Hi all,
My folks are trekking up Machu Picchu, Peru on 12th May 2012, raising money for Motor Neurone Disease Association, in memory of my Dads' brothers' death from the condition.
I'm dropping word here with the idea if there's anyone who's enjoyed the projects I've done in the past, and wanted to say thanks - here's something I really believe in helping out.
Our target is £1000, with 37% achieved for this already, but any - and I mean anything, as much as a penny - would go a great deal to aiding a charity that has too little pioneers researching MND.
The info and link to my Mum and Dad's page:
Originally Posted by Mick & Lynn Buckingham
"It is ten years since John was diagnosed with MND, and within four months he passed away on 9th August 2002. Funding for researching this devastating disease is crucial as very little is known about its causes. Equally important is the support a sufferer and his family receives through dwindling NHS resources and the MNDA.This support makes an immense difference to their comfort and quality of life during this difficult time and we are so grateful to everyone who was involved in this. Please donate as much as you can so that their valuable service can continue."
http://www.justgiving.com/Mick-Lynn-Buckingham/eurl.axd/c05bb9d7ea20934b956b3b04d9c3f0b2
Thanks for reading everyone, hope this finds you well.
M
Cataloguing notable progress of www.subvertcentral.com, with interviews, mixtapes and topical reports.
Friday, 3 February 2012
Thursday, 19 January 2012
SubVersion Stop 149: Transcendental Introspection Musically Explained
Spacey music, wallflower music, droney music - that's what this showcase concerns. You might wonder how to connect them with a term. So I came up with something to bridge these three bases, much like I did "Attitude", "Chill", and "Deepersounds" variables for the second unofficial Subvert Central zine. That was a response to identikit sub-genre labelling without any emotion, minus any description. Or: once a description-inside-the-term is made, all descriptions that lead on cease to become relevant; it's all about the initial impulse. Enter arguments, pointless sub-labelling, ad infinitum. Creativity is fine - at least it's doing something - but regardless, you have to find a way to un-pigeonhole for a piece of art to hold any intellectual relevance over time.
So, I decided to connect two words: "transcendental introspection." At first you might think: "What the hell is that - psychobabble for hypochondriacs?" - but, looking again is the point. A drawing on your inner reserve and crossing a boundary - logical or illogical, thematic or non-thematic. Whereby the point musically is to inject fresh ideas into style, pitch and all and sundry else. To start with, here's the term in my 27th review for Fluid Radio last year:
http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2011/12/pascal-savy-fragments/
As stated there, "applied across genres, 'transcendental introspection' alludes to postmodernist values of artistic composition – citing relativity as a conduit to alter, and monotony of subject as a course to lease". By introspecting on your creation process, you are ideally able to transcend states, whether it's finishing your track, trimming the track, blissing out to the track. An optimistic theory to live by with the positive attributes in mind - otherwise "transcendental introspection" could become a buzzword aside, fit only for describing meditation procedure. That's where the term, I found through research, originates. But as far as I'm aware, no-one else has used it in a musical framework until now.
Of course, it could be argued that this "transcendental introspection" as a quality is really just a replacement for plain old thinking. The way I like to perceive this notion, is that there has to be a middle gate, and that for something to transcend to start with, something penetrating must take place. Ultimately a differential in the linguistic make-up, as well as a preference to separate thinking and transcendence myself. To put it another way: thinking is the start of transcendence. And as such, any journalist's piece of writing can be judged on how it applies its thinking transcendentally, to whatever it writes about.
In this nature, onto the music I've selected. Like Pascal Savy's "Fragments", it all has transcendental introspection dotted throughout. The releases are Absys Records' "Mystical Deep Vol.2" compilation, Three Metre Day's "Coasting Notes", and Lawrence Ball's "Method Music" two disc set.
Absys CD006 - Mystical Deep Vol.2 CD
Depending how far you nosed Dubstep's voiciferous sound den 2005-2012, you'll perhaps be familiar that "bass music" is the term bandied about for transcendence through House, Techno, Dubstep and all lower tempo offshoots than Drum & Bass. This doesn't mean it can't be applied to what peaks near 170bpm, and "bass music" is indeed a good mainstay for what to expect of Absys. Then you're getting a small taste verbally; otherwise breakbeat experimentation populates the sequencing of this 13 track Dubstep and D&B melange.
Perceptually, transcedental introspection - that term again - has been lacking in Drum & Bass proper since 1993. "In almost every genre, there's good and bad. You just have to pick the gems" Cycom noted in TDD 2's 2007 interview. And this theory traces equally back as far as classical music - the punctuation mark of academic circles - or further, Neanderthal man, who was knocking pieces of rock together to make good ol' fashioned noise, post-T-Rex becoming T-vexed. Where transcendental introspection tows "Mystical Deep Vol.2", is in the credence applied to tonal juxtaposition between tunes. A constant mood maintains, flexes, ricochets: it's music where you sense each producer has introspected to bring something new out, hitherto inviting you to create your own expulsion - to own the tracks in a transcendental perspective, and hence keeping them at the front of your record crate, CD pile, or hard drive sector for longer.
A bit of extra context: Ambient music was my daily critical diet 2011-2012, and it's very rare I come across anything that excites me in D&B any more. The loss of that transcendence may well be a part: fads become re-generated heavily in this genre; pick up the journalistic template for a D&B review and most writers drop in names and tracks straight away, heretofore promoting a switch on/off mechanism that comes down to familiarity breaching. We live in a perpetual vacuum of uninspired copout extremes all the while, and what you consider to be musical gold, turns into bargain bin commercial fodder with nothing to show for it even quicker. The critics get bored, you get bored, I get bored. Isn't excitement wonderful? That's a major part of just getting up in the morning. So do give this a listen if you're Electronica minded.
Check on Subvert Central
Three Metre Day - Coasting Notes CD (Self-Released)
Some days you reject leaving bed - maybe you're off work, out of work, down henceforth, trying to face the black wall. Later a thought pops into your head that lifts your mood, and you are able to transcend space and time to enter another. "Please baby please, I'll buy you a ring" might be such a lyrical strand to Michelle Willis, singer of Three Metre Day on "I'm Like An Oak", "Coasting Notes" album opener. Akin to smoothed bark, Willis has been compared with Norah Jones by one reviewer, Beth Orton another, and there's an icy playfulness to her voice that is transcendental for emotion being gradually released, and introspective in compliment to the former. The lyric is one of several niceties weaved into the group's fabric of violin, drums, pump organ and slide guitar. 3MD play sobering - but not negatively austere - pieces with transcendental introspection pittering and pattering in flurries, like your heart will upon hearing, and finally leaving on "We Now Hope We Win".
According to their biography, late 2009 was new material time. A conglomerate of several bands previously, their recent California tour was organised by James Williamson from Iggy And The Stooges, which highlights their creative diversity. Yet at the same time, all wallflower sounding, this record. Nothing approaches instrumental raunch - it's more romanticist than that, "Reputation Girl" being the raw red herring. "This Night Is Getting Old" adapts the narrative of having "things to do" and seduces by reductionist songcraft, something which also features on "Stay That Way", one of the most immediately striking LP tunes. What ultimately wins you over is that these are skilled musicians playing music which shouldn't require skill to shape, yet it does, and the subconscious adherence to this fact commands a certain respect in your psyche of the work, and all things you notice thereafter. Roots music isn't my forte, but if I can find something to really love and grow with throughout any record, it has to be worth recommending.
Go see, order, trace a measure.
Lawrence Ball - Method Music 2CD
If you belittle yourself for long enough, you'll feel relieved when you stop. The case of taking on a structural misogyny paints a historical documentary for your life that never quite "was" in the purest sense. Where Lawrence Ball has transcended this principle with "Method Music", is to obtain masses of raw external stimuli with the aid of programmer Dave Snowdon, then butter it into his own compositions, co-produced in collaboration with The Who's Pete Townshend as musical portraiture. The concept originated with Pete's "Lifehouse" project, in which a website was created to process personal data from users' in unique sound corroboration. While artistic petals of Three Metre Day might wilt in the presence of electronics, they are comfortingly bastardized into ditzy-cool runabouts by Ball, who extrapolates the theoretical implications of "Method Music" into the dedication format as well. On disc one, the springboard strings of "Sitter 10" exemplify the underlying construction: method has plenty to do with humility, plus existential realities beyond ourselves. "Sitter 12" counterintuitively dons psychopathic typewriter percussion and deciduous melodies.
On disc two, the cosmic awaits via "Galaxy 01 (For The Late Syd Barrett)"; spectral synth swirls abolishing the soda pop coda, and pirouetting flashes of subconscious junk - siphoned out - provide an uplifting 20 minute chunk of space Ambient Barrett would be glad to associate with. Its timbre pokes Theremin eeriness; its dissonance is something to revel in. Wallowing has often been an emotional pitfall of long form ambiences, but Ball's stab at it - marrying chimes with 90s warptronica synthesis - has you in perpetual, lucid trance. "Galaxy 02 (For The Late Hugh Hopper)" has strings of dolphin-esque grace jumping out of the sound sphere, bobbing their heads about and back in. The Ligeti dedication, by far the pinnacle multilayered and evolving composition of this CD; a constant stream of continually tugging notation, melding each end of the journalist's alphabet, then condensing the remnants by fridge-freezer, chilly flights of instrumental fancy. A bleeping sonic area here, next a refraction transcending onto the last. Importantly clutter is minimized by a measuring-up-to-classical-inflected restraint; an Arvo Part "Silentium" comparative, fed an electromagnetism milkshake. Flute adjoins the latter half with a fluttery texture, akin to 70s freak Folk. By the end my ears were exhausted, and it's a priori you'll require proper speakers to do the refrains and weavings due justice.
Pre-Order At Amazon
Download a free promo sample: "Sitter 17"
SubVersion's Conclusion
"Transcendental introspection" can be seen as the development of a more or less standardised code of associations, pursuing the borderline, and allowing less close-minded terminology to be present in the web world.
Personally I have a cumbrous relationship with genreification, seeing sub styles as irrelevant in the perspective of not allowing the listener a surprise, transcendent moment or critique.
We have become accustomed to putative language that threads our collective muso-society together, and unless differentiations are made from that format, paradoxically more segregation will occur.
I hope you enjoy the releases reviewed.
So, I decided to connect two words: "transcendental introspection." At first you might think: "What the hell is that - psychobabble for hypochondriacs?" - but, looking again is the point. A drawing on your inner reserve and crossing a boundary - logical or illogical, thematic or non-thematic. Whereby the point musically is to inject fresh ideas into style, pitch and all and sundry else. To start with, here's the term in my 27th review for Fluid Radio last year:
http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2011/12/pascal-savy-fragments/
As stated there, "applied across genres, 'transcendental introspection' alludes to postmodernist values of artistic composition – citing relativity as a conduit to alter, and monotony of subject as a course to lease". By introspecting on your creation process, you are ideally able to transcend states, whether it's finishing your track, trimming the track, blissing out to the track. An optimistic theory to live by with the positive attributes in mind - otherwise "transcendental introspection" could become a buzzword aside, fit only for describing meditation procedure. That's where the term, I found through research, originates. But as far as I'm aware, no-one else has used it in a musical framework until now.
Of course, it could be argued that this "transcendental introspection" as a quality is really just a replacement for plain old thinking. The way I like to perceive this notion, is that there has to be a middle gate, and that for something to transcend to start with, something penetrating must take place. Ultimately a differential in the linguistic make-up, as well as a preference to separate thinking and transcendence myself. To put it another way: thinking is the start of transcendence. And as such, any journalist's piece of writing can be judged on how it applies its thinking transcendentally, to whatever it writes about.
In this nature, onto the music I've selected. Like Pascal Savy's "Fragments", it all has transcendental introspection dotted throughout. The releases are Absys Records' "Mystical Deep Vol.2" compilation, Three Metre Day's "Coasting Notes", and Lawrence Ball's "Method Music" two disc set.
Absys CD006 - Mystical Deep Vol.2 CD
Depending how far you nosed Dubstep's voiciferous sound den 2005-2012, you'll perhaps be familiar that "bass music" is the term bandied about for transcendence through House, Techno, Dubstep and all lower tempo offshoots than Drum & Bass. This doesn't mean it can't be applied to what peaks near 170bpm, and "bass music" is indeed a good mainstay for what to expect of Absys. Then you're getting a small taste verbally; otherwise breakbeat experimentation populates the sequencing of this 13 track Dubstep and D&B melange.
Perceptually, transcedental introspection - that term again - has been lacking in Drum & Bass proper since 1993. "In almost every genre, there's good and bad. You just have to pick the gems" Cycom noted in TDD 2's 2007 interview. And this theory traces equally back as far as classical music - the punctuation mark of academic circles - or further, Neanderthal man, who was knocking pieces of rock together to make good ol' fashioned noise, post-T-Rex becoming T-vexed. Where transcendental introspection tows "Mystical Deep Vol.2", is in the credence applied to tonal juxtaposition between tunes. A constant mood maintains, flexes, ricochets: it's music where you sense each producer has introspected to bring something new out, hitherto inviting you to create your own expulsion - to own the tracks in a transcendental perspective, and hence keeping them at the front of your record crate, CD pile, or hard drive sector for longer.
A bit of extra context: Ambient music was my daily critical diet 2011-2012, and it's very rare I come across anything that excites me in D&B any more. The loss of that transcendence may well be a part: fads become re-generated heavily in this genre; pick up the journalistic template for a D&B review and most writers drop in names and tracks straight away, heretofore promoting a switch on/off mechanism that comes down to familiarity breaching. We live in a perpetual vacuum of uninspired copout extremes all the while, and what you consider to be musical gold, turns into bargain bin commercial fodder with nothing to show for it even quicker. The critics get bored, you get bored, I get bored. Isn't excitement wonderful? That's a major part of just getting up in the morning. So do give this a listen if you're Electronica minded.
Check on Subvert Central
Three Metre Day - Coasting Notes CD (Self-Released)
Some days you reject leaving bed - maybe you're off work, out of work, down henceforth, trying to face the black wall. Later a thought pops into your head that lifts your mood, and you are able to transcend space and time to enter another. "Please baby please, I'll buy you a ring" might be such a lyrical strand to Michelle Willis, singer of Three Metre Day on "I'm Like An Oak", "Coasting Notes" album opener. Akin to smoothed bark, Willis has been compared with Norah Jones by one reviewer, Beth Orton another, and there's an icy playfulness to her voice that is transcendental for emotion being gradually released, and introspective in compliment to the former. The lyric is one of several niceties weaved into the group's fabric of violin, drums, pump organ and slide guitar. 3MD play sobering - but not negatively austere - pieces with transcendental introspection pittering and pattering in flurries, like your heart will upon hearing, and finally leaving on "We Now Hope We Win".
According to their biography, late 2009 was new material time. A conglomerate of several bands previously, their recent California tour was organised by James Williamson from Iggy And The Stooges, which highlights their creative diversity. Yet at the same time, all wallflower sounding, this record. Nothing approaches instrumental raunch - it's more romanticist than that, "Reputation Girl" being the raw red herring. "This Night Is Getting Old" adapts the narrative of having "things to do" and seduces by reductionist songcraft, something which also features on "Stay That Way", one of the most immediately striking LP tunes. What ultimately wins you over is that these are skilled musicians playing music which shouldn't require skill to shape, yet it does, and the subconscious adherence to this fact commands a certain respect in your psyche of the work, and all things you notice thereafter. Roots music isn't my forte, but if I can find something to really love and grow with throughout any record, it has to be worth recommending.
Go see, order, trace a measure.
Lawrence Ball - Method Music 2CD
If you belittle yourself for long enough, you'll feel relieved when you stop. The case of taking on a structural misogyny paints a historical documentary for your life that never quite "was" in the purest sense. Where Lawrence Ball has transcended this principle with "Method Music", is to obtain masses of raw external stimuli with the aid of programmer Dave Snowdon, then butter it into his own compositions, co-produced in collaboration with The Who's Pete Townshend as musical portraiture. The concept originated with Pete's "Lifehouse" project, in which a website was created to process personal data from users' in unique sound corroboration. While artistic petals of Three Metre Day might wilt in the presence of electronics, they are comfortingly bastardized into ditzy-cool runabouts by Ball, who extrapolates the theoretical implications of "Method Music" into the dedication format as well. On disc one, the springboard strings of "Sitter 10" exemplify the underlying construction: method has plenty to do with humility, plus existential realities beyond ourselves. "Sitter 12" counterintuitively dons psychopathic typewriter percussion and deciduous melodies.
On disc two, the cosmic awaits via "Galaxy 01 (For The Late Syd Barrett)"; spectral synth swirls abolishing the soda pop coda, and pirouetting flashes of subconscious junk - siphoned out - provide an uplifting 20 minute chunk of space Ambient Barrett would be glad to associate with. Its timbre pokes Theremin eeriness; its dissonance is something to revel in. Wallowing has often been an emotional pitfall of long form ambiences, but Ball's stab at it - marrying chimes with 90s warptronica synthesis - has you in perpetual, lucid trance. "Galaxy 02 (For The Late Hugh Hopper)" has strings of dolphin-esque grace jumping out of the sound sphere, bobbing their heads about and back in. The Ligeti dedication, by far the pinnacle multilayered and evolving composition of this CD; a constant stream of continually tugging notation, melding each end of the journalist's alphabet, then condensing the remnants by fridge-freezer, chilly flights of instrumental fancy. A bleeping sonic area here, next a refraction transcending onto the last. Importantly clutter is minimized by a measuring-up-to-classical-inflected restraint; an Arvo Part "Silentium" comparative, fed an electromagnetism milkshake. Flute adjoins the latter half with a fluttery texture, akin to 70s freak Folk. By the end my ears were exhausted, and it's a priori you'll require proper speakers to do the refrains and weavings due justice.
Pre-Order At Amazon
Download a free promo sample: "Sitter 17"
SubVersion's Conclusion
"Transcendental introspection" can be seen as the development of a more or less standardised code of associations, pursuing the borderline, and allowing less close-minded terminology to be present in the web world.
Personally I have a cumbrous relationship with genreification, seeing sub styles as irrelevant in the perspective of not allowing the listener a surprise, transcendent moment or critique.
We have become accustomed to putative language that threads our collective muso-society together, and unless differentiations are made from that format, paradoxically more segregation will occur.
I hope you enjoy the releases reviewed.
Sunday, 25 December 2011
SubVersion Stop 148: SubVersion's End Of 2011 Charts
SubVersion Contributors
Muttley
01. Favourite track: Nebula - Escapism (Astral Soul, Subtle Audio 005 EP)
02. Favourite album: Grouper - A.I.A: Alien Observer (Yellowelectric)
03. Favourite label: History Always Favours The Winners (James Leyland Kirby)
04. Favourite mixtape: The Daily Street 013: Vandera - 60 Tunes, 60 Minutes, C Minor
05. Favourite SC thread: Statto - other stuff you're interested in
06. Favourite gig: Duotone, Jane Griffiths & Colin Fletcher @ Warneford Chapel, Oxford, 14th June
07. Favourite book: Lucid Dreaming: The Paradox Of Consciousness During Sleep - ed. Celia Green & Charles Mcreery
08. Favourite food (or Snax): Tandoori Masakan Lamb & Mushroom Rice with Peshwari Naan
09. Favourite guilty pleasure: Joking the parents' canine namesake Mutley is Edward Monkton's "Pig Of Happiness" and cheering myself up consequentially
10. Favourite random moment: Watching Mongrels and recalling certain character lines in quiet time
Jonathan
01. Favourite track: Formication - I Dare You (Binad Chorad mix)
02. Favourite album: Alek Stark presents Elektro Domésticos 3
03. Favourite label: Weevil Neighbourhood
04. Favourite mixtape: Heinrich Mueller - Resident Advisor 250
05. Favourite SC thread: Naphta - porn is good for society
06. Favourite gig: Ruins Alone @ Rammel 38, Nottingham, 5th October
07. Favourite book: Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme - ed. Ivan Coyote & Zena Sharman
08. Favourite food (or Snax): Homemade chocolate fridge cake
09. Favourite guilty pleasure: Arguing about sex and gender on blogs and forums
10. Favourite random moment: Finishing whatever big job I've just finished and then doing nothing at all
Fellow Subvert Central Members
dionysus
01. Favourite track: Ben Howard - Black Flies
02. Favourite album: Ben Howard - Every Kingdom
03. Favourite label: Exit
04. Favourite mixtape: A DJ Flight show
05. Favourite SC thread: One started by Annastay
06. Favourite gig: Ben Howard (I went to one gig this year)
07. Favourite book: Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood (I will never watch the film)
08. Favourite food (or Snax): My Bento Boxes :)
09. Favourite guilty pleasure: Making breakbeat Jungle with krusty basses
10. Favourite random moment: Falling in love with Claude Monet, Poplars on the Epte, at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh (the blue!)
MetaLX
01. Favourite track: Kadzaty Stanislav's talk-show "Uatsamonga". North Ossetian Radio Broadcasting (Ossetian Language).
02. Favourite album: Sly & Robbie - This Is Crucial Reggae (Trojan, 2010)
03. Favourite label: ---
04. Favourite mixtape: Curly Swipes & DJ Euphoria Live on Renegade Radio 13 May, 2011. Oldskool.
05. Favourite SC thread: Statto - other stuff you're interested in
06. Favourite gig: Watching mates Ryan Mystik and Lion Fiyah perform at a bar called Tropics. Reggae at Tropics in general.
07. Favourite book: Chernow, Ron. 2005. Alexander Hamilton. New York: Penguin.
08. Favourite food (or Snax): Coffee
09. Favourite guilty pleasure: Working from home
10. Favourite random moment: Getting stuck at an airport waiting for a 4 hour flight delay, getting battered on ale knowing that my wife was picking me up and driving, then seeing a friend of mine who was the stewardess who gave me a whole empty row of my own for the flight home.
Slothrop
01. Favourite track: It turns out most of the tracks I've been listening to this year have been from last year. I'll give it to LV ft Joshua Idehen - Northern Line for shameless Londoncentricism.
02. Favourite album: Zomby - Dedication (4AD)
03. Favourite label: Hessle Audio, for the compilation "116 And Rising".
04. Favourite mixtape: Royal T Fact Mix
05. Favourite SC thread: One of the Friday threads
06. Favourite gig: Past Present Future Space Time festival @ Wysing Arts Centre
07. Favourite book: Tillie Olsen - Tell Me A Riddle
08. Favourite food (or Snax): too many to list, but Shana Frozen Parathas edge it.
09. Favourite guilty pleasure: godawful electro-house-rap-pop on Kiss FM at the climbing wall. Pitbull, LMFAO, Afrojack, Katy Perry, the lot...
10. Favourite random moment: seeing Sunburned Hand of Man doing their STUNNING live accompaniment to Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda in a Labour Club in Cambridge with regulars playing pool at the other end of the bar as if nothing unusual was going on...
noisemonkey
01. Favourite track: M83 - Midnight City
02. Favourite album: M83 - Hurry Up We're Dreaming
03. Favourite label: Scientific Wax
04. Favourite mixtape: Mav's 6 hour Seba mix
05. Favourite SC thread: A Friday thread
06. Favourite gig: Supporting Remarc @ Hole In The Wall, Exeter
07. Favourite book: Comte de Lautréamont - Les Chants De Maldoror
08. Favourite food (or Snax): Morrocan topped Hummus
09. Favourite guilty pleasure: Too much synth pop
10. Favourite random moment: Getting booked to warm up for a Filipino comedy duo
Thursday, 15 December 2011
SubVersion Stop 147: Muttley - Seeds Of Inspiration (December 2011)
Two people sharing time together, swimming and fishing, science, mental and physical health, sociology, language, chronology, competitiveness, computer games, gardening, travel; all these things my folks allowed me in some way or another, and those subjects make their way into track titles in "Seeds Of Inspiration". I made this for their 15th wedding anniversary, falling this Saturday. The music concurrently inspires me to get up and stimulate myself with fresh experiences, whether that walking to unforeseen areas of the city, gigging, journalling, review writing, or reading books. Plus, my fusions here cast illusion to things being "new" - until I've worn out the mixtape that is. Maybe this will plant seeds of inspiration in you as well.
00:00 Will Long - 2 (Rosy Reflections MC40, Avant Archive, 2011)
00:00 Alio Die & Amelia Cuni - Water Memories (Apsaras LP, Projekt, 2001)
04:30 Carbon Based Lifeforms - Held Together By Gravity (TwentyThree LP, Ultimae, 2011)
06:00 A Winged Victory For The Sullen - Steep Hills Of Vicodin Tears (Self-titled LP, Erased Tapes, 2011)
07:31 Mike Patton - 53-Weight Of Consequences (The Solitude Of Prime Numbers LP, Ipecac, 2011)
10:54 Jo Quail - Rex Infractus (From The Sea LP, Self-released, 2010)
14:39 Library Tapes - May [Variation] (Kanshin LP, Kanshin, 2011)
15:32 Three Metre Day - We Now Hope We Win (Coasting Notes LP, Self-released, 2011)
22:39 Lana Del Ray - Video Games (Video Games Single, Stranger Records, 2011)
23:03 David Tagg - Canna (Dream Compost EP, Self-released, 2011)
27:14 Fleet Foxes - Grown Ocean (Helplessness Blues LP, Sub Pop, 2011)
Hear it here
Friday, 2 December 2011
SubVersion Stop 146: Muttley - Hurt (December 2011)
Sparked by Statto's "Agony Aunt Thread" on Subvert Central, where he links Clarisse Thorn's "How To Break Up And Take It Like A Champ", "Hurt" came together in less than a day, designed as a movement-based archetype model, of sound that will assist listeners overcoming their heartache. Myself: I've been hurt by three women in the last three annums; the first through unintelligence, the second lack of maturity, and the third: where we drifted apart as friends despite my best efforts. Vowing to never contact again last month, it made sense to sculpt something where areas of downfall are depicted and possibly improved. In doing so, you can map areas of Clarisse's article to lyrics in the mixtape, emotions you received, and dispelling grief.
Movement 1 - 00:00 - 07:00 - Bitter Energy
00:00 Ekca Liena - Landing (Downer Supine CD-R, Entropy, 2011)
00:14 Paul Jebanasam - Music For The Church Of St. John The Baptist (Bristol Old Wall live recording, Sublive, 2011)
02:19 Joe McMahon - Empty Sidewalks (3AM LP, Earth Mantra, 2011)
03:01 Cindytalk - Floating Clouds (Hold Everything Dear LP, Editions Mego, 2011)
05:18 Bruno Sanfilippo - Spirit Allies (Subliminal Pulse LP, Wanderings, 2011)
Movement 2 - 07:00 - 15:12 - The Romancer
08:04 - A Winged Victory For The Sullen - A Symphony Pathetique (A Winged Victory For The Sullen LP, Erased Tapes, 2011)
12:42 Thomas Dolby - Love Is A Loaded Pistol (A Map Of The Floating City LP, EMI, 2011)
Movement 3 - 15:12 - 24:19 - Cadence The Pistol
15:24 Matt Bartram - Cadence (The Dreaming Invisible....... LP, Drifting Falling, 2011)
16:32 Little Dragon - Seconds (Ritual Union LP, Sony Music, 2011)
20:48 Chapel Club - O Maybe I (Palace LP, Polydor, 2011)
24:19 end
Download
Movement 1 - 00:00 - 07:00 - Bitter Energy
00:00 Ekca Liena - Landing (Downer Supine CD-R, Entropy, 2011)
00:14 Paul Jebanasam - Music For The Church Of St. John The Baptist (Bristol Old Wall live recording, Sublive, 2011)
02:19 Joe McMahon - Empty Sidewalks (3AM LP, Earth Mantra, 2011)
03:01 Cindytalk - Floating Clouds (Hold Everything Dear LP, Editions Mego, 2011)
05:18 Bruno Sanfilippo - Spirit Allies (Subliminal Pulse LP, Wanderings, 2011)
Movement 2 - 07:00 - 15:12 - The Romancer
08:04 - A Winged Victory For The Sullen - A Symphony Pathetique (A Winged Victory For The Sullen LP, Erased Tapes, 2011)
12:42 Thomas Dolby - Love Is A Loaded Pistol (A Map Of The Floating City LP, EMI, 2011)
Movement 3 - 15:12 - 24:19 - Cadence The Pistol
15:24 Matt Bartram - Cadence (The Dreaming Invisible....... LP, Drifting Falling, 2011)
16:32 Little Dragon - Seconds (Ritual Union LP, Sony Music, 2011)
20:48 Chapel Club - O Maybe I (Palace LP, Polydor, 2011)
24:19 end
Download
Friday, 4 November 2011
SubVersion Stop 145: Fanu - Serendipity (Lightless)
The art of serendipity: stumbling upon good things by accident - immensely gratifying to a modern liver. But like chocolate without weight gain, or a holiday with no time constraints, it's equally worrying when you indulge too often. Janne Hatula, the man behind the Fanu indoctrination, his popularity edging envelopes since 2003, "drumfunk" later shifting from buzzword to attention buzz-off, has no qualm, foraging samples across cultures, waxing them with more drum fills than The Winstons could shake a stick at.
With just heavy beats and bass to unite the album narrative, it's possible "Serendipity" could be a bland dish in the modern age, uber-production sphere. Janne's inspirations include Photek, and I'd agree that he makes snoresome beats today. Yet a subjective flaw of "Serendipity" is it's laborious 79 minute duration. However, Fanu counters this criticism with a variegated track flow, and merging into trancier melodic territory than his past albums. Ultimately it's a collection of tracks, whereby he's mentioned online processing it after a skateboarding injury allowed him the mental space to work proper.
Where once there was Twin Peaks meta data, in replacement comes crackling firework synth samples to excite grey matter. As well as the trademark vocal layers, here also spoken in Finnish - he thought English only sounded cool prior to this - the move is something that breathes oxygen into the breakbeat Jungle glaze by it's lack of synonymity. Meanwhile Greenleaf's scattergun verses on "Shatner Rap" probe from Stateside, like "a doc tor" overlooking the alt. hip hop answering machine, dropping slick off-kilter tendencies against rump-shaking drumwork to bridge the middle of the record with fairly unique style.
"Fairly" - a question "is Fanu repeating himself?" - by originality dissipating in favour of a signature touchstone (half-time breaks, film noir and rough-textured production) comes under conjecture with every artist that establishes oneself, but I can interpret from "Serendipity" that the spark I cherished from those early leftfield label releases isn't lost. The common energetic bond remains in colouring lower frequencies over the breakbeat, moreover a historical frequency pitch to the Old School, and a venture into further lower tempos, such as Dubstep territory, subsequently also veering towards the liveliness of his collaboration with experimentalist stalwart Bill Laswell on 2008's "Lodge".
If there's a fanfare to be had in "Serendipity", it's the joyous Hotpants machine-gun-and-trailblazer-atmos splatter of "I Can't Sleep", dropping an ounce of fatness and all the better for it contextually, while earlier on the dramatic breakbeat butchery of "Jupiter" lodges the Amen into a Pong Atari module, claustrophobic to the extreme but exalted by affinity with split personality edit juxtapositions. Janne's not afraid to show off his breaks collection, nevertheless he keeps things raw and the result is an organic interlocking minus the torpor. "Serendipity", fundamentally, continues the quality level of the Fanu name, sacrificing the This Mortal Coil epicness of hallmark "Siren Song" but coming off mature as a path on the Finnish Ronin's journey. Whether you stumble on this because of intention or fate remains up to spiritual guidance, but there's worth in the gale, whether or not you set sail for it.
Listen and order @ Subvert Central
Saturday, 29 October 2011
SubVersion Stop 144: Charlie Baxter + Space Heroes Of The People + Left Outer Join @ The Wheatsheaf, Wednesday 26th October 2011
Synth music: not a tough guy's exercise. There you are, toying with your keyboard, a post Roxy Music Eno when 3, 2, 1, you're in the 80s room with a floppy hairdo, and if lucky, several ladies in tow. Tonight's gig might be lacking some females, but one step at a time: that relationship is a situationist nag, like trying to teach Kevin the teenager math over fat raves with his mate Perry.
Right off the bat, Moshka's attendees have a feast for the ears. Left Outer Join, all hard Techno poise, keeps his live glow stick drumming setup and Roland machine locked over a swelling backdrop of progressive goa synth-lines. His music fails to threaten but there's particularly solid genesis with his mightily energetic performance. At points we're in proper proto-Drum & Bass vibes circa 90s T Power, scattered snares chipping away at your ears but always avoiding a screeching flow.
Space Heroes Of The People follow suit with a tumult of decayed synthetic fizz, then step up the trashy percussion and 4/4 rumble. Echoing melodic innocence from 80s post-punkers Propaganda, showing a varied palette that takes in Nu Rave and filters it through a ferris wheel of proportionate vocoder tidbits and pounding bass, rather like an autochanger from dull to cool, Tim Day's vocal effecting makes the natural timbre of voice seem second rate by comparison, squelchy bleeps adorning the mid section of the set alongside Jo Edge's distant double bass. The show droops and stirs like a malfunctioning feminist juggernaut, their set ending with a simple "thank you", affirming technology doesn't get in the way of heart when it's needed most.
"Oh my god it's Techno music" on his T-shirt: a gimmicky endorsement to Indie's fervour with Dance in recent times? But Charlie Baxter pulls it off with a mullet to spare. Kicking out a Ramones surf-punk guitar shuffle, the Jungle tempo yields high octane rhythm sections, powered with 'gimme adrenaline' lyrical phrases. He approaches a more giddy version of Pendulum with those neon synths and maximalist figures, but it all sounds coherent and lacking in cheese. These are purposeful tracks filled with vim, especially his white boy cover of "Play That Funky Music". Then he gets to gesturing the audience for what they had for dinner. "Maybe I should write a song about pizza" he muses. If it's as engaging as his new single, "Charlie Baxter's In My House", a runabout featuring Europe's "The Final Countdown", he'll be one to cook for in future. A stellar night all round.
Charlie Baxter: MySpace
Space Heroes Of The People: Facebook
Moshka on Nightshift forum
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