Silver Columns

Track of the week:

‘Cavalier’ by Silver Columns (Time and Space Machine remix)

I don’t know much about Silver Columns, that always puts a damp on me trying to differentiate between who is responsible for which parts, but I am acquainted with The Time and Space Machine fair enough, and this does sound like a remix he would do. I love the easy and fresh start, not so into the beat that comes after, but it fits the song. I love the vocals, though I will be the first to admit that they might not be the best vocalists around (or at least are not showcasing that here), but sometimes it is more in the delivery, and I love that rather drowsy thing they do. I was waiting for a Benga like turning point after a stretched vocals only bit, but it stayed rather restraint, a bit more hypnotic than climactic. But hypnotic is good, and it is an atmosphere he sustains towards the end. I love the added, soft piano, that is such a peaceful sound between the hypnotic beat, lovely. He could’ve rode that sound home, and perhaps I would have preferred that over the new beat ending and returned vocals, but oh well, it’s still a good remix anyhow, definitely worth the listen. And at least the vocals return, that’s a plus.

http://hypem.com/track/1042379/Silver+Columns+-+Cavalier+Time+Space+Machine+Remix+

‘We Still Got The Taste Dancing On Our Tongues’ by Wild Beasts (Gatekeeper Gregorian Disco Edit)

So the question is, how can those voices be implanted in a remix? That’s at least what I always think when I chance upon a Wild Beasts remix. This time it is Gatekeeper Gregorian who takes a stab at it, and he pretends this is a disco edit, but not in a conventional sense anyhow. Yes, there is a hint of disco in here, but it is disturbed by an omnipresent beat. Basically only the ooh-waa-oooh-waa-aah vocals are used, none of that actual singing words nonsense, who needs that, right? Or if it is used it is unrecognizably transformed. I’m not too keen on this remix, and I actually like the original, but upon hearing this one for the first time I had to check whether my boxes were not malfunctioning, and if you have to do that you know something is wrong.

http://hypem.com/track/1041365/Wild+Beasts+-+We+Still+Got+The+Taste+Dancing+On+Our+Tongues+Gatekeeper+Gregorian+Disco+Edit+

‘Something I’m Not’ by Penguin Prison

I didn’t like the first Penguin Prison song I heard, and this one doesn’t sound much like that one thankfully. I remember the other one as overly slick, and this one isn’t. I guess it is a pop song more than anything. Not like Beyoncé pop, but indie pop with a definite pop leaning. So it finds itself in the same waters as loads of other bands, and I’m not sure it really finds a way to distance itself from the pack. Those “Geez, you’re…” bits are not really the best lines around. I also don’t find his delivery terribly appealing, though when he belts a bit during the chorus you can hear he has a nice enough voice to work with, but he does not channel it in a way that attracts me personally. But other people might beg to differ. At the end they constantly repeat the same sentence and do the same thing instrumentally, and I can’t help but think if they make a build up out of that instead of a repetition, that is, if they go from soft to hard or from slow to fast or whatever, that it might be a nice climax for the dancefloor. As it is now I’m afraid for me it is a rather forgettable affair.

http://hypem.com/track/1047121/Penguin+Prison+-+Something+I+m+Not

‘Mind Reader’ by Kingdom (CFCF remix)

Oh my, this sounds, erhm, clubby. The start, not like other CFCF remixes. That scratching to repeat the vocals, that is kind of like my pet peeve really, so the starting minute is not really what I was hoping for. Especially not from CFCF, who can make absolute killer remixes, but I’m afraid this is not going to do the trick for me. Perhaps he was thrown off by those Shyvonne vocals and thought, hmm, I have to do something hipperdy hop like with those, which is always the wrong conclusion to draw. For the first time in two years it is painful to sit through something by CFCF. And my gosh, it is never ending.

http://hypem.com/track/1042975/Kingdom+-+Kingdom+Mindreader+Ft+Shyvonne+CFCF+Remix

‘Ghosts’ by CANT (Class Actress remix)

The hypnotic beat is probably the first thing everyone will recognize. At to that the drowsy vocals and you have the starting atmosphere, but Class Actress soon gives it a little something something. It gets increasingly danceable and dance floor friendly. So that is effective layering for you. I was fully expecting the thing to explode after the second series of vocals, and although it was not as climactic as I thought it would be a dance friendly beat is thrown in there to appease everyone on the dance floor. Sometimes you shouldn’t toy with expectations, and Class Actress delivers there. Two thirds on the way it gets a bit techno-ey with the beat, and to offer some relieve some synths are added which do the trick for me. Admittedly not for everyone on the musical spectrum, but for people a bit into deep house and techno this might well be a nice five and a half minutes.

http://hypem.com/track/1045130/CANT+-+Ghosts+Class+Actress+Remix+

‘Quiet Please’ by The Heels of Love

Catchy as fuck, that’s what this track is by The Heels of Love, whom I don’t know, but there are worse ways to introduce yourself to, well, me, but probably to more people as well as I’m not sure they have a huge following at this point (although, admittedly, I’m not sure about anything since I don’t know anything about the band). So the focus is minimized to this song, and gosh, this is lovely. At 1:30, that sound which comes in, terrific! I think it is a synth or something, but it doesn’t matter, it’s brilliant, and the band keeps adding instruments to make it even more dancey, even a piano. And some whispery voices, but I’m not sure they really impact the song much since they’re so infrequent. Naturally, as the song is a good seven minutes long, the sound gets stripped a bit just to build it up again. At one point there is not much of anything there, but you know that like any good dance song they get it going after some additional whispery vocals. Perhaps a bit too soon, as I wouldn’t have mind the first part to go on a bit longer and then have the strip down so they could ride the momentum of the build up home completely. Now the last bit sounds a tad flat compared to the rest of the song. Minor stuff though, as I do fancy this tune.

http://hypem.com/track/1042470/The+Heels+Of+Love-Quiet+Please

Cate Le Bon

Cate Le Bon is one of our brightest stars, releasing her debut album Me Oh My in 2009. The boy Gruff Rhys done good when he found her, as our ears are now all the more grateful – her music is waify like Nico and all wyrd-claustrophobia , centred on a fascination with mortality. We’re only too pleased to have Cate here writing about her discovery and love of the late, great Syd Barrett.

It was almost accidentally that I fell upon the album Barrett by the late and great Syd Barrett. The thought of having not ventured upon it before makes me feel quite unsettled. Thank god for cassette players and sheer perseverance.

During a spat of weekly journeys from South to North Wales armed with a limited number of cassettes, it became apparent that there were only a certain number of times one could listen to Pipes Of Peace and Thriller on rotation before turning violent. We stopped in Porthmadog at the famous Cob Records and whilst I was winding down in the car park my boyfriend ran in and grabbed the only cassettes that they had. We listened to the ones we were more familiar with; Syd Barrett was always overlooked in favour of cassettes we could sing along to. When we’d exhausted everyone else, Syd was finally pushed into the Blaupunkt.

It made no sense to me at all. It was like hearing a different musical dialect that I could not decipher, but I was strangely compelled to return to the record and persevere. I will be forever thankful that I did not own an MP3 player. I would have almost definitely been impatiently flicking towards something that was easier on the brain at this point. So we battled it out on the A470 , me and Syd, and every time I listened I’d hear something new. I started looking forward to car journeys knowing that I was getting closer to assembling the songs out of the cacophony. What I first mistook as a jumbled raucousness was a fragility that at some points would come so close to falling apart but would always manage to hold on by a thread. The instrumentation should be at odds with the songs melodies but it carves its path so confidently it can’t fail to sound sweet. Similarly the lyrics are no picnic but they are beautiful in their own right.  It would be bold to try and give them specific meaning, being that they are wholly abstract and bizarre, but, like a true poet, Barrett is able to create a unique landscape of tragic beauty through his words that, coupled with his music, is utterly unique and genuinely eccentric. When I listen to the album I am always humbled by the thought that had Syd not had an audience then this album would still exists on a 4-track tape machine somewhere. Talent is something that can be done but genius is something that simply must be done.

The album bowls me over every single time I listen to it, it always sounds relevant and exciting to me. The car, along with its Blaupunkt radio, is dust, but I managed to salvage my cassette from the wreckage. Terry the dog wasn’t so fortunate, but good cassettes are so hard to find.

Cate Le Bon is hitting a town near you very soon…

Thursday 4 March – YORK – City Screen Basement
Friday 5 March – NEWCASTLE – Cluny 2
Saturday 6 March – GLASGOW – Stereo
Monday 8 March – MANCHESTER – Deaf Institute
Tuesday 9 March – SHEFFIELD – Harley
Wednesday 10 March – CAMBRIDGE – Portland Arms
Thursday 11 March – LONDON – Lexington
Friday 12 March – BRISTOL – Louisiana

Kasper Bjorke

Our weekly look into the blogosphere where we talk about six tracks we found out about in the previous Wednesday-to-Wednesday seven-day period.

Track of the week:

‘Efficient Machine’ by Kasper Bjorke

This record is gonna be huge, at least it will be for me (already ordered it on vinyl, you know, and based on three tracks that is). This is the second single in Scandinavia, in Europe ‘Alcatraz’ with Jacob Bellens on vocals had that honour. This track has the vocals of that guy from WhoMadeWho, and what a vocals they are. Bjorke sure knows how to pick them. Catchy, athmospheric, and just a bloody good tune as far as I’m concerned. Almost choir like vocals with handclaps on the background and a beat throbbing along, just to kick it into proper dance mode. It’s been on repeat ever since the clip was placed on his MySpace, and I’m actually not sure when I’m going to tire of it. Just terribly good and well looking forward to that bit of vinyl to drop through my mailbox.

http://hypem.com/track/1044183/Kasper+Bjrke+-+Efficient+Machine

‘Hide Me’ by The Golden Filter

I absolutely adored ‘Solid Gold’ by this band, and I have been intrigued enough by the other outings that I’m really looking forward to that April debut album they’re gonna drop. This is not their best effort in my opinion. As said, I loved the almost italo ‘Solid Gold’, was impressed by the more club friendly ‘Thunderbird’, loved the delightfully catchy ‘My Favourite Things’ on the Kitsuné sampler; this I’m not so sure about. It seemingly tries to mix the somewhat harder beat of ‘Thunderbird’ with a more Italo sensibility, but for some reason the beat puts me off and seems a bit too present compared to the rest of the song. And admittedly, some of the instrumental stuff is really catchy, and the “Hide me, no, find me” is your basis Italo longing that we know all too well. But the mixture of the two here seems a bit, well, not up to par with their other efforts, so perhaps I’m now more intrigued by the upcoming debut than that I’m sure of it.

http://hypem.com/track/1043968/The+Golden+Filter+-+Hide+me

‘Spoiledboy’ by 80kidz feat. Lovefoxxx

I always had one problem with CSS, and that is that I was of the opinion that Lovefoxxx cannot really sing. So imagine my bemusement when coming across a track with her on guest vocals. And she features prominently, in case you (like I) were hoping that it would be a cameo. It isn’t even a bad track if you like this sort of thing, a bit of spunky pop you could say, bit of punk and a bit of funk with a rather poppy chorus. I especially like the more spunky bits, the pop thing I’ve heard and heard better. As said, the vocals are not really my thing, but if you have listened to CSS and didn’t think it a problem than you probably are not going to make a problem of it now. It’s got energy though, I’ll definitely give it that.

http://hypem.com/track/1035100/80kidz+-+Spoiledboy+feat+Lovefoxxx

‘Fight Song’ by We Are the World

I actually made a fuss about this band waaaay back, as in, like, 2008, based on a couple of MySpace tracks and especially ‘Clay Stones’, which I rated (and still do, actually), very highly. Also, underground LA reports were very positive about their live show, so yeah. Now, two years (or seemingly two years) later they’re almost ready to give us their debut and perhaps a bit of touring as well, and this track is a preview of what is to come. It is a bit experimental, a bit Arabic at times I would say, and normally I don’t like Arabic or Eastern sounds, but the sounds and those rather fetching deep vocals create a particular atmosphere I find very interesting. It is definitely a slower song than for example their ‘Clay Stones’, but intriguing nonetheless. I love that build-up around three quarters, where they do the same thing three or four times, but increasingly more menacing. I love build-ups like that. It might not be for everyone, but I think their debut is gonna be heralded by some as one of the more interesting releases of 2010.

http://hypem.com/track/1035546/We+Are+The+World+-+Fight+Song

‘On Board’ by Holy Ghost feat. The DFA Celestial Choir (Friendly Fires cover)

I like Friendly Fires, I love Holy Ghost!, so those two exchanging covers sounds like a good idea to me. And you could even say they are reimaginings, at least this one is, as it sounds totally different from the original. It is perhaps less energetic than the original, but more fluent disco, but hey, it’s Holy Ghost!, I would be disappointed if it wasn’t. If you are expecting another instant dancefloor filler you might want to resort to the original, but this one is very danceable as well, it is just a bit more subdued. Less likely to jump out at you, but as said, very fluent and catchy and, well, disco. Perhaps also one of the last things you will hear featuring the late Jerry Fuchs on drums. Not sure where that choir comes in though.

http://hypem.com/track/1042879/Holy+Ghost+-+On+Board+Friendly+Fires+Cover+

‘Stylo’ by Gorillaz (Alex Metric remix)

I love ‘Stylo’, and it is always interesting what remixes make of a track you love (or, in other words, whether they are able to kill it). I expected, prior to listening, Metric to bring it a bit harder, less poppy, than the original. Love the repeated vocals at the beginning, as I thought the original vocals to be rather inspired, so good to see that as Metric’s opening gambit. And if you are expecting a hard, omnipresent beat (like I did), forget it. Sure, Metric’s remix is more club ready than the original is, but the vocals and the added instruments don’t make this a standard club thing. Actually, there are some disco/funk elements added in here which took me by surprise, and a pleasant surprise they were. And of course these disco elements come in at exactly the moment that Womack can be heard bellowing it out in the background. Lots of room for the vocals on this remix, and the mixture of the different vocal tracks is lovely indeed. I’m just absolutely loving this one to bits, definitely worth the listen, and it might persuade me to get this baby on vinyl.

http://hypem.com/track/1043966/Gorillaz+-+Stylo+Alex+Metric+Remix+

‘Go Do’ by Jonsi

Let me first confess I’m not the biggest Sigur Ros fan around, and I hardly took a sniff at the Jonsi/Alex Somers collaboration that came out last year. I haven’t seen the clip yet of this one, though I did read it had birds in it, and I immediately can imagine why when listening to this track. I do like the build up of this track, the first half it just continuously seems to gain steam, and the voice of Jonsi can actually get away with that, which is kind of impressive. Then it mellows out a bit, and the last quarter is propelled forward by added drums, and then it works up a bit to fade out with Jonsi’s voice slowly disappearing to a minimal accompaniment. Jonsi gets to strut his stuff here and does so admirably, and despite some patches in the song I generally like the construction and how it can really gain steam like a locomotive. Rather nice.

http://hypem.com/track/1036040/Jonsi+-+Go+Do

‘Undercover Martyn’ by Two Door Cinema Club

Old fashioned British guitar pop I would say. The vocals sound surprisingly like that fellow from GoodBooks, and I must honestly admit I actually liked that now defunct band better than Two Door Cinema Club. It is pretty good though, nothing too special, but it is fun and poppy and it is sung pretty well. I’m still waiting for that British band which can really play Britpop like a debut Suede or a Pulp or something, it all sounds a bit school band like, that is, young fellows having fun playing catchy pop tunes with guitars. And there is nothing wrong with that, but I’m still waiting for that band which really pushes the envelope both lyrically and instrumentally. This is a fine and fun song though, nothing wrong with that.

http://hypem.com/track/1032670/Two+Door+Cinema+Club+-+Undercover+Martyn

‘Keep the Dog Quiet’ by Owen Pallett (Simon Bookish remix)

I like Simon Bookish actually, that track ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Fountain’ I actually played reasonably often. I always like to see what people do when they remix songs such as this one from Owen Pallett, which is not even the most catchy song on the album, and the album is not really build around hooks and beats and stuff. But this is a lovely take on this Pallett song. He plays around a bit with the violins, but thank goodness he doesn’t get echoey on the voice or stuff, no such dance tricks here. And that’s a good think, that would’ve been ill-fitting I would’ve thought. He does some scratch trickery though it seems, but he always goes back to the core of the original song and to its softer nature. It is a nice take on a reasonable song, though the real innovation seems a bit absent. It to me basically sounds like Bookish just having a bit of fun with this track, and that’s all right.

http://hypem.com/track/1033216/Owen+Pallett+-+Keep+The+Dog+Quiet+Simon+Bookish+Remix+

‘Hope Child’ by Free Energy

DFA goes guitar with these James Murphy produced lads. I think though that I would rather listen to the rest of the label’s roster, this is a bit throwaway summer jam like I think. All quite simple, reasonably catchy, but all in all a road well travelled, or at least I’ve heard loads of similar sounding songs in the past years (and beyond!). And I don’t want to sound like a broken record and I don’t want to go on about the same subject, but again, I miss something that really sells me to this track. That really makes me go, hey, that’s great, that sets it apart from other tracks! Because this track doesn’t set itself apart, and unlike for example the Two Door Cinema Club one I also kind of miss the catchiness and fun in this one. The world won’t notice I would think.

http://hypem.com/track/1034576/Free+energy+-+hope+child

‘All Come Down’ by Steve Mason

Well, the former Beta Band man said this is more of a singer/songwriter affair this album, and that surely was no lie. The first part is actually quite lovely, and his voice is actually rather good and interesting. Sounds a bit like Guy Garvey actually. The song perhaps is too bare though, and not much happens really. Towards the end it gets slightly more interesting, and there is a certain atmosphere, but not enough for me to keep listening to this multiple times. Nice voice, at times nice atmosphere, but it is a bit boring really, to me at least.

http://hypem.com/track/977115/Steve+Mason+-+All+Come+Down

‘Paradise Circus’ by Massive Attack (Gui Boratto remix)

The main thing here is – and that unfortunately completely throws away any accomplishment done by any of the other people working on this track – that I don’t like Hope Sandoval’s voice here. I think it is fragile, which is not so bad per se, but it is the kind of powerless vocals that always make me a bit queasy. So you can be Massive Attack (a proper player in the musical landscape) and you can be Gui Boratto (a big kahuna in his own right), but as soon as the vocals kick in everything starts to itch with me. And even in this remix the vocals, although they come in a bit belated, play a big part, so if you don’t like the vocals, you are not going to like the song. Vocals are often the thing that you notice the most, so every song of which you do not like the singer’s voice you will probably not play very much. And I do reckon that some of the stuff done by the two other parties are nice indeed (though I do agree with whomever it was who wrote that perhaps Massive Attack was putting themselves too much on the background with this one), and some parts I actually thought, hmm, pretty good, and then the vocals come in and I tune it. Unfair, I know, but what are you going to do? It is a bit like that sweater that is affordably priced and will keep you so warm, but if every time you look in the mirror you think, goodness, I look hideous, you’re just not gonna wear it that much (or buy, for that matter).

http://hypem.com/track/1036473/Massive+Attack+-+Paradise+Circus+feat+Hope+Sandoval+Gui+Boratto+Remix+

The Dark Esquire - Situation

Our weekly look into the blogosphere where we talk about six tracks we found out about in the previous Wednesday-to-Wednesday seven-day period.

Track of the week:

‘Situation’  by The Dark Esquire (CFCF remix)

He, it is a funny thing, I loved all the remixes by CFCF last year. They were really good, and then came the album, and for some reason it never really grasped me. This though is another beauty. It is less disco and less dancey than what you might have seen from him next year, and the overall vibe is a bit more in line with his album. But he really turns up the atmosphere on this one. I also really love the vocals here, and how yearning they are, but also how they are not belting over everything and everyone but how it stays within the melancholic framework. Yeah, lovely late night music for insomniacs really, and oh boy do those people need some good music like this. You gotta love the restraint CFCF shows on this one.

http://hypem.com/track/1027215/The+Dark+Esquire+-+Situation+Cfcf+remix+

‘Fences’ by Phoenix (Delphic remix)

Oh boy, you know, those two are perhaps two of the hottest names out there, and I don’t like them. I can bare that Holy Ghost! remix of Phoenix because I love Holy Ghost!, but there is something about that voice that just doesn’t do the trick for me. Which is highly personal seeing them selling out everything and everywhere, but with the vocals so prominently at the start, it just immediately sets the wrong tone for me. I do like what happens underneath those vocals, courtesy of Delphic, and I do think they have some very neat tricks up their sleeve here which makes me rethink checking more of their work (saw them live and since have failed to bother). But I like what they are doing with this track, for me personally it is just the wrong track, and therefore the wrong remix. Regardless of the track by the way, it should’ve been cut in half this one, seven minutes is a bit stretching it. I have no idea how the last part relates to the first.

http://hypem.com/track/1031581/Phoenix+-+Fences+Delphic+Remix+

‘O.N.E.’ by Yeasayer

I actually like some of the tracks on this album, but this new single just isn’t my thing at all. I don’t know who of them is singing it, but it comes across as slightly whiney to me. It is mid-paced, and five minutes long, and musically they try to do some nifty stuff, but it doesn’t hit me on a gut level (I wish I could hit him on a gut level is what all the Annie Hall watchers who like Yeasayer are thinking right now, am I right?). I like the extra vocals at the very end of the song, but that’s about it. And I keep hearing “Hold me like a phone”, which always makes me go “eh?” to then realize, oh no, wait, that’s not right, never mind.

http://hypem.com/track/1030432/Yeasayer+-+O+N+E+

‘The Eyes of Mars’ by Franz Ferdinand feat. Marion Cotillard

I like this sort of genre bending and goofing around. Another actress who can sing, and she can strut her stuff in the first part of the song, which is nice and slow and piano led. And then the lads from Franz Ferdinand build it up to a rocky, signature song. Perhaps Cotillard does not have quite the voice for that part, and when she has to hold a note long it perhaps sounds a bit too fragile in contrast with those guitars. Which doesn’t mean she can’t sing — she can — it only means that at some moments the voice does not mix perfectly with the rock sound the Scotsmen produce. Nevertheless it is fun to hear a band like that with someone from the world of arts to produce something fairly interesting and reasonably entertaining for a period of time.

http://hypem.com/track/1026030/Franz+Ferdinand+-+The+Eyes+Of+Mars+feat+Marion+Cotillard+

‘Never Known Love’ by Thieves Like Us

It doesn’t feel that long ago since they released Play to be honest, that might just be me having a wrong sense of time though. But since that came out rather delayed I believe it is no wonder Thieves Like Us gives it another go so quickly. It actually seems a bit different than what I’m used to from these guys, perhaps less dancey than I remember them, a bit more gazey. They were always a band for after 4AM though (PM? At night I mean, darn it, that’s elementary education for ya ey.). I actually like how this track dawdles along, though perhaps it is a bit too much on the background for its own good. Maybe it’s just me writing this on the commute which has me thinking of other things (Hello, nurse!), but again, Thieves Like Us has always been a I’m-walking-at-home-in-the-night-with-a-barely-lit-sky kind of band for me.

http://hypem.com/track/1031348/Thieves+Like+Us+-+Never+Known+Love

‘Marchin’ In’ by Lo-Fi-Fnk

Well, haven’t they discarded the cheery synth-pop for a different look. The happy, gaily vibe of ‘City’ and ‘Louder’ have been replaced for this one, so you might like it even if you weren’t so keen on the band at first and vice versa. That’s always what you get when you try a new thing, no? It is a bit deeper, as in, the beat, it sounds deeper, a bit heavier. Luckily the vocals make it not like an awfully serious deep house attempt or anything (I mean, lets not change scenes completely here, ey?), so there is still a catchy streak to this one. It is not synth-pop like anymore though, lot less pop, steered away from Cut Copy a bit. But I really like this track. I was a bit hesitant on first listen, but now the catchiness has come through and I can see me dancing on this, and I think it is put together rather nicely. I interviewed the lads like December 2008 or something, where they said they were halfway, and it seems they are now real close to piecing the album together, and this is encouraging to hear. Not sure where the aquatic clip comes in though.

http://hypem.com/track/1032801/Lo+Fi+Fnk+-+Marchin+In

Night Slugs

Since this month’s sudden thaw fucked our already frayed wiring, Short Circuitry’s been in slow recovery on top of the kitchen radiator and has taken the opportunity to catch up on over a month’s musical backlog. Thankfully, we’re now back to our usual shepherd selves, rounding up and processing the usual herd of electronic releases into pre-shaped, bite-size portions – now with an added ‘free stuff’ section.

If the start of 2010 heralds anything in dance music, it’s a beautiful blurring of the lines between what were once seen as neatly insular regions. Towards the end of last year, drum ‘n’ bass innovators Instra:mental began releasing a run of immaculately crafted hybrid tracks that took in everything from eighties electro-pop to fractured dubstep. Dark dub/two-steppers TRG and Martyn began to explore the increased freedom provided by slower house tempos, and the skeleton of UK garage was redesigned by an entire cohort of bass experimentalists.

As befits one of the UK’s most influential club institutions, the people at Fabric have been closely been following these developments over the last year or so, as dubstep’s remit has shattered outward to encapsulate a widening cluster of sub-sounds. It’s a consistently shapeshifting and impossible to define landscape, so with fantastic new compilation Elevator Music Volume 1 they simply haven’t bothered to try – instead offering a momentary snapshot of bass mutations circa now. Either way, it functions impressively both as a scene primer (for those not predisposed to buying shedloads of vinyl) and as a collection of unreleased gems from both established and upcoming producers.

So Untold’s characteristically mindbending ‘Bad Girls’ and Martyn’s house workout ‘Friedrichstrasse’ rub shoulders with the far less ubiquitous likes of Doc Daneeka’s ‘Drums In The Deep’ and the delectable funky techno of xxxy’s ‘Sing With Us’. Even Caspa & Rusko are on atypically restrained form with ‘One Of The Same’, an echo drenched, space-is-the-place slink that sonically finds its feet not a million miles from Lindstrom’s cosmic disco groovefests. But most promisingly, the compilation’s best tracks are from relative unknowns – the lush tropical funk of Hackman’s ‘Pistol In Your Pocket’; Mosca’s insanely addictive ‘Gold Bricks, I See You’ easily eclipsing Joy Orbison at his own housey-garagey game – offering the tantalising probability that this year should be every bit as exciting as the last.

Kieran Hebden seems to have been similarly taken by these exciting states of flux, drafting in both Joy Orbison and Roska to remix his new Four Tet material and further pushing his penchant for jazzy cadence in a dance-oriented direction. Hebden’s new album There Is Love In You, his first Four Tet full-length in nearly five years, further draws on these connections. After the majestic understatement that was last year’s collaborative 12” with Burial, previous single ‘Love Cry’ and the mesmerizing ‘Sing’ are saturated in dazzling technicolour, a world away from Everything Ecstatic’s stranger meanderings. There are elements of his work with Steve Reid here too, both in the glitch-ridden interlude ‘Reversing’ and the ever-changing backdrops of ‘This Unfolds’. To these ears Hebden has always been a reliable talent, so the fact that There Is Love In You is so enjoyable comes as no great surprise. Yet it’s still a welcome statement from a musician who manages to conjure intriguing results regardless of setting.

Traces of Everything Ecstatic at its most percussively oblique also litter Lake, 10-20’s latest EP on Highpoint Lowlife. It’s an appropriately titled record, drenched in aquatic background chatter and curiously inverted, as though gradually resolved through several feet of murky water. But where Hebden’s periods of awkward abstraction are as likely to find resolve in a softly plucked melody line, tracks like ‘Overloam’d’ and ‘Endzone’ as often plunge into cavernous, introspective noise. It’s bracing stuff for the most part, a less easy listen than his earlier releases but as rewarding, dragging together uneasy hip-hop and ambient influences to create a result that’s as much an installation as a record.

Meanwhile, Highpoint Lowlife’s first release of the new year brings together a host of the label’s major players to rework material from Erik XVI’s frosty Stern-Gerlachs Forsook EP. The resultant seven tracks range from austere minimalism to unabashed hedonism, Hot City’s ‘Unionens sista dagar’ remix in particular escalating its house pulse to heart attack-inducing tempo. Infrasonics head honcho Spatial, on the other hand, contributes the EP’s least immediate – but almost certainly finest – moment with his remix of ‘Kalabaliken i Bender’. Consisting of little more than diffuse percussion and blank pulses of sub-bass, like the rest of his music it’s garage taken to the furthest extreme – stark, emotionally withheld and inhuman, save a lone female voice crying into the void.

Over the course of four releases on the Daphne label, semi-anonymous operators Millie & Andrea have been honing a similar balance between icy restraint and direct dancefloor action. Their most recent 12” neatly encapsulates their work over the last year or so, ‘Spectral Source’ combining a lean rhythmic chassis with expansive dub-techno atmosphere. By way of contrast, ‘Ever Since You Came Down’ is all stop-start jungle-influenced percussive mania, bulding in fits and starts before jerking to an abrupt halt.

On the dancefloor, 2010 looks set to be Night Slugs’ year – the London night set up by Bok Bok and L-Vis 1990 has spiraled out into its own label, the first couple of releases from which look set to saturate clubs for the foreseeable future. Their first official 12” is Mosca’s long-awaited Square One, based somewhere in the hinterlands where dub’s expansive space meets funky’s tribal bounce. It’s certainly less immediate than some of funky’s biggest hitters, the title track’s tension between smooth legato and shattered vocal soul more akin to Cooly G than Crazy Cousinz - a conviction borne out on the compulsively brilliant B-side. A nocturnal tryst through London clubland’s astral plane, ‘Nike’ is three tracks in one – ten minutes of constantly morphing, ethereal dance music that manages to cram in an impressive roster of influences yet sound like nothing else around. Shifting from an opening dubstep-ish crawl, it suddenly picks up at around the three-minute mark to a clipped house/garage hybrid before a sudden drop into swirling, oceanic ambience. The payoff at the end of this extended interlude is glorious – three final minutes of bittersweet funky that finally tails off to leave a melancholy afterglow in its wake.

Night Slugs and Apple Pips associate Greena has carved out a similarly warped niche with his recent tracks – his ‘Square One’ remix, available for free download at XLR8R, locks the source material’s melody in a dense cage of percussion and swooping bass drops. His recent Apple Pips 12” pulls a similar trick but in sharper focus, ‘Tenzado’s toughly percussive nature undoubtedly dancefloor ready but cocooned in a humid ambiguity of intent.

It’s hard to isolate exactly what’s been prompting the emergence such an impressive array of unique sounds, but one of the main factors seems to be a renewed willingness amongst a generation of dubstep and grime producers to acknowledge Detroit and Chicago’s huge influence. The steady rise of laptop DJing, even amongst traditionally vinyl purist scenes like dubstep, can also claim some responsibility. DJs can easily change track tempo without shifting pitch and so mix together genres that would previously have been incompatible. Greena’s Ableton sets have always been willfully eclectic beasts, switching with surprising ease between UK bass sounds, classic techno and all manner of regional house variants – an ‘anything goes’ attitude that seems to be traveling further as genre boundaries become harder to draw. His recent mix for XLR8R is well worthy of a listen, moving seamlessly from the Detroit sounds of Omar S and Carl Craig, through Mosca and Untold, to Ricardo Villalobos and Claude VonStroke.

This month’s best free stuff

Greena’s XLR8R podcast, a dizzying forty-five minutes of genre-bending music.

Mosca – ‘Square One (Greena Remix)’, also available for download through XLR8R.

Deadboy – FACT Mix, in which the upcoming London producer whips up “a little heartache on the dancefloor”.

Sully – FACT Mix, further proof that two-step is still in capable hands, with tracks like ‘In Some Pattern’ treading the fine line between upbeat magic and keening melancholy.

Gilles Peterson podcast, with special guest Mala, a wholly worthwhile hour of chat and tunes: new Deep Medi material, classic dub and Steve Reich.

Further reviews, interviews and links to similar material can be found at Close Bracket/Open Bracket.

Track of the week:

Now, I don’t know much about these two men (presumably, they could be very well be women for all I know), but this really gets me in high spirits. The bass is really slick and very dance inducing, and the whole track really has me up on my feet. Lovely disco-ish sound, and I do think there is a cowbell in there, which I’m always in favour of. After two minutes they put in some new sounds to go with that bass which changes the whole complexity of the song, and that just goes on with the addition of vocals as well. First distant, what seems like backing vocals repeating a line, but then actual vocals come in, and they are very disco-y, very in tune with the feeling of the track. The rest of the song stays interesting due to the adding and subtracting of the elements introduced in the first half, and that is why it stays very catchy and very lovely and does not get boring. Fab is the right word, I believe.

http://www.djdownload.com/mp3-detail/Jef+K++Chris+Carrier/Fever/Silver+Network+France/963613

(sorry for this link, apparently this song isn’t streaming anywhere anymore but this at least gives you a 2+ minute preview, so it should give you a nice idea of what it is).

‘Rocket’ by Goldfrapp

For all the revival talk and “oh-this-does-sound-a-bit-like-the-Eighties-doesn’t-it” tagging, this really sounds like the Eighties. Or at least, it sounds like what in 2010 you would think the Eighties would’ve sounded like, with cheesy synths and cheesy lyrics. “I’ve got a rocket / you’re going on it” is not great lyricism in my book, thank goodness it isn’t sung by a man, that would really put it in the “lollipop” 50 Cents category. If you are having an Eighties theme party you can smuggle this one in the playlist with ease. You have to hand it to Goldfrapp that they’re always trying to do something different, from glam rock to the last album to this. Sometimes you do something which you could’ve left out, and this is one of them in my opinion.

http://hypem.com/track/1022616/Goldfrapp+-+Rocket

‘Stylo’ by Gorillaz

Oh this could easily be the track of the week if it weren’t for the fact that everyone has heard this new Gorillaz track already and has heard about the band already anyway, so that bit of promotion might as well go to a lesser known act, no? But it is very good this is. Gotta love Bobby Womack belting it out, but also the main vocals are very hypnotizing, very fitting of the track. This track is just put together really well, very nice to listen to. Also the instrumentals are done nicely, not boxing up against the vocals as I’ve seen in recent weeks with guest appearances, but it really fits each other and is pieced together very smartly. Though that synthy bit or whatever it is does remind me of MGMT’s ‘Kids’ every time it comes up. Not much else to say really except that I’m now really looking forward to the album, because this surely is golden.

http://hypem.com/track/1025289/Gorillaz+-+Stylo+Radio+Edit+

‘Boy From School’ by Grizzly Bear (Hot Chip cover)

I actually semi-like the original, which is saying something as I’m not really a Hot Chip fanboy myself. And I do kind of like Grizzly Bear, though the album wasn’t really near my top list of last year, but live I found them quite lovely sounding when I saw them. This, however, is kind of boring. It exactly sounds like if Hot Chip would’ve made a ballad out of this song, but with slightly better vocals. I do think that Grizzly Bear themselves are just having a bit of fun with this one and do not think they have created a masterpiece, and there’s nothing wrong with having a bit of fun and trying some things out. To me, it is just a slow moving version of a Hot Chip song which is kind of nice precisely because it is not slow moving. So you can see the problem there I guess.

http://hypem.com/track/1026633/Grizzly+Bear+-+Boy+From+School+Hot+Chip+Cover+

‘Please Don’t’ by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim (feat. Santigold)

When seeing the information of this track I did expect a lot of Fatboy Slim, a bunch of David Byrne, and occasional vocals by Santigold. I guess the first two created the music, because Santigold is the only one I’m hearing. Unless one of the two is softly singing along with her, sometimes it seems like someone is doing that, unless I’m just getting paranoid. At least Byrne gets an “oh no” and a yelp in there. I love Byrne’s vocals, so I’m always pleased when hearing him. Not that the Santigold vocals are anything to sneeze at, they are lovely. And so is the entire track. I do feel a Byrne vibe in the music making, it is something I see him penning. It is semi catchy and you can dance to it a bit, and that while Santigold is naming all kinds of former presidents and high placed people. It is sort of an indictment on how such people do not listen to the “common people” I suppose. “Please don’t let them look down on us / like they used to do on me”, so I guess that’s the gist of this really nice track which wants to say something but is easy on the ear and very catchy at the same time (and obviously, it is not like it is a Wallace Shawn play here, the message is there, but slight).

http://hypem.com/track/1024743/David+Byrne+Fatboy+Slim+Feat+Santigold++-+Please+Don+t

‘Evelyn McHale’ by Parenthetical Girls

I am not the greatest fan of folk rock, so surprise surprise, this one is not my cup of tea really. I’m not really digging the voice, it comes across to me as kind of whiney, it drags a bit doesn’t it? To me this would probably be what Fanfarlo would sound like if they were down to three men and the frontman would lack the charisma (not saying this frontman lacks charisma, I have no idea what he looks like, but vocal wise it doesn’t bode well). The folky instrumentals are decent, but nothing special, and there isn’t really anything which sets it apart from the horde of similar soundings songs.

http://hypem.com/track/1025749/Parenthetical+Girls+-+Evelyn+McHale

MIA

Track of the week!

 

 ’Wilderness’ – Active Child

I actually like this very much, this new song by LA’s Active Child. Instrumentally it is a sort of trippy ambient atmosphere, and over that just the most lovely angelic voices. And I just think that is a very nice combination, that juxtaposition of the sometimes more menacing, sometimes more sad instrumentals and those voices almost offering some sort of consolation or forgiveness even. I don’t want to make it sound like it should be played in church, but I think it is rather evocative. Rather cinematic as well. I know at least I will be trying to find a bit more tracks by this artist.

http://hypem.com/track/1020238/Active+Child-Wilderness

‘Home’ – Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros (Fromage Disco Edit)

To be honest, I don’t know much about Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, except coming across them during Jarvis’ excellent Radio 6 show, so if I’m stating plainly obvious things or things that are blatantly wrong regarding the whole oeuvre, I do apologize. It kind of reminds me of the Blues Brothers this one, when they have to play in that country shack. It has a bit of that country rolling vibe, the female vocals are actually quite nice, and the whistling is kind of addictive. You can bob your head to this. With that said I cannot imagine me actually listening to this if it wouldn’t be on the radio. I guess it is fair enough, and when this Fromage Disco edit is on you won’t hear me complaining, but heavy rotation material it won’t be for me. Perhaps if you like the country vibe a bit better than I do it will get your constant attention though. That spoken word bit is a tad ridiculous though, as is the only-vocals bit near the ending.

http://hypem.com/track/1010652/Edward+Sharp+The+Magnetic+Zeros+-+Home+Fromage+Disco+edit+

‘There’s Space For Ol Dat I See’ – MIA

I cannot believe that I would be the only one who would find this boring. It is slow paced and nothing really happens as far as I am concerned. Sure, there is a bit of those spacey sounds going on, but perhaps unfortunately for my appreciation of this track I’m currently trying to piece together a space disco/whatever you want to call it mixtape, and I have heard some great, splendid tracks in the past weeks who do something with a spacey approach and distorted vocals. To me this just bobs along at one pace, and call me old fashioned, but I like it when something actually happens.

http://hypem.com/track/1013459/M+I+A++-+Theres+Space+For+Ol+Dat+I+See

‘I Feel Better’ – Hot Chip

A regular reader of this column will know that I have something against vocals without an edge to them, that is, without a bit of grit. If it is too smooth, too flat, then that is a real deal breaker for me. So you can understand that Hot Chip is not my favourite band. I do like them when they make the voice part of the instrumental lines, that is, when the voice isn’t on the foreground, but instead merges with the instrumentals. This song doesn’t really start well in terms of that, but after two minutes a delightfully catchy beat comes in, and that will have me dancing regardless of the vocals. So if this one comes on the dance floor and it gets that first part behind it then I’ll have a good time. If you are not much bothered by the vocals (and it really is just personal taste, innit?) you might appreciate this catchy track even more.

http://hypem.com/track/1017231/Hot+Chip+-+I+Feel+Better

‘U Can Dance’ – Hell feat. Bryan Ferry

Bryan Ferry, that feels like ages really, doesn’t it? And this track apparently as well, seeing when it was first blogged. But at least I believe the clip is relatively new, right? It was to me at least. It is a rather sad image this is, as Ferry seems to have to box up to the beat. Some words are barely audible because the beat just goes right through them. It gets better though, as soon the voice isn’t interrupted by the beat anymore, or vice versa, and it gets a bit party hardy really. I know the Bryan Ferry name sounds lovely, and that theatrical movement thingy he did with Roxy Music has put him in music history really, but perhaps the best parts of this song are the ones without him.

http://hypem.com/track/944700/DJ+Hell+Featuring+Bryan+Ferry+-+U+Can+Dance

‘Hollywood’ – Marina and the Diamonds (The Juan MacLean remix)

I’m torn when reading this because I love The Juan MacLean, and I don’t love Marina and the Diamonds nearly as much. So it could go either way really. Unfortunately I’m not really taken with this remix. It’s a quite straightforward club mix, or at least it comes across as such to me. The repetitive vocal utterances of the word “if” is not really my thing, and I’m not a great fan of her voice in this one either. Not much else to say really, except that I’m looking forward to the next The Juan MacLean song as always.

http://hypem.com/track/1015583/Marina+the+Diamonds+-+Hollywood+Juan+MacLean+Remix+

Hot Chip - 'One Life Stand'

‘Forever In Their Debt’ - by The Revenge (original mix)

He is sort of a big thing in house circles, isn’t he? Too be honest, I’m not gloriously familiar with his output, but I did like that ‘Leave Your Mind’ single that came out not too long ago. This song is driven forth by a deep house beat with occasionally a deep voice mentioning something or another concerning Chicago, which makes sense since Chicago does not only have blues roots I believe. It is nine minutes long, and on the surface there is not too much that goes on except the basic sound. But it seems that minor alterations are constantly made to that basis in speed, volume, and occasionally even in extra sounds. At 5.30 or so the sound changes to just the beat, and you know a build-up is going to come, and indeed it does. Multiple instruments get added slowly, though do not expect a real huge climax or anything. If you like a bit of that Chicago house sound than I do recommend it, because I in any case could see myself dancing to it.

http://hypem.com/track/1005457/The+Revenge+-+Forever+In+Their+Debt+Original+Mix

‘Love Harder’ by Ali Love (Tronik Youth remix)

He is starting to become a recurrent name in the blogosphere, isn’t he? In any case the part I regularly dive into. This is a remix by Tronik Youth, and I must say that I like what he has done with the song because I can remember finding the original a bit on the soft and pop side, but this is quite fun actually. Still a bit pop, but the vocals do not seem as soft as in Ali Love’s original track and you can do a bit of hip wiggling to this. It is not wildly catching or anything like that, and one minute out of the middle wouldn’t have hurt it, but it is danceable and you can sing along to it as extravagant and gay as you please, and a bit of fun on the dance floor is always welcome, ey?

http://hypem.com/track/1008655/Ali+Love+-+Love+Harder+tronik+youth+got+the+love+mix+fix

‘Kungen’ by Love Is All

So who is going to state the obvious and say that the start with the pa-pa-da-pa-pa thingy is a bit, well, corny? And it returns! Oh goody. It actually is a bit of the motif of this song, along with female vocals which feel like really slight. The yelping and the pa-pa-da-pa-pa lines also make the song feel as a bit of a kid fest. I remember seeing them live once and I remember actually enjoying a bit of it, but perhaps they did not play this song.

http://hypem.com/track/1011574/Love+Is+All+-+Kungen

‘One Life Stand’ by Hot Chip (Carl Craig remix)

I like how the more techno sounds of Carl Craig are mixed with poppier elements, undoubtedly re-imaginings of the Hot Chip track. And I guess that was Carl Craig’s idea when doing this, as he is a renowned techno musician, and Hot Chip makes pop-electro, or in any case electronical music with decidedly poppy elements. At around the four minute marker this guitar comes in which I do like in combination with the techno beat, and perhaps it could’ve come a bit sooner, because the track is a whopping ten minutes, and after the four minute mark it really starts going to work with more Hot Chip elements finding their way into the song. One of my pet peeves concerning the band Hot Chip is I personally can’t stand that voice, but I can bear it in songs like ‘Over and Over’ and stuff as then it is not really about the singing but it is just another part of the song. Unfortunately for me, in this remix Carl Craig takes down almost all the techno elements, and the faint throbbing techno beat in the background is the only thing accompanying the voice for about a good minute or so. If you do like the voice this might be a welcome break for you in a 10 minute elephantine track, but I could have lived without.

http://hypem.com/track/1011828/Hot+Chip+-+One+Life+Stand+Carl+Craig+PCP+Remix+

‘Icarus’ by White Hinterland

Deep drums and atmospheric sounds I thought would be the prelude to a very dark track, and with such a title one could easily imagine something to that effect. But then the fragile female vocals come and background singers who go oe-hoe-hoe, so there goes that really. I’m personally more a fan of the darker sides of life, but I can imagine that for some people this admittedly dreamy and atmospheric track might be a treat. Something for snowy days while gazing out of the window, so to that effect it was released at a proper time I suppose. Personally I’m not that into oe-hoe-oe’s and fragile female voices, but I can see how someone would find this soothing or would be able to dream away to it.

http://hypem.com/track/1014275/White+Hinterland+-+Icarus

‘Will You Be There’ by Mimo

Gosh, you know, I like that VEGA mix of ‘Running Out’, another track of Mimo, and I actually think that style might suit his voice better, that kind of softer beat. Here it seems as if he is bidding against the beat, which is quite present. I think if, like VEGA did with his track, the accompanying instrumentals would be a bit more old school disco I would like this track more. This sounds actually a bit more like a remix than that VEGA’s track did, and I don’t want to go on about Palomo’s remix of a different Mimo track, but to me this track’s beat is too present and is fighting the rest of the song, which can be remedied by taking a similar approach as that of Palomo’s. It’s a decent track though. Sorry about linking this one through to MySpace.

http://www.myspace.com/mimononstop

Broken Bells

After a brief pause this column returns! Oh joy! First, before we go back to the “the week in blogosphere action” kind of thingy, first a look back at the past few weeks (Christmas and advent, I think) to cherry-pick what came out in the time this column was on temporary hiatus.

Track of the week:

‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ (Holy Ghost! remix) by Van She

Best.Friggin’.Thing. E–well, not ever, but this definitely takes the cake, crown, and other words beginning with a “c” as far as the past few months go. The lads from Holy Ghost!, who will be dropping their debut album somewhere this year, recently released a mixtape with some of their remixes, and it really is superb. This one came into the blogosphere not too long ago, a remix of Van She’s cover of a Blue Oyster Cult song, and it just rolls. It’s dancey, little bit retro disco, and above all it is catchy to boot. It just flows so smoothly and it got my head bobbing the whole time, and you can easily start singing along the chorus after the second time it kicks in. And who wouldn’t want to do that with such a stellar song? Just a lovely, lovely track that is like honey to my ears. The mixtape as a whole, downloadable from the DFA website, is a treat as well.

http://hypem.com/track/993180/Van+She+-++Don+t+Fear+The+Reaper+Holy+Ghost+Remix+

‘The Future Will Come’ by The Juan MacLean (Canyons remix)

I absolutely adored the album by The Juan MacLean last year, though sometimes I feel I was the only one. I guess the people who didn’t like it might like this track, but too be honest, I’m not really into this Canyons remix, another of those young DFA bands who hopefully soon will be releasing their debut. Canyons as a whole is a bit hit and miss for me, this remix definitely belongs in the latter category for me personally. There are some nice bits in it, but Canyons does take the flow right out of it, or so it seems to me. Some of the instrumental bits I do love, but it is the basis beat I really can’t get around, and so whenever the instrumental bits that run over it aren’t that great the track falters a tad. The distorted vocals, I’ve got nothing against distorted vocals, but I’m not really feeling it on this track. It is a reimagining of the original song though, I will give them that, and that instrumental bit that usually comes immediately after the vocals is inspired. The rest of the track I could’ve lived without.

http://hypem.com/track/1005736/The+Juan+MacLean+-+The+Future+Will+Come+Canyons+Remix+

‘Stick to My Side’ by Pantha du Prince feat. Panda Bear

*In his best Rodney Dangerfield impression* “My God, it looks like a zoo around here!” Not that Dangerfield would every say anything like that, but oh well. Pantha du Prince, endorsed by the people of Fact Mag, is going to release an album this year, and the minimal artist has enlisted Panda Bear for this song, he from Animal Collective. I love that hypnotic beat for the first few minutes, however I’m not really into the vocals. They sound a bit distant, as if it is in between musical layers instead of on the foreground, and I don’t know if that really helps with these vocals in particular. Then again, maybe it would be even worse if it was on the foreground. The vocals do not trigger anything within me, and as a musical layer I don’t feel that it really adds a lot to the song. It is too bad, because I do believe Pantha du Prince can knock that minimalist beat thing right out of the ballpark, but, despite the distance, the vocals they still very much have the song in their grasp.

http://hypem.com/track/992408/Pantha+du+Prince+Panda+Bear+-+Stick+To+My+Side

‘MCs Can Kiss’ by Uffie

Though I’m not saying that I liked the track prior to it, but whenever an artist references to “Wave your hands like you just don’t care”, frankly, I’m out. It sounds to me like a mix between The Go! Team and The Beastie Boys, and I like both better. Because I’m also not crazy about songs that stop to incorporate a kissing sound. “I’ve got something MCs can kiss” I also find not too inspired a lyric, which really can be said about the whole song. The sax on the end, maybe I’m too much Jazz (and not enough experimental/fusion Jazz) to really like that bit at the end. It sounds the way she sings; chopped up.

http://hypem.com/track/982105/Uffie+-+MCs+Can+Kiss

‘Looking for What?’ by Lindstrom & Christabelle (Sally Shapiro remix)

To be honest, I have no idea whether this album by Lindstrom & Christabelle is a 2009 or 2010 album! It’s so strange, maybe it is a continent thing. Anyway, Norwegian space disco wizard Lindstrom teams up with Christabelle, and this time for a whole album’s worth. Italo chanteuse Shapiro remixed one of their songs, ‘Looking for What?’, and I’m loving the results. It starts really atmospheric and fragile, and then it gets a bit more of a beat to it and it becomes a bit more dance friendly. The vocals of Christabelle really mix well with both the first and latter part, and especially how well it fitted within the first part really surprised me, how well that sounded. As said, it really builds up in terms of pace and how much you can dance to it, and when the track is seven minutes long it is okay to have such a build-up I think, DJs can cut out the first part anyway, and already start a new one during the minute long outro which solely seems to consist of a distant drumbeat. Nice remix and a whole other take on this Lindstrom and Christabelle song.

http://hypem.com/track/976050/

‘The High Road’ by Broken Bells

It is funny, because I’m not really that into The Shins, but I do like James Mercer’s vocals. He really knows how to inject a sentence with a certain atmosphere. Look out for the sentence “To each their own” for example, which he delivers in such a way to evoke a certain feeling. I also really like Danger Mouse, but I just don’t know if this really will “stick”, that is, I often find I think a song is nice or even good, but it simply doesn’t stick. With this song I have the feeling I can listen to it and really like it, but that I also can not listen to it and in the mean time do not feel that I want to listen to it. Which is, admittedly, a strange way to judge a song, but what I do in this column is not really judging, it is more a quick take from the blogosphere and a little bit of “people who like such and such a sound might appreciate it, I personally did or did not, and these are the main reasons for that”. So I like the vocals, I like how he brings the lines, I like the Danger Mouse accompanying music, but with the exception of certain phrases uttered in a certain way I do not find it all too special or all too memorable.

http://hypem.com/track/1007333/Broken+Bells+-+The+High+Road