With the awesome explosion that Add N To (X) provided with the super limited single "Little Black Rocks On The Sun," there was hope that Add N To (X) would do something as good as the second album "On The Wire Of Our Nerves." But the two following releases including "Add Insult To Injury" proved that they only had about 90 minutes of good music in them. Right now, the UK trio has only been interested in the irony of using analogue synthesizers and vocoders... how boring.
Veering from the sci-fi bleakness of their last effort On The Wires Of Our Nerves, Add N To (X) have modernized the Moog exotica of the '60s with this propulsive collection of epic analog fuckery... Ignore the record-label hype that this is some sort of Stockhausen meets Motorhead experimental hard rock record (what were they thinking, it's not).
When listening to the first track of the new Add N To (X), I could not escape the overwhelming feeling that I was listening to an analog synthesizer muzak version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack. A rousing, campy, kitschful time. Confirming once again that they're a one-trick pony, ANTX have assembled another album that gets the toes tapping and rumps shaking yet ultimately leaves the listener's ears unsatiated. There's an abundance of burly vocoded vocals, and vintage synths that bloop and blurp out gelatinous cycles of riffs... which all sound super cool, if very predictable. Frankly this probably wouldn't be such an issue at all if only they'd never released their first two albums which surpass - in both composition and rocking power - anything they've done since. However... they did. If you're new to this London trio, definitely check out either of their first two before venturing into later territory. For further ANTX thoughts, please see the review of the "Take Me To Your Leader" ep.
Somewhere between Gary Numan and Jean-Jacques Perrey. The aesthetics of Kraftwerk fused with punk brought the industrial sounds of SPK, Esplendor Geometrico, and Nocturnal Emissions...this continuum continues under the guise of "post-rock" with Trans Am, Six Finger Satellite, and now Add N To X...a bloody assault of analogue synths, propulsive bass lines and hyper catchy tunes...recommended by those kids at the Wire!
These three new songs (two of them edit versions) offer a mere glimpse at their fifth album Loud Like Nature. What to expect? Churning robot rock in 4/4 time featuring a whole gang of highly processed vocals - not unlike what you might think garage rock performed completely on analog synths would sound. Fun, funky and repetitive, these songs will probably make for ideal additions to a party comp tape, but will they stand up to repeat listens? Not so sure about that. Hopefully the full length will venture beyond these synthrock confections as they did on their great second album, On The Wires Of Our Nerves, but their track record since then has shown that it's highly unlikely. Once again it seems this London trio recorded some jams, and from the outcome, chose a handful of cool synth and bass lines and came up with some even cooler synth sounds, but didn't pursue composing fleshed out songs around them. It appears their best work is still the aforementioned sophomore release. Note: the vinyl features an extended mix of "The Trees Are Dreamless Leafless Genius" whereas the cd version includes a video for the title track.
This is a collaboration between Barry from Add N To X and Randall from Fuxa. Hardly the fusion of Michigan space rock and the antiquated electronic grooves of Add N To X we might expect, "And Another Thing" is a smug collage of looping dorky electronics that strives to be charming rather than innovative. And it is charming in the same way that Pram is. Randall and Barry have set up a monotonous rhythm around a sampled loop of a clanging xylophone and bass clarinet that strolls along at an awkward bowlegged pace. Little melodic elements of swelling Lawrence Welk strings and vibes waltz around the rhythm to sound much more like the obtuse comedy records concocted by People Like Us or Nurse With Wound.
The return of lo-fi synthscaper / beatmaker / weirdo electro pop alchemist Oxkykitten, hear teamed up with the awesomely monikered Adderall Canyonly, who proves to be the perfect match for OK, so much so, it's difficult to tell who does what, and whether Adderall Canyonly is even a real person, or just some sort of made up split personality. But it hardly matters, cuz like Oxykitten tapes, The Cutting Room is another batch of weirdly homebrewed cinematic electronic pop weirdness, playful, a bit dark in places, the sound palette, equal parts lo-fi electro and 8 bit video game music, but imagine that stuff woven into darkly minor key sweeping arrangements that tap into the same sort of soundtrack sound as Zombi and Umberto and Majeure, but imagine those groups, were they forced to make their music on Casio keyboards and Fischer-Price toy guitars. Sound silly, but the results are pretty fantastic, with much of these jams playing out like the weirdo soundtrack to some sci-fi art film, thick synths buzz ominously, beats skitter and percolate, lush swaths of chordal shimmer ebb and flow, everything wound up in woozy melodies and dizzying futuristic bloops and bleeps, a little bit Kraftwerk, a little bit Goblin, a little bit toy symphony (made that one up, but there must be one, right?).
While much of this is fun and playful, some of this stuff gets pretty dark, hauntingly sinister, the soundtrackiest stuff here is also the best, weaving lush landscapes of sound that evoke some Logan's Run like future, where all of the vehicles and buildings look a bit like big blocky toys anyway, with the Cutting Room the perfect soundtrack for whatever darkness lurks beneath the pristine exterior of this imaginary futureworld.
Fans of all the modern retro synth stuff should check this out for sure, as should anyone who dug the last few Oxykitten tapes. Includes a download code as well!
One of two new Dark Entries titles this week is this bizarre French progressive synth obscurity from 1982, ADN'Ckrystall. Erick Moncollin, the man behind this one-man-band, recorded this in four days but it has as many ideas crammed into its six tracks as a candyland record store filled to the brim with Gong, Vangelis, Tim Blake and Bernard Szajner albums! Starting with the darkwave adrenaline pop of "Cocaina Vitamina", the lengthy mind-bending and genre-jumping tracks that follow employ spacey electronic synthesis, cavey dirges, occasional plodding new romantic vocals and a wonderful outsider sense of unbridled compositional experimentation. Every time we play this, we sell a copy. Weirdo French new wave prog is always welcome in our book and big thanks to Dark Entries for introducing this into our lives!
Is this highly anticipated Adult. full length: (a.) raw in an in-your-face punky fashion, or (b.) raw in an unfinished, half-assed state? It seems that folks have already begun taking sides. Either way if you haven't heard Adult. yet, this shouldn't be your introduction to the music of this Detroit duo. They've done so much better than this - namely their "Resuscitation" release. However, that wasn't an album proper; it was a lively collection of their assorted singles, and clearly that is where Adult. shine brightest. Despite their attempt at crafting a fully realized album, "Anxiety Always" just doesn't hold up to "Resuscitation." It seems obvious that Adult. has gotten frustrated with all of the hub-bub that has exploded around them in the electro-whatever crowd. "Anxiety Always" finds Adult. attempting to re-invent themselves, by emphasizing the punk snarl that was always lurking under that mechanical sheen of industrialized paranoia. Thus Nicola Kuperus' vocals jump to the foreground, spastically crashing into the electro-clash they've taken such care to craft. Furthermore, Adam Lee Miller picks up the bass on a couple of tracks to add a human touch to Adult.'s machinations, recalling the pre-Joy Division outfit Warsaw. At their best, Adult. also references the mutant sounds of Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire; but at the same time, their ability to flesh out their tracks into wholly realized, infectious songs isn't as precise as on "Resuscitation." The shrill and redundant cut "Turn Your Back" leaves little to the imagination, sounding like a mediocre, punk-grrrrl, electronic outfit on Kill Rock Stars. Yet the album picks up steam as it continues, highlighted by the ominous, electro-obliqueness of "People You Can Confuse."
If you must know, Cup, who had previously championed "Resuscitation" here at the store, is less convinced by this album; but Jim, who has enjoyed revisiting all of those old Hula records from the '80s, has become rather fond of this admittedly flawed release.
MPEG Download: "Turn Your Back" [/audio/adultturnyourback.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Turn Your Back" [/audio/adultturnyourback.m3u]
On their newest cdep/12" and first release on Thrill Jockey, Detroit electro-punk duo Adult. sure have got a bee in their bonnet. Continuing to move further from their icy, true electro origins into an increasingly raw'n'aggressive punky territory, vocalist Nicola Kuperus whoops and sneers her way through the lead-off track "Hold Your Breath" -- definitely in line with Glass Candy or Le Tigre -- while her partner Adam Miller churns out the dank, brooding bass and bristling guitars that punch through the unrelenting programmed beats. Actually this might've served as a better transitional follow-up to their fine compilation Resuscitation (which collected together a bunch of their singles) than was their last full length Anxiety Always. D.U.M.E. more cohesively bridges their electro past and recent more punky leanings. Really, Adult. comes across as much more focussed, infectious and potent on shorter format releases (12"s, EPs, etc). Not only are the songs more structured, but the lyrics are also more fully fleshed out (like Resuscitation's songs than A.A.'s more repetitive one-liners). Kewl.
Lest they forever be genre-saddled with the electro-clash albatross, Adult. have wisely broadened their scope. And the path they've chosen is much more outwardly aggressive and punky. Truckloads of abrasive attitude. This is most evident in the vocal department which has claimed even more prominence in the band's sound. Formerly ice-cold monotone vocalist Nicola Kuperus further expands her range, swooping from a high pitched shriek to a mid-pinched sneer and way down to a deep throaty snarl. Brings to mind early-'80s Berliners Malaria! or more recently SF/Berliners The Vanishing. Likewise, Adam Miller's dirtied up his former ultra-sterile, scalpel-sharp, old school Detroit electro palette. Nevertheless, his steely mechanized beats are what link the tracks on Gimmie Trouble to those of the Adult. of old -- cutting through the newly added chunks o' industrial guitar which come courtesy of new member Samuel Consiglio. Their new(ish) direction and expansion aim them right for the spot recently vacated by the abovementioned, recently disbanded, art-punk/goth-dustrial duo-turned-trio The Vanishing.
Four versions of fab Detroit electro duo Adult.'s track "Hand To Phone". They are: the original as heard on their awesome album 'Resuscitation', an instrumental mix by the group themselves (which in my opinion falls a bit short without Nicola's unflinchingly icy vocals), plus two remixes by Carl Craig and Mat 101. Come over!
Two exclusive tracks from this increasingly popular electro duo. "Run Run Crying" might sound familiar if you saw their fabulous live set recently. Simply one their best tracks to date. The b-side is a new version of the first Adult. track from 1997, "Modern Romantic". Limited to 1000 hand numbered copies with a fold out 14"x14" poster featuring, as always, the stunning photographic
Detroit electro superstars offer one new track, "Don't You Stop". Three remixes follow, based on that old kids' game of "Telephone Operator" or "Pass It On" or "Chinese Whispers" or whatever you called it when you were young -- basically the original Adult. track was passed to Solvent, who reworked it and passed their results to Phoenecia, who worked their magic and passed those
Strap on your electro pants, baby. 'Cause Adult. (don't forget that punctuation) are here. Witness the awesome android power of this Detroit duo - one half of which is Mr. Adam Miller, formerly of the mighty electro-kings known as LeCar. If you were a fan of
On "Suck The Air", vocalist Nicola Kuperus assumes a much more pissy-pouty tone than her usual cold android stare - aligning Adult. more with the punky rather than electro crowd. Think Glass Candy or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. She's honed her sassily sneering delivery somewhat from their recent Anxiety Always album on which her vocals wavered dangerously close to the grating, shrill side of things. On the flipside, the rubbery beats and aquatic synth clangs of "High Heels..." aims the ear more towards the work of electro-technician Adam Miller. It's a fun no-frills track, but much too short to get the party fully rolling. Truly, this 7" should've been a 12"! Nonetheless, it (especially the A-side) shows the duo doing what they do best, crafting *single* tracks into terrific electro-pop.
Have to say that the current trend of new New Wave is right on with me. Love those old synth sounds and programmed beats... just as long as these new bands bring some fresh elements into the sound as opposed to simply rehashing Human League, Pet Shop Boys or New Order tracks. Unfortunately in the case of the Gainesville, FL trio known as The Aeffect, it seems to be leaning towards the
Solo effort from a member of the Dat Politics crew. Much like his contemporaries, Aelters kicks out infectious shards of high frequency agitglitchfunk. If you like Blechdom and Dat Politics, you probably already have this. If you don't, there's very little reason to be concerned. Addictions are ugly.
E. Aelters (a member of Belgian PowerBook band Dat Politics) specializes in really active, wacky electronica Fuckery (with a capital F) that resembles one one-man version of Dat Politics: hyperkinetic babble and grating drone abound. Also reminiscent of the more recent output from Mouse On Mars or perhaps Kid 606, without the drill & bass workouts. Very nice lo-attention span stuff.
The newest entry in Touch's ongoing series of limited 7"s singles, with past installments from Oren Ambarchi, Fennesz, Philip Jeck and Chris Watson, this is the first one by an artist new to us, but it manages to fit well with the other releases in the series, and has us dying to hear more from the mysterious AER (actually the musical moniker of Touch design director Jon Wozencroft). Utilizing nothing but "four atmosphere recordings, radio and an organ stop" AER concocts a darkly minimal soundscape of field recordings and hushed melody. The sounds from the street outside, footstep, voices talking, singing, sirens, thunder (or automobile backfires, or perhaps firecrackers), interwoven with strange clicking, machine like chatter, like a spinning bicycle wheel, random clanks and clatters, room noise and other sonic detritus, while beneath it all, warm whirring melodies drift up from below, adding nuance and mood to what might otherwise be a straight field recording, a rhythm way off in the distance or buried way down in the mix, is sometimes discernible, but only barely, and in fact, could be a trick of the ears, random sounds falling into place, creating not-really-there rhythms. But it hardly matters, we hear them, and they offer a sort of ghostly structure to the proceedings. Quite nice, and we can't wait to hear more.
Remixes of ex-Slint-er Dave Pajo's solo work as Aerial M, by none other than Bundy K Brown of Tortoise, Tied and Tickled Trio, DJ Your Food, and Flacco.
Aero-Mic'd began as a solo concern for local San Francisco artist Wayne Smith, but has over the years evolved into a three piece synth trio for live shows with the additions of Cliff Hengst (Troll) and our own Scott Hewicker (The Alps). Specializing in long form kosmiche explorations that gently shift into woozy bowed drones with a mixture of field recordings and ambient atmospherics, 22:44 is mostly culled from a live 2010 performance at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, with subtle augmentations from other home recordings. Invited by the art and music publication entity Land and Sea to perform in the late great cathedral event series Episco Disco (where artists were invited to create installations and music events inside the hallowed space) , Aero-mic'd used the echoing acoustics and the substantial room ambiance to create a floating sound world of soft angelic otherworldliness. Layers of synth and computer-generated drones and loops, bass tones and field-recordings merge with sounds of sleigh bells, bowed guitar, kalimba, and murmurs and footsteps from the moving crowds. Limited to 50 copies. Play loud for full effect!
We sure loved the first Aero-Mic'd record from a few years ago, a genre hopping electronic excursion touching on melodic melancholy pop, laptop glitch, cinematic ambience, and arty instrumentalism. Hard to believe, but we may like this new one even more. It's much more focused and cohesive, with the focus this time on ambience and drone. Reminds us of a more vaired, less low-end Kopernik. Soaring Orb like ambient flutter, chirping birds, the sound of children playing, muted percussion, sing song-y melodies, fuzzy, whispery drones with melodic swells, industrial clatter under gauzy slowed down loops all coalesce into one seriously great listen.
From local musician Wayne Smith comes this *excellent* little slip of a 25-minute album. A record this genre-hopping might in lesser hands be a chore to listen to, but with Aero-Mic'd the first few minutes are just so good that you easily put your trust in
According to the back of this limited-to-100-copies cd-r release, the mathematical equation is as follows:
Aero-Mic'd + The Sadnesses = Cloud Mama
And if you ask us, that adds up perfectly well. It's no secret, we here at AQ have been mighty fond of the past two releases by SF's Aero-Mic'd, and this new collaborative effort with the likeminded Sadnesses is no exception. Ultra delicate glitchiness, wispy clouds of shimmer, whimsical sounds and song titles. Oh so nice 'n' soothing. We only wish it were longer than its fleeting 25 minutes.
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We're still in the first month of the year but we think we'll be hard pressed to find an electronic album in 2015 that's as expansive, rewarding, and wide reaching as this debut from Afrikan Sciences. Channeling Afro-soul and spiritual jazz, this is an album that takes a left-field approach in creating rhythms and beats that reach outer and higher dimensions. We love how Flying Lotus ended up on Warp records, but think of what it might sound like if Flying Lotus covered some of Warp's earliest shining stars like Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, and Plaid - or if those abovementioned outfits were raised on Alice Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, and Sun Ra, and you start to get an idea of the kind of territory that is explored on Circuitous.
You can tell that Eric Douglass Porter (aka Afrikan Sciences) is someone who puts deep care and thought into what he creates as we can feel the true sense of an album and not merely a collection of sounds & songs. The record works its way into a groove and then slowly starts to shift into more psychedelic and darker dimensions. We even hear traces of Third Eye Foundation on one of the album's standout tracks "Feel", and the record taps into alien/sci-fi soundscapes while still maintaining an inviting warmth. Highly recommended!
We're going on instinct here, as the batteries on the Walkman are really struggling to hold any kind of charge. So the playback of these live recordings from the Brooklyn neo-kosmische outfit Afterlife is riddled with erratically warbling tape-speed variations that do make for a cool effect... but this is probably not what Afterlife intended. That said, these woozy drunken drags of tape across the playback head follow our longstanding infatuation with vinyl crackle or playing tracks intended at 45rpm at 33 instead. Here, our dying tapedeck slurs the twinkling tones of Afterlife's crystalline hybrid of Emeralds, Popul Vuh, Klaus Schulze, and Cluster, all performed live at three gigs -- Shea Stadium in Brooklyn, Upstate Artists Guild in Albany, NY, and at a house show in Wilmington, Delaware. Off to buy more batteries... Pro-duplicated, 73 minute tapes in an edition of 100 copies.
Afterlife is pretty shameless in their reconstitution of the Emeralds sound, to be completely honest. But considering how much New Age fluff that continues to emerge out of the whole synth-wrangling scene, an album that bares its teeth is more than welcome in these parts. Okay, there's no guitars to be found in Afterlife, so it may fit closer with the John Elliott pantheon of projects, but there's a density of sound and an industrial gravity that hangs upon Afterlife's churning electronics that aligns them more specifically with the foreboding and melancholy sounds of Emeralds' classic album What Happened. Details, details.
Lazer sharpened vibrations and the sparkling percolations bring the amorphous ambience of the album's opening number "Cycles" into focus with rainy-day synthmuzik passages that persist across the first side of the album's dream-shot electronics. The second side of Celestial Habitat darkens the mood considerably, especially on the two sprawling last tracks "Paths Untouched" and "Until Eternity" whose deep growling bass tones threaten to fling the needle right off the turntable (well done on the vinyl cut, Hooker Vision!). The duo tops everything off with percolating step sequencers and plenty of deep-space arcs that peer through the Emeralds lens back towards Klaus Schulze in fine style. Limited to a mere 300 copies!
Richard D. James -- aka The Aphex Twin -- had reportedly gone into retirement after the sexually grotesque production "Windowlicker," emerging briefly with an oblique composition on the aptly titled "Or Some Computer Music Compilation." Fortunately, his plans of retirement will be put on hold with the release of his upcoming album "Drukqs" in the near future...
All in all Richard D. James (Aphex Twin) recorded four different parts to the Analogue Bubblebath series...however this is the one to have. Warped electronics and electro breakbeats.
Recently reissued, Analogue Bubblebath 4 originally appeared in 1994 under Richard D. James' acid damaged moniker AFX. This four track EP opens with a huge, rolling techno breakbeat whose machinist rigor bears similarities to James' rhythmic structure for the Aphex single "On" and the Polygon Window track "Quoth". Instead of one of his mad-scientist melodies, James merely plants an overblown scream to punctuate the fourth measure of his rhythmic pulse. Back in the day, there were plenty of technohedz who weren't too keen on this track for its overt bloodcurdling vibe; although in comparison to the recent horror IDM excesses of Venetian Snares, this is hardly sounds like a transgressive number anymore. Solid nonetheless. James flushes out the remainder of the EP with less bombastic pieces, more in keeping with the sound of the Richard D. James LP with deftly manufactured acid percolations over midtempo fractured breaks and plenty of bubbly ambience.
It's actually been quite a while since Richard D. James has produced a a proper full length album, with the Aphex Twin double disc Drukqs being released five years ago, way back in 2001. In recent years, he's returned to his infatuation with acid techno and breakcore by releasing a series of Analord singles under the AFX moniker. Chosen Lords collects the best material from those 11 Analord singles and gives those tracks a slight trim to fit as much material on the CD as possible. No one is going to confuse anything on Chosen Lords with the repulsive electronica brutality of Aphex' "Come To Daddy" or the grotesque hip-hop bastardization of "Windowlicker", instead the tracks here harken to his earliest experiments with 303 melodic squiggliness and fidgety drum-machines struggling to keep together a constant rhythm amidst the rollicking breakbeats. James has long been an exceptional programmer; and even if there's nothing super innovative here, Chosen Lords is an absolute joy to listen to. Certainly on par with his Polygon Window and Selected Ambient Works Vol. 1 releases!
Originally released as two EPs back in 1995 before his seminal Richard D. James LP and name change to Aphex Twin, Hangable Auto Bulb has long been a collectors' rarity, mentioned with hushed reverence amongst electronica types everywhere. When situated against contemporary breakcore / drill 'n' bass artist such as Plug, Mu-Ziq, and even his own Aphex releases, Hangable Auto Bulb holds its own quite well, with clincal tones shaped into wistful melodies on top of complex skittering breakbeats and stalking basslines. Yet in the huge leaps that have been made technologically since '95, whereby beats, samples, and the digital code itself have been imploded / exploded by Hrvatski, Otto Von Schirach, Lesser, and many other post-IDM artists, AFX's Hangable Auto Bulb appears sparse in its production and curiously nostalgic for a time when "Intelligent Dance Music" wasn't a thoroughly laughable concept.
Richard James jumps into the dancehall fray, or jumps on the dancehall bandwagon, whichever you prefer. Either way, this single kicks serious ass. 'Run The Place Red' is a remix of a track from the amazing Bug record from a few lists past, and while James adds a bit more skitter and drill and rapidfire drum and bass, and does a little slice and dice, it would have fit perfectly on that Bug record. Dancehall just the way we like it, pounding and crushing and a little fucked up. The other two tracks are full-on speaker shredding noise. Weird and brutal and pretty tough to listen to. Definitely a quick fix for those of you who don't like how 'soft' and dynamic and un-Merzbow-like Merzbow has become lately. All three tracks are pretty darn great, but get it mostly for the dancehall track. Wicked.
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On DelayOnMyPillow, AGF -- aka Antye Greie-Fuchs of Laub -- offers a digitized variation on the musique concrete tradition, in particular the psychological narratives described in Luc Ferrari's work. Just like Ferrari, Greie-Fuchs amplifies closely mic'd whispers to capture all of their lip-smacking and breathy intonation and positions those whispers right up against the speakers while tiny digital events and processed environmental recordings flutter in the background. She effectively creates an artificial stage for those vocalizations coupled with her own Bjorkish vocals, alternating between sounding charmingly intimate and downright creepy. Extending what cinematic allusions can be drawn from such a composition, Greie-Fuchs offers brief interludes of detached electro-funk, bip-hop, and post-techno acting as segues between the bulk of the work. A curious, modern-day reinterpretation of musique concrete.
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A conceptualist first and an electronicist second Antye Greie-Fuchs has developed a successful career mapping out the dullness of daily life. This was particularly true for her post-Laurie Anderson monotone recitation of dictionary definitions for 'code' over glitch-hopped electronica, found on her recording Language Is The Most. She and San Francisco's highly decorated multi-media artist Sue Costabile have been collaborating for some time now, performing mostly through the European sound-art festival circuit; and Mini Movies marks their first release together sprawling across a CD and appropriately a DVD. While smeared with brittle digital glitches, AGF and Sue C do little to hide their infatuation with R&B slowjam grooves. In turn they replace the narrative excesses of R&B lovesongs with topics as banal as possible: recipes, commuting, jetlag, e-mail, etc. Even when Sue C pines for the next time she can "get really fucked up," it's more of an afterthought as if there's nothing else of any real value to wish for. Composed and filmed in New York, San Francisco, London, and Berlin, Mini Movies acts as something of a fragemented travel diary between the two artists, communing with both artists' shared sensibility of everyday modernity.
Long gone are the days when you could pigeon hole or easily predict the sound of a release on Kompakt. While they made their name with their trademark releases of minimal techno and pop ambient gems, the label has proven to be a wide ranging force in innovative electronic music of all shapes, colors and styles. We had heard previous releases by Matias Aguayo as well as with his collective Closer Musik, but we either weren't paying close enough attention or he has totally upped his game because Ay Ay Ay is by far one of the most colorful, immediate and rewarding electronic records of the year! Imagine some amazing combination of the hypnotic repetitive beats of Ricardo Villalobos fused with the more dance minded stylings of folks like Swayzek and Herbert, topped off with a nice backdrop of Aguayo's Chilean South American roots and you have all the ingredients for total party record of the year!
But what makes Ay Ay Ay so great is that it's not at all a disposable party record, instead it's immaculately crafted so it's the kind of record that satisfies whether you listen to it alone on headphones and get lost in its sonic swirlings or if you blast it out loud with good folks around as you shake your stuff.
Matias Aguayo is one half of what used to be Closer Musik, a minimalist goth-techno project on Cologne's Kompakt label. The Chilean-born Aguayo and his German "bandmate" Dirk Leyers split after one album, and both went on to other things. Leyers went even more minimal and more blissful. While Aguayo put out one of the weirdest releases to have been considered techno at all, his solo record Are You Really Lost? Well, this ep is the first we've heard from him since then. Once again, he brings back his signature bizarro mix of Latin beats, come hither vocals, and all manner of randomly sampled and sequenced whatever. Along with the single new track, there are two remixes, one from DJ Koze of International Pony and one from Markus Rossknecht. Koze produces a remix that could make friends with any number of Miami Vice meets French filter house jams. Pretty fun, really. On the other hand, Rossknecht's work is fairly run-of-the-mill minimal techno, which is fine but not particularly memorable. If nothing else, this is worth picking up to play the Koze track at your next cocktail party. Closer Musik fans, listen up! Good stuff.
The French Band (remember they informed us of this fact on the cover of their first album?) has returned. Whatever -- we've been very vocal in the past about our strong dislike for the puffy shallowness that is Air. My main argument was that their music made
Sounds like Air got some more folks drunk on their French designer cologne and hair tonic and coerced them to do some mingling and remixing. Most notable party goers: Adrian Sherwood (applying his trademark deep dubby stamp), Mr. Oizo and The Hacker (hello, New
Many a time, late at night, while hanging out with friends or that some special someone, we've found ourselves turning to our Air records to provide the perfect post-party soundtrack. Deep coming down comfort for a perfect long ride home. So it makes perfect sense that Air would be the latest band creating their own perfect late night mix for the Late Night Tales series.
We have to admit, that previous releases in the series have left us a bit underwhelmed, with some of our favorite bands showing a real lack of creativity in their selections. But that all changes right now, with this Late Night Tales, as Air have indeed put together a PERFECT late night mix! It's that perfect combination of the totally obvious and the sort of obscure. Songs that demonstrate many of the band's other sonic sides not necessarily represented in their music. This is one of those mixes that forces you to continually see what the heck is playing, 'cuz whatever track is playing, it's kicking you ass. The pacing, the order, the mood, it's the perfect late bliss-out and drift-off. Melting melting melting in the best possible way. From the dreamy spaced out side of Black Sabbath to maybe the most stunning Lee Hazelwood song we've ever heard, a should-be classic from the Troggs, some impeccable mood music from Nino Rota, a bit of Japan that flows right into some Scott Walker, and lots more. Tan Dun and Cat Power, Robert Wyatt, The Cure, Minnie Riperton, The Band... So awesome. This collection definitely ranks up their with any of our favorite mixtapes. It's easy to get the feeling that the boys in Air made this mix just for you.
A few years ago when we saw Air play live we realized that these guys weren't just some studio creation, they are in fact totally a real live band! While they initially made their mark with Moon Safari, a record that became a sonic touchstone of the electronic music revolution of the '90s, over the ensuing decade plus, Air have continued to evolve, experiment and transform into incredible music makers, whose exquisitely varied tastes help push their sound way beyond 'electronica', a sound that manages to be lush and intoxicating, catchy and so damn satisfying.
With Love 2, Air continue to expand their sonic scope even further, introducing (or re-introducing) elements of prog, French pop, psych, soundtracks, library music, and even some slight hints of krautrock, all those disparate sounds seductively seeping into their music, their vintage gear infusing the sounds with a classic warmth and timeless vibe. They're like a modern day version of Franco Battiato or Lucio Battisti, the way they conjure up such rich and lush sounds that twist and turn deliciously. Or imagine a collaboration between Ennio Morricone and Serge Gainsbourg!!
Even folks who never though of themselves as big Air fans have been totally smitten by this record whenever we play it in the store.
Quite pleasant (if not very challenging) French electronic lounge music that sometimes sounds as simple and airy as a Beautiful South song, sometimes as smoky 'n' dense as Portishead. Bonus points for creative Jean Jacques Perrey sampling...and for giving him songwriting credit!
While it's been over three years since Air's last record that doesn't mean they've been sitting around doing nothing. In fact just in the last year they made all the music for Charlotte Gainsbourg's great new record 5:55, curated one of the best Late Night Tales compilations, and one half of Air, J.B. Dunckel released his first solo record under the moniker Darkel. But yes like many of you, we've still been getting antsy for a proper new Air record. And here we have it and we have to say it does not disappoint. Pocket Symphony is Air at their moodiest, creating an impeccable atmosphere that flows perfectly from start to finish. There are some guest vocals appearances from Jarvis Cocker (Pulp fans rejoice!) and Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) but truly the strength of Pocket Symphony comes in the instrumentation and overall mood that only the guys in Air seem to be able to conjure up. In many ways this is their most somber recording since their score for The Virgin Suicides. A perfect come down record.
