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,

Buzzard - Margot & The Nuclear So and So's (2010)

Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s are a 7 piece indie rock/chamber folk outfit from Indianapolis. Buzzard is their third effort after 2008’s simultaneous double releases Animal and Not Animal on Epic Records, and 2006’s The Dust of Retreat. Buzzard represents a significant step forward for the band, a fuller, thicker yet also grungier and more appealing sound present here when compared to previous records. 

Over nearly an hour, the album is by turns wrenching, bluesy and cinematic, and shows off a certain amount of southern twang. There are moments where they sound like a more mature 78 Saab or less raucous Girls outfit. At times lo-fi and drenched in reverb, it makes me think of being a lazy drifting surfer with big dreams and but little motivation to do anything but wait around for the next swell.

There’s a certain rejection of consumerism and materialism present at times in the themes of the record: “If I could roll up my money and smoke it, I would”, as well as the ever-present standbys of love, loss and youthful apathy and anger. By and large, the vocals of Richard Edwards fit in quite well, and you can tell he is a good singer, but I do wonder what could have been if he’d stretched himself a bit more.

This is uplifting stuff, certainly, but it does lack that extra bit of oomph or zest that would make it a truly important album of this year. Foot-tapping it is, however, and I’m excited to see where next for the So and So’s.

Buzzard (2010)    [fileserve]