Recommended music: 'CVE Live 2011' by Caribou Vibration Ensemble

This stunning three track EP, recorded at live shows at the end of 2011, is a perfect document of the live beast that is the Caribou Vibration Ensemble. Expanded out from usual Caribou live four piece, the band also featured Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), James Holden, Ahmed Gallab (Sinkane) and a brass quartet . The throbbing monster that's created by putting all of these talents on one stage is a sight behold, but now you can experience it even if you weren't lucky enough to be there. The two tracks recorded in Belgium, 'Bowls' and 'Sun', take the blueprints from 'Swim' and then supersize the tracks to another dimension. Meanwhile 'Ahmed, Colin, James, Kieran, Kyle, Rob and Steve' (from the London show that I went to) features the Vibration Ensemble minus Caribou in an improvised piece which turns into a full-frontal saxophone wig-out.

The release is dedicated to the memory of Caribou's former sound engineer Julia Brightly, with all proceeds going to genderedintelligence.co.uk.

You can buy the vinyl at the Bleep store here or stream and buy the downloads at Bandcamp below. Also you can watch my video of 'Sun' from the Scala show.

New music: 'Renata' by James Holden - original version and Daphni Remix

A few days ago a new track appeared from the forthcoming James Holden album 'The Inheritors'. It is, as you might expect from Mr. Holden, awesome. The throbbing synths are matched with some primal drums to create a beast of a tune that's pretty unstoppable.



The original version was followed up today by this remix from Daphni (Dan Snaith from Caribou's alter-ego) which will appear on the 10" vinyl version of the track. He turns the throbbing beast into a faster, slinkier, housed-up animal which swaps some of the power of the original for a pair of dancing shoes.



'The Inheritors' will be released on June 17th.

New music: 'Social Cognition' by Fiocz

The second release on Glass Reservoir (read about the first one by Benjamin Shaw here) is another in their series exploring the boundaries between electronic and acoustic sounds.

Constructed on an analogue modular synthesizer, and using field recordings from his work life, home life and surrounding environment, Fiocz has created a stuttering, glitchy record that accurately reflects the paranoia and angst of modern living. Titles like 'Dysphoria' (a state of dissatisfaction, anxiety or restlessness) and 'Drosophila' (a fly used in laboratory studies of genetics) accurately reflect the themes of this record - not so much 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' as 'Modern Life Scares The Crap Out Of Me'. It's one thing being cognisant of your surroundings, but the oppressive air that abounds here seems to imply that maybe knowing the imperfections of toady's world but not being able to change things is a bigger burden than being ignorant.

Not necessarily an easy listen then, but definitely a thought-provoking one. You can watch a taster for the album below, and pre-order it from Glass Reservoir by clicking here.

(TGRR002) Social Cognition - Seq021- from fiocz on Vimeo.