Album Review: Random Access Memories - Floormodel

Little known fact: BlackPlastic loves to get tired and emotional to the electronic clicks and whirring of the emotionally overloaded Postal Service. This isn't a new Postal Service album, but it almost could be...

Let us make something clear: at times this albums sounds almost too much like our favourite mail delivery team (and I don't mean the Royal Mail). That is really the biggest criticism that can be levelled at Floormodel. But bear in mind that we heart the Postal Service and since they aren't set to release another album this decade that isn't really a criticism at all... More an observation.

Well the delicate vocals and an IDM backing are a check and they even make their tracks remotely (as did the Postal Service, hence their name), with Jeff Caudill providing vocals and real instrumentation guitars from LA and David Stoll the electronic backing and additional real instrumentation from Germany (thanks for the correction - BP).

So with so many similarities how are things different? Mainly through the fact that there is a greater amount of real instrumentation on display, particularly singer Caudill's guitar work. As an example look to the proper piano of 'The Reason I Still Live Here', playing against a series of clinical typewriter clicks - it's a combination that only serves to highlight the magic and warmth of the electronic backing when it kicks in proper at two minutes. From that point it is clear that this is one of the most emotional electronic albums you have heard in ages and that Floormodel have just become one of your brand new favourite acts.

Floormodel make music for journeys where your head is moving in the opposite direction to your body. The denial, whether genuine of self, of 'I Don't Care If Your Ever Say Goodbye' or the pleading 'Asleep' help make an album that wraps you up in a blanket of electronic warmth whilst the fragility of the vocals leave you exposed to the discomfort of your own memories. It is an enchanting combination that will keep you coming back for more.

Random Access Memories is self-released so skip Zavvy and head on to iTunes to have a listen and maybe think about getting a copy.  Alternatively you can buy a physical release (distrubuted worldwide) on the official Floormodel site or you can stream full tracks over at Last.fm.

BP x

Album Review: Fantasy Black Channel - Late Of The Pier

Erol Alkan's 2008 production 'Holy Trinity' draws to a close, with Late Of The Pier's Fantasy Black Channel following on from first the Mystery Jet's Twenty One and the Long Blonde's Couples.

The fact that a band like Late Of The Pier are getting the kind of mainstream attention they are really is a sign of the times and a testiment to their forebears. The sound of earlier pioneers such as Soulwax (more of whom soon) and the initial post-electroclash wave are all over this. And that is a good thing because it gives those that know more great music but it also further blows open the whole scene.

But enough chat. Fantasy Black Channel delivers, just as that recenty reviewed album by another band in the third wave of the dance / rock crossover does. In fucking spades.

Fantasy Black Channel is the air raid siren that signifies the end of the beginning for an entire genre: check out the opening synths of 'Space of the Woods'. They're so thick you can chew on those bastards as the ooze out of your speakers. When singer Samuel Eastgate indicates it's time to don a radiation suit you just might begin to worry there is something toxic in those basslines. The previously released single 'The Bears Are Coming' still fidgets and scratches like a bed of itching powder - warbling basslines and squelching drums contrasting beautifully to a the yelp of the bridge - whilst 'Random Firl' shows a more playful, sexy side.

And there is plenty of play and drama here - check out 'Whitesnake' and you can hear references to not just punk but maybe even some Deep Purple (deliberate given the name?) in the chugging bass and some Queen in the sheer over-the-top-ness of it all.

Overall Fantasy Black Channel sounds post-apocalyptic whilst managing to take this cliché and make it fresh. There are references throughout the lyrics but it is also in the music itself, in the dischordant and self-destructive melodies of 'VW' and 'Focker' for example, that this determinism shines through.

Some may try and call this album derivative - it is certainly more evolution than revolution - but there is no doubt that Late Of The Pier push harder, better, faster, stronger than their peers. The Klaxons have there work cut out for them if they are going to top the sheer spirit here. By the time the frenetic coupling of "get your hands on your waistline / and move your body to the bassline" arrives in the glam-opera closer (and past single) 'Bathroom Gurgle' and you progress to the subsequent ghost track that follows BlackPlastic's money is on you agreeing on this one.

BP x

Album Review: The History of Science and How to Mend a Broken Heart - The Wonderland Project

"Traditional distribution and payment models for music are broken!"

We all hear it everyday, and yet the labels seem intent to do everything they can to repeatedly stab their customers in the eye and treat them like morons rather than give them the choices they want. The Wonderland Project neatly sidestep this issue with their album The History of Science and How to Mend a Broken Heart by, erm, not really distributing or charging for it. Sort of.

So whilst it may be available in iTunes and on Amazon (which is good for you as it means you might stand a better chance of hearing a copy) the 'primary' method of distribution is the listener. Imagine peer-to-peer constrained to the physical world: the idea is that there are a number of CD copies of the album out in the wild right now, waiting to be found in places, each accompanied with a note instructing the finder: You can listen to it and stick it on your iPod but then you must leave it somewhere else for someone to find and put the details on The Wonderland Project website so they can track the album's movements.

It's a captivating and magical idea and, frankly, the majors should be kicking themselves for not thinking of using this as a method of promotion for a major artist.

So how does it actually sound? The History of Science and How to Mend a Broken Heart is a blend of country-tinged electronic music that most closely resembles Nowergian alt-acoustic musician Magnet. There are also hints of The Postal Service / Dntel in the bleeps and clicks of the sparkly 'You Look Prettier When I'm Happy' and Radiohead on some of the darker tracks like 'A Sense of Community'.

For the most part it works: The History of Science... is an enchanting record that sounds like it was made to drag you through a dreary Monday morning and with such an innocent distribution model it's hard not to be charmed. It attempts to capture the magic of those moment in life that stay with you: helping a beautiful girl get fuel for her car, meeting a stranger on the train; and, just occasionally, it captures it.

BP x

Album Review: Cosmic Disco?! Cosmic Rock!!! - various mixed by Daneile Baldelli & Marco Dionig

Any long time readers will know that if there is one series of compilations that sets BlackPlastic's heart aflutter more than all others then N.E.W.S offshoot Eskimo Recordings' compilations would it. With a blatant disregard for anything other than the best, most obscure, dug-through-crates-to-get, rare-as-hens'-teeth records and extremely high levels of quality control BlackPlastic dares you to name one release that isn't superb, if not even game changing.

The fabulously titled Cosmic Disco?! Cosmic Rock!!! introduces new talent (for which read rather old, or rather vintage, talent) in the form of Daniele Baldelli and his cohort Marco Dionig. Baldelli made his name in Italy in the late 70s / early 80s by plying a trade in mainly black American and white European records, combining them to create the foundations of dance music. Whilst everyone whips themselves into a frenzy over Italo house and cosmic disco this compilation takes a neat sidestep to portray an alternative history.

Baldelli's talent is in combining records that have no real relationship with each other and, somehow, making it work. With plenty of re-edits to emphasize the bits he likes, Baldelli is able to create a coherent message through a diversity of sounds. There are moments of wonky techno, for example Torch Song's 'Prepare To Energize' or the political 'Ulster Defence' by Bronx Irish Catholics, but there are also moments of pop genius - just check out Fra Lippo Lippi's glorious 'Say Something', all mechanical robot-sex rhythms and a killer pop vocal.

And so that's what Cosmic Rock is. It's freaky techno tracks jostling with dirty guitar licks and a diva or two. It's The Thompson Twins getting evil on your ass with the stuttering beat and full-on Run DMC / Jason Nevins basslines of 'Beach Culture'. It's La Bionda's race-to-get-naked-first come-on of a record, 'I Got Your Number'. But most of all Cosmic Rock is the lighters-in-the-air pop perfection of Spyder's 'Better Be Good To Me', a pure sunshine-on-a-rainy-day of a record, a record that sounds like waking up with a supermodel that loves you more than you her, a record so good that frankly it deserves an album all to itself.

BP x

Album Review: FabricLive 41 - Various mixed by Simian Mobile Disco

What happens if you create a robotic version of your dead ex-lover with artificial intelligence? Yes, it's obvious, everybody knows it will end up snapping and killing you and only in death will you truly be reunited with your squeeze.

Yet this is what it sounds like Simian Mobile Disco have done for their FabricLive album (that'll be 41 for you number fiends). It starts out all robotic but gradually gets a little nasty on you before you emerge, blinking, the other the side of the pearly gates at The Walker Brother's 'Night Flights'.

The spooky Santiago remix of Hercules and Love Affair's 'Blind' eptimomises this mix perfectly. From a distance it might sound like it loves you but when you hear the spooky electronic echoes, whooshing ghost noises and masses of dead space you realize your phone was being tapped the whole time and a swat team are smashing through your bedroom windows.

BlackPlastic said that the recent Simian Mobile Disco Clocks EP was "alright-not-great-innit". Maybe it's the context of the album. Maybe it's the remanent dopamine still coursing through BlackPlastic's body post-SMD's Field Day performance. Hell, maybe BP was just on crack at the time because, here, 'Simple' sounds fucking awesome, fool. As does most of side one (hillarious throw back to tape, or vinyl, take your pick).

The first half of this album is like Space Invaders taking over your little brain and that'll do just fine, thanks very much. Check out Smith N Hack's 'Space Warrior' and Discodeine's 'Joystick', even the titles scream: "The Princess is in another castle!"

Where this drops the ball slightly is when it does things like relying on Metro Area's 'Miura', Paul Woolford's 'Erotic Discourse' and Green Velvet's 'Flash'. They were great once but they're just too well trodden these days. It's like your robot wife offering you missionary position: "That's great thanks, but I know it quite well... How about..."

Oh, and no matter how much Simian Mobile Disco love Simon Baker's remix of 'Sleep Deprivation' (apparently quite a lot) they need to stop being so coy. The original is probably the best pure club track they have ever done and to snub it is unnecessary.

It starts brilliantly. It isnt as good as their Bugged Out mix. It becomes slightly less exciting towards the end. It's still the best fabric album in a while. Go figure.

BP x