Promo Loving.

A couple of tracks from artists that have got in touch with vump. recently.

First up a sick ethno-triphop track. I got sent from some tracks from an artist TagoMago. This particular one is a colloborative project of his called Fasafas. Released back in 2006. Check this out. It features The National Pygmy Choir of Western New Zealand.
Fasafas Chief Running Water and the Stale of Two Cities zsh

And second a fun minimal bleeper from a producer called Dom Trofski.
Dom Tofski The Click zsh

Everybody.

Sex in Dallas Everybody Deserves To Be Fucked zsh

Colour Me In.

I brought you some ColouringIN back in November and I finally have another track to post up. If you are not yet acquainted, ColouringIN are mighty househead Tom Neville and fresh producer talent Henry Bennett. This track is called O.K. While the Robot Restroom track that I posted up before is filthy android house the majority of the ColouringIN production is much more techno-pop. A infectious space full of odd vocals, addictive stripped down beats and spacey synthesized accompaniment. Currently most notably occupied by the likes of Matthew Dear and Hot Chip. This song has been in my head all day!

ColouringIN OK zsh

Some other nice techno-pop.
Alex Smoke Never Want to See You Again [buy] zsh
Matthew Dear Death to Feelers [buy] zsh


You can hear an interview with Henry (ColouringIN) on Deepnote Radio 08 02 08.

Swedish.

through and through.

The Quaterly Review.

vump. recently turned 3 months old - a milestone in a young blog's life! So I thought it was time for a little reflection and a Top 5.

_________________________________________________________
5. Ou Est Le Swimming Pool

[umbrella.]

This is the best steal I've had from vump.s sister blog Plastic Cowboys (check out the face lift). Bright young indie kids cover Rhianna.

Ou Est Le Swimming Pool Umbrella zsh


_________________________________________________________
4. Tucker

[oddjob.]

A complete random find at Sonar 2006. Managed to catch him again in Tokyo back in November. Most talented freak in the world.


________________________________________________________
3. Vintage

[mathew jonson.]
[rolando.]
[cylob.]

Have loved some of the corking older tracks.
Expect more classics. I am fully indulging in the current mass dance music nostalgia.
Mathew Jonson Marionette zsh
Rolando Knights of the Jaguar zsh
Cylob Foid zsh


_________________________________________________________
2. ArePeopleReal

[podcast. arepeoplreal.]

I wanted to try and review as many podcasts as possible when I started this blog but very quickly found ArePeopleReal and got stuck with hours of wicked programming from The Broken Hookers. Entertaining indie and fine electronic cuts fill the space between mixes from themselves and an up and coming guest in each episode. The whole show has fantastic range covering the intersection of indie and dance, new and old that was so strong last year.

Here is a sample of the podcast, which I wrote about in the original post.
Right at the end of ArePeopleReal 17 [which featured a Brødinski guest mix].

"...this is a northern coast, a viking coast, and the noise that drifted up was viking music, table thumping music..."

Spoken word into heavy dub step.
Rob Hindle Buenos Aires 2am (Read By Jonathan Tafler) & Skream Bahl Fwd zsh

Chatting to The Broken Hookers since that post they told me the spoken word passage was a B side they'd found on a Lindstrøm (and Solale) EP called 'Let It Happen'. [buy] Both sides of that vinyl appear on Lindstrøm's 'LateNightTales' compilation.


_________________________________________________________
1. CroMagnon

[sendai. september.]

Another awe-inspiring Japanese act. There is something about the full commitment of Japanese artists to their trade. This 4 piece disco funk jam phenomenon are one of the coolest live acts I've ever seen. Thank you Yuzo for taking me!


_________________________________________________________
[years gone by.]
I put up a bit of background in my first post so if you've just stumbled across this blog, or have been watching it lately the first post was a bit about me and why I am often to be found dancing to electronic music.

Vintage Vocal.

Two wicked vocal melodic techno tracks.
The first is an old Laurent Garnier remix. I found it on the F Communications (his label) 1994-2006 Retrospective compilation. [buy] The second is a recent remix of Marshall Jefferson. The way this track builds in such a lush way is sick. Listen and let it get going and break over you.

Alex Attias 1000 leagues (Laurent Garnier's Wake Lab remix) [buy] zsh
Marshal Jefferson v Noose Heads Mushrooms (Justin Martin remix) [buy] zsh

I've been in two minds about the Marshall Jefferson vocal. Both vocals walk a tightrope of taste! On first listen I was thinking (especially the MJ track) "are the vocals cheesy"? It would be easy to be judgemental or too cool about these things but actually both are far from it, fresh and uncontrived. The LG remix especially is so well executed. It helps that you can feel the weight both artists carry as spiritual godfathers of electronic music. Effortlessly good the tracks (and vocals) stand up as great feel good techno.

Let me know what you think.

Bleep II.

My new favourite band, the enigmatic Basque peasant farmers/avant garde synth lords, Crystal Fighters.
Crystal Fighters I Love London [Instrumental] zsh

Vintage Simian Mobile Disco. This was the first track I could find of SMD after seeing them in Fabric killing room 2 back in the day. Its an early Kitsune release from 2005.
Simian Mobile Disco The Count zsh

1980s electroid rhythms from the illustrious Chirs & Cosey.
Chris & Cosey This Is Me zsh

---

vump. exclusive
crystal fighters interview
After hearing their music and getting slightly obsessed I wanted to find out more about the Crystal Fighters. Recently I was lucky enough to catch up with them before their gig at 12 Aklam Rd to get an interview.

SK Hi Crystal Fighters, it's been a bit tricky finding anything out about you online. Can you introduce yourselves, and explain how you came to form the band?

CF Hello, we are Crystal Fighters. I am Agostes and this is Tello and Elazar and this is Mimi. Me and Elazar know each other because our fathers grew up in the Basque Country together and his dad taught us both to play guitar when we were ten and we played together a lot. We know Mimi because she was my brother's girlfriend and she would write songs. We met Tello last year at my grandfather's funeral as he is the son of one of my dad's distant cousins and he was living in London and wanted to pay respect to his relatives, and this is when the band was started.

SK Wow that's pretty heavy stuff. So what happened from there?

CF At the wake me and Elazar were talking about this book of songs and poems in Basque and English my grandfather had written and given to me. Before he died he told me he had always wanted someone close to him to sing some of his words to the world with the force with which they were written. He wanted someone to entertain him and play the crazed and tragic warrior he liked to think himself to be, and when he saw I could do this, that I was doing this anyway, he gave the book to me. I could talk all day about this amazing man, but anyway, it is his spirit that we try to carry through into our music.

SK Overwhelming! So how would you describe your overall sound?

CF You know, we are trying to make stuff that is rhythmically and melodically like the Basque music we grew up with, but faster and heavier. Some of the Basque dances have been played on the same basic instruments for hundreds of years and yet in their simplicity there is the energy to make you dance all night. So we take these sounds and then add a huge sub bass, and my grandfather's crazy prophecies, and this is what Crystal Fighters sounds like. Fast, heavy, folk-influenced dance music with Basque instruments.

SK What can we expect from your live show tonight?

CF Our show is an opera of sorts; people die, people break down, people fall in love, people are violent to the bone. We are not really a band; we play live to draw people into our story as it develops. We all feel an enormous presence come over us when we make and play this music. We all used to make all different types or music, but now we only make this, because all the other stuff seems pointless now.


The show did turn out to be an opera. A real punch in the face kind of opera. Energy so big that it felt like an enormous presence had over come the crowd as well as the band. Check out their myspace and get to a gig near you.

Wonk.

In the red corner Front Room defector now fighting for the American Dirtybird we have British producer Riva Starr and his track 'Bubble'. In the blue corner fighting for Jesse Rose's Front Room we have label mainstay, jackin' housers Deadset with a live version of Brazil '70.

Riva Starr Bubble [buy] zsh
Deadset Brazil '70 [Live and Alive version][buy] zsh

Riva Starr is just about to put out a new EP, this time on Southern Fried. He put a mix together for Discobelle to celebrate. Deadset are realising exclusive digital EPs every month throughout 2008 in a series they are calling '12 Months of Deadset'. The above live track is one of two exclusive January Deadset remixes available from Beatport now.

Looking back.

Trying to track down a good quality copy of Schatrax 'Mispent Years' yesterday I stumbled across the Soma record shop. In their back catalogue they don't have the 1998 original but some Soma remixes. It seems the original hasn't been re-released digitally. So I bought a FLAC copy of the 'Josh Beat Adjustment Mix' as this sounds the closest to the original I think. The Silicone Soul and Funk D'void versions are a bit housey. I wish I used vinyl. Anyway getting sucking into the Soma collection I also found some nice Alex Smoke which was released about this time last year. This track Primia Materia is Soma gold. Liking the B side, Always & Forever [Vapid mix] as well.

Alex Smoke Primia Materia [Abort mix] [buy] zsh
Schatrax Mispent Years [Josh Beat Adjustment mix] [buy] zsh

You can now subscribe to Soma and receive every digital release they put out for the next 6 months for £19. You also get to pick 10 tracks from their back catalogue as well and some podcasts are thrown in too. The MP3s on the site are only 192kbs though so to get higher quality tracks you've got to pay £24 for a FLAC subscription. Cunning. Still getting 10 perfect sounded Soma classics alone for just £24 is probably just about worth it.


In other news, Azzido da Bass 'Dooms Night' has been re-released with 6 new remixes and the big Timo Maas version that did the rounds back in 2000. This track did go off in clubs back then, but do we really need it again? It is the kind of track that was sick the first few times, then inevitably got over played, wasn't that great and got boring. Now it just sounds dated.

Switch takes the unmistakable build up and drops into a standard dubby house track untouched. Laidback Luke and Crookers build more convincing electro house versions. The Crookers cut gets satisfyingly squelchy and filtered and takes the piss with a hum along vocal. Azzido da Bass themselves spin up the breakdown. There is a Lexy & K-Paul almost progressive house version. And then there is the Radioslave tech house version which makes the least reference to the original and is definitely my favourite. I just find this track really annoying and 6 new remixes and the thought of DJs playing this track again (in any form) really grates me. Unlike Schatrax its not a timeless record and enough time has not gone by to pass this off as a forgot classic. No its not classic and neither are the remixes. I wouldn't check this one out.

Azzido Da Bass Dooms Night [Crookers remix] [buy] zsh


What is both classic and timeless is Kevin Saunderson 1988 house track 'Big Fun' which Simian Mobile Disco have recently remixed. Bringing it up-to-date with some patient rounder electronics and echoed SMD reverb they did a good job of conserving the soul of this piece of house heritage.

Kevin Saunderson ft Inner City Big Fun [Simian Mobile Disco remix] [buy] zsh

Check the hi-tech video for the original.

Let me know your thoughts. Maybe you think Schatrax is boring, Big Fun cheesy and the Switch remix of Doooooooms Night is rocking your world.
Hope not.

No Computers. One Take.

through and through.

Rolando.

Just found the video for one my favourite tracks ever. Recorded in 2000 by Detroit's DJ Rolando. Seminal techno that also managed to cross over into the wider underground world and establish itself as a modern electronic classic. I was lucky enough to meet Rolando himself in Edinburgh where he now lives with his wife. Got very excited and wasn't very cool about the whole thing! The track still gets me.

I also found a cover of the track by classical pianist Maxence Cyrin who recorded a whole album - Modern Rhapsodies - of electronic music covers including Aphex Twin's 'Windowlicker', Gusto 'Disco's Revenge' and Sabres of Paradise ' Smoked Belched II' on his piano. Even LFO 'LFO'!! Is that not sacrilege? Check it out.

Rolando Knights of the Jaguar zsh
Maxence Cyrin Knights of the Jaguar zsh

Popof.

OH MY GOD...POPOF is killing me!

His tracks are absolute mayhem. 'Alcoolic' seems like some kind of (il)logical progression from the technonsense of Paul Woolford's 2006 genre-defying epic Erotic Discourse. Woolford's fired up a remix of it as well, adding reverb and absuing that tiny warped strangled (vocal?) sample even harder than Popof. Strap speakers to your face. Pure 5am nonsense. ARGHHHHH! SO SICK!
Popof Alcoolic [buy] zsh
Popof Alcoolic [Paul Woolford's AA remix] [buy] zsh

Wind it up and watch it fall apart.
Popof Hypnotical [buy] zsh

Sunday Best.

I LOVE Sunday Best. Its the record label run by hippie Radio 1 jock Rob da Bank. He used to present (the sadly deceased) Blue Room, as the sun came up on Sunday mornings. Now a days he presents 4 hours of Radio 1 which airs at midnight on Mondays. This is made up of 2 hours of himself and 2 hours featuring a guest where he chats to a musical demi-god about what music has influenced their career to date. Last weeks show featured up-and-coming vocalist Adele, which you can stream all day today from the Radio 1 website. Rob and Sunday Best is of course also behind the epic fancy-dress boutique end-of-Summer gathering on the Isle of White - Bestival.

Everything Sunday Best represents an incredible realm of alternative leftfield music. Every time you listen to his show you discover musical gems - whether its strange 1970s french electronica or weirdy beardy acoustic guitar nonsense, M.I.A. or Skull Disco, Devendra Banhart to Future Sound of London.

The latest Sunday Best compilation Winter Warmers [buy] is no exception. An eclectic medley. Every track melodic, many with a wonder filled lyric, some a bit happy clappy but all Winter Warmers. Music for Sundays.

Check these gems.

Poetic chatting.
The Hat Less of a lover [buy] zsh

Warm squelching gathering synths.
Grand Nation Rub Your Potion [Fear of Theydon remix] [buy] zsh