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[scarred]

My boner is massive and can not be tamed

[Tom]

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!

[KickThatBathProf]

greatest fucking day

[Dimmukane]

ugh ugh much love for dis record

[KvP]

If I could interrupt this fascinating circle jerk for just a moment.




Starkey - Stars EP

Planet Mu continues its hot streak with this EP ahead of Starkey's upcoming full-length, his second for the label.

Starkey's an intriguing character. His stock in trade is hip-hop flavored bass music with a candy coating of R&B shine. If we can think of Flying Lotus and the like as the IDM-ification of the existing west coast underground hip-hop aesthetic, post-Dilla, I don't think it would be that much of a stretch to suggest that Starkey represents a progressive shift in the underground hip-hop of the east coast, which has generally revolved more around the club scene (Starkey hails from Philly). Starkey has called it "Street Bass", and it's a heady conflagration of rave, bass, IDM, hip-hop and dubstep sounds. For someone like me who really enjoys the atomic thump of a really well-tweaked kick drum it's manna from heaven.

The 12" single consists of four songs. The eponymous "Stars" is a smooth future R&B song with a really sweet gated rave pad undergirding the track. Slugabed's remix of that song bring a more recognizable dubstep feel to the track with his sweltering, swaggering style. "Starting Gates" is more in line with Starkey's more club-oriented tracks - kick drums, hand claps and a gigantic, elastic rave lead. "Millennia" is a slow-building monster with purple-hued pads that build up with delectable arpeggios to a booming "chorus" before dropping back to the buildup again. Madness.

The digital download release of the single includes an additional three remixes of "Stars". Techno underdog Few Nolder's edit strips the song back to Anneka's vox in an echo chamber and adds a minimal beat and an understated bassline / chord synth. Definitely a "nite version" of the track if there ever was one. Raffertie's remix, on the other hand, takes the song to a more rave-oriented place, creating a large space with his pads before collapsing it with a buzzing, wobbling bassline and thudding dubstep rhythm. Finally, Ital Tek applies his early-period Autechre fetishism to the song, crafting an edit that seems to be all low-lying bass and simple, ringing synths and arpeggiated stabs, before breaking out into the sort of melodic, mechanical dubstep he's so good at (he keeps the gated pads, unlike the other remixers)

A massive release, comes highly recommended. Keep an ear out for the full-length, Ear Drums and Black Holes, next month. Only "Stars" and the previously released "OK Luv" will be present on the LP - every other track presented here is native to the EP. Coming up next for my favorite label - The Internal Tulips release a debut I've been waiting for some time for and a single from a DJ who purports to fuse the sounds of modern dubstep with the aesthetics of Frank Zappa. Oh boy.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?2mwijudjkz2


Bonobo - Eyesdown

A few years back a friend of mine whose taste I generally trust sent me a copy of Bonobo's Animal Magic and recommended it vociferously. At the time there were many tracks that I enjoyed but as time went on I found it to be a listless sort of electronic chill-out music that critics invariably gravitate towards (see also: Four Tet, who made a big splash this year with yet another album that I find to be largely boring).

So imagine my surprise when this single for Ninja Tune made it on down the pipeline and proceeded to really impress me. The first thing you'll notice is the swing in the drums. There's a definite UK Garage influence to the rhythm of the song, and overall this feels like a particularly excellent Zero 7 track, which is to say it's chill music of uncommon caliber. Funny how these things go - Air, who really popularized this sort of music, came out with a tepid album this year that was easily bested by Zero 7, who up until that point were basically riders on the coattails of Moon Safari, enjoyable as they could be. This is blue-tinged neo-soul with nice, clear production that avoids the curious flatness endemic to those Zero 7 records.

Included in the package are several remixes and an instrumental version of the track. The first remix is about perfect, as the aesthetic of the song is simpatico with Floating Points' sensibilities right off the bat. FP changes up the beat and makes it a bit more mechanical, and adds a bit of buzzing acid bass, which is nice. Warrior 1 gives the track a martial Garage makeover that makes it a whole lot more dancefloor-ready. Applebim / Komonazmuzik round out the release, deconstructing the song and reconfiguring it into a spacey future-disco groove, complete with strings, a more recognizable 4/4 rhythm template and dubby reverb on the vox.

So it's been a pleasant surprise, to say the least. Eyesdown has been released ahead of a full LP called Black Sands (evocative title - I've been to some black sand beaches and they are divine, and hot) due out in a few weeks. I'm hoping the whole album is in this vein. I'm ready to give Bonobo another shot, if he's willing to shake off the sleepiness that's crept into his past output. This is a good start.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?mxzhejtz4k5


FaltyDL - All In the Place

Way back in the late 90's and early aughts, when I was really getting into electronic music for the first time, I remember being constantly frustrated by how my favorite artists just never seemed to put out music in a timely fashion - The Aphex Twin and (especially) Boards of Canada seemed to be working on timetables of several years between albums.

This dissatisfaction was due to a number of factors. First and foremost, I was at the mercy of my circumstances. Living where I did in Northern Colorado, with sharing and streaming services relegated to the famously spotty P2P sites (Napster and the like), the electronic music that I liked was restricted to only the most acclaimed and popular artists - Aphex Twin, Autechre, BoC, etc. And for whatever reason those artists didn't put out a lot of readily available stuff. Second, I was in my teenage years, and when you're that age time just slooows down. Perhaps the most important thing was that I just wasn't looking in the right places. There were a lot of progressive electronic acts that had (and still have) a prolific streak - Luke Vibert, Venetian Snares, etc.

Now that the internet has rapidly expanded in its search and retail capacities, it's a lot easier to keep track of those prolific artists. One of the more recently established is FaltyDL (ne Andrew Lustman) who I've covered before for the blog. In the space of the last year or so, he's released a single on Ramp and both an LP and an 8-song EP for Planet Mu, all high quality records. His first release of 2010 is a 4-track EP for the Rush Hour imprint.

The title track "All in the Place" is an electro-tinged acid dance anthem that wouldn't sound out of place on a Vibert record, but the percussion sound is all FaltyDL, prominent open hi-hats and rattles abound. "St. Marks" is more in the vein of Lustman's previous output, with a cool, New York feel and cut-up soul vox samples. The melodic IDM of "Discoko" shows just a bit of Lustman's professed Aphex Twin influence, with vowel-sounding acid bass and a bright synth lead. "Groove" get backs to the complex hi-hat shuffle that's Lustman's stock in trade, adding a busy, skittering funk bassline and echoing, oscillating synths before yet another cut-up vox sample. It's to Lustman's credit that the repetition of elements from song to song somehow never becomes exactly formulaic. He's got a style that he usually sticks to, and within that there are a multitude of ideas to explore. All in the Place is of the quality you'd expect from FaltyDL at this point, but it's also not a bad place to jump in if you're new to him.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?j1mdzmmznrl

Dbridge & Instra:Mental - Fabriclive 50

It's kind of a dirty open secret that, infatuated with electronic music as I am, I've never been all that invested in the more purely dance-oriented corners of the scene. However, while most house and every trance song I've ever heard has left me cold, I have responded well to drum and bass music. Perhaps it's the more insistent rhythms, maybe it's the breaks, maybe it's the fact that the IDM I heavily gravitated towards was flourishing around the time that DnB was having its big moment in the 90's. Many IDM luminaries - Aphex Twin, Luke Vibert, but especially Squarepusher - all made music in the DnB vein. The only "club music" experience I ever had was showing up to a place in Denver on a random night with my friends to find that the highly respected drum and bass DJ Andy C was spinning. It was about as good of an experience as I could have asked for, being a headphones-oriented kid. I've since scoured Denver for big-name DJs but we get very few of repute outside of trance and electro-house guys.

I had a lot of fun that night, but like a lot of club-oriented music, drum and bass often gets monotonous for me when played through headphones. The relentlessly break-neck speed of most DnB tends to make it sort of exhausting, as well (see: Noisia's Fabriclive 40).

Which is where dBridge comes in. In the last year or two, dBridge and Instra:Mental have, through dBridge's Exit label, popularized a newer strain of DnB, cross-pollinated with the dubstep culture of the UK, that shifts the focus off of the "drums" part of the music and shifts it onto the "bass". Tempos are slowed down, rhythms are 2-step, more often than not (although that's not particularly uncommon in DnB these days) and the bass is larger and more prominent.

As the title implies, dBridge and Instra:Mental share mixing duties for this Fabriclive set. dBridge I'm only just now gaining awareness of, and he seems to be the spearhead of this newer DnB style. His choices tend to have a heavy neo-soul / R&B element to them, as evidenced by the absolutely perfect opening track, "Seems Like" by Riya, and a medley track from Genotype. I've known about Instra:Mental for awhile now, as he was the standout in one of Boomkat's "future garage" compilations. His choices tend to hew more towards dubstep, as do his own songs that appear in the set (Skream, Scuba and Distance all make appearances). For my money the Instra:Mental parts of the set are the highlights, though your mileage may vary.

A bit about the Fabriclive series - If you didn't know about it already, there's a famous club in London called Fabric that releases DJ mixes by many of the names that visit the place. There are two series - Fabric and Fabriclive. Fabric is comprised of more "classic" dance music, house and techno primarily, while Fabriclive encompasses everything else - electro-house, DnB, hip hop, bass, acid, etc. They're fairly strict about their standards and as such they have yet to release a mix that's anything less than good (most of them are great, actually). There was some controversy a year or two back when Justice, who were probably the biggest DJs in the world at the time, submitted a mix only to have it rejected for not meeting length standards. These guys don't fuck around. Collect the whole set.

The version I have is actually unmixed, which is to say that the variant songs that make up the mix have been parsed out and separated into tracks. As far as I'm aware, retail versions of the set are mixed only, meaning they're one unbroken track.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?eyzdqfmerd2


Starkey Presents Street Bass Anthems Vol. 4

I wrote about Starkey just a few posts ago, and now we switch gears from his Planet Mu output towards his Street Bass Anthems series. Whereas the Planet Mu stuff is definitely more UK-oriented in the dubstep vein, the SBA  series is recognizably American. From syrupy pop R&B in the opener "Starkvillain", to Bug-esque dancehall dubstep reggae in the 6Blocc remix of "Lockdown" to B-More party rap in "Gals Be Wilin" (my personal favorite), numerous pop styles are subducted and retooled under bass trends in almost every track. Slugabed's apocalyptic bass attack hits hard in the almost Justice-esque "Slugabed Sez". Autotuned R&B even makes an appearance on the Starkey cut "Hair Redone".

There's just so much stuff going on in this mix it can be hard to get your bearings, but your enjoyment of the bulk of the music will probably be dependent on how well you can stand contemporary hip hop radio. It wouldn't be quite correct to call this a dance music record in the way we mean it when we describe a techno or house record. This is a hip hop record. It just happens to possess an emphasis on massive bass production.

If that seems a little intimidating or iffy to you, I've also included the Street Bass Anthems Volume 4 Singles, a 4-track selection from the heart of the mix, featuring the bombastic, Anticon-esque Starkey cut "Alarm (feat. Non & Halfcast)" and the machine-lifter bass of DNAEBEATS "Razor Kut". If you like that, you'll probably like the whole thing. Enjoy!

SBA V.4

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http://www.mediafire.com/?32ytoymyyziSBA V.4 Singles

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http://www.mediafire.com/?jmdbtdjzmzz

[KvP]

Venetian Snares - Filth

Filth is a record that I have a complicated relationship with. When I was invited to apply for a job reviewing music for my local paper, I wrote this review as a test:

    Before churning out two highly acclaimed, relatively accessible records in 2005’s classical-meets-breakcore masterpiece Rossz csillag alatt született and 2008’s hardcore jungle throwback Detrimentalist, Venetian Snares (né Aaron Funk of Winnipeg, Manitoba) was well-known for off-putting and confrontational music. Perhaps it is no surprise, then, that Funk has decided to capitalize on his growing critical cache with an album that practically dares the listener to try and enjoy it.
          Filth, as the name might suggest, is a porno-themed album. There has always been a sickly sentiment coursing through Venetian Snares’ music but on this release every second seems to ooze perversion. For this we can blame the TB-303, famed “acid” bass synthesizer extraordinaire. The synth’s signature “squelch” sound is thrown into overdrive by Funk, and together with booming bass drums a queasy, oppressive mood is established in nearly every song. Tracks like “Deep Dicking” and “Kimberly Clark” are nearly unlistenable hodgepodges of sampled porno sound clips, squeaking bass and frenetic drumming. If this music had a color, it would be a gangrenous green.
          Normally, one could rely on Funk’s virtuosic drum programming skill to elevate the music above mere din, but songs like “Mongoloid Alien” and “Kakarookee Hates Me” are all punishing 4/4 slamming. Perhaps the only bright spot on the album is the final track, the cavernous acid opus “Pussy Skull”, which resembles Detrimentalist’s slower moments. When the end of the song nears and someone says “Hours and hours of two giraffes fucking” you suspect this might all be a big joke. Too bad the joke is on the listener.
          1.5 stars of 5

But while none of that is strictly untrue, for some reason I just cannot get this record out of my head. When Aaron Funk was first gaining a lot of attention around 2004 I found that I had a pretty strong aversion to his music due to Venetian Snares' outright antagonism towards his audience (funny story though, I paid close enough attention to pick out a heavily distorted sample of dialogue from Fallout 2's Sulik in "Befriend a Childkiller" off the horror/serial killer themed album Doll Doll Doll) and it wasn't until the one-two punch of Rossz and Detrimentalist that I came to accept how much of a genius Funk is, even if he is absolutely clown-shoes mental. For certain sorts of people, repeatedly listening to Venetian Snares changes you. It's like being drugged through your ears.

So even though I find very little actual enjoyment in Filth, I just can't bring myself to get rid of it, and I go back to it on a semi-regular basis for reasons that I can't really explain. In a nutshell, I feel like even though it seems like Funk has very little in the way of self-editing impulse, the revulsion and the confusion you feel when you listen to the music is just a surface, a challenge that Funk puts to the listener - over time you can chip away at it, and the breakneck pace of output, the shotgun-splatter of samples and tempos, the sheer auditory aggression that seemed slapdash at one point reveal an undeniable craft, and a demented auteurism that seems unique to the best of IDM artists. In Venetian Snares you can identify a true anti-cultural posture not seen since the earliest days of Throbbing Gristle. He just doesn't give a fuck.

But that I'm even saying these things is apparent proof that I have imbibed the kool-aid, so to speak. Make no mistake, this is varsity-level shit, and it will make you crazy, if you let it. Just listen to this freak from TMT - not even I would claim that this is Venetian Snares' "most accessible release". For some of you, this album will be a challenge that yields worthy rewards. For most of you it will be noise. Have some aspirin and a bible on hand. Keep kids as far from earshot as possible. This stuff is wrong.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?kzxbzky5imx


Yuzo Koshiro - Streets of Rage 2 Soundtrack

Where to start with this one? Streets of Rage 2 (or as it's known in Japan, Bare Knuckle 2) is one of the all-time classic Sega Genesis games. It's a memorable game certainly by gameplay standards, but it's perhaps best known for its incredible soundtrack. I first played it when I must have been around 6 or 7 years old, and it's quite likely that playing this game sparked what would become my great love for electronic music.

There's not a lot that I can actually say about this soundtrack that isn't tightly wrapped around my childhood memories. I remember not even playing the game some days, but just sitting with the "Options" menu up, where Sega had (to their eternal credit) put up a music player. I thought it was so odd that there were 2 songs that weren't even in the game, and several different versions of songs that were in the game.

Like all great game soundtracks of its era, the Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack is highly melodic, so much it's intoxicating at times. Yuzo Koshiro, the composer, found inspiration in the club music he heard, and what resulted was a collection of high-energy MIDI dance songs, most of the 4/4 breakbeat variety (that is to say, lots of delectable syncopated rhythms). It's very difficult for me to choose favorites, but the ones I always listen to first are "Round 5 (Slow Moon)", "Round 6, Part 1 (Wave 131)", and especially the criminally short "Round 7, Part 1 (Back to the Industry)". Like I said, I can't bring myself to levy any sort of critical analysis on this music. I just love it too much. But I hear all the time from people who love it just as much as I do.

And if you own a console or (hopefully) an internet-capable PC, do track down the actual Streets of Rage 2 game. It's out as a downloadable arcade game for the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii (you can even catch the first and third games in the series on the Wii) and there is no shortage of emulators on the PC capable of running the ROM.

*Credit to my friend Cathy for providing a resupply (I was missing a few tracks before)

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?jozm0mivtzm


Skweee Tooth

I've written a bit about the "Skweee" movement before while reviewing Eero Johannes' debut album and a Harmonia compilation, and here we have yet another Skweee compilation curated by veteran scene label Flogsta Danshall on Ramp recordings, a label famous for, among other things, releasing early singles by DJs like Slugabed and FaltyDL.

This compilation is a little more consistent than that Harmonia one, and it makes a good case for the legitimacy and potency of the unfortunately named analog synth-funk movement. While some skweee stuff can fall a little too hard into the realm minimalistic 8-bit music, the best of it displays an uncommon tunefulness. The beats are plenty hard, no doubt, but these songs live or die on their melodies and basslines. Tracks like "Rek Johnny Rek" (by Beatbully) and "Tough Guy Music" (by scene godfather Daniel Savio) show no shortage of prowess in that regard. Other tracks, like "Liikutuksia" (by the wonderfully named Mrs Qaeda) hew closer to original chiptune tropes while still sounding fresh, and still more get by solely on rhythmic swagger ("La Moulette Enchantee" by Wankers United). It's a pretty excellent entry into the genre, but unfortunately a good many of the artists on display don't have material out beyond compilations (that or their music is intentionally difficult to find). If you like hard 80's funk, this comes highly recommended.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?dzzznxzzikt


Computer Jay - Maintain

From Ramp Recordings comes this new single from Computer Jay, replete with 3 remixes from white-hot dubstep / future garage DJs. I don't know much of anything about Computer Jay (all I know is that he's a part of the LA beatmaking scene that's been really fertile for the last few years), but I know Ramp Recordings and they're pretty legit. The eponymous song is a prime example of what they're calling "wonky" these days (though living so far outside the vital culture as I do, it's likely that term has fallen into disfavor and I just don't know it), with rhythms that seem just a tad off. Heavy hip hop beats underlay a weirdly attitude-heavy speak'n'spell rap (itself underlayed with a vocoder, by the sound of it) and dreamy, floating synth. It all sounds like a slightly less headphone-oriented FaltyDL track.

Oddly enough, FaltyDL's remix of the song speeds things up and rearranges the rhythm to match Andrew Lustman's signature clap-heavy sound, which is easily identifiable even at the infant stage of his career. Lustman cuts up the rap to an unintelligible syllable soup and ladles it back onto the track with formant-filtered bass stabs, creating an uncharacteristically floor-ready track.

Mike Slott gives the track an expansive treatment reminiscent of Warp's recent forays into thick hip hop instrumentalism (Hudson Mohawke, etc.) with a muggy tropical feel and just a bit of cowbell. It's comparitively short at just under 3 minutes but it makes a distinct impression.

Ikonika's edit retools the song into what sounds like a frantic rave-house anthem before abruptly switching gears to heavy duty bass-centric dubstep, with the vocoded speak'n'spell kept around for color and the central melodic motif of the song slowed down and stretched out. Just 4 songs, but every one is distinct and excellent in its own right.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?q2g5jqw4jjj


The Internal Tulips - Mislead Into a Field By a Deformed Deer

These last few years have seen Planet Mu releasing albums from new signs that were in actuality new projects from old Planet Mu artists, ones who never seemed to gather the acclaim of the label's more well-known artists, like Vex'd or Venetian Snares. They tended to not be "side projects" but new identities, and to go along with those new identities came newer, almost invariably more interesting sounds - Legion of Two (formerly Decal) went from IDM to dark, bombastic post-rock, Sunken Foal (formerly Ambulance) went from IDM to shambling electro-acoustic folk. And now Alex Graham (Lexaunculpt) and Brad Laner (Electric Company), both former Planet Mu solo artists, have collaborated and released this album as the Internal Tulips.

The music here is quite strange. Internal Tulips are, at their core, a piano pop band. On nearly every song, the most prominently featured elements are the sounds of a grand piano and Laner's oft-multitracked voice. It's hard for me to pin down what exactly the exact inspirations for this kind of music - if it makes any sense to say so, the melding of classic pop vocal harmonies and electronics have been in vogue since Animal Collective hit the big time. Suffice to say that the only things keeping this music recognizably contemporary are the slick production and the numerous and meticulous electronic touches to the music - in songs like album highlights "Arlie" and "Mr. Baby", disparate elements of the music are separated and "placed" to different pan settings. This along with the relative quiet of the music creates an exceptional sense of location.

The album only really suffers when it strays from the piano pop format. The weird early 90's saccharine R&B of "Parasol" and the electro-folk of "We Breathe" and "Long Thin Heart" just barely work or fall flat. Overall the mood of the album is remote and melancholy (a common reference when listening was the later work of Julian Fane) and the laptop-fueled glitch-hop touches sometimes date the music, but overall this is a strong "debut", and a new wild card in the already eclectic Planet Mu deck. For fans of Sunken Foal and classic pop.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?jzhmkdhknm0


Geoff Mullen and Keith Fullerton Whitman - November 28 2009

Once upon a time, in the heyday of the breakcore explosion of the early-to-mid aughts, Keith Fullerton Whitman recorded and performed as Hrvatski, releasing a handful of really smashing records on Planet Mu. But there was another side to Whitman that expressed itself in the realm of ambient drone composition, and this music, released under Whitman's given name, was what made his reputation. Whitman is nothing if not accomplished - he studied at Berklee and I seem to recall reading an article stating that he held an official position at Harvard in his mid-30's (though given that his official website lists his location as lovely Cambridge, MA, it's possible that he actually has some sort of residency at MIT instead), and his past releases have won plaudits from the likes of Pitchfork, who give his Playthroughs album an exceedingly high mark of 9.7. Much of his recent work is relatively difficult to track down, but I managed to grab ahold of his most recent release, a collaboration with Geoff Mullen (who I can't seem to find any information on. Anybody have input?) called November 28 2009.

I've always had misgivings about the composition style labeled "drone". As a catch-all term I find it too pejorative and esoteric - your average person probably wouldn't even give an album labeled "ambient drone" a fair shot in the first place. While this album (as well as Whitman's output under his own name as a whole) might technically fit into that particular category of composition, when I listen to this album I don't feel the same way I do when I listen to, say, a William Basinski piece. It's repetitive, sure, but it's not drone-loop music in that sense. Rather, for me November 28 2009 hearkens back to the old kosmische performers that are the forebears of much of the current experimental electronic music scene, particularly Emmanuel Gottsching and Ash Ra Tempel. The two expansive ambient tracks that bookend the album, "#01.3" and "#02", feel like a sort of synthesis of Selected Ambient Works Vol. II Aphex Twin, Basinski's loop music, and the spacey proto-techno of Gottsching. "#02" in particular contains scattered melodic synth elements that set it apart from most of the drone music I hear.

The other three tracks on the album hew closer to the sort of rough, ominous ambience that the second disc of SAW V.II traded in. "#01.1.5"'s scraping, rhythmic bass static and echoing tones recall "Shiny Metal Rods" while two short tracks, "#??.??" and "#04", are reminiscent of "White Blur 1", with menacing white noise and barely audible "found sound" samples.

Drone composers tend to be thick on the ground these days, and what really sets November 28 2009 apart, aside from its pedigree, is the fidelity to which it adheres to the skewed "pop ambient" style that was so prevalent in 90's IDM. Not to beat the drum too hard, but if you enjoyed SAW V.II, I think you'll really enjoy this as well. At times I lament the fact that Whitman has seemingly put the Hrvatski moniker to pasture permanently, but when he releases stuff like this, I wonder if ambient composition wasn't what he was destined to pursue.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?elydmqgzv2y


http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7867/333ge.jpg

French duo dDamage come back for their first proper release in 3 years (at least, if Discogs is to be believed) with The Truth, an 8-track EP (2 originals plus remixes) with some fetching cover art aping that most classic of John Carpenter films, The Thing. It's what drew my eye to this release in the first place.

But if you're expecting Carpenter-esque music, you're going to be disappointed. The Truth is a conflation of breakcore, hip hop and electro. If you've read this blog for any period of time you'd know that Planet Mu is my favorite label, and briefly, during the zenith of its breakcore period, dDamage got signed, and today they still retain some of that breakcore-ish glitch-hop feel, with quick tempos and 16th note rhythms.

Had I not had that bit of background on dDamage I probably wouldn't have picked this up, as the sort of mainline hip-hop that the guests on the title track (Young Jeezy, Agallah & Sin) practice is not really my kind of thing at all. But the production of the track is actually quite excellent, a propulsive, pinballing clubby hip-hop tune in the Modeselektor vein. Thank God they included an instrumental version, is all I'll say. Elsewhere, Humanleft provides an 8-bit remix (also with an instrumental dub), Kid606 slows down the vox for a more minimalistic bass-oriented remix, and Komori offers a funky IDM-style remix.

Electro influence is apparent on "Can of Worms", the second original track, with a chopped up vox sample (sounds more like "cannonball" to me, but whatever) and bristly, almost whistling synths. Magnum 38 turns in a thumping club remix with bass that reminds of the bassline to "Blue Monday", for some reason.

Overall, I think the title track is by far the weakest of the set, but that's likely just my personal preference. The instrumentals and both renditions of "Can of Worms" are pretty great, though.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?mjggzgnllni


Rossi B & Luca - E10 Riddim

It seems like Planet Mu is cultivating a small stable of formidable grime producers, and to that end we see yet another 12" from the label, this time from veteran Garage DJs Rossi B & Luca. Interestingly enough, the a-side of "E10 Riddim" is a dub of the b-side track "Police Ar Come Run", where traditionally dubs are b-sides of singles. Presumably this is indicative of Planet Mu's tendency towards a "producer first" orientation (the long-unsung grime producer Terror Danjah made a pretty big splash last year with a collection of instrumentals and dubs released via the label, for example).

As for the song itself, it's a lively, shuffling number with a muscular drum loop anchoring the track. While the b-side adds dancehall reggae vox, the 16-bit synth leads and horns are all grime. I'm pretty lukewarm on dancehall, so I could take or leave "Police Ar Come Run", but the dub is warm and vital in all the right ways. Definitely not an achingly morose Bug record. Give it a listen, yeah?

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?xmzjlnmjom3

[KvP]

Venetian Snares - Detrimentalist

Aaron Funk can be a hard man to appreciate, sometimes. I've already covered the madness of his latest record, so I felt as though it would be a good idea to backtrack a bit to the album that, for me at least, is the most accessible entry in Funk's discography as Venetian Snares.

Detrimentalist is the Venetian Snares tribute to hardcore jungle, and while the tempos and the time signatures are sheer lunacy (this uncommonly trenchant review of this album at Cokemachineglow points out that Venetian Snares usually composes songs in 7/4 time, sometimes in weirder signatures like 19/11) there is a surprising lack of the palpable menace that Funk usually brings to bear in his albums. Detrimentalist, for all its hyperactivity, is a pretty straightforward dance music album, full of songs it's probably terribly difficult to dance to.

It starts off with the 7/4 drill'n'bass (so named for the prominent pitch-shifted snare rolls) of "Gentleman", a song that has become a staple of my workout playlist over the past few months, with snare rushes tumbling over one another and movie / hip hop samples getting chopped and stretched. "Koonut-Kaliffee" brings a weird Lovecraftian twist to jungle rave, while "Satjban" and "Eurocore MVP" recalls some of Venetian Snares' earlier madcap adventures in sampling (particularly "Einstein-Rosenbridge"). "Kyokushin" and "Flashforward" provide a taste of the punishing acid-breakcore of the next year's Filth. The album really picks up in its last few tracks, with "Circle Pit" proving to be perhaps the most dancefloor-friendly song Funk has ever produced, complete with left-field Saturday morning cartoon samples. "Bebikukorica Nigiri" puts Funk's incredible talent for composition on full display, with the sophisticated interplay of synth elements taking on an almost classical feel. It's my favorite track on the record.

Then there's "Miss Balaton", the closer. The similarities to Squarepusher's "Tundra 4" are hard to dismiss - I'm not sure you can really track Venetian Snares' particular madness to any one forebear, but Squarepusher's probably a good start. Yet even if the track is some sort of an homage, it stands by itself as an incredible song (the nearly 10-minute song couldn't fit on the LP release of the album and thus it was packaged as its own 12" - one wonders if it was initially meant for the album at all), and a complete detour from Venetian Snares' established style (there's even use of silence, for fuck's sake).

Most people will probably tell you that Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett is Funk's best album, and they might be right from a purely aesthetic point of view, but if we're talking about an album your average unacquainted electronic music fan can enjoy (I'm not sure someone not already into electronic music could ever enjoy Venetian Snares) I think Detrimentalist is the best possible means of acclimating oneself to the eccentricities and sensibilities of breakcore's mad king.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?nnfwjonzymx


Bonobo - Black Sands

Sure enough, after the very pleasant surprise that was the "Eyesdown" single (my review is here) Bonobo has released his latest album, 4 years after his last. As my review of "Eyesdown" mentioned, I was only really aware of Bonobo through his 2000 album Animal Magic, which was sent to me by a friend around 5 or 6 years ago. It didn't hit me too hard back then, as aside from a few key tracks I found it to be relatively tasteful but sleepy electronic jazz. It was West Coast music. So I picked out my favorite tracks from that album and let Bonobo slide into the cloud of bands that only really come up in a shuffle.


Well, God bless Floating Points because without him I probably never would have given Bonobo a second thought. This new Black Sands album is really good, possessed of musculature that 10-year old album sorely lacked. I'm starting to wonder if I should go back and revisit Animal Magic and the other releases that Bonobo's put out in the last decade.


The first track, "Prelude" establishes the production aesthetic that permeates throughout the album - live instrumentation augmented by electronic flourishes. The intro seamlessly segues into "Kiara" where we first encounter one of the many UK Garage-influenced rhythms on Black Sands. It's a change that serves Bonobo well, as no one would ever accuse this music of being "sleepy". There's a vitality to the songs that I didn't hear from Animal Magic. This is dance music that is at once both identifiably electronic but not wholly artificial.


The percussion / organ / guitar / female vox of "Kong" make it reminiscent of Zero 7's instrumental affairs, though the drum sound here is immeasurably better than that band's. I've already covered "Eyesdown", but suffice to say it seamlessly fits into the blue-green tapestry of the album as a whole. "El Toro" is lush exotica, sounding more like straight-up jazz than any of the tracks preceding it. The boogie of "We Could Forever" makes it perhaps the most arresting, propulsive track on the album (I don't know if any of you have Audiosurf, but this is definitely a track to try out in that game). "1009" is overtly electronic-sounding and strongly reminiscent of FaltyDL's soul-tinged Garage. "All in Forms" uses a descending guitar line and a washed-out vox sample to great effect. "The Keeper" and "The Same", two other tracks featuring Andreya Triana (other than "Eyesdown") send the album briefly into lounge jazz territory, and the two last tracks "Animals" and "Black Sands" close out the album with the lush, live jazz feel felt earlier in the album, with live drums, horns and woodwinds.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?rtdymnttvtm


Four Tet - Sing Remixes

It's probably apparent by now that I will buy just about anything with "Floating Points" emblazoned on it. The man's only been around for a little over a year and he's already released some of my favorite tracks of the last several. So naturally I snagged this pair of remixes for the Four Tet single "Sing", which is an alright enough song (I believe I have already expressed my boredom with Four Tet elsewhere on this blog, somewhere). The two remixes are an extended atmospheric house edit of the track, and Floating Points' spin on it. The extended version is what it says on the label, and if you liked the original track you'll probably dig that as well, but my main concern was and is the Floating Points edit.

The track takes its sweet time starting up, as is the case with a lot of FP's recent songs. Gentle atmospherics abound until about 3 and a half minutes into the song, when a great, floor-ready garage rhythm starts to slowly assert itself. The track really starts to hit its stride around the 6 minute mark, at which point more elements of the original song can be heard, chopped up and re-purposed in the signature wonky/jazz style of Floating Points. Soon after the song retreats a bit, only to start building back up again, leading to a bubbling sci-fi outro. It's a really great remix, and keeping with the high standard of quality that Floating Points has set over the last year. Long, but rewarding.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?hmzkax2tmqq

[KvP]

ONE MORE


The Capitol Steps - Liberal Shop of Horrors
Basically, it's a theater / musical group formed by Republican congressional staffers in 1981. This is their most recent album.

Track Listings
1. Return to Spenders
2. Taxicab Driver
3. Cash for Codgers
4. Strangers on This Flight
5. Fly of the Tiger
6. Going Green
7. Don't Cry, I'm in Argentina
8. You Can't Hide That Nobel Prize
9. Officer Crowley
10. Obamamania
11. Everything's Coming Up Roguey
12. We Arrrr the World
13. The Great Health Care Trial Balloon
14. The Twitter
15. Swine Fever
16. Secret Kenyan Man
17. In the Nude
18. A Detective´s Story The Iranian Candidate
19. We´ve Got a Lot of Livers to Do
20. Battle Hymn of the Tea Public

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?2z0dvzwxz14

[onewheelwizzard]

Bonobo + FaltyDL + Starkey + Fabriclive 50 = so much love

real talk

[amok]

^ second that. nice work

[yellowfoliage]

ONE MORE

The Capitol Steps - Liberal Shop of Horrors

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!

[lauraelise204]

Fidel Catastrophe - And the Bleak Shall Inherit the Earth

http://www.myspace.com/wisebloodwivesblood



(photo by me)

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?40irnzxwdmt
Yes, this is a friend's band that I'm posting.  Hope you guys don't mind.  He was an original member of the Pomegranates and has been working on a solo project for some time now.  I would really love to hear your opinion about his music.  I think he's at the beginning of something great, but if you think otherwise or similar, please tell.  

I went to a studio session at Monastery Studio one day with him, Josiah Wolf (of WHY?), and the latest removed bassist of the Pomegranates (his former replacement).  I can't wait to hear the full mastered release of the songs all of them collaborated on.  He doesn't have everything put together yet, but these three he's release for free download on http://www.rebuilttrannyrecords.com/.  


1 - An Endless, Thanks
2 - Another Garden Song
3 - The Breeze Knees


small, trivial fact: i'm screaming with karl at the beginning of The Breeze Knees

[JD]

Not to overshadow lauraelise204, but

Delorean - Subsiza[2010]

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?iyb2dtmmhyl
I really loved their EP posted a while ago but I could not get into their albums for whatever reason. Not so with this.

[the_pied_piper]

Some folk music for you fine fellows.

The Unthanks - Here's The Tender Coming

Although the album is very much traditional in nature the compositions of the tracks has a contemporary feel as the piano plays in the foreground on almost every track and the wonderful strings of Niopha Keegan's fiddle bring a dark brooding to every song, perfectly matching and enhancing the superb vocals. Full of tearful human tales this is an album that hooks onto the heartstrings and clutches there until the final track has lamentably passed, bringing beautiful and enthralling compositions with it.

The Testimony of Patience Kershaw

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http://www.mediafire.com/?g2lz1k43mnj

Black Prairie - Feast of The Hunter's Moon

Combining the forces of Jenny Conlee, Chris Funk and Nate Query of The Decemberists with folk musicians Annalisa Tornfelt and Jon Neufeld, Portland’s Black Prairie crafts an eclectic mix of traditional bluegrass and eastern European sounds. Though peppered with Tornfelt’s wispy vocals, this debut album is primarily instrumental, shifting between twangy folk (“Atrocity at Celilo Falls”), fiddle-heavy bluegrass (“Back Alley,” “Annie McGuire”) and gypsy swoon, full of weeping strings and bouncy accordions (“A Prairie Musette,” “Tango Oscuro”). The melodic ebb and flow through time and space is full of surprises—just when you’ve settled into the rootsy twang, the scene shifts and you’re on a haunted street corner in the old country.

A Prairie Musette

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http://www.mediafire.com/?nmnftrjtdlo
Enjoy!

[JD]

Thanks for The Unthanks!

[the_pied_piper]

Yeah, that song is even more sad when you find out that it's about this.

[scarred]

Delorean - Subsiza[2010]

Had this for a while, there's no single track that can compare to 'Seasun' but as an album it's far more enjoyable than anything they've yet produced.

[Koremora]

Hey guys, wanna know some bullshit? The new LCD record titles were originally correct, as the stream on their website indicates. Tracklist is:

1. Dance Yrself Clean
2. Drunk Girls
3. One Touch
4. All I Want
5. I Can Change
6. You Wanted a Hit
7. Pow Pow
8. Somebody's Calling Me
9. Home

[scarred]

P4K's lies are all coming to light

[scarred]

option 2: nooo my precious last.fm scrobbles

[scarred]

Rules:

No hot-linking images or albums. You can re-host images at http://imageshack.us.

Ensure your tags are correct and that you have specified both Artist/Album in your post.

Upload your files in either a .zip or a .rar archive to mediaf!re.com, in multiple parts if the album is over 100mbs. The reason for this is that we know mediaf!re is safe and efficient and allows multiple downloads. The ads on other sites, such as Sendspace, are known to contain viruses on the page. Get yourself checked out.

Post your link using code tags. It's the # icon above the policeman emoticon. This prevents the links from being traced back to the forums, lowering the chance that the wrong people notice the thread, potentially threatening Jeph with legal action.

Also, please do NOT request albums. This includes requests for re-uploads; if you miss it, try looking for it somewhere else.

Repost the rules at the top of each new page.

[Mr. Doctor]

This thread needs more Black Metal... I won't be responsible if thick blood comes out of your ears.

Funeral Mist - Devilry

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http://www.mediafire.com/?ydyjwdwnnjw
Funeral Mist - Salvation

Some years ago I saw the cover of Funeral Mist's debut and thought "I bet it's just mindless blasturbation".

I was wrong... Now, I do enjoy some Black Metal that is full of blasts but it gets really boring after a while and the main reason is that those bands are inconsistent with their music. Funeral Mist on the other hand don't have that problem.
So, what do we have here? Pure chaos, that's what you'll get from the cd. The music is fast, furious and with lots of blasts but there's something special about this album and that's the extremely blood-chilling "ceremonial" atmosphere. This music is evil.

Guitars as sharp and rusty as an old chainsaw playing both raw and melodic riffs, well-executed drums and eerie samples are the main formula here. Even though the guitarwork is astonishing with it's evil melodies and the drumming is intense with it's calculated variety, the most important thing is the vocal work. Arioch (aka Mortuus from Marduk) is easily the star of the show with his incredible vocals.

A prophet's charisma and a general's commanding voice... Put these two attributes into the mind of a possessed man and you'll get Arioch's vocal style. His thundering voice combined with impressive lyrics makes his performance one of the best ones this unholy genre have seen in the last decade. There are many memorable moments in Salvation when it comes to the vocal work: The diabolical beginning of "Breathing Wounds", The inspiring chorus of "Holy Poison", Arioch's furious commands in "Across The Qliphoth" and those are just some examples among many. Sometimes the wall of noise is caused by the vocals that overlap each other giving the album an even more chaotic vibe. Choirs are also a very special feature with the best example being "Circle Of Eyes", the album's longest song that is a bit simple in songwriting but the choir evokes an atmosphere that is so hypnotic that you won't be bored.

One of the biggest reasons to why this album might be hard to get into is the production. It's very raw and loud so it might be a turn off but people with trained ears will pass through the offensive wall of noise and listen to the great musicanship. I have to admit that sometimes I'd like this album to have a cleaner production because there are some excellent riffs (like in "Perdition's Light") but the production makes the melodies sound a bit blurry. But as usual, this production adds to the surreal and pitch-black atmosphere so it's hard to complain.

If you like your black metal to be intelligent and "in-your-face", search no more and listen to this rare pearl until your ears bleed!

"For your blindness gives me sight, as your darkness is for me light!"

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http://www.mediafire.com/?tyymywidojf
Funeral Mist - Maranatha

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http://www.mediafire.com/?2ymwwihwjn4

[youthcant]

wow.

[SWOON! at My Gravitas]

Awesome!

But they are .wma files, and I am not sure how to convert them into .mp3s

[Mr. Doctor]

I don't know if I'm right but I asked around and you can make them .mp3s with Itunes or Windows Media Player...

I'm sorry if I can't be very specific since I never had that problem with wma or mp3 because my Windows Media Player make the songs work anyway.
Plus I don't have an Ipod or mp3... Just a walkman.
Hope it works fine, man.

[amok]

You can convert them to .mp3 but .wma is pretty lossy so it'd be a fairly bad transcode. Probably better to keep 'em as .wma if you have anything that can play that.

To contribute; give this a go if you like stuff like The Field and new Four Tet:

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http://www.mediafire.com/?zgdxnmi1zmc

[StaedlerMars]

I do, so I will!

Edit: and I do!

[FidelityCastro]

Thanks for that Fidel Catastrophe upload. I'll get down on anything related to the Pomegranates in any way, really. The similarity to my online handle was just frosting on the cake.

[StaedlerMars]

crystal castles - crystal castles

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?gmmqtz3n1jn
(the new one that is)

[Jace]

Need some more BBQ Chickens everywhere in this bitch. They are a fast paced punk band, oh and I am pretty sure they are japanese.
FINE SONGS, PLAYING SUCKS

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?z1zwgiizumdThis is all cover songs.

Goodbye to Your Punk Rock

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?h3ghy5jfclh

[Jace]

Double post for POLYSICS.

Polysics is a Japanese new wave and rock band from Tokyo, who dubs its unique style as "technicolor pogo punk". It was named after a brand of synthesizer, Korg Polysix. The band started in 1997, but got their big break in 1998 at a concert in Tokyo. They create high energy music, fusing conventional guitar music, with synthesized and computer generated sound to create a unique mixture of punk and Synthpop, heavily inspired by the American bands Devo and The Tubes, and Japanese bands such as P-Model and Yellow Magic Orchestra. Their song lyrics often consist of Japanese, English, or just plain gibberish.

Polysics or Die

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http://www.mediafire.com/?4qlnw2oingj
Polysics or Die is a compilation album so if you don't want to download the other stuff there is this one.

Hey Bob My Friend (2000)

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http://www.mediafire.com/?zn0mizmw4uz
Neu (2000)

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http://www.mediafire.com/?nnjynzyqvzh
Now Is The Time (2005)

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http://www.mediafire.com/?wye3xwwyznd
Karate House (2007)

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http://www.mediafire.com/?mngl2mdj0zm

[scarred]

crystal castles - crystal castles

(the new one that is)

oh god i am so excited sexually

[SWOON! at My Gravitas]

Finally getting around to uploading that Triptykon album.  Crushing, hateful metal from the guy who fronted Celtic Frost and Hellhammer

Triptykon- Eparistera Daimones (2010)

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?t4gdme4iite

[ImRonBurgundy?]

Neu (2000)

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?nnjynzyqvzh

If you download only one Polysics album, I recommend it be this one.

[SuperCola]

Picked this up yesterday and figured it would be worth putting up here.

Telekinesis - Dirty Thing (Record Store Day 2010 Single)

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?jmoklzzzkyb

[Elk]

Gogol Bordello -  Trans-continental Hustle (2010) 

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?kjhzztlmwjy

[scarred]

are you fucking kidding me?

lcd soundsystem, crystal castles, and gogol bordello in one week?

what the fuck

what the fuck

[KickThatBathProf]

you forgot holy fuck

[scarred]

fkjdghfkdjshfsld;akHG;lsgaf;hjagkdflbj

[StaedlerMars]

and broken social scene

[scarred]

i will throw up on you jerks

[KickThatBathProf]

i will eat yr face if you do that

[StaedlerMars]

and i'll upload the new hold steady tomorrow morning if there's any interest?

[KickThatBathProf]

eh

[scarred]

eh

[Catacombs]

I'd be interested.  I wasn't that excited after I heard the single (something with a "J" in it) but I'm sure the rest is better.

[JD]

eh

How Canadian.

[scarred]

I live like three hours away, it's not like it's out of my way.

Also, the new Crystal Castles is ballshittingly fantastic.

[JD]

Is it better than the first? I hated the first.

[Weepie McGee]

i feel left out.  i don't really care much about any of those bands.  however, this is my favorite new release...

Horse Feathers - Thistled Spring

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?q2kmtnzadlb