Album Review: 24/7 - GusGus

GusGus' move to Kompakt for their latest album release speaks volumes. This is an album that only continues the move away from the accessible pop-tech-house of Attention that we glimpsed on last album Forever.

And such a move represents a decision that BlackPlastic can't help but lament. In a typically Icelandic fashion 24/7 is a slightly unhinged minimal tech-house album.

BlackPlastic will precede what we are about to say with the assertion that 24/7 does contain moments of greatness - the soulful vocals of 'Hateful' and the contrast between it's angular, unemotional production and its lyrical content.

But everything is so damned spaced out, in both senses of the phrases. The vocals and minimal sound create a weird sense of isolation - the whole album feels delirious - and at the same time it feels like everything is built with such a focus on slow progression that the result is an album incapable of surprising the listener. Case in point - 'On The Job' with it's repeated shouts of "On the job, 24/7 never stop!" over it's 11-minute length... It's an acidic tripped out epic but it ultimately feels meaningless.

The synthesizers are, as always with GusGus, key here. Therefore you can understand why they have tried to strip everything else out - the likes of the evil sounding, acidic 'Take Me Baby' are far better than your average minimal output. The album is a paranoid, lonely one that conjures the feeling of the band's cold homeland in a way so far from the likes of Sigur Rós that it bears no comparison.

The problem is that GusGus also know how to write a good tune, yet on 24/7 it feels like all the actual tunes have been sacrificed - put out to pasture in favour of a concept that simply doesn't have the mileage to compare favorably to their earlier work.

BP x

24/7 is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and LP [affiliate links].

Album Review: Impossible Ark: A Compilation - Various Artists

Released on Unfold, Impossible Ark: A Compilation features a selection of recent tracks from the stable of jazz stable Impossible Ark.

Modern jazz is always in danger of trying far to hard as far as BlackPlastic is concerned - adding the tag to another genre or getting so noodle-y that any semblance of melody evaporates just doesn't do jazz justice. Impossible Ark's merits are obvious in that this set doesn't risk any of this - instead it treads a pure line through a set of tracks that are timeless enough to make guessing their age practically impossible.

From the opening of the floaty and spacious 'What Is Life' from the Fiction Trio this album is just drenched in class. The Rhythmatic Orchestra's 'African Mailman' fuses salsa rhythms to a pair of jazzy solos from a piano and a flute, creating that perfect laid back afternoon vibe.

Jeb Jay Nichols provides a couple of vocal tracks, with the organic sounding 'Lake Whitfield' proving a highlight. Contemporary vocal jazz is often in danger of losing the magic beneath a collection of too highly polished session musicians - not so here, Nichols' band provide some of the most beautifully understated instrumentation BlackPlastic has ever heard.

Accessible yet authentic - Impossible Ark: A Compilation is genuinely a little bit spellbinding. Ending on the muted brass of The Voices of Time's 'Solstice', BlackPlastic cannot imagine a better way to spend the day than sipping coffee and taking in all the sites the world as to offer whilst soaking in these jazzy vibes.

BP x

Impossible Ark: A Compilation is released through Unfold on 5 October, available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD [Affiliate Link].

Album Review: FabricLive 48 - various mixed by Filthy Dukes

FabricLive 48 is something of a return to form for the series. Of sorts at least.

Following a recent mixture of slightly too fashionable, genre-of-the-moment artists and non-descript mixes FabricLive 48, under the control of the Filthy Dukes, gets back to the bread and butter of what the FabricLive discs can be when they are at their best.

It's eclectic, wonky disco, house and acid drenched tech-house. And it is pretty much all right up BlackPlastc's street. Aeroplane's mix of Sébastien Tellier's 'Kilometer' is still gloriously paced, thick like treacle. 80skidz 'Miss Marz' still sounds timeless, energetic with a hint of melancholy and The Proxy remix of Tiga's 'What Your Need' descends into suitable chaos as the Soulwax mix of Daft Punk's 'Robot Rock' kicks in.

But here is the problem: you probably know all of these tracks. And you probably know most of the other tracks on the album too. There are some great, inventive moments - Mr Oizo's 'Pourriture 7' mixing into Jack Peñate's 'Tonight's Today' is one such stroke of genius. And some tracks are good enough to survive the exposure - we certainly don't resent hearing Lifelike's 'Sequencer' more than is strictly necessary. But, seriously... BlackPlastic does not need to hear Mujava's 'Township Funk' again. Probably ever.

FabricLive 48 is like a mix album made by a friend featuring a stack of you favourite records from the past year or so. It would be a great mix to hear out but without much inventiveness in the tracklist this is unlikely to keep you coming back.

BP x

Album Review: See Mystery Lights - YACHT

In what has at times felt like a somewhat turgid year musically YACHT's debut album for their current form, as a duo rather than just an alterego for Jona Bechtolt, feels like a palate cleanser.

YACHT's initial release for DFA, 'Summersong' (a track actually inspired by the DFA label), set bloggers tongues a-wagging when it was released (last year) but See Mystery Lights picks up the ball and runs, runs, runs with it.

So what you get is an album that, admittedly, sounds post-punk enough to almost actually be from 1982. BlackPlastic isn't about to get holier than thou and tell you to drop this in favour of the new retrospective release from San Francisco post-punkers The Unit though (but you should definitely check that out too). And that is because See Mystery Lights sounds so damn fresh it is irresistible.

More than a simple revisitation of the past, YACHT draw inspiration from some great bands and twist their ideas to create something new. So the throbbing calypso chant of 'Ring The Bell' positively beams with knowing pop-sassiness whilst 'The Afterlife' chimes in with what sounds like the hook from Desmond Dekker's 'Israelites' over a bleepy bouncing synth backing.

Ultimately YACHT just hit on that key post-punk component: pop. Pure infectious pop. It's easy to forget the role pop had in post-punk but listen to Bow Wow Wow and Devo (not to mention the output of most of the bands that made up the New Romantic movement) and it is a wonder why YACHT's album feels like the first candy-pop post-punk record for our generation.

BP x

Available now on Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Review: Fabric 48 - various mixed by Radio Slave

Radio Slave's Fabric album has it's moments of pleasure but still ultimately disappoints.

If you read regularly you likely know that BlackPlastic has long championed Eskimo Recordings' compilations - frankly they are the best producer of compilations currently around - and as such maybe it is too much to expect Fabric 48 to live up to Radio Slave's release for that label, entitled Creatures of the Night (check the BlackPlastic review of that album here). It wouldn't be the first time someone has struggled with a compilation for another label having thrived on Eskimo - just check the Glimmers' okay-but-not-fantastic mixes for DJ Kicks and Fabric.

But the problem is that Fabric 48 paints a very dry picture of Radio Slave. Where Creatures of the Night had a variety of styles, from shouty P Diddy through to The Osmonds via The Kills, Fabric 48 has, well... 13 cuts of tech-house. And not even the exciting, edge of your seat acid influenced stuff. There are tribal rhythms andloooooooong tracks and spoken vocals occasionally but at what point exactly are we supposed to get excited?

And the sad thing is that this is probably closer to what a current Radio Slave set sounds like. Where has the subversiveness gone from the early days where a Radio Slave remix would do something totally unexpected and still consistently turn out great? Why do DJs and producers think everyone is content with a safe set of four-four techno? What drugs are we supposed to be chomping on to make this do anything for us?

Maybe we are wrong. This might be very sophisticated and if you like tribal, deep techno and house, that might be enough. As far as we are concerned tou can keep it - BlackPlastic would much rather get rowdy to Creatures of the Night's dark corners and freaky sounds.

BP x

Fabric 48 is out now, available on CD from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].