T-rips!
Forest Swords - Dagger Paths + Bonus DiscMy #4 favorite album of 2010, I've included the old link to the proper EP and just uploaded the bonus disc, which has 6 previously unreleased songs plus a bunch of remixes and a mix by the FS dude. If you slept on this one, catch up.
The musical recipe that UK producer Matthew Barnes uses in his one-man project Forest Swords is simple enough-- pick some sparse rhythms and sounds, loop them at a pace both languid and insistent, and fold in texture and volume as each piece slowly gathers momentum. But judging by the Dagger Paths EP, released by Olde English Spelling Bee earlier this year, the results are richer than you might expect. Through dense, mesmerizing atmospheres, which conjure faded memories and dream states, Barnes manages to evoke techno, dub, drone, and even hip-hop and R&B.
In fact, when I wrote about the EP back in June, I had a little trouble seeing Barnes' work outside of the fog of buzzy micro-genres like chillwave and witch house. His music's ghostly aura connects to those and other leftfield trends, but really, Barnes has pretty much transcended them all. The more I've listened, the more I've found his hypnotic concoctions to be in a category of their own. Now that UK label No Pain in Pop has re-released Dagger Paths, adding two tracks from a recent 7" and a CD-R with an impressive array of bonus material, the singularity is so clear it's almost blinding.
Most of that bright light comes from the surprisingly integral role of guitar. At first, these songs sound like a slow, sleepy weave of disparate elements-- dubby bass, sparse percussion, distant voices, blurry samples. But eventually, a bold guitar figure crafts a melody that sticks in your head rather than drifting away with all the echo and atmosphere. Barnes' music can rightly be called murky and dream-like, but it's deceptively so. Dagger Paths is much more active and sharp than such descriptions might imply.
The result is that, the further you delve these songs, the catchier each becomes. A few are immediately engaging, like the swinging "Miarches" and hip-hop-in-slo-mo "The Light" . But other tracks prove just as memorable once they have some time to burrow into your brain. On "Glory Gongs", winding guitar chimes return whenever the track threatens to fall apart. And even the reverb-heavy, negative-space cover of Aaliyah's "If Your Girl Only Knew" retains the hook of the original. That trend persists as Barnes shifts his sound on two newer tracks-- the sparse, reggae-inflected "Rattling Cage", and "Hjurt", which wraps guitar in bombed-out drums and distant cries.
No Pain in Pop's bonus CD-R starts with six early Forest Swords tracks, all of which show Barnes' methods to have been pretty well intact from the start (a few are so heavy on fuzzed-out guitar explorations that Forest Swords could be mistaken for an improv rock combo). Also added are remixes of Dagger Paths cuts by other artists, and a 20-minute mix in which Barnes inventively reworks These New Puritans, Burial/Four Tet, and Wild Beasts. Clearly the guy has wide ideas about sound and what it can do, but what impresses most about Dagger Paths is its focus. All the elements and styles that Barnes collects like a magnet quickly align toward one unmistakable musical vision.
Dagger Paths EPhttp://www.mediafire.com/?l44lsuwe23ap6u2Bonus Material Dischttp://www.M/F.com/?p4i4f9tgivbbv71
Joy Orbison - BB / LadywellAfter the impeccable rave/bass hybrids of 2009 and a relatively quiet 2010, Joy Orbison comes back to what every dubstep-affiliated UK DJ is doing - House music. Still has all the awesome buildup of his most famous tracks, but with more subtelty and a lot more focus on the beat aspect of the dancefloor.
Fresh-as-f**k House music from the prodigious Joy Orbison. On the A-side the instantly arousing 'BB' finds some smooth-yet-dirty hybrid of Detroit and London flavours, where gritty garage drums tuck into sultry rolling house formation and the bassline just can't decide if its a square bass groover or a deeply padded subbass shudder. Either way it's just deadly effective. Flip over and the sparse, streamlined flow of 'Ladywell' comes off like some blend of Cassy and Kyle Hall, marrying streamlined, mesmeric vocal motifs with more rugged claps and masculine kicks. Mastered and cut at D&M, ready and raring for the rave. These will sell out in a flash - you've been warned!
http://www.M/F.com/?7utw06k0k5gnn2w
Geiom - Resi Claart / Stel DrumGeiom tosses a throwback to his IDM roots (he was a Skam kid back in the day) with this nicely textured and layered DnB exercise. Not as crazy as breakcore but not stodgy, either.
Geiom steps into more IDM and minimal D&B-influenced terrain with a classy 12" for Cambridge's Frijsfo crew. 'Resi Clart' sounds like classic Arovane updated with an awareness of recent DBridge moves and some sub-continental percussive influence. On the flip, 'Stel Drum' works out a trickier style of dubstep with nods to ASC's rhythmic complexities.
http://www.M/F.com/?d16q52a6n802esxAnd a few more things!
OFF! - First Four EPsIt's either the best fusion jazz record you've ever heard or some pretty raw hardcore punk. You figure it out.
The very last scene in the 2006 documentary American Hardcore finds Zander Schloss of the Circle Jerks delivering a eulogy. "It was over a long time ago! It's over, okay? Go home! Your cage is clean." The screen goes black just as Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown" starts up; the vocal is by Keith Morris, Black Flag co-founder and Schloss' longtime boss in the Circle Jerks. It's a funny juxtaposition, considering the recent history of the Circle Jerks; though Morris attempted to keep the Jerks' engine running after yet another failed go, he and Burning Brides frontman Dimitri Coats teamed up, called a couple of buddies, ground out 16 songs. The results would stop in their tracks anybody who'd dare declare punk rock dead. Morris was around for the birth of hardcore, and from the sound of his new band OFF!, they're going to have to drag him away from the stuff, screaming.
For OFF!, Morris and Coats rang up bassist Steven McDonald of the perennially underrated Redd Kross, and Rocket From the Crypt/Earthless drummer Mario "Ruby Mars" Rubalcaba. Coats may be OFF!'s least known quantity, but here, as with the stoner rock of his Brides, he's got an adaptable style and ear for detail that are perfect for this recapturing job. McDonald holds down the low end with an uncharacteristic simplicity that suits these airtight tracks to a T. And Ruby Mars couldn't have been a tough call, hell of a drummer that he is; you'd have to be to hold these songs together. These guys might be punks, but after years in the game, they're total pros. And all that backstory melts away in three seconds on this bruiser of a record, one that reignites the hardcore spirit and turn-on-a-dime intensity of Morris' work with Black Flag and early Circle Jerks years without ever coming off like a history lesson.
OFF! is Morris' show, and for all their help getting him back to his roots, the band keeps out of his way, firing off blistering, not-a-second-too-long rumbles that feel shot out of a cannon. But having some new blood in the room lights a raging fire under Morris, and he pounces on these tracks. As ever, he speak-shouts with an unusual clarity, even when he's spraying out a ton of words at once. But it's the adaptability of his voice that's most stunning, the way he'll start out spitting and then swoop down into a scream. Lyrically, the OFF! songs seem to play on Morris' role as an angry young man all grown up; a line like "you wonder why I'm always screaming?" would sound fine coming from some 17-year-old with a glue-stuck mohawk, but given Morris' elder statespunk position, the question deepens, the emphasis falls on the "always." The young dude declaring "I've Had It" three decades back still shouts "Fuck People" with equal fervor.
First Four EPs crams 16 tracks into just over 17 minutes; the thing's packed so tightly, an extra second here or there could feel like one too many. This is lean, propulsive hardcore, played just as it would've been in L.A. circa 1981. The live-in-a-room recording lets you all but hear the sweat drip on the mic, Morris' hair slapping into Coats' amp. The breathless intensity of Morris' vocals is matched by the one-and-done feel of the musicianship; as Coats told Pitchfork last month, "the demo is the record," and no decision's been overthought. Morris spent a decade and a half trying to get the Circle Jerks together enough to make another album, and this thing sounds like it was made in two days, almost for the hell of it, and those lowered stakes result in a ramped-up fervor.
Even with the short runtime, First Four EPs really takes it out of you; each EP takes you through highs and lows in quick succession, so hearing all four straight through is like being put through a tenderizer. For all their ripchord intensity, I wish they'd made just a little more room for McDonald, whose work with Redd Kross proved him more adept at sneaking intricate bass lines under hardcore rhythms than he's allowed here. But these are, after all, the first four EPs, which assumes there's more to come. You could argue that there's a nasty conservative streak running through these four EPs, that Morris already made better versions of this record with his previous bands. But OFF! feels less like a regression than a regrouping, a shoring up of old strengths with the hopes of recapturing an old feeling. And that much they nail.
In an indie rock landscape that typically values complex arrangements, subtlety, and good taste, OFF! are not just refreshing, but totally necessary. It's an economic shithole out there right now-- the same conditions that led to hardcore in the first place. This music is built for a climate of frustration and powerlessness, and its bare-knuckled punch-in-the-face is a long-needed wake-up call to nostalgic escapism. Get mad instead.
http://www.M/F.com/?3d8s0c9wz1np3os
Modeselektion Vol. 01 Bonus Tracks and VersionsGerman IDM/Hip Hop/Bass wunderkinds Modeselektor wrap up the first round of their curated series of singles with outtakes. FaltyDL in particular puts in some of his best work in awhile here.
Extending the party vibes of 'Modeselektion Vol.1', Falty DL, Vaghe Stelle, Bok Bok, Cosmic TRG and Love Operation offer bonus tracks and versions. Most importantly, this EP introduces two exclusive tracks from relative unknowns Vaghe Stelle and Love Operation, the former with an impressive Scuba-like 'lectronic roller and the latter with a sublime ambient after-thought 'Heartbeat'. For the DJs, Bok Bok and Cosmin TRG's extended versions should come in very handy, stretching their elastic future funk vibes for longer mixes, while Falty DL burns off the flash Garage sweep of 'I'm Gonna Show You Somethin'.
http://www.M/F.com/?6g72n004p4e5d85
Bastian Wegner - Davy Jones' LockerStriking, deep, minimalist modern classical composition. The title should give you an idea of what sort of mood to expect.
From the striking artwork onwards, German artist Bastian Wegner and his debut record on much-admired Finnish label Sahko leaves you in a state of lost. His is a sound that brushes softly against bleached out strings, decaying drones and tones, haunted piano's played from the houses of dead people. Cold, elegiac electronics to submerge your ears in dust and gloom, primed for the darkest of nights.
http://www.M/F.com/?arw3569jhtkpd3e
OvO - Croce ViaDo you like weird, confrontational shit? Fuck you, of course you do. Check out OvO, they're European.
Milan grindcore duo Ovo return, following up 2006's Mistenia album with another clobbering collection of songs. The format is as simple as it is brutal: Bruno Dorella's drums lay down a bedrock of noisy percussion whilst Stefania Pendretti spurts out paranormally twisted verses in a variety of different voices, all whilst trying desperately to maintain control of her caterwauling, detuned stringed instrument (is it a guitar? a bass? a bit of elastic band attached to an amplified cardboard box?). You could probably trace the band's powerhouse, freeform sound to the likes of Melvins, or Boredoms, although there's a Napalm Death-like brevity and intensity to the 'Haiku' tracks, expending all energy and power within a few seconds of screeching and pounding. Massively entertaining and surprisingly varied avant-metal from the Load camp. Recommended.
http://www.M/F.com/?c4dx2a64uxq7gdg
Franklin de Costa - Fragile EPHOUSE
After recent diversions into dub smudged House as Mudkid, Franklin De Costa goes straight Deep House with a contemporary twist for Curle. Leading off 'Fragile' fixes hazy, almost half-heard piano keys with padded bass and heavily smoked late night ambience, while 'Circular Beings' rubs up an electro-edged boompty Houser with deeply jazzed touches. On the flip 'Ush Ush' sit in a Nu-Euro-Deep groove and 'Soulbound' sets its sights on the deeper side of modern Chicago.
http://www.M/F.com/?k71ndb6537ba4ye
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Topic: Wink Wink 2011 - A bit of a change this year (Read 713048 times)