The Complete Sound.

Ricardo Villalobos - Fizheuer Zieheuer

2008-06-19T15:35:00.011+01:00

Ricardo Villalobos - Fizheuer Zieheuer

I've recently been exploring Minimal Techno, a genre I have always struggled with in the past. I always find that some things need to be experienced in order. I've always enjoyed Drum and Bass as well as different producers who are generally labelled as IDM such as Aphex Twin (but everyone like Aphex Twin right? Even people who only listen to Punk and Metal seem to have a least some Richard James mp3s). Techno took me longer to understand however. I can remember labelling all 'dance' music 'too repetitive' which is kind of false (most Techno tracks don't have choruses and are much more dynamic than your average rock song) and yet kind of true. I can now see that repetitive isn't necessarily bad.

I can trace the musical path which lead me to Techno back to Dub. Dub lead me to Dubstep which lead me back to Garage and 2 Step which I had totally dismissed back when they were current. The precision and relentlessly on beat, light, almost fluttering sounds of 2 Step (in particular Horsepower Productions) taught me to see how minimal variations could seem like giant changes when backed by a steady 4 on the floor.

All of this leads me on to Fizheuer Zieheuer by Ricardo Villalobos. The album features just one track which is 37 minutes long. This is one song not a series of tracks mixed together. The drum track varies only slightly over the course of the song, in fact most of the song remains the same. A horn sample taken from a gypsy folk song enters after about 5 minutes and is looped, tweaked and cut in and out, sometimes in a very primitive fashion. It reminds me of mixing with tape decks: pausing and adjusting the speed of one element at a time.

The beats also vary over the course of the 37 minutes if only slightly. At certain points they seem to bounce off the walls and collide off of one another. When Villalobos accentuates the off beat it seems like a massive change of pace, in probably wouldn't seem so striking if you haven't heard the beat for over 10 minutes. A certain points the beat is run through some kind of echo chamber effect which briefly brings to mind Dub rhythms.

Philip Sherburne (who writes the excellent 'Month In Techno' Column for Pitchfork as well as his own blog) described the track's

"own interior dubscape (is) so minimally variegated as to be almost dizzying, like playing hopscotch on a moving sidewalk in zero gravity-- in a blizzard."

He goes on to say

"Villalobos finds perpetual motion in seeming stasis, using judicious filters and delay to ensure that no two bars are alike. His pinhead moonstomping is like the sonic version of micropsia, in which traditional perspective fails and objects lose their scale: echoes outgrow their sources and offbeats shadowbox their downbeats to death."

If that doesn't make you want to go out and find the track then I guess you just aren't ready to have your mind blown.

American Indie Vs British Indie

2008-04-09T11:04:00.004+01:00

I watched a program last night called 'Later Live' which for any non UK readers is a live music show with a pretty eclectic range of guests. Well, it's about as eclectic as you would expect from the BBC.

There were two bands playing last night who would both be considered 'Indie' yet are very different.
The first was The Kooks who are an English band on Virgin records. The second was Yeasayer, a New York band on We Are Free records. The Kooks are typical of a lot of British Indie bands. They went to stage school and probably spend more time picking their outfits than writing songs. That's perhaps a little unfair, their songs are actually fun and catchy but they aren't exactly anything new. Their sound is boringly retro and they bring nothing new or unique. (This isn't something which only British bands are guilty of. Jet for example do exactly the same thing. Their biggest hit 'Are you gonna be my girl' is just a cover of 'Lust for life' with different lyrics). Johnny Borrell, who is no innovator himself, summed up The Kooks sound "It sounds like the band are literally rolling over, sticking their arse in the air and begging Radio 1 to fuck them."

Yeasayer on the other hand have an interesting almost tribal sound in a similar vein to Animal Collective. They use electronic sounds and are influenced by 'world' music (please excuse that awful phrase). Basically Yeasayer are inventive and dynamic whereas The Kooks sound like a band doing covers at a wedding. This serves to demonstrate the fact that what passes for 'Indie' over here is boring rubbish for NME reading students.

Yeasayer - 2080 Live

Biffy Clyro

2008-04-02T15:16:00.005+01:00

I can't stop listening to Puzzle by Biffy Clyro. I had pretty much ignored the album when it came out for two reasons. Firstly the album artwork is awful. (The artwork from their second album was great, if a little bit rude). Secondly I tend to hate it when bands mellow out (I still haven't forgiven Idlewild).
The first track I heard of the album was 'Saturday Superhouse' which has a great video:

My favourite track however is 'Who's got a match'. How can any song with the lyrics "The midget is frigid I put it to you" in a strong Scottish accent be bad?

'Who's got a match' live 19-05-07

As I mentioned before, this album is a lot more mellow than Biffy's previous efforts. On paper I prefer their early sound which featured a lot of contrast between calm songs and manic shouting in a similar manor to Aereogramme. But this album is so catchy that I just can't resist. Maybe i'm getting old :)

Muxtape

2008-03-25T16:24:00.004Z

Muxtape is a new site, created by Jstn which allows users to share mixtapes via a rather nice flash interface. The site is very simple. It allows you to upload up to 12 songs of up to 10mb each. To share your mix you just send somebody the link to your profile i.e yournickname.muxtape.com

The simplicity of the interface reminds me of a lot of cool sites like instapaper (which lets you save articles to read later in a newspaper format) and writer (the internet typewriter).
To try out the service I've uploaded a mix. This was a pain free exercise which is great especially when you consider that it was launched today.
My mix is similar to the one I posted previously via lastfm in that it is more of a mix tape than a DJ mix. In fact the main overriding theme is that the songs are all great but don't necessarily go together.
Listen here Thomaz.muxtape.com

Biffy Clyro - Now I'm Everyone
The Crimea - Loop A Loop
3 Inches Of Blood - Goat Riders Horde
Jens Lekman - A Postcard To Nina
Burial - Archangel
Hot Chip - Don't Dance
Antipop Consortium Ghostlawns - (Original Version)
Le Tigre - Deceptacon
Lil' Wayne - Seat Down Low

The Rip Off Artist.

2008-03-18T16:49:00.003Z

I'm currently listening to The Rip-Off Artist. There isn't that much information about him out there, so I can't be too specific. From his website I discovered that he is called Matt Haines and he has " retired from the music business." The album I'm listening to is called Pump and features 13 songs split over 69 tracks on the CD. If you are familiar with the record label, Mille Plateaux you will have some idea how this album sounds. It's more catchy and less minimalist than your average Mille Plateaux release however. Pitchfork describe it thus:

"electronic to be certain-- there isn't a single organic sound to be found here-- but outside of that broad disclaimer, it's hard to peg. Pump's roots are clearly in house music: more often than not there's a clearly discernable 4/4 beat, marked by repeated drum patterns and sounds which creep in then back out a few times over the course of a song; minute details that appear, then disappear, one by one. Meanwhile, Haines cycles through a seemingly endless catalog of goofy electronic noises which suggest everything from 60's library music to old-school Warp Records to kids' toy samplers. "

If that doesn't interest you then I give up! More info and some mp3s here.

Ashley Dupre, call girl and pop singer.

2008-03-13T15:16:00.007Z

Governor Eliot Spitzer's little indiscretion with Ashley Alexandra Dupré (see photos) has created quite a buzz on the internet. Bloggers have been posting like crazy from the news of the scandal breaking, to Spitzer's resignation and now they are focusing their attentions towards Ashley Dupre. Dupre, or 'Kristen' as she was known has become an unwitting internet star. Or perhaps not so, unwitting as she hasn't yet set her myspace profile to private.

Dupre's page has a song on it which has been played 2068901 times, and I'm fairly sure that's not due to it's quality. It seems her work at the Emperors Club came second to her dreams of being a singer. Her encounter with the governor of New York may well help to launch her career. I would bet that she has a recording contract by the end of the week. The song, called 'what we want' is standard R&B, the beats are a bit dull and the vocals basic. With a bit of a remix it could become a hit, which says a lot about the state the charts are in.

The song is produced by Simon Illa of Unbreakable Music Group, who is, I'm guessing somewhat pleased about all the publicity.

Ashley Dupree myspace page
Spitzer Scandal news
Ashley Dupre, Millionaire?

Marnie Stern

2008-03-10T15:58:00.006Z

If you liked my last post, you should check out Marnie Stern. Her guitar style is similar to Mick Barr's: full-on, layered noise as fast as possible. She also reminds me of another Barr due to her use of spoken-word passages and meta-narratives. “Nothing I do is esoteric,” She says. “I have constant references in mind for everything. Everything’s intentional.” This, combined with a guitar technique which can only be described as 'shredding' makes for quite a mix.

Stern's last album 'In Advance of the Broken Arm'
features Hella's Zach Hill on drums and production. Her sound reminds me of the bass and drums duo lightning Bolt although it is perhaps a bit more accessible as you can actually comprehend the lyrics which are looped and layered. As Brandon Stosuy put it in his review for Pitchfork.com:

"she sets up her own call-and-response (musically and lyrically), her sing-talk style cutting across the strings like a rogue auctioneer or cheerleader."

Here is the video for the single 'Every Single Line Means Something'

More songs and information can be found at Marnie Stern's Myspace page.

Octis - Mick Barr, guitar hero.

2008-03-05T17:15:00.003Z

Mick Barr of Octis, Orthrealm and Ocrilim.

Noisy Neighbours.

2008-02-29T16:36:00.005Z

No Noisy Neighbours are not the latest great band I've discovered, although its a better name than 'Vampire Weekend'. I just have neighbours who will not shut up. I would post about it here except that they have really bad musical taste. This wouldn't be a problem if they didn't insist on playing their music so loud that the whole street can hear it. They like very basic house/techno. So basic in fact it sounds like they might just be listening to a sample of the world's most boring beat. Perhaps the walls filter out all the great details of their favourite tracks but by the sound of it, the walls are not preventing much of the sound reaching me. I like Drum And Bass, I would just prefer not to feel it vibrating the floor. Perhaps I should buy them some headphones or double glazing, either way it must stop!

The Complete Sound Mix

2008-02-28T15:47:00.007Z

I thought I would share some music I have been enjoying lately with you. There is a nice mix of different styles, mostly Indie with a bit of Dubstep, Electro and Dance.
Click the arrow below to stream.

TRACKLISTING:

Jens Lekman - The Opposite of Hallelujah 4:19
Neutral Milk Hotel – Everything Is 3:40
Foals – Cassius 3:48
Klaxons – It's Not Over Yet 3:34
Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma 3:14
Burial – Archangel 4:01
Justice – D.A.N.C.E. [Justice Remix] 4:01
Simian Mobile Disco – Hustler (Club Version) 6:36
Hot Chip – Over and Over 5:49
Robyn – Konichiwa Bitches 2:39
LCD Soundsystem – North American Scum 5:24
Battles – UW 3:00
Liars – Plaster Casts of Everything 3:57
Cat Power – The Greatest 3:24
Cursive – Big Bang

The Crimea - 'Secrets of the Witching Hour' free album download

2008-02-26T16:57:00.012Z

I discovered The Crimea via a television advert. Not the best place to find new music I grant you but it worked well this time. You might have seen the advert, it features a man going on a magical adventure through a world populated by bunny rabbits, clouds etc. This strange journey is bought about by a piece of chewing gum. I'm not sure if the gum was spiked with some kind of psychedelic drug or not but either way the music stands out from all the rubbish normally featured on adverts (with a few exceptions).

It turns out that the band who created the song, The Crimea were formed from the ashes of the first ever rock band I saw, many moons ago. Back then they were called The Crocketts and were fronted by a man named Davey Crockett, who, to my young mind at least, was a complete lunatic. I saw them supporting The Levellers and they blew me away. I soon stopped listening to The Levellers (in my defense) but always kept an ear out for The Crocketts.
After The Crocketts were dropped by V2 Davey "Crockett" MacManus and Owen Hopkin went on to form The Crimea who were dropped from Warner Bros after one album. Their latest album 'Secrets of the Witching Hour' is available to download for free from their website. This seems like a good approach for them at this point. It should result in a lot more people getting to hear, and love, the album. People have nothing to lose in giving it a try after all!

I read an interesting article on Wired.com entitled 'Free! why $0.00 is the future of business' which puts forward a very compelling argument for big businesses giving away products (and regaining the loss elsewhere). This is reliant on the low costs of production and distribution, particularly online. I would guess that the costs involved in releasing an album for free online are minimal even if recording time is not. With physical album sales falling drastically and illegal downloading becoming so prevalent even your nan is doing it, this looks to be a trend that will grow and grow. I only hope that the band can recoup the costs elsewhere. Not having to give a cut of the profits to a record company must help (although The Crimea have also released a CD for the hardcore fans.)

As fans of music I think we should try to support the artists we listen to, particularly those who are not living in a mansion somewhere moaning about people stealing their music. Maybe the lack of money spent on albums will mean an increase in gig goers or more money spent on merchandise.

Check out the video below to save me trying to describe the band's sound because I can only think of hackey, cliched ways of putting it and this isn't the NME, so we will have none of that here thankyou-very-much.

MGMT - Time to pretend - Live on Letterman.

2008-02-25T12:57:00.007Z

I can't get this song out of my head. I recommend you check out the video here (The Youtube version is not embeddable, just in case, heaven-forbid, somebody decides to distribute the video on their blog. Record labels seem to have forgotten that videos are PROMOTIONAL material.) Just listening to the rest of the album now. Its much more guitar orientated than I expected from this song. It's sort of funky and spaced-out. Reminds me of AIR, prog and The Flaming Lips. As beatlawrence notes the album is created with traditional instruments more than electronics. This seems a bit of a shame to me but it is defiantly worth a listen and sounds like it will stand up to repeated spins.

The Klaxons and Rihanna Live at the Brits

2008-02-21T15:11:00.019Z

I was planning on trying not to post about big mainstream music events. It seems silly everyone in the blogosphere (I promise to never use that word again here) posting about the same things all the time. It’s always good to break your self-imposed rules however, even if it is in the first proper post. And thus, I present, The Klaxons and Rihanna Live at the Brits.

I've posted this because I like both Rihanna and The Klaxons. When I was younger I went through stages (didn't we all) of being fiercely loyal to the genre of music I was listening to at the time. This was normally rock music of some description. Any other type of music, especially, god-forbid, pop music was considered artistically redundant toss aimed at the hard-of-thinking. Now that I’ve grown up a bit and I'm not searching for some kind of identity in opposition to others I’m much more free and easy in what music I listen to.

This also may be down to factors other than just growing older. These days genre cross-pollination seems to be much more prevalent. Bands and DJs and listeners move between rock, grime, electro, pop, world and anything else you care to mention without a care in the world. The music available is much richer because of this. This idea, along with hundreds of other interesting developments in the world of music is covered in Paul Morley's wonderful book Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City which I fully recommend.

The performance was the first time The Klaxons met Rihanna, they explained to Radio 1:

“It’s been a bit of a funny one because obviously she’s in America and they’ve got this funny idea of what our band sounds like.
We've done three of four different versions of the track. I think we have found something we're both happy with. It's good!”

First

2008-02-21T14:12:00.002Z

Hello and welcome to my new blog. Stick around if you are interested in music and please feel free to comment. The title 'The Complete Sound' is a reference to Luigi Russolo's Futurist manifesto 'The Art Of Noises' written in 1913. Russolo refered to the chord/harmony as The Complete Sound.