The annual month of NME Shockwaves shows have been announced for February 2o1o, with Miike Snow and Hadouken! two of the top names involved. The remaining slots will be taken by Simian Mobile Disco, Yeasayer, Girls and New Young Pony Club.

The shows will run up to the annual NME Awards held at the 02 Academy Brixton from the 24th, with more acts to be announced at a later date.

Miike Snow , London Scala – (Feb) 2nd

Hadouken!, London Scala – 3rd

Simian Mobile Disco, matter – 2oth

New Young Pony Club, Islington Academy – 22nd

Yeasayer, London Heaven – 23rd

Girls, London Scala – 23rd

(Image courtesy of http://beforetheymakemerun.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/miike-snow-001.jpg)

Music @ Videos

Yee to the haw, it doth be Friday once more. A propos of nothing, I have just finished watching the HBO mini-series on the invasion of Iraq Generation Kill. As an offering, it is a bit of a mixed bag, but there are still some great characters featured in it and it seems like a genuine attempt to represent the thoughts and feelings of the men on the front-line. Do expect much more sitting around in camp and driving about in Humvees than all-out action though! Also, give the Iceman his own spin-off series!

Moving on to the music, Shearwater are meant to be back in early 2010 with their latest album. They really are a marvellous band and you can get a taster for what they have in mind below. Why?’s Eskimo Snow may not have made the same impact this year as Alopecia did last year. However, I really love the song These Hands and the video below is the perfect accompaniment to it.

Also featuring are (new-to-me) Headlights and Prairie Cat, the well-established Califone, and a song from Simian Mobile Disco that features Beth Ditto on vocals.

Bon weekend tout le monde!

Shearwater – The Golden Archipelago

oooOOOooo

Headlights – Love Song for Buddy

oooOOOooo

Why? – These Hands / January Twenty Something

oooOOOooo

Simian Mobile Disco – Cruel Intentions

oooOOOooo

Califone – Funeral Singers

oooOOOooo

Prairie Cat – Just Cuz

From their latest, Temporary Pleasures, features Beth Ditto, (The Gossip) and in the track, “Cream Dream” also Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) below. More deets on this album and mp3 here.

We are loving the new album out now.

buy album

As with most things this year, this first installment of my favourite albums of 2009 is a few days late. Last year, I posted one of these every Friday until the last week of the year. Of course I was also basically unemployed. I will try my hardest to post the remaining four installments on time. I only recently realized that it was also the end of the decade, and after having a mini panic attack, I’ve decided that I will only do a top albums of the decade list if I feel like it.

If you were with me for this last year, you’ll recall I tried to run down the main album releases throughout the year while writing a blurb on each of eight albums for each post in the countdown. By the time I hit my top eight records, the blurbs are a bit larger and I’m usually kicking myself about missing something out or wanting to change the order slightly. And probably the most difficult installments to create are the first couple – my very favourite albums seldom change, but I tend to shuffle around the lesser ones as my mood shifts its fickle little feet. I also include one runner-up to the list in each installment, so make sure you scroll right to the bottom. Feel free to criticize or let me know what your favourite albums of 2009 are.

The last year of the noughties began with a few notable releases in January, including albums from John Frusciante, Bruce Springsteen, Franz Ferdinand, White Lies, Stuck in the Sound, Andrew Bird, and It Hugs Back along with a slew of ampersand bands like Matt & Kim, Antony & the Johnsons and Ruby Jean & the Thoughtful Bees. Animal Collective’s critically acclaimed Merriweather Post Pavilion also released to the slavering jaws of indie hipsters everywhere. February saw the return of the Mozfather and the less exciting return of Lily Allen. It also featured releases from Jessie Evans, The Joy Formidable, David Shane Smith, Yuksek, Gentleman Reg, and another solo turn by Robyn Hitchcock. The unfortunate dog vomit that is the sophomore record from The Fray was balanced out by the raved-about-C86-throwback The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

And so off we go to the countdown…

40. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – Phoenix
It’s a tad ambitious inserting your band’s name where Mozart’s should be, but high on their increasing visibility through 2006’s It’s Never Been Like That and its accompanying hit Marie Antoinette-assoicated single Consolation Prizes, Phoenix went right ahead. Judging by the opening two tracks, Lisztomania and 1901, you’d think the French band was going to continue squarely on the path of Consolation Prizes, eschewing the loungier end of their retro pop for frothy powder wigs of song; then something rather more interesting happens by track four, Love Like a Sunset Pt. 1. It is also unfortunately where some critics seemed to fall out of love with the record as the music builds through buzzing and bubbling electronic textures to some vocals by the time you hit the considerably shorter Love Like a Sunset Pt. 2. And perhaps the record seems a bit disjointed in spots because Thomas Mars and Co decided to use Eno’s Oblique Strategies. Even if I don’t love every track on this album, it does prove that Phoenix is at least thinking about different ways of being pop.

1901 – Phoenix

Love Like a Sunset (Pts 1 and 2) – Phoenix

39. Through Fire – Twiggy Frostbite
Last year, I included Swedish band, The Deer Tracks, in my Top 40, and this year, it’s Twiggy Frostbite, which shares both sound and members with The Deer Tracks. That same vocal which defined the whispering tenderness of The Deer Tracks is present here, as ephemeral as a light puff of throat-warmed breath melting frost on the windowpane. The music itself descends like a feathery snowfall, sending droplets of purified sound into your ears; it is both spare and expansive, filling emptiness you never knew was there.

Eye For an Eye – Twiggy Frostbite

Thrown in Two- Twiggy Frostbite

38. The Empyrean – John Frusciante
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have always just been incidental in my life – I’ve heard them on the radio since I was a child and never really gave them much more thought, let alone any solo projects which ensued. I now realize how mistaken I was to dismiss former guitarist/songwriter John Frusciante, especially since I’m only just taking notice at solo album number ten. The album title itself can be defined as “highest heaven” and “the pure element of fire,” and there is something definitely ethereal about the strains of mournful virtuoso guitar, bouncing and wavering like dying stars gasping their last celestial, dusty breath. At the same time, there’s a steady burn of psychedelic jamming, and Frusciante’s vocals hover around the edges of sound like a satellite broadcast or as though sung through a cellophane envelope of ozone. A couple of the tracks on the record even feature Johnny Marr. One of my favourite songs on this record is the opening track, Before the Beginning, which is epic and anthemic just by using electric guitar and slow, minimal drums. His version of Tim Buckley’s Song to the Siren is also androgynously beautiful, strong and fragile. Like the soundtrack to the birth of the cosmos, this album surprised me in wonderful ways.

Before the Beginning – John Frusciante

Central – John Frusciante

37. Travels With Myself and Another – Future of the Left
Rising from the angry ashes of Welsh band Mclusky, Future of the Left has crept in and out of my music playlists for the last couple of years. With the release of this second album, I’ve taken far more notice, and felt comforted after the unfortunate dissipation of Mclusky. This sophomore album is full of snarling, punk jabs and augmented by rather expansive banks of melodic guitar. The relentless melody grinds against the raw vocals and short bursts of Gang of Four-like minimalism, creating a less predictable sort of noise rock. Bloodied screams punch through lyrics about existential angst, religion, economic realities, drunkeness, and the random meaninglessness of events, scattering myths and mores in its wake. This album is like punk music for the dramatic, but with a pitch-perfect sense of satirical humour.

The Hope That House Built – Future of the Left

That Damned Fly – Future of the Left

36. Nonsense in the Dark – The Filthy Dukes
This London-based synthpop band pretty much came out of nowhere for me earlier this year, eventually even going on to mix their own FabricLive record. Nonsense in the Dark then went on to entrap me in some of the sweetest electro melodies and beats that I’ve heard this year. The track This Rhythm is one of my favourite songs of the year, and the rest of the album keeps the momentum going with Tron-like precision. There is definitely a whiff of the 80s about this record in its often New Romantic-like vocals and robot disco sound, but it isn’t forced; these songs were expertly handcrafted for dance. Even the slower numbers like the title track retain a pop sensibility as alluring as a sweep of ultraviolet mascara. And one of my favourite artists, frYars, makes a guest vocal appearance on Poison the Ivy.

Elevator – Filthy Dukes

Messages – Filthy Dukes

35. Yes – Pet Shop Boys
It was a happy technicolour day (with ironic cloud cover) when Tennant and Lowe came back with their tenth studio album after three years (read my review here). While it could be argued that the duo had lost some of their spark over the past few albums, Yes showed that they have kept their ascerbic, urbane commentary as memorable as their music. Whether observing the trainwreck that was Pete Doherty and Kate Moss (Pandemonium) or dissecting fame and wealth more generally (Love Etc., Beautiful People), they proved that they could still create music with icy distance and gloriously brilliant flourishes while questioning how a concept like love fits into our wireless new world. Testing the shiny surfaces of this decade, they hit their targets time after time, their bows as arched as an eyebrow. 

All Over the World – Pet Shop Boys

Did You See Me Coming – Pet Shop Boys

34. xx - The xx
I admittedly came late to the xx party, not bothering with listening to the album until this month. As much as their cryptic name suggests, they lurked about my periphery for several months, topping the Hype Machine for days at a time. I then discovered that this low key, dreamy record was poignant in its chiming guitars, clipped xylophone and prominent kicks of bass. The vocals from Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sims are aloof yet soulful, a duet of hushed pains and pleasures. It’s a subdued record, but all the more powerful in its compressed containment. In Shelter, there’s a heartbreaking simplicity to the lines: “Maybe I had said, something that was wrong/can I make it better with the lights turned on?” xx is an album alive with subtext, begging to be uncovered.

VCR -The xx

Shelter -The xx

33. Temporary Pleasure – Simian Mobile Disco
I’ve been a fan of Simian Mobile Disco for a few years now, and this sophomore album has reinforced my love for them. This time they’ve utilized a plethora of guest vocalists, including Gruff Rhys, Beth Ditto, Jamie Liddell, Alexis Taylor, and Yeasayer’s Chris Keating. All of these singers lend more than just their voices; there is a distinct shift in feel and genre despite the consistency of SMD’s electro backdrop complementing them. For example, Rhys’s song generates a psychedelic sheen, Ditto’s song turns into a soul disco number, Taylor’s track becomes an exotic sort of electro, inheriting some of Hot Chip’s flavour, and Keating’s Audacity of Huge takes a laundry list of materialism to a skittery arcade sound. The possible schizophrenia holds together brilliantly with the glassy beats rolling into one another like a silvery necklace shot through with lasers.

Cream Dream (featuring Gruff Rhys) – Simian Mobile Disco

Cruel Intentions (featuring Beth Ditto) – Simian Mobile Disco

This installment’s honourable mention is God Help the Girl’s self-titled album. It’s an interesting release in that it’s basically an offshoot of Belle & Sebastian and that it’s a soundtrack to a musical film yet to be released. The 1960s French pop sound that Scottish bands like Belle & Sebastian and Camera Obscura have embraced is all over this album like a warm mustard-tinted sweater while focusing on a distinctly feminine set of vocals, including Catherine Ireton, Celia Garcia, Dina Bankole, Brittany Stallings, Asya, and Anna Miles. While Stuart Murdoch makes an appearance himself and also incorporates a guest vocal from Neil Hannon, this is a female-focused narrative as evident from the title itself. Filled with the off-kilter wit and retro tweeness that defines his regular band, Murdoch’s foray into musical films is off to a good start with this soundtrack.

God Help the Girl – God Help the Girl

Stay tuned for the next installment of the countdown this Friday.

In case you didn’t know, this ‘boy’ is only 20 years old, but he sounds like he’s been in the business for years. his name is ‘Joker’ and he is one of the sickest, grimiest (if there is such a word) artists around. One of his most obvious influences is the god of dubstep, Skream. The similarities are uncanny. But there are differences.

The first track, you most probably have heard. His remix of Cruel Intentions by Simian Mobile Disco. This song is quite different to that of something Skream has produced, most noticably, the bassline.

Cruel Intentions (Joker Remix) – Simian Mobile Disco

The next song is another remix. This one is newer and is of “Trouble Is” by Turboweekend. I Love the dubstep/electro feel to this. This is probably my favourite of his songs so far, but it is mighty close.

Trouble Is (Joker Remix) – Turboweekend γ Song (This will be a reoccurring thing, and it means a highly recommended song. Most likely 1 per post)

Now onto some originals. This is the first song I heard my him, on the Tectonic Label. It was the second track, the first being Glendale Galleria – Flying Lotus (very average song). However, this song was something else. Not his best but, as for first impressions, incredible.

Untitled_Rsn – Joker

The Last song is one I’ve only recently heard. This is very interesting, as it incorporates a thick bassline as well as a string section. A notable effort.

Stuck In The System – Joker

Simian Mobile Disco have commandeered my head with this track, Audacity of Huge, off their latest album, Temporary Pleasure.  This absolutely is NOT a temporary pleasure and I’ve been walking around with the chorus stuck in my head for days.  I love the catchy lyrics and electronic, poppy tune.  Makes me want to get up and dance around like a fairy.

Simian Mobile Disco – Audacity of Huge

Simian Mobile Disco consists of producers James Ford and Jas Shaw from England.  Musically they are from somewhere else completely.  Combining styles of house and electro spanning several decades the result is a high-octane danceable pop heavy with vocals and hooks.

IN 2007 Simian Mobile Disco dropped their first album, Attack Decay Sustain Release.   The album quickly earned them underground success and has resulted in the groups accelerating fame.  Below is the lead single from Attack Decay Sustain Release:  ‘It’s the Beat’

Vice en Vodafone zijn bezig met het promoten van een nieuwe dienst van Vodafone voor de mobiel. In opdracht heeft Vice een aantal korte films gemaakt over toffe mensen: La Roux, Simian Mobile Disco, Daryl van Wouw
Joost van Bellen,

en Naldje

This one didn’t really grab me at first. I’m not particularly fussed about Beth Ditto, who adds her distinctive but rather samey vocals to this mid-paced electro number. It’s got a certain charm though, that works its way through on multiple listens. Background music-y, but not in a bad way? Really.

Simian Mobile Disco LivePA @ The Rainbow Warehouse (Birmingham,UK) (10-10-09)
Simian Mobile Disco LivePA @ The Rainbow Warehouse (Birmingham,UK) (10-10-09)
Simian Mobile Disco LivePA @ The Rainbow Warehouse (Birmingham,UK) (10-10-09)

More videos. More awesome. More… I don’t know. I could only come up with two.

Simian Mobile Disco – Audacity of Huge

Simian Mobile Disco is an awesome band name, and they wrote some genius lyrics for this love song too. I won’t spoil the surprise and reveal some of the best, but the singer does point out that “You know I always got sorbet.” Besides the great wordsmithing, the track is danceable to boot.

“Audacity of Huge” is off Temporary Pleasure, the group’s August release.

Massive Attack – United Snakes

Massive Attack sadly had been missing from our lives for many years now, but the long wait is over. The group released the teaser EP Splitting the Atom in October and their (yet unnamed) first full length album in seven years is due in February. Splitting got mixed reviews and, while I wasn’t enamored at first, it’s grown on me. It has one track that is very much in the Massive Attack vein and three that are quite different; while they invented trip-hop, I do agree with their choice to aggressively reinvent their sound. Helping them are Tunde Adebimpe (of TV on the Radio), Guy Garvey (of Elbow), Horace Andy and others who have made contributions for the upcoming disc.

The first single off the LP proper is “United Snakes,” and I don’t think you could mistake it for anyone other than Massive Attack. The video features intense, shape-shifting visuals, while the tune features Robert del Naja’s signature low crooning that slowly builds over a repeated drum beat. But, there’s a catch. It turns out that this is not a new track, but was released in longer form as the B-Side on 2006’s False Flag single. Ah well. I’ll take it anyway.

How To Do The DUBSTEP Dance

This is not a music video for a particular song. It is instead a how-to video to dancing to dubstep. (If you don’t know dubstep, do yourself a favor and pick up one of Burial’s albums as a good primer.) The music is heavy, electronic and bass, and it is in general is not easy to dance to. Pitchfork’s recent review of the compilation album 5: Five Years of Hyperdub highlights this and I lifted this video after reading about it there.

Please don’t ever dance like this. At least not anywhere near me.  But that said, this is pretty ridiculous. Enjoy.

Oh, and the soundtrack to this video is “The Drop” from Unitz. Not the best dubstep I’ve ever heard, but it’s OK.

The attention around Simian Mobile Disco’s latest single seem – for the most part – to be focussed around the Maurice Fulton mix, which is supported by  the majority of jocks and blogs!

However – it’s worth mentioning the Edward Scissorhands of Disco – Greg Wilson – equally has had his razor sharp fingers in the pie, and  glued together this enormous re-edit of “Cruel Intentions” featuring Gossip’s majestic Beth Ditto.

Needless to say – Greg Wilson shows his true powers in the art of editing by taking all the best parts, upping the tempo, adding some flying, glimmering synth parts with older Electro percussion before lacing the punch with Beth Ditto coming in half way through to great effect over his bongo driven groove.

It’s of course completely irresistible and shines like a giant mirrorball!

Smell the Greg Wilson flowers, and have an impromptu morning boogie along with your cuppa!

It’ll be good for you!

Mp3: Simian Mobile Disco – Cruel Intentions (Greg Wilson Re-Edit)

Simian Mobille at Webster Hall, 10.30.09

Last Friday (pre-Halloween) we danced our asses off in costume at Webster Hall for Simian Mobile Disco’s epic live set. We saw SMD at Highline in April and again at Lollapalooza in August and every time it was as if James Ford and Jas Shaw were playing exclusively for my dance circle. Another flawless set at Webster, come back soon?

More pictures from the live set can be seen HERE.

MP3: Simian Mobile Disco – Hustler (A-Trak Remix) or zShare
MP3: Simian Mobile Disco – Audacity of Huge (Dada Life Remix) or zShare

Joker’s been tearing it out with all of his production. His latest remix of Simian Mobile Disco’s Cruel Intention is no exception, taking the track into a whole new territory.

Simian Mobile Disco myspace

Simian Mobile Disco – Cruel Intention ft. Beth Ditto (Joker remix)

Yeah!!…

reading: Hayles, N. Katherine. 1999. How we became posthuman: virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press.

p. 98

“As data move across various kinds of interfaces, analogical relationships are the links that allow patterns to be preserved from one modality to another. Analogy is thus constituted as a universal exchange system that allows data to move across boundaries. It is the lingua franca of a world (re)constructed through relation rather than grasped in essence.”

Don’t you love it when a plan comes together? When two titans collide and a magic so organic and so perfect simply happens and you’re left to wonder what ever kept these forces apart in the first place? Don’t believe me? Grab a listen to U Can Dance, the blistering new single from two of the bigger gigolos we’ve come across in recent memory. On one side, we’ve got International Dee Jay Gigolos headman himself, DJ Hell and the incomparable ladies’ man of glam, Roxy Music icon Bryan Ferry. It’s fair to say the resumes of each artist is known to all of you so it really doesn’t bear repeating here. The single is release in January and will feature remixes from the likes of Carl Craig, Simian Mobile Disco and Tim Goldsworthy from the DFA crew. Heavyweights remixing heavyweights. It’s only right.

The song itself is a banger. A nine-minute mindbomb that dares you to be satisfied with a simple headbop. Oh no no…this one will get you out of your computer chair and into the club as you slither and sway to the groove. This track is hot.

DJ Hell on MySpace
DJ Hell on Facebook
Bryan Ferry on MySpace
Bryan Ferry on Facebook

“U Can Dance” by DJ Hell featuring Bryan Ferry

An almost classical one… Always good though!

Simian Mobile Disco is playing in NYC at Webster Hall tonight and I’m pretty bummed I won’t be going cause I hear they put on a hype show. Since I’ve been on a Craig David old-school-jams kick lately, I’m loving the smooth r&b feel of Joker’s remix of Simian Mobile Disco’s ”Cruel Intentions” featuring Beth Ditto from The Gossip. Joker takes the original disco vibe and gives it a funky sexy sound that makes me wanna bop.

Simian Mobile Disco ft Beth Ditto – Cruel Intentions (Joker remix)

Simian Mobile Disco (heel cool!) en na afloop internationale biertjes (voornamelijk Vlaams!) bij de Zotte met Derk.

lastnightsparty.com

Cette semaine fût très riche en live et en sortie d’Ep.

• The Proxy – 8000 Boooom da!

• Nadastorm – Save us (removed by request)  BUY IT HERE!

• Das Glow – Lite Brite (Strip Steve Remix)

Vendredi dernier il avait un livestreaming de Crookers @ Social Club!

• Crookers dj set @ FormaT – Social Club Paris 161009 (2h!)

EDIT tracklist

01. [000:00] Crookers feat. Soulwax & Mixhell – ID
02. [006:00] Noob & Brodinski – Peanuts Club (BeatauCue Remix)
03. ID
04. [015:00] Laidback Luke & Lee Mortimer – Blau (Original Mix)
05. [018:20] Crookers – Day N Nite (The Smokers Refix)
06. [020:10] ID
07. [023:10] LA Riots – The Drop
08. [024:40] Fake Blood – I Think I Like It (Original Mix)
09. ID
10. ID
11. [035:00] Major Lazer – Pon De Floor (BeatAcue Remix)
12. [038:50] Laidback Luke – My G.O.D. (Original Mix)
13. [042:00] The Toxic Avenger – The Fall (Switch Remix)
14. Crookers ft. Kelis – No Security
15. Trolley Snatcha – The Future
16. ID
17. ID
18. [057:00] Crookers – Il Brutto (Original Mix)
19. [060:00] Tomb Crew – Predator
20. [062:00] Vitalic – La Rock 01
21. [067:00] The Count & Sinden – Mega (Harvard Bass Remix)
22. [070:00] ID
23. [076:00] Chuckie – Moombah (Afrojack Remix) w/ Benny Benassi – Satisfaction (Acapella)
24. [079:00] Duke Dumont – Hoy! (Original Mix)
25. [082:00] Drop The Lime – Set Me Free (Hardvard Bass Remix)
26. [085:00] Manges – Digital Manges (Sharkslayer Dub)
27. ID
28. ID
29. ID
30. [094:30] Crookers – Knobbers (Original Mix)
31. Douster – King Of Africa
32. ID
33. Round Table Knights – On & ON
34. ID
35. ID
36. [110:00] Beni – Maximus (Harvard Bass Remix)
37. AC/DC – Thunderstruck (Crookers 10 minute remix) / (CRKRS 10min Re-Fix)
38. Together – So Much Love To Give

Retour sur l’I Love Techno pour ceux qui comme moi n’y était pas.

• The Proxy live @ ILT 09 (20min)

• Simian Mobile Disco live @ ILT 09 (35min)

• Boys Noize dj set @ ILT 09 (35min)

• Surkin dj set @ ILT 09 (52min)

EDIT tracklist

00.00 Human Ressource – Dominator
00.56 Surkin – White Knight Two (Laidback Luke Remix)
03.15 Tiga & Zyntherius – Sunglasses at Night (Popof Remix #2)
04.55 ???
06.55 ???
08.18 Joey Beltram – Energy Flash
10.00 Renaissance Man – What Is Guru (Riva Starr Remix)
11.40 Beni – Maximus (Harvard Bass Remix)
12.50 Crookers – Put Your Hands On Me (Jesse Rose Remix)
16.50 Malente – I like It (Riva Starr Remix)
17.00 ?????? vs. Too Many People Up In Here Acapella
18.40 David Guetta – Jack is Back
20.20 CLS – Can You Feel It (Laidback Luke Riddim)
21.50 NRG – Never Lost His Hardcore (Baby Doc 97 Mix)
22.30 The Count & Sinden – MEGA
24.20 The Faint – Mirror Error (das Glow Remix)
27.00 L-Vis 1990 – Compass
28.00 Toadally Krossed Out – Toads Theme (Loop)
29.00 Bobmo – Turn On, Cop Out (Ghetto Edit)
31.10 Boys Noize – Jeffer (Para One Remix)
34.40 Hardrive – Deep Inside (Harry Choo Choo Romero’s Bambossa Remix)
36.25 MSTRKRFT – Heartbreaker (Laidback Luke Remix)
38.00 Outlander – Vamp (Strip Steve Remix)
39.30 Toadally Kossed Out – Toad’s Theme
42.35 Fake Blood – The Dozens
43.00 Surkin – Ghetto Obsession
44.30 Daft Punk – Burnin’
46.00 Duck Sauce – aNYway
48.20 X-101 – Sonic Destroyer
50.00 Sebastian Tellier – Kilometer (Aeroplane Remix)
51.40 Hardvard Bass – Caked

La nouvelle vidéo de Modeselektor!

Enjoy yourself!