Following up Flesh Eating Ants' 2002 debut—an extraordinary double LP re-issue of Edward Ka-Spel's Tanith and the Lion Tree—are a trio of Cevin Key-related projects. Each has received the same aesthetically pleasing transition to analog: the audio direct-metal mastered to colorful 220 gram audiophile vinyl and the artwork altered and expanded to gatefold sleeves. Knowing those specs and just simply inspecting them, it's clear that it doesn't get any better than this. Each is well worth their price.
Look up Music for gazing upwards brought to you by Meat Beat Manifesto & scott crow, +/-, Aurora Borealis, The Veldt, Not Waving & Romance, W.A.T., The Handover, Abul Mogard & Rafael Anton Irisarri, Mulatu Astatke, Paul St. Hilaire & René Löwe, Songs: Ohia, and Shellac. Aurora Borealis image from California by Steve. Get involved: subscribe, review, rate, share with your friends, send images!
|
The Monday night crowd at any bar is probably an interesting bunch. On their latest album, Arab Strap gives us their rendition of that crowd as thirteen songs comprised of their gloomy, downtrodden, and defeated thoughts. Amid drunken hazes and empty hookups, the pub patrons reveal the conflicts and regrets that led them to their early week retreat.
The age of easily downloadable software and cheap replication of CDs has its downsides: music is much easier to create and distribute (leaving the task of finding something good much more difficult). It keeps getting easier for any computer-abled person to assemble a bunch of sounds, toss them together and sound like pretty much whatever they want—either an excessive group or a solo noise "artist" with an arsenal of effects. Surely musician and composer (and re-composer) Kieran Hebden understands this, which is probably why for his third full-length release as Four Tet, he has exercised a refined sense of restraint. Here, he has taken a conscious step back from the maximalistic tendencies on his last album, Pause, patiently letting the songs play out more often than cutting a tune to a short sound-byte-style radio hit.
Noxagt are a drastic brutalist Norwegian trio who play hardcore metalstripped to the rawest basic uncompromising sludged out skullfuck.Forget all that emotoyboy shouting and cod-operatic yodeling that getsin the way of many an act, these dudes have binned that along with allthose silly posturing guitar solos. Actually they've binned the wholedamn guitar, with Kjetil D. Brandsdal's black-as-winter-molassesdowntuned bass taking centre stage in a thick distorted viola bolstereddroning stew of head banging inebriation. They call it Nor-Wave and youcan too if you need to pin a fairly meaningless hook in it. If you haveeven the barest basest interest in hardcore that pushes back theboundaries of instrumentation and density then Noxagt will make you onehappy brain-melted monkey. They've been perhaps curiously compared toShellac and while the two bands have very different modes of onslaught,there is perhaps a similar questing intelligence underlying their pushand shove. Viola player Nils Erga does also manage to coax some neatsqueals and screeching scrunch-noise from his four-strings that mightbring a smile to Steve Albini's face. Maybe a better comparison wouldbe Flying Luttenbachers slowed down and buried alive? Drummer Jan Kyvikkeeps the rhythms hard, pounding and unrelenting, like some disgruntledelephant with a bee on its tail, only a lot more precise. They up theadrenalin levels a little towards the end, with buried screams pulling"Swarm" buzzing and babbling to cathartic abandon. The final track "Webof Sin" is so relentlessly ominous it could bring on a whole shedloadof apocalyptic aping. Noxagt have just begun a tour of the UK and thedates are at the Load site, as is an MP3 of the second track "CupidShot Me," which paints a fairly representative picture of the albumoverall. If you come to the Manchester gig on Wednesday 7th say helloas I'll probably be on the door. 
When Robert Muso's first CD came out my felling was that it would havebeen kinder if Laswell had discouraged his sound engineer from crossingto the other side. But rather than being electronic ambience, TheMusique Concrete [sic]Ensemble—sound engineer Raphael Irisarri's project—is high-glosspost-rock ambience for Tortoise fans. At times it aims at plaintiverepeated guitar melodies and hits home in exactly the way somepost-rock does, that is, it seems to be saying that being able to writea decent melody (like, say, GBYE can) isn't important. Now, it's truethat you don't have to have much of a voice to be a great singer, butthat's a limitation of technique—it's quite another thing to usetechnique and production to try and bring life to a dead melody. It'sexactly the same problem with the rock-oriented drum machine tracks;the programmer seems not to understand what it is that makes good rockdrumming good. Stravinsky ditched his highly effective washes ofstrings fairly early, arguing that they are too easy and manipulative.Today, the same issue often applies to the not-quite-endemic washes ofreverberated guitar, synths and vocals; or the not-quite-obligatorybackground sound effects and samples folk use to fill out their music.Add to these the not-quite-ubiquitous hidden last track, the detailedlisting of archaic electronic instruments, the retro package design,and the Stockhausen, Ussachevsky and La Monte Young name drops (andmuch besides) from their web site and I think we have the clue to theproject's real intent. Normally, these elements would be entirelyirrelevant except for marketing purposes. Their overuse by both The MCEand Irisarri's label ECO, rather than being an indication of a bad caseof fashion victim syndrome, is, somewhat like the K-Foundation, apost-modern prank aimed at seeing how far they can push semiotics-basedmerchandising before their post-whatever audience catches on. Thatsaid, I admit to being entirely taken in by the cover art.
TheLiaisons Dangereuses LP is something of a sought-after, hard-to-findgem, but only among a select group of retro-beat enthusiasts andpostpunk dance collectors, and certainly not the music community atlarge. This is not a very important or influential album in the grandscheme of things, mostly because of its near-total obscurity. LiasonsDangereuses is made up of Chris Haas, who played synths for post-punkindustrial innovators DAF, and Beate Bartel, the bassist for thepre-Malaria female punk trio Mania D. They named themselves after RogerVadim's sexy film adaptation of the seminal erotic novel of 18thcentury France. Their goal was to make darkly erotic electronic dancemusic that would be redolent of 18th century Paris, with its shadowyabsinthe bars, decadent dance clubs, and general attitude of sexualliberation. For the most part, they succeeded, and in the process theylaid down an early template for most of the industrial and [a-hem] EBMdance music that would follow throughout the 80's. The album opens with"Mystere dans le Brouillard" (transl: Mystery in the Fog), whichcombines a Joy Division bassline with a clanging beat, and gothiccabaret-styled vocals by Haas. The song is filled with processedwindchimes and shrill noises that evoke the creepy atmosphere of Parisafter dark. Things get a little more high energy with the minorunderground dance hit "Los Ninos del Parque" (Children of the Park),where a menacing Georgio Moroder beat shares space with Haas' barkedlyrics and Bartel's incoherent shrieks. The telltale heartbeat of"Aperitif de la Mort" ('Cocktail of Death') comes on like an absinthehallucination, with its creepy alien synths and atonal metal scrapings.This track is immediately reminiscent of Death in June's earlysynthesizer-based works. The only other track that really stands out is"Peut etre...Pas," an irresistably funky track that avoids the gothposturing of the rest of the album and find its way into avant-discoterritory. This is true Mutant Disco - an unholy marriage of LarryLevan, Arthur Russell and Cabaret Voltaire. 
DJ/Producer Rjd2's 2002 debut album, Dead Ringer,showed his talents for hip-hop beats and instrumental soundscapes tomake catchy, danceable, yet intelligent music. Captializing on thesuccess of the album, Def Jux has released this 2-CD EP of remixes andnew tracks, with the second disc featuring multimedia content. Theremix CD is a tricky issue these days. It used to be the bastion ofalternate mixes and guest appearances, where these days it's usuallyjust filler to tide fans over until the next record. Because of thatfear, I can see why someone would be pressed to spend eighteen bucks onthis, and it seems Rjd2 himself agrees, calling it "not even an album"in the thanks section of the liner notes. True fans will find somethings interesting here, particularly the live DJ sets from the BetaLounge and the Bowery Ballroom, and the animated video for the titletrack. As for the music section, this is really what a remix EP shouldbe like, as the remixes are almost reinterpretations. The title trackmakes its appearance to start off, as is customary, and then the partyreally gets started. The "Ghostwriter Remix" is beat heavy andgroovier, with keyboards taking the lead. The real treat is in themiddle with a new guitar line and the same horns and vocal refrainmaking it a great club track or fine driving music. The "Final FrontierRemix" features some nice rhyme skills from multiple MCs with new beatsand samples from Rjd2, though the repeated "We're HERE!" gets old thesecond time it's heard, just like the original. The new tracks of "BusStop Bitties," and "Sell the World" are real treats, as they're justtwo great tracks with top-notch beats and great grooves that are moreDavid Holmes than Rjd2. The instrumentals are just filler, sure, butthey're great to drive down the street to impress, or to throw in yourown ingredients if you're a DJ yourself. All in all, this is not a badvalue with all things considered, and the packaging is really cool. - 
