!!! – Myth Takes

If there was any justice in the world, !!! (pronounced chk chk chk) would be filling dance floors all across the developed world. Instead of shaking their hips to the new Fedde Le Grand song, which bizarrely, sounds exactly like the last one, but with Dr. Zoidberg whooping and scuttling for it’s entire duration, they’d be doing it to this. The rolling basslines, the insatiable rhythm, every song on this album has the ingredients to make the clubs heave. Yet something tells me they will never topple Fedde, or any other mainstream dance artist, of the dubious glory of getting the small town discotheques heaving on a beer and vomit filled Friday night. But why? Probably because they’re not nearly brainless enough.

!!!’s last album, ‘Louden Up Now’ was brilliantly flawed, showing off the bands uncanny knack for creating something that people could get down to while also being markedly aggressive. However, there was a tendency for the band to get lost within their own songs and for every 10 minutes of genius, there seemed to be 3 minutes of aimless wandering, or infantile swearing. However, it’s been roughly 4 years since then, and time spent touring with the Red Hot Chili Peppers seems to have helped them realise their ability to knock out pulsating dance floor anthems.

With Myth Takes, !!! come storming out of the blocks. The first three tracks are the best start to an album this year, battering the senses with a startling array of rhythms and ideas that are so well crafted and realized in their vision it’s startling. ‘Myth Takes’ starts off the album with an infectious bass line and a taut rhythmic drumming pattern while Nic Offer jumpily whispers about nothing in particular. This in itself personifies the beauty of the album, in that while Offer rarely sings about anything other than dancing, fucking or dropping pills, the motifs generated suit the sleazy funk bassline and rigid hi-hat background so well it doesn’t really matter. The next two songs continue the pattern, combining a knack for combining a tight sense of melody and rhythm with lyrics that, as previously mentioned, aren’t particular poignant, but suit the sordid backdrop they display themselves in front of perfectly.

While the album starts off brilliantly, it ends just as well. By shoving the more immediate material towards the start of the album, the band has given themselves a chance to branch out into more adventurous territory towards the end of the album. ‘Bend Over Beethoven’ is somewhat of a landmark for the dance-punk genre, an 8 minute song comprising of a swirling 6 minute instrumental mid-section which climaxes into raucous chorus, while ‘Break In Case Of Anything’ is a disco anthem in the best sense of the word, centering on an all female chorus who repeat their ‘Na Na Na Na’ backdrop like women possessed, while the rest of the song falls apart around it. As the album reaches an increasingly more frenetic climax, ‘Infiniford’is the comedown to the 43 minutes of mayhem preceding it, perfectly reliving the regret many people feel after a night out where they’ve over-indulged just a little more than they intended.

However, the album is not without it’s flaws. The middle section, despite containing the pounding single ‘Heart of Hearts’, contains neither enough experimentation nor enough rhythm to grab the attention. ‘Sweet Life’ for example, seems to run out of ideas halfway through the song, and Offer is reduced to shouting the alphabet over a fuzzy collage of noise. At times, tracks tend to veer off into Mars Volta esque walls of noise that last for about 20 seconds before finishing the track or randomly lurching back into action. As well as this the drumming sounds remarkably similar on certain tracks, mainly consisting of neat hi-hats or cymbal crashes.

However, despite these minor flaws, !!! have released an album that is simultaneously worthy of hip-shaking or head banging, which is a remarkable feat in a musical landscape where rock and dance music have become so polarized and distinct. It’ll make you shake your hips, it’ll make you want to take home the ugliest girl at the party just for the hell of it. It’s the sound of the weekend. It’s the sound of your weekend.

8.5/10

Steve Wakefield

!!! - Heart Of Hearts

!!! - Bend Over Beethoven

DJ Scotch Egg

DJ Scotch Egg, a.k.a. Shigeru Ishihara is a fine craftsman of his art. When he’s not creating 8-bit madness with a Game Boy, he’s throwing Scotch Eggs into the crowd, or simply screaming into a megaphone. Simply by doing this in front of a whole bunch of very confused indie kids who had gone to see Lightning Bolt, he somehow managed to make a bit of a name for himself.
Hailing from Japan originally but now residing in Brighton, Shuge hit up a nice friendship with Henry Collins (also known as Shitmat). Collins persuaded Shuge to create tracks using everyones favourite childhood toy, the Game Boy.
I'm not sure of the logistics of it or anything, but it sounds amazing. DJ Scotch Egg's sound is based around the 'blip blop' sounds created by a Game Boy in mid-flow, combined with beats and shouting incomprehensibly at certain intervals. It's quite refreshing to get halfway through a noisy, punishing live set and suddenly become aware that what you're actually listening to is the soundtrack to Super Mario 2, around Level 4 where you always go down the wrong tunnel.
Alas, I can't use words alone to try and convince you to convert to the Scotch side, of course. MP3's will be up later but for the moment hopefully this will whet your whistles:


DJ Scotch Egg - Scotch Hausen (Video)

Max Richter

Steve Reich? David Lang? Phillip Glass? Brian Eno? Arvo Pärt? If these names mean anything to you, you'll probably already know of the outstanding Max Richter. Born in Germany, Richter studied piano and classical composition in Edinburgh, and fuck me, is he good. With three records already slowly burrowing into the minds of 'post classical' geeks, he's definitely on the way to becoming the most important composer in the last 10 years. His work is undoubtedly cinematically influenced, with copious amounts of layered rising strings, and at times, almost dormant violins, violas and cellos. Completely overwhelming at time, his music provides an almost nostalgic feel. You find yourself harking back to the most emotional of memories, albeit making them more dramatic. He weaves images of espionage, dark streets and shadows, but at the same time, something ethereal and affecting. Without sounds cliché, Richter’s work changed my life.

Sarajevo

Song

Marnie Stern

Guitar Hero was quite probably made with this woman in mind. Her new album 'In Advance Of The Broken Arm' contains a dizzying array of riffs, time changes and irrepressibly chirpy song-writing. Recorded in her bedroom with the near-legendary Zach Hill of Hella playing drums and producing, the album shows a depth of songwriting and technical ability which you wouldn't expect from someone who's only just released their first album. Matching Hill's frankly outrageous drumming with some inspired finger-tapping is a masterstroke and results in some frankly jaw dropping sounds. I'd compare the sound to what Deerhoof might sound like if they had Van Halen on guitar and a drummer who's drank way too much coffee.

Below are a few tracks from the aforementioned album for your delectation. I hope you enjoy listening to them as much as I enjoyed labouriously uploading them:

Marnie Stern - Every Single Line Means Something
Marnie Stern - Grapefruit
Marnie Stern - Put All Your Eggs In One Basket and Then Watch That Basket!!!

Acoustic Slang - James Mercer

After this months release of The Shins new album "Wincing the Night Away" and the fact that i will be seeing them live for the first time in a couple of months time, i thought i'd dig out this american radio session that was recorded in 2004, just after the last Shins record "Chutes Too Narrow" came out. Wierdly enough, I often choose to listen to these 6 tracks over any of my Shins albums, mainly because without all the other instruments filling out the sound, it is a lot easier to make out Mercer's beautiful lyrics. With just a small crowd of friends for moral support, an acoustic guitar and a harmonica, he manages to make the Shins sing-along pop songs sound as catchy as ever, as well as giving his own twist on a T-Rex classic.

01 James Mercer - Caring Is Creepy

02 James Mercer - Baby Boomerang [T-Rex Cover]

03 James Mercer - So Say I

04 James Mercer - New Slang

05 James Mercer - Young Pilgrims

06 James Mercer - Gone For Good

Shellac (Peel Session)

With the supposed 2007 release of new album "Excellant Italian Greyhound" (named after Todd Trainer's dog Uffizi), the first Shellac release since 2000's "1000 Hurts", i thought i'd pull out a few tracks from what is probably my favourite ever Peel Session. Recorded at Maida Vale in 2004, these tracks really give out the raw, punchy edge that makes Shellac who they are. The first time i heard The End of Radio, it took quite a while for me to realise they had actually began playing, and weren't just jamming and messing around. Enjoy the tracks.

p.s welcome to the blog!


Shellac - The End of Radio [Peel Session]
Shellac - Paco [Peel Session]
Shellac - Steady As She Goes [Peel Session]