Something different for Saturday. Rap/hip hop tunes from a couple of young rappers. One from the UK, Jack Light. And one from the USA, C4. Free download.
LA-based C4′s track Can’t Tell is a lovely piece of hip hop jazz. Last time’s Loose Leaf was all blunted. This is sharp suits, dark clubs and all smokey and mellow, with a bit of guitar to coast on. The beats by Jazz Logic are a really unusual bit of chill. For free download and a video here. The Jack Light (video here) track Kreuger is much more conventional, using music from the Freddie film but there’s also something compelling about his intensity.
Kitteh is off formenting ebil. So, Caturday can afford to be frivolous. Here’s an orchestral interpretation of Daft Punk’s Harder Better Faster Stronger by Walt Ribiero. This is far better than classical reinterpretations tend to be and shows the durability and structure of the track. Listen or buy.
Do we really need another remix of this track? On the one hand no, it’s far too ubiquitous. Other the other, there’s always room for a good one. And this is a good one. Free download.
KDrew gives the uber pop original a roll around in the dubstep dirt to produce something both euphoric and a little bit filthy. Especially the way the voice and the bass combine. Dirty little pretty thing.
New collaboration between Foamo and RackNRuin, who have a new EP out, with free download. I’ve quite liked Foamo’s stuff in the past (like Celestialhere) but this one is too sweet on the vocal and just too bassy on the bass. Too much wants to be a hit.
Blurb: Gorgon City – The Truth (ft Janai) prod. by Foamo & RackNRuin
And to finish this stroll down Ambient Lane, we have the excellent second album from Autechre. Eleven tracks varying from the quintessentially ambient to borderline industrial to eerie moodiness and back again. A record that is as esoteric as it is enjoyable, Amber never drifts into complacency but plays with your expectations producing a most satisfying aural experience. The soothing calm of Yulquen and Nine, for example, with their gentleness melting over you, contrast boldly with the sinister Silverside, and its atmosphere of bleakness and melancholia or the frantic keyboards of Piezo skittering wildly in all directions before giving way to ambient peace. Additional tracks such as Foil, Glitch, Further and Montreal reveal a considerable variety of pace and mood from upbeat and lively to brooding and dark but all very fine pieces that offer a surreal and eclectic musical landscape of beautiful and haunting sounds. A worthwhile investment.
Mighty Mouse has a new mix CD out later this month. And to celebrate there’s a four minute minimix for free download. The accent’s on the funky summer synth disco. Still not quite right for this time of year, given it’s just too cold.
CD1
1. Kamp! – Cairo
2. Matt Van Schie – Drifting Down The Sidewalk (Demo)
3. L’Equipe Du Son – Lesson 1 (The Legendary 1979 Orchestra Remix)
4. Cloud One – Patty Duke
5. Peter Gunn – Peter Gunn
6. Blo – Get That Groove In
7. Black Soul – Africa Africa
8. Drop Out Orchestra – Ego (Blackstrobe Remix)
9. Hypnotic – Droid (Automatic Piano)
10. Angela Paris – Wherever Forever (Vocal)
11. Pat Lok – Yes Game (Bit Funk Remix)
12. Gigamesh – When Your Dancing (RAC Remix)
13. Shake Aletti – Lights & Sparks (Mighty Mouse Dub)
14. Only Children – Don’t Stop (Mighty Mouse Remix)
15. Figure Of 8 – No One Cries For Me (Mighty Mouse Remix)
16. Worship – Out There
17. Orsan Bramley – Inverted Snobbery
CD2
1. Tareq feat. Natassa Bofilou – Feel Me (Mighty Mouse Remix)
2. Blamma Blamma – Beyond 17 (Mighty Mouse’s Lost in Space Instrumental)
3. Mighty Mouse – Smiling Faces (Unreleased Dub)
4. The Magician – I Don’t Know What To Do (Erkka Remix)
5. Alien Alien – Black Guru (Original Mix)
6. Todd Terje – Inspector Norse
7. The Penelopes – Now Now Now (The C90’s Remix)
8. African Suite – In The Pocket
9. Gepy & Gepy – African Love Song
10. Oliver – Dirty Talk
11. Nyteowl – Love Of Mine (Mighty Mouse Remix)
12. Scenic – Another Sky (The Magician Remix)
13. Lovetone and Turismo – Can You Feel Me (Original Mix)
14. Robortom feat. Au Revoir Simone – Paganini Rocks (Mighty Mouse Remix)
15. Shobizz – The Street Of A Thousand Disco’s
16. H Wildflower – Harlem Nocturne
A new compilation on Spontaneous Rhythm Records from John Howes. Most of the names are unknown to me. But the track are all quality, gentle electronic techno. And it’s available for free download.
None of the artists on this compilation are known to me, with the exception of Mogadishu (who featured back here). But there is a calm techno/IDM streak that runs through this compilation. And a sense of the unhurried. Starts with Cutoff! Cutoff! which has a lush IDM feel. Coppice Halifax is more spectral IDM. Thrupence has a classical feel with piano and strings. Really rather ambient. Howes’ own track is a crackly piece of drone. Fischerie starts to approach deep house. Mogadishu is more RnB glitch. Divine Interface follows a similar path. Lesvilles ends the album with more lush IDM. Overall, a quality package.
It was this or Emit Ecaps and, true to it’s name, this classic won by a nose. Unlike Jonah Sharp’s aforementioned follow up album, which has a number of fairly lively, ambient techno tracks, this is a beauty of truly spaced-out proportions. Voice of the Earth and A Low Frequency Inversion Field have a particular other-world feel to them that suggest they would be appropriate tracks should you happen to be orbiting Saturn on a wet Wednesday afternoon. Ping Pong seems to threaten an eruption of beats throughout but never quite does and stays within the parameters of floating amidst the stars, whilst Q11 features voice samples that could have been randomly plucked from a radio call-in show that’s been beamed out to space by SETI in the hope of initiating contact with alien life forms. The only track that features anything vaguely beat-driven is Pressure and even that description is generous. All in all, a quite lovely record, made all the more impressive by the fact that Sharp recorded the whole thing in his bedroom.
Those cosmic oddballs Follow Me are back with another of their space odysseys. They claim A Mission Nocturnal (presumably a spoonerism fnarr fnarr) is morning jazz. No idea. In fact, it’s nothing to do with jazz. It’s a big old synth space epic, with a sweeping sense of distance. No hip hop this time. Played quite straight. And it’s really very good. Free download.
Acid Ted likes to skulk in dark dance floor corners. For Acid Ted is bitter of the beautiful people on the main floor flaunting their youth under the spotlights. But occasionally. And not for long. Acid Ted will come into the light. Tempted by a particularly catchy melody. Here’s one such.
Felix Cartal is not someone I’ve liked in the past. But this collaboration with Miss Palmer is huge. This is all built around the hopeful and skillfully constructed piano melody. Starts a bit mournfully Moby before getting into hands in the air hopeful. Ultimately brought home by converting into a synth line. Meanwhile, Miss Palmer gives you something to singalong to. Artfully artless and ultimately immense.
Out March 6th exclusively on iTunes on Dim Mak Records.
