Telefon Tel Aviv – Immolate Yourself – album review

Telefon Tel Aviv is the bizarre name for US based Joshua Eustis and Charles Cooper, and Immolate Yourself is their third album following previous releases, Fahrenheit Fair Enough (2001) and Map Of Effortless (2004).

Immolate Yourself is an interesting electronic album that moves between atomspheric and electro pop.

The opening track, The Birds, is like a contemporary Beloved electro pop song whereas other tracks such as Helen Of Troy and the title track, Immolate Yourself are reminiscent of Depeche Mode in a time between their synth pop glory and darker more meaningful days.

All these references are tinted with a fresh, contemporary take rather than a simple copycat retro eighties sound.

Other tracks move further away from the standard electro pop category.  Made A Tree On The Wold and Stay Away From Being Maybe build slowly with atmospheric tension.  The latter reminding me of the intro to U2’s anthemic Where The Streets Have No Name.

Though Telefon Tel Aviv keep the lid on the lighters and the intro ends with the outro, leaving me with a deep thought-provoking mood more akin to the deepness of a Joy Division track than any shallow stadium rock.

Immolate Yourself grows on me. Telefon Tel Aviv are making some interesting dark moody electro pop in a similar vain to Depeche Mode.

Telefon Tel Aviv – Immolate Yourself is due for release on 23rd January 2009 on the BPitch Control label.

Rather Sound Than Safe

Rather Sound Than Safe aka RSTS are making some big electronic waves.  RSTS is Sif and Rasmus Neo and hail from Denmark.  They met in Copenhagen in 1996 and are creating electronic based music from deep electro pop to housey trance.

Rather Sound Than Safe have just released their debut single, Fairytale.  It is a darky, brooding electronic track reminiscent of an industrial metallic version of Massive Attack, complete with Sif’s cool, soft sensual vocal.

Fairytale is taken from their forthcoming album, Rebirth, to be released in October.  The album has been appropriatelt titled Rebirth as it sees RSTS reworking earlier tracks.  The result promises to be more polished and better produced than their previous versions.

The three tracks on their MySpace page certainly gives a clear indication that their music takes on different shapes and sounds.  As well as Fairytale there is the funky house / minmal trance of Funkateer and then the dub mix of Rise and Fall which conjours up a late night/early morning warehouse party in full swing.

Great though Sif’s voice is, its obvious RSTS have more to offer than electronic pop songs.  I’m looking forward to hearing the album and seeing how their different sounds work together, or whether Rebirth will simply concentrate on one style.

For more information visit Rather Sound Than Safe’s MySpace page.

Feel The Dream

Come & join our worldwide freedom party!
Calling out to DJs and promoters everywhere to ‘Feel the Dream’

Feel The Dream is a new project attempting to organise celebration of the 45th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech.

Here is a message from the Feel The Team group.

WHAT IS IT?
On August 28th, and throughout the weekend after that, we are throwing a worldwide freedom party to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech.

WHAT DO I DO?
It’s easy. Raise awareness of the event building the House classic, Larry Heard’s ‘Can You Feel It’ vs. Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech into your set. Anyone can play a part: spread the world, play the tune, and help clubbers and music lovers to celebrate their freedom. The track is available to download from iTunes. We will prime the audience about what is going on through our networks & get them to yell the final words’ Free At Last, Free At Last…..’ I think you know the rest. It is intended as a worldwide celebration of freedom (& House Music).

Join our network and invite your mates. Above all, join us on the weekend of the 28th August by celebrating, and joining us and Dr King in proclaiming and celebrating his dream.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?
We would like all the events to promote the work done by Amnesty International in standing up for those that can’t enjoy the freedom we’ll be celebrating. Sign up at www. feelthedream. org to listen to the song, the speech or the mix we’ve created to get the ball rolling. Find out more ways you can join the party. And bring Dr King’s dream one step closer to reality.

We know it’s short notice but its about the craftsmanship of Ace DJs & the spontaneity that kicked this thing of in the first place

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Please tell us your thoughts on the freedom party. Do you love it, do you think it’s mad, do you want to add something to it?

Will will be more events to come… this is just the launch.

You can contact Feel The Dream via:

For more information visit the website: www. feelthedream. org
or Feel The Dream MySpace page: www. myspace. com/feelthedream08

Give Chance a Piece

Feel the Dream

Max Tundra to release third album

Max Tundra to release third album – Parallax Error Beheads You & support Hot Chip on their Autumn UK tour

Ben Jacobs aka Max Tundra will be releasing his third album on 13th October bizarrely entitled Parallax Error Beheads You.

Max Tundra’s two previous albums have been well received – Some Best Friend You Turned Out To Be (2000) and Mastered By Guy At The Exchange (2002).

Max Tundra likes to mix it up with micro-melodies, layers of samples and sound-bytes; and there is obvious record box from where Max Tundra reaps his samples. Anything from pop, rock, disco, funk, techno, rap, metal and soul may find its way into a Max Tundra musical arrangement.

His music is different, varied, sometimes catchy, sometimes uncompromising. One look at the influences listed on his MySpace page and you will realise this ain’t no straightforward electronic music artist: Frank Zappa, Gong, Supergrass, Prince, The Police, Mercury Rev, Art Of Noise, Thunderclap Newman and Tracey Ullman among others!!!

Speaking about his new album Tundra explains:

“There are micro-melodies on the album – generally, layers and layers of stuff. Hopefully, the more you listen to it, the more new stuff will reveal itself, stuff you didn’t notice the first few times you played it. It’s intricate but that should mean it’s more rewarding over the distance, so that people can go back to it and hear new things each time.”

He goes on to say how he composes the songs:

“Each song is approached in a different way, but I often use a Commodore Amiga 500 for sequencing work,” he explains. “I don’t use PCs or Macs; I use a MIDI device to control the various instruments and hardware, the keyboards, synthesizers and samplers. And it all gets recorded onto a hard-disk machine. Hopefully it’s a more pristine sound than before but with the warmth of my other records.”

But it’s not just a simple case of electronic equipment and computer technology.

“There are trumpets, violins, cellos, guitars, dulcimers, xylophones – whatever’s lying around,” he says. “That’s another reason the record took so long to make. I thought a cello would be good so I had to spend three weeks learning to play that part and then layering it with so much stuff that people wouldn’t notice that I’m not exactly an amazing cello player!”

In between recording his third album, Tundra has been continually remixing the work of other artists, both unofficially and officially for the likes of Lily Allen, Missy Elliot, The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, Futureheads, Pet Shop Boys, Mogwai, Kid 606 and many more.

To promote the release of Parallax Error Beheads You, Max Tundra will be playing the following live dates:

05 Oct 2008 – LSO St Luke’s (with Juana Molina)

23 Oct 2008 – Southampton Guildhall (with Hot Chip)

24 Oct 2008 – Cardiff University (with Hot Chip)

25 Oct 2008 – Liverpool Academy (with Hot Chip)

26 Oct 2008 – Leeds Academy (with Hot Chip)

28 Oct 2008 – Sheffield Academy (with Hot Chip)

29 Oct 2008 – Birmingham Academy (with Hot Chip)

30 Oct 2008 – Cambridge Corn Exchange (with Hot Chip)

01 Nov 2008 – Manchester Apollo (with Hot Chip)

02 Nov 2008 – Glasgow Academy (with Hot Chip)

03 Nov 2008 – Leicester De Montford University (with Hot Chip)

05 Nov 2008 – Brighton Dome (with Hot Chip)

06 Nov 2008 – London Brixton Academy (with Hot Chip and Wiley)

07 Nov 2008 – London Brixton Academy (with Hot Chip and Wiley)

Max Tundra is fresh, exciting and innovative. For more information visit www.myspace.com/maxtundra