It's an indisputable fact that the way in which we experience music has changed a lot over the last few years. The whys and hows have been much discussed. (As an aside, Mark Fisher's love letter to collective listening is worth a read.) However attempts to stem the tide or challenge newly established ways of experiencing music have been few and far between. So to hear about an audio-visual sculpture of The xx's debut album xx is very exciting indeed.
Created by acclaimed music video director Saam Farahmand, the installation will incorporate film, light and sound to provide a unique experience for each visitor. Saam explains that "it shares sensibilities with art installations but it should not be considered in this context - it is in essence a physical music video, a looping shrine to the album that you cannot compress, send or turn off."
xx: a sculpture of the album by Saam Farahmand The Vinyl Factory, 51 Poland Street, London W1F 7LZ 8th-12th January 2010 Free Entry
Alessio Natalizia (Banjo Or Freakout) and Sam Willis (of superb podcasters Allez-Allez) have signed to Kompakt records, continuing the Cologne label's entree into noise/techno pop, after a year with BIG releases by Matías Aguayo and The Field, whose Leave It Walls remixed. Very exciting, listen to more at their myspace. The -jams part of their myspace name is pretty telling – the tracks up there, Burnt Sienna and Gaberdine are more sketched grooves than formed songs, but they burst with ideas and a really quite interesting. An album is expected in the first half of 2010, and live shows from February onwards. Expect more gushing soon.
Baltimore hypnagogic folk pop band Beach House will play over here in February after their utterly wonderful third LP 'Teen Dream' is released on Bella Union in January. The dates, venues and so on are below along with Norway, which is already a classic song – believe us when we say that you will want to be at these gigs. Keep your eyes on www.dummymag.com, there's a full feature on this amazing band on the way.
Wednesday 10 February – Glasgow – King Tuts (£9)
Thursday 11 February – Manchester – Islington Mill (£9)
Friday 12 February – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club (£9)
Saturday 13 February – Dublin – Whelans (18 euro)
Sunday 14 February – Belfast – Speakeasy (£9)
Tuesday 16 February – Cardiff – Arts Centre (£5)
Wednesday 17 February – London – Bush Hall (£10)
They will also be over to play with Grizzly Bear, a band with whom they have already collaborated. Those dates are below.
Monday 8 March – Newcastle – The Sage (with Grizzly Bear)
Tuesday 9 March – Edinburgh – Queen's Hall (with Grizzly Bear)
Thursday 11 March – Brighton – The Corn Exchange (with Grizzly Bear)
Friday 12 March – Coventry – Warwick Arts Centre (with Grizzly Bear)
Saturday 13 March – London – The Roundhouse (with Grizzly Bear)
Sunday 14 March – London – The Roundhouse (with Grizzly Bear)
Air and LCD Soundsystem are both playing the Spanish electronic music festival, now held in both A Coruna and Barcelona. Air play Barcelona on Friday June the 18th and A Coruña, Saturday June the 19th; LCD play A Coruña on Thursday June the 17th and Barcelona, Friday June the 18th.
Titus Andronicus, histrionic crypto-celtic rock n roll band on Merok, have recorded an album that sounds actually excellent which is based vaguely around the concept of the American Civil War. Even its title, 'The Monitor', is a presumed Civil War reference. Singer Patrick Stickles said this – “It doesn't take place in olden times, nor does it necessarily feature any characters that participated in that conflict. Really, it is a record about how the conflicts that led our nation into that great calamity remain unresolved, and the effect that this ongoing division has on our personal relationships and our behavior and how they're all out to get us (or maybe not?) and yadda yadda yadda.”
What we've heard sounds heroic, a quality that ironed over their debut's less-than-awesome bits. Artwork (coming later) is by Double Dagger, and The Monitor was recorded this past August by producer and engineer Kevin McMahon at his studio - Marcata Recording - in New Paltz, NY. Read the tracklisting below and pick out the Civil War references (zero marks for Four Score and Seven, the lead single). Released 9 March 2010, the 148th anniversary of the Battle of Hampton Roads – see track 10.
'The Monitor' track listing: 1) A More Perfect Union 2) Titus Andronicus Forever 3) No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future 4) Richard II 5) A Pot In Which To Piss 6) Four Score And Seven 7) Theme From “Cheers” 8) To Old Friends And New 9) …And Ever 10) The Battle Of Hampton Roads
Ewan Pearson, celebrated and clever Berlin DJ/producer, has put together a mix for Kompakt called 'We Are Proud Of Our Choices.' Seen as his Fabric 35 mix was pretty much astounding, we're excited – as usual, the mix looks wonderfully diverse, with Lemonade and Little Dragon as well as techno stalwarts like Luisine and Pearson's homeboy Al Usher. Tracklisting below, a short interview over at RA.
Tracklist 01. Lemonade - Bliss Out (Gold Panda Remix) / Pitch And Hold - We Have Come To Bless Dave Smith 02. A Ldric - Birds On Tree 03. Rmnvn - Uno 04. Lusine - Cirrus 05. Wah Chu Ku - T Times Too 06. Yukihiro Fukotomi / Foog - Open Our Eyes 07. Neville Watson - Full Flight 08. Taron-Trekka - Shiroi 09. Hot Natured - Equilibrium 10. DXR - Faderpushing Sunday 11. Yosa - Margaret 12. Gregor Tresher - The Life Wire (Petar Dundov Variation) 13. Xenia Beliayeva - Analog Effekt 14. Chris Fortier - Sunday Is A Travel Day (Ink & Needle's Skybed Remix) 15. Al Usher - Silverhum (John Talabot's Wilderness Remix) 16. B.D.I. - City & Industry (World Balloon Dub Mix) 17. Little Dragon - Fortune (World Of Apples' Cosmic Edit) 18. Bot'ox - Blue Steel
Rerelease fever, and late 80s fever, continues with the announcement that Domino will be sending out double CD editions of ‘Today’, ‘This Is Our Music’ and ’On Fire’ by Boston dream pop band Galaxie 500 (1987-1991). ‘Today’ features ‘Uncollected’ (rarities from the band’s entier career, from pre-’Today’ demos to out-takes from the last recording sessions), ‘On Fire’ comes with all collected ‘Peel Sessions’ and ‘This Is Our Music’ comes complete with ‘Copenhagen’, a live recording of the band’s last ever European show. Happily, the albums are also available on heavy-weight vinyl. Full tracklisting after a Peel Session of Flowers.
'Today' + 'Uncollected'
‘Today’ 1 Flowers (4:26) 2 Pictures (3:23) 3 Parking Lot (2:52) 4 Don’t Let Our Youth Go To Waste (6:47) 5 Temperature’s Rising (5:05) 6 Oblivious (3:18) 7 It’s Getting Late (3:29) 8 Instrumental (3:01) 9 Tugboat (3:53) bonus track: 10 King of Spain (4:33)
‘Uncollected’ 1 Cheese and Onions (3:05) 2 Them (3:42) 3 Final Day (2:54) 4 Blue Thunder (w/sax) (3:46) 5 Maracas Song (3:52) 6 Crazy (1:54) 7 Jerome (2:46) 8 Song in 3 (3:25) 9 Oblivious (3:21) 10 I Can’t Believe It’s Me (3:56) 11 Walking Song (2:50) 12 The Other Side (4:55) 13 On the Floor (2:48) 14 Rain/ Don’t Let Our Youth Go to Waste(8:51)
'On Fire' and 'Peel Sessions'
‘On Fire’ 1 Blue Thunder (3:45) 2 Tell Me (3:50) 3 Snowstorm (5:10) 4 Strange (3:16) 5 When will You Come Home (5:21) 6 Decomposing Trees (4:05) 7 Another Day (3:41) 8 Leave the Planet (2:40) 9 Plastic Bird (3:15) 10 Isn’t it a Pity (5:10) bonus tracks: 11 Victory Garden (2:48) 12 Ceremony (5:55) 13 Cold Night (2:36) video track: When Will You Come Home
‘Peel Sessions’ 1 Submission (Sex Pistols) 2 Final Day (Young Marble Giants) 3 When Will You Come Home 4 Moonshot (Buffy Sainte Marie) 5 Flowers 6 Blue Thunder 7 Decomposing Trees 8 Don’t Let Our Youth Go To Waste (Jonathan Richman)
'This Is Our Music' and 'Copenhagen'
‘This Is Our Music’ 1 Fourth of July (5:35) 2 Hearing Voices (3:34) 3 Spook (4:35) 4 Summertime (5:59) 5 Way Up High (4:03) 6 Listen, the Snow is Falling (7:47) 7 Sorry (4:15) 8 Melt Away (4:35) 9 King of Spain, Part Two (5:07) bonus track: 10 Here She Comes Now (5:57)
‘Copenhagen’ 1 Decomposing Trees (4:50) 2 Fourth of July (5:01) 3 Summertime (6:42) 4 Sorry (4:30) 5 When Will You Come Home (5:31) 6 Spook (4:54) 7 Listen, the Snow is Falling (8:19) 8 Here She Comes Now (5:38) 9 Don’t Let Our Youth Go To Waste (7:52)
Two fave bands of ours, Egyptian Hip Hop and Is Tropical, are touring together. The dates follow.
Thurs 28th Jan - Start The Bus, Bristol * ~ (FREE ENTRY) Fri 29th Jan - Bungalow & Bears Sheffield ~ (FREE ENTRY) Fri 29th Jan - Soundcontrol, Manchester * Sat 30th Jan - Stealth Vs Rescued, Nottingham * ~ Thurs 4th Feb - Stag's Head, London * Fri 5th Feb - Kraak Gallery, Manchester * ~ Sat 6th Feb - A Nation Of Shopkeepers, Leeds * ~ (FREE ENTRY) Sun 7th Feb - Captains Rest, Glasgow * ~ Mon 8th Feb - Mojo, Liverpool ~ Fri 19th Feb - Bungalow & Bears, Sheffield * (FREE ENTRY) Sat 20th Feb - Evol @ Korova, Liverpool *
Gypo Rap Hit Club and Zarcorp (Late Of The Pier's label) will be releasing EHH's first 7" in February. Rad Pitt, inevitably, is below.
