Nonwrestler Blog

Weekly mp3 # 11: Lukas Nystrand & Karl Johansson – Untitled R&B Instrumental

The net label Ageema Music Club mainly seems to be a vanity press for one guy, Lukas Nystrand, with a couple of friends in tow. I could’ve linked to a bunch of different things here, cos there are plenty of good pickings, from Lukiss’s Gameboy-in-dub stylings, through the J Dilla-gone-glitchy / Avalanches territory of Glenny #417, to Julien Love's punky dub-disco tracks.

I’ll be cheeky and link directly to the MP3 , because the page is a bit hard to navigate. It’s on We Shall Not Be Moved from 2005.

The track title should give you a good idea of what you’re in for, but given that R&B extends over the past 40 years and most recently seems to include stadium trance (looking in your direction, Timbaland! ), I’ll make some notes anyway. It’s downbeat and grubby, and sounds to me like they digested what ?uestlove unimaginatively called the “dirty sound” the Soulquarians were reaching for on D’Angelo’s Voodoo and Common’s Like Water For Chocolate. It’s grubbier than that, though, much more of a 4-track home recording vibe. Live bass guitar, by the sounds of it, wonky keys, programmed strings and beats. Always been a fan of those oomf and clap beats and this kind of slightly awkward, staggering rhythmic feel.

Overall, the track has the kind of vibe I always hope to hear from Madlib, but, frankly, he’s about the most over-hyped producer working today. Ridiculously inconsistent anyway.

No idea who Lukas Nystrand & Karl Johansson actually are, other than that Lukas seems to be a designer by trade and they’re presumably both Swedish.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

Posted at 13:10  0 Comments Links to this post

Never knew 'White Lines' was just a massive rip-off

Liquid Liquid's 'Cavern':



It's so much more interesting too - so live, and weird sounding.

The backstory of the rip-off action on this history of 99 Records is interesting too. Scroll down to the bit about the single "Optimo / Cavern".

Always amazes me to read about these "obscure" songs and then read passing comments that e.g. this song sold more than 30,000 copies at the time. Holy shit. If I could sell a 10th of that I'd be so stoked.

Labels: music, youtube

Posted at 07:57  3 Comments Links to this post

Finding Nemo's sex

Just read on the oh so reliable Wikipedia page about clownfish that they are all born male and change sex. So apparently Nemo's dad should've taken over as Nemo's mum after his wife died in the movie.

Seems kinda funny that famously conservative Disney made a movie about a naturally sex-changing fish. I'd love it if there were a sequel in which Nemo is a girl, but where that's just completely incidental to the plot...

Labels: misc time-wasting

Posted at 22:39  0 Comments Links to this post

weekly mp3 #10: Antiguo Autómata Mexicano - Broken In Your Room Again

This track is part of a Background Records sampler on the now defunct Minlove site. Well, it may come back some time, but it's been out of action since 2006, so maybe not.

I have fairly minimal love for "minimal" where it's a stand-in for "techno" now that that term is relatively uncool. 'Broken In Your Room Again's not really so techno, it's lead by the bassline more than the beat and spiralling arpeggios and echoing layers of percussion don't exactly cry out "dancefloor fodder". It is electronic music of the right kind of tempo, I guess. Anyway, I like it.

Antiguo Autómata Mexicano is one guy, Ángel Sánchez Borges. He released a really good album last year called Kraut Slut, which opened with a track called 'Rother, Dinger, You and Me', so the guy is demonstrating his kraut rock love fairly unequivocably. I reckon that shows through in 'Broken In Your Room Again' too.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

Posted at 13:10  0 Comments Links to this post

Weekly mp3 #9 take 2: Albert Kuvezin and Yat-Kha - Love Will Tear Us Apart

OK, since Tuesday’s effort failed, here’s another attempt. You can download a ridiculously lo-fi MP3 from the band's website.

A cover of Joy Division's most famous song. Tuvan throat singing, acoustic guitar. Odd.

This is the only contemporary music I've heard from Tuva, a chunk of Russia that borders Mongolia and which Taiwan claims is part of its China. Throat singing is all about singing two tones at once, by controlled resonance of the nasal cavity. The main tone is brutally low, and the overtone is a whistle that pretty much doesn't sound like it comes from an animal. If anyone knows Massive Attack's 'Karmacoma', the melody in the chorus is actually a throat singer, not a synth.

The information on the band's site makes the situation in Tuva sound pretty bleak. Probably because it is.

I played this at the last Malty Media night.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

Posted at 15:29  0 Comments Links to this post