They should've left well enough alone. They should've left well enough alone. They should've left well enough alone... but alas, they did not. Now that we've gotten that out of our system... The major disappointment with this new Kraftwerk is not that it's a poor album. Let us stress, that is NOT the case at all. Actually it sounds remarkably like the work of many many fine current electronic artists (or rather, *they* sound just like Kraftwerk!), and THAT is the major point of contention here. Tour De France Soundtracks simply doesn't sound like the work of great sonic revolutionaries. Arguably they reached the pinnacle of their innovations with Computer World -- making astounding, ground-breaking music that sounded unlike ANYTHING at the time nor many years to follow. Granted it took a very long time, but over the years Ralf, Florian and co. spent devoted to cycling the globe, it seems the world finally caught up to Kraftwerk.
It's about time. Dusseldorf's most famous export, the Godfathers of electronic pop music, Kraftwerk, finally see their classic albums remastered and reissued for the 21st century (although, unfortunately, not yet their EARLIEST classics, the ones with the traffic cone covers). Given the group's notoriety for demanding nothing but absolute perfection, you can safely bet that these sound AMAZING after years of tireless mixing and mastering in Kling-Klang studios. That's probably the main selling point here, as Kraftwerk was never really a "bonus material" kind of band, and there is none of that here; if it was released, it pretty much meant it was labored upon until being deemed suitable for public exposure. These reissues have also got some pretty fancy expanded artwork, with simple but bold slip covers housing the actual cds. Of course, if you don't already have these albums in some form or another, you should probably do yourself a favor and purchase every single one of them immediately.
Arguably, Kraftwerk's best recording, Trans-Europe Express from 1977 marries the Kosmiche minimalism of the Ralf and Florian record with the technological sublime sound of Autobahn while at the same time foreshadowing the robotic dance pop of The Man-Machine and Computer World. We also see for the first time, the image of the band as a uniform commodity dealing with post-modern themes of surface, reflection, repetition and reproduction that would thoroughly dominate their later output.
Another weird and wonderful release from Moniker records, who have recently supplied us with not one, but two aQ Records Of The Week, the weirdo warped electronic downer pop of Jealousy, and the recent sci-fi synth outing from Stacian. Somehow, even though this sounds nothing like either of those, it fits alongside them pretty perfectly. We know next to nothing about Kraus, other than they're from New Zealand, and that this is a fantastically confusional collection of low fidelity, retro-futuristic sci-fi-scapes, slipping easily from murky, stumbling, analog synth dirgery, to woozy outsider space folk, and whatever fucked up stops lay in between.
The opener sounds like Amps For Christ, if he was obsessed with the sixties vision of outer space and the future, it's raw, and garage-y, primitive and spaced out, it's the musical equivalent to some cheesy Z-move epic with aliens and monsters, heavy on the reverb, and some ridiculous drum programming, something like the Shaggs crossed with Joe Meek. Whatever it is, it's awesome. And it only gets weirder. The second track, takes harp like guitar strum, dreamy and woozy, and wreathed in in a warped squiggle of insectoid buzz from some primitive analog synth, a dizzying abstract psych folk space ballad maybe? Who knows? We just know we LOVE it.
From there on out, it's like some wild ride through the cosmos, or at least through the cosmos as envisioned by a teenaged mad scientist who built a lifesize replica of the cosmos out of paper mache, and dressed his pets up like aliens, and offered the neighborhood kids tours of this 'other world'. THIS is the soundtrack, grinding buzzing melodies, over woozy warbly basslines, swirling malfunctioning electronics, warped swells, lazer blast blurts, totally inept drum stumble, the occasional burst of seriously fierce, super distorted fuzz guitar, plenty of percolating electronics and random percussion, detuned guitars, scrapes and hum, hiss and whir. Some tracks sound like drug addled, brain damaged surf rock, or caveman garage stomp, but with a twisted futuristic bent, while other tracks are straight up kitchen sink, weirdo mad scientist electronic experiments, all seemingly recording on a busted old tape deck, giving the proceedings a very Faxed Head like productions, constant warble and pitch shifts, drop outs, bleep and blurts. Some tracks coalesce into practically being real songs, but before they can become proper songs, it's as if something malfunctioned, machine failure, or brainmelt, either way, it seems the song implodes, and splinters, and is gloriously transformed into a fantastically demented slab of warped musical whatthefuck radness.
Another shoulda / coulda been Record Of The Week! You know what that means...
Some of our favorite tracks on the most recent Ed Banger compilation of tripped out psychedelic dancefloor electro synth weirdness came from the awesomely monicker'd Krazy Baldhead, a Frenchman who just might give Justice and the like a run for their francs.
The B-Suite is in fact a nearly 50 minute continuous jam/mix, that takes everything we like about Justice, Ed Banger, the current breed of weirdo electro synth shit, and stirs it up into a massive outer space dance party.
Synths everywhere, that's a give, they buzz and how, and rumble, they get chopped up into throbs and pulses, the get layered into dense walls of sound, they get wrapped around beats, BIG block rockin' beats, skittery laid back beats, housey beats, hip hoppy beats... It's all about the beats and the synths, and they get all tangled up and mashed up and smeared and blurred into pounding late night grooves, druggy sci-fi cinematic slow jams, stuttery chunks of hiccupping hip hop, thumping space aged electro house, whatever the fuck Baldhead can come up with, he's called Krazy for a reason.
Rappers pop up here and there, flowing over stripped down abstract hip hop or woozy groovy future funk, but those brief bits are surrounded on all sides by the aforementioned array of constantly colliding and swerving and shimmering synths, and the non stop avalanche of unlikely beatsmithery.
Insane and insanely catchy robotic electro from another planet, beamed down here in order to melt down dancefloors, soak the populace with sweat, and generally get the party started, even if said party is some next level, futuristic, intergalactic, alien synth shit. Awesome.
Anyone into Justice, Ed Banger records, metal house, and all that sort of far out dancefloor synth damage, this is for YOU.
Second album by these To Rococo Rot-connected neo-kraut-post-rockers, better even than their debut Weekend.
I've always been a fan of Kreidler's unique sort of post-rock take on electronica -- it reminds me of Fridge's epic Eph album, which many of you reading also love. Well, let me tell you that Kreidler's new mini-album is so great, and so clearly surpasses their previously released work (which was stellar to begin with) that it just takes my breath away. As deeply dramatic and stately as an Ennio Morricone score, the music features gorgeously plucked strings articulating arpeggiated chords over and over in a sort of Reich-ian style of repetition. Glassy, pleasantly chiming melodies bring to mind krautrock of the serene Harmonia / La Dusseldorf variety, and especially the charming driving synth experiments of Cluster's Moebius and Roedelius. Maybe even some Eno. These seven instrumentals sound instantly classic and should appeal to a wide range of listeners -- it's that undeniably good. The cover art is also pretty -- no sleeve, just a mint green woman's torso silkscreened onto the jewel case. Highly recommended! Windy's new favorite record.
Wow! This is great. Kreidler's latest album feeds us lovely instrumentals save for "Von Valerie", a sparse and pretty piano-laden number accompanied by a French girl's soft vocals. Almost like if Eric Satie made a pop song. Someone here said it reminds them of Mark Mothersbaugh's Musik For Insomniacs. I suppose this could be true, though it seems to be more like a lullaby. A beautiful, casio and synth-enriched lullaby.
It makes perfect sense that Bureau B has released this new album by Kreidler, if you were to hear this without having any idea who it was, and you were told it was a long lost early '80s electronic proto-techno exploration by Moebius and members of Neu!, you would have no reason NOT to believe it. These are dark, motorik, trance inducing sounds at their best. More than any of their modern day German peers, Kreidler really have been the ones to build on what their krautrock forefathers and mothers (don't forget Deutsche Wertabreit!) laid down the blueprints for. Mixing their instrumentation and electronics with organic ease, the album flows start to finish with a late night K-hole seedy sensation. Kind of like Villalabos remixing Jonas Reinhardt, Arp, or White Rainbow.
You can hear echoes of Cluster deep in these tracks as you can tell Kreidler have gained much inspiration from albums of theirs like Zukerzeit and especially the Moebius/Beerbohm outing Double Cut. We could also see folks who have been digging lots of the John Carpenter/Goblin inspired sounds by folks like Zombi, Umberto, Xander Harris, Black Devil Disco Club, and The Oscillation getting way into Tank. The live drumming really helps fuel the record and the undercurrents of such a dark and sinister soundworld have drawn us so deep into this recording. This is shaping up to be our favorite Kreidler outing yet!
Finally out domestically, for fans of To Rococo Rot, Mouse on Mars, and Tortoise.
Third full album from this German electronica/postrock outfit. A bit fluffier than their last one, the excellent "Appearance And The Park". Doesn't help that before you even get past track two they've gone and enlisted British twee-popster Momus to do some singing. Of course, lots of people love Momus and so they'll not mind...but it doesn't work for me. I guess I prefer Kreidler's more serious krautrock leanings over the pop stuff, although the aforementioned "Appearance" was quite poppy... Anyway, may be up the alley of folks into Mouse on Mars, To Rococo Rot, etc.
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David Kristian spent a fair part of the winter of 1998/99 collecting various field recordings arourd Montreal (underground parking lots, freezers, tunnels, etc.) and multritracked the greyish very organic drones with subtle low-end minimal beats, not unlike Pan Sonic's minimalist techno layered sporadically with the drone work of Jonathan Coleclough.
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Split cd of minimal, ambient electronics from Canadian drum 'n' bass experimentalist Kristian and Japanese artists Sian (a duo formed by the guys from noisemakers Aube and Monde Bruits). Haunting stuff, eerie sounds that sneak up on you.
Krush, Japan's best known (Stateside) DJ, presents a DJ set featuring cuts by himself, DJ Cam, The 45 King, Old World Disorder w/ Eminem, the Orchestra & Choir of Bulgarian Radio, Jazzanova, and many others...a nearly 70 minute mix of some of his favorite stuff.
It's a little frustrating to be so far removed from the epicenter of a music we're fairly obsessed with. Very little dubstep and grime makes it across the Atlantic, and much of the stuff that does is the cheesier more commercial stuff, the harder underground ultra dark stuff, seems to be harder to track down. But every once in a while, one of those dark sinister discs makes it over here, and it's all we can do to resist listening to nothing else. But we don't actually resist all that much, so this debut full length from Kryptic Minds, the first release on Loefah's Swamp 81 label, has been pretty much on constant rotation, especially in the car, cuz with a record like this, even the crappiest stereo sounds like a boomin' system.
This is our favorite kind of dubstep, super dubbed out and skeletal, no extraneous synth swooshes, or soulful female vox, just beats, and bass, and the bass is fuzzy and blown out, shifting from deep pulse to warbly buzz, the drums, skittery and spaced out, almost like a jungle record played at 16 rpm. And what little musical accompaniment there is, besides the bass, is all low end and rumble, haunting and ominous, the melodies kept to a minimum, just rhythm and sound, and it sounds so so awesome, low slung, deeeep and groovy. Another killer dubstep fix, definitely enough to satisfy our jones, at least for now...
Perfect for the dead of winter, it's another quietly creepy, digital dronedoom opus from this two-man stupor group, featuring Stephen O'Malley (SUNNO))), Khanate, etc.) and Peter Rehberg (Pita), this time with production assistance from Jim O'Rourke. If you've heard KTL's I, II, or III (which was vinyl-only) you have an idea of what to expect - and are probably already plotting to purchase this. This is their first studio album constructed entirely for their own dark purposes, as opposed to having been commissioned as a soundtrack for live theatrical performance or film, though it certainly still has mysterious, soundtrack-y qualities. The sort that usually causes us, in reviews of KTL (and other dronesters too) to paint word-pictures of what the music evokes in our mind's eye. Subterranean caverns, bottomless pits, fallen angelic choirs, airplanes buzzing over dark forests... but we won't bother this time, you should just listen to this and your own imagination should have no difficulty providing all sorts of esoteric imagery. It may be soothing, it may be scary. Probably scary, it's up to you though. We find a lot of this to be as sinister and grim as Dick Cheney was in his Dr. Strangelove wheelchair at Obama's inauguration!
These six tracks are full of seismic rumble, high end hiss, eerie abstract glitch, sweeping drones, ringing electronics... some more epic and/or active than others. Distorted industrial rhythms shudder through several cuts, notably the disc's longest piece, the 21+ minute "Paratrooper", which features doomic beats by the drummer from Japan's Boris (who also brings his gong for an appearance on the disc's final track). While that's KTL IV at its heaviest, most of this is more like the sound of SUNNO))) sighing and whispering... or, conversely, Pita busting out a guitar to play along to a half-melted Swans record he found in the ashes of a burned-down church.
Omni may be primarily a country reissue label, but every once in a while they'll come up with something distinctly NOT country and more often from way out of left field. Most recently it was the amazing Russkie Wig-Out compilation of demented surf, electro and exotica from Russia, and now comes this, a career retrospective of German outsider sci-fi electro pop visionary Felix Kubin, whose career has been an ongoing series of twisted sonic experiments, from lo-fi mad scientist sonic tinkering, to freaked out chaotic noise, to hypnotic krautrock grooves to super catchy sci-fi pop to twangy almost soundtracky Morricone-esque soundscapes and beyond.
Even after nearly three decades of recording, Kubin remains unknown to all but a select few of far-out music obsessives, which is perhaps the way it will remain, cuz this stuff is indeed pretty dang far out. But for all its weirdness and willful obscurity, it's also catchy, and crazy, and fun, and in places funny, the sort of thing, that if it were some 20 year old kid and it was a limited lp on Not Not Fun, or some self released cd-r folks would be losing their shit. So go ahead, freak out, this stuff is well deserving of that sort of worship, and it's long long overdue!
From the opening jam "Phonebashing", all skittery, electro new wave, warped and lo-fi, like some mash up of Kraftwerk and the Radiophonic Workshop and Herbie Hancock's "Rockit", to a killer WAY twisted version of "Lightning Strikes", originally written and performed by Lou Christie, but later covered by Klaus Nomi, which makes sense, since Kubin is a lot like Nomi in many ways, and musically sounds like Sparks crossed with The Residents, but more glitched out and electronic. Then there's "Schnitzler", which does in fact feature krautrock legend Conrad Schnitzler, a loopy, woozy bit of electro skitter, the refrain being simply "Schnitzler" and then "Conrad Schnitzler". The title track is a creepy bit of haunted house electronica, all creepy ambience, and super lo-fi programmed drum skitter, processed vox, and some cheesy, eighties drama soundtrack music woven in, again, twisted, but weirdly genius, and again, if this were some new hip underground band, blogs would be singing its praises.
The collection covers pretty much all of Kubin's far out sounds, from manic, stuttery, carnivalesque Devo style video game synth buzz freakouts, to swoonsome soundtracky slow jams, to lush cabaret pop, all deep dramatic vox and pizzicato strings, to manic Love Boat style soundtracks all chopped up and electrified and freaked out, to super lo-fi 8 bit electro crunch, to faux big band almost Lawrence Welk sounding easy listening, to shuffling warped jazzy weirdness, to full on Legend Of Zelda style Nintendo core, to moody groovy electro slow jams, and pretty much every warped and gloriously twisted sonic stop in between.
So good! Anyone into the current crop of lo-fi, electronic fractured pop experimentalists, this is will blow you away, and puts lots of that stuff to shame!
Features an extensive full color booklet, with liner notes, but the liner notes are quite cryptic, but very interesting, and fantastically written, appropriately mysterious for the music they accompany.
Lots of folks got their introduction to German outsider sci-fi electro pop visionary Felix Kubin via the Bruder Luzifer compilation we reviewed last year, a career spanning retrospective that offered up a handful of tracks that touched on nearly every aspect of Kubin's schizophrenic and ever-morphing soundworld, leaning heavily toward his twisted electro-pop / new wave popsmithery, but also giving us glimpses of warped lo-fi minimal electro-buzz, lush twang flecked soundscapes, freaked out chaotic noise and pretty much every stop in between. TXRF is something else entirely, a seriously high concept record, apparently based on a method of X-raying microchips to detect microscopic defects, these tracks, ostensibly some sort of sonic test for the X-ray system, and this record in effect, the sonic printout as it were, a document of the processes and their musical byproducts. Which is definitely believable, since on the one hand much of TXRF sounds weirdly clinical and academic, machinelike and robotic, the sort of thing you might hear on Raster Noton or some other label that traffics in such things, but Kubin, as we've discovered is a kind of a nut, and that definitely shows here, the sounds surprisingly playful, occasionally groovy, dizzyingly tripped out and most definitely psychedelic, shifting from a sort of stuttering 8-bit IDM to a woozy glitched out rhythmic abstract house music, to full on sci-fi mad scientist weirdness, all of those various sounds and elements somehow woven into a surprisingly cohesive whole, the record constantly transforming and morphing, the tracks impossibly varied, whether it's pulsing, pounding squelch and stutter, or skittery laser-beam, alien staticscape, playful Perrey And Kingsley style analog experimentation or haunting soundtracky psychedelic synthscapery (the closing track is a KILLER), it's all great, and yet another bafflingly brilliant piece of Kubin's unsolvable sonic puzzle, which of course, if you couldn't tell by now, means absolutely WAY recommended.
When we reviewed the recent career retrospective compilation on Omni from weirdo German outsider sci-fi electro pop alchemist Felix Kubin, we got a little taste of his very early material, and in a weird way, found some of that stuff the most twistedly and disturbingly appealing, so in the spirit of digging deeper into the warped youthful sonic dabblings of a burgeoning musical madman comes this lp collection of, as the title suggests, Teenage Tapes, which in fact is precisely that, a collection of early EARLY recordings, from a teenage Kubin, aged 11-15 (he began playing at age 8!). And like the tracks we heard on the Omni comp, maybe even more so, these tapes do not disappoint.
Consisting of nearly half entirely previously unreleased material, Teenage Tapes is a wild melange of tripped out electro pop, primitive cold wave, and some weird strain of home brewed krautrock, just check out opener "Paris Paris", with it's driving drum machine beat, twisted electronics, goofily playful melodies, sinister super distorted vocals, it may have been a teenage experiment, but it's way more fierce and bad ass than half of the grown up bands trying to pull this stuff off now. And more of Teenage Tapes is made up of the same sort of churning, rhythmic minimal kraut-pop weirdness. Stripped of the vocals, these jams could easily be early electronic krautrock experiments, but add in the vocals, and it becomes some sort of warped avant electro pop, with some tracks drifting into almost kosmische synth territory, others sounding a bit like Perrey & Kingsley doing Tangerine Dream, others like wild 8-bit freakouts, and still others sounding like some rad new band on Wierd or Captured Tracks. And while usually, a collection of early teenage works would end up being more of a novelty, and sure, some of this stuff is a little goofy, many of the tracks here are incredible, lush and textured and atmospheric and near cinematic. Hard to believe Kubin was making music like this in grade school, just grateful that someone is finally digging through Kubin's teenage archives. Here's hoping there's more to come.
Nicely packaged in a heavy jacket adorned with a teenage Kubin's gothy made up face, with an inner sleeve featuring lyrics, and some hand drawn diagrams and schematics.
Brand new music from German outsider sci-fi pop weirdo / visionary, whose "particle accelerator pop" positions somewhere between a sort of naive, alien Gary Numan, and a time traveling Brian Wilson cyborg, his pop music meticulously crafted from the detritus of classic pop music past, fused into some impossible space aged future pop, Kubin a Joe Meek like studio mad scientist, transforming pop music into something strange and wondrous, even when working with someone else's music, just check out the opening track, a killer and fantastically confusional cover of Lou Christie's "Lightning Strikes", which turns the original into a near operatic robotic future funk, channeling the spirit of Klaus Nomi (who also does a killer version of the song), but Kubin has no shortage of his own mini masterpieces, beginning with "Atomium Vertigo", which sounds like Serge Gainsbourg played by an all robot band, a krauty drum machine kraut-groove beneath fields of FX and static, while Kubin delivers his sultry spoken word, oh yeah, and of course there's the bleepy bloopy vocodered chorus. And so it goes, every track here a twisted future pop gem, from the avant electro-kraut exotica of "Nachts Im Park", to the 8-bit skitter of "Flies Without Memory", to the garbled electronic jazz collage that is "Restez En Linge", to the banging synth hop of "Piscine Ressonenzi", which has us envisioning Kubin as a producer and beat maker for the current crop of pop stars like Ke$ha, or Beyonce, or Britney... if only! And Kubin never lets up, the second half of Zemsta Plutona as chock full of electro future pop weirdness as the first, flitting from plunderphonic style forties jazz to maniacal alien electro, and from murky minimal avant-kraut weirdness to Perry & Kingsley style electronic experimentation, and beyond!
Like all Omni releases, Zemsta Plutona is beautifully appointed, there's a big full color booklet, with liner notes and plenty of photos!
Aaaiiieeeee! Sounding just as you'd expect a collaboration between Aavikko and Felix Kubin would sound! "Superlake Beat" will make ya wanna do a juiced-up-funky-twist-shimmy-shake on your orange shag-carpeted ceiling. "Antarktis Slow Rock" is a four minute
You might recall Ms Kadet Kuhne's two exceptional IDM albums 2001's Seismic and 2004's Thin Air. In the years since she moved to LA and has now returned to the Bay Area with this dvd. We always knew that she was one heck of a multimedia force -- filmmaker, electronic music composer, installation artist -- just as adept at sculpting atmospheres through visuals as via artfully textured glitch and drone audio... and this document reconfirms it! Holding Pattern III: Infinite Delay is an audio/video work of hers from 2006. Otherworldly languid live-processed soundscapes with dreamy underwater imagery. She's joined by like-minded artists mem1. Immersive and beautifully crafted.
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An interesting discovery in the overcrowded IDM genre (intelligent dance music); densely programmed melodies and rhythmmic elements building into impressively catchy grooves recalling Richard D. James' 'Polygon Window' and the more recent works of Autechre.
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Like the antithesis of Ryoji Ikeda, here's a disk to check the power of your subwoofer, for all the sine wave rockers out there. Seven tracks, the first beginning with a 25hz sweep and steadily increasing the pitch over 77 increments of 3hz each. To be sure, there are some high pitch tones and a bit of mid range thrown in to boot to give the rest of your speakers a workout as well as some jittery rhythmmic noise to shake up the mix. For fans of the above mentioned, Coh, Noto, and Byetone.
Fans of the late great Six Finger Satellite prick up your ears, John Dwyer's Castle Face label digs deep into Providence, Rhode Island underground rock history to unearth this rare unreleased record from 6FS offshoot La Machine, a two piece drum, bass, vocals and FX duo, who kicked out some seriously tranced out psychedelic bunkurfunk, stripped down minimal grooves, dubbed out and trancey, everything wreathed in flanger and phaser, like some seventies drum solo stretched out into some minimal cocaine dub-funk, the sound slipping from thick and bassy to brittle and crunchy, not sure if it on purpose or due to the old source tapes, but it's pretty cool regardless, the vocals, fragmented phrases ("Get drunk!", "Get High!"), doused in effects, heavily delayed and sent careening into the ether, dubstyle, each track a single bassline, a simple drum beat, locked tight, unfurling a fuzzed out groove, like the seriously heavy "Too Bad", driven by thick fuzz bass, all wound around some unfunky funky drumming, more echoe-y vocals, snarly and slithery, total late night, zoner party aktion, only the serious headz sticking around to get lost in these gangrenous grooves. "Supermaggot" might be THEE jam here, a bastardized "Maggotbrain" (or so we're probably just imagining), a looped, loopy bass line, over a noisy, clattery, skeletal rhythm, with some seriously Can like vox, modern retro kraut-funk that sounds like Six Finger Satellite stripped down to the bare essentials. Some of the tracks get fierce and noisy, like "Sucks To Come Down", which plays like a track designed for just that purpose, like as long as they keep playing, the comedown might never come, others get slithery and low slung, laced with blurts of electronic noise and malfunctioning electronics, but every track here a late night, divinely druggy sprawl of minimalist bunkurfunk that RULES!
So interesting to see what new directions people take when faced with similar turning points. Out of the ashes of Pocahaunted, Bethany Cosentino embraced her love of pop and girl group garage glory, forming Best Coast. On the other hand, her former bandmate Amanda Brown went the other way, riffing off the layers of fractured/damaged sounds that Pocahaunted were creating into something more dubbed out and beat orientated. What's so cool is they both created such great music while taking utterly different paths.
LA Vampires seem to thrive on collaboration. Her record with Zola Jesus last year was a narcotic dubbed out slow burner and she also collaborated with Matrix Metals and shared a slice of vinyl with Psychic Reality. Ital is the new left-field dance project by former San Francisco resident Daniel McCormick (Mi Ami, Sex Worker). We were super excited when we heard McCormick was working on a new project focusing on weirdo electronic dance tracks. We knew he had such a great ear for the underworld of damaged dance sounds and damn does this collaboration between him and LA Vampires kill! Dubbed out, tripped out, swirling with infectious yet hazy melody and sensual rhythm. It's a 12" that merges the steaminess and sexiness of Throbbing Gristle's "Hot On The Heels Of Love" with the Chromatics "I Want Your Love." We've been playing this nonstop!
First off, this isn't a new Ladytron album proper. The deal is, apparently in addition to being 'electroclash' heroes/heroines, Ladytron are also rad DJs, and this brand new mix disc Softcore Jukebox has us convinced. Of the eighteen tracks on here, two are by Ladytron themselves (both of 'em never before released in the USA) and the rest are by artists as diverse as My Bloody Valentine, The Fall, New Fast Automatic Daffodils, Wire, !!!, Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra (the one everyone loves, "Some Velvet Morning"), Fanny Pack, Fat Truckers, and others. There's your '80s new wave roots tracks like Cristina's "What's A Girl To Do" from 1982, and also a bunch of stuff from Ladytron contemporaries that are so new and hip and up to date that the tracks taken from albums that aren't even out yet. We were happiest though with the inclusion of the fuzz-filled "Send Me A Postcard" from Holland's Shocking Blue, circa 1969. So if you need help at your next dance party, this Ladytron DJ set could be handy.
What with the sad recent history of the former Yugoslovia -- conflicting ethnicities and religions, horrible atrocities, wars upon wars -- Laibach's perspectives on politics and culture appear as ghastly premonitions, which unfortunately have come true. Since the early '80s Laibach has located their Slovenia at the crossroads of the many forces (e.g. Nazi fascism, Communism, Western consumerism, fundamentalist religions, etc.) which all attempt to exact their wills upon the people of their nation, who in turn have had to adapt culturally, politically, or otherwise to such forces. In turn, Laibach and their larger organization NSK has embraced this behavior for adaptation and appropriation as a means of both celebrating the Slovenian spirit and criticizing the invasive forces. At times, the Laibach ethos spoke through grim industrial mantras (e.g. "Rekapitulacija" and "Nova Akropola"); yet others, Laibach's message came through the pastiche of their bizarrely comical cover album of the Beatles "Let It Be."
So strong are their convictions about their own concepts, politics, and aesthetics that Laibach runs dangerously close to self-parody. Of course, Laibach has plenty of rhetoric to defend their conceptual agenda; but it's hard for them to hide behind tautologies in defense of "Wat," a strange album that jack hammers 909 rhythms, Wagnerian samples, Chain Reactive synth pads, and growling vocals into a slick production not unlike a guitarless Rammstein, who in turn are the most egregious of Laibach copyists. That said, Laibach unwaveringly believes that "Wat" is a relevant pop album disguising their interrogative practices. The bombast of these ideals is what makes Laibach so effective, but at the same time Laibach can stumble over their own tongues.
A ten year anniversary double cd retrospective from the fabulous Laika! Even a decade after their debut, some amount of confusion still seems to linger as to the band's identity. Therefore, once again we'd like to state the following: Named after the Soviet space travellin' canine (the album cover is an awesome photo of the lil' doggie's bubble helmet!), this Laika is not to be confused with the other musical group of the same name (y'know, the one with The Cosmonauts) who are a surf combo. That said, this trippy groovy London quartet, lead by Ms Margaret Fiedler (formerly of Moonshake) and Guy Fixsen, have released three fine albums - 1994's Silver Apples Of The Moon (no relation to the band nor the Morton Subotnick album of the same name), 1997's Sounds Of The Satellites, and Good Lookin' Blues from 2000. A fourth full length is currently in the works. They're a melding of all the good stuff: complex and sexy electronics, hypnotic dubby bass, scintillating jazzy percussion, and Fiedler's seductive vocals. Meticulously piecing and layering it all together to set moods that crackle, smoulder and undulate.
The first cd is a compilation of highlights from their three previous albums, and the second features remixes, Peel sessions, live recordings and a *new* previously unreleased track! Will surely delight Laika fans until their next album finally surfaces, and win them some new admirers as well. Captivating!
Laika aren't a band of sudden changes or startling shifts. They've effectively cast their spell, soothing and grooving their way through three smokily trippy albums, and you might recall their splendid ten year retrospective compilation from earlier this year callled Lost In Space. Well, we're pleased to report that with the lengthily titled Wherever I Am I Am What Is Missing, they're showing no signs of stopping. That said, this full length contains perhaps their most low key and stripped down tracks ever. Their usual lush assemblage of samples and diverse array of instruments have been stripped down to the Laika bare bones basics Fender Rhodes keys, undulating bass lines, kinetic rhythms and Margaret Fiedler's spoken-sung vocals. Still very hypnotic and moody, it makes for a perfect late night wind down album.
Originally going by the ill chosen moniker, Bananas, this solo ambient project from 3 Leafs' Josh Pollock (aka DJ Female Convict Scorpion) was wisely rechristened The Lake Millions, a name much more in keeping with the sound, a sound that actually surprised us. Pollock's 'ambient' record is not so much ambient, as it is a sort of serene, tranquil, dreamlike psychedelia, we were expecting a simple minimal landscape of drones and tones, but instead, the sound here is luish and lovely, spare aching guitar melodies, wreathed in reverb, soft tangles gradually unfurling, blossoming lazily, sun dapped and soft focus. The slide guitar adds a subtle twang to the proceedings. Imagine Barn Owl, if instead of trafficking in dark brooding droned out doom folk, they set up in a meadow, under the late afternoon sun, gorgeous blue sky overhead, soft billowy white clouds drifting by, the grass waving softly in the warm breeze. The vibe is definitely back porch-y and dreamlike. Some tracks sound like a lost, more blissed out strain of classic Americana, others drift drowsily through a hazy, old timey, faded memory, reverb drenched shimmer. And here and there tucked away amidst all this sunshiney dreamfolk drift, there are some subtle haunting minor key melodies, the cinematic vibe that runs throughout, growing shadowy and a bit sinister, it's mostly a subtle melodic shift here and there, but then check out the title track, which closes things with an epic sprawl of brooding abstract drift, somehow weaving the warm melodious vibe of the previous tracks into something distinctly darker, but with a warm glow that seems to infuse the sound, however dark, with a lush glowing loveliness, the song unfolding as a tense sonic sprawl, that over the course of its 13 minutes, finds sonic shadows gradually being overtaken by the light. Gorgeous!
Lali Puna's third album is not as engaging on first listen as its two full length predecessors 1999's Tridecoder and 2001's Scary World Theory, but it's definitely grown on us with repeat listens. Valerie Trebeljahr's sweet wisp of a voice wafts gracefully around the abrasive guitars and woozy synths of wunderkind Markus Acher (Notwist, Village of Savoonga, Tied & Tickled Trio). Like The Notwist and brother Micha's Ms John Soda, Lali Puna are able to straddle the rock / electronica line incredibly well. On the one hand, they can exude an amazing amount of warmth for a band founded in the electronic recording studio and on the other they can rock out with the best: tracking live drums, bass, guitar and violin as often as they rely on sequencers and synths. Acher and Trebeljahr never forsake good, solid song writing with infectious hooks and rich harmonies for studio wizardry gimmicks. In fact, they utilize the two with uncanny balance and effect. Before closing, the comparisons that will be drawn, nay have been drawn, between Lali Puna and Stereolab must be addressed. Yes, many tracks on Faking The Books immediately bring to mind the aformentioned English electroni-rock warhorse. And while certain superficial likenesses are admittedly there: female singer, similar cache of electronic gear, and an ostensibly pop music format, it's what lies at the core of their respective musical engines that makes them different. Think of Lali Puna as what might happen to Stereolab if they managed to be a little less regimented and a little more playful.
Lali Puna fans, here's a double disc compilation of odds'n'ends from your favorite German pop-tronic dreamies! The first disc is a jumble of old and new remixes (for Dntel, Two Lone Swordsmen and Boom Bip) and originals (previously available on a handful of EPs and compilations), whereas the second disc is composed entirely of remixes by other folks (with one exception "Left Handed Dub" by Lali Puna themselves). Of the nineteen tracks, eight are previously unreleased including two new ones recorded early this year -- the dreamy opener "The Failure Of The Leading Sign Industry" and the very Stereolab-y pop-kraut "Past Machine". Actually the remixes (by the likes of Dntel, Two Lone Swordsmen, Boom Bip, Alias, Flowchart, Sixtoo, Thomas Leboeg and To Rococo Rot) don't sound all that far off from the originals. So what that means is turn off your phone, don your cozy pjs, stretch out and settle in for a long lulling listen. Lemme hear you say, "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Lali Puna fans, here's a double disc compilation of odds'n'ends from your favorite German pop-tronic dreamies! The first disc is a jumble of old and new remixes (for Dntel, Two Lone Swordsmen and Boom Bip) and originals (previously available on a handful of EPs and compilations), whereas the second disc is composed entirely of remixes by other folks (with one exception "Left Handed Dub" by Lali Puna themselves). Of the nineteen tracks, eight are previously unreleased including two new ones recorded early this year -- the dreamy opener "The Failure Of The Leading Sign Industry" and the very Stereolab-y pop-kraut "Past Machine". Actually the remixes (by the likes of Dntel, Two Lone Swordsmen, Boom Bip, Alias, Flowchart, Sixtoo, Thomas Leboeg and To Rococo Rot) don't sound all that far off from the originals. So what that means is turn off your phone, don your cozy pjs, stretch out and settle in for a long lulling listen. Lemme hear you say, "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Just a short three song dose of Lali Puna's German pop dreaminess. Valerie Trebekjahr's vocals once again seem weightless. Her words float like feathery wisps through the fragile transmissions of electronic tapestries. The languid title track and its subsequent dubbed out version are much less song-structured and ethereally catchy than their past efforts -- especially in contrast to the final track... Now, this might be a good thing or a bad thing -- you decide! -- the cd closes with a heavenly cover of the theme song from the '80s movie Electric Dreams (originally done by Human League).
Micronomic is a song from Lali Puna's most recent full length Faking The Books. In addition to appearing in its unadulterated state, the dreamy pop song gets the remix and video treatment for this cdep -- an expansive remix by Boom Bip (in exchange for the one they contributed to the recent B.B. release Corymb), and video by Luis Briceno. Another album track "Alienation" is also remixed by their tourmates Alias. Both remixers are totally respectful of Lali Puna's overall sound, injecting more billowy spaciousness into the lovely already-atmopheric tracks. Rounding out this 5-song ep are two brand new ones "The Daily Match" and the moody instrumental "Harrison Reverse". Nice!
Hurrah! The second album has surfaced from this lovely, willowy electronic quartet. Valerie Trebeljahr's breathy vocals drift in and out of the gently stuttering and pulsing beats and soft soothing synth tones and textures. No great departures from their
