OBLIVION SOUNDS

 

‘Journey’ is word often over-used when describing music, but Underworld’s new album ‘Oblivion With Bells’ really is a unique trip, where epic techno sits comfortably alongside stabbing beats and fragile ambient arrangements. 

Rick Smith and Karl Hyde have always done their own thing and that continues here, although the knowing nods to current production techniques and sounds make it feel very relevant, while the retro colours are still nailed firmly in place.  

The album kicks off with ‘Crocodile’ which you’ll know all about, and continues in a similar vein with the epic ‘Beautiful Burnout’, which switches gears halfway through into a tribal orgy.  The awkwardly fantastic ‘Ring Road’ is probably one of the most adventurous things they’ve done, with story teller Karl Hyde coming across like a more charming Mark E Smith type beat poet. 

The duo (with composer John Murphy) recently did the soundtrack to Danny Boyles’ sci-fi horror flick Sunshine, a film for which the track ‘Glam Bucket’ was written, although it was preferred for inclusion here and now forms a nice, refrained segue between the vocals of ‘Ring Road’ and the beaten up groove-rock of ’Boy, Boy, Boy’. 

The album then floats off into the ambient ether with ‘Cuddle Bunny’ and the minimal cool of ’Faxed Invitation’ before arriving at the stark, euphoric keys of ‘Good Morning Cockerel’, which slips nicely into the chilled nine minute closer ’Best Mangue Ever’. Probably a little late but still essential.

mp3: underworld - holding the moth.
mp3: underworld - boy, boy, boy.

BLACK GHOSTS

‘Some Way Through This’ is the next single by The Black Ghosts and is out October 22nd through Southern Fried. Check out the time lapse lego video. 

SMILE FOR MILES

Health Farms/Retreats are nice in a strange kind of way, you spend all day getting fit and tanned then screw up all your good work of the day by getting plastered in the bar later that evening. It’s a lame excuse but everyone else seemed to be doing it, so it would have been rude not to join in.

The fifth album ‘Some Other Country’ from James Taylor and David Brown aka Swayzak is a great bit of smooth minimalist house, and one of the highlights is ‘Smile and Receive’.

Released through !K7 a couple of weeks back, it features the mournful/soulful vocals of Cassy Britton and remix wise, long time vocal collaborator Richard Davis delivers a nice 80’s electro pop ‘rework’. Keeping with the Berlin feel, the 12” also features remixes by Apparat and a stone cold beat mix from Cassy herself.

Go to a previous post for the original and here’s the Richard Davis remix.

mp3: swayzak - smile and receive (richard davis rework).

DELUXE CRYSTAL

I’m away for a spot of soul cleansing this weekend, so I’ll leave you good people with a couple of remixes from latest release from The Crystal Method.

The duo’s reknowned album ‘Vegas’ has been digitally remastered and put out as a nice 2cd package, it features a host of remixes on the second disc from noteworthy producers such as Sta, Hyper, Myagi and Oakenfold. Here’s a couple of Canadian club remixes from Deadmau5 and MSTRKRFT.

mp3: the crystal method - cherry twist (deadmau5 remix).
mp3: the crystal method - keep hope alive (mstrkrft remix).

DIGITAL STEREO

The new single by London electro-funkers Unklejam is due for a release next month and it’s a nice enough piece of laid back and grooved up pop. This club remix by electro house production duo Digital Dog significantly improves things.

mp3: unklejam - stereo (digital dog remix).

FIVE FOR FRIDAY

It’s the weekend, get your pimp on:

Spank Rock - Bump (Original Mix)
Robyn - Konichiwa Bitches (Trentemoller Remix)
Justice - Let There Be Light (DJ Funk Bounce That Ass Remix)
The Count of Monte Cristal - Ghetto Bitches (Sinden Remix)
Death From Above 1979 -Little Girl (MSTRKRFT Remix)

17:21mins/160kbps/19.86mb.

DAFT WAX

It’s Daft Punk remix time again. This time the remix is courtesy of Chris Bithell aka Ratboy/Don’tCutFabricToThisMusic.

I previously mentioned Chris a few weeks back when posting about a Justice remix his buddy and Kill Your Darlings cohort Pete (Zoltar/Coolbox) had done.

If you’ve been fortunate enough to catch a live Daft Punk set you’ll know that they often play a great re-edit of Crescendolls. Well, here’s the edit of the re-edit, if you know what I mean, spot the Soulwax track and give yourself a cookie….

mp3: daft punk - crescendolls (ratboy vs soulwax edit).

DING FRIES ARE DONE

The last Spank Rock & Benny Blanco ‘Bangers & Cash’ track has just been posted at Spankrock’s myspace page. The artwork for ‘Bitch’ is pretty near the knuckle and not safe for work, although the track is great and ends with a tale about some unlucky guy losing his ding a ling in an elevator accident.

Continuing the theme, here’s last years Debonair Samir remix of Chuck Berry’s ‘Ding A Ling’.

mp3: spank rock & benny blano - bitch.
mp3: deboniar samir - my ding a ling remix.

CHILDREN OF KORN

I haven’t got an obsession with our simian relatives, it’s just how the posts stacked up. Anyway, Korn could do with cheering up. They’ve been multi-millionaires for a good while now through churning out down-tuned, angst-ridden rock to disaffected teenagers and the grim lyrical content doesn’t appear to be brightening up any.

This catchy little number is about the planet dying and how we’re not evolving etc. I know where Jonathon Davies is coming from, but I think it’s fair to say we have evolved away from sitting in a tree all day with our fingers up our asses, although we all know someone who wouldn’t be out of place there.

Here’s a couple of polished club mixes:

mp3: korn - evolution (dave aude remix).
mp3: korn - evolution (david garcia & morgan paige remix).

RESTRICTED NOIZE

The new album ‘Oi Oi Oi’ by Berlin’s Alexander Ridha aka Boys Noize is getting plenty of attention and his record company, in a move that will be emulated, put a ‘watermark’ on the promo in the form of a robotic female voice repeatedly telling you that you were listening to the new Boys Noize album. 

As record companies battle to counteract promotional material being put on the public forum of the Internet other measures being taken include clipping all the tracks to around a four minute mark.

There’s obviously no doubt that the Internet is a valuable tool in exposing music, conversely there’s no doubt that file sharing (esp. whole albums) is harming the music industry and the artists.  I don’t know if these measures being taken are necessarily the right ones, but they’re certainly effective.

Anyway, here’s two great remixes by Boys Noize. Phil Kieran’s electro noise agitators Alloy Mental get put through the blender and sleazy riders Kreepsjust wanna break some hearts. Check the above rough video for the original featuring a performance from Kitty Crimson.  As a dirty psychedelic bonus, here’s the Soulwax remix of ‘I Sit On Acid’ by Lords of Acid.

mp3: alloy mental - alloy mental (boys noize remix).
mp3: kreeps - i just wanna break some hearts (boys noize remix).
mp3: lords of acid - i sit on acid (soulwax remix).

MUSIC 4 SPACE MONKEYS

01. Justice vs Simian - We Are Your Friends (Scottie B, King Tutt & Samir Remix)
02. Alter Ego - Rocker (Stanton Warriors Remix)
03. M.I.A - XR2 (Original Mix)
04. King Amir & Patrik Hagenaar - Can’t Stop Samir’s Theme
05. Dragonette - Take It Like A Man (Felix Cartal Remix)
06. Jesse Garcia - Everybody Let’s Hip Hop (Electric Spain Dub)
07. Sebastien Leger - Hit Girl (Whelan and Di Scala Evissa Remix)
08. Bass Kleph - Coup d’Etat (Shopliftas Remix) 
09. Felix Da Housecat - Like Something 4 Porno (Armand Van Helden Remix)
10. Simian Mobile Disco - Hustler (Armand Van Helden Remix)
11. Chromeo - Tenderoni (Sinden Remix)
12. Sinden & The Count of Monte Cristal - Beeper (Original Mix)
13. Azzido Da Bass - Doom’s Night (Laidback Luke Remix)
14. Layo & Bushwacka - Love Story (Stanton Warriors Remix)
15. Freeform Five - No More Conversations (Waveshock Electro Bootleg)
16. Debonair Samir - Sirens (Original Mix)

47:41mins/160kbps/54.61mb.

CHUNKY MUNKY

I’m not alone in professing my love for a bit of Ben & Jerry’s and the old ice cream headache is always an interesting one. Skint has just released a great 2 cd retrospective of some of the best Fatboy Slim reworkings from his pretty large discography. It features all the well known tracks given the remix treatment by assorted knob twiddlers such The Chemical Brothers, Justice, Switch, Darren Emerson, Plump DJ’s and Timo Maas.

The release also saw a nice four track 12” hit the stores with features The Chemical Brothers remix of ‘Song For Shelter’, Beastie Boys Mike D and Ad Rock’s excellent take on ’Praise You’, ‘Don’t Let The Man Get You Down’ remixed by Justice and this reworking of ‘Weapon of Choice’ by Junkie XL.

Head over to the new and improved fancy pants Fatboy Slim myspace page for more information.

mp3: fatboy slim - weapon of choice (junkie xl remix).
mp3: fatboy slim - everybody needs a 303 (plump dj’s remix). 
 

WEAPON OF CHOICE

CUT THE NEON

Check out these two dirty dancefloor burners from German producer Choreo.

As the name suggests ‘Cut The Dust’ is the more upfront/immediate of the two and has some grinding synth and heavy beat action, with a nice surprise that kicks in around the four minute mark. Although I prefer the more refrained vibe of ‘Neon’ which has a great retro feel to it.

mp3: choreo - cut the dust.
mp3: choreo - neon.

SIMIAN PUNK FACILITIES

Night Facilities has been getting much love for his pretty fantastic dj friendly remixes and, in true hit whore fashion, I was thrilled when he sent over a couple of reworkings of Daft Punk and Simian Mobile Disco tracks.

I couldn’t not mention the fact that Night Facilities is only seventeen years of age, and he has an unbelievable talent that belies his tender years. He’s only going to get better, so obviously expect to hear much more from this guy and try to catch him playing out, providing his mum let’s him on a school night (sorry!).

Head over to his myspace page to pick up some more remixes and to sample some original work.

mp3: simian mobile disco - i got this down (night facilities remix).
mp3: daft punk - prime time of your life (night facilities remix).