featured releases
CD & 3LP (Tectonic)
Dutch producer Dave Huismans blew everyone away with his tech-step sketches on 2008’s Aerial. Fitting that he upped the ante with Unbalance, another vast exploration that deftly diplays the mutual benefits that surface when techno’s arpeggiation & clipped propulsion is fused with dubstep’s spatial inclinations & sub-bass weight. Delayed chords & sine waves are pinned down by thumping kick patterns & syncopated riddims for a truly fresh take on the ever-permutating strands of bass music that 2562 plays with. Wander over to his MySpace & clock “Flashback”… reeeally good.
We’re happy to report that this lovely gentleman will be playing town, February 18 at Lucky Bar. Here’s more info…
2562 on MySpace
8 January 2010 by Jeremy Robinson
| Electronic
Here’s our annual breakdown of what turned our cranks in 2009. An interesting year, with arguably the biggest album of the year (Merriweather Post Pavilion) released within the the first 30 days of the year’s start! Many were swooned by the Dirty Projectors’ r&b alt-pop; few could deny Grizzly Bear’s charms; and who didn’t sing along to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Heads Will Roll”. Thanks for all the fun 2009…
Listen here...
7 December 2009 by Jeremy Robinson
| Electronic, Hip-Hop, Pop / Rock, Reissued / Remastered
| [8]
CD & 2LP (ATP)
Fuck Buttons pleasantly surprised everyone with their debut Street Horrrsing; obviously there was the suspicion around Pitchfork’s “pat-on-the-bum to fame”, but hey why not… let’s get more people into noisy-electronic music! The British duo return with Tarot Sport, a ramped up techno-ish take on the ultraviolet spectrums of noise that garnered all that praise for Street Horrrsing. “Surf Solar” kicks things of like a rave for witches; cackling melodic static over throbbing bass & kick drums. Equal parts shoegaze/techno/drone, Fuck Buttons are a nice respite from the throes of Animal Collective imitators & indie-popsters that dominate everyone’s attention spans.
7 December 2009 by Jeremy Robinson
| Electronic
CD (Thrill Jockey)
John McEntire & co. have drifted into a weird realm of “near-forgotten legend” status, but few bands considered “indie” have the virtuosity & instrumental chops that these dudes wag around. In 2009, for anyone with the time & attention span to invest in something a little deeper (2 things waning in most modern music fans), few albums offered as rich a sound world as Beacons Of Ancestorship. From glitchy permutations on modern beatsmiths like Flying Lotus (“Monument Six One Thousand”) to the classic cinematic Morricone-esque jams that we’ve some to love (“The Fall Of Seven Diamonds Plus One”), Tortoise so obviously know what the fuck they are doing. Time signatures, modulating melodicism, emotional gravity, phenomenal drum work & some fierce riffage all congeal here to take a stand for serious musicianship as a vital, relevant & under-appreciated element of indie-music culture in 2009.
Absolute masters.
7 December 2009 by Jeremy Robinson
| Avant-Garde, Electronic, Pop / Rock
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Listen here...
30 October 2009 by Jeremy Robinson
| Electronic, Hip-Hop
(Hyperdub) 2CD & 5X12”
No label has pushed the envelope as much as Hyperdub over the last 12 months. Kode9’s ear for the “next level” – be it dubstep, purple, wonky or funky – is seeming unparalleled at this point. 5 Years Of Hyperdub is a 2-disc affair that celebrates the past, present & future of the label & in fine form. Disc 1 is wrought with new exclusive heavy hitters; Flying Lotus drops “Disco Balls”, his most club friendly affair yet; Burial sneaks in with “Fostercare”, another great addition to his canon of sleek, sensually melancholic sound; but the trophy goes to the closing “Stash” from Joker & Ginz, the next definitive statement in the mandate of the Purple City sound. Disc 2 features the “hits”; Burial’s “South London Boroughs”, Kode9’s “Ghost Town”, Joker’s “Digidesign” & Rustie’s sick remix of Zomby’s “Spliff Dub” are all here. Wow, electronic music is fun AND interesting in 2009.
30 October 2009 by Chris Long
| Electronic, Hip-Hop
(Big Dada) CD, 2LP coming soon
Well, you’re getting nothing but bias here; possibly the most overlooked hip-hop group of the 00’s? Anti-Pop Consortium are nothing if not challenging. Their main two releases, Tragic Epilogue & Arrhythmia, are lynch-pins in the world of avant/experimental hip-hop & Fluorescent Black adheres to that spirit. Favouring self-styled bleep-soaked synthetic beatscapes over sample-based loops & breaks, Priest, Beans, M. Sayyid & Earl Blaize are rare envelope pushers in a genre so filled with lazy bluebox recycling bins. Fluorescent Black is a welcome return (the group split in 2006) chock full of flaming battle rhymes, philosophical poems, bizarre structures & the ever-present vocal-trifecta dynamic that is the strongest element of this amazing group. Peep “C Thru U” – there’s no “beat” per se, they just kill it over loping synths & stabs. Or check “Superunfrontable”; alien doom-hop, made for space battles, BAM! Amazingly, APC are playing Victoria, Nov. 17 @ Lucky Bar! Don’t sleep; an important group in the lineage of brave hip-hoppers that aren’t afraid to shrug the weight of tired tradition for new fresh approaches… like these guys.
3 October 2009 by Chris Long
| Electronic, Hip-Hop
CD
Here is where Aaron Bergunder side-steps his band (Colourbook) for the dance floor. Reigning under the moniker Dreamboat, his synth pop anthems grab from the Pet Shop Boys uber-pop to the Junior Boys ethereal mood. Carried by the hedonistic flurry of the sex-surged night life of some metropolis floating in a distant bubble in the sky, this music is as sleek as glass – and hopefully the pre-cursor to an equally strong full length.
8 September 2009 by Tara Campbell
| Electronic, Local, Pop / Rock
(Universal) CD & LP
Welcome to the second coming of Pat Benatar. Elly Jackson already has like, what, THREE bonafied hits (“Quicksand”, “Bullitproof” & “In For The Kill”) & she’s only just showed up! So far, the club crowd crossover has been huge (due in part to Skream’s phenomenal dubstep remix of “In For The Kill”). This is some phenomenally thought out pop with production that measures up to today’s modern club intensity while sweetly paying dues to the classic 80s tunes that inspired the record. And she’s got a killer voice to boot. POP.
30 July 2009 by Chris Long
| Electronic, Pop / Rock
(DFA) CD
Better late than never with this one… LCD Soundsystem-pals The Juan Maclean return from their heavily underrated debut with a sharp left turn down the alley occupied by Human League. The Future Will Come is far more comfortable in its pop skin than Less Than Human, as evident with current single “One Day” – it’s the dancey love ballad for those who grew up on Depeche Mode, ABC & Human League. The dancefloor will still burn from the rest of this – “The Simple Life” is Italo-disco-pop glory, while “Happy House” is a 12 minute ode to house music, complete with piano riffs & great diva vocals from Nancy Whang. Believe me when I say this, it’s worth listening to the whole 12 minutes.
3 June 2009 by Chris Long
| Electronic, Pop / Rock
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