Retro: The Nervous Track - Nuyorican Soul / You Can Do It Baby - Nuyorican Soul feat. George Benson

By accident this week BlackPlastic suddenly thought about all the old Masters At Work material we used to love so much. Luther Vandross came up in conversation - something that is always 100% guaranteed to get BlackPlastic thinking about his utterly sublime eight-minute epic 'Are you Using Me?', produced by Masters At Work.

Having routed around the old collection we came across some old CDs that had never even found their way onto the computer hard-drive, let alone the iPod: Masters At Work's ten year anniversary compilations. The problem with Masters At Work is they are another one of those acts that never understood what made them great... As the production values ramped up over the years all the charm vanished - the roughness that made their music feel real. By the time Our Time Is Coming [affiliate link] came out much of the magic had disappeared.

So here are a couple of cuts to show off just how good Kenny Dope & Louise Vega could be.  First up, the first ever release under their highly celebrated Nuyorican Soul guise - 'The Nervous Track'. It's a thrilling track, with its warm synths in the background, catchy bassline and rolling drums. It really captures the excitement of early electronic dance music despite the fact it only dates back to 1993... And those stabs of brass are pure class.

Another Nuyorican Soul jam to demonstrate how different Masters At Work's material could be. This time their collaboration with George Benson. You need to give this a good few minutes before it even gets going, but trust if you've never heard this track, trust us when we say that you need to - it's without doubt one of the best pieces of house music ever made. Ever.

The Masters At Work Tenth Anniversary compilations are out of print now but fairly easily sought out - something it is well worth doing due to the size of them (four discs each, and there are two) and the fact that they have a lot of the full length mixes that are hard to find elsewhere, they are also pretty cheap. Sellers have both Part One and Part Two on Amazon and the Nuyorican Soul album is a must have too [affiliate links].

They may have gone of the boil since the turn of the century but if you like music, you need to hear this stuff.

BP x

Video: Shadows - Au Revoir Simone

Back when we reviewed Au Revoir Simone's last album we likened it to the soundtrack to Sofia Copolla's movieVirgin Suicides.  In retrospect it is perhaps clear that whilst the set-square-math, wide-eyed walks home from high-school of the band's second album The Bird of Music was Copolla all over, their last album Still Night, Still Light was pure David Lynch: a spooky mix of dream-like sounds and cold fear.

It is pleasing then if not surprising to learn that the two first collaborated back in January 2007 in an interview setting at Barnes & Noble Union Square, with David Lynch reading from his book Catching the Big Fish... with Au Revoir Simone playing background music and songs from their second album.

It's a partnership that lead to a mutual appreciation and meant that when Au Revoir Simone were premiering the video for 'Shadows' David Lynch's DLF.tv website was chosen for the exclusive screening. You can check out the video above - directed by Brendan Colthurst and Vikram Gandhi it is a slow-boiled, minimal yet beautiful insight into what makes the band so different.

You may also want to head over to DLF.tv to check out the interview they have with the band.

Video: Ljósið - Ólafur Arnalds

Ólafur Arnalds - Ljósið (Official Music Video) from Erased Tapes on Vimeo.

BlackPlastic first discovered the rather beautiful music of Ólafur Arnalds earlier this year and, being a sucker for contemplative Icelandic music, it had us hooked.

If it wasn't for Kitsune Noir however there is a good chance we'd have missed out on this staggeringly beautiful music video for 'Ljósið', taken from Arnalds' latest album Found Songs. The video was created by Esteban Diácono off of his own back but Arnalds liked it so much it is now the official video. The track is great but seriously, this video takes it to a whole new level - the motion is so smooth and captivating.

Enjoy

BP x

Single Review / Download: Gave It Up - Pollyn

BlackPlastic has spent much of the last week digging on this slice of melancholic pop from Pollyn. 'Lost It All' sounds like the by-product of Annie and Robyn trying to out-do each other in the 'sad song' stakes whilst hanging out in a smokey little karaoke bar and in BlackPlastic's book that can only be a good thing. The slightly jangly backing track is just the right side of La Roux and the track drips with just enough sassy desperation that you can't figure out whether whether the singer is a basket case or not.

Check out the live studio performance:

Things get even better on Peter Visti's mix, which sees the whole tracked turned into a cosmic disco stormer... Sharp percussion and a muted guitar giving the whole track a moody, lost-on-the-dancefloor vibe and the break five minutes in, complete with discordant synths, really makes the whole thing a little epic.

Download 'Gave It Up' - Pollyn [right click, save as]

Download 'Gave It Up (Peter Visti Remix)' - Pollyn [right click, save as]

Head over to Pollyn's official site for more.

MP3: Under The Influence Of Jaffa Cakes - Joker's Daughter

Danger Mouse's work continues to get more diverse and interesting... In a year that has already seen him sneak out his Dark Night of the Soul project in collaboration with Sparklehorse and David Lynch(quite literally, it not being available to buy officially) Danger Mouse has also released an entire album, The Last Laugh, in collaboration with folk singer / multi-instrumentalist Helena Costas.

Listening to the fruits of their effort it's clear why they partnered - Costas' wonderfully sultry vocals go perfectly with Danger Mouse's production here but what is surprising is just how much Danger Mouse is able to change his approach to suit the artist.

On the track 'Under The Influence Of Jaffa Cakes' there are hints of left-field - the horns for example - but on the whole this is a simply executed, yet enjoyable, folk pop track. It reminiscent of Metric and even the Cardigans, but with just a hint of psychedelia in those swirling guitars.

Download 'Under The Influence Of Jaffa Cakes on MP3 [right click, save as].

Joker's Daughter's next single, 'Lucid', is out on 7 September and is also worth checking out - watch the video (directed by award winning animation artist Hayley Morris):

The debut album by Joker's Daughter, The Last Laugh, is out on Double Six now.

BP x