We love Lamb... we really do (especially Andee and Cup)! Just check out our reviews of their past releases. Well, if you're new to this group and need a concise tutorial of their works, this might be the Lamb release for you. With both cd and dvd in hand, you'll get to experience them aurally as well as visually. However we'd like to note that titling this collection "Best of" seems somewhat odd as there's no indication of what criteria was used to come to these selections (and it's not like they're charting hits on the radio). Really, their finely crafted albums are always chock full of sultry electronic tracks, and favorites seem to differ from fan to fan. Languidly atmospheric, richly textured, rhythmically complex, and oh so wonderful!
On their second album, Lamb's skewed take on Portishead's 60's spy thriller/jazz electronica gets an infusion of hefty drum & bass. That they can reproduce their sound live without too much bending over tape decks (hey a live drummer!) is a wonderful thing, and the female singer's voice is breathy and emotional. Fans of their first record will not be disappointed, they'll be pleased that Lamb is moving forward rather than treading water! 'Fear of Fours' is a lot less dark and moody and a lot more varied than their debut. Excellent and highly recommended.
Although dark and languorous and dreamy and romantic, Lamb's third full length is still a little bit of a disappointment, at least when stacked up against their past efforts. The sound is definitely more polished and more commercial, and definitely a little
Finally available domestically is this excellent drum'n'bass duo's full length record, whose indispensable, lovely vocals (and mind you, we usually hate annoying diva vocals over jungle) sound like a cross between Bjork and Sinead O'Connor over some of the most complex, tense and unboring (yay!) percussion we've heard in a long time. Highly recommended.
Sucky drum & bass on Wordsound, produced by Scotty Hard. Yeah it's neat that Lamont is a live drummer, but whatever. What were they thinking?
With songtitles like "How to Feed a Sea Monkey" and "Automotive High School", you know that Land of the Loops is up to the same ole delightfully silly, sweet, and catchy ditties as before. Lots of cute loopy sound samples, round casio tones, and samples of that bird-voiced girl that's appeared on all the previous Land of the Loops recordings. Not particularly new or groundbreaking, but does music always have to do that? Let your ears rest to this record.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Haven't heard from sweetie electronicians Land Of The Loops in ages! But they've finally returned, Sippy Cup in hand and trip-hopsters Tipsy in tow! And neither seems to have changed a bit! Still as champagne-bubbly and playful as ever.
Planet Mu continues to shower us with all sorts of killer grime and dubstep. This latest chunk comes from Neil Landstrumm, who offers up two sides of dubbed out block rocking bleeping buzzing groove. Side A rocks a totally hypnotic, skeletal rhythm, beneath some Beverly Hills Cop synth bass, huge bursts of distorted grinding grit and lots of strange jungly (as in THE jungle, not jungle) electronic FX. The B side is all super blown out space age skitter, with thick swirls of synthy fuzz and bleeping and blooping outer space effects, as well as some twisting buzzy basslines. Like the soundtrack to some futuristic outer space adventure movie. Shit like this makes some of us wish we weren't so deathly afraid of the dancefloor.
So far we've only reviewed a single 12" from Mr. Neil Landstrumm, which is weird cuz we've been pretty nuts for his fractured electronica, especially his last record Restaurant Of Assassins, which melded drill and bass, old school jungle, electro skitter, and video game sounds into something totally tweaked and fucking kickass.
This new one follows the same template for the most part, but with a bit more focus on dubstep this time around, which is fine with us, as Landstrumm's take on dubstep us pretty demented to say the least. The opener is a dubbed out low slung jam, complete with deep reverberating bass, eighties Goblin-y Knight Rider synths, cinematic strings, and chopped up and processed vocals. A sound falling somewhere between Richard D. James and Venetian Snares, but a bit more dubbed out. The second track has 'Krunk' in the title, but if anything it's even more dubby and stripped down than the opener, the main melody a whirring grinding bass synth, and some playful bleeps and bloops, the rhythm stuttery and skittery.
Dubstep really is the cornerstone for the whole disc, that wavery bass buzz anchoring most of the songs, but it's what Landstrumm adds to the mix that makes things so cracked, whether it's a barrage of malfunctioning video game glitchery, haunting orchestral 8-bit swells, Miami bass handclaps and slithery fuzzy keyboard stabs, super blown out rumbling low end rumbles, whatever it is, it all gets tangled up with whatever dubbed out bass heavy groove Landstrumm has assembled mad scientist style, from stuttery loops, old drum machines, analogue synths, bass guitars, and lots and lots of video games. Might be our favorite dubstep record of the year, if it wasn't so unlike most other dubstep records...
Limited edition Belgian import! Ambient electronic sounds of the delicate, soothing kind. The one drawback to this lovely milky-vinyl 7" that I found is the same as with Languis' last single... it's far too short a medium to fully immerse yourself in the music. Nonetheless if you're in need of a brief moment of calm, this might be for you.
Languis' second album "Last Frequency Presets" pleasantly falls into the blissed-out IDM camp quite literally spawned from Boards Of Canada's "Music Has The Right To Children." A tactile assembly of downer digital sound elemenst to be filed next to Markant, Morr Music, Styrofoam, and even Safety Scissors.
Quite a nice chill room mood. This is the debut album of ultra mellow ambient grooviness from Languis - the Los Angeles-based electronic duo originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Three tracks of dark, subdued electronic murmurings. Gently lulling. Ambient music of the pretty kind that ideally would stretch on much longer than the limited length of a 7".
The third album from Los Angeles-based duo Languis sees them pursuing a new direction of sorts. It seems they've shifted their focus to incorporate much more defined, conventional song structures into their electronic realm. Much less fragmented than their
There are remix records, and then there are remix records! We got kind of burnt out on the whole remix thing. Sort of seemed like a big exercise in back patting friend rock name recognition. And 90 percent of the time the remix did NOTHING to improve on the original. And most of the time the remix record doesn't happen because two bands realize how totally perfect they are together and how amazing it would be if they collaborated, it's usually because that's just what you do, make a remix record.
With Lansing-Dreiden, it's a bit easier to understand the idea behind a remix record. They are a sort of collective after all. And they aren't just a band, they are artists and performers, as involved in painting, installations and design as they are in music. Plus for D.I. By D.D. they just handed over the whole record to a DJ pal of theirs and let him go nuts.
We're also usually wary of a rock band that gets the hip hop remix treatment. There are some serious Linkin Park "oof"-style ramifications. Especially when rapping is involved. The outcome is rarely rosy. However, the music of Lansing-Dreiden is pretty well suited to be chopped up and looped into laid back DJ Shadow style beatscapes. Their sort of new wave-y eighties art rock, is full of sweeping synths and funky rhythms, lots of weird textures and cool arrangements.
So the end result, D.I. By D.D. is actually fantastic. It's the sort of thing that should be blasting in dark hipster clubs in NYC and L.A. and San Francisco. Groovy and mysterious, sort of old skool, but with some modern flavor. A little bit of rapping, but mostly instrumental, minus the snippets of original L-D vocals. But here's the rub, listening to D.I. By D.D. you wouldn't necessarily even realize that the source material was all some cool NY new wave art rock band. It just sounds really good. It's a lot more exciting if you already dig Lansing-Dreiden and are able to pick out the bits and pieces and see how they fit into someone else's groovy vision. That said, even if you could care less about L-D, but were just looking for some super cool, dark, new wavy, Entroducing-style laid back hip hop flecked dance music, then by all means this will totally hit the spot.
So basically you can't really go wrong, open minded fans of the band will definitely dig this. Folks into stuff like DJ Shadow, Prefuse 73, UNKLE will also probably like this a lot. SO unless you hate the band, and hate any sort of dance music, check it out!!
Before the Libretto is like some sort of neo-futuristic pseudo-Pagan ritual in which these four women from four countries (Elaine Radigue (France), Kaffe Matthews (UK), Ryoko Kuwajima (Japan), and AGF (Germany) hold hands (or connect laptops) and invoke the forces of nature....but instead of the earth and wind and sea answering the call, a bunch of little aliens show up and start dancing a jig. No one knows what the hell is going on, but it's pretty awesome all the same. Part operatic play, part experimental poetry, glistening, organic, feminine, and weird. Ryoko Kuwajima sounds a bit like Tujiko Noriko....wafting in and out with spoken bits and scraps of private song. Whenever it strikes her fancy, while the others weave a playful prickly and peculiar musical bed for all of the strange vocalisations. Very hard to describe what's going on, totally alien sounding but at the same time, so inviting you just want to touch and fold and feel and try to figure out what the heck is going on. The sounds are gentle, but not soft, crunchy, but not hard, like diving into a swiming pool full of autumn leaves, then running through the forest naked. The separate parts sound a little like puzzle pieces forced into the wrong places, a curious hodgepodge of ill fitting pieces, but together thay have some strange poetry, it's what makes this all sound so charming. The parts and pieces and sonic fragments don't mesh, but somehow....that's what makes it work. The cover is quite striking as well, a creepy fleshy tongue flower that inspires lot of "hmms" and "eeews" from customers when it's in the 'Now Playing' slot on our counter. Highly recommended, a curious and curiously appealing record.
Not much is known about Last Step. Apparently it's the work of one guy in Canada who prefers to stay very anonymous, even when dealing with his label Planet Mu, as it's reported they don't even know who he is and when they've talked to him on the phone he uses a vocoder and has all royalty checks sent to him via the St. Bernadetta Synth Hospital. But then again, Last Step might be the work of Aaron Funk (aka Venetian Snares). Luckily, anonymity isn't the only intriguing thing about Last Step, as it's his use of vintage old-school analog equipment that has won us over. Think Wagon Christ, Giorgio Moroder & Afrika Bambaataa all locked in a room with their old gear and your start to get an idea of what kind of old-school flavored electronica Last Step is all about.
The newest solo album by this shockingly prolific bass player/composer/ producer. The liner notes say this is a 'cd of black magic and spiritual passion.' It's more like a experimental record of studio fuckery involving multiple bass tracks and assorted Laswellisms.
Yet another drum & bass novice tries his hand. This time it's Mr Laswell with help from DJ Ninj (also heard on recent Derek Bailey album) and it is actually quite good (surprising given recent Laswell mediocrities).
Laswell's execllent drum 'n' bass "Oscillations" foray gets revamped by the likes of Vedic, Nico, Atom Heart (particularly great track, that one), Japan's Bisk, Belgium's DJ Grazhoppa, Endemic Void, Soul Static Sound, the ubiquitous Scanner, and even Ui.
Features Nicky Skopelitis, Graham Haynes and Bill Buchen. Sitar and tablas intersect with dub bass, processed flugelhorn and traps; and without colliding, playfully whirl around each laying down a tapestry of deep grooves and bissed-out ambience.
"[This album] is a solid introduction to the Laswell sound and the Low label as a whole. For those unfamiliar with Las' work...A quick rundown is probably impossible; suffice to say his work with electronic music has largely dealt with lush, hyperrealistic environmental ambient and crisp, loping dub reggae. Silent Recoil brings these two elements into close proximity for its first two tracks, with echoey, slightly metallic drum loops and Laswell's seamless basslines pounding against dense, textures-deep tapestries of high res ambiance... This is groove music for home consumption; preferably quite loud and with few distractions. The third track, however, is a beast of an entirely different nature, and could almost carry the album even if the other two tracks were crap. An epic 25-plus minutes in length, "Undercurrent (Endless Light In The Nameless Land)" is the sort of chilly, richly-hued, dripping stalactite ambient that made Outer Dark and Outland such brilliant records. The elements are all familiar--nightmarish moans, field recordings, sparse synth passages, random bits of percussion--but as in all quality Laswell productions their combination here is novel, creating mood-based dynamics where perhaps melody or rhythm would be, bringing texture and a particular orientation toward sound to the forefront rather than the more easily grasped strategies of the album's first half-hour. Heads looking for pretty melodies or easily digested hooks won't find much of use hear, but then Laswell has never positioned himself as a particularly easy listen, and it would appear with Low (if Silent Recoil is any indication) that that, at least, hasn't changed." -- Loquacious Sean Cooper
Once again fans of Bjork, Lamb, and Portishead will find a kindred spirit in Berlin duo Laub who add their own experimental twists to those female fronted, melodramatic swansingers. Laub (comprised of Antye Greie-Fuchs and Jotka) produce sparse, crisp beats,
Maybe we've become a bit tired of the ubiquitous "obligatory remix album" but in this case Laub's particularly alien reinterpretation of the Portishead / Lamb school of electronica kinda makes us not mind. The surprise to this remix album is its continuity (which is almost always missing on all remix albums) despite having such a diverse cast of remixers as Coldcut, Pole, Richard Thomas, Schneider TM, Clifford Gilberto, Gonzales, Full Swing, Rechenzentrum, Mathias Schaffhauser, Phoneheads, and Blond.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Even more so than their previous album, Laub's electronica is the fusion of Lamb and Bjork. On Kitty-Yo, home to To Rococo Rot.
Cold wave / new wave / electro pop reissue label Medical Records seem to traffic in the extremely obscure, and it doesn't get more obscure than Laugh Clown Laugh, a UK duo who only ever released a single track! But that track, "Feel So Young", is a killer, a fantastic slab of super catchy synthpop, all skittery programmed rhythms, squelchy synths, lilting melodies, and dreamily crooned vox, the sound very reminiscent of early Depeche Mode and Human League, and that song opens up the proceedings here, and the record finishes with a dub version of the same song, which makes it even cooler. But in between, are 10 songs, previously unreleased, and never heard before now, all restored from the original master tapes, that had been in storage for nearly thirty years! And some of those songs are nearly as good as "Feel So Young", the dirgey, brooding "This Side Of Heaven" is maybe the darkest jam here, and is the sort of track some modern band could and should cover, the strangely titled "Track 14" is a killer chunk of instrumental synth wave, playful and weirdly psychedelic, while "Give It Back" almost sounds like a synthpop Devo, all herky jerky and new wave-y. "Aquarium" almost sounds like John Carpenter of Goblin gone new wave, and "One In The Bush" sounds like Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough" played by Perrey And Kingsley, and in between, are plenty of electro pop and synth pop gems.
Like all Medical Records releases, this is SUPER LIMITED, and fantastically packaged, a heavy full color sleeve, with a printed full color insert with liner notes, photos and lyrics, the vinyl heavy on 180 gram, and transparent orange!
The space-age sounds of Lazer Sword make us here at aQuarius recOrds feel like we are living in the kind of future where everyone has mohawks and wears plastic dresses and there is no light but flashing neon-colored spotlights. But, hey, we've been waiting for this record for what seems like years now, so we ARE living in the future, albeit one (slightly) less Blade Runner-esque. You'd never know that, though from the cover of Lazer Sword's self-titled debut, which looks like something out of Tron, or maybe Voltron (!). Former aQ employee Antaeus Roy and collaborator Bryant Rutledge have given us a record filled with beats and synths that don't so much throwback to as reinvent the '80s by chopping the hell out of them and reassembling the parts. On the surface somewhat akin to Flying Lotus or Zomby (the one with the "y", not the proggier one with the "i"), Lazer Sword's sampling is a bit more frenetic, though, and leans toward hip-hop rather than dub.
After opening the record with three mostly instrumental tracks, Lazer Sword brings in a bit of help from Turf Talk on "I'm Gone." The strange rhythm samples provide a perfect background for the catchy pitch-shifted hook: "Pass me that control / I'm in a fucking zone / I'm on my spaceship / I'm outta here I'm gone!" Just when you think the track is going to stay hot the whole way through, Lazer Sword takes it down a notch and drops the drums, leaving you floating in space for a minute and a half. The four or so tracks where Lazer Sword bring in outside guests (including Myka 9) to do vocals stand out, but not as much as you'd think because of the way LS incorporates sampled vocals into the layers of sound. This is a record that definitely requires either a dancefloor, a blunt, or quite possibly both.
Skweee! We've explained skweee before, you know it's an infectious and sometimes silly electronic music subgenre, an 8-bit obsessed video gamey sort of instrumental hiphop/electro music, coming from Scandinavian places like Sweden, Finland, and... Portland Oregon??
Sure, why not! The, um, interestingly-named Lazercrotch hails from Portland, and his debut 7" is the first American skweee release we've ever encountered. And it most definitely IS skweee, and the truly skweee agree, Lazercrotch is gettin' props from the likes of Mrs. Qeada and Randy Barracuda.
"Nugut!" is a low-slung, loose-limbed groove, with the crunching bass blurp and whooshing synths we like... likewise the flipside is totally skweeed up too. Cool. It's a 45, which means you can play it on 33 if you like, for extra slowed down, drugged out, fucked up effect.
We look forward to hearing more from Lazercrotch, and Poisonous Gases, the label he's formed to promote skweee in this country.
Skweee alert!!! Skweee alert!!! The uncomfortably named Lazercrotch is the nom de skweee of Poisonous Gases head honcho John Calvin Murphy, whose Portland-based label is the USA's number one purveyor of the originally Scandinavian DIY lo-fi glitchfunk electronic music called skweee, something which we hope you know plenty about already from all our enthused reviews of such skweee artists as Limonous, Daniel Savio, Pavan, Markis Sage, Eero Johannes, and others... As we put it in our review of Lazercrotch's 2009 debut 7" (which we loved): Skweee is an "infectious and sometimes silly electronic music subgenre, an 8-bit obsessed video gamey sort of instrumental hiphop/electro music". This new self-titled Lazercrotch full-length fits that description perfectly, and will give anyone still wondering what exactly skweee is, a crash course in skweee badassery!
The six tracks on this vinyl-only platter are all packed with ominous growling bass crunch and blippy jittery beats, together forming freaky, but seriously funky grooves. As is perhaps alluded to by the cover art, Lazercrotch's skweee gets exotically Eastern-tinged on such cuts as "Tikka Masala" and "Radio Gaza" (love the repeating eerie high end squeeks in that one, over the echoey, ponging beat). A lot of this is atmospheric and relaxed-sounding in a way, also dark and distorted, but always headnodding and sometimes more than that, as with the shake it up rhythms of such tracks as "Mike Tyson" and the shuffling "Tony LaRussa"...
Highly recommended to skweee aficionados new and old. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!! Comes with download code.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Lb is yet another pseudonym for the ever prolific Atom Heart. While the Senor Coconut Kraftwerk covers album has brought him a much broader audience, it needs to be stated that Atom Heart's aesthetic quality control has never been his strongest suit, with almost as many records as Pete Namlook that quite simply bombed. For every banner album like the Senor Coconut, Atom & Tea Time, or Los Sampler's, you should expect a handful of albums like "Pop Artificielle." Here as Lb, he does versions of a handful of pleasantly inoffensive songs by the likes of Prince, John Lennon, David Bowie, and Donovan with a similiar inoffensiveness, thereby creating the Air Supply of electro. For those who like the softer side of Atom Heart.
Last year, DFA producer and LCD Soundsystem mastermind James Murphy released 45:33 as part of an iTunes exclusive "workout" series for Nike, which is probably the best thing he's ever done -- and probably one of the most lucrative. However, this release is the post-Nike, post-licensing version, and is lacking the original artwork. Which was? A total rip-off/homage to Manuel Gottsching's E2-E4 cover, which was so obvious that he decided to sue. But we digress. This review is about a Nike workout song, and how as completely shitty as a 45 minute disco-punk take on Jazzercise sounds like it might be, this record rules. Why? Well, rather than catering to the dancefloor -- as has been the case with less-than-exciting tracks like "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House," "Movement," or "North American Scum" - Murphy was given a medium through which he could indulge himself in any and every fantasy that could possibly fit within the LCD oeuvre. The result is a record that ranges from cheesy (but awesome) Chicago House piano escapades to New Wave synth hooks to full-on Arthur Russell freakouts to Brian Eno bliss. Murphy has always worn his influences on his sleeves, but 45:33 shows him blending them all in such a seamless fashion that the differences between those influences begin to dissolve. If you've heard "Someone Great" -- off the group's newer album Sound of Silver -- then you've heard one of the four or so movements that comprise this record. If you haven't heard it, just skip it and start here. This is a great producer at his best, and will undoubtedly be remembered as such. Edge of Sanity gave death metal its 40+ minute epic song, Ricardo Villalobos did a 37 minute techo single, La Monte Young has recordings that last for a day, doom metal has about 5 million hour long records under its belt. Isn't it time that disco had a go? The CD version features three extra tracks. Each one features a more psyched-out, freakier James Murphy than is typical, and makes a great release even better. Honestly, it's a shame that these aren't on the vinyl version because they rock! Fans of No Wave, Dub, Minimal Techno and Acid beware, this could dominate your disc changer. Totally recommended.
More dance-floor jams in the way of remixes from their 45:33 record,
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Sophomore slump? No Way!! If anything the newest outing from DFA head honcho James Murphy is even better and more satisfying then his debut full length from a couple years back. While his singles and remixing skills are undeniable we still had our doubts about whether the full length format was well suited for LCD Soundsystem. Sound Of Silver proves that indeed Murphy has found out how to create a cohesive group of songs that feel just right next to each other and not just like a bunch of singles slapped together. Striking us as more earnest and even more carefully crafted then past efforts this is a great record of infectious electronic pop. The goosebump-inducing "Someone Great" might be the best LCD song yet, and instead of hipster ramblings or name checking lyrics its sentiment is bittersweet if not sad and so totally sincere. But not to fear, the party and dance floor have not been forgotten, as tracks like "North American Scum" make it pretty impossible not to crack a smile and start shaking some ass. Smart, sincere and sassy. That's a pretty great combination!
Now available on vinyl.
Newest one from James Murphy finds him going back and forth between dancefloor burners and less electronic more rock sounding numbers. Lots of people are freaking out about this one. Somehow it's not moving us too much. Sorry.
Hey, got your copy yet?! LCDS raise the roof a few more storeys on their self-titled debut double disc, but it's not all cowbells and arpeggiated basslines. For example, on the insistent fourth track "Movement", James Murphy does his best Mark E. Smith impersonation, then immediately shifts gears into a slower, prettier swoon mood for "Never As Tired As When I Wake Up". Throughout the album, the group revisits these two detours from their usual rump-bumpin' and visit a few others too. The seventh track is totally "Warm Leatherette". Hmmm, maybe the question is: Is it a rip-off or an homage? And ditto for the closing song of the first disc "Great Release" which takes on a *very* Brian Eno wistful pop feel. Sorta makes you think that LCDS might be the clubland incarnation of a cabaret singer who can ape any other singer's delivery or maybe a bar band who can recreate any other band's sound... really a skill unto itself, innit? Aaah shit, why are we gettin' all serious with such criticism 'n' skepticism and shit when there's a paaarty goin' on?! Just look at that glistening disco ball on the cover, man.
This release includes all of their previously released singles to boot. Yup, that means you get both versions of their track "Yeah" with its lyrics that go something like "Yeah yeah yeah yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah yeah yeahyeah yeahyeahyeah".
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another Detroit duo featuring Mr. Adam Lee Miller. Yes, prior to the awesomeness of Adult., he along with Ian Clark created music of the icily funky techno kind - demonstrating a wry wit and subtle pushing of the envelope on the dancefloor. Auto-biography is a very thorough retrospective of the brief existence of Le Car (1995-98) recounting each of their releases titled Autograph, Automatic and Autofuel.
The Third release from Montreal's synth-wizard Le Revelateur, aka Roger Tellier-Craig, former member of Godspeed You Black Emperor and Fly Pan Am, returns to Root Strata where we were first introduced with the Motion Glares cassette. Extreme Events has evolved from the flow-motion kosmiche of his last release Fictions and is much more dynamic, restless and ultimately alien. While we have connected Le Revelateur sonically with contemporaries like Oneohtrix Point Never, Emeralds and Steve Hauschildt in the past, this album takes us to a slightly different place. There is still an underlying flow of spacious energy, but it's overlaid with some fluorescent woven sonic textures and rhythms blunted with abraded digital decay and glitchery. The constant push-pull between space and movement give the album an organic intensity that sonically pokes and implores our eardrums rather than cradles and envelops, forcing us to actively engage rather than passively listen. The range of synthetic sounds and textures is jaw-dropping and though it doesn't seem that Tellier-Craig is deliberately trying to make difficult music, we can't really say this music is necessarily pretty either. But it has a searing burning beauty that like a sun-made diamond, is at once magnificent and soul-destroying.
Now on cd! Here's what we had to say about the 12":
Le Tigre gets the remix treatment. While somehow the cut 'n paste, deliberately lo-fi punk attitude to the making of the band's particular brand of electronic music is somehow endearing, these remixes, while similarly lo-fi and amateurish, don't pass muster. They're just mediocre. With other Le Tigre albums, there's an immediacy in relating some heavy political content, and that makes the ragged edges acceptable, but the remixers weren't even responsible for any political brain activity here, all they did was make bad, boring, predictable beats to go with Kathleen Hanna's righteous yowl. Buyer beware! With Analog Tara, Swim With The Dolphins (Johanna Fateman of Le Tigre), DJ Ham & Cheese on Rye, Reid Speed, Tim Goldsworthy (ex-UNKLE), James Murphy, and Lauren Flax.
