Nonwrestler Blog

More CD Reviews

Man, it was February last year when I last linked to CDs I've picked up, so here's almost a year and half's worth of reviews.

Don't know why I'm being medium-centric - could be posting rave ups of my favourite MP3 purchases or 12"s (OH SHIT THAT KING MIDAS SOUND 12 LAST YEAR WAS GREEEEAAAT) but I guess it just gets too much.

Anyway, linkies through to my last.fm journal:


Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours (Modular, 2008)


Kelley Polar – I Need You To Hold On While The Sky Is Falling (Environ, 2008)


The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me (City Slang, 2008)


Radian - Juxtaposition (Thrill Jockey, 2006)


Deep Sea Shipping (Lagunamuch community, 2006)


Trapist - Highway My Friend (Hat Hut Records, 2002)


Unit 21 - November (Peace Technologies, 2007)


Eru Dangerspiel - Great News For The Modern Man (Independent, 2008)


Fennesz - Black Sea (Touch, 2008)


ii - Landlakes (Feral Media, 2008)


Tycoon To$h - Major Force (Bridge, 2007)


Francis Plagne (Synaesthesia, 2008)


Amplifier Machine - Her Mouth is an Outlaw (Uncanny Valley Records, 2007)


Sandro Perri - Plays Polmo Polpo (Alien8 Recordings, 2006)


Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care (Domino Recording Co., 2009)


Lawrence English - A Colour For Autumn (12K, 2009)

Labels: music

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Weekly mp3 #58: Miike Snow - Animal

This is another one from Spinner, and has been getting an absolutely thrashing on a bunch of the usual places I link to, due to there being a seemingly never ending stream of free remixes... If you're busy being an RSS-fiend on any blogs or whatever you probably know all about this.

Jabby guitar snippets bang out offbeats in a somehow not-at-all reggae fashion. Regular kick drums drop in, suggesting something dancey, and then a somewhat shouty, but kinda pop guy starts singing loud in the mix. Lots of vocal harmonies. Funny synths that remind me of The Cars. Twinkly xylophone melodies. Acoustic snare drum fills suggest a marching band. Well, a bit. The chorus hook is ridiculously catchy, and I've spent the last few months rewinding this one to hear it multiple times running, which is not something I often do.

"I change shapes just to hide in this place / But I'm still / I'm still / An animal"

Yeah.

Miike Snow are a trio from the States and so far as I know this is their first single. Being savvy they've made it free. No doubt they named themselves after the movie director who did Audition, etc. Kind of smacks of thinking they're pretty cool to me, but whatever, doesn't distract from the song.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

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Weekly mp3 #57: Tosca - Springer

Been a while since I linked to something on RCRDLBL.

Mellow opening electric piano chords. Downtempo metronome kick drum doofs along, brushed snares all jazzy-jazzying on top. A bass guitar lays out a bassline. Tinky palm mute guitar action and some gentle harmonics. More layers of clean guitar come along from time to time, sorta semi-Albatross, filling spaces when there isn't a tranquil Hill Street Blues Theme synth echoing about. Things build up a bit with some more elements, but mainly it's about cruising in the one mode.

This is not what Tosca used to be like - they were part of that Viennese downbeat thing with bods like Kruder & Dormeister (indeed the latter is in Tosca) - but here it sounds like they've jumped right on the (slightly uneasy) easy listening, slow-mo beardy disco sound. Mudd, Lexx, Lindstrøm, Prins Thomas, and labelmates Quiet Village (sometimes). As with all of these there's something that suggests Pink Floyd instrumentals more than it suggests dancefloor action.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

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Weekly mp3 #56: Duckett - Stock Up On Antibiotics

A bit of softish ambientish technoish stuff from Mind Net the free sublabel of UK techno label Mind Tours.

A soft repeating riff almost sounds like guitar .. or Boards of Canada. I dunno what's going on. Scratchy textures cruise about and all of a sudden a surprisingly fast kick drum pattern cranks up the forward momentum. Little shakers and percussive bits come sneaking in and out. Somehow it adds up to almost a samba feel on a track that's otherwise super washed out and spacious. Half-way through the track actually changes (oh shit!) and it's pretty exciting. Gosh.

No idea who Duckett is, although his discogs entry suggests he's released a few tracks on other UK-based tech-ish labels. The rest of the free EP this tracks from is a bit more generic and very much of its time (2005).

Labels: music, weekly mp3

Posted at 6:00 PM  1 Comments Links to this post

Getting in before the 90s revival kicks in

These guys will definitely be at the forefront.



What.

Labels: music, youtube

Posted at 9:50 PM  3 Comments Links to this post

Weekly mp3 #55: Hudson Mohawke - Polkadot Blues

Another bit of wheat separated from the chaff on XLR8R's website.

Glitchy, helium party beats. Pitched-up synth stabs. Cheery melodies played on vocal samples like they did in the 80s, or would have had "they" been really drunk and/or 4-year olds. Or both. The track manages to keep from keeling over thanks to the instant-summer chords and bassline.

This seemed to fit with last week's contribution - a fairly similar mix of hip-hop and otherwise influences and that vein of syncopation that suggests the creators like feeling a bit sea-sick. Also, Hudson Mohawke is another young producer I kind of resisted checking out properly because there was so much hype surrounding him. He's from Scotland. Saw him play at a great party in Auckland last year (thanks Dave ) and he pulled out a bunch of 80s soul amid the fairly noisy, chaotic electronic sounds. Makes a lot of sense of the mood of the above mp3 I reckon - formally quite nuts, but mood-wise pretty cheerful and approachable.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

Posted at 6:00 PM  0 Comments Links to this post