Album Review: DJ-Kicks - Digitalism

http://designcollector.net/digitalism-simply-dead/The DJ-Kicks albums have had some decent entries over the years, particularly lately, so it is somewhat of a surprise to see this new entry come from Digitalism, who are unable to check either the 'so hot right now' box or the the 'highly respected in their genre' box of the likes of Soulclap (upon release at least) and Apparat respectively.

Instead Digitalism seem to be on the verge of irrelevance. More than perhaps anyone else they came closest to mirroring Justice's stellar popularity back in the 2007 / 2008 Euro house distortion bubble (in both senses of the word distortion). And as they say, the harder they come... Justice's second album is one of the most derided sophomore efforts in recent memory and critically at least Digitalism's I Love You Dude faired even worse.

This DJ-Kicks offering at times suffers from the same noise-core fatigue but more often than not just misfires into slightly tired, boring territory. There are a slew of Digitalism tracks and remixes here and some of them are typically noisy - see 'A New Drug' and 'So Totally Good', for example. The trouble is that what made this sound appealing in the first place was its relative novelty and the way it combined it with allusions to pop music. 'Pogo' was a massive pop record wearing a punk leather jacket and cranked to 11. 'Digitalism In Cairo' could almost have been Daft Punk in their prime. None of that is here - nothing tempers the noise and as such nothing comes close to that initial buzz.

So Kölsch's 'Lorely' is hard and kitsch but devoid of any charm and Grauzone's 'Raum', remixed by Ata, sounds like the angular sounds of Zongamin about ten years too late. And what to say of Digitalism's remix of the Rapture's 'Sail Away', already a song that felt like Bono forcing a sherbet dip down your throat? Here you can witness it being turned into an overblown electro weepy ballad - it so badly wants to be a lighters in the air moment. Hell, it probably is if you are 17 and think Deadmau5 invented trance.

There are a few better moments. The squeaky bass and distorted shuffle of 83's 'Hey Today!' actually achieves what a lot of this album attempts and Alex Gopher's 'Brain Leech' has the feeling of walking away from a loved one at the end of a glorious day yet still feeling rejected... It achieves the pop-electro nexus that the Ed Banger and Kitsuné fraternity seem to have lost entirely.

Whilst this album may not be a total misfire it certainly isn't a convincing return to form and it represents a low point in the recent history of DJ-Kicks releases. But then again maybe this album isn't for fans of that series in the first place.

DJ Kicks by Digitalism is out tomorrow on !K7, available to order from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Review: Fabric 64 - Guy Gerber

Guy Gerber eschews expectations and takes Fabric 64 as an opportunity to make a compact, groove-based single artist album. He isn't the first to make his entry into the Fabric CD a single artists affair though - both Ricardo Villalobos and Omar S have produced Fabric albums that only consist of their own music. They are both, in fact, two of my favourite entries to the long-running series.

Gerber has declared Fabric 64 his 'break-up' album. Created in a short, two month period (as Fabric releases apparently have to be) shortly after the end of a relationship it is a snapshot of his emotional state during that period and it has a greater degree of focus than an album created over a longer period of time would be capable of. This is a generous album both emotionally and purely in terms of the music offered, for much of the 16 movements and 72-minutes contained could have been made into a 'proper' album, with all the associated press and attention that usually brings.

It also works well as a mix album though. This may not be a peak-of-the-night DJ set but Fabric 64 is no slouch either, taught electronic kicks propel the album onwards even when the music is introspective and forlorn, as on 'Shady Triangle'. Melancholic music can create a deep, emotional well to drown in but Gerber sidesteps this to create a soundtrack that trips and stumbles between sadness, resignation and apprehensive hope at different turns throughout its course.

The whole album locks together like a jigsaw to make a tight, continuous groove so whilst there are momentary highlights it also forms a cinematic whole. This just could be the progressive house answer to the Drive soundtrack and all that which the movie has touched - the music scrubbed and sanded down in an attempt to remove every touch of humanity, yet the emotion shines through as strong as ever.

It is there in the melodies that punch through the dark synths on 'A Blade Through My Piano' and again on the building opening track 'Store-House Consciousness'. And the vocals and wet synth of the Clarian North featuring 'Running Through The Night' betray nights spent with nowhere to go and no-one to see.

It is on the Deniz Kurtel collaboration that closes this album, 'Just Wanna See You Happy', that Gerber finds (and makes) his peace and yet it still feels like a conflicted moment - not marked out with the same tears that track much of the album but hardly at ease either. Fabric 69 doesn't just use the mix album to create a single artist album - Gerber has used it to make a concept album too (and a good one at that).

It is an album which says a lot about its maker. Put it on a pair of headphones and ride across the city, shutting out your surroundings and it just might say something about you too.

Fabric 64 is released on 28 June, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Review: Late Night Tales Presents: Music For Pleasure - Tom Findlay

The Late Night Tales albums generally tend to be of a pretty high quality, as do compilations from Groove Armada. This one sees Late Night Tales team up once again after Groove Armada's lovely 2008 installment, albeit this time without half the duo... Music For Pleasure being just Tom Findlay and not Andy Cato.

If the subtitle didn't already give it away this is a little bit of a departure for the series. Music For Pleasure is more focused on laid back easy listening than the generally more twisted, tripped-out sound of Late Night Tales. Think a bit less lava lamps, passed round joints and hours spent watching the wallpaper move and a bit more pool lounging while the sun shines down on your ice cold margarita.

Each person's interpretation of 'music for pleasure' is probably a little different so we will have to see how much consistency this series has (if it even becomes a series). Findlay's take though is a mixture of laid back seventies soft rock, 80s MoR and yacht.

It's a difficult set to argue with because a listen is a pretty gorgeous trip through pastel colours, decadent good times and earnest emotion. The whole album is really soft and warm. Whilst Ambrosia's 'You're The Woman' opens things on a slow sunset falsetto heavy track it is Robert Palmer's steel drum and trumpet celebratory 'Every Kinda People' that really kicks things into touch.

Michael McDonald's 'I Keep Forgettin' upstages Warren G's 'Regulate' effortlessly (by which it was sampled), showing real gentlemen rock smooth. Similarly 'Baby Come Back' by the Player, last seen blasting out of Bumblebee in the Transformers movie, is pure soul and coke rock and roll, just perfect for a lie down with some Don Perignon and a little soft-focused fantasy about your ex.

Groove Armada have something of a flair for making mix albums of tracks with little mixing and a fairly subtle re-edit approach is employed here. It isn't quite as lovingly applied by Findlay as on the duo's Back To Mine set but it's good all the same and generally better than the fudged mixing you sometimes get on this sort of release.

We conclude with Tom Findlay's own Balearic re-edit of 10cc's 'I'm Not In Love' and to be fair, it's pretty Balearic - soft and dreamlike with an emphasised drop and a beautiful slight return. Music For Pleasure is a bit of a dream. My only concern is it is a bit too 'now' and I can't help but feel that it won't hold interest in the same way Findlay's other compilations with the full Armada have.

But who's for worrying about that? I'm going for another martini with a twist before the sun hits the Med.

Late Night Tales presents Music For Pleasure is released on 11 June, it's available for pre-order now on Amazon.co.uk on CD and LP & CD boxset [affiliate links].

Album Review: LateNightTales volume Two - Belle and Sebastian

Image source: The Music Slut

Embarrassing fact or not (I'm really not sure) - I've never really listened to much Belle and Sebastian. 'The Boy With The Arab Strap' is excellent but beyond that I draw a bit of a blank. The LateNightTales albums are generally worth a listen though and so when a copy popped through the letter box I stuck it on regardless of relatively modest excitement levels.

And I'm very glad I did because it is probably the best LateNightTales I've heard. It's far more eclectic than I would have expected and there are not just one or two but a number of tracks by artists I've not heard of that I will certainly check out more of.

Things start off relatively psychedelic with Broadcast's 'Ominous Cloud' instantly plunging us into a swirling world of slightly trippy sixties pop. It feels like being stuck between the celluloid of The Wicker Man and Performance. Nothing on this album stays as it is for long though and soon you are enveloped in Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges' Latin Jazz and things feel much warmer than you would ever have expected on such an album.

Bonnie Dobson's 'Bird of Space' is back in bonkers psychedelia territory but it is also strangely beautiful, Dobson's shrill vocals dancing around sitars and sweeping strings to create a disconcertingly epic sound. In amongst all this weirdness Gold Panda's 'Quitters Raga' fits like hand slipping into glove, highlighting Belle and Sebastian's selection skills and Gold Panda's utter brilliance.

After the Pop Group, whom are probably the sole bum-note, their avant-garde post-punk still leaving me cold, things get even more sublime. All too brief, the Stan Tracey Quartet's 'Starless and Bible Black' provides a brief one-minute stellar jazz interlude that feels like free-wheeling through space, see the Earth vanish from view and barely caring. The Lovin' Spoonful's 'Darlin' Be Home Soon' is a perfect contrast, filled with the same dull ache but wrapped up in earnest pop melodies and beautiful production. Belle & Sebastian's cover version of the Primitives 'Crash' is good, but mainly serves to highlight how brilliant a lot of the other material here is.

I could go on, but you should probably just listen to the album... There is just so much worth hearing. A dub of Pete Shelley's solo record 'Homosapien' almost steals the show but it is Remember Remember's heartbreaking 'Scottish Widows' that does. A haunting, perfect piece of music - call it new-classical, call it post-rock, I call it fantastic.

In summary then? You'd be foolish not to.

Belle and Sebastian's Late Night Tales Volume 2 is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links]; stream now on Spotify.

Album Review: Johnny D Presents Disco Jamms Volume One - Various Artists

Johnny D's Disco Jamms is a rapid fire disco assault that manages to cram in 18 classic disco tracks from across the years into an extravagant 77-minute long celebration.

And basically it's brilliant. The mixing may be a little rudimentary, but that was the way things were back in the days of disco anyway and this set really doesn't suffer as a result. The selection of music on offer shows that at its best disco can be glorious. It's a genre that still gets a bad rep in certain quarters, not helped by the fancy dress theme parties and some overly commercialised artists that rode the sound all the way to the bank whilst simultaneously leaving the true spirit behind. For the record I truly believe the Bee Gees and Abba are two or the worst acts to grace the planet. Ever.

But there is nothing of that insipid shiny thin pop here. Cerrone's beautiful 'Look For Love' has a warm shimmering chorus that rides a rainbow unicorn to a string backing before a full two-minute percussive break. It's inventive and extravagant and soulful and real and ridiculous all at the same time. As disco retrospectives go this one isn't in the least bit precious either, so sure, you'd got the O'Jays, but you also have Klein & MBO's electro masterpiece 'Dirty Talk' followed by the large bassline heavy 'For The Same Man' by B-Beat Girls. There are moments of glorious electronic disco from the eighties that run away with my heart here. The System's 'It's Passion' is glossy funk with a fantastic spoken word jogging-on-the-spot synth heavy bridge combined with a simply massive chorus.

Most of all though disco was always about getting on up and over - triumph in the face of adversity, less showing off, more celebrating what you should to be thankful for. And that is what comes through on this album, whether on the enthused 'We're On The Right Track' by Ultra High Frequency or Lafleur's instrumental 'Dub Till We Drop'.

Don't fight it, feel it.

Johnny D Presents Disco Jamms Volume One is released on BBE on 5 March, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].