On-U Sound Preps New Albums

The early-’80s were an obscure era. New York was getting its first lick of post-punk with now-legendary acts like Suicide, Sonic Youth, PiL, and The Slits, crossbreeding genres from dub to noise. But while the aforementioned acts gave birth to the current wave of that particular genre, legendary producer Adrian Sherwood and The On-U Sound label inspired generation after generation of artistry, from industrial to hip-hop-to electro, and everything in between. It’s been over two decades since Sherwood’s heyday, and he’s finally releasing three post-punk oddities from the On-U sound vaults–two comprehensive comps and a rare Mark Stewart masterpiece. Yes!

Learning to Cope with Cowardice is Mark Stewart (Pop Group vocalist) and The Maffia’s 1983 vision-quest. Quite possibly the foundation for bands like Massive Attack and Ministry, Mark Stewart and The Maffia set a new standard for trippy music with Sherwood at the production reigns. Learning to Cope is a fuzzy, hard-hitting LP, complete with industrial drum sounds, Elvis meets Elephant Man vocals, and skittering electronic noise.

Sherwood’s other offerings include two compilations of U-Sound artistry entitled On-U Sound Crash: Slash & Mix and Tackhead Sound Crash: Slash & Mix. The former is a collection of Sherwood-produced tracks from dub and post-punk bands African Head Charge, Dub Syndicate, and Creation Rebel, amongst others. The latter, a twisted mash-up of U-Sound tracks (Lee Perry and most of the artists listed above) processed through heavy distortion, dubbed, and layered upon one another with the addition of screeching vocals (some courtesy of Ari Up of The Slits). All this is thanks to the work of Tackhead, Sherwood’s prolific production quartet. Post-punk is far from dead.

Tracklistings

Mark Stewart and The Maffia: Learning to Cope with Cowardice
1. Learning To Cope With Cowardice
2. Liberty City
3. Blessed Are Those Who Struggle
4. None Dare Call It Conspiracy
5. Don’t You Ever Lay Down Your Arms
6. The Paranoia Of Power
7. To Have The Vision
8. Jerusalem
9. The Wrong Name And The Wrong Number (DJ Battle)
10. High Ideals And Crazy Dreams
11. High Ideals Live
12. Live Paranoia

On-U Sound Crash
1. Dub Syndicate (feat. Lee Perry) “Jungle Pt.4”
2. New Age Steppers “Private Armies Dub”
3. Gary Clail “2 Thieves And A Liar”
4. Mark Stewart & Maffia “Liberty City”
5. Doctor Pablo “Man Of Mystery”
6. Dub Syndicate “Hey Ho”
7. Dub Syndicate (feat. Lee Perry) “Dubbing Psycho Thriller”
8. African Head Charge “Hole In The Roof”
9. Noah House Of Dread “Stand Firm”
10. Dub Syndicate “Chemical Head”
11. Tackhead “Mind At The End Of The Tether”
12. Prince Far I/Creation Rebel/Bim Sherman “Frontline Version/Tribulation Dub”
13. Congo Ashanti Roy/Singers & Players “African Blood”
14. Prince Far I/Singers & Players “Virgin”
15. Creation Rebel “Beware”
16. Creation Rebel “Creation In A Iration”
17. Noah House Of Dread “Sellassie I”
18. African Head Charge “Conspiring”
19. Mark Stewart & Maffia “Jerusalem”
20. Bim Sherman/Singers & Players “Revolution”
21. New Age Steppers “My Whole World”
22. Mark Stewart & Maffia “Beneath The City Streets”
23. Gary Clail/The Barmy Army “Privatise The Air / Stadium Rock”
24. Gary Clail/Andy Fairley “Half Cut For Confidence / Jack The Biscuit”
25. Mark Stewart & Maffia “These Things Happen”
26. Congo Ashanti Roy/Singers & Players “Breaking Down The Pressure”
27. Creation Rebel “African Space”
28. Bim Sherman “Slummy Ghetto”
29. Creation Rebel “The Dope”
30. African Head Charge “In The Air”
31. African Head Charge “Dinosaurs Lament”

Tackhead Sound Crash
1. Intro ‘Free’
2. Mind At The End Of Its Tether
3. What’s My Mission Now?
4. Ghost
5. Mind At The End Of Its Tether pt.2
6. 1/2 Cut For Confidence
7. Ticking Time Bomb
8. Heaven On Earth
9. Ticking Time Bomb pt.2
10. Heaven On Earth pt.2
11. Mechanical Movements pt.2
12. I Stopped The Clock
13. Bop Bop
14. King Of The Beat
15. Move It
16. Body To Burn
17. D.J. Programme
18. Disconnection
19. Rochester
20. Audio Visual Attack
21. Man In A Suitcase
22. Dreamworld
23. Get Thi Beloved
24. Gamesmaship
25. Get Move O This
26. Einstein pt.2
27. Hard Left
28. No Hands On The Wheel
29.Listen Good Drummers
30. Free Again
31. This Is The Night
32. Bastard Son Of Fats

Adrian Sherwood: the man behind the mission.

Shot Calling: Telemarketing

“I read the phonebook like a novel when I was a kid,” says Alexi Morrissey, a conceptual artist based in Pittsburgh. While Morrissey, a former graffiti artist from Boston, was searching for a hotel-style wake-up call service, he discovered robotic dialing–suddenly, all his attention was turned back to the phone. Wake Up Call,, an online project created by Morrissey and Damien Miller, allows users to choose from over 70 audio artworks, and have that work delivered to any phone number. The recordings range from straight-up music (including acoustic bluegrass jams from Nashville’s David Long and electronic music from Creation is Crucifixion’s Nathan Martin) to poetry, sound art, and anti-Bush cheerleading. Even its crank-call side is artistic: In homage to John Giorno’s Dial-a-Poem, the project’s calls appear to come from Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art.

Wake Up Call is not just an art delivery system or a utilitarian service, but a repurposing of technology; it takes a modern inconvenience and turns it into something desirable. “People don’t like the fact that their telephone allows others to take advantage of them,” says Morrissey. “But people like cellos and poetry. This is the robotic call that you want to get.”

Architecture in Helsinki Announces Tour

With the electro scene growing ever more global, Australia’s Architecture in Helsinki gears up to take its indie electro-pop shenanigans around the world–from Moscow to Portland.

The sextet’s newest single, “Heart it” (remixed by dj /rupture and featuring Lee G), is a stomping, dancehall-meets-electro-pop collision. With Lee’s vocal brawn, /rupture’s simple mid-tempo groove, and melodic electronics, it’s hard to imagine a more ambitious live show. Dancehall? Say goodbye to indie-pop live conventions.

In addition to taking on the world, AIH will manifest itself in different forms throughout the year, via hearty remixes and collaborations with S.F.’s own dance-pop playboy Hey Willpower, A-Trak, and Dr. Dog, amongst others. Good times await.

Tour Dates
5/10 Brisbane, AUS: The Zoo
5/11 Sydney, AUS: Factory Theatre
5/13 Melbourne, AUS: Prince of Wales
5/19 Moscow, RU: TBA
5/20 Somerset, UK: ATP Festival
5/24 Paris, FR: La Fleche D’or
5/25 Dublin, IE: Tripod
5/26 Bristol, UK: Dot to Dot Festival
5/27 Nottingham, UK: Dot to Dot Festival
5/29 Brussels, BE: Botanique
5/30 Amsterdam, NL: Paradiso
5/31 Köln, DE: Gebäude 9
6/01 Neustrelitz, DE: Immergut Festival
6/02 Barcelona, ES: Primavera Sound
6/04 London, UK: Kings College
6/07 Cambridge, MA: Middle East Downstairs
6/08 New York, NY: Irving Plaza
6/09 Philadelphia, PA: TBA
6/10 Washington, DC: 9:30 Club
6/11 Chicago, IL: Logan Square Auditorium
6/13 Seattle, WA: Neumo’s
6/14 Vancouver, BC: Richards on Richards
6/15 Portland, OR: Wonder Ballroom
6/16 San Francisco, CA: Bimbo’s 365 Club
6/18 Pomona, CA: Glasshouse
6/19 Los Angeles, CA: Henry Fonda Theatre

Just Beat It!

Instrumental leftfield hip-hop is once again exploding, with tons of new players emerging from online labels and MySpace pages. The abstract sound (also referred to as “headz”)–a combo of hip-hop drum programming, funky loops, strange samples, and intricate, choppy production blended into an often meditative brew–originated in the ’90s, with Mo Wax and Ninja Tune artists DJ Krush, The Prunes, Funky Porcini, and DJ Food.

Some new names making waves include Glasgow’s Hudson Mohawke, Los Angeles’ Flying Lotus, and Japan’s Mitsu The Beats. Singles like Ubiquity’s Choices EP or Rush Hour’s Cinnaman & Jay Scarlett Present Beat Dimensions Vol 1 offer nice previews of this new crop.

A few other releases by new and established beat-smiths are also worth sleuthing out:

Joe BeatsDiverse Recourse (Bully Records)
The 18 soulful and swinging instrumentals on Diverse Recourse showcase Joe Beats’ knack for mutating funky samples and rattling beats into head-nodding treats. The album is mixed seamlessly; each track invisibly blends into the next in a dreamy mélange of dark, complex soundscapes. Mr. Dibbs, Blockhead, and Non-Phophets are all fans. This is a watershed album for this young producer, out May 29.

DJ BabuThe Beat Tape Volume 1 (Nature Sounds)
Beat Junkie and Dilated Peoples’ DJ Babu hardly needs an introduction. His Duck Season battle-tool series and record-setting wins in turntablist competitions speak for themselves. But did you know he could get nice on the sampler? The Beat Tape is a fitting intro to Babu’s production steelo. He offers gritty drums, bouncy loops, and lots of elephant-butt bass. Wanna-be MCs can spit over any of 32 selections–a thorough presentation without question.

Thisish Vol. 1, Hosted by Large Professor (Thisish) Hot new beats from a crew of talented Brooklyn producers, each with their own unique style. Main Source emcee Large Professor ad libs and introduces the 21 tracks, as producers Marshall Law, Cresh Frazy, Johnny 5, and others get down with ill sounds. Cresh’s illbient-meets-dark-hop will give you goosebumps, while Law’s sexy, sample-strewn beats will please breakers and b-boys/girls alike.

Joe Beats’ Diverse Recourse, Babu’s The Beat Tape, and Thisish Vol. 1.

Efterklang Preps Mini-Album

Múm is so 2003. 2007 is all about the acoustic-by-way-of-electronic minimalists Efterklang. It’s been six years since the Copenhagen-based quintet (actually, sextet, if one includes its resident filmmaker) formed, and each successive release since their debut, Tripper, finds the moody post-rockers blossoming further.

For Under Giant Trees, the band’s third release on Leaf, Efterklang meanders through muted percussion, soft horns, glittering chimes, and those heart-warming strings with seamless ease, much in the style of Explosions in the Sky or Sigur Rós. Under Giant Trees is full of songs that the band calls “trees we have planted, watered, and nursed.”

This well-nurtured mini-album (or EP, if you will) is limited to 4500 CD copies and a mere 1200 white vinyl copies. As a consolation though, the band has announced it will release a proper full-length album this fall, to include new tracks as well as those from Under Giant Trees.

Under Giant Trees is out May 9, 2007 on Leaf. 

Tracklisting
1. Falling Horses
2. Himmelbjerget
3. Hands Playing Butterfly
4. Towards Bare Hill
5. Jojo

Various Artists Bong-Ra vs. Sickboy: Shotgun Wedding 5

2007 is the new 1991. Bong-Ra and Sickboy revisit the roots of UK ‘ardcore on the fifth installment of Kid 606’s impeccable Shotgun Wedding series, mashing up every brilliant tune from the day. Bong-Ra stays pretty faithful-no Shitmat-esque noodling, just the best breakdowns and buildups of 45-plus great tunes chopped just the way you want ’em. Sickboy raves up a wider (and slightly cheesier) selection butting Rednex vs. Vengaboys vs. Sean Paul vs. Busta vs. what-have-you. A glorious trip down memory lane that’s still pretty ass-kicking-20% ironic, 80% ‘ardcore; you know the score.

Peder And He Just Pointed to the Sky…

Taking cues from an interview he read with producer Rick Rubin, Danish remixer and DJ Peder embarked on an inward quest. Having refashioned the sounds of The Beastie Boys and DJ Krush, Peder was determined to tap into the cinematic soundscape inside his non-mainstream soul. With And He Just… he’s created a dark and brooding beast full of horror-movie pianos and stabbing percussive thrusts. It’s not an easy, or particularly interesting, listen, but within this quest he managed to create one of the greatest singles of the past decade. “The Sour,” featuring ex-Screaming Headless Torsos vocalist Dean Bowman, is a jazz-gospel gem proving that a part can equal, and indeed surpass, the sum of the whole.

DJ Mehdi’s Artist Tips

Parisian DJ Mehdi‘s debut full-length on Ed Banger, Lucky Boy, encompasses so many different styles that a single listen can make your head spin. We were interested to know how he changes gears so smoothly and what tools and production philosophies aided one of the year’s most promising hip-hop/not-hip-hop records. Here Mehdi breaks down the process, one song at a time.

1. “Busy Being Born”
This is a bass-tinged, hip-hop-flavored instrumental. It’s made from two things I was doing a lot during the early stages of making this album: playing the acoustic guitar and listening to Bob Dylan. I know it’s not super-obvious when you hear the record now, but this one song was definitely made out of those two ingredients. It has me strumming, MPC-rhythm programming, and a Dylan-esque title!

2. “I Am Somebody” (Featuring Chromeo)”
This is a flashy, ’80s-R&B pop tune. It’s as simple as me playing around with the MPC1000, sampling two of my favorite records ever, which I can’t tell you about, and some cosmic keyboarding on the MiniMoog-the same way I’d make a rap instrumental. We asked Chromeo for a remix and they hit us back with crazy vocals, vocoder lines, and more cosmic keyboards!

3. “Signature”
For this glitched-out, almost-ambient synth number, I have to give it up to my homeboys: Mr. Kavinksy played this incredible sample to me and said, “Why don’t you loop this and have a rapper come in over it?” The day before we mastered the album, I imported it into a Pro Tools session and started messing around, breaking it down into tiny bits and emulating my Justice cousin Xavier de Rosnay’s incredible computer-editing ability. I could only do a two-minute interlude. Well, master Thomas Bangalter blessed me with a seven-minute edit!

4. “Pony Rocking” (Featuring Feadz)
One day I was going to Ed Banger’s office on my Vespa, and I bumped into DJ Feadz at a stoplight. He was like “You know what? I started rapping! I pitch my voice and it sounds stupid. Come and listen!” I played him this simple MPC instrumental, telling him about my goal to bring back old-school sounds with a moder aesthetic. He came back the very same day with an acapella file, and a good production challenge for me.

5. “Lucky Boy” (Featuring Fafi)”
This bassy banger was the very frist track I did for this record. Hanging around in the South of France with graffiti artist Fafi, playing Spanish chords on my guitar, I came across this simple melody and recorded it on my laptop using GarageBand. Weeks later, I jumped on the MPC and programmed this whole song in five minutes. Fafi wrote those senseless lyrics that we immediately loved and recorded. It sounded a bit strange to us, but for some reason peeps seem to dig it, so we left it at the first take.

The Knife Preps Deluxe Album

With the release of Silent Shout (Mute) in 2006, Swedish brother/sister duo The Knife (known to their folks as Karin and Olof Dreijer) dominated best-of-the-year lists and magazine covers around the globe, not to mention snagging six Swedish Grammis awards (Sweden’s Grammy equivalent), including Artist of the Year, Producer of the Year, and Group of the Year. Now the dark electro-pop icons are serving up a three-disc deluxe edition of the lauded album, aptly titled Silent Shout: Deluxe Edition.

The power package contains the Silent Shout record in its entirety, a DVD called Silent Shout: The Audiovisual Experience (which includes a live show directed by graphic designer Andreas Nilsson, as well as tons of other weird videos), and an unreleased live audio CD. The duo’s sold-out U.S. shows last year, in which Karin and Olof donned ninja-meets-scuba-diving-mechanic costumes, as well as the acceptance speech for the Grammis, should indicate that this upgraded version of Silent Shout is no ordinary audiovisual experience. Electro-pop hell just got a lot colder.

Silent Shout: Deluxe Edition is out May 8, 2007 on Mute. 

Tracklisting
Disc 1: Silent Shout
1. Silent Shout
2. Neverland
3. The Captain
4. We Share Our Mothers’ Health
5. Na Na Na
6. Marble House
7. Like A Pen
8. From Off To On
9. Forest Families
10. One Hit
11. Still Light

Disc 2: Silent Shout (An Audio Visual Experience-Recorded Live in Gothenburg, Sweden, 4/12/06)
1. Pass This On
2. The Captain
3. We Share Our Mothers’ Health
4. You Make Me Like Charity
5. Marble House
6. Forest Families
7. Kino
8. Heartbeats
9. Silent Shout
10. From Off To On

DVD Tracklisting
1. Pass This On
2. The Captain
3. We Share Our Mothers’ Health
4. You Make Me Like Charity
5. Marble House
6. Forest Families
7. Kino
8. Heartbeats
9. Silent Shout
10. From Off To On

Videos
1. N.Y. Hotel
2. Heartbeats
3. You Take My Breath Away (I)
4. Pass This On
5. Handy Man
6. You Take My Breath Away (II)
7. Silent Shout
8. Marble House (I)
9. We Share Our Mothers’ Health
10. Like A Pen
11. Marble House (II)
12. When I Found The Knife (Short Film)

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