Swervedriver and Interpol Members Form Magnetic Morning
Talk about two great sounds coming together: if someone told me that two shoegazer/dream-pop indie icons from different generations were going to collaborate and record new music, I would have said that’s about as likely as a My Bloody Valentine reunion. Apparently I was wrong about that too… but whatever the case, fans of dense, melodic sounds will be stoked to hear Magnetic Morning, a new collaboration from Interpol drummer Adam Fogarino and Swervedrive singer/guitarist, Adam Franklin.
New York’s Interpol have released three critically acclaimed albums, including 2007’s Our Love To Admire (Capitol), and have drawn comparisons to ’80s alternative bands The Chameleons UK and Echo & The Bunnyman. Formed in 1990, the U.K.’s Swervedriver was at the center of Britain’s shoegazer rock scene, although the band leaned towards a heavier, grungier sonic output. Fogarino and Franklin met through a chance introduction, and soon decided to collaborate and record materials.
A self-titled Magnetic Morning EP on DH Records will be in stores this Saturday, April 19. This special five-song EP, recorded at New York’s famed Electric Ladyland studios with Claudius Mittendorfer, engineer of Interpol’s latest LP, features lush, melodic tracks like “Cold War Kids” (not the band) and “Yesterdays Flowers.”
Fogarino will DJ at Other Music in New York (15 East 4th Street) at 5 p.m. EST this Saturday, April 19 for Record Store Day, an event focusing attention on the nation’s physical “brick and mortar” independent record shops.
Photo by Christy Bush.
Droid Behavior: High-Tech Trio
When you think about minimal techno some places come to mind: Berlin, Detroit… hell, all of Europe. Los Angeles, not so much. Yes, John Tejada and Cytrax hail from here, but promoting techno in the land of plastic surgery and palm trees has always been an uphill battle. Which explains why the founders of Droid Behavior had to trick Southern Californians into joining their fledgling motorik movement. “We printed business cards with the words ‘Eat Sleep Shit Techno’ and an email address, and passed these out at record stores, clubs, and parties to see who would bite,” writes the trio in a group email. “Once we had enough positive and inquisitive emails it was time to start sending out the first newsletters; once we had developed enough momentum we produced our first events.”
Not long after, Droid Behavior–which consists of brothers Vidal and Vangelis Vargas (who record as Acid Circus) and Mohamed “Moe” Espinosa (a.k.a. Drumcell)–dropped their first label release at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival in 2003. Inspired by labels like Minus, Axis, Warp, and Raster-Noton–plus the guerrilla marketing tactics of Shepard Fairey–the crew developed an instantly recognizable robot aesthetic; it’s been used on releases, flyers for their bi-monthly Interface event, and the Droid stickers that blanket every bus stop, bathroom, and record store they pass.
Among Droid’s biggest inspirations are “scummy, rat-ridden warehouses” and the parties therein. The Vargas brothers grew up in East L.A. (“Plenty of lowriders and Jaime Escalante-style after-school programs.”) and Espinosa in nearby Hacienda Heights–all three were heavily influenced by the city’s rave scene of the mid-’90s. “In the summer [before] my freshman year in high school I was in a backyard punk band and our drummer was always going to undergrounds,” recalls Espinosa. “Eventually he started taking me with him and we would exchange mixtapes. I was already experimenting with various multi-track recorders and drum machines, so making electronic music was the next obvious step.”
“Frankie Bones, Jeff Mills, Surgeon, and Richie Hawtin were influential,” concur the Brothers Vargas. “[Their music] was different from a lot of the trance and house that L.A. was exposed to throughout the ’90s. This led us to dig deeper into early Detroit techno and its European counterparts.”
The trio originally met at a house party where Vidal and Vangelis were performing on 350 MHz desktops, and they “pretty much clicked instantly.” They would go on to release EPs like Acid Circus’ Reduxtion and Drumcell’s System Error, exploring various facets of minimal, from spacious and clicky numbers to pounding, loopy robot rockers.
Though weekly annoyances include “flaky promoters, mega-clubs that don’t know what they’re doing, band-wagoners, being overlooked as artists, and dealing with people’s egos,” the Droids say they wouldn’t leave the City of Lost Angels for anything. “We have all done our fair share of traveling,” says Espinosa. “Although I know how important it is to taste other parts of the world, to me there is something special about L.A. that lays thick inside me.”
The Black Dog Radio Scarecrow
Ken Downie has piloted The Black Dog for years without former bandmates Ed Handley and Andy Turner, but his new album, Radio Scarecrow,revisits the same “intelligent” aesthetic that the trio established together nearly two decades ago. It’s all moody stuff: sweeping ambient and melancholy washes pierce these techno rhythms, creating a clean, high-tech Detroit sound. More than anything, this vibrant nexus echoes the ebb and flow of the gritty cityscape: rugged bass and lean melody course through these tracks like surging electricity, powerfully fueling these mighty urban textures. Check the supple beauty of “EVP Echoes,” “Siiiipher,” “Digital Poacher,” and “UV Sine,” each displaying an invigorating mix of stripped-down bass and gentle, spare atmospherics that strongly recalls early ‘90s techno on classic imprints like Warp (“Set to Receive” has a vintage Autechre synth line). A welcome throwback that only proves the enduring timelessness of thoughtfully composed techno.
Jasper TX In a Cool Monsoon
With In a Cool Monsoon, Dag “Jasper TX” Rosenqvist tosses water on his listeners before tucking them back into bed. On opener “Still a Tiny Light,” pastoral guitar melodies slither between blasts of frying static, causing one to flinch whenever a peaceful chord rings. Sadly, the rest of Monsoon is too safe. Rosenqvist’s minimalist palette of listless guitar and accordion notes takes too long to finish its melodies, leaving the mind to wander and grow bored. There are few nice touches, like a peculiar moment where a microphone seemingly travels in a walking man’s pocket on “I Will Be Birds When I Die,” but avoid playing Monsoon half asleep on a freeway at midnight (like I foolishly did).
Cut Copy In Ghost Colours
Back when nu-rave was new, Cut Copy got blog-famous on the strength of a housey FabricLive mix and a full-length with “neon” in the title. But their sophomore offering, In Ghost Colours, reminds us that Cut Copy has a rock band side in there somewhere, too–DayGlo shellac or no. This time around, DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy sprinkles his magic disco dust onto Cut Copy’s glittering ‘80s synth-pop, massaging those beefy basslines and Modern English keyboards into something more human than before. Working around Dan Whitford’s trilling, edgeless vocals, Cut Copy plumbs some new emotional depths, as seen in the lovely, sliding, Fleetwood Mac-esque guitar behind “Strangers in the Wind,” or the sawed-off discord of “So Haunted.” The party’s still going strong, but they now know better than to say it’ll last forever–and that makes it all the better.
The Cinematic Orchestra Readies Live Album and Tour
The Royal Albert Hall’s most famous and infamous concerts may have taken place more than four decades ago, like the time The Beatles and Rolling Stones shared the stage or when Bob Dylan antagonized his audience with electric guitars, but the historically revered venue continues to have one of the best reputations in the world. All of that admiration is well earned considering that the venue has 4,000 seats, audiophile-approved sound, and enough room for a full orchestra to perform.
Ninja Tune artist The Cinematic Orchestra will join an enviable group of musicians (Siouxsie and The Banshees, Sisters of Mercy, and Spiritualized, to name just a few) when they release Live at the Royal Albert Hall next week. The album was recorded in early 2007 with a 24-piece orchestra and an expanded line-up of the band including guest vocalists Lou Rhodes and Patrick Watson.
To coincide with the release, they’ll be playing a short string of not-to-be-missed U.S. dates:
4/22 New York, NY: Jazz Standard @ 7:30 PM
4/22 New York, NY: Jazz Standard @ 9:30 PM
4/23 Brooklyn, NY: Williamsburg Music Hall
4/26 Indio, CA: Coachella Music Festival
Arc Lab “I Wish I Could Tell You”
Medard Fischer was initially motivated by architecture to begin the Arc Lab project and wrote songs as “musings on the interplay between structurally defined space and musical expression,” by his own admission. On Fischer’s third full-length, The Goodbye Radio, the aim might be less esoteric but the songs are more focused. The tracks put layers of warm synths and drifting beats under an echoing fog of Fischer’s melancholy vocals. Walking the line between IDM and indie-pop like Figurine, Arc Lab splits Fischer’s personality between aural architect and laptop troubadour. Wyatt Williams
Five Star by Miss Kittin
Miss Kittin, the queen of moody electro-tech, picks her favorite goth records.
1. Dead Can Dance
Into the Labyrinth
4AD
Timeless. Lisa Gerrard sings in her own language, from her own deep spiritual dimension. She once stopped a concert because someone was smoking a cigarette, and no one said she was behaving like a diva. I like when her partner [Brendan Perry] sings, too; he sounds like the guardian of their own temple. I miss them, but their records survived their breakup. Totally goth.
2. Bauhaus
“Bela Lugosi’s Dead”
Small Wonder
Obvious choice, but let’s face it, it’s the only great song they wrote. It’s unforgettable in one of my favorite movies, The Hunger, with Catherine
Deneuve, Susan Sarandon, and David Bowie. Primal Scream asked me to choose a song to cover during spare time in the studio, and I took this one. Downloading the lyrics, I discovered it was “Undead” and not “I am dead”… I am still shocked about that, being wrong all these years! It was so much fun to jam.
3. Sunn O))) & Boris
Altar
Southern
I discovered Sunn O))) through the singer’s fiancé, who is a very good friend of mine, and saw them live at the Sonar Festival in Barcelona last year. Two months ago, they did a show in a cave in Paris, where I took a friend who was on painkillers for a dislocated shoulder after saving a girl from being raped… I can tell you, this was a total goth moment, like my head was in a propeller.
4. Biosphere
Cirque
Touch
My favorite ambient band. They are from Norway and live in the Arctic Circle in Tromsø. They sampled John Carpenter’s Village of the Damned, and the voice of Jean-Louis Etienne, a famous French explorer of the North Pole, talking about his spiritual experience alone on the ice. Always so mind-tripping.
5. Joy Division
Closer
Factory
The kind of music that still haunts me. I listened to it a lot when I was living in Berlin, driving, when it’s cold and grey–you know, just to make it a little more intense… It works! A voice from outer space, from the grave. I didn’t go and see [Control]. I prefer to keep my own image of Ian Curtis; I am not so interested in his life or how he looked. He is a ghost that doesn’t need to be brought back to life.
Clinic Do It!
Though Clinic has released a string of credible records since 2002, the oft-masked Liverpudlian art-rockers famously haven’t won back the acclaim garnered by their stunning debut, Internal Wrangler. But with Do It!–an album that matches the urgency of its cheeky title–they’re a step further to reclaiming that praise. Do It! recalls the approach of fellow experimentalists Liars, who reined in their adventurous tendencies in favor of melody. Do It! also retains all of the band’s signature weirdness and genre exploration but introduces a new pop sensibility, due in part to producer Jacquire King, who puts his stamp on the standout love trip “Emotions” and spooky closer “Coda.”
