Swn Review

Posted a review of my Swn experience on theSprout. LINK

That's me on the left looking very unimpressed with The Drums. That's because they were rubbish.

Synthetic Beauty

Watched Synth Britannia last night, taped it. Amongst the excellent music, infuriatingly wobbly camera work (wobbly does not equal edgy), superb hair and the now slightly too familiar story of how it all began with Kraftwerk, were industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle (best band name ever).

I've only heard scraps of TG's work through compilations, so to babble about their music as a whole would be worthless and pointless. One track I am familiar with though is Hot On The Heels Of Love, a bizarre, dystopian (how those synth-botherers loved Ballard) yet brutally beautiful piece of electronic music.

The sounds on the record may be familiar to us now, after two cycles of synth-pop domination and the broadening of tastes that technology in some part has allowed, yet Hot On The Heels Of Love is still as ferociously alien as when it was recorded over 30 years ago.

mp3---> Throbbing Gristle - Hot On The Heels Of Love (via box.net)

Twitter Hither

I have succumb. I have fallen. I have turned to the dark side. With bile and shame boiling within, I type "follow me" ---> http://twitter.com/CeefaxOfLife

GWTF:5.0 - New LCD Soundsystem

This week in BlogEnders, LCD Soundsystem family made a surprise return to the square, sounding similar to when they left. Happy days.

In fact they seemed to have returned younger, like debut album younger. Bye Bye Bayou is not an entirely new composition by any means, it's a cover of an Alan Vega (Suicide) song from 1981.

A seven minute rolling yet relaxed jam that doesn't go anywhere fast but doesn't really care about that fact, it's down with that and doesn't care if you have a problem with it.

It doesn't grab you instantly like some past efforts have, but Bye Bye Bayou isn't set to appear on the new album (which is due out March 2010) so how much truck you wish to invest in it is up to you.

It's just nice to have them back.

mp3---> LCD Soundsystem - Bye Bye Bayou (via box.net)

Fuck Buttons Fuck Music

Although I've known of Fuck Buttons for a while (it's a moniker that tends to stick in the mind) this is the first track of theirs I've heard and by Jove is it good?

Eight and a half minutes of undulating, juddering, squealing electronics that builds and builds, an out-of-control juggernaut, always on the verge of crashing/climaxing, surging relentlessly forward until dissipating, slowly unravelling... la petite mort.

Space Mountain is the aural equivalent of a knee-trembler.

Taken from their second album Tarot Sport (ATP), which I might actually buy. With money. In a shop. Strange, I know.

mp3---> Fuck Buttons - Space Mountain (via box.net)

Flash Toys & Flash Covers

I dunno, maybe it's the toys I got sent this morning (strictly to do with work, yes work). I'm feeling frivolous. And frivolity means disco.

The cheesier the better.

I downloaded this a couple of weeks back and it's utterly silly, pretty funky and certain to upset the purists. Perfect for playing with remote control helicopters.

mp3---> Flash - You Really Got Me (via box.net)

Swn Ahead 2.0

When the line-up for Swn was announced, Gold Panda was one of the acts I was most psyched about seeing.

Gold Panda's profile has steadily increased over the past year through his excellent remixes of suitably blog-worthy bands. They flicker and shimmer and twist and enchant. His own material (I assume, the music seems of the "bedroom-auteur" aesthetic) doesn't quite hit the peaks of the remixes but is sufficiently titillating to warrant a nosey at Swn.

Gold Panda plays in Clwb on the Thursday around 8.30pm.

mp3---> Stricken City - Lost Art (Gold Panda Remix) (via box.net)

50th Post: ... Mission Of Burma

To mark the half century, I'm posting an mp3 that I've been meaning to stick up since the first post in February.

I was hoping in the intervening 8 months that I would be able to write something as eloquent and as accurate as Simon Reynolds does in his review of the band in his brilliant book Rip It Up & Start Again.

I haven't and I can't.

It's simply a great song.

Download and buy the book.

mp3---> Mission Of Burma - Fight Academy Song (via box.net)

GWTF:4.0 - Florence & The xx

Synergy.

1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

2. Cooperative interaction among groups, especially among the acquired subsidiaries or merged parts of a corporation, that creates an enhanced combined effect.

Awkward insular faux-romantic music mag darlings The xx, meet professional (and therefore safe) kooks and music mag darlings Florence & The Machine.

Is it better than The Source? No. Is it an interesting aside? Yes. Will it help both bands get more coverage? Certainly.

mp3---> Florence & The Machine - You've Got The Love (The xx remix) (via box.net)

Swn Ahead 1.0

I flipped the calendar and noticed that Swn Fest is only a couple of weeks away. So I thought I'd stick up some mp3s of bands playing Swn over the coming weeks.

First up are blog darlings The Drums, the New York surfer-boy wannabes, that have been snapped by Moshi Moshi. They're third on the bill on the Saturday in Dempseys. Think Beach Boys meets Factory Records.

mp3---> The Drums - Let's Go Surfing (via Box.net)