Tanlines – New Flowers

Contemporary Sound and Video
Download audio file (Tanlines - New Flowers)

Neon Indian – 6669 (I Don’t Know If You Know)

No Acid Regrets
Download audio file (Neon Indian - 6669 (I Don't Know If You Know))

Washed Out – Belong

Atlantic Sea Spray
Download audio file (Washed Out - Belong)

Beach Fossils – Daydream

Brooklyn Underwater
Download audio file (Beach Fossils - Daydream)

Delorean – Deli

Where The Go! Team should have gone
Download audio file (Delorean - Deli)

Boy Crisis – Fountain of Youth

Liger Beat
Download audio file (Boy Crisis - Fountain of Youth)

Glasser – Apply

New Hypnosis
Download audio file (Glasser - Apply)

The Legends – You Won

Do you like The Mary Onettes?
Download audio file (The Legends - You Won)

Joker – Digidesign

S3M TRACKIN’
Download audio file (Joker - Digidesign)

Sophie Rimheden feat Annika Holmberg – Can You Save Me (Mt. Ventoux Remix)

Download audio file (Sophie Rimheden feat Annika Holmberg - Can You Save Me (Mt. Ventoux Remix))

I first heard this song early last year on the excellent Sackaros mix, put together by the always solid Johan Agebjörn. For the longest time I wrongly thought that this astral disco jammer was sung by Sally Shapiro, who Johan provides incredible italo backing tracks for. Turns out it’s Annika Holmberg, who I know shit all about, but who sounds like a beautifully fragile and breathless doll. I have danced after midnight to this track more times than anybody.

Bag Raiders – Shooting Stars

Download audio file (Bag Raiders - Shooting Stars)

A couple of guys from Sydney making music with terrific soul. There’s a surge in Aussie synth that’s softer than the aggressive French sound that dominated for a few years there. Dudes like The Presets tried to make harsher electro make sense down under, and I never thought it worked that well. But there’s something bold about how Bag Raiders play up what is practically a slow-jam sensitivity into a big and bright hand-clapper. If you’re feeling this you might also like this Ted and Francis mix.

Radioclit – Secousse (Crookers Spino Mix)

Download audio file (Radioclit - Secousse (Crookers Spino Mix))

This beast was on the Buraka Som Sistema mixtape, which led up to their outstanding Black Diamond LP. I’ve gotta say that this is the most massive leg-killing banger I’ve heard in like 5 years. I don’t know. I can’t remember listening to anything that got me this hype in forever, and the close second is another Crookers mix, so maybe I should give it up to those guys instead of Radioclit? Fidget House has its problems and for all of my misgivings about Crookers, there’s kind of no denying this shit for me.

For a treat try skipping to 1:55 on the video below and then click play on this track. Be sure to turn the video volume down too (classic as it is).

La Roux – Bulletproof (Zinc Remix)

Download audio file (La Roux - Bulletproof (Zinc Remix))

La Roux will probably become a big deal. Who knows really? She’s compelling as a character, anyway, and her pop is pretty modern. I’d heard her stuff in lots of mixes but didn’t know it was her until Adam mentioned it. Then I happened to find some mixes of Bulletproof which I didn’t think much of until this one came on in the car during an alone morning on the way to the gym and when the bottom dropped out about a minute in the air around me seemed to compress. It’s a carbon fiber production — dense without the heavy.

Gang Gang Dance – House Jam

Download audio file (Gang Gang Dance - House Jam)

I was going to write a whole post about these guys but I can’t bring myself to do it. A lot of their shit is just too free for me. But fuck if Saint Dymphna isn’t an outstanding time. That album is a stack of new ideas, cut through with considered yet incredibly natural gestures. Anyway I’m putting this song up here because it’s like a sonic play for me. The first 3:00 set a richly layered stage for the next 16 seconds of spare, plaintive construction. And then you get 18 seconds of real, body-rending drama.

“Will clouds carry my tears to you?” Fuck man I’m dying! BTW I make a point of playing this song at most House Jams.

Starkey – Spacewalk

Download audio file (Starkey - Spacewalk)

I had this post planned before I heard this song so it’s a bonus, and a fine way to end up. Starkey tends towards the Wonkier side of Dubstep, though I don’t know that this is particularly asynchronistic in the same way as his other stuff. It’s the last track on his LP (Ephemeral Exhibits), and it’s a mesmerizer. There’s a lot of what feels like angry pathos here, where you’re sort of resigned to the way things are but haven’t forgotten your frustration at your own sadness. But there’s redemption too, in the promise of progress through life, and the possibility of finding human communion.

This song makes me think about how when you take God out of everything you can replace him with Space.

These dudes are on some star-dense shit. Broadly, the songs below are Dubstep. They’re all built on those deep and fat wah-wah noises I love so much, which give each track its own anxiety-driven cadence. I often feel like the world is about to shatter and cascade down around me when I listen to this shit, which is rewarding because my life is still intact when the songs end, and in this way I can manufacture relief.

My understanding is that this stuff is not bass-weight-meditative in the way that really brainy Dubstep can be, but is instead made to be listened to aggressively and angrily, with drugs in your body and a headbutt-thickened skull if you’re a particularly hard sort of person (which I am not, but my limbic system knows what’s up).

Anyway here are the tracks. I hope they stress you the fuck out.

Caspa & Rusko – Bread Get Bun

Download audio file (Caspa and Rusko - Bread Get Bun)

I think this sounds like the crisis of a football firm, fighting for fun.

I first heard these dudes on their Fabriclive 37 mix, which was mostly tracks by them, plus some hard-nosed hits from 2007 by Coki, D1, Distance, etc. It seems that serious fans of this stuff actually dislike the direction C&R are taking with this and their other recently released tracks. They think it’s fucking up Dubstep and ruining their lives but really they’re just being precious dicks. This genre is young! Let it mutate and diverge!

DZ – Down

Download audio file (DZ - Down)

This is a track that is set to alienate from the start. It strips you of any melodic expectations you brought along, punches you in the face, and then drops you into a motherfucking SPACE JAIL full of subwoofers and broken pianos and the smell of engines.

When I was a kid I used to have a recurring dream every time I slept in front of this stone fireplace at my grandparents’ house. In this dream, I was small and grey and trapped in a huge windowless room, dwarfed by giant red and blue pistons that fired regularly, stamping from ceiling to floor, while faceless red and blue men patrolled the place. The pistons were powered by a steaming, organic energy — something familiar and dirty, like coal or oil — which made their threat more comprehensible and inevitable. It was the kind of dream that hollows you until you’re bottomed out, and it used to frighten me so completely that I would let the pistons crush me to death everytime I had it, knowing that dying in my dream would wake me up.

Something in “Down” helps me compartmentalize and own that sense of helplessness. It makes me feel powerful and determined and in control.

DZ is from Vancouver, which is pretty tight. I don’t know what the scene is like there but it’s a long way from the dirt of England where Dubstep is growing so violently. I ripped this from the end of the Jokers of the Scene NLLR mix that came out last year (which is excellent), so it includes an extra sample at the beginning, but I kind of like it that way.

Oh and:

The Count & Sinden – Stinging Nettle

Download audio file (the count and sinden - stinging nettle)

I posted this one elsewhere a while ago, and these guys aren’t really known for making thick tracks like this lately, but I still feel like “Stinging Nettle” is an incredibly heavy monster. This song is more alarming than the others: it uses the wah-wah as a siren, and builds quickly towards a faster stepping, more dance-compelling beat. I sort of can’t believe these guys also made “Beeper”.

Anyway Rod and I get to talking between a point and he mentions this dude Ed. I’d played doubles with this guy a week before, and he seemed like any older dude in his 60’s, except he was sort of extra-scraggly-looking, and he was wearing a weed t-shirt. The shirt had a big leaf on it and seemed common enough, but I noticed that the back had some text like, “Hereditary Genes – Highly Concentrated THC”. At the time I remember thinking, “I wonder if this guy is some hot shot pot grower.”

Rod told me that I was right. Ed is the “Guru of Ganja”, and has written dozens of books on the subject. I’m going to try to hang out with him I think. Or maybe I’ll just lay my mellow bones down with my contemporaries.

After playing, I wandered down to the locker room in that hazy daze of endorphins and other joy, and I started listening to Alborosie. I’m not a huge reggae head, but I love this guy’s steez. He was born in Sicily and moved to Kingston Town really young, and he’s a huge part of the modern Jamaican scene. This video is pretty informative.

Here’re two of his biggest jams.

Alborosie – Herbalist

This was the one that got me at first. It’s got the kind of pacing that makes you sit deeper in your seat and touch your chin to your chest.

Alborosie – Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

I’ve seriously put this shit on at like 20 dinner parties and no one has called bullshit on me yet, because it’s a truly unfadeable hit.

There’s something about Alborosie that makes his stuff way more compelling to me than most other reggae. I’ve been getting the Reggae One Drop Anthem comps for the last few years and there’s some great stuff there too, but a lot of it pales. Give this shit a shot, as nastily sober as you wanna be. And while you’re at it fuck a badman bloodclot.

I don’t know, man. These guys are pretty fucking cool.

Years ago I found one of their one-inch buttons at a garage sale. It was black and white, and I think I thought they were on some 2 tone ska shit, but I bought the button because it was cool looking and I knew Bronski Beat meant a lot to a lot of people.

A little while later I saw the video for “Smalltown Boy” and was blown away by the pathos of the damned thing. It’s a song with a strong message that’s not super played up for drama. I think that’s what makes it such an enabling piece of pop history. “Smalltown Boy” — and Bronski Beat themselves — helped embolden a generation of young homosexual men to go to where they’d be understood.

Bronski Beat – Smalltown Boy

Download audio file (Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy)

I started really listening to Bronski Beat’s first album, The Age of Consent (1984), a couple of months ago. There are some slow songs, but also a few incredible stand-outs. “Smalltown Boy” and “Why?” were the singles, and I guess “Ain’t Necessarily So” was a big deal too because it was a Gershwin classic.

Bronski Beat – Why?

Download audio file (Bronski Beat - Why)

But my favorite song on the album is “Junk”, and it doesn’t get much mention when people talk about the album. I think that’s because the song doesn’t fit as neatly into the themes of the album (fighting stereotypes, resisting homophobes, carving out space in the world, etc), but I think it succeeds because it’s the darkest song in the mix. They never made a video for it, either, so I decided to do so. It’s short and rough because it was made as an accompaniment to a performance at a party, and wasn’t really meant to stand alone.

I think it turned out nicely, though.

Bronski Beat – Junk

Download audio file (Bronski Beat - Junk)

Fun Fact: BB didn’t clear the Kibbles ‘n Bits sample in this song (because sampling wasn’t a big deal in ‘84, really), and were approached first not by the dog food people, but by the annoying voice actor who did the commercial. Once that dude sued the band, the Kibbles people came to town too, and some loot got handed out.

I’ve got more to learn about these guys yet (still haven’t even heard Truthdare Doubledare), but I’ve got time. And anyway I sort of like keeping the guys frozen in my brain, at their beginning, when their presence as synthpop stars mattered so much to a community that deserved far more respect and acknowledgment than it got.

A friend said he didn’t like Grime very much. It’s understandable. I think it’s one of those glutty genres where you start scratching the surface of the scene and you discover that there’s just a massive amount of material coming out, and it’s all really micro-divided by geography and slight-seeming alterations of style, and that can be hard to get into. It seems to me that this is because it’s such a young thing, and it’s moving unpredictably and creatively, like a lava flow, whereas older genres are so established that things change more tectonically.

In case you haven’t looked into this stuff much, here’s some background:

Grime’s been around for I don’t know how long, but was introduced to the world at large in like 2003, by Dizzee Rascal. He was a part of a small, thriving scene, with dudes like Wiley and Kano, and they were rapping over a totally different kind of beat than western hip-hop is usually set to. This was great, because a lot of European hip-hop is plain and boring American aping. Grime (or Eski, which Wiley has always called it, because it can be so cold and icy and desolate, like some Eskimo / Igloo rap shit) had its roots in the British 2-Step / Garage sound, which has a slower, more jungly beat structure. Not all Grime has vocals, and a lot of guys are making and releasing straight Grimey beats, some of which get rapped over and some that fall to the side. Wiley put out “Ice Rink” and like 100 dudes spit over it. It’s a crazy example of a riddim that is pure propulsion, with no drops and a pretty much limitless vocal platform. The stuff that is more focused on the beats themselves, usually with no vocals at all, is Dubstep. That shit is amazing, and is on some New Scientist tip, with DJs crafting these crazy cadences and bass feedbacks to build out some incredibly looming and dark clouds of music. Worth its own post for sure, and I probably listen to more Dubstep than Grime these days anyway.

So there’s a lot of good stuff out there and a lot of middling stuff. I’m no great authority here; I listen to what gets talked about, and follow the crews I liked during my early exploration. Occasionally I’ll download some random shit that has a heavy-sounding name. Here we go:

Skepta, Scratch, Jet Le, Flowdan – Celebrate (produced by Danny Weed)

The Roll Deep crew is what sold me on Grime, and that is some real shit. Rules and Regulations has 0 bad tracks. It’s an outstanding, free-standing primer to the modern Grime scene. This track was made by my favorite producer out there, Danny Weed. Non-stop gash.
Download audio file (Skepta - Scratch - Jet Le - Flowdan - celebrate (prod. by Danny Weed))

All in One – Ice Rink (prod. by Wiley)

Mentioned this above. Not my favorite of the Ice Rink works, but All in One is solid so he gets a pass. Just check out the beat and pull what you can out of the muddled vocals.
Download audio file (All in One - Ice Rink (Produced By Wiley))

Terror Danjah – Cock Back v1.2 (ft Hyper, Bruza, D Double E)

The first real banger that hit me, way back in 2004, off the Run the Road comp. The fucking beat is built from a gun cock! This track is so massive!
Download audio file (Terror Danjah - Cock Back v1.2 (ft Hyper Bruza D Double E))

Durrty Goodz – License to Skill (prod. by JJ)

A big theme in the last two years of the Grime scene has been the predatory practices of the big labels in London. When Grime blew up in 2003, they started courting the young stars and signing them to exclusive contracts. Guys thought they had it made. But then their albums got locked up in development for seriously like 4 years or more, and the artists came to realize that they’d been squatted on by their label. Executives were more interested in preventing other labels from cornering this new market than in actually helping and promoting these artists. Lots more self-released stuff coming out now, and reactionary songs like this one. Also, Durrty Goodz dominates.
Download audio file (Durrty Goodz - License to Skill (prod. by JJ))

Jammer – Lick Off Your Face (ft G. Man, prod. by Crayzee Bandit)

Crazyee Bandit turns in an example of the weird epic-triumph vein that flows through a lot of Grime. There’s this element that pops up a lot, where a track is like a non-stop movie climax, with MCs yelling like gladiators and it’s all pretty life-or-death. Jammer’s delivery is unorthodox, which is something I prize.
Download audio file (Jammer - Lick Off Your Face (ft G Man prod by Crayzee Bandit))

Wretch 32 – Combo Chain (ft Caps P. Nero Calibar Y. Wizz)

As far as I can tell, Wretch 32 is a less active / popular MC from North London. Not much press on this guy, and this track is a few years old, but I’ve always enjoyed it. It sort of switches itself up in the middle, and I appreciate that kind of free-wheeling.
Download audio file (Wretch 32 - Combo Chain (ft Caps P. Nero Calibar Y. Wizz))

And two more, mostly instrumental tracks, because they’re great and if you don’t care for the delivery of the MCs in the stuff above, maybe you’ll enjoy the beats standing alone.

Danny Weed – Cloud 9

I don’t know what it is about this beat. There is such trememdous room inside it. It’s like some long-legged juggernaut, rolling and echoing through a drainage pipe. Been playing this one for anyone who’ll listen over the past three years or so.
Download audio file (Danny Weed - Cloud 9)

Skepta – Tingles

It happens a fair bit that you’ll get a female vocal dropped in as an instrument for the beat, rather than as a primary voice. Skepta’s received a lot of accolades lately, for his production and his mic work. Dude deserves it.
Download audio file (Skepta - Tingles)

That’s that. For a bit more, you might check out this post I made back in 2005, while living in Argentina. It’s got a couple of older tracks that are still great.

8Ball & MJG – Relax, Take Notes (feat. Project Pat & The Notorious B.I.G.) (XI Dubstep Remix)

Heavy, bleak, and patient. I just want the paper.
Download audio file (8Ball and MJG - Relax and Take Notes (XI Dubstep Remix))

Alaska in Winter – Your Red Dress (Wedding Song At Cemetery)

It’s crazy how a horn can sound like it knows you.
Download audio file (alaska in winter - Your Red Dress (Wedding Song At Cemetery))

Frankmusik – Three Little Words

Give it up for electro youth and post-banger songwriting.
Download audio file (frankmusik - three little words (the black ghosts mix))

HEALTH – Heaven (Narctrax Rmx)

A real driver. Purposeful and complex, pushing towards something ugly and necessary.
Download audio file (HEALTH - Heaven (Narctrax Rmx))

Inner City – Big Fun

I’ve been falling into the deep end of House lately.
Made in 2001 but sounds like 1995 to me.
Download audio file (inner_city - big_fun)

John Dahlback – July First

Techno like this makes me think of human unity.
This is like my fucking Obama song.
Download audio file (John Dahlback - JulyFirst)

Kris Menace & Spooky – Stereophonic (short cut)

You just have to decide to let it sweep you out.
A new classic I will return to.
Download audio file (Kris Menace feat Spooky - stereophonic (short cut))

Little Boots – Stuck on Repeat

I think it’s her voice against the crazy dark purple and black of this beat.
Download audio file (little boots - stuck-on-repeat)

Osborne – 16th Stage

This is the sound of my home, where the racing of the outside world disappears, and we revel in the comfort of our lives together.
Download audio file (osborne - 16th Stage)

PNAU featuring Ladyhawke – Embrace

This is the kind of music American Idol stars should sing over after they win. Contemporary, populist, and triumphant.
Download audio file (PNAU feat Ladyhawke - Embrace)

Ryan Leslie – Back to the Love

An arrogant, lyrically uninteresting, and convincing R&B genius.
Download audio file (ryan leslie - back_to_the_love)

Sally Shapiro – I Know You’re My Love (Juan MacLean Remix)

A tightening and quickening of the amazing original.
Please give this song until the 5:00 mark. It shrinks, and then it changes and grows, and they shape her voice into something sharper, and they hold that part of her up as long as they can. Then they drop that voice into the world they’ve constructed for her, from her, over the course of the song. It’s like an Italo Disco Klein bottle.
Download audio file (sally shapiro - i know you're my love (juan maclean remix))

The Dø – Travel Light

There’s a weariness and dirtiness to her voice that makes her seem invulnerable. Also happens to be the 13th song on their new album.
Download audio file (the do - 13 - travel_light)

See you later.

I can’t even remember where I first heard them, which is a crap start to this. It would have been in the middle of 2005, and it had to have been:

“Saturdays”, from Bright Like Neon Love (2004)

Download audio file (?f=Cut Copy - Saturdays)

At the time, I was probably really into handclaps (actually, I’ll probably never not be into handclaps), and I must have loved the low vocals that sound like they’re being filtered but largely aren’t. More than that, I think I was drawn to the fact that this song gets you feeling like it’s about a solid Good Time, but is really about a disconnect and a question of requite.

Bright Like Neon Love really broke it open for me. I must have listened to that shit like 20 times while walking to work and from work. There was the musical optimism that I crave in pop, but at almost every point it’s countered by longing and regret and I loved it. Maybe it’s an easy thing for musicians to put sap in happy music, and for the message to hit home while my defenses are down, but I feel like it’s a fair shake to be disarmed by a band, given my own tendency to de-fang music by analyzing the shit out of it.

Going Nowhere

A couple of remixes of Bright Like Neon Love tracks were produced in 2005. “Saturdays” got some treatments, but I’ve only heard Headman’s version. “Future” — a patient and stacked track, full of a million warps and layered fades and swooshing — got some more attention too.

The “Future” reworks are pretty ragged, though. I fully do not understand what the shit is up with the !!! remix, and the Zongamin version is just goofy, but I’ve never been a big Zongamin fan anyway (besides “Bongo Song”, which is pretty unfuckwithable).

But the Chromeo mix is out of control.

“Future (Chromeo Remix)”, from Future (2005)

Download audio file (?f=Cut Copy - Future (Chromeo Remix))

To start with, it sounds like a Chromeo song, so you sort of know what you’re getting into. The complexity of the synths has been dialed way back, and I think that goes a long way towards creating a swagger and a carelessness that a lot of Cut Copy’s songs seem to lack. Anyway, I think it’s a total groover.

After all of that, I went digging into their catalog, and came up with I Thought of Numbers, from 2001. Wikipedia calls this an EP, but it’s 7 songs, and feels like an album to me. It’s definitely different from the stuff they’d be doing three years later. In fact, listening to it now, I’m realizing that a lot of it sounds like The Avalanches.

Just did a bit of looking, and it looks like The Avalanches and Cut Copy are both from Melbourne, and are both on Modular. They both put out albums in 2001, so I’ve got to believe there’s some connection here. Maybe it’s already well documented, but whatever. Compare and contrast:

“Glittering Clouds”, by Cut Copy, from I Thought of Numbers (2001)

Download audio file (?f=Cut Copy - Glittering Clouds)

“A Different Feeling”, by The Avalanches, from Since I Left You (2001)

Download audio file (?f=The Avalanches - A Different Feeling)

And before we jump forward in time, check out the video for the title song off Cut Copy’s first 7″:

1981

OK. So now it’s like late 2006, and it’s been a little while since I’ve thought of Cut Copy. I’ve been spending a lot more time with German techno, sort of catching up with the Kompakt and Bpitch and Get Physical catalogs, and then one day Fabriclive 29 falls into my lap. My earbrains get dominated for weeks.

“I Wish You Were Gone”, by Joakim, from Cut Copy: Fabriclive 29 (2006)

Download audio file (?f=Joakim - I Wish You Were Gone)

I’d known about Fabric in London for a couple of years; probably since Jacques Lu Cont’s mix (Fabriclive 09) in 2003, which I still listen to frequently. But I hadn’t yet decided to fill in the blanks in my Fabric/Live album collection. Cut Copy’s work on Fabriclive 29 totally sold me on the importance of those mixes, and I’ve kept up since.

Now, in this case, CC are really just selectors, and I can’t claim to know where the original artists and remixers begin and end, but this set is great. A mix like this lets an artist project a sort of origin/destination story out into the world, even if it’s not true. The crossing up of dancepunk, which was starting to sound a bit stale on its own, with some mod disco and electro — two styles that would continue to rise over the next two years — struck me as being a pretty prescient move. Another solid inclusion on this mix was Erol Alkan’s Durrr Durrr Durrrrrr edit of Justice’s “Waters of Nazareth”. Justice had a fair bit of attention at this point, but a lot of people thought (wrongly) that they were out to make techno for metallers or some shit. Anyway, it seems likely to me that the exposure on 29 helped them along in their ascent.

“Bang Bang” by In Flagranti, from Cut Copy: Fabriclive 29 (2006)

Download audio file (?f=In Flagranti - Bang Bang)

This mix does have its weak tracks (none of which I’ve posted): MSTRKRFT were a gimme, even then, Ciccione Youth’s “Into the Grooveway” is boring until 1:15, when Justice kicks down the door, and the Whitey remix of “Going Nowhere” has got blood parasites or something; it’s anemic and lurching, and sounds like a sythesized lung collapsing.

What surprised me about this mix, though, is that it doesn’t really serve as a document for where Cut Copy would wind up. It makes sense now that I’ve read a bit more, and understand that the Fabriclive mix was a release under the Cut Copy name, by their frontman, Dan Whitford, who spends a lot of his time DJ’ing. But I do believe that this mix is a strong indicator of the band’s taste, and that Fabriclive 29 ranks close to Erlend Oye’s DJ-Kicks in terms of breadth and form innovation.

“Out the Door (Super Discount Remix)” by Whomadewho, from Cut Copy: Fabriclive 29 (2006)

Download audio file (?f=Whomadewho - Out the Door (Super Discount Remix))

Right, so there’s a new album out. It’s called In Ghost Colours, and it’s phenomenal. Simon and I have probably run through it 80+ times between the two of us. It’s seriously on some New New Romanticism shit — there are times when Whitford sounds a bit like Bernard Sumner — which FL29 indicates is one of the band’s touchstones. But I can’t stress how fresh and honest this thing sounds to me. IGC seems like an album that’s aware of where it came from, but is fully capable of bringing the contemporary keyboard jams that we’re about now.

There’s a nod to the abstraction of I Thought of Numbers in this interlude:

“We Fight For Diamonds”, from In Ghost Colours (2008)

Download audio file (?f=Cut Copy - We Fight For Diamonds)

But the hammer really comes out when they own up to their emotive potential, lampoon it with a huge fucking sax, and then convince me that feelings are real, and that I love music like this as much as I love any drug or fuck peak:

“Hearts on Fire”, from In Ghost Colours (2008)

Download audio file (?f=Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire)

This album succeeds where a lot of others in the current Aussie synth scene don’t. It’s gotta be said that there is some kind of shared fever down there these days, with The Presets, Midnight Juggernauts, Van She, Muscles, etc, all cranking out likable if silly dance tracks. Modular is clearly responsible for corraling all of this, and there’s a lot of credit to be given out for the sheer fun of this stuff, but I feel like Cut Copy is one of the only bands that escapes the quagmire of inauthenticity that so many of their outbacked labelmates seem to get stuck in.

I think Cut Copy’s music triumphs by elevating the common and mundane parts of ourselves into something precious. When I walk down the street to this music, I feel like I’m living a larger and more permanent life than I really am. And I’ve found that that feeling does not have to be a simple illusion that quits when I shut the music off. I’m the sort of person for whom brash hope and real emotion are propulsive forces towards a better version of myself. Cut Copy is not really progressive, musically, but it’s didactic in a really unassuming way, like the audiobook dictionary my parents played for me while I was asleep as a child. Their music is a true thing for me, and I find it hard to argue with true things.

Additional Links

Cut Copy on Wikipedia
Cut Copy on MySpace
Cut Copy on Modular People
Cut Copy’s outstanding “So Cosmic Mixtape”

Shinichi Osawa turns 41 today. Happy birthday, guy.

Osawa has had a long and varied career, and started recording as Mondo Grosso in 1991, making what I think is particularly Japanese-sounding Acid Jazz and Deep House. Like this:

“Tree, Air, and Rain on the Earth” by Mondo Grosso, from Best (2007)

Download audio file (?f=Mondo Grosso - Tree Air and Rain on the Earth)

In the last three years or so, though, he’s been doing a lot of remixes and producing more tracks under his own name, most of which have a cleaner and more refined feel than much of the Blog House being made now. Yeah, it’s pretty much still rocky electro-house, which clearly there’s plenty of out there, but the difference is that this dude has a studio and real chops, versus a bedroom and laser fashion. There’re the stutter cuts and the fuzzed low-ends, but somehow a lot of the tunes come off really populist feeling, I think, and the response to his music in Japan is fucking huge. He fills massive clubs and is well known, and that’s not accidental. People love this shit.

His Remixes

“Ah Ah” by Anna Tsuchiya (Shinichi Osawa Remix), from Kitsune Udon (2007)

Download audio file (?f=ANNA TSUCHIYA - Ah Ah (Shinichi Osawa Remix))

This was the first song I heard by Osawa, and it’s on the album he selected with Kitsune, which was put out on Avex Trax last year. It stuck out among 30 tracks on the two disc comp, maybe because of Tsuchiya’s voice, but probably actually for the first tone swell after the first drop. I pushed this song in my car for a month like a fucking sixteen year old girl.

“Popper” by Christopher & Raphael Just (Shinichi Osawa Distortion Disco Edit), from Kitsune Maison 2 (2006)

Download audio file (?f=Christopher and Raphael Just - Popper (Shinichi Osawa Distortion Disco Edit))

One of my favorite kinds of videos on Youtube: the single image, put to music. I love how watching an unmoving picture that I expect to change but never does, while the music is setting its own pace, can cause my brain to constantly recontextualize the image, making it mean new and impossible things. Plus this song is fucking legit.

“White’s Dream” by Plaid (Shinichi Osawa Remix), from Tekkonkinkreet Remix (2007)

Download audio file (?f=Plaid - White's Dream (Shinichi Osawa Remix))

This one’s a mellow delight. Osawa leaves out (most of) the distortion and lets the optimism of the original ambient track (taken from the 2006 anime Tekkonkinkreet, which looks super clean) stay in the top of the mix, while filling out the bottom with the throbbing pulse of electro whalesong (MUSIC WRITING WHAT’S UP)

His Productions

“Our Song (A Lonely Girl Version) – Featuring ULTRA BRAIN” by Shinichi Osawa, from The One (2007)

Download audio file (?f=Shinichi Osawa - Our Song)

“Our Song”’s got that strident uplift thing in it that can make me start feeling unabashed about everything, and think about the comfort I take in my personal weirdness. Although, that’s pretty much what the video is about so maybe I’m just cribbing my emotion from it and the music isn’t saying shit. But anyway just watch how that girl does that running dance hell of times; she’s so pretty but no one understands her really. Except ULTRA BRAIN (what doesn’t that guy understand?!?!)

“Star Guitar (Featuring Au Revoir Simone)” by Shinichi Osawa, from The One (2007)

Download audio file (?f=Shinichi Osawa - Star Guitar (feat. Au Revoir Simone))

This video is almost total crap but the song is an outstanding example of how Osawa can put together some shit that bangs really modernly, but has a huge pop hook that can convert people suspicious of electro.

“Ami Nu Ku Tuu (The One Version)” by Shinichi Osawa, from The One (2007)

Download audio file (?f=Shinichi Osawa - Ami Nu Ku Tuu (The One Version))

And finally, here is everything that I loved about IDM — the emotionality, the technicality, and the way people have settled between those two oppositions — but without the pretense and fashion. The strings here make the song sound humane to me, but I’m a sucker. Listening to this, I think about the pace and length of my life.

Artists like Osawa are especially important to me, because they help blur the parts of my own criticality that I think are boringly young. As I get older, I’m glad to start feeling like the big picture — the snapshot of human music I get to listen to while I’m alive — is more valuable and real than the fickleness and constant musical hunger of my early 20’s. I’m no less hungry, I guess, but I’ve got a lot more context to work with now, and I hope that makes me a fairer listener.

Links

Shinichi Osawa’s Homepage
Shinichi Osawa on MySpace
Shinichi Osawa on Discogs
Mondo Grosso on Wikipedia

It’s fucking crazy how hard it is to have a favorite band anymore. I find it’s really easy to get caught up in the constant bustle of new bands coming out. Music moves so much faster now, but it still takes roughly the same amount of time before you know you mean it when you call something “great”, and tell your friends, “See, this shit is what I am talking about”.

But a month or so ago I admitted to myself that Hot Chip is my favorite band, and I couldn’t be happier about that. Here’s some of what I know and love about them:

They formed in 2000, and started slow:

“Beeting”, from the Mexico EP (2001)
Download audio file (?f=Hot Chip - Beeting)

Then they released a few promos and albums:

“What You Find Strange”, from All Killer, No Filler! (2005)
Download audio file (?f=Hot Chip - What You Find Strange)

They’re terrific selectors, having turned in what I believe is the second best DJ-Kicks album (next to Erlend Øye’s), and they make remixes that can make me enjoy regularly shitty songs:

“Rehab”, by Amy Winehouse, remixed by Hot Chip (2006)
Download audio file (?f=Amy Winehouse - Rehab (Hot Chip Mix))

They can make sterling, complex electro with pop strung through it:

“Oi Oi Berlin This Is…”, from their MySpace page (2007?)
(note: this one might actually be from a separate project, Greco-Roman International Sonic Wrestling, of which at least Joe from Hot Chip is a part of)
Download audio file (?f=Hot Chip - Oi Oi Berlin This Is..)

They have a new album coming out in February:

“Made in the Dark”, from the forthcoming album, Made in the Dark (2008)
Download audio file (?f=Hot Chip - Made in the Dark)

Their videos are brashly inventive.

Ready For The Floor (2008)

Over and Over (2006)

Boy From School (2006)

Plus: “I have all the Kriss Kross 12″s on import”

Hot Chip strikes is me as a bunch of honest, regular guys, who understand the power of melodrama and the potential of modern pop music. I highly recommend that you take this band seriously, because they deserve it.

Links:

Hot Chip Homepage
Hot Chip Wikipedia Entry
Hot Chip on MySpace