"An arbitrary succession of more or less irritating sounds"

Wednesday 30 April 2008

Adem - 'Hotel Lounge (Be The Death Of Me)'



Domino release: "On May day, Monday 5 May 2008, Adem is to release his third album on Domino. Called simply 'Takes', the album is a stunning and evocative collection of Adem's interpretations of tracks that were released in the decade from 1991 - 2001, music that inspired and informed Adem while he was growing up. With 12 tracks ranging from covers of Bjork, Smashing Pumpkins and Yo Le Tengo through to Tortoise and Aphex Twin, 'Takes'; Takes'; recorded at The Pool and Exchange studios, sees Adem step up from home-based to studio recording and sees him producing and playing every instrument himself."

Monday 28 April 2008

Inter-generational conversation


On paper, the Kieran Hebden/Steve Reid collaborations could have been commissioned for a pair of Four Tet fiends & jazz-loving chin-strokers like LMYE. In practice, the ensemble stuff often plays it safe (even when getting pretty free) by leaving Kieran to squiggle electronically in the background. But the duos are particularly rich, subtle, fascinating conversations between two generations of musician & any number of genres.

To these ears, the pair's highlight so far is the timeless yet fantastically modern Our Time from Tongues. Their We Dream from The Exchange Sessions Vol. 2 is less obviously beautiful, but still spurts & pounds to massive effect (NB: version here is a giveaway edit...).

One peak from the ensemble is the intense Which One? from Spirit Walk; the storming Lions of Juda, especially, & Lugano are deep workouts too.

Jiggy Jiggy
from the more recent Daxaar starts fairly lame, but gets rather more rewarding as it builds (NB: giveaway version...); the title track is fiercer, by the way.



A couple of other collisions of jazz heavy-ish weights with more contemporary-ish sounds: Pharoah Sanders with the underrated 23 Skidoo - Hendang from 23 Skidoo - & Courtney Pine with Attica Blues - Trying Times from Another Story (NB: there's also a bone-crunching version on a Talkin' Loud giveaway, Year on Year).

Official Hebden/Reid video:





Thursday 24 April 2008

Avant-poptronica buffet



Gorge yourself at a Ghostly International avant-poptronica buffet, Ghostly Swim: a free 19-track download featuring LMYE-approved Cepia available here - track by track (256kbps) or all in one zipped go. Other featured artists include Matthew Dear & Milosh. Bon appetit!

Some stand-out tracks:

> Cepia: Ithaca [zShare]
> Dark Party: Active [zShare]
> Matthew Dear: R&S [zShare]
> Michna: Triple Chrome Dipped [zShare]
> Milosh: Then It Happened [zShare]
> Tycho: Cascade [zShare] (NB: the LMYE remix will be dispensing with that ill-advised acoustic guitar half-way through :-)
> The Reflecting Skin: Traffickers [zShare]



Ghostly promo vid:

Friday 18 April 2008

Mice Elf Agin


Awesome photo by Warren P. Harris

Funk archaeology: three contrasting versions
that take a Sly Stone classic ever further, mining deep strata of bitterness & isolation.

The original was never as guileless as it sounds at first. But Sly's spacier, slower, angrier retake & Magazine's ironic, haughty appropriation explore its genius more fully.

>
Sly & The Family Stone: Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) (from Greatest Hits)


>
Sly & The Family Stone: Thank You For Talkin' To Me Africa (from There's a Riot Goin' On)



>
Magazine: Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) (from The Correct Use of Soap)



Original performance video here.

Friday 11 April 2008

Ornamental scratch



Here's the best track from a new EP (Incidents) by the self-releasing Ornament: the lovely, scratchy, multi-layered tinkling to & fro of So This Is What It Is (zShare).

Note that all of Ornament's releases, which he terms 'folktronica' "for want of a better term", are freely downloadable from his MySpace.

He also gives interesting reviews of other MySpace-releasing unsigned artists here (including links to highlighted tracks).

NB: image above is from the earlier EP 1.
Go to Beatport.comGet These TracksAdd This Player