Monthly Archives: October 2009
The Vault: Creaking open to bring you some Halloween Ministry!
The Vault: The classics of Electronic Music. The influential and the groundbreaking. The pioneering and the music we grew up on…
Happy Halloween readers!
Just a quick one today, but we couldn’t really let Halloween slip by without posting this gem could we?
You may know who Ministry are; black dreads, long beards, Metal guitars, shouty vocals, skulls on mic stands etc…, basically a walking Metal cliché. Things weren’t always the case!
1981 to 1984 Ministry were actually a really good SynthPop band, probably one of the best the US has ever produced Releasing a handful of 12”s on Wax Trax! Records culminating with the album ‘With Sympathy’ on Arista Records, Al Jourgensen (above; later to sport black dreads, a cowboy hat and a heroin addiction) produced some fantastic, emotional and groove laden New Wave music. With 1986’s ‘Twitch’ album Ministry discovered Industrial music, and it was still all good. ‘Twitch’ is a well crafted, harsh, electronic record. Even 1998’s ‘Land Of Rape And Honey’ has some good tracks on it, although it’s standing at the top of (if not actually sliding down) the slippery slope of mediocre rock music.
Ministry’s career, from1989 onwards, is just a decent into stereotypical Heavy Metal with any originality or innovation stripped from the mix. In a laughable attempt to sound ‘hard’ Al Jourgensen has disowned his early recordings as “…an abortion”.
Such a pity…such talent gone to waste…
Anyway, it’s the ‘season of the witch’ and all that, so get your listening gear ‘round Ministry’s classic ‘Everyday (Is Halloween)’, a brilliant poppy disco track, and imagine the band that could have been…
♫ Ministry – Everyday (Is Halloween) (zShare) (MediaFire)
Ministry’s early works are still available on CD:
Fire For Effect
Firstly, let me just say amongst the list of words you should never use are Darkwave and Graver. Unless you are Das Ich, Project Pitchfork or an actual Darkwave band, using Darkwave ‘cos you think it’s cool as it has the words Dark and Wave in it just make you look ignorant and needy. Graver, on the other hand, is one of the most embarrassing terms ever conceived.
Both words were used in Fire For Effect’s press release…shudder.
So it’s a good job the music speaks for itself. Solo project of Albert J, who played keyboards for SSION and Josephine Collective, and DJed alongside the likes of FischerSpooner and CSS, Fire For Effect make some rockin’ noise-Pop. Heavily AutoTuned vocals blend hauntingly with bit-crunched beats and distorted synths. Each track manages to hit you with the unexpected at least once without veering off into the murky world of experimental. A spacey yet quite harsh sound makes for some intelligent dance-Pop tunes.
‘Paradise Drudge’ would have to be my favourite, I’m lovin’ the lead line:
♫ Fire For Effect – Paradise Drudge (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Fire For Effect – Cell (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Fire For Effect – The Beach (zShare) (MediaFire)
Fire For Effect’s album should be dropping some time in January, ‘til then I believe some MySpace love is in order!
Designer Drugs Drop Down
A couple of days ago Designer Drugs released their second single for Iheartcomix Records, a double A-Side featuring the tracks ‘Riot’ and ‘Drop Down’.
‘Drop Down’ is a frantic party banger, ominous chords and wailing synths build the tension ‘til the track slides into it’s noisy electro groove.
Guaranteed to slay on the dancefloor!
♫ Designer Drugs – Drop Down (zShare) (MediaFire)
‘Riot/’Drop Down’ is out now!
It’s Van She day!
Matt Van Schie, of Van She fame, has dropped this solo effort onto an unexpecting interwebz and it’s a really nice little ElectroPop jam, it’s kinda’ late 70’s/early 80’s post-punk sounding track. Like a (more) retro Van She.
♫ Matt Van Schie – Saturday Night (zShare) (MediaFire)
Also, this cover version of Blue Öyster Cult’s ‘(Don’t Fear) The Reaper’ by Van She proper has surfaced. It’s from Australian radio station Triple J and it’s huge sounding with massive synth stabs.
♫ Van She – (Don’t Fear) The Reaper (Radio Rip) (zShare) (MediaFire)
I really hope this gets properly released!
CHEW LiPS: Seven
London’s finest, CHEW LiPS, are currently holding down a residency at The Fly Bar and each month they are giving away a free promo CD of a track from their forthcoming album. The day after the show the tracks will be up for free download on their official website.
The first of these is also their next single, released in January 2010, ‘Seven’ and today they débuted the video for the track.
It’s pin picture-tastic!
It’s a fantastic track and just makes the album even more eagerly awaited, although it’s out in January I have a feeling it will be one of the best records of the year.
♫ CHEW LiPS – Seven (zShare) (MediaFire)
Keep checking CHEW LiPS Official Site for future downloads!
Stephen Falken just Crusin’
More from the Valerie crew!
One year on from the Valerie and FreeDanger double A-side release by The Outrunners and College it’s time to do it again.
Stephen Falken (named after the creator of Falken’s Maze from the 1983 Broderick-a-thon ‘WarGames’) had teamed up with fellow Valerie staples Maethelvin to bring us another double A-Side 7′”. Falken’s contribution is ‘Crusing’, a laidback retro nightdrive groove with a particularly sweet riff.
♫ Stephen Falken – Cruising (zShare) (MediaFire)
Stephen Falken/Maethelvin’s ‘Crusing’/’The Last Escape’ can be ordered from the Valerie store and is released today!
Fenech-Soler: Lies reMix
Fenech-Soler’s ‘Lies’ is a sweet Indie-Electro jam with a noisy chorus that synth rocks! For the upcoming single release The Phantom’s Revenge have given the track a Filter-House/Disco workover to stand alongside Stardust or Deft Punk. Pure dancefloor gold!
Fenech-Soler really are receiving a lot of, justified, attention these days!
♫ Fenech-Soler – Lies (The Phantom’s Revenge reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
Lies’ is released on ‘Moda Music on 2nd November. A limited edition 12” will be available October 26th.
Ellie Goulding Under The Sheets
Neon Gold are just knocking them out!
Their latest, Ellie Goulding, is getting much blog love right now and it’s well deserved. Like her labelmate, Marina And The Diamonds, Ellie hails for Wales and you can hear that slight Welsh lilt in her voice, her début single ‘Under The Sheets’ starts off in quiet Electro-Folk mode but rapidly evolves into a powerful, intelligent, emotive slice of ElectroPop.
She Is Danger have whipped up a haunting DubStep reMix for contrast:
♫ Ellie Goulding – Under The Sheets (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Ellie Goulding – Under The Sheets (She Is Danger reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
Neon Gold drop the single November 9th, you can pre-order now.
Fan Death travel the pop landscape
The American countryside is littered with musical icons then?
Fan Death are back (and about time too!) with, this, the headline track of their forthcoming EP ‘A Coin For The Well’. ‘Reunited’ is Fan Death maintaining their prefect track record for off-centre Indie-Electro that manages to sound ominous yet uplifting at the same time.
The video is just genius and follows Dandi traversing the last 30 years of pop after her car breaks down. It was directed by Dandi herself.
And the tune’s just a good without the video! The video features an extended cut of the track (to fit all the cameos in!).
♫ Fan Death – Reunited (zShare) (MediaFire)
‘A Coin For The Well’ will be released by The Pharmacy Recording Co. .
NightWaves’ Fascination
Coming from the LA based stable, Binary, NightWaves (A.K.A. Kyle Petersen and Josh Legg) owe just as much to pure SynthPop as they do to heavy 80’s influenced Electro-House.
Heavily emotive vocals with an early Depeche Mode style isn’t always the first thing you expect from a band associated with the current crop of Disco-House (or what they are calling Dreamwave) acts, you normally expect something lighter, floatier, but it works so well and lends NightWaves an extra slice of power in their music.
The upcoming single ‘Fascination’ is original taken from the fantastic Binary compilation ‘LA Lights’ and has been given the reMix treatment by a number of artists in the last few months. amongst them Sweden’s ODahl turn the Disco-House up to 11 while We Plants Are Happy Plants make the track more of an deep epic highlighting the feeling in the vocals. Fellow Binary crew Keenhouse’s mix is probably my favourite version (other than the original!) with pure electro beats and an almost poppy synth riff.
Check them out:
♫ NightWaves – Fascination (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ NightWaves – Fascination (WPAHP reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ NightWaves – Fascination (ODahl reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ NightWaves – Fascination (Keenhouse reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)
For more info keep an eye on Binary’s blog and go grab yourselves some NightWaves:
