Jahcoozi. What to make of them? They squirrelled into our psyche many earth moon revolutions ago with their ‘fish fish fish’ inspired track, neatly titled ‘Fish’. Since then, they’ve chosen to run circles around their own narrative – whether through choice or fate, never hitching their wagon to any particular label for more than one release, and – with each consecutive appearance – always delivering a side order of unexpected mystery meat on top of their bass-heavy electro grill.

2007’s second album ‘Blitz N Ass’ was a tight, deep affair, perhaps not as loose and thus as experimental as their debut, but fascinating nonetheless. Since then, one third – Robot Koch – has eschewed hibernation in favour of launching a label, Robots Don’t Sleep, and releasing EPs and mixtapes, whilst the group also found time to record the superb ‘Murder Us’ collaboration on King Cannibal’s latest for Ninja Tune and pose for some delightfully bizarre photo shoots.

However, the door to the new Jahcoozi album has finally been kicked open with two singles – ‘Watching You’ (on Sugarcane) and ‘Namedropper’ (Batty Bass) – the former running mixes from Oliver $, Two Fingers, Plastic Little and Loose Cannons.

And whilst the original ‘Watching You’ continues to mine a bass-heavy seam for the trio, it’s Plastic Little’s remix that draws surprise – a genre-shifting departure from the source that teases out the tracks’s voyeuristic set-up and shrouds it in an ice-cold pean to suffocating love. When you’re daydreaming about to do with that boy/girlfriend that you can never have, this might well give you some dark inspiration.

Jahcoozi – Watching You (Plastic Little Remix) | mp3

img | cordlesscorey

I’ve been cultivating a love of Clubroot’s debut self-titled album this week, and dealing with my own response to the inevitable Burial comparisons. Ultimately, I feel sorry for Clubroot, but I tend to agree with them. And that said, I fear that every other review or mention is now destined to mention the ‘B’ word, and here I stand with a can of my own gasoline, adding fuel to the pyre.

Thankfully, Clubroot is no mere copyist. He may well be following the growing list of exiles that have now fully emerged from the dubstep cocoon, but he opts for a parallel route that seemingly taps into a concurrent junglist (rather than garage) vein. Whilst Burial arguably heads for the narcotics, Clubroot has a tentative hand on the amphetamines – not yet swallowing the contents, but hovering with an overstretched palm, threatening to let go at any moment.

This recent 20-minute mix from Radio 1’s Mary Anne Hobbs show gives you a crystal clear indication of what to expect from the album, available on Lodubs via Boomkat.

Clubroot – Mary Anne Hobbs Mix | rapidshare

Tracklisting:
Clubroot – ‘Orbiting’ (Dubplate)
Clubroot – ‘Lucid Dream’ (Lodubs)
Clubroot – ‘Nexus’ (Lodubs)
Clubroot – ‘Talisman’ (Lodubs)
Clubroot – ‘Sempiternal’ (Lodubs)
Clubroot – ‘Embryo’ (Lodubs)
Clubroot – ‘Birth Interlude’ (Lodubs)
Clubroot – ‘Toe to Toe’ (Dubplate)

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A two-piece collaboration between Wes Kaplan and Jared Arnold, The Craters bring lo-fi sensibility to everything they touch – a Midas gift in reverse, abstracting loose change from a pure source of gold. They come hewn from the Amazing Wow label, a free download project that “rejects the concept of music piracy and the antiquated notion that every download is a lost sale”. (Note this recent report which finds that “pirates” are “10 times more likely to buy music”.)

The band’s most recent release is billed as a double EP, but with such a disparate range of sounds employed, it could well be a compilation release from a bunch of bands that we only think we know. ‘Kissing/Samba Party’ is a collection of tracks that fold back with thoughts of someone taking a pair of scissors to our precious collection of Animal Collective, Anticon, Fleet Foxes and Ghostly International sleeves, and then using cheap, no-brand tape to bluntly force them together again. Of course, the end result is nothing like the original – it just keeps falling apart and, in the mess of junk on the floor, we might just find something altogether more interesting.

Download the full release at amazingwow.org.

The Craters – Samba Party | mp3

The Craters – Like You Used To Know | mp3

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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

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

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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

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!)

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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

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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

I’ve been listening to the new I.U.D. album this week, led in by the hand of Lizzi Bougatsos of Gang Gang Dance. On ‘The Proper Sex’ she teams with Growing’s Sadie Laska for a six tracker that scored a mighty 3.5 over at Pitchfork. Whilst I agree that it’s undoubtedly a difficult album to love, the cacophonous junkyard of sounds is also bloody hard to ignore. Although, the reviewer notes: “it doesn’t share a lot of common ground with either Gang Gang Dance or Growing… Just because I own leather boots does not mean I want a hamburger. But if I give the hamburger a try and don’t like it, my waiter will remind me that I ordered a hamburger not leather boots. Admittedly, that’s not the cow’s fault”. Quite. Those loveable Pitchfork lads in their odd little ivory tower, bless ‘em.

Nonetheless, I.U.D. led me to Gang Gang’s label mates, Growing, and to the album ‘All The Way’. Following a back catalogue peppered by nearly two dozen releases – most self-released, many on cassette – this is a clear and timely example of experimental music as its most considered. Pulse and rhythm is key, run through hands-on effects pedals and Ebow boxes rather than laptops, and there’s a central aesthetic current that’s carried through each of the half dozen tracks. There’s not a great deal of variety here, but searching for change would be missing the point. It’s an album continuously built on layers and loops, flowing from ambience and drone on ‘Wrong Wide’ to thudding Fuck Buttons-esque reversed loops on ‘Rave Pie Only’.

Over at The Social Registry label site, it’s worth spending some of your meandering web hours getting to know stable buddies such as Psychic Ills and Sian Alice Group. Hit the ‘Free Music’ page for The Recap & Leaked Tapes, offering two compilations of album cuts and rarities.

Growing – Green Flag | m4a

img | rudenoon