Four Tet - Much Love To The Plastic People

Kieran Hebden gave out a mix CD entitled Much Love To The Plastic People last month, at the final night of his DJ residency at the club of the same name. After circulating for a while on messageboards and blogs, he's posted the mix for download at Soundcloud. It's well worth a listen, starting on recent single 'Love Cry' and featuring a few new tracks, presumably off his upcoming There Is Love In You full length. Get it here.

Martin Kemp [Blunted Robots]

There must be somethin' in the water round at the ol' Kemp family place. Brackles’ production trajectory over the past year has been quirky enough – the progression between the stop-start technoid dynamics of early track ‘Glazed’ and the dazzling neon hues of his recent remix of Crystal Fighters’ ‘I Love London’ couldn’t have been more dramatic – but if anything his brother has managed to outdo him on the dancefloor chemistry front.

And chemistry it is – ill-judged Spandau Ballet jokes aside, Martin Kemp’s production is pure gold. At this point, it's less an art than a science. There were hints in the warped aura and staggering gait of ‘No Charisma’, but the pair of tracks on his second Blunted Robots release see him do things with percussion that simply shouldn’t work in a dancefloor environment. UK funky’s commitment to tribalism is turned inside out on ‘After The Night’, each snare hit landing at precisely the opposite place than expected, lending a coarse sense of unpredictability that ramps the track’s tension to breaking point. Combined with the sinogrime-inspired minimalism of the track’s main melody it’s disorienting but relentlessly propulsive.



‘Aztec’ takes the previous track’s melodic Orientalism and runs with it; but instead of pushing ever-forward it expands laterally, building layer upon layer of bleeps and serrated hi-hats into an odd skanking rhythm. It remains almost impossibly supple though, contorting its stop-start dynamics into any number of geometric shapes over its six-minute length. Both tracks remain mysterious even after a huge number of listens (one of the main reasons this review is a few weeks late), but either way the diffuse yet hugely energetic nature of Kemp’s percussion is fast becoming a trademark.

And as if any more evidence was required, his remix of Royal T’s ‘1 Up’ is positively labyrinthine. Stabs of the original’s harsh motif burst out of the mix, shrouded in a whirl of elastic drum hits that combine to give the dizzying impression that you’ve either lost your marbles or ended up on a seriously perverse mind trip – and one that finds its resolution in dancing like your nerves are on fire. As far as these ears are concerned, the four tracks he’s officially released have already eclipsed his brother’s back catalogue (and that’s no mean feat). If there’s any justice, 2010 will be his year.

http://www.myspace.com/themartinkemp

Fact Freebies

In typically generous form, FACT Magazine have seen fit to start the new year with a massive bang, giving away a pair of free tracks and a particularly mindblowing mix.

Greena's remix of Mosca's 'Square One' follows on where his recent Apple Pips debut left off: all asymmetric percussive patterns that borrow equally from house, garage and dubstep, and a cheeky sense of euphoric bounce nicked from Buraka Som Sistema's neon-tinted kuduro. My only qualm is that it doesn't last that little bit longer. It's available for seven days, here.

Meanwhile, Werk Discs head honcho Actress' collaboration with labelmate Disrupt is a lumbering beast of a track, a woozy, smoked-out synth line and Zomby-esque bleeps coalescing to form an odd, wonky form of techno. It's perverse, creepy and wierdly addictive, and available for seven days here.

Finally, Deadboy has delivered the latest in FACT's pretty-damn-essential mix series, turning in a neatly mixed blend of garage, funky and 'what-you-call-it' sounds to dazzling effect. His 'U Cheated' was a contender for one of my favourite tracks of 2009, welding melancholy vocal stabs to an absolutely killer bass breakdown that I've still not managed to hear on a dancefloor. He's got a new one, 'If U Want Me', coming out in the next month or so and it's even better, closing the mix in full-on party style.

Download it here, and catch him in Room 1 of Fabric this Friday, where he appears as part of the Numbers label's showcase alongside Todd Edwards, Rustie, Hudson Mohawke and Jackmaster. It's going to be massive.

Olafur Arnalds - Dyad 1909 [Erased Tapes]

Erased Tapes has just released Olafur Arnalds' quite brilliant score for Wayne McGregor's recent ballet Dyad 1909 - great news by itself, but while digging around doing some research for the review, I stumbled across a fascinating set of articles and information about McGregor himself. I don't know a lot about contemporary dance at all, bar the projects that have formed a cross over with the music world (Merce Cunningham's Split Sides with Radiohead and Sigur Ros, Peter Broderick scoring Adrienne Hart's Falling From Trees), but as a biology graduate it's interesting to see that McGregor's been involved in a series of research projects about the cognitive and biological aspects of creativity.

At the end of every year when the 'best of' lists come out, there's always a discussion around the subjectivity and individuality of artistic creation and appreciation, and it always seems that there's precious little talk about what we do know about the science behind the creative process. There's a great article by Euan Ferguson, writing for the Observer, that discusses the projects with McGregor and some of the scientists involved in these research projects. It's well worth reading. There's also a lot more about his R-Research on McGregor's home page.



Arnalds' score itself is wonderful, further developing the subtle electronic elements of his earlier compositions. Both understated and openly dramatic, it seems to fit perfectly with the themes running through Dyad 1909 - the chill elemental power of the Antarctic, and a tough balletic delicacy of touch. '3326' is particularly striking, a sparse solo violin arrangement that builds to a furious and heartfelt crescendo. Quite aside from being my favourite thing he's yet written, this score suggests that his forthcoming third album will be his most fully realised statement yet.

New year, new mix

Happy new year! After a bit of a break from normal service and with the reserves of Christmas spirit(s) more or less depleted at this point, here's a final shout from 2009 - a new mix of mine, made up almost entirely of tunes released over the last year. The aim was to try and cobble together fragments of my favourite tracks from the past twelve months, as well as working in lieu of a slightly predictable year-end list of CB/OB's 'Favourite ...'s of the year'. Usual agenda - Ableton-based, recorded live.

Download link here.

Tracklist
Kowton – Stasis (G Mix)
Julio Bashmore – Um Bongo
Hackman – Funky Tune
> Spherix – Lesser People
Shackleton – Death Is Not Final
Greena – Tenzado
> Hard House Banton – Reign
Martin Kemp – After The Night
J. Kenzo - Conqueror
Kode9 – Black Sun
Crazy Cousinz – Inflation
Doc Daneeka – Funky Bit
Geiom – Eyl Booty
L-Vis 1990 - Run
Hot City – No More
Martin Kemp – No Charisma
Scuba – Aesaunic
Pinch – Get Up (Guido Remix)
Ike Release – Jenova
> Joy Orbison – J. Doe
Ikonika – Fish
Untold – Dante
Pangaea – Memories
Naphta/Grievous Angel – Soundclash VIP
Guido – Beautiful Complication

Free Grievous Angel remix

Perfect remedy to too much food and wine - a rather fine free remix of Monkey Steak's Tigris Riddim by man of the moment Grievous Angel, courtesy of the good people at Steak House Records.

Grab it here.

The second Steak House 12", a follow up from the first which featured Octa Push and Mr. Gasparov, is due for release in the new year and features three new tracks from the Monkey Steak duo (Atki2 & Hanuman). It looks set to be a good 'un.

http://www.myspace.com/steakhouserecords

Tune of the day: December 21st

Tune/track of the day returns, inspired by a painstakingly slow, snow-coated shuffle home along with the rest of the walk-back-from-work masses:

Fennesz – ‘Black Sea’



Taken from Christian Fennesz’s latest and quite possibly greatest full-length, the title track from Black Sea neatly sums its parent up in ten gorgeous minutes. Shifting from an opening hum and crackle to a sudden burst of delay-drenched guitar, it conjures up an enduringly bleak landscape as suited to a darkened walk in the snow as to the quiet headspace of a midnight train journey.

10-20 - Lake [Highpoint Lowlife]

Fresh from bigging up Highpoint Lowlife and 10-20 in my Short Circuitry 'summary of the year' thing, more big ups for 10-20's new EP Lake. It's expectedly great.

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Highpoint Lowlife wunderkind 10-20’s self-titled debut album looks destined to wonder, delirious and confused, into the upper echelons of this year’s best ‘lost’ records. It’s a shame – his music is certainly worthy of wider appreciation, managing to cram into its awkward, lanky form elements of classic Warp electronica, folksy sampleplay and sudden glimpses of hip-hop influenced swagger. It’s a surprisingly complete record considering it came out of nowhere, marked by a devotion to peculiarly organic textures and claustrophobic closeness that reached its highpoint (heh) in the self-perpetuating ambient whorl of ‘Arcadeagle’. It’s also only four quid from the label’s website, which to these ears makes it the bargain of the year.

Following on from the full-length, he has turned his attention to the ‘Landforms’ series of EPs, beginning with the summer’s Island and now reaching its second installment. I’m not entirely sure to what extent mental projection is responsible, but Lake does sound distinctly more aquatic than its predecessor, each track drowning in limpid lakes of delay and sending hollow ripples outward from each burst of synthetic energy. The crunchy, static-infused ‘Overloam’d’ is certainly the least immediate thing he’s managed to craft yet, drawing attention to brief melodic flashes that burst suddenly outward to stain its greyscale backing in deepest green.

Out of the four tracks here, ‘Endzone’ is probably closest in spirit to his earlier work. With each release his fascination with texture over colour has become more pronounced, resulting in the hypnotic double blow of ‘Boat’ and ‘GolgothA’, both of which prioritise subtle shifts in pace and structure to create disorienting sonic environments in which to wonder. In this sense, 10-20 shares at least a little in common with sound installation artists – in particular a fascination with the structural integrity and architectural potential of music – but his sense of narrative arc remains a defining feature. These are still pieces, with defined temporal development, a beginning, middle and end, and are all the better for it. Roll on the subsequent landforms.

http://highpointlowlife.com/