Ex-Depeche Mode man Alan Wilder’s Recoil will be bringing it’s ‘A Strange Hour’ tour to the US as well as releasing ‘Selected’, a hand picked collection of some of Recoil’s finest work.
The album contains many of Alan’s collaborations spanning 22 years of the Recoil project including Diamanda Galás, JoeRichardson, Douglas McCarthy (Nitzer Ebb), Nicole Blackman, Samantha Coerbell, Toni Halliday (Curve) and Maggie Estep.
Wing Commander is not just an awesome band name! Oh no, it’s two dudes making some pretty addictive chilled, glitchy vocal electronica.
Think an early Warp vibe with an almost The Postal Service-esq vocal delivery, it’s intricate and absorbing. Their début EP, ‘From 93 Onwards’ is a meticulously crafted journey in sound, taking in, not only, the dreamlike, emotive, electronica of the title track and ‘Talk And Talk And Talk’ but also ‘Polar’, which is Wing Commanders successful foray into traditional dance structures (which works as a dark electro track) and the Dubby Rap/Folk crossover of ‘Glimmer’.
The guys are currently working on new material and some big name reMixes and we’ll defiantly be looking forward to their new material.
Swedish ElectroPop eccentrics Pacific! are finally on the verge of dropping their second album, ‘Narcissus’. Originally conceived at the soundtrack to a ballet the record works amazingly well sans avant-garde dancers in frocks.
From it’s ominous harpsichord opening the album you still feel there is something a bit proggy, a bit conceptual, about the album but the music speaks for itself. Like Jean-Michel Jarre on bad (or good) acid this album is in part atmospheric and enveloping (and a little scary!) but also sweeping and electronic. Washes of Jarre mix with hints of Goldfrapp (on the vocal tracks). Like felloe Swedes The Knife there is something of the avant-garde here but similarly they have managed to cram the experimental and leftfield into Pop songs and get away with it making the edgy and unsettling elements to Pacific!’s music soon feel strangle comforting.
They have laid out the record really well to, spacing out properly structured upbeat tracks like ‘Narcissus’, ‘Unspoken’ and ‘King Of The Knight’ with their floaty instrumental works such as ‘Cupid’ and ‘Halfheart’ to give the feeling (even without aforementioned avant-garde dancers in frocks) of narrative.
As I said earlier this week, I’ve been meaning to write about Error: Operator for a while now.
This London based mystery producer’s début album was released this week so now seems as good as time as any to introduce you lot to some of the most beautifully crafted electronica you will hear this year.
The album, titled ‘Mistakes’, defiantly feels like some kind of loose narrative, despite being mostly instrumental (utilising lots of vocal samples/news snippets/etc…). The distinctive soundtrack element in the music is probably what makes it really stand out, the dubby beats and intertwining synth work only act as a backing for the real work of piano, of violin and of snatches of someone else’s memories that Error: Operator has served back to us in a way that drills into your imagination.
If you want something chilled and thoughtful to see you into Autumn then look no further.
The album also contain three tracks featuring the guest vocals of Grizzle Emcee, Jane Elizabeth Hanley and electronic rumors fave Bright Light Bright Light. While something that can seem ill at ease with he rest of the album as a whole, taken individually they are some interesting collaborations. The Bright Light Bright Light track ‘July’ is slated to be the next single. Until then check out Error:Operators reMix of BLBL’s awesome current single ‘Love Part II’, which strips the song down into an, almost abstract, cosmic synth experiment.
OK, first off I gotta’ say I’ve been meaning to write about Error: Operator for a while now, they (he/she?) are producing some of the most interesting and listenable electronic around right now, their début album is defiantly worth a listen. Unfortunately sometimes things slip down the back of the blogging couch in this line of work and it’s easy to forget about stuff. I’ll be rectifying this mistake in the coming days with a dedicated Error: Operator post, in the meantime check their reMix of Passion Pit’s ‘Sleepyhead’.
It’s an oft reMixed track but Error:Operator bring something unique to the table. The reMix is pretty indicative of their sound, chilled without verging into the dangerous(ly boring) territory of ambient, more intricate and subtle. Their music harbours some deceptively catchy lead lines too!
Well, this summer truly is the summer of LexiconDon!
See that little search box to the right? Well if you type ‘LexiconDon’ in there you will be rewarded with about a days worth of reading and music. We’ve written about the LA SynthPoppers quite a lot in recent months, but hell their début album, ‘Pink + Blue’, really was that good. We thought so anyway.
So here we have a couple of new reMixes of the second released track from the album ‘Student Body’ courtesy of the boys label dubFrequency.
De Pepe Guinta brings us a very chilled, slightly Indie, slightly Chillwave mix but we are brought straight back to the dancefloor by TomAHawk with a feel good, retro synth, house stormer!
Going down a more introspective path we find Fever Ray’s new cover of Peter Gabriel’s ‘Mercy Street’.
Despite being dark and melancholic, this put a smile on my face. It’s been a while since I’ve put on some Fever Ray (or, indeed, The Knife) and this, new material from Karin Dreijer Andersson, just reminded me why she (and her brother) are so good in the first place! It’s a stunning cover.
SONOIO is Alessandro Cortini, Italian analog synth guru who has played live for, and worked with, the likes of Ladytron, HEALTH, Modwheelmood and Nine Inch Nails.
In a novel, but pretty interesting, move his latest album, released this month, is available in a variety of packages. The most basic being a digital album and exclusive EP bundle, the high end offer being a digital album, exclusive EP and a hand build SuONOIO portable synthesizer! The SuONOIO is a ‘postcard’ synth in the vein of the Bugbrand, but if you’re handy you could always build an enclosure for it. The package including the synth will set you back $160.
The music itself is pretty rad. Deep analog vocoded ElectroPop. Check out this track, ‘Just Me’ and download another three tracks from the album for free here.
M.I.A. has premiered the video for ‘XXXO’ over on her YouTube channel.
‘XXXO’ is one of the best tracks on her recent ‘/\/\ /\ Y /\’ album and has been out as a single for a while now so it’s nice to see a proper video for it.
Simian Mobile Disco are dropping their first US released mix CD in October in association with New York’s ‘Fixed parties.
And sat in the mix will be a new SMD track, ‘Nerve Salad’. It’s deep and dark and the kind of thing we haven’t heard for a while, even from SMD. It harks back to Attack Decay Sustain Release, cool, chilled, weird stuff.
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