EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Jonathan Jeremiah - See
No new names in that 'Sounds Like' column: London-born Jonathan Jeremiah is debonair like the 21st Century just does not do, his sweeping, string-backed croon making "See" seem like the sort of song that'd cajole James Bond into karaoke. Probably on some Hawaiian island rather than the back room of a piss-reek London bar, though. James Bond was always going to Hawaii. That motherfucker.
Sounds Like: Nick Drake, Burt Bacharach, Scott Walker
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Memory Tapes - Bicycle (Horrors Cosmic Dub)
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Do you remember Memory Tapes? As Sam Duke said exactly one month ago, whoever's behind this beautiful, anonymous noise has a 12" out through Loog Records, backed by a remix from The Horrors - this remix from The Horrors. It begins like Ennio Morricone and Mike Oldfield meeting in the midnight rain and ends as a throbbing, yet surprisingly tender, club take on New Order's "True Faith", wandering synths tied to a compulsive arpeggio and snare drum THWACK. It's fucking great. No sign of Memory Tapes' identity slipping just yet, though.
Sounds Like: Patten, New Order, Chromatics
Memory Tapes - Bicycle (Horrors Cosmic Dub)
Previously:
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Detachments - Flowers That Fell (Parallels Mix)
The team behind this lot is stellar - Detachments are currently in the studio working on their new album with DFA man Tim Goldsworthy, Andrew Weatherall, SALEM and Trevor Jackson, who used to run Output Records, the label that introduced DFA to the UK back in the early part of the decade. It's no surprise then that this track - remixed by Crystal Castles' live drummer Cameron Findlay - has dance bliss down to a science; arpeggiated Moroder synths maraud from start to finish, bass goes four-to-the floor, John Carpenter strings leak blood all over the chorus. All the while Detachments man Sebastien Marshal wheezes away in his English drawl, adding the weary, solemn tinge all great club music needs. "Flowers That Fell" is out on limited edition 7" and as a download from April 27th, through Thisisnotanexit Records.
Sounds Like: Depeche Mode, M83, Psychedelic Furs
DOWNLOAD: Max Richter - Cradle Song For A (Interstate B3)
Few composers hold water with Hollywood film-makers and indie taste-makers, but Max Richter is one such composer. He's worked with electronica pioneers The Future Sound of London, recorded a handful of widely praised solo albums, found his music borrowed for the movie Stranger Than Fiction (starring Will Ferrell), and produced folk legend Vashti Bunyan's comeback album. At the heart of his 2008 album, 24 Postcards In Full Colour, lies an interesting concept: composing brief pieces to be used as mobile ringtones. "Cradle Song For A (Interstate B3)," is a charmingly simple lullaby that would surely sound better curling up from someone's pocket than any default ringtone.
Sounds like: Eluvium, The Future Sound of London, Philip Glass
DOWNLOAD: DJ Hell - The Angst Pt. 1
You'd be forgiven for suspecting DJ Hell's tracks are a miasma of clanging techno beats at face melting tempos -- his back catalog wouldn't prove you wrong. But his latest album, Teufelswerk, and "The Angst Pt. 1" which precedes it, is much more inviting and nuanced. With only a gentle kick drum and oscillating synth to connect "The Angst" to the dance floor (that's where a Henrik Schwarz remix comes in), it's the overcast electric piano, mournful strums and shredded vocals that usher in the moody atmosphere. It's almost as if Hell is setting the stage for a dramatic dual set in Germany's Black Forest. His album will reveal what comes next.
Sounds like: Earth, Kraftwerk
Kabuki Old School
We love that Cinefamily brings us the obscure film runnings. And we know that they love music too because Dublab and one of our favorite tree-killers, LA Record, are sponsors. Last night at LA's Silent Movie Theatre we were presented with director Teinosuke Kinugasa's 1926 silent film called "A Page of Madness." As seen before, Cinefamily decided to add their own musical score to this film. But what would pair well with the Kinugasa's theme of hallucinations and obsession played out in Japanese kabuki and the use of superimpositions, flashbacks, rapid montage and complex subjective camerawork? None other than California's psychedelic soundsmith, The Gaslamp Killer, who we first discovered from Sound in Color Records and who is now rocking with Obey Records.
Check the Cinefamily website for upcoming experiments in music and film, including an upcoming evening with Mike Mills.
Scott Pagano Short Film + Trifonic = Stunning
Our friends Trifonic have just informed us their latest collaboration is featured on Apple's HD quicktime gallery. And it's a doozy. The short film (essentially an insane music video) is called "Parks On Fire", and the visuals are courtesy of Scott Pagano, an emerging digital filmmaker, motion designer, and "spatial reconstructionist", according to the press release.
Fans of the rich, textured visual imagery of Aeon Flux, The Cell, Encyclopedia Pictura, and Gondry should enjoy. Pagano has also created motion art works for such artists as Funkstorung, Christopher Willits, Monolake, The Kronos Quartet - and now our SF area homeys Trifonic.
Check the high-res madness (youtube eat your heart out) here:
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: The Present - Love Melody
With a major hand in the production of Animal Collective’s Sung Tongs, Panda Bear’s Person Pitch and Born Ruffians’ debut album, Rusty Santos is a man who could, you feel, afford to rest smugly upon his laurels for a month or two. Clearly that’s a sentiment the New Yorker – relocated from his native Fresno, California – does not share, as he prepares to release World I See with his own band The Present. As you’d expect in light of past adventures, World I See makes full use of studio wizardry; voices distant and pitch-shifted, effects otherworldly, the whole thing kind of sounds like Joe Meek may have done by now if he hadn't confiscated Heinz Burt's shotgun. "Love Melody" is representative of a listen that’s challenging, no doubt – but it’s a listen that ultimately rewards as stream-of-consciousness sections sleepwalk beautifully into each other, shedding light on an amusing, startling, expertly-melded record that truly needs to be heard in full for maximum effect.
Sounds like: Angelo Badalamenti, Ecstatic Sunshine, cLOUDDEAD
Film: Jason Reitman's playlist
Juno Soundtrack - Anyone Else But You - Ellen Page
Jason Reitman is one of the most promising young film directors today. The 31-year old son of “Ghost Busters” helmer Ivan Reitman, Jason has steered two very different ships to success in “Juno” and “Thank You For Smoking”. Raised in LA, Reitman listens to KCRW as we do so we were all ears when he shared his love of music in a recent radio interview and played tunes that have influenced him over years, especially during the making of the two aforementioned films.
Who would've known that Steve Winwood's "I'm A Man" was a driving force during the making of "Thank You For Smoking". While that tune didn't make the film soundtrack, the attitude of the lyrics permeated the film in more subtle ways. Makes one wonder what the film Juno would've been like if the main character was cast as a punk music fan instead of a lo-fi band lover?
Given his age, Jason Reitman should be creating great films for years to come. And anyone who lists RJD2 in their playlist is a friend of ours. Tune into KCRW to hear how intrinsic music is to Reitman's creative process and how he uses radio as his record store to discover songs that influence his film projects.
Jason Reitman's Playlist:
1. Steve Winwood - "I'm a Man"
Album: The Best of Steve Winwood (Island)
2. Yo La Tengo - "You Can Have it All"
Album: Juno B-Sides: Almost Adopted Songs (Rhino)
3. Moldy Peaches - "Anyone Else But You"
Album: Juno - Music From The Motion Picture (Rhino)
4. Noel Zancanella - "Lovely"
Album: Stereo: A Fantasy for Electromagnetic Tape (Sonom Records)
5. Penguin Cafe Orchestra - "Telephone Rubber Band"
Album: Penguin Cafe Orchestra (Astralwerks)
6. RJD2 - "Good Times Roll pt. 1 [Explicit]"
Album: The Horror (Def Jux)
Live: Massive Attack vs Blade Runner
Our favorite Bristolians, Massive Attack, are breaking molds again. They're curating this year's Meltdown Festival at the South Bank Centre in London (June 14-22nd), and are also participating in the highlight event of the fest: a live orchestral reinterpretation of Vangelis’ score to Blade Runner.
Tomorrow (Tuesday 17th in London) Massive Attack will perform a remix performance of the Vangelis soundtrack by the Heritage Orchestra. Remember Massive's classic "Blue Lines" that sampled and reinterpreted everything from reggae to soul to rock-fusion? And the dubbed-out "No Protection" remix album produced by Mad Professor. We're not sure how the Meltdown Vangelis show will work exactly, but the thought of Robert “3D” Del Naja conducting the Heritage Orchestra is intriguing to say the least.
More details from the Heritage Orchestra site to whet the appetite:
"A rare live performance aiming to recapture the evocative and atmospheric sounds of Blade Runner using massive layers of live strings, synthesisers, orchestral percussion, live Foley work, ambient effects, vocalists, lighting, and surround sound...Whilst Vangelis turned synthesiser into orchestra, the orchestra will now become the synthesiser...”
Tickets are $35 with show time 7:45pm.
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