Tuesday 23 December 2008

<< Backwards / Forwards >>

First lets have a quick look back over the year and all that wicked music that has graced our ears, or mine at least. Have it in a vauge list based form:

1. Flying Lotus – Los Angeles (Warp)
2. 2562 – Aerial (Tectonic)
3. Starkey – Ephemeral Exhibits (Planet Mu)
4. Polar Bear – Polar Bear (Tin Angel)
5. Deerhunter – Microcastle / Weird Era Cont. (4AD)
6. Eero Johannes – Eero Johannes (Planet Mu)
7. Atlas Sound – Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel (Kranky)
8. Trim – Soulfood Vol.3 (Self Released)
9. Gang Gang Dance – Saint Dymphna (Warp)
10. The Bug – London Zoo (Ninja Tunes)

11. Distance – Repercussions (Planet Mu)
12. Minilouge – Animals (Cocoon)
13. Adebisi Shank – This Is An Album By The Band Adebisi Shank (The Richter Collective)
14. Rolo Tomassi – Hysterics (Hassle)
15. DJ/Rupture – Uproot (The Agriculture)
16. Trouble Books – The United Colours Of Trouble Books (MIE)
17. Dusk + Blackdown – Margins Music (Keysound)
18. Down I Go – Tyrant (Undergroove)
19. No Age – Nouns (Sub Pop)
20. Dot Rotten – R.I.P. Young Dot (Rotten Riddims)

Any I’ve not talked about before on here look out for some words on them sometime no doubt.

It’s been a really good year for music, for me at least. I have really been feeling the dubstep, grime and bass music in general. There seems to be one hell of a vibrant scene that I had only vaguely dipped into in the past. It’s been the year of the blog for me as well, it’s got me talking to loads of cool people and hooked me up with some really nice music, so thank you to all of the people who have hooked me up and helped me out, you know why you are. Massive props to 3barfire and Drowned in Sound for letting me write for them as well.

Now lets move forward >>>

I’m really looking forward to a whole load of dubstep albums:

Kode 9 seems to be getting one ready to go and if his collaborations with FlyLo and LD are anything to go by it’s going to be special not to mention his funky shenanigans.

While I’m mentioning FlyLo I may as well say he will have the 3rd EP from the LA series dropping next year no doubt. No idea if he has other plans but lets hope so he has blown me away this year.

Antisocial Entertainment seem to be working on a load of albums. Kromestar has an album on the way for early next year called My Sound, which I’ve heard already and I must say it’s pretty damn nice. Other members I’ve heard are making albums are, Silkie, Heny G and ConQuest. No idea when they will see the light of day but I swear something is happening. Look forward to some new skool funky techy grooves with a fuck load of soul.

Martyn is working on an album that will drop sometime next year on his own label that will no doubt be very special indeed. Pretty much every track I’ve heard from him has moved me in some way, shape or form.

Maybe just maybe we will get some new stuff from Burial, but who knows hey he is a secretive chap and I doubt we will know anything until it happens.

Zomby has been killing me this year with his really deranged Zomby EP on Hyperdub, it seems like an age ago I started to hear these fucked up creations and now they are finaly out to buy. I will write about them soon no doubt, but I really hope he will make a wonky deranged bleepd fest of an album this coming year to follow up his backwards looking rave revival album Where Were You In 92. No idea if this will happen but I can dream can’t I?

A dude that goes by the name of Guido has been killing me recently with his futuristic R&B meets grime and dubstep creations. I really hope he is planning a follow up to his last mixtape collection at least a few 12”. I have heard Guido, Joker and Gemmy be described as the Purple Trio from Bristol so hopefully they will all kick off next year.

I’m pretty sure Rustie is working on an album for Warp or something like that anyway, if I’m not mistaken. Now that will be well worth a listen for fans of wonky as hell street bass and bleep-hop.

In a similar kind of vibe Samiyam is rumoured to be making an album for Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label. Rap Beats Vol.1 this year was a wicked little CD and so was his Hyperdub EP.

Hudson Mohawk & Mike Slott are working on an album that is ready to drop early next year, which should be interesting.

Dalek have Gutter Tactics ready to go as well which will be a mad slice of forward thinking noise drenched hip-hop.

Grime is shaping up to be a bit special too. Trim will be dropping Soulfood Vol.4 and I hope to be getting this to write about when ever it’s ready and I for one can’t wait. Durrty Goodz is dropping the pre-album album (what ever that means) CD called Ultrasound and if the radio session on Logan Sama the other night is anything to go by then it’s going to be wicked. Goodz will also have his vocal version of Starkey’s Gutter Music appear on Dusk & Blackdown’s Keysound label early in the year.

Making some serious underground noise right now is the UK Funky scene. Grime and Dubstep headz are all taking notice along with the bassline and electro posse. Funky is some kind of bastard hybrid of funky house, grime and big dirty bass. It’s all pretty murky and fun sounding. I first heard about it after Kode 9 started shouting about it on a radio show and span a little set. Then I got hooked when hearing Markus Nasty, Mac 10 and Spyro on Rinse FM playing it all the time. In recent months it’s really kicked off with people from all areas jumping on the sound and doing there own thing with it. Big productions from Roska, Apple, D Malice, Crazy Cousins and Geeneus have all blown me away. Dubstep is already getting into the vibe of it all with the most notable playas being Kode 9 & LD who dropped the amazing Bad EP with one side being a funky tempo and the other being dubstep tempo. I think there is going to be some BPM wars going on in coming times as headz from all scenes try and blend everything together.

Now I have got the bass and beats out of the way I may as well give you some guitars hey? Dananananaykroyd will release their debut album Hey Everyone! I for one am excited about this one.

Grizzly Bear have been working on one as well I think and if the few tracks they have played live and stuck up online are anything to go by then it’s going to be pretty special.

There has been a hell of a lot of hype and noise about Animal Collective already, well if you hang around with music geeks on forums there has been anyway. The few tracks I’ve heard sound damn nice to me too and I’m not really much of a fan.

Maybe just maybe Final Fantasy will drop Heartlands on us, I know I would really like to hear another album from him.

I’m really looking forward to hearing Worriedaboutsatan’s next album entitled Arrivals. It’s dropping early next year I think and it’s shaping up to be beautiful, a real mix of minimal techno and post-rock soundscapes.

Bradford Cox will hopfuly decide to finish off Logos after all that drama of it leaking all over the place in unfinished form earlier in the year. More Cox is always welcome round these parts.

Some Tubelord would also go down a treat, I saw them a few times this year and really enjoyed what I heard. There progression has been quite something too, so I think they can pull off a wicked album.

Just for the sake of dreaming I will also mention Daft Punk and My Bloody Valentine as who knows they might make something happen…

What I’m looking forward to most though are all the surprises, bring it on!

Wednesday 17 December 2008

Lost 8 of '08 - #3: Flying Lotus (AKA my first DiS feature)

I've been a long time reader of Drowned in Sound and hang out on the boards probibly far to often. But the other day Editor and DiS Headhoncho Sean asked me to write an article on Flying Lotus for his Lost 8 or '08 feature. So I jumped at the chance, see what I wrote by clicking on the link bellow.

My First DiS Feature!

Thursday 11 December 2008

Neil Landstrumm – Lord For £39

Landstrumm has been around for ages now on the underground electro bass margins he may even been one of the pioneers and even ahead of the game at times. He is damn good at cooking up a sort of techno / electro / breakbeat / rave / dubstep thing even before dubstep was called dubstep. So can he keep it up with his new album for Planet Mu?

Well I’m slightly torn about that, Lord For £39 has its moments for sure but there seems to be a little something missing.

The production is really top quality, as you would expect from Landstrumm. Full on bass sounds, bleeps a plenty plus punchy, crunchy drums are all over these tracks.

So it’s not the sounds, it must be the songs. There is nothing really bad about them by any means. They revive a low budget (hence the name Lord for £39) bleepy rave electro sound, but the tracks don’t really stick in your head for to long. Don’t get me wrong there is a sense of cheeky fun to the album and some of the tunes will no doubt shake a dance floor.

I just get the feeling it has all been done before, by the likes of Si Begg who even appears on some of the tracks or even electro heads like The Hacker or LFO. I can also hear echoes of Radioactive Man in tracks like Nike Volume.

Highlight include the big booty number Shit Daddy Bass with it’s large low end, gritty dancehall breaks’n’bleeps plus Carlton Killawatt toasting on top. Old Rabbits has some balls I guess in a Robokop kind of way. One of the more dreamy tracks The King Of Malta works pretty well, the twinkles and blips move into some dirty electronica to make a nice track. The driving Gameboy dancehall number The Dose with Ebola is also pretty effective. The final track Ross Kemp as Pixel needs a mention just for it’s massive bass tones and the icing on the cake that is a John Peel sample.

Lord For £39 leaves me a little bit cold overall like a tramp stuck out side a club asking for a smoke. The odd moment catches you and takes you on an electro rave journey but there is nothing revolutionary about it.

Monday 8 December 2008

Starkey - Ephemeral Exhibits (3barfire Review & Interview)

More 3bar business today in the form of my review of Starkey's excelent debut album Epemeral Exhibits right here, go on click it!

Then just as a little reminder if you didn't catch it the first few times I posted about it. My interveiw with the man himself Stark Bot AKA PJ. Click me!




Saturday 6 December 2008

Echodub Presents: Anechoic Chamber (A free album)

Go and grab this excellent free album from the people over at Echodub its twenty tracks of blissful and deep dubstep, techno and anything in-between. Don’t sleep on this it has to be one of the best free packages I have come across in a while. Link at the end of post…

Track List:

Absense - Good Love
Kwality - Doug Wilson
Vishnu - David Makes Triangles
Indigo - Golden Proportion
Furesshu - The Leopard
Sines - Beneath Me
DFRNT - Surface
Foiledtorsos - The Specialist
Furesshu - Tel Aviv
HxdB - Silent Q
Indigo - Matter
Solar Constant - Northern Divide
king slaFF - Sacrifice
Sines - Test Four
Akema - Cold Hearted
king slaFF - Within
Substep Infrabass - The Entity
Tangka - Salamander
Foiledtorsos - Ultra Analog Dub
DFRNT - Quite Simply

If I had to choose some highlights I would go for the opener Good Love by Absense with it’s Deep Chord style dub techno vibes, Ingo’s sublime Golden Proportion this track has some bass weight to it and the flickering melodies play off the tinkling percussion perfectly. Sines turns in a soca infused deep number with skitting drum patterns and techy overlays, not to mention the vocoder style breakdown on Beneath me. Echodub collective founder DFRNT smashes it with the bass heavy Surface as the pads build a dreamy atmosphere around you. Ingo’s second beast on the album Matter is also a big one with hard swung techno drums and dubby vibes. Northren Divide by Solar Constant slays me each time I listen to it, the future garage drums skip things along nicely with the deep and menacing chords as the female vocal snippets add some soul. Talking of Menace King slaFF brings it in bucket loads with Sacrifice with bass drones and four to the floor techno drums. Tangka’s water drenched jungle tones on Salamander bring some dense heat to the album you can almost feel your clothes sticking to you. DFRNT finishes things off in a melodic melancholy tech-dub style on Quite Simply quality stuff.

Check out the feedback from the Dubstepforum crew if you don’t believe me.

http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=68376&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20

Promo Video:


Echodub - Anechoic Chamber Video from Echodub on Vimeo.

Thursday 4 December 2008

Man is Slapped

The one man indie electronica fella from York dropped me his demo and he won’t be getting a slap from me for it. He brings together some synthy computer elements with a bit of instrumentation to make a lo-fi yet truly compelling listen.

The tracks are a nice mixture of blissful elctronic soundscapes with bleeps and accessible indie pop hooks with nice lyrics about girls and airports.

Opener The Crash is a quirky number about just waking up in a hospital and not really knowing what’s going on. This turns out to be a pretty up beat number considering the lyrical content. The way he harmonises with himself is excellent and the hooks are damn good too.

The Air of Budapest has some really beautiful understated instrumentation but the vocals make me cringe a little at times. I love the use of duh duh dum dum’s in a cheerful yet subtle way. The epic strings really make this track for me.

Running to the Airport has some almost junglist drums under some digital voice harmonies. For some reason the vocals remind me of early Flaming Lips but I’m not sure why.

Closer Unnecessary Fuss has some very nice what sounds like looped acoustic guitar samples and some vocals that all make it sound a bit like Alfie crossed with The Field. The bleeps and more loops build with harmonies to make a cracking little track.

Go and check out Man is Slapped on myspace

http://www.myspace.com/manisslapped

Download the demo here

http://rapidshare.com/files/156208893/Man_is_Slapped.zip

Monday 1 December 2008

Flying Lotus Essential Mix, Radio One, 29th November 2008

Alice Coltrane ‘Galaxy In Turiya’
Charlie Hayden+ Egberto Gisomonti / Gonjasufi ‘Testament’
Flying Lotus ‘Massage Situation (Stripped)’
Dimlite ‘Sun Sized Twinkles’
Flying Lotus ‘Robertaflack Ft. Dolly’
Flying Lotus ‘Robertaflack (Mike Slott Reflunk)’
Ahu ‘I Know All The Bitches (Bullion Remix)’
Heralds Of Change ‘Amuse’
Carlos Y Gaby ‘Happy Summer Solstice’
Pudge ‘Yung Infamous’
Dorothy Ashby ‘Myself When Young’
Nosaj Thing ‘Bach’LL ‘Turf Day’
Flying Lotus ‘Infinitum (Dimlite Remix)’
Clark ‘Springtime Epigram’
Burial ‘Shutta’
Blank Blue ‘Blank Blue (Flying Lotus Remix)’
Daedelus ‘I’m String Struck’
MHE ‘Untitled’
Daedelus / Madvillain ‘Experience/Accordion (Flying Lotus Live Remix)’
Hudson Mohawke ‘Zoo0000oom’
Rustie ‘Black Block Remix’
Teebs+Jackhigh ‘Idea 1 (Clutch)’
Matthewdavid ‘Tallahassee Tapes’
Martyn / Flying Lotus ‘Vancouver+Pet Monster Shotglass’
Fulgeance ‘Chico (Dorian Concept Remix)’
Joker ‘Solid State’
Rusko ‘Moanerz’
Daddy Kev ‘Invite8’
Ras G ‘Star Messenger’
Madlib ‘Unreleased Gem’
SAMIYAM ‘Cheesecake Backslap’
Knowledge ‘Dawn’
Flyamsam ‘Princess Toadstool’
Sa-Ra ‘Hollywood’Muhsinah / Flying Lotus ‘With Me/ Melt’
Flying Lotus ‘Dissecto’
Flying Lotus ‘Breathe’
Mike Slott ‘Home’
Flying Lotus ‘Sangria Spin Cycles (Ambient Mix)’
Danny Breaks ‘Cosmic Dust’
Flying Lotus ‘Beginners Falafel (Free The Robots Remix)’
SAMIYAM ‘Falafel Cannon’
Flying Lotus ‘Beginners Falafel’
Slum Village ‘Players (Instrumental)’
Flying Lotus ‘Cackle’
Flying Lotus ‘Raise It Up’
Osborne ‘Definition Of A Breakdown’
Baron Zen ‘Burn Rubber (Dam-Funk Remix)’
Mono/Poly ‘Needsdeodorantbitch’
Chocolate Star / Nelly Furtado ‘Stay With Me/Promiscuous’
Gonjasufi ‘Suzie Q’
Kiing Midas ‘Lost (Flying Lotus Live Remix)’
Rusko / Flying Lotus ‘
Terminal3’ / ‘Tea Leaf (Dancers Live Remix)’
Daedelus ‘Hours Minutes Seconds (Beat Invitational Version)’
Kode9+Flying Lotus ‘Kryon’
Zomby ‘Spliff Dub (Rustie Remix)’
Busta Rhymes ‘What Up’
SAMIYAM ‘Crystal Lake’
Weather Report ‘River People’
SAMIYAM ‘Flintstone Car’
Flying Lotus ‘Backpack Caviar’
Radiohead ‘Reckoner (Flying Lotus Remix)’
Bjork ‘All Is Full Of Love’
Broadcast ‘Winter Now’
Portishead ‘Elysium’
Linda Perhacks ‘Hey Now Who Really Cares’
Flying Lotus ‘Infinitum (Exile Remix)’
Flying Lotus ‘Live Set Practice Run’
Listen Again:
http://bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00fklr1

Download:
http://alldj.org/index.php?name=News&op=Article&sid=17317

Well that’s my listening sorted for the week.
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