Disco-lusioned?

Okay, first of all, I'm not going to make any real excuses for my absence. There were many contributing factors I guess, but the most succinct answer is that life got in the way, as it sometimes does (it can be quite fun, y'know, that life thing). Anyway, I'm sort of back now I guess. I won't be finishing my 2008 lists as it's a bit late now really, but if there's enough interest, I might just post the lists with links to mp3s or something.

Also, as Blogger have been taking posts down willy-nilly lately, I'm not bothering posting mp3s on posts for the time being, but as you're all resourceful people, you can probably track down what I'm talking about elsewhere. Right, on with the show...


Has the Balearic bubble burst? You'd certainly think so listening to II, Lindstrom & Prins Thomas' latest opus. Where their eponymous first album revitalised an oft-forgotten strain of disco, making slo-mo, Italo-leaning kosmische with soft-pop overtones fashionable in the process. Beards, kaftans and Jesus sandals were in all of a sudden and these two Norwegians were partly to blame.

While the debut had its flaws, it was a hell of a listen, sounding gorgeous, alien and propulsive, despite its laidback trappings. II isn't a radical departure - although there's a definitely more pronounced Krautrock vibe - but where Lindstrom & Prins Thomas was thrilling and unique in its own way, this comes over insipid, overly languid and boring by comparison.

It's not without its moments ('Note I Love You + 100' for instance, is as good as anything off their debut), it just feels so self-indulgent and too much like a xerox of what made them so intriguing in the first place. It's a shame really, as last year's Lindstrom solo album, Where You Go I Go Too is pretty much a masterpiece of perfectly modulated poise and dynamism and recently released non-album track 'Tirsdagsjam' is everything that most of II is not. It's understandable why it was left off the album, as it's basically a club track and essays that L&PT should stick to making eccentric dancefloor rockers rather than ornate aural wallpaper like the vast majority of II. A disappointing turn of events for arguably the two most talented producers in the microgenre.

Signs of ruder health for Balearica can be found elsewhere though, in two new full-lengths from the cosmic ghetto. Meanderthals is the new collaborative effort from Idjut Boys and Rune Lindbaek and their debut LP, Desire Lines is absolutely wonderful. A beardo's wet dream team-up, it pretty much surpasses anything Idjuts and Lindbaek have done in the past. Full of hooks and purpose, it never meanders - despite their chosen moniker - and always enthralls, especially the enterprising '1-800-288-Slam' and blissful closer 'Bugges Room'. Smalltown Supersound once again prove themselves one of the most reliable labels around.

Also well worth checking out is Le Suivant, Smith & Mudd's follow-up to the beautiful, languorous Blue River. Besting that record significantly, Le Suivant is, alongside Desire Lines, one of 2009's best LPs so far. Recent singles 'Wem' and 'The Delivery Man' are highlights but it's all great. Hearing is believing so I won't go on. Check it out on Claremont 56 from next week.

Meanwhile, at the more boisterous end of the disco spectrum, The Glimmers are only giving away another new album at their shows. This one is credited to their band project, The Disko Drunkards and it's, well, it's a bit rubbish. The Glimmers are clearly talented guys but the lazy, hacky post-punk disco shenanigans contained here grow pretty annoying pretty quickly. A Liquid Liquid rip-off here, a bogstandard approximation of LCD Soundsystem there, The Disko Drunkards album sure sounds like it was made under the influence of something or other, but unless you're pissed too, then I can't see it holding much enjoyment for anyone.

Much more successful is In Flagranti's new album, Brash & Vulgar. Every bit as crass and obnoxious as the title suggests it may be, but it's also a fucking blast. Careening, disorderly discoid jams are the order of the day and if you overlook the porny cover and ridiculous song titles, there's plenty to keep you interested. There's a case to be made for some of the tracks being a bit longer (In Flagranti are the most attention deficient of the nu-disco camp) but it never outstays its welcome and, like I said, it's an absolute riot.

Back soon, honest.

JMx

Mixtape, sir?

Guess who's back?


YER MAM!'S BIG SUMMER MIXTAPE BLOWOUT! VOLUME TWO

1. LCD Soundsystem - Freak Out/Starry Eyes (Proof, if it were needed, that James Murphy & co. can do no wrong, this excellent, percussive, two-part disco jam was passed off as a b-side. Check the drum solo intermission for added freaky vibes.)
2. Tracey Thorn - Raise The Roof (Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve Re-animation) (Easily one of the year's best remixes so far, BTWS rewire the chirpy ambient pop of the original in a discoid style with lush, slyly insistent synths and that certain rustic charm that Alkan and Norris give all their makeovers.)
3. Matthew Dear - Elementary Lover (feat. Mobius Band) (Winningly odd afro-pop from this year's renaissance man, Dear. Distills Talking Heads circa Remain In Light, TV On The Radio and King Sunny Ade in one small, perfectly-formed package.)
4. The Honeymoon Killers - Histoire A Suivre (High-tensile but strangely floaty, thanks to Yvon Vromman's sweet vocals, new wave from the forgotten Belgians, currently undergoing somewhat of a rebirth following their appearance on Prins Thomas' Cosmo Galactic Prism. Not with this track though, 'Histoire A Suivre' was their first single and takes cues from the likes of Gang Of Four, The Slits and Contortions but with a Blondie-esque pop sensibility.)
5. Talking Heads - Making Flippy Floppy (From Talking Heads' last great album, Speaking In Tongues, 'Making Flippy Floppy' is the sound of a great art-rock group playing at being a pop band and it's as thrillingly fractured and strange as the band's pop forays ever got. Forget 'Road To Nowhere', this is the one that should have been massive.)
6. New Young Pony Club - Hiding On The Staircase (After showing so much promise, NYPC's debut album, Fantastic Playroom is a bit of a letdown, but the chicken-scratch guitars and reggae-lite beat work together so well with the semi-dispassionate vocal from Tahita Bulmer here to hint that they might still have greatness in them.
7. The Tough Alliance - New Chance (I can't get a handle on whether TTA are just having a big old laugh at our expense. That doesn't matter for shit though when songs like this one and pretty much every other on their new album are as imperviously effervescent and summery. There's something sinister going on under that good time facade though.)
8. YACHT - Platinum (feat. Bobby Birdman) (This sounds like a mini-pops version of LCD's 'Get Innocuous' (Murphy is an admirer too, apparently), but the pay-off comes around a lot quicker with this one, making it an instantly gratifying little mover. It's also just as addictive.)
9. Shahrokh.SoundOfK - Chicago (An undiluted sugar-rush of sample-heavy tech-house from Compost Records' latest Black Label release. A promising start from the future stars.)
10. Kelley Polar - Rosenband (Magic Tim's Instrumental Version) (Magic Tim (Who he?) strips the original of all vocals apart from some breathy bits, allowing the impressive sonic layering to come to the fore. Can't wait for Polar's new album later in the year.)
11. Lindstrom & Solale - Let's Practise (Dub Version) (In which the slo-mo Italo blinder gets slowed to an even drowsier crawl and heaps of echoey effects dumped atop the groove. Elegantly wasted.)
12. Matias Aguayo - New Life (I've recently gone back to Aguayo's 2005 release, Are You Really Lost and it's better than I remember it to be. Interesting to note how many other producers around seem to be following his lead these days too. Both the recent Kalabrese and Matthew Dear albums seem to act as distant cousins of that record, which means it should be interesting to hear what Aguayo releases next. What we need more of is sleazy techno.)
13. Solomun & Stimming - Feuervogel (One of the biggest techno tunes of the year, this one probably owes more to deep house as it does to minimal with those fat synth stabs and the chiming melodics. Whatever it is, it ticks all the boxes and pushes all the buttons in such a pleasing manner that genre definitions fly out of the window.)

Yer Mam!'s Big Summer Mixtape Blowout! Volume Two, all ripped, zipped up and mediafired

In other news: Read my review of that there Prins Thomas mix CD that I keep banging on about over at High Voltage.

"If I'm sued into submission, I can still come home to this."

'Ow do!

Couple of things to get through this Bank Holiday (or Memorial Day, if you're North American scum. Joke. No offence.) evening. First things first...

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - ALL MY FRIENDS (DFA/EMI)

Okay, hands up who saw this one coming? A surefire front-runner for single of the year is released today in the form of 'All My Friends' by LCD Soundsystem. I'm sure you all know it off by heart by now, but this bumper pack gives a new spin on the song (not that it really needed it, mind, but a little enjoyment enhancement is no bad thing). I wittered on the other day about the John Cale remake, but the Franz Ferdinand cover has its charms too. Granted, they over-egg the pudding with regards to the original's New Order-isms, but at least it's got some energy.

The cover of Joy Division's 'No Love Lost' that was originally supposed to be on one of the 7"s is conspicuously missing in action (it's excellent and well worth seeking out*), but we do get the bananas new song, 'Freak Out/Starry Eyes' for our hard-earned. An epic cut-and-shut of two entirely different songs - the first being a magnificently strident dub-disco workout, with added horns and the second being a slice of Nancy-sung, camp psych-electro, doot-doot - it's yet more proof of LCD's stature as one of the best bands around right now. Oh, and there's a DJ Harvey remix too, that's typical Harvey and bears very little resemblance to the original whatsoever. Buy it! All four formats, people!

Download the video from Cliptip!


Did somebody say remix of the year? No? Okay then, here goes nothing. Prins Thomas' jaw-dropping re-version of Hatchback's 'White Diamond' has certain areas of the disco underground frothing at the mouth at the moment and it's not hard to see why. The art of the remix is an oft-sullied one, with many of its practitioners preferring the take-the-money-and-run method of reinterpreting other people's work. There are some remixers out there however who take what they're given, break it down and remould it so that the end product bears their own indelible stamp or trademark. Carl Craig is one, Henrik Schwarz another, but Prins Thomas has really come into his own this year, reaching a peak with this peerless piece of music.

It really is a "piece of music", too. There's no other way to refer to it. The words "tune", "track", even "song" seem too trifling and insignificant tags. A deliberate, slowly-unfurling slab of aural bliss, clocking in at a not-long-enough seventeen minutes and eighteen seconds, it bears comparison to works from artists such as Brian Eno, Phillip Glass, Steve Reich, The Orb (when they used to knock out stuff like this for fun) and Terry Riley, but is most definitely a Prins Thomas production. I know very little about the source track (Hatchback is one-half of Windsurf with Sorcerer, I know that much), but this seems like very much a stand-alone thing.

Minimalist in texture but vast and expansive in feel, Prins Thomas' mix of 'White Diamond' is, barring some other heart-stopping wonder coming out of the blue, THE remix of the year. Now that I've built it up waaay too much, find out for yourselves, for one week only...

Hatchback - White Diamond (Prins Thomas Miks) (mp3) (link removed due to attack of conscience)

It doesn't happen often, but I felt guilty enough to actually take this one down. If you grabbed it in the 24 hours it was up, please cherish it, keep it close to your chest and if you like it, buy the vinyl when it comes out. If you'd like to hear a snippet and you don't mind listening to my voice, then check out this week's edition of Blog Fresh Radio.

Coming this summer on This Is Not An Exit.

In other news: Over at High Voltage, you can find out what I got up to at this year's Futuresonic and what I think about the newly-released Sunkissed mix of Norwegian disco and the like.

Also, find out just what the Kathy Diamond live experience is like over at The Console and read my thoughts on the season finale of Lost on my TV blog, No Flipping!

Laters,

JMx

*Oh, what the hell, may as well go for two cease-and-desists for one post...

LCD Soundsystem - No Love Lost (Joy Division cover) (mp3)

Pining for the fjords.

If you're a raging disco nut like myself, there's no more fertile stalking ground than the Norwegian fjords right now. Since around 2004, in fact, Norway's DJs, producers and record labels have been steadily making the kind of luscious, organic disco music that's as informed by prog and pop as Larry Levan or Studio 54. Not for Norwegians is the garish hedonism that is often a trigger response when someone mentions the word 'disco' to you. They prefer their 4/4 beats with a more psychedelic but no less immediate or fun tint.

Which brings us to two of the Norway kosmische scene's leading lights, Lindstrom & Prins Thomas. With hindsight, we're allowed to label the pair as godheads of a scene (alongside the much-missed Erot, Per Martinsen aka Mental Overdrive and the venerable Bjorn Torske) that's recently entered an exciting second generation, as evidenced by recent releases from upstarts such as Magnus International (actually a scene progenitor as one-third of Kalle, Magnus & Daniel with Kalle Risan Sandaas and Daniel Tjus Andersen), Blackbelt Anderson and DiskJokke. L&PT's self-titled debut of 2005 was one of that year's best dance records (inasmuch as you can call it a dance record, with its jazz and prog overtones) and has grown in stature ever since. It is such a rich, well-orchestrated album with ambition and warmth to spare and still stands as probably the defining statement of one of the few scenes that actually seems to exist.

The end of May sees the release of Reinterpretations, a compilation of tracks from the 12"s that L&PT released from that album, along with two new tracks. The emphasis is on dancefloor-aimed reworks of that album's downtempo grooves, with 'Turkish Delight', 'Claudja', 'Feel AM' and 'Boney M Down' all getting a more danceable, Saturday night makeover. For fans, there isn't a lot here that you won't have heard before, but it's still worth getting as a companion piece to the well-thumbed original.

Despite the tracks here being more designed for the club, there are still many startling, sparkling gracenotes that you don't often get in a genre where the more functional and effective a track is, the more successful it is. L&PT refuse to pander to genre expectations and are more preoccupied with producing something that's as intricate as it is funky. Witness the overlapping, multifarious percussion on 'Claudio', for example, or the skeletal, echoey 808 line in 'Nummer Fire En', the album's 20 minute-plus highlight.

As with other compilations, this is probably more catered for newbies to the Lindstrom & Prins Thomas canon, but this stuff just doesn't get old. No matter how many times you listen to the Can cover, 'Mighty Girl', those arpeggios, even though they aren't an L&PT creation, still send a shiver up your spine. Reinterpretations avoids any accusations of cynicism purely by virtue of L&PT's take on disco being absolutely peerless and needing to be heard by everyone.

Pre-order the album from amazon.

Up until recently, Prins Thomas was in danger of remaining forever in the shadow of his more ubiquitous production partner. That's all been blown out of the water by Thomas' recent, incessant string of quality remixes for the likes of Justus Kohncke, Sorcerer, Simian Mobile Disco and Studio, to name but four. He's also about to release the remix of the year and the DJ mix of the year, too. You heard it here first.

Prins Thomas' epic take on Hatchback's 'White Diamond', forthcoming on This Is Not An Exit, is a superlative seventeen minutes and eighteen seconds that makes any kind of brainless baiting of the remix as an artless artform by Thomas' twinkly, soaring do-over being quite possibly the best piece of music I've heard not just this year, but for the last five years.

This is a track that ushers forth comparisons to the likes of Philip Glass, Can, Manuel Gottsching, Steve Reich and the like and you have to say that you don't often get that with a Digitalism re-edit. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to post it yet. Not that I don't want to, in fact, this is exactly the kind of music that I want to share with as many people as possible. I just don't think it would be fair to a new, upcoming label like This Is Not An Exit to post something that is guaranteed to raise their profile ahead of its release. This is one of those tunes that every DJ worth their salt, nay, every self-respecting music-phile is going to want to get their hands on, so why should I let them get it for free at this early juncture?

Anyway, the DJ mix of the year comes in the form of Cosmo Galactic Prism, a two-disc set to be released next month on Eskimo that takes in pretty much every kind of music that's informed Prins Thomas' own work. Kicking off with Joe Meek & The Blue Men's eerie sci-fi-doo-wop classic, 'I Hear A New World', it then goes on to cover kraut-disco (Holger Czukay's 'Cool In The Pool'), Japanese disco metal (Metalchicks' 'Tears For Fears/Conspiracy'), techno, both minimal (Matias Aguayo) and Detroit (Carl Craig in his Tres Demented guise) and a healthy dash of prog (Zombi and Hawkwind).

The mixing is seamless and often dazzlingly outlandish (the transition from Dubarchanoid Trim's 'Perfumed Garden' into Aguayo's 'Radiotaxi' is particularly breathtaking), but the whole thing hangs together so well that it makes you wonder why all DJ mixes don't take as many risks as this does. Just perfect.

Pre-order from N.E.W.S.

For more insight, read the interview with Prins for Fact Magazine.

In other news: read my reviews of Electrelane live, the new Arctic Monkeys album (although I swear I gave it 3/5, not 5/5 like the review states) and The Procession's album, all at High Voltage.

Also, I'm the featured blogger on this week's Blog Fresh Radio (until Monday at least), so you should all listen to that.

For he's a jolly good blogger!

Hi everyone!

Yes, that's right, today Yer Mam! has reached the wise-old age of two. We are two years old today and, with that in mind, I've decided to do something a bit special. People always* ask me, "James, which bands have appeared on the most Yer Mam! mixtapes?", but up until the other day, I didn't know the answer. So what I did was, I dug through all the mixtapes I've ever posted and made a tally. The results were somewhat surprising. For instance, if you'd have told me that I'd put Stars on eight (!) mixtapes, I'd have called you a liar. I like Stars, but fuck, eight mixtapes! Jesus!

Anyway, here are the top five (actually six as there's a tie for fifth place) bands who've had songs on the most Yer Mam! mixtapes. Your mothers must all be proud.

*read never

1. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

Wow, what a shocker! I could have hazarded a guess that James Murphy and band would be at the top, but what did surprise me was just how many times they had featured. LCD Soundsystem songs have been included on mixtapes of mine a massive fourteen (count 'em) times. My favourite current band have been a permanent mainstay since the early days on the clunky old blog and will continue to be a touchstone band in the future. Having blossomed with the Sound Of Silver into the kind of hyper-referential yet meaningful dance-pop band that critics have wet dreams about, LCD Soundsystem have cemented their position as the thinking dancers favourite group. Music for your mind, body and soul.

LCD Soundsystem - Watch The Tapes (mp3)

2. HOT CHIP

Again, my love for The DFA comes to the fore, as the second-most 'taped band are one-half of the UK arm of the DFArmy (the other half being Prinzhorn Dance School). Hot Chip have been included in one way or another on twelve mixtapes in the past. This is pretty impressive, considering the fact that I didn't think much of them until The Warning. I'm still lukewarm on Coming On Strong, but the band's second album is one of my favourite and most-played albums of the last couple of years. Smart, witty pop music for your feet.

Hot Chip - Colours (mp3)

3= BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE

Canadian indie-rock behemoths, Broken Social Scene just shouldn't work as a band. A careening, chaotic mess most of the time with far too many ideas than they know what to do with, they manage to fashion glory from anarchy. Even though they often sound like they're going to disintegrate at any point, the sheer joy of life and downright fun that they exude pulls them through. It's no wonder then that they've appeared on as many as eleven mixtapes. Fingers crossed that they won't be on "hiatus" for too long then.

Broken Social Scene - 7/4 Shoreline (mp3)

3= WOLF PARADE

I've never really made any secret of my love for Wolf Parade, as evidenced by their eleven mixtape caps. This band have the power to make the ordinary seem extraordinary with merely a carefully chosen word or sound. Also, with the two songwriters there's always an amazingly fluid dynamic at work, with Spencer Krug acting as the surreal fantasist and Dan Boeckner the downtrodden but hopeful romantic. A new album is due later in the year so expect more from this band on these here pages.

Wolf Parade - We Built Another World (mp3)

5= CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH

Inherently, I am just another blogger and, occasionally, I do get swept up in hype. However, I think that the hype for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's debut album was pretty justified as it's a fantastic pop album. The second one, I can take or leave as it gets too wrapped up in its own contrariness. Five million bloggers can't be wrong though.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Mama, Won't You Keep Them Castles In The Air And Burning? (mp3)

5= LINDSTROM & PRINS THOMAS

I'm cheating a little here, as I've included Lindstrom solo stuff, remixes, Prins Thomas solo, remixes and Major Swellings stuff in this entry. They've occurred in mixtape form in some guise or other a huge ten times, but to be honest, no-one does downtempo disco as well as these two Norwegians. Someday soon, I'm going to move there as everyday it feels like it's getting closer and closer to being my spiritual home. Kosmische!

Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - Tempo Tempo (mp3)

Right, here's to another two years!

JMx

Hey now!

Hi all!

Just a quick one tonight. First up, this week's Single Of The Week. And it's a dead heat!

SINGLES OF THE WEEK

Ost & Kjex - Milano Model Remixes (Dialect)/Justus Kohncke Vs. Prins Thomas EP (Kompakt)

Two superb remix packages this week, the first of which comes from eccentric Norwegians, Ost & Kjex. Their tune, 'Milano Model', from last year's Songs About Cheese And Revolutionary Tarts EP gets a squiggly electro-funk do-over from Rob Mello, but it's the Mungolian Jet Set remix that is the real draw here. Dubbed 'A Thrilling Mungophony In Two Parts', what MJS do is cover the track, first in an indigenous, mouth music style with added klezmers before taking a bouncy, joyfully sloppy discoid excursion. Thrilling it most definitely is.

Tied for the title this week is Prins Thomas' double take on two of Justus' best tunes, 'Elan' and 'Advance'. Both tracks continue the good runs that both Thomas and Kompakt are on at the moment. Excellent stuff.

Anyhoo, I've been busy setting up my new TV blog and it's now up and ready to view...

No Flipping!

A sturdy pat on the back for the first person to get the reference.

Laters,

JMx