Based on Hans Fjellestad’s eye-goggling tongue-lashing cover shots, Eastern medicine practitioners might worry for his health, but the L.A.-based musician filmmaker is quite sturdy-if his sound is any indication. Following Fjellestad’s Robert Moog documentary, that synthesizer became Fjellestad’s preferred weapon and Snails R Sexy echoes the machine’s experimental analog brawn. This is the soundtrack for the occasionally rain-soaked streets of L.A. after dark, when the city hums and grinds behind glittery scenes. Fjellestad makes noise for the stout-hearted-his snails cuddle up to Sun Ra’s keyboard explosions, Merzbow’s drones, and Buckethead’s string histrionics. Gloss these shells with ’70s-era Krautrock and buff with Japanoise and Norwegian death metal (the subject of Fjellestad’s next documentary), and they are dead sexy.
Deadbeat Preps Album
Montreal is lucky to claim Scott Monteith (a.k.a. Deadbeat) as one of its own, and the same goes for Berlin and the ~scape imprint. The rest of us should simply be pleased that the label is releasing Monteith’s fourth full-length, Journeyman’s Annual.
Working as Deadbeat, Monteith has always stayed close to dub, experimenting with any spacious possibilities surrounding the genre. His previous records fit the ambient-dub mold, but Journeyman’s Annual marks the first time he has taken his tracks straight to the dancefloor. “Refund Me” features Bubbz, a Bristol-based MC who spits over an electro-dancehall sound palette. Likewise, “Deep in the Country” is a fierce club banger chock full of sick, gut-rumbling bass, featuring Moral Undulations.
Less expected moments appear when former Godspeed You Black Emperor! and A Silver Mount Zion violinist Sophie Trudeau enters the powerful dubscape, adding her stringed instrument to “Lost Luggage.” With this much bass and musical variety, systems should be EQ’d, grass should be smoked, and bodies prepped.
Journeyman’s Annual is out June 19, 2007 on ~scape.
Tracklisting
1. Lost Luggage
2. Melbourne Around Midnight
3. Night Train to Paris
4. Refund Me
5. Where Has My Love Gone
6. Deep in the Country
7. Turbulence
8. Gimme a Little Slack
9. Gimme a Little Dub
10. Loneliness and Revelry
Juan MacLean Tours Again
It’s official. The Juan MacLean has reached DJ virtuoso status. The DFA artist and crafter of robotic dance music hasn’t come close to releasing a new single, let alone a full album, since 2005’s Less Than Human. Yet, over the past two years, promoters have been flying him from city to city so the kids can get a taste of his desirable disco collection.
This time around, MacLean is playing some pretty weird bills, sharing the booth with everyone from Dan Deacon to Matty Safer to Juiceboxxx. Juan’s also slated for a live set (with a band!) in August. Could this be the sign of a new album? We hope so.
Tourdates
06/14 New York, NY: Hiro Ballroom
06/15 San Francisco, CA: RX Gallery
06/16 Los Angeles, CA: Echoplex
06/22 Toronto, ON: The Drake
06/23 Ciudad Juárez, MX: The Hard Pop
06/29 Chicago, IL: Smart Bar
Xaxapoya
Flunk Readies New Album
Oslo-based folktronica outfit Flunk has achieved a mild amount of success since its inception, but Personal Stereo, the quartet’s third longplayer for Beatservice Records, could very well ensure that success rate is higher in the coming months.
One of Norway’s leading exports (next to oil, cosmic disco, and Viking insignia), Flunk’s US album sales have already hit 10,000, its tracks have been serviced for The OC, C.S.I., and The L Word, and the band has probably been featured on more compilations than The Scorpions or Bon Jovi.
Bleeps and strings dominated the band’s previous albums, along with delicate female vocals woven between the musical layers, but Personal Stereo has guitar work written all over it (though the bleeps haven’t gone anywhere). The title track and “Change My Ways” manipulate lyrics into an array of different sounds, while the rest of the record plays like the tired ghost of The Sugar Cubes. Featuring a track with indie cult-hero Daniel Johnston, Flunk has proven that folktronica is still alive and kicking.
Personal Stereo is out now on Beatservice.
Tracklisting
1. Personal Stereo
2. Heavenly
3. If We Kiss
4. Haldi
5. Sit Down
6. See You
7. Two Icicles
8. Change My Ways
9. Keep On
10. Diet of Water and Love
Daily Download: Damiak “Tall Hat Greeting”
Some will call it glitch-pop or melancholic IDM, but Abe Dichi (a.k.a. Damiak) is really just a multi-instrumentalist who knows how to make a song speak volumes. Not unlike Icelandic mood-swingers Múm or Efterklang, Damiak tweaks bells and space to create the sad man’s domain. “Tall Hat Greeting” is a triumph for n5MD and made musicians who take their craft seriously.
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.
Damiak “Tall Hat Greeting”
Some will call it glitch-pop or melancholic IDM, but Abe Dichi (a.k.a. Damiak) is really just a multi-instrumentalist who knows how to make a song speak volumes. Not unlike Icelandic mood-swingers Múm or Efterklang, Damiak tweaks bells and space to create the sad man’s domain. “Tall Hat Greeting” is a triumph for n5MD and made musicians who take their craft seriously.
Jean-Francois Laporte Soundmatters
On Soundmatters, Canadian sound artist Jean-Francois Laporte magnifies life in unexpected places. Wind noises cut through roof shingles and skin in his recordings of a Montreal ice storm in the mesmerizing “electro-Prana,” while on “Ventre du Dragon” he uncovers 15 seconds of natural reverb inside an empty cargo ship, where droning brass horns sound like boats being swallowed up by fog. Laporte also indulges in dissonant excursions that challenge attention spans, namely the shrill 26 minutes of a skating rink’s cooling compressor on “Mantra,” and the sax and drums that struggle to fly in the nightmarish closer “Plentitude du Vide.” Fortunately, his noises that whisper still speak louder to the soul.
In the Studio: Pole
In part two of our series on Recombinant Media Labs, XLR8R Technology Editor Ken Taylor looks at the facility through the eyes of Berlin-based musician Stefan Betke, aka Pole. To a soundboard master like Pole, Asphodel is not only “a dreamland” but fertile ground for his dub-heavy explorations. Watch as he experiences Asphodel Studios for the first time.
Oxbow Narrates Narcotics
The noise-vets in Oxbow have reason to celebrate. They’ve finally graduated from the Nick Cave academy with degrees in the slaying arts, and on The Narcotic Story, the San Francisco-based band takes the blues for a demented spin.
Best known for vocalist Eugene Robinson’s cathartic live performance (which includes stripping, howling, and pelvic-gyrating), Oxbow has carved a very unique place for itself in the post-rock scene. Recording albums with the legendary Steve Albini and collaborating with everyone from Lydia Lunch to Marianne Faithful, the quartet may be one of the most overlooked bands in the genre, particularly when compared to contemporaries like Faith No More and Isis.
The Narcotic Story is the culmination of the band’s nearly 20-year opus. Rather than relying solely on the power of discordant guitars and Robinson’s wailing, the band presents songs that rely as much on orchestral piano scores, accenting strings, and harmonizing vocals as they do on spasmodic brutality.
Teaming up with Japanese doom-trio Boris to support Isis on a forthcoming European tour, Oxbow is set to intoxicate the world with its new narcotic story.
The Narcotic Story is out now on Hydra Head.
Tracklisting
01. Intro
02. Geometry of Business
03. Time Gentlemen Time
04. Down A Stair Backward
05. She’s A Find
06. Frankly Frank
07. A Winner Every Time
08. Frank’s Frolic
09. It’s the Giving, Not the Taking
