Monday 28 February 2011

Entrepeneurs


Entrepeneurs is Adam M Crisp. His music is mental; the upcoming single, 'Fuck Tactics', is a teetering, jarring mash of flailing, convulsive guitars and warped saxophone riffs, wandering alongside shuffling beats and detached vocals. Ghostpoet also pops in for a bit of typically nonchalant rapping/groaning. The B side, 'Bubblegunk', is a more uptempo, staccato effort, with disco-ey synthbass balanced against a DIY sounding percussion track and grungy vocals, with a couple of noodly guitar solos thrown in for good measure. The other track I've heard, 'Revenge Platter', continues the glam-disco/grunginess balancing act and is probably my favourite.

Entrepeneurs - Fuck Tactics

Entrepeneurs - Bubblegunk

Entrepeneurs - Revenge Platter

Saturday 26 February 2011

NIVA


NIVA is a guy from Sweden; he describes his music as "Soul-fi", the Guardian describes him as "Forlorntronica". Both names are dumb but he makes brilliant music; the amount of emotion he gets out of simplistic electronic melodies is pretty reminiscent of Hot Chip at their more poignant, or Kraftwerk circa Neon Lights. He's got an EP, 'Feverish Dreams' out on Rough Trade in March; I've put up 'The Boy From The Sun' from it, as well as a sweet remix he's done of Blackbird Blackbirds 'Hawaii'.

Niva - The Boy From The Sun
 
Blackbird Blackbird - Hawaii (Niva Remix)

Yuck (gig review for Concrete Newspaper)


In the flesh Yuck are a pretty languid bunch; the unnervingly bird-like Max Bloom lopes about the stage swinging his guitar on the occasional off-beat, Mariko Doi hides behind her impressive fringe, and Jonny Rogoff perches behind a transparent drum kit, revelling in the awesomeness of his voluminous afro. In fact the hair of Yuck is definitely worth a mention; there’s an impressive array of barnets on show, spanning the entire hair spectrum, from thinning tuftiness (apologies Daniel Blumberg) across wiry tangles and thick fringes, ending up at the aforementioned incredible ‘fro. The hair isn’t the only thing that’s brilliant about Yuck though; their set at the Arts Centre is incredible. Kicking off with the single ‘Holing Out’, Yuck are on a mission tonight. Unlike a lot of bands, they let the music do the talking; the banter between tracks is awkward and insipid, but endearingly so. Blumberg has an unidentified liquid thrown over him at one point; cue a mumbled “please don’t do that… if something goes wrong, or I get electrocuted and die, erm it’s your fault I guess”.

With noise on the sheer scale that Yuck achieve, witty rapport isn’t really needed; the foursome make walls of epic, fuzzy guitar, with piercing riffs a-plenty. ‘Get Away’ and ‘The Wall’ are thudding, dusty diamonds, perfect pop with just the right lack of polish. They’re not just good at noisiness though; some of the better tracks start off as relatively constrained, tender melodies, before building into more raucous, riff-based affairs - ‘Suicide Policeman’ is gorgeously restrained. ‘Shook Down’ starts off in a similar manner, but has a guitar solo at the end that probably couldn’t be much more euphoric.

Yuck’s real talent lies in their ability to balance the two positives against each other; their final track, ‘Rubber’, is literally incredible. Slowly building from dischordant strumming into what can only be described a sort of mental fuzzy thrashing, it perfectly demonstrates the underlying ability behind Yuck; their ability to balance the euphoric guitar riffs and solos against melancholic vocals and solid, restrained drum patterns, then just when a track is becoming predictable, collapsing into a beautiful, perfect, hazy mess.


 Yuck - Get Away

Thursday 24 February 2011

Keep Shelly in Athens


Keep Shelly in Athens are a duo from Athens who've been making music since November 2010. Really liking their remix of Sacred Animals; its really haunting, on the edge of chillwave but with added bassiness and more uptempo. I've also put up a single from the November EP, 'In Love with Dusk', which is a more mellow affair.

Sacred Animals - Chosen Seed (Keep Shelly in Athens remix)

Keep Shelly in Athens - In Love With Dusk

Beth Ditto



Beth Ditto (of The Gossip fame) as of late has been working with Simian Mobile Disco, creating a solo EP called 'De Construction', which came out in January. Definitely a big fan of Ditto's voice over SMDs production; its interesting to hear a more constrained, disco orientated effort from a singer notorious for fronting a raucous guitar band.

'I Wrote The Book' is the lead single from the EP; its been floating about for a while but there's now a video, directed by James Price. I've put it up along with one of the better EP tracks, 'Open Heart Surgery'.

Beth Ditto - I Wrote The Book

Beth Ditto - Open Heart Surgery

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Star Slinger



'Star Slinger' is a guy from Manchester called Darren Williams; he makes awesome sunny hip hop pop, using chopped samples and gritty beats to create a sort of bassy, glittery haze.

I've put up the single 'Mornin'' from his current album 'Volume 1', which as well as being a cracking tune has a sweet video, directed by Alan Jensen.


Star Slinger - Mornin'

Check his soundcloud (http://soundcloud.com/starslingeruk/tracks?page=1) for more music.

Magic Wands





Nashville/LA duo Magic Wands have been around since 07, with a stream of spacy dreampop singles heralding the way for their long overdue debut LP (Aloha Moon), due early 2011.

They had a pretty good EP in 09 called "Magic Love & Dreams"; I've put up the single, 'Warriors' which sees the pair show off their funkier side, as well as an old favourite 'Black Magic', which as well as featuring on the EP was their first official release back in 08.

Magic Wands - 'Warrior'

Magic Wands - 'Black Magic'

http://itsmagicwands.com/ for more info