Passions | Music Without Tears

May 30th, 2009 Stu

I’m usually turned right off by any musical project that has the backing of a clothing manufacturer. It’s a little illogical, given that I enjoy consuming both music and clothes, but there’s a certain pall of overt commercialism that never seems to wash away, even if the connection is so innocuous and good intentioned as to be almost non-existent. The latter seems to be the case here, with this Passions mix for NYC design house, Mishka – blending a back catalouge of classics with new tracks from ‘darkwave’ label, Disc Error. The Brooklyn producer cultivates a cocktail of post-punk, industrial and goth sounds into a mix that intrigues and connects old bastards (such as myself) to a continuum that, surprisingly, appears to be ever evolving. Not for the sensitive amongst us, but in a context like this, Death In June never sounded so good.

Passions – Music Without Tearss | mediafire

Tracklisting:
1. UK Decay – Unexpected Guest
2. Micron63 – No Divide
3. Joy Division – Means To An End
4. Pylon – Danger
5. Public Image Limited – Annalisa
6. Nitzer Ebb – Join In The Chant
7. Nine Inch Nails – Ringfinger
8. Passions – Sentiment (Instrumental)
9. Death In June – Fields
10. Cabaret Voltaire – Landslide
11. SPK – A Heart That Breaks (In No Time And Place)
12. Ulterior – Weapons (Zlaya Remix)
13. New Order – 586 (Peel Sessions Version)
14. Death In June – The Calling Mk II
15. Black Strobe – Innerstrings (No Shuffle Mix)
16. Micron63 – Death Is Colder Than Love
17. Huoratron – Corporate Occult (Passions Remix)
18. Section 25 – Looking From A Hilltop
19. Throbbing Gristle – Adrenaline
20. Alien Sex Fiend – Get Into It
21. New Order – Ecstasy
22. Suicide – Mr. Ray
23. Sonic Youth – Killin Yr. Idols
24. Ipso Facto – Baulderdash
25. Damn Arms – The Cormorant
26. Wire – On Returning
27. Oto – Anyway
28. Bauhaus – Dancing
29. The Cure – Primary
30. Passions – Composure (Instrumental)
31. Radiohead – Climbing Up The Walls
32. David Bowie – Subterraneans

img | lillie abe

Tags: darkwave, disc error, goth, mishka, passions

Posted in Old Blog Posts. | 2 Comments »

Dimlite | Quiz Tears

May 28th, 2009 Stu

You and I both know that 2+2 always equals 5, but can we also contend with the fact that 7×7 now equals 8?

Once in a while, a label comes along and deftly captures an artist just as they clamber out of the trench of obscurity, and go ‘over the top’ into the battleground of the public arena. The 7×7 series from Dublin’s All City nailed that dictum seven times over, collecting productions from Snowman, Mike Slott, Fulgeance, Mweslee, Leneko, Hudson Mohawke and Onra. The 7×7 series was as simple as it sounds – 7 x 7″ inch (and digi) releases from these 7 producers.

The results have now been compiled on the obligatory compilation album, but just to add some additional arithmetical spice to the equation, they’ve added an eighth producer to the fray – Switzerland’s Dimlite (Sonar Kollectiv) with his bonus cut ‘Quiz Tears’. If you were waiting for a elasti-funk, electro-dub communication from the outer edges of the galaxy, refracting back our own perverse terrestrial transmissions from the Beefheart era – congratulations, you’ve found it.

Next on All City: Releases from Ruckazoid & Nosaj Thing, and a much anticipated face-off – Mike Slott vs Martyn dropping in September.

Dimlite – Quiz Tears | mp3

img | goosewing

Tags: all city records, dimlite, switzerland

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Poirier | Mix For Sinden

May 27th, 2009 Stu

The first thing I thought when I read Ghislain Poirier’s latest email missive was ‘Oh, I see Ghis has a new haircut’. Yup, I’m that shallow.

What I should have thought was ‘Nice! A tidy mix from Sinden’s Kiss show with cuts from Ghis, Major Lazer, Alison Hinds and Emvee thrown into the soup. Must post that.”  From end to end, the mix focuses almost exclusively on Poirier’s own soca productions, alongside Canadian affliates Bonjay and Skinny Fabulous from St Vincent & The Grenadines.  It’s a high BPM breezy romp, bringing a little sunshine to our darker times.

Whilst were talking face value, Ghis has dropped the Ghis and now trades as Poirier. Just so we’re clear.

Poirier – Mix For Sinden (May 2009) | zshare

Tracklisting:
Poirier – Wha-La-La-Leng feat. Face-T
Major Lazer – Hold The Line (Poirier Remix)
Poirier – Karnival
Silverlink – The Message Is Love feat. Jammer & Badness (acapella)
Alison Hinds – Soca Nation (Poirier Remix)
Poirier – Get Crazy feat. Mr. Slaughter
Skinny Fabulous – My Girl feat. Mr. Vegas
Emvee – Glitch (Bonjay’s Feisty Rub)

Poirier – Wha La La Leng (feat. Face T) (Video) | fader.tv

img | jek in the box

Tags: alison hinds, djmix, emvee, major lazer, poirier, silverlink, skinny fabulous

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Discontent | Mixtape Two

May 24th, 2009 Stu

The Discontent Mixtape series is an irregular series of compilations, designed to give blog readers an extreme intro into the Discontent world – a collection of tracks that have appeared on the blog in recent times. For this, the second volume, I’ve included a few tracks that didn’t quite make their way from hard drive to blog, and so are included here for the first time (Mutamassik remix, Ras G, Psychic Ills, Xiao He and Entertainment For The Brain Dead).

All the tracks have been published freely online by artists or labels, so feel free to post the link or distribute the mixtape. If you do, please also link back to www.discontentblog.com.

Discontent – Mixtape Two | rapidshare download

1. White – Build A Link [China]
2. Three Trapped Tigers – 1 [England]
3. These Are Powers – Life of Birds [U.S.]
4. Mutamassik – Commo The Rag (Claws Costeau’s All Dirty Remix) [Egypt]
5. Kid606 – Mr. Wobble’s Nightmare [Venezuela]
6. Ras G – Shinelight [U.S.]
7. Psychic Ills – Fingernail Tea [U.S.]
8. Underlapper – Meanderthal (Cleptoclectics Remix) [Australia]
9. Lloop – Lei-tzu [U.S.]
10. Vorad Fils – Android Creche [Australia]
11. Growing – Green Flag [U.S.]
12. Cauto – Despertar [Spain]
13. Xiao He – After Time [China]
14. Entertainment For The Brain Dead – What You Get (Part Timer Remix) [Germany]

Discontent Mixtape One remains available here, featuring Fever Ray, Harmonic 313, Mi Ami, Hudson Mohawke, Salem, Filastine and more.

Tags: mixtape

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Kid606 | Samhain California (Remix)

May 24th, 2009 Stu

Whilst Kid606’s most recent masks have been designed with bass-licking raveheads in mind, it’s worth reflecting that the Kid has been on a long and winding road since his first release in 1998. Back then, particularly releases such as ‘Down With The Scene’ (2000), Miguel Manuel De Pedro was essentially a purveyor of extreme glitch and experimental breakcore, threading together disparate seams of 80s sample culture, industrial volume, musique concrete / sound art and a propensity to annoy the less-liberally minded with a clarion call that was as far from ‘music’ as many dare to venture.

While his recent releases ‘Die Soundboy Die’ and ‘Shout At The Doner’ are perhaps less deliberately difficult and unwelcoming than his earlier forays, they are no less upfront – at the core of both are wonky bass rhythms weighted by a magnetic force that pile-drives to the centre of the planet, teamed with acid pops and rave slides that time-shift back to the early 90s.

Following the first ‘Doner’ album cut, the cannibal-rave anthem ‘Mr Wobble’s Nightmare’, Miguel is dropping a crop of new mixes across blogs over the next couple of weeks, on which he notes “some will be released in a couple months, some will never be released”. Leonard De Leonard’s Euro-remix below will strike a deep chord with industrial / trance heads, flashing back to EBM moves from the likes of Front242 back in the day. Google around for other unreleased exclusives from Duran Duran Duran, Kidz on Acid, Miffy, Genuine Guy, Obi Blatche, Doshy and more. The album ‘Shout At The Doner’ is out now on Tigerbeat6.

Kid606 – Samhain California (Leonard de Leonard Remix) | mp3

Kid606 – Mr Wobble’s Nightmare |mp3

Kid606 – Mr Wobble’s Nightmare (Video) | chunnel.tv (Recommended!)

img | steven m 61

Tags: kid606, leonard de leonard, tigerbeat6

Posted in Old Blog Posts. | 2 Comments »

Vorad Fils | Android Creche

May 9th, 2009 Stu

Vorad Fils is the solo guise of Sydney producer John Hassell, who also fills his days working with local electronic three-piece Seekae and their high-school precursor Songs For Surgery. Clearly professing his love of Boards Of Canada on his Myspace home, Hassell follows a time-honoured electronic tradition on a suite of three demo tracks (available to download on last.fm), marrying lush glitch, ambient tones and lower case minimalism. Sounds fall into a continuum, where we can point to influences and predecessors, but with this small collection of new work – married with his excellent contribution to Seekae – it’s clear that Hassell is a producer of note in Australian terms, and that these are simply early postcards from the start of a long journey.

Vorad Fils – Android Creche | mp3

img | kaledbf

Tags: australia, seekae, sydney, vorad fils

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Tortoise | High Class Slim Came Floatin’ In

May 6th, 2009 Stu

Next month, Tortoise drop their sixth album ‘Beacons Of Ancestorship’. 2004’s ‘It’s All Around You’ was a recurring feature on my playlist for that year, the sound of Tortoise amalgamating all that had gone before into one cohesive session. In opening the promo mail from Thrill Jockey today, it was with some trepidation – they couldn’t have been more ‘Tortoise-like’ on their last release, so where to from there? I certainly wasn’t prepared for the answer.

The opener ‘High Class Slim Came Floatin’ In’ will knock you utterly askew (download below). Whilst the first few bars rolled into a familiar, jilted percussive rhythm, within moments we’re nodding to a clutch of large, fat keyboard stabs that clearly echo back to early 80s hip hop and electro. So much so, I was expecting an old-school MC to rock up on vocoder at any given moment. As you’re sucking on that particular surprise, it soon melts into a pool of alt.physchedlia, then draws itself to a premature quiet climax, before staggering on a final pile of riffs that stand toe to toe with Boredoms.

‘Prepare Your Coffin’ (also available for download below) daringly continues the side order of funk with some squealing 70s keyboards accompanying the main Tortoise thrill. Fans of cerebral introspection might shudder at the thought, but there’s a real joy that exudes from the pores on this track – a joy that’s carried right across the release. ‘Northern Something’ drives the group along with a bass-heavy acid squelch, ‘Gigantes’ hides an IDM 4-4 underneath its clipped, minimal guitar work, whereas ‘Yinxianghechengqi’ is as close to black metal as any of their contemporaries might dare to venture.

Straight off the bat, ‘Beacons Of Ancestorship’ is one of the most enjoyable Tortoise releases to date. There’s something deeply thrilling about listening to a group of accomplished musicians daring to have fun, to opt for the playful approach, whilst still driving home their incessant quest for innovation. Just when it seemed that their peers were clipping at their heels, Tortoise wrong-foot the pack by running right off the track – indeed, running right out of the stadium and into a freestyle, cross-country marathon of their own design.

Tortoise – High Class Slim Came Floatin’ In | mp3

Tortoise – Prepare Your Coffin | mp3

img | riotjane

Tags: thrill jockey, tortoise, u.s.

Posted in Old Blog Posts. | No Comments »