddims of "Dancehall Modulator," and their finest moment (and bass line!) to date in "Give Me Every Little Thing." Disc 3 is mixed, running the gamut of the back catalogue and winding down with the unreleased LCD Soundsystem track "On Repeat." (CJN)

Various
But Then Again
~scape

To mark their five-year anniversary, Berlin-based ~scape have assembled new, unreleased tracks from their impressive stable of artists. The songs range in genre from Thomas Fehlmann's mechanical dub, to John Tejada's melancholic minimal techno, all the way to Crackhaus' glitchy dancehall oddity, "Birthday Bangers and Smash." Plug Research's Soulo and Headset experiment with electronics, acoustics, recorder, and harmonica on "The Fall of Knee High," while Jan Jelinek provides one of the record's finest moments on "Western Mimikry." The track blends warm guitar tones with sparse jazz cymbals as a gentle string tremolo eerily shifts up and down the scale, adding a simple yet resonant texture. (CJN)






 



 

 


 

From Earplug.cc

Triosk
Moment Returns
Leaf

Release:
October 19


Inspired by Jan Jelinek's influential album Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, the Sydney-based jazz trio Triosk begin experimenting with a hybrid format. After narrowing down their sound to incorporate new compositional forms made possible by computers, the trio eventually collaborated with Jelenik on their debut release 1+3+1. Moment Returns was recorded around the same period, and the resulting record brims with dusty crackles, textures, and samples filling in the space between stand-up bass, slight jazz percussion, and piano. The track "Tomorrow Today (Part 2)" brings to mind the Cinematic Orchestra's compositions, and this jazz-in-the-foreground, electronically augmented background sound generally sums up Triosk's approach. The exception is "Goodnight," a dreamlike track where watery keys slowly spiral in and out of tune, with tones decaying into the ether. (CJN)

Ellen Allien

Forthcoming in Time Out New York



Much has been made of Berlin’s club scene and the sheer quality of electronic music in all its forms coming out of the German capitol. Esteemed producers such as Richie Hawtin, Jamie Lidell and Ewan Pearson have relocated, drawn by cheap living, reclaimed spaces and the thriving cultural scene. Though the city has more than its fair share of expats flooding in and adding their own unique contributions, there stands a true Berlinette: Ellen Allien.

Having resided in the city for her whole life, Allien witnessed the dramatic transformation from division to a thriving artistic mecca and stands as a prominent figurehead of its creativity and collaboation. She’s an in-demand producer, remixer, and as will be evident this week in New York, a cracking DJ. After recently observing a Berlin appearance, noted music critic Phillip Sherburne stated “few other DJs at the moment know how to create [Allien’s] particular brand of empathy – she may be on stage, but she's right there in the general communion.”

Allien cites the influential Warp imprint as well as Kraftwerk and earlier American electronic productions, describing her current style as “hypnotic elect tech,” combining electro and techno with breakbeats. She’s quick to disavow any involvement with the overhyped electroclash scene, hinting that it’s a media manufactured genre devoid of soul and simply “boring.”

Allien has recently released a brand new mix CD “My Parade,” an LP of her remixes of various artists from Gold Chains to Sascha Funke, and 2003’s excellent artist album “Berlinette.” Not content with such prolific output, and restless as ever, she’s currently writing her next record, penning lyrics and keeping up her remixing. On top of all this, she runs the Bpitch control label, doing everything from A&R to choosing artwork and inviting artists to play their parties. At 100 releases for Bpitch, Ellen is currently curating a best of CD entitled “Camping” – a 20 track selection of their finest cuts thusfar. She describes all of her endeavors as “a very creative package that gives me kicks to keep on keeping on because it is part of my life and i can’t stop and wont stop.” With this sort of unbridled enthusiasm, there’s little doubt she’ll even miss a step.

please listen to circlesquare - the distance after ep.

(output)

Mouse on Mars
Radical Connector
label: Thrill Jockey
rating: 4.5

by Colin James Nagy

Mouse on Mars have, throughout their ten-year career, managed to avoid falling into any easily identifiable electronic music niche. They simply don't sound like anyone else. Idiology, released in 2001, saw the duo flexing their collective artistic might while hinting at the infinite tangents that their sound could take. Perhaps most importantly, that album sounds as relevant today as it did when it was initially released. As I listen today, after becoming more versed with the genre, the pop element is more apparent and, in retrospect, extremely prescient. The record combined live instrumentation and vocals with an electronic dexterity that many musicians today, though armed with Reason, Ableton and other significantly more advanced production tools, haven't easily replicated.

The two responsible for this unique sound and prolific output? Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma, two Cologne-based musicians who started in 1994 seeking to fuse electronic music and philosophy. Though most highbrow avant-garde projects of the sort are relegated to sound installations and small labels with even smaller pressings, Mouse on Mars have spawned ten releases since their initial project on labels ranging from the London-based Too Pure to the vinyl-only Sonig before landing at the forward-thinking Thrill Jockey imprint, best known for Nobukazu Takemura and Tortoise.

Radical Connector is the product of three years labor in their St. Martin studio in Dusseldorf. It manages to push things forward again, rising far above the chin-scratching, only-listenable-when-catatonically-stoned IDM/leftfield category that so many conceptual electronic releases find themselves shelved under. Case in point: "Wipe that Sound" is a disco-inspired oddity, and though slightly slower than the pace of a typical 4/4 house tune, it manages to compensate with its layered funk-synth lines, processed, chopped-up vocals, and an unlikely swagger. It's machine-made funk at its finest; the groove hits you immediately, and only upon further listens do you realize the layers brimming with intricate edits and cuts that fill in the rest. It's suited equally for dancing as it is intellectual consumption.

"Detected Beats" features the most satisfying percussion on the record; it maintains a delightfully textured, organic and live-played groove (courtesy of longtime collaborator Dodo Nkishi) with razor-sharp edits that set things slightly off-kilter. "Spaceship" is Mouse on Mars at their most playful, as they flirt with a not-quite-two-step Basement Jaxx-style dance-floor tune that's as zany as it is musically credible beneath the hedonistic veneer. "Send Me Shivers" features lovely vocals from Niobe, a change from the chopped and glitched contributions from St. Werner and Toma. On the track, Niobe's delay-tinged tones are nestled in light synths before being suddenly nudged to float over a bubbly beat, later pitch-shifted and toyed with as the song progresses.

Given their track record, the sheer quality and musical vision of this record doesn't surprise in the least. It shows maturity and focus from 2003's Glam while retaining the same playful ear for pop, veiled behind avant-garde synth noodlings. The duo remains impossible to pin down and have managed to yet again stake their claim on a sovereign chunk of the genre, not likely to be encroached upon anytime soon. For these reasons, as well as their clever juxtaposition of the ass-shaking and the thoughtful, Radical Connector will undoubtedly make my shortlist for record of the year.