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DJ Martian's Page

Intro: A diverse music positive weblog for the discerning listener with an interest in creative artistic music across the contemporary sound spectrum: Goto New Content Section for DJ Martian's Page

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Sunday, July 31, 2005

Almost Cool review Harold Budd / Eraldo Bernocchi - Music For 'Fragments From The Inside'

# posted by DJ Martian 9:57 PM

Almost Cool review Pelican - The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw

# posted by DJ Martian 9:52 PM

Marillion have announced a UK/ European tour this November/ December.

# posted by DJ Martian 9:32 PM

Reminder, this week's The Breezeblock show on Radio 1 features:

August 2nd
Glade Special
Two Lone Swordsmen + Cylob

# posted by DJ Martian 9:25 PM

This Week's New Releases @ Boomkat [Week Commencing August 1st 2005]

This week's new releases @ Boomkat include:

ALBUM OF THE WEEK!
The Exposures (Jan Jelinek) - Lost Recordings 2000-2004
Eastern Developments

Wonderful, mysterious new side project from Jan Jelinek for Prefuse 73's Eastern Developments label. Imagine a finger clicking r'n'b obsessed sampling freak on the glitch controls and you'll more or less have some idea about what to expect here. Despite the humorous misleading liner notes giving you the full story on "The Exposures" many of you fellow Farben obsessives will have already made the link via the 2002 "Avec the Exposures' EP on Scape. This downtempo mini album (8 tracks in 25 mins) is frighteningly good in it's simplicity and uncluttered realistaion, something many artists of jelinek's ilk would do well to take note of. Imagine Dabrye's 'One/Three' given the Farben treatment with a heavy dose of glitched jazz samples and that's the recipe for this killer album. A fabulous release from one of the most effortlessly talented glitch-meisters on the scene, something fans of jelinek, farben and even Prefuse 73 should check out without delay. Essential purchase....

Kschzt - The Earth's Hum
Blasé

Treating the impending vowel shortage with admirable seriousness, 'The Earth's Hum' is ex-Merck fella MD's first LP for the Blasé imprint. With an IDM draped sound that will be familiar to any follower of the scene, Kschzt takes his wire-bothering very seriously without straying into po-faced territory. Opening with '17 June 2003', Kschzt peppers the twinkly backdrop with a healthy buckshot of glitch that refrains from fidgeting long enough to achieve a sound somewhere between Bola and Frog Pocket. Elsewhere, 'Horse & Spline' goes for the misfiring electronic/sun-blushed wash approach, 'Konstellia' dabbles in some scattered beats and electro-pop synth shards, whilst 'Varkain' gets out the talcum powder and chucks some glitch-funk shapes. Admittedly it's nothing new, but, well..its alright y'know?...

Anderegg - When Rectangles Roll Under Cities
Apestaartje

From 2001 this week we bring you the first albums from Mountains members Aero and Anderegg, both different again from their more recent work. Brendon Anderegg's multi instrumentalist talent here lends itself to structuring many different elements into a whole. Drifts, tones, bleeps, bass throbs and so much more. Equally at home in your classic musique concrete selection it would also fit into one of your Philip Jeck digipacks - lovely stuff. The second and final track, the 6 part, 23 minute 'When Rectangles Roll Under Cities' is pure organic electronics, quite simply the most personal and inspired beautifying of improv/abstraction that I've heard in a long time. Next week the last Apestaartje catalogue round up before we all look forward to the second part of The Mountains recording sessions due out before the end of the year. Highly recommended....

Blindfold - Blindfold
Resonant

Due to a linguistic quirk within the development of the Icelandic language, it is possible for contemporary Icelanders to read and perfectly understand texts that date back almost 1000 years providing everyone with an undiluted, tacit link to their nations past. I have often wondered whether this language factor plays at least some part in the coherent feel (if not sound) of much of the music emanating from the island in recent years, the newest addition to which is Reykjavik's Blindfold. Best known as Biggi from Static Caravan's Ampop, Blindfold's eponymous debut opens with 'Intro(vert)'; a collection of glowing instrumentronica whose delicate foregrounds and dripping clicks can't help but bring to mind Mum. Similarly 'Sleepless Night's may have overt shades of Manual and even Ulrich Schnauss in its perfectly appointed indietronica, but it's the Sigur Ros connection which burns through the clouds as off kilter vocals become offset against broad, sun-blushed tundra's. Elsewhere 'Daze' borrows the orchestral manoeuvres of Telefon Tel Aviv, 'Blindfold' references everyone from the Doves to Bola, whilst 'Don't Despair' is a sleepy Mogwai. Closing with the Slowdive indebted 'Pokubornin (Foggy Children)', Blindfold have made a gorgeously textured album whose aural Putsch is impossible to resist. Lovely....

Felt (Slug & Murs) - A Tribute To Lisa Bonet
Rhymesayers

The first truly great hip hop album of the latter half of 2005 is here. With the subliminal attention passing from Miss Ricci to Miss Bonet Slug and Murs drop a full pimped out fifteen tracker running 50 mins. Killer fat production from Ant with wicked live touches like bass and keys on nuff tracks like the incredible 'Your Mans and Them'. Other ill tracks go by the dope names of 'Gangster Ass Anthony', 'I Shot Andy Warhol', ' Morris Day' and 'Breaker Down Like A Shotgun'. I doubt a more enjoyable hip hop album will be released this year. A very high recommendation....

Odawas - The Aether Eater
Jagjaguwar

If you openly announce an album's concept as being the journey of "a Camus-type anti hero, hurtled into space to be mocked and finally humbled", then title your songs 'Virgil', 'The Bones of Pangea' and 'The Unnamed Sphinx', it seems pretty likely people are going to associate you with the type of musicians who wear capes on stage. Yet (thankfully) Indiana based Odawas' actual music seems to consummately avoid such pitfalls, with nary a Patrick Stewart voiceover in sight. Combining garage rock, avant-rythms and a choleric mix that shrouds the songs' nuclei with a miasma of whale songs and distortion, Odawas nonetheless manage to grab you early on with a whole punnet of cunningly disguised pop melodies. Whilst their pretentious lyrics reveal a familiarity with Dostoyevsky, Odawas do seem to have a sense of their potential ridiculousness, tapering any indulgence with a dash balanced musical frippery. So whilst 'The Astronaut' clatters about like The Doors jamming in the next room and 'If It Smells Like A Rain Cloud' sticks a propulsive rhythm section under some swooping rock & roll, it is the Wayne Cohen-esque vocals and syrupy production of album closer 'Virgil' that reveals the most. I repeat; no capes......

Et Sans - Par Noussss Touss Les Trous De Vos Cranes
Alien 8

With a title that got Google's language translation programme sweating bricks (holes and craniums were in there somewhere...), 'Par Noussss...' is the follow up to 2002's debut and sees Et Sans' core members of Roger Tellier-Craig (Fly Pan Am, Godspeed! You Black Emperor) and Alexander St-Onge (Shalabi Effect) bolstered by three new additions (Stephen De Olivera, Felix Morel and Sophie Trudeau). With a line-up like that, 'Par Nousssss...' could easily have turned into a Constellation love-in and it's to the band's credit that they know just when to leave a composition in order not to cripple its potential under a rimy cloak of orchestral drone. Running the spectrum from sparse electronically informed prologues, right through to cacophonous aural disintegration, Et Sans display a malignant strain of aural power that comes together in a striking sermon. Best consumed as a whole, the extended pieces will sate the appetite of anyone with an interest in the members original guises, as well as those who like their music intelligent and choleric....

Fursaxa - Lepidoptera
ATP

"In West Philadelphia born and raised, on the playground's where I spent most of my days..." Trust me; I could go on, but I'm sure Fursaxa (aka Tara Burke) has heard it all before. Harking from the Fresh Prince's hometown, Fursaxa produces enviably eclectic compositions that combine fuggy psych and caramelised vocals, resulting in a sound that always appears just out of sight. Opening with the choirs and organ smudge of 'Freedom', Burke then shifts our focus to the petulant chimes and abstract pipes of 'Purple Fantasy'. Undoubtedly extracted from similar lineage to Susumu Yokota, 'Purple Fantasy' allows the apparently unfocused structures to assume a sentient shape, before slipping into the ebbing Acid Temple Mothers-lite pysch rock of 'Velada'. Peaking on the sublime accordion rectitude of 'Moonlight Sonata', Burke is able to coax a myriad of pictures from a consciously restrictive palate. On 'Poppy Opera' this translates into a song which starts off like the Velvet Underground, indulges in a Mogwai slowbuild before taking off with The Birds for a grand, panoramic view. Closing on the Eastern European-inflected 'Una De Gato' (a lost twin of Tusia Beridze?), 'Lepidoptera' is a pink-hued journey that you'll want to keep getting lost on. Lovely jubbly....

Mecha Fixes Clocks - Orbiting With Screwdrivers
Alien 8

Looking not unlike Vincent Gallo on his arty cover shot, Mecha Fixes Clocks is Michel F. Cote and a whole host of contributors from the Montreal experimental scene, including Lou Babin, Jean Derome, Diane Labrosse and Bernard Poirier. Described as 'ambient improv', 'Orbiting With Screwdrivers' isn't as lacking in structural cohesion as that may suggest. Whilst opening composition 'Disability For E Motion' is certainly bellicose in it's untethered musings (a hint of The Hafler Trio?), 'Planet Genre Specific' is much firmer, taking electronically reconstituted beats and swan-song strings, then allowing them the right to ramble. With a distinct John Cale aftertaste on 'Repa's Clicking Hands' and more than a fleeting glimpse of the Boxhead Ensemble on 'Nano Rotary For Nothing', Mecha Fixes Clocks have produced a work that is obtuse and cerebral whilst remaining eminently listenable....

I.A. Bericocher - Rojo
Minus

With Rojo I.A. Bericochea gives lifeless machines a sense of humanity, injecting character and warmth into the coolest depths of their binary makeup. Interestingly, Bericochea didn't really attack electronic music until recently. In 1999 a friend turned him onto Richie Hawtin's Concept series and he was immediately taken with its use of intense bass and stereo effects. It wasn't long after that Bericochea dropped out of the Physics program at the University of Madrid, bought a computer and began composing his own tiny symphonies in the digital realm. Now he takes his influence from John Coltrane, minimalist composer Erik Satie and Tango king Osvaldo Pugliese, adding to the already complex arrangements of his first release for Minus. While Rojo may be an allusion to Pugliese (his orchestra always left a red carnation on his piano during his blacklisted absence,) Bericochea contends that the color refers to the heart and living emotions, those things that deliver far more feeling than any circuit ever could

Niederflur - Nd4
Minus

ND4 collects Niederflur's examinations of the depths of german minimalism as they sample its natural acoustics, machine manifestations and other sounds indigenous to the platforms of the Teutonic unterwelt. The duo of Hannes Wenner and Christopher Bleckmann compose human-like, emotive passages from stark field recordings of the U-Bahn while embracing their city's mechanical current. Niederflur rides the rails of rhythm and repetition to a Zen-like, hypnotic effect. Their obsession with movement, precision and efficiency reaches a new height in minimal docu-techno....

Recloose - Hiatus On The Horizon
Peacefrog

Now operating with a similar palate and outlook to Tosca, New Zealand's Recloose produces electro-pepped soul covered in a warm Myelin sheath which, although undoubtedly engaging, doesn't tackle the mind as much as it does the feet. Opening with a glitter-fuelled re-reading of Tejada's Plug Research excursions, 'Landed' combines its superficial shine with two fantastic vocal performances from Justin Chapman and Genevieve Marenette which will be welcome balm to anyone fond of Rosin Murphy, Dani Siciliano or Galia Durant. Whilst at times coming across a little too airbrushed (see 'Still Beyond Me' and 'Dust'), Recloose includes enough pep to keep you interested, with the ratchet-beat House makeover of 'Turkish Delight' and 'Makutu Man's appropriation of a Jimi Tenor/Talking Heads collaboration, worthy of a special mention....

Richie Hawtin / Pete Namlook - From Within I
Minus

Part 1. Reissues of these collaborations; the first 3 volumes of which were originally issued by the Fax label. "The fusion of electronic masters Richie Hawtin and Pete Namlook has set its own course of time and tone. Three chapters of musical departure and introspection have made these three albums some of the most sought after ambient recordings of the last decade. Elements of classical, jazz, atmospheric and world rhythms are all present, brought together by analog and digital synthesis. Hawtin and Namlook are currently planning the fourth and final installment....

Richie Hawtin / Pete Namlook - From Within Ii
Minus

Part 2. Reissues of these collaborations; the first 3 volumes of which were originally issued by the Fax label. "The fusion of electronic masters Richie Hawtin and Pete Namlook has set its own course of time and tone. Three chapters of musical departure and introspection have made these three albums some of the most sought after ambient recordings of the last decade. Elements of classical, jazz, atmospheric and world rhythms are all present, brought together by analog and digital synthesis. Hawtin and Namlook are currently planning the fourth and final installment....

Richie Hawtin / Pete Namlook - From Within III
Minus

Part 3. Reissues of these collaborations; the first 3 volumes of which were originally issued by the Fax label. "The fusion of electronic masters Richie Hawtin and Pete Namlook has set its own course of time and tone. Three chapters of musical departure and introspection have made these three albums some of the most sought after ambient recordings of the last decade. Elements of classical, jazz, atmospheric and world rhythms are all present, brought together by analog and digital synthesis. Hawtin and Namlook are currently planning the fourth and final installment....

Theorem - Ion
Minus

Beginning with his debut album Nano on Plus 8 Records in 1995, Detroit based producer Theorem has kept on course maturing his blend of ambient, minimal techno, house and dub. After the end of Phase I of Plus 8 Records, his TH Series of 4 singles was released by Minus during 1998. He's been teaming up on 'virtual' collaborations with the THX Series (2000-2001). CD compiling the TH series from its vinyl releases over 1998-1999, Ion features: Debris, Embed, Cinder, Shift, Fallout, Igneous, Emerge. CD only....

Theorem - Thx : Experiments In Synchronicity
Minus

Theorem vs. Sutekh, Stewart Walker & Swayzak. "Experiments in Synchronicity compiles Theorem's THX series of net-based collaborations with like-minded producers of the minimal tech-house massive. Originally released as a collection of 12-inch singles during 2000-2001, the THX project was an experiment borne of technology. With the use of phone Lines, CDRs and FTP uploads, Detroit's Theorem (a.k.a. Dale Lawrence) provided source materials and Swayzak, Stewart Walker and Sutekh tweaked, layered, arranged and produced the end result. In the case of Swayzak and Walker, new ideas were bounced back to Detroit where Lawrence took over production duties, culminating in even more tracks. While trading (c)licks back-and-forth, Theorem and friends grafted new technotic hybrids rather than simply remixing each other's work. The end result is a fantastic display of risk and restraint. While straddling the line between minimal dub/techno and micro-house, all four collaborators push and pull, allowing each other's fingerprints to firmly embed themselves in the mix....

Various / Plus 8 - Plus 8 Classics Volume 1
Plus 8

First in this 3-part compilation spanning the life of one of the most important and influential Techno labels ever - Plus 8. The label was born over ten years ago, the brainchild of two fanatical Canadians : Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva, and never abandoned its militant and single-minded stance. Resolutely independent and fiercely determined, Plus 8 provided a welcoming stable to artists from around the globe, establishing a name for itself as a forward thinking label that refused to pander to whim or fashion. The label continued to diversify right to the end in an attempt to remain one step ahead of the trailing pack - it's single-minded approach and refusal to be swayed by fad or fashion marked it out as an individual. In seven years the label has managed to alter the course of electronic, artists on this first volume (1990-1992) includes killers from : Kenny Larkin, Fuse, Speedy J, States of Mind, Cybersonik, Psyance, Final Exposure, V-Room. Plus an Alan Oldham comic book (PDF on enhanced CD-rom). Bargain....

Various / Plus 8 - Plus 8 Classics Volume 2
Plus 8

Second in this 3-part compilation spanning the life of one of the most important and influential Techno labels ever - Plus 8. The label was born over ten years ago, the brainchild of two fanatical Canadians : Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva, and never abandoned its militant and single-minded stance. Resolutely independent and fiercely determined, Plus 8 provided a welcoming stable to artists from around the globe, establishing a name for itself as a forward thinking label that refused to pander to whim or fashion. The label continued to diversify right to the end in an attempt to remain one step ahead of the trailing pack - it's single-minded approach and refusal to be swayed by fad or fashion marked it out as an individual. In seven years the label has managed to alter the course of electronic, artists on this second volume (1993-1994) include : Fuse, Speedy J, Utu, Plastikman, Sysex, Born Under a Rhyming Planet, Himadri. Plus Matthew Hawtin's "Blue Neuron" (JPEG on enhanced CD-Rom). Bargain....

Various / Plus 8 - Plus 8 Classics Volume 3
Plus 8

Third in this 3-part compilation spanning the life of one of the most important and influential Techno labels ever - Plus 8. The label was born over ten years ago, the brainchild of two fanatical Canadians : Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva, and never abandoned its militant and single-minded stance. Resolutely independent and fiercely determined, Plus 8 provided a welcoming stable to artists from around the globe, establishing a name for itself as a forward thinking label that refused to pander to whim or fashion. The label continued to diversify right to the end in an attempt to remain one step ahead of the trailing pack - it's single-minded approach and refusal to be swayed by fad or fashion marked it out as an individual. In seven years the label has managed to alter the course of electronic, artists on this third volume (1995-1997) include : Plastikman, Speedy J, The Kooky Scientist and Fuse (aka Ritchie Hawtin) vs LFO, Born Under A Rhyming Planet, Silvershower, Richie Hawtin and Theorem. Bargain....

# posted by DJ Martian 7:14 PM

BW & BK report on Paradise Lost: PARADISE LOST Announce UK [& European] Tour Dates

# posted by DJ Martian 4:20 PM

GIGWISE.com report on Editors: Editors Announce New Gigs And London Upgrade

# posted by DJ Martian 4:12 PM

Cut Copy are special guests on the 6 Music - 6 Mix later today.

# posted by DJ Martian 3:50 PM

Friday, July 29, 2005

John Harris explores progressive rock in this The Guardian article: Progressive tendencies

# posted by DJ Martian 5:05 PM

BW & BK report on Voivod: VOIVOD Sign With The End Records - a new album is expected in early 2006.

# posted by DJ Martian 4:51 PM

Next week's releases reviewed @ Norman Records

# posted by DJ Martian 4:43 PM

Lightning Bolt - Scribblemania 2

Pitchfork report Lightning Bolt Prepare New Album titled: Scribblemania 2 due for release October 18th

# posted by DJ Martian 4:19 PM

Black Dog are Silenced in September

A new Black Dog album will be released on September 19th: Black Dog - 'Silenced'

# posted by DJ Martian 12:00 AM

Thursday, July 28, 2005

NME.COM briefly interview Sigur Ros

# posted by DJ Martian 11:27 PM

The latest issue of DJ Magazine comes with a free mix cd by Justin Robertson and CagedBaby

# posted by DJ Martian 11:22 PM

The Black Dog

Legendary 90s Warp electronic act The Black Dog are in session on Radio 1 tonight: Rob da Bank - The Black Dog

# posted by DJ Martian 11:13 PM

CMJ.com profile new 4ad signings Celebration

# posted by DJ Martian 11:08 PM

This month's All About Jazz Highlights | July 2005

# posted by DJ Martian 10:49 PM

Kultureflash - Headlines from London [No. 133 / 27.07.05]

This week's Kultureflash - Headlines from London

KultureFlash is a free, weekly newsletter covering contemporary culture in and around London. Each week we track down some of the more unusual and interesting events taking place in the Capital and deliver them straight to your inbox. Featuring art, gigs, films, talks, clubs and more -- we are committed to bringing you an eclectic mix of the most stimulating events in London.

# posted by DJ Martian 10:19 PM

collective blog on house music: House Is A Feeling

# posted by DJ Martian 9:36 PM

BW & BK report on Ephel Duath

Italy’s EPHEL DUATH have completed work on their next album, tentatively titled Pain Necessary To Know, at Studio 73 in Ravenna, Italy with producer Paso

# posted by DJ Martian 1:30 PM

indieworkshop.com review Xiu Xiu - La Forêt

# posted by DJ Martian 1:28 PM

DiS review Editors - The Back Room

[I notice that only British websites are reviewing this album, do the Editors have any media profile in the US? ]

# posted by DJ Martian 1:24 PM

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

ISLE OF MTV 2005 Festival - London - July 31st

Unusual one day festival organized by MTV Europe this coming Sunday:

THE KILLS · JAMIE LIDELL · DJ FORMAT · THE RAKES
TOM VEK · SWAYZAK DJ · DANI SICILIANO DJ · COLDER
TREVOR JACKSON · JULIET · TOM MIDDLETON
INSIGNIFICANT OTHERS · TLP aka TROUBLEMAN
ADVENTURES CLOSE TO HOME DJs · WHOMADEWHO
THOMAS BARFORD · BROOKS · PAUL HOURICAN · MAESTRO

[from email newsletter]

JULY: 31st ISLE OF MTV 2005
LIVE: THE RAKES + THE KILLS + DJ FORMAT + JULIET + COLDER + JAMIE LIDELL + WHO MADE WHO + TOM VEK
DJ'S: ADVENTURE CLOSE TO HOME DJs, + TOM MIDDLETON + TROUBLEMAN
MAIN HALL, PINK BAR, TERRACE BAR + THE OLD TRUMAN BREWERY BOILER HOUSE
1.00PM - 10.30PM
**INVITE ONLY** (For tickets visit www.isleofmtv.mtv.co.uk)

MTV EUROPE - in association with Speedo and Motorola - present the final 'Isle of MTV 2005' festival tour event at 93 Feet East and The Boiler House part of The Old Truman Brewery. The exclusive, invite only event will feature live performances from THE RAKES, THE KILLS, DJ FORMAT, JULIET, JAMIE LIDELL, WHO MADE WHO, and TOM VEK and DJ sets from ADVENTURE CLOSE TO HOME DJs, TOM MIDDLETON, and TROUBLEMAN. One of the most significant bands to emerge from London in recent years, THE RAKES have already earned a reputation for their incendiary live shows, which have excited critics and fans alike. With a brace of classic singles under their belt, The Rakes are set to deliver a typically chaotic, dazzling live performance in London. THE KILLS' rough-edged, blues-rooted sound has revolutionised the UK music scene since their 2002 debut. Their latest release - the acclaimed album No Wow - has been given a unanimous thumbs-up from the UK music press, and has won them a new legion of fans. The Kills will deliver a typically raw, stripped-down performance at the 'Isle of MTV 2005' event in London. Although DJ FORMAT's career began in the early 1990s, his major break came with his 2002 debut album and a support slot on DJ Shadow's UK tour. DJ Format's Music For The Mature B-Boy was released to rave reviews in 2003 and he continues to entertain club crowds world-wide with his unique hip hop stylings. Singer/songwriter JULIET RICHARDSON (aka Juliet) is a star in the making. With a critically acclaimed debut album, Random Order, Juliet has already found a loyal fanbase for her kinetic hybrid of melodic electronic, dance, pop and rock. Produced by Jacques Le Cont and referencing 1980s post-punk and new wave, Juliet's unique live sound is set to create a big impression at the 'Isle of MTV 2005' event in London. JAMIE LIDELL combines singing and beat boxing with twisted electronics to create a truly genre-blending live experience. Hailed as one of clubland's most charismatic performers, Lidell's live performances are a celebration of pure, visceral power, exhilarating and astounding, infused with true musicality and wicked experimentation. Expect the unexpected from Lidell at 'Isle of MTV 2005' event in London. Denmark's WHOMADEWHO - a rock trio fused with disco - are renowned for their intense live sound. The WhoMadeWho sound is not the average three chords rock band, but a unique mix of genres, with subtle musical shades from punk to pop. A multi-instrumentalist, an incisive lyricist, a musician at home with the equally raw, but wildly differing aesthetics of electronica and garage rock, TOM VEK is a young man with a bright future. His electrifying performance will leave the London crowd buzzing with raw garage rock energy. Legendary DJs TOM MIDDLETON, TROUBLEMAN and ADVENTURE CLOSE TO HOME DJs will also perform at the 'Isle of MTV 2005' event in London, completing a stunning night of music. For tickets and more info visit:

Isle of MTV 2005

Source: 93 Feet East

# posted by DJ Martian 3:02 PM

Playlouder review Editors - The Back Room

# posted by DJ Martian 1:42 PM

Splendid review Pelican - The Fire in Our Throats will Beckon the Thaw

# posted by DJ Martian 1:40 PM

Junkmedia inteview Mice Parade

# posted by DJ Martian 1:38 PM

NME.com report SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES RE-RELEASE ENTIRE CATALOGUE starting with ’The Scream’ on October 3rd.

# posted by DJ Martian 1:29 PM

The Wire - August 2005

The Wire have updated their website, so details of the [new August 2005] Current Issue

# posted by DJ Martian 1:21 PM

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Barcode review JOHN FOXX - Cathedral Oceans III

# posted by DJ Martian 11:21 PM

Madder Mortem - Desiderata

BW & BK report Peaceville Records Sign MADDER MORTEM new album titled: Desiderata hopefully will be released later this year.

# posted by DJ Martian 11:02 PM

This week's flavourpill LONDON a free weekly mailer covering music, arts, and cultural events in LONDON.

# posted by DJ Martian 10:52 PM

Sigur Rós Announce UK & Ireland November Live Dates

9th - London, Brixton Academy
10th - Edinburgh, Corn Exchange
11th - Dublin, Olympia
13th - Liverpool, Philharmonic
14th - Birmingham, Symphony Hall

More European dates also announced @ Sigur Rós

Source: Sigur Rós

# posted by DJ Martian 1:27 PM

The latest The Breezeblock show on Radio 1 including Vex'D

Listen again to this week's show for a large dose of dubstep and jungle from guests Vex'd and Bruza

***LIVE HEADLINE SET - VEX'D***

# posted by DJ Martian 1:18 PM

Four Tet + Explosions in the Sky

Gigwise report on Four Tet: Four Tet Announces Huge UK And Ireland Tour with Explosions in the Sky as support.

# posted by DJ Martian 1:06 PM

Monday, July 25, 2005

New-ish URL for Electroambient Space

The Discerning Guide to Instrumental Electronic Music

# posted by DJ Martian 11:50 PM

6 Music report Peel honoured

John Peel and Bob Dylan will be added to the UK Music Hall of Fame for 2005.

# posted by DJ Martian 11:26 PM

Last issue of The Brainwashed Brain

No, last week's announcement wasn't a joke: this is the last issue of The Brain, however, we will launch a brand new Brainwashed on August 1st. The reviews are not going away, The Eye is not going away, Links of the Week are not going away, the poll isn't going away, site news and tour dates and new releases are not going away—only The Brain is. Everybody at Brainwashed is excited about the new format and system and think it can only be the beginning of a steady slope of more improvements. We're too dedicated to music to pack things up and quit! Thanks for all of your support. We're inviting you to come back August 1st to see the new digs

# posted by DJ Martian 1:12 PM

This week's new releases @ Fopp

# posted by DJ Martian 1:07 PM

Sunday, July 24, 2005

This Week's New Releases @ Boomkat [Week Commencing July 25th 2005]

This week's new releases @ Boomkat include:

Album Of The Week!
Bjork - The Music From Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9
One Little Indian

Whilst this isn't the first time Björk has released a soundtrack album (Lars Von Trier's 'Dancer In The Dark'), on the basis of 'The Music From Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint' you'll certainly be hoping it's not the last. Taking a defiantly different approach to Dancer's over-blown, theatrical pomp, 'Drawing Restraint...' is (for the most part) bruisingly intimate and gleefully obtuse but never less than utterly irresistible. Opening with a wash of harps, 'Gratitude' sees Björk relinquish vocal duties to Will Oldham (aka Bonnie Prince Billy) wherein he gives a performance that closely mirrors the composers distinct delivery and intonation, leading to a thrillingly skewed introduction that comes across like a very pleasant bout of deja vu. The mood is changed immediately with next track, 'Pearl', as Björk indicates her time spent around the likes of Mathew Herbert and Matmos was certainly a two way street. Structured around a collage of speed-dubbed breaths, sniffs and sighs, 'Pearl' is a towering testament to her compositional talents, as the aural mosaic builds towards a grand conclusion you forget that what you're hearing is an update on the Flying Pickets and instead enjoy it for what it is; an incredibly beautiful song. We're four songs in before the powerful Icelandic lungs come out to play, with 'Bath' displaying Björk's skeletal fragility through a composition as superficially delicate as tracing paper. Of the other vocal performances, 'Celacea' is just sublime, whilst 'Storm' is the most conventional (and I use the term loosely) and will be familiar territory to anyone who was hooked good and proper by 'Vespertine'. Superficially shying away from her diamond cut electronica of recent releases, 'Drawing Restraint...' nonetheless borrows its structures wholesale throughout, producing an album that could happily stand distinct, without the 'soundtrack' water-wings. Formidable....

Eric Malmberg - Den Gatfulla Manniskan
Hapna

When you think of organ music, what do you see? Church? Blackpool? Well maybe it's time for these outdated stereotypes to get gone, especially in light of ex-Sagor & Swing bloke, Eric Malmerg's new album. Displaying a certifiable Hammond fetish, Malmberg has produced an utterly beguiling record comprised of nothing but organ. 100% pure, guaranteed. Rather than become a one-trick pony, Malmberg somehow coaxes a smorgasbord of sounds from the organ, relishing in his key tickling necromancy as you scratch your head wondering how he did it without a synth. This record will exceed your expectations, and that isn't to damn with feint praise! Formidable stuff....

Giuseppe Ielasi - Gesine
Hapna

Apparently mining his own aural Sutton Hoo, Giuseppe Ielasi is an Italian experimental guitarist and electronic botherer, who pulls all sorts of musical styles from the trench labelled 'Gesine'. Coming across as partially improvised, 'Gesine' is Ielasi's first solo work since 2003's 'Plan's, and is again witness to a veritable cornucopia of finds. Ranging from shuffling Bert Jansch folk and diet-drone, through to glitch plagued bass and waterlogged guitars, 'Gesine' is superficially sepulchral, but penetrate the surface and it's an eclectic oasis of melodious rectitude....

Sinistri - Free Pulse
Hapna

"The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat". If you're left reeling from that level of profundity, then maybe Sinistri (formerly Starf*ckers) aren't for you, however if you survived the sentence unscathed, then reading on might be a risk worth taking.... The very definition of avant, Sinistri carve fidgeting hunks of jazz, funk, blues, classical and electronica, then stew them all up in a percussive lined cauldron. Sticking the rhythmic elements 10 feet tall in the mix, Sinistri needle the beats with all manner of spiky guitars, backward effects and didactic detritus that will enthuse and infuriate with equal measure....

The Anti Group - Psychoegoautocratical Auditory Physiogomy Delineated
Die Stadt

First release from the consciously obtuse Anti Group in over ten years, 'Psychoegoautocratical Auditory Physiogomy Delineated' (snappy, don't you think) is a right-royally limited edition affair that comes housed in a silver embossed digisleeve with a 16 page booklet full of very wordy dissertations. Comprised of one piece lasting 16 minutes and 28 seconds (on the nose!), P.A.P.D is rumoured to feature members of The Hafler Trio alongside the original members M. Hogg and R. Baker. Deeply unsettling without doing a great deal, The Anti Group revel in sparse surges of sound that leave you unsure of their origin, but in no doubt of their intent. The absolute antithesis of James Blunt... FACT!...

William Basinski - Silent Night
2062

Everythiung this man does is just so so good. A single composition clocking in at 60 minutes, 'Silent Night' is a new work from the veteran American composer William Basinski, wherein he embarks on an indescribably tranquil and variegated mediation which will submerge you completely. Allowing aural tendrils to rise slowly (almost like smoke), what at first seem indistinct and untethered soon begin to take on a greater significance as structures loom through the shrouded, ineluctable broadcasts. Slow-motion it may be, Basinski nonetheless gets you where you're going in no time at all. Incredible music....

William Basinski - Variations : A Movement In Chrome Primitive
Die Stadt

Having sat through two full cd's of some of the most sublime, drifting piano based variations I've ever heard im not quite sure how to go about putting the experience into words. Whilst 'archival' may bring to mind dusty stacks in library basements, there's a slew of old material being reissued by labels at the moment that might just serve to extinguish this semantic connection. Latest to enjoy a digital reappraisal is American composer William Basinksi (of 'Disintegration Loops' fame), whose extensive 'Variations: A Movement In Chrome Primitive' is now being put out on a 2CD, lavish little digisleeved release. As a peer of Ryuichi Sakamoto and with a sound that has gone on to influence the likes of Mark Evan Burden, Basinski deals in miasma draped compositions that unfurl like an unhurried cat. Mixing waves of ambient detritus with glimpses of more concrete structures, Basinski snags the ear through ethereal webs of sound that straddle the line between dream-flecked soundscapes and timeless piano, then makes sure you don't want to leave. Aural balm; utterly immersing and totally lovely....

Luke Haines - Luke Haines Is Dead : A Collection Of A Sides, B Sides, Rarities, Sessions, Unreleased and Classic Tracks
Hut

A truly WHOPPING three discs of A-Sides, B-Sides, rarities, sessions and unreleased tracks from one man music machine Luke Haines. Having led the vanguard through the likes of The Auteurs, Baader Meinhoff and Black Box Recorder, Luke Haines is one prolific fella; with 'Luke Haines is Dead' clocking it at a vets sized dose of 63 tracks. 63! Massaging political polemic into outwardly charming pop songs is Haines calling card, and in doing so represents a venerable tradition of British musicians. With far too much many treats to mention, 'Luke Haines Is Dead' may be a completists wet dream, but rather than turn into a backward glancing crate digging exercise, it is instead an accessible and highly rounded collection of songs that can be enjoyed on multiple levels. Add to this a shitload of liner notes which include '63 Ways To Begin An Essay On Luke Haines' (sample; "One shivers slightly when Luke Haines enters a room"), and you've got yourself a done deal....

Various / Karaoke Kalk - Kalk Seeds
Karaoke Kalk

Karaoke Kalk was established as a record label with no pre-set ideas or trajectories to follow. it released it's first music all the way back in 1997, a series of minimal raster-prototype 12"s by Jens Massel's Kandis and Senking alter ego's, soon followed by the debut album from Jörg Follert (now better known as Weschel Garland) called "Wunder". This album became one of the most important and popular artefacts of Germany's burgeoning ecclectic scene back at the tail-end of the 90's, fusing a host of Blues samples with fractured electronics, strings and strangely unplaceable musical instruments, a record that is considered by some to be the true precursor to the folk-tinged and gently plunderphonic scene that has dominated the home-listening market since. Karaoke Kalk marked itself apart from its contemporaries and became known for its ecclectic musical policy - confidently releasing minimal Cologne techno and Saccharine pop music within the same breath at a time when record labels rarely dared to deviate from what was expected of them. These 16 tracks and one videoclip display the label's broad spread of interest perfectly. 10 of the tracks included here are brand new and exclusive to this release, opening up with Roman's elegantly formulated pop and a preview of his sooncome second album.Hauschka's lyrical miniature on a manipulated piano acts as a tantalising forward to the imminent release of the lovely "prepared piano" album while Le Rok's odd beats and gentle harmonies take us to another place altogether once again. Takagi Masakatsu produces lilting song-excursions infused with introspective Japanese melancholy as the handsomely sweet, mathew herbert endorsed Donna Regina offer up the title track from their soon to be released "slow killer" album.It's the particular treatment of forms that may best describe the sound of Karaoke Kalk : be it techno-structures, Beach Boys-harmonies, abstract electronica, minimal music or pop-experiments, it stems from a special kind of energetic space that champions good music regardless of where exactly it happens to be pigeon-holed and why. In this current climate of record labels and industry heads scrambling to nurture and cultivate new music of every kind, it's time to take a closer look at a label that has done so ferverently for almost a decade..

Xiu Xiu - Life And Live
Xeng

For those familiar with Xiu Xiu from last year's 'Fabulous Muscles', 'Life and Live' may come as something of a shock. Whilst that record was meticulously produced, featuring layer after layer of intricate compositions, this new release (recorded on tour with Devendra Banhart) is effectively a solo album from Jamie Stewart, with the Xiu Xiu sound stripped right back and left self consciously raw. Somewhere between Shack and Smog, 'Life and Live' allows Stewart's vocals (always the focal point of their work) to really take centre stage, imbuing the likes of '20,000 Deaths for Eidelyn Gonzales, 20,000 Deaths for Jamie Peterson' and 'Dr. Troll' with a level of eye-contact intimacy that is both shamelessly compelling and a little scary... Taken on its own merits 'Life and Live' is a formidable record, but when sat next to 'Fabulous Muscles' it becomes an essential comparison that you can't help but enjoy making....

Orange Juice - The Glasgow School
Domino

When Edwyn Collins suffered a stroke earlier this year, news reports were quick to crack open 'A Girl Like You' as backing music, with barely a mention paid to his Orange Juice days. Unfairly shunned for years, Orange Juice are now garnering the praise they deserve, due in equal parts to Simon Reynolds splendid 'Rip It Up & Start Again' and Franz Ferdinand constant name checking in every interview they give. Ever. All of them. Packaged in a XXX lavish hardback book (initial copies...) with extensive liner notes from bandmember Steven Daley, 'The Glasgow School' constitutes a complete collection of their Postcard recordings and the aborted 'Ostrich Churchyard' album. As Scottish as Irn Bru and The Dandy, Orange Juice tackled post-punk with typical Ecosse force, fusing elements of northern soul, disco, punk, the Velvets and (on 'Moscow Olympics') The Shadows... More inviting that Gang of Four and with less overt attitude than A Certain Ratio, Orange Juice's sound is at times purposefully derivative (see The Clash's fingerprints all over 'Blue Boy') and often rides roughshod over accepted recording techniques, yet never is it ever anything but thrillingly essential and delinquently infectious (if you can withstand the staccato pomp of 'Poor Old Soul', you must be dead!). A timely reminder that DFA aren't just ripping off New York, 'The Glasgow School' still sounds fresh, exciting and innovative, 25 years on. How many of the NME-cabal will have that written about them in 2030...? Brimming with vitamin C....

The Wire - Issue 258 : August 2005
The Wire

With Mayo Thompson's Red Krayola on the cover, plus features/articles on Bjork, Marissa Nader, This Heat, Carla Bozulich, Pierre Schaeffer - and all the usual extensive reviews, listings and opinions from the higher regions of musical academia....

Exile - Pro Agonist
Planet Mu

Growling subterranean bass? Check. Epic breakdowns? Of course. Seven- shades-of-shit beat pillage? How much do you want, cos 24 year old Tim Exile has got the lot. And a bit more. Having gained an MA in electroacoustic compositions, Exile has been releasing stuff left, right and centre for the past few years, clocking up appearances on Moving Shadow, Ram/Frequency, Beta, Renegade Hardware, Mosquito and now Planet-Mu. Opening as he means to go on, Exile ushers us into 'Pro Against' through the cavernous 'Silicon Chop', wherein a mass of crushed electro is shattered by a cluster-f*ck of drum & bass indebted beats and film noir atmospherics. Things continue to rattle along at this breathless pace with 'Open Mike' plundering Squarepusher's back catalogue for all manner of snare kicks and acid infected licks, 'The Forever Endeavour' teetering on the very brink of breakcore, before 'Sure You Did' strips it all down with muted beats and distant choirs for a much needed breather. However the undoubted highlight is the colossal 'Broken Language (Exile Mix)', where ghost-train melodies and a vet sized dose of broken biscuit beats are given an ace breakdown, before clawing their way back into your ears. Wormwood for the ears....

Peter Grummich - Switch Off The Soap Opera
Shitkatapult

According to the gonzo press release, "Peter Grummich could have succeeded as a carnie hypnotist with those eyes of his...". Right. Very much in pursuit a fabled vein of Cologne school minimal techno, Grummich has been knocking about for almost 20 years now, with 'Switch Off The Soap Opera' a deeply textured sediment of precision beats, dubby fingered bass and aquatic funk. A must for anyone with a pronounced minimal Kompakt affliction, 'Switch Off...' opens with the camera flash whines and informed beats of 'Incoming (There's No Way Out)' which tickle all the senses. Elsewhere, 'Orange Mood' is bass ruptured perfection, 'The Animal (Das Tier)' stomps all over the privet techno, whilst 'Alien Radio Duststar' goes all Dr Who, with filtered ambience and misshapen vocals. You'll never watch Neighbours again......

Various / Mutek - Mutek 05
MUTEK

Double CD featuring material from Monolake, Apparat, Emisor, Radian, Klimek and a whole haversack more. Released as a companion to the Montreal based festival of the same name, MUTEK 05 is an attempt to capture the annual event's electronic cross-section, showcasing what the curators feel to be the cream of their formidable crop... Taking a similar approach to the Sonar comps, MUTEK is relatively cohesion free affair, which each artist given room to introduce their sound as they see fit. Opening though the chiming minimal tech of Danieto, Disc 1 turns out to be a fairly open affair, with Luci's strangely ominous southern fried electro, Monolake's distortion soused beats, and Mendoza's rimy clattertronica, all resulting in a positively charged atmosphere. In contrast to this, disc 2 prefers a more introspective camber, with Gunter Muller's mealy clicks&cuts a good indication of the wares on offer. Broad, brumious and eclectically representative, MUTEK is a treasure trove of electronic delights....

# posted by DJ Martian 10:57 PM

BBC Music review Editors - The Back Room

BBC Collective interview Editors

# posted by DJ Martian 9:35 PM

Forthcoming The Breezeblock shows on Radio 1

July 26th
Vex'd Mix
Dupstep, jungle and a whole lot of sub...

August 8th
Drum'n'Bass Special
Pendulum in for their second mix...

Coming Soon

Glade Festival special
Matthew Jonson
Exile Mix
Sage Francis live

# posted by DJ Martian 9:26 PM

Decibel 2005

Where: Seattle
When: September 22nd - 25th
What: Electronic music festival

DECIBEL FESTIVAL 2005

[Press Release via Tech-House mailing list]

As the 2nd Annual Decibel Festival approaches one thing is eminently
clear: electronic music has gained acceptance in the Northwest. The amount of
producers, promoters, journalists, performers, visual artists, venues
and fans exploring electronic music as an art form is staggering and
growing exponentially. Seattle has given birth to a culture as diverse,
creative, technological and ideological as the city itself and much of this
second wave of electronic music is still boiling up under the surface.

The 2005 Decibel Festival will be happening September 22nd through the
25th, once again in Seattle's Capitol Hill district. Activities this year
will include: audio clinics, panel discussions, product fair, film, art
installations, laptop battle championship and over 75 electronic music
performances spanning across 5 venues. Expect nothing less than the
best in quality concert sound, electronic music performance, live visual art
and comfortable venues.

>>> 2005 DECIBEL LINE UP (more to come)
Decibel's goal is and has always been to create an environment where
technology, art and music exist as one uniform body. Through the advent
of digital media, electronic music and art have developed a symbiotic
relationship involving new performance tools and technology that are
just now being explored. This exploration is at the very heart of the
Decibel Festival and the artists we select to perform at every event. Each
Decibel artist, in their own unique way, is bridging the gap between
production, composition, performance and interactive technology. The result is a
more personal and entertaining approach to electronic music and performance.
As for musical styles, the 2005 line up will be bringing together a
multitude of electronic hybrids including ambient, experimental, techno, house,
dub, hip hop, breakbeat, IDM and electro pop. These styles will be
represented through various showcases that highlight specific labels, genres and
even geographic similarities between the artists (check
http://www.dbfestival.com/ for showcase descriptions and artist bios).

Confirmed 2005 Decibel artists include (many more to come):

INTERNATIONAL ACTS:
Isolée: Germany (Playhouse, Classic)
Fennesz: Austria (Touch)
Thomas Fehlmann: Germany (member of the Orb – Kompakt, Plug Research)
Akufen: Canada (Mutek, Musique Risquée, Perlon, Force Inc., Fabric)
Styrofoam: Belgium (Morr Music)
Deadbeat: Canada (member of Crackhaus - Mutek, Revolver, ~Scape)
Tim Hecker: Canada (Mille Plateaux, Alien8, Substractif)
Aeroc: Barcelona (a.k.a. Geoff White – Force Inc., Ghostly/Spectral)
Loscil: Canada (Kranky)
Noah Pred: Canada (Sentient, Immigrant, Morris Audio)

NATIONAL ACTS:
Pan American: Virginia (member of Labradford – Kranky, Vertical Form)
Machine Drum: Florida (Merck)
Her Space Holiday: California (Mush, Wichita)
Cepia: Minnesota (Ghostly)
Deru: California (Neo Ouija, Merck)
Proem: Texas (n5MD, Merck)
DJ Merck: Florida (Merck)

NORTHWEST ACTS:
Bruno Pronsato: Seattle (Orac, Telegraph, Philpot, Musique Risquée)
Lusine: Seattle (Ghostly, Hymen, Delikatessen)
Jeff Samuel: Seatte (Spectral, Trapez, Pokerflat)
Strategy: Portland (Orac, Omco, Kranky)
Jerry Abstract: Seattle (Shitkatapult, Semisexual, Flixelplix, Decibel)
Jacob London: Seattle (Squid, U-Freqs, Classic)
Deceptikon: Seattle (Merck)
Caro: Seattle (Orac)
Gel-Sol: Seattle (em:t)
Nudge: Portland (Kranky, Omco)
Nordic Soul: Seattle (Synth Club, Decibel)
Mercir: Seattle (Paste Music)
Hakea: Seattle (Click Pop)
Paul Edwards: Seattle (PG Series, Oscillate, Decibel)
DJ Recess: Seattle (Shameless)
Kristina Childs: Seattle (Plasmodium, Decibel)

# posted by DJ Martian 8:55 PM

Return of Bauhaus

Peter Murphy speaking to 6 Music states a Bauhaus come back is on the way, which means a new album & worldwide tour!

# posted by DJ Martian 8:34 PM

musicOMH.com review Editors - The Back Room

# posted by DJ Martian 8:22 PM

THE METAL OBSERVER review CODE - Nouveau Gloaming

# posted by DJ Martian 8:15 PM

Djam Karet provide info on their new album:

This release is our 16th studio recording (#7 for Cuneiform Records) and is two albums combined on a single CD. The first half, "Recollection Harvest", contains 5 compositions coming in at over 40 minutes, and is a further development of the DK sound last seen on The Devouring - a return to melody and composition with the guitars taking a more melodic and aggressive textural style and a revisiting of our "fusion" and symphonic keyboard analog roots. The second half, titled "Indian Summer" contains 6 compostions clocking in at over 30 minutes, explores the more electro/acoustic side of Djam Karet. These six tracks feature an abundance of acoustic guitars and Bazuki, hand percussion, modular analog synths, and field recordings from the Middle East that create a hauntingly beautiful vision of far-away lands and distant memories.

# posted by DJ Martian 8:11 PM

New Pelt album

VHF in the US have just released a new Pelt album: vhf 90 Pelt (untitled) CD

(untitled) is a devastating set of almost pure white light from the newly upgraded Pelt lineup. The intense drone music on (untitled) represents a return to "sonic-ism" for the quartet of Jack Rose, Mike Gangloff, Patrick Best, and Mikel Dimmick. Like Pelt's 2003 effort Pearls from the River, (untitled) is an all-acoustic affair. On (untitled) the group concentrates on producing dense clouds of overtones from guitar, cello, tibetan bowls, gongs, sruti, and esraj. Track 1 is an overpowering straight line ala the Theatre of Eternal Music, an atmosphere of stasis with gong and bowl flickering subtly over the massive track bed. Track 2 is a 32 minute epic that begins with the soft strains of Jack Rose's 12 string, picks up dueling cello and esraj and gradually builds in intensity with the sounds of gongs and other unusual percussion. Track 3 is the live staple "Sundogs," where Rose's Weissenborn lap guitar and Gangloff's resonator guitar produce a stream of unearthly high, singing overtones in an uncanny acoustic impression of electric feedback. The final track is an epilogue of Best's keening cello, again ignoring the usual technique associated with the instrument in the pursuit of pure weirdness. Housed in card folio printed by Stumptown. 4 tracks, 62 mins.

# posted by DJ Martian 8:09 PM

The Vibracathedral Orchestra - Tuning To The Rooster

Darla provide info on the forthcoming The Vibracathedral Orchestra album Tuning To The Rooster

COMING 8/18/05
Tuning To The Rooster is so far the first and only record ever made by The Vibracathedral Orchestra using a 24 track mixing board. Typically the group records on 2 tracks despite the fact that their eccentric and complexly arranged sound practically requires 24 tracks. In what the group calls a “foolish” decision, this 24 track recording seesion, recorded with Richard Formby (Spacemen 3 engineer), was split up and released on all sorts of limited edition vinyl releases including splits with Low, JOMF and a giveaway cd made for a Julian Cope curated festival. In early 2005 the group went back into the studio and mixed this album as it was originally intended, as one full album.

"This is music as a shamanic aid, made as much for the players themselves as for the listeners. But as I’m writing from the listening perspective, I have to inform y’all that this is music to get you there. Every track sounds as though it has always just ‘been there’, it’s just you ain’t quite tuned into its peculiar frequency until now. The 12-and-a-half minute Wearing Clothes of Ash is like a piano-led PARADIESWARTS DUUL-period drone-a-thon with John Cale and Terry Riley guesting on viola and keys. Following this, the sublime Baptism Bar Blues is proof positive that they can rock the riot house with pure adrenaline rush when the decision is made. Indeed, this track is magnificent and should be available to the masses free or in pill form." Julian Cope

# posted by DJ Martian 8:07 PM

Dirty Three - Cinder

Billboard recently reported a new Dirty Three album titled Cinder is on the way in October: Dirty Three Finds Its Voice On New Album

Touch & Go have the front cover artwork

# posted by DJ Martian 8:03 PM

Leonard's Lair review Junkboy - Lost Parade

# posted by DJ Martian 7:58 PM

Supersilent have confirmed a London performance in December at the Barbican Centre

Norweigan Voices - December 8th [Thursday]

The climax of a year of events that celebrates Norway’s 100th anniversary, Norwegian Voices explores the rich vein of music from this most surprising of countries.

Artists taking part include guitarist/composer Terje Rypdal performing with Sami vocalist Mari Boine; singer Sidsel Endresen who has been commissioned to create a new piece for this concert; Supersilent, creators of exploratory electronic sound whose line-up includes the extra-terrestrial voice and trumpet of Arve Henriksen. The Brazz Brothers will also lead an education project linked to Norwegian Voices. Ketil Bjornstad, composer, pianist, lyricist and author, plays here as leader of a new quartet including British saxophonist Andy Sheppard

# posted by DJ Martian 7:56 PM

Saturday, July 23, 2005

VH1.com interview Longwave

# posted by DJ Martian 1:28 PM

Plan B: New Issue

Sonic Youth are on the front cover of the new issue of Plan B magazine on sale August 1st.

The new of Plan B is out on 1st August. It features: Sonic Youth,
Oneida, Kevin Blechdom, Ariel Pink, Clor, Optimo, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, The
Blow, The Grates, Les Georges Leningrad, Sonar, Smog, Delia Gonzales
and Gavin Russom, The Dirtbombs, Princess Superstar, Part 2, Espers,
Teedra Moses, Cocorosie, Buck 65, Audion, T Raumschmiere, and all the best
in film, art, DVD, comics and books.

It’s available in Borders / HMV / Virgin Megastores, your local newsagent and all good independent record stores, but if you want it first, pre-order from Plan B Magazine

# posted by DJ Martian 1:07 PM

Friday, July 22, 2005

Next week's releases reviewed @ Norman Records

# posted by DJ Martian 3:29 PM

Almost Cool review Xiu Xiu - La Forêt

# posted by DJ Martian 1:00 PM

Double Solefald

BW & BK report on Norwegian post-black metal band Solefald. It now seems that there will be 2 new Solefald albums, released conceptually as part 1 and a part 2

Red for Fire: An Icelandic Odyssey part 1 will be released through Season of Mist, worldwide, before the end of 2005 and will quickly be followed by Black for Death : An Icelandic Odyssey part 2 in early spring 2006.

# posted by DJ Martian 11:20 AM

The Guardian review Orange Juice - The Glasgow School

# posted by DJ Martian 10:51 AM

The Guardian review Clor - Clor

# posted by DJ Martian 10:48 AM

The Guardian interview Siouxsie Sioux

Nearly 30 years after the Banshees burst onto the scene at the birth of British punk rock, Siouxsie Sioux is still a defiant musical maverick, and was recently honoured with Mojo's icon award. Here, she reveals her own icons

# posted by DJ Martian 10:46 AM

The Guardian review Editors - The Back Room

# posted by DJ Martian 10:43 AM

This week's flavourpill LONDON a free weekly mailer covering music, arts, and cultural events in LONDON.

[plus last week's flavourpill LONDON]

# posted by DJ Martian 12:38 AM

Kultureflash - Headlines from London [No. 132 / 20.07.05]

This week's Kultureflash - Headlines from London

KultureFlash is a free, weekly newsletter covering contemporary culture in and around London. Each week we track down some of the more unusual and interesting events taking place in the Capital and deliver them straight to your inbox. Featuring art, gigs, films, talks, clubs and more -- we are committed to bringing you an eclectic mix of the most stimulating events in London.

[also last week's Kultureflash 131 - Headlines from London]

# posted by DJ Martian 12:21 AM

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Depeche Mode - Precious

Follow the links, to listen to the forthcoming Depeche Mode track Precious: :: arjanwrites music blog ::: New Depeche Mode Single

This track is definately stronger than anything on the last album, it reminds me of a cross between Black Celebration era and Violator era DM.

# posted by DJ Martian 10:21 PM

BlogPulse has a new interface.

BlogPulse is a window into the blogosphere…open it daily to discover the people, issues, blogs, posts, commentaries, tidbits and news that bloggers are discussing

Over 14 Million blogs are in the system.

Search Engine Watch provide an overview of the changes at BlogPulse Deeper Insight into the Blogosphere

BlogPulse, Intelliseek's suite of tools for tracking trends and monitoring activities in the blogosphere, now has a cleaner look and a host of new features.

# posted by DJ Martian 5:20 PM

Blogs Search Engine: BlogScour

IceRocket search engine have recently developed a blogs search engine. If your blog is not in their database, you can add your blog.

Soon to be relaunched as BlogScour

As reported: Mark Cuban to relaunch IceRocket

BlogScour will search for the latest postings across the so-called blogosphere and return a list of results.

# posted by DJ Martian 1:30 PM

Register to listen to new Opeth music: OPETH LISTENING LOUNGE

# posted by DJ Martian 7:55 AM

New issue of Terrorizer magazine on sale Thursday 21st July. Including:

STUDIO REPORT: ARCH ENEMY
NEVERMORE
HATE ETERNAL
SPIRITUAL BEGGARS
SOILENT GREEN
DARKANE
NOVEMBERS DOOM
SYSTEM OF A DOWN
CANCER
DEW-SCENTED
REVEREND BIZARRE
PELICAN

Plus free Unsigned CD special.

# posted by DJ Martian 12:02 AM

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

The latest The Breezeblock show on Radio 1 features Dalek live in session.

# posted by DJ Martian 7:07 PM

Playlouder review Pelican - The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw

# posted by DJ Martian 6:36 PM

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Mercury Prize Nominations 2005

The 12 nominations that make up this year's shortlist are:

Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Hard-Fi - Stars Of CCTV
Kaiser Chiefs - Employment
MIA - Arular
The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers
Coldplay - X&Y
The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning Strike
Antony And The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
KT Tunstall - Eye To The Telescope
Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger
Seth Lakeman - Kitty Jay
Polar Bear - Held On The Tips Of Fingers

...as usual too many simpleton trad songs artists !

# posted by DJ Martian 12:16 PM

Mercury Prize 2005 Shortlist Predictions

Later today [Tuesday] at around 11.30am the Nationwide Mercury Prize shortlist of 12 albums will be announced.

To be honest, overall the last 12 months of British and Irish music has been rather disappointing too many artists going the easy route of copying the past.

Predicting What the Mercury Prize Shortlist Nominations will be:

Acoustic Ladyland - Last Chance Disco [this is hotly tipped to be the jazz nomination]
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm [the best crossover British rock/ guitar album of the past 12 months]
British Sea Power - Open Season [another rock album in the 12 shortlist]
Go Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike [the uptempo fun art-pop album]
Kaisers Chiefs - Employment [this ghastly simpleton singalong student band will get in. The panel wll say it represents English culture and songcraft zzzzz]
Kano - Home Sweet Home [that will be the urban album]
Jamie Lidell - Multiply [maybe an outsider]
The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers [dull media darlings cross ref with 6 music, xfm, mojo etc]
MIA - Arular [probably will get nominated]
Malcolm Middleton - Into the Woods [A Scottish entrant, distinctive album and vocal delivery]
Roisin Murphy - Ruby Blue [dull faux sophisticated wine bar muzak will get the nod to be inclusive, another female and the only Irish nomination]
Tom Vek - We Have Sound [another media darling, Mr Vek is way overhyped]

Note: If Coldplay get nominated the whole panel of judges deserve to be openly ridiculed. That whiney Chris Martin voice is nauseating, coupled with the predictable wishy washy dull guitar backdrop - it's a ghastly bland combination.

Other Eligible Albums:

I have developed a list using RYM: Mercury Music Prize 2005 -- Rate Your Music

Mercury Music Prize 2005
A list by djmartian

Some Eligible Albums for the Mercury Music Prize 2005. i.e British or Irish Artists who released an album between July 26th 2004 and July 18th 2005

What should be Nominated?

In terms of idealism and a well balanced mix of styles, imagine a 12 Shortlist as follows: it's not going to happen like this though !

#1 Acoustic Ladyland - Last Chance Disco
#2 Bark Psychosis - ///Codename: Dustsucker [If I were voting this would be the overall winner]
#3 Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
#4 Brooks - Red Tape
#5 Richard Davis - Details
#6 The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike
#7 High Contrast - High Society
#8 Jesu - Jesu
#9 Kelpe - Sea Inside Body
#10 Primordial - The Gathering Wilderness
#11 Ryan Teague - Six Preludes
#12 Van Der Graaf Generator - Present

Another 38 Eligible Albums: Will any make it to the official shortlist ?

#13 Axis of Perdition - Deleted Scenes From the Transition Hospital
#14 Tim Bowness - My Hotel Year
#15 British Sea Power - Open Season
#16 Broadway Project - In Finite
#17 Calyx - No Turning Back
#18 Ben Christophers - The Space In Between
#19 Matt Elliott - Drinking Songs
#20 The Emperor Machine - Aimee Tallulah is Hypnotised
#21 Brian Eno - Another Day on Earth
#22 Freeform Five - Strangest Things
#23 Four Tet - Everything Ecstatic
#24 Githead - Profile
#25 Martin Grech - Unholy
#26 Guapo - Black Oni
#27 Homelife - Guru Man Hub Cap Lady
#28 Hood - Outside Closer
#29 Influx UK - 2 Million and Rising
#30 July Skies - The English Cold
#31 Nostalgia 77 - The Garden
#32 Piano Magic - Disaffected
#33 Polar Bear [GBR] - Held on the Tips of Fingers
#34 Porcupine Tree - Deadwing
#35 Roots Manuva - Awfully Deep
#36 65 Days of Static - The Fall of Math
#37 Slam - Year Zero
#38 Alex Smoke - Incommunicado
#39 State River Widening - Cottonhead
#40 Stromba - Tales From the Sitting Room
#41 Theo Travis - Earth to Ether
#42 Tunng - Mother's Daughter And Other Songs
#43 Twin Zero - Monolith
#44 Mark Van Hoen - The warmth inside you
#45 Vector Lovers - Vector Lovers
#46 Cristian Vogel - Station 55
#47 Vince Watson - Sublimina
#48 Whitey - The Light At the End of the Tunnel Is A Train
#49 Patrick Wolf - Wind In The Wires
#50 Yellotone - Tar File Junction

# posted by DJ Martian 12:07 AM

Monday, July 18, 2005

This week's new releases @ Fopp

# posted by DJ Martian 1:38 PM

Top 100 rated albums of 2005 on Rate Your Music has been updated.

A quick scan roughly a third of the top 100 are on my long 2005 list, however there are some awful artists currently in the Top 100.

Selected Highlights

The Mars Volta [5]
Porcupine Tree [6]
Dark Tranquility [10]
Strapping Young Lad [14]
Bloc Party [18]
LCD Soundsystem [26]
Dalek [38] - one place ahead of the dull Coldplay !
Jesu [40]
13 & God [42]
Jaga Jazzist [47]
A Silver Mt. Zion [48]
Red Sparowes [51]
Nile [54]
British Sea Power [58]
Pat Metheny [60]
High on Fire [62]
Caribou [66]
Dredg [74]
The Books [81]
Roots Manuva [84]
Quasimoto [96]
Colleen [100]

A general observation rock / guitar music is the predominate type of music in the top 100, maybe most of the electronic / dance music fans prefer to use the Discogs database?

# posted by DJ Martian 1:16 PM

Sunday, July 17, 2005

This Week's New Releases @ Boomkat [Week Commencing: July 18th]

This week's new releases @ Boomkat include:

Album Of The Week!
Vex'd - Degenerate
Planet Mu

Its only been just over a year since the first subtext 12" by vex'd 'pop pop/canyon' dropped into range with a neck snapping kick/snare and bass wobble combo that sent heads either running for cover or shouting from the rooftops. With a succession of 12"s and tracks on labels like destructive and planet mu now under his belt, vex'd has found time to deliver a defining moment in the development of the genre loosely termed dubstep or grime. Distilling the most essential elements of 15 years of hardcore/breakbeat research by players from 2 bad mice to Photek or Technical itch and a healthy respect for soundsystem culture into one cohesive collection of warped hardcore science for 2005 and beyond, vex'd has in a very short time carved out a niche for himself as a purveyor of the rawest and freshest sound currently wrecking heads and feet up and down the country, at once appealing to the disparate factions of drum and bass, breaks, grime and breakcore. Anyways, onto the music, first 1000 copies of the cd release come with a bonus disc of the aforementioned singles on planet-mu and subtext, ya don't want to get left behind! The 1st CD is entirely new material, kicking off with a V.I.P version of 'pop pop' with added bleeps and a reconfigured rollidge factor. The lights are cut for track 2 'thunder' with a haunting intro giving way to some half speed grime with distorted gabber kicks business, 'corridor' is a bleeping 2 step wobbler, Track 5, pure bassline pressure with horror strings lurking somewhere above. Vex'd's sense of spatial awareness for sounds and respect for simplicity works to perfect effect on tracks like 'crusher dub' and closer 'slime', a minimum of ingredients are used to create maximum pressure from sinewy snare led rhythms and cavernous bass space. Tracks like 'Gunman' and 'Lion' will no doubt appeal massively to the breaks and d'n'b heads, classic samples coupled with an uncanny knack for aggressive and up-to-date synth sounds and ruffneck riddims can't fail on any floor. Vex'd has realised a hardcore statement of intent, constructed from bare elements, and destined to become a classic. Mighty.

Album Of The Week!
Autechre / The Hafler Trio - Aeo3/3hae
Die Stadt

Hugely anticipated second collaboration between Autechre and The Hafler Trio, housed in an incredible deluxe handmade cover, goldleaf printed card insert and mysterious items inside - strictly limited to a one-time edition of 1000 copies only. This is heavy going stuff spread across two cd's, ranging from minimal concrete stretches to sharp, fast and awe inspiring digital spasms. Do not sleep on this one!!...

Mutamassik - Definitive Works
Soundink

Ever since picking up the genre melting 'war booty' 12" on DJ/ Ruptures soot imprint 3 years ago I've been clamming for some more Mutamassik. Internet searches have returned very little, I've only been satiated with the 'high alert' 12" on sound ink last year, and the bidoun sessions split mix CD with Rupture. 'Masri Mokkassar: Definitive works' is a very welcome collection of Mutamassik's incedibly unique blend of lush and heavy egyptian drumming, baladi breakbeats and sa'aidi hardcore, meshed with the typically western 'amen' junglist break and Wu-tang style instrumental hiphop. Hailing from Brooklyn N.Y.C. hence the sound-ink connection, Mutamassik's work is an aural reflection of the tense atmospheres of the current global situation, not afraid to use a healthy spot of distortion or RZA weighted basslines, the most unique and driving element of her music is the Muslimgauze-referencing percussion. The definitve track 'babomb' is a thick and tumultuous blend of traditional drumming laced with a neck snapping hiphop break, belicose strings and droning eastern vibes floating somewhere in the distance, desert ghetto business. Double time, stop/start rhythms control the flow of 'M28' a remix of an Arto Lindsay track, switching between industrial sounding Arabic drumming and bursts of tech step D'n'B, yet never losing its inherent hypnotic swing. A vocalist is introduced on 'we-do' featuring Cyra Unique, sounding like a hyped Divine Styler over uniquely itchy programming and sweeping strings. More unreleased material with the Cyra Unique on 'sa'aidi hardcore', filtered hand drums are stretched and morphed into a ruff-assed junglist flex-out. Anyone with a passing interest in world music, hiphop instrumentals or breakcore needs to check this out. Completely essential. (When's the vinyl release!?!)...

Fourcolor - Water Mirror
Apestaartje

After our late introduction to the amazing Apestaartje label last week with the massive Mountains set - this week we introduce two further catalogue gems from late 2004. Fourcolor is Keiichi Sugimoto, a member of electro-improv quartet Minamo who like Fourcolor have since had material released on 12k plus he is also 50% of Fonica who's 'Ripple' for Plop/Tomlab was a 2002 highlight. Somehow he also finds the time to run esteemed Japanese minimal label Cubic Music. 'Water Mirror' continues the theme of guitar drone experimentalism focused on by artists such as Oren Ambarchi, Akira Rabelais and Keith Fullerton Whitman in recent times. 'Dip' feels a little like a Steve Reich update, like a stripdown of 'Electric Counterpoint'. 'Fount' is a gorgeous variation on the cloudscape drift studies I associate with Keith Fullerton Whitman's 'Playthroughs' album, an amazing track. 'Soaking' does for your ears what sinking into a deep bath of water does for your joints after a hard day's work or play. 'Snow Soup' offers warm tones and deep bass-scape bleep pulses, tune! The final epic twenty four minute 'Steam' is a soundtrack to the short film 'Frontire' by Japanese experimental filmmaker Jun Miyazaki. Spacious on/off pulses with steam bursts, twinking light refractions, high tension guitar plucks with children playing plus bassy droplets - an amazing piece. Seascape meets industrialism artwork equals 'Water Mirror'. A very high recommendation - very limited copies....

Growing / Mark Evan Burden - Self Titled
Xeng

Two contrasting and lengthy pieces from the Growing and Mark Evan Burden on this split release, wherein the respective artists do what they do in autonomy whilst somehow managing to run a united theme throughout. First up is Growing with 'Firmament', whose avant rock/subharmonic drone/ambient (delete as appropriate...) is garnering much praise following their recent ATP performance. Revelling in the internal turmoil created by layering introspective chunks of bellicose drone on top of one of another, Growing conjure a refreshing calm from what can at times be a sensory pummelling genre. In utter juxtaposition, '10 24 02' sees Mark Evan Burden indulging in spiralling piano and grimy (literally, not Eski) sonic bursts that are both beautiful and ugly simultaneously. At times they may feel weighty (one could say an aural burden), but give it time and they'll be all over you like ivy....

Sebastien Roux - Pillow
Apestaartje

After our late introduction to the amazing Apestaartje label last week with the massive Mountains set - this week we introduce two further catalogue gems from late 2004. Sebastien Roux follows in the footsteps of fellow french melodic minimalists Gel, Encre and Sylvain Chauveau with this glorious multi faceted drone based album. Roux may be known to you for his input alongside Keith Fullerton Whitman, Fonica and Christopher Willets on the 12k comp 'E.A.D.G.B.E'. For 'Pillow' layers of ambient noise are crafted into electro classical suites - guitar phrases lift the music to more familiar places - the glitch approach brings Christopher Willets to mind, in fact 'Pillow' is like a denser variation of 'Pollen' on Fällt. Drones build like those Fennesz would deliver for Raster-Noton (dream on). Nine tracks, recorded in 2003 in Paris, Lyon, Amsterdam and on trains. Oddly evocative artwork. Very limited copies, be quick. ..

Piano Magic - I Came To Your Party Dressed As A Shadow
Acuarela
EP

The kind of music Piano Magic make is normally liable to get me agitated in all the wrong ways, stirring faux-intellectualism and crumbly soundscapes into a pink-flushed whole. Yet despite this inherent aversion, I always find myself swept away by their releases, whilst my usually bullet-proof cynicism melts down to a pliable husk. The bastards. And so it continues with 'I Came Toy Your Party Dressed As A Shadow', an EP of previously unreleased and exclusive songs that would act as a perfect accompaniment to 'The Opencast Heart' EP released earlier this year. Opening with the title track, Piano Magic augment a prickly consignment of rustles and clicks with a dousing of warm analogue syrup that somehow manages to bestow the overlay of dead-pan female discourse with a profundity it doesn't deserve. Of the other two songs, 'Blood & Snow' is a mischievous coalition of chimes and digital detritus, whilst 'The Drowning Of St. Christopher' is as epic as the title suggests. They'll slip up one of these days, just you wait and see......

Ivan Smagghe - Fabric 23
Fabric

Uber-fashionista and king of the filthy dancefloor, Blackstrobe's Ivan Smagghe delivers probably the most anticipated Fabric mix since Michael Mayer gave the wheels of steel a good rinsing early last year. Smagghe takes much pleasure in displaying his unquestionable zeitgeist straddling selection skills and his ability to procure some exclusives - most notably the massively anticipated Roman Flugel remix for Audion - a track that will be released on spectral later on this year. Also includes the obligatory Michael Mayer track (backslapping and vol-au-vent's are often the order of the day on mix cd's) plus hits from Konrad Black, DJ Koze, The Kills, I-Robot, Lopazz and so on. Good fun....

Various / Charm - Motion Picture Soundtrack
5 Rue Christine
CD + DVD

Two disc soundtrack and DVD set, including the full length feature film 'Charm' by Sarah Reed and Sandie Shaw (not the Eurovision one I presume...) and a CD with contributions from Deerhoof, Tim Green, Aislers Set, Replikants, Black Ice and an awful lot more... Filmed for four grand in and around San Francisco, 'Charm' is a Ye Olde revenge flick centering around a young affluent madam who gets disenfranchised with the IKEA world around her so sets about drawing some blood from those in arms reach. With a kitchen knife... Whilst the premise may sound familiar, the soundtrack is a commendably rich collection of juxtapositions and curveballs that lack cohesion, but somehow hang together like an Ozwald Boateng. First up is the film's main theme, provided by Tim Green, which aims squarely for cinematic bombast through big drums, sweeping atmospherics and more than a dash of Slowdive fandom. This is soon put into contrast by the Aislers Set's double header, of which 'Attraction Action Reaction' scores most points through a propulsive clatter of Buddy Holly-esque fragments all held together by a college.alt membrane. Elsewhere, The Face Family Players use 'You've Really Got A Hold On Me' to put forward a bitter reading of the classic US high-school prom music, David Scott Stone delves deep into the drones with 'Pause On The Street' (think diet Earth), 27 Faces indulge in some 8-bit F*ckery, whilst Xtinct crossbreeds stereotypical Rephlex noise and Josh Wink beeps to a surprisingly successful end. I think I'll sleep with the light on tonight......

# posted by DJ Martian 11:14 PM

Porcupine Tree announce new European tour dates:

2nd December - Luxembourg, Luxembourg City, Den Atelier
3rd December - Belgium, Antwerp, Hof Ter Lo
4th December - Holland, Tilburg, 013
6th December - UK, Wolverhampton, Wulfrun
7th December - UK, London, Shepherd's Bush Empire
8th December - UK, Manchester, MDH
9th December - UK, Glasgow, Carling Academy
11th December - UK, Cambridge, Junction

Opening act at all the UK shows will be legendary guitar player Robert Fripp

# posted by DJ Martian 10:50 PM

2005 Releases

I have updated by my long A-Z list of 2005 albums using RYM: 2005 Albums -- Rate Your Music

Combined Tracking List: Best Albums & Anticipated Forthcoming Albums of 2005. [Mostly related to releases for January to September]

I have also started a sequential forthcoming list: Forthcoming 2005 Albums

Over the next 6 weeks the release schedule is fairly quiet, however come September & October there will be the usual overload of releases.

Hopefully with this new system in place, it will be easier to keep track of forthcoming releases.

Albums yet to be officially confirmed with album title/ and release date include: Biosphere, Boards of Canada, Kate Bush, Portishead, Tool, TV on the Radio and Scott Walker.....and many more !

Once these are confirmed I will add them to the lists.

# posted by DJ Martian 4:04 PM

The Observer | OMM | review Goldfrapp - Supernature

# posted by DJ Martian 1:19 PM

Friday, July 15, 2005

Boards of Canada New Album in October

Warp News - July 2005 newsletter, make a Boards of Canada announcement:

We are extremely proud to announce that Boards of Canada have finished and mastered their new album, to be released in October - their first release since 2002's Geogaddi! The album is very much classic Boards, building on themes and sounds that can can be heard in their intervening remix work for Beck, cLOUDDEAD and Boom Bip.

# posted by DJ Martian 7:08 PM

Pitchfork review Xiu Xiu - La Forêt

# posted by DJ Martian 4:59 PM

The Guardian review Kirsty MacColl - The Best of Kirsty MacColl

# posted by DJ Martian 4:54 PM

The Guardian review My Computer - No CV

# posted by DJ Martian 4:52 PM

Next week's releases reviewed @ Norman Records

# posted by DJ Martian 4:24 PM

Junior Boys plan 2nd album for early 2006 Release

Billboard report Junior Boys are working on their 2nd album: Junior Boys Melding Simple Minds, Gershwin On New CD

Greenspan says he and colleague Matt Didemus are gleaning inspiration from: "a bizarre combination of Italo-disco, new wave (as usual, but with a heavier influence of Simple Minds, Magazine, Ultravox and others that we love) and strangely, the pervasive influence of classic Tin Pan Alley/Gershwin-esque songwriting. [It] sounds bad, but its definitely coalescing into something new."

[via One Louder music blog]

# posted by DJ Martian 4:16 PM

The Guardian interview Alison Goldfrapp

# posted by DJ Martian 11:42 AM

Killing Joke fan Alex in NYC launches a blog: The House of Vassifer: the Weblog of Alex in NYC

# posted by DJ Martian 11:11 AM

music blog to check: advance copy

# posted by DJ Martian 11:09 AM

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Jackson - Smash Album Set for September

As reported via Warp June Newsletter 2005 news of the debut album from Jackson

Jackson, The debut album from 25yr old French electronic superstar and new Warp
signing Jackson is finally mastered and in the can.

Featuring contributions from Mr Oizo, Mike Ladd and Jackson's mum, 'Smash' is released in September, with a 3 track 12' due on 22nd August.

# posted by DJ Martian 9:07 PM

Adult say Gimmie Trouble

Thrill Jockey will release a new album from Adult in October

Oct. 11th: ADULT. - Gimmie Trouble CD/LP

# posted by DJ Martian 8:55 PM

BW & BK provide a Katatonia studio update: KATATONIA - Guitar Sessions Continue, Studio Pics Posted

The material is sounding very heavy already

# posted by DJ Martian 8:29 PM

BW & BK report on Khold: KHOLD To Issue Krek In October on Tabu Recordings

# posted by DJ Martian 8:24 PM

BW & BK report on The Gathering: THE GATHERING - Track List For Accessories - Rarities And B-Sides Confirmed - to be released August 22nd via Century Media

# posted by DJ Martian 8:23 PM

Ultimate Metal Forum interview Krystoffer Rygg of Ulver

Krystoffer Rygg is an exceptional figure. The Clown of Jester-Town. After appearing in many metal bands and projects, he has a few connections with the Norwegian metal scene. His first band, Ulver, has faced many metamorphoses. In the beginning, their reputation was founded with melodic black after releasing one of the coldest black records ever. Later they flirted with electronics to an extent, and unleashed numerous ambient and soundtrack recordings. This time it’s all about Blood Inside, which opens a new direction for Ulver.

# posted by DJ Martian 8:01 PM

Details of Manchester Jazz Festival taking place 22-30 JULY '05

Welcome to mjf 2005…

…and to nine Mancunian days of exciting, innovative contemporary jazz.

It's our 10th festival - come and celebrate this landmark with us, as we bring to you over 50 bands, at 9 venues, with events at all times of the day and week, indoors and out

Norwegian artist Tord Gustavsen Trio will be performing.

# posted by DJ Martian 1:39 PM

BBC Music review Kinski - Alpine Static

# posted by DJ Martian 1:37 PM

Junkmedia interview Ellen Allien

# posted by DJ Martian 1:29 PM

Stylus review Boy Robot - Rotten Cocktails

# posted by DJ Martian 12:47 PM

Brainwashed Releases a listing of recent & upcoming electronic/experimental/etc. releases has been updated.

# posted by DJ Martian 10:34 AM

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Confirmed final artwork for the new Opeth album: Opeth - Ghost Reveries

# posted by DJ Martian 11:47 PM

Playlouder on last week's SuperSonic festival held in Birmingham.

# posted by DJ Martian 11:09 PM

Blabbermouth.Net report AGATHODAIMON Recording New Album

# posted by DJ Martian 11:03 PM

T.Raumschmiere - Blitzkrieg Pop

Latest T.Raumschmiere news from Mute [via email newsletter]

T.Raumschmiere releases a new single, Blitzkrieg Pop, on 29th August. Available on CD, 7" and 12", Blitzkrieg Pop is the title track from his brand new album, which is out on 12th September.

T.Raumschmiere plays live in the UK and Europe including a London show at Kill All Hippies at The Scala on 16th July and festival dates in August, followed by North American shows in the autumn.

Official website for T.Raumschmiere

# posted by DJ Martian 5:34 PM

ISSUE 75 of Rock Sound

The new issue of Rock Sound magazine features Mastodon on the front cover.

# posted by DJ Martian 1:57 PM

Pitchfork article on The Lost Generation

How UK post-rock fell in love with the moon,
and a bunch of bands nobody listened to defined the 1990s
Story by Nitsuh Abebe

# posted by DJ Martian 1:41 PM

Pitchfork review these Can reissues: Can - Future Days / Soon Over Babaluma / Unlimited Edition / Landed

Mute reissues the mid-1970s Can catalog, including the monumental Future Days and underrated Unlimited Edition compilation. [Dominique Leone]

# posted by DJ Martian 1:37 PM

Yahoo music / dotmusic report on London United

A free festival to pay tribute to those killed in the terrorist strikes in London is to take place this weekend.

The details of 'London United', which will be held in Burgess Park on Saturday, were announced this morning by Mayor Ken Livingstone.

To appear Jarvis Cocker, Madness and St Etienne.

# posted by DJ Martian 1:25 PM

Tiny Mix Tapes review Xiu Xiu - La Foret

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Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Pitchfork review Piano Magic - Disaffected

# posted by DJ Martian 11:33 PM

Polish art rockers Riverside have signed to Inside Out. A second album is on the way:

"Second Life Syndrome" on Inside Out!

"Second Life Syndrome", for this is the title of the forthcoming Riverside album, will be released worldwide on Inside Out label! The album will consist of eight compositions, amongst which you will find "Reality Dream III," the track which has already been performed live. Lyricswise, "Second Life Syndrome" will continue the story from "Out Of Myself." Musicwise, it will show a bit heavier side of the band. The cover will be once again designed by Travis Smith. The album's premiere is planned for November 2005.

The band will report back on studio proceedings soon.

Riverside have a similar sound to Anathema circa the Eternity album, and deserve far more press coverage outside of the progressive rock community.

# posted by DJ Martian 1:32 PM

Stylus interview The Juan Maclean

# posted by DJ Martian 1:27 PM

Now on Listen Again: The Breezeblock a Detroit techno music special.

FUSE-IN: DETROIT SPECIAL

Martha & The Vandellas- 'Heatwave' (Gaudy)
Model 500- 'Outer Space (Vocal Mix)' (Metroplex)
Scan 7- 'No One Listens To Techno' (White)
Paperclip People- 'Throw' (Planet E)

***LIVE AT FUSE-IN MIX #1***
---- Classic Techno Set- Buzz Goree ----

***LIVE AT FUSE-IN MIX #2***
---- Heavy Electro Set- Aux 88 ----

***LIVE AT FUSE-IN MIX #3***
---- Funky Techno Set- Dj 3000 ----

***LIVE AT FUSE-IN MIX #4***
---- Soul Tinged Techno Set- Carl Craig ----

***LIVE AT FUSE-IN MIX #5***
--- Detroit Booty Set- B Calloway & The Body Mechanic ---

Underground Resistance- 'Jupiter Jazz' (UR)

***LIVE AT FUSE-IN MIX #6***
---- Classic Detroit Set- Model 500 ----

B Calloway- 'Late Night Ride' (Local 3000)
Kelli Hand- 'Moving On' (Third Ear)
Parliament- 'Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)' (Casablanca)
Shifted Phases- 'Lonely Journey Of The Comet Bopp' (Tresor

# posted by DJ Martian 1:24 PM

The Poke

Further presents The Poke an all nighter electronic music event in London this Friday.

Electro/ Techno / Acid / Electronica/ Noise & Stuff

According to Xfm DJ Nick Luscombe it ties in with a launch of a new electronic music magazine for London.

exile live planet-mu pro agonist album launch
b12 live warp/art
unique 3 dj bleep
stasis dj peacefrog
dub kult dj arcola raum...musik
snapmouth live seed
wheel instead of hooves djs
visuals by the spectralists

london electrics launch party
Nick luscombe dj xfm
cursor miner live uncharted audio
digitonal dj seed/toytronic
confutatis live ai
fisk industries live highpoint lowlife
jacen solo live ai
john power & sun ov dj furthur
plus more live acts & djs from london electrics

fri 15 july, 10pm-6am
Jacks, crucifix lane/Shand Street, SE1

# posted by DJ Martian 1:15 PM

PINK FLOYD AND THE STORY OF PROG ROCK

Details of the new Mojo/ Q progressive rock special edition:

Mojo Special Edition

A MOJO Classic Special Edition

Take a trip to another musical dimension, celebrating the astounding tales and amazing sounds of...

PINK FLOYD: The Lost Years, The New Interviews, The Unseen Pictures.
In-depth stories, exclusive interviews with...

GENESIS
YES
SOFT MACHINE
KING CRIMSON
RUSH
THE MARS VOLTA
HAWKWIND
ELP and more...

SEX, DRUGS & WIZARDS: From Wish You Were Here to OK Computer - 40 Cosmic Rock Albums To Blow Your Mind...
PLUS: Rarities, artwork, competitions and more!

Available as a Q Classic Special Edition in the UK and a Mojo Classic Special Edition overseas, including the US. Available in all good newsagents from 14 July or by ordering online from here

# posted by DJ Martian 1:05 PM

Monday, July 11, 2005

Stylus review The Juan Maclean - Less Than Human

STYLUSMAGAZINE.COM’S ALBUM OF THE WEEK: JULY 11 – JULY 17, 2005

# posted by DJ Martian 9:43 PM

PopMatters review Xiu Xiu - La Foret

# posted by DJ Martian 9:40 PM

The latest One World show on Radio 1 features:

Robin Porter & Hiroshi Watanabe
Show broadcast on Radio 1
Monday 11 July 2005: 0100-0300
[Now on Listen Again]

This week we have Japanese based Hiroshi Watanabe in the mix with deep electronica/Techno. Also Detroit based Robin Porter with an Immigrant mix.

# posted by DJ Martian 9:31 PM

RollingStone.com report The Secret Machines plan new album for 2006.

# posted by DJ Martian 9:28 PM

This week's new releases @ Fopp

# posted by DJ Martian 1:02 PM

Capitol K announces a new album: Nomad Junk to be released in August

# posted by DJ Martian 12:46 AM

Sunday, July 10, 2005

The Masterpeace Festival 2005 - Yorkshire Dales, Nr Skipton

The Masterpeace Festival 2005

A music festival of Exploration and Education
from Friday 19th to Sunday 21st of August
featuring live music and artistic performances
alongside the finest European DJs
with camping in the Yorkshire Dales

Weekend tickets with and without camping
and individual day tickets are available now
from this site and from selected outlets

Looking at the line up the festival covers chill out, electronic, nu jazz, deep house, ambient, idm, leftfield hip hop music etc

A theme of the festival is a campaign against guns.

Flyer artwork: The Masterpeace Festival

# posted by DJ Martian 11:39 PM

Sigur Rós title album: takk...

Sigur Rós name their new album takk... it will be released September 12th on EMI records.

1. takk...
2. glósóli
3. hoppípolla
4. með blóðnasir
5. sé lest
6. sæglópur
7. mílanó
8. gong
9. andvari
10. svo hljótt
11. heysátan

[via music blog One Louder]

# posted by DJ Martian 11:07 PM

the mass is secretly obsessed with nipple dream: Mid-year recap. - The first half of 2005 music selections from a blogger in Canada.

# posted by DJ Martian 10:47 PM

2005 music listed: 2005 - The Good and The Bad -- Rate Your Music a list by RYM user ZMS

# posted by DJ Martian 10:42 PM

Pitchfork report Animal Collective will release a new album: Feels on October 18th

# posted by DJ Martian 10:36 PM

This Week's New Releases @ Boomkat [Week of July 11th]

This week's new releases @ Boomkat include:

ALBUM OF THE WEEK!
Mountains - Mountains
Apestaartje

Brooklyn's Apestaartje label has been one to watch over the last couple of years, operating a similar music policy to Taylor Deupree's 12k but with a stronger leaning towards electro-acoustic works with an emphasis on live instrumentation. The Mountains are the duo of label owners Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp who operate elsewhere on the label as Anderegg and Aero. The sound of Mountains emits via instrumentation from the worlds of americana, folk and modern classical music given a subtle electronic filtering mixed with shimmering field recordings. Often sounding like classic Apollo era Brian Eno recorded during a tropical downpour, while at others bringing to mind the glorious sun-drenched layering of genre-master Fennesz, this album evokes the feeling you had as a child when opening boxed presents only to find another box insideand then another ... until you finally reach the gemstone kept heavily under wraps. Housed in a unique styled digipak, this album transcends all usual superlatives and is a definite highlight of 2005 to date. Essential purchase

ALBUM OF THE WEEK!
Bretschneider + Steinbruchel - Status
12K

If proof were ever needed as to how utterly consuming and expansive microsound compositions can be, then 'Status' is unequivocally it. The product of a dream-team pairing of Ralph Steinbruchel (of 'Zwischen.raum' fame) and Frank Bretschneider (aka Komet), 'Status' evolved at snail's pace over 2-3 years and this level of development oozes from each and every track. Opening with the sumptuous 'Spirale', Bretschneider and Steinbruchel manage to fuse warmly rendered clicks and cuts fizz with a deeply unconscious line in barely audible melodic underlay - rustling into life over diamond cut precision. This continues on the Andrew Pekler influenced 'Antenne', whilst Bretschneider's time working with SND surfaces with vengeance on the mealy 'Funktion'. Fragile yet strong, 'Status' will appeal to anyone with even a passing interest in the whole laptop / minimal scene, as well as standing up on its own two feet for those not normally that way inclined. Special stuff - a massive recommendation....

Los Hermanos - On Another Level
Submerge Recordings

The brainchild of DJ Rolando and Gerald Mitchell, founded and guided by Underground Resistance, Los Hermanos present us with a poignant journey through modern Detroit techno and house music, exploring both the digital and organic musical elements. The vinyl version features the 7 unreleased tracks pressed for maximum quality. Check!...

Cristian Vogel - Station 55
Novamute

Not one to be outdone by his long serving Super_Collider band mate Jamie Lidell, Cristian Vogel has decided to loose off another superlative solo album that takes him on another career-swerve. With a genre-busting spectrum of sounds ranging from Rephlex style beatfuckery ('On The Line') through to rubber-soled electro ('The Time Lock'), 'Station 55' represents an artist revelling in his own eclectic talents. With what can only be described as a micro-sound convention taking part in a badly wired electronic burlesque ghost-train (you heard!), Station 55 kicks off with the off-kilter killer cut 'Typewriter of the Dead'. With unsettling aural washes, it drags you in deep; an effect which is repeated on '1968. Holes'. Alongside the raw meat adorned Kevin Blechdom, Vogel ram raids a Green Velvet lined locomotive beat headfirst into his broken marble falsetto (a trick repeated on 'Monkey Inc.') with results that are much more pleasing than that description might suggest. With a scope and willingness to subvert his own sound throughout, 'Station 55' proves that Vogel still has the skills to pay the bills....

Clickits - Express Gifts
Moteer

Coming to us fresh on The Remote Viewer's curated label Moteer, from deep somewhere in steep lancashire, 'Express Gifts' is the debut album from Clickits, amblicated and friably impressive, distilling the essence of melancholic reflection down into a suprising, uplifting album. Opening with what at first appears to be the most ethereal of rhythms, 'Aramaic' slowly reveals it's internal glory as sodden beats cast a glistening web around snatched guitar melodies and faraway strings: a composition so beautiful it'll make your teeth ache. Continuing somewhat dewy-eyed , 'Wheneveryouready' assumes a refreshing minimally-frayed stance, through a graffiti-influenced rhythm and choral vocals, whilst 'Lilophone' begins with what sounds like unrelated background noise, rhythm tracks made from wooden things and tumbling keys, which subsequently coalesce into utterly beguiling, ramshackle but resolute tunes. 'in my field of view' inches past like a deep dale meeting with early kraftwerk - sublime stuff, and coming to the centre of the album 'lament for the north' troubles ghosts of early Art of Noise, 'Brttle' Sakamoto style innocence to travel through the Clickits sandy hi-fi speakers and animate their 21st century attention spans. Clickits borrow the Murcof schematic - the closer 'Was Until Today' slowly allows disparate elements - disassociated voices, xylophones, benign twinkles and reduced deepfolk bodypops to accrue into a wonderful, cohesive summation to a genuinely remarkable record. As intense and beautiful, as involved with the questions of light and dark, as a candle seen in moonlight....

Portable - Version
Scape

Proudly wearing his Portable name-tag, Alan Abraham has produced a warm and earthy take on the ~scape blueprint for new release 'Version'. Incorporating lashings of African influences (all without a patronising pop star mugging away in the background), Abraham teases a loose and funky sound from the oft tight and clinical heart of glitch. Opening with the gorgeous 'Ebb and Flow', wherein Portable fuses bass-heavy pulsing deep grooves with the precision beats of Afuken, 'Version' then goes on to innovate and entertain in equal measure. With standouts including the SND inflected 'Down Stream', the feedback couched 'Temporal Distortion' and the 'Sutekh meets Global Goon' of 'Tempura', Abrahams will delight the Mille Plateaux denizens and more casual glitch users alike through an album of microwired delight. Very good....

Bohren And Der Club Of Gore - Sunset Mission
Wonder

A long-time favourite of ours, Bohren's "Sunset Mission" is finally available again and is a must-have item for anyone looking for something to sit alongside Angelo Badelamanti's soundtrack work for Twin Peaks. Whilst Motren Gass, Throsten Benning and Robin Rodenberg (aka Bohren & Der Club Of Gore) would like to have you believe they all live in unlit basements and only venture out to stare balefully at the moon, the truth, based on the reissue of 2000's 'Sunset Mission', suggests that they're all just a bunch of hopeless romantics... Comprised of piano, bass, sax and guitar, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore craft caliginous instrumental compositions that slow-waltz around the 'Jazz/Noir/Twin Peaks Soundtrack' divide with a sound they rather misleadingly refer to as 'horror jazz'. Referencing the likes of David Lynch at every turn, Bohren's sound takes deeply textured journeys into the smokey and crepuscular outer-reaches of Loungecore. Elegant, inviting and covered in Black-Lodge red velvet 'Sunset Mission' is perfect for long and sweaty summer evenings or cold and brooding winter ones. Highly Recommended....

Skeletons & The Girl-Faced Boys - Git
Ghostly International

Having taken his one-man band (Skeletons) as far as he could, Matt Mehlan has now put together The Girl Faced Boys and, in a moment of blinding inspiration, fused them into one, calling the result... (drum roll) Skeletons and The Girl-Faced Boys. The first release on their new Ghostly home, 'Git' is undoubtedly pop music but not the kind of thing you'll see on CD:UK. Instead Skeletons and The Girl-Faced Boys have set about leftfield popular culture with magpie intensity and culled all manner of tangents and obtuse angles for their record, ranging from the Wayne Cohen/Polyphonic Spree in Willy Wonka's junkshop of opener 'See The Way' through to the Lidell/Bobby Conn electro-pop of 'There Are Seagulls Who Live In Parking Lots'. Not half as awkward as it first seems, 'Git' is grade-A pop given a much needed dusting of sequestered and, at times, bitter oddness. If you fell in love with Safety Scissors doing oddball vocal pop, this record will be just your thing -a killer addition to Ghostly's always righteous roster. Recommended....

The Juan Maclean - Less Than Human
DFA

There's been plenty written about how former Six Finger Satellite fella Jean Maclean was persuaded (for persuaded read'fan-boy bothering') by DFA's James Murphy to re-enter the fray and put out some solo material, with 'Less Than Human' the long time coming album release. With all but one track co-produced by the DFA mob, it may come as some surprise to those not familiar with Maclean's ouvre that this isn't another cow-bell toting NYC punk/funk stew, and is instead a predominatly electro pickeled affair that's a proper dance-floor agitator. Album opener 'AD 2003' sets MacLean's stall out perfectly, as swooping 80's soundtrack effects run headfirst into a barrel of choppped vocals that negotiate their way around all manner of studded beats, synth stabs and Blackdice glitter. Mayfly-like in duration, this soon gives way to 'Shining Skinned Friend' wherein a Joy Divison warehouse bass is peppered with trademarked DFA beats (think The Rapture covering LCD Soundsystem) and an isobar thick vocoder that all sounds how you imagine Daft Punk would have if they hadn't turned sh*t. Elsewhere, 'Give Me Every Little Thing' features a guest vocal from James Murphy (as well as a crafty A Certain Ratio steal), 'Crush The Liberation' wears its Georgio Moroder/Chic badges with pride, whilst 'Love Is In The Air' plunders the Norweigan electro-pop boom of 2002/2003 (The Moonflowers et al.) for consumate inspiration. Less than human? Maybe. But MacLean has produced a record which more than proves a robot can have soul....

Marcus Fjellstrom - Exercises In Estrangement
Lampse

Second release on the Lampse label, following on from the excellent debut provided by Lee Norris' nacht Plank. Marcus Fjellstrom's relationship with music started, unsurprisingly, early on in his life. With piano lessons since the age of nine, he was soon fascinated by the magic abilities of synths and samplers and experimented, as a teenager, with electronic music. This passion later grew to include orchestral and modern classical music and led to a degree in Composition. A big art-house cinema fan himself, Marcus had the opportunity over the next couple of years to provide the score for several independent productions in his homeland Sweden. Many of his compositions have been performed by known chamber ensembles, soloists and orchestras to audiences in Sweden as well as Australia, USA, Norway, Finland and the UK. For this debut release Fjellström has given us is a collection of very dark and melancholic pieces with a strange beauty. Long, haunting ambient tracks are reminiscent of dark Lynchian worlds. Frantic orchestral moments could be the soundtrack to a Svankmajer mechanical puppet show or even a surreal circus performance. An obvious comparison is the works of avant-garde composers such as John Cage, Steve Reich and Luciano Berio. A stronger reference point though would be the early experimentations of leading electronic music composer and Cage's close friend Morton Subotnick, as well as the output of modern electronica mavericks Aphex Twin and Autechre. Marcus, like them, acknowledges the advantages of the electronic medium and doesn't hesitate to place it at the centre of his work. 'Exercises In Estrangement' is a strong example of the possible directions in modern (classical) music. Already paved by names such as Ligeti, Supersilent and Arvo Pärt, to name but a few, the path is long. With albums like this, the future is exciting....

Prefuse 73 / The Books - Prefuse 73 Reads The Books Ep
Warp

For all his meaty goodness, Prefuse 73 can sometimes be a bit overwhelming. Taking his gem-studded recent album 'Surrounded By Silence' in one sitting could, dependent on mood, feel akin to being locked in a room with a music addled channel surfer, ODing on sugar whilst exhibiting key signs of ADD. It is therefore something of a pleasure-lined relief to see Herron concentrating on a thematic constant with extended EP 'Read The Books'. Fleshing out his collaboration with The Books, the EP opens with album cut 'Pagina Dos' which, removed from the guest-rich environs of the album, takes on a breezier and fresher complexion which straddles the line between Herron's various alter-egos. From here on in the EP consists of Prefuse introducing his splice&dice schematic to original material from The Books, all of which comes off a treat. So whilst 'Pagina Tres' cross breeds addictive ivories and concrete beats to Savath effect (although the trademarked ch-o-pp-ed vocals drag it back round), 'Pagina Siete' prefers to investigate Four Tet with a delicate jackhammer. Closing on the Lali Puna flecked 'Pagina Ocho' (with Claudia Maria Deheza guesting), 'Reads The Books' is much more than a cynical album tie in, providing a formidable epilogue with which to reinterpret the entire LP

Harold Budd + Eraldo Bernocchi - Fragments From The Inside
Sub Rosa

Recorded live on what can only be assumed was a warm and expansive Italian night, 'Fragments From The Inside' sees the coming together of incredible Pianist / ambient master Harold Budd and long-time Bill Laswell collaborator Eraldo Bernochhi, with 'Music For Fragments From The Inside'. Composed and played on the hoof, 'Music For Fragments...' unfurls with loquacious grace; a fact that is cemented on the opening 'One'. So whilst in the foreground a beautiful Benno Moiseiwistshca-esque piano part is allowed time to languidly gather momentum, on the fringes Bernocchi punctures the ambient membrane with buckshot's of garbled digitalis that create a thrilling juxtaposition which comes off a treat. Elsewhere, 'Four' assumes a similar perspective (albeit with the machines winning round two) to the opening composition, 'Six' betters Jenkinson's 'Iambic 9 Poetry', whilst 'Two' is a claustrophobic coalition of fidgeting beats and classical flourishes. Closing with the slow burn marathon of (you guessed it) 'Seven', Bernocchi and Budd have created a soothing aural balm that whilst undoubtedly honeyed, has enough piquant bite to keep your head engaged. Amazing music....

Four Tet - Sun Drums And Soil
Domino

Available on well limited 12" and even scarcer 3" CD (XXX cuteness guaranteed), 'Sun Drums and Soil' has been culled from the sublime 'Everything Ecstatic' and is here backed up by a couple of caustic remixes. First up on scalpel duties is the East/West Coast duo Sa-Ra Creative Partners, who (fresh off the back of N*E*R*D/Roots Manuva duties) have remoulded the break heavy original into a electro-souled killer that liberally oozes honeyed rhythms and irascible funk. Oh yeah. Add to this an ADD Gamelan mix (the boy Hebdon) that cranks the original's elements to breaking point, and you've got yourself a natty little package that ain't just out to drain your wallet. **STRICTLY LIMITED COPIES ONLY**...

Windy & Carl - Dedications To Flea
Brainwashed

First in the oh-so limited Brainwashed Handmade series that comes (you guessed it blood!) in a hand-set, silver and black case printed with lead type. Lead! With the four year hiatus since last album 'Consciousness' well and truly off, this two track release (with both clocking in around 20 minutes a pop) proceeds an LP this autumn on Kranky. Dedicated to their "dearly departed dog" Flea (who makes multiple appearances throughout), Windy & Carl allow their predominantly guitar/keyboard compositions to unfurl gradually, in a manner that sees the listener led down a variety of aural avenues without ever feeling tethered to a base. Lush, sudsy and with a roaming predilection that never becomes wilfully unfocused, 'Dedications To Flea' is as ethereal as Nephele and all the better for it. Magic....

Part Chimp - I Am Come
Rock Action

Having spent a teenage summer ensconced in an ice-cream kiosk opposite a cage of monkeys who entire lives revolved around masturbating whenever a group of primary school kids tottered along, I can firmly attest that chimps are endowed with a keen sense of humour and a love of shocking the unprepared. I only mention this because Part Chimp certainly seem to share some of these traits (not the public self-love I hasten to add...) with their incendiary combination of sludge-rock and rock riffage not half as po-faced many of their peers. LOUD AS F*CK, Part Chimp (who reside on Mogwai's Rock Action imprint) cherry pick elements of Sunn O))), Shellac, Sabbath and Kranky, then distil the results down into a thick and rimy compote that is thrillingly visceral and blindingly raw. Take for example the distortion ripped 'Hello Bastards', where a Stooges style stomp is rutted into submission through layers of overload guitars and Strepsil vocals that can't help but charge you up in a delirious 100 Volt fashion. Or something... Either way it's LOUD and very very proud!...

Absentee - Donkey Stock
Memphis Industries

Memphis Industries seem to have hit a purple patch recently, with releases from The Go! Team, Dungen and now Absentee, displaying a keen ear for James Joyce-pop. Unbelievably confident and assured for a debut release, 'Donkey Stock' is the 5-piece Absentee's take on countrified rock & roll that sounds a bit like Smog, Johnny Cash, Nick Cave, Dream City Film Club and Leonard Cohen, whilst sounding f*ck all like any of them. Opening with 'Rainy Days Swimming', you initially think they're going to employ all the old-west clichés they can get their hands on; lilting rhythm, lazy harmonica and a bourbon soaked larynx. Yet just when it's all going to plan a blindingly Myelin female vocal emerges from the fug to deliver Twin Peaks-esque backing throughout, with Absentee's intentions become much less clear and all the better for it. With tangents cropping up throughout, 'Something to Bang' is borderline glam, country and simian-indie all at once, 'Dead Wife' is Pavement without the cloying whimsy, whilst 'Heathers Golden Shoulder' closes proceedings with a Pic'n'Mix of time signatures. One to watch; don't play truant!...

Petra Jean Phillipson - Notes On : Love
Gronland

Whilst David Holmes' Free Association never really escaped it's clichéd garage rock aspirations, one good thing certainly came from the group; Petra Jean Phillipson. Having put in a show-steaing performance on the band's 'Sugar Man', 'Notes On: Love' sees Jean Phillipson distancing herself from that previous incarnation with an album of emotionally wrought and friably structured compositions that furnish her beguiling voice with uncluttered production. Phew. Co-produced alongside ex-Verve guitarist and Blur's Graham Coxon stand-in, Simon Tong, 'Notes On: Love' opens with 'I Want The Impossible', a song whose lyrics initially come across like a toddler's hissy-fit; "I Wanna write a book that sings, I wanna ride a horse with rings, I wanna walk on water.... Yet rather than appear histrionic, Phillipson manages (alongside some bare-bones acoustic detritus) to turn the list of demands into a sultry and becoming siren song, which is equal parts Beth Orton, Roisin Murphy and Billy Holliday. Similarly, 'Oneday' branches out from Phillipson's captivating vocal base like a majestic elm, 'Independent Woman' comes across like a great, lost PJ Harvey song, whilst 'Wildfire' drips with regret and ill-concealed lust. Having garnered extensive coverage in The Sunday Times and with a Turin Breaks tour support upcoming, Phillipson's greatest threat is becoming assimilated into the Zero 7-led, dinner party cabal... And that, people, would be a very bad thing....

Stuart A. Staples (Tindersticks) - Lucky Dog Recordings
Beggars Banquet

Following from what at this moment in time is for my money the best single of 2005 so far (the magnificet "Friday Night" on his own Lucky Dog imprint) - Tindersticks main man Stuart Staples returns with his debut solo album - and what an achievement it is. Staples has been plugging away since 2003 with this new release, the first of two albums (the second scheduled for 2006), bringing together the fruits of his labour. Opening with a gorgeous Yann Tiersen piano part that is equal parts Michael Nyman and Debussy, 'Somerset House' is a fragrant slow build wherein bare boned percussion and choral Wilson interludes puncture the surface. The first glimpse of Staples voice comes courtesy of 'Marseilles Sunset' where, with his inimitable style still firing on all cylinders, he conjures an emotionally wrought 21st Century torch song that will thrill anyone who has been snagged by Antony and The Johnson's recent excursions. Elsewhere, 'Friday Night' is just as sublime and other-worldly as it was on the 7" of the same name and closing track 'I've Come A Long Way' proves why Staples can lay claim to fathering the current alt.country revival led by the likes of Devendra Banhart. This is a simply fabulous album that we implore you to buy - a heartfelt, insistent recommendation

Ben Nevile - Joeski
Telegraph

Following ace releases for Context, Orac, Background, Nordic Trax and Mosaic Mr Nevile is back with thisace doublepack album brimming with deep production, attention to detail and grooving funk-ups for the floor. With many of it's constituent sounds drawn from nature, ths is no studio-bound geek fest, and works best as a unwinding sonic mood elevator, but you can dispel thoughts of a new-age style hippy vibe-athon, as all sounds have been heavily treated, doctored and resampled to create a suitably obscure form of microscopic body music. Where Matthew Dear added much-needed personality to the tech-electro format in 2004, Ben Nevile adds punch, pop and verve via excellent craftsmanship and flawless production on an upbeat yet carefully restrained set that works a treat. Recommended!...

Various / Areal - 2rabimmel 2rabammel 2rabum 2bum Bum
Areal

An Areal cd only comes along once in a very long time - so we've learned to value the moments when this sometimes deliberately blorty and yet bizarrely commercial european techno label commit to the silver disc. All the main in house talent are represented here in some style - Ada, Basteroid, Roan, Metope, Imogen, Konfekt, Remute and Ha.te. The Areal cd 004 also includes four bonus tracks drawn from the original Areal 022 record, deranged rhomboid techno, best heard on drugs and probably not coming down. However - you have to admire the determined deliberate mania of this hardcore party crew. Some of you may recall in your grizzled memory banks the frying they gave your synapses at Sonar by Night this year - let the feeling linger just a little longer....

Various / Spectral - Spectral Sound Volume 1
Spectral

Gargantuan double cd package from Spectral!! The first disc features previously unreleased exclusive tracks and classics from the Spectral roster, the second cd is a killer mix session from Ryan Elliott featuring over 30 killers from this mighty back catalogue. Tracklisting for cd1 (unmixed) is as follows : 1. Osborne "Bout Ready to Jak" 2. The Vanishe "The Tic-Tac Tactic" 3. Matthew Dear "It's Over Now" (Peter Grummich RMX) [exclusive] 4. Geoff White "Nintendisco" 5. James T. Cotton "Buck!" (Reinhard Voigt RMX) 6. Hieroglyphic Being "Je Suis Musique" [exclusive] 7. Peter Grummich "Arcona" [exclusive] 8. Matthew Dear "Juice" [exclusive] 9. Jeff Samuel "HeB. GBz" 10. Audion "Raw Dog" [exclusive] 11. James T. Cotton "T-Y-O-C Painkillers" [exclusive] 12. Osborne "Daylight" (Isolée RMX) 13. Matthew Dear "Dog Days" (radio edit)[exclusive]. Killer!!!!!!...

Joe Lewis - The Return Of Joe Lewis
Peacefrog

After much delay this fabulous comendium of one of Chicago's most inspiring operators is finally here. Joe's musical career (currently spanning 20 years) began at a local skating rink, which he renamed "THE LOOP MACHINE" where he organised packed to capacity parties every Friday and Saturday. Special guests would often include House legends such as Frankie Knuckles, Steve "Silk" Hurley and Farley "Jackmaster" Funk. Following the popularity of The Loop Machine, Joe opened his own split floor club 'The Jungle Club'. Joe first started releasing songs under the name Joe R Lewis in the mid to late eighties. His first release on his own newly formed Target Record label "The Love Of My Own" was in fact a secret collaboration with Larry Heard, aka 'Mr. Fingers', and the original version 'The Love Of Jamie' was originally to be sung by Byron Walton aka Jamie Principal. He followed this release with 2 more EP's; 'Change Reaction' and 'Lost In Tracks', all three of these classic and hard to find EP's confirmed Joe as one of Chicago's most talented and underrated producers. In 1990 Joe hooked up with Darryl Godlett to form Survival; the outcome was one of the catchiest and most recognised Chicago anthems of all time - 'Midnight Dancin', which appeared on a number of Target Record releases including a collaboration with Paul Johnson in '91. In 1993 'The Beginning and The Ending EP' once more brought Joe to a wider audience, with all the tracks bearing the hall marks of two of Chicago's finest; Mr. Fingers and Jamie Principal who Joe quotes as being his two greatest influences. Highly recommended for all deep warehouse heads....

# posted by DJ Martian 6:18 PM

Saturday, July 09, 2005

dense Promotion news 059

Chain D.L.K reformat the latest Dense Promotion [of Berlin] News

Contents:
ARDEN – Conceal [CD Stilll]
DIE TÖDLICHE DORIS - Welten - Worlds [LP Vinyl On Demand]
EXILE - Pro Agonist [CD Planet Mu]
FROG POCKET - Gonglot [CD Planet Mu]
HAROLD BUDD + ERALDO BERNOCCHI - Music for Fragments from the Inside
[CD Sub Rosa]
KOSMONAUTENTRAUM - Ungehörtes Unerhörtes [LP Vinyl On Demand]
KSCHZT – The Earth’s Hum [CD Blasé]
LOKAI - 7 Million [CD Mosz]
MATMOS / DIE MONITR BATSS – Split Divorce Series 2 [7“ Ache Records]
MU-ZIQ - Ease [12" Planet Mu]
PIERS WHYTE - s/t [CD Ache Records]
RM74 - Exkursion [CD dOc Recordings]
SENSATIONAL - Speaks For Itself [CD Quatermass]
SOFTLAND - War Againstt Error [CD/LP Spezialmaterial]
TAYLOR DEUPREE + EISI - Every Still Day [CD Noble Rec.]
THE CORTET – HHHH [CD Unsounds]
TU M' - Just One Night [CD Dekorder]
V.A. - WAHRNEHMUNGEN [3LP Vinyl On Demand]
V.A. - ESSAYS ON RADIO: Can I have 2 minutes of your time? [CD Crónica]
VEX'D - Degenerate [2CD/2LP Planet Mu]
VORPAL - An Incomplete Guide to VORPAL Music [CD Cock Rock Disco]
WORLD's END GIRLFRIEND - The Lie Lay Land [CD Noble Rec.]

# posted by DJ Martian 7:49 PM

Blabbermouth.Net report on Madder Mortem: MADDER MORTEM Sign With PEACEVILLE RECORDS - new album due this Autumn.

# posted by DJ Martian 7:23 PM

Funprox report on a new Harold Budd & Eraldo Bernocchi album.

A new release on Sub Rosa:
Harold Budd + Eraldo Bernocchi - Music for Fragments from the Inside

# posted by DJ Martian 7:14 PM

Kranky announce forthcoming releases:

Fall lineup begins to take shape:

The following releases are the first to be expected during the fall of 2005:
krank085 Boduf Songs - s/t CD
krank086 Lichens - The Psychic Nature of Being CD
krank087 Chris Bissonnette - Periphery CD
krank088 Brian McBride (of Stars of the Lid) - When the Detail Lost its Freedom CD
krank089 Dawn Smithson - Safer Here CD
krank090 Windy & Carl - The Dream House

Images, samples, and longer descriptions will be posted as they become available.

# posted by DJ Martian 6:22 PM

Independent music distributors Cargo Records have recently launched a new website.

# posted by DJ Martian 4:16 PM

John Foxx - Cathedral Oceans III

JOHN FOXX official website METAMATIC announces:

On the 8th of August, 2005 the new album from John Foxx, Cathedral Oceans III, will be released. The full track listing is as follows...

# posted by DJ Martian 3:48 PM

The Beta Band - Best Of

Regal will release a best of compilation for The Beta Band on September 26th. [Source: HMV.co.uk website]

# posted by DJ Martian 3:32 PM

music blog to check: dark dose - dark music mp3 blog

# posted by DJ Martian 3:30 PM

Next week's releases reviewed @ Norman Records

# posted by DJ Martian 2:40 PM

BBC collective review Colder - Heat

# posted by DJ Martian 1:55 PM

PopMatters review Colleen - The Golden Morning Breaks

# posted by DJ Martian 1:33 PM

GuilFest 2005. The Guildford Music Festival on 15th, 16th and 17th July 2005

GuilFest 2005 takes place in Guildford, Surrey over three days. The festival has an unusual mix of artists with something to appeal to teenagers right through to middle aged Radio 2 listeners.

The main stage with big name artists [sponsored by Radio 2], local artists stage, a comedy tent, a funk stage, a noisey rock stage [sponsored by Rock Sound magazine], a kidz zone, a boring Adult contemporary rock/ singer songwriter stage sponsored by Uncut magazine.

GuilFest 2005 The Line Up includes: Marillion, Echo & the Bunnymen, Dreadzone, Oceansize and Martin Grech.

# posted by DJ Martian 1:29 PM

Strange Attractors profile the new Vocokesh album: Vocokesh - Through the Smoke CD (SAAH034)

Vocokesh
Through the Smoke
SAAH034 CD Only
Release Date: August 2, 2005

...With Through the Smoke, Vocokesh expand upon the ominous acid soundtracks that saturated The Tenth Corner. Combining the swirling guitars of Pink Floyd and the Kraut-inspired mayhem of Ash Ra Tempel with the early analog electronic surrealism of Tangerine Dream and Popol Vuh, Vocokesh continue to place pressure on the boundaries of sound, incessantly exploring cryptic soundscapes via their often times unsettling brand of electronics-drenched, drugged-out rock. ...

...Vocokesh manage to skillfully hybridize the best of the early 70's avant-garde into their cinematic improvisations. Florian Fricke, David Gilmour, Manuel Göttsching, Edgar Froese, Moebius & Roedelius and Fripp & Eno are all exhumed, but Vocokesh re-image the references into something far more extreme than the aforementioned ever imagined. Eerie and sonically provocative, Through the Smoke is one intense mind-moving hallucination

# posted by DJ Martian 1:00 PM

Leonard's Lair review Epic45 - England Fallen Over EP

With each new release, Staffordshire's Epic45 step up to the challenge of expanding their sound ever further. After a support stint with Hood and avid appreciation of the Bark Psychosis and Disco Inferno back catalogue, these influences appear to have rubbed off on the trio; making this their most confident-sounding record..

# posted by DJ Martian 12:56 PM

Almost Cool review Fennesz Sakamoto - Sala Santa Cecilia EP

# posted by DJ Martian 12:52 PM

BW & BK report OPETH - Release Date Confirmed For Ghost Reveries as August 30th.

# posted by DJ Martian 12:32 PM

Friday, July 08, 2005

for the eardrums report The Notwist are recording a new album.

(short interview with Markus Archer)

# posted by DJ Martian 11:03 AM

Klaus Schulze announces a new album:

Klaus Schulze's new solo album Moonlake will be released on SPV in September 2005.

# posted by DJ Martian 10:00 AM

Thursday, July 07, 2005

London Calling

Just [b]logging in briefly.

After today's horrific terrorist events in London, it seems inappropriate to blog the latest music news.

Particularly when geographically speaking the London Bus that exploded was only about two miles away whilst I was travelling on a London bus / different route at the same time.

DiS report on London gigs that have been cancelled today: London: Advice on events including American epic rockers Dredg who were due to play The Garage.

# posted by DJ Martian 5:15 PM

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Depeche Mode: Playing the Angel = October 17th Release

Yesterday, I reported news of the title of the Depeche Mode album.

However, today Xfm now have the release date [October 17th] for Playing the Angel - according to information given at a special album playback at Home House in London today (July 6).

[ Xfm: Depeche Mode Reveal New Album ]

RollingStone.com briefly interview Fletcher & Gahan.

Produced by Ben Hiller (Blur, Doves), the record features the band's classic blend of moody synth-pop beats, heavy guitar riffs and dark lyrics

# posted by DJ Martian 11:12 PM

Q/ Mojo Prog Rock Special Edition

Look what's coming soon, as advertised in the new Mojo

Q/ Mojo Classic "The Ultimate Collectors Edition"

The Story of Prog Rock
starring

Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, Hawkwind, ELP, Radiohead...& more

on sale 15th July

# posted by DJ Martian 8:55 PM

MOJO Magazine - August 2005

New issue of MOJO Magazine now on sale in the UK.

Unfortunately, the retro rock dullards The White Stripes are on the front cover.

# posted by DJ Martian 5:26 PM

Exclaim provide a Brian Eno timeline: Brian Eno Sweet Science By Dimitri Nasrallah

# posted by DJ Martian 5:02 PM

The Big Chill Festival at Eastnor Castle

The Big Chill Festival 2005 held at Eastnor Castle will happen on the weekend of Friday 5th - Sunday 7 August 2005

Bigchill.net are reporting

The shop at bigchill.net has now sold out of festival tickets.

Some of the retail outlets may still have tickets in stock, so if you need a ticket it worth contacting them. Retail outlet details here.
[info]

Big Chill EASTNOR 2005 LINE-UP, including these artists:

The Bays
Robert Fripp Soundscapes
The Earlies
A Certain Ratio
Husky Rescue
Tunng
One Self
Nouvelle Vague
Xploding Plastix
Susanna and the Magical Orchestra
Lunz
Morr Music presents FS Blumm & Christian Kleine
Efterklang
Rothko and Caroline Ross and Roger Eno

# posted by DJ Martian 1:33 PM

Side-Line issue #52

Details of the new issue of Side-Line magazine, featuring Leaves' Eyes on the front cover.

Side-Line magazine's issue #52 released in July 2005, features interviews with and amongst other: accessory, adam x, alien produkt, angel theory, audio war, bak XIII, breath of life, corvus corax, cyclone-b, dark erritory, Dax, death in june, divine comedy, garden of delight feat lutherion, goteki, in slaughter natives, ian curtis (feat. exclusive interview with annik honore), kutna hora, leaves eyes, lycia, midnight syndicate, mind in a box, noise unit, o.v.n.i., project pitchfork, psyclone nine, regenerator, retractor, rotersand, severe illusion, stark, supreme court, the dreamside, the mercy cage, virtual embrace, etc. + the usual hundreds of reviews, news & gossips. 64 glossy pages in total.

# posted by DJ Martian 1:22 PM

Kultureflash - Headlines from London [No. 130 / 06.07.05]

This week's Kultureflash - Headlines from London

KultureFlash is a free, weekly newsletter covering contemporary culture in and around London. Each week we track down some of the more unusual and interesting events taking place in the Capital and deliver them straight to your inbox. Featuring art, gigs, films, talks, clubs and more -- we are committed to bringing you an eclectic mix of the most stimulating events in London.

# posted by DJ Martian 1:04 PM

Douglas Wolk on MP3 music blogs: A musical blog party

Sprinkled around the Web are several sites on which individuals share their idiosyncratic selections in the form of MP3 files. [via Coolfer]

# posted by DJ Martian 12:22 AM

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Music webzine Silent Uproar is 5 years old today.

# posted by DJ Martian 11:48 PM

Alexander Kowalski will release a new album this Autumn on Kanzleramt

# posted by DJ Martian 11:43 PM

Brian Eno interview on Radio 3 - Mixing It - 8 July 2005

Friday 8 July 2005 22:15-23:30 (Radio 3)

Presented by Mark Russell and Robert Sandall and featuring an interview with Brian Eno about his new album of songs, Another Day on Earth

# posted by DJ Martian 10:50 PM

Cerysmatic Factory report The Durutti Column to perform @ Ronnie Scott's in London on 4th December 2005

# posted by DJ Martian 10:47 PM

The latest One World show on Radio 1 features:

Royksopp, Thievery Corporation & London Elektricity
Show broadcast on Radio 1
Monday 04 July 2005: 0100-0300

Now on Listen Again.

# posted by DJ Martian 10:44 PM

Dirty Radio

This is currently my default internet radio station: dirtyradio.net - they are currently re-designing their website and expanding the programming schedule.

Maybe you can take up this challenge ?

We are looking for people to host the following sets:
* Underground rock
* Modern classical

If you are interested, please contact Scott Warner. You must display a wide knowledge of the genre you're interested in hosting. We strongly prefer live setups to MP3 sets - at the most simple this means having a mixing solution that allows you to broadcast simultaenous inputs to the stream at one time (i.e. talking on the mic while fading out one track and bringing in another...)

# posted by DJ Martian 9:08 PM

Depeche Mode have announced: Playing The Angel as the title of their forthcoming album.

# posted by DJ Martian 8:08 PM

New dEUS Album: Pocket Revolution

DiS report on dEUS: dEUS return with a Pocket Revolution due on September 12th

# posted by DJ Martian 5:30 PM

This week's Flavourpill LONDON a free weekly mailer covering music, arts, and cultural events in LONDON.

# posted by DJ Martian 5:25 PM

Playlouder review Royksopp - The Understanding

# posted by DJ Martian 1:47 PM

BBC Jazz Awards 2005 winners announced including best band: Acoustic Ladyland

# posted by DJ Martian 1:40 PM

Cerysmatic Factory report the forthcoming New Order dvd tracklisting

# posted by DJ Martian 1:38 PM

NME.COM report on Elbow: ELBOW ANNOUNCE INTIMATE DATES

# posted by DJ Martian 1:34 PM

Simple Minds - 'Black & White 050505'

Soundgenerator.com have some more info on Simple Minds new album: Simple Minds return with 'Black & White 050505'

A series of intimate concerts across the UK are also due to be announced in the weeks ahead, most likely around the September release date.

This Simple Minds website is the best place for updates: Simple Minds - Dream Giver

UPDATE: The official Press Release for the new album: Sanctuary Records - Simple Minds - Black & White 050505 via Noble PR

including this overview of the album:

The CD's opening track, 'Stay Visible' has all the depth, melody and warmth of a theme tune for the next Bond movie. Lingering in the mind long after the last chord has played, it evokes images of an expensive open top car zooming along an empty mountain road or an endless stretch of Arizona desert.

Jim Kerr's distinctive voice comes through strong in their first single, 'Home' released on 5th September and together with co-founder and lead guitarist Charlie Burchill, they have produced a pop song that should lay to rest any rumours that this is a band that have had their day. 'Home' recalls classic Simple Minds with a driving rhythm and the distinctive Burchill guitar sound. Kerr says "There are a number of songs on the album that will make great singles but I feel that the way 'Home' kicks in with Charlie's signature soaring guitar riff, there could be no better way off announcing to the world that Simple Minds had recaptured the kind of uplifting musical spirit that defined our best work. Lyrically, 'Home' is a pop song with a spiritual heart, taking us on a secret journey through the thoughts of someone who is desperately seeking out their own inner crusade."

'Stranger' and 'Different World' give their past hits a run for their money and reminds us that here is a band that can do "big emotional pop on a grand scale" as well as anybody and probably better than most. 'The Jeweller (Part 2)' proves that point equally. Bursting with melodic energy, here is a multi-layered song harking back to the bands classic 'New Gold Dream' days, when NME and the entire British music press declared them band of the year

Never afraid to tackle the bigger issues as demonstrated by their classic international No.1 single 'Belfast Child', the current CD's title track 'Black and White' is a somber electro ballad about the madness and shame displayed by an increasing amount of world wide Holocaust deniers. Similarly 'Dolphins' closes the CD on a gentle though cinematic note. Atmospheric pop at its best Jim Kerr's voice resonates with brittle emotion, with the lush backing building slowly until it fills the room. Somehow it seems the perfect ending to what is definitely their best recording in a very long time.

Jim Kerr says "We wanted to make an album once again that was full of dramatic and atmospheric pop music. We felt that we needed an album that proved as much to ourselves as anyone else, that the big beating heart of Simple Minds was very much alive and driving us on once again. Having delivered 'Black and White 050505,' an album that we believe is 'classic Simple Minds,' albeit with a whole new energy. We can honestly say that we are delighted with the results and look forward with a totally revitalised outlook to this next phase of our on going creativity. We feel with some certainty that people who grew up with Simple Minds will share our enthusiasm for this new work. While at the same time, given the chance, we also feel that these new songs are good enough to interest a whole new contemporary audience. Needless to say, in the tradition of all great rock bands, we are extremely excited at the prospect of playing this album live on stage and look forward to doing exactly that in the near future."

# posted by DJ Martian 1:28 PM

Respect for Pink Floyd: Pink Floyd to donate Live 8 profits

# posted by DJ Martian 1:11 PM

Monday, July 04, 2005

Arcturus have set September 19th as the release date for their new album: Sideshow Symphonies

# posted by DJ Martian 2:03 PM

Yellow6 - Melt Inside

Details of a new Yellow6 album [via email newsletter]

MELT INSIDE is the new album which will be available in all good stores
(and of course your usual favourite mail orders) released 15th August 2005
(Distributed by Cargo UK and Darla in the US). The addition of vocals
has had a very positive response from the few to have heard them so far.
Ally Todd has a wonderful voice and some intriguing lyrics... it's still
Yellow6, but not as we know it!

It's a 9 track 61 minute album - more information, artwork and sound
clips (and one full length mp3) are available on the website.

The CD will be available direct from Yellow6 and Make Mine Music mail
order from 18th July.

More info @ Yellow6

# posted by DJ Martian 1:29 PM

This week's new releases @ Fopp

# posted by DJ Martian 12:34 PM

Fear Falls Burning is a Vidna Obmana side project

Fear Falls Burning - he spoke in dead tongues

Fear Falls Burning's full-length debut album of vintage guitar drones will be a double CD on vidnaObmana's own Ikon label in conjunction with US-based Projekt. This double CD is set to be released worldwide on August 30th 2005 and features over 2 hours of real-time recorded guitarchords in relation to vintage and replica guitar pedaleffects and tapeloops. This double album solidifies FFB's wilful vision in guitar droning music. In comparison to Fear Falls Burning's tour 'First by a whisper, then by a storm' CD, way better balanced and sequenced but equally bold and unique.

# posted by DJ Martian 12:05 AM

Sunday, July 03, 2005

The Observer: Fraternising with the NME

As the BBC screens a documentary on the legendary rock magazine, former editor Neil Spencer remembers a golden age when politics and philosophy rubbed shoulders with sex, drugs and rock'n'roll

# posted by DJ Martian 8:40 PM

Basement Galaxy provides a mid year list: The Best Album of the Year So Far:

# posted by DJ Martian 7:25 PM

Matthew Dear's Audion Side Project

Backspin Promotions provide info on Mathew Dear's Audion album: Suckfish. [Due out September on Ghostly International]

AUDION is the sound of Detroit’s prodigious and prolific Matthew Dear’s subconscious coming to life. Mule-kick beats, dirty synth squelches, these cuts that have been rocking clubs everywhere from Detroit to Berlin. Don't expect too many “Dog Days” like vocal hooks here though because Audion is undoubtedly Matthew's grittiest project. Alternately demonic and playful, the Audion sound rides a wave of raw sexual energy; the sense of tension and release, of lust and doom, and of sheer energy create a powerhouse of universal psychological and visceral elements. One gets the disconcerting sense of a conversation with a rambling, incoherent psychopath who could lash out at any moment. The threat is the intrigue.

The first Audion 12" "Kisses" received massive play by DJs as diverse as Michael Mayer of Kompact, DJ Hell, Trevor Jackson of Output and Sven Vath. The insanity continued with the release of "The Pong" which proved itself to be sheer dance floor terror, all squelching horns and speaker cutting hats. With the trademark rising and falling action, as utilized in "Kisses", the Audion 12"s have been bringing dance floors to a mental place. Equally punishing and oddly funky, this is War Games techno, with enough hard step grandeur for any big room. The debut Audion full-length will be preceded by another 12" in August "Just Fucking" which is potentially the most insane and dance floor destroying of the series to date and already a favorite with DJs like Ivan Smagghe of Black Strobe / Death Disco who included it on his mix CD for Fabric.

The Audion album SUCKFISH brings together all the 12"s and new material - it's out this fall.

# posted by DJ Martian 7:09 PM

Tony Fletcher's iJamming! has a new look and a RSS feed.

[now added to my music blo.gs links updated 24/7]

On a side note, blo.gs is now owned by Yahoo. There have been a few changes as well, such as only accepting blog updates every 1 hour instead of 5 minutes under the previous regime.

# posted by DJ Martian 6:54 PM

Shake Appeal interview Isolée

# posted by DJ Martian 6:33 PM

eternal FUSION podCAST

Reminder: eternal FUSION is still broadcasting excellent regular music shows, now including this method of listening:

use the player to hear latest/recent podcasts Pupu Player

Update notices: eternal FUSION podCAST blog.

# posted by DJ Martian 6:25 PM

This Week's New Releases @ Boomkat

This week's new releases @ Boomkat include:

ALBUM OF THE WEEK!
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Rough Trade

In a moment of madness that he must now be regretting, Sufjan Stevens declared back in 2003 that he intended to record an album based around each of America's States. That's right, all 50 of them; now there's a concept for you! Following on from the inaugural 'Michigan' release and last years much lauded 'Seven Swans' (a State I'm not familiar with...), Steven's gaze has settled on Illinois, allowing him to indulge in a title SO funny you may need resuscitation. Honestly. With 20 tracks that are rooted in either specific destinations (such as Chicago and The Seer's Tower) or events (historical, contemporary and personal), 'Illinois' is a massive undertaking which sees Stevens relinquishing his loner habits to draft in a full band. Opening with 'Concerning the UFO Sighting near Highland, Illinois', Sufjan indulges in some Elliot Smith style intimacy that works beautifully, especially when drawn into contrast by the pithily titled big band stomp of 'The Black Hawk War, or, How To Demolish Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologise For the Inconvenience but You're Going To Have To Leave Now, or I have Fought The Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Land'... Still with us?! Elsewhere (and I'll paraphrase the titles from hereon in) 'Come On Feel The Illinois' is a sugary wall of sound that won't spoil your appetite, 'Jacksonville' is a cascading banjo led arrangement of beautiful rectitude whilst 'The Seer's Tower' is four minutes of mausoleum fragility and Wilson melodies that can't help but tingle the spine. A Fabulous album from one of the most brilliantly talented singer-songwriters of our age - Buy!...

ALBUM OF THE WEEK!
Carl Craig - The Album Formerly Known As.....
Planet E

The album formerly known as.."Landcrusing" with bonus cuts and a total of 12 completly re-mastered and re-worked tracks with additional edits. Features the unreleased `Sparkle' and new ambient versions of `Technology' and `Home Entertainment', plus `Technology' (original), `They Were', `Mind Of A Machine', `Science Fiction', `One Day Soon', `Landcrusing', `Einbahn', and `Home Entertainment' (original), "A Wonderful Life" (alternate version), Technoloambient (Max Dub) and Home Entertainment (Caya Dub). These killers have never been availble on vinyl before in these versions and some of them have never been released previously on any format. Beautifully mastered, housed in triple-pack set in Planet E gatefold sleeve...genius....

DVD OF THE WEEK!
Specialten - Issue 10
Specialten
DVD / MAGAZINE // £ 4.99

Finally here - 10th installment of magnificent DVD magazine Specialten and another bumper-packed object of desire, coming together in the customary gatefold A4, bound heavy card, in full colour and includes a 24 page book of artwork, reviews and stills, together with a limited edition print from Trevor Jackson. So, where to start? There's an exclusive and extremely rare interview with Cat Power's Chan Marshall that had me completely transfixed - an artist who has not only managed to blow my mind relentlessly over the last 10 years but has now managed to beguile with her non-commital, slightly confused and always fascinating verbal delivery - this woman is a goddess. Denmark's Efterklang appear on stage and in conversation about their forever changing lineup and collaborations with Sigur Ros' string quartet Amina, while Fog's Andy Broder comes across as a thoroughly talented and charming performer just starting to hit his stride - also in conversation and on stage with Dose One. Also includes features, Interviews, Video clips and exclusive content from : Colleen, Jamie Lidell, Be Your Own Pet, Psapp, Colder, Joanna Newsom, The Magic Numbers, Jose Gonzalez, Piano Magic and loads more. Fabulous....

Ola Bergman - The Satellite City
New Speak

Since first coming to light on Manchester's SMAK series, Ola Bergman's production and output has continued to grow in stature with every release. `The Great Family Hotel' is a sorely missed release round here, an integral part of many dj sets in this part of the world and subject to an instantaneous sell out, never to be repressed. Until now, where all the defining tracks are included on this most serviceable overview of Bergman's gifts. `Panettone' layers introspective strings atop a steady disco shuffle : a hefty, unusual, building balearic tune. `Vulture's end' showed up near the climax of Ellen Allien's `My Parade' mix, and its calculated and cool electroid bounce still sounds mighty fine. The first exclusive we come to is `No Policy', like a prime early New Order outtake, where Hooky wasn't allowed in the studio, allowing Barney and Steven to get busy with the machines in earnest. `No policy' could also be unknowingly mistaken for a classic early Newcleus outatke, there's the same epic sense of outer space, near desolation and yet finding effortless natural uplift in bass and melody. "Pseudocorp" rocks a militant hip hop drive and detuned synths - Boards of Canada living it up with the original Human League for some premium retro-futurist action - fabulous stuff. More unreleased gems surface, in the shape of "Otra Vuelta"'s rim shot electrofunk, genuinely riveting stuff. `Drivis II' provides fitting closure to a large album, deep anthemic chords, a percussive shuffle creating an emotional, highly charged coda, from a producer we're sure you'll hear a lot more from in coming years....

Eight Frozen Modules - Crumbling And Responding
Very Friendly

Described in the album notes as "the equivalent of removing one's brain, slicing very finely and reinserting in random order", Eight Frozen Modules' 'Crumbling and Responding' certainly revels in confronting the listener with a serrated barrage of mangled beats and hot-wired digitalis that may precipitate a frontal lobotomy. Very much carrying on where madman Otto Von Schirach left off, the AFX school (see 'Your Novelistic Career' which essentially constitutes a 'Window Licker' remix), Eight Frozen Modules take a fistful of Doomtronica ('Corteme'), a sprinkling of shredded stutter-step beats ('Drills For Devil Dumb') and a wholesale vat of shattered Dancehall (the charmingly titled 'Vagina Spiders'), then let the results bubble away on the stove. With an undoubted (almost Bauhaus) elegance, 'Crumbling and Responding' bows out through the evocative 'If You Only Knew' and suggests 8FM are only a breath away from an aural-ASBO...Ace....

( R ) - Under The Cables, Into The Wind
Important Records

With a name that is likely to cause the record buying public as many problems as !!!, Fabrizio Modonese (leader of Larsen) has assumed his ( r ) guise to release this, his first solo album. Taking the sound which permeated Larsen's 'Play', Modonese is an artist who strives for the bigger picture and on 'Under The Cables, Into The Wind' he certainly finds it. These aural landscapes manifest themselves in different ways throughout, ranging from the clatter ambience of opening track 'Love Song' (which could ALMOST be a neutered digital Merzbow), the echo-laden bellicose of 'Ghosts Are Made of DNA', through to alarm saturated closer 'Love Song'. Featuring one of the oddest covers you will ever hear (Avril Lavigne's 'I'm With U'), ( r ) is emotionally strained and at turns challenging, but give it time and it'll soon be under your skin....

Jacob Kirkegaard - 01.02
Bottrop Boy

Kirkegaard certainly has a firm understanding of both what to include and what to leave out, with '01.02' a towering testament to this. Based around a mosaic of found sounds that enjoy a coherence so often lacking from such exercises, '01.02' allows ethereal webs of melody to build from nothing into things of elegant substance whilst a delicate coating of background ambience sews it altogether. Undoubtedly intended for consumption whole it seems somewhat futile to highlight individual tracks, but the truly wonderful 'Bourgogne' with it's Schnoenberg/Webern overtures deserves at least a fleeting mention......

Wevie Stonder - The Wooden Horse Of Troy
Skam

Good old Wevie.......back for more!! 'The Wooden Horse of Troy' has been described variously as joketronica or git-hop, and the Stonder's overt funny bone may put a lot of people off but A) they're just too damn funny and B) they make good music! 'Stalemate' sounds not unlike a Beach Boys/Telefon Tel Aviv colllaboration, with beautiful harmonies and delicious strings coalescing to thrilling effect. Similarily 'Dog Gone' contains More of Alan's well known savvy with a drum machine whilst the title track is a spasming hunk of hip-hop, doused in Kia-Ora; I'll be your dog! 'When The Last Thing You Want Is The First Thing You Get's combination of The Specials, New Wave and The Mighty Boosh proves that if done right, nobody has to get hurt. Ace....

Colder - Heat
Output

In retrospect Colder's debut album 'Again' was overhyped to death a few years back, meaning strong material from that record (see 'Crazy In Love') get unjustly overlooked whilst other electro acts (we're too polite to say) garner an unreasonable amount of accolades. Back with a new record 'Heat' (oh the Gaelic sense of humour!), Colder (aka Marc Nguyen Tan) has evidently had an eye on a number of disparate scenes during his hiatus which, based on the crashing electro drum intro of opening track 'Wrong Baby', would suggest 80's movie soundtracks are at least one of these. Based around what can only be described as 'power-drums', 'Wrong Baby' is GM enhanced electro-pop that'll have label boss Trevor Jackson blushing with pride as Joy Division bass and Nguyen Tan's dead pan vocals ("By my own baby love tonight") get it on with all the chrome plated pomp of a late night Polonaise. As if to provide antidote for this knees-up opening, 'Losing Myself' is an altogether darker beast that fulfils a comparison I never really understood on the first album (Air), albeit a successful appropriation of the electro-prog sound attempted on '10,000 Hurtz', instilled here with Can issued production. This more insular outlook is maintained on the almost (almost!) click cut, Casio beats of piano led 'The Winter's Field' and the scuffed, kick-drum couched fog (replete with echo laden vocals; "everything's turning red and green...") of 'Downtown'. Elsewhere, 'To The Music' is a potential chart botherer combining a burlesque electro opening with sleazy Oakey-esque vocals and Playgroup production, 'Your Face' is a Hammond drenched in sludge whilst 'Tonight' is like a disco classic in syrupy slow-motion, instilling each bleep and blop with a potent charge. Closing with a song that teeters on the very brink of IDM ('Burnt Out'), Colder has produced an album which has cast its gaze wider and accordingly brought home a much bigger and diverse catch....

Jamie Saft Trio - Astaroth
Tzadik

In the final months of 2004, John Zorn wrote over 300 new tunes for his popular Masada project, and he now initiates a new series of recordings featuring the best players out of the burgeoning Masada family in dynamic units performing compositions from Masada Book Two--The Book of Angels. This first volume features Jamie Saft in an acoustic piano trio reminiscent of the best in the genre. Bill Evans, Paul Bley, Herbie Hancock, Vince Guaraldi and even the Bagels and Bongos of Catskills pianist Irving Fields become touchstones for this remarkably interactive group that includes Greg Cohen (Masada, Ornette Coleman) on bass and Ben Perowsky (Uri Caine, John Scofield) on drums. Playing with the fire and passion one has come to expect from the Masada family, this soulful and imaginative trio sets new standards for versatility and excellence in the piano trio format....

Just Ice & Krs One - Kool & Deadly
Fresh

Aka Justicizms - after the crazy electronic hype of 'Back To The Old School' ('Cold Getting' Dumb et al) back in 1988 Just Ice decided to hook up with fellow bronx warrior KRS for the follow up. Thinking back now the album kick off joint 'Going Way Back' was light years ahead - KRS-One at the height of his production powers bringing dancehall hip hop into the mix plus other insane funk boombox textures, this track is one of the alltime best hip hop tracks. Other classic joints on board include the sick 'Freedom Of Speech' and 'On The Strength', the pre hip hop ragga joints 'Moshitup' and 'Lyric Licking' plus the x-rated 'Original Gangster Of Hip Hop'. Unlike any album in hip hop's history this epitomises true rawness in hip hop. Pure classic....

Charlie Schmidt - Xanthe Terra
Strange Attractors

"This album of guitar compositions is meant to accompany you on an imaginary walk on Mars. With it you may experience landscapes both strange and familiar, in vivid colours and dull..." Whilst that opening gambit from the liner notes may worry anyone with a Phillip K.. Dick aversion, 'Xanthe Terra' can be enjoyed without a love of Mars Exploration Rover Projects, constituting as it does the culmination of Charlie Schmidt's time as a 'student' of the late John Fahey. All played with an expert's ease on the steel string guitar, Schmidt's pieces (each accompanied by extensive dissertations in the cover notes) range from the American Primitive atmosphere of 'Salem Journey' (Robbie Basho fans; heads up!) to the Stravinsky influenced 'Firebird'. Including a swampy cover of Fahey's 'Dance of the Inhabitants...', 'Xanthe Terra' is a treasure trove for those who already favour this genre and a gleaming find waiting to happen for those than don't....

Afrirampo - Kore Ga Mayaku Da
Tzadik

Fresh from their cover feature on the last issue of Plan-B magazine, how could these ravenous, adrenaline-fuelled topless japanese chicks fail to be anything but massive??!!! Marginally more conventional yet no less inventive than much of Tzadik's roster, Afriampo are contemporaries and close friends of both the Boredoms and Acid Mother's Temple, with 'Kore Ga Mayaku Da' containing elements that will be familiar to followers of those bands. Comprised of two twenty year old's who have a reputation for confronting their audiences with onstage nudity, Afriampo open through the 14 minute composition of 'I Did Are', where obtuse guitars and squally vocals clash over grinding riffs and John Zorn influenced percussion. Their slightly off centre style continues on 'Kairaku Do Re Mi', albeit rendered mayfly-like in duration, whilst brisk staccato and riot girl sensibilities collide head-on through the exhilarating 'Nakimshikemusi Good Bye!'. Ace....

Hanne Hukkelberg - Little Things
Leaf

Confirming that Norway really is a breeding ground for intelligent yet eminently listenable contemporary music, 'Little Things' sees Hukkelberg tease us with scintillatingly intricate fusions of voice and instrument (helped by the likes of Jaga Jazzist and Kaada) that brings to mind the best from Emiliana Torrini, Stina Nordenstam and Susanna & The Magical Orchestra. With the sleight prologue of 'Hoist Anchor' passed, we arrive at 'Little Things'' first proper cut; the shuffling, waterlogged 'Searching'. With a voice that penetrates deep within the head (and at the risk of sounding like a knob; the soul), 'Searching' is driven into blinding contrast by the fruit-machine sampling 'Little Girl', a joyful romp that proves Hukkelberg is much more than a slow-mo purveyor of the 21st Century torch song. With The Boats-esque 'Cast Anchor' taking on greater depth when experienced amongst its peers, 'Ease's inevitable Bjork comparison and the fantastic, meadow-skipping closer 'Boble', Hanne Hukkelberg has crafted a record that will be treasured for years to come. Leaf are truly on form right now - this comes with a big recommendation....

The Peppermints - Jesus Chryst
Paw Tracks

Never has the term trash-rock seemed so apt... On a direct lineage from Melt Banana and (to an extent) The Fall, San Diego's The Peppermints are loud, brusque and on a mission to rupture your cochlea. With a style that alternates between a metal Bis one moment and a hardboiled BRMC the next, The Peppermints couch their (whisper it) pop hooks in all manner of distortion ripped mayhem. With a lot of 'Jesus Chryst' seeming blindingly familiar (the riff on 'Yellow Range' is doing my head in!), The Peppermints seem to have succeeded in making a record which captures the intensity of a live show whilst ensuring it has the ability to withstand the repetition of home listening. Ouch....

# posted by DJ Martian 6:00 PM

Philosophizing post-punk by Ben Watson

Ben Watson critiques Simon Reynolds Post-Punk history book: Radical Philosophy - Commentaries - July/August 2005

# posted by DJ Martian 4:29 PM

New Loveliescrushing Album

Projekt list a new Loveliescrushing album is on the way: Projekt Upcoming CDs

September 6 (tentative):
PRO176 Lovesliescrushing: Chorus

Listen to 2 new tracks @ myspace - Loveliescrushing

Deep ambient / space music.

# posted by DJ Martian 4:07 PM

Mira - There I Go Daydreamer

Projekt have at last set a release date for the new Mira album: Mira - There I Go Daydreamer

Mira
There I Go Daydreamer
2005
Projekt | PRO00170
CD

August 16th

Their third album: driving shoegazer with sensual female vocals
For 2005, Mira returns with their most focused, mature, and fully realized release to date. There I go daydreamer is a testament documenting the band’s attention to detail, ear for texture, and desire to capture the intensity of their live shows. From the unnerving guitars of the album opener “Say When,” Regina immediately sets the tone: “I’ve drawn the line, walked it too many times.” Thus begins the daydreamer journey, which takes the listener through fear, hope, and catharsis, as Regina poses and plays with the questions plaguing her. Never before has she been so open and candid in her lyrics. The album shifts from danceable hits such as the shoegazey and spacey “Highs in the Lows,” and the brief, but brilliant, drive of “Heavenly Slumber” to grand epics like the heavy folk stylings of “Long Division” and the bombastic “Nearest Exit” from which the album is named. In the midst of all of this are the most crystalline and brilliant songs Mira has written, from the jazzy feel of “No Other Way,” to one of the album’s greatest songs, the sparse and ghostly beautiful “Adrift.” “Hinterland,” the album’s closer, is a return to the tension out of which the album began, returning Regina to her questions, searching for a brave face. The lines “inside a cave I will hibernate / when the seasons change I will not even wake” are some of the most painful, as the album builds, explodes, and collapses under its own weight. This latest album from Mira, more than any other, establishes the band at the forefront of the current darkwave/shoegaze/post-punk revival, and cements their place in the annals as one of the best of the bunch, not only on Projekt records, but also across the whole of music today. Absolutely brilliant, an instant classic.

# posted by DJ Martian 3:56 PM

Wilderness Debut Album

Pitchfork reviewed this album with a high rating [8.5] Wilderness - Wilderness

Released on Jagjaguwar

This quartet’s self-titled debut conjures images of Metal Box-era Johnny Lydon fronting Savage Republic or Explosions in the Sky. Cascading guitars build into the most beautiful pop epiphanies, as though the Edge were leading a modern day Popol Vuh up the mountain before us. Wilderness’ debut is the culmination of three years steady work by four dear friends. Their songs touch on numerous themes like living through the end of capitalism, the beauty inherent in beauty, staring at the sky, listening to the woods, feeling the landfills topple and swell, vibrations in the market place, collective brain harvesting and the absolute falling all around the opinionated as the opinionated fall all around the absolute. The record is about your perception. It is ultimately a celebration of life that serves as an impetus to stand in a place and aim music towards itself. The four human beings that comprise Wilderness have been making art and music, living and travelling together for over 10 years. They live and work in Baltimore, USA.

Listen to an MP3 of the song "Arkless".

Jagjaguwar profile Wildernes - Wilderness

Released July 5, 2005.

# posted by DJ Martian 3:12 PM

Xinlisupreme Schedule Free Online Album: No Future

FatCat Records announce that Xinlisupreme are releasing a free online album. 2 free downloads a month until the last download set for December 15th 2005.

Track 1 is ready to download now.

A must for all fans of blissed out psychedelic noise: MBV, Scorn, Dalek, Techno Animal, The Boredoms etc.

# posted by DJ Martian 2:42 PM

This French music website: Chrysalidemusic are listing the following release date info:

MAGNETOPHONE
septembre
'The Man Who Ate The Man' - cd/lp - 4ad / beggars banquet

RADIO DEPT
septembre
nouvel album - xl/beggars banquet

TV ON THE RADIO
octobre
nouvel album - cd/lp - 4ad / beggars banquet

also:

PORTISHEAD
Courant 2005
nouvel album - cd/lp - go beat !

# posted by DJ Martian 2:20 PM

Sigur Rós Album in September

Sigur-ros.co.uk provide more info on the upcoming Sigur Rós album

new album information - 2nd july 2005
we managed to find out some more about the new album. it contains 11 tracks (not 10 as previously reported), amounting to 65 minutes of music. the songs we called 'gong' and 'mílanó' are the only songs on the album which we have heard at concerts before. the album is still nameless and the tracks' titles are currently unknown to us. the album's release date is tentatively aimed for september but there will be an online mp3 release of the first single in august. most of the album's vocals are sung in icelandic.

# posted by DJ Martian 1:47 PM

Mobius Band - The Loving Sounds of Static

Ghostly International provide info on the debut Mobius Band album: Mobius Band - The Loving Sounds of Static

MP3 alert download the full length title track The Loving Sounds of Static.

This track would definately appeal to fans of The Notwist, The Postal Service, Bikini Atoll, Languis and the vocalist sounds like the lead singer of Longwave at times.

A confident, uptempo and addictive sound.

Mobius Band
The Loving Sounds of Static
GI-53 | CD | August 9, 2005

Since the release of their City Vs Country EP, Mobius Band has garnered high praise from the likes of Pitchfork Media and Entertainment Weekly, drawing positive comparisons to other bands who infuse electronic elements into their songwriting, such as The Postal Service and Broadcast. For Mobius Band, it is exciting but surreal to be considered part of the electronic indie pop "scene" when the songs on their debut LP, The Loving Sounds of Static, were written over the past three years in the basement of their isolated split-level at the end of a long dirt road in Shutesbury, Massachusetts (population 1,800).

But after three years of wood-shedding in the pine forests, the electronic/rock trio is trading up. Ben Sterling and Peter Sax have migrated to Brooklyn to "alleviate the boredom" - a move that has also lent a confident sheen to their modern backwoods aesthetic. Accordingly, The Loving Sounds of Static presents ten of the most sincere and refreshing songs in recent memory. Is it electro-pop fortified by expansive guitars and Noam Schatz’s hard-hitting live drums? Or is it rock augmented by striking electronic textures? Either way, with the whimsical buoyancy of "Twilight," the rocked-out, Mick-Jagger-death-sequence of "Radio Coup", and the title track's driving urgency, this is the rare sort of record that aggressively cross-pollinates genre and idea into a seamless new model

# posted by DJ Martian 12:57 PM

Alison Goldfrapp doing a glam pose on the front cover of the new album: Supernature -- Goldfrapp

# posted by DJ Martian 10:20 AM

Saturday, July 02, 2005

Forced Exposure - Forthcoming Release Dates

Notice new albums due in 2005 from Donna Regina, Hauschka, Safety Scissors and Arpanet

07/04/2005
ASH 3.6 VA Chiky(u)u ASH INTERNATIONAL CD
AY 006CD SHANTEL Bucovina Club Vol. 2 ESSAY RECORDINGS CD
KY 5098CD DAVIS, RICHARD Details KITTY YO CD
KY 5098LP DAVIS, RICHARD Details KITTY YO 2LP
METEO 017CD ECHO DEPTH FINDERS The City of Dolls METEOSOUND CD
S&W 005LP PRINTER Rhizomatic EP STATLER & WALDORF LP

07/05/2005
TONE 022CD FENNESZ SAKAMOTO Sala Santa Cecilia TOUCH CD

07/12/2005
ANALORD 010EP APHEX TWIN Analord 10 REPHLEX PIC. DISC
ATPR 010CD JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER Liberation ATP RECORDINGS CD
ATPR 011CD JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER FIG.5 ATP RECORDINGS CD
ATPR 012CD WHITE OUT WITH JIM O'ROURKE & WILLIAM WINANT China Is Near ATP RECORDINGS CD
BPC 109EP MFA Zone Day BPITCH CONTROL 12"
KK 030CD VA Kalk Seeds: A Karaoke Kalk Compilation KARAOKE KALK CD
KOMP 041CD FERENC Fraximal KOMPAKT CD
MAN 002CD VA Yoga Sessions: Drawing From The Roots MAN RECORDINGS CD
MEGO 075CD VVV Resurrection River MEGO CD
MEGO 079LP DIEB13 VS TAKESHI FUMIMOTO dieb13 vs Takeshi Fumimoto MEGO PIC. DISC
MELO 030CD VA Melodic Today MELODIC CD
MELO 030EP VA Melodic Today MELODIC 12"
SKALD 016LP MR 76IX Hits of 76IX Part 2 SKAM 2LP
SKALD 017CD WEVIE STONDER The Wooden Horse of Troy SKAM CD
SKALD 017LP WEVIE STONDER The Wooden Horse of Troy SKAM LP
SR 239CD BUDD + ERALDO BERNOCCHI, HAROLD Music For Fragments From The Inside SUB ROSA CD
TSKT 002CD ASWEFALL Bleed. KILL THE DJ CD
TSKT 003EP ASWEFALL Bleed. KILL THE DJ 12"

07/26/2005
ATPR 013CD FURSAXA Lepidoptera ATP RECORDINGS CD
AY 006EP VA Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats Vol.2 ESSAY RECORDINGS 12"
MEGO 069EP HASWELL & FLORIAN HECKER, RUSSELL Revision MEGO 12"
MELO 031CD BAIKONOUR For The Lonely Hearts Of The Cosmos MELODIC CD
MELO 031LP BAIKONOUR For The Lonely Hearts Of The Cosmos MELODIC LP
SR 229CD LOPEZ, FRANCISCO Klokken-Labs SUB ROSA CD
WARE 055EP SELL & SNACKMAN Zuckerware WARE 12"

08/09/2005
ATPR 014CD BARDO POND Selections Volumes I-IV ATP RECORDINGS 2CD
BPC 110EP KALKBRENNER, PAUL Ta-Tu-Tata BPITCH CONTROL 12"
KOM POP007CD TOCOTRONIC Pure Vernunft Darf Niemals Siegen KOMPAKT CD
REPH 175LP DMX KREW Many Worlds (Collapse of the Wave Function - Vol. 4) REPHLEX LP
REPH 176LP DMX KREW The Transactional Interpretation REPHLEX LP
SR 080CD VA Lunapark 0,10 SUB ROSA CD
SR 225CD VA Avant-Garde in Belgium 1917-1978 Volume 1 SUB ROSA CD
TW 1060CD HEATHEN SHAME Speed The Parting Guest TWISTED VILLAGE CD

08/23/2005
CCO 026CD CYNE Evolution Flight CITY CENTRE OFFICES CD
CDHW 099CD VA Grlz CRIPPLED DICK HOT WAX CD
CDHW 099LP VA Grlz CRIPPLED DICK HOT WAX LP
REPH 155CD DMX KREW Wave:CD REPHLEX 2CD
REPH 161CD ARPANET Quantum Transposition REPHLEX CD
REPH 161LP ARPANET Quantum Transposition REPHLEX 2LP
SKALD 018CD SHADOW HUNTAZ Valley of the Shadow SKAM CD
SKALD 018LP SHADOW HUNTAZ Valley of the Shadow SKAM 2LP

09/13/2005
SCAPE 030CD SAFETY SCISSORS Tainted Lunch SCAPE CD
SCAPE 030LP SAFETY SCISSORS Tainted Lunch SCAPE 2LP

09/27/2005
KK 031CD HAUSCHKA The Prepared Piano KARAOKE KALK CD
KK 041LP HAUSCHKA The Prepared Piano KARAOKE KALK LP

10/11/2005
KK 032CD DONNA REGINA Slow Killer KARAOKE KALK CD

12/31/2005
HUUME 004CD LUOMO Vocalcity HUUME RECORDINGS CD

Source: FE Publicity

# posted by DJ Martian 3:12 PM

Playlouder interview Les Georges Leningrad

# posted by DJ Martian 2:21 PM

It's a new start @ Hallmonitor for the blog previously known as [The Rub]

Hi. You may remember me from a weblog named The Rub. I grew tired of working with that name—simple as that. What you see here is the soft launch of Hallmonitor.

Starting with a mid year Top 11 albums of 2005.

# posted by DJ Martian 1:54 PM

Dusted present Dusted Features [ Listed: Dusted Editorial Mid-Year Roundup ]

Dusted editors Sam Hunt and Otis Hart wrack brains to come up with their top recordings of the first half of 2005.

# posted by DJ Martian 1:48 PM

Almost Cool review Julien Neto - Le Fumeur De Ciel

# posted by DJ Martian 1:45 PM

New Cyne album: Evolution Flight

Press release for the new Cyne album via Forced Exposure [FE PUBLICITY UPDATE 07/01/2005] email:

CYNE: Evolution Flight CD (CCO 026CD) : OUT 08/23/2005

"Cyne met in Miami in 2001 and started laying rough hip hop sketches straight to a dusty 4-track recorder. The four members of the group (Speck, Enoch, Akin and Cise Star) quickly delivered what was to become their infamous debut 'African Elephants' for Beta Bodega's Rice & Beans label -- the seed that in effect splintered the label off into forming the widely respected Botanica Del Jibaro imprint. With a rapidly growing following extending from their local community in Gainesville, through to a hardcore base of devoted fans in japan, Cyne's following soon started spreading like a friendly virus across Europe. Evolution flight: Cyne's long awaited second album (their debut full-length for CCO) took over a year to complete, following the same technical approach that accompanied the recording of their first album -- Time Being. Sample-based beats where diced-up and constructed on the mpc, vocals recorded in a compact bedroom studio and, finally, protools used to mix everything properly.

For Evolution Flight, however, the band also layed down some live instrumentation, starting with the incredible 8-track percussion featured on 'plight about now' (performed by Akin's uncle), while Mike Maines provides the horns -- layering something like 16 tracks of stabs to get that big 70's feel! EP hit 'Growing', meanwhile, features The Mercury Program laying down the bass, rhodes and vibes that imbue the track with its euphoric yet self reflective quality. Akin & Cise Star articulate their lyrics tutored on the impact made by prime political rap of the past from artists such as Public Enemy and Paris. Stylistically, however, Cyne bring to mind the quieter but no less deadly school of thought via Lakim Shabazz, C.L. Smooth and most obviously (due to similar vocal styles) the early work of Common (Sense). Of course times change but things stay quite literally the same -- the need to evolve has been met by the awareness emanating from Miami's hip hop scene and, more directly, from the Botanica Del Jibaro label where Cyne's early work appeared. Both artist and label adopted a whole world view, attacking American foreign policy especially in Central America, promoting the self worthiness of victims of injustice and exposing all the untruths that make life a daily struggle for so many.

Cyne ask the questions that most god fearing people refuse to think about -- and very often they deliver the answer to these questions within the same breath. Ultimately, however, the production on Evolution Flight has an incredibly bouncy and involving contemporary touch that shines as bright as Prefuse, J.Sands, mcenroe, Spinna...... even Madlib would get blunted to this. The production at the heart of Cyne is rooted in the early nineties when producers like No.Id, Pete Rock and Jay Dee simplified things by concentrating on new sample sources......and that good old boom and bap."

# posted by DJ Martian 1:40 PM

Friday, July 01, 2005

Eivind Aarset in Session

Next Monday: on Radio 3 - Late Junction:

Monday 4 July 2005 22:15-0:00 (Radio 3)

"Fiona Talkington introduces a specially recorded session with a trio led by a guitarist from the planet Hendrix and one of Scandinavia's most innovative musicians, Eivind Aarset."

# posted by DJ Martian 10:57 PM

Simple Minds: Jim Kerr talks about the upcoming album

Billboard briefly interview Jim Kerr about the upcoming Simple Minds album: Black & White 050505

We wanted to make an album once again that was full of dramatic and atmospheric pop music," he says. "We felt that we needed an album that proved as much to ourselves as anyone else, that the big beating heart of Simple Minds was very much alive and driving us on once again

Tracklisting: Black & White 050505

Stay Visible
Home
Stranger
Different World
Underneath the Ice
The Jeweller (Part 2)
Black and White
Kiss the Ground
Dolphins

# posted by DJ Martian 10:42 PM

Next week's releases reviewed @ Norman Records

# posted by DJ Martian 5:51 PM

RollingStone.com interview Cranes

# posted by DJ Martian 3:53 PM

Barcode review OLA BERGMAN - Satellite City

Stockholm-based Ola Bergman delivers his new album, which brings together tracks from several of his previous releases under this one umbrella. The Satellite City is quite a charming collection, with plenty of thoughtful, ambient tunes spread across the album. Influences, or comparisons, are to be found in the considered quirkiness of Aphex Twin, the blurred surrealism of Boards Of Canada, and old-style electro-pop artists such as New Order and Human League

# posted by DJ Martian 3:33 PM

The Guardian review Röyksopp - The Understanding

# posted by DJ Martian 3:31 PM

NME Documentary on the BBC

Details: BBC Four Documentaries - NME

INKY FINGERS: THE NME STORY
Monday 4 July 9pm-10pm; 1.40am-2.40am; Friday 8 July 10.40pm-11.40pm; 1.45am-2.45am; Saturday 9 July 10pm-11pm; 3.15am-4.15am; Friday 15 July 2.15am-3.15am (Thursday night) (signed)

# posted by DJ Martian 3:22 PM

Bloc Party 2nd Album Plans for 2006

Radio 1 interview Bloc Party

"We're going to be recording our new record at the start of next year, to be finished at the middle of next year."

# posted by DJ Martian 3:16 PM

John Cale New Album - Black Acetate

Billboard report John Cale will release a new album: Black Acetate, on September 12th in the U.K on EMI.

# posted by DJ Martian 3:08 PM