Following up on last year's eponymous debut album KNIIFE PRRTY are back with new single 'Stay Wild' and, to be honest, BlackPlastic is of the opinion this blows everything else they have done away.
Filled with interesting time signatures and whispered vocals this really delivers a level of subtlety that their previous material was screaming for. 'Stay Wild' is the sound of the world enveloping you in chaos at the point where you realise that to fight it would just be futile, and we think it's kind of lush - the IDM feel has been really ramped up on this one.
The artwork, designed by Kevin Nelson for Constructiv Art and Design, is kind of ace too and fits the track perfectly.
You can listen to the full track over at KNIIFE PRRTY's Bandcamp - remember to pay for it if you like it.
The press release postulates that Burn And Rise, Panic Girl's debut EP, offers a distinctive hybrid of trip-hop meets electronica.
On the whole it is right. BlackPlastic is not entirely sure how distinctive such a combination is but we would be lying if we didn't agree that the result is catchy. The attention given to detail and something of the overall melancholic vibe to the record actually remind BlackPlastic of some of the more memorable offerings that came out of the progressive house rebirth back in the early noughties - the vocal tracks here being specifically reminiscent of Satoshi Tomiie's collaborations with Kelli Ali on 2000's Full Lick.
The difference is that Panic Girl's EP is much slower and sounds much more organic than any tech house and, to be honest, the variety and production flourishes stand Burn And Rise far apart from any of the staid, dull efforts that often get categorised as a mixture of trip-hop and electronica. At its best, as on the peaceful, zen-like 'Hide And Seek' Panic Girl is clearly excellent - the track boasts a wonderfully global feeling sound, and despite Panic Girl hailing from Germany the track feels equal parts east and west.
Check out the video to 'Burn And Rise', directed by award winning director Reza Dolatabadi, above. Burn And Rise the EP is out next Thursday 25 February on shadybrain.
The Archie Bronson Outfit's new track, taken from the forthcoming Coconut album (out 1 March), is exactly the kind of scratchy alienating music BlackPlastic hopes is playing when we finally lose the plot and the fine thread that keeps the world the right way up snaps.
It's angst then, but the best kind of angst - artsy and well dressed. With a wall of distorted guitar-work 'Shark's Tooth' manages to create a sound that actually feels like the serrated edge of its namesake.
The forthcoming album is produced by ex-DFA (yes, ex) darling Tim Goldsworthy. Judging by this effort it is likely to be a big departure from his work with Hercules & Love Affair and Cut Copy into the realm of jerky guitar post-punk. Which makes BlackPlastic excited. If it is all as good as this then it will be a significant achievement for both band a knob-twiddler.
Check it out the Ferry Gouw directed video above and, even better, head over to the Archie Bronson Outfit website to download the MP3 for free. The 7" is out on Monday.
Much of the music BlackPlastic appreciate stems in one form or another from the incredibly varied and creative post-punk scene in the late seventies and early eighties. Some of the bands involved in this scene are incredibly well known (Joy Division, New Order, Human League etc.) whilst some, for example The Units, are much less known.
Unsurprisingly the majority of artists fall somewhere in between, and one such example would be Cabaret Voltaire - a Sheffield band considered hugely influential who yet these days appear to be relatively unknown amongst the younger generations outside of real muso circles.
Germany's Billie Ray Martin, who is perhaps best known for work as a member of Electribe 101 and mid-nineties house record 'Your Loving Arms' but has also recently got into the post-electroclash scene (collaborating with Hell, for example), has decided that Cabaret Voltaire deserve a revisit. The result is The Crackdown Project, which is made up of two cover versions - 'The Crackdown' and 'Just Fascination', with additional vocals from Stephen Mallinder from Cabaret Voltaire. Rather than releasing the tracks via conventional channels Billie Ray Martin has taken the somewhat unusual step of collaborating with Mininova to release some remixes and, shortly, the EP on torrent sites.
The result is surprisingly good, particular on 'The Crackdown', which mixes Billie Ray's somewhat decadent vocals with an crunchy, industrial bass line. Add in her spoken vocal sparing with Mallinder and you have a track that treads an interesting line between sleazy and beautiful.
Check out the video for 'The Crackdown' above and the ballad-esque Phil RetroSpector Mix below. The project is to be released in two parts, with Sold Out to Disco coming out on 15 February followed by Darkness Restoredon 15 March. Each release will feature a variety of remixes of the two tracks and in addition to Torrent sites will be available through digital outlets worldwide - remember to support the artist.
Download an MP3 Minimix of the release mixed by Celebrity Murder Party here [right click, save as].
Hell's last album Teufelswerk felt impenetrable purely due to its sheer length - it turns out that two discs of camp German techno is not necessarily always a good idea.
So the chance to focus on one track at a time is welcome, particularly when it features guest vocals from Bryan Ferry and boasts remixes from Carl Craig, Tim Goldsworthy and Simian Mobile Disco.
If you know any Hell then the original track sounds exactly as you would expect it to. It is Bryan Ferry, crooning at you through the lowered partition screen whilst you bomb it along the Autobahn in a black Limosouine at 3:30 in the morning. Ultimately it's functional but not a patch on Hell's fantastic 'Tragic Picture Show' on NY Muscle.
The remixes have a lot to live up to - RadioSlave's thirty-minute mix of 'The DJ', on which Hell was joined by a(nother) angry rant courtesy P Diddy about the fact that real DJs play it looooong ("15 minute versions!"), was clever if a little obvious but more importantly it was well executed.
Inevitably nothing here lives up to that, probably due to the source material more than anything. Carl Craig turns in two mixes, imaginatively entitled Mix One and Mix Two. The first adds a bit of synth but is a fairly functional version of the original, just re-tooled for dancefloors. Mix Two is more ambitious and strips back much of the original's production, eventually adding in a fairly serious bit of acid. Sadly when the full vocal is introduced it can't help but feel forced, and the music and vocal melodies clash. It is a shame the vocal was not applied more sparingly.
Simian Mobile Disco's mix amps up the paranoia, dousing Ferry in petrol and threatening to spit cigar butts at his head. The resulting horror show (think Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet) is much more consistent, with the vocal doing far less to constrain the track than Craig's first mix and fighting with it far less than his second. It eventually dissolves into hiss but sadly lacks the conviction to leave it that way, coming back in for the inevitably dull DJ outro.
Of all the mixes you would perhaps expect Goldsworthy to be the best positioned to handle this track, Goldsworthy having worked with Andrew Butler as Hercules & Love Affair, whose vocals share a certain pomp with Ferry. And Goldsworthy's mix is easily best - the most effortless, going with the vocal rather than against it but at its best on the percussive outro once it is abandoned.
