I support pop, I do. I want to bite Wrongkong’s heads off and see how they’re wired, because it’s only once in a while that “indie” bands manage to present us with neither the tortured artist poop or attempts at new, original, never-been-done-before “soundscapes”. And they’re always from Sweden or something. Sometimes it’s a case of fiat lux, fiat pop. I’m pretty sure I just made that up.

So here’s the “five-headed beast” named Wrongkong, with a perfectly good pop beat. They do not appear to have sold their inner underwear in the Faustian spirit, and their latest single is for a video (or vice-versa), My Dearest Enemy, which is a little bird that flew off their album, So Electric.

So Electric is out on AdP Records [link]

Live shows are a good thing to go to. Find out when and where on last.fm.

hello,
we are a new blog based in paris called
ten songs that saved your life.

we ask artists from different fields about the
ten songs that saved their lives. the playlists are
listenable on official fm.

the first guests are : xavier veilhan, terence koh,
justice, jonathan caouette, hans ulrich obrist,
gisèle vienne, christophe lemaire, robert wyatt,
richard kern, peter shapiro, amos poe, aa bronson
(general idea), rebecca bournigault, liam gillick,
robert longo, jean-louis costes, gary hill.

upcoming : mohini geisweiller, rachid ouramdane,
ugo rondinone, slater bradley, jesper just and more
to come.

you can follow us on the interwebs :
www.tensongsthatsavedyourlife.com
www.facebook.com/tensongsthatsavedyourlife

People expect all sorts of new amazing mind-bending sounds to appear out of the blue and confirm that we’re… progressing. Doing something new and exciting. I must have been one of those people at some point, but right now, this EP does the trick. I can’t say it’s just one thing. It’s like a shapeshifter that undulates, scratches and wheezes itself into your atmosphere. Headphones are ok, but good speakers are more suitable: I’d rather let the music leak into the air around me.

I haven’t written about James Blake before; I felt his music doesn’t need writing about. And I like the fact that I don’t understand the words half the time… reminds me of listening to the Cocteau Twins.

So this is just a sort of update. To let you know, it’s out there, amidst the endlessly growing jungle of music you want to listen to but forget. // James Blake – Enough Thunder

I was giggling already when the bright pink credits of the opening sequence made me think, “So cheesy”. That wouldn’t be the last time I’d think that, but Drive is still a very good film.

Hopscotching along “art” and “entertainment”, it’s something of a film noir (great use of light/shadows). It’s got electro pop and little dialog (enter the multiplex punters complaining that it’s slow). The way the narrative goes is predictable, but that’s not what interested me. It’s the building up of a mood which is so great in Drive. 
This is sort of an action film, but it’s not. There’s a heist or two, there’s a little love story, there are several conflicts… but the faces, the colours, the light, the unlight. That’s where the action is. And I loved it.

The main character’s like a warrior Buddhist monk (they did in fact exist), also reminiscent of Melville’s Le Samourai. The Driver is cool and collected, until he’s not. Then he’s just cool yet uncollected, smashing up heads until they hit a tone of sangria. The lady-friend is more of a prop to unleash a pathological kind of love in the Driver. I detect no major character composition there.

The music and atmosphere are insanely Lynchian; that is, dreamy-disturbing. It’s these two components that make me think highly of the film. The violent scenes were… well, cheesy. Though one was definitely Lynchian.

And conveniently enough, one day after I see the film, an email pops up in my inbox. I can read French and images, so now you should listen to la “B.O. deja legendaire”

ici (soundcloud)

The music, as I already mentioned, includes something I rarely indulge in, going by the name electro-pop. In Drive it just works, in the dramatically cheesiest way ever. So Kavinsky’s Nightcall, yes, I bop along to you. It’s probably something to do with how the film came about, with the protagonist’s soul being saved by pop music and driving and all.

I can buy that.

Flying Lotus, Lovers Melt 2

click the pic

Bullion, Mixed Up in Love – Hm, not sure I can locate it right now. Anyone who has the mp3, leave a comment.

Here are all their upcoming gigs via last.fm.

The tameimpala.net staff might be a bit biased when they say:

If Tame Impala are coming to your area, check them out.  Their live shows are no less than an amazing tsunami of psychedelic lights, music, dreamy melodies, pounding, primal drums, droning, thumping solid bass and tripped out fuzz guitars blending together to form long jams on their songs that were trips before, but become journeys live. To see them live is a true experience.

But I’m pretty sure that’s the routine.

Stream the album

Dearest readers,

I’m giving up trying to describe or define music- that is entirely beside the point. But here’s the thing.

I could just yell, Translucent geometry! and leave it at that.

Uh, no. Panda Bear‘s music comes from someone with vision, and I can feel his efforts to put that vision forth, when I listen to it. There’s a sense of communing with something great when you listen to songs like Alsatian Darn or Slow Motion. It doesn’t take you by surprise, in fact it’s expected.

I know a lot of people feel enthusiasm for this LP coming from the same source, the same origin – it takes music to remind us we’re not really separate, even more so when lyrics talk of doubts, and slipping up, and ‘if’s’ and ‘would’s’. Being alone is sometimes the most community-oriented thing you can do.

Love,

Linda

PS You can buy the LP right now so do it already!

FASTER THAN SOUND presents TEDx + SPHERES & SPLINTERS

Feat. Thomas Dolby, William Orbit, David Toop, Louis Lortie, Imogen Heap and more…

Thomas Dolby - ‘Love Is A Loaded Pistol’ – DOWNLOAD

Dates:

TEDx

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design), a global movement founded to disseminate “ideas worth spreading”. TEDx Aldeburgh Music offers a rare opportunity to hear from some of the world’s greatest thinkers and doers in contemporary music.

6 November 2010

Spheres & Splinters

12 November 2010, Artist talk, 6pm, Performance, 8pm. Hoffmann Building, Snape Maltings, Suffolk.

13 November 2010, 7.30pm, Kings Place, London

Spheres & Splinters brings musical phenomenon Tod Machover together with cellist Peter Gregson, ambsonic sound designer Ben Bloomberg and leading visual collective United Visual Artists in a brand new collaboration. Together they will explore the properties of acoustic and electronic music to create a unique experience.

So What’s Changing at Last.fm?

The following subscriber-only radio stations will no longer be available:

Loved Tracks Radio: streaming your list of loved tracks
Playlists: streaming a list of tracks you’ve chosen for a playlist
Personal Tag Radio: streaming a list of artists, albums or tracks that you have tagged

by ~johunit

That’s a lot of changes. At least you can a keep a list of all the tracks you favourited. Man, Apple catches on fast, NOT. Will newly-launched Ping save the day? I dun’ tink so, and neither do most people. It’s true, I rarely use iTunes anymore either, VLC does a fantastic job of just playing what I need when I need it. I have slight ADD and an obsessive compulsive nature that tries to organize and sort through music, make playlists that remember for me every song I associate with any mood/place/time of day/ice cream flavours. So basically my digital music brain crutches. I considered it a victory when I narrowed down the number of the genres to 37. But let me just state my epiphany: as if it’s just files. I actually began to look at invaluable efforts coming from artists as just stuff ending with .mp3 or .m4a.

In VLC I don’t sort through anything. I just play something when I feel like it. Isn’t that the point? I don’t download much music anymore. I am learning to love what I already have. So yes, I have freed myself from the cycle of thwarting the very experience of listening to music. OK, when I need to update my iPod or something with new songs, I hear the old cravings of a compulsive maniac starting to rumble.

As for streaming online, I go to Grooveshark when I have a craving [more options over at lifehacker]. I listen to several radio shows and podcasts to keep myself up to date. And sometimes I just enjoy the silence.

The Narcoleptic Dancers sound like Slow Club, Nouvelle Vague and red polka dots on a white dress.

Listen / download: Not Evident (mp3)

And here’s a hairy vid:

Their EP comes out on the 8th of November, on… wait for it… Bleepmachine/Capitaine Plouf.

The blurb says, “Active Child and School of Seven Bells have collaborated on a special 7″ project, each taking a crack at remixing the other’s tracks.” The reality is beyond words, which is why you have to experience this with your own ears.

Heart Is Strange by School of Seven Bells (Active Child remix) – mp3

• Pre-order the 7″ from Lefse Records HERE

• Check out a review of the live show.

US tour dates after the jump

Sep 28 2010 – Bittmore Cabaret – Vancouver, BC

Sep 29 2010 – Doug Fir Lounge – Portland, OR

Sep 30 2010 – The Independent – San Francisco, CA

Oct 01 2010 – Echoplex – Los Angeles, CA

Oct 02 2010 – Detroit Bar – Costa Mesa, CA

Oct 03 2010 – The Loft (UCSD) – La Jolla, CA

Oct 05 2010 – Plush – Tucson, AZ

Oct 08 2010 – Hailey’s – Denton, TX

Oct 09 2010 – Mohawk – Austin, TX

Oct 10 2010 – The Studio @ Warehouse Live – Houston, TX

Oct 11 2010 – Spanish Moon – Baton Rouge, LA

Oct 12 2010 – Club Down Under – Tallahasse, FL

Oct 14 2010 – Crowbar – Tampa, FL

Oct 15 2010 – The Social – Orlando, FL

Oct 16 2010 – Grand Central – Miami, FL

Oct 18 2010 – The Earl – Atlanta, GA

Oct 19 2010 – Local 506 – Chapel Hill, NC

Oct 20 2010 – The Ottobar – Baltimore, MD

Oct 21 2010 – Rock and Roll Hotel – Washington, DC

Oct 22 2010 – Johnny Brenda’s – Philadelphia, PA

Oct 25 2010 – The Horn Gallery at Kenyon College – Gambier, OH

Following is an interview with Robot Koch and a preview of the EP.

What, or who is fading?

We are and our planet is.

We know we mess up our planet and we know we got the means to change it but don’t do anything about it, or way too little. Just take the summit in Copenhagen as an example of bold ignorance, it was a fucking disaster.

Experts estimate that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That is just one example. And we don’t do shit. We just listen to them fade….

What made you release your current EP on cassette as well as in digital format?

I love the good old tape, i had the project the tape vs rqm for a reason, it was all dedicated to the culture of mixtapes. So when Gordon from Project Mooncircle kicked it to me to do a bonus mixtape on an actual cassette tape..  I was like
hell yeah, let’s do it!!

The artwork for Listen To Them Fade is visually arresting and quite intricate; is there a story behind it?

44 flavours do all my artwork, i just feed them ideas and they flip it in their unique style. They work a lot with wood and organic materials which i like, its not too glossy and has a lot of structure.

The inspiration for this character was a puppet i bought in Mexico City and a painting by Leonora Carrington.

Mexico is a very different place compared to Berlin, where you’re based, on so many levels. What have you seen or done in Mexico that has changed your outlook on life, and how has it touched on your music?

The whole EP was done while I was in Mexico, which is an amazing place. I loved it. I loved the people, the culture, the food and I had a lot of good and bad experiences there, which in one way or the other influenced the EP. I wouldn’t go as far as saying it changed the way I look at my life, but it’s small details that inspire you sometimes, like the light or a book or artists you discover (like in my case I discovered the surrealist painter Leonora Carrington, which really inspired my work).

People are saying that music today is only a rehash of things that have already been done. Do you think that art has to be totally original to be valid?

I think recombination is the key. It’s true – every note has been played and every rhythm varied but now the challenge is to recombine the dots of decades of music history in a way that is refreshing and exciting, so it feels new, even though all
the elements have been there before.

Some writers have a routine in that they write a specific number of pages every day, even if it’s bad writing, they’re just exercising their skills. Do you think that could be applied to music- do you have such a routine?

Well I kind of do it ’cause I do music daily, but not all of it has to be used or released, sometimes i just play the piano and look out of the window and get lost in it. I don’t even have to record it, ’cause it’s just for that moment.

I know you’re a fan of the Wu Tang Clan, who have some widely known cultural and spiritual influences, like old kung fu flicks, chess, and Islamic values. Is there anything guiding you spiritually?

I´m big on spiritual stuff but in my own way, like music i like it eclectic so I take my “religion” from all ends of what different spiritual or religious ways of perceiving reality have to offer. I believe in energy and the universe and stuff like that. not god as a religious figure. And Wu Tang was just dope music, I was not overly into kung fu flicks to be honest, but I loved the music and the vibe they created.

Any robot has to be a fan of science fiction films… So what unknown gems do you recommend?

I`m afraid i got nothing new to add here. Star Wars was a big influence. Some 70s Godzilla flicks were big, I dug the first and second Alien movies a lot too.

I hear you collect toys. I assume we’re not talking trips to Toys’R'Us, so give us an idea of what your collection looks like.

Some of it is my Star Wars collection from when I was a kid, still got some original sealed action figures from the late ’70s. Then all sorts of robots which are often given to me as presents by friends, and weird alien and monster-type characters, they are all over my crib, on every shelf and on my studio equipment there is some little guy sitting and looking at me.
I imagine that they all come to life when I leave the room and then they hurry up to sit back on their place when I walk back into the room.

And finally, cyberpunk or steampunk?

hippie skank

So there you go.

More Robot links:

Listen to Them Fade snippet (mp3)

Listen To Them Fade official site – EP out in May

The Tape vs RQM (another one of Robot’s endeavours)

robots dont sleep (Robot’s label)

And check out the lip sync to “Dream Weaver” towards the end. I find the funniest things hilarious. I know one thing about their forthcoming album, 4. As HMV Japan puts it, 完全ファンク保証/ Perfect funk guarantee. Ain’t that the funksome truth.

image credits

Spirits were high nonetheless, thanks to all the old 45s spinning us around their plastic fingers. Love of Northern Soul renewed! Northern Soul encompasses all the soul artists (was that obvious?) that put out records in the 60s but got pushed aside or forgotten simply because there were so many of them trying to ride the same wave. For instance, if you listen to Curtis Mayfield, you should get acquainted with Terry Callier.

Here are some songs you can dance to in your bedroom:

Ronnie West – Lil’ Woman mp3

The Cassadons – 2 Sided Love mp3

Barbara Lynn – Nice & Easy mp3

Terry & Marsha- It’s a Possibility mp3

Dee Clarke – That’s My Girl mp3

For more info about the DJs, Nik B & Søren L ::: myspace

– Northern Soul Night is a monthly affair, held at the 1000fryd in Aalborg–