There’s only one thing better than a new DOOM album—a collection of supervillainous collabs. On Unexpected Guests, the artist list reads like a lyrical enthusiast’s wet dream: De La Soul, Vast Aire, Count Bass D, Masta, Talib Kweli, various Wu members, and more. Album highlights include “Sniper Elite,” on which Ghost and DOOM join up for black-ops fun over a Dilla beat, and the self-explanatory “Quite Buttery,” where the Count and the Dr. trade high-cholesterol lines. Buggy cartoon excerpts and looped breaks keep it zany, and MF’s slightly slurred delivery is as dope as ever. No currently active MC has more gotta-rewind-that moments.
Just a quickie to take you further into the holiday weekend—last week’s hot, hot lovers’ rock mix courtesy of FACT Magazine and Kevin “The Bug” Martin’s King Midas Sound project. All Tanya Stephens, Gregory Isaacs, even Sade! Grab it while it lasts (that’s three weeks, by the way), and let it soothe turkey coma number two.
There’s a harsh truth about label best-of compilations—there’s no excuse for filler. Unfortunately, at least half of this two-disc set feels like just that. Shir Khan draws from the Exploited catalog, including unreleased cuts, focusing heavily on electro-house and baile funk. For sheer volume, he can’t be faulted—Exploited features 50 tracks—but it’s quantity at the expense of quality, as far too many tracks here are indistinct and could best be described as “okay.” There is good stuff to be found—the SIS remix of Minimow’s “Bollyhouse” has a spooky minimal power, the Mercury remix of Le Le’s “Breakfast” has a beautifully bitchy attitude, and DJ Chernobyl and Praga’s “Balanco” provides some much-needed energy—but they’re nearly lost amongst all the mediocre tunes.
Perpetually masked Italian electro-punkers The Bloody Beetroots have created an album that should be easier to hate, especially if you flip directly to vainglorious textbook electro track “I Love the Bloody Beetroots.” Still, with cameos from the likes of indie electronic artist Beta Bow and British house songstress Lisa Kekaula, this anticipated debut offers enough variety to save it from slipping into a complete electro-sinkhole. Sure, there are tracks to destroy a room to (try heavy-hitting single, “Cornelius,” or mind-numbing “Yeyo feat. Raw Man”); but there is also unexpected relief in lighter inclusions like the sexy “Make ME Blank,” featuring J*Davey. Hipsters who have gobbled the dancefloor-stomping Steve Aoki collabo “Warp” like breakfast cereal might be pleased to see an additional version on the album, albeit sans Mr. Aoki’s punctual whooping.
LA’s Delicious Vinyl label is expanding on its catalog of groundbreaking and classic hip-hop with the creation of a new iPhone app in conjunction with Ten23 Software. The label’s application is a music rhythm game, à la DJ Hero and the like, that features real-time cutting and scratching with some of the best tracks from the golden era of hip-hop. In the game, users “match multi-colored notes as they flow down the screen. Trigger scratches on two turntables with a thumb twist or tap a button on the mixer in time with the music to score points.” Sounds like a great way to waste time or start a party wherever you go! The app’s available tracklist is listed below (with more downloadable content coming soon) and you can check out more about Delicious Vinyl DJ here.
Young MC – “Bust A Move” Tone Loc – “Funky Cold Medina” Tone Loc – “Wild Thing (Peaches RMX)” The Pharcyde – “Passin’ Me By” Masta Ace – “Born To Roll” Mr. Vegas (feat. Pitbull & Lil’Jon – “Pull Up (Club Mix)” Masta Ace – “Slaughtahouse (Eminem RMX)”
LA-based noise maker Ariel Pink and his Haunted Graffiti have signed to Britain’s 4AD label after releasing a slew of records on Paw Tracks. The band is working on a new full-length for 4AD, slated for a spring release. In the meanwhile, they’ll be playing a few shows in Europe, listed below.
12/4 Qujunktions @ TBC – Bristol, UK 12/5 All Tomorrow’s Parties – Minehead, UK 12/6 Buffalo – Cardiff, UK 12/7 The Bodega – Nottingham, UK 12/8 The Rest Is Noise – London , UK 12/9 Deaf Institute – Manchester, UK 12/10 Point Ephemere – Paris , FR 12/11 Netwerk – Aalst, BEL 12/13 Lexington – London, UK
Trip-hop veterans Massive Attack are set to follow up their recent Splitting the Atom EP with the fifth full-length album of their near two-decade career, entitled Heligoland. Coming February 8 from Virgin, the UK production duo’s new record features high-profile vocal work from Blur frontman Damon Albarn, Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star, Martina Topley-Bird, Guy Garvey, and TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe. Current Attack members Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall also collaborated with DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy and Portishead’s Adrian Utley on a few songs throughout Heligoland. The forthcoming album’s release will also be followed by tour dates, to be announced next year, from the seasoned production team both in the UK and the US. Check out the artwork and tracklist below.
Pray for Rain (featuring Tunde Adebimpe) Babel (featuring Martina Topley-Bird) Splitting the Atom (featuring Robert Del Naja / Grant Marshall / Horace Andy) Girl I Love You (featuring Horace Andy) Psyche (featuring Martina Topley-Bird) Flat of the Blade (featuring Guy Garvey) Paradise Circus (featuring Hope Sandoval) Rush Minute (featuring Robert Del Naja) Saturday Come Slow (featuring Damon Albarn) Atlas Air (featuring Robert Del Naja)
While Bristol duo Fuck Buttons‘ latest record, Tarot Sport, might skew toward ambient electro, it’s hardly surprising that the band’s genesis came during Benjamin Power and Andrew Hung’s involvement in the hardcore punk scene as teenagers. “It’s informed who I’ve become as a person somehow,” Power says over the phone from the UK. “We tend to make music that we enjoy, and, in a way, it doesn’t really matter what’s going on around us. It’s not like we wanted to make a record that would appeal to a wider audience. We just sort of stumbled upon these songs.” ? The band emerged in 2004, as their synth-tinkering turned from casual hobby to tireless jamming and a methodical approach to song construction. The duo began to draw attention for its caustic soundscapes, vintage electronic tones, and a combination of dark, sometimes off-putting drones and on-tape screaming matches, and after developing a relationship with the All Tomorrow’s Parties promoters that resulted in numerous festival dates and a record deal, they released Street Horrrsing, their 2008 debut, which distilled the group’s shambolic synth drones into a massively well-received album, equal parts Black Dice and Bruce Haack.
Now, just one year after Horrrsing‘s unearthing, the band has returned with a more mature statement in Tarot Sport. With fewer of the violent eruptions that characterized their debut, Fuck Buttons has created an environment where songs can explore loose and hazy atmospherics while retaining a solid structural backbone. “The process of writing has stayed intact since day one,” Power says. “We don’t build a song around a beat or a melody. It all stems from long jam sessions.” These loose song structures manifest themselves in a myriad of ways, from the spacey swell of “Surf Solar” to the robo-techno shuffle of “Rough Steez.” Those two worlds collide on the melodic climax of closer “Flight of the Feathered Serpent,” culminating in a record that spins tangible feelings from a mountain of synthesizers and drum machines.
In order to maintain that controlled chaos live, Fuck Buttons has left surprisingly little room for improvisation. Instead, they play out their compositions like skilled classical musicians, with bits of songs divided into “phases” that act as a map, guiding the pair through their cavernous pieces. But when the writing process is so loose, details like sequencing and arrangement become crucial, as Power explains. “Our songs go through extreme evolutionary stages, so some songs, from their first manifestations, will change quite a lot up to the tracks that you’ll hear now on Tarot Sport. The transitions are just as important to us as the songs itself. The whole ebb and flow of the record is important to us, and the narrative is very strong as well.”
With a slice of cut-up and tweaked electro in hand, French producer Golden Bug has joined the Bang Gang ranks with the release of his Assassin 12-inch. The title track, which brings to mind elements of fellow countrymen Justice and the bi-coastal Lazer Sword, uses chopped and pitched vocal loops, funky basslines, and swelling horns to compliment the song’s terse beats—making for a head-nodding number that’s sure to set off some dancefloors in the near future.
Swiss dancefloor stylist Headman teams up with Yello‘s Deiter Meier for a grooving, sample-filled post-disco number. Then, Brooklyn’s In Flagranti bring up the melodic Italo synths, give the kicks some extra padding, and cut out much of Meier’s vocal, creating a disco-house monster that could easily fit into a set with The Juan Maclean. A burner if there ever was one, this one will be playing loud at a lot of New Year’s Eve celebrations.
