Warp20

So, I finally got a bit of money and bought the Warp20 chosen CD.

There are some really good tracks on it.

Luke Vibert - I love Acid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmoFNya6P4Q

Squarepusher/AFX - Freeman, Hardy and Willis Acid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DutKmbxWpLo

Are two such, Acid-themed examples.

Been spinning this so much this week that I haven't even had the chance to play my 5 years of Hyperdub Cd.

(The score for Warp20 is 5/5 for those who care )

The Flaming Lips- Embryonic

On paper, with an album sporting guest spots from MGMT and Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, it would not be too foolish to think that The Flaming Lips had continued along the lines of their last two long play releases At War With The Mystics and Yoshimi battles The Pink Robots. These albums tended to feature standout tracks; weirdo anthems such as The Yeah Yeah Yeah song, Do you Realize or Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Part 1; punctuated with tracks of barely there vocals and studio effects. Instead Embryonic, a double album which quite bizarrely arrives on one disc, goes against this. It is amongst the Lips most dense and psychedelic work- there are no real sing-along’s here.

The opening track, Convinced Of The Hex, starts the album off as it means to go on, all stuttering guitar, rhythm and Wayne Coyne’s hypnotically repeated vocal line “Thats the difference between us”. The aforementioned track featuring MGMT, Worm Mountain, is not the synth heavy sing-along one would expect, but instead a fuzz guitar monster, with MGMT relegated to backing vocals and electronic squiggles. Similarly, Karen O’s appearances on I Can Be A Frog and Watching The Planets is all animal noises and manic laughter giving a scary edge to the songs. Add to this, the guest appearance of German mathematician Dr. Thorsten Wörmann on Gemini Syyringes giving a lecture and you begin to get an idea of the style and sound of the album’s 18 tracks.

The one major complaint is that at 72 minutes running length, this is hardly an album that can be fit into a short listening session, requiring both time and effort on behalf of the listener. However this does not detract from the fact that Embryonic is easily The Flaming Lips best album since 1998’s masterpiece The Soft Bulletin.

Score: 4.5/5

(originally written for exepose)

Editors- In This Light And On This Evening

In This Light And On This Evening, Editors third album to date, is somewhat of a departure from their previous output. Whilst vocalist Tom Smith’s recognisable baritone remains at the core of the songs, that second trademark Editors sound, delay soaked guitars, is gone. In their place we have keyboards.

It’s a well trodden path: Bands from New Order to Bloc Party; from The Cure to Radiohead, have all put down their guitars in favour of keys at one point or another in their careers- to varying degrees of success. For Editors, this transition to a more electronic sound is easy.The synths serve the same purpose as the guitars in previous releases The Back Room and The End Has A Start, adding atmosphere to the tracks whilst the rhythm section drives the main focus of the song. A good example of this is in second track Bricks And Mortar which has a bass line strangely reminiscent of The Horror’s recent single Sea Within a Sea and the lyrical refrain “I hope life is good for you”.

This is immediately followed by lead single Papillon, which sounds so convincingly like the band decided to get together and write a trance track that it comes as no surprise that the single release contains a remix by trance hero Tiesto.

In This Light and On This Evening is by no means a perfect album. The mid-section of The Big Exit and The Boxer seem to drag a little and bog the album down. However, these are more than made up for by the oddly titled Raw Meat= Blood Drool, perhaps the most exciting moment on the album. Here Tom Smith’s voice is almost frantic between a pounding drum beat and schizophrenic keys. It is quite unlike anything we have previously witnessed from Editors and hopefully Heralds a new and exciting direction for the band.


Score: 3/5
(originally published in Exeter university Exepose student newspaper)

M83

Gaining a bit of an M83 obsession at the moment.

Here is a link to Don't Save Us From The Flames. Great song, great video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpT0rrtwpLg

Dub

Heavily getting into Dub at the moment.

Playlist 2- Packing

I'm packing to go back to uni today. It's pretty damn stressful. Here is a playlist, nothing new again, just some well-worn songs:

http://open.spotify.com/user/oojimaflop/playlist/4BcW2DulSaR9fdKTSyrrmC

Packing

1. 3rd Planet- Modest Mouse
2. Love You Better- The Maccabees
3. You Know You're Right- Nirvana
4. The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret- Queens Of The Stone age
5. VCR- The XX
6. We Tigers- Animal Collective
7. Suffer For Fashion- of Montreal
8. Walking The Cow- Daniel Johnston
9. Exit Music (For A Film)- Radiohead

xx

Old slippers.

Isn't re-listening to an old album that you used to be semi-obsessed with just like slipping on a pair of knackered slippers?