ASTRO - LE DISC DE ASTROU [2010]

This is something I dug up on my regular record hunting expeditions: It's another one of those psych-surf-rock albums given a modern twist with healthy lashings of synthetic goodness and electronic weirdness. Astro are from Santiago, Chile, yet I don't hear too many Latin American influences in their music besides the language they sing in. It's always interesting to hear particularly western or anglophone pop music put through the filter of a different ethnicity - it usually results something utterly compelling, like Serge Gainsbourg's amazing early jazz experimentations.

I particularly enjoy Track Six on this album, entitled Rai Filter, for its house-influenced piano riff and fat drums - it references what can be a quite cliched dance music trope but pulls it off quite well. Another standout is the She's A Tease remix of Maestro Distorsion, the third last track on the album; the vocals twisted and reverbed, and a cheeky sample of Everybody Dance Now never fully revealed, just to live up to the 'She's A Tease' moniker.

I'm frequently reminded of The Mars Volta or the most recent MGMT output, not so much in song structure as the overall expansive sound of the album; there are times where the songs feel as though they were recorded in a massive ice cave or cold, expansive cathedral. the Volta are known widely for their lengthy and overbearing tangential experiments, but here Astro keep things concise, creating strange sonic landscapes within the structure of the 3 minute pop song - indeed, no song on the album is more than 4 minutes. Electronic pops and crackles and weird half-formed sounds punctuate, adding flourish and decadence to each tune.

By turns euphoric, despairing, camp and strange, the album is over fast, barely longer than half an hour. So all up, you're talking about 1/1238234th of your life - probably one of the better-spent half hours, really. Check it out, I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Astro - Le Disc De Astrou (2010) - [.zip /// HF]

later,

HOLY GHOST! - DO IT AGAIN [2011]

Just a reeeal quickie from me - Holy Ghost are a duo that I absolutely adore, and they've released a new single to promote their new album (as yet unnamed) which will be released real early April on DFA according to the grapevine.
This is a big one.

Holy Ghost - Do It Again (2011) [.zip /// HF]

later,

ELECTRONICA MEGAPOST!: STAR SLINGER + JAMES PANTS + INCH-TIME REMIXES + HUDSON MOHAWKE + ARCHITEQ

Right, so this post is sort of a means of getting all the weird electronic shit I've been listening to out of my system. I can't do 5 or 6 separate posts for all these different amazing artists (because I'm a lazy arse), so I'm going to dump them all in one post like mongooses into a cobra-pit and you guys can rip them off each other before they rip each others throats and shit.

First up, seems like the kind of music Star Slinger (UK producer Darren Williams' instrumental hip-hop project, begun in April 2010) produces has really had a shot in the arm in recent times. Instrumental hip-hop and the beat underground has gone overground with albums from Gonjasufi and Flying Lotus, amongst a myriad of other re-mixers and producers who've popped up here and there.

Star Slinger's particular contribution (prolific, considering how recently he's popped onto the scene in less than a year), is whimsical, full of pop melodies and wistful lyric samples. The production is lush and warm, drawing on influences from the obvious like hip-hop to disco, Balearic and house, and classic soul and funk joints. He samples Pass The Dutchie, tongue firmly in cheek. The beats are inventive and tight, the songs shorter than I'd like, but then I've always been a fan of 10 minute techno epics and such. You're going to want to listen on a good set of speakers or some mad headphones because it's here that the true brilliance of Williams' composition comes out. Mornin' shimmers and hums with layers of warm and bright synths and samples. Bumpkin is a euphoric festival banger. For some reason I'm constantly reminded of the album Subiza by Delorean. This is summer music, deckchair music.

Without further ado then, here's quite a bit of Star Slinger's recent output.

Star Slinger - Volume One LP (2010) [.zip /// MF]

Star Slinger - May I Walk With You? [.mp3 /// MF]

Star Slinger - Slow N' Wet [.mp3 /// MF]

Star Slinger - Rogue Cho Pa EP (2011) [.zip /// MF]

Star Slinger - Remixes (2010) [.zip /// MF]

Moving right along...

Ever since getting signed to the Stones Throw record label after introducing himself to label head Peanut Butter Wolf whilst at a DJ gig in full prom attire with his date, James Pants' star has been rising. His is an alphabet-soup of beats; 80's, early rap, funk, soul, all stitched together in the most evil and sinister and amazing of ways. It's instrumental hip hop one minute, leaning way towards Ariel Pink the next, all wobble and bass after that.  

Seven Seals is a beautiful and densely packed album of strange percussion, soft and yet sometimes harsh synth elements and fuzzed out stoner melodies. I'm at a loss as to how to describe the album without going into a blow by blow description of every minute of every track, because it changes so rapidly and radically. Dark and brooding one second, light and airy the next; the album is full of contradictions. Somehow pop, somehow absurd. New wave and old soul sit comfortably side by side with hip-hop. James describes the sound as that of ''really cheap equipment, listening to a lot of records, and goofing off'' - clearly, he doesn't take himself too seriously. He exists somewhere in the nether regions of this whole newweird-America movement of music as someone who would pair thundering orchestral floor toms and a sinister, Nick-Cave-esque drawl of a voice with a rubbery, synthetic bass, and have it come off.

This is one weird dude - suss his blog here and check out the stuff of his I've been tripping to lately. And yeah, I know this shit is old. So's your mum.

James Pants - Seven Seals (2009) [.zip /// MF]

James Pants - Welcome (2008) [.zip /// MF]

James Pants - Kash (Trizzy & Xxxchange Remix) [.mp3 /// MF]

Architeq - Sleeping Bear Lament (James Pants Remix) [.mp3 /// MF]

Moving away from instrumental hip hop and unclassifiable genre-bending stuff for a second...

Inch-Time is a straight up electronica producer much more in the tradition of Caribou or Four Tet than in the vein of the previous two producers featured here. Soft kicks and beautiful, warm feathery synths permeate the sound, which ambles along, somnolent and circular. Looping elements are strongly featured here and he has a keen ear for cold, vacant melodies, mostly played on electric keyboards of various tone and timbre and informed by jazz, world and the eclectic modern electronic sound. This is cold-wave at it's most accessible but also its most modern sound in years.

I thought for Inch-Time I'd do something interesting, I'll be posting the original Floating World album, released November last year, side by side with the new Floating World Remixes album, featuring some really cool re-works which really push the boundaries of what can be done sonically with this shit. Remixes from Tunng, Benge and Lord Jim, amongst others. It's always fun to listen to two albums side by side and check out the ways different producers approached the tracks; so enjoy.

Inch-Time - The Floating World (2010) [.rar /// MF]
password is nodata.tv

Inch-Time - The Floating World Remixes (2011) [.zip /// MF] 

I don't know much about Hudson Mohawke save that he has an awesome name and produces awesome music, of the extremely weird variety. enjoy.

Hudson Mohawke - Butter (2009) [.rar /// MF]

Hudson Mohawke - Hudson's Heeters (mixtape, 2006) [.rar /// MF]

Hudson Mohawke - Polyfolk Dance EP (2009) [.zip /// MF]

Last one now; if you haven't already got more than enough to keep you occupied/amazed for the next few weeks then you're an insatiable music addict and I can't help you. Architeq is a British producer of dub heavy, big-beat instrumental hip-hop psychedelia, and that's as succinctly and shortly as I can put it. If you like your dub, then consider this music dub's weird uncle. That shows up at Christmas drunk and wearing odd socks. On his hands.

Architeq - Into The Cosmos EP (2010) [.rar /// MF]

Architeq - Birds Of Prey EP (2010) [.rar /// MF]

Architeq - Birds Of Prey Remix EP (2010) [.rar /// MF]


That just about wraps it up for my electronica megapost; it's a broad and extremely fulfilling genre to explore - I'll be back for more in a bit but for now I'm going to rest my ears and my fingers on some more easy listening.

later,

CUT COPY - ZONOSCOPE [2011]

big last 10 days for Fingers Crossed; Big Troubles' new album, leaked debut from Discodeine more than a month before it was due and now, an extra special treat for you. no more bullshit from me, this album's been hyped more than healthy (deservedly, i think), i've already posted a remix to whet your appetite. all i'll say is I find it less poppy than In Ghost Colours and Cut Copy have certainly matured in the intervening years. Dig it.

Cut Copy - Zonoscope (2011)  [.zip /// MF]

edit: link taken down, lucky if ya got it, sorry if ya didn't

later,

DISCODEINE - DISCODEINE [2011]

]

It was supposed to be released on the 25th of February but yet again an album I've been looking forward to for months has leaked more than a month early. This is good news for you. And I. Discodeine's debut effort, after teasingly releasing a few singles and EP's over the last year or so, is good. Very good. It's disco flavoured as you might expect, with tribal elements and not a little bit of eccentricity. Sometimes scaling the depths to very deep and dark levels, Pilooski and Pentile have shown yet again that they're not your average bears.

Expect more dance flavoured stuff in the next few days as I work through a backlog of stuff from instrumental hip-hop to straight-up new-rave.

Discodeine - Discodeine (2011) [.zip /// MF]

Aaaand here's a link to the other Discodeine post I did a few weeks back with the Singular EP (ft. Matias Aguayo).

later,

BIG TROUBLES - WORRY [2011]

awesome new album from Big Troubles, a band featured a few months ago right here with a track called Freudian Slips. here's the new album in full, a blissful, fuzzed out pop record from the New Jersey boys. one of the best lo-fi albums of the year bar none.

Big Troubles - Worry (2010) [.rar /// MF]

later,

DISCODEINE

pilooski and pentile, and jarvis fucking cocker so you know it's good. full album drops feb 25th, expect it here.

Discodeine - Synchronise (ft. Jarvis Cocker) [.mp3 /// MF]

Discodeine - Singular EP (ft. Matias Aguayo) [.rar /// HF]


[edit: 50th Post!!]


later,

HOLY OTHER - WE OVER/YR LOVE 7'' EP [2010]

This is the latest EP from Londoner via Berlin ambient artist Holy Other, hopefully it blows your mind as much as it did mine. it's dark and lush ambient dance music, deep bass and thudding kicks. the vocal samples are twisted and affected to almost obscurity. epitomizing everything i love about electronic music.

[edit: people have been asking for the password to the 7'', I've forgotten it. So I've re-uploaded a password-free .zip version. Enjoy!]

Holy Other - We Over/Yr Love 7'' [.zip /// MF]

an older track, Blissters is darker and colder than the aforementioned EP but still has beautiful buzzing synths and crisp reverb delays; this is by no means a sparse sound.

Holy Other - Blissters [mp3 //// MF]

later,