Album Review: Life Index - Maceo Plex

Maceo Plex's Life Index at times threatens greatness.

The start is a stark invitation - 'I'm A Metaphor' feels like a statement of intent. It's twisted spoken vocal taking the listener on a journey before any rhythms have even really begun. As the clunking industrialism of 'Gravy Train' rides in Life Index begins to feel like a modern update on the classic techno formula. It sounds like the future was supposed to sound.

Single 'Vibe Your Love' is a Minimal Techno Soul Ballad that really hits the mark. The spaced out, clinical swooshes in the background providing a wrapping of loneliness to the vocal. 'You & Me' feels like it actually dates back to eighties Detroit - synths stab through the rhythm and the melody is driven and focused. 'Love Your Style' is at once sensual yet tough and uncompromising. This is music for proper warehouses, not nightclubs.

Best of all is 'Arise', a track which manages to feel like the pressure valve on your brain giving in as everything leaks out. The distorted preacher's vocal, calling on the listener to "arise", lays atop a sinister bassline and the track gives you just enough to leave you wanting more. The whole thing smacks of class - less is more and Maceo Plex knows it.

The problem is that he doesn't know that less can also be less. For every track here that serves as a revelation there is another that suffers from being dull and turgid. It is difficult to pinpoint the problem - 'Silo' for example boasts the same stripped back approach as all of the above tracks, plus a touch of brass, but it just feels flaccid in comparison to the best tracks here.

Life Index is a good album, but at 79 minutes there just needs to be less of it. Listening to it in one go just emphasises the highlights and leaves parts of the album feeling cold.

BP x

Life Index is released through Crosstown Rebels on 31 January, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3.

Album Review: DJ-Kicks - Various mixed by Apparat

The DJ-Kicks series appears to be hitting something of a stride... With several notable releases this year already in the bag, The Juan Maclean's being a particular highlight, here comes one more from IDM innovator Apparat.

And Apparat's entry certainly doesn't drop the ball. To a certain extent it does what you would expect... It's intelligent, electronic music that is built more for home listening than the dance floor, but the quality of the music and timing is good enough to make listening (repeatedly) a pleasure.

Things start off fairly heavily with Apparat's own 'Circles' - what feels almost like a trance track with a cinematic world-music guitar motif - before getting dubby on fellow IDM-ers Telefon Tel Aviv's 'Lengthening Shadows'. From there things spin out in multiple directions. This is a mix that is one moment cold, hard and clinical and the next warm and embracing.

The latter is best demonstrated by Four Tet's stunning remix of 'I Need A Life' by Born Ruffians... A track that manages to simultaneously feel like the heat of summer and joy of Christmas. It creates a neat centre for the album before things turn darker on Vincent Markowski's classic 'The Madness Of Moths' and Four Tet and Burial's 'Moth'. As Thom Yorke's haunting 'Harrowdown Hill' emerges from Ramadanman's 'Tempest' there is a stark urban feel to this album that shows the influence of Apparat's recent collaborations with Modeselektor.

The album closes on Tim Hecker's ambient melancholy drenched 'Borderlands'. Apparat's DJ-Kicks album is a serious business and that may alienate some, but it is a testament to how a good mix album can be much more than the reconstruction of a live DJ set. This is a mix album with more emotional punch and ambition than most electronic artists manage on their own studio albums, and for that BlackPlastic salutes it.

BP x

DJ-Kicks by Apparat is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3.

Album Review: Christmas Gift - Various

Rainboot's Christmas Gift is a compilation truly in the spirit of the times... A set of fourteen understated, folky, Christmas influenced tracks where all of the takings go straight to a good cause - Save The Children.

For any label to do such a thing takes balls. For it to be a boutique such as Rain Boot is really rather generous (and brave) - they came to BlackPlastic's attention earlier this year when they put out the Whiskey Priest's superb Wave and Cloud. And that surprisingly blunt yet beautiful record is a good demonstration of what to expect.

This truly is the anti-X Factor. Whilst many in the UK alternative scene get behind John Cage's (rather excellent) '4:33' for Christmas number one most of the tracks on this album would make a much more fitting replacement. These are warts-and-all Christmas songs - the second act blues of A Charlie Brown Christmas, prior to the realisation of the true meaning of Christmas. It is the aural equivalent of turning your back on Argos, pulling your collar up and walking off into the cold, present-less, because all that really matters is who you spend it with (not what you spend it on).

There are certainly stronger and weaker moments here. Tyler Butler is battered and bruised on 'Waxwing' whilst The Animal Beat feel cautiously optimistic on 'Love Again'. Unsurprisingly, given the quality of Wave and Cloud, The Whiskey Priest delivers the gut-wrenching 'It Came Upon A Midnight Clear' and this contrasts with the beautifully coquettish 'Waiting To Find Me', from Sara Lewis. Where things stray into full on ballad territory is where BlackPlastic struggles a little - Travis Tucker's 'O Holy Night' is an epic Christmas song, it just feels a little over-delivered in contrast to the rest of the album.

Overall though you can't fault the package, and you certainly can't fault the sentiment. With all of the cover price going to a good cause we whole heartedly recommend you check out Christmas Gift.

BP x

Christmas Gift is out now on Rainboot, visit the Rainboot site for details on where to buy (including a pay what you want option at Bandcamp).

Album Review: Eighty One (Deluxe Edition) - Soul Mekanik

It isn't really for a lack of decent tracks - just maybe the lack of one cross-over smash. Eighty One was originally released back in 2005 to some acclaim. Roll on five years and it is now seeing a deluxe re-release with a second disc featuring remixes of Soul Mekanik tracks, some of which are originally from Eighty One and some of which aren't.

The album shows it's age a little yet because Soul Mekanik never really go after the specific fad or trend of the time it actually doesn't sound as out of place as other albums might. Opening track '81 Intro' captures Soul Mekanik at their best - clicks and thuds form a cold, metallic rhythm offset by a warm string section. It's just a shame it's only a couple of minutes long (there is a longer version on the bonus disc, but it is still little over three minutes).

'Wanna Get Wet' remains Soul Mekanik's most liberated pop moment - deserving of a summer re-release and covered on these pages a long time ago it remains a short-skirted irresistible joy of a record. 'High On Hope Street' is as slow, soulful and dub heavy as '27/5/81' is pacey, cold and efficient. The acid-tinged 'Serobotik' and 'Elektrik Elefant' both stand out, demonstrating Soul Mekanik's ability to make more dance floor focused tracks (as well as their desire to fuck around with stuttering vocals a lot). Occasionally things feel formulaic - particularly on the penultimate track 'Robots' (how many tracks about robots do we need) but on the whole there are enough ideas here to enjoy.

The remixes are mixed. Maurice Faulton adds a bit of space to 'Go Upstairs' and not much else, but to be honest that works. Less successful is Freeform Five's over-egged take on 'Don't' which frankly should have taken the name of the song as advice. There is just too much going on. 'High On Hope Street' gets the baseline pushed forwards in the mix and loses the vocal on the 'Rubber Dub', giving the song a much more upbeat feel. Greg Wilson's Re-Edit of 'Wanna Get Wet' is typically restrained and frankly just feels like a wasted opportunity, like an ice cream sundae without chocolate sauce.

On their own the remixes here really do not justify the package, but if you haven't ever given Eighty One a listen and you are a fan of dubby, electronic soul then this re-release may be worthy for the original release itself.

BP

Eighty One (Deluxe Edition) is out now on Wonk, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link].

UPDATE: As a taster download the non-album track 'Beam Me Up' on MP3 for free here [right click, save as].

Album Review: Rebel Rave - Various

Anyone that has followed BlackPlastic for a long time may be aware that Damian Lazarus' Crosstown Rebels label is one of those labels we just have a bit of a soft spot for.

Back in the days when BlackPlastic was just starting out the label captured a unique take on the (then current) emerging Electroclash scene - taking that scene's enthusiasm for experimentalism and pop sensibilities. Rather than applying it to the no-wave post-punk and disco samples that was Electroclash's short-lived treasure trove though it felt like the Crosstown Rebels label was genuinely creating something of the future.

The result was some average to good records but more importantly some genuinely excellent mix albums, both on the Crosstown Rebels label (in the form of Rebel Futurism and the follow up, Rebel Futurism II) and in Lazarus' Suck My Deck compilation for Bugged Out! The latter actually proving a particularly prophetic view of the minimal sound that came to dominate over the years that followed.

With this background in mind a Crosstown Rebels compilation still feels like a bit of an event. Rebel Rave is a three disc set with the first two discs being unmixed and the final on the three discs mixed by Clive Henry.

Sadly Rebel Rave feels dry compared to the relative passion and drive of the albums mentioned above. In reality there are some strong moments - the stripped back minimal of Minilogue's 'Hitchhikers Choice' or the angry vocal of The Royal We's 'Party Guilt' for example - but this really feels like an evolution of the minimal Crosstown Rebels sound rather than a revolution.

Where are the clever moments that re-imagine what a genre can be? For a label that released an album as challenging (and frankly bonkers) as Lazarus' own Smoke The Monster Out this just feels phoned in. Maybe they really believe that this set of tracks are genuinely exciting and defining. Hell, maybe BlackPlastic is just getting too old but we struggle to believe this would ever have raised our pulse without some sort of chemical enhancement.

With a title like Rebel Rave BlackPlastic just expects a bit 'more'.

BP x

Crosstown Rebels Present: Rebel Rave is released today on Crosstown Rebels, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].