Nonwrestler Blog

08 September 2009

Weekly mp3 #73: Lost Valentinos - Midnights (Emperor Machine Remix)

gives away average-quality MP3s of every track on their commercial releases. Probably pretty practical approach.

"My God, it's full of synths."

Behold, thirteen and a half minutes of moody synth-disco action!
Layered percussion!
Interlocking chugga chugga chugga synth patterns!
Crazy chord changes!
70s-style Moog vamps!
Millions of breakdowns, switch-ups, drops, dub-outs, and fx!
Flashbacks to Blake's Seven or The Tomorrow People guaranteed!

... although, admittedly it takes a while to get going.

The original track is sorta like Grand National, a bit of The Rapture or I guess fellow Oz-tralians Midnight Juggernauts. If none of those names mean anything, there's a guy singing OKish songs who goes a bit screamy. The remix sticks to the basic two-part structure of the original - first part straight 16th beat feel, second part is swung in that way that may remind you of Gary Glitter, Goldfrapp or schaffel house - but expands the whole thing out so it runs for ages. Some of it makes me think of what African disco I've heard, with all the hand drums and synth parts standing in for tuned percussion like kalimbas and so on.

Sydney's Lost Valentinos

seem fairly whatever, but I've been trying to find reason to link to the Emperor Machine

for ages. There's a free solo track

of his online, and there's a free remix he did for Late of the Pier.

Problem is I don't particularly like either. So I'm glad to have found a decent free track by him. Anyway... The Emperor Machine is another one-man band type project from the UK. I love his analogue-fetishist take on sort of that sort of post-punk disco vibe. It gets called kraut-disco, which is curious, cos I don't know any kraut rock stuff that sounds like what he does. I guess people are thinking Dinger's "motorik" (sorry?) i.e. very simple, repetitive, relentless drumming. Or maybe kraut rock is cool again.

The cover art for his releases is some of the most apt I've seen. Check it out.