International Peoples Gang - Up

Not what you might call prolific, this is the third album from The International Peoples Gang since 1995’s debut 3395, their second Action Painting was released in 2006.

Up is the first IPG album to be released through Amsterdam’s Hi-Phi Music and it finds the gang expanding their hybrid sound even further than before, creating a sumptuous mix of kaleidoscopic house, funk, folk, down-tempo and pop music.

Inspired by a lyric from David Bowie’s Panic In Detroit, The International Peoples Gang was formed by Nottingham (UK) residents Martyn Watson and Ric Peet who have since created their own sublime sound through their IPG albums and masses of production work and remixes.

Martyn and Ric use concepts of sound as their material, throwing them at blank spaces and watching abstract images and audio-visual beauty take shape. The result combines warm, organic dub soundscapes with classical stylings, elements of folk with fuzzed guitars, creating a manipulation of language with electronic experimentation.

Up kicks off with the anthemic and uplifting Second (featuring elements of The Who’s “Blue, Red and Grey”) showing off the pair’s impeccable taste for beautiful sound but as the name also suggests, this album was produced by Martyn & Ric with much valued contributions from their gang.

The pair have brought out fantastic vocal performances from Jay Thomas (daughter of house producer Tony Thomas) on Angel Delight and Katty Heath (who has also sung for Mylo, Bent and breakbeat duo Slyde among others) on the tracks Caught Up In Something which features Crazy P producer Jim Baron on Trombone and 271 The Trencherman, with upright bass by Arwel Hughes.

From the shimmering and hypnotic Son of Still to the more upbeat stance of Instant Sideways and Chika Woodward’s spoken word diatribe on the sparsely beautiful Nascent, International Peoples Gang continue their musical ascent with Up.

The sleevenotes give a valuable track by track insight into how the album evolved from none other than the The International Peoples Gang themselves;

Up Sleevenotes:

Junior Cycle
Due to a love affair with the fuzz-tone noise of Johnny Thunders and Mick Jones I’d always fancied a Les Paul Junior and, after treating myself to one as a birthday present, I played it non-stop for about a month…riff, riff, riff and then another riff. Eventually I formulated this pretty little cyclic tune that has alternating bars of 6/4 and 5/4 but; please don’t go scratching that ‘prog’ rash y’all, it grooves.

Second
I’ve always loved the ‘me against the world’ sentiment of Townshend’s lyrics to ‘Blue Red and Grey’ and, with its sonic-palette of ukulele and brass, it’s certainly an odd sounding Who record. The track has been a nagging inspiration since autumn ’75 and Ric and I were so made up when Pete let us use it.

Caught Up In Something
Featuring an ace vocal interlude from Katty Heath, a woozy, boozy coda courtesy of Jim Baron’s trombone (Fa fa faah…), an experiment with mutating room-ambience and a lawn-mower solo; this is the latest in a long line of IPG ‘musique-concrete’ melodic creations.

Place des Abbesses
Whilst living in Paris during the late ‘80s I often found myself ‘people watching’ at the Café St Jean and the art-nouveau splendour of Metro Abbesses. This tune, with its reflective clarinet theme, accordion splashes and heat-haze Algerian buzz takes me right back there.

Son of Still
Anyone remember ‘Still’ from em:t 3395? Check it out. I love the way that the nagging sequencer resonates with the naïve, piano part to create a kind of theatrical suspension between aggression and humility. Yin and Yang.

Instant Sideways
This one’s got a disorientating party vibe as it lurches from one idea to another…never quite making its mind up…like most Friday nights. The joyous kids were recorded on a carousel in Paris, the bells are from a June wedding in Derbyshire and the harmony guitars are totally 1973.

Angel Delight
The centrepiece of the record for us. This track has got a spacey, loopy, bluesy quality that Jay Thomas absolutely nails with a totally gorgeous vocal performance. I’d demoed this in falsetto so Jay sings it in an unusual register for her but still reckons that she’s never sounded better. Love on ya baby.

Spacebook
Dave Morton squeezes out a gorgeous violin tone from his electric guitar and sucks the listener into a propulsive electro groove. Ric’s orchestral collage has a disassociative quality and, when I close my eyes, I get a similar vibe to the stylings of ‘Aeroplane’ from our first album. Lush and dreamlike.

Nascent
I woke up from one of those mad semi-lucid dreams with a template for this in my head. I scribbled down as much as I could and stuck it on the studio wall. Ric spent the best part of six months sound-designing and it ended up as a sprawling monster; a soundtrack looking for a narrative. Independently, Japanese artist Chika Woodward had written a poem musing on the Hiroshima bombing from the perspective of a young mother taking her child to school that morning. We put them together and it worked. Just like that. Synergy.

Astronomy
Dedicated to Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)

Easy
This was written, late at night, during a snowstorm and is my reflection on a brand-new relationship. If Bowie hadn’t done it first this would be called ‘A New Career In A New Town’. I dig what Ric did with the scratchy, flanging, phasing guitar sounds and the breakdown to silence. “Of course you can…”

271 The Trencherman
This one’s a collision between a desire for love and peace and a more prosaic, gritty realism. Kind of like a Hippy v Punk wars being fought in your mind. The title is the address of a Chelsea restaurant owned by ‘60s hipster Terence Stamp…the building seen being bombed with graffiti in The Stones/Godard film ‘Sympathy for The Devil’. The lyrics are a paean to dream state of pre-Manson California and Arwel Hughes’ upright bass cunningly avoids jazz. Phew.

Up
Ric and I worked hard at establishing a sense of order/disorder by the use of pop-art/action-painting/mixed-media collage techniques. We love shaking things up and there are no rules. We did a lot of field recording (aren’t mobile phones ace?) and cared not one jot if we found ourselves ‘doin’ our thang’ in a ‘studio’ or not. Indeed, Isobel’s front room, post-fracture morphine, Ric’s sunlit yard and serene interludes amidst episodes of mid-tour mayhem all played their part. All in all, ‘Up’ took about 3 years to put together…we’d write and record in chunks and then spend ages reviewing and editing material…attention to detail and all that. We guarantee that this record will reward careful listening. You know us.

ARTIST: INTERNATIONAL PEOPLES GANG
TITLE: UP (LP)
FORMAT: CD / DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
LABEL: HI-PHI MUSIC
CAT NO: HIPHILP1
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW DIGITAL / CD COMING SOON

Clicks & Cuts 5: Paradigm Shift

In 2000 the German music label Mille Plateaux released the first compilation in the Clicks & Cuts Series. Always looking for new sounds and innovative ideas in music it introduced me to a new movement in electronic music known by various names including clip hop, blip hop and most commonly as glitch.

The original Clicks & Cuts CD introduced me to new experimental electronica artists such as Vladislav Delay and Kit Clayton, along with more familiar artists Pole and Pan Sonic.

Ten years on and Mille Plateaux release Clicks & Cuts 5: Paradigm Shift.  17 tracks introducing me to 17 new artists that in 2010 are at the cutting edge of electronic experimental music; and as with previous releases in the series I listen to this more as a sampler rather than any type of ‘Now That’s What I Call Glitch 2010’album.

Merging glitch with dub overtones always seems to work for me, and so I single out Aoki Takamasa’s RN04-09 and Isolex 03 by Loom as artists I want to hear more from. But there are other fusions and interesting sounds I will follow up here including the beautiful and chilled minimal techno of e.coli by Marow and Inner by Nicolaus.

Clicks & Cuts Volume 5.0 features a totally new generation of young artists giving a 360 degree view on fresh glitch sounds: from Glitch to Minimal Techno and Dub Electronica to Ambient and Sound Art . Each song has its own distinct character. Mille Plateaux never usually fails to deliver interesting electronic music, and Clicks & Cuts 5.0 is a perfect latest edition to this great CD series.

Clicks & Cuts 5.0: Paradigm Shift is released on Mille Plateaux on 7th May 2010

Vladislav Delay – Toive

Sasu Ripatti will be in the UK for a rare Vladislav Delay appearance on November 12, at London’s Union Chapel. Joined by Argentinian musician Lucio Capece (who also plays bass saxophone and clarinet on Tummaa), the show is co-headlined by British/Norwegian jazz outfit Food (Rune Grammofon).

Eyebrow, comprised of Pete Judge (Get The Blessing) on trumpet and Paul Wigens (ex-Blurt) on drums, have now been confirmed as support for the show.

Thursday 12 November
Union Chapel, LONDON (with Food & Eyebrow)
Compton Terrace, N1 2UN
Doors 7pm
Tickets £15 adv
http://www.jointhecircle.net

Boredoms: Super Roots 10 (Thrill Jockey)

Boredoms – Super Roots 10 – EP review

Boredoms, the boundary- breaking, sonic-shifting, head-messing group are releasing the Super Roots 10 EP through Thrill Jockey, only available as a limited double 12” release. Super Roots 10 is produced by EYE, who equally created the artwork accompanying the release.

This new Boredoms EP includes a remix of the Antz 10 track by Lindstom, the critically acclaimed Norwegian dance/house producer who has remixed a whole host of artists, including Franz Ferdinand and LCD Soundsystem. Super Roots 10 also includes a remix from the Japanese artist Altz.

Ant 10 Original is nine minutes of buzzing, tribal, rhythmic intensity, with a small thirty second break in between. The drums are thick and saturate the track, as do the drones. The Mineral Dub Break Remix is almost unrecognisable whilst Linstrom does another full overhaul on his remix, bringing in some crisper beats, subtle 80s synths and keyboards, making the pounding drums part of the background arrangements. His style from his recent collaboration with Prins Thomas is certainly recognisable.

A studio album can be expected in 2010, whilst Boredoms member Yoshimi P-We is to release her new album with OOIOO entitled Armonico Hewa on Thrill Jockey in November.

Track listing for Super Roots 10:

1. ANT 10
2. ANT 10 / ESTEREO 10 (REMIX BY ALTZ)
3. ANT 10 (REMIX BY DJ LINDSTROM)
4. ANT 10 / MINERAL DUB BREAK (REMIX BY ALTZ)

Christian Smith Platform DJ Mix CD

Christian Smith – Platform (Renaissance)

With DJ mixes coming out of our office ears and being two-a-penny for the last two decades, any new DJ mix that drops on our doormat needs to instantly grab us or it may not be given a second chance; and when two heavyweights like Renaissance and Christian Smith collaborate the expectation is all the greater.

Christian Smith Platform delivers a superb Detroit techno inspired mix that will have your neck muscles pumping in no time!

Having made his name as a true heavyweight of the techno scene with a string of seminal productions to his name, Christian Smith is undoubtedly one of the best-respected names in the genre. Often collaborating with his long-time studio partner, John Selway, Christian’s work has set the benchmark for quality techno; as his releases with Josh Wink’s Ovum imprint, John Digweed’s Bedrock, Steve Lawler’s ever-innovative Viva Music and of course, Renaissance, are a true testament to that.

“I wanted to do something special… that stands the test of time, but that has not been done for Renaissance before” Christian Smith suggested when asked about this new DJ mix for the Renaissance label.

To achieve this he has given each mix of this two-disc package a different flavour. Devoting the first CD to Detroit techno he has selected tracks produced by European artists that are heavily inspired by the early Detroit sound. He mixes up the hypnotic groove of Radio Slave’s remix of the Humate classic Love Stimulation with standout tracks from Stimming, Nic Fanciulli & Steve Mac.

Smith also adds a generous helping of his own unreleased original production to create a shimmering soundscape, that is as beautifully crafted, as it is compelling.

The second disc represents Christian Smith the DJ in a more peaktime, club environment – big records that convey the energy that he always brings to the dancefloor. Incorporating tracks from such production luminaries as Timo Maas, Cirez D and Guy J (as well as a further sprinkling of previously unheard material from his own studio).

Christian Smith comments on the second CD mix:
“At the end of that day it’s all about a good party and this is exactly what this second cd is to me.”

Christian Smith Platform is released on Monday 7th September on Renaissance.

Christian Smith Platform: CD One
1.Taho – Atlantess
2.Subotic – The Seed
3.Humate – Love Stimulation (Radio Slave Mix)
4.Stimming – The Kiss (Ripperton Mix)
5.Technasia – Crosswalk
6.Christian Smith & John Selway – Daytona
7.Secret Cinema – Kurzweil
8.DJ Yellow feat. Rucyl – In My Heart
9.Quince featuring Paris The Black Fu – My Life’s Rhythm
10.Nic Fanciulli & Steve Mac – 10%
11. Psycatron – Tipping Point

Christian Smith Platform: CD Two
1.Christian Smith & John Selway – Manfreak (Athos Mix)
2.Samuel L. Sessions – Can You Relate (Slam Remix)
3.Wehbba – The Hiss
4.Alex Under – FI (Tobias Remix)
5.Christian Smith & John Selway – Mistral (Pietee Mix)
6.Karotte – All She Wants Is
7.Christian Smith & Reset Robot – Elixir (Gary Beck Remix)
8.Guy J – Bianca
9.Pan-Pot – Confronted
10.Florian Meindl – Here Today Gone Tomorrow
11.Christian Smith – Indecent Exposure
12.Timo Maas – Jetstream
13.Carlo Dall Anese & Diego Logic – Brigadeiro Demais Engorda
14.Psycatron – Directions
15.Cirez-D – On Off

Vladislav Delay to play Union Chapel, London

Vladislav Delay (aka Sasu Ripatti) has announced a rare London show at The Union Chapel on 12th November. The performance will be a co-headline with British/Norwegian jazz outfit Food.

The Finnish musician (electronics/live percussion) will be joined by Argentinian Lucio Capece (bass saxophone/clarinet) who features on Vladislav Delay’s new album, and first for Leaf, Tummaa (to be released on 7th September).

It has been a busy summer for Sasu Ripatti. As well as European shows under the guise of Luomo and Uusitalo, Ripatti has been playing shows with his partner Antye Greie as AGF/Delay and as a part of the Moritz von Oswald Trio, who released debut album Vertical Ascent (Honest Jon’s) in June.

Moritz von Oswald Trio will make their UK live debut at Fabric on Saturday 26th September.

Vladislav Delay has also been named ‘Artist in Focus‘ at this year’s Dis-Patch festival in Belgrade, Serbia, which runs from October 23 – November 8th.

See all of Sasu Ripatti’s shows at www.vladislavdelay.com

Vladislav Delay will only play one live UK date this year:

Thursday 12 November
Union Chapel, London (with Food)
Compton Terrace, N1 2UN
Doors 7pm
Tickets £15 adv

For more information on Vladisalv Delay visit www.myspace.com/vladislavdelaymusic and
www.theleaflabel.com/vladislavdelay

Fuck Buttons New Single: Surf Solar

The Fuck Buttons are back with Surf Solar, the first single off their new highly anticipated album Tarot Sport (ATP Recordings), out October 12th.

The synth- noise duo (Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power) formed  in Bristol in early 2004, after extensive touring developed a large cult following through out the UK, and with the release of their debut album Street Horrrsing, the duo quickly grew to international fame with their own (almost pretty?) take on noise music.

Solar Surf is a powerful but mesmerizing opening track that serves as an excellent teaser to the new album, leaving the listener begging for more. The track demonstrates that the duo are still very much interested in the experimental music making process, letting a pedal loop endlessly and unafraid to let a beat pound on through out the entire track.

However, this said they also bring a number of new elements to the track borrowing from the sound of micro-sample artists such as the Field, relying on a repeating vocal sample, which they then slowly build synthesizer lines around.

With more of a focus on electronic elements in this track, it will be interesting to see if this stylistic decision is something that holds true for the whole album.  When asked about Solar Surf, Hung described the track as “a bridge between ‘Street Horrrsing’ and ‘Tarot Sport’….it has an emotion attached to it that is unique to us: one of anxiety. It’s an urgent track”.

Tarot Sport was recorded at Rotters Golf Club Studio in London with Andrew Weatherall taking care of production and is said to have really pushed the duo to reflect a new-found complexity of sound and a more layered depth to the recording.

As Power says, “I think it sounds a lot thicker than our previous work….our brains kind of went into meltdown”.

Fuck Buttons will be touring through out the UK this September in support of the new record.

SEPTEMBER
17th – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
18th – Sheffield, The Corporation
19th – Oxford, The Cellar
20th – Manchester, Deaf Institute
21st – Nottingham, Bodega
22nd – Birmingham, Hare & Hounds
23rd – Newcastle, The Other Room
24th – Glasgow, Stereo
25th – Lancaster, The Storey
26th – Bristol, Colston Hall (as part of Geoff Barrow’s Invada Invasion event)
27th – Brighton, Audio

OCTOBER
27th – London, Heaven

Necro Deathmort - This Beat is Necro Deathmort

Necro Deathmort release their debut album on Distraction Records on 31st August.

Necro Deathmort is Matthew Rozeik and AJ Cookson and their amusingly titled album This Beat Is Necrotronic is a real cacophony of sounds and genres.  Yes its noisy but there is more to it than that. Multi-layered soundscapes conjour up contemporary visions of 1980s industrial metal bashers Test Department and SPK and the classic DJ Shadow debut album Entroducing, while I can also hear echoes of Krautrock, death metal, drone metal, and the electronica experimentalism of Aphex Twin.

Necro Deathmort create a twenty-first century mushroom-chewing trip for the offspring of Hawkwind and Gong fans, erring more towards synthetic noise and metallic chaos rather than freeform love and jazz.

From the album intro white noise and funky drone beat of Woburn Place Corner it is clear this isn’t going to be a commercial trip.  This assault spills over to Splith (Spill Your Filth) but the third track, Hurt Me I’m Bored,  drops the onslaught and offers a calm, gentle moment in which to gather your senses.   This track is closer to prog rock and krautrock than the opening gust of noise.  Hurt Me I’m Bored builds slowly with drone metal distorted guitars; and as the drums rise, at one point I thought the whole thing was going to switch to a speed metal onslaught of Napalm Death proportions. But in true prog rock tradition the epic sound continues to build for a full six minutes without going anyway.

I like the way tracks merge into each other giving the album a concept that becomes one long trip rather than individual tracks that can be plucked from the album and heard in the same sense as a single iTunes downloadable song.  Albums should sometimes be heard as albums, not a collection of tracks that can be randomly chosen to play in any order.

The album includes some great titles too. How can you not want to hear tracks like Origami Werewolf and I Fought The Law But The Law Won (Because Fighting Is Against The Law)?

Necro Deathmort’s This Beat is Necrotronic is a wonderful album.  But not to be played on Sunday mornings or at house-warming parties thrown to impress your new neighbours.  This music is as hard as nails and as deep as it is loud.

Listen to and buy This Beat is Necrotronic direct from Distraction Records.

music for astronauts and cosmonauts

A unique audio visual experience is promised to fans of film and electronic music at London’s BFI Southbank venue on Friday July 17 2009, starting at 11pm.

Film director Jake Martin of Zik Zak Filmworks/Blacksheep Films, will present a very special UK premiere of his stunning new high definition experimental film work ‘Music For Astronauts and Cosmonauts’,  that acts as a kind of visual poem for the album of the same name created by producer and artist Howie B and Icelandic artist Húbert Nói.

Music for Astronauts and Cosmonauts is a real time soundtrack, organised into 4 tracks, Morning, Day, Evening, Night, and running for 90 minutes.  This is the time it takes to experience a full Earth orbit. Filmmaker Jake Martin has carefully created an ambient collage of some of the most amazing films from NASA’s collection to mirror Howie and Hubert’s pulsing, mesmerising electronica.

This late night screening will follow a presentation of Stanley Kubrick’s  classic sci-fi voyage, 2001: A Space Oddesey, making for a truly cosmic experience.

BFI’s brand new audiovisual club event, Dark Fibre will continue the lunar theme with live AV performances late into the night.

Woodcraft Folk re-release folk electronica album Trough Of Bowland

With equal measures of simple beauty, folk, acoustic instrumentation and synthetic sounds of electronica, the Woodcraft Folk debut album, Trough Of Bowland, gets re-released.

Trough Of Bowland is a perfect blend of electronica doodling and folk inspiration.  Banjo, organ, xylophone and glockenspiel are some of the instruments that effortlessly merge with melodica, synthesizers, electric bass, field recordings and the occassional drum machine to create relaxing technicolour sounds that bring a smile to my face and a warmth to my soul.

Trough Of Bowland has spent too long in the wilderness.  A rare and perfect little gem released on Earworm Records with a limited CD release, finally gets a vinyl release on Great Pop Supplement Records.  But alas, the Trough Of Bowland vinyl release will be limited to just 250 copies, each with a hand screenprinted sleeve and individually numbered.

I recall John Peel saying how he was speechless after listening to The Beatles’ Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds for the first time.  Something so perfect, so beautiful, is the only way I can describe the track Blokflute. Trough Of Bowland has many facets but this song captures the sound of a perfect moment for me.

Listening to Woodcraft Folk I can imagine hippy-types surrounded by a river of leads, acoustic instruments, stroking whipsy beards and wearing birkenstock sandals.  But then if visionaries like Kraftwerk or Joy Division had formed in the 21st century, wouldn’t they have made folk electronica like Woodcraft Folk?