Noises

Heres three incredible things that I never even contemplated the existence of until very recently. Christ knows why these lot aren't more prolific, although it's hard to see them getting radio play any time in the next decade.

Bugskull












There's something about Bugskull's album Communication that fills the space between your ears with a warm fuzzy glow. The first half is odd, nostalgic and wonderfully playful, with elements of Mr Scruff,  Dilla and Lou Reed at play amongst field recordings from a sunny meadow on another planet. Then you get to the fifth track, Exposed wires, and it all gets a bit more unsettling, perhaps even better for it. I don't want to spoil the surprise but halfway through the track something happens that made me choke on my tea at work, narrowly avoiding showering the screen in the process. It's hilarious, if a little disconcerting, as are the barely audible growls and muffled rasping breaths that seep through in the following tracks. At it's heart, this could probably be described as a collision of hiphop and psychedelic drone but with so much more going on than either of these tags would suggest. It's rich, varied and colourful throughout, calming yet intricate with a discordant edge that sets it wholly apart from everything else around. I can honestly say that listening to this album has made me happier than anything else in recent memory.

Downliners Sekt












I heard one of Downliners Sekt's tracks on Mary Anne Hobbs' show the other week; having never heard of them before and missing her introduction to the track I was left bemused. It sounded like an unlikely collaboration between Burial and Ras G complete with 2 step shuffle, ghostly voices, layered static hiss and distorted found sounds. It wasn't until I listened back through the show that I discovered who the track was by and after a short frantic google search (that led me first to an obscure 60's Blues band) I arrived at this amazing musical collective's site. Their most recent EP, Hello Lonely, hold the nation is phenomenal, there are so many comparisons but still nothing quite like it and what's more all their music is free in digital format, at 320kbps and everything. Even more surprising is their relatively extensive history as a band, bridging the gap between post rock and dark electronics (see their 2008 album The Saltire Wave), something for which they seem to have garnered a range of plaudits from in the obscure circles of experimental rock journalism. Most remarkable of all their debut album Statement of Purpose, recorded between 2001 and 2005 is superbly put together and still incredibly fresh. In an unlikely testament to their depth and versatility, contemporary dubstep artists have recently begun to utilise these tracks in their mixes despite their age and original purpose as an intermeshing of breakbeats and post rock. It goes without saying that this music deserves your support so head over to their site and show them some love. Did I mention it's free?

John Cohen












Although you'd be forgiven for overlooking the open license releases on Net-Lab and Open Music it still stands that both sites deserve to be extensively explored. Free net labels have an immense amount to offer and due to their nature a whole load of otherwise untenable music gets an outlet when established labels wouldn't touch it for fear of losing money. Such is the case with John Cohen, whose collaborative project Dead Fader saw it's debut LP release Corrupt my Examiner on Cloaks' 3by3 label earlier this month. John's music is incredibly dark and agitated yet underpinned with richness and diversity belied by it's prickly exterior. I'm not going to lie, some of it certainly isn't for the faint hearted, you might even have to turn the volume down a couple of notches as  it weaves it's way from IDM to Noise and Industrial Metal (with occasional flourishes of Dubstep and Electronica thrown in for good measure). However there are moments in these stark compositions that leave you breathless and slack jawed in wonder. In particular the tracks [][][][] and -||- x  are ridiculous and unspeakably dramatic, both instantly finding a place in my heart that I never even knew existed. His self titled release and the follow up Noise Pollution are both free, as are all the other releases on Net-Lab and Open Music so there's no excuse not to go exploring.

Repeat

Don't know about you, but I've long held the belief that if you immediately play a song again once you've listened to it all the way through (like that infuriating halfwit Zane Lowe) then you're probably going to hell. Either that or something terrible will befall someone else who just so happens to be listening to that song at the same time. Or a kitten will die. Something bad anyway. I'm not talking about rewinds or putting an album on repeat, both of which are reasonable to some extent, but without a damn good reason putting a song on repeat is morally reprehensible.

Imagine my horror then, when this morning I stumbled across two recent productions that almost forced me to do exactly that. Luckily I happened upon them at the same time otherwise I'd already have killed a kitten/fellow listener twice over in one morning. The first of these magnificent hypocrisy traps is the Floating Points remix of Sing from Fourtet's recent album There is love in You. By now you should have listened to the original and the rest of Four Tet's lovely album so I'll spare you further hype, however this remix, weighing in at a hefty 14 minutes, is just astonishing. The build up alone could hold it's own weight as an abstract reinterpretation of the original, but as the tune subtly unfolds there is so much going on that it would be nigh on impossible to take it all in on the first listen. If Floating Points hadn't already won over the hearts and minds of the wider part of the underground music community, this track alone should cement his reputation.

The other culprit could almost escape the purported repetition dilemma seeing as it consists of two separate pieces that make up one breathtaking release, however the central theme continues from one to the other so I imagine that damnation would ensue regardless of this loophole in the theory. Demdike Stare's latest offering The Forest of Evil is utterly phenomenal, I can honestly say that I have never encountered a more unsettling yet compelling piece of music, especially in light of the subversive way they have gone about achieving this effect. The eponymous forest is split into two aspects Dusk and Dawn, painting such a brooding and suspenseful picture that you find yourself drawn inexorably into this shadowy netherworld, simultaneous teetering at your nerves end yet utterly enraptured by the hauntological sounds. It goes without saying that unless you possess a perfectly balanced and suitably robust speaker system, this one is very much intended for the headphones massive.

Just in case you were after something a little less epic or all consuming to occupy your ears, here's a quick roundup of just about everything else that's tickling my fancy right about now...

Various/Jahtari: Jahtari Dubbers Vol 2: Wicked choons!! You know the bill, dead sunshiney atari-island sounds. The tunes by Disrupt and Black Chow are fucking awesome. Also visit Jahtari's website for no end of quality, free Digidub releases, including Net 7"s and Tapes complete with authentic viynl/tapes hiss and crackle. Bo!

Jneiro Jarel: Android Love Mayhem: It's fucking amazing. New cosmic moves for Dr Who Dat's alter ego. No more needs be said. Gettit

Pariah: Detroit Falls: Outer Hebrides!! It's bloody awesome mate, like Bullion and Dilla trying to claw their way out of a printing press running in reverse. On the flip there's a supremely crafted slice of 4/4 dancefloor business that easily holds it's own alongside the leaders in the scene.

Gold Panda: Quitters Raga: Sublimely insane, I'm running out of superlatives here. This however is dead, dead, dead good. (Also worthwhile is You EP)

Pursuit Grooves: Foxtrot Mannerisms: Elegantly crafted nu-soul, rnb, hiphop flavours all packaged up real nice with some tasty beats, a breath of fresh air for Dubstep's mainstay label Tectonic.

Dam Mantle: Grey EP: Well interesting, sounds like Paul White fighting Rustie in an orchestra pit.

TAKE: Only Moutain: Predictably very tasty and certainly a grower, would be a strong contender for the best thing coming out of the LA/SF scene right now(as would the Free the Robots album and the new Tokimonsta EP) if the impending Flying Lotus album wasn't casting such a monolithic shadow over the West Coast. Impressive nevertheless.

Contrast

Hello, couple of very different things for your consideration this week, but there's such a sharp contrast between them that it stands to reason that both should receive fair representation at the same time. Suffice to say one of them makes everything currently termed epic or lush seem drab and shallow in comparison, the other makes everything dark, heavy and brooding seem like the tinkerings of a naive, angst ridden teen. Either way until I tire of listening to them whole swathes of music have been irreparably tainted by their looming brilliance.

Not sure quite how to begin describing this, nor do I think it can really be done justice in writing, nevertheless this needs saying. If you like me you've become a little jaded in by the constantly expanding and diversifying world of electronic music in recent times, or even if you just have a love of vast, magnificent, glorious music, listen to Johann Johannsson and be fulfilled. There's no point really analogising it or trying to draw contemporary comparisons it's just beautiful in every sense. There are elements of Post Rock and Ambient Electronica at play here, but for the most part it can only be described as cinematic Modern Classical; unutterably beautiful and massively expansive in it's composition. Indeed anyone familiar with his discography will be aware that his work has predominantly accompanied experimental films or theatrical pieces and perhaps it is for this reason that they have such an enchanting sense of narrative flow. His most recent offering and in the endless pause there came the sound of bees is the award winning soundtrack to a BAFTA nominated short film called Varmints and IBM 1401: A Users Manual is the musical accompaniment to a stage production of the same name, based around some instructional maintenance tapes for his fathers early prototype IBM computer. I really can't give this a higher recommendation, go get it and be happy. Otherwise give it to your nan, she'd probably appreciate it.

This said, if you'd much rather listen to some claustrophobic, distorted dirge filth complete with clashing metallic stabs and bowel shredding bass you should probably go check out Cloaks. If you suffer from a weak disposition or you've been feeling a little under the weather give it a miss, I have no doubt that it'll make you ill from both ends at the same time. Despite it's sizable fan base the tearout dubstep sub genre is a glutted market; new artists keep popping up every five minutes, each with a marginally different approach to splintering their gutter splattered basslines and serrating their ear bleeding synths. However Cloaks appear to have singlehandedly knocked a whole scene into a cocked hat without even breaking sweat. With nods to original benchmarkers Vex'd and Distance, they've created a terrifying sound that lurches into a very murky grey area between Dubstep, Techno, Black Metal and Experimental Noise, remorseless in it's execution and utterly unrestrained by the norms of the scene. If this sounds even remotely like your idea of a good time track down Against Grain and Hi-Tek EP, they will satisfy your darkest audiological cravings and irreparably damage your relationship with the neighbours. Well good.

Broken Ted News

I've been a little removed from the musical world recently, due in part to various upheavals in life but also to excessive drinking and tearful goodbyes. Needless to say the first re-immersion in sound drew a whole plethora of new and exciting prospects, largely thanks to some friends of mine who have been keeping a weather eye on the usual channels whilst I've been out of action. Notably the Broken Ted, who's been exploring the various avenues of glitch and ephemera to recommend:

Shlohmo, who's E.P.s, Shlohofi and Schlomoshun are dancing around the periphery of my mind like esoteric pixies hellbent on stealing my thoughts. The former is a delicate arrangement of ethereal glitched out beats, definitely best listened to on a very lazy Sunday afternoon or in a state of entranced reflection. The latter is more easily reconcilable, slipping in somewhere between Ras G, Nosaj Thing and Eskmo; sort of slumped Hip Hop with skipping drum patterns and a warm afterglow of softly diffused bass.

Tokimonsta, who is coming on leaps and bounds with every mixtape. Her latest offering which takes the form of a promo for Donkey Pitch and Sonic Router can be found here, and I suggest everyone with a modicum of interest should read her interview with Sonic Router and make every effort to catch her at Donkey Pitch in Brighton on the 26/11/09.

And another Slugabed Mix (for Dummy this time around), which ticks all the disgusting boxes you could ever dream of. I've started to wonder whether my new found admiration for his music is merely a personal rebellion against the derivative, hyper processed, auto-tuned world of Pop dross, but then I listen to it again and it blows such thoughts clean out of my mind with the force of a sonic jackhammer.

All this said I haven't been completely idle, I stumbled across this new Blank Blue set on Dublab the other day and I was pleasantly surprised. They've taken on a couple of new band members and stiffened up their sound somewhat, it's basically what Blank blue would sound like if they were a blasting desert Rock ensemble instead of a psychedelic west coast Folk-Hop two piece. Not sure whether that's progress exactly but my dog likes it and that's good enough for me.

Speaking of which I put some dubstep on earlier and Facie (the dog), started growling along to the music every time the sub kicked in. In the past she's howled along to the blues and barked/whined to anything else with rhythmic guitars and keys. This latest approach is new to me and if anything is a seal of approval I'd say that this would be it. I'm tempted to contact Kryptic Minds with the news but I doubt they'd be as excited as I was when I heard her rendition of Six Degrees. It is entirely possible that staying at my parents house is driving me insane.

Finally I have a recommendation straight out of the left field for anyone that enjoys atmospheric soundscapes in the vein of Boards of Canada or Access to Arasaka. Oneohtrix Point Never produce the sort of music that evokes Alien Skies, Dystopian Cityscapes and the very limits of the known universe. It doesn't do a whole lot but then again it doesn't really have to. Go buy it here and close your eyes of a couple of hours, it's probably worth it.

New Slugabed and Dr Strangeloop Sets

Today is my last day at work so I'm doing as little as possible, which, whilst counter-productive for my employers, is an unexpected bonus for both you and me. In lieu of data logging emails I have already unearthed a new Dr Strangeloop mix and a new Slugabed mix and it's only midday.

If you heard Slugabed's Electronic Explorations mix then I'm sure you'll be salivating profusely by now. With good reason, this set is disgusting, I can actually feel it taking years off my life, like smoking irradiated cigars or swimming in the river Trent.

Anyway the mix is at the tail end of Subeena's Outland SubFM show, following mixes from DJ Planet Mu and Bok Bok, which are probably quite sound as well. The Slugabed set starts at around 1:20:00, in case, like me, you lack the patience to sit through the rest of the show.

Grab it here (right click and save as to download).

For those of you not quite so accustomed to Slugabed's brand of ugly, electro perversion I suggest you check this dead lovely set produced for Xolair by the fascinating Dr Strangeloop. It's took forever to download but it's so beautiful that it's worth the wait. It sounds similar to this podcast that he did for Brainfeeder a while ago, but this one features a whole plethora of unreleased material from a range of artists, including Shlohmo, Flying Lotus and Strangeloop himself.

Grab it here (right click and save as to download). Mix starts at 43 mins or so.

One final word on the matter, I know I have a tendency to bang on about Brainfeeder, but the praise is well deserved. New signing and piano virtuoso Austin Peralta is due to drop his debut LP on Flying Lotus's impeccable label sometime early next year. The early samples sound utterly sublime, but whilst you wait for this momentous occasion here's a Strangeloop remix & Video of his forthcoming track Cecilia for you all to enjoy.