Best of 2008: Andrew Jeffrey Wright

Space 1026’s neon-hued founder, Andrew Jeffrey Wright, celebrates the power of tight pants and green juice.

Who was the best artist of 2008?

Narwhalz Of Sound. Brian Blomerth is Narwhalz Of Sound. I saw him perform this past summer in the dusty basement of a north Philly warehouse. He plays a modified Gameboy that he muffs around with until it brings forth sound patterns and sequences that no Gameboy was ever intended to make and then people go super nuts.

Who was the worst artist of 2008?

The Jonas Brothers. When I was nine years old my favorite music was made by the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, and Blondie. Kids today, I’ll tell ya.

What was the best style trend of 2008?

Tight pants. I don’t wear my pants too tight, but I see other kids doing it and it looks good. Plus if you’re a guy, wearing your pants tight kills sperm, which is good for the planet.

What was the worst style trend of 2008?

The closing of record shops. I’m not sure if this counts as a style trend, but I guess it could, ’cause iPods are really colorful?

What was your favorite food or drink of 2008?

Green drink. I mix either Greener Grasses green powder or Amazing Grass organic wheatgrass powder in a glass of water and drink it everyday. Either that or I eat a chocolate chip cookie the size of my face.

What was your favorite album of 2008?

Extreme Animals’ Let The Music Take You There (Vicious Pop Records). Play this album during your aerobics class or while spray-painting a wall or during skateboard practice. It is high-energy noise, it does not apologize and is down for whatever.

Who is your favorite visual artist of 2008?

Barry McGee. I saw Barry’s installation at Carnegie Mellon’s Life On Mars International in Pittsburgh, then a few months later I saw a solo show of his at Ratio 3 in San Francisco. I can spend hours in his installations, never get bored, and still want more. He’s a maximalist with minimalist details.

Best of 2008
Drop the Lime
Abe Vigoda
Bradford Cox
Andrew Jeffrey Wright
eLZhi
Cut Copy
Fucked Up
Evidence
Vivian Girls
Matt Furie
dj/ Rupture
Telepathe
The Death Set
Holy Ghost
Mochipet
CTRL
Plump DJs
Jose James
Worship Worthy
Peter Beste
Hercules and Love Affair
Magda
The Alchemist
DC Recordings

Los Updates First If You Please

Cadenza’s rep for brainy, unconventional techno gets up-ended by First If You Please. Love-centric lyrics delivered with faux earnestness in broken English lend this Chilean duo’s tracks a Yello-ing/Señor Coconut-y veneer of hilarity. Meanwhile, the music by Los Updates’ Jorge González and Loreto Otero mirrors their verbal eccentricities. (This odd levity didn’t stop Luciano and Villalobos from putting remixed tracks from First on their Fabric mixes.) The beats often stutter and halt, forming a clubfooted funk that’s far from minimal’s precision and regularity. The textures–heavy on jet-engine roars–warp into funhouse distortion, while the processed vocals tweak funnybones. Looks like the underground dance scene finally has its own Flight of the Conchords.

Various Artists Far Out Bossa Nova

To celebrate Brazilian bossa nova’s half-century mark, Far Out has pulled from its massive catalog to showcase some of this predominantly acoustic tradition’s finest moments. The focus has always been on light, airy rhythms, simple but powerful guitar strums, and inspired vocal performances. Far Out has found great examples, especially in Clara Moreno’s “Meu Samba Torto,” which features the excellent guitar work of Celso Fonseca. Clara’s mother Joyce, an innovator in the field with over four decades of performing experience, contributes the piano-soaked “Rio Bahia.” Another exemplar moment is Arthur Verocai’s beautiful “Vilhos”; he focuses on simplicity for maximum effect–what’s made bossa nova so universally appealing all these years.

Reykjavik! “Aeji, Plis”

Made in Iceland, a compilation CD brought to you by the same people who curate the Iceland Airwaves Festival, features a diverse sample of some of Iceland’s finest musicians. Included in this mix are, among others, Steed Lord, Sign, Emiliana Torrini, Bang Gang, Sigur Rós (of course), and aggressive indie-rockers, Reykjavik!. Reykjavik!’s included track “Aeji, Plis” features a psychedelic surf-rock guitar riff roaring alongside subdued group moan-sing that sounds like it originated from a blend of Halloween ghouls and inebriated tavern-goers. The song’s rhythmic bass and kick drum percussion are straightforward enough and the vocals fluctuate between punkish chanting, deeply throaty growls and lofty falsetto. Iceland, are you ready to rock?! Lulu McAllister

13 Aeji, Plis

Thrill Jockey Makes MP3 Advent Calendar

We always wondered what Christmas in the age of the digital download might involve (besides slumping CD sales), and Thrill Jockey is providing one such answer. The Chicago-based label of all things eclectic has teamed up with FINA, its digital download store, and created an MP3 advent calendar that will run on the TJ site until December 24.

Each day, a new, DRM-free, 320kbps MP3 will appear on the calendar’s site, in its appropriate “doorway.” Just click on said doorway and a download window will appear. Yesterday featured High Places’ “From Stardust to Sentience” and today’s download is “Komokosaka Te Na Basi,” from the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International. No word as to what might lie behind the remaining doors, but that’s the whole point of an advent calendar, right?

Bookmark this link to grab your daily download.

E-40 Release Followed by Remix Contest

In celebration of E-40’s fourteenth studio album, The Ball Street Journal, LOUD.com and Warner Bros. Records are hosting “Retwittered: The Break Ya Ankles Remix Contest.”

Producers and fans are urged to submit their very best remix of the single “Break Ya Ankles” to LOUD.com, after which E-40 will personally choose his fav. The winner will fly to the Bay Area to kick it with the father of hyphy and his son Droop-E in their studio. Additionally, the winner will receive a Nokia Kyte phone, as well as exposure on E-40’s site and MySpace page. Second place receives the Rane Serato Scratch Live set-up and third place garners a copy of Ableton Live 7 LE.

Those interested can download the vocals of “Break Ya Ankles” here, lay them on a fresh beat and submit to LOUD.com. Click here to view official contest rules. Photo by Jonathan Mannion.

Her Blood is Poison

In director Justin Zaharczuk’s dark video for Otto Von Shcirach’s song, “Her Blood is Poison,” two officers attempt to arrest a very small, but very aggressive, man beneath a blunt techno beat and evil-sounding, distorted robot vocals. Then there’s a small figurine, reminiscent of Big Boy, to offset the paranoid image of a man huddled in a shadowed corner of an empty room, bent over on a park bench or illuminated behind ambiguous bars. The effect of the compilation is like a twisted art house depiction of Cops. The mostly black-and-white raw imagery receives occasional hits of bright red, yellow and green highlights–but not nearly enough to banish the video’s pervasive nightmarish feeling. Lulu McAllister

DJ Tecas “Bate No Peito (Com Respeito)”

In recent months, the internet has been abuzz with the sounds of kuduro, the high-energy, lo-fi dance music coming out of Angola. Yet very few official kuduro releases exist, as even within Angola the genre flourishes via a network of pirated CDs and rave-like outdoor parties. Hot tunes usually aren’t pressed up on vinyl–they’re much more likely to be heard blaring from taxis darting through the streets of Luanda.

Bucking the trend is Philadelphia label Flamin’ Hotz, which has previously made a name for itself with a number of B-more and baile funk releases. Força Kuduro! is the label’s newest release, and it features six kuduro tracks curated by Frédéric Galliano, one of the biggest foreign exporters of the sound. While “Bate No Peito (Com Respeito)” was crafted by Paris-based DJ Tecas, other songs on the EP utilize the vocal talent of Angolan MCs Pai Diesel, Zoca Zoca, and Puto Lilas.

Bate No Peito (Com Respeito)

Booka Shade to Release Digital Album

While German duo Booka Shade is known for its danceable tech-house, this holiday season finds cohorts Arno Kammermeier and Walter Merziger laying low to a mellower kind of groove. On December 12, the boys are releasing a special digital album on their Get Physical Music label. Cinematic Shades (The Slow Songs) is a collection of emotional and melancholy ambient songs to chill out to while you recover from all the eggnog and New Year’s Eve debauchery. Additionally, the new album will include a previously unreleased track, “Paper Plane,” as well as an unreleased remix of “Outskirts” by Trentmøller. The album will be available exclusively on iTunes.

Cinematic Shades
01 Outskirts (Trentemøller Remix)
02 Solo City
03 Night Falls (Larry Gold’s ’Night Falls Over Philly’ String Version)
04 Outskirts (Cinematic Shades Edit)
05 Hallelujah USA
06 Moonstruck (Cinematic Shades Edit)
07Paper Plane
08 Vertigo (Cinematic Shades Edit)
09 At The Window (Cinematic Shades Edit)
10 Lost High (Cinematic Shades Edit)
11 16 MM (Cinematic Shades Edit)
12 The Sun & The Neon Light
13 You Don’t Know What You Mean To Me (J’s Lullaby)

Photo by Ragnar Schmuck.

XLR8R Hits M For Montreal

At the end of November we hit the third installment of M For Montreal, a music festival that’s part industry showcase and part Montreal-celebrating fan-fest (with a handful of Toronto bands thrown into the mix). We checked out more than 20 artists over the course of four nights, and did our best to interview the locals without losing any digits to the cold. (What can we say? We’re from S.F.) Here’s a sampling of our festival favorites:

Duchess Says
We’re gonna go ahead and put our favorite band first, since Montreal’s Duchess Says floored us (and set the bar damn high) on day one of M For Montreal. Singer and synth player Annie-Claude Deschênes is a frontwoman that rivals Wendy O Williams and Alice Bag, and that’s to say nothing of the discordant wow and flutter of Duchess Says’ power-packed synth-noise punch. All we can say is that if Duchess Says doesn’t get a major deal in the U.S. and Europe after this performance, then the world is severely out of balance. Photo by Ken Taylor.

Lioness
A fine serving of Torontonian goodness, Lioness is your response to your jaded friend’s claims that indie rock ain’t got no soul. Singer Vanessa Fischer leads this pack with vicious, hefty vocals and a larger-than-life stage persona, while the drums and bass (no guitar!) keep things tight, rocking, and rhythmic. Photo by Ken Taylor.

Pas Chic Chic
What happens when you take Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Roger Tellier-Craig, give him a Farfisa player and the Pulp and Joy Division fake books, and tell him to keep it as French as Gainsbourg? Pas Chic Chic is actually tres chic chic when it comes to style, and their sound is equally reflective. Check out our review of their Au Contraire album. Photo by Ken Taylor.

Red Mass
We were told that this was Red Mass’ first-ever show, and maybe that’s why we dug ’em so much. Scrappy, noisy, crazy, and covered in red, these remnants of defunct MTL punks CPC Gangbangs mixed Stooges-esque raw power with a hint of Brian Jonestown Massacre’s bluesy soul. We also dug that they had a couple Bez-like stagehands–one who occasionally tapped a tambourine and another who just shimmied on the speakers, covered head-to-toe in gold body paint. Photo by Sophie Samson.

Woodhands
Toronto’s Woodhands had us at “keytar” but, with the addition of live drums, some killer vocals, and sometimes-crunky beats, this electro-pop duo brings the heat more than your typical dudes-with-synths combo. Photo by Ken Taylor.

We Are Wolves/Claass
Why are we throwing these bands two together? ’Cause, ostensibly, they’re the same band, save for swapping out one member. Bottom line is that bassist/vocalist Alexander Ortiz (pictured here in Claass) does some crazy shit with synths (in Claass) and some even crazier shit with vocal effects (in We Are Wolves), and both groups get our props for getting the rock-heavy masses dancing. Photo by Ken Taylor.

M For More: Check out what the Montreal locals have to say about their city, its music, and its penchant for frostbite at our Photo Blog.

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