22 October 2008
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Today And TomorrowSome easy midweek listening. No techno, electro or disco in sight.
Wermland is the new release from Gothenburg's
Detektivbyran. I can't believe it's been 2 years since their debut EP Hemvagen, a release which sent me into raptures with its
Yann Tiersen-esque melodies. Lovely stuff.
Question Mark were around in the mid '70s, hailing from Kenya, they released '
Be Nice To The People' in 1974. It was a very western influenced psychadelic record.
Shadoks have subsequently re-released it.
He's possibly best known for creating the Miami Vice theme tune, but 10 years prior to that
Jan Hammer produced a concept album entitled
The First Seven Days. It's got some lovely moments.
Experimental folk man
David Thomas Broughton teams up with Chris Casati for this dreamy electronic gem that is available as an EP on
Plug Research.
Fordlandia is the follow up to the superb IBM 1401 A User's Manual by
Jóhann Jóhannsson. It is contemporary classical at its very finest.
Then there is
Treny by
Jacaszek. It sounds pretty close to what you would hear on one of Kompakt's annual
Pop Ambient compilations, or perhaps more specifically,
Klimek. A great album.
20 October 2008
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Axel PeemoellerTwo Over The Eight by
Skoozbot saw a digital release at the back end of last year, now it's had a vinyl re-release. Remixes come from
Paco Osuna and
JPLS, with the latter bringing maximum effect out of utter simplicity. You can get the vinyl
here.
I took a look at
Stephan Hinz's latest release '
Bacala' because I saw it had a remix by New York's
Adultnapper. The title track release a superb piece of minimal techno. Get the vinyl
here.
Photonz are totally great, and they're in and around London this weekend. I'd go see them but i'm a northern monkey who works weekends (for 2 more weeks anyway). Catch them if you can, otherwise make do with these below and maybe buy
these.
13 October 2008
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SozyoneThe standard of compilations this year has been incredibly high, i've lost count of the ones i've thoroughly enjoyed. And now I can add another one to that list.
Mmm, Betty! is a compilation by Betty Botox (aka JD Twitch of
Optimo), it is a compilation of super rare and long forgotten grooves. I cannot stress how good this is. You can get the vinyl from
HERE.
Munk's Galactic Dancing is another compilation i've really been enjoying. This track by
Ben Mono and Georg Bär is a joy to the ears, reminiscent of contemporary sounds from the likes of
Holy Ghost and
Aeroplane. Nice
I'm a big fan of piano music,
Maxence Cyrin is a pianist of the highest quality....but what makes him better is the material he plays. Aphex Twin, LFO, Carl Craig, Depeche Mode, Justice and others. Just wonderful. I want to have a dinner party just to play his music in the background. You can get his
Modern Rhapsodies HERE.
10 October 2008
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SpaceCollectiveBeats for the weekend. Song titles give it away sometimes. An acidic track from
Tanner Ross &
Kilowatts.
Bangkok Impact is a well loved act around these parts as you may note from previous posts. But now, taking on the name of
Kleep, Sami Liuski has ditched his disco tinged beats in favour of some killer minimal techno. With two 12" releases in quick succession on
Klang Electronik he shows just how versatile a producer he is. Grab the
vinyl from here.
Sticking with the vehicular based track names. This is
240 Interceptor and some ice cold minimal electro taken from the
Gothenburg Electro City Compilation 2. Ace.
And to finish a 9 minute medley of three
MMM tracks. This is the good stuff.
8 October 2008
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HumiliMy inbox has been surprisingly good to me of late. Plenty of good stuff coming through. Here's a selection.
Two new releases that have recently dropped on
Bear Funk are from
The Diaphanoids and
Tobor Experiment Disco Experience. The Diaphanoids EP earlier on this year was really great. Now they're back with a full length entitled
Astral Weekends. You might not be able to tell from it that they'd actually written for Luciano Pavarotti in a previous existence, but you will note some sounds reminiscent of some long lost proto-spaceage sound library. I'm already tiring of using space/cosmic cliches, but with Astral Weekends they are wholly appropriate. Seriously excellent cosmic action with a hefty dose of beard. You can grab your copy
here.
Next it's
Tobor Experiment Disco Experience, a man with an unhealthy interest in the 1970's and it's Moog's and vocoders. The
Disco Moog EP is no doubt incredibly cheesy, but where would we be without it! The clavinet workout on I Feel Loved is just great.
A Taut Line is the work of Matt Lyne, a Brit now residing in Osaka. Drawing influence from Moroder to New Order his productions certainly have a nostalgic vibe coupled with something distinctly Japanese perhaps more specifically
Mule Musiq going on - which can only be a good thing. There's plenty more on the
A Taut Line page.
Roger Roger has to be one of the best real names ever! Good work parents.
Roger Roger was a French composer who specialised in pieces for TV. For his electronic compositions he used the alias
Cecil Leuter and was amongst the first to use the Moog. Sadly he passed away in 1995. Just recently, Felix Martin of Hot Chip has put together a touching retake on one of the late Roger Roger's tracks. Brilliant.
And to finish, a unique trip into the quirky world of
Gablé - they're like
DAT Pol with a rapper and an affinity for folk music. Sounds bizarre, works quite well (probably because their tracks are so short)
BONUS EDIT
7 October 2008
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elohopeaOctober MixSei A - Master Of One
Nathan Fake - Outhouse
Florian Meindl - 8bit Romance (Radio Slave's Deepest Space Remix)
Animal Trainer - Talkshow
Tiga & Zyntherius - Sunglasses At Night (Popof Remix 02)
Alex Millan & Lorent Air - Ironik
Lutzenkirchen - All That Jazz (Popof Remix 02)
Passarella Death Squad - Painted Yellow, Painted Black (Perc Remix)
Shadow Dancer - Cowbois (Das Glow Remix)
Kleep - Zoo
Heartthrob - Signs
Lexy - Fancy Girl
Raz Ohara & The Odd Orchestra - Kisses (Over Temperature Mix)
Ripperton & Masaya - I Love
M.A.N.D.Y. vs Booka Shade - Oh Superman
Photonz - Languid
Ricardo Tobar - La Otra Playa
DOWNLOAD76mb55 minutes The super fresh mixed in with the super cool. A pretty deep mix that flips about half way with the frankly quite mental
Passarella Death Squad remix. Normalcy gradually returns and we meet a pleasant end with
Ricardo Tobar.
Really enjoyed the track by
Alex Millan &
Lorent Air, reminded a lot of something Vitalic might conjure up. It's
taken off a split with
Motor - who appear to be taking a less intense approach to techno.
The new
Juan Maclean off the Tour EP is sounding really good. Tito's Way (
mp3) had a profound impact on me way back when, and now i'm really looking forward to a new full-length. Sometime sound-a-like artist
Legowelt also has some new material with
The Rise And Fall Of Manuel Noriega. I've thrown in an old
Legowelt alias track from 2003 too, because it's well good.
And, THANK YOU for all your lovely comments - it really means a lot :)
3 October 2008
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Cody Lee BarbourTaken from the upcoming release, Drippers, this is an outstanding piece by
Black Moth Super Rainbow and
Laura Burhenn.
Drippers is limited to 2000 copies, and will feature a scratch 'n' sniff cover (it's like being in the '90s again!). It's well worth going through the BMSR back catalogue and their various aliases,
Tobacco,
Power Pill Fist etc. Experimental goodness.
The Astral Projections Of Starlight is certainly going to be up there in my end of year album favourites. Easy listening, dub disco. It may sound cheesy in places on the first listen but once you get into it you will discover its true beauty. Order it here.
A few years late on this one.
Major Swellings aka
Prins Thomas. High energy disco. Brilliant.
Nu-disco meets Italo on this track taken from the
Magic Feet EP released by
Ajello on Belgian label
Radius.
From music to clothes, if you're a fan of t-shirts then check out
Rumplo. It's like the t-shirt version of
Hype Machine.
And finally, this blog reached a milestone the other day - two years of posts. I've occasionally thought about quitting, after all surely there's more than enough music blogs out there to cover over the miniscule hole that would be left behind. But, I think this blog still maintains purpose and relevance - for how long, it remains to be seen. For now, though, I wonder, do we really need
17 blogs posting exactly the same song on the same day? To the future! To diversity!