Feb 25 2013

[Audio] Hey, Rube!

After last weeks post covering Billie Ray Martin’s Cabaret Voltaire cover album, where we one again professed our love of the Cabs, we received an enigmatic email in our inbox that we soon worked out was from Hey, Rube! Who, as it turns out, are a electronic project formed by Fila Brazillia’s Steve Cobby and Cabaret Voltaire’s Stephen Mallinder. a couple of months ago they released an album called Can You Hear Me Mutha?, and intricately crafted fusion of Dub, Electro, Techno, Indie-Electro and B-Boy Electro that never fails to surprise or intrigue.

The whole album leans toward Dub and Experimental sounds, but never crosses the line into ambient or self-indulgent. Tracks on the records, whilst ecclectic, bordering on avant-guarde at times, retain a strong sense of groove, drawing from Electro Funk, Kraftwerkian Techno, even occasionally Italo to keep things, for the most part, dancefloor friendly. Opening with the deliciously chaotic Rob A Bank Rob, which lobs frantic tribal drumming, ethereal chimes, Acidic bleeps and Mallinder’s Cabs rasp into a ring and let’s them sort things out amongst themselves, the album drops Mengi Dem Disco Leggi. A broken Balearic Boogie, like a Mediterranean robotic assault. Scissormouth is where the album’s Dub credentials start to rear their head before launching into the full on twisted synth skank of Pimpdaddy. This is built upon, with the addition of more of Mallinder’s whisper, in the space Dub of Kamikazee Peloton. Shaz—–Tate reminds of these guys experimentalist backgrounds as it layers sounds into an organized Industrial cacophony . the album’s longest track, and one of it’s standouts, Rapture, is a nine minute Dup epic, a popping synth echo chamber that is as interesting as it is hypnotic. Which leaves the relaxed, breezy Bali Hai to easy you out of the album. Considering a few days ago we didn’t know this record existed, we are very glad to have been introduced to it. A glorious example of what happens when two talents are left to create freely.

♫ Hey, Rube! – Mengi Dem Disco Leggi

♫ Hey, Rube! – Rapture

♫ Hey, Rube! – Rob A Bank Rob

♫ Hey, Rube! – Kamikazee Peloton

Hey, Rube!’s Can You Hear Me Mutha? is out now.

Buy Hey, Rube!’s music from:

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Feb 11 2013

[Audio] Douglas J. McCarthy’s ‘Kill Your Friends’

It was released last November on CD and Vinyl, so it’s not exactly a new release, but it’s about to see a digital unleashing and it’s was on our playlist toward the end of 2012, so let’s have a little revisit with Kill Your Friends, the début solo album from one of our favourite artists of all time, Douglas J. McCarthy. Doug is, of course, one half of the legendary Nitzer Ebb, of whom we have been fans since we were crazy teens, having first seen them live in 1991. It’s not unconceivable to say that in some mirror universe where we didn’t discover Nitzer Ebb through Bong, the official Depeche Mode fanzine, that electronic rumors, the website, the record label, might not exist. They were, particularly the Showtime and Ebbhead albums, a massive influence.

That said, Douglas’ Kill Your Friends is actually a more satisfying record than Nitzer Ebb’s 2012 comeback album, Industrial Complex. Where Industrial Complex seems to be pandering to the expectations of black clad, stomping fans (something that Nitzer Ebb had never done, just look at Big Hit), Kill Your Friends feels like a much more personal and authentic affair. From the album’s opener, Death Is King, the album deliver what I would have like to hear from Nitzer Ebb, not trying to be Nitzer-Ebb-by-numbers, but producing something with real passion, and musically, making EBM for grown ups. Take The Last Time, one of the albums standouts. Fresh beats and shimmering stabs are paired with the expected synth growl allow McCarthy’s voice, probably one of the most recognisable in electronic music, to shine. And it’s his voice, the Essex-Americana drawl that made Nitzer Ebb so special, that ties the record together. Waxing lyrical on his favourite topics, control, religion, dysfunctional relationships, freedom, Douglas appears as a introspective co-pilot on a road trip through the seedy backstreets of electronic music. Backstreets that lead you through myriad influenced, from the Dubbed-out Evil Love to the Deep Acid House of Taken. Of course, the jackhammer EBM still rears it’s head in the form of All Kinds Of Wrong and Move On, both classic EBB, but on the whole Kill Your Friends is an album for everyone who grew up with, but grew out of, EBM. If you love Nitzer Ebb, but really can’t be bothered with distorted kick drums, arpeggios and shouting anymore then this is definitely the album for you.

♫ Douglas J. McCarthy – The Last Time

♫ Douglas J. McCarthy – Nothing After This

♫ Douglas J. McCarthy – Death Is King

♫ Douglas J. McCarthy – Taken

Douglas J. McCarthy’s Kill Your Friends is out now on CD and Vinyl and released digitally 18th February.

Buy Douglas J. McCarthy’s music from:

Follow @electronicrumor

Dec 11 2012

[MP3] Miss Kittin’s new single

Fresh from her stint on Kris Menace’s new single, ElectroClash legend Miss Kittin has just released a brand new single, Life Is My Teacher, in anticipation of a new double album, Calling From The Stars, coming in April next year.

Life Is My Teacher is wonderfully hypnotic mixture of Deep House, Techno, Acid and 80’s SynthPop. Imagine the beats from a dimly lit Berlin Electro club mixed with Gary Numan lead synths and an Acidic Burbling and you;re starting to get close. Add to this Miss Kittin’s sultry vocal and you’ve got yourself an involving slice of electronica that draws you in and swirls round your head until it’s done.