Ricardo Villalobos, once minimal techno's beloved guru, has long transcended the frontiers of this genre, building a space of his own where he's been happily making small revolutions in electronic music. Following the hallucinating aural poem that was last year's Fabric 36, 2008 sees him release an EP that actually has the length of a proper album, with 70 minutes divided by just 4 tracks. Once again a mechanical and repetitive beat is just the beginning, the end being the subliminal layers of innumerous sounds and samples that he creates around and even inside those same beats, always with a broad sense of inspiration that abolishes any musical classifications. In the end, here's a lesson on how to play with the notion of space and time at your own terms and where the definition of "transparent sounds" suddenly starts making sense, in one of the most fluid and hypnotical records of the year. (8/10)
This is probably as close as I'll ever get to the feeling of having a future pop star playing for me and about a dozen more people in what could be my living room...
(filmed on the 04-12-2008 at Cabaret Maxime in Lisbon, Portugal)
Whatever way you'd look at 808s & Heartbreak, this was an album that was destined to divide opinions and create as much backlash as enthusiastic reactions. Until now, Yeezy was everyone's favourite hip-hop artist, with his uplift songs and an amazing ear to find the most surprising samples that would turn almost every single one of his musical creations into larger than life anthems. But then, in the past few months, a lot has happened. The sudden death of his mother and the break-up with his long-term fiancée had an effect in Yeezy that is felt everywhere in his new album and mostly goes like this: he stopped caring about what you, me or anyone else thinks. Add to this his late obsession with the Auto-Tune technology and there you have it, the ingredients for one of the most talked-about and controversial records of recent times. And if that wasn't enough, this is not even hip-hop anymore, but just pop music in all its glory, causing immediate shouts of "sell out" towards him. Sell-out? I don't think so. In fact, I hardly believe he could go into a more difficult way than this. Using Auto-Tune in a disarming way to sing touching melodies and creating the most amazing sounds with not much more than a TR-808 drum machine, it's almost umbelievable the amount of diverse sensations suggested by this music, what with such a stripped-down approach. Almost vanished are the celebratory moods of his old time songs, now say hello to melancholic and intelligent digital pop songs about the pain, anger and loneliness that can come at the top. Recorded in just 3 weeks and with a sense of urgency that seems almost therapeutic, 808s & Heartbreak is no less than a groundbreaking pop album as rarely heard, pushing so many boundaries alone. The fact that it does this while, at the same time, being extremely compelling in the way it exposes the very inner side of one of the most creative artists around, is just beyond any reasonable explanation. (9,5/10)
Keeping on with some more acts to watch out for in 2009, Frankmusik is 22-year-old Londoner Vincent Frank, who has been causing some waves for a few months now with his impredictable mixture of power-pop, eighties music, electro and a few more sounds that seem to come directly from a ZX Spectrum computer, as seen in his debut EP "Frankisum", with refreshing results. So much so that super-producer Stuart Price has recently manifested his interest to collaborate with him, updating one of his anthems "3 Little Words" into a brand-new ridiculously catchy affair set to win the hearts of more than a few people. All this could not be complete without a video full of eighties pure-fun innocence (a.k.a. Tom Hanks in "Big"), so there you go. Expect this guy to change the face of electro-pop in 2009 with his first full-length album.
As a bonus, here's another song with Vicent showing his more sensitive side...
The last year and a half have seen a lot happening around Britney Spears and not all related to her work. With an emotional breakdown taking place in front of the paparazzi lenses, somewhat an excellent album got a bit ignored on the way, in the middle of all the chaos that her life was supposed to be during that period. Quite unfairly, I may add, as Blackout was a postmodernist wet-dream, or the sound of someone falling apart, gloriously captured by a bunch of the best producers in town, to make a true 21st century dirty digital fest with some awesome results. One year later and her life is supposed to be back on track and apparently the world is also ready for her "real" comeback, forgiving the supposed behavior mistakes of the past. But what's actually interesting in all this is that the object of that same comeback, Circus, is another triumphant pop moment, even if not so radical as Blackout was. A very cohesive album, this time the aim is to make a complete work with a more pop-oriented approach, but still with those groundbreaking beats and digital sounds created by an amazing team of producers. Touching a lot of different things in the same package, we have synthesised Britney, actual Britney vocals, Britney's trademark giggles, power-ballad Britney ("Out From Under", surprisingly good) or hilarious Britney ("If U Seek Amy", and try saying this fast), all complete with some great punchlines that draw close parallels to her own life ("all eyes on me, I’m in the center of the ring, just like a circus", "Mr. Photographer, I think I’m ready for my close-up...Is that money in your pocket or you happy to see me?"). In the end, with so many great songs that are amongst the best in her career, like "Circus", "Kill The Lights", "Unusual You", "Mannequim" or the aforementioned "If U Seek Amy", the best to do is to finally let go all pre-conceived ideas you still might have and just enjoy this amazing attack on all senses. (8/10)
2008 is drawing close to an end, so it's a good time to start looking at what the next year will offer us... There's of course our friend frYars, currently finishing his debut album "Dark Young Hearts"... And then there's Leeds-based indie-poppers Grammatics, who have just released the perfect song to warm up these cold winter months, in advance for their first full-length which is coming out in the beginning of 2009. Full of heart-felt lyrics and metaphors about seasons changing, the music in "The Vague Archive" kind of reflects this same spirit, with a fast-paced rhythm that slows down in the last section, just like winter melancholy sunddenly taking over. Add to this a polished production that includes frenetic cellos, horns, guitars, crashing cymbals and powerful choruses, and you end up with the perfect winter anthem. The video itself translates all these moods with impeccable taste and heart-breaking urgency, featuring people running and jumping in an open field, and slow-motion night-snow descending upon the band's faces.
I have to confess: I still can't get enough of "Yearbook 1", the first album from this Swedish project, with its groovy digressions, New-Wave anthemic melodies, arpeggio guitars and an overall Balearic feeling. "Yearbook 2", a collection of remixes this duo has made for the likes of Shout Out Louds, A Mountain Of One or (no less) Kylie Minougue, almost feels like a very good follow-up, even if it doesn't include any original material. Beyond other reasons, this happens mostly because of how strong Studio's identity is, devouring these songs from its original context and giving them new lights, with kaleidoscopic motifs that interlace and succeed one after another in cascades. And here's the secret: these are motifs that take no time to expand themselves in mental layers, with dubby echoes, glistening synthesizers and mysterious dark disco grooves that are topped by appointments of the duo's trademark guitar webs. Or, in a more poetic fashion: making music as if looking beyond the horizon while creating waves of sounds in endless languid vagues. Nevermind the concept of remixes and forget if you like the originals or not: "Yearbook 2" makes a very good point in showing how unique Studio are. (8/10)
As awesome as it was, 2006's "It's a Feedelity Affair" was actually a collection of previously released maxi-singles, so here it is, finally, what can be considered Lindstrøm's first proper album. And not shy to do things the difficult way, this Norwegian producer has released an ambitious work comprised of only three songs, one of which with the impressive length of no less than 28 minutes. Logistic facts aside, "Where You Go I Go Too" marks a small departure from what his territory was before, although the end sounds a bit in a limbo, making it somewhat hard to say where he really wants to go. And in fact, travelling is the first concept in here, as shown by its title and contents, no matter what the final destiny will be. So, coming from the previous first ambassador of epic-disco revivalism, we now have less disco rhythms and more cosmic journeys and New-Age grandiose atmospheres, with epic synths that, to my ears, take more than a few nods to, hum, Jean-Michel Jarre. But fear not, even if nothing in here reaches the best individual moments of "It's A Feedelity Affair", the whole thing, when heard from start to end, makes for a very compelling listen (and a few good mental trips, as well). (7,5/10)
Inspired by the written stories of Paul Auster, The Week That Was is an ambitious conceptual album with a plot that goes around a crime thriller (or, to be more precise, a kidnap) while, at the same time, commenting about the power that the media has in our lives today. A side-project of Field Music's Peter Brewis, here's a pop record that is, at the same time, compelling, intelligent and hugely entertaining. And if lyric-wise there's a lot to pay attention to, musically it's no different: this record touches so many things that each song seems like a new twist that takes the whole project into a different direction, be it prog-pop, post-punk or glam rock, always with a very contemporary attitude. The result is not short of great details, one of the best being the powerful tension constantly felt between the abrasive urgency of its drums and the intricate melodies of its clever song-writing. (7,5/10)
I know that I'm a bit late on this one but the fact is that, 6 months after its release, it does sound better than ever. Authors of a sound that gives new meanings to the word "electro", Crystal Castles are Ethan Kath and Alice Glass, and their approach is somewhere between over the top energy and minimal raw-dirty atmospheres, filling their dry mechanical beats with anthemic hooks and infectious samples, while adding looped distorted female vocals on top and an extra dose of claustrophobia and paranoia. Truth to be told, the reputation of this Toronto duo has preceded them long before their debut album release, with shit-hot remixes for the likes of Liars, Bloc Party, The Whip or Klaxons (their take on "Atlantis To Interzone" has pretty much defined the nu-rave generation) or inclusions in hip and trendy compilations like the Kitsuné Maison series. But with all the hype around them, it's still not easy to exactly describe what they do. Reviewing their appearance at the Underage Festival in England, DIS used these words, which I think go pretty close to accurately describing the whole thing: "ferocious, asphyxiating sheets of warped two-dimensional Gameboy glitches and bruising drum bombast pierce [the] skull with sheer shrill force, burrowing deep into the brain like a fever". So, now you see why their live shows have earned the reputation of apocalyptic celebrations. One last thought: any band that has the balls to use a graphic image of a black-eyed Madonna on their merchandise (later removed due to copyright disputes) has to have my thumbs up. (9/10)
The news that Los Campesinos! would have another new record still this year took everyone by surprise, insuflating expectations everywhere. After all, a mere 8 months have passed since the suberb "Hold On Now, Youngster" was out, and that album was loaded with an impossible dose of contagious and irreverent energy that seems to happen only once in a band's lifetime. So how to follow it up? Detractors and fans agree in one thing: this Cardiff collective seems to have swallowed a complete catalogue of the last 15 years of indie music, regurgitating them into their own sound, and that is once again evident in "We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed". So this means a new collection of beautiful chaos, complete with twee-pop references, witty lyrics, cathartic explosions, handclaps, cute harmonies, boy-girl verses and absurd amounts of catchiness everywhere. But there was also space for growth in the last months, as demonstrated by details such as new twisted song structures or the use of dissonance to broaden up some of the songs atmospheres, while renewing a feeling of urgency to create genius anthemic songs. In the end, where does this leave us? Are we having more of the same? Maybe so. But bolder, sharper, catchier and even more excessive than ever. As they say: "Shout at the world because the world doesn't love you / Lower yourself because you know that you'll have to". (9/10)
Should have posted about this one last Friday, as it would have suited the Halloween spirit very well - hell, they even have an old song called "Trick or Treatz"! After their debut "Pip Paine (Pay The £5000 You Owe)" from 2006 and a shit-hot load of remixes for the likes of Klaxons, Ladytron, Franz Ferdinand, Gorillaz, Late of the Pier or Lykke Li, "Nights Out", the second album from this British project, is here to provide a large dose of dancefloor fillers. There's a more pop-oriented take into their trademark sound, mainly because it includes much more voices, but all the rest that puts them on a place of their own is intact: a vintage approach to electro (hello 1980's), with a DIY/lo-fi attitude, some creepy gothic influences (hence the Halloween reference), clipped guitars, radiant synths and a lot of infectious hooks that seem both obscure and jubilant at the same time, a new one coming out of nowhere every 10 seconds or so. All in all, another mind-blowing record that should appeal to both indie and dance masses with any sense of good taste. (8,5/10)
