In fact, anything with the V-Moda logo emblazoned on it tends to be a piece shit. It’s cheap Chinese rubbish with a premium price tag and the worst customer service I have ever dealt with. Never again…
Here’s a wee link to a review I did for Head-Fi.org. Not as venomous as I’d have liked, but gets the basics across.
I’ll be doing some more music reviews soon – honest!
Pusha T just announced that he’ll be releasing his new Mixtape / EP “Fear Of God 2: Let Us Prey”, July 21st. Along with this unexpected announcement came a little MP3 called “Trouble On My Mind” (ft. Tyler, The Creator). Produced by Pharrell (I
It's the blackout, 'rrari got the back out shown my black ass engine in a glass house
Pusha’s verse oozes charm and flow, I love it. As soon as he looses the coke and Louis Vuitton references, I think we could see on of the best writers of our time. I still hold out hope that his solo album will be our first glimpse in to his non-coke-fuled music, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
As for Tyler, well I’m not the biggest fan of Tyler, The Creator – I find him a little too hipster for my taste – but his verse here isn’t bad at all. It’s got an old school jarring flow, reminds me a little of early Geto Boys releases. Nothing special, but doesn’t kill it either to be honest. Now, a Pusha T, Earl Sweatshirt collaboration is what we’re looking for…
http://www.bassdress.com/blog/pusha-t-trouble-on-my-mind-ft-tyler-the-creator/
So, July 21st is the big release, expect a review from me as soon as I get it – it’s going to be good.
Pusha T, Pusha Tonne, push a tonne of that shit that make your nose run.
There’s something nice about old house music, especially those releases that exist between the 1993 Detroit stuff and the disco pop boom of 2000 that we all had to endure (thanks a lot, Phats & Small!).
Olav used to be the man guiding the helm of Dutch ‘tough’ house, sitting dangerously between the idiotic hardhouse fad and the regular sample driven slop that made up the staple for every 14 year old with a 1210 mk2.
To me, “Moscow Street Rock” is the defining track of Olav’s sound. Stomping around with thick and fast drums, unusually edited rhythms, and a mechanical percussion section that you don’t really hear any more. What’s more, there’s no hint of software in it anywhere – this was made back in the day when people invested real money in their studios and therefore made a greater effort to create something worth while. Long gone are the days when the process itself was an art – now everyone opens Ableton, loads up their VST preset, and lets the music write itself. This is why we’re stuck in a rut of similar sounding music – everyone is essentially using the same gear, the same presets, and the same processes (fuck you audible sidechaining and autotune).
It took me ages to track down this record, remember this was long before the days of Discogs.com or massive online record stores. Finding a record you wanted was an actual task, a challenge. Nothing was guaranteed – if you didn’t buy it there and then, you may never see it again in your life. I’m not sure I can convey to you in words, my excitement of finding an old copy of this in my record shop.
Dirty, used, and with “Moscow Street” scrawled on the cover in thick permanent marker, it was like finding the holy grail for £7.99. Man, those were the days.
Moscow Street Rock is a single, featuring only three mixes of the same track. But, and this is a big but, they are
The first track, which comprised the entire A-side is ‘Half The Bet Mix’. A standard house affair, which doesn’t put a foot wrong throughout it’s six and a half minute journey. It never crosses the line into spectacular, but is a sturdy production with a great hook. For my tastes though, it just hides those minor stabs a little too much, and has aged much more quickly than either of the B-side tracks.
My favourite of the three is the embarrassingly titled ‘Mo Fun Mix’. The majority of this mix is entirely free of drums, and instead, centre stage is a well improvised and smartly edited saxophone riff punctuated with a lovely thick bass note. Drum patterns slowly fade in, and snap back to nothing without warning. It continues teasing in the way for about four minutes before finally hitting full swing. This is a great example of how creative a basic house record can be when there’s actual thought behind the production. A bit of musicianship doesn’t go wrong either.
No, fuck that. My favourite mix is actually the (yet again) embarrassingly title ‘Super Funky Animal Mix’. It’s a little more stripped down, which allows a lovely mingling of samples which compliment and answer each other beautifully. There’s a lot more space in this mix, despite those heavy 4/4 kicks, manages to fade to silence twice, before dropping the beat back in. Funky stuff. It’s a shame this is the last track on the disc, because my stylus has one hell of a time trying to track it, leaving it sounding a little muddy after the three minute mark. I guess that’s the price you pay when you buy second hand vinyl though.
It’s a real shame things turned out the way they did for Olav, ‘Samplitude Vol. 10’ was his last good release – I really stopped paying attention after that, but from what I can see he releases a slew of psudo-electro tracks which sound utter shit to my ears. Moscow Street Rock, Sound Of Dope, and Franky Goes To Hollywood Remix are very much worthwhile, if aging a bit faster than I’d like them to.
It’s a great farewell to the Dutch house genre, which came and went without anyone really noticing.
MOSCOW…
Mister Patrick Rasmussen (not to be confused with
The title of this track (it actually comes as part of a three track EP, but the other tracks are fucking bogus ‘remixes’, which manage to remove ever bit of soul from the recording, while boring me to death with nuskool Berlin techno drums. This sentence is clearly too big for parenthesis, but I’m rolling with it now.) is a weird and original contraction of “With Me Now” – maybe it sounds cooler in Dutch. At least, it won’t sound any worse.
“Whitmey Na” is a slow (about 128BPM), empty, and rigidly in the key of Am. Soft 808ish drums skitter around, sometimes sprouting delayed and very dry sounding tails whilst grooving to a single noise fashioned hit hat. This has to be one of the quietest recordings I own, every aspect and element of it lacks the confidence to step forward into the mix. But the track isn’t what drives this thing, it’s simply functions as a metronome for Raz Ohara’s lyricism.
wish you could be with me now, like the morning we fell in love . I imagine you with another man, repeating the same games, all over and over again.
On paper, the first verse doesn’t look like much but it’s executed with such delicacy and honesty that it becomes quite grasping. Raz, whispering into the mic, voice cracking, becomes utterly inescapable. Gone are the charming but awkward Dutch pronunciation and unusual paraphrasing that made his earlier releases seem clumsy, and what we are left with is a man expressing himself in the most precise and candid manner I have ever heard on a contemporary record. As fragile and fleeting as ever, I’d have to say that this is one of his best performances. Raz can write lyrics with ease, but has always been haunted with a terrible electronic backing, removing the focus from himself and onto so shitty 4/4, VST preset driven garbage.
The musical accompaniment to this track isn’t quite that bad, but it just fails to encapsulate or enhance the vocal recording in any way whatsoever. It sound more like an early studio demo, a quick attempt at writing music so the vocal work can be recorded. Despite this, Raz’s performance is more than strong enough to keep the whole thing worthwhile.
It’s a terrible shame that no one major really paid attention to what Raz Ohara – I could have seen him becoming a talented, non-arse version of Jay Kay from Jamiroquai. Instead he partnered with some talentless German robot-like musicians form Berlin and formed the forgettable “The Odd Orchestra”. Raz Ohara has had a single release since early 2010, and I’m really hoping he’s not given up totally. If you’re reading this Patrick, I want another acoustic album, or more dealing with Sasu – I want a Sasu Ripatti / Raz Ohara album.
Hi Claire.
After a hat-trick of disappointing projects (two Mortiz Von Oswald albums, one Vladislav Delay Quartet) Vladislav Delay has quietly released a new EP entitled ‘Latoma’ (no, I have no idea what it means either). Consisting of two new tracks and one remix, we’re treated to almost twenty-five minutes of dub techno. But after so many self-indulgent, wank filled ambient releases that have had Delay’s name attached to them, has he lost his way somewhat?
Nope.
Vladislav Delay “Latoma EP”
The first two tracks featured on this EP are absolutely superb, and the best listen I’ve had in some time. The title track features a Steve Reich-inspired sustained chord attack pinned down with Delay’s now trademark monotone bass line and sporadic flutters of acoustic percussion that slowly swell to engulf the entire piece. It’s minimal dub in a sense, but so much more than that.
Think of ‘Multila’ style writing, but with ‘Demo(n) Tracks’ tireless studio effort. Everything being created and destroyed all at once, with the most deft execution imaginable. It’s a sound scape with a groove, a track that doesn’t subtly suggest artistic integrity, but proves it in every bar with Vladislav’s new confident swagger.
I think a fair measure of an artist is how unique their music is, and upon the first listen to ‘Latoma’, you become acutely aware that no one else in the world could have cut a track like this.
The second track, ‘Korpi’ sways back and forth with a shuffle and groove, welded to the most beautiful tape driven double bass sample. The groove remains in place throughout the entire piece, accentuated by a few layers of percussion and a resonant/distorted synth key stab. This track doesn’t so much welcome you as it does suffocate. There’s no space to breath or move within its depths, and it seizes you with a tight focus which won’t relent until the full six minutes are up. Honestly, I’ve never heard anything quite like it.
The Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer remix of Latoma is actually pretty good (despite how much I loath this remix thing everyone does), but I can’t help but feel it could have done better had it lost the Latoma samples, and stood alone as a bonus track. It has the typical Ricardo Villalobos overly-processed drum sound, but some interesting rhythms to prevent it becoming monotonous. It’s extremely sparse, at some points consisting entirely of a few simple rhythms, but at its peak (about five minutes in, if you ask me) comes together quite nicely. Despite it’s inaccessibility, sounds to me like a track that was designed for club djs – and that is so old hat.
I say this because there’s about 32 bars of nothing but simple rhythms forming the intro and outro, that add nothing to the experience but to lengthen it considerably. It does, however sit juxtaposed to the other two tracks, and if nothing else is an interesting little bonus to have.
As a single entity, this EP is essential to anyone interested in experimental music. In one fell swoop it pushes the genre a little further whilst harking back to the early 2000s, when a new release really held something new and unexplored (if you were around at the beginning of the ‘Chain Reaction’ movement, you will love this). It’s one of the very few releases I have heard in the past decade that actually excites me when I listen to it. I get the impression that Mr. Delay was merely warming up his studio with earlier releases, until he felt comfortable enough to create something truly remarkable. Hopefully the new Luomo disc will follow suit.
Rod Modell is just one of the many Detroiters developing (read: ripping off) the late 90’s sound of Basic Channel. I guess since the Basic Channel guys felt the need to stay in stagnation with their sound, someone had to develop it further.
The double-sided “HR-01” on Hierophant Records (get it, HR-01?!), is one of the most sonically interesting releases by Rod Modell / DeepChord. Gone are the basic, unprocessed drums from earlier releases like “DC01-06”, replaced with heavily subdued, swirling rhythms. Even his Cm PWM synth stabs have been pushed into the background and mangled with liberal use of a slow fizzing phaser.
“HR-01″ isn’t so much music as it is a sonic wall of bubbling, pulsing hardware chewiness that, even although is based almost entirely on the early BC sound, still has that indefinable DeepChord sonic signature. It doesn’t bridge, it doesn’t break, there are no crescendos or solos – it is just content to mearly exist, and lose the listener in its mirky complex sound for 7 minutes.
The cute 10” white disc only has two tracks, neither of which have been given a title, art work or printed sleeves. Adding to the perceived laziness of this release, the B-Side can best be described best as a slowed down version of the A-Side. Now, I’m not one to criticize an artist, but a real b-side would have been nice. Dubby, Detroit techno is a very rigid genre, which can be reduced down to “how much delay feedback can I place on my Cm chords”, so maybe the B-Side is a tongue in cheek snipe at this… Or at least, I’d like to believe it was.
HR-01 is a good record to have in you collection, as it exists right on the peak of Modell’s production hight before he drifted off into boring remixes and utterly uninspired EPs and albums. Now Rod Modell seem to have become a man trapped within his own sound – unable to express anything new or fresh. I’d love to hear something produced by Rod that forced him to leave this sound behind, but until that happens “HR-01” is probably his best work. Then again, there’s always the expensive and elusive “DeepChord vs. Octal Industries – Arrival / Departure“, but we’ll talk about that once I’ve managed to source a copy (a physical copy that is, not these 192Kbps Scene MP3s that seem to be floating around).
Just to prove I’m true to my word, and to show off how beautifully made the Mummy Short Arms release is, I’ve taken a wee picture.
Nice work boys, b-side isn’t bad either
I sometimes wonder if anyone will ever find this blog if I continue to write about records that seeming only I own. Surely there must be a least a million google hits on The Hong Kong Micros “EP2” – sadly, all of which are referring to cheaply manufactured electronics. Still, I guess the point of this (if there is one) is to share weird and wonderful records with people – to stop them being lost in the Ether. Or maybe that makes me sound too much like a pretentious ass… But I digress.
Who are the Hong Kong Micros? I don’t know now and I didn’t know then. The Hong Kong Micros “EP2” isn’t the most inspired name to give your second extended player, but there was something about this shoddily pressed EP that made me pick it up in Kushi Recordings, Glasgow in the summer of 2000. Plus, it came with a
The Hong Kong Micros “EP2”
The EP is composed of four very varied, but equally interesting track, most of which stretch past the six-minute mark, and all of them feature an unmistakable MPC groove.
The Hong Kong Micros - [EP2 CD01 #01] Worktonite The Hong Kong Micros - [EP2 CD01 #02] Pray The Hong Kong Micros - [EP2 CD01 #03] Tonite The Hong Kong Micros - [EP2 CD01 #04] Closing
The a-side has two fairly standard club cuts of dry drum house, both of which have that ‘early 2000’ house vibe. You know, back in the day when we were happy with some grooving drum patterns, a few filters and a handful of samples. ‘Worktonite’ is a master class of oldskool bridging newskool house. Chugging, but never pumping, drums scuttle along accompanied by a one note bass line that drives the track towards it’s 50’s style horn hook, introduced with some classic filtered white noise. I love it, and in the six minutes and twenty-eight seconds of its play it doesn’t put a foot wrong.
Track two is like a UK vision of early Dj Sneak. Filtered disco/soul looping beneath a house beat. Sadly this time, the inclusion of an African sounding drum on the off beat, and a jarring key change in the break kinda ruins the vibe for me.
What could have been an interesting track ends up sounding a little uninspired and more an eclectic compilation of samples and not music. And to be honest, the excessive use of a splash symbol indicates to me that someone was having trouble putting this together. That’s not to say it isn’t a decent track – it stomps with confidence and has all the right flow once it gets going, it’s just audibly the weakest track on the EP.
The b-side starts off with a bit of a surprise. I’m not sure how to describe it, which leaves me with a bit of a problem here. Let me just say that it’s ultra repetitive, very glittery, and with the crunchiest drums ever. You remember Scanty Sandwich before he want all serious techno? Well, this is a good version of that.
The second track on the b-side, and the finale of EP2 is the incredible “Closing”. Eight minutes and ten seconds of uninterrupted brilliance. Really, this is a shockingly good track. It has the same MPC feel as the rest of the EP, but has this time released from the 4/4 that dominated the other tracks. Instead we have a broken beat (or close enough to it), that sound utterly deliberate, confident and gorgeous. An electric piano provides some subtle chords in the background, and floats gently above the deep sustained bass.
There’s a short guitar sample, used to perfection as a stab over the second beat and fourth beats of every bar and the soulful sound of Bob Seger, chopped and edited with care. This is one of the few electronic releases that manages to project emotion in front of attitude – heartache pours from the speakers. The track breaks down to show that haunting vocal hook in its entirety.
Strange how the night moves, with autumn closing... Strange how the night moves, with autumn closing... Funny how the night moves, just don't seem to have as much to lose with autumn closing...
From this point on the track flourishes into unashamed beauty – Bob’s vocals being continually and subtly layered and joined to produce the most engaging record I think I own. On fade out, the horrible, thin, dirty, 11-year-old vinyl becomes too noisy and the voice is lost in a wash of white noise and crackles.
It amazes me that something this wonderful has flown under the radar for so long. Then again, the use of Bob Seger’s vocal is both a blessing and a licensing nightmare – never would a little independent record label be able to afford the massive cost of licensing such a sample. It’s for that fact I say, God bless white labels.
The Hong Kong Micros “Worktonite”
The Hong Kong Micros “Pray”
The Hong Kong Micros “Tonite”
The Hong Kong Micros “Closing”
What the hell is this!? How could something this cool almost pass under my radar!? I’m told, via ghetto fashionista blog, HypeBeast that Frank Ocean is an up coming MC, riding high on the success of his début mixtape “nostalgia, ULTRA”. If the quality of this track is anything to go by, “nostalgia, ULTRA” must be one hell of a tape.
I initially downloaded the track “Acura Integurl” because of it’s impossibly stupid and childish name. Sitting down for my first listen, I braced myself for some Kanye West vs. Little Wayne, pop bullshit that the HypeBeast crowd usually roll with. Instead, I’m surprised to initially hear an innocent and romanticized, cascading acoustic piano loop. No drums, no synths, just that piano sample looping, pinning down Frank Ocean’s shimmering autotuned vocals – creating something I’ve never really heard before. Is it lounge hiphop? Is it smooth R&B?
she's singing, "bitch i'm paid, that's all i gotta say." I'm like who knew, who knew, who knew, that after all the years i'd make a weezy fan out of you too, you too, you too. when i met you, you were thom yorke, chris martin & u2, u2, u2. when you met me i was three6, pimp c, bun b, 8ball & mjg. hey but we're both a long way from home we got the windows down, the radio's on… always i wrote a letter to the sky, saying maybe one day you'll get to kiss me, kiss me, kiss me. my girl found it in the car & said "baby why you trying to diss me, diss me, diss me." cuz you know you're my baby, you know you're my baby i'm not just in it for the ride, in it for the ride.
The music is fairly basic, just a six second piano sample, poorly looped (you can almost hear a ‘click’ of misaligned samples at the beginning of ever bar) until the fade out. But there lies the genius! The basic and fairly uninteresting backing track completely gives way to Ocean’s vocals, letting the listener give them their full attention.
What makes this record is the fact that Frank Ocean manages to pull of the most convincing and emotional performance I’ve heard this year. The dynamics of his voice can be appreciated, even beneath the layers of reverb, delay, EQ and compression.
In one minute and fifty-seven seconds, and with only 147 words, Frank grabbed my attention, without ever demanding it. There is an honestly in the delivery of the vocals that I just can’t get enough of. In fact there’s so much emotion in the performance that it completely obscures everything else – I’m not even entirely sure what the song is about, and I can only make out about 70% of the words. However, I’m pretty happy to interpret my meaning, and that’s just how I like it.
Now, with crossed fingers, I’m off to see if I can pick up a legit copy of “nostalgia, ULTRA”
Laying in bed watching an overweight, Scottish writer spout pretentious bullshit about video games I’ve never played, isn’t always a productive pass time. However, as I lay there vegetating my days pains away, I heard something quite unexpectedly beautiful. A haunting, muddled piece of craziness slowly pulling it’s self together in the background of the outro, capturing the mood perfectly. This was my first introduction to Mummy Short Arms. That event took place more than four years ago, and the band is only now getting their collective asses in gear to release that very single. I like their style.
Now, I’m not very adept at describing traditional music styles – of which I guess Mummy Short Arms is indy / rock. What sounds to be a traditional five piece rock band, making use of some synths and the sporadic use of an old drum machine, have turned out a very, very interesting piece of work.
The vocalist sounds like a bluesy mumbling cross between Cpt. Beefheart and the Cookie Monster. That may not sounds like the most complimentary line, but let me assure you, it’s the voice. And if that title, “Cigarette Smuggling” doesn’t piqué your interest, nothing will. You see, “Cigarette Smuggling” isn’t just a cleverly ironic title intended to excite pretentious idiots like myself – it’s entirely literal…
I think.
You see my friend with the long hair? He play the bongo drum He's in a Spanish Prison, Just twiddle his thumbs
What Mummy Short Arms have given us is a lovely example of deconstructed rock, entwined with a ridiculous subject matter and played with an entirely straight face. The track never breaks it’s cool façade, and even in full swing has a confident swagger and a ‘demo’ vibe which makes everything feel pure and raw. Everything is done with an air of cool, the likes of which I’ve not heard in a very long time. From the cluttered and casual intro that slowly fades into guitar licks that are more suited to a smoky 1910 Saloon bar, you know you’re in for something special. In the preceding 3 minutes and 52 seconds, Mummy Short Arms don’t let you down once. I’d love to call this track ‘fresh’ and ‘new’, but it’s bloody 4 years old now – and I still love it. Just goes to show, cool doesn’t grow old.
Anyway, it’s finally available for sale on Flowers In The Dustbin, on 30th of May. The single will be backed with “Searching For A Body”, which I’ve yet to hear, but I’m desperate to see what else they have up their sleeve! I’ll be buying it immediately.
