mark e

bodyrox - feat luciana - what planet you on

captains log : december 18th 2007
full on party season.
the world is being over run by the need to shout along to fucking slade records under the disco glitter ball once again. thankfully though the opening week of the new year sees bodyrox release their new single, the grammatically incorrect, 'what planet you on'.
comprising of a thrusting slice of bouncy electro dance music, put together by jon pearn and nick bridges, this 3 minutes of compressed synthetics also happens to involve gobby txt speak vocals from attitude pumped up luciana. the vocal hooks are madly catchy, the lyrics as shallow as a learners swimming pool, and the video to corny for words (umm girl sitting on planet gesticulating to the viewer about ‘i dont know what planet you’re on’ only to then end up 'sliding on rocket ship with you') but i’ll be damned if i can’t deny its a brilliant slab of disposable pop.
hence i urge you to make this number one for months, and let’s fuck off all those x-factor sanctioned drippy ballads forever.
thank you.
video : http://youtube.com/watch?v=VMRnnyR5DLw
more detail : http://www.bodyrox.co.uk/

bishi - nights at the circus

so, the time is now here.

after a chunk of fashion magazine focus, a lot of belief, the debut bishi album, 'nights at the circus', is here.

fusing western pop song structures with an added element of sitar and tablas, there are times i feel as though i should have a greater understanding of the world of bollywood.
thankfully, the fact i have never sat through a bollywood movie doesn’t detract from the fact that in parts, this album is a pure pop album.
things start off brilliantly, with the title track being a great way to introduce bishis wonderful vocals and overall way with a song, which after a few minutes of rhythm and verse, decends into a mass of tabla and sitar chaos. very enjoyable.

the production is delicate and slight on 'magus', tablas create the beat, which are supplemented by all manner of unusual but exotic sounding instruments, again revealing my own ignorance, as i really don’t know what instrument is making what noise here but it matters not, as bishi has not forgotten to bring in an ear pleasing melody.
for 'i am you', toybox glockenspiels are placed alongside a nice electronic foundation, with bishis vocals phased and layered, this is another genuine pop highlight, and one that would make the dreary radio playlist a lot more colourful.

admittedly, there are a few tracks where my mind wondered about a little. having been told the appeal is all about the live show, i guess if you have caught her recent well received shows then such tracks as the harp heavy, 'the swan', the folk-esque acoustics of 'grandmothers floor', and 'nightbus', work better in the live situation, but here such traditional sounding tracks feel to weigh the album down.
beautiful yes, but at odds with the pop aspect of the album.

is this album a serious statement of art a la joanna newsom, or a pop album ?

at times i find myself struggling with this duality, especially as i love the pop side, however, i can’t pretend, traditional folk music and ireallylovemusic have never really made friends.

so, when bishi hits her stride with tales of woe and doom amongst music that would fit on the soundtrack to 'the wickerman', i find it a strange double act to reconcile with the popsongs.
still, i would like to think that this is an album that will please a lot of people, especailly as it has been released in a time when each week brings an unwelcome glut of dreary indentikit indie pop bands, so it is great to hear something that is original, quirky, and rather unique with its use of tablas, sitars, accordians and traditional folk songs.

so, despite my shortsighted negativity, i suggest you give it a listen, you may be, and probably quite rightly, totally entralled.

more detail : http://www.bishi.co.uk/

faith is fear - various artists (dust science)

a follow up to the excellent "keep the faith" sampler compilation from those wonderful techno’d up folks at dust science recordings.

where the previous set of tunes was all about the mutant machine dancefloor beats, this time around the 14 tracks on order show the softer side to the labels workings. ok, there are a few four to the floor beats, as indicated on the recent 4 track 12? that preceded the complete set.

the mood is unsettled from the opening few seconds as anthony child sets up a tinnitus inducing stereo system test noise that permeates anything made out of brick and mortar, so even if you keep the volume down, the 7.5 minutes of strange noises and disconnected vocals will make sure you, or your neighbours don’t sleep for a few nights.
not an easy welcoming start to the proceedings, but thank fully, if you are patient, the rewards come thick and fast as you get deeper into the album.

the simple bleeps and bouncy beats of detroitrocketscience settles the nerves, putting the compilation back into a sort of ambient techno comfort zone, though the jittery sighs that are cut up indicate that maybe the folks behind this have a darker edge than on show.
the next few tracks are rather gorgeous in their twisted ambient way, and very special.

from the big synthetic noises of the awkwardly named onmutu mechanicks, to the beautiful piano and glitched beats of quantazelle, via the unusual philip glass-esque repetition of ipassenger that invokes all manner of harmony and calm, despite the stop-start nature of the melody. next up, dncn takes the real world gloops and disembowels the sonic structure to make for a rather wobbly few minutes during which you wonder if that visit to the toilet is more essential than it really is, however, when the 4/4 beat starts to come to the fore with that dark underlying acidic electro bass, then all is well with the world, making for a wonderful 7 minutes of digital experimentation, and feet moving action.

of course, no dust science compilation wouldn’t be complete without an appearance from the labels major league star, and the black dog, once again, do not disappoint with a far more urgent style of dogsquad action than you may expect. your speakers will shake under the pressure of the metallic beats, but this comes highly recommended. next up is the previous eps ace in the hole, wire tap, by the 65d mavericks, a beautiful slice of detroit styled techno, in which a sense of delicate remorse is never far from the neon lit surface.
and so the album goes on with more unknown names to those of us not embroiled in the scene, unpronounceable tracks and, all in all, some top level techno music.

stretching for 72 minutes, you really cannot fault the label and their current knack at finding folks who obviously share their passion for music made with electronic devices.

the music throughout these 14 tracks is pure but incredibly listenable techno and should the tables turn again, and techno comes to the fore once the minimal freaks decide to track down music with a little more meat on the bones, this sampler could turn out to be a perfect starter kit for those looking for something to satiate their needs.
so get ahead of the crowd, and hassle dust science to sort you out with a copy.

tracklisting :
1. anthony child - youknowiloveyou2
2. detroitrocketscience - babymaker
3. onmutu mechanicks - ancient rites
4. quantazelle - mental zilch king.
5. ipassenger - unborn
6. dncn - dust to dust
7. the black dog - floods v1
8. the 65d mavericks - wire tap
9. fabrice lig - access denied
10. betaville - surface tension
11. slit - alone and cutting
12. system 23 - firebomb
13. regis and female - c/chaos
14. carl taylor - scanner (auterform mix)

ascoltare - beam

track listing : exo on ferrick/semjase in exclesis/asket’s ship/flatwoods/sky fishing

been a while since the world has heard from the electronic experimentalist ascoltare.
in fact the last time involved a seriously strange heavy duty 12″ split single on which various tv chefs were cutup and dissected to the sounds of unsettling ambience. while the record looked great, and was a fascinating concept, i cant deny that its not a record i visit that regularly.
thankfully this time around things are very different.
for this new basic black vinyl 5 track 12″ (limited to 250 copies i believe) is ascoltare revisiting the glory days of old school techno.
the music is, and i dread to say this word given the current white heat blog scene around it, minimal.
the perfectly structured beats are slight, with bass lines hidden away, but in a measure manner to make the walls move in all the right directions, over which are various layers of synths, fractured digital noise, warped vocal cutups, with even a reggae dub aspect due to some of the keyboard touches.
i would even go so far as to say that this is as conventional a record i have heard from the master of plunderphonics, but this is all comparative of course
instead, these 5 tracks (regrettably only available on vinyl - as i would love to have this in pure digital form ), in a more portable hi-quality mp3 form, hang a left over to the special bye-space page for 3 extra tracks that complete the abduction experience.

more detail : http://www.myspace.com/ascoltarebeam

tokyo police club - a lesson in crime

well despite the best efforts of the useless but royal mail service i eventually managed to get my hands on this mini-lp, or ep, from memphis industries.
third time lucky.
sometimes the pain is all worth it in the end, and this is one such case.
the canadian four piece released a quick little limited 7", "nature of the experiment", in the uk late last year (licenced from paper bag records), and now follow this up with a stop gap adrenalin filled beast to keep us all on tenderhooks for the proper album.
while the listing advises 8 tracks, do not be fooled into thinking this is going to soundtrack a nice and easy magazine reading session on the sofa. the songs fizz-n-whizz by in a powered up 18 minutes making their brand of ruffed punk-funk a tad closer than most to the blueprint that "wire" laid down with their excellent "pink flag" debut with a dash of vocal production a la "the strokes".
the coverart by geoff wilson is worthy of its own mention giving some insight into the bands mindset as there seems to be some form of story involving supercomputers and world destroying mad giant robots !
who cares, the results look great, and anyone who digs around ireallylovemusic knows that a fine slab of cover artwork goes a long long way.
so all in all when you have the hey hey hey chants of "be good", the drop-the-bomb brilliance of self referencing "cheer it on", the trademarked scuzzy keyboard noises all over the place, and more of those pumped up bass lines songs via the all important paint stripping angular guitar lines, then you know that this is one for the keep keep keep pile.
fantastic.

more detail : http://www.tokyopoliceclub.com/
memphis industries : http://www.memphis-industries.com/

derailleur - wave theory of light ep

tracklisting : repeat offender, knights bishop, intra, less acid

starting off 2007 with a cracking ep, sheffields dust science label come out of their temporary state of hibernation with intensions of a full action packed year, and if this ep is a guage of their forthcoming quality, all i can say is bring it on.

the press release brands these tracks as tech-house which i can’t really vouch for on as all these micro genres seems to have invisible boundaries with negligible differences in the various flavours of the month. you see before i read the press release i just said ‘damn thats some fine old school detroit styled ambient techno’.

so there you have it, lee graves (as his mum knows him) has crafted four rather wonderful tracks that evoke the same future world neon lit beauty that you used to get from the likes of b12 and of course label mates the black dog, and in my book that’s a bloody good thing.
opener "repeat offender" has a more urgent uptempo attitude in its beat, and with the use of distorted found vocals comes over as a bastardised collaboration between cabaret voltaire (in their chicago house days), and the chart topping inner city, the association is all about the choice of the sounds that are utilised, when you hear this track you’ll see what i mean.

chess fans will baffle as to the connection between the hard clinical beats of "knights bishop" and their love of the game, but, as is often the case in techno, track titles bear no relation to the sonics unless chess players have a passion for wired technology based music while plotting their next defence/attack strategies.
the second half of the ep delves deeper in the ambience, "intra" with its fat warm echoed production and a subtle dub vibe, and "less acid" stripping away the layers to a bare minimal detail but still maintaining the desire for melodic beauty.

all in all this is excellent machine music aimed for the heads and the feet. in other words, top quality ambient techno, sorry tech-house.

link : http://www.dustscience.com/

piskie sits - the secret sickliness

no, i have no idea about the meaning of this bands name, nor the reasons for the title of their debut release, but as i have hammered this album for the last few days such concerns are totally unnecessary.

having released a couple of impressive limited 7? singles, this wakefield 4 piece now expand their template to stretch over the course of 35 minutes.
well, i say stretch. the band have their fuzzbox and they’re going to use it.

you see, piskie sits are reviving a form of indie rock that until recently has been wiped off the face of the earth, and is therefore a very welcome change from the usual brit-pop via music hall revival that’s currently making all the mainstream press.

it took a few listens, but once the association hit, the penny dropped and i began to really get into the album.
it all starts off with the dirty lo-fi production of no hidden chord and the use of the distorted, recorded through sandpaper vocals, if you have ever heard anything by dinosaur jnr. then you’ll know this song is a perfect homage to the scene that fashion forgot. before nirvana obliterated the underground alt.rock scene, america was the place for some superb alternative indie rock, much of sourced from fort apache studios. there was none of this nasty major label sanctioned emo crap.

no, during the late 80s, early 90s, the genre known as indie rock was a far more honest, open and downright wonderful grotty sounding music (though in fairness this may be a personal rose tinted nostaligia trip), in which the fuzzed up guitars and bass were badly produced, the drums all over the place and production was kept to a bare minimum. yet for all this, there was often something about the quality of the songs, and in that respect, piskie sits have dropped a wonderfully listenable album for anyone who recall those messy days.

there’s little to say other than these 11 future slacker anthems are rather special in a laid back, sloppy hair, checkered shirt wearing manner, and given a few listens, certain songs really step up to the mark and become rather wonderful, making this album well worth checking out.

link : http://www.wrathrecords.co.uk/