Single Review: Dream On - Christian Falk feat. Robyn

Even all this time after the haunting melodies of 'With Every Heartbeat' first pricked up BlackPlastic's ears Robyn still holds a special place: worth at least five Britneys, her music is access, beauty and lightening in one. And yet it is all also old...

As fresh as the last album sounded much of it had existed in one form or another for years and the same is true of this latest piece with Christian Falk. But what makes Robyn one of BlackPlastic's favourite popstresses is the fact that even tracks that have been around a while still sound newer than anything Brit or Xtina have released in pure time.

'Dream On' is your life support system but rather than being made of wires and tubes and maths it is people and friends and wave upon wave of familiarity and reassurance, layer upon layer. As Robyn confirms:

"Rest you weary heads - All is well: You won't be strip-searched, hung-up tonight.
You won't be cut-up, bleeding tonight.
You won't be strung out, cold, shaking to your bones wishing you were anywhere else but right here."

The lyrics may seem cold but the delivery is anything but and when Robyn confidently assures BlackPlastic that they won't want to be anywhere but here our instincts are naturally to trust her: there is nothing but joy here.

BP x

Single Review: Drive Your Car - Grovesnor

What would happen if one of Hot Chip broke away to focus on making kitsch 80s pop songs?

This would...

As far as BlackPlastic can tell this is the first debut single, proper. A cut and shut affair, it chops like a switch-blade from the melancholic and more delicate verses to a chorus that demonstrates a determination to drive (pardon the pun) away the blues. What makes this so catchy is that the chorus manages to sound like the theme tune to a TV quiz from the 80s where the taking part is more important than the prizes. Personally BlackPlastic is feeling Going For Gold.

Just when you thought the fun was over you discover you get a consolation prize of four remixes. The remix from Grovesnor himself ups the camp and kitsch and almost feels like it should be the main mix, boasting a nice samba sway and live instrumentation. A Hot Chip dub ups the darkness and them slams on the disco breaks for a ramped up disco quiz show breakdown - and it is lush. Meanwhile both Oliver $ and Bird Peterson's mixes turn it into squelchy tech-house murder of a song that seems to lack any respect for the original but if murder is your thing then here they are.

A whole album of this may well be too much but BlackPlastic would enjoy finding out.

BP x

EP Review: Clocks - Simian Mobile Disco

Not so long since their debut long-player proved them to be ones to watch for the future and with member James Ford benefiting from continued success following production work for The Klaxons and Artic Monkeys, SMD treat fans to four new tracks on this new EP.

All are instrumentals and as such demonstrate the duo stripped of some of the bells and whistles that garnered Attack Decay Sustain Release and what it loses in pop sensibilities it gains in velocity and efficiency, with all four cuts geared towards dancefloors and reminiscent of the technical prowess displayed in early Chemical Brothers tracks.

'Clocks' is a relatively tame, melodic effort with bouncy drums whilst 'Simple' persues a somewhat more direct line, with waves of acid and nasty electronic stabs turning it into the equivalent of Attack Decay Sustain Releases' awesome 'Sleep Deprivation' only this time it
follows a bad trip.

'3 Pin Din' squeaks and squelches its way through three minutes before climaxing in a puddle of acid. Final track 'State of Things' is a little sapling, determined to grow and grow into a big Goliath made of live sounding drums but never quite gets there.

It will be interesting to see if this more dancefloor focused effort is a direction that Simian Mobile Disco choose to follow in the future. Whilst there are undoubtably four cuts here to please the
heads BlackPlastic finds itself growing a little tired of the reverb that drenches all four and longs for something with the universal appeal of 'Hustler' or 'It's The Beat'.

BP x

Single Review: Paris - Friendly Fires

Barely two weeks in and one of 2008's most promising acts is already delivering nuggets of gold like this... For those not aware, Friendly Fires, like Foals (yes the 'The' is officially over) trade in indie anthems that sound like dance music: previously 'On Board' sounded like Jamie Principle's glittering house anthem 'Your Love' if it got a bit lary on the dance floor of you local fleapit and, as if in attempt to spoil journalists' ability to use such an analogy they went and covered 'Your Love' on one of their other EPs.

'Paris' has a chorus made of glitter and glow in the dark stars. It is being allowed to stay up on a school night. It is the promise of things and it is the sound of indie loved-up.

BlackPlastic never much cared for rave in its original form and if The Klaxons are Nu-Rave then Friendly Fires must be Nu-House.

Welcome to 2008, please check your old favourite band at the door.

BP x

Single Review: Justice - D.A.N.C.E

Everyone loves Justice right? Right... So it's with great joy that BlackPlastic tucks into their forthcoming EP, D.A.N.C.E.

'D.A.N.C.E' is fairly typical Justice with a huge dollop of summer on the side. Chirpy vocals encourage you to "Do the dance" whilst a thick bass line keeps things moving along and some strings try and sound like 'Strings of Life'. It's good, and you know that the Justice long-player will be great. Everyone in the world seems to be loving D.A.N.C.E in fact - just take a look at some of the blogs.

However, just when you think things couldn't get anymore Daft Punk B.E.A.T turns up on the flip side and, holy crap, does this sound like the bastard love child of Daft Punk and the Go! Team?! Essentially B.E.A.T is a re-tooled version of D.A.N.C.E, with absolutely massive Daft Punk bass lines, ridiculous filtered disco bits, massive join-in, "what fucking 80s song did they come from?!" Go! Team style vox and a huge glass of sunshine.

BlackPlastic now thinks Justice and MSTRKRFT are having some sort of secret Daft Punk-off in an attempt to see who can turn into a pair of robots before selling out fastest... This isn't clever, it won't change your life. It will however give you the fucking biggest smile you've had since last summer, it will destroy the Terrace at Space if such a thing even still exists and it just might make you wonder why you need an 80gb MP3 player when this is the only song you ever need to hear again.

Check it out over at The Yellow Stereo.