Not sure to say about this one: the song craft is astounding, the string arrangements are gorgeous, the vocal treatments ground everything, and, as always, the stereo editing of the Books’ musique concrète approach is always first class. Treat yourself to a deep breath….
Drew Daniels is something of a bad ass. He is one half of Matmos. He is also a professor of English at Johns Hopkins. And, after being challenged by Matthew Herbert to make a house record, he released “Do You Party?” in 2002. This album has held up unbelievably well, I think, as a dance record. The collage and found-sound techniques so expertly explored by Matmos are here channeled into extremely quirky, but deeply funky, house cuts. “Everybody’s Soft”, the intro track, has one of those funk synth lines that, when it drops at 0:55, plants a sneer on your face and a hop in your two-step. The heavily layered cut-and-paste makes for some engaging, emotive (even house-y) tangents, but the track never loses sight of that groove. On top of all that (or should I say, beneath it all), the minimalist glitchy percussion has a refinement and a stereo sculpture that sounds great after almost ten years. Yikes. Get that sneer ready when rollin’ this out.
Roel Funcken, one half of Funckarma, just released a new album. It’s good. This track is in line with some of the Dubstoned EP work from the past two years — only Funcken brings the baroque, chromatic aspects to the forefront on this track. Yeah, some of you out there might be tired of the dubstep bpm these days. But I think it’s hard not to enjoy the swirling candy coating of the synth lines here….
Roel Funcken – Vertox Dreaming
There’s a shimmer, a sheen to the work of Lusine (aka Jeff McIlwain) that belies what is always a juggernaut of editing and sound design. “Thick of It” is a perfect example off of his newest album, “A Certain Distance.” The swell of the arps, the finely layered static, the side-chained pads, all so expertly diced and melded together… and, as a Mister Track associate put it: “the vocoder work alone should get your crotch hot.” Well, then. Enjoy what I believe to be as rich an auditory patina as electronic music has to offer these days.
Been a while. Balearic combo of Will Smith’s lyricism and Lil Wayne’s production literalism, smoothed out for the late night lounge lizard in all of us. No, really, it’s good. Apologies in advance to those of you already bombarded by the jj blog excitement, but this had to be done.
An oldie but goodie. This comes off the first of two legendary live sets that DJ Food and DK did for Solid Steel, “Now, Listen!” Live, mind you. The EQ seems a little strange at first, but when The Cinematic Orchestra’s bass line dips low at 0:33, it all makes sense. This is an all time classic Jeru flow, smoothly contextualized here. But the best part of this track, in my mind, is the last minute or so. Around 2:45, everything fades into the oh so jazzy “Beached” by Neotropic, only to drop back the Orchestra’s drums at 3:26 for a crushing, tantalizingly brief ride out. The crude fade at the end comes courtesy of Mister Track; apologies in advance.
Jeru the Damaja, The Cinematic Orchestra, Neotropic — Come Clean, Channel One Suite, Beached
Glass Candy is from Portland. They probably didn’t have this man in mind when they made the following song. But surely, anyone can recognize this as a fantastic summertime cruisin’ track, custom made for riding a sweet chopper along broad heartland pavement. Feel the languid, late August heat.
In honor of Mister Track’s 1,000th hit, a little blast from the aesthetically bonding past….
Getting ready for the 30 hour weekend shift; this Jamie Vex’d track definitely facilitates brushing off mental cobwebs in anticipation of upcoming adventures, be they dutiful or bacchanalian. Um, the adventures, I mean. Do work, son.
[Audio http://mistertrack.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/03-saturns-reply.mp3]
