Thursday, June 29, 2006

Future soul


Ol' good soul music as it sounds today. The looker Jamie Lidell is one of them who bridges soulful singing and innovative production. There are some great remixes and versions in his recently released Multiplu Additions. In my opinion, one of the best is Luke Vibert's rmx: some nice sampling in the best Ninja Tune traditions and a ravish acid synth line.

Jamie Lidell - A Little Bit More (Luke Vibert mix)

In this album-compilation there are two nice reworks by Herbert too. He's got his own new album as well. Micro-electro-accoustic-orchestral-disco songs made out of samples that arranged in rhythmic structures and accompanied by sweet vocals. Can you dig it?

Herbert - Movie Star

My oh my


Playhouse's project My My simply kicks ass. All their three releases are great and different: Klatta ep is a groovy microhouse (microfunk?), Serpentine ep contains more straight, trancey and trippy tracks, whereas the last Swiss on Rye is simply brilliant melodic electronic music.

My My - Swiss on Rye

Monday, June 26, 2006

Latino robots


Last week I had a possibility to enjoy a performance by Senor Coconut and his orchestra during Fete de la musique in Luxemburg. Surely, it's a music for fiesta! Latin meets jazz meets electronica. Well known pop classics with a totally different flavour. Somehow contradictory teutonic coldness (e.g., Kraftwerk) coupled with south american vividness.

It is an actual band with brass instruments, marimba, vibrophone, drums and percussions, and a vocal. Maestro Uwe Schmidt himself with a stone cold face is standing with his laptop a bit in background thus contrasting to lively jazz musicians. You may like or dislike his latin affair, but no doubt that he is a great producer (standing behind such monikers as Atom Heart, LB, Flanger among many others). I found their show greatly entertaining.

Senor Coconut and His Orchestra - Riders on the storm

Klakson attacks


Checked the things in Amsterdam... For going out I opted for the Electronation's Rex night at Sugar Factory, which presented Klakson's artists: Dexter, Mr.Cisco, Steffi. E-Nation are always having good electro parties, and this time was no exception.

The seminal Dutch electro producer Remy Verheijen aka Dexter was announced to play live. A guy standing behind a laptop and conducting raw electro funkiness. More towards classic electro, which was nice, but, on the other hand, it would better fit in some more underground venue than the Sugar Factory Club.

It was a good performance, although I better enjoyed Francesco de Bellis' DJ set in that particular moment. He is also known as Mr.Cisco, participating in such projects as Jollymusic and Pigna People, hence his tunes were more melodic, leaning towards italo sound but avoiding being too sweet. He dropped some nice acid house stuff as well. I enjoyed his music (and his mixing skills, which were awesome) without dancing. Beforehands we bought and took some legal herbal stimulator, but instead of getting in a dancin-groovin-moovin mood we felt dizzy, a bit trippy and sort of stoned. So be careful with these things which are sold in smart shops and are unknown to you - sometimes you just do not get what is promised.

Mr Cisco - Electrotec

Monday, June 12, 2006

Where all the foxes are?



The new Trapez Ltd. release is not as dumb as Paxi - Fixi song but it's still funny :)

Foxes are usually eating sheep, but tonight - they are in a box


Und - Fox in the box

Proto-dubstep?


The project Bergheim 34 had few but interesting releases on Klang Elektronik (a German record label, which is an offshoot of Ongaku Records and it's related to Playhouse too). Their first release Sechstrack LP (technically it is more an EP though) from 1999 contained six different tracks. I found that one of them sounds a bit like dubstep - of course, it's not exactly dubstep, but it has that kind of dark atmospheric melody and some other elements. Check yourself!

Bergheim 34 - E-edit

Friday, June 09, 2006

Five stars


This is just a quick post about few things I enjoy a lot lately.

1) Hot Chip - The Warning

This is the kind of popmusic I like: it is melodic, catchy, ironic, but still a bit freaky and having interesting production. Some may call it indietronics or whatever, but to me it is just nice music.

Hot Chip - Careful

2) Rekid - Made in Menorca

Oh, this is so dark and so deep. It's amazing how he achieves such a nice effect using so minimalistic means. It's not the first record where dub meets electronic music but the way it is done is pretty unique, and this is a characteristic of good music - when the first time you hear it, you think: "damn, I've never heard anything like this before! I even couldn't imagine that something like this exist." For example, I haven't heard better ambiendub piece than Priya for many years. Amazing tracks are Lost Star 6 and Retro Active. In fact, there is no need to distinguish any seperate track, because all tracks taken together work so well.

Rekid - Priya

3) Extrawelt - Ferweh/Drehfehler

The new Extrawelt release is another outstanding record which grabbed my attention. Twisted beats, unfolding melodies... Better judge yourself.

Extrawelt - Drehfehler

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

NB! chart - May


Finally I've managed to draw a line and select some tracks which I enjoyed the last month.

> Extrawelt - Drehfehler [Kompass]

There are two trax out on a brand new Kompass Musik imprint from Hamburg. Both are brilliant, might be even better than their famous release on the Border Community. I'm sure that we will get some more goodies from these guys.

> The Knife - We share our mother's health (Trentemoller rmx)

The Knife is still rocking, and this rmx delivevered by A.Trentemoller is probably the best of the remixes so far. His recent Nam Nam ep on Poker Flat is a solid record too, not outstanding though.

> Remute - Please say something [Ladomat 2000]

Funky and catchy as hell. I was impressed by his live gig, which I saw in Hamburg a couple of weeks ago.

> Ellen Allien & Apparat - Way out (Robag Wruhme rmx) [Bpitch Control]

It's got the typical Whrume's qualities, but this time he's gone even a step further. It's not minimal, it's not IDM, it's just something wierd. I like it.

> Losoul - Cut so sweet [Playhouse]

The first time I checked this one at a record store, and it seemed OK, but it didn't really impressed me. However, after some more listenings I'm pretty hooked on its simple, darkish melody.

> Rekid - Lost Star 6 [Soul Jazz]

His Made in Menorca LP is an instant classic. Steady electric bleeps married with dark dub atmospheres. Phat and wickid!

> Dan Berkson & James What - The Dig [Poker Flat]

A great tech-house release.

> [T]ekel - Smet [Initial Cuts]

Have the [T]ekel guys become milder (following some other producers, e.g. Eulberg)? At least this track and their recent remix of Metope are calmer, more detailed than their classic banging, metallic tech-house stuff. On the other hand, it does not mean that quality is worse, no, not at all - a cool melody and very nice, smooth work with sampling.

> Gabriel Ananda - Ihre Persönliche Glücksmelodie (Dominik Eulberg Remix) [Karmarouge]

The original was a seminal hit as you may kow, but for those who prefer more "micro" sound, here comes a quality rework by D.Eulberg. He is teasing with the original melody, adding some more fire in the ending part. Cool! Be sure to check also his remix of Pier Bucci's L'Nuit, which is out on Crosstown Rebels, and Ananada's (co-work with Cio D'or) on Treibstoff. All of them are remarkable records.

> Phillips Sharon - Want 2/Need 2 (Switch rmx) [Gut]

You remember Trentemoller's remix of this song? Switch's rmx is good as well - it has references both to the traditional house music and to the more twisted cut-up style.


p.s. Hot Chip is not strictly electronic and underground, but their new album is brilliant. Over and Over is do damn catchy!

p.s.s. Check also A.Kubikov's aka SCSI-9 album on Kompakt. It is very melodic - you like it or hate it. (I find it pretty good.)

p.s.s.s. Carl Craig's rmx of Revelee is finally officially out on DFA. If you still haven't heard it - do not hesitate any longer!

Friday, June 02, 2006

Fridays cheese


As you have probably noticed May is over. It's time to make some resume about last month, and make some chart (inspite of my laziness). But before the actual chart I'd like to post the last month's silliest song, tra ta ta!, here it comes, listen to the deep and thoughtful lyrics and hold to your chairs:

Paxi - Fixi

Raw and dirty


Nowadays the world of music literally has no boundaries and everything gets remixed, bootleged, cracked, reinterpreted. Mainly thanks to the Net and cheap computers. Strange breeds of music occur in Rio de Janeiro, Middle East or Tokyo, mash-ups, remixes, plundertronics... all kind of shit. That's amazing! That is so post-modern, whatever it means!

But taking into account the huge amount of music and info surrounding it - it's impossible to keep track on what's going on: a) everywhere geographically; b) in different genres. In this case some trustful info sources can help with an advice, e.g., specialized music blogs. Regarding the music that used to be called "world beat" (you can add/use some of these adjectives: ethnic, eclectic, ghetto, underground, raw, dirty...) one of the guys, who no doubts digs it, is dj/rupture. I saw him once playing in Berlin - he was awesome!

Today an idea to check some things about him led to his blog, which, I suppose, might serve as a useful resource. So, voilà, here it is:

negrophonic.com/words

At his blog I found the link to another cool blogsite more specializing in funk and related stuff:

dubruit.blogspot.com

Enjoy, I will!


btw, does anyone knows whether Diplo has a private blog?? He might be also a good source for this kind of music. Today at Pitchforkmedia I read an interview with him - it's old one, but he is telling some amazing things. For instance, about Rio - how favela kids make music and have fun:


Pitchfork: What are the parties like?

Total madness. The sound system is a 25-30' set of speakers that are
like 60' long. They're in basketball gyms, but I can't imagine anyone playing
basketball in them. They're for parties. I think five years ago there were a lot
of articles written about it because of the fights and the guns and things, but
every party I've been to was really fun. The [kids] might get frisked or checked
before they get in, but the parties are generally really safe and its just kids
having fun. It's real sexual, though, the dancing.

Everything about it is super-intense. If you have to travel like 30
minutes to a favela on the outskirts of the city, on the way back you'll be
stopped by like three or four police roadblocks with machine guns and they'll
make you get out of your car. Just to get into a favela, you've gotta turn your
headlights off and the lights in your car on-- you wanna make sure that the
people in the favela know that you're somebody cool and not an undercover cop or
in a rival gang so they don't snipe you right off the bat. I thought it was a
normal custom and then after a couple of times I was like what, this is crazy--
I realized I'm lucky that I haven't been shot.



Ain't it fun? Ain't it hardcore? It sounds for real, real life, ya know... I would really like to see it one day... Also V.Delay told me how impressed was he after visiting favelas in Rio de Janeiro and seeing how music is made there.

Regarding Diplo today his remix of Teddybears feat. Mad Cobra - Cobra Style is released. The original was/is great, and I expect that the remix should be good, too, so it's time to start looking for it.