recommendations 
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Adam Drucker aka Dose One and Jeffrey Logan aka Jel are much better known in combination as Themselves. 'Crownsdown' is their second album this year, following the free-to-download 'theFreeHoudini' album with a pay-to-own album exhibiting their sharply honed skills learned via cLOUDEAD, Deep Puddle, Subtle and the vast number of projects in between (13 and God, Boom Bip & Dose One etc). One of the signs of their fitness to hit the auditory nerve hard is the furious pace and bombastic delivery of the opening cuts 'Back II Burn', 'Oversleeping' and 'theMark', all served up with steaming beats and h… Read more
A truly inspired choice from Strut's Inspiration Information series of collabs has lead to this album from Finnish electronic jazz maverick Jimi Tenor and the architect of the Afrobeat rhythm, Tony Allen. After a week spent in the studio the resultant album sounds like the pair have been at this for years, with Tenor's jazzed-up sax, keys and flute gelling perfectly around Allen's bristling rhythm section. The session was mixed down at Tenor's studio in Fnland and Berlin, lending a distinctly dubby but vintage classic sound to the set, helping to erase any blatant time markers and make this the Electric-Afrobeat-Jazz-Fusion classic that never happened, until now! Tip!
*SPECIAL EDITION INCLUDES THE FULL DEBUT ALBUM PLUS A DVD FEATURING 5 MINDBLOWING VIDEOS AND TWO EXCLUSIVE TRACKS* The self titled debut solo record from The Knife's Karin Dreijer Andersson is surely the years most anticipated album so far. We certainly couldn't argue with the legion of support marching in formation behind this gorgeously gothic pop masterpiece, from The OMM to The Wire and countless message boards across the web this is an album which has solidified the success of The Knife, but also added a level of cosmic dread that transcends the pop sensibility at the heart of … Read more
Thursday, 08 October 2009
Tony Allen is a true musical innovator. His pivotal role as Fela Kuti's drummer in the 70's established the Afro-beat style which has since spread around the world to infect bands and artists as diverse as Vampire Weekend and Bugz In The Attic. Released in 2006, 'Lagos No Shaking' is the set that gave birth to a slew of celebrated remixes, but more importantly is Allen's return to the super-funked and soulful sound he pioneered with Fela Kuti over 30 years ago. His tightly syncopated yet fluid rhythms have become the cornerstone of much popular West African music and it's really difficult t… Read more
ERIK SATIE
42 Vexations (1893): Performed by Stephane Ginsburgh
Sub Rosa
CD // £13.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: SR294
This disc presents a seventy-minute version of Erik Satie's famous Vexations composition of 1893 - a piece composed on a single page of music, intended (or at least posthumously presumed to have been intended, based on notes) for repetition 840 times. John Cage initiated the first known public performance of this music in 1963, recruiting a team of pianists (including David Tudor, Christian Wolff and John Cale) who'd take turns playing the page the requisite number of times between 6pm and 12.40pm the following day. This performance by Beligian pianist St… Read more
Review to follow shortly…
Review to follow shortly…
Review to follow shortly…
Originally released under the title 'Electric Café', this album to my mind, is the most underrated of all Kraftwerk's albums, including the quite rediculously evocative 'The Telephone Call', as well as all-time classics "Boing Boom Tschak', 'Musique Non Stop', 'Sex Object' and the seminal 'Techno Pop'. Does it get much better then this? Nein.
Review to follow shortly…
Review to follow shortly…
NINEY THE OBSERVER
Channel One Presents: 100 Tons Of Dub
Jamaican Recordings
CD // £10.99
Cat. Number: JRCD034
Straight from the unreleased master tapes of Channel One's archives comes a heavy set of Niney The Observer produced dubs. As the stry goes, Niney was one of the only producers fearless enough to spend a lot of time in the Channel One studio after hours during a time of political unrest on the island. During his numerous all-night sessions he would lay down some heavyweight roots dub, many included here for the first time. His 'Channel One Burnign With Dub' is a revision of Horace Andy's 'Nice And Easy', while the wicked 'More Dub Pon Dub' uses one of Channel One… Read more
The insufferably fashionable Pains Of Being Pure Of Heart follow up their seemingly universally adored debut album with a five-track helping of all-new material, led by the twee-pop magnum opus 'Higher Than The Stars' whose romping, ebullient melodicism is kept from feyness overload with strategic deployment of words such as "bumblefuck". It's a great track, tweaked to anthemic perfection by Rob Kirwan (whose previous credits include the not terribly lo-fi U2 and Editors). '103' gives the fuzz pedal a good, hard kick resulting in some more uptempo C86-inspired p… Read more
Ramond Raposa of Castanets has been diligently plying his trade for more than five years now, and with each release his distinctive brand of Americana becomes more and more complex and complete sounding. In fact, by now it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect Raposa to be in a position where he might be able to win sizeable audiences - even if he's not quite got that overnight success Bon Iver factor about him, you can reasonably think about comparing this man's craft to the understated diligence of Bill Callahan. However, while the erstwhile Smog man enjoys a rich, Johnny Cash… Read more
Thursday, 01 October 2009
*32 TRACK DOUBLE CD PACKAGED IN CARTRIDGE-STYLE CASING INCLUDING CLASSICS, NEW, EXCLUSIVE, RARE AND PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED MATERIAL FROM BURIAL, COOLY G, ZOMBY, KODE 9, DARKSTAR. FLYING LOTUS, JOKER, IKONIKA, THE BUG AND MUCH MUCH MORE...." The Hyperdub 5 year comp has finally landed, and as everyone already knew, it's a truly heavyweight package. This is the only place you're going to find An EXCLUSIVE and freshly delivered new Burial track, unreleased killers from Kode 9, The Bug and Zomby next to freeze-dried freshness from Cooly G, Joker, Martyn, Flying Lotus, Samiyam, Ikon… Read more
Now on his third album proper, American multi-instrumentalist Aaron Martin follows up his recent 3"CD on the Under The Spire imprint in fine style, trawling the fringes of modern Americana with his layered, loop-based compositions. As ever, Martin's cello tends to reside at the heart of his sound, but additionally, undercurrents of rapid-fire banjo plucking, organ tones and field recordings build up the sonic tapestry. There's something slightly more primal - even dark - about Martin's compositions this time around, and at various points you might be reminded of the more melancholic, overlapp… Read more
Oh my giddy aunt, it's a new album from Jonny Trunk! If you read the third person sleeve notes on the back of this disc you'd buy it on the spot, but as it stands you're on the other side of a computer screen reading this, and hopefully we'll be able to persuade you how great this album is. If you don't already know, Mr Trunk is one of the UK's most cherished and vital crate diggers, noted for his eccentric approach and heartwarmingly sincere passion for the foistiest corners of British culture, giving life to bygone relics of TV, Radio and recorded music history. 'Scrap Book' is a full length a… Read more
VARIOUS / FINDERS KEEPERS
Finders Keepers Records
CD // £9.99
SOUNDTRACKS / LIBRARY / EARLY ELECTRONIC
Cat. Number: FKR032CD
Pack your moonboots and extra oxygen tanks for the latest Finders Keepers trip, taking the class for a daytrip to the big rock to celebrate 40 years since man first landed there (or did he?). Andy Votel is at the controls for this mix, taking in 22 "Sonic depictions of space from the vaults of the Finders Keepers family 1969-2009", which means a selection of your favourite interstellar FK selections from the likes of The Science Fiction Corporation, Gong, The Vampires Of Dartmoor, and J.P Massiera, plus tracks from Chrome Hoof, Sun-Ra And His Solar Myth Orchestra, Toolshed (aka G… Read more
VARIOUS / FINDERS KEEPERS
Finders Keepers Records
CD // £9.99
SOUNDTRACKS / LIBRARY / EARLY ELECTRONIC
Cat. Number: FKR025CD
The most cherished school of selector-educators is back in session with the latest Finders Keepers release giving a masterclass on the seminal fringe Jazz BYG label. Hailed as the catalyst of the French underground scene, BYG was born from the ashes of the 1968 student revolts, when three record industry gents were inspired by a rush of creative freedom sparked by the revolution, giving impetus and shape to their collective love of American jazz and blues, psychedelic rock and many subsequent styles. The label was an early home to records from monolithic touchstone artists like Van… Read more
JOE GIBBS
Evolution Of Dub: Volume 4 - Natural Selection
Greensleeves
4CD // £14.99
Cat. Number: GRE2028
The academically presented 'Evolution Of Dub' series reaches the fourth installment with an essential haul of four albums featuring the legendary Joe Gibbs either at, or very close to the mixing desk between 1976 and 1984. The '76 Joe Gibbs & The Professionals LP 'State Of Emergency' has never previously appeared on CD before and is a big highlight of the set, with the group on jaunty form over a selection of infectiously driving steppers rhythms including 'Walls Of Jericho' and 'High Noon'. Their synthetically enhanced '79 classic 'Majestic Dub' marks a point when… Read more
Following on from the wordy, slacker-ish alt. rock-infusions of their previous efforts Elephant Eyelash and Alopecia, virtually all traces of Yoni Wolf's leftfield hip hop origins have dissolved - or at the very least, undergone a change of state - for this latest effort. The songwriting is still emphatically centred on Wolf's lyrical dexterity, but the Mark Nevers production helps clear up a band sound that on prior releases has sounded gloriously cluttered. As a band, Why? actually sounds like a remarkably slick pop unit these days, although there are plenty of instances where the tone ascends into… Read more
Prince Of Truth is an immediately striking album - it's dark and heavy in ways black metal can only dream of being. Over the course of 'Tremble Dragonfly', for example, Carla Bozulich and her cohorts establish a soundworld that's part country & western and part Krzystof Pendercki, with just a hint of Wolf Eyes' quieter moments thrown in for extra menace. Rather than going out of its way to sound scary or in any way confrontational however, 'Tremble Dragonfly', like so much of Prince Of Truth' is foremost a thing of beauty - far more so than it is weird or dangerous (although it does exhib… Read more
VARIOUS / DE WOLFE
Bite Harder - The Music De Wolfe Sampler
DE WOLFE
CD // £11.99
SOUNDTRACKS / LIBRARY / EARLY ELECTRONIC
Cat. Number: DWCR001
The De Wulfe independant production company trawl through their archives once again for a follow-up to the now legendary and long-since deleted 1998 LP 'Bite Hard'. That feted album included a wealth of tough funk breaks taken from the Library Music label's catalogue, including tracks that would eventually end up being sampled by Jay-Z (Simon park's 'Hogan's Thing'), High & Mighty (McDonald/rae's 'Nightmover') and Ja Rule. Now, after years of pestering from relentless beat-nuts like Demdike Stare's Sean Canty, Johnny Trunk, and Cherrystone's Godsy, the label have… Read more
Somewhat tellingly, this album is plastered with the statement "The New Album From The Creators of Moon Safari and Talkie Walkie" and a press quote declaring the Gallic duo to be "Back To Their Best". All this suggests that 2007's Pocket Symphony was something of a blip on Air's CV, receiving fairly mixed reviews and although characterised by immaculate engineering and production, was somewhat devoid of the song-craft of their poppier efforts. While Pocket Symphony featured contributions from Jarvis Cocker, Neil Hannon, Joby Talbot and Tony Allen, this album is almost exclusively performed by Monsieurs Du… Read more
Combining fourth and fifth volumes of Can founder Irmin Schmidt's film scoring work, this double-disc anthology looks back over his most recent work, getting us up to date and taking us as far as Schmidt's soundtrack to last year's Palermo Shooting, directed by Wim Wenders. Schmidt's music encompasses heavily machined electronic arrangements as well as the jazzier and more conventionally cinematic orchestral textures within his repertoire, so on the first disc, for example, you might be struck by how divergent the sounds of the J.S. Bach riffing 'Flavia Theme' sounds in compa… Read more
British imprint Impossible Ark has been releasing Jazz, latin and more experimental projects over the last three years. They've picked up celebrity fans like Mr Scruff and Gilles Peterson along the way, and defined a polished aesthetic covering the spectrum of Jazz. This compilation collects some of their finest works from a wide cast of players including accomplished arrangements of classics by Charles Mingus, Jeb Loy Nichols, Lennon and McCartney, and Sun Ra.
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Loefah's Swamp 81 imprint gives birth to a darkside mutant in the form of Kryptic Minds' debut full length dubstep album. A favourite of Martin "Blackdown" Clark and obviously Loefah-most-high, Kryptic Minds are probably the most successful and respected of the barrage of D'n'B refugees to enter the Dubstep camp. They've succinctly adopted the Bass swollen halfstep swagger that Loefah pioneered with a string of seminal releases a few years back, but added a precision engineered darkside vibe more commonly associated with their other genre. The results are impressively slick, possibly comparable… Read more
Turning The Mind is paradoxically a darker yet more extroverted and musically flamboyant follow up to Maps' Mercury-nominated debut, We Can Create. Reportedly, throughout the making of that record James Chapman was heavily involved in drug use, and Turning The Mind arrives as a return to sobriety. Lyrically, this is a far more explicitly personal affair than Chapman's debut, although that confessional introspection is partnered with wall-of-sound synthesizer usage. The bombastic electropop formula is rather a strange one when you think about it; it makes a certain amount of sense for guitar ba… Read more
KAREN O & THE KIDS
Where The Wild Things Are (OST)
Universal
CD // £15.99
SOUNDTRACKS / LIBRARY / EARLY ELECTRONIC
Cat. Number: 2711986
Spike Jonze commissioned Karen O, frontwoman of Yeah Yeah Yeahs to put together the original score for his big-screen adaptation of Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are, and she soon set about recruiting an army of helpers: fellow YYY members Brian Chase and Nick Zinner are on board, as is Deerhunter/Atlas Sound fellow Bradford Cox, plus Jack Lawrence and Dean Fertita of Dead Weather and The Raconteurs, Liars' Aaron Hemphill and Greg Kurstin of The Bird And The Bee and Lily Allen production fame. Not to mention several others and a whole children's choir to boot. … Read more
RAMESES III
Type Recordings
CD // £7.99
NOW: £4.49
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: TYPE052
Following on from acclaimed releases for Type, Foxglove and Important Records, London outfit Rameses III return with their most accomplished, approachable and involving material yet. From the spectral shimmer of those Robin Guthrie-style guitars on 'We Shall Never Sing Of Sorrow' the band begin to chart a serene and introverted brand of pastoral drone-folk. It's harmonious and languid but bolstered with enough grit and substance to give these ambient drifts a real sense of purpose. Like a British answer to Mountains' expansive soundscaping, the assembled cast of Daniel Freeman, … Read more
