My first interest into Krautrock beyond Kraftwerk. I found NEU! ’75(1975, duh) when I was 17 and have yet to stop listening to it eight years later.
NEU! was the brainchild of Kraftwerk’s Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother. Anything Rother touches, I like; which you will see in future posts.
This track is off of NEU! 2 (1973) and is a fine example of Rother’s melting guitar melodies, and (along with almost every other NEU! song) displays Dinger’s self-invented Motorik beat.
Thinking back about what was probably the biggest turning point for me musicially was hearing and seeing Beck in his New Pollution video. I remember the first time i watched it all the way thru, i loved the way he dressed and how he performed the song in the video and then the video started going all over the place and i thought it was genius, every second of it from the Gainsbourg references to the all out odd moments where that wrestler is drinking milk. Well now he is still all over the place but it all still sounds like Beck. This new track off his latest LP has really grabbed me, its not as imaginative as New Pollution but that’s fine, it holds its own.
If you ever wanted to hear Moroder just do something like Spinal Tap’s Space Jazz Odyssey but way way better the new Lindstrøm LP which is only 3 songs but all 3 are over 10 mins does a perfect job. Lovely melodies but some i think i remember from other songs like this one sounds like a track from the movie Blood Sport which isn’t a bad thing trust me that soundtrack is pretty solid.
One person that’s on fire right now is DJ Koze, some of the best tracks coming out are from him, he does nice poppy late night remix for Matias Aguayo.
This last song i posted because i don’t have the original on this computer but i thought you might enjoy this remix of it. Part of me just wants to wait and get Kate Bush’s original up but the Chromatic’s kept it about the original and not about them which i liked.
This week David Byrne and Brian Eno released something for the first time in 30 years, the album is called “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today” and the last song posted “The River” is from it. I just picked it up online and pretty much made yesterday a whole day of Byrne + Eno and wanted to share a few tracks from The Catherine Wheel score. As for the new record, i found a lot more straight forward and vocal which is great but i personally wanted more rhythmic sounds accompanying each track since they are both genius in my opinion when it comes to percussion.
Brian Eno/David Byrne – Black Flag
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Brian Eno/David Byrne – My Big Hands (Fall Through the Cracks)
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Brian Eno/David Byrne – Dinosaur
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Brian Eno/David Byrne – Eggs In A Briar Patch
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Brian Eno/David Byrne – The River
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Also, If you haven’t seen this already, David Byrne made an organ that sits in the middle of an abandon building that triggers parts of the building to make a sound, it’s really interesting, sadly it’s not too far from me and all my trips and plans to make it out always fall thru, I might just go by myself.
Tristan Perich is a visual artist and musician doing some very interesting work in both fields. His music project, called 1-Bit Music, is an actual circuit that plays back music at 1-bit. All you electronic musicians and engineers will know that 1-bit is the lowest possible representation of digital music, meaning that the resulting audio is quite stripped down from the analog form we know and love. You may recognize the sound as reminiscent of old console games from the ’80s many of which were at 8-bits. Although I wouldn’t be listening to this in my car, it’s interesting to hear someone pushing digital audio in the other direction while the rest of us record in 32-bit floating point. Listen below for Tristan’s version of Fischerspooner’s Just Let Go. Visit his site for more songs.
Tristan Perich – Just Let Go (Fischerspooner)
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Perich also does machine drawings using a pen apparatus he designed. You can see some examples above or check out his site for more.
I have some new favorites to share, some unreleased but downloadable here and some that the original might of come out before we we’re born.
I know it says Alan Parson’s Project but don’t pass this up because there’s this talented musician that does amazing edits to songs called Pilooski. Almost everything i’ve heard by him is worth picking up. This one is my favorite, its a 8+ min slow burn.
I’m not sure if you’ve been in the record stores last week but the Wolfgang Voigt – Gas – CD+Book hit the shelves. It’s probably worth every penny plus it has unreleased Gas material on the CD. I bring this up because debuting his first release is The Sight Below which has a very similar feel except it’s more guitar/shoegaze based. He is giving away a 3 track EP for free, definitely worth downloading and each track features a different cover compliments of Michael Cina from WeWorkForThem. You can also see him debut Live with Tycho in Seattle in September.
As for this The Blue Nile track it’s a deep slow jam from 1989 that i heard this Friday night around 4 am at a bar in Brooklyn called Coco 66. I have a feeling this sound will be redone by DFA post Hercules and Love Affair maybe late 2009. Also, it reminds me of the tracks by Hatchback and Rollmottle that i posted earlier this month.
Alright, now something upbeat and catchy, Sweden’s Tennishero is in the same vein as maybe early Royksopp, the dangerous thing is how this vocal gets stuck in your head. One thing i love about the formula for this track is that its a dance track but he keeps it close to pop music length. If all this melodic dance music that i think is better than most top 40 ever wanted to get bigger people need shorter edits and it could probably make a great impact in the music industry but the versions that come out are usually 6 mins+ which is enough time to take a great melody and wear it out.
The Alan Parsons Project – I Robot (Pilooski Edit)
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The Sight Below – With Her Kiss (I’d Pass The Sky)
If you haven’t picked up this Kevin Drew record, it’s a must have in my book, great to put on if you have friends over and you ran out of Junior Boys or Kings Of Convenience to play and you played out your old Broken Social Scene CD. Its got alil more rock but its the perfect amount.
This Gang Gang Dance track is pretty gnarly, its one of more beautiful art rock tracks out there that doesn’t neglect the audience and it’s really inviting if you can take on the intense parts.
This track doesn’t make any sense among the others but it’s a nice follow up to Scott’s post the other day. I saw Soviet on tour maybe 5 years ago with about 8 people total at the show and i thought they we’re super entertaining and had this unique look that wasn’t all too 80’s or neon hipster sh*t show like half the crap thats flying around right now.
I don’t know much about M. Ward, one thing i noticed was it reminded me of a cleaned up version of Bibio.
I always try to find electronic songs that are perfect to play for everyone since the genre has such a bad rep. Don’t get me wrong about 85% or even more of electronic music is pretty bad but that doesn’t the whole genre has to be set next to all the trance compilation CD’s at Best Buy. I picked this Portable track because it has these lounge/world sounds that people are use to hearing, so why not nudge people closer to something that is on the lighter side of deep tribal house.
As for Lusine, he might be one of my favorite producers when it comes down to making all his sounds sound so good each and everytime. Every bell and kick sounds like its right in front of you straight out of the box.
Shigeto is brand spanking new, i find myself always skipping straight to this song on my mp3 player. The beginning is soo crunchy & loose, it sounds like it wants to start up but the track keeps falling apart in your ear. At the 2 min mark is what i wait for, its the ultimate lush opposite of what you started out listening to.
Efdemin doesn’t need much help with any plugs, this record was on every electronic publication’s top 10 list for 2007, i thought maybe if anyone missed out that here’s another chance to check it out for free.
Last night I was working on a poster for the upcoming Terrabyte 3 show (L.A. Sept. 14). I had the MP3s on shuffle and Ladytron’s Mu-Tron came up. It prompted me to go back and play the rest of their 2001 release 604 in it’s entirety. It’s not that I really forgot about Ladytron, I guess I just forgot how good they are. Maybe I played them out back when Light and Magic was in full swing. They have a new album out entitled Velocifero which is in the vein of their previous record Witching Hour. Both albums are a departure from the 80’s inspired electro sound of 604 and Light And Magic. It’s good that they evolved (the two latest albums are superb in their own rights), it’s just sad that we won’t be getting any more gems along these lines:
