MUSIC: Spoon "Don't You Evah"

Dancing robot from Spoon's "Don't You Evah". Not the funniest or coolest music video but it...works...(and I haven't posted in over a week now).

And here is the rest of it

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MUSIC: Summer Sonic 2007, 11-12th Aug, Tokyo / Osaka...

Sorry, I just had to have a re-post before my trip to Summer Sonic. Have fun behind those desks suckers! More when I get back...till then, read it and weep. Read it and WEEP...;)


LCD Soundsystem, Jose Gonzalez, Unkle, Interpol, Cansei de Ser Sexy, Digitalism, DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist, Hot Chip and so, so many more...how could you not want to go? If The Universe, Mosaico Diffusion and my travel agent don't conspire against me, rest assured there'll be some sort of drunken diary kept over that oh-so-very-special weekend...

Click here for the rest of the lineup

And here is the rest of it

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MUSIC: DJ Kicks: Hot Chip

I know this has been out for a couple of months but I completely forgot to write a review for it. If you're a fan of the whole electro/hip hop/house mashup, read the review after the jump, then get your own copy of it. Awesome. And quirky.

Hot Chip have been quietly producing their own blend of kitschy-electro-house for the better part of two years now, and although have hit the mainstream now, are still coming up with the goods where it matters.


Hot Chip step up in the same quirky, off-kilter-yet-catchy way that has been synonymous with the group since their inception. Former band member Grosvenor (Rob Smoughton) opens with the delectable opening chords of Nitemoves -for about a minute and a half, before a strange Lionel Richie-esque vocal kicks in with elevator-like drum & bass beats, all the while crooning about "making love on the hot summer afternoon" and feeling "lonesome". If you kept that barf-bag from your last trip to Bangkok, you'd do well to fish it out before letting Track 1 play out to its end.

The next few songs thankfully lift the mood, ranging from Positive K's positively old skool I Got A Man, to Gramme's downright funk-driven, swinging Like You. The playlist then slides into some abstract, synthy house from Subway, and then Soundhack with B1.

For me though, the next two songs represent the pinnacle of the album; Tom Ze's delightfully infectious Cademar gets a reworking here, the old skool Brazilian bossa nova classic is crossed with a quirky 3 / 4 beat before seguing (not altogether smoothly) into Hot Chip's upcoming single, My Piano. A standard 4/4 house beat rails the background, while a simple, low-key yet catchy piano roll morphes between the detached vocals of Alexis Taylor.

While there's nothing immediately stunning about this song, the subtle accompaniment sets this apart from the other songs on the album with its delicate, jazzy undertones. I could gush all day about this song but I won't.

My Piano fades out before Wax Stag's Short Road kicks in with its early 90s rave stabs and drums, and then New Order make an appearance with a remixed version of Bizarre Love Triangle. The obligatory early 90s old skool house continues for a while until Young Leek's cheeky Jiggle It precludes the magnificent In The Basement, a duet between Sugar Pie Desanto and Etta James that harks back to bygone eras we all wish we were a part of.



The next ten songs belong to Hot Chip's legendary dirty house mixes, ranging from Wookie's Far East, Gabrial Ananda's live version of Doppelwhipper, to Noze's titillating Love Affair.

Rounding off the mix comes Joe Jackson with his 1982 New Wave sounding Steppin' Out, before Ray Charles makes a perfect ending with some classic rhythm & blues in Mess Around.

A diverse mix that shows how bossa nova, hip hop, electro-house and rhythm & blues can fit without once losing cohesion.


DJ Kicks - Hot Chip (!K7, 2007)

Tracklisting:

01 Grovesnor - "Nitemoves"
02 Positive K - "I Got a Man"
03 Gramme - "Like You"
04 Subway - "Persuasion"
05 Soundhack - "B1"
06 Tom Zé - "Cademar"
07 Hot Chip - "My Piano (DJ-Kicks)"
08 Wax Stag - "Short Road"
09 New Order - "Bizarre Love Triangle (Shep Pettibone Extended Remix)"
10 Young Leek - "Jiggle It"
11 Etta James & Sugar Pie DeSanto - "In the Basement, Part One"
12 Black Devil Disco Club - "On Just Foot"
13 Dominik Eulberg - "Der Buchdrucker"
14 Grauzone - "Film 2"
15 This Heat - "Radio Prague"
16 Wookie - "Far East"
17 Gabriel Ananda - "Doppelwhipper (Live)"
18 Marek Bois - "You Got Good Ash"
19 Lanark - "The Stone That the Builder Rejected"
20 Pete Um - "The Man's Got Me Beat"

21 Nôze - "Love Affair"
22 Audion - "Just Fucking (Roman Flügel's 23 Positions in a One-Night Stand Remix)"
23 Joe Jackson - "Steppin' Out"
24 Ray Charles - "Mess Around"

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MUSIC: LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver Album Review

Although the official release for this was in March 2007, this one leaked on the internet sometime in November / December last year. Sucks. Though whether that made any difference to sales, who knows -cos this album kicks. Click the link to read the full review.





LCD Soundsystem
Sound Of Silver
DFA
5 stars

The thing I like most about LCD Soundsystem are the moments where half the song seems to go one way while the other half goes the other -and seeing how the two halves come back together. If you try and follow one thread you'll come out with a very defined version of crap, or fantastic. Put them together and you start to see where the talent lies. Not rock, not electro, not anything by itself.








Get Innocuous, while a great title for a track, features a beat so similar to the hit single Losing My Edge off the self-titled debut, making you wonder if this is going set the scene for a washed out compilation of remixes from their first album. Cowbells, tuned Talking Heads vocals in tribute, crossed with 5th grade socio-political commentary about how shit North Americans really are make up North American Scum, followed by a song that The Killers would have died to have had on their last album -and at the end, a delightful crooning by the man himself in New York I Love You that has more to do with Nilsson than Eno. You can almost spot the songs James Murphy made for the debut on this one too -only this time round there's a level of refinement that was missing from the first album. Less in your face and more intricacy. And a hell of a lot more cow bells. Self-deprecating punk/funk/electro -whatever you wanna call it, no one does it better than DFA.

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MUSIC: Fujiya & Miyagi - Transparent Things Album Review (2006)

Okay, I know this is another oldie, but its a goodie. In case you missed these guys the first time round, here's another look at their exceptional second LP. Think Hot Chip mixed with LCD Sound System...

Click below for the full review


Fujiya & Miyagi - Transparent Things
Tirk/Word & Sound
4 stars

"We were just pretending to be Japanese," admit this strangely named trio, but Fujiya & Miyagi have managed to pull off another album worthy of adding to the already respectable sized collection of Krautrock-electro albums -and in doing so, push us that much closer to finding a new genre to fuck with. Best described as part Germanic-rock (Kraftwerk / Can / Neu!), part Talking Heads, part 90’s electronica (Aphex Twin / Four Tet / Air), Transparent Things collects all of the tracks from Fujiya & Miyagi's first 3 EPs, along with an exclusive new track, Cylinders.

Combined with eclectic lyrics like: I’ve got a slow, a slow, a slow, metabolism, F & M have gathered a legion of admirers, among whom may be counted DFA, Tiga and Hot Chip. Ankle Injuries turns stumbling across a discarded porn magazine on the way to school into some kind of epiphany, while Collarbone reminisces about wanting to pick up a girl but needing a new pair of shoes first. Fujiya & Miyagi's low profile is unexplainable -herein lie the best Japanese-devotee-krautrockers from the UK -they're up there with Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem and Tiga and if you liked the Hot Chip album, you'll love this.

Best bit: Got to get a new pair of shoes / to kick it with her / not kick it with you

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MUSIC: Peter, Bjorn, and John - 'Writers Block' Album review

Thought I'd start posting some of my not-so-obsolete CD reviews from days of Taxi lore. (Hong Kong's greatest magazine to never make it? Count me in. Love that shit. Too bad the new one looks like an in-flight wank for bankers. Such is life in Hong Kong's publishing-starved bubble. Could it be because I'm dating the founding editor? Does the Pope shit in the woods?)

Click the link below to read the full review






Peter, Bjorn & John - Writer's Block
Wichita
4 1/2 stars





Does anyone out there believe me when I say that Sweden is the third highest music producing country behind the US and the UK? No, didn't think so. Well apparently they are, and if they can keep coming out with music as fucking good as Peter Bjorn & John's Writer's Block then I for one will have more reason to emigrate there (apart from wanting to marry into blonde Nordic lineage rich with Viking ancestry).

This is their first release outside of Sweden and the US, and the album has been garnering rave reviews from the pop-throwback-hipster crowd in New York and cool places aplenty.

With the beguiling Victoria Bergsman, of the Concretes, providing vocals on Young Folks, along with some not altogether annoying whistling, the song is well deserved of the airplay this has been getting everywhere from Stockholm, New York to Tokyo. Luckily they are more than a one-hit wonder, with Amsterdam, Starts To Melt and The Chills all being quality songs among a strong selection.

With a sound that mashes indie-pop with a keen lyrical sense, Peter, Bjorn and John will be cherished at last by the international crowd, before being played to death, thus sickening all who listen, before joining Gnarls Barkley in the Overplayed Hell. While nothing ground-breaking appears on this album, what they manage to achieve is catchy guitar pop that doesn't suck.

Sounds like: The Cardigans with their hair down, whistles round their necks, and drum & bass beats in the back...

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