Album Review: Cope - Freeland

Freeland, Adam Freeland's "band" project, originally launched off the back of the rather awesome 'We Want Your Soul' back in 2003. The harder, rock influenced sound was a departure for Freeland (the man rather than the 'band') from his nu-skool breaks origins but the ideas just seemed to run out over the length of the album, ending up like a breakbeat version of the abysmal Kosheen.

When 'Under Control' dropped a couple of months ago it got BlackPlastic a bit excited. The vocals clearly wished they were LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy but the overall package had enough attitude to make it work, particularly on Alex Metric's mix. Incorporating 'Under Control' as a starting point and recruiting a number of successful musicians an producers (Tommy Lee, the Pixies' Joey Santiago and Jerry Casale of Devo amongst others) things looked good for Cope...

...And on the whole, it delivers. Whether it is on the dread-soaked, paranoia drenched 'Strange Things' or the melancholic M83-esque downer 'Mancry' Cope is likely to have moments that appeal whatever your taste. The variety of styles and techniques that Freeland has obviously picked up through DJing and remixing really pays dividends here - BlackPlastic has long sung the praises of Freeland's mix of B-Movie's eighties track 'Nowhere Girl'. The distortion and shoe-gazing sounds on that remix and his Global Underground disc it featured on are all over this.

So it's not perfect. It's a little long and there is a little bit of padding plus BlackPlastic can't help but long for the faster, harder remixes. But the best things often aren't perfect: in a similar way to Evil Nine's They Live! from last year, Cope is likely to keep you coming back regardless.

As a faster check out the free mix Adam put together for Discobelle. It encompasses a number of Cope's tracks in a more dance floor focused mix.

Cope is available to order now across a variety of formats from Freeland.fm.

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Album Review: II - Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas

When Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas collaborated on their eponymous album for Eskimo two years ago it became the kind of cult hit most producers only dream of. Not only was it released to huge praise but it also helped kick start a Renaissance in italo and cosmic disco that has sent ripples of influence across much electronic music since.

Back with a follow-up, once again on & Eskimo Recordings, II is unsurprisingly more of the same.  Yet if more of the same was ever more welcome, BlackPlastic can't put his finger on when that would be.

And once again, this is a beautiful record. It's slow and slightly ponderous but at the same time does so much across its length that to complain would be churlish. The mood is literally perfect. This is a record to consume with an espresso whilst watching the sun rise and with a beer whilst watching the sun set. With the current bought of good weather we have recently seen in the UK BlackPlastic can't imagine a better soundtrack for being lazy in the sunshine.

Words can't really convey what it is like to listen to - instead of reading just go and check it out.

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Album Review: Bitte Orca - The Dirty Projectors

The Dirty Projectors at their best create music that feels so completely their own that they are always unmistakably them. Even when they are collaborating with others, as they did with David Byrne on this year's Dark Was The Night compilation, or covering another band's material, as on last album Rise Above (albeit re-imagined, from the memory of Black Flag records) they lose none of their individuality.

Bitte Orca perfectly retains this over-worldly, unique feeling. With all of the human sexuality that Dave Longstreth's falsetto vocals managed to capture on the sublime Rise Above this is an album from a band that can both see and realise their own potential. Streamlined yet playfully creative, Bitta Orca manages to deliver an album that focuses Longstreth's experimentalism into something coherent and unashamedly "pop".

But it's still by no means conventional - it's just that the songs themselves are now calling the shots. The chorus of 'Useful Chamber' for example, with quick and punchy shouts of "Bitte Orca, Bitte Orca!", gives way to a fret wig-out on the guitar before dissolving into a dreamlike vocal that sounds like a kid spinning around until they fall down dizzy into the arms of love.  It's experimental and interesting and yet still completely immediate and catchy.

Lead single 'Stillness Is The Move' boasts a snappy solo vocal from Amber Coffman that sounds like getting up and stepping over the root cause of your problems, no longer being held back by the daily grind. The strings that kick in halfway through turn it into what is probably the Dirty Projectors finest track to date - an organic, fresh R&B anthem.

Along with bands like TV On The Radio, the Dirty Projectors are forging a new pop-centric future for art-rock. The charm of Bitte Orca is that it sounds totally without time and without classification - taking the best elements from 50 years of pop music and rock without sacrificing any inventiveness. The result is one of the most beautiful records BlackPlastic has heard in a long time.

Bitte Orca is released on Monday on Domino Records on CD, MP3, LP and cassette.  No, BlackPlastic isn't joking. Both the cassette and LP come with codes to download the album as an MP3.  Available to order now on Amazon.co.uk on CD and LP, although obviously everyone knows cassette is the format to go for [Affiliate Links].

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Album Review: Hard Islands - Nathan Fake

Evolutionary viewpoint:

Nathan Fake < God < Nathan Fake 2.0

Okay, maybe not quite true but what BlackPlastic is getting at is that Nathan Fake has changed. Grown. Developed. Evolved.

And the result is rather good.

Hard Islands feels like the love child of Nathan Fake's début, Drowning In a Sea of Love, and the best bits of James Holden's The Idiots Are Winning (released, as Hard Islands is, on Fake's own Border Community). The fuzzy, shoe-gazing rock and folk tinged elements of Fake's last record can still just about be heard deep in here but this is a much more dancefloor focused record and it's much harder as a result. And here is where Holden comes in - when we say dancefloor focused we mean the kind of dancefloor where the punters all sport quizical looks and struggle to move in time to the music.

Because Hard Islands sounds like minimal techno as created by someone who has never heard a techno record. It's the sound of music reverse engineered, disassembled and reassembled. Holden's track 'Idiot' is the closest thing BlackPlastic has heard to this but Nathan Fake has taken things one step further, creating six tracks that refuse to comply to the generally accepted standards of how dance music should "work".

At it's best the results are thrilling - the shifting, bouncing rhythms of 'Basic Mountain', the jerky acid of 'Castle Rising' - and by focusing on just six tracks, forgoing a full album for a mini album, Fake has created a set that doesn't out-stay its welcome.

Available on Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 (affiliate links).

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Album Review: Days Away - Nonagon

Nonagon is that rarest of things - a musician giving away music that is not just passable, it's actually exceptional. Self released and available for free in 128k MP3 or sold on a 'name your price' basis for a higher quality format of your choice (pretty much anything you can think of), Days Away is an atmospheric trip through the mind of its creator, John Brian Kirby.

A varied album, Days Away is in essence all leftfield electronic music. There are a ton of influences - touches of Four Tet, traces of Amon Tobin an Burial - but on the whole it's different enough that, as an album, it stands on its own two feet.

A whole range of styles and genres are taken in - atmospheric breaks on 'Fixed Action Pattern', sample laden hip-hop beats on 'Mr Sniggles' House' and ambient drum n bass on 'South Without a Candle' - and Nonagon really gets the chance to show off his production skills. The problem with self-produced, self-released electronic albums is that without the knowledge and experience of a producer guiding things the result sounds flat and lakes pace.

With the help of Steve Hall, who mastered the album, Days Away confidently circumvents any such concerns. Take 'Underlayed By Reflection' for example, a near-on nine minute intelligent drum n bass track. Many well known DJs and producers would struggle within that framework yet Nonagon doesn't just deliver production that feels fresh and professional, the track is also fantastically sequenced, building and developing throughout its length.

If you are a fan of leftfield dance music you would be a fool not to at least check Days Away out. It's free to try after all.

Available to download from Bandcamp. If you enjoy this music please support the artist and pay for a higher quality download.

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