Album Review: 'Em Are I - Jeffrey Lewis

From the tumbling opening of 'Slogans', Jeffrey Lewis' latest anti-folk album 'Em Are I is a starkly honest, battered and bruised album that does nothing but serve truth up on a platter, over and over.

Unsurprisingly, given their previous collaborations, there are traces of the Moldy Peaches (and Kimya Dawson's solo work) in Jeffrey Lewis' slower numbers, but this album is all his. It's unique because it is so heart breaking and it's heart breaking simply because it can't help be anything else. It's messy and complicated and scuffed, much like the artist and the listener, and at times it is staggeringly fantastic, as on the experimental muted-jazz-punk-fusion 'The Upside-down Cross'.

It all literally sounds like it can't help but paint a warts and all picture of life. 'Roll Bus Roll' is Jeffrey just too tired to lie. 'If Life Exists' is Jeffrey being lyrically too inane to be anything but telling the truth. 'Broken Broken Broken Heart' is Jeffrey still too grazed and too stung to be doing anything beyond recall the truth.

It might sound like a tough listen, but it isn't. At all. 'Em Ar I is so chipper about being through a rough and tumble it feels like a forward roll over a cowpat in your boss' favourite suit. It's all there in the scared-yet-spellbound-by-the-beauty-of-it-all in 'Bugs & Flowers'. It's being brave enough to just keep singing and singing and playing and playing until nothing else matters.

Available on Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3.

BP x

MP3: Yellowstone - Joe and Will Ask?

Joe and Will Ask? perform live at FabricLive this Friday (1 May) as the Kill 'Em All crew descend and in advance of the event they have written a track with the night in mind entitled 'Yellowstone'.

You'd perhaps think a track knocked out for a one off live event would simply feel like a DJ tool yet this terrific. The driving chord progression definitely calls to mind Booka Shade's work and it has a touch of 'Mandarine Girl' to it yet the bubbling percussion definitely make this stand out as something new. It's cold and mechanical yet at the same time uplifting.

'Yellowstone' is set to get an official release later this year but you can download the MP3 here (right click, save as).  You can also get more from Joe and Will Ask? over at Beatport.

The line-up for the event is one of the best Fabric has seen in a while in BlackPlastic's opinion, in addition to Joe and Will Ask? Joakim, Filthy Dukes, Shit Robot and David E Sugar will be there: 

ROOM ONE:
KILL'EM ALL....
Joakim (DJ Set), Filthy Dukes (DJ Set), thecocknbullkid (LIVE), Discodeine (LIVE), Joe And Will Ask? (LIVE), Stopmakingme!

ROOM TWO:
Al Doyle (Hot Chip) DJ Set, Les Petite Pilous (Turbo) (LIVE), David E Sugar (LIVE), James Yuill (LIVE), Grum (DJ Set)

ROOM THREE:
Shit Robot (DFA), Ben Rymer (DFA/Gucci Soundsystem), Diskokaine (Gomma), C90s

Visit Fabric for more information and to buy tickets.

BP x

MP3: R&S Four Track Sampler

R&S are giving away a four track sampler as a download over at Amazon.com that is worth checking out if you are into the more left-field side of electronic music.

Featuring tracks from four different artists (Jacob's Optical Stairway, Sun Electric, The Locust and David Morley) it's a fairly varied set. The moody, jazzy notes of The Locust's 'I Become Overwhelmed' is a highlight, and the gentle, intelligent Drum 'n' Bass of 'Majestic' by Jacob's Optical Stairway recalls Two Pages era Four Hero (which means it's good, if you don't know Two Pages then it's worth checking out).

Head over to Amazon where the MP3s are available to download for free.

BP x

Album Review: The Future Will Come - The Juan Maclean

With the exception of LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver BlackPlastic's favourite DFA album ever is the Juan Maclean's glorious Less Than Human. An ode to the robot it is a glorious body of work that culminates in one of BlackPlastic's favourite ever songs - the delicate electronic anthem, 'Dance With Me'.

The Future Will Come, however, is a different beast. Jettisoning some of the introspection of the previous album this takes a lot of cues from various types of 80s popular music. The Juan Maclean is the alter ego of John Maclean and, with his partner in crime Nancy Whang (who is also part of LCD Soundsystem), he has clearly taken a lot of inspiration from the Human League's Dare! for this album.  Not only are nearly all the tracks on this album vocal duets but John even sounds just like Phil Oakey at several points. John has stated that until working on the vocals for this album with Nancy he didn't like anything in the Human League's catalogue after their transformation once the girls joined, preferring the early 'Being Boiled' era, but that he really began to appreciate it once work on The Future Will Come began and this new found fondness really shows.

So the sound is generally very different from the first album but it isn't a inspirationless re-tread of another act's material either - the vocals are much more prominent but there is still a lot of experimentation going on with the music. Only 'New Bot' really recalls any of the clinical nature of Less Than Human. It's a somewhat appropriate likeness given the title of the song but even this fades away as the chorus kicks in and John and Nancy's League-esque vocal sparring begins.

The Future Will Come is not Less Than Human continued... then. Instead it is an evolution, a fantastic combination of many separate sounds and influences. From the opening 'The Simple Life' the League are there throughout much of this album but there is so much more. Next single 'One Day' mixes snappy vocals with lush Detroit techno - synthetic strings that recall 'Strings of Life' ride melody that sounds like it fell out of New Order's song book when they weren't looking. The result is rather special.

The album's two other highlights can be found in the form of last year's 'Happy House' and the epic midpoint provided by 'Tonight'.  If you haven't already heard it the former is an epic revisitation of pre-nineties house music which only gets better with subsequent listens.  It's an ode to music itself and the beautiful symbiotic relationship between a hot sunny day and the perfect song to dance to. 'Tonight' on the other hand recalls Less Than Human's 'Dance With Me' in terms of the level of emotion - it's a haunting piece and it helps provide much of The Future Will Come's emotional gravitas.

On The Future Will Come the Juan Maclean haven't just re-confirmed their abilities, they've moved the goal posts. This a much more human affair and it benefits from the added warmth.

Please buy, don't steal, this album.  It's available on Amazon.co.uk on CD , LP and MP3.

BP x

Juan Maclean-space / Official Site.

Album Review: How To Make Friends - FM Belfast

BlackPlastic recently got back from a trip to Iceland and long time readers may be aware of the secret crush BlackPlastic harbours for it as a country. Not only is the landscape stunningly beautiful and unlike anything else you can find on earth but they can also write a good tune, despite only having a population of approximately just 320,000.

And if you have ever been to Iceland you just might know that the record store (and independant label) 12 Tónar (danger Will Robinson, some of the site is in Icelandic) is the best place to find said tunes. In all honesty, this is BlackPlastic's favourite place in the world to buy records - up there with Rough Trade East and Foyles' Jazz Café. Nowhere else is as friendly - give them an idea of your tastes and the staff will select a handful of discs, give you a CD player and some headphones and make you an espresso (for gratis) whilst you explore.

And it's a win-win approach - 12 Tónar get the sales and BlackPlastic gets obscure Icelandic music.

BlackPlastic will endeavour to cover most of what was bought over the next few weeks but first up is FM Belfast's début, How To Make Friends. This is a bonus for you, dear reader, because How To Make Friends is a wonderfully quirky, accessible and creative record, sounding like a blend of fellow Icelanders GusGus' more off-the-wall side meets the pure hooks of Muscles with a bit of the 'nothing is sacred' loose summer Hip-Hop vibes of the Go! Team.

It's a winning formula and so 'Pump' is as cheeky and laid-back as 'Par Avion' is summery, excitable and effervescent (very).  Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing In The Name' gets a low-slung funk make over on 'Lotus' and trust us, the lyrics "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" pack bags more attitude here.

The whole record is a lush soundtrack to summer that is timed beautifully so that it is never in any danger of outstaying its welcome.

Available at Amazon.co.uk on MP3.

BP x

Album Review: Blood From a Stone - Hanne Hukkelberg

Hailing from Noway, Hanne Hukkelberg's latest album is a perfect soundtrack for the coming of spring, with the sounds of winter still in the background but a playing melodic side breaking through. It sounds like it was made in response to the later evenings we are seeing in the northern hemisphere, and in Blood From a Stone we have an album that begs to be consumed with a bottle of wine of a summer's eve.

Hukkelberg has declared Blood From a Stone her straight up rock album, and whilst many of the vocals were done in one take and there may be hints of death metal in the dread and foreboding of 'Salt of the Earth', to call this album "straight up" anything is to dramatically under-sell things. Inspiration may be taken from PJ Harvey, the Cocteau Twins and the Pixies but it is taken in the form of a desire to never repeat or be pigeon-holed as much as anything else.

Blood From a Stone takes musical inspiration less from other bands and more from nature itself. With the kind of kitchen-sink approach to instrumentation that sees many of Iceland's finest achieve such unique sounds (indeed Múm's in particular have become known for using whatever they can get their hands on), Hanne has utilised bicycle spokes, clogs, a Vaseline box, flag poles, train doors and seagulls amongst many other things to create a melodic sound all of her own.

The result is an album full of surprises - the title track, for example, has a beautiful catchy chorus and yet combines this with a wonderfully tactile and percussive backing - and every track does something a little different.  What makes Blood From a Stone wonderful is that all of these differing components slot together like something made to be together.

Blood From a Stone is released on Nettwerk on 20 April on MP3 and 12 May on CD.  Available to pre-order on Amazon (MP3  / CD).

BP x

Album Review: Hard For Justice - Bronnt Industries Kapital

As Get Physical's latest artist album release, BlackPlastic was a little moist about hearing Bronnt Industries Kapital's third album, Hard For Justice. The sticker on the cover likened it to lots of post-punk bands we like from the first time round, in a room, at the same time.

But the sticker was kind of wrong, because Hard For Justice isn't much like Joy Division at all. Okay, it does have some moody bass work and stripped back, mechanical percussion and post-punk's penchant for experimentalism but this is hardly Just Another Maxïmo Park.

Over the course of its eight tracks, Hard For Justice packs in, erm, zero vocals. None. What it does have however is more ideas than you can shake a stick at. There are ambient moments, brief touches of chiptune, real instruments, synthesizers and a under-current of sleek, minimal kraut-rock that permeates the whole thing. Best of all, 'European Male' sounds like a death threat from someone who, like, really means it - just listen to the bubbling-underneath-seething-rage and the brass. Yes, brass. Brass that sounds not shit, but amazing, as if stolen from a David McCallum track.

The experimentation displayed over the handful of tracks here ensures Hard For Justice will keep giving over the coming months and proves that Get Physical are truly beginning to deliver artist albums proper, straying from just releasing discs from their known artists.

Available from Amazon.co.uk on CD , LP  and MP3 .

BP x

MP3: River - Akron / Family

Akron / Family make psychedelic folk rock - like the sparkling imagination of the Flaming Lips applied to a sing song round a camp fire - and their next forthcoming album just might see them turn into a household name (in those cool households with lots of jazz records and an espresso machine at least).

The album, wonderfully entitled Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free, is out on 11 May 2009 in Europe.  BlackPlastic is currently loving 'River' - it's a pondering, whimsical and beautiful song and it sounds like staring out at the starlit night sky with a loved one or a good friend.  It's one of those songs that just keeps changing - rather aptly, somewhat like a river it builds and twists.  The clarinet accompaniment that comes in about midway through the second minute is good, but the song really takes off mid-way through when it begins to shimmer and the marching band percussion comes in.

A swirling whirlpool of knowing vocals and careful melody - download here (right click, save as).

The album is available to pre-order at Crammed and anyone that pre-orders will get an MP3 download of the album straight away.  The band are also touring Europe from May 16, details here.

BP x

EP Review: Coordinates - I Like Where I Live

As I Like Where I Live, Dave McAdams makes indie-electropop and has just released his first EP, Coordinates, through Slow Receiver Records. And it's free.

This is why you should check it out:

1. It's lovely, like a stroll on the beach or a cup of tea with someone you really like.
2. It sounds a bit like the Postal Service and Stars, amongst others, and we like them. They are super-swell.
3. All five tracks are kind of neat. There is a nice mix of sounds but it all comes together well like a jumper your grandma knitted you.
4. It's less humiliating to use in public than a jumper your grandma knitted you.
5. 'You Took Photographs' is especially great, with a fuzzy little distorted bassline, a lovely vocal and some soaring keyboards.
6. The artwork is good. BlackPlastic likes artwork.
7. It's free.
8. Dave seems like a nice chap.

So there you have it. As it doesn't cost anything it seems a no brainer. Listening to Coordinates is like gazing into a photo of someone you used to love, so why not download it here?  For more news on I Like Where I Live, check out the MySpace page.

Oh, and did we mention it's free?

BP x

Album Review / MP3: More - Double Dagger

BlackPlastic doesn't really like 'metal' anymore. Maybe once, but not anymore.

Some records, however, get lumped into this genre and yet transcend them. Test Icicles violent punk metal may have taken inspiration from metal bands but it also took inspiration from grime and disco. Similarly, Death From Above 1979's only album often got classed as metal but it did much more.

The same is true of Double Dagger's latest album, More.  Double Dagger's third album, it was created in an abandoned office on the fifth floor of a building housing Baltimore's Current Gallery (an artist run gallery and studio space). With everything above the third floor in a state of disrepair the band had to run cables out of the windows and down to the lower floors to power their mics and instruments and they relied on ceiling tiles and cubicle dividers to create soundproofing whilst the band's drummer, Denny Bowen, set up the drums in a separate room but then knocked a hole through the wall so the band could still see each other.

Less than glamorous the conditions may have been but they did enable a longer recording time and, with the inclusion of a few cheap microphones, gave the recording a fantastically rough and distorted sound. Combining metal with the stripped back minimalist percussion and basslines of early post-punk, the experimentalism of the Pixies and vocals that sound like Hold Steady's Craig Finn on a rampage, Double Dagger are the hardcore metal band BlackPlastic can like.

And that's because beyond the initial abrasiveness there is an ear for melody that transforms these songs. Just check the chorus of 'No Allies' - the vocals may try and shout you down but the hooks are irrestibly catchy. There's a lovely clash of sounds on this album and it's like listening to a metal album made by someone who just can't help but make catchy tunes - again this is demonstrated perfectly by the spoken intro and punchy chorus of 'The Lie/The Truth'.

Don't be put off by the shouts and the labels. A single listen to More proves that Double Dagger have made an album that achieves much more than anything by any band concerned with genres could - it might be hardcore, it might be noisy pop... BlackPlastic doesn't care, it's just awesome.

We have a copy of 'The Lie/The Truth' available to download here (right click, save as) - if you like it check out the album. More is released on 3 May on Thrill Jockey. Pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD or LP .

BP x