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Free song download of "Everything Is Borrowed," the title track from the new Streets record (out October 7, on Vice). Mike Skinner's fourth album lands him somewhere in between the brilliant 2-step/pop of his debut and 2006's The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living, where he embraced a variety of rock 'n' roll cliches. Some of his best songs ever are on Everything Is Borrowed; you'll want to check out the title track, the R&B swagger of "On the Flip of a Coin," and "The Sherry's End," where Skinner is at his clever best, waxing lyrical in a now patented kitchen sink slang style.
In anticipation of the new Danielson collection out this November, Secretly Canadian has gifted you, kind Other Music shopper, with this cool FREE live EP of some family classics. Top quality recordings, spanning from a 1999 CBC session to a couple of full choral stage performances and a 2006 Dutch radio session find this always eclectic band in their finest setting: LIVE!!!
What can we say? A spankin' new Wackies reissue is always a big event around these parts and there's reason to be really excited about this one. The Lloyd Barnes-led Bullwackie instrumental albums are some of the deepest, heaviest roots rhythms you'll ever hear. These dub records aren't as ethereal as Pablo, or as technical as Scientist, and they're certainly not as unhinged as Perry's. But the emotional nature of the playing speaks volumes. The economical reverb-treated guitar solo in "United Rock" tells me more about the blues than any Clapton slowhand solo I've ever heard. Other highlights include their version of the Horace Andy tune "Skylarking," which features heavily treated, cascading drums and plaintive piano fills, and the full vocal version of Joe Auximate's "Trouble Land," from his infamous lost album, which was apparently mistakenly erased years ago. (See what weed can do?). Heck, the whole album is a highlight and if you've been a follower of dub for years or a novice not familiar with this sound, this'll probably be stuck in your player for a while. Highest of the highest recommendation. -Duane Harriott
I once read that the time when there were the most active bands in the US was 1967, right after the release of Sgt. Peppers. Basically, everyone heard that record and started a band. Literally, everyone. If that's a true statistic or an urban legend I'm not sure, but each month there are more reissues of late '60s "Private Press" records. Amazing unearthed artifacts of raw obscurities and dog-eared jams by bands that never made it out of the basement, let alone their hometowns. The RFD's Lead Me Home is a standout example of a truly sick private press record in the ways it both follows the aesthetic of this phenomenon and also befuddles. Okay, under 500 copies originally released on a private label in 1971? Check. Ridiculous non-self conscious band name (RFD stood for "Russ, Fred and Dan", the founding members of the group)? Check. Tripped-out record cover, low-budget home recording, naive lyrics shouldered in astute-yet-understated mellow acid folk songs? All this checks out, but the RFD was also apparently a Christian rock band? Lead track "He Is Coming" fits the mold perfectly for a sub-categorical d.i.y./post-Byrds/stoned at home jam except for the male/female reverb-touched harmonies about Christ "coming in his golden glory." Oh, yeah, a lady named Debbie adds a lot to the record but somehow she and drummer Larry got left out of the acronym. Despite the possible conflict between the heavily hippie/drugged-out underpinnings of the album and the Christian need to walk a straight and narrow path, there also seems to be a conflict in the songs between God's glory and a deep sense of Vietnam-era alienation. Simply stated tunes like "Why Do I Feel Alone?" and "On the Outside Looking In" don't do a lot to obfuscate this theme. Much like the Tony Caro & John record, another stunning private press item that found wider re-release a few years back, the RFD finds textures and ideas that would have been impossible within the confines of record labels, professional equipment and legitimate studios, even in 1971. There's a sense of passion and excitement that's unique to the homespun world of self-edited, self-informed, self-everything songwriting. Contradictions abound and those confounding moments are some of the best parts. -Fred Thomas
Noted experimental electronic producer Jan Jelinek delivers a live album recorded last year in Berlin...sort of. What he actually did was invite some members of the new German electronic vanguard (Stefan Betke, Thomas Fehlmann, Robert Lippok, etc.) to remix a track from his most recent album, Tierbeobachtungen, and then present it live. The results sound pretty great to say the least. The highlights are many but my personal faves are Betke's (a/k/a Pole) expansive, shifty take on "Palmen Aus Leder," which builds to a very satisfyingly crunchy crescendo. Robert Lippok, of To Roccoco Rot fame, does a nice update on the Marimba-laden classic minimalism of Steve Reich in "A Concert for Television," by adding a pulsing, staccatoed electro-drone to the proceedings. But overall, the whole thing is a beautiful, well rounded recording of introverted ambient bedtime beats, perfect for the longer nights ahead. -Duane Harriott
This year so far has seen the reissue of many seminal electronic works that have proven via hindsight to withstand overpowering stagnation by means of true innovation -- the works of Gas and Basic Channel in particular come to mind. Add to that list of essential reissues this 3CD collection of Stefan Betke a/k/a Pole's first three albums, simply and respectively titled 1, 2 and 3. Originally released on the now-defunct Kiff SM label in 1998, '99, and 2000, these works sounded like nothing else at the time -- perhaps the Basic Channel camp being the only other mining similar territory -- and amazingly still resonate today with an air of timelessness that few purely electronic works are able to manage. Much has been said of the "gimmick" of Pole's music in the past, so I'll keep my synopsis brief: Betke was given a Waldorf 4 Pole filter by Gudrun Gut and Thomas Fehlmann which had been dropped and broken; when attempting to use this damaged apparatus, he discovered that the resulting sounds which it made -- namely a series of reductive snaps, crackles and pops -- were truly mesmerizing. Betke proceeded to strip his music to the barest of essences by letting the Pole filter's hypnotic defects dance around and in between the cavernous spaces of heavy, dub-inflected bass lines. He went on to release these tightly-crafted, fine-tuned experiments in three installments, each bearing sleeves swathed in simple, striking primary colors (1 is blue, 2 is red, and 3 is yellow). The rest, as they say... Now, however, reassessing these records after techno/electronic music's obsession with all things "minimal" -- after Villalobos's 20-minute 12" epics, after Burial, Shackleton, and dubstep mania, all of whom have driven further down paths Betke had helped to pioneer -- these albums truly stake claim as some of the rock-solid foundations of that movement, while sounding absolutely nothing like anything they went on to inspire. While Basic Channel's mini-dub soundscapes were still tethered to a 4/4 pulse, Pole's music was so unique in that its rhythms are nearly all implied; few had heard music which was so forward moving and so heavily rhythmic while simultaneously having no true beat! It's precisely that negative space which makes the music so appealing to so many different types of music heads; from the soothing, almost psychedelic ambience the music possesses, to the deep dread found in the heavy and melodic bass lines, there's a little something for everyone. UK avant-rock group This Heat once had a song entitled "Music Like Escaping Gas," and honestly, I've not heard a better description for these records than said phrase. This package, finally able to be regarded as a concise whole (also tacking on four additional bonus tracks included from compilation and 12" releases of the same era), is essential listening to be regarded with the same canonical respect, enjoyment, and fervor that records like Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol 2, the first Boards of Canada album, and Villalobos's Alcachofa still command. Highest recommendation! -Mikey IQ Jones
One of the more overlooked bands on the British Cherry Red label gets a long overdue retrospective, including singles and tracks from the practically non-existent Spanish-only LP, on Acting on Impulse. Five or Six were contemporaries of Wire and This Heat, and while they don't have the taut aggression of the former or the wildly experimental side of the latter, they share a similar, if somewhat intangible, post-punky vibe. "Another Reason" (produced by Kevin Coyne) and "Sleepwalk" (pre-coldwave pop) are brilliant, gloomy pop songs, and "You, the Night and the Music" is dark, haunting top tier wave music. Fans of Monochrome Set and Joy Division should perk up their ears, as Five or Six might just become a new favorite band. -Andreas Knutsen
"Conclusion/Manifesto: Interested in combining the best of all worlds. The Human League would like to affect the future by close attention to the present, allying technology with humanity and humour..." Criminally under-heard vintage, foundation laying, dark synth-wave with a lot less in common with "Don't You Want Me" than it does with Throbbing Gristle (though much more melodic) and Suicide (just as dark, no rockabilly, and more "new romantic"). Believe it. Though, instead of going to art school, Human League dropped out of high school and had more fun. This gem-loaded sampler featuring material from their pre-Virgin days from when the band was earlier known as the Future (just wait till you hear the whole collection!) is rich with totally sincere, forward-thinking, yet totally unschooled and homemade synth jams. Prescient, vital music that doesn't feel like homework. The closest thing to O.M.D. meets Throbbing Gristle. I'm in Heaven. -Scott Mou
Monodub's Monkey Business EP is minimal house with a fat, throbbing, stripped-down sound. We're reminded of some of the extra long, classic Losoul tracks but with a more synthetic sound overall. There's also the subtle, slowly changing style that's more popular these days, pioneered by guys like Villalobos.
Brand new single from one of Sasu Ripatti's many guises (e.g. Vladislav Delay, Uusitalo, Conoco, Sistol). Luomo has always been Ripatti's "pop" outlet, where he crafts wonderfully romantic electro-house from the minimalist production sensibilities of his other projects. A preview of his fourth album, Conival, Ripatti is joined by Apparat, and what results is some of Luomo's sweetest music to date.
Drawn in Basic is a beautiful collection of electronic pop songs by Italy's Populous (a/k/a Andrea Mangia) and guest vocalist Short Stories (Mike McGuire) courtesy of Morr Music. On her third album, Mangia combines exploratory synth sounds (Raymond Scott comes to mind) with indie pop and shoegaze, as well as disco and four-on-the-floor dance music. Populous' marriage of analog and digital never sounded better.
The Town Topic EP is the soundtrack to video artist and photographer Laurel Nakadate's debut feature film, Stay the Same Never Change. Laurel commissioned Casiotone to compose all of the music, right down to the character's ring tones. Consisting of thirteen short instrumental pieces, book-ended by two vocal tracks that, this EP also collects tracks from two limited seven-inches. As we've come to expect from Owen Ashworth, organic electronic pop of the highest order is what's on offer here. Great stuff!
Domino has specialized in signing new under-aged (and over-ambitious) UK bands lately, just prior to them taking over the universe. Wild Beasts will surely be huge in their native lands at least, with a dramatic orchestrated sound, whip-smart lyrics, and fronted by singer Hayden Thorpe's acrobatic falsetto. Fans of Divine Comedy, Pulp, and even Scott Walker should take note. |
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