Under The Influence

Wow. I like this. Already I'm pretty sure I'm going to be playing this at every party this summer. The original version is definitely the pick of the disc. I was actually looking for other covers of Wired For Sound after hearing the B(if)tek version the other day. This isn't a cover of the song I was thinking of at all (at least I don't think it is) but a great track nonetheless.

Mmmm... dirty electro beats.

[Just grabbed a couple more tracks off their album (via Juno) and they're really good too. Why isn't this album on EM?]

If there's one thing I can say about The Triptych it's that it's too short - even though it weighs in at almost 4 hours. Now that's just unreasonable. When was the last time you sat down to 4 hours of music and were gutted when it finished?

Diverse doesn't even begin to cover it. Why the hell can't every mix set sound like this? Hang on, I know why - it's the same reason that playing this in my workplace elicits mixed responses. Actually, mixed responses is probably the wrong term. People's responses are exactly the same every time, and feel free to try this experiment yourself - at some point they will ask "what the hell are you listening to?". Later on they're going to say - "I really like that. What are you listening to now?". Though they won't quite understand the significance of your response - "exactly the same thing that you didn't like before".

The mixing is very nearly perfect. The tune selection is another matter. 100% hits the mark. Every. Single. Time. There's not a single song on here that I don't now love and given that a good many of them I hadn't ever heard before that's no mean feat. It almost seems silly trying to describe the nature of the tunes given that it's so eclectic but the choices are wild. I never thought I'd see day where "The Durutti Column" appeared in a mix set, and that's not even scratching the surface (check out the tracklisting on amazon). DnB, classical, banjo covers, old-skool hip-hop, rock, euro pop - man, take your pick, it's all there. It's music by music lovers for music lovers.

One day, when I know enough about music, this is exactly sort of mix I want to make. And that's the highest compliment I can give.

I was tipped off about these guys after Jakob mentioned them in an interview. I think it must be something the put in the water in Scandinavia. I once heard someone refer to the style as minimalist noodling - though that description is far too shallow for the beautiful music they create. Just have a listen to Chapter 6 - in fact take a few moments to check out the video (it's stunning).

There's a great deal of texture to the music. Most songs feature both male and female vocals / choirs / harmonies. Intricate patterns of pops and clicks form the basis of the rhythms which are then beefed up with traditional drums (amongst other things). Some of the heavier tracks, Step Aside for example, are intensified with the use of quickly repeating synthesised bass notes. Massive timbre too - subtle piano arrangements can be heard throughout and both strings and brass are used constantly.

The album is endowed with my most-listens-in-itunes medal with over 20 plays clocked up so far. I give every album at least 2 listens but by my standards that pretty much makes it an institution, one I'd be unhappy to be without.

This is one of those rare beasts, a giant long electronica track that by all rights should have done its time on Top Of The Pops. I guess in a sense it probably did. I recall hearing it at various nightclub outings over the last year. Another dark work with one of the most intriguing and addictive little hooks you're likely to hear for a while. The work is performed in waves. Dropping away to near nothingness then slowly bringing bits in until it's time for the hook again, each time reaching a climax with more detail than the last wave revealed.

My guess is that if I actually went out clubbing all the time I'd be over this track by now. But I don't, so I'm not.

There's only one reason why I purchased this track - Disco D. Not that there's anything wrong with 50 Cent... I just avoid him to avoid the hype machine. When 50's first hit single (In Da Club) dropped all those years back I was very impressed. It had all the hit elements... and then it was played - over and over again. So I stopped paying attention.

Ski Mask Way has given me a reason to take another look at what he's doing. I'm really not sure what his message is here. Is he being ironic? More likely he's just disgorging that same old rhetoric that rappers these days seem condemned to belch forth and it's Disco D's production that makes the work touching.

What a goddamn shame it was for D to end his life a couple of months ago. That kid was fresh, original, creative and inspired (to say the least). I've got an idea. Let's lock up everyone who shows any semblance of talent the day they turn 27, we'll let them out again once they hit 28.

R.I.P. Disco D

I heard a snippet of B(if)tek's We Think You're Dishy at a friend's party (a rather fine affair in a giant manor house in Devon) and have periodically hunted for a copy of the album since. Last week I managed to get hold of a copy but I guess I mustn't have been in the mood for it at the time as I just flicked through the songs and then filed it away. Listening to it now I'm pretty impressed. I guess if you were in to your genres you'd call it progressive house with a twist of breaks - not that I'm any sort of expert in that field but it reminds me a bit of Gabriel & Dresden.

There are TV/movie samples lightly dusted over the album - I can't pick where they're from but I've heard some of them before on the Kleptones most excellent Night At The Hip-Hoppera. Not just TV samples for that matter, Bedrock for example is built on a foundation of a sampled 1940s(?) horn.

Constantly twisting, turning and evolving the listener isn't fatigued by the repetitive beats that generally plague house music. It's very interesting stuff.

Oh, and you get a playful cover of Wired For Sound thrown in for free.

Looking back a couple of years my mind falls on a period where I can recall listening to very little else besides this album. Fred Avril was one of the great Pandora finds for me - The Date in particular. I'm not sure how much popularity Avril gained in his home country of France but his Prix Constantine award (similar to the Mercury prize) suggests to me that he wasn't entirely unknown.

In any case, this work is very special indeed. You can tell it's had a lot of time put into it. Every last little sound feels 120% considered. I almost picture the guy going insane in the studio adjusting and readjusting every last little dial. Maybe that's how he got to the point of discussing killing his girlfriend in Like Everybody Else (itself a pop masterpiece, by the way) - complete with noises of sharpening of knifes.

The sound itself is generally all about smooth, dark electronic production, but he executes the realisation in a number of different ways. Some of the tracks like Helium Life Boat are particularly ambient while others (eg French Kiss) are really dancey.

One of my top picks of 2005.

Thunder's passing has always seemed like such an injustice to me. OK, so he was the hardest rocking junkie punk in the whole industry... but still, he'd kinda cleaned up his act. Besides, he was still creating really kick-ass music - 1998's Copy Cats being a perfect example.

There are all sorts of interesting elements on Copy Cats (which, not surprisingly, is a covers album); Rockabilly, surf-guitar, rock, pop. Embarrassingly I'm unfamiliar with most of the covers on here. More research required methinks.

I always like to think of Thunders as a bubble-gum pop artist - the emphasis is often placed on the lighter side of the tunes. And listening to Love is Strange now I still think it's a valid description. As always his guitar work is exquisite - it always was on the studio recordings, it's when he stuck a needle in his arm and stumbled out onto the stage that things got a bit inconsistent.

R.I.P. Mr Thunders.

Jakob have been in my life for more years (10?) than I can remember now and I wouldn't have it any other way. As a cheap comparison you could say that they sound something like [insert post-rock group here]. I guess the elements are there - pounding drums set the scene while lush layers of guitar noise swirl overhead.

To see Jakob perform live is a semi-religious experience for me. It seems to take a good couple of seconds for the sound to find its way from Jeff's guitar to the listeners ears. What is it doing inside all those pedals? Biding its time, swirling around until it's ripe. Only then can be considered mature enough for our ears.

The variance in dynamics across the album, or even within a single song, is huge. Some of it ambient, hauntingly beautiful while other bits use their hard edge to provide a great contrast. They don't take the approach of other post-rock bands - it's not a slow growing organic build up of noise. When Jakob want you to have it, they just let you have it. And I highly suggest you just sit there and take it.

Hard rocking Brits. You know the sound - much like other 4 piece rock acts that the UK has been churning out over the last few years. These guys do have a bit more of a lo-fi edge to them, which is nice (I get sick of rock being scrubbed and polished to the point where you can almost see your own reflection in it). They definitely seem to like making noise. The recordings have a live sound to them which is another bonus. Lots of tambourines too. I like tambourines.