"Ultimate
Breakbeats and shit right?
Niggaz still,
makin money
offa those shits.
Loopin the same shits for a thousand years and shit right?" - The
RZA as Bobby Digital - B.O.B.B.Y
And with that in mind, sporadic record review time.
Blackmass Plastics - The Spinal Conflict - Black Lantern (out now)
Morphamish's Urge Mode, the third leg of
BLM finally kicks off, with a split
EP between
Blackmass Plastics and his slightly more
techy alter ego Crooked One. So for one swift download, you get one remix by each, of the other, and an original tune.
Squelch Gate's proving favourite so far - a speedy, but none-too-mental 4/4 banger, offset by
dubby percussion and
LFO basslines. Hearing a flagged-up "here it comes" in a breakdown should be stupid, but proves awesome, and the crispness of the production indicates how
killer it'll sound in a club. The low-end nastiness of
Uranium Blues and the shuffling rave-isms of
Tek Tek (Crooked One remix) are both well executed too, giving the
EP a diverse
pallette of the whole bass music spectrum. It's fucking brilliant to see a name like
Blackmass, who's put out a wealth of vinyls on the likes of Rag and Bone, acknowledging the power of
netlabellism and the CC mindset. We need more like this online.
Gremino - It's Working - Rag and Bone (10 May)
Right. About a month back, I found an old CD called "James Browns' Funky People" - a compilation of those ubiquitous
breakbeats that show up in hip-hop,
D'n'B, Rave and every genre under the sun. We figured it might be fun to
kickstart the old rave phenomenon and add in some 808 kicks, nippy
synths and rip off James Brown. Whilst
Gremino's new
EP is very much in line with Rag and Bone's previous blends of rave / tech / step, he's totally beaten us to the punch, with the title track basically an evolving looped
breakbeat that adds to and augments each breakdown. Great for those times when you just need to up the intensity in a mix, but a little staid on it's own.
Hyper's one of those tunes everyone will be trying to make in a years time; a forward-thinking juggernaut rumbling with the caged spirit of rave. It's as big and nasty as you'd expect from R&B, but with a mournfully
reverbed vocal, and jittery
synths that make for a more 6am feel.
Problem sounds like very little else I've heard in a while - sculpting echos of rave staples, before splicing in a crazed
breakbeat and setting it lose. A bold and unusual record from a producer with all the right
creds. Keep an eye on this one.
Rusko - O.M.G - Mad DecentI'm not going to give this the longest review, simply because it'll receive more press attention than Lindsay
Lohan's knickers, but I've given a copy of this a blast, and I feel it worth noting that
Rusko's not just the one trick pony capable of chocking out yet another
Cockney Thug, Jahova, Hammertime or
Pro Nails remix (all of which were pretty sweet). Admittedly, opener
Woo Boost is the same overly-polished
wubstep he's made his speciality, with sirens, rising
synths and
occaissonal "woo!"s making this a student-friendly
skank-along, while
Rub-a-dub Shakedown is cheery
popstep that doesn't really go anywhere. However,
Kumon Kumon is probably
Rusko's best application of his talents to date - a hoover-bass,
breakbeat-driven rave monster from when pills were still awesome.
Rusko does dumb so well, and on this one, he surpasses even himself.
You're on My Mind and
I Love You are
wub-spliced pop, and if nothing else, I'm glad to see the Andrew WK of bass music doing something different. Worth noting.
Captain Ahab - The End of Irony - deathbombarc.comCaptain Ahab are one of those
undescribably brilliant bands who completely defy genre or categorisation - part
noisecore, part
electro, part spoken-word / hip-hop with a total pop sheen. Abrasive and surreal shit.
Acting Hard begins with a looped vocal "
backslap you for acting hard", whilst an
emo-inflected
gregorian choir rumbles into life; as the incessant loops build up, a frenetic
synth joins in, and the whole thing explodes into spastic scream-fest.
Death to False to Techno blasts in like Gay Against You covering
Deathklok - ludicrous, camp noise-making that switches it's focus every 20 seconds,
sequeing between
hardstyle,
breakbeat, minimal, and
gangchant vocals. Without being so crass as to say the whole record sounds like this, you'll have made up your mind after these two tracks whether or not you want to hear more.
The closest reference point for
The End of Irony would New York's No Wave scene, or possibly modern
queercore like Kids on TV; both inhabit that curious
Venn diagram where
experimentalism and intellectual concepts collide with vicious anarchy and pure atavistic indulgence. Like both of the above, Captain Ahab also write with a great feel for slick pop music. It's still hard listening, and were it not for the slick execution, would be disregarded as nothing but masturbatory drug-
fuckery; as it is,
The End of Irony is challenging and
occasionally frustrating genius.
We did a radiomagnetic.com show with Sandwell District's 2hour live set from Animal Farm @ the subclub. Techno. Very techno.
For the Edinburgh peeps, one of Glasgow's finest metal / punk / spastic acts XMRV are playing across at Bannermans on Sunday night (that's May 16th). Doors are at 8, and entry's free. For the uninformed, think a more melodic version of Dillinger Escape Plan, or Delta 5 if they'd grown up listening to Black Metal and you're not really very close. Live, they're a frenetic explosion of bass / guitar collision, math-rock drumming and vocals that veer between delicate lilt and throat-shredding scream. We likey.
To celebrate Gucci Mane's release from prison, Mad Decent are giving away a Gucci Mane / Diplo mixtape. Free Gucci. The puns, oh the puns. Anyway, free hip-hop including Zomby and Brodinski remixes, so long as you hand over your email address. Aye, pretty decent.
Minimal masters and Berlin clubbing staples Exercise One did us an exclusive mix for our Radiomagnetic show; it is deep, clicky, and so very very nice. We also played out some womping new tunes from the Fusion Netlabel, Lazersword, Black Lantern, and more. Dig it.
Next on the bill, Yön Syke served up some sparse 80's electronica. Rocking an austere vintage Russian electronic drum kit, drummer Jaakko kept the crowd moving (well me at least- I've yet to see a Finn moved enough to dance, even by the almighty Kraftwerk or Grace Jones) with his crisp analog beats, whilst bassist Ukko augmented the rhythm with simple, syncopated lines. Synthesist and vocalist Sami dutifully completed the sparse sound with delay-assisted pads, vocoder and melody lines. They also deserve a medal for the worst, completely un-ironic 7" packaging ever!
Gremino - It's Working - Rag and Bone (10 May)
I'm also really enjoying Peter Morrison's Parlimentary Candidate #1, also from Weaponizer - a speculative / satirical fiction with unsurprising relevance these days
Lots of cool pictures but it's worth noting that there are some NSFW images of pretty ladies.
