Apologies, I've been away from my blog over the weekend. A slightly heavier than expected Friday night followed by an all day session of drinking - football - drinking - dodgy chinese takeaway on the Saturday and then me really paying for it on Sunday has meant that I really couldn't be arsed to post any music links.
I'm back now and just wanted to finish the theme from last week with an old, old record from my youth and then a couple of new records. I'll start at the beginning with possibly the most chilled song of my teens - 'Thieves Like Us' by New Order. Released as a single in 1984 then added (with its B-side) to the kind of best of compilation, Substance, this builds and builds like a wave that then crashes onto the beach as the lyrics come into play. The song then pulls back and forth as you are taken away on a pleasant chilled vibe. Great lyrics too.
And bang up to date with two more tracks. Here's one by PJ Harvey called 'The Words That Maketh Murder'. Does she need a lengthy introduction? I hope not as I'm not going to here. I did Beth Orton a week or two ago so no point overdoing it on lengthy bio's of Britain's best female songwriters. In this video, Polly is on top form with some Mary Margaret O'Hara impressions thrown in for good measure.
And to finish some bang up to date minimal techno with a big Latin feel to it but also African. It's by Jose del Valle who hails from Seville (no surprise there then) and is a real grower. I was reading about the theory behind minimal techno recently. Apparently there are two forms: skeletal and massification. This tune is clearly the latter. Sit back and enjoy this chilled loveliness. This was out last week. CHOON!
Too often dance music is guilty of being too darn serious. I do like the mean and moody side of electronica and my music collection is clear evidence of this but every now and then it's nice to hear a tune that puts a smile on your face. There's plenty of DJs doing that: Claude Von Stroke, Calvin Harris, Fatboy Slim are 3 off the top of my head but the DJs that do try and add humour tend to be towards the electro, breakbeat or disco end of the spectrum. It's difficult when your tastes tend towards the minimal because the preferred medium doesn't lend itself so well as a cheesy disco beat, a funk inspired riff or most commonly in the vocals. The double whammy comes with the weight of audience expectation that almost demands that minimal techno is too cool for smiles.
One DJ who stands out for me as making minimal techno fun..even, God forbid, popular is Daniel Steinberg. He's been around for a few years now, based in Berlin and he tends to keep a low profile letting his music do the talking. I first came across his 'Too Much Love' track as I was scouring Youtube for remixes of 'Your Love' by Frankie Knuckles. The sample is there in Steinberg's song but it's very much his own, the way he's stripped off his sample and modelled his tune around it. It was followed up by 'I Like to Be' which was an infuriatingly catchy track and really showed his talent for incorporating voice samples into his work. 'Pay For Me' was also a monster hit at the time.
He's been busy the last couple of years DJing mainly in Germany but in that time has released around a dozen tunes and I can say hand on hear there isn't a duff one amongst them. He's finally releasing an album, Shut Up, on Front Room Recordings this week. It's available in digital from Beatport here or in vinyl from wherever people get vinyl from.
I'm really looking forward to hearing it in full. I'll let you know what it sounds like when I've had a good listen. It's a shame it's not in CD form too as I would definitely buy a copy for my 8 year old who also loves Daniel Steinberg's output. I'd urge you to go and check out his back catalogue. I guarantee you won't be disappointed. In the meantime here's a real mixture of old and new:
There are also 2 minute samplers of a few more tracks from the album here
Finally, my limited edition Amanda Palmer sings Radiohead album arrived today. Well, it was sitting in the post office sorting office for me to collect but it was a very pleasant birthday present, nonetheless. I'd almost given up hope of it arriving. It's quite a collector's item too.
As you can see, it came with lots of goodies too: a t-shirt, badges, transfer tattoos, a signed photo and of course the album itself. She's got an incredible voice and an attitude to match. The album is just, her, her ukelele and a hatful of Radiohead songs to cover. I'm a keen collector of odd cover versions and she really does them justice. It's all my favourite Radiohead songs too which is doubly pleasing.
I can't find it on the web but on the album is a rehearsal version of Creep when she was incredibly hungover in Berlin. She holds the note in the final chorus for about 20 seconds. What a voice!
This is from the album but rather ruined by having Free's "Alright now" blasting at the end. Sadly this is the only version I can find on the net but I urge you all to stay in and buy the downloads from her site here: Amanda's Radiohead album
As a special birthday treat, here's the official video to her super smash hit, Leeds United.
She fell out massively with her record company over that video. They wanted to remove the bits where she's got her tummy out. Apparently, bellies are not allowed. Madness, I know. Fortunately Ms Palmer dug her heels in and the tummy stayed in the video.
Brighton beat Colchester rather comfortably, 2-0 tonight to extend our lead at the top. To celebrate the win over our Essex opponents I've decided to pick 2 songs by 2 very classy Essex girls, Polly Scattergood and Alison Moyet. I mean that sincerely and without any sense of irony. I'm big fans of both of these singers.
They share a link apart from the county of birth. Everyone knows that Alison used to be in Yazoo, seminal English 80s electronic pop duo with Vince Clarke and he has also remixed Polly Scattergood's 'Other Too Endless' single. Yet another coincidence, Polly is from Colchester...and her video to 'Please Don't Touch' was filmed in Brighton. It's symmetry, I tell you.
Daniel Lefkowitz was one of my finds of the year last year. I randomly bought his EP from Rough Trade not knowing anything about him other than it was a limited edition and my copy is 82 of just 325. I fell in love with the music as soon as I heard it.
He's originally from Virginia and is an ex-member of Low Anthem. His singing style is beautifully languid, kind of Bob Dylan (the comparisons are inevitable) voice with a Dr John style of delivery or Leadbelly even. The words roll in his mouth as he sings. Incredible.
Gravedigger Blues sounds like a blues standard that ruminates on God, the world and our place in it. A simple little hook that is infectious. Erinna to Sappho uses slide guitar to create a beautiful love and Siren Ghost is the inevitable melancholy number that transports you to images of sitting in the porch of a shack, rocking on a chair and lazily staring out onto the bayou. Death is a Warm Bath sounds like one of those old English folk songs that was taken over by the early pilgrims, given a loving home in the Appalachians and has remained there ever since, to be sung accompanied by guitar, banjo and a spitoon for the old boys to leave their chewed baccy.
It looks likely that he'll be back over to do the festival circuits and I definitely would love to catch up with him then to hear him live. His videos on Youtube look like he really enjoys his job. And so he should, he's very good at it.
TweetI've put my first minimal techno mix (podcast? DJ set?) onto SoundCloud this evening. I cheated with some of the mixing but it's still all new to me so please bear with me if it sounds a bit naff in the mixing. Overall, I'm quite happy with it.
That was the borrowed bit (well bought from Beatport) and this is the blues. Beck's version of the Korgi's "Everybody's gotta learn sometime". I think I prefer this to the original. The video is a bit cheesy, the tune is as far from gorgonzola as it is humanly possible to get.
TweetThomas and I are on the sofa, Youtube surfing tonight. We've picked two tunes for the blog, one to get you up and dancing and the other to get you relaxed and sleepy. Guess which is which!
I've been a big fan of this group ever since hearing their second album, Citrus, back in late 2006. They're a 4 piece band with two permanent members, Yuki Chikudate and James Hanna. The first two albums were definitely pure shoegazer. It had the crunching heavy guitars, the long solos and Cocteau Twins-esque vocals. What separated them from their peers though was that they made sure not to get pigeon-holed into the nu-metal scene, which could have happened considering how raw and powerful the guitars were and also they genuinely had great pop tunes. Yuki's voice works so well as a counter to the other instruments employed.
There is an interesting juxtaposition of what is definitely a Western band but with an Oriental lead singer. In Yuki's case she is Japanese. It's a pleasant quirk of pop that 2 other bands that I like a lot have a similar setup; Dengue Fever and Little Dragon although Dengue Fever draw heavily on the Cambodian roots of its female lead singer. They release a new album later this year. It will most certainly feature on this blog.
Enough about them, back to Asobi Seksu. They had a very successful tour on the back of their third album, Hush. This was partly funded by donations from fans who are very loyal to this band. In return, its clear that Asobi Seksu take their fanbase very seriously. There are regular updates, competitions, photos and emails about what they are up to. I like that. If they do manage to break the big time (as they deserve to) then it will be because they've gone about things the right way. A strong work ethic and looking after and developing their fanbase.
The third album, Hush, marked a seismic shift in the sound developing within the band. Yuki's voice became the predominant act and the guitars became more jangly. In short, they moved towards dream pop. They've been drip feeding fans excerpts from the new album, Fluorescence, next month but if the track "Trails" is anything to go by then it sounds like there's a drift back towards grinding those guitars but the tunes are as melodic as the third album with maybe a Phil Spector wall of sound 'bigness' to the production.
...and here are two official remixes of the same song. The first by Holy Other - yet another Gothenburg born musician. So much talent from that city.
Albums that I've been listening to today: Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst, Death in Vegas - The Contino Sessions, Boom Bip - Corymb, Best Coast - Crazy for You, Mount Kimbie - Crooks and Lovers
It's a minimal techno bonanza this evening. My favourite.
First up is arguably 'the' minimal techno dancefloor filler of last year. No surprise that it's still hitting the Beatport top 10 download charts even now. I have an odd relationship with this tune. Sometimes I absolutely adore it, sort of getting ready to go out music. Other times I think it's too lightweight and poppy but that's just me, too fickle about music.
Next up is something deeper and more moody from Christian and Nico aka Kollektiv Turmstrasse hailing from Germany, the Mecca of minimal techno.
Also from Hamburg is Schalk who played this beautiful set the other night. I wish I'd been there to hear it. He's also got a blog where you can find more of his sets: http://antimaterius.wordpress.com Unfortunately, the blog is in German of which I know only a very little but the music is in the international language of music. Click here to listen: Wuggy... by Schalk
Here are two brothers who make seriously good music - Andy Jenkinson (Ceephax Acid Crew) and Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher). If you haven't heard it yet then do yourself a favour and get hold of a copy of Squarepusher's 2010 album Shobaleader One d'Demonstrator. It is absolutely brilliant. This is called Endless Night.
Ceephax Acid Crew specialises in the darker side of drum and bass as well as acid house. This is a track from his album United Acid Emirates which was released at the beginning of last year.
Celer were a husband and wife team of Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long, producing experimental ambient music from their home in California. They met around 2004 and in 5 years produced over 30 full-length albums of home and field recordings which they self-published, each one lovingly crafted and packaged. Tragically Danielle died in July 2009 of heart failure at the age of just 26 and Will Long announced that new recordings under the name Celer would cease. Unreleased recordings they made together are being gradually released though.
Ambient music is often misunderstood and under appreciated. When done well it can quite literally be a musical poetry and Celer were well qualified in this. Both Will and Danielle are/were multi-talented artists both in the fields of music and literature; she a painter, a poet and also a solo artist (recording under the name Chubby Wolf) and he a writer of short fiction as well as a very accomplished musician.
It's interesting to note that for all their obvious expertise for language that both had, they never felt the need for words in their songs. A love of music and a love for each other shone with every song. It is, I should think, impossible to build the kind of patient atmosphere of their music if they weren't completely in tune with each other. The output is quite staggering when you consider the end result. Some artists take a lifetime to produce what they were recording on an almost monthly basis.
I find real beauty in the minimalism of music, when all superfluity has been pared and what you have left is the pure essence. Celer had this talent and on hearing one of their tunes back in 2008, I was instantly hooked. I can't for the life of me remember the name of it. All those albums and all those exotic song titles but I guess it's not that important. Every time I've gone back to explore their music I've come away with something different and life-affirming. It's possibly the sparsity of the music that creates the space to allow you properly to listen to it. One album that they did make back in 2008 sticks in the mind though. I say album but I think that might be too restrictive a phrase - it's a composition in 3 parts, the last being over 40 minutes long. It's title was never more apt and never more fatally portentous: I Love You So Much I Can't Even Title This (The Light That Never Goes Out Went Out)
This is a track from their 2009 album, In Escaping Lakes:
And this is a full recording of another album from 2009, Brittle:
Albums I've been listening to today: Bobby Gentry - the Best of the Capitol Years, Various Artists - Computer Incantations for World Peace, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Holly Miranda - Choose to See EP, Jah Wobble - Celtic Poets, edIT - Certified Air Raid Material
I like to have long relaxing bath on a Sunday evening and plonk the laptop on the sink and listen to Youtube videos. These two are just perfect for such an occasion. The first is a track called the Score by Leon Somov and Jazzu, two London-based Lithuanians. It's a trippy little track that will probably end up on a Hotel Costes compilation.
The second is Bettye Lavette, a contemporary of the great female soul singers of the 60s and 70s. This is a classic in every sense of the word. One of my favourite soul songs of all time.
Other videos I've been watching this evening: The Best of the Johnny Cash Show, Arnold Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire.
Sounds like the perfect Sunday to me and it would have been if I'd got any sleep last night but the student party next door went on until 7 this morning. Enough bad karma, the day panned out rather well in the end. I cooked a Sunday roast for me and my two children and now we're chilling out. Thomas is playing on the PS3 whilst listening to Gil Scott-Heron. Gabriel is upstairs on the Wii and I'm messing around with minimal techno mixes on the mix decks I got my 11 year old for Christmas. It's a lot of fun.
I promise to put this into one of my future mixes. Mr Scruff-type jazzy bass lines with Moby-esque voice samples and enough clicks, whistles and bleeps for the techno purist. I think it's awesome.
Albums I've been listening to today: The Frames - Burn the Maps, Beth Orton - Pass in Time, James Pants and Dam Funk - Chart Toppers, Tricky - Mixed Race, Gil Scott Heron - Ghetto Style, Gil Scott Heron - I'm New Here
Female singer-songwriters do seem to get a bad rap. Maybe I'm just imagining it but the music press does like to repeat the cliche about the market being saturated in a kind of vicious delight that they don't have for male singers, 3-piece guitar bands or geeky male duo dance acts. As with black hollywood actors, the limit is 3 or 4 at any one time. All the best ones are on the introverted side too, well the British ones anyway and this added resistance of a cynical media can't help. It's saddening and maddening that there might be out there a future Sandy Denny, Kirsty MacColl, Joan Armatrading, Beth Gibbons, Amy Winehouse even and that person just never got the breaks. For all my doom-mongering, there is hope. Laura Marling leads the way. Alison Goldfrapp goes from strength to strength, Florence (from the Machine) and Marina (from the Diamonds) are two sisters that are doing it for themselves and if there is any justice in the world Polly Scattergood will finally get mainstream attention.
My favourite homegrown songstress has to be Beth Orton. There's a simplicity to her songwriting that really speaks to me. That's not to say her tunes and lyrics aren't sophisticated. Quite the reverse in fact and ever since I heard Trailer Park for the first time I knew that here was someone special. The lo-fi folk was a real antidote to the (phoney, at times) Brit Pop phenomena and the ladette culture it spawned in the tabloids. this leftfield approach did afford her the freedom to walk the road less travelled, free from media expectation or undue personal attention.
Trailer Park is a homage to low rent, white trash America in an endearing Neil Young way. The cover of the Ronettes 'I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine' is a masterpiece in artistic re-interpretation. Simon Cowell take note - if you're going to cover a song then bring something new to the table. Please, no more karaoke.
Central Reservation came 3 years later. The album cover promised music akin to Trailer Park and although it was kind of similar, it started a leaning towards melancholy electronica. Daybreaker, the following year, took this forward and even included guest appearances from such dance luminaries as Four Tet and Chemical Brothers.
Comfort of Strangers, released in 2006 was a retro album and I think if someone hearing all four albums for the first time were asked to place this chronologically, they would put this second. It's a powerfully personal album and there are hints of a loss of innocence that Beth has exhibited in all the previous releases. A new album comes out this year. I'm very curious to see which way this one goes.
Why this lengthy Beth Orton restrospective, I hear you ask? Well, before seeing a nervous Brighton beat Peterborough 3-1 earlier today, I went for my obligatory Saturday morning shop at Resident Records. I bought two albums, one is a remix of some pretty amazing dubstep tunes by legendary dub specialist, Scientist. The other album is a kind of best of Beth Orton but I bought it because it includes some new remixes that I felt the need to own.
Albums I've been listening to today: Steve Mason - Boys Outside, Mikkel Metal - Brone and Wait, Black Keys - Brothers, New Order - Brotherhood
TweetI popped down to Rough Trade in Brick Lane at lunchtime and bought the following albums:
Murcof - The Versailles Sessions
The Outdoor Types - One Legged Elvis EP
Andrew Weatherall - Watch the Ride
Damian Lazarus - Smoke the Monster Out
Actress - Splazsh
Lone - Emerald Fantasy Tracks
Fujiya and Miyagi - Ventriloquizzing
Ducktails - III:Arcade Dynamics
James Pants and Dam Funk - Chart Toppers
My 11 year old son and I have an agreement that when I drag him and his younger brother round the record shops, that I'm allowed a maximum of 7 purchases in total. He wasn't with me so I bought 9. I won't tell him if you don't. I'm especially looking forward to the new Brighton based - Fujiya and Miyagi album. I was a big fan of their last album and think they are very under-rated. I might try and catch them live if they are gigging soon. So far my list of must see bands includes Lamb who tour in May and hopefully Prince Buster. It's a list I'm keen to expand so any suggestions are gratefully received.
I'll also be listening carefully to the Damian Lazarus album and trying to spot any more Nick Cave samples in it. One of the tracks, Come and Play on the aforementioned album samples Red Right Hand. Possibly the first time ever I've heard Nick Cave on a dance record. Damian Lazarus also recently did a Fabric album but unfortunately it was overshadowed by the Shackleton album I bought at the same time so I end up comparing the two which is unfair on poor old Damian.
I came to Witch House quite late in 2010 and was fortunate in a way that I could dive straight into it with lots of artists producing music that was starting to fall under this umbrella tag. Unfortunately, I find it difficult to describe the genre adequately. As with dubstep, I kind of know what it is when I hear it but to say that it's "x with a bit of y" is beyond me. Ironic really, that here I am trying to get a music blog off the ground and within half a dozen posts I've already admitted that I'm not good at articulating into words the sounds that I like.
The scene itself seems to be very low key, non-commercial and deliberately difficult to even name the artists involved. Keyboard symbols for band names is very common. How would you pronounce /// /\/\/\ \\\ or †‡† or even //TENSE// ? (the question mark is mine!). I've explored it mainly through word of mouth on forums and music sites. It has been fun though.
With that in mind, I did think of a way out of this conundrum. At the back end of last year, the first truly commercial compilation came out. The label Disaro from Houston released an album showcasing some of the leading names, ciphers and squiggles. I'll try and give a running commentary as I listen to it.
1. †‡† - Misery Walk
It's clear from the start that this isn't easy listening. Straight into the track, with no intro. A drone-y bassline with sampled voices instantly plunges you into an atmospheric treat. Sounding like a distorted soundtrack it's definitely electronica, dance music it ain't. Just as you are finally acclimatising to the noise it stops very abruptly. One of those - 'is my CD player on the blink' kind of stops, last heard on Portishead's Machine Gun.
2. Party Trash - Sky Clad
Even by track 2 you may get the idea of where this album is going. I swear I could hear late-80s Depeche Mode amongst the echo, reverb and kitchen sink that is thrown at this. Once again the drone, almost epic but then a kind of paranoid riff emerges. Another short one, finishing in under 3 minutes.
3. Fostercare - Cold Light
I'm on safer ground here. If you've ever spent any time listening to Suicide then you'll know what to expect with this but with that perversely the most listenable so far with a thumping drum beat throughout. I don't know why but it reminds me of the heavy industrial music that was played in that vampire nightclub in Blade 2. It even threatens to go into trance but then it also could be the Doctor Who theme.
4. //TENSE// - Versus Man
This has a very retro feel to it and British too. Imagine Leftfield or Chemical Brothers with the Mission guesting. No, on second thoughts, Sisters of Mercy. There are clearly influences from the Germans too with a very industrial sound grinding through. They may not be next door neighbours of bands like Wumpscut or Front 242 but they live on the same street. I like, too, that this is truly dance-able. Perhaps not as a first dance at a wedding though.
5. Modern Witch - Your Life a Movie
The album takes a more clinical turn here. Your Life a Movie is far more monotonous in the literal meaning of the word and by far the most minimal yet. The vocals feel very detached from the song and Julia Roberts and Kylie are repeatedly name-checked along with other modern phenomena such as mineral water and electronic mail. What do they have in common? I guess it's difficult to get excited about any of them. That probably explains the monotone.
6. Mater Suspiria Vision - Ritualz of the Crack Witches
Taking the baton from the previous tune, this has what sounds like a voice being played backwards on loop. The high hats and big drums thump out behind it with the 2 chords being played repeatedly on the keyboard. Strangely sinister but strangely soothing. Very strange.
7. ///'Horse Macgyver\\\ - Nod
Fans of Four Tet will feel at home with this. The pace is slowed down to a crawl with all sorts of sounds pulling you from one way to another. It seems that with Witch House, license is given to mangle the echo and reverb. I imagine this band is a sound engineer's worst nightmare.
8. White Ring - IXC999
One of the most successful of the bands from this album and it shows. It does have all of the elements of bloated distortion, dark and heavy bass and deliberately mistuned microphones but the quality shines through. Probably my favourite from the album if you were to ask me and the one featured below.
9. Raw Moans - Nectarine
I feel like this perhaps shouldn't be on the album. It's got a lightness to it that the others lack. It's most certainly a 'last track on the album' kind of song'. I can't quite put my finger on it but it almost (almost) could be Dream Pop. If I were to tag this track it would be 'least likely to be covered by Psychic TV'. For all that, I really like it.
Hopefully, you'll now understand why Witch House is so difficult to describe in one easy sentence and I think that was probably the intention.
Albums I've been listening to today: Belle and Sebastian - Write About Love, Martina Topley-Bird - The Blue God, Mary Gauthier - Between Daylight and Dark, Adriano - Bolada E.P.
A bit of a bumper post from me. First up is a tune to banish those winter blues. Solo vs Vega's Love Ritual is a great party tune for anyone yearning for those carnival days of the summer. This has a really lovely Brazilian feel to it with all the right ingredients for a big smile. It's quite minimal in its approach, as it should be, with the rhythm controlling the harmony. It's available as a free download too from SoundCloud.
The next track is a remix of a new release by Lykke Li called I Follow Rivers. This is one of my must get albums of the year and long-awaited after her first album a few years back. I understand that she had a few personal problems but glad she seems to have put that all behind her now. I've listened to a few of the new tracks now and she is definitely less twee, more polished and sounding more confident. Proof indeed that the Swedes are producing so much great music at present. I'm really looking forward to my trip to Gothenburg next month.
Albums I've been listening to today: Marianne Faithfull - Before the Poison, Lamb - Best Kept Secrets 1996 - 2004, Arial Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today, Ingrid Schoeder - Bee Charmer, Jatoma - Jatoma.
Here's a big tune from last year. It uses Elton John's Song for Guy as the hook to great effect. I've seen it described variously as dubstep and although it's dark I don't think it's heavy enough for that genre. It kind of reminds me of Tricky with its tempo and lyrics and definitely R&B in the singer's delivery. If this had come out 12 years earlier it would not have looked out of place in some of the darker trip-hop/dance acts that were around then, think Unkle, Death in Vegas, Lamb et al. This is the kind of tune that really makes me wish I had the talent to be a DJ. I can think of a fair few tunes that would segway well with this; Ants by edIT for a start. My one criticism is it is far too short and that, I suppose, is a compliment!
At the end of last year, I made a New Year's resolution to start a music blog and after much faffing around with template designs and suchlike, here we are. I'm prone to rambling so will keep this first post as concise as possible but I can't go without saying thankyou for taking the time to stop by. If you'd like to link me to your blog or whatever that would be great too. No hard sell from me though, I just hope I can pick out some music that piques your interest.
