Album Review / MP3 Download: FabricLive 49 - various mixed by Buraka Som Sistema

Judging by FabricLive 49 Burakama Som Sistema are a goddamn cussing noisy bunch. Make no mistake, this album feels like being tied to the front of Alton Tower's biggest rollercoaster (is that still the Oblivion?) for an hour or so with an emotionally epic hangover.

To be honest BlackPlastic was ready to slate it but instead we will say this - you will like FabricLive49 if:

• You like the sound that several travelling fair grounds would make if you put then all in the same place at once and told them to SCREAM IF YOU WANNA GO FAAAAAASTTAAAAAA!
• You hate your own head.
• You have some incredibly persistent guilty voice inside your soul constantly reminding you that you butchered your mother.
• You are on more drugs than BlackPlastic has ever tried.

There are a few better moments but, in all honesty, they are not good - they just gave BlackPlastic a bit of a breather because they didn't sound like a baby screaming.

It might be built to sound like a soundclash but to BlackPlastic it just IS a soundclash.

Download the full version of 'Kurum (Roulet Remix)' by Buraka Som Sistema, which appears on FabricLive 49 for a taste [right click, save as].

BP x

FabricLive 49 is out tomorrow, available for pre-order now from Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link].

Album Review: The Repeat Factor - Portformat

BlackPlastic used to love hip-hop but these days we can't help but feel let down by the genre... Maybe we were just never real fans of real hip-hop, maybe when we spent so much time listening to those early Roots albums, the Tribe Called Quest back-cat and anything J Dilla touched we were just enjoying the stuff middle class suburban kids are supposed to dig. Maybe we weren't real.

But the truth is that if someone has made a genuinely brilliant hip-hop album in the past four years then we missed it. Even the near-universally-acclaimed MF Doom feels over-hyped.

It's with some surprise and a pang of nervousness then that BlackPlastic snuck a smile and shuffled back-and-forth to the beat on Portformat's debut album. Because on first listen it's good. Very good.

Bad news first. If you wanted to level criticism at The Repeat Factor you would be justified in complaining that the vocals fall short. Portformat's The Repeat Factor is really a demonstration of his production skill - the vocals suffer in the way that you would expect of an album that is producer, not MC, lead. They aren't bad - they just don't lead the music or captivate the listener.

What is good though is the production. With a loose, filtered feel it is vey reminiscent of J Dilla - but not the oft-immitated, vocal-sample based work he produced towards the end of his career. Instead The Repeat Factor sounds more like his work with A Tribe Called Quest on The Love Movement.

And it may be BlackPlastic's soft-spot for indie hip-hop showing again but The Repeat Factor is best when it strays into the left-field, as on 'U Gotta Find', the wonderfully textured 'Mothership' or on any of the superb instrumentals (or which particular note goes to 'Bionic Arms').

The jazzy touches and bags of space make The Repeat Factor shine. This is an album that manages to sound modern and yet still demonstrates that less IS more. It just about restores BlackPlastic's faith in hip-hop.

BP x

The Repeat Factor is released on Tokyo Dawn on 3 December 2009.

Album Review: Tarot Sport - Fuck Buttons

Fuck Buttons' début left BlackPlastic cold. For all the experimentation it lacked focus and context compared to the abstract Beach Boys harmonies of Animal Collective. Back less than two years later with follow up, Tarot Sport is sees Andrew Weatherall on production duties (for the first time in sometime).

BlackPlastic, whilst no Weatherall obsessive, can't help but think his influence is a positive one. The resulting album is more focused, exciting and ultimately memorable.

There is no escaping the fact that Tarot Sport is much more of a dance album than its predecessor. Whilst the tracks never feel like they have been made for dancing they certainly feel more rhythmic and more electronic. One moment it will feel old school, with a progressive house vibe (opener 'Surf Solar') and next hard, epic and distorted in a way reminiscent of Nathan Fake's Hard Islands release from earlier this year.

There is still plenty of experimentation but it is the stripped back minimal (whisper it) trance of 'Olympians' that really flicks BlackPlastic's switch. Mixing epic synths, acid and distortion it feels as futuristic, global and hopeful as its title suggest.

Tarot Sport feels like running away: not to another country but rather another time. It also exceeds both the ambition and accomplishments of first album Street Horrrsing.

BP x

Tarot Sport is out now, available on CD and LP from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate links].

Album Review: Fabric 49 - various mixed by Magda

Fabric 49 technically hits the streets a month late because, goddamit, this is the most Halloween Fabric have ever got. Compiled and mixed by Magda (of Richie Hawtin's legendary Minus label) it's a spooky set of minimal, carved up with weird samples disorientating sounds.

If you haven't heard Magda DJ before then the sheer darkness of this album is reminiscent of The Glimmers' (or Glimmer Twins as they were then known) two Serie Noire compilations released on Eskimo five or six years back. The difference is that Fabric 49 contains much more upfront minimal techno compared to the John Carpenter soundtracks and early no-wave of the Glimmers' discs - this is a set clearly aimed at making you move.

And it still pretty much works - straddling a divide between atmosphere and dancing. Most of the tracks themselves are fairly nondescript but that is kind of the point. In contextualizing them, cutting several records together and never playing just one song at a time Magda has created something which feels like much more than the some of its parts... This is a mix that packs serious atmosphere.

It's true that things occasionally misfire and there are portions of the mix that are just too dry but when it is good, particularly on the closing third, Fabric 49 delivers something pretty special.

BP x

Fabric 49 is out now, available on Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link].

Album Review:Live @ The Roundhouse London 2008 - X-Ray Spex

You'd think that now more than ever, on the cusp of a right-wing return to power and increasing dissatisfaction, with high unemployment an growing poverty, punk would be an inspiring force.

Sadly this live set from X-Ray Spex only succeeds to underline why punk had to die. Featuring their set from London's the Roundhouse last year (which itself covered every song bar-one from their only album) on CD and DVD it's a retrospective that may well appeal to the original fans but is unlikely to win over anyone who wasn't there the first time.

The problem with punk music was, for all it's noise and bravado, it was little more than rock 'n' roll played badly. And this live album only serves to reinforce that - its mixture of shouted vocals and brass at first feel fresh yet several tracks in it becomes apparent that this is all X-Ray Spex had or have.

Johnny Rotten recently appeared in the Observer's Music Monthly magazine and he mentioned how much he respects X-Ray Spex. BlackPlastic can't help but feel there are some considerably more worthwhile musical heroes people should be celebrating, but then again maybe we just aren't taking enough mescaline.

BP x

Out now on Year Zero, available on CD+DVD from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate links].