Nonwrestler Blog

Weekly mp3 #41: Gang Gang Dance - Princes (feat. Tinchy Stryder)

Pretty demented (but also pretty damn hype) moment from RCRDLBL.

Overall response the first time I heard this: what the hell is going on? An uptempo rhythm on a drum kit starts things off, clattering toms, in comes a pretty descending piano line... then London MC Tinchy Stryder comes out of nowhere "Oh shit, Gang Gang" ... then the monster electronic beats and heavy bass drop and everything kind of explodes into a frenetic dance track with Tinchy Stryder doing his thing... then Gang Gang Dance's mental vocalist comes in, sounding a bit like Yoko Ono or maybe... dare I say it... Bjork if she was more annoying. Then there's high, 80s metal guitar bits that amke me think of King Crimson circa 'Red'.

Check out the other track on RCRDLBL too, I thrashed both of them last year... and had big hopes for the album they were off. Unfounded hopes, it seems, but hopes nonetheless.

Gang Gang Dance are some kind of New York art band, signed to Warp Records, and seem to see no dividing line between rock and dance music. No, not Battles. :p I found their first album nigh on unlistenable, but it was still kind of exciting in its madness... I'd hoped the followup was going to rock my socks off... sadly it was still a bit too weird in the wrong ways for me.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

Posted at 1:10 PM  1 Comments Links to this post

White Lines for Harpsichord and Double Bass

I posted about 'Cavern', the song the Sugar Hill Gang ripped off for 'White Lines'.

Now here's Jon Brion (co-producer for Kanye West and composer of such ace soundtracks as Punch Drunk Love and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) doing the song with a stand-up bass dude...

Labels: music, youtube

Posted at 8:16 PM  1 Comments Links to this post

I Wrote A Letter To The Government The Other Day

... yeah, actually that was a while back, but there's no Public Enemy song that starts "I wrote a letter to the Australasian Performing Rights Association the other day".

Bit sour about the press release that was issued by APRA and others in response to the Creative Freedom Foundation campaign against Sections 92A and 92C of the new copyright act that's due to come into effect next month. Figured rather than just be sour, I should just send a quick and civil letter to the NZ manager of APRA's operations saying that their stance on the issue does not represent this member's views, nor ... anyone's interests, really.

Someone eagerly suggested I cancel my APRA membership in protest. Heh. Imagine how furious they'd be if the meagre smattering of playback fees they've gathered on my behalf no longer goes to me and instead sits in their bank account unclaimed.

I don't feel as strongly doom and gloom about the whole thing as the CFF bods clearly do - I mainly think it's going to be a big waste of time.

We also made mention of it on the radio last night, which was strangely political for Malty Media. Ah well. Sadly it was directly off the back of a horrific mash-up of soft rock hits I'd done, which was surely counter-productive to any statement about defending the right to muck about on the net. ;)

Labels: life, music

Posted at 10:44 AM  2 Comments Links to this post

Weekly mp3 #40: J*Davey - No More

XLR8R offered this song up as part of their ongoing roll of MP3s.

A slow jam about fucking. "Leave some footprints on the walls" Nice shuffle to the beats, the singer sounds somewhere between Erykah Badu and the super-squeaky (but awesome) Yummy Bingham. The bass and accompanying synths are ridiculously syrupy. The breakdown rises above the usual pull-the-bass-out cliches by replacing the synth-soup with hummed and sung versions of the same... It's awesome! The track as a whole rises above the ridiculous number of J Dilla influenced beats by actually bothering to be a song, and a good one at that.

The American singer/producer duo J*Davey are apparently well-hyped in blog land. They released a couple of EPs last year and have at least 3 songs floating around for free.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

Posted at 1:10 PM  1 Comments Links to this post

Weekly mp3 #39: So Inagawa - Batai (Tom Ellis Remix)

trimsound offer up various free releases, including So Inagawa's EP 'Bake'.

Bouncy tech-house track with dirty, descending bass, funny scratches and tiny snips of vocals.

Japanese producer So Inagawa has written lots of tech stuff. I'm not particularly into his stuff, so I guess it's the remix treatment from Welshman Tom Ellis that makes the difference here. Tom's one of the founders of the trimsound label. I dunno why I mention their nationalities, as if it leaves any mark on the character of their music! Ah well...

Labels: music, weekly mp3

Posted at 1:10 PM  0 Comments Links to this post

Weekly mp3 #38: Blaktroniks - Look Back

The label that released this, Tokyo Dawn Records, shut up shop a few years back, although they are officially back now. Anyway, luckily the P2P EP is still available via a massive repository of free stuff, Scene.org. I still like the EP a lot, which is a good sign given I downloaded it 5 years ago (OK, probably 4 is closer, but, hey, it's 2009 now!).

On this track a heavy, downtempo hip-hop beat jiggles about, with some electric piano stabs and distant synth squelches rubbing up against a meaty synth bassline. Ravey synth strings slurp in and out when it switches up a notch, adding a bit of friction. While it sounds like a hip-hop instrumental and it'd be easy enough to imagine vocals in the mix without things getting cluttered, the elements here are definitely enough to keep me entertained.

I haven't quite got to grips on whether Blaktroniks is a one-man operation now or what... I know their roots are Detroit, but they're now based in Oakland. I used to chat with one guy over email back around the time this EP was released, because he was on the idm-making mailing list. Was a funny place for both of us, really, but he was emphatic that although he rapped and stuff he was keen to have Blaktoniks viewed outside the context of just hip-hop...

Labels: music, weekly mp3

Posted at 1:10 PM  0 Comments Links to this post