Miss Kittin, Sebastien Tellier, Clark LP reviews

Electronic music round up - Music Extra - in today's Metro.

MUSIC EXTRA

Electronica

Whether it’s the mainstream in 2008 (Hot Chip, Hercules & Love Affair) or the underground in 2007 (Michael Mayer’s Supermayer LP, Cobblestone Jazz’s 23 Seconds, or Matthew Dear’s Asa Breed LP - Dear’s currently supporting Hot Chip’s UK tour), electronic music is enjoying its most influential, fertile and accessible periods in recent history.

First lady of electro Miss Kittin’s third LP Batbox (Nobody’s Business) is poised between the vocal and electronic: abstract lyrics and dry innuendo accentuate mystery as grinding synths and taut guitars divert your attention away from Caroline Herve’s coded messages. Miss Kittin playfully holds a mirror up to the world we inhabit and that ultimately made her: Play Me A Tape demands a tangible romantic gesture in the era of texts, emails, and MP3 playlists. Miss Kittin can come across as aloof and cold but the opposite is true: her increasingly catchy electro is plugged into – and a commentary on – the here and now.

Electronic music can suffer from trying too hard to be cool but Sebastien Tellier cocks a snoot at such posturing, with a gloriously kitsch and shamelessly sexy album, Sexuality (Lucky Numbers). Tellier’s best-known for the emotionally epic and wistful single La Ritournelle (2005), though Sexuality’s sauciness adds lust and post-coital euphoria to his palate. Sexuality’s built from the same blueprints as trance and prog house, its layering and arrangement is assiduous, and although it’s produced by one half of Daft Punk, Sexuality’s mini-symphonies are far closer to Air’s Moon Safari as seen through the blurry gauze of 1980s soft porn.

Clark’s sophomore LP Turning Dragon (Warp) is full-on banging, churning, clunking dancefloor electronica. Turning Dragon might be tough and relentless but it’s anything other than mindless, instead it’s a wonder that Clark fashions order and rhythm from sonic chaos. Turning Point’s not all high-octane, there’s an ebb and flow (a rave must have lows in order to scale the heights) and the dense dissonance is offset by melodies (for example church organ). Eerie menace gives way to shrill frequencies that sound like a post-apocalyptic attack of the killer bees. Turning Point’s extraordinary doom electronica - somebody give Clark a horror film to score.

Prosumer is resident at Berlin’s leading club Berghain which is set in a disused power station and doesn’t get going until Sunday morning and runs into Monday afternoons. Prosumer & Murat Tepeli’s debut LP Serenity (Kompakt) couldn’t be further from the pummelling machine music that soundtracks Berghain: it’s a mixture of contemporary electropop encompassing melancholic disco (Turn Around) and analogue ballads (I Go Mad), and instrumental grown up house and techno. Serenity stitches pop into a collage woven from Detroit techno, Chicago acid house, New York disco and new wave, and of course, Berlin’s avant-garde experimentalism, and can quite comfortably cosy up to Hot Chip on your CD rack or hard drive.

MPFREEEEEEEE

Nuff free music tis available on the t'internet. I've not been flagging up much of it, but intend to do so now. First up is man of the mo - Toddla T live at notorious Sheffield club Kabal where the young man learnt his bleeps-bass-house-techno-dancehall mashing trade. Toddla's favourite DJ is Pipes, who he goes back to back with on this mix. BIG. It's available here, courtesy of the lovely peeps at FACT magazine. But is likely to disappear soon, so get downloading (legally of course)! And I get to post the video for Fill Up Mi Potion again. Such a wikkid choon.



This is Lauryn Hill performing with DJ J Period on the decks. And here is a heavy, heavy J Period and Game Rebellion mixtape, Searching For Rick Rubin to download for free Think conscious, progressive hip hop and you're in the right ballpark, in short he's the hottest DJ in US rap at the mo.

Here's a review of the mixtape from Okayplayer - the label that put Jill Scott on her way, so a very a trusted and respected source and opinion.

J. Period & Game Rebellion
Searching for Rick Rubin
J. Period Mixtapes; 2007

Let me clear something up right off; I despise critic proclamations to the effect of “best (whatever) of the year.” Why? Because pandering “best of” platitudes pop up around February and then get vomited ad nauseam every 3 weeks for the remaining 44 weeks of the year. Praise of that level is like a fire alarm, best left on glass for emergencies. So in the words of Jay-Z, “get your umbrellas out,” because in this 4th week of December I’m busting the glass and declaring, this is the best record I have heard all year!

A while back a couple NYC journalist friends started bloating my inbox with Game Rebellion remixes. Their “99 Problems” remix was the universal “you have to check this out” track. What everyone failed to mention was “99 Problems” is one track on a record of “you have to check this out” tracks. Combined with remix master J. Period, Game Rebellion has twisted the entire Rick Rubin archive into their own artistic stamp.

Chances are J. Period hasn’t managed to slip by any OKP’s radar. And for those that missed his high profile exploits, you surely caught his pre-Game Theory mixtape The Best of the Roots. Game Rebellion’s own Brooklyn rock may have been swept under most of our Lesson rugs though. If you missed it, and I’m turning myself in as well, go get your late pass.

Searching for Rick Rubin remixes, and rewords, a number of tracks one would expect from a hip-hop record: “Public Enemy #1,” “No Sleep Till Brooklyn,” “Going Back To Cali.” But a few surprises slip in as well. “Under The Brooklyn Bridge” re-invisions the Red Hot Chili Peppers with Martin Luther at the chorus wheel. I’ve got nothing against Anthony Kiedis, but Martin Luther could sing the last Paris Hilton record and I would be listening intently.

Lyrically emcee Netic toes the line between socially conscious and infectiously listenable. For all my commercial snobbery, I still need an emcee to deliver their intelligent lyrics with rhythmic bravado. Netic delivers lines like, “Who you think gets more death threats/ Barack or 50 Cent?/ Damn Barack you gangsta/ Hell yeah, you’re Gansta,” and makes you bob your head all the way through.

Netic delivers his thoughts with little need for help, though Jean Grae gets tapped for “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” in what is her second amazing Brooklyn related guest appearance I have reviewed in the last month. (See 9th Wonder’s Dream Merchant Vol. 2 for the other.) The musical interaction here between emcee and band/dj/producer intertwines intuitively in a way that is rare in hip-hop. I should say rare in music period, but particularly in an era of hip-hop quick to slap recognizable samples with any remotely catchy chant.

The record is not without its bumps. After 12 tracks of “bow down before me” greatness, many interludes in the late portion of the album feature the artists defending themselves and how good they believe they are. In all honesty, I agree, and I didn’t need defensive monologues to tell me. But if unnecessary bravado on a hip-hop record is my only complaint, then we have clearly struck oil.

I’ve tried to tire of this record for weeks since first tearing open the cellophane. It’s not happening. I recognize I have a relatively small forum in which to trumpet my praise, but let it be known, if I have your email address, I’m filling up your inbox with Game Rebellion tracks.
Brian Hull

More MPFREENESS to follow soon...

In Living The True Gods

My review of the Stones Throw DVD, which should have appeared in Metro today

In Living The True Gods DVD
Stones Throw
four stars

The second DVD from the Stones Throw label presents the music videos for 16 tracks of abstract, progressive rap (Madvillan, Quasimoto) and instrumental hip hop goodness (J Dilla, James Pants). Stones Throw’s appeal is many of its rappers are irrepressibly experimental and hence are brought to life visually through animation and motion graphics. Helium-voiced, sex-obsessed, criminal rapper Quasimoto becomes an animated half-man, half-hippo meandering through a Sonic The Hedgehog environment; J Dilla’s Nothing Like This begins as a gentle cartoon of a shark and a jellyfish falling in love until a fisherman snares the shark and the jellyfish wreaks revenge. The spirit of Hendrix and Dali courses through the veins of the music and promos gathered here. Also featuring revealing interviews with label founder Peanut Butterwolf and super-producer J Dilla (as well as a stylish poster), this is an essential and collectible slice of indie-hip-hop history.
Extras: Seven bonus features including Quasimoto live.

A slight expansion is that if you're a Stones Throw head this is a must get coz it has extensive footage of label founder Peanut Butterwolf and Charizma in the studio, goofing around in 1992. Charizma passing away inspired Peanut Butterwolf to start Stone's Throw...

You Gots To Chill

Pete Lawrence co-founder of the Big Chill has split from the festival. The official statement is below - the inside unofficial word is the Big Chill is now, despite the illusion, a corporate entity. Let's face facts the majority of the festival was bought by Cantaloupe Group (Cargo, Market Place) a few years ago, and it's been getting bigger and bigger, and not necessarily better, ever since. Cantaloupe Group isn't a charity, so naturally want to increase revenue - hence the expansion and increasing loss of soul at the Big Chill. How do you open a bar (Big Chill Bar) and bar/club (Big Chill House) off the back of a festival - festivals and bars are entirely incompatible - one takes place in a field the others in Kings Cross and Brick Lane. Go figure. That says it all, particularly as Big Chill House is a glorified student union - grubby with a shite soundsystem.

It's a sad day. The Big Chill was the first festival I ever want to in 1998 at The Enchanted Gardens, a Victorian landscaped garden with peacocks running around, and attended by a few hundred people. Me and my mate Alex got bollocked for raving the night away to his car stereo - yes you parked next to where you camped.
What can I say? We were young and having it. I've been to four or five since, and won't be going again. It's a pipe dream but I long for the day I can goto a festival with no corporate branding (without mobile phone or alcohol brands trying to sell, sell, sell). If anyone knows of any, please let me know. I beg you. For me this summer's festivals are all about the small and beautiful.

The above clip is of Chilled By Nature, Pete Lawrence's production guise. Here's the statement and maximun respect to you Mr Lawrence. Note the words 'mutual agreement' - usually legalease for 'gagging order' or 'silence clause' - as I'm sure will appear inHeather and Paul's eventual divorce settlement.


Pete Lawrence, the co-founder of The Big Chill has, by mutual agreement with the board, resigned as a director and shareholder with immediate effect, after fourteen years with the organisation.

From humble beginnings, Lawrence conceived an idea for a new type of Sunday multimedia club back in early 1994 and, with Katrina Larkin, created a unique environment in the back rooms at Union Chapel in Islington. This event soon evolved into The Big Chill festival, which rapidly gained respect for its attention to detail, choice of idyllic rural locations, and nurturing of a loyal online community. As it blossomed, it created a unique blueprint for a lifestyle ethos that went way beyond being just a festival, and which has since spawned many imitators, with varying degrees of success.


In the environment of the festival, Pete gave early exposure by programming names such as Lily Allen, Goldfrapp, Amy Winehouse, Gotan Project, Mr Scruff, Seasick Steve, Röyksopp, Zero 7 and Lemon Jelly, and was arguably the catalyst for the chill out boom at the turn of decade. After establishing itself as one of the top half dozen UK festivals, The Big Chill has recently branched out into opening London venues The Big Chill Bar in Brick Lane, followed in autumn 2006 with the three storey Big Chill House in Kings X. Most recently, after several trips to India to research and plan a new type of event there, Pete conceived a proposal to take The Big Chill concept to Goa for what turned out to be a successful first festival in April 2007 on Aswem Beach.


Explaining his reasons for stepping back from The Big Chill, Pete who recently celebrated his 50th birthday, said “For fourteen years I feel as if I’ve been on a mission to create something personally fulfilling, but it is the wider cultural context which interests me even more. There is no greater reward than seeing how peoples’ lives have been affected due to chance meetings at Big Chill events, and one of our most important roles has been as a platform and catalyst for that. At this time, I need to put myself first for once and do things I have not been able to do since the early 90s, like reading books, hanging out and having quality time with my children as they grow up fast, and concentrating on my own music and writing with less time constraints.”


“I have a restless spirit and I want to remain at the cutting edge, coming up with original concepts and fresh directions, and I have lots of new ideas. Who knows what exciting opportunities might bubble up to the surface. I won’t be severing my Big Chill links altogether however as I will be stepping into a consultant role.


"After fourteen years it feels almost like a child growing up and leaving home - a real conflict of emotions, and not easy to let go of, considering how obsessively hands-on Katrina and I have been over the years. Now, for a variety of reasons, and with some considerable regret, I feel that the time is right to step back and let The Big Chill take its own course. I’m leaving behind a great team and look forward to seeing them at future events.”

Pete’s online blog and website is at www.petelawrence.net and is contactable at pete@petelawrence.net.”

Mr Ozio (Ed Banger) Wets Himself

More cutting edge electro goodness this weekend. This time with Mr Ozio of Ed Banger - last year's hipster label, much like this year's Kitsune. I'm now officially an old git. The thought of raving on a Sunday night/Monday morning has me on the verge of tears. As does the thought that I no longer have the stamina to check out DJs and music that I'm a big fan of. Double glumness :-0(

Car Park Rave - Saturday - Miss Kittin

Jump Off tonight - The return of the mighty Sway

This is a blatant cut and paste of the Jump Off's press release. Nevertheless lots of interesting juicy info. Seems like Sway's been annointed by American hip hop's great (Lupe Fiasco) and not so good (Akon). The Jump Off's tonight, support coz it's always large and a laugh - and there ain't many hip hop night's you can say that about.

LONDON, Feb 1st -- The official launch of Sways latest release 'The Dotted Lines' Mixtape is to take place at the next monthly 'Jump Off' hip hop event in London's Astoria 2 on Mon 4th Feb.  Sway & Decypha Productions will be in the building with 200 free copies and whoever wins the MC Battle on the night will go into the studio with Sway that week to collaborate on a track.

Since 2004 Sway has dominated the UK Hip Hop Scene winning numerous awards, touring extensively and releasing several hit singles and albums.  The 'DOTTED LINES' Mixtape is Sways first release since signing to Akon's Konvict Muzik label.

The mixtape features Sway's version of Dizzee Rascal's 'Old School' (called 'New Skool'), 'Black Stars' a track about influential Ghanaian role models and based on Bashy's 'Black Boys' series of remixes. It features many of Sway's collaborations from the last couple of years, including those with Mr. Hudson, Ian Brown and Madness amongst many others. There are also recordings of numerous radio appearances, one in which he speaks to the Sway from American Hip Hop celebrities Sway & Tech. The US Sway argues with the UK Sway that Sway DaSafo should not use the same name. MC Charlie Boy also appears in the mixtape. Also featured are Rhymefest, Saigon, Remy Martin, Loick Essien, Tension, Stush and Clinton Sparks.

Established in 2003 'The Jump Off' is the UK's biggest live Hip Hop event, drawing a regular crowd of 700 people to witness the many talents of the UK's best dancers, rappers and fashion designers, its media partners include MySpace & Kiss 100.