The White Noise Revisited

No rabbit in a hat tricks...

2010-02-02T14:57:00.005Z

Walter Pico - My Alter Ego (Remix)
Walter Pico -Bad Guys
Walter Pico - Don't Ask
Walter Pico - Flash in the Pan

If I had an ounce of musical talent in my bones I think I would have ended up making music like Walter Pico. We've been leading parallel lives. As a kid, he saved up the money from two paper rounds to feed his desire to acquire hip-hop classics on wax. Me too! Then he became obsessed with gangsta rap - "If an album didn't feature a Parental Advisory sticker it wasn't worth the time of play," he says in his biography. Yep, I went through that phase too - the ultimate teen wigga, wandering the mean streets of Dorchy in my bomber jacket with the rest of the DTP (Dorchester Town Posse), NWA lyrics running through our brains every time a cop car cruised by. Me and Walter even became disillusioned with hip-hop at the same time, when it "started to resemble one of those scandalous, but colourful, glossy gossip magazines. Peeps recording in the booth were talking about whose necklace is the biggest and sparkles the most, who gets to date the 'model chicks' and who has the most cars parked up in front of mum's house." Couldn't have put it better myself. Plus we both rock a fat beatbox... So, yeah, we got a lot in common, me and Mr Pico. But the BIG BIG BIG difference is that he channeled his disillusionment into producing beats and rhymes of his very own. I got into techno and lost it in the bass bins...

With these impeccable credentials and bonafide old school influences, it's not surprising that Walter Pico makes brilliant music. He's a bit like Money Mark, playing wicked little keyboard riffs with awesome beats, snatches of vocal samples and the odd dose of old school "wiggy wiggy scratching". You can tell he's into Jurassic 5, and it's not just the fact that he's sporting one of their tees in the photo above. His music is a throw back to the good ol' days of hip-hop: "Original beats and real live MCs"... And he's a funny guy - occasionally I've found myself giggling away on public transport at some of his two-liners. Imagine Kid Acne if he came from the Home Counties. There's also a bit of the Flight of the Conchords in there. Sometimes you know he's taking the piss - it can almost verge on a pastiche of old school hip-hop - but he's doing it with intelligence and the quality never drops.

They obviously work better in context (ie wit da music), but here's a few examples of his lyrical flows. Little bit of politics + nifty wordplay = the win...

I dreamed of me, possibly, as an MC, but then thought just how nice it might be,
With life being high-speed and expensive, to change the ‘C’ to a ‘P’ and claim expenses.

Emcees with beef I eat like Black Eyed Peas, I used to slurp a lot until I caught Brain Freeze, now I wear a Parker with a pocket on the sleeve, with luminescent markers in the dark to write ideas.

Available to purchase now is My Alter Ego - an 11-track concept EP that introduces Walter Pico to the record buying public. It's the precursor to his first full-length LP, which should be out later on this year. And Mr Pico very kindly hooked me up with some exclusives that don't feature on the EP. There are four tracks up there for your downloading pleasure that actually make up a quality EP in their own right. When the outtakes are this good, you know you need to hook yourself up with some of the real shit. Link to buy below.

The talented Mr P even makes his own videos. Check this one for early single, Let's Get It Together - a crude but charming take on Aardman's stop-motion plasticine shizzle -

Buy My Alter Ego by Walter Pico from Norman Records
Walter Pico MySpace
Walter Pico at Crazy Worm Records- loads of good content here - tunes, videos and the like...

You're a Piece of Shit...

2010-01-29T12:00:00.002Z

Scott 4 - Aspirins

Recorded in State LP, the debut album from Scott 4, is another one to file under "lost classics"... Along with the Beta Band, Scott Blixen's merry trio of electronic cowpunks soundtracked the end of Nineties for me. They were slightly different to the Betas - a bit more country, a bit more krauty - but they had a similar schtick, blending lo-fi country rock with hip-hop beats. If I was being lazy, I'd say they sound a bit like Beck. But Beck if he was into Neu!

Aspirins is probably a weird choice for posting. I should have gone for something a bit more upbeat but this lovely, anguished slice of the blues is as bittersweet as chewing a handful of the titular analgesic and Maltesers at the same time. And I like pictures of pills. It has played in the background during many an angst-ridden moment in my life. What a beauty.

They ended up signing to V2 for half a million squids, recorded one more album and then disappeared. The flip side of their first single for V2 was 23 minutes and 15 seconds long so they were never really cut out for mainstream success. Still much missed in this neck of the woods.

Note to new bands: naming yourself after a seminal album by Scott Walker doesn't help much with the web searches.

Buy Scott 4 Recorded in State LP from Soul Jazz
Scott 4 discography
Search eBay for Scott 4

The Freddy Adu of Music

2010-01-12T10:00:00.001Z

Echoboy - Broken Hearts

I read a brilliant feature on goal.com about the Top 10 Lost Talents of the Decade in the world of football and it got me thinking about who were the great lost musical talents of the decade? Who was the Freddy Adu of music in the Noughties? I kept coming back to one person - Rich Warren. Now that's not to say that he didn't make some absolutely incredible music throughout the decade, but in terms of the size of his talent and potential, you'd have to say that his story is one of no hits and near misses.

Rich Warren was a prodigy; a fantastically talented songwriter and guitarist who had been in various bands since he was a teenager. He signed his first deal with Heavenly as one-third of the Hybirds in 1996, when Britpop was at its peak. Like most bands at that time there was a huge buzz of anticipation surrounding the Hybirds - retro-rockers carved in the image of the Jam and the Who, with Rich's inspired riffing elevating it above the dross - but they only released one album in 1997, and split at the end of the decade.

Following this false start, Rich holed up with an 8-track and a Casio and set about creating new worlds from above his mum's hair salon in Nottingham under the Echoboy moniker. He signed to Mute at the start of the Noughties and his debut album (Volume 1) was critically acclaimed and adored by me. I've posted Broken Hearts above - the point at which a supergroup featuring members of Neu!, Kraftwerk and Spiritualized come together to make some of the most affecting instrumental music you are ever likely to hear. The whole album is a belter. He made two more albums for Mute, including the brilliant Giraffe, which was produced by Flood. His last outing as Echoboy was Elektrik Soul Psymphonie in 2006.

In 2003, Noel Gallagher asked Rich to join Oasis. He declined, leading to The Sun headline: "He's not mad for it - he's just mad!" (Andy Bell eventually got the nod but it's a decision Rich doesn't regret). He played bass for Spiritualized for a while and also played guitar for Starsailor and Soulsavers, co-writing two songs on the latter's acclaimed 2009 album Broken. All extremely noteworthy achievements for any jobbing guitarist but a man of Rich's talents should be centre stage - the midfield playmaker, not in the holding role. Zidane, not Makelele. But unlike footballers, the careers of musicians don't necessarily fade with age so there's still hope that Rich's talent will be truly realised - and appreciated. In 2010, he's releasing an album under his own name for the first time - step forward mate, the spotlight awaits...

Buy Echoboy from Norman Records - Volume 1 is availble for the ludicrously cheap price of £4.99!
Echoboy website
Echoboy MySpace

[PS Haloscan have started charging for their comments service and I can't import the old comments into Blogger (or work out how to switch it back to Blogger's basic comment service. So until I work this out (any help much appreciated), all feedback or requests can be directed to me at joeclay23 [at] hotmail.com. Ta!]

His beats my rhymes are a perfect blend

2009-12-30T10:00:00.002Z

I was planning to end the year with a monster Best of the Decade post but I've read so many of them now across the blogosphere that I'm sure the world doesn't need another. What the world can never have enough of is old school hip-hop, so instead I'm rounding off the year with a corking ten track selection - Can't Stop Won't Stop Volume II - a follow-up to the one that accompanied my post about Jeff Chang's amazing book, Can't Stop Won't Stop (definitely my book of the decade) that you can read here. Happy New Year! See you all in 2010...

1. M.C. Craig "G" - Shout (Rap Version)

The man like Marley Marl is at the controls of this magnificent cacophony from 1985. Clattering beats, jittery edits, a cheeky Tears for Fears sample and the teenage Craig Curry belting out his rhymes. And who is credited for the brilliant, chopped-up edits? None other than techno legend Jeff Mills.

Find it on Beat Classics LP (DC Recordings)

2. MC Shan - Down By Law

Another masterly Marley Marl joint here, this time in tandem with his cousin MC Shan with whom he fought the Bridge Wars in the mid-Eighties. Down By Law was the title track of Shan's debut album and makes great use of the keyboard riff from 7th Wonder's Daisy Lady. Traffic released an awesome 2CD special edition of 'Down By Law' a couple of years ago (packed with rarities) that is well worth hunting down.

Find it on MC Shan - Down By Law LP

3. The Classical II - New Generation

This funksome underground classic was produced by Teddy Riley, the "King of New Jack Swing", when he was just 15 years old. Riley would go on to work with Bobby Brown and Jacko, but here his bumpin' New Jack beats underpin rhymes from The Lord K Born & L.A. Bru, a pair of rappers from the Bronx.

Find it on Word Vol. 1 (Jive Records) LP

4. True Mathematics - After Dark

A nifty companion piece to Whodini's Freaks Come Out At Night, After Dark was credited to True Mathematics, a mysterious rap act generally thought to be a collaboration between Public Enemy's Chuck D and the producer Hank Shocklee, with raps by Eric Sadler who, along with Chuck D and Shocklee, formed the devastating production unit The Bomb Squad. The laidback funk and smooth raps of After Dark couldn't be farther away from the incendiary beats and rhymes of Public Enemy - could it really have been created by the same people?

Find it on Champion 12"

5. Three Times Dope - Once More (You Hear The Dope Stuff)

Philly hip-hop trio and once part of the Hilltop Hustlers crew along with Steady B and Cool C, Three Times Dope (3XD) made one brilliant album (1989's Original Stylin'), from which this awesome song is lifted) and two less good efforts, before main rapper EST went on to become an award-winning songwriter, penning ditties for RnB royalty like Destiny's Child. This is classic late-Eighties hip-hop fare - packed full of funk samples, fat beats and EST's rasping flow. Quality - or as 3XD would put it, "acknickulous".

Find it on Three Times Dope - Original Stylin' LP

6. Schoolly D - Gangster Boogie

For his fourth album, Am I Black Enough For You, Schoolly D eased back on the posturing and consigned the thug-raps about gangsta life to the trash, opting instead to convey a fairly positive, pro-black message (if you ignore the lamentable Pussy Ain't Nothin'), while musing on the difficulties of life in the ghetto. It wasn't a huge critical or commercial success, but it's my favourite album of his. Notable for using extremely long, largely unaccompanied, samples of well-known material, including chunks of spoken word and loads of James Brown and old funk tracks. Gangster Boogie is the bomb - uptempo and insanely funky. The Chemical Brothers got their Block Rockin' Beats sample from Gucci Again, another killer cut on this album.

Find it on Schoolly D - Am I Black Enough For You LP

7. Marley Marl Allstars - The Symphony

Marley Marl again, showing modern hip-hop producers how it should be done. Cue up a dope beat and get a group of quality MCs to drop science all over it - simples.

Find it on Marley Marl - In Control Vol. 1 LP

8. EPMD - So What Cha Sayin'

Ranked seventh by Chris Rock in Rolling Stones list of the Top 25 Hip-Hop Records of All Time, Unfinished Business is about as good as it gets, and opener So What Cha Sayin' is the album's stand-out track. You can even let them off for murdering Luther Vandross's So Amazing - stick to the rapping guys. I don't think anyone used samples better then EPMD - this one appropriates If It Don't Turn You On (You Outta Leave It Alone) by B.T. Express, One Nation Under a Groove by Funkadelic and Impeach the President by The Honey Drippers to totally devastating effect.

Find it on EPMD - Unfinished Business LP

9. Ultramagnetic MCs - Poppa Large (East Coast Mix)

Everyone bangs on about Ultramagnetic MCs debut album Critical Beatdown (and with good reason - it is one of the greatest), but when it comes to individual tracks, Poppa Large is up there. Taken from their second album Funk Your Head Up, the East Coast Mix by the mighty Beatminerz is a party-starting chunka killer funk and a guaranteed dancefloor filler. Kool Keith is on fire, as per usual.

Find it on Ultramagnetic MCs - Funk Your Head Up LP

10. Eric B & Rakim - Juice (Know The Ledge)

There are very few songs that could follow Poppa Large but this is one of them - the title track of the 1992 film 'Juice' (which starred the late 2-Pac) is Eric B & Rakim's finest hour (or four minutes) by a country mile. Its inclusion on the Chemical Brothers' Live At The Social Volume 1 - one of the finest mix albums - seals its place in my affections.

Find it on Juice - The Original Soundtrack

Let Me Upgrade You: Electromix Volume II

2009-11-12T16:00:00.000Z

Another monster electro selection from the vaults. I'm posting the full length versions, but I've ordered the tracks with a sweet ten track mix in mind. Enjoy...

1. The Micronawtz - (I Can Do It...You Can Do It) Letzmurph Acrossdasurf (Club Mix Dub Version)

The second 12" release on the seminal New York label Tuff City, this primitive slice of electro was written by Barry Michael Cooper, who would go on to achieve fame as the screenwriter of New Jack City (which starred Ice-T). It's truly notable for being mixed by Afrika Bambaataa, credited on the flip as "The Peacemaker" for the role he played in bringing together warring gangs in NYC in late 1970s. It's a curious track but very influential - the cartoon voices would later be all the rage on the electro scene - and I love the simple, childlike melody.

Find it on Old School Rarities: The Electro Jams

2. Warp 9 - Light Years Away

I'd only really heard 'Nunk' by Warp 9, but I've really been getting into them lately. Blending synth-pop, smooth soul and galactic funk together they made some of the catchiest, poppiest electro around. Their first album, 'It's a Beat Wave', was released in 1983 by Prism Records. 'Light Years Away' was the third single from the album and was produced by John 'Jellybean' Benitez, who ended up working with Madonna.

Find it on Warp 9: It's a Beat Wave

3. Xena - On the Upside (Dub Version)

Electro-heads like myself will know the original version of this corker from 'Electro 2' - a properly uplifting number, bursting with lyrical positivity from Lisa Fischer (a Grammy award-winning vocalist who worked with Luther Vandross). It was produced by the same team behind Shannon's 'Let the Music Play' (another fave of mine). I'm posting the 'Dub Version' so you can check the production work in all its glory. As the dude on discogs says: "If you happen to be playing a gay Italo party this will set your mix on fire." Exactly.

Find it on Emergency Records 12"

4. Debbie Deb - When I Hear Music (12" Club Mix)

Debbie Deb was discovered by the mighty Pretty Tony (best-known for his production work as Freestyle - his track 'Don't Stop the Rock' was recently used by Cadbury's on that ad where the kids waggled their eyebrows). She co-wrote the catchy electro-pop smash 'When I Hear Music' with Tony and it was a massive club hit that still endures to this day (both Diplo and Craze put it on their Fabric.Live mix albums). Her story is a sad one - on the chubby side, the record company would often hire imposters, Milli Vanilli-style, to pose as her for live PAs and wouldn't put her on the cover of her records. Her confidence crushed, she faded into obscurity. It's not all bad though - Gwen Stafani often bigs up Deb, Janet Jackson covered another of her hits, 'Lookout Weekend', and she is part of a freestyle revival show with artists like Lisa Lisa, The Cover Girls and Shannon.

Find it on Street Jams: Electric Funk Volume 2

5. World Class Wreckin' Cru - Juice

It's common knowledge now that Dr Dre (NWA, Eminen) was once a member of this rap ensemble, who enjoyed dressing up in shiny gold suits and wearing make-up. They also made some pretty decent music, including this pioneering West Coast electro thumper with some industrial-strength heavy breathing, vocodered vocals, a melody reminscient of the Airwolf theme tune and some nifty scratching. Pure Eighties gold.

Find it on Street Jams: Electric Funk Volume 4

6. Jamie Jupitor - Computer Power

A protégé of the Egyptian Lover (see below), Jamie Jupitor has traded off this one track for his entire career, which perhaps gives an indication of how good it is. But it was written, produced and arranged by the Egyptian one, who also did the artwork, so I'm not quite where Jupitor fits in. I'm guessing his is the distopian voice that proclaims: "Computers are the future world, we program for the boys and girls, there's nothing we don't understand, we're smarter than the normal man...Computer power!"

Find it on Street Jams: Electric Funk Volume 4

7. Newcleus - Jam On It (Instrumental)

As much as I love the original of this, I've listened to it to death. So to avoid overkill, here's the 9-minute instrumental mix with that awesome keyboard line that Nightmares on Wax sampled on 'I'm For Real' in all its glory. Newcleus were skilled producers - a fact often overshadowed by their penchant for outlandish costumes and helium vocal gimmicks. To me, this is one of the best pieces of music to come out of the era.

Find it on Sunnyview Records 12"

8. Egyptian Lover - Dubb Girls (The Ultimate Mix)

The Barry White of electro works himself into a reet lather over all the "pretty, pretty girls" (are those sirens at the beginning the sound of an ambulance come to cart EL off to hospital after panting himself towards a coronary?) in this outstanding dub mix of one of his finest tracks. He overdoes it a bit on the old sampler but I'd let him off anything - his beat production skills are out of this world. A legend.

Find it on Egyptian Empire Records 12"

9. 19th Fleet - Star Raid (Dub Version)

I don't know a huge amount about this track. The vocal mix was on 'Electro 10', which was one of the best in the series so that probably explains why I'm so fond of it. Electro artists of the Eighties were completely obsessed with space travel and the future (as this ten track selection amply demonstrates), though it all seems rather quaint now. It changes hands for silly amounts of money these days so is obviously well regarded and extremely rare.

Find it on Midnight Sun Records 12"

10. Cli-N-Tel - 2030

Another future-predictin' slice of electro greatness, this time from Cli-N-Tel who was a cohort of Dre's in the World Class Wreckin' Cru. This banger was released on the Unknown DJ's Techno Hop label in 1986 and imagines a futuristic world where alien computers rule over human beings.

Find it on The Best of Techno Hop Volume One

Der Geruch auf dem Polizei

2009-10-08T10:00:00.001Z

Principal Participant - Fragrance Polizei

I first wrote about the mysterious Principal Participant on this blog back in 2007 when his identity was still being kept under wraps. I think I made some quip about it being "the side project of a mythical electronic artist". Well, now the cat is out of the bag, or rather, the minotaur is out of the maze - ahem - as it is now common knowledge that the man behind these gloriously funky techno sounds is none other than that "sad electronic hero" David Edwards aka Minotaur Shock.

David released two twelves as PP on the Part One imprint in 2007, as well as remixing Bloc Party, The Cribs and Blitzen Trapper. Things were all quiet on the PP front until September when he gave away a three-track Principal Participant download EP via the Minotaur Shock mailing list, featuring the three original PP tracks to be released so far - 'Wonderful', 'Principles' and 'Fragrance Polizei'.

It's absolutely top-notch gear - I'm posting 'Fragrance Polizei', a wonderful hybrid of early-Human League synthpop and Harthouse techno circa 1992 - gorgeous, twitchy, melodic, bleepy, banging, jackin' techno music. And as with everything David does, the more time you spend with it, the more you get back. I love the little drum fills and that hands in the air moment when the melody first drops. My only complaint (which is a common one from me) is that it should go on for another three minutes at least. It builds up such a wicked groove that I'm always disappointed when it's over so soon - then again, I usually just head back to the beginning again.

According to the PP website, David is working on a debut album, which is very exciting news indeed. He has also said that he may make some more of the unreleased PP material available for download soon, so if you dig it, best to join the mailing list here (scroll to the bottom of the page and enter your email).

Principal Participant website
Principal Participant MySpace
Minotaur Shock website

Angry Andrea

2009-09-29T12:00:00.001Z

Andrea - Temper Tantrum

I can't remember the last time I bought a record on the strength of the cover alone, but while killing time in the record shops of Soho before meeting a friend earlier on this summer, I was immediately drawn to this striking cartoon image of a girl. I think it was the green eyes that sold me. Anyway, minimal label information intrigued me further. I'd never heard of Millie or Andrea before - turns out that's just a pseudonym for high profile dubstep/techno producers MLZ (aka Pendle Coven) and Andy Stott. Both also make brilliant records for Modern Love, the techno label of which Daphne (home to Millie & Andrea) is an offshoot.

Anyway, geeky shit out of the way - what about da muziks? Well, 'Temper Tantrum' (credited to Andrea) is obscenely good. The main problem I've always had with the majority of dubstep is that it is, well, a bit dull. And yes, I'm fully aware that this is as a result of my ignorance of the music itself. I've not heard nearly enough and have never been to a proper dubstep club night (where I'm reliably informed, people smile a lot and go mental) to form a considered opinion. But 'Temper Tantrum' is seriously banging gear, like a much better produced and less busy version of early hardcore rave music. I'm thinking particularly of stuff on Strictly Hardcore, one of the proto-jungle labels, or even early Prodigy. The deep, dark basslines and chopped-up breaks also put me in mind of really early Meat Beat Manifesto.

The flip side, 'Vigilance' (credited to Millie) is even darker - sparse, dubbed-out rimshots and clattering drums and the sort of bowel-loosening low-end bass that makes my cat freeze wherever he is and his eyes bulge even further out of his head than usual. Reminds me a bit of dub techno pioneers Bandulu - remember them?

And the moral of the story is - do judge a book by its cover if the cover is really good. Or something.

Millie & Andrea at Boomkat - all three 12's sold out now - try eBay.
Mille & Andrea on Last FM
Andy Stott MySpace
Pendle Coven MySpace

Some Greedy Ass Fake Bullshit...

2009-09-24T21:39:00.003Z

Tusken Raiders - The Motorbike Track

Apologies for the massive break in transmission... I suddenly realised that if I didn't slap something down it would be the first month I hadn't posted since I started this blog back in 2006. A sorry state of affairs for sure... If anyone stilll cares, there's loads of music I'd love to post. I just need to get back in the blogging habit.

So let's have some mad love for Mike P and this phenomenal slab of insanecore from 1999 under his Tusken Raiders moniker. I can remember being at the Reading Festival in the same year and stumbling across the man himself tearing the crowd a new asshole in a packed tent in mid-afternoon with this absolutely banging tune - judicious use of the amen break, brutal nu-school dnb breaks, a fat, filthy bassline and a quality hip-hop sample (not sure where it's from). I don't think Mike P has ever got the respect he deserves, purely by dint of not being the Aphex Twin. But he was and is a true pioneer and this tune still sounds different class, ten years on. "Y'all need to knock that shit off...."

Tusken Raiders at bleep.com
Tusken Raiders discography
Planet µ website
Mike P/µ-ziq My Space

I Switch On I Switch Off I Switch On

2009-08-06T19:43:00.005Z

Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Colour Television

I've got a new favourite band! Eddy Current Suppression Ring fucking rule. I am completely and utterly addicted, hooked, smitten - call it what you want - to 'Primary Colours' the second album by the Melbourne-based Aussie post punkers. When the album was released in Australia it reached # 6 in the national charts and recently won the Australian Music Prize (their equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize). I'm not surprised - it's brilliant, combining the primal, raw intensity of the Stooges ('Sunday's Coming'; 'Memory Lane'), the slipshod nonchalance and genius of early Fall ('Which Way to Go'; 'Colour Television'), metronomic Krauty grooves ('I Admit My Faults'; the instrumental 'That's Inside of Me') and simple, catchy singalong tunes ('Wrapped Up'). There's even a bit of the Stranglers going on when they bust out the melodic synths on 'We'll Be Turned On'. It comes across as being totally effortless, with songs seemingly flicked out with the same ease you or I would reserve for picking our noses, which just makes it even cooler. If there's any justice they'll be massive in the UK too, though with the Ashes going on, British love for our Antipodean mates perhaps isn't at it's highest... But that's cricket, and this is music!

Those very nice people at Melodic in Manchester are releasing 'Primary Colours' in a special edition with the band's eponymous debut (which I haven't got around to listening to yet as I can't stop listening to 'Primary Colours', but the band reckon sounds more 1976 than 1982) as a double CD package for the bargain price of £11 (or £8 for the download) which is an absolute bargain. The download is available now, the CD due on August 17th 2009.

Buy 'Primary Colours' from the Melodic website
There's loads of great clips of the band playing live, videos, free downloads etc on the band's official website
Eddy Current Suppression Ring MySpace
Ignore my inane gibberings and head straight for this far more cultured, considered and contextual review from Melbourne website Beat

Go Take That California Trip...

2009-07-15T07:57:00.002Z

Depeche Mode - Route 66 (Beatmasters Mix)

Depeche Mode must be one of the most covered bands in history. There's an entire website devoted to all the different bands who've reinterpreted their songs. According to that website, 'Enjoy the Silence' has been covered a staggering 176 times - although admittedly the bands on that list whose names I recognise I could count on one hand. But for a band who have been covered so many times, they have only actually covered two songs themselves - 'Dirt' by the Stooges (which featured on the b-side of the 2001 single 'I Feel Loved') and 'Route 66' (on the flip of 'Behind the Wheel', released in 1987).

'Route 66' was written by Bobby Troup, originally recorded by the King Cole Trio in 1946 (as '(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66'), popularised by Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones in the 1960s, before the Basildon boys got their hands on it. It was when I was writing this piece that I found out that it was Martin Gore who sang it. I still can't quite believe that, it sounds so much like Gahany. Anyway, the Beatmasters version is a classic late-1980s flavoured remix, packed with snatches of film and TV dialogue and is also a megamix of sorts as it features elements of 'Behind the Wheel'. There is also an awesome bongo breakdown halfway through and a little drum break at about 4m 15s that I used to love so much when I was a teenager that I did a little re-edit of my own on a double cassette deck, looping it over and over again and extending the mix by about two minutes. A fledgling Beatmaster in the making? Not quite...

I'm going old school Mode crazy at the moment so keep an eye on my Twitter page as I'll definitely be lobbing a few tracks up on there - twitter.com/joewhitenoise

Search eBay for 'Behind the Wheel'
Official Depeche Mode website
Depeche Mode MySpace
Beatmasters MySpace

Dubnovoodoobasswithmyheadman

2009-07-01T12:00:00.001Z

Big Two Hundred - Drum Spell

Since disbanding Bizarre Inc back in 1996 after their second album, 'Surprise', was a commercial flop, Andrew Meecham and Dean Meredith have been incredibly creatively fertile, together and apart, with less chart success but with an increasingly eclectic sound. They both dabbled in Big Beat as Sir Drew and Psychedeliasmith respectively, before coming together again as Chicken Lips in 1999 and exploring the outer reaches of space funk, nu-disco and leftfield house. On the solo tip, Meecham has been recording spaced-out analogue disco as the Emperor Machine for DC Recordings since 2003 (more on that one day - the 'Vertical Tones and Horizontal Noise' series is brilliant), and Meredith's White Light Circus project (also on DC) is Moroder/Kraftwerk influenced dirty old school electro and celestial funk (again, I should really cover this some day as it is equally good).

But my favourite post-Bizarre Inc incarnation for Meecham and Meredith was Big Two Hundred. Under that alias they recorded a solitary album, 'Your Personal Filth', released on DC Recordings in 2003; a rampant collection of dub disco, punk funk and psychedelic garage rock, very much in thrall to Bristol's late-1970s post punk pioneers The Pop Group and with nods to The Clash and PiL. It's a fucking freaky far out and hugely underrated album with a dirty, stoned sound enhanced by the fact that it was all recorded on vintage analogue equipment. Check 'Drum Spell', which sounds like an outtake from a Can album - 12-minutes of locked Krauty grooves, a bucketload of spooky echo effects and insane, voodoo-influenced, dubbed-out percussion that sounds like it's being played with human bones. And to think this fell out of the same heads that made 'I'm Gonna Get You'. I want some of whatever it was they'd been taking...

Search eBay for Big Two Hundred
DC Recordings website
DC Recordings MySpace
Chicken Lips MySpace
The Emperor Machine MySpace
White Light Circus MySpace

I Just Can't Help Believing...

2009-06-24T06:00:00.000Z

Johnny Boy - You are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve

Sorry it's been a bit quiet here of late. I've got a lot on my plate at the moment, but one of the things I have been doing is starting to think about my end of the decade list. Yep, the first decade of the noughties (I hate that term but can't think of a decent substitute) is almost over. While I was sorting out an initial list (91 songs at the moment, hoping to whittle that down to 20 over the coming weeks), I came across this amazing song by Johnny Boy. I don't think my iPod has ever thrown this up in any shuffle and as it's the only song I have by them it's got swamped, but by crikey it's GOOD! Named after a character in Scorsese's 'Mean Streets', the Liverpool-based duo of Lolly Hayes and Davo were a precursor to the Ting Tings - boy/girl duo doing catchy indie pop - only far, far superior. Their second single, 'You are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve' was a call to arms against consumerism, produced by the Manics' James Dean Bradfield and released in 2004, when it reached # 50 in the hit parade. It's a brilliant tune - like Phil Spector producing Saint Etienne - with an infectious, euphoric, shout-along chorus. Unfortuntately, for various reasons it took them three years and two record companies before their self-titled debut album hit the shelves, and nothing on the album matched the brilliance of '...Generation'. But not many bands get it so very right at such an early stage in their career, so for that alone they should be lauded. Definitely one of the great lost singles of the decade.

Search eBay for Johnny Boy
Johnny Boy MySpace

Paint the Whole World With a Rainbow

2009-05-28T07:36:00.004Z

Black Moth Super Rainbow - Twin Of Myself

Black Moth Super Rainbow win band name of the year, if not the decade. But then great band names are in their DNA - previous monikers have included Allegheny White Fish (Pittsburgh-slang for a condom floating down the river) and satanstompingcaterpillars. Emerging from a chrysalis in an obscure Pennsylvanian forest glen in 2003, the fully-formed Black Moth comprise vocoder-wielding front man Tobacco, backed by four mysterious musical forces known as The Seven Fields of Aphelion, Power Pill Fist, Iffernaut and Father Hummingbird. So far so freaky deaky, weirdy beardy, right? Wrong. The biggest surprise of all is that the music concocted by the five-piece on their latest album, 'Eating Us', isn't as way out there as you might think. Sure, it's full-on under-the-influence-of-super-strong-blotter-acid psychedelia, but then whack your ears around 'Twin of Myself' - it's sublime psychedelic pop music, an inspired amalgam of Air's floaty Gallic goodness and some top drawer childlike melodies that could have come out of the Boards of Canada songbook. It's accessible and catchy - it wouldn't surprise me if it didn't worry the Top 40 if their UK label, Memphis Industries, released it as a single.

Granted, 'Twin Of Myself' is the poppermost moment on 'Eating Us', but the rest of the album is still easy on the ear. Produced by Dave Fridmann, it's a proper summer album, radiating warmth from start to finish, mainly due to the predominance of analogue electronic instruments including Tobacco's ubiquitous vocoder (which is set on soft and warm, not harsh and robotic), as well as a lush Rhodes piano and space-age Novatron. Other highlights include opening track 'Born on a Day the Sun Didn't Shine', which is a futuristic 'Strawberry Fields Forever', with heavy, looped beats and a gorgeous Rhodes, while 'Iron Lemonade' is a woozy bad trip, with a melody bizarrely reminiscent of the Grange Hill theme tune as re-imagined Plone. Not surprisingly, Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips is a big fan, naming the song 'I Was Zapped by the Lucky Super Rainbow' after them.

'Eating Us' is a wonderful example of machine music with an organic, human heart and can be double-dropped straight into the day-glo melting pot of psychedelic classics.

'Eating Us' by Black Moth Super Rainbow is released in the UK by Memphis Industries on June 8th 2009. Pre-order it from Norman Records
Black Moth Super Rainbow MySpace
Black Moth Super Rainbow website
Memphis Industries website

Jackin' in the Community

2009-05-21T08:00:00.001Z

Nathan Fake - Castle Rising

Norfolk’s finest big-haired knob-worrier Nathan Fake is back with a new six-track mini-album ‘Hard Islands’, which was released by James Holden’s mighty Border Community imprint on Monday. I caned the arse of Fake’s 2006 debut album, ‘Drowning in a Sea of Love’ - an inspired concoction of toytown synths, blissful, life-affirming distortion and thumping beats, and definitely up there with the best of the Noughties. His latest offering finds the prodigious 25-year-old hitting his stride, remodelling his style with a tougher sound, honed over the last few years spent roughing up the dancefloors of Europe. “Playing live a lot over the last couple of years has had a profound influence on the way I make music now,” Fake says.

Opening track ‘The Turtle’ is a straight-up banger – marvellous bubbly, squidgy acid, while on ‘Basic Mountain’, Fake staples his trademark fuzzy, pastoral electronica to hard-edged, analogue techno beats. ‘Castle Rising’ is rough, raw and loopily experimental acid house, recalling the glorious early years of 808 State, when A Guy Called Gerald was behind the wheel; and both ‘Narrier’ and ‘Fentiger’ are packed with gnarly Aphexisms, off-kilter melodies and brutal beats. I only have one complaint – it’s far too short. More please.

Nathan Fake - Outhouse (Main Mix)

The music of 'Hard Islands' is a return to Fake's roots - 'Outhouse' was the single he burst on to the scene with back in November 2003, an absolutely bruising monster of a tune, with only an eerie, dissonant AFX circa-Polygon Window melody to keep the relentless percussion at bay. If he's now 25 (I think) that means he would've been, er, about 19-years-old when he produced this. Suddenly those "Norfolk's answer to the Aphex Twin" comparisons have some resonance.

Buy 'Hard Islands' from Norman Records
Nathan Fake MySpace
Nathan Fake website
Border Community website

Spirited Away

2009-05-15T08:09:00.005Z

LFO - Tied Up (Spiritualized Electric Mainline Mix

When I first got wind of this union between the Gods of bleep techno and Jason Pierce’s psychedelic space rockers - probably in the news section of the NME - I messed my pants in excitement. An inspired collaboration if ever there was one, the results did not disappoint as Jason Pierce took the original bass-heavy techno thumper and transformed it into a blissful nine-minutes of strung-out ambient wonder, easily on a par with Global Communication's reworking of Chapterhouse's 'Blood Music'. Coincidentally, the only other remix Pierce ever did (until last year's effort for Goldfrapp) was of the Global Communication track 'Maiden Voyage' around the same time as this.

Pierce had obviously been rummaging around in the darkest recesses of former cohort Sonic Boom's drug bag, as there's not a trumpet or gospel choir in sight. This isn't so much a remix as a piece of music inspired by the original, with oscillating synths and drones, a gently plucked guitar, washes of beautiful, dissonant noise and the vaguest hint of melody to tie this rework to the original. It evolves so gradually the changes are barely noticeable and is a wonderful demonstration of tonal control. This is right up there with the best things Pierce ever did, and if he's considering a change of direction post 'Songs in A&E' I'd suggest a trip back in time...

Search eBay for LFO 'Tied Up'
LFO MySpace
Official Spiritualized® website
Spiritualized® MySpace

The Return of Elf Magic

2009-05-07T19:28:00.002Z

Wisp - Keeper Of The Hills

Deep in a mountain valley in Middle Earth stands the mighty Wisp – resplendent in his wizard’s robes, the Merlin of electronic music thrusts his knotted staff towards the three-mooned sky as he orchestrates a deranged army of dancing Orcs, goblins and elves, whipped into a frenzy by an insane musical collision between Aphex Twin and Genesis. Welcome to the wonderful world of Progtronica.

And no, that tag is not meant to be disingenuous. ‘The Shimmering Hour’ is an epic and conceptual album, as much influenced by medieval folklore as it is by the electronic music scene. Wisp came upon his artist name while reading ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy and has been known to dabble in the odd game of Dungeons and Dragons. The progressive element can also be found in Wisp’s exceptional musicality – the boy can play as well as program, and like the key protagonists of the progressive rock scene, he is not afraid to indulge himself. All he needs is to don a fox’s head for live performances a la Peter Gabriel and the link would be complete.

As an artist who has done all his growing up in public – releasing a plethora of high quality net releases for free and frequenting electronic music messageboards - Reid “Wisp” Dunn of Niagara Falls, New York has always been judged by the harshest critics of all; the notoriously hard-to-please IDM fanboy community. But Dunn has emerged unscathed, virtually bulletproof to the jealous sniping and totally driven by his own convictions rather than someone else’s idea of what electronic music should sound like in 2009.

‘The Shimmering Hour’ is the follow-up to 2005’s excellent ‘NRTHNDR’, Dunn’s first “proper” (i.e. you had to pay for it) album. There are references to all the various stages of his prolific musical career within, making ‘TSH’ his masterwork. There is no doubting Dunn’s technical prowess – his programming and production skills are exceptional - but what makes ‘TSH’ so special is the fact that you can tell he has poured his heart and soul into it. In an oft-faceless scene, Dunn’s quirky personality shines forth from every second of his music and his sound is unique. You could spot a Wisp track a mile off. Yes, he is undoubtedly under the influence of Aphex, but Aphex soundtracking ‘The Legend of Zelda’ as directed by Peter Jackson.

Joyous paint-the-sky melodies, fucked-up acid grooves, banging, emotive Euro-rave, Bukem-esque ambient jungle, bewitching medieval folk, lush breakdowns and complex, pulse-quickening breakbeats are all dropped into the musical cauldron and bubbled into life to create a magical brew, rich with the spirit of Bardic lore but driven by cutting-edge electronic production skills. Wisp is at the peak of his powers now; it won't be long before you all fall under his spell.

Buy 'The Shimmering Hour' from Norman Records
Incredible Wisp archive - all his net-label recordings are available to download for free!
Wisp MySpace

Box Fresh Techno

2009-04-30T07:40:00.004Z

Laurent Garnier - Astral Dreams (Speakers Mix)
Laurent Garnier - Astral Dreams (Headphones Mix)

The thing about top-notch quality techno is that it never seems to age. Take Laurent Garnier’s ‘Astral Dreams (Speakers Mix)’. It is nearly 15 years old, but rather than sounding dusty and ancient it still sounds box fresh today, like it was cooked up on Reason and burnt onto a CDr by some prodigious teen techno producer last week. 15 years is a long time, but the track is timeless, with super crispy production. OK, so if you were playing it out now you’d have to pitch it up a bit, but I probably would have given it a bit of a nudge even back then - you want everything to go faster when you’re young. As the ‘Speakers Mix’ suggests, this was one for the dancefloor, designed to shred ears – if you stood too close to the PA it sounded like a gigantic metallic dog was barking directly into your brain.

The ‘Speakers Mix’ originally surfaced on a 12” on FComm – the precursor to the French techno wizard’s debut album ‘Shot in the Dark’, which was released in the autumn of 1994. There was a ‘Headphones Mix’ that I’m also posting - this is a laidback, trancier affair that is more of the period and does sound slightly dated. But when that insidious acid line kicks in it’s a dead ringer for peak-‘Brown Album’ Orbital, which is a very, very good thing indeed.

Search eBay for 'Shot in the Dark'
Laurent Garnier discography
Laurent Garnier MySpace

As a footnote - I'm on Twitter now. You can find me here. Not sure how I'm going to use it at the moment, but I am considering doing occasional exclusive Twitter posts - 140 character reviews with tinyurl links to downloadable tracks - that won't feature on the main TWNR site. It may never happen, but if you want to see if it does - follow me! If I get 12 followers, I'll organise a supper for us all somewhere nice*.

* I won't.

Liberation Through Collaboration

2009-04-16T12:00:00.010Z

Mike & Rich - Vodka

Back in early 1996 when rumours of a collaboration between electronic behemoths Richard D. James and Mike Paradinas first reached my ears, I was so excited you would have thought it had just been announced that a re-animated Albert Einstein was getting together with Professor Stephen Hawking to finalise plans for a teleportation device. The reality was something far less highbrow - as Mike P revealed of their union: "With Rich it was ... fooling around pissed and on acid".

So not the groundbreaking, experimental electronic-fest everyone was expecting. Instead we got a couple of equipment-obsessed techno boffins getting mullered on vodka and acid in a studio and concocting some cheesy tuneage, though the resulting album, 'Mike & Rich' ('Extreme Knob Twiddlers' was a subtitle), is an underrated, joyful affair. Of the process itself, Mike P said in an interview with the brilliant Milk Factory website: "It started round his (Richard's) place and we just did this track. I think we both enjoyed working together, it was quite a laugh, so we carried it on. We were serious about the music though - it's not a pisstake, just elements of joy."

Many critics saw Mike P as the dominant force in the recording process, and the free-jazz keys of opener 'Mr Frosty' were certainly evocative of the music he produced under his Jake Slazenger moniker. Throughout, the playful synths and odd samples recall prime Rephlex-era µ-ziq material. But this simplistic view doesn't allow for the fact that (according to Mike P) the sessions were partly inspired by the unreleased Aphex Twin album 'Melodies from Mars'. Plus I can't imagine such a strong personality as RDJ would have been subservient to another producer - it's far more likely that he felt suitably liberated by the collaborative process, relaxed by multiple vodka shots, off his face on acid, and in the mood to create something a little bit different from his usual output. The crunchy techno of 'Vodka', with its off-kilter melodies is very Aphex, and 'Winner Takes All' recalls 'Cow Cud is a Twin' from the 'I Care Because You Do' album, while also being reminiscent of contemporary Luke Vibert's output as Wagon Christ.

'Mike & Rich' has aged pretty well considering and the cover is an absolute classic. Seeing the youthful Mike and Rich enjoying a game of Downfall is a reminder of more innocent times.

Squarepusher/AFX - Freeman Hardy & Willis Acid

Luke Vibert sent many a fan boy's pulse racing when he disclosed (again in an interview with The Milk Factory in 2003) that all of the electronic music scene's powerhouses have worked together at some point. "(Me and Richard) do work loads. Nearly every time I see him, we make music together. Same with Squarepusher. We’ve done tracks with Tom, I’ve done tracks with Mike Paradinas, everyone’s done tracks together." But, unfortunately, it appears that not many of these collaborations will ever see the light of day as they simply aren't good enough - too unfocused, sprawling and messy to be worthy of a proper release. Though tantalisingly, Vibert said that he might give some of them away via the internet - as far as I'm aware, this hasn't happened yet.

However, one track that did make it into the public domain was a collaboration between Tom 'Squarepusher' Jenkinson and RDJ under his AFX guise. Recorded to celebrate Warp Records’ 100th release and named after the popular high street shoe retailer, 'Freeman, Hardy & Willis Acid' marries some mournful Aphexian melodies to jazzy, rolling Squarepusher d'n'b beats. Then the ante is upped as the drums go all splattercore and it finally delivers on the acid promised by the title with some vintage squidge. With Warp celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, perhaps a few more collaborations between the old school heavyweights could be on the cards. Here's hoping...

Buy 'Mike & Rich' from Boomkat
Mike P's Planet Mu website
Aphex Twin fan resource/forum at WATMM - strictly for the hardcore fanboize - you have been warned!
Squarepusher MySpace
Warp Records website

A Scene Worth Celebrating Again

2009-04-09T08:00:00.000Z

The Early Years - Like a Suicide

As documented many times on TWNR, I was a teenage shoegazer. Ride posters on my wall, Ride T-shirt on my back, sporting the duffel coat/Converse combo, silly girls hair and a winsome, fey expression permanently etched on my fizzog. Now I consider myself to be a massive fan with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the scene, but everything pales into insignificance when compared to the shoegazer extraordinaire, Nathaniel Cramp of Sonic Cathedral. Nat has single-handedly resurrected the shoegazing genre, breathing new life into the much-maligned scene (Richey Manic famously said he hated it "more than Hitler") with club nights and a record label. If you want some more background info, we wrote a piece about Nat and Sonic Cathedral back in 2007 - you can find it here.

Nat's mission statement, as told to Jude Rogers in the Guardian, was to "contextualise shoegazing in terms of its influences and inspirations". But as well as looking back, Sonic Cathedral is also moving forwards, so the music he releases on the label is not a tired, hackneyed tribute to the original shoegazing scene. Instead, Sonic Cathedral represents everything that is great about music TODAY. Nat's eclectic A&R policy and fine ear has led to him releasing a series of phenomenal singles. All hits. No misses. That is quite an achievement in this day and age. If I were a major label I'd be getting Mr Cramp on my payroll quick smart...

Just how consistently great the Sonic Cathedral label output has been becomes evident when you listen to 'Cathedral Classics Volume One' - a compilation of the first eleven 7" singles released on the label since 2006, out on CD on April 20, 2009. It is, without a doubt, the best compilation I have heard for eons - a real throwback to the classic Creation compilations that were a testament to Alan McGee's A&R talents during the 1990s.

Kicking things off, The Tambourines' 'Sally O'Gannon' is a heady burst of fuzzy guitar pop - like Jesus and Mary Chain crossed with the Dandy Warhols. Courtney Taylor-Taylor (one surname not enough?) of the aforementioned Dandys would cut off his cock and flog it to Satan to still be writing songs this good.

For the label's second single, Nat rolled out the big guns - the union of Mark Gardener and Ulrich Schnauss was one made in heaven. The latter's remix skills transforms the former Ride man's heartbreaking country song, 'The Story of the Eye', into a lush slice of celestial folk - not so much shoegazing as stargazing. They should make an album together and then I can die happy.

Another shoegaze luminary to feature in the Sonic Cathedral oeuvre is the former Slowdive mainman Neil Halstead. He rocked up on the seventh single, remixing the San Francisco folk rocker Miranda Lee Richard's tender country ballad 'Lifeboat' and transforming it into a feedback-drenched slo-mo trip hop wonder, more reminiscent of Portishead than Halstead's former band (for whom the phrase 'sonic cathedrals of sound" was originally coined).

Things get really post-modern with the re-interpretations of tracks from Japancakes instrumental treatment of My Bloody Valentine's 'Loveless'. James Rutledge (aka the mighty Pedro) turns 'Soon' into a bleepy microhouse marvel, the swoons and groans of the original just about audible amid the bonkers skittering electronics, while Ricardo Tobar's reworking of 'Touched' is six-minutes of blissed-out, technoid brilliance - a Balearic classic in the making.

But the stand-out single for me is The Early Years (Brian Eno's favourite band) dark epic 'Like a Suicide'. A distorted, pulsing drum machine holds everything down, steady as a metronome, while a melody reminiscent of Joy Division's 'Isolation' hovers into earshot. It all shifts up a sonic gear when the vocal drops - a Gary Numan-esque baritone intones, "I'm not falling apart, just into pieces", before a guitar is mangled to death. Fuck Editors - this is how a 21st-Century Joy Division would have sounded.

Having said there are no misses, I am not the biggest Kyte fan. Under their own steam the Leicester band are unremarkable; their overwrought, piano-heavy torchsong 'Planet' is just a little too close to Keane for my liking. But when James "Maps" Chapman gets involved it's a different story - his remix of 'Secular Ventures' transforms the band into a credible proposition - imagine early-OMD with spikey Aphex rhythms. They should ask him to join full-time.

Elsewhere, Maps and M83 swap remixes, the Contino remix of Sarabeth Tucek's 'Something For You' is a comedown classic, and Sonic Boom goes all Radiophonic Workshop on Dean & Britta's (of Galaxie 500 and Luna fame) 'White Horses', a cover of a 1960s kids cartoon theme tune. And finally, with SCR011, the label released something resembling old school shoegaze - the bloody marvellous 'Within the Boundaries' by Daniel Land and the Modern Painters, an epic soundscape reminiscent of prime-Cocteaus.

Nice sleeve too - a gloriously yellow pastiche of 'Loveless'. Hopefully this is just the start for Sonic Cathedral. The label is preparing to release its first artist album later on this year - from Sweden's Sad Day for Puppets, who sound a bit like the Concretes crossed with Dinosaur Jr.

Forget the scene, it's the label that is worth celebrating...

Buy 'Cathedral Classics Volume One' from Norman Records
Visit the Sonic Cathedral shop
Sonic Cathedral MySpace

People in Motion Again

2009-04-02T12:00:00.002Z

Papercuts - The Machine Will Tell Us So

San Francisco is gearing up for another Summer of Love as there's a properly tasty scene building in the city at the moment. At its heart is Jason Quever, a guy with a very interesting back-story – he was raised in a commune in Humboldt County in Northern California, orphaned, and moved up and down the West Coast before settling in San Francisco. A talented multi-instrumentalist with a fine ear, he's become a focal point for West Coast musicians, playing with and producing a whole heap of acts including Devendra Banhart, Vetiver, Donkeys, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Cass McCombs and Beach House.

As well as his role as the Phil Spector of modern-day San Fran, Quever also has his own Papercuts project and the optimistically-titled ‘You Can Have What You Want’ is the third album he's recorded under that nom de plume, but the first to be released in the UK (on April 13 2009, by the ever-reliable Memphis Industries). It’s a dreamy collection of reverb-drenched pop songs, dominated by vintage analogue organs and Quever’s soaring vocals. The songs evoke hazy summer days, rich with melancholic drama and stunning arrangements – that Spector comparison was not a joke, though perhaps Brian Wilson circa-'Pet Sounds' is a more accurate sonic comparison.

It has a retro-future vibe - new sounds recorded on old equipment - that immediately brought to mind ‘The Noise Made By People’-era Broadcast (who incidentally have a song called Papercuts in their oeuvre – coincidence?), especially the drums, nailed on the press release as “Kraut-via Ringo”. Quever himself has flagged up 'The Twilight Zone' as a big influence on the album (he was watching the boxset on repeat during recording) - "It's clear to me that the show's mysterious, melancholic vibe seeped into the album", he revealed. This does actually make perfect sense. There's also a laidback, Gallic feel to proceedings; the evocative whiff of Gauloise and Gainsbourg permeate the tracks. Love it.

Catch the Papercuts experience live when Quever and his merry band tour the UK and Europe in April in support of the album -

09 April - Deaf Institute, Manchester
11 April - Bird On The Wire, London
12 April - Freebutt, Brighton
13 April - Rough Trade Instore, London
14 April - Cafe de la Danse, Paris
15 April - The Cellar, Oxford
16 April - The Legion, London
17 April - Buffalo Bar, Cardiff

Preorder 'You Can Have What You Want' from Norman Records
Papercuts at Memphis Industries
Papercuts MySpace

Life Without Britpop

2009-03-26T08:00:00.000Z

Blur - Never Clever

Imagine a world without Britpop... No 'Parklife'. No Jarvis waggling his arse at Jacko. No Noely G at No. 10. No Blur v Oasis. No Chris Evans. No Menswear. No ladettes. No Loaded. Hang on, that doesn't sound so bad...

But look, it could actually have happened. If Blur's 'Popscene' had been the Top 10 hit it deserved to be when it was released in 1992, the musical landscape would have been radically altered. In the grand plan of the band and their label, Food, after 'Popscene' had re-established Blur at the top of the indie tree, they would release 'Never Clever' - a bratty slice of pop punk where Graham's frenetic, phased thrash guitar loops back a rather lacklustre vocal performance from Damon. It's an exhilarating ride, but ultimately leaves you feeling let down and a bit empty. What's it actually saying? Not very much. Would it have been a hit? We'll never know. But if things had gone according to plan Blur would have had two Top 10 singles in the bag and the outlook for both band and label would have been a hell of a lot rosier...

ANDY ROSS (FOOD): They had this track 'Popscene' which we thought was great - this fucking song is a huge hit. Then it went in at 32 and we thought, Ah, this isn't going right at all. They had a song called 'Never Clever' that we thought was equally brilliant and the cunning plan was to have a big hit with 'Popscene', capitalise with 'Never Clever' and then we'd all be rich.

So 'Popscene' flopped, 'Never Clever' was shelved and the band hit the booze in spectatular style, almost self-destructing in the process. They regrouped, licked their wounds and came back with 'Modern Life is Rubbish' (arguably their finest) which, as we all know, invented Britpop and changed the face of music in 1990s Great Britain. For ever.

A live version of 'Never Clever' recorded at Glastonbury 1992 appeared on the b-side of 'Chemical World'. The studio version available to download here surfaced on a promo CD to commemorate Food's 100th release.

Anyone going to Hyde Park? I'll be there!

Buy Blur records from Amazon
Official Blur website
Buy John Harris's excellent account of the Britpop era 'The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock' from Amazon
Official Blur fanclub
Veikko's excellent Blur fansite

I'm Kool Keith Not a Bill or Dan

2009-03-19T12:00:00.000Z

Ultramagnetic MC's - Kool Keith Housing Things

I'm a bit snowed under this week so am posting a track that requires very few words from me. This is as good as it gets, and in this version from the remastered 'Critical Beatdown' (one of the ten finest hip-hop albums of all time), Ced Gee's awesome beats are boosted with an extra injection of bass to make speaker stacks crumble and fall.

Kool Keith is a one-off. Arguably the greatest - definitely the weirdest - MC of all time. The Salvador Dali of rap, his abstract, surrealist rhymes are beamed down from another planet. An unstoppable psychedelic force. I'll say it again - this is as good as it gets. Blast it.

Search eBay for 'Critical Beatdown'
Kool Keith website
Ultramagnetic MC's MySpace

How Danny's Noise Became a Force for Good

2009-03-12T10:00:00.001Z

Dan Deacon - Red F

Nu-rave eh? What happened there then? If you put the glow sticks, the pills and the multi-coloured leggings to one side, you were left with - musically at least - a rather joyless scene, producing very little music worthy of the title. Even the movement's poster boys, Klaxons, were (let's be honest) Jesus Jones with slightly better hair and trousers.

Step forward, then, Dan Deacon, who with his latest album, 'Bromst' - a luminous, euphoric collection of reach-for-the-laser rave epics - has produced an album that captures the giddy emotion of the original rave scene. Each song is heavily daubed in colourful melodies, pummelling Nintendo beats and hooks big enough to catch Moby-Dick.

I'll hold my hand up and say I was never Deacon's biggest fan. The "wacky" warning signs flashed up whenever I heard something by him, watched any number of the garish OTT vids available on YouTube or saw clips of him coercing groups of clubbers into dance-offs during his live set. Think an emo, laptop-wielding Timmy Mallet, and then consign that image to the dustbin...

However, it seems that even Deacon has tired of this perceived persona, and is determined to shake the (perhaps unfairly applied) "wacky" tag with a more mature outlook to making music. And rather than this resulting in an album of po-faced chin scratching and introspection, instead you get a broader, richer sound that still generates extreme levels of energy and excitement. Hey, I can even forgive him his overuse of the voice manipulation software this time around - in this dense, richly layered soup of sound, the vocals become another instrument - an essential component, rather than an irritating quirk. 'Bromst' also has a more organic, less mechanic feel, as Deacon explains -

"It’s different, there’s much less computer and a lot more live instruments (marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel, vibraphone, live drummers, player piano, etc) so the sound is a lot more rich. It was recorded to tape with many analogue synths so the sound is not as plasticy… its probably a little more dance at times too but also more intense, varied, serious… the tracks are meant to be listened to as a whole to get the complete experience."

About halfway through the second song, the argy-bargy punishing gabba techno of 'Red F', I lifted my jaw up off the pavement and realised that I was listening to something truly awesome. 'Of the Mountain' is stunning, as Deacon somehow manages to combine the playful twinkling glockenspiels of Penguin Café Orchestra with shamanistic, mantric chanting that wouldn't sound out of place on The Lion King soundtrack, pounding tribal rhythms and a portentous, synth-drenched outro that rivals Arcade Fire in its epic sonic scope. 'Slow With Horns/Run for Your Life' recalls Fuck Buttons distorted analogue drones, adds a cacophonous, almost funereal, wall of horns, before busting out into a tinkling, piano symphony, underpinned by hammering beats. Elsewhere, the bendy twanging 'Woof Woof' is a joy, 'Paddling Ghost' is a nifty slice of 'Bonkers'-style Toytown Happy Hardcore if DJ Sharkey played the marimba, and he even lobs in a curveball in the form of the medieval 'Wet Wings', which consists solely of a haunting, female vocal loops. As if to prove the leopard hasn't totally changed his spots, the chipmunk chorus and quirk-noise of 'Baltihorse' annoys. But that's a minor quibble.

I don't think Dan Deacon needs another blogger jibber-jabbering on about how good 'Bromst' is (Google it and you will see what I mean) but it is an incredible album - more than worthy of my fawning prose - and as this decade comes to a close, it feels like a benchmark for the future has been set.

'Bromst' is released on Carpark Records on March 23rd 2009. You can pre-order it from Norman Records
Dan Deacon's website is still shit but there's loads of free mp3s here
Dan Deacon MySpace

The Biggest Midget Got The Maddest Skills

2009-03-05T16:00:00.002Z

Lady Sovereign - I Got You Dancing
Lady Sovereign - So Human

I've completely lost touch with what's going on with UK hip-hop but I have got a massive soft spot for Lady Sovereign, despite the fact she is starting resemble Stacey Slater doing a photo shoot for Dazed & Confused. I wasn't into some of more commercial tracks on her debut album 'Public Warning', but I absolutely love her vocal style and she is a shit hot lyricist. Sov got mad skills, yo. Ahem. Plus being a bit of a labels geek, the fact she had a record out on the ubercool US hip-hop/electronic hybrid label Chocolate Industries gives her extra kudos to me.

Sov's new album, 'Jigsaw' is due to drop soon and in the grand tradition of all business savvy artists these days, it is being released on her own label, Midget, but is being distributed by a major. The first single 'I Got You Dancing' was a pop rap cracker with some awesome hoover noises and Sov busting out the Auto Tune to give it that 'NOW' sound. OK, so it doesn't sound a million miles away from Vicky 'MC Posh' Beckham's two-step collab with Dane Bowers back in the day but it still should have been a huge hit. I don't know how it fared in the hit parade - I stopped looking at the charts when downloads were counted. Yes. I am getting old... The second single 'So Human' makes liberal use of the Cure's 'Close To You' in way which will probably have Goths the world over burning effigies of Sov but works brilliantly. As well as using regular producer Gabriel 'Medasyn' Olegavich she's also worked with Benny Blanco (Britney, Katy Perry) and Dr Luke (Kelis, Leona Lewis) on the album (released in the UK on April 13 2009) which gives the impression that she is looking to crossover properly this time. Best of British Sov.

Medasyn featuring Lady Sovereign, Shystie, Frost P & Zuz Rock - The Battle

But before she went all crossover, Sov used to drop the real shit in dodgy council estates in Hackney. Or plush recording studios in Chiswick, but whatever... I first came across 'The Battle' in demo form under the title 'BoysnGirls' - it was a piss poor recording but had the feel of a real old school mic battle between two male MCs (Frost P and Zuz Rock) and two female MCs (Lady Sovereign and Shystie). It eventually got polished up into the version you can download above, which was released as a single by Ross Allen's Casual label in 2003. The rhymes are pretty much the same but it's lost a lot of the vibe of the original demo, which was recorded live and feels raw and spontaneous. I'd probably say the ladies win the battle, but it's a close run thing. I especially love Frost P's opening verse = boy spits fire. The badass string-heavy beats were knocked up by Medasyn.

Preorder 'Jigsaw' from Amazon
Lady Sovereign website
Lady Sovereign MySpace

Melodies from Mars, Vicious Beats from Venus

2009-02-26T10:00:00.003Z

The Tuss - Rushup I Bank 12

I realised that after all the shit surrounding whether or not The Tuss was Aphex Twin I hadn't actually got around to giving the album a proper listen. Grant Wilson-Claridge (Rephlex co-owner) gave an interview around the time the controversy was in full swing and made one very salient point - "People seem more interested in speculation and celebrity than content, quality or music. Be careful you don't miss something really great that isn't really famous." Nail whacked firmly on the head.

Over the past week, The Tuss's album 'Rushup Edge' has rarely been off me pod, and it rocks so fucking hard I feel very stupid for getting sucked into a debate over and above the one thing that is really important - THE MUSIC! This is mind-meltingly mental metallic machine funk of the highest order. As good as any electronic music I've heard over the last decade. Seriously. I played 'Rushup I Bank 12' about 15 times in a row the other day. Spasmoid-electro with stellar drum-programming that absolutely SMACKS it without resorting to the ludicrous off-kilter rhythms of the worst excesses of drill; plus twinkling pianos, Human League-esque chord sequences and the sickest, squelchiest avin' it acid squark. In the words of MasterChef's Gregg Wallace, "It's DEEEEP, it's DAAARK, it's DEEETROITY - I just want to stick my face in it."

Aphex Twin - Xtal

In a connected note, an mp3 of the wonderous 'Xtal' from Aphex Twin's masterwork 'Selected Ambient Works 85-92' popped into my inbox yesterday. Basically, the seminal Belgian techno label R&S Records is back! To commemorate the label's resurrection, it is releasing some of the most seminal albums from its impressive archive. These classic albums have been hard-to-find for several years and are to be digitally remastered for their release as the 'Masters Series'. On the 7th April 2009 Aphex Twin 'Selected Ambient Works 85-92', Model 500 'Classics', Ken Ishii 'Jellytones' and Dave Angel 'Classics' are to be released. A month later on the 12th May 2009, Derrick May 'Innovator', Model 500 'Deep Space', Joey Beltram 'Classics' and Aphex Twin 'Classics' will complete the series. The label are also signing new artists, so we can hopefully expect a new generation of quality tuneage from the stable. Hail to the horse...

I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that 'SAW 85-92' is one of the most influential records in my collection. The soundtrack to many a comedown, 'Xtal' is a giant marshmallow pillow of lush ambient wonder to disappear into. Lovingly remastered too - it just sounds even better...

Buy 'Rushup Edge' from Norman Records
The Tuss MySpace
Or The Tuss MySpace?
Brand new R&S Records website
R&S Records MySpace