The Man With The Iron Fists

As if the RZA playing Blind Master in the new GI Joe film wasn't hilariously awesome enough, the first trailer for The Man With The Iron Fists just happened. Just watch. To say he's been planning it for years is an understatement - this is that kung fu epic RZA's been pretending he lives in for two decades. Fuck yeah.

Auntie Flo - Future Rhythm Machine (Huntley & Palmers)

Auntie Flo - Future Rhythm Machine (Huntley & Palmers, 12 May)


We've blogged a couple of times about Auntie Flo in the past and are pleased to see Huntley and Palmers throwing their weight behind this very interesting project, releasing this mini-album/ extended EP that predates both Oh My Days and Goan Highlife. Anyone who believes that electronic music lacks soul, or has grown jaded with DJ culture and production needs to hear this album, as its one of the most invigoratingly vibrant electronic releases of the past couple of years - a whirlwind mess of global-influences and non-electronic sounds looped, twisted and infused with the inherent energy of great house music. Tribal acapellas rub shoulders with Latin American percussive riffs, kwaito drum patterning and Caribbean jazz, with a solid mechanical undercarriage tying it all together. This melting pot of styles is probably most succesful on the aptly-titled he Makes the People Come Together, which switches the drum samples from 303s, to Latin American, to South African without ever dropping a beat, a technique which implies a sense of universal rhythm permeating the record.

Working with Glasgow's favourite Springbok Esa (Subculture / H&P) and Chilean vocalist Mamacita, Future Rhythm Machine manages to cram a great deal into just over 30 minutes, including two short, loop-driven sketches, and one stunning single entitled  La Samaria. Described by Twitch as "...so beautiful. It should be a hit single in a just world", and featuring the aforementioned Mamacita, La Samaria is a rich dancefloor anthem masquerading as a summery pop song, and is utterly awesome. The only criticism I have for this is that mini-albums feel infuriatingly short, but with the quality of material, that's swiftly dismissed.

Monolake - Ghosts (Imbalance Computer Music)

Monolake - Ghosts (Imbalance Computer Music)

Robert Henke's Monolake project returns with its first full length since 2009's foray into untreated sound Silence, this time utilising more drum and bass-inflected structures to explore the malleability of sound. One of Henke's major achievements has been his continual ability to utterly reinvent the contemporary zeitgeist, redefining the minimal sound with Hong Kong, creating a terrifying industrial/ breakbeat hybrid on Momentum, and reinterpreting the merging strands of dubstep and techno as an experimental untreated album on Silence; as such, it's slightly jarring to hear a man widely regarded as being at the cutting edge of electronic music's philosophy and science reacquainting himself with his D'nB and Breakbeat roots. It's fair to say that credibility of both genres has been severely strained over time, with the tools of the trade (funky drummer, reeses bassline etc) having been overworked to the point of boredom, or pushed to extremes of speed and volume that inevitably burn out.

Whilst Ghosts opens with a rapid 2-step pulse and lfo-wobbled sub-bass that sounds very breaksy, it's immediately recognisable as Monolake, with dessicated vocal snippets and armour-piercing percussion that sounds like absolutely no-one else - it's Henke at his most terrifying; doomier than ever, haunted by freakishly engineered vocals and sprays of digital glitch. Whilst much of the tempo of the album is decidedly upbeat, as a musical journey, it's a slow-moving beast that takes gazes on Goan psychadelia and eastern mysticism, playing out through singing bowls and the echoing sounds of great valleys. Creating natural acoustic phenomena through digitial synthesis, then feeding them into an array of digital effects is a stark contrast to Silence's unmastered beauty, and as such, even the more ambient moments of the album feel imbued with darkness and doom.

Ultimately, any new record from Monolake is happily recieved, and even total curveballs such as silence, and Henke's inimitable style makes for compelling listening. With Silence and Ghosts the first two parts of trilogy, I'm eagerly anticipating the final third.

I tried very hard to think of a reason.

*insert journalistic angle for posting an old Demdike Stare video*





I fucking love Demdike Stare.

It's time to play the music, It's time to light the lights.

I'm sure most people have seen the various trailers for the forthcoming Muppets movie, all of which spoof various other films / genres. For those that haven't, it hints that Jim Henson productions may be about to turn out another one of those slices of genius that made them a smash across all ages groups - Muppet Treaure Island, Muppet Christmas Carol etc. Either way, with The Muppets guest hosting WWE Raw (best thing WWE's produced since Wrestlemania X7) and generally appearing across the strata of pop culture, I felt it worth reminding readers of one of those moments that made them a worldwide phenomenon. You can't tell me this isn't awesome.

Here's a few more.

Gonzo Meets John Cleese
'Cabin Fever' from Muppet Treasure Island
The Entire Star Wars episode - The Star Wars Christmas special can fucking eat it.
Pigs sing In The Navy and Macho Man

Wireman - Monobloc

Wireman - Monobloc (Inner Surface Music)

Wireman's debut EP for Prime Numbers made massive waves, stunning everyone from bloggers and DJs to mainstream dance press, leading to Trus'me slightly ludicrously describing him as "A melting pot where Carl Craig, Deepchord, Burial and Drexciya are all put together". Admittedly, there's aspects of all those artists in Wireman's signature style, but the inevitable hype backlash kicked in fairly shortly after. With this new 12" for freshly launched Inner Surface Music, the Paisley-born producer begins to cement his place amongst such big names, with a package of tech-house variants that take in aspects of Burial's post-industrial nihilism, classic techno, and the hazy, sonambulic dynamics of great dub. With a nasty acid bassline and dubby delay work, the title track is great raw-sounding techno that demands to be played loud, and will undoubtedly be making every big name playlist by the end of the year. Slightly less accesible, but my definite favourite is Distance on the flip side, which mimics Andy Stott with it's delicate, yet forceful style - its low-key synth wafts disguising the stripped-back minimalism that holds it together. Repetitive and reductionist without ever growing boring, it builds into a beautifully smacked-out, dreamy climax. Closing off the record is the surreal funk of To The Sleeper, which jacks out off-kilter acid lines designed to fuck shit up at 6am. Quality work - all eyes on Paisley.

Special School - Wilbur & Orville (free download)

Special School - The Album

Brighton's finest, MC Elemental, busts out another album of completely ludicrious steampunk/ fantasy / pulp crime inflected hip-hop backed up with solid beats and a totally screwy sense of humour, this time teaming up with Jon Clark and DJ Maxwell under the Special Schools moniker. Its.... well, hard to properly describe. Essentially, if you think that any one narrative is instantly and constantly improved by the gratuitous addition of zombies, monkeys, insanely humongous giant mecha, doomsday devices, crumpets, jam, cigars, aliens, mustache wax, pseudo-history and references to really awful 80s action movies, this will probably keep you entertained for a good while.

You can buy the album for a mere £5 over at Elemental's homepage, or for those a little uncertain what they're getting into (who they? - Ed), you can download Wilbur and Orville from This Link to give you a taste of what to expect.

In Praise of El Santo

A legend, a pop culture icon, and the face of a thousand ludicrous B-movies. El Santo is truly Mexico's greatest export. He starred in such greats as El Santo vs. The Diabolical Brain, El Santo vs. The Vampire Women, El Santo and The Blue Demon vs. Dr. Frankenstein, and the classic El Santo vs the Blue Demon in Atlantis. While discussing the follow up to cult Glasplotation flick Babes Beyond the Barras, I found many of El Santo's movies online and am happily wasting my day off cherrypicking the best bits of El Santo Vs Las Lobos. This classic piece of celluloid concerns a clan of werewolves (duh), a family immune to said werewolves (and thus forever hated by said wolves) who call upon the great El Santo. This silver-clad mix of Batman, Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat and Sherlock Holmes steps in to help - who better to solve the problems of the common man, than the Saint who applied a Scorpion leglock to Dracula and choked out the Loch Ness Monster with his trademark Camel Clutch?

(Of course. Silver, werewolves. Werewolves, Silver. I get it!)

Should your spanish be up to scratch, the entire film begins here, split into parts, as this is youtube. Comedic moments can be found throughout, even without understanding a word of it. A particularly good example lies in the practically non-existent production values, for example, here. 30 seconds of Santo confronted by a crazed werewolf. Who sort of.... Falls out of a cupboard onto him. If nothing else, watch this small clip. It will improve your day immeasurably.

Deadbeat - Drawn and Quartered (BLKRTZ)

Deadbeat - Drawn and Quartered (BLKRTZ)

Scott Monteith's Deadbeat project finally returns with a full length album, launching his much anticipated new BLKRTZ label. Considering Deadbeat's constant reevaluation of his sound - his career has taken in glitchy dub-scapes, driving techno and some slightly dissapointing hip-hop/dancehall hybrids - there was every possibility that launching his own label could see Monteith indulging in vanity projects and dissapearing swiftly up his own arse. Drawn and Quartered is one of his finest works to date; a sprawling, lush album of deep, textured dub that smothers lurching steppas riddims in the hard-edged white noise of Demdike Stare or Muslimgauze. Divided into five "quarters" (is this right?), the album takes the form of one long-running piece, each movement sequeing seamlessly into the next, forming from a storm of white noise, rising up through rootsy tribal numbers, before peaking in a storm of crunchy dub techno and slowly dissolving into the ether again. With each of the track over eleven minutes long, there's little of the obvious drop/breakdown dynamic, and more of a focus on evolving a wall of sound, allowing delays to build up and synth lines to evolve. The sudden drop from metallic noise into a blaring saxophone in Third Quarter (The Vampire of Mumbai) hits to the bone because of this, and Deadbeat launches into a half-timed loping dub monster full of scatters of vocals, nyabingi-tinged pecurcussion and hefty amounts of delay.

Whilst Drawn and Quartered is far more of a rootsy, dub-based peice than other Monteith works, Second Quarter and Fourth Quarter, both pass through dub-techno territory, the former toying with the 4/4 grove and smothering it in reverb a la early ~scape releases, whilst the latter slowly grows from a mass of white noise into a solid dancefloor monster. It's the gem of the album, with shimmery guitar lines, rattling darbuka and an earth-trembling sub-bass crawling along in the lower frequencies.

An auspicious start for BLKRTZ.

Function - Live DJ @ Twitch, Belfast

Function (Sandwell District) Live @ Twitch, Belfast - 16-03-2011 by R_co

Aaawesome.

Paul Laffoley's The THANATON III Extraterrestrial Communication Portal

Just because:



And why not?

Chimera Synthesis BC-16

Right, so the shop got five of these in and neglected to tell me? And then showed me the uber-sexy vids after telling me there were none left? Want one.

Grace Jones - Vamp

Came across this via Dangerous Minds, Grace Jones, done up in Keith Haring body make-up, stripping.
Oh, and she's a 2000-year old Vampire. Of course she is.

Peter Collins - Noir

A wee preview of a new project from Peter Collins (aka Rothko of Molotov Disco), based around the 'noir' style. As well as the obvious references (Bogart, Orson Welles, Chandler etc), there's hints to modern pulp like 100 Bullets and Sin City, all filtered through his unique blend of seemingly-choatic scribbling and bold linework. Really awesome.

"I had been commissioned to create some pieces in the "film Noir" style (dark shadows, moody figures etc). For want of a better model, I ended up using myself (in a photo shoot) - so I could draw e.g. exactly how a shirt looks when opened at the top, or how a face looks when the head is tilted backwards. I wasn't bothered whether the final pieces actually looked like me or not, in fact, if anything, I prefer the pieces that look less like me...."

Bethany Skirt - Horizontal Ground #07

Ever since Seldom Felt performed (slightly tongue-in-cheek) in ninja masks, the anonymous techno boom has been winding down a little. Admittedly Sandwell District's forthcoming album looks set to go off big time, striking a case for the collective mindset. Whether it's in response to the anonymity game, or simply the fact that this is one of the more unique 12"s so far, Horizontal Ground change tack with this new release by listing the artist as one Bethany Skirt, a DJ who's apparently been operating on the fringes of UK techno for years now.

Stylistically, it does deviate from HG's previous releases, and though it is, at heart, a minimal techno riddim, there's a wider depth of sound, and a warmer heart than some of the previous, icy cold releases. In The Meadow Under The Stars builds up minimal clicks and swung-hi-hats to create a skeletal framework, draping it with lush, spacey synths, whilst a granite-black bassline bubbles up underneath. Possessed of the same raw-yet-rich texture that permeated AFX's early records, and it begs to be dropped at some unknown hour in the morning in a darkened club, when everyone's forgotten where they are. On the flip, Ikarus is a much nastier proposition, bringing that sub-bass to the fore, and engaging in an angry industrial battery, barely recognisable snares and toms colliding and collapsing in a muchb more peak-time climax. Closing the record is a beatless, spacey collision of metallic groans and creaks that slowly shift and mutate into a monstrously heavy drone track.

Six seems to be the maximum number an anonymous collective can sustain before the interest wears off, and with their seventh release, Horizontal Ground have managed to prove that there's still life in the minimal techno game and almost convinced me to buy their records on sight. Can't wait for the next one.

Cottam - Causes of Colour Mix

Cottam-Causes Of Colour Mix by Cottam
Awesome late night music

Bigg Taj Mixtape

The monstrously talented Bigg Taj has got his shit together on bandcamp, and for the meagre price of three bucks (less than a pint in most places), you can get ten tracks of Scotlands hottest beatboxer ripping it up bigstyle. Featuring appearances from Scatabrainz, Becca Star, Kaddy Kay, and more of the Scottish hip-hop underground, it's a mix of skits, beatboxing and Taj's surprisingly delicate vox. Whilst Taj can rattle off armour-plated boom-bap like an 808 (see below), the 2010 mixtape sees him exposing a much more emotional side of his character, singing rather tender songs about lost love.

Dude's a fucking legend.

Support your local beatbox

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S-Type Interview

We recently interviewed the rather awesome new EP from S-Type on Phuturelabs, describing it, for those who can't be bothered to click through as "sounds like Rustie at the top of his game. That's Jagz the Smak or Cafe De Phresh Rustie, not pixellated bleep-wankery Rustie. Yeah, that good."
Following the release of the EP, with a suitably banging session at Mixed Bizness in the Art School, Shallowrave tracked down S-Type to grill him about taste, 'net audio and scottish hip-hop. We haven't asked how he plays a keyboard with those great big hands.

You obviously come from a broad musical background, tell us a bit about your career so far?

I've been making beats for about 10 years now. I put out a 12" single called Soul For Your Stereo, featuring Finale, from Detroit. That was back when I was 18; I put it out on my brother's label Surface Pressure. Since then I've worked with a lot of rappers from all over the UK and US. Obviously I've just released the Medusa EP, which is a slight change of direction for me, as it's all instrumental and more synth based.

What does your studio set-up look like? Do you favour MPCs, fruityloops, ableton or analogue?

I used to use an MPC 2000 with Cubase for years, but I found it too limiting. Now I'm strictly Logic for Mac. I've got a few plug-ins and a midi controller. That's about all I need right now, it means I can make beats wherever I go. I like to work on the move, on train journeys and that. The great thing about having such a portable setup is I can sketch ideas when I come up with them. If I'm lying in bed and I think of a melody or something, I can just reach for the laptop and play it in and not forget about it.

Tell us about some of the rappers you’ve collaborated with, and some of the people you’ll be crafting beats for in the coming months?

Some names people might know are Tek (Smif n Wessun), Sheek Louch (D. Block/LOX), Prince Po (Organized Konfusion), Reks, Laws, Jay Rock and Emilio Rojas. I've recently sent some beats to my favourite rappers in the world, which is a crazy feeling. I'm still waiting to hear back on that. Fingers crossed! My manager is constantly sending beats to vocalists for me and my boy Jaisu (amazing producer, type his name into youtube and you'll see what I mean). But right now I'm trying to concentrate on my solo projects. Doing beats for rappers' mixtapes and albums is good but I don't really feel it's helping push my career forward as much as I'd like. It's time for me to try and make a proper name for myself now.

Do you have specific criteria about which rappers you work with?

Not really. They don't have to be particularly well known or from anywhere specific, as long as I like what they do. I've worked with both known and relatively unknown rappers from all over the world.

You fuse a great number of styles on Medusa; from crunk, footwork and hip-hop to dubstep and garage. How would you categorize or define this very broad style?

Well I wasn't really thinking about genres when I made the beats for the EP, and I still wouldn't really like to try and categorise them. That's for the listeners to do. When I was working on the EP, I was listening to a lot more club and synth based music. I still think it's somewhat hip hop, but more club orientated. The next project I do will definitely be hip hop, but for the club.

Will you be releasing another solo EP any time soon? Do you have solo plans in general?

Yes, I've been asked to do an EP for a label who I very much admire, and are getting a lot of attention right now. I don't know if I can really talk about this too much yet, but the project should be out before summer 2011. I'm very excited about it.

So, why Phuturelabs?

I've known the Phuturelabs lads (Phuturelads) for a while now. They approached me last year to do a digital EP for their new label. They put in a lot of hard work and have some great contacts so it made so much sense for me to do the project with them. They just want to push good music and help people like me get more recognition, and that's exactly what they've done. Can't thank them enough, great guys.

You’ve fairly strong ties with American MCs, what’s your opinion of Scottish hip-hop, grime etc?

It's the same as any genre from any country, there's good and bad. I'm good friends with some of the best rappers and producers from Scotland, and I'm not just saying that because I know them. Look out for The Being MCs. Gasp and Depths made it to the Don't Flop battle final this year, you can watch that via this link. As for Scottish Grime, can't say I've heard much to be honest.

Medusa is available as a free download from Phuturelabs now. More S-Type coming soon.

PL003 - S-Type - Medusa EP (WAVS) by Phuturelabs

Stanley Odd - Oddvent

Set to be Scotland's number one export very soon, Stanley Odd are celebrating December by giving away a free track, video or remix every day, up to the 25th. Combining hip-hop, electronica and indie, Stanley Odd have been gradually rising throughout 2010, with the launch of their debut album Oddio, gigs across the country and a session for Vic Galloway's Radio 1 show. File under "next big thing".

Stanley Odd - Oddvent Day #7 - free download of Sun Dance

The full Oddvent calendar can be accessed at stanleyodd.com
Interview and radio slot coming very soon.

New Radio - Shackleton in the Mix

Former head of the pioneering Skull Disco label, and modern beat innovator Shackleton lays down some tracks for the Little Rock crew, in support of his forthcoming Fabric mix CD

It’s with great pleasure that we welcome the critically-acclaimed Shackleton to Radio Magnetic. Blending dubstep, minimalism, drone and percussive workouts, the limited 12″s on his Skull Disco platform re-invented bass music and modern production styles.

His work since the closure of Skull Disco (with the Soundbwoy’s Grave Get Desecrated by Vandals CD) has been equally impressive, with the release of an album on Perlon, extensive live and DJ dates and the launch of a new label Woe To The Septic Heart. His mix for Fabric drops next week.

40 minutes of Shackleton, plus brand new monsters from Joy Orbison, S-Type and Morphamish.

Tracklist

1. S-Type – Mr Lizard – Phuturelabs

Shackleton mix

1. Shackleton - Fireworks – unreleased
2. Shackleton - Deadman – unreleased
3. Shackleton – Bottles – unreleased
4. Shackleton – Hypno Angel – Skull Disco
5. Shackleton – Something Has Got To Give – Perlon
6. Shackleton – Massacre – Hot Flush
7. Shackleton – Torn Skin III (version) – unknown

1. Atari Teenage Riot – Activate – Digital Hardcore Recordings / via soundcloud
2. Texture vs Morphamish – Echo Boomers – Black Lantern Music
3. Joy Orbison – BB – Doldrums
4. WNCL – Mrs Fingers (Ekoplekz Replekz) – via sonicrouter.com

Stream here
Download here
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