A mix for This is Fake DIY accompanied by an exclusive interview. I like the dude's mixtapes although that section has now disappeared from his website and unfortunately I don't have a tracklist. I DO know though that two of the bestest tracks were a Boards of Canada remix of Midnight Star's Midas Touch, Kelis' Good Stuff and Sa-Ra Creative Partners' Goldmine. Top toons.
This is just as good though, if not better : )
StatCounter
18/03/2012
17/03/2012
NZCA/LINES - Compass Points
Ok so I’m gonna be honest I was a little
disappointed with NCZA/Lines’ album, especially after the awesome awesome track
‘Compass Points’ above. Michael Lovett is clearly an intriguing talent, though.
You can download a FREE copy of 'Okinawa Channels' on the website.
You can download a FREE copy of 'Okinawa Channels' on the website.
04/02/2012
James Carr - A Man Needs A Woman
A common misconception about alternative music is that people buy into it because they want to be different. More specifically, they want to be seen to be different. Music charts because it is ‘better’- by what objective measure I don’t know- and consequently, those who revel in non-chart music must be making an effort to do so. This is why it’s very easy to bash people who don’t like Lady Gaga, have an allergy to Adele or recoil at Rihanna.
I don’t believe in an objective standard of music, and certainly not once I met people who got a kick out of mad atonal music or twenty minutes of screaming. The reality is that we get turned on by different things. Music is after all an emotional experience, and the way you might be hooked is unique to you. It's a mystery in some ways. Sometimes it’s even simply a memory that ties a certain band or genre up with nostalgia that draws you in. For me, I don’t hear the ultra-simple ‘Tell Me Why’ by The Beatles and think ‘my god, this sounds like a nursery rhyme’. I think ‘I’m in the early 90s again. And I can smell the year. And I can see the old wallpaper on the living room walls.’ Had The Gladiators’ reggae sermon ‘Chatty Chatty Mouth’ been played to me when I was a kid like one of my good friends, no doubt its tune would be resonating deep in my belly instead. (So if you're one of these people who wants your kids to have a good music taste- firstly, god help you- and secondly, play them shit).
A second misconception is that non-chart music is ‘weird’. Some people I know are reluctant to listen to new things even though they love what they like and even that they heard everything for the first time once, so why not try something else? It’s silly to say 'if it's good, I've already heard it', notwithstanding the fact that even chart music is constantly changing week by week.
A music buff’s feeling is usually the opposite: there is so much more out there that you want to actively seek it out. It’s far more empowering and positive approach. Just as with the above misconception, the internet has made it clear that just because you haven’t seen an advert for it on the tube, doesn’t mean it will be ultra-left field. Not only does the above point apply here regarding one’s individual idiosyncratic and unpredictable taste, but if you are only concerned with commercial success as a measure of interest, every successful chart artist went through a period of anonymity at some stage. If you think that those without many likes on their facebook page aren’t worth your time therefore, remember that it is very often because they haven't yet been discovered. One day you might hear them on Radio 1. In my experience, people are reluctant to hear an apparently soppy band called Bon Iver when he’s an unknown quantity, or ‘this great new Brooklyn band called Friends’ when they’re small, but once word-of-mouth and radio play accelerates, it’s like you’re recommending a different band altogether. People are wary of the pub, the support act and the boutique festival, as harbingers of inaccessible music. But sooner or later if you're recommending things people will enjoy, they will be pleased to know you told them.
This has already been a very long post, but I want to move on to my featured artist who I think illustrates wonderfully the above ideas. Not many people have heard of James Carr. He’s almost a nobody, even though he had a couple of charting singles in the late 60s. However among southern blues and soul enthusiasts his album A Man Needs a Woman is considered a timeless great. He’s up there with Marvin and Aretha. He is considered one of the greatest soul artists of all time.
When I went into the record store Intoxica in London to buy this (yes, I am only in my early 20s but I still buy records), I learnt it was re-released in 2003 on Kent Soul, part of Ace Records, which has had artists as disparate as The Impressions (Curtis Mayfield’s original band), Joan Baez and speed metal giants Motorhead on its label-roster. A Carr record arriving at the counter woke the assistant.
A Man Needs A Woman is pretty much back-to-back gospel-inspired soul and longing, romantic lyrics. Carr has a raw, commanding voice, not dissimilar to Otis’. On ‘Life Turned Her That Way’ he sings in a typically personal style about a reason for a woman’s bitterness and on ‘A Losing Game’ he swoons over a shit-hot blues riff. It’s ballsy and passionate; he grabs your attention. Taken together, the full 14 tracks are an example of music that is a) considered a niche concern; b) very very underpublicised; and c) simply a straight awesome pop record, no different from any well known Motown or Stax artist, but possibly ‘better’ if you like that sort of thing. The original label Goldwax label remains the preserve of those who know.....or, those open to finding out.
See below to stream from youtube. I hope you enjoy- and please remember kids that if you don’t listen to it, you’ll never know what you might be missing.
3. More Love
4. You Didn't Know It But You Had Me
5. A Woman Is A Man's Best Friend
8. I'm Gonna Send You Back To Georgia
10. I Sowed Love And Reaped A Heartache
11. You've Got My Mind Messed Up
12. A Losing Game
14. Let It Happen
29/01/2012
Eluvium - Copia
I should say from the off that Copia effectively sounds like nothing. Its genius is that it is a mirror, reflecting back on to you what is projected on to it. But, in and of itself, it is…well………..nothing. And it is, quite possibly, my favourite album ever.
When I first heard this record, in my dorm room at university in 2007, it took me so far in to my own head that I couldn’t tell if I was creating the next bars to the song or it was a pre-made record. It felt as if I was orchestrating music inside my own mind. That it was organic, human, and inseparable from me. (CUE DiS' REVIEW OF THIS RECORD.)
Matthew Robert Cooper wrote Copia under his moniker- ‘Eluvium’. It is twelve tracks long, around 60 minutes and instrumental. It is a stew of solemn strings, dulled horns and occasionally a gentle piano chord. There’s really very little else. And unlike Explosions in the Sky, there is no dominant emotion. It is faceless. It isn’t tiring and it isn’t sleep-inducing. It's just blank. Listening to this record might therefore induce some kind of mild temporary mental paralysis; a dissociative numbness. It is either a brief escape, a pointless vacuum or a moment of exquisite clarity that charges into your conscious mind when the album does its thing.
As epically reminiscent of purgatory as this record is, I have perhaps listened to it more than any other in the last five years. That such a title should be held by such an inoffensive record is not surprising. I don’t want to listen to something that gets intrusive over and over again, or predictable. But I want something that is the alternative music fan’s version of sorbet. I want something that is multi-faceted, pleasant and light. I have slotted this artist into so many playlists, sandwiched between songs of differing genres (or courses, to continue the meal analogy) that I don't know if it's a compliment or suggestion of epic blandness. Between Vanilla Ice, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Upsetters, Prince, Star Slinger, The Velvet Underground: whatever. I just listen to it loads. And rarely get bored, or feel it has nothing left to give.
Anyway, to me, this is the universal LP. I have listened to it perhaps once or twice a week every week for five years (and am now on a twelve step dependency programme) and it is very close to my heart. If there is one record I could recommend to everybody, it would, in fact, be this. Not Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours; not a biggest selling album of the last 10 years like a Lady Gaga record; not Susan Boyle. I would give you a record that you would pick something up no matter who you are or what your musical persuasion (maybe you don’t even have one) and I would tell you to just listen to it. Something that sounds universal. And, such a thing, that can be all things to all people, is, simultaneously (and confusingly), nothing, to nobody. This is a tantalising and devastating juxtaposition to me. Unity and loneliness are prisms for the very trials of life.
Ambient is easy to do, but it is hard to do this well. Copia is almost unnervingly synchronised with something human. It drifts with effortless calm; a natural, almost earthly serenity. The chords on an organ will change just as your mind takes a pause; the grandiose airiness of ‘Indoor Swimming at a Space Station’ reminds you of a feeling that you are, well……indoor swimming at a space station, and ‘Prelude for Time Feelers’ floats above you, with a blinding, almost religious gaze. Forever patient; forever willing; forever still.
It’s easy to listen through in one listen, and I recommend paying attention to the longer tracks like ‘Repose in Blue’, ‘Indoor Swimming…’ and ‘Ostinato’, that you can really get into. I would also say it’s best listened to with headphones.
This album is not like other contemporary ambient records, and Matthew Robert Cooper is not like other contemporary ambient artists. While others use either melody or atmosphere (or a combination of both) as a weapon to steer you to feel certain things or draw energy at certain points, Eluvium eradicates all self-awareness to achieve lightness and room for relaxation. It is like taking a deep, deep breath. In the hardest of times, in the complexity and chaos of life, Copia brings total stillness. Time almost stops, when I hear this record.
27/01/2012
Philco Fiction review - Live @ The Lexington, London, 26 January 2012
I featured Philco Fiction a few months ago on this blog, and last night they played their first gig in London since their debut released in Norway. It was a great experience. I had heard that they were good live and they didn’t disappoint. The trio play a brand of electro pop that is something like The Knife covering every genre under the sun. Folk is on the record (‘Take it Personal’), as is experimental Bjork-type stuff and just some simply brilliant hook-driven tunes. What’s so exciting about them though is that they do their own thing. Lyrically, they they're intelligent and silly, and they have a humour and self-effacingness that doesn't take anything too damn seriously.
On the night they hit it. Taking the stage wearing an eye-catching slanted hat, Turid Alida Solberg did this upper-bodydis.loc.a.ting.shoulderdance.thing. Her singing is confident and outward looking. She is also really quite beautiful...which made me want to go to Norway a bit.
This album is a must buy when it comes out in the UK. The Norwegian release on Brilliance Records is stupidly difficult to find and you basically have to import it from Norway at present (not fun with exchange rate and shipping costs), so kudos to anyone that bought it at the gig (although if you bought vinyl, there’s no mp3 despite the claim on the sleeve, unless I'm completely retarded). In fact, I now think you can’t even stream this album online! It was taken down from Ja Ja Ja.
Radio 1 recently played ‘Portrait of Silence’, and there was a bloke there who said he had introduced Philco to Huw Stephens. So good work! If you saw the show, there’s plenty more tunes where that came from.
Finally
Help!
The Youth
The City
Too Close
Portrait of Silence
Can't remember it now exactly, so apologies if it's wrong. Also if anyone can get a me digital download for the vinyl I'll be your friend!
15/01/2012
Fanzine - Roman Holiday
Fanzine hail from London and make scuzzy, lo-fi rock. We haven’t heard this kind of stuff in a while. 'Roman Holiday' reminds me of Weezer, a stonier Sum 41, and recent fellow London bands to cause a bit of a fuss, Mazes (see here) and The History of Apple Pie. It’s awesome. Out now on Fat Possum.
08/01/2012
Vondelpark- nyc stuff and nyc bags
I remember feeling pretty indifferent when first introduced to the XX back in 2009. (I know, is it blogger sacrilege to say that now?) However I realise the debut's enormous impact. That album took simple, sparse, emotionless dance beats, and ordered them in such a way when combined with vocals that they could conjour deep emotion. A neutral beat with gentle infusions of R&B created a feeling that was on the one hand deeply loving, compassionate and sensitive and on the other alone, detached and bleak. Like The Weeknd, with whom comparisons have been quite forthcoming from House of Balloons onwards, the XX’s minimalism had a stony profundity. Black American R&B titans famed for their rich production (Aaliyah, R Kelly, D’Angelo, Destiny’s Child) have since been spotlighted, heralded by certain artists as marvels, and then with the precision and detachment of a surgeon’s knife, had their hearts teased out, distilled and dripped into arid digital concoctions, or ones primarily composed of silence or echoing clacks. The XX’s debut was a key moment. It magicked depth out of bareness. It took R&B’s emotion and made it alone and monochrome.
Vondelpark are one of many artists striking that chord: let’s call it the Higgs-Depression. They are, according to the BBC’s review, “How to Dress Well with a slightly superior budget [insert: that’s still bugger all]; RnB for heartbroken bloggers more likely to send a loved-one files than flowers.” It’s probably true. The Guardian’s New Band of the Day (No 1,039- June 2011) considered that if you had to listen to constant grim music or constant happy music for the rest of your life, they would choose the former if it meant listening to Vondelpark. (I’d choose it anyway. After all isn't Barney & Friends used to torture hostages in Guantanamo Bay?) Yeah, all the elements of that disconnected yet soulful compound reveal themselves: Feedback-layered production, barely discernable vocals and loose hums that drift through each track of their second EP. Called nyc stuff and nyc bags, even the title hints at lethargy.
From three young Surrey boys, nyc stuff and nyc bags is the follow on from debut Sauna (2010), and more radiant. Its songs are alike: they’re all cyclical and quasi-hypnotic, which creates this extreme XX-like melancholia. R&S noticed it- the label behind James Blake- and released it. “TV” loops a ringing guitar lick over echoing voices, and snippets from porn (or at least I think it’s porn). “Hipbone”, a defeated mire, is wonderfully representative of the soul v. disconnection juxtaposition. The push and pull of its feeling is complicated; its merry dance is pure anxiety. Muted, hushed, it is more likely to creep up on you than the no holds barred staring of How to Dress Well. “Camels” gently calms and drags you into a numb universe, with similar results.
All are of equal merit in my view, and are like a controlled explosion taking place in a sound-proofed room. Vondelpark are the muffled alarm that gently triggers suppressed distress. In my view though the most interesting track is "Outro for nyc", which closes the EP. Its emotional dance is as tender as the wind that shakes the barley. Vocal washes mix with glassy guitars and a funky dance beat to hit a cold, lost, isolated chord that makes depression by the hand of freshly laundered pillows.
Ultimately I think Vondelpark could be a critical success, even if, due to their 'sadder' sound, they might be less conventionally appealing to a non-indie audience than even the XX. If you want a track from the first EP, try opener "California Analog Dream", and be sure to look out for them. nyc stuff and nyc bags is out now on R&S (buy it here (UK) or here (US)).
14/12/2011
Dive - Sometime
Ok, ok, so how I didn’t have time to work out just how I would write a post a day for 20 days, but the point is I’m trying to ramp em up and give your ears some consistent (aural) pleasure. Today’s band/post is Dive, a new band from the Beach Fossils guitarist Cole Smith, with their song 'Sometime'. Now I know what you’re thinking; how can someone SOOO well known not already be in my musical repertoire? Well, he’s not well known. Apparently. And I didn’t even know who he was till earlier this week so no harm done really, huh? This is a pretty cool dream pop type song, all echoey like the ‘hall’ setting on your thingy ma what, and it’s got this simple guitar lick most of the way through that’s awesome and sort of flicks up at the end as though it’s asking you a question.
‘Sometime’ was released in October, and you can check out its follow up ‘Human’ over on Pitchfork. Not quite sure if there’ll be an album coming out yet, but the label for these two singles was Captured Tracks, who also released Beach Fossils, so you can safely assume it’ll be on that.
P.S. If you can't find the song, hit the play button over the article you silly mare.
11/12/2011
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
Approaching that time of year again- ‘best of’ lists- and as with last year’s attempt- I’m going to shun the idea and pursue something which will hopefully be far more interesting: 20 posts in 20 days. There’s no such thing as a best album. As a very good article for The Guardian blog re-iterated (although it was in fact also accompanied by a top 10 list), our habits are rooted in time and place, and not some surgical, disinterested dissection of merit. In that vein, my posts reflect thoughts and habits at the time, what I'm listening to, and similarly, what I think others might enjoy.
So, George Harrison. What’s there to say? ‘Third’ Beatle, the quiet Beatle, and the one who was often seen as stifled by the juggernauts of Lennon/ McCartney. When The Beatles began to fall apart in 1969, slowly Harrison came out of his shell. His debut solo effort All Things Must Pass is widely regarded as the best of the four’s solo debuts, and a mature, serious, full-on record. Its often gentle song structures and easy on the ear melodies belie the balance and strength that is now often seen as one of Harrison’s core personal strengths. His self-assuredness and quest for self-enrichment came through in this monster LP, and now it is a small part of pop history.
First, its length. A triple-LP of 23 songs, five of which are strung together as a big ‘Apple Jam’ is not exactly a marketer’s idea of a cautious entry into the solo sphere. All Things Must Pass is powerful; Harrison put himself into it, and he wasn’t going to compromise. He never did anything by halves: just watch Martin Scorsese’s documentary Living in the Material World. Second, religion. Harrison’s strong belief in Hindu spirituality, mediation and mantras, developed after The Beatles’ visit to India in 1967, and shaped this album, which is now regarded as one of the 500 greatest of all time (…or at least it is by Rolling Stone magazine.) (Interestingly, many of the extensions of his religious ideas still have resonance today.) See ‘My Sweet Lord’, see ‘Heard Me Lord’, see ‘Awaiting on You All’; arguably three of the most sensational songs of Harrison’s song-writing repertoire, and they all promulgate spiritual philosophies, but also, they are constructed and delivered with a lightness, peace and simplicity only imagined by those who feel truly enlightened and at one. ‘My Sweet Lord’ is a reassuring journey to spiritual well-being. As with his mantra from The Beatles' 'The Inner Light', “the farther one travels, the less one really knows”, it isn’t intimidating, over-the-top, sarcastic or ironic. It is direct and simple. Harrison hopes to exist in the moment, the aspiration of those following a path of meditation and zen. ‘Hear Me Lord’ is a similarly striving ode to self-embetterment.
His religious journey was not so all-consuming as to make All Things Must Pass a purely religious record, however. There are many shades of grey, and on a superficial level, you might be interested to know that Harrison doesn’t make much use of Eastern sitars on this record. Still, at the more familiar end of the scale is Apple Jam stuff/rambling ditty ‘It’s Johnny’s Birthday’. This juxtaposition makes it obvious how multi-faceted and complicated Harrison really was. Lennon went on marches and made bold political jibes; McCartney was a clean-cut pop king, and Harrison sat at the back taking notes, figuring out what it was all about. Did he let go? Well of course. ‘Apple Scruffs’ is one of my favourite pop songs, comprising a harmonica and acoustic sing-a-long, and I love it because it’s so whimsical and poignant at the same time.
All Things Must Pass carries itself with both a pride and an honesty that I don’t think any album today can. Can you talk about spirituality with a straight face? Can you put the words ‘Hare Krishna’ at the end of a song repeatedly and deliver a message that will resonate with the man in the street as well as a swami? Sounds hard, doesn’t it? Sure, our lack of interest in pondering things long and hard has much to do with our cultural shift, and being more closed off to sitting down and thinking, but it is also a great compliment to Harrison that he had the confidence and single-mindedness to straddle pop and spirituality, and he continues to be able to pry into us in such a marvellously subtle way even today. We might notice, but we are generally too impressed with the songwriting. ‘Isn’t It A Pity’ works for 7 minutes to achieve it; ‘Beware of Darkness’ tugs at your heart-strings with plain-as-day life advice. If it makes All Things Must Pass sound like a self-help manual, then it some respects it is. If it makes it sounds like one hell of an awesome record, it is certainly that too...
Lucky Number Music, Friends and the Independent Label Market, London
Hello pop pickers! Sorry it’s been so long since I last posted, but there so is a lot to talk about, so I’ll get right down to business. First post first: Independent Label Market. Now this was a…well…market in Spitalfields, London, put on today to hawk the wares of predominantly small independent record labels who had had stock destroyed at the Sony warehouse during the London rioting in August (did those rioters know they had caused such callous artistic destruction?! I should hope not.) Anyway, the fruits of their violent labour have clearly produced one good outcome.
Now, I believe among all those stalls there, Lucky Number are onto something unique with their artists, and have a really special eye for detail. I discussed this with co-guru leader man, Michael Morley, and he said that within its sound, the label hopes to build a common thread among its artists, an identity if you will, that speaks for the label, or if you want to be more market-speak about it, a ‘brand’. This is evident in everything about them. The artists appear to stand for creativity above pop perfection; product above packaging. If those ideas sounds hoity-toity, consider Darwin Deez, Caged Animals, Friends and Sebastian Tellier; all esoteric, idiosyncratic, different from one another, although this, (and a noticeable zeal for music) is what they all have in common. I mentioned Friends’ September London gig: “Did you meet them afterwards?” Morley said, matter-of-factly. I had. The band were there after the gig, talking to everyone and were genuinely interested in what people had to say. They sold ‘I’m His Girl’ a month or so before its official release (review below), and guess who bought one based on their performance that night and a good chat about London? Two spare copies were brought along today apparently, and sold even before the stall had opened.
Friends are arguably becoming the label’s biggest ever artist. Morley and co-founder Stephen Richards saw them at their sixth ever gig. Pretty incredible. It’s now widely known that Friends have been together only a year. The pair were immediately impressed by the band, and additionally, a rarity in live indie music, Urbani’s uncanny ability to bring girls to the front of the crowd. The band were signed up soon after, and debut ‘Friend Crush’ was released, now a 250-copy Ebay rarity, never to be pressed again if the label is true to its word.
While I don’t think a label can set the world alight, it's interesting to know that in an industry now bombarding us with new artists, information and ‘packaging’, someone is focusing on product and letting music speak for itself. Multi-linguist Sebastien Tellier’s 2008 album Sexuality was a great coup; a well-received record which included ‘Divine’, a song Tellier later sang when he entered 2008's Eurovision song-contest!
Tellier is typical of the independent-minded creatives Lucky Number seems to like. Reflecting now on Friends’ inclusion in the BBC Sound of 2012 poll, a veritable hype machine, Morley had mixed feelings about whether a top-5 finish is important considering it would produce expectation from the rest of the industry for Friends to sell loads of records: a mixed blessing. I didn’t raise the suggestion that a critical lift like that could be a self-fulfilling prophecy in the shops, even for a too-cool indie band like Friends, but I’m sure deep down, the duo would be completely chuffed if that were to happen.
Seventeen Evergreen are their newest project, but it's still early days for their other artists. Friends will have an album out in early 2012, a tentative, tentative, release date of April 23rd, preceded by two shows in London (Lexington- Feb 7th sold out, XOYO- Feb 8th) and Caged Animals have Vincent Cacchione’s astro orbit creativity and energy to harness in promoting their debut (check out recent single ‘Teflon Heart’ by the way).
Enough from me. There will be more posts to come.
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