October 2, 2008 at 9:32 pm · Filed under Articles, Media
Sasu Ripatti is the producer and head writer behind the project Luomo, his musical outfit that has redrawn the very boundaries of what “house music” can achieve. “Convivial”; is Ripatti’s fourth, album as Luomo. For his relief though, this time he doesn’t have to arrive alone. In addition to a long-time collaborator Johanna Iivanainen (From Helsinki, Finland), this time he lands with a semiunderground star cast; Cassy (Panorama Bar), Sascha Ring (Apparat), Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters), Robert Owens, Sue-C and one anonymous singer who hides behind a name Chubbs
The network of artists and singers he worked with for the album bring about strong song characteristics and wide range of electronic music to experience. Cassy is participating on a dancefloor-friendly song “Have You Ever”, while Sascha Ring makes a touching appearance singing a semi-ballad “Love You All”. Jake Shears does add a piece of glamour in “If I Can’t” while a long-time friend from California, Sue-C does great lead vocals in “Nothing Goes Away”, a song probably everyone can relate to. Classic house vocalist Robert Owens gets treated and processed in soulful “Robert’s Reason”, while Johanna Iivanainen both brings back and takes further than before what vocals can do in experimental pop music. As always in his productions the vocals rarely speak out on narrow or specific issues, preferring sweeping hyperbolic statements all about seasonless emotions and about transition and exchange, because that is what people have in their lives, and it is his wish to reflect on that in his music…
Convivial” is out on Huume Recordings October 24th.
Track Listing:
1. Have You Ever (w/ Cassy)
2. Love You All (w/ Sascha Ring aka Apparat)
3. If I Can’t (w/ Jake Shears)
4. Nothing Goes Away (w/ Sue Cie & Johanna Iivanainen)
5. Robert’s Reason (w/ Robert Owens)
6. Slow Dying Places (w/ Johanna Iivanainen)
7. Sleep Tonight (w/ Johanna Iivanainen)
8. Gets Along Fine (w/ Chubbs)
9. Lonely Music Co. (w/ Johann
September 24, 2008 at 8:41 pm · Filed under Articles, Media
NDMnetEP046 - Tom Pooks - Remix EP
incl. remixes by Jeff Bennett, Disclosure Project, M-Lito, Drahosh, Didem Süzen, Life Recorder, Neurotron.
Label: Night Drive Music Limited (VINYL 12″)
Homepage: http://www.night-drive-music.com
Get it here: http://www.beatport.com/labels/night+drive+music+limited
September 24, 2008 at 8:31 pm · Filed under News
I mean, Talvin Singh - OK
By taking traditional Indian instruments and musical structures and grafting them with Western techno production techniques, he’s created a unique “brown-guy” niche in dance music previously populated by cornholes like Apache Indian. The man already has an impressive resume, leading the British Indian music collective Asian Dub Underground and having contributed to records by Björk and Massive Attack. He’s also a talented composer in his own right.Singh doesn’t just stick some sitars over a breakbeat– the arrangements of tablas, strings, and frenzied backbeats is allowed full prominence here. Talvin Singh is a master at his craft, and it’s evident on O.K. Elegant tabla rhythms mix superbly with electronic music to create a sublime ambient sound from the Asian underground.Rather, he exploits the inherent tendencies of “intelligent” drum-and-bass and classical Indian music (ethereal chords and complex time signatures respectively) to find a natural point of intersection between the two, thereby developing an entirely new style.OK echoes those notorious sessions of Miles’ fusion era not only in its moments of brilliance and spirit of unedited improvisation, but also in the occasional self-indulgent mess. If you like ambient music, or Eastern-influenced electronica, you won’t be sorry you bought this album.
September 24, 2008 at 8:18 pm · Filed under Articles, Media
Label: Illegal Art
Genre: Beats, Electronic, Hip Hop, Pop, Punk, Rock
At the risk of revealing myself as A) behind the times, and B) a complete tool, I’m going to share that I’ve recently gotten back into heavy exercise. At the gym, I usually listen to (here’s where the “complete tool” part comes in) This American Life or some other talky podcast where I don’t have to worry about (tool again) consistently high-energy beats. But praise be to Pittsburgh’s Greg Gillis, whose Night Ripper from 2006 is a (the behind the times part) mashup masterpiece that (tool) keeps my adrenaline PUMPED, man! For my money, Z-Trip is still the high-water mark of such guerrilla hip-hop-classic-rock-punk-pop-whatever mixing, but what Gillis does with the riffs from The Pixies, the Strokes and Weezer in “Hold Up” helps me burn 500 calories in two minutes. Girl Talk’s newest, Feed the Animals, is available here for whatever price you want to pay, which I’ve already done so that I can take my workout to anotha level of behind-the-times toolness. Join me and feel the burn!
Hold Up (MP3, 5.9MB)
September 24, 2008 at 5:39 pm · Filed under Articles, Media
Thievery Corporation - Radio Retaliation (20008)
Here you’ll find everything you know and love about Thievery Corporation’s sound: reggae, dub, Indian, Latin, jazz, lounge, and on. They have really managed to sharpen their edges and even apply their hands to a little bluesy funk on “The Numbers Game”. It doesn’t seem like a stretch at all to call Radio Retaliation the “homme” to The Mirror Conspiracy’s “femme” vibe and classic Thievery sound. Guest musicians joining Hilton and Garza on this album include daughter of sitar master Ravi Shankar, and sitar virtuoso in her own right Anoushka Shankar, as well as Nigerian afro-beat star Femi Kuti, respected Brazilian vocalist Seu Jorge, Slovakian singer and violinist Jana Andevska, and DC-based “Godfather of Go-Go” Chuck Brown. Other personalities re-joining the duo, who we can easily regard as “the rest of the Corporation” are Sleepy Wonder, LouLou, Notch, Zee, and Verny Varela. Radio Retaliation, as more than just this review will tell you, is pure fire. Classic, classic, classic Thievery.At the same time, Retaliation is undeniably the group’s funkiest album to date, chock-full of punchy horns and chicken-scratch guitar numbers such as The Numbers Game, which finds go-go legend Chuck Brown convincingly huffing, cackling, and commanding the listener to “shake out your mind”. Even the slow-simmering, sitar-led Mandala eventually breaks out into a cathartic blast of DJ-scratching and triumphant trumpets. Like a well-meaning mother pureeing some carrots into the mac-and-cheese, Thievery arms its ear-candy with decidedly political undertones, from the anti-establishment mood of Sound the Alarm that kick off the album to the ominous marching-band percussion that propel (The Forgotten People).
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