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?

Debate.

Sorry about the longish radio silence.

Only a short message.

Nirvana's You Know You're Right is one of the greatest songs ever. Discuss.

The XX

I'm not one for hype really, it seems to have the opposite effect on me. But even I couldn't ignore the hype surrounding The xx any longer. "same school as burial, Four Tet and Hot Chip"; "combines sensibilities of american R&B and British eighties alternative music"; "Yadda, Yadda, Yadda". Determined to hate them, I gave them a listen.

Wow.

Somewhat surprisingly, given the reviews I have read, the most immediate thing that hit me was the way the rhythm guitar works on their tracks, kind of slow and repetitive not indifferent to Interpol.

Then there is the way the Male and Female vocalists interchange their lines and melodies. check the final verse of Crystalised for a case in point http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pib8eYDSFEI

so yeah, this review has turned a bit shit. Still check them out, lovely.

I'm away for a week so see you same time next week dearies

xxx

Silver Jews

\CBA today.

Everyone go buy Silver Jews- American Water.

seriously do

kthxbyes

Last.fm

I love Last.fm in an anoraky-circlejerky kind of way.

I don't care that the owners of the site probably sell the details of my scrobbles to a giant advertising agency, in order for them to rigorously profile me and shove me into a niche demographic - all it takes is a cheeky day spent listening to 50's Gospel Music to change computer game and iPhone adverts into Stena stairlift ones.

I find this all of little matter when I get a small 5cm x 5cm table that details everything I have listened to since 2.34pm, 26th April 1982. I also like the way the artists you think you have been listening to often differ to those you have actually been listening to.

Here's mine: http://www.last.fm/user/oojimaflop, feel free to add me as a friend do we can both perve upon and judge each other's music tastes.

Chow! x

Or shall we laminate ourselves into a standard advertising position?

In fact stuff that, I have all the time in the world- I'm a frickin student afterall.

lets get this straight first of all, I don't have a list fetish, i just want to list my current top 5 bands as of September 09. Wonder how much this will differ at the end of the year.

1. Why?
2. Animal Collective (me and everyone else on the internet)
3. Jamie T
4. Deerhunter (again, me and everyone else on the internet)
5. cLOUDDEAD

Peace and toast xx

Daniel Johnston

Only time for a quick hello today.

Just bought tickets for Daniel Johnston gig in Bristol. Excited to say the least.

If you haven't heard him here is one of my favourite songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNXTh4A4uS0

Simply childlike and beautiful

byeeees x

Playlist 1 Standard fair.

I'll be featuring Spotify playlists made by me. Here is one I made for my cousin. All my playlists are made to be around 8-14 songs long, perfect "album" listening length. This one isn't particularly adventurous, all are well known, in some cases over-blogged, songs.

http://open.spotify.com/user/oojimaflop/playlist/1QXqegzqTlKZE6Ly7LG0Wq

Standard fair

1. Good Friday- Why?
2. Loser- Beck
3. Life's a Bitch- Nas
4. Float on- Modest Mouse
5. Damaged Goods- Gang of Four
6. Obstacle 1- Interpol
7. Glasgow Mega-Snake- Mogwai
8. Back To School (Mini-Maggit)- Deftones
9. Never Stops- Deerhunter
10. Brothersport- Animal Collective

ingest and enjoy.
x

Leeds Festival 09

So over the weekend I made my third annual visit to the better half of the eponymous Reading and Leeds Weekend.

I won't start a dull, plodding review of every band I saw, instead I'll pick out my high and lowpoints.

High Points

1. Radiohead. The light show was astonishing. The sound was pitch perfect(although don't tell the 'fans' over at http://www.ateaseweb.com/ this, live music is for the people who are there, not for a bunch of grey eyed sofa-masturbaters to pick apart every note of from the comfort of their living room wank-den.). To be honest I had slipped out of love with this band after a dissapointing gig at Victoria Park, London, last year. I am now back in love.
   
2. Jamie T. In a way that cannot be properly described, Jamie T's music encapsulates truly what it is to be young, lost and drunk in the UK in the early 21st century. His live show does this justice. Energy, Intelligence, joy and all from a guy who looks like he once mugged you at the bus stop.
   
3. Rumours and stories. Hearing from a friend's friend who was working on first aid about a girl who got stuck half way in the long drop toilets whilst trying to retrieve her purse.
   
4. Vampire Weekend. The sun was shining and this is sunny music, played particularly well. Also the new songs sounded catchy and fun.
   
5. Them Crooked Vultures. So yeah, I am probably boasting but there are three reasons why, despite me knowing none of their songs, Them Crooked Vultures were one of the highlights. Firstly, there was the excitement of seeing the gap in the programme and speculating whilst running, as to who the secret band could be. Secondly there was the atmosphere, the crowd chanting Dave Grohl's name and thirdly there was the sheer tightness of the band, all three principal members are masters of their instruments. I am excited to hear more.
6. More beer than is even right.
7. Gallows. Frank Carter is a prick, yet in the best possible way. I want to shake his hand for being such an utter prick or knight him for services to prickhood. His anger during his gigs is immense, mainly for its lack of direction. The kind of anger a little yorkshire terrier has. This, plus the skill and musical arrangements behind Carter's lyrics and the pure unbridled violence of the crowd makes Gallows a must-see band.

Low points (no bands, just things that pissed me off)

1. A certain type of person, of a certain age, of a certain gender, doing certain things. When i was eighteen and attending my first Festival, I don't recall taking any joy in circle jerking over a massive forest fire built up of deck chairs, tents, gas canisters and tins of baked beans. N.B. to anyone who is 17/18/, Male and a complete Idiot. Your stunts aren't hilarious, and they especially won't get you laid with anyone other than a girl so fucked that she can't tell the difference a hot dog and your flacid tiny cock.
2. The sound. Some of the bands; Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Passion Pit, and The Maccabees being cases in point, sounded like their music was being engineered by a particularly attention defecited, unintelligent four year old and played through 12 pairs of wet socks that had been stretched over the face of the speakers. Eugh.
3. Throwing up a lot. 'Nuff said really.

Peace and Hotcakes xx

Our Name.

"History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit"

Hunter S. Thompson, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.