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Friday, January 25, 2008

Le Groove


HEY DJ! STOP MAKING ME DANCE TO DISCO-INFLECTED SHIT! I'M A MIX OF THINGS THAT CAN'T DANCE WELL SO IT'S EMASCULATING!
k thx.


Thursday, January 24, 2008

The Local

The National at The Corner Hotel, Richmond, 19 January 2008.

After a long set of beautiful, desperate, sweeping music, The National returned for their encore, all sporting the old Fitzroy guernsey. One of those little things that makes you love a band that much more. 

...and then they played Mr November and all my dreams came true.


Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Gallhammer - Ill Innocence


A black metal band consisting of three Japanese girls with the last names ‘Slaughter’, ‘Penetrator’ and ‘Reaper’ whose band name pays tribute to cult 80’s metal band Hellhammer? Gallhammer may sound like a gimmick to some and in some ways that’s valid, but it doesn’t mean there’s not a hell of a lot of fun to be had listening to their new album, Ill Innocence. Maybe fun isn’t the word to use, this is an album fuled by pain and despair, with venomous fury surreptitiously bubbling underneath. Songs like ‘At the onset of despair’ and ‘World to ashes’ contain ample amounts of downtuned guitars and guttural vocals that’ll satisfy curious metal fan. Vivian Slaughter’s tormented screams are truly disturbing. Play it loud enough and it’ll only be a matter of time before someone calls an exorcist. That being said, Gallhammer also seem to be comfortable exploring punk aesthetics and more melodic elements in songs like ‘Blind my eyes’ and ‘Delirium Daydream’. It’d be wrong to say that this album has something for everyone, they aren’t the greatest musicians in the world, sometimes sounding a bit garage standard, and the whole record has a really lo-fi approach to production, calling to mind 80’s hardcore punk singles, but if you’re a fan of early black metal or hardcore punk definitely check it out. Ciao.

Monday, January 21, 2008

MGMT

MGMT is not a band I know much about. They play some sort of bizarre psychedelic pop rock which melted my room mates brain when I gave their debut album 'Oracular Spectacular' a spin the other day. They have opened for Of Montreal, worked with the Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann and they dress like Burning Man attendees. I'm not sold on the whole album yet but the track Kids is amazing, it's haunting lyrics and woozy melody won't leave my head. Hear it for yourself below.

MGMT - Kids

Myspace | Website

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Young, Gifted and Mixed



A few years ago my relationship with a girl called Hip Hop was at breaking point. I just wasn't having fun anymore. We kept going to the same place, our conversations became predictable and to be honest, i was looking for something new. We more or less stopped seeing each other altogether.I wasn't impressed with her image change, nor the people she was hanging out with. On the rare occasion we did hook up, it was rarely alone, Mary-Jane often acting as the ice breaker to these now almost awkward situations.

The relationship grew more sour and ended on an almost bitter note; Me frustrated at the lack of satisfaction i was receiving, and her coming at me with a "take it or leave it" attitude. So i left it. For a while. Then i heard Atmosphere.

Their studio album "You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having" blew me away on the first listen. Filled with emotion-charged lyrics and clean, original beats, the album became an instant favourite of mine. I was back in love.

Fast forward 2 and a bit years and 3 EP's later, and they're at it again with the release of "Strictly Leakage" a full length record available for free download from their website here. The fact that they released these 13 tracks for free before the April 22 release date of their new album, "When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold", illustrates the fact that Slug is a man of many verses and is determined to be heard.

If you're even remotely interested in Hip-Hop, street culture or the stories that come from it, check this album out. It's well worth it.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Chip Appreciation Day













In commemoration of the release of the new hot chip single from the upcoming album "made in the dark", I have put together a little compilation of my favourite hot chip songs and vids of recent. These include an original song featured on their dj kicks cd and great acoustic versions of "hold on" and "boy from school" to showcase the bands diversity and song writing chops.

hot chip - my piano (from the dj kicks album)
hot chip - hold on (live on triple j) watch video here
hot chip - boy from school (acoustic version)

Full-band performance of "over and over" with drumkit... crazy!


Also if you missed the streaming of their recent essential mix you can get it from here (courtesy of pound for pound):

hot chip - radio one essential mix (29.12.07)

Monday, January 14, 2008

Eat Your Pudding


Hospital Records has been synonymous with liquid funk for over 10 years now and with good reason. The label boasts some of the hottest talent in the game (think High Contrast, Logistics and Nu:Tone), puts on a massive club night and their records are played all over the world from 'Cardiff to Cape Town'.

However, what really sets them apart is their award-winning Podcast and their ability to unearth shockingly good talent seemingly week in week out. These demos are played in special "Democast" versions of the show or whenever the flavour is too hot to suppress; which i may add, is pretty fucken often.

Mistabishi is one artist who's rise to fame was via these channels. His smashing tune "No Matter What" was first heard on the podcast at the end of last year and went on to gain massive support and radio play from the likes of Zane Lowe and Annie Mac. He subsequently signed another 5 tracks to the label, including "She lied", which featured in the Essential Mix of the year, crafted by none other than partner in crime Lincoln Barrett, aka High Contrast. The track is a beautiful example of the array of sounds, melodies and switch-ups that can be brought to the genre and is one not to be missed. So listen to it. Now.

Mistabishi - No Matter What - Hospital

Mistabishi Myspace

But wait, there's more.

Another man creating waves in the scene is none other than Donnie Dubson; a Dublin born German expat who's basslines and grooves have been known to move grown men to tears. His track "Lines To Draw" was heard on the very same episode as Mistabishi's slammer and it too received warm reviews. However it was "Rolling Home" which was released on the German label, Have-A-Break that really caught my ear. Simply put, this was one of the most beautiful recordings i heard all year. Talk about unsigned hype.

Donnie Dubson - Rolling Home - Have-A-Break

Donnie's Myspace

Personal Top 10 - Nat Jones



Just to be totally original I thought I would post my top ten albums of this year and as a little bonus to those who give a crap my top ten movies as well.


Albums:
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
MIA - Kala
The White Stripes - Icky Thump
Burial - Untrue
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Battles - Mirrored
Daft Punk - Alive 2007
High Contrast - Tough Guys Dont Dance
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga
Radiohead - In Rainbows

Movies:
Ratatouille
Knocked Up
Superbad
Hot Fuzz
Grindhouse
Children of Men
Transformers
American Gangster
Rock the Bells
Sicko

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Slept On In '07




I'd planned to gripe so hard abut 2007's music; to preach, and whinge, and make sarcastic cracks. But I think I won't now. Things like 'Sensual Seduction' weren't amazing and can just be consigned to the Clubbers Guide To Tired and we can get on with wowing about some of the stuff that got slept on last year, and will no doubt go nuclear this year.

Sam Sparro




I don't know whether I think he looks fun, or like a fuckwit, but the blue-eyed-soul-meets-disco-sex of Sam Sparro has been bumping in my iPod for a while now. He got spun by Mark Ronson last week and now that he's being officially upped by the BW team you know it's good. Hit his website and check out 'Cottonmouth', which is the current burner.

Black and Gold - Sam Sparro


Vampire Weekend


The buzz is building around Vampire Weekend, and with good reason. They're exponents of cute indie pop, and seriously catchy. Their track 'Mansard Roof' is getting rotation on FBi at the moment, but the track that should've been big all of last year is 'Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa'. It's the new 'Postcards From Italy': simple, clever, and oh so pretty. Incidentally, for the African music experts out there who just popped a hard-on 'cause they saw kwassa kwassa in the title, it's not a kwassa kwassa beat. Sorry. Deal.



Cool Kids Can't Die

So name's kind've annoying: Cool Kids Can't Die. But the music isn't. I cringe a little bit when having to use words like 'filthy' and 'electro' and 'disco' to describe anything, especiallly in tandem. It all feels a little bit YU-promo-flyer. But that's basically what this is: Filthy Electro Disco. If you're into the whole Italo Disco thing that's going on now, it'll push your buttons. Ditto if you got into the Klaxons and that whole indie-electro thing that went down in '07. They kinda sound like if DFA1979 felt the love and decided to do make-out music (excuse coincidental CSS reference). There's two myspace links cause one is their original stuff and the other are their remixes. Both totes excellent.


Fuck Buttons


I'm slightly hesitant in recommending Fuck Buttons. I'm also going to avoid commenting on the name cause it's been done a million times, all pretty sadly. I'm not even sure if I can claim they were slept on. It might just be that they only appeal to certain people, or you have to be in a certain mood. While not usually my thing, their ambient, soundscape, experimental weirdness is kinda awesome. Like if The Field slowed things down, widened it out, and tried to break your head a little.



Sorry. I had to. They weren't slept on but they should've been HUGE, not just pretty popular. The cool thing at the moment is to claim you don't like them, alá Vice, but it's all bullshit. Robert Smith meets Morrisey meets the Go! Team is the common description, and even on paper that's too good to hate on. 2008 should be the year Black Kids explode. This is my favourite track of the year:



Monday, January 7, 2008

Heretic Pride


The Mountain Goats' new album is going to be in stores in the middle of Feb, but advance copies started hitting desks in the week after Christmas. Heretic Pride is the latest work from the prolific John Darnielle, one of the most talented lyricists of our generation.
Compared to his Get Lonely LP of 2006, Heretic Pride feels like a return to some of his earlier (better?) efforts. In fact the title track of the album reminds me very much of This Year, one of his more popular tunes that can be found on The Sunset Tree LP of 2005.
I've had Heretic Pride spinning fairly constantly since I got hold of it, mainly because I find the combination of Darnielle's unmistakable voice and oddball story-telling lyrics enchanting. A great example of Darnielle's quirky song-writing/story-telling nous is Tianchi Lake a song about Heaven Lake, which straddles the border between North Korea and China and was the subject of a Lochness Monster-style mystery in 2007. Not coincidentally the following track is titled How to Embrace a Swamp Creature.
Heretic Pride is a beautiful album to slide into '08 with and has certainly set a lyrical and melodic benchmark for the year.

The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride

MySpace | John Darnielle's Blog | 4AD Records

Mellon Collie and Infinite Ego


To continue in the cruising vibe of the last few posts I thought I would pop up two tracks I have been chilling too - the first comes from a sweet new Smashing Pumpkins EP titled American Gothic which sees the band exploring their more relaxed side (hence the post title). While it still irks me that there is only two of their original members and Corgan's overdubs are all pervasive their is no denying the quality of this handful of tunes.

Smashing Pumpkins - Sunkissed (from the American Gothic EP)

Hot Chip look set to have another cracking year with the release of their third album - Made in the Dark. I have been lucky enough to wrap my ears around a promo of the new LP and am already tipping it as one of my albums of the year - while it may not have a killer smash in the vein of 'Over and Over' the diversity and slight touches of pop and humor make it an album to watch out for. In the mean time they have been hard at work creating remixes for all sorts, touring Oz twice last year and knocking out a sweet Essential Mix (which can still be streamed here for a limited time). One of the stand out track on said Essential Mix is their reworking of a Matthew Dear track which I can seem to get out of my head. An oldie but a goodie.

Matthew Dear - Don and Sherri (Hot Chip version)

In regards to the picture at the top of this post Mr West was the first person that came up when I googled the word ego. Honest.