The next set of Radiohead remixes are out on Monday (2nd August in the US & Canada). As usual you can get them on limited vinyl or high quality download. Radiohead have also now confirmed that the mixes will be rounded up and released on cd at the end. You can listen to the next batch of remixes here:
Friday, 15 July 2011
Recommended music: 'Anytime Will Do' EP by Valentin Stip
Valentin Stip is the latest signing to Nicolas Jaar's Clown and Sunset label (Btw, if you haven't got 'Space Is Only Noise', the album that Jaar himself put out earlier this year, you really should check it out). Still only 19, Stip was born in France, grew up with a classical piano training in New York, and then moved to Montreal in 2009. This is his first release, and was put together at the same time he was finishing his college studies.
Considering there are only 4 tracks on here (although it runs to 27 minutes) the breadth and quality of the work is staggering. 'Gravels (I & II)' alone contains more ideas and innovation than a lot of acts manage in a whole album. The title track is percussive, then glitchy, throws in a super-deep bass and finishes like a trip-hop track. 'Esquis(e)' could fit into the 'witch house' tag , while closer 'Le Dormeur' is hypnotic and mellow, and would work really well with Tricky rhyming over the top of it.
Speaking about the exploratory nature of his music, Valentin has said that '...through the music, I'm looking for the soul'. Listening to the great music he's already produced I think he's well on the way to finding it.
You can listen to the whole EP below.
Recommended music: 'Within and Without' by Washed Out
The first full length album by Washed Out (a.k.a Ernest Greene from Atlanta, Georgia) has just been released on the still cool Sub Pop label. Following on from two critically-acclaimed EPs, the record has been produced with Ben Allen, who recently helmed Animal Collective's 'Merriweather Post Pavilion' and Gnarls Barkley's 'St. Elsewhere'.
Having been part of the first wave of chillwave, Greene has moved on a bit here and produced a Balearic, Cafe del Mar-type record perfect for sundown or (sun-up moments) on the beach. While there are no completely standout tracks, little bits within songs bring a smile to your face. The strings in the middle of 'Far Away', for example, are a lovely touch, and the spoken female vocals on 'You And I' bring some human relief. 'A Dedication' has a simple, woozy piano intro that cuts through the hazy production, and 'Echoes' threatens to turn into something more crunchy at the end but never really gets there (I can imagine a great remix for that).
At times it's just too languid for its own good, and listening to it all in one go may highlight its soporific tendencies, but on their own the tracks have a gentleness and dreamy quality. If you're going to buy this on cd then can I suggest you get it from Rough Trade Shops, where it comes with a bonus mix cd full of guilty pleasures like Fleetwood Mac and Bread.
My listening recommendation would be to stick it on shuffle with this year's releases from Holy Other, Chad Valley & Tokimonsta and just drift away.
There's a couple of free downloads below to get you into it.
Washed Out - Eyes Be Closed by subpop
Washed Out - Amor Fati by subpop
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Recommended music: 'Skying' by The Horrors
So, third album in from The Horrors, and talk in the music press of a baggy/shoegaze makeover. Lazy journalism that may be, but there's no denying that this is a vet different proposition to 'Primary Colours'. Produced by the band themselves this time around, the songs are much more open and accessible. Faris's voice sounds better than ever and has been given room to be heard.
The makeover is immediately apparent, as 'Changing The Rain' opens with mellow keyboards and a postive outlook. 'You Said' definitely has that baggy drumbeat, with some simple but effective keyboards and is probably the most 'pop' song they've recorded. 'I Can See Through You' is in more familiar Horrors territory, but is still more straightforward and upbeat than it would've been if it had been on album number 2.
The first half on 'Endless Blue' is a rather dull instrumental, but the second half is much better, with some powerful guitars and interesting chord progressions to the chorus, which does remind me a bit of The Psychedelic Furs. 'Dive In' is another one with that rolling rhythm feel. It's warmly reminiscent of quite a few Northern Nineties bands, and certainly doesn't sound like Southern Southend.
'Still Life' is one of the standout tracks on the album, and it also went down really well live at Wireless Festival last week. Its simple chorus is guaranteed to induce mass singalongs at gigs for years to come, and it sounds surprisingly light and airy from the previously gloomy rockers. 'Wild Eyed' is equally upbeat but is less engaging than the rest of the album. Much better is 'Moving Further Away', which starts with 80's UK pop keyboards, then moves back a decade and across Europe to Germany, although Faris's vocals remain in Human League territory. There's a great keyboard & seagull breakdown in the middle (I hope they were recorded off the end of the pier) and overall it's a really satisfying track.
On 'Monica Gems' the sound veers into Suede territory, with Faris developing some great Anderson-esque vocal sounds, and takes us nicely to final track 'Oceans Burning'. Gripping from the first guitar chord, this is slower-paced and shimmering, a real driving off into the sunset song that shows the band could continue for many more albums to come. The change of pace at the end shows that they are still capable of surprises.
To sum up, it's their most mature and mellow album to date, the sound of a band becoming comfortable with what they can achieve which, on this evidence, is pretty much anything they want to.
Recommended music: 'H-p1' by White Hills
I've been trying to write a review of this album for about three weeks, but it's such a freaked-out behemoth it's hard to know where to start. It's also, like the Swans album was last year, a record that's going to polarise opinion. For a start, it's difficult to categorise into a single genre - if there was such a thing as space-garage-psycho-prog-rebel-rock then this would fit perfectly into its pigeonhole.
It's hard to believe that this was recorded in just 2 days last September, but apparently that's what happened. The record is a reaction to what the band sees as multi-national corporations co-opting and controlling our Governments. Ego Sensation, White Hills' bass player, says 'H-p1 is symbolic of the simplification of complex ideas to keep the masses from questioning the system'.
'The Condition of Nothing' starts the album with a full-on blast of noise - a great rock sound, brilliant guitar solo, some squelchy keyboard effects and great dual vocals. It's pretty much all you could need from a 6 minute opening track (you can listen to it and download it below). The track ends abruptly when 'Movement' starts, which is a 2 and a half minute interlude of choppy, clanking guitar sounds, ending with a keyboard noise that is clearly achieved when you press the button marked 'throbbing'.
Next up is 'No Other Way' - at 10 minutes 39 seconds this is still only the third longest track on the album. It's a medium paced instrumental track that starts off with a bass riff and gradually builds and builds. Guitars are layered on, followed by keyboards to create a woozy atmosphere that slowly hypnotises you before fading away. 'Paradise' ups the tempo (and the song length) with a driving drumbeat powering the song along. Headspin-inducing space effects play out over the insistent backing. The track doesn't particularly develop, but rather keeps taking slight detours before arriving back on the original path.
'Upon Arrival' is much more interesting, with distorted vocals over a backing track worthy of Iggy & The Stooges. Definitely one of the album's highlights, it rushes along with raw energy, and every instrument seems to be straining at the leash - the guitar solos are especially brilliant on here. The track disappears into a space void at the end, to be replaced by the atmospheric and droning keyboards of 'A Need To Know', which then morphs into 'Hand In Hand', which is the sound of an interstellar distress signal being received through a set of Marshall stack amplifiers. The track dissolves into the sound of a Doctor Who alien whose life is slowly pulsing out of them.
'Monument' kicks in with tribal drums, and continues with 6 minutes of burbling, fizzing noises which are occasionally enlightened by some melodic piano. That just leaves us with the epic title track 'H-p1' to deal with. I don't know much about Hawkwind but that's what came to mind when this track first came on. The guitars on here are menacingly brilliant - like a gang of black-shirted neo-fascists they march at you, forcing you to join in or be trampled underfoot as they pass by. After 4 minutes of vocals and then a couple of guitar solos the track takes a turn into Pink Floyd territory, as all 17-minute long tracks should do. Then the guitars storm back in for the start of a mammoth squalling solo. The track ends with more space noises and a feeling that, if The Clangers bought a load of 'shrooms off The Soup Dragon, locked themselves in a cave with a prog-rock band's instruments and pressed record, this is what the result would sound like.
The album is out now on Thrill Jockey records.
White Hills - The Condition of Nothing by thrilljockey
Monday, 11 July 2011
Recommended music: 'James Pants' by James Pants
'Beta' starts the album with fuzzy guitars matched with bleepy electronics and heavily distorted vocals, and a surprising guitar solo towards the end. Next is 'Every Night' - calmer, more melodic lo-fi electro with as reggae-ish rhythm and an 80s feel. He's singing 'Every night I dream of you', but I reckon they're pretty disturbed dreams. 'Clouds Over The Pacific' starts with pizzicato strings, which are joined by whispery female vocals. A dreamy, summery track - simple but rather lovely.
Track 4 'A Little Bit Closer' sounds a lot like it belongs on last year's Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti album. It's full of more lo-fi 80s sounds, then changes tempo halfway through and becomes a lot more frantic. 'Strange Girl' is 2 and a half minutes of reverb'ed vocals and fuzzy garage guitars over a manic drum machine. In contrast 'Screams of Passion' starts with two chords that sound almost exactly like the start of Wham's 'Last Christmas', followed by spoken/sung vocals, an instrumental sections that sounds like the future as imagined by people in the 70s, and ends with a pretty good guitar solo.
Next 'Incantation' reintroduces the female vocals - I think she's singing in a foreign language but the vocals are so distorted I can't tell. This is another of the more relaxed tracks on the record. 'Kathleen' is a pretty straightforward pop song, with hints of 80s Prince, especially the funky bass and falsetto vocals. Then 'Body on Elevator' is a brief instrumental, and is followed by 'Darlin'', a bouncy 60's-type at-the-hop love song.
'Alone' has a sax introduction, congas, and a great melody. 'These Girls' is a pretty throwaway track, but 'Dreamboat' more than makes up for it - with its Theremin sound and female vocals you could give this to Goldfrapp and they'd have no trouble passing it off as one of their own. Lastly 'Epilogue' closes things down, and basically sounds like it's all the bits left over from the rest of the tracks - snatches of French dialogue, some bleeps, chords and the sound of waves lapping finish things off.
It's a pretty schizophrenic album, but that's part of its charm - you never know what turn it's going to take next.
James Pants - Darlin' by stonesthrow
Saturday, 9 July 2011
2011 - The Rise of the EP
Back when your parents and grandparents were buying music, it only came on two regimented formats. The 7" 45rpm vinyl single contained 2 tracks, the A side & the B side, while the 12" vinyl album was the full length long-player. Then some bright spark (at RCA Victor records) decided that sometimes a bit more than just a single was required, and the Extended Play record (EP for short) was born. This had four tracks (2 on each side), and still normally played at 45rpm. EPs were a regular feature throughout the heyday of vinyl but, since that medium's decline, they had disappeared a bit off the radar.
Fast forward to 2011 and the format seems to be making something of a comeback. Lots of smaller independent labels are using it as a way of getting their artists' music out quickly, with acts releasing 2 or 3 EPs a year instead of the traditional album. It seems particularly common with new acts, and to me it works really well as a way of introducing someone new and letting them release music while they continue to develop. Maybe it's just a feature of the type of music I like to listen to (the stuff below is mainly electronic) but anyway, enough talking. Here are some of my favourite EPs from this year so far.
Balam Acab - See Birds EP
5 tracks full of hypnotic beats and dark bass lines from 19 year old Pennsylvanian Alec Koone. With ethereal vocals and organic samples, this genre of music has been (ridiculously) labelled as 'witch house' for its spooky sounds, but all you need to know is that it's melodic, haunting, and brilliant. His first full-length album is out later this year, and if it's as good as this then we're in for a treat.
John Hughes - The Black Monk EP
Recorded in Chicago, where Hughes lives and has his own studio, this 5 track EP mixes gentle sounds and effects with darker electronica. It's quite cinematic, and combines real instruments like vibraphone and glockenspiel with electronic bass and rhythms really effectively.
Peter and Kerry - Clothes, Friends, Photos EP
The first non-electronic EP on the list, this aptly named release from Peter Lyons and Kerry Leatham is 6 tracks long and was recorded in Kerry's bedroom. It covers the themes of broken hearts and broken lives, with the songs' fragile and understated beauty a perfect match for the subject matter. Stand-out track for me is 'Knees', a piano-led track with lyrics about being so in love with someone that you feel weak and physically sick when you think of them.
Chad Valley - Equatorial Ultravox EP
At 7 tracks long this is an almost-album from the boy from Oxford. An almost perfect slice of summery 80s tinged electro-pop. It's uptempo in both sound and mood (opener 'Now That I'm Real (How Does It Feel)' has Balearic beats and pop hooks a-plenty) and although occasionally it borders on bland, overall Hugo's heart is in the right place. The best EP on this list to listen to with a cocktail in your hand.
UNKLE - Only The Lonely EP
A companion piece to last year's 'Where Did The Night Fall' album, this 5 track EP is worth the money for the lead track alone. 'Money And Run' featuring Nick Cave, is a glam-rock-electro-stomp of a song, matching the best of Cave's vocal talents with the rockier side of UNKLE's output. Other tracks on the EP feature vocal contributions from regular UNKLE collaborators Leila Moss (The Duke Spirit), Gavin Clark, and Rachel Fannan.
Photek - Aviator EP
A 5 track EP from one of the original drum'n'bass pioneers, this release successfully update Photek's sound for 2011, and includes a remix from one of the hotly-tipped new breed, Falty DL. It's the second EP he's put out this year, and, with another one already in the bag and ready to come out, it looks like he's on a real return to form.
Tokimonsta - Creature Dreams EP
Released on Brainfeeder, the label set up by Flying Lotus, this is a more laid back record than the ones the boss himself puts out. Recorded almost entirely between 2am and 7am it's a woozy, trip-hop-like release, with 5 instrumentals and a couple more tracks featuring the vocals of Gavin Turek. The sort of record that would've made perfect sense released on Mo Wax back in the 1990s.
Mondkopf - Day of Anger EP
I've played the title track of this EP more than any other track this year because, frankly, it's awesome. A gentle piano is soon overtaken by a pounding, crunchy bassline, arpeggio'd synths, and a feeling that a riot has just kicked off inside your mp3 player. The rest of the 4 tracks are almost as good, as is the packaging - the cd comes with 16 page handmade and numbered fanzine called Rising Doom: The Excuse, and is limited to 1,000 copies worldwide.
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