Glasgow's finest "angry jazz" act XMRV (think At the Drive In, but more METAL and female fronted) play at Nice and Sleazy's tomorrow, alongside local metal-core growlers Nude Pilots and Can-esque kraut-rockers Wrongnote. Filling in the gaps and taking us to the end will be Little Rock affiliated Molotov Disco, playing a cocktail of classics, past present and future, with a slightly heavier bent than usual. Current playlists suggest a hefty dose of post-punk, No Wave and The Cramps, plus the darker and weirder edge of club culture. As usual, there's some free tunes for you to check out....
I'm not a great fan of Harmony Korine (he reeks of Vice) but as we're posting bizarre pseudo-porn today, here's the trailer for his next film Trash Humpers. Yes, they fuck rubbish. Oh Harmony, you are SO SHOCKING ME RIGHT NOW! (Safe For Work)
Dario Zenker - Insirer / Peter Van Hooesen remix Because no-one was making banging techno anymore.... Minimal mainstay Dario Zenker turns out a brilliant slice of minimal, dub-inflected techno, with melodic synth stabs rubbing up against deep clanky goodness - It's not a world conqueror, but a deep and polished DJ toolthat'll be making it's way into my sets regularly, alongside the Norman Nodge and Levon Vincent. The Peter Van Hoesen remix on the flip proves why he's a name to watch out for, taking the polished futurism of Zenker's techno, and pushing it through a retro filter, pitting a rattly breakbeat against the minimal kicks, and speckling it with rave dirtiness. The melody's similarly fractured, with the lush chords of the original drowned in reverb, straining against the full on percussive battery, whilst a serpentine sub-bass weaves its way through the mix. It's hard-as-nails, and manages to unite both the intellectualism of techno with the Cro-Magnon simplicity of rave. Past and future united in the current zeitgeist; pretty much awesome.
Just got hit up on Facebook with a message about this from Hyperdub, so I thought it best to share. Cos we really like both of these producers, right? This track has a nice summery, kalimba vibe. Download:
We have written about Ben Butler & Mousepad on this blog before. Numerous times. So we though it wise to send him one of our ten question interviews. And here it is:
Where are you right now and how is it? I'm in CEM studios, at WORM in rotterdam, its a vintage audio lab, with tons of modular synths and other fun stuff. It's great, very hot inside though.
How did you come up with your name? I'm pretty sure 'Ben Butler & Mousepad' came to me in a dream, with some vague details of how the music would sound and a sort of character I guess. This is always handy, as it stops you worrying about finding something good, subconscious does it for you!
What are BB&MP's biggest musical influences? I would say the work of Ryuichi Sakamoto over the years, from YMO to later piano stuff. Finding out about 'Synergy' (aka Larry Fast) was kind of revelatory - he was a session guy who did keyboards for Genesis and the like in the 70's and 80's. Eno's done a lot of good stuff, right? Who else - James Pants, skweee, Bernie Worrell / George Duke, Weather Report, Max Tundra....
Have you got any releases lined up for the near future? We've got a 7" thats just come out on Oslo's DODPOP records, check that out. Next is an e.p on LOAF, followed by an album on LOAF. I've got some other stuff that I'm not sure whats happening with yet. We just recorded 4 songs in this studio this week too.
What is your current studio set-up? Well, right now in this studio - gigantic vintage Tascam desk, Arp 2500 + sequencer, Arp 2600, Korg ms20, VCS3 Putney, Serge modular, Concussor percussion synth and tons of weird old radiophonic filters and octave dividers. at home, its usually just a macbook, yamaha cs01 monosynth, midi controllers, EHX vocoder and an EHX microsynth.
Done any exciting gigs lately? I'm just about to play a show for tons of kids in a paddling pool, surrounded by inflatable junk.
Got any coming up (marriage not included)? Wedding Dress (Berlin) on July 10th, then Shade Inc (Berlin) on July 14th, then a break. Not so many gigs on the horizon right now as we're mostly working on our album and I'm moving back to Scotland.
Any aspects of German culture you could happily live without? I tell you what I would like to see - a decent curry! German curry is bland, unspicy and full of ghee, which i can't eat, as i'm vegan. They also hate coriander. What a bad combination!
Who would you like to see win the World Cup? And what about Wimbeldon? I'd like to see the tennis players who played the infinite tennis match win the World Cup. And Holland win Wimbledon.
I Am Blip, as well as having one of the best names around, is a brilliant Glaswegian producer who plays only with hardware - no laptops here, no Ableton quantisation pish. I've just come across his soundcloud, and as well as being all free downloads, it's pretty awesome. Bang Bang Boom Tish! Listed by iamblip Listed - total banger. Thoroughly awesome. Complicate by iamblip This is also, pretty awesome, and can be downloaded for free via his soundcloud. Go Blip!
There's so many old records out there that I'd really like that I quite often don't bother with new ones. Last year I don't think I bought a single record that was made that year. Terrible behaviour really though my obsession with expensive Bollywood disco had reached its peak that year and I was often spending £40 on single LPs. This year I have made a bit more effort to go searching for new records and this has been my favourite so far. It's a great jacking house track, almost african in feel and rhythm which I have been playing lots recently alongside all the Roulé and Traxx records I've dusted off.
The title of this post is a link to Juno. Go buy it.
Team Little Rock rope in occaisonal collaborator and electro-pop genius Brassica to provide a live set for the show. Applause.
Brassica is one of the hottest names in the neu-disco scene, having put out records on Dissident, and now releasing on Ali Renault’s Human Shield label as one half of Gold Blood. His electro-inflected art-pop’s gained massive praise across blog and print media, and he’s set to go massive this year. He recently recorded a solo live set at the excellent This Is Space night in Bristol, and has contributed it to Little Rock Records. The full set will soon be available via shallowrave.com too.
Garry Shider, the legendary nappy-wearing singer/guitarist from Parliament-Funkadelic has died at the age of 56. Unfortunately he had been battling cancer since the start of the year.
Though not a founding member of either group, after joining Funkadelic in the early 70s he quickly rose within the ranks of both bands to become the musical director of the P-Funk live show. And as anyone who has ever seen the vintage footage of P-Funk live from the 70's knows, that happens to be one of the best live shows of all time. OF ALL TIME. I'm not even joking. Here's Shider in his prime, singing lead vocal on One Nation Under a Groove.
Now, sadly, the classic period frontline vocal/guitar section (Shider and Glen Goins) is gone. At least we still have some great footage and live recordings from the period - you can hear both Shider and Goins on backing vocal duties on this stunning jam of Undisco Kidd from 1976. They screamed, they'd shout, they really did turn that sucker out.
From the opening of the same show, here's Garry singing on "Cosmic Slop". The dude on lead guitar in the huuuge hat is the also-sadly-deceased Eddie Hazel, and the first dude to sing is Fuzzy Haskins (thankfully still alive). This whole show is available to buy on DVD. I've probably mentioned it before, but it really is worth it, the whole soundtrack has been remastered in Dolby surround.
And finally a more recent clip, from whenever it was they did the cash-in second Woodstock festival in the late Nineties. Oh wait, '99. Garry's not featured so heavily in this one, but he's still there rocking. You can tell it's him cos, well, he's wearing a nappy. He became known as "Daiper Man" (to the extent where he sued the drummer from No Doubt for also wearing a nappy on stage). That shows just how fucking cool the guys was.
Garry "Daiper Man" Shider, you will be missed - Funk In Peace!
OH GOD, TRENDING FASHION. TEN MINUTE ZEITGEIST. QUICK, RIDE THE WAVE WHILST IT'S COOL. I was in South Africa back in 2002, and you could buy these damn things everywhere, but in light of the world cup, they've become wildly popular. I think they resonate with exactly what the world cup seems to be about- a gigantically dumb and unsubtle spectacle with a carnival-esque atmosphere. I should point out, I don't neccesarily consider that a bad thing. However, someone's set up a twitter for the vuvuzela, which just prints random humming noises every couple of hours, and I've come across two vuvuzela influenced tunes. If there are more, just post a link below. This thing is trending like crazy, and will be dead within a few days, but for now... London producer "DJ Total Confucious" (thanks to Joe Muggs for the link) came up with a rave /vuvuzela tune with an awesome video. The other's a free download from soundcloud from Mr. Benn, and is far more ragga-carnival. fun. Mr Benn - Vuvuzela riddim by Mr Benn
Goddamnit, why can I not embed this video? Glasgow's finest beatboxer and genuine decent guy Bigg Taj teaching the BBC how to beatbox, from a couple of years back. Click Through To Watch the Video. This is also pretty good - Taj at last year's Vauxhall beatbox championship.
Microrave records CEO Voltergeist continues to be one of our favourite producers, and has just put out another awesome EP of "Nuclear Acid Dub-tech" entitled Plotkin Road. As with all Voltergeist's music, it's dubby, percussive, and full of gradually evolving ideas. His debut album contained a 10-minute track with a 72 bar breakdown. It is awesome. This EP's quite an evolution from his first works though, and take on a much more tribal, jacking sound. The title track's full of dub stabs and reverbed percussion, but drops in with fat kicks and Berghain-esque bass that quickly sends everything hectic. Ectoplasmic Overlord returns to the "haunted dub" sound that he does so well, with a fractured drumbeat, and spooky samples creeping through the backdrop, before it all gets mad hectic and jacking again. Pure dancefloor killers.
The most interesting aspect of Plotkin Road is the tension between the rigid, quanitized neatness of Ableton, and the essentially freeform, organic elements that make dub interesting. Closer Who Bites The Lions? stretches itself tight between four-to-the-floor riffs and loose fills, channeling a hectic punk energy and summoning up some serious dub. An awesome EP.
15% of all profits from this will go to CND. Buy it now from beatport.
Here's some gigs on this weekend in Glasgow that you could do worse than attend. Both feature a few friends of Little Rock, from both the Rave and Norave camps - that's Pi-Eyed and Halt Bar Hijack respectively. Best of all both are absolutley free.
Presenting the first in a new semi-regular series of mini-interviews ("minterviews") exclusive to Shallow Rave!
We are delighted to present some words from Mr Lachlann Rattray, formerly one half of Gay Against You, solo recording artist as Yoko, Oh No!, FUCKNO contributor as Average Joe Stalin, and creator of some awesome art-based fanzines. His latest is "Vomit Party," which we have mentioned before.
What is a "vomit party"? A a vomit party or to give it it's full title "Heavy metal vomit party" is somewhere that one might take Allyson on a first date.
Have you ever been to one? I don't think so I was nearly at one once but it turned out to be a recital of Brahms.
Who is your favourite Star Trek character? And why? That is pretty tricky, but I guess it would have to Worf, He is a totally straight up dude, he is a mans mans mans. But he has a soft side plus he gets the best lines. Observe:
What do you use to create your art? Besides my incredible intellect I also use photoshop, and sometimes sweet home 3D for cool 3d movies. But as is the case with most if not all creative acts its not your tools it's what you do with them (and also how you look).
Who are biggest inspirations art-wise? Hmm... I guess in terms of artists I look up to I would say Paul Laffoley, Jim Woodring Ross Christie, Arran Ridley and Mehdi Hercberg. The art I like tends to be stuff that makes me laugh or that has that awesome quality of being really good but also making me feel like I could do it too., that's what really inspires me.
How about for music? My musical taste is constantly changing (I was going to say evolving but that would imply progression, I think I'm the opposite). At the moment I am really in to the Blue Oyster Cult, Magama , Ruins and Cardiacs, but if you ask me again in a month it will be different.
What was the best gig you have ever played? I played a show a while ago where I baked a cake during the performance using a microwave I brought with me. The whole show ended with everyone eating the cake it was pretty fun, the cake was a bit rank though and apparently someone spat in the mixture while I wasn't looking, fun times!
And the worst? Hmmm maybe a show gay against you played at the art school nearly got beaten up for handing someone a bit of paper, the whole show was really aggro, bad times.
Lady Gaga or Ke$ha? And why? I guess Lady Gaga, her songs are pretty great and all I have heard of ke$ha is that annoying spotify ad but I fully accept that I am not giving ke$ha a thorough reveue and that my conclusion is half baked.
What does the future hold for Lachlann Rattray? Besides the gradual withering and decay of body and my inevitable slide towards death? I hope to make lots more artwork getting commisioned by folks to make there posters and artwork for albums is always fun, I'm also getting into politcal cartooning(http://theworldpolitical.tumblr.com/) which is also lots of fun
Vomit Party is available to buy from Che Camille in Glasgow, and via mail order from Dreamguts. His previous work, Gnar Trek, is sold out on Dreamguts but still available at Che Camille.
Here's what he has to say about it: "I've wanted to do a mix entirely in 12/8 for a while, but could never find enough tracks to do so. So I decided to make a tune specially ("Infinite Staircase"), which filled things out, and because I'm nice like that. Anyway this mix was made to promote my monthly DJ residency at Words Per Minute in Glasgow - if you like this, come down!"
Atlas Sound - Washington Shcool Syclops - Nakoa's F Four Tet - Circling Fairmont - Flight of the Albatross Miaoux Miaoux - Infinite Staircase Applescal - I Can't Stand Wesley Matsell - Bernwerk The Doors - Roadhouse Blues
Joe - Claptrap / Level Crossing Gah, do I only review Hessle Audio and dubstep releases? I feel I have to write a little about this though, it's one of the more interesting records I've come across in a while - two tracks of raw, loop-based techno / funky designed to embellish any track. The A-side's composed mostly of handclaps and kickdrums, with piano splashs breaking through the rhythm from time to time, and occaisonal furious beat repeat sending it all a nuts. It's almost too empty to carry a crowd, but crafty use will prove it an absolute killer. The B-Side rattles along in similar fashion, but throws in a deeper pallette of foundsounds, piano trills, and a more solid bassline before building into a cowbell-heavy funk monster. I'm tempted to say I like the B-side more, for it's hooky feel, but the more I've played with Claptrap in Ableton, the more I've come to realise that the simplicity makes for incredible versatility - even looping the first bar and firing it in from time to time gives any 4/4 tune a twisted, off-beat edge, and lifts any dubstep tune out of it's dark meanderings... Definitely one for extended mixes though. Well worth having, but everyone's going to be playing it pretty soon.
The Niallist and his digital assistant take over the airwaves with a grab-bag of promos, new shit and exclusives.
Pitting the old school flavours of DJ Zinc against the future-step of Metatron, the post-crunk of Fox Gut Daata and the wha?-funk of Dam Mantle, The Niallist drops in for a scattershot guest session. Representing Glasgow’s independent scene with Yoko, Oh No!, Ben Butler and Mousepad and FGD, as well as the international disco flavours of Hot Pocket and Feel My Bicep, The Niallist brings the best of what’s been rocking his stereo lately.
Sooooo... Free tunes from Ben Butler and Mousepad, Fox Gut Daata and more: surreal technicolour sound collages from Glasgow's independent scene.
Fox Gut Daata First up, FGD live - We gave away a wee extract from his live performance at Stereo a while back, but he's just up uploaded a full live set to Soundcloud. While there's aspects of skwee, folktronica and down-tempo in his music, FGD's sound, like that of his close friends Rustie and Hudson Mohawke is most influenced by classic boom-bap hip-hop. This is awesome. Fox Gut Daata LIVE@Concrete Streets, Fri 9th Dec 2009 by foxgutdaata He's also remixed Dam Mantle, who have definitely taken a great deal of influence from FGD's fusion of experimental and club-orientated music. Rebong (Fox Gut Daata RMX) by foxgutdaata You can download Rebong for free by signing up to dammantle.com. More Dam Mantle on FUCKNO Ben Butler and Mousepad. Joe Howe aka Germlin / one half of Gay Against You, now makes music as Ben Butler and Mousepad, mentioned a few times on this blog - it's a proggy fusion of mad synth meandering, wonky drumming and occaisonal pop genius breaking through the mess. I've just found him on soundcloud, along with a couple of utterly nuts new tunes. Mucky sailor - requiem for a sports car (bean butler disco mix) by ben butler & mousepad First up is a remix of Mucky Sailor, who we came across back at Croc vs Croc's mega birthday bash, which remains one of the best gigs I've ever been at. Kanye West - love lockdown (bean butler rubdown) by ben butler & mousepad Not as good as the really, really stupid splicing of Burial's Archangel and Kanye's megahit, but I love these remixes he's doing. Grab them, and more, from his soundcloud.
You can also get the entire Gay Against You back catalogue from their Bandcamp site - surreal, lo-fi, neon-tinted madness that was all self-released with unique liner notes and packaging. Well worth finding. Look out for My Gay Unicorn - one of the most brilliantly fractured slices of pop music ever.
Slovakian cartoonist Martin "Shooty" Sutovec got in a bit of bother recently for the cartoon you can see to the left. The patient pictured is Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia. The doctor is reasserting his diagnosis that the his spinal pain must be a phantom pain, because wee Boaby Fico has no spine. This being satire-savvy Britain, it all seems to me rather like a gentle spray of fuck all, but Fico has taken it pretty badly and is suing Sutovec. Far from worrying about the attack on his freedom of expression, however, Shooty has gone on the offensive.
He's designed and commissioned two billboards:
top: "I've Had Enough. Have You?" bottom: "What is yours is ours; what is ours is none of your business.”
His plan was to pop a few up. The campaign seems to have resonated with people, though, and he's been receiving loads of donations for more. Daryl Cagle reckons he's raised about 60,000 euros from over two thousand people. Sutovec's work is now on 200 billboards and 8 really fucking big billboards. Rab Fico's wee face is now sharing space on the first one with a nice wee abstract steaming shite... I bet he's glad he gave Claims Direct a phone now. Sutovec is planning a followup run of 200,000 stickers and a bunch of postcards.
Could the artist topple the self absorbed socialist?
(I was gonna whack a tune up to accompany this post, but it seems it's not on this laptop... bugger.)
There's a new reality show on BBC Scotland that is causing quite a stir - it's called "The Scheme" and details life on a housing estate in East Kilbride. By "quite a stir" I mean it's getting a lot of people tweeting, blogging, kicking up a fuss and most of all laughing.
Is this a good thing? I don't know for sure but I don't think so. I have only watched the first episode (which was very hard to watch actually, even more so than some so called horror films) and the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. Yes, it WAS funny, but also the worst kind of schadenfreude. I don't think I will be going back for more, and I don't think this is an honest or accurate depiction of life on a housing estate. Of course, we know now that "reality TV" is pretty far from actual reality, but The Scheme shows just how low editors and producers have stooped for the sake of getting ratings.
Our friend the writer Kerry Ryan has reviewed the show on her blog, and put into words what it was that I felt while watching the show. "Poverty porn" indeed. Read Kerry's review of the Scheme here.
Two quite surreal mixes. The first is a more traditional DJ mix, but with a wonky bent and some total sideways time signatures - Dr Noke's from Dubno To Clickstep mix, which contains Um-Machtung (probably my favourite of his tunes to date) and the riddim of Sublimacy - also available featuring Kid Ritalin on FUCKNO. Dr.Nojoke - From Dubno to Clikstep mix by Dr.Nojoke Next up is DJ Gonzo's Broken Toy Orchestra mix; a compilation of oneiric blurs, crackly sketches and alt-folk experimentation. Contains probably my favourite FourTet track of all time; My Angel Rocks Back and Forth. The Broken Toy Orchestra by DjGonzo
Molotov Disco came to Radio Magnetic and rocked the spot with a bunch of disco, techno and dub. Awesome tunes and nae chat - a good recipe. Tracklisting
Orphan101 isn't a name I've come across before - he's apparently making big waves in Bristol's ever-fertile scene - but having listened incessantly to the promos of his forthcoming Tribtek pt 1 & 2 EP, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say he's destined for greatness. Headhunter, Abbleblim and Pinch are all lending their support, which would seem to put him squarely in the 'dubstep' bracket, but it's the cross-over appeal of the track that interests me most. The tribal percussion is very reminiscent of Shackleton (without doubt one of the best artists in modern electronic music), and the dub delay resembles Martyn or Peverelist, but with a 4/4 beat and crisp, minimal synths, it's got as much in common with Villalobos and the more experimental end of house music as it does with dubstep. As with Kavsrave, Joy Orbison or Scuba, the greatest appeal of this record lies in it's genre-dissolving sound - like all good music, it draws the best from the hip and the timeless, and throws in enough fresh ideas to challenge DJs and listeners. This is pretty bloody awesome.
The double-sided vinyl with be released later this month and Saigon Recordings' release schedule will continue with tracks from Gravious, Ike Release and Duffstep. Keep an eye on these guys...
I've had Demdike Stare recommended to me as my-kind-of-thing three times now, and so at some point last night/this morning I finally took the plunge and started battering through their stuff on soundcloud.
It is good shit, but it has also made me wonder exactly what it is about it folks were so confident I'd like... is this my sort of thing? I had been sort of expecting clattering drums and stuttering syncopation framed by dub with a ravey skeleton. No idea why, and now I'm wondering what I think I like, and what I think other people think I like, and why I would think people would think that I would like that, and then what that says about me. What do I actually like, anyway?
I also went to the Eclipse mini-site today (yeah, that Eclipse... god, vampires are so dreeeeeeeaaamy...) after Warp Records tweet me go listen to the new Battles track over there. They sound like they've vainly attempted to clone Brian Wilson and ended up with some weird navel-less and nipple free beach boy on vocals instead(Vat sounds?). I'm not mad keen, to be honest. Sorry Warp. I shall not be linking to that.
Back to Demdike Stare... I just found they are named after a witch, Demdike. Her other name was Elizabeth Southerns, and she was one of the Pendle Witches. It all makes sense now, Pendle Coven and all. I don't know about you, but I'm really enjoying the occult
techno vibe, perhaps even more than I am the music. That said, I'm not sure it'd be as intriguing if I was listening to Justin Bieber...
...And this one weclomes Teh Gayers, even if not without the smug condescension only the truly religious can muster;
"St. James is a church for sinners, for people who have hit rock bottom and people who want to help people who have hit rock bottom. It is not a gathering for the righteous, except those who are righteous by faith."
Rock hard bottoms and big gay-friendly openings aside, does this mean Ted is less fucked in the head (or face!) than he was? Or maybe more? More honest, or more full of shit? I wonder if he'd be any less of a bawbag to Dawkins if he were to visit this church?
Who can say, who can care. One thing is for certain; he still won't be performing any gay marriage ceremonies.
Wandering around the Eternal Thought In The Mind Of Godzilla site after I was directed towards the Shrine Building 3001 video (Previously on Shallow Rave...), I found a post of Godzilla visual references. AETITMOG host Patrick Macias picks his favourite few, and he picks well. My favourite is to the left, narrowly beating the classic original flavour and Godzilla vs The Smog Monster, both strong competition.
Great site, in spite of and also because of the overriding Gojira obsession.
It's been up a couple of days, so is clearly massively out of date, but the new radio slot has a bunch of stuff that's new, cool, or just plain Little Rock. Ya dig? Sadly, it does not involve the mighty John Zorn, or his residents.Tracklisting.
Driemanskap – Xenophobia
Line Idle – Untitled Excerpt – unreleased
Voltergeist – Ectoplasmic overlord – Microrave records
Gremino – Hyper – Rag And Bone
Choenyi – De Fin Ti+ Ion – Unoiki
Minus Two Quartet – Untitled #1 – Little Rock Records
Ali Renault – What’s The Point? -
Cave Paintings 1X – Cave Paintings
The Niallist and Ms Mac D – I Came (Bra666ica remix) – Little Rock Records
215 The Freshest Kids – Vnecks (Swede Art x A-rec remix) – Error Broadcast
Boiler Room Collective – Underground – Tea Sea Records
Milf Meets Minorscene – Constans (White Jack Dub) – ~scape
A couple of years old, this still pushes all my Tron buttons. It might look a lot like it was made for a low budget Australian kids TV show from the mid 90s, but even now the video somehow still manages to look like the future.
Maybe that says more about how my media-addled mind concieves of the future? Tron came out in 1982, after all...
So, Chrome Hoof played at the Sub Club on Sunday night, as part of the new post-Optimo club night called "Hung Up".
They rocked, they progged, they disco-ed, they even doomed - in short it was fucking awesome! I haven't seen a band who have combined so many disparate genres and made it really work in a loooong time. There was eight of them on a small stage dressed in matching silver spangly capes (except for the singer Lola who was uber-glam, and the drummer Milo who had his own special black getup) - the usual drums/bass/guitar/keys scenario but with added electric violin, saxophone and trumpet. It shouldn't be a surprise as to how good they are though - they count among the band members of other groups like reknowned house act Spektrum, doom legends Cathedral and Dissident faves Binary Chaffinch.
They have just dropped their new album Crush Depth and it comes highly recommended. They manage to pull off the trick of being musically all over the shop but tied together with unique focus and vision. Being that the band was formed in 2000 by brothers Leo and Milo Smee, also the rhythm section, that would make sense. There's definitely a whiff of Goblin to the proceeding, which makes even more sense and endears them to me even more. So, if you have a chance to see this band live this summer, do it, and if not (or even if so) go out and get Crush Depth RIGHT THIS BLOODY MINUTE!!
Fuck Gordon Ramsay, in case you were confused. He doesn't need our support, and can fend for himself just fine. It's the other F-Word who need a hand; the one that doesn't collect huge fees for every appearance.
Personally I value them as a resource and reckon anything that can help spread their work a bit further is probably a good thing.
A feature by the HP Lovecraft Historical Society, their first. They could have had a bigger budget, sure, but they make up for that by knowing their shit.
Another legend bites the dust - this time the "pint sized" star of Diff'rent Strokes, Gary Coleman, who has died at the age of 42 from a brain haemorhrage. if you want to know more, here's the BBC's report. I used to watch this show all the time as a child. "Whatchu talkin bout Knight Rider?"
Dennis Hopper (star of Rebel Without A Cause, Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now & Blue Velvet among others) died today at age 74. That's still a remarkably good innings considering how much drugs he consumed. His performance as Frank in Blue Velvet is unforgettable. Here's to you Mr Hopper!
It's that time of the month again - time for blood, pain, lipstick and disco. Gay Dance Party MENERGY is back tomorrow night, back like Michael Myers, at Bacchus in Glasgow's Merchant City. This month there's a special Italo Horror theme and to celebrate Menergy residents Kid Zipper & The Niallist have each done a horror-themed disco mix. KZ's "Cannibal Italocaust" mix is a combination of old and new, leaning heavily on the kind of synth jams heard in classic 70's zombie stalk and slash pics, and the Niallist's "Disco Argento" mix is a compendium of some of the greatest of horror film disco cash in records of the 70's and 80's. Check out the track lists below, with download links attached...
Here's an excellent and informative comic strip about the truth behind the Measles/Mumps/Rubella Vaccine scare from a few years back. From Tallguywrites blog - I like this guy's style, so will be checking out his future work.
Needless to say the scare was bullshit, but the worrying thing is how business can manipulate science and the press for its own means. Read on.
Twitter trawling yields netlabels. Here are some of my new favourites. Solida Netlabel.
Techno / house with funky stuff. 'Nuff Said.
Zymogen I've been listening to Nicholas Bergier and Simon Trottier's single-track EP The Market Fresh, which evolves at an almost tortuously slow pace - 20 minutes long and brimming with reverb and echo-work, it explores the density and beauty of every single sound, from rich sax tones, to the discordant string scrapes. It has a lot in common with the Radiation Line's doomscapes - seemingly Eno-esque "Wallpaper music", turn it off suddenly, and you realise how wrapped up in it you've become. Awesome stuff. Zymogen's remit covers indie, electronica, ambient and the associated fields, varying from putting out extended jams, to releasing more succinct song structures. It takes a little time to unlock all the beauties this label has to offer, as each release demands time, patience and attention, but the three releases I've been studying so far are pretty awesome. Dig.
AstorBell Right up my street: 15 releases in now, and I've only just picked up on what they do. Minimal, dark, experimental, and techno. Roughly summed up - it's twisty weird shit with wonky vocals, done in as many ways as you can imagine. I'm really enjoying Socket Science's Ephedra EP at the moment - just enough bounce and melody to grab you, but a playful feel for experimentation that makes up for nine minute wander-pieces. Def Leppard by DonnyKarson is great too - industrial, pseudo-Berghainisms collide with a far more misanthropic technoid mindstate. We are not the sleek chrome robots of the future, we are the lurching, clanking throwbacks dreaming of electric wolves in sheep's clothing. Monokrak Dub techno. Very dubby. Big spring-reverb wring-outs that shudder and return, minimal clicks and pops. Bass. The predilection for space and reverb has me hooked, as does the blurb on the site: "For those who are out of the music business, just because they are not a “good product”, there is another chance : netlabels. No more money in the affair, just music. The feeling to be free and to produce what or who you want is now a reality."
Broken Drum Records I've only listened to the Glidepath EP so far from this netlabel, but enjoy the fusion of two-step, Garage and Broken beat. Kung Fu Magic contains two of my favourite things - wobble bass and dubious chop-socky samples, whilst the title track kicks in with one of those euphoric string sections that should be cheesy, but backed by distorted snares and droney synths is actually pretty awesome. Plus, there's an obvious Shackleton / Muslimguaze influence in the use of poly-rhythmic ethnic percussion and instrumentation - it manages to pull this off without sounding worthy or dubiously middle-class. Will find more and get it up.
There you go, five new and gorgeous netlabels putting out great content for free. Use that magic button that computers have to receive a continual stream of music straight to your inbox. Support the CC cause.
purplearrow/rebong live by dammantle We reviewed the EP a wee while back, and have been trying to get a decent live recording for Vishnu knows how long... Dam Mantle are without doubt one of our favourite Glaswegian acts at the moment. A fushion of wonk-hop, down-tempo electronica, and indie surrealness, they've just completed a tour with Gold Panda and Seams, and played at Stag And Dagger this weekend. We thought we'd share the above live excerpt (Purple Arrow available on FUCKNO, Rebong available via DamMantle.com) and this awesome photo of Callum Cunneen aka Louts during Dam Mantle's live performances.
You may heave read about this already, but Alan Moore has a spoken word/music project about to be released through Lex Records called "Unearthing". Featuring Mike Patton, Doseone, members of Mogwai, Steve Moore and more, it's going to come in a seriously deluxe boxed set. You can hear an excerpt from the project over at Pitchfork right now.
Glasgow's finest "angry jazz" act XMRV (think At the Drive In, but more METAL and female fronted) play at Nice and Sleazy's tomorrow, alongside local metal-core growlers Nude Pilots and Can-esque kraut-rockers Wrongnote. Filling in the gaps and taking us to the end will be Little Rock affiliated Molotov Disco, playing a cocktail of classics, past present and future, with a slightly heavier bent than usual. Current playlists suggest a hefty dose of post-punk, No Wave and The Cramps, plus the darker and weirder edge of club culture. As usual, there's some free tunes for you to check out....
Download an exclusive XMRV tune
Molotov Disco on Soundcloud.com
