Daily Download: Tomboy “Flamingo”
Tomas Barford (a.k.a. Tomboy) is a cosmic-house prophet with one hell of a vision. As producer and drummer for WhoMadeWho, Barford has proven that live instrumentation makes for some of the most impacting dance records around. His debut, Serios, is one of the most unique house records to surface this year.
Download this song as an MP3, or preview a week’s worth of tracks at the XLR8R Podcast. Subscribe using iTunes, or with an RSS reader of your choice.
Skull Disco Soundboy Punishments
London imprint Skull Disco’s resident producers Shackleton and Appleblim create brilliantly twisted dubstep that fancies the undead, full of decay, darkness, and lumbering steps. This vital compilation brings together the label’s first five releases with outtakes and rarities, providing stark personality sketches of these celebrated new artists. Adorned with fidgeting tambourine shakes and hiccupping percussion, Shackleton’s sparse and swirling Middle Eastern-tinged melodies exude creeping doom with minimal effort, like a madman’s disquieting gaze. It’s mystical and skeletal-especially “Blood on My Hands,” which contains hypnotic lyrics about the Twin Towers-with dissociative beats bleached and picked clean. Appleblim takes a more enveloping route, heightening his paranoid soundscapes by slicing off heavy, rumbling slabs of low-end with a dull blade.
Turzi Releases A
France is no stranger to psychedelic music, and the country’s proverbial hypnotic torch has now been passed down to Romain Turzi. A descendent from the spaced-out, post-shoegaze school of Sébatstian Tellier (best known for his work on the Air-owned label Record Makers), Turzi and his quintet often journey through a tunnel of swirling guitar leads and Kraut-rhythms in their music. Citing influences like J. Masicis, Faust, and LSD, it’s obvious these guys are on another plain of rock-consciousness.
A, the band’s US debut, is exempt from the rational realm of record releases. When any tripster purchases a physical copy of the album, they’ll be presented with a download of the Turzi-curated compilation Voyage: Facing the History of French Modern Psychedelic Music, which features everyone from Tellier to Chicros to Service. It’s no wonder New York-based Kemado Records–whose most recent releases include progressive psych-rock from Danava, Lansing-Dreiden, and Dungen–jumped all over this album.
Stay tuned for a schedule of live performances slated for fall.
A is out June 11, 2007 on Kemado.
A Tracklisting
1. A
2. Alpes
3. Animal Signal
4. Are You Thinking About Jesus?
5. Afghanistan
6. Acid Taste
7. A Notre Pere
8. Aigle
9. Amadeus
10. Attila Blues
11. Authority 17
12. Allah Delon
13. Axis Of Good
Voyage… Tracklisting
1. One Switch to Collision “Smokes”
2. Aqua Nebula Oscillator “Ready to Fly”
3. Sébastian Tellier “Paris”
4. Butch MC Koy “Sin”
5. Service “The Dog”
6. Ulysse “The Countess’s Smiles”
7. Koudlam “I Was Down”
8. Musikasphaera “Beware”
9. Kill for Total Peace “Psychopedestrian”
10. Modadishow “Mantra“
11. Turzi “Aigle (Hi Fli Mix)”
12. Juan Trip “High America”
13. Chicros “New Orleans”
14. Étienne Jaumet “Doudouk”
15. Rob “Improvisation”
Podcast 9: A Touch Of Class
An hour’s worth of electro and obscure disco get shuffled around and turned inside out courtesy of New York-based duo A Touch of Class on this grinding mix. Features Simian Mobile Disco, Ennio Morricone, Services, Todd Terje, The Decemberists, Justice, and more.
Subscribe to this podcast: iTunes or mp3 format. For help, click here.
Download MP3
Download M4A (iTunes enhanced)
Subscribe to Podcast (RSS)
Mistaken For Strangers
The Week In Tours, June 7
This week we’re offering some solid dates that should have no trouble satisfying everyone from leather-clad electro deviants to sherm-smoking hip-hop heads. The London-based drug punks in Motor are making a few stops in the East with barebones synth and kick chaos. Chromeo hits the states with club visionary Flosstradamus, Morr Music’s lap-pop band, Lymbic System, continues its quest into the depths of Florida, and Cage continues taking his dark, angst-ridden hip-hop through the US.
Motor
06/14 Edmonton, AB: Starlite Room
06/15 Minneapolis, MN: Loft Event Space
06/16 Detroit, MI: Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit
06/29 Brooklyn, NY: Studio B
06/30 Boston, MA: Axis
07/01 Toronto, ON: The Guvernment
Chromeo
07/05 New York, NY: Hiro Ballroom
07/06 Brooklyn, NY: Studio B
07/07 Philadelphia, PA: Fillmore
07/08 Baltimore, MD: Sonar
07/10 Ottawa, ON: Babylon Nightclub
07/11 Toronto, ON: Spin Gallery
07/12 Montreal, QC: Club 1234
07/13 Buffalo, NY: The Calumet
07/14 Chicago, IL: Empty Bottle
07/16 Edmonton, AB: Starlite Room
07/17 Calgary, AB: Hi Fi Club
07/19 Vancouver, BC: Red Room
07/20 Seattle, WA: Chop Suey
07/21 Portland, OR: Rotture
07/23 San Francisco, CA: Mezzanine
07/24 Los Angeles, CA: Cinespace
07/25 San Diego, CA: Beauty Bar
07/26 Los Angeles, CA: Echo
07/28 Miami, FL: Studio A
Lymbyc System
06/06 Cleveland, OH: B Side Lounge
06/07 New York, NY: The Annex
06/08 Philadelphia, PA: The Fire
06/09 Norfolk, VA: The Boot
06/11 Greensboro, NC: Two Art Chicks
06/12 Tallahassee, FL: The Beta Bar
06/13 Jacksonville, FL: Jackrabbit’s
06/14 Delray Beach, FL: City Limits
06/15 West Palm Beach, FL: Respectable Street
06/16 Tampa, FL: New World Brewery
06/20 Austin, TX: Emo’s
Cage
07/25 Chicago, IL: Congress Theater
07/27 Baltimore, MD: Pier 6 Pavillion
07/28 New York, NY: Randall Island
07/29 New York, NY: Randall Island
07/31 Minneapolis, MN: First Ave.
08/04 Eugene OR: Secret House Vineyard
08/05 San Francisco, CA: Bill Graham Civic Center
08/07 Denver, CO: Red Rocks Pavillion
08/09 Santa Fe, NM: Paolo Soleri Ampitheater
08/10 Mesa, AZ: Mesa Ampitheater
08/11 San Bernadino, CA: Rock The Bells
Plastic Little Tours, Despite Being Broke
As stated on Philadelphia-based group Plastic Little’s MySpace page, “The chances of seeing Plastic Little outside of Philly, NYC, NJ, or DC is pretty, pretty slim…it’s not that we’re lazy, we’re just some super broke blokes. Y’know?”
The good news is that the boys seem to have come up with a little extra cash since this posting, enough to manage a trip out West, with a couple stops in Canada and the Midwest along the way.
Live performances and lack of cash aside, the group has been receiving praise for its most recent long-player She’s Mature. The album peaked the interest of folks like Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard and Pink Skull, both of whom took a shot at remixing the the group’s breakthrough track, “Drizzhollering,” for the recently-released digital-only EP Driz-bodia. Add a few hilarious videos into the mix, and it appears that Plastic Little is keeping busy, constantly finding new ways to approach their goofy, sometimes absurd hybrid of hip-hop and pop. Hopefully they earn some cash in the near future too.
Fred Miketa
Driz-bodia is out now on Tonearm.
Tourdates
06/07 Washington, DC: DC9
06/15 Chicago, IL: Hyde Park Arts Center
06/16 Chicago, IL: TBA
06/23 Philadelphia, PA: M-Room
07/12 Calgary, AB: Hi-Fi Club
07/13 Edmonton, AB: Khz
07/15 Seattle, WA: The War Room
07/19 San Francisco, CA: Milk Bar
07/20 Los Angeles, CA: Echoplex
Daily Download: Loden “Vlugt (And More For You)”
Loden’s music marks Mush Records’ venture into the realm of blistering electronic shoegaze. Unlike labelmates K-the-I??? and Busdriver, this Amsterdam-based producer makes tracks ridden with fuzzy guitar leads that should give My Bloody Valentine a run for its money. “Vlugt (And More For You)” may be the crossover track of the year for a label ripe with rad artistry.
Download this song as an MP3, or preview a week’s worth of tracks at the XLR8R Podcast. Subscribe using iTunes, or with an RSS reader of your choice.
Loden “Vlugt (And More For You)”
Loden is Mush’s venture into the realm of blistering electronic shoegaze. Unlike labelmates K-the-I??? and Busdriver, this Amsterdam-based producer makes buzzing guitar leads that give My Bloody Valentine a run for its money. “Vlugt (And More For You),” may be the crossover track of the year for a label ripe with rad artistry.
