Taliesin | Aprecity Mix

December 30th, 2008 Stu

Compiled for the Bassfaced blog, Dutty Artz member Taliesin drops a beautifully eclectic mix featuring a diverse range of cuts from Dutty signing Mr. Jahdan Blakkamoore, via Kelis, Saigon and Flying Lotus, to an old-school recording of a Gnostic Mass from hellboy Aleister Crowley. Unique.

In the accompanying communique, Taliesin also gives us the heads up on the next Dutty Artz release, Jahdan’s debut album: “start to finish one of the best vocalist centered albums I’ve ever heard. PERIOD”. Consider my breath baited.

Taliesin – Aprecity Mix | mp3 or zshare

Tracklisting:
Nguzunguzo – Hate2wait (Kingdom Refix)
“?????” – Kubo Remix
Dev79 – In Ya Face
CardoPusher – Low End Legacy
Vybz Kartel – Empire Army
Dead Prez – Politrikkks
Wisp – Whisper
Thark – Apatia
BD-1982 – Seeing Orange
Connor- Belles
Aleister Crowley – Gnostic Mass
Duran Duran Duran – Unholy Dracula Vagina Alien
Flying Lo – RobertaFlack (feat. Dolly)
David Banner – Shawty Say (feat. Weezy)
Saigon – Come on Baby (Inst.)
Mali – Pale Twop
Shit Mat – Big Ben’s Big Remix
Jahdan Blakkamoore – Bus it Pon Dem
Small Professor – Kelis

Tags: djmix, duttyartz, taliesin

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Where’s Your Mate In 2008?

December 30th, 2008 Stu

I had to write it down somewhere for posterity – the obligatory “best of”, in no particular order, for the last tropical year (including many 2007 releases that rolled in late). Slate clean, here’s to ‘09.

pic: Ellen Allien by Michael Mann

ELLEN ALLIEN ‘Sool’
THE BUG ‘London Zoo’
ITAL TEK ‘Cyclical’
LEILA ‘Blood, Looms & Blooms’
2562 ‘Aerial’
TUSSLE ‘Cream Cuts’
SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN ‘Fire Escape’
DFA / SUPERSOUL ‘Nobody Knows Anything: DFA Presents SuperSoul’
DUSK & BLACKDOWN ‘Margins Music’
EL REMELON ‘Pibe Cosmo’
ZOMBY ‘Where Were U In 92?’
RONG MUSIC / DFA ‘Notwave’
STATIC DISCOS ‘Safety Stock’
FIRST AID KIT ‘Drunken Trees’
FLYING LOTUS ‘Los Angeles’
FANTASTIKOI HXOI ‘Kyriarxoi Tou Sympantos’
SKULL DISCO ‘Soundboy’s Gravestone Gets Desecrated By Vandals’
BURAKA SOM SISTEMA ‘Black Diamond’
ACTRESS ‘Hazyville’
FREE BLOOD ‘Singles’
MEGASOID ‘Speed Knots Vol.1′
EL GUINCHO ‘Alegranza’
GHISLAIN POIRIER ‘No Ground Under’
SAUL WILLIAMS ‘The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!’
PORTISHEAD ‘Third’
KIM HIORTHOY ‘My Last Day’
MOCHIPET ‘Microphonepet’
APPARAT ‘Things To Be Frickled’
DJC & ZULU ‘Gods & Robots’

Tags: lists

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Zomby | Where Were U in 92? Mixtape

December 24th, 2008 Stu

Where was I in 92? Earning a living for the first time in my life, and thus both shacked up in an apartment in Partick with more weed than Cheech or Chong, and making regular forays to Edinburgh to ‘access the shapes’ in front of the speaker stack at ‘Pure’. Yes, 92 was a vintage year.

I’m fully aware that pounding deeper back into the 90s put me at risk of sounding like a ravetastic hasbeen – however, despite best efforts, it seems I’m powerless to stop myself from being dragged back there. M.I.A. asked me (directly, natch) the question very nicely last year on Kala’s ‘XR2′, and Zomby once again pestered me on this year’s Werk debut of the same name. What goes around, comes around, and sure as fate, it slaps you in the face with a dayglo brick.

Zomby’s ‘Where Were U in 92?’ is an unadulterated, 100% more hypercolour than hypercolour, Italo-piano stabbing plummet back to those halycon days; almost impossible to consume without experiencing a rush of adrenalised nostaligia to the head. This Dazed & Confused mixtape gives you just the right ‘92 hit that you need to make the appalling spectacle of Chrissmukkah all the more bearable. Insert into ears and dance like an atheistic lunatic this Xmas day.

Zomby – Where Were U in 92? Mixtape | mp3

Tags: 1992, werkdiscs, zomby

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Pivot | Cities

December 19th, 2008 Stu

I’m over 2008 already. In fact, two months ago I bought a 2009 diary and I’ve been using it ever since. My personal indignation about all that was unfavourable in 2008 is surely not replicated by Australia’s Pivot. By anyone’s standards, they’ve had an outstanding year: signed to Warp Records, released a sensational album (‘O Soundtrack My Heart’), had an EP remixed by Clark and Rustie, played with Sigur Ros, toured the world. And that was just yesterday afternoon. With so little left to prove, I suspect 2009 might be a quiet one for Pivot. No, sorry, they’re touring Australia next month with Gary Numan – my mistake.

As if their schedule wasn’t rammed to the hilt already, the overachievers also found time to make their own podcast mix series, ‘O Download My Heart’ featuring songs and sounds inspired by their activities over the last twelve months. ‘Cosmic Gods Of Synth’ gave us their tribute to the keyboard wizards of yesteryear (Jean Michel Jarre being reawoken for that one, presumably with his light harp intact), ‘Australian Music’ thankfully reappraised all that is cited worldwide about the Aussie scene, and ‘Autobahn Favourites’ was a 200kph ride through Krautrock old and new. The latest episode ‘Cities’ records their “European Odyssey” with a themed podcast featuring Steve Reich, Trans Am, Flying Lotus, Talking Heads and Scott Walker. One hopes that’s the last instalment in the series – they’re making the rest of us look slack by comparison.

Pivot – Cities | mp3

Subscribe to Pivot podcast series via http://pivotpivot.net/podcast/odownloadmyheart.xml.

Tags: australia, flyinglotus, pivot, podcast, stevereich, talkingheads, transam

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The Long Lost | Woebegone (Flying Lotus’ Luckiest Charm)

December 18th, 2008 Stu

When Alfred Darlington is not making late-night booty calls on his Casio under the Deadelus alias, it seems that he’s dolling himself up in turn-of-the-19th-century attire and making sweet, acoustic peans to love with his wife Laura. Whilst it might sound like something he should be doing behind closed doors, it is in fact the story of The Long Lost – a project that has been through various stages of gestation over the last decade and is now priming its debut release, ‘Woebegone’, on Ninja Tune.

Cut across the spectrum to this year’s ‘Los Angeles’ release from Flying Lotus, or back to his ‘1983′ album, and you’ve already infused Laura Darlington’s beautiful vocals on ‘Unexpected Delight’ and ‘Auntie’s Lock’ respectively – and there’s also a not-unexpected turn on the closing track of this year’s Deadelus album ‘Love To Make Music To’. Given this long-standing relationship with Mr Fly-Lo, it’s only fitting that he return the favour with two remixes of ‘Woebegone’, one of which drops below. Dovetailing relationships aside, this drifts in like a prize off-cut from ‘Los Angeles’, all shuffling percussion and rising arpeggios, and Darlington’s light lilt draped over the top like wafer-thin gold-plate.

The Long Lost – Woebegone (Flying Lotus’ Luckiest Charm) | mp3

Buy ‘Woebegone’ from Ninja Tune. A second single from the Santa Monica duo, titled ‘Amiss’, is due in February featuring versions from Tuung (described as a “clog stomper” of a remix), Fink and Computer Jay, and a full album lands in March.

Tags: flyinglotus, ninjatune, thelonglost

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Fever Ray | If I Had A Heart

December 17th, 2008 Stu

The Knife’s ‘Silent Shout’ remains as good as it sounded right from day one – dark, fucked up, dramatic gothtronica, that is in turns both desperately sad and perversely beautiful. ‘We Share Our Mother’s Health’ remains one of the most bleak and morose electro-pop songs yet committed to tape, but with her Knife offshoot project Fever Ray, Karin Dreijer Andersson seems determined to plunge still further into the darkness. The lead single “If I Had A Heart” (released today on The Knife’s Rabid Records via 7Digital, Beatport and Klicktrack) borrows much of the vocal styles that Karin employed on ‘Silent Shout’ – the screwed, wound-down slow-mo treatment, dropped here in tandem with Karin’s untreated voice. As a precursor for the self-titled album due on March 21st, and a proposed live show being prepared in tandem, it offers those with a Knife-shaped hole in their heart some hope to lean into.

If I had a heart, I’d post the single itself (which you can stream on Fever Ray’s Murdochspace and I urge you to shed your coin for), but in place of that treat, here’s a voxless edit as an entree for the main course.

Fever Ray – If I Had A Heart (Instrumental Edit) | mp3

Tags: feverray, rabidrecords, sweden, theknife

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ZôL | Syphillisupastar

December 16th, 2008 Stu

French label Jarring Effects deserve their little red blip on the electronic / dub / booty / weird radar to glow a few shades stronger. Having curated artists such as Scorn, Ez3kiel, Sibot, High Tone and L’Oeuf Raide over the last ten years, they’ve recently augmented the roster with South Africa’s Playdoe, Filastine, Von Magnet and Ben Sharpa - smart and talented people, one and all. Back in July 2007, they launched the JFX Bits Compilation series, offering free download compilations that not only served as overly-abundant trawls through their catalogue; but also remarkably gelled together as unique, end-to-end narratives in their own right.

JFX Bits #3 has arrived just in time for the festive season, and is the best collection yet. Cracked, wonky hip hop sits next to downbeat Middle Eastern salutes; dark, gothtronica next to dubplate polemics. Opti & Ohmwerk and Tony Oheix’s contributions are highlights that almost made the cut into this post, but it was ZôL’s electro booty monster that finally took pole position – mainly due to the fact that they deserve props for attempting to rehabilitate the most charming STD of all, and foist it into the glare of the spotlight, the red carpet and the flashing bulbs of the papparazi.  What’s next – Herpes Hero? Leprosy Lover?

ZôL – Syphillisupastar (Borgias Edit) | mp3

Download the full compilation at jarringeffects.net/jfxbits3. Donations encouraged.

Tags: jarringeffects, jfx, zol

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Fantastikoi Hxoi | Kyriarxoi Tou Sympantos

December 14th, 2008 Stu

Of course, I fully accept that I could well be out of my tiny mind.

I’m currently listening to a track culled from recordings made in Greece in the 1960s. A track that has apparently been requantified and recontextualised as the Hardcore Continuum meets Sigur Ros in a tiny drum’n'bass bar – with only a moog, a kettle and a pair of spoons for instruments. And I think there’s a small tribe of mice dancing nearby (off their tits, natch). With a dearth of digital information in English it’s hard to tell, but whatever it is, it’s beautiful. We do know it’s called ‘Kyriarxoi Tou Sympantos’ and it’s by Fantastikoi Hxoi. And there’s a double album’s worth of similar fantasies waiting to be downloaded for free at a blog written entirely in Greek. God bless the internet, and – once again – god bless the blog kids at 20JFG for the signpost, and for squirting liquid acid in our morning tea.

Fantastikoi Hxoi – Kyriarxoi Tou Sympantos | mp3

Tags: fantastikoihxoi, greece

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Filastine | B’talla

December 12th, 2008 Stu

As an itinerant annalist of a melange of sounds from around the world, Filastine has little or no equal. From the first moment that he drafted a set of sticks as drummer for Seattle’s Tchkung! in 1990s, through his life as rebel leader of the “tactical mobile rhythmic unit” Infernal Noise Brigade through to the 2006 Filastine debut, ‘Burn It’ – Grey Filastine has forgone convention in favour of confrontation. The collage of sounds, philosophies, ideas and cultures that once again spring to attention in the new full-length ‘Dirty Bomb’ come off as an uncompromising, unfettered alternative soundtrack to Life On Earth.

Grey points out that there were no “canned loops” or “mail-order vocals” – acoustic instruments and vocals were sourced, discussed, recorded and bound to hard drive in collaborative sessions. Sweeping through Bucharest, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Bangladesh, Sydney, Granada and Marrakesh, ‘Dirty Bomb’ uniquely treats these original recordings as the source samples that are then dragged mercilessly through layers of processing, and landing somewhere altogether new and hitherto undiscovered. ‘B’atalla’ features Rabah from French / Algerian hip hop crew MBS, who – on this one track alone – raps in French, English, Berber, Arabic and Spanish.

Filastine – B’talla (feat. Rabah) | mp3

In collaboration with with DJ/Rupture’s Soot records and Post World Industries, ‘Dirty Bomb’ also marks the first release for Australia’s ‘Uber Lingua‘ label – the natural extension of the DJ, VJ, MC and live collective that has been largely responsible for introducing a new vision of contemporary and alternative ‘global’ music into the aural culture of the country. Aus / NZ residents can buy ‘Dirty Bomb’ now from uberlingua.com and can also look forward to a Filastine tour (including appearances at the Sydney Festival), in tandem with Maga Bo, in January.

Previous Filastine, Infernal Noise Brigade and Tchkung! releases available via Post World Industries.

Download another track from ‘Dirty Bomb’, ‘Fitnah’ (featuring Jessika Skeletalia Kenney) at Pitchfork.

Tags: djrupture, filastine, infernalnoisebrigade, postworldindustries, uberlingua

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Harmonic 313 | Dirtbox

December 11th, 2008 Stu

Mark Pritchard is a very naughty boy.

Aside from the fact that Mark has given us a taste of what might have happened if Gary Numan had invented dubstep, ‘Dirtbox’ is – in no uncertain terms – pure, low-end, smear it on your face, dirty, dirty bass. Hallelujah.

Thankfully, the former Reload / Global Communications / Jedi Knight and all round good fellow emigrated to Sydney some time ago, which means that we’ve had an opportunity to pop ourselves filthy to his bass-killing sets for quite some time. Even then, we knew it was a foretaster of what was to come – and finally, it falls to Earth with a crater-gouging thud. ‘Dirtbox’ is ripped from the EP of the same name, available via the angelic people at Warp Records, download at Bleep.com.

Harmonic 313 – Dirtbox | mp3

Visit Mr. P on MurdochSpace.

Tags: harmonic313, markpritchard, warprecords

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