Part Two of the June singles round-up ....
James Blake - Voyeur (Dub)
Remix, remake, remodel, redub - isn't this all getting a bit out of hand? Even forward-thinking dub-yodeller Blake has resorted to mangling his own songs and punting them out to onlookers via tiny labels. Still, if they turn out as intriguing as this, long may he continue. Voyeur, the original, appears on his recent (and superb) Overgrown album and is the nearest to a full on dance track in itself. For this white-vinyl 12" pressing on his and Dan Foat's new 1-800 Dinosaur imprint, Blake has ramped up the synths and cranked up the beats in what is, to all intents and purposes, an extended mix. The b-side And Holy Ghost is an exclusive tune that harks back to his earlier R&S days and sounds like a hoover locked in a church with only sampled voices for company. Rather super. 8/10.
Geir Jenssen - Stromboli
Recorded at the crater-edge of the continuously erupting Italian volcano, Stromboli is a 12" comprised of 7 minutes of lava-porn recorded by Biosphere's mountain-climbing founder and producer Jenssen. The b-side is a 'dub' version, the sound of nature losing its temper in surround-sound and as unnerving or as trippy as you want to make it. Touch Music, the perpetrators of this fine record know a thing or two about found-sound and field-recordings - they've had Attenborough collaborator and ex-Cabaret Voltaire engineer Chris Watson on their roster as well as other magnificent luminaries from the world of aural invention for the best part of thirty years. Superb. 8/10.
The Guilty Ones - I Conquer The World
And back to reality with a shoeing - The Guilty Ones remind us that we're all just human and make mistakes by plugging instruments in and playing them as though we're really clever. As singles go, I Conquer The World is an advert waiting to be made for, I dunno, aspirational twenty-somethings climbing a staircase to use the best wardwrobe in the world. Or maybe an athletics medley on the BBC when we win our next Olympic gold. So musically, it's hopeful, joyous, life-affirming soft-pop with a naggingly catchy chorus that will either have you racing over to iTunes in order to buy it or it'll have you using a blow-torch as a toothbrush. 6/10.
Franskild - Shards
Minimal techy-house with a sparse but funky vibe, interjected by spooky synth-hooks and ice-melting vocals from singer Rebecca that makes it all sound like Goldfrapp got into a brawl with Trentemoller on their way back from Moloko's house-party. Good - I'm glad that all made sense. Shards is strangely addictive, if annoyingly stop-start in places. When you want the hippy-trippy disco vibe to continue, you don't want a break lasting more than ten seconds to shroud the mood do you? It's an irritating trait of so many producers that, every time I experience it, I feel the urge to sandblast my spinal cord. Luckily for my vertebrae, Shards is deserving enough to urge the local builder to stand down. More please. 7/10.
Vondelpark - California Analog Dream
Continuing with the theme of hipster-discos, we turn our attention towards the much-touted Vondelpark who have enlisted the chops of Factory Floor to re-invent the wheel or, in this case, a fairly standard album-track from the band's R&S-issued long-player Seabed. A few acid-tweaks here, a minimal but insistent beat there and it's a job fairly well-done, if perhaps a mite pedestrian. The last two minutes of said remix triumph, the first five don't. On the other side, straight after the album mix, we have label-mate Bullion re-moulding the same song into an offbeat busy little beast. Ultimately though, Vondelpark's earlier creativity found on their first EPs seems to have been sapped out of them on Seabed - a shame. 6/10.
David Bowie - The Next Day
If you haven't heard any of Bowie's new album, either because you don't believe the hype or you just, y'know, hate him, take your head out of your arse and do so. Frustratingly, the title-track isn't anywhere near the best on the album but is still a rousing rocker that manages to traverse the edgy '70s era and today's arty scenes without pandering to either. The video stars Gary Oldman togged up as a priest, there's lots of blood and tits and someone dies before Bowie, clothed in ecclesiastical robes is blamed and damned to Hell. The song isn't half as wonderful but infectious enough. 7/10.
Pet Shop Boys - Vocal
Back so soon? Barely 12 months ago, their lacklustre final album for EMI hit the shelves and within a few weeks, Elysium was duly forgotten about. Now firmly rooted to their own label X2 and with Stuart Price in the producer's chair, things are looking up for the duo now that they've re-discovered club culture. Vocal contains the usual Tennant sound-bites and lyrical word-play you've come to expect, while Lowe teases you to throw your hands to the lazers with an admittedly dated '90s backbeat. It reminds me of The Boy Who Couldn't Keep His Clothes On or a couple of the rare tracks from Relentless - otherwise it's typical Pet Shop Boys all the way. Which is good. 7/10.
Hookworms - Radio Tokyo
Crikey, this sounds like Pump It Up by Elvis Costello, before Hookworms' vocalist does all manner of unimaginables with his vocal chords on this blistering squall of noise that fills the last few minutes of my reviewing time very nicely, ta. These Northern types certainly pound out a riff or two, although what is seriously lacking here is discernible vocals - honestly, without sounding like an old munter, if you're gonna sing summat, sing it clear and sing it proud, eh peeps? Turn up those vocals, I say. Anyway, the b-side suffers from the same trait but is different in so much that it's longer, slower and so psychedelic, I'm sure my eyes folded inside out and turned into purple hearts. 7/10.
James Blake - Voyeur (Dub)
Remix, remake, remodel, redub - isn't this all getting a bit out of hand? Even forward-thinking dub-yodeller Blake has resorted to mangling his own songs and punting them out to onlookers via tiny labels. Still, if they turn out as intriguing as this, long may he continue. Voyeur, the original, appears on his recent (and superb) Overgrown album and is the nearest to a full on dance track in itself. For this white-vinyl 12" pressing on his and Dan Foat's new 1-800 Dinosaur imprint, Blake has ramped up the synths and cranked up the beats in what is, to all intents and purposes, an extended mix. The b-side And Holy Ghost is an exclusive tune that harks back to his earlier R&S days and sounds like a hoover locked in a church with only sampled voices for company. Rather super. 8/10.
Recorded at the crater-edge of the continuously erupting Italian volcano, Stromboli is a 12" comprised of 7 minutes of lava-porn recorded by Biosphere's mountain-climbing founder and producer Jenssen. The b-side is a 'dub' version, the sound of nature losing its temper in surround-sound and as unnerving or as trippy as you want to make it. Touch Music, the perpetrators of this fine record know a thing or two about found-sound and field-recordings - they've had Attenborough collaborator and ex-Cabaret Voltaire engineer Chris Watson on their roster as well as other magnificent luminaries from the world of aural invention for the best part of thirty years. Superb. 8/10.
The Guilty Ones - I Conquer The World
And back to reality with a shoeing - The Guilty Ones remind us that we're all just human and make mistakes by plugging instruments in and playing them as though we're really clever. As singles go, I Conquer The World is an advert waiting to be made for, I dunno, aspirational twenty-somethings climbing a staircase to use the best wardwrobe in the world. Or maybe an athletics medley on the BBC when we win our next Olympic gold. So musically, it's hopeful, joyous, life-affirming soft-pop with a naggingly catchy chorus that will either have you racing over to iTunes in order to buy it or it'll have you using a blow-torch as a toothbrush. 6/10.
Minimal techy-house with a sparse but funky vibe, interjected by spooky synth-hooks and ice-melting vocals from singer Rebecca that makes it all sound like Goldfrapp got into a brawl with Trentemoller on their way back from Moloko's house-party. Good - I'm glad that all made sense. Shards is strangely addictive, if annoyingly stop-start in places. When you want the hippy-trippy disco vibe to continue, you don't want a break lasting more than ten seconds to shroud the mood do you? It's an irritating trait of so many producers that, every time I experience it, I feel the urge to sandblast my spinal cord. Luckily for my vertebrae, Shards is deserving enough to urge the local builder to stand down. More please. 7/10.
Vondelpark - California Analog Dream
Continuing with the theme of hipster-discos, we turn our attention towards the much-touted Vondelpark who have enlisted the chops of Factory Floor to re-invent the wheel or, in this case, a fairly standard album-track from the band's R&S-issued long-player Seabed. A few acid-tweaks here, a minimal but insistent beat there and it's a job fairly well-done, if perhaps a mite pedestrian. The last two minutes of said remix triumph, the first five don't. On the other side, straight after the album mix, we have label-mate Bullion re-moulding the same song into an offbeat busy little beast. Ultimately though, Vondelpark's earlier creativity found on their first EPs seems to have been sapped out of them on Seabed - a shame. 6/10.
David Bowie - The Next Day
If you haven't heard any of Bowie's new album, either because you don't believe the hype or you just, y'know, hate him, take your head out of your arse and do so. Frustratingly, the title-track isn't anywhere near the best on the album but is still a rousing rocker that manages to traverse the edgy '70s era and today's arty scenes without pandering to either. The video stars Gary Oldman togged up as a priest, there's lots of blood and tits and someone dies before Bowie, clothed in ecclesiastical robes is blamed and damned to Hell. The song isn't half as wonderful but infectious enough. 7/10.
Pet Shop Boys - Vocal
Back so soon? Barely 12 months ago, their lacklustre final album for EMI hit the shelves and within a few weeks, Elysium was duly forgotten about. Now firmly rooted to their own label X2 and with Stuart Price in the producer's chair, things are looking up for the duo now that they've re-discovered club culture. Vocal contains the usual Tennant sound-bites and lyrical word-play you've come to expect, while Lowe teases you to throw your hands to the lazers with an admittedly dated '90s backbeat. It reminds me of The Boy Who Couldn't Keep His Clothes On or a couple of the rare tracks from Relentless - otherwise it's typical Pet Shop Boys all the way. Which is good. 7/10.
Crikey, this sounds like Pump It Up by Elvis Costello, before Hookworms' vocalist does all manner of unimaginables with his vocal chords on this blistering squall of noise that fills the last few minutes of my reviewing time very nicely, ta. These Northern types certainly pound out a riff or two, although what is seriously lacking here is discernible vocals - honestly, without sounding like an old munter, if you're gonna sing summat, sing it clear and sing it proud, eh peeps? Turn up those vocals, I say. Anyway, the b-side suffers from the same trait but is different in so much that it's longer, slower and so psychedelic, I'm sure my eyes folded inside out and turned into purple hearts. 7/10.
Single of this round-up? Step forward James Blake and Geir Jenssen - I can't choose between you ...