Munk Cloudbuster

It’s easy to see why Munk’s feel-good, eclectic pop-rock pieces have been widely used in European fashion shows and art galleries. These downtempo tunes are the ultimate background music: easy, interesting listens, just short of being totally fluffy. Cloudbuster appears more influenced by commercial pop/rock than electronica, and less interested in presenting a cohesive album than sailing through a gamut of styles, from lounge music (the downtempo, jazz-hop “Under Kontrol”) to an homage to Peaches (Asia Argento giving spoken-word attitude on “No Milk”) to upbeat drag-queen performance tunes (the catchy pop/rock ditty “Live Fast! Die Old!”). Fluffy can sometimes be its own style, too.

Various Artists Full Pupp Presents: Greatest Tits Vol. 1

Ignore the clumsy title and the (supposedly) comedic sleeve of a gorilla in wig and bra: This is, presumably, a deliberate but heavy-handed attempt to circumvent the clichés associated with Scandinavian music. Featuring a disc apiece of mixed and unmixed tracks from the Prins Thomas-curated label, Greatest Tits could be quite readily packaged in a whole heap of truisms about Northern Europe, with the sprawling expanse of the Norwegian landscape reflecting the spaciness and spaciousness of tracks from the likes of Todd Terje, Blackbelt Andersen, Diskjokke, and Mental Overdrive. The Aurora Borealis, meanwhile, could quite reasonably be claimed as the most appropriate disco lights for Prins Thomas’ joyful mix.

The Ritz “Heartless”

MC Apoc and producer Rel‘s first full-length under The Ritz moniker stretches in many directions stylistically, utilizing synths, string arrangements, and programmed beats to make hip-hop that constantly darts between dark and upbeat. Supposedly, noir films were the inspiration for the album, which explains the cinematic feel of the tracks, including this one, a breezy instrumental that incorporates film snippits in the mix. Elsewhere on the release, fellow Chicagoans Racecar (of Modill) and Rhymesayers artist Psalm One show up for guest appearances.

The Ritz – Heartless

Sigur Rós með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

If Iceland’s cinematropic collective Sigur Rós were filmmakers, you’d file them between Terrence Malick and François Truffaut. Because on this, the group’s fifth album, translated as “with a buzz in our ears, we play endlessly,” Sigur Rós gravitates between oblique commentaries and a disarmingly near-field realism. Sigur Rós uses half of this new full-length to explore being naturalist auteurs beyond a common axis, capturing more direct address and jumpier cuts. The other, more macroscopic material–including a long pan featuring a 100-piece choir/orchestra–maintains a standard of epic scenes that act as ciphers, saturating listeners with ambiguous emotion.

Various Artists Life Beyond Mars: Bowie Covered

“Do you want more absinthe?” Kelley Polar asks his date before he drunkenly jigs to a French electro-pop version of David Bowie’s “Magic Dance” (originally found on the Labyrinth soundtrack). It’s too bad that few folks on this Bowie tribute share Polar’s diabolical yet humorous spirit. However, some interpretations pay big returns: Matthew Dear’s cover of “Sound and Vision” captures the cocaine-laced damage and skin-shedding of Bowie’s Berlin period, while The Emperor Machine translates “Repetition” into a lost ZE Records mutant-disco jaunt. Elsewhere, The Thin White Duke gets butchered by Leo Minor’s graceless cover of “Ashes to Ashes” and Susumu Yokota’s drowsy rendition of the blue-eyed funk classic, “Golden Years.” Pour me another round of absinthe.

Rod Modell: 4 A.M. Techno

Rod Modell’s intoxicating fusion of natural and electronic sounds can be traced back to one moment at a coffeehouse in Detroit more than a decade ago. “I don’t really know what the hell happened that night,” says the dub-techno maven of the gig (performed as Waveform Transmission). What he does remember is this: It was around 10:30 p.m. inside the century-old Victorian that at the time housed Zoot’s Coffeehouse. Candles lit the room and the doors and windows were left wide open so that the sounds of thunder, rainfall, and car tires brushing across water could bleed in. Coaxing a drone out of an analog synthesizer, his ear caught ambient sounds as they blended into the scene, sonically and spiritually. The audience appeared to be passed out. “I think that these people were freaked out,” he says emphatically.

Those spirits drift through Modell’s myriad projects: Echospace’s dub-laced trips into the dead of winter; Deepchord’s Detroit techno-blooded grooves; his solo work built from field recordings in urban and rural Michigan, resulting in tracks like “Aloeswood” (the opener of his recent Incense & Black Light disc), which indistinguishably blends thunderous dub rimshots and actual thunder.

“I look for sounds that basically throw you off a little bit,” Modell says of his nighttime sound-hunting. In one experiment, he kept his tape machine at the ready to record lone cars passing his home in Port Huron, Michigan, about an hour Northeast of Detroit. “I could hear [the car sounds] disintegrating for 25 minutes,” he says. A similar approach informs Echospace, Modell’s partnership with Chicagoan Steven Hitchell, which garnered critical attention last year with the album The Coldest Season. Gusts of raw static and rain-like patter saturate the record’s ambient-dub excursions. “It’s about finding those magical, little grains of sound,” says Modell.

Modell isn’t divorced from the dancefloor–he’s mastered scores of house and techno records, and club ambiance influences his recordings. For instance, Modell and Deepchord collaborator Mike Schommer were mesmerized by DJs who played nothing but the opening bassline and kickdrum of a track. “They just had three things going on and it was beautiful,” Modell recalls. In response, Deepchord’s dub-techno stealthily peels away melody, leaving a bare chassis of beats to ghost-ride down Woodward Avenue. Vantage Isle Sessions, which collects remixes of a 2002 Detroit Electronic Music Festival performance, finds the duo swerving through empty, neon-smeared streets, and recalls Berlin’s Chain Reaction label, minus the anemic minimalism.

Despite his dance grooves, Modell has a distaste for “musical” things. He’s not thrilled by the way The Coldest Season’s “Empyrean,” which struts to a reggae-spiced rhythm, resembles a song. He considers rhythm to be a mere metronome for his work. “The rhythm is incidental–it’s the worst part of the song really,” he says. “Unfortunately, everybody likes the rhythm.” Then again, this comes from a man who’s fond of driving around to the sounds of schmaltz god Engelbert Humperdinck. “I wish I could call myself a music-hater,” he laments, “but I really can’t.”

Podcast 52: Shir Khan Megamix Part 2

He tours every weekend, hosts a weekly radio show in his hometown of Berlin, and throws a party called Berlin Battery, but we still managed to snag Shir Khan and got him to curate an exclusive mix for the XLR8R podcast.

Let’s just say he went to town with this one and delivered such a long set we decided to split it into two mixes, for a couple weeks’ worth of Shir Khan goodness. The 78 tracks here run the gamut of house, disco, dubstep, soul, crunk, techno, and a gazillion sub-genres. He grabbed lots of tracks from his own Exploited label, from the likes of Siriusmo, Malente & Dex, RQM, and Adam Sky, as well as cuts from Patrice Baumel, Radioclit, Jesse Rose, Polasticman, Tittsworth, Rex the Dog, and, well, dozens of other you can check below. Formatting the tracklisting nearly drove our rich-media editor insane, so hit download now and enjoy Part 2 of this mix.

Tracklisting
46. Diskokaine – Rimini (Christopher Just Remix) (Gomma)
47. Planet Soul – Set You Free (Fever Mix) (Strictly Rhythm)
48. Quando Quango – Love Tempo (Remix) (Strut)
49. Glossy Ninjas – Pajama (Glossy Ninjas)
50. Secondo – Kuwait (Soul Jazz)
51. Terry Cooper – The Jak Dub (Supa Dupa)
52. CLP – Ready or Not (Diplo vs. Sega Remix) (Shir Khan Edit) (Boys Noize)
53. Jjak Hogan – Devo (Oliver $ Rmx) (Shir Khan Edit) (Rekids)
54. Consistent – Midnight Blend (Oliver $ Tooltime Dub) (Frontroom)
55. David Gilmour Girls – Tune Your Aura (Freeform Five Remix) (Shir Khan Edit) (Relish)
56. Oliver $ & Deize Tigrona – Ta Com Medo Do Mim (Shir Khan Edit) (Man)
57. Lee Mortimer – Moaning and Groaning (Shir Khan Edit) (Dubsided)
58. Chemical Brothers – Hey Boy Hey Girl (Soulwax Remix) (Freestyle Dust)
59. Tittsworth feat. Kid Sister & Paserock – WTF (Plant Music)
60. Act Yo Age – The Flash (Shir Khan Edit) (Sweat it out!)
61. Emynd – Urgent Party Break (Shir Khan Edit) (Unruly)
62. Surkin feat. Chromeo – Chrome Knight (Shir Khan Edit) (Institubes)
63. Lazy Jay – Honk My Horn (Big&Dirty)
64. Markus Lange & Daniel Dexter Where’s My Mind (Malente Remix) (Black Fox)
65. Decalicious – Urlaub (Urlaub After Urlaub Version) (Kisu)
66. Egoexpress – Telefunken (Adolf Noise Remix / Malente Re-Edit) (Shir Khan Edit) (Ladomat)
67. Goon & Koyote – Pussy Out (Disque Primeur)
68. Junior Jack – Thrill Me (Pias)
69. Outlander – Vamp (Kevin Gormann Remix) (R&S)
70. Twocker – Ruffneck (Riva Starr Remix) (Big&Dirty)
71. Tomski & Fredboy – One Nation (Tartelet)
72. Eine kleine Nachtmusik – La Serenissima (Modular)
73. Andrew Friendly – The Bump and Grind (Acapella) (Gulp)
74. Monosurround – Mushroomed (Shir Khan Dub) (Citizen)
75. Niyi – I Love You All (Holloway Hitfactory)
76. Skream – Percression (Tempa)
77. Rex the Dog – Bubblicious-Skit (Hundehaus)
78. Khan of Finland – 4 Jahreszeiten (I’m Single)

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Podcast_Mix_2008_08_28

More Artists Confirmed for CMJ

Time for another round of panels and performances. CMJ 2008, set to take place October 21 – 25, already announced an initial lineup earlier this month. Now, the festival has unveiled another round of artists to join the likes of AIDS Wolf, Crystal Castles, Gang Gang Dance, and others. Black Moth Super Rainbow boss Tobacco, Talkdemonic, Late of the Pier, Fight Bite, Friendly Fires, and dozes of others listed below are slated to perform during the five-day festival. Best to register now.

Additional Artists:
Andy From Denver, Another Black Day, Appolo Heights, Au, Audrye Sessions, Autodrone, Averkiou, Awkward Stage, B.O.B., Bearsuit, Bell, Bison B.C., Bryan Scary, Bury Your Dead, Cadence, Cars Can Be Blue, Cause Co-Motion!,Charlie Louvin, Collections of Colonies of Bees, Crystal Stilts, Dallas Austin Experience, David Banner, Donovan Quinn, Eulogies, Eux Autres, Everybody Out, Fight Bite, Five Finger Death Punch, Florence and the Machine, Forever, Friendly Fires, Good Times Crisis Band, Hackman, Ho-ag, Hopewell, Hot Panda, Ifwhen, Immaculate Machine, In This Moment, Ironweed, Joan Osborne, Jukebox the Ghost, Jungle Brothers, Kid Sister, King Tuff, Late of the Pier, Left to Vanish, Lick Lick, Little Death, Lozen, Lukestar, Midway State, Neon Neon, Night Horse, Novillero, Park Avenue Music, People Under the Stairs, Psyopus, Roadsaw, Shame Club, Silver Screen, So Many Dynamos, Spirit of the Falcon XL, Stars Like Fleas, Stetsasonic, Sundelles, Talib Kweli, Talkdemonic, The Blue Van, The Bronzed Chorus, The Brother Kite, The Brought Low, The Duke Spirit, The Emeralds, the Lolligags, The Pack AD, The Snake Trap, The Toxic Avenger, The Weight, The Whip, These United States, This or the Apocalypse, Throttlerod, Tigercity, Titan, Tobacco, Tombs, Uglysuit, Vancougar, VAZ, Velcro Stars, We Versus the Shark, Weird Owl, White Lies, Whomadewho, Wild Sweet Orange, XYZ Affair and Zimbabwe Legit.

Pictured: Late of the Pier.

The Streets Ready New Album

Mike Skinner’s back, and it looks like he got all contemplative for his latest album, Everything is Borrowed, under his guise The Streets. According to a recent press release, “Skinner is contemplating the impermenant nature of life this time around. [He has] made a record to console the lonely and bring a smile to the saddest visage.”

So no rapping about drinking too much brandy and bitching about camera phones?

In any case, pick up the new album on October 7 via Vice.

Everything is Borrowed
01 Everything Is Borrowed
02 Heaven For The Weather
03 I Love You More (Than You Like Me)
04 The Way Of The Dodo
05 On The Flip Of A Coin
06 On The Edge Of A Cliff
07 Never Give In
08 The Sherry End
09 Alleged Legends
10 The Strongest Person I Know
11 The Escapist

Photo By Christopher Glancy.

Rafter Hosts Video Contest

So many ways to promote a new release these days, and since everyone on the face of the Earth owns a copy of Final Cut, why not hold a video contest right before your new EP drops? Rafter seems to think so, and he’s encouraging fans to download the tracks “Sweat,” “Salt,” and “Juicy,” which are off his forthcoming Sweaty Magic EP, create a music video to their favorite track, then upload said video to YouTube.

Asthmatic Kitty and Microcinema enlisted a panel of folks to judge the contest, and it’s an interesting lineup, to say the least. Dan Deacon and Liars will be joined by Adrian Grenier (of Entourage fame), actress Sasha Barrese, and Christine Starkman, who’s the curator of the Asian collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, among others.

All entries are due by November 15. Asthmatic Kitty will announce a winner on December 1. Grand prize is $1000, a second place winner will receive $500, and a third will scoop up $250. Three runners up with get a grip of AK gear.

Meanwhile, Sweaty Magic is out September 9.

MP3: “Juicy”

Photo by Lizeth Santos.

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