Recommended music: 'AwE NaturalE' by THEESatisfaction

THEESatisfaction are Stas and Cat, a duo based in Seattle who have been slowly getting a name for themselves since they started releasing mixtapes in 2008. This, their first 'proper' release, has just come out on Sub Pop Records, and it's a brilliant blend of hip-hop, '70s soul and '80s funk, with a bit of electro thrown in for good measure. Although clearly coming from a hip-hop / rap background, the pair seem as comfortable and accomplished whether rapping or singing, allowing them to switch between the two with ease, kind of like a duo of Lauryn Hills.

The brief instrumental 'awE' opens the album, and quickly takes us into 'Bitches' which is just bass, percussion and handclaps, while the girls sing and rap over the top. 'Earthseed' features a mellow piano melody, with mostly sung vocals before a short rap at the end where, in true hip-hop style, they namedrop themselves.

'QueenS' is built around a repetitive groove, over which the girls offer to cure your ills - "let the musicians be your physicians" - and then 'Existinct' drops some smooth, jazzy vibes. 'Deeper' is exactly that, with a more electronic backing track and lyrics about looking beyond the colour of someone's skin to get to know them properly.

Next track up 'Sweat' builds an Earth, Wind and Fire-type groove under another mix of spoken and sung vocals, which gives way to the instrumental 'Juiced'. Featuring an unnamed guest male rapper at the start (unsurprisingly it turns out to be Shabazz Palaces, whose album the girls guested on last year) , 'God' is probably the most substantial track on the album, with some great lyrical flows and some interesting beats.

'Enchantruss' was the first track I heard from the album earlier in the year - it has a hypnotic feel that draws you in, and some great lyrics that mention Orson Welles, Archie Bunk and Jesus in the same verse - I particularly like the line "the black Jesus, which means of course he's white" - is this having a dig at Kanye West I wonder? A change of pace is provided by 'Needs', which is a mellow song about the girls' need to prove themselves. The weird 'Crash' is a minute long, and the only lyrics it contains are 'zero' and 'one', sung in a binary way - I imagine this is some sort of commentary on the economic state of the world (I could be completely wrong about this of course, but I like to give it some meaning, because if not the track is a complete waste of space). The album ends with 'naturalE', with Stas and Cat calling themselves the 'Queens of the Stoned Age' - this is another really strong track with varied beats, sung lyrics and raps, pretty much summing up the feel of the whole album in one track.

Any criticisms? Well, although it's got 13 tracks the album is only 30 minutes long, which is too brief for a debut album - surely they had more good material available than just these? I'm not asking for an overblown epic, but when most of the tracks are 3 minutes or less you could do with a few more of them. And their habit of randomly dropping capitaL letterS into song titles is irritating when you come to write about them. But really I'm just being picky about what is really a cool, sassy and intelligent debut album from THEESatisfaction.

You can grab yourself a free download of 'Enchantruss' below.

Live: in pictures & videos - Slow Club / Spaceships Are Cool / Wildeflower at Village Underground, London 27/3/12

Slow Club on stage at the Attitude Is Everything night at Village Underground

A great evening last night, put on by Attitude Is Everything to raise funds and awareness for their campaign to improve access at gigs for disabled and deaf people. First up were Wildeflower, playing the type of music first popular long before they were born (a bit folk and a bit prog), but doing a decent job of it.

Wildeflower

Next on were Spaceships Are Cool - with a mixture of old synths, theremins and some normal instruments as well, they were poppier than I was expecting, and pretty enjoyable.

Spaceships Are Cool (not only the band's name, but an undeniably true fact)

Headliners and highlight of the evening were Slow Club, playing their first gig in the UK since their trip to SXSW a couple of weeks ago. With a set mixing tracks from both of their albums they were in fine form, as you can see from the videos below. First up is a great rendition of 'If We're Still Alive':


and then there's one of my favourite tracks from Paradise, 'Never Look Back':

It's worth mentioning at this point that throughout the evening there were a couple of guys on the side of the stage doing sign language for all of the song lyrics. This led to the most amusing moment of the evening - for their encore Slow Club played a slowed down version of Pulp's 'Disco 2000'. As we got to the line "You were the first girl at school to get breasts" pretty much everyone turned to the guy signing to see how it would be translated - I can confirm that the sign for "breasts" is pretty much what you would expect it to be!

After Slow Club finished there was a DJ set from Ghostpoet - I had to make a dash for the train unfortunately, but here's a snap of him setting up.

Ghostpoet preparing for his DJ set

New Music Mix - 25/3/12

DJ Cull's New Music Mix - 25/3/12 by Dj Cull on Mixcloud

A round-up of some of the new tracks I've been listening to over the past couple of weeks. Just press the Play button above to listen, track details are:

1. Crook & Flail - Freelance Exist
2. GoldFFinch - Outer Twigs
3. Santigold - Disparate Youth (The 2 Bears Remix)
4. D/R/U/G/S - Hyperdream Clap
5. Photek & Pinch - Acid Reign (Pinch's Dubplate Version)
6. The Invisible - Protection
7. Balam Acab - Come True
8. Riz MC - All Of You (feat. Plan B)
9. Apollo Brown & OC - Prove Me Wrong
10. Oddisee - Slow It Down
11. My Panda Shall Fly & Benjamin Jackson - Data-Module
12. Gonjasufi - Houndogs

Recommended music: 'Free Time!' by Pinkunoizu

The hotly-anticipated debut album from Danish outfit Pinkunoizu (Japanese for Pink Noise, as you might've guessed) has arrived, and it's a brilliant achievement, stuffed so full of ideas and styles that it's hard to know where to start with it. With a lot of the tracks moving seamlessly into the next, this is definitely a record that you should listen to as a whole, as you immerse yourself into the high-concept lo-fi psychedelia that manages to sound like it's been made in the four corners of the globe, and the middle of outer space, all at the same time.

The album features a couple of tracks from last year's 'Peep' EP, starting with the opener 'Time Is Like A Melody', a lilting, melodic tune that's a bit reminiscent of Animal Collective as it builds to the looped crescendo at the end. This flows into 'Myriad Pyramid', which starts with the sound of the muezzin calling us to prayer. With percussion driving the track, there are some eastern themes in the melodies, some bleepy electronics in the background, and some almost spaghetti-western guitar, while overall the song has a bit of an MGMT feel to it. Talking of guitar, third track 'Cyborg Manifesto' takes the western feel up a few gears, and features the most surprising slide guitar solo that I've heard in a record for a long time.

Track four is the second 'Peep' track, 'Everything Is Broken Or Stolen', a fantastic journey through African and Eastern percussion and rhythmns which slowly winds its way into your head, stopping only for a radio retune halfway through. 'Parabolic Delusions' ends side one, it's perky Japanese pop tune making the perfect 3 minute pop song, complete with handclaps, saxes, a funky synth bassline and some suitably off-balance lyrics - "Like an endless loop of American troops, I will come for you".

Side 2 steps up the psychedelia, while generally being calmer and more spaced out. Just 3 tracks take up its 24 minutes, starting with 'The Abyss'. Wafting in on a sea of guitars, this gentle track soothes your soul, before letting rip with a great guitar solo at the end. Next up is 'Death Is Not A Lover', 9 minutes of trippy sounds, that starts with just an acoustic guitar and vocals, moves through an Eastern vocal and drums section into a brief country lament, and ends with some pounding bass and spoken words, followed by more MGMT-type singing and a general freak-out at the end. As a track it's a perfect microcosm of the album experience as a whole. Lastly comes 'Somber Ground', starting with some Mongolian throat-singing (or something similar), the first half is a downbeat guitar and vocals section, while the second half really lets rip, with saxes blaring, driving rhythms and a great male/female vocal to finish up with, before the studio pixies mangle the tapes at the end.

In terms of scale and ambition, this is probably the 2012 equivalent of last year's Gang Gang Dance album, but it delivers even more that that great record did. The way some of the eastern refrains are woven into the music reminds me at times of the way Matt Johnson used to use these influences, both on his solo album 'Burning Blue Soul' and on some of his The The stuff like 'Sweet Bird of Truth' and 'Armageddon Days Are Here Again'

If, no when, you decide to buy it, make sure you get the vinyl (available at Rough Trade) - not only does it sound great but it comes with a download code for the whole album plus two bonus tracks, the 12 minute epic 'Lacuna Island' and the more compact 'My Vacant Home'.

I don't give scores on this blog, but for this I'm going to make an exception - it's definitely a 5 stars, 10/10 record. Buy it now!

Track of the Day: 'Propagation' by Lower Dens

I featured the new Lower Dens' single 'Brains' a few weeks back, and now you get to hear 'Propagation', which will be the B-side of the single (out on Monday), and will also be on the album 'Nootropics', which is released on 30th April.

Based on the 2 tracks released so far the album is definitely shaping up to be on of the best records of the year - I've just ordered my copy on limited edition black and gold vinyl. If you want to do the same you can get it here: http://ribbonus.dominorecordco.com/ribbonus/albums/16-02-12/nootropics

Track of the Day: 'A$$' by Buraka Som Sistema

Every bit as good as the Zebra Katz track I put up a week or 2 ago, this is a booty-shaking bootyleg from the Portugese crew. In fact, if you played them one after the other, there would be dancefloor carnage. Listen and download below.

Track of the Day: 'Pads of Light' by White Hills

Some full-on space-rock for your Friday! Taken from their new album 'Frying On This Rock', which is out Monday on Thrill Jockey Records, this is a blisteringly to the point full throttle rock-out, with an incendiary guitar solo at the end. Listen and download below.

White Hills - Pads of Light