Fast, Cheap and Out of Cigarettes.

On opening Fast, Cheap & Out of Control, the first thing that strikes you is the Marlborough fag which is inserted into the (inaccessible) spine of the jewel case. I am instantly sold by this. Yes, despite the cheap-shot potential, it makes you instantly feel there is something tangible and personal about the album. It says, from the outset, that this is an album with an ART agenda, united by concept ( a naughty word it seems, but here used justifiably, more borrowed from visual art than from the darker moments of experimental pop history) and not just the creative subconsciousness of the artiste. .

Putting on the CD you whisk through catchy pop in a dizzying array of forms, from high couture diva pop to sleazy art school e-clash, somewhere via 80s stadium rock, early Bowie and Kraftwerk.

Overall, the tunes achieve catchy pop heights with consistent skill. Some miss the mark, but there is enough variation, and enough hooks, to keep you listening to the end. This really is Pop Art, taken to its logical future, which is certainly an exciting prospect. The problem is, in deciding to make a statement with her album, she seems to have missed the real sense of excitement that seeps from good music. It is technically strong music; but, with the very good, though uber-slick production of the pure synth pop, it ends up sounding like she is singing over karaoke backing tracks, dreamt up by a ‘noughties’ Warhol if he hadn’t let the Velvets (or the modern equivalent) do it for him. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just not a great thing.

There is no doubting the quality of her voice though. This, alongside an excellent, wacky style, makes her a more than worthy proponent of this concept. I can’t help but feel, though, that the album comes across too frequently as an over-serious ‘statement’, when it might want to be exclusively playful e-clash, art-school pout.

That said the track posted below is rapidly elbowing its way into my head. I’ve found myself playing it a couple of times in a row, a few times now. Maybe the whole album will burrow its way into my pop lobes, and stay there, no doubt an intention of HK119.

Given the diversity of the music and the bold intention of using progressive pop music, and its conventions – the creation of ideology/mystique/populism – to comment on modern life, this album has a lot to offer, and is definitely one to check out for yourself. I’m just unsure at the moment whether it will emerge as a musical winner. And if I grow to dislike it I can always crack open the case for an emergency fag.

http://www.myspace.com/festivalideal

HK119 - Mind

Stokey!

Quick message to say I have just moved to London so have no internet at home= few posts/tracks... but that shall be rectified shortly. Lofi Hifi is carrying on in Exeter, but I think I'll carry on the blog from here.

I'm already loving London. Have an amazing house, though still unemployed. But so hard not to have fun, like last night spending £3.50 all night, buying a fourpack and sitting in green park by Buckingham Palace getting drunk and feeling about 15, or last Friday, ending up in Marathon Bar in Camden with the great Elvis impersonator playing and cans of stella the only beer available. Or just getting lost in London, going to Hampstead Heath, hanging out in Clissold Park near our house. Anyway, time runnign low on internet session. Quick link:

http://www.myspace.com/motelproject Good stuff

Filthy 22 Grand Team Penetration

Ola,

Currently working exhausting 55 hour weeks so not a lot of time for blogging let alone promoting Lofi/moving house/finding a new house in London/finding a job/sorting my life out, so excuse the silence.

Very excited as just found out that the last Lofi of the year - and 7 out of the 8 Lofi lot's probable last ever Lofi sob sob - will be with the up-and-coming, guitar-and-bleep dancefloor destroyers, remix junkies, DJs and poducer extrordinaire's Filthy Dukes.

They hit Lofi June 11th - and it is a welcome treat for those in Exeter 'vibing' the guitar-house/electro/bloghouse thing, as few up-and-coming bands of that ilk make it this far down the country.

They arrive at Lofi fresh from razzmatazz in Barcelona, which i had the pleasure of visiting last Christmas time, and can be seen at Glasto, Field Day, Global Gathering this summer and AITBF at Fabric regularly (which if I'm informed correctly they also run - AITBF that is not fabric haha) as well as at our friend's Jac The Discos night Last One In's a Rotten Egg in Camberwell (which in fact is probably happening as I write this (how unfair that I'm here in bed on a saturday night too exhausted to go out to a mediocre indie disco in Exeter when I could be out in Camberwell - moan moan moan - that is why Im moving to London...anyway))

So, they're hotly tipped peeps. Their debut single 'This Rhythm' features vocals from Samuel Dust of Late Of The Pier and sits as happily as a dance floor destroyer as it does accessible pop song. Layered 80s synth bleeps are compelled by a scuzzy saw bassline and made instantly rememberable by the breezy chord sequence and catchy vocals. This reminds me of the Chemical Brothers in its refusal to alienate either dance music enthusiasts or radio 1 daytime listeners, as well as the quiet euphoria it invites.

Filthy Dukes - This Rhythm // Buy.
The Rakes - 22 Grand Job (Filthy Dukes Society Remix)



Got a Myspace add from Team Penetration the other day, and was greatly impressed by a very head-noddable, fast moving, freeform take on the disco/electro/indie thing. Team Penetration don't seem to fuck around, so to say; they bang straight into siren like guitar riffs, assertive, opinionated lyrics delivered with the force of telling you not asking you, with all the swagger (and some of the intonation) of Ian Brown. That, plus at his most angry think TV preacher man possesed by the ghost of Johnny Rotten (ok, hes not dead, yet anyway (incidentally the chef at work said he saw the Pistols play a few years back and after a black guy in the crowd repeatedly threw a bottle at Lydon he got on the mic and instructed 'Skin The N****r lads' as 20 skinheads set into him - fucked up huh? Anyway, incidental comment - this isn't anything to do with Team Penetration)) calling you a cunt.

So after the myspace listen I was duly intrigued and messaged asking for a track to blog. They courteously obliged, and here we are:

Team Penetration - Guitars Are Overrated

[21/5 - Edit: These boys are now called Drop Like Bombs - www.myspace.com/droplikebombsnow.]

Enjoy.

Finally,

This is the video for the new Young Knives video which was partly recorded when they played at Lofi @ Cavern earlier in the year:

Lofi trounce the FYC and future gigs

May 21st sees Zombie Zombie hit Lofi Hifi.

ZZ play Kraut rock style dark psche-disco mayhem, and seem to be making some waves with appearances at Bestival, Shoreditch Crawl and a 13 date tour of the UK and Ireland.

In their biog it reads:"Zombie Zombie is a crazy scientist and musical project based in Paris city, France, lead by two people, professor Etienne Jaumet and Cosmicnewman (from Herman Dune) Using sound and rhythm to explore the feeling of fear growing deep inside you..."

The Album, "A land for renegades" is released in the UK May 5th, and "Driving this road..." is already being described as "a lost Can anthem.”

It was conceived as "the soundtrack to an imaginary road movie about two mercenaries racing against the night, hounded by unseen forces. " The driving rhythms, so Kraut rock in their repetitiveness; the tentative chord changes; the muted synth screams and layered fuzz-siren really do have the feel of a horror movie soundtrack, genuinely teeming with narrative. Things seem to happen in their songs, creatures chase you and jump out in front of you. And meanwhile the sense of fun remains, and it seems so very danceable. The feeling of atmosphere is only enhanced by their commitment to old technology:
“We use hardly anything made after 1980. With computer programs, you can do anything, so you end up playing them. With an old synthesizer, they are so temperamental that they end up playing you.”"
And meanwhile the sense of fun remains, and it seems so very danceable

Zombie Zombie - Driving this Road Until Death Sets you Free (Joakim remix)


************************



Weds night saw us take our 'rivals' in Exeter, The FYC (of which me and Jamie are also a part, though ssh!)
It turned out to be one of the best nights in ages, possible ever. That good.
EachLofi DJ took on an FYC DJ, in an appropriate pairing and had 15 mins to prove their worth with the audience voting. The pairings saw new-wave take on new-wave, boyfriend take on GF, Happy Hardcore (Lofi) take on Ganster Rap (FYC) and laptop take on laptop (Me "Jawline Frigzell" and Patrick "Pschyo bateman" Dishman)
The pre-battle 'beef' was hilarious, with both sides trading some serious, and at times rather personal insults. The resulting hype set us up for the fervour of the event itself.

The quality of tunes played was amazing, as was the variety of the music played. We had Ollie playing Happy Hardcore and Dean playing classic Disco as me and the boys danced in Balaclavas:
Rich, a Lofi hardcore regular stepping last minute to save the day - he ran home to get his records, turned up with minutes to spare and pulled out a blistering set to avoid forfeiting the round. Rosi, girlfriend to Matt, the guy on the right in the poster, played her first ever DJ set and tore it up at only 10 o clock with a combination of gangster rap and bouncing rude gal stylee in an amazing fur coat flanked by her two (very tall) hype men, the night's hosts Tim and Jim.

The best thing about the night was how absolutely wild the crowd was. It was the first week back of Uni, and people ended up queuing 2 hours to get in, so as a result the place was absolutely going off. By the time I played my set it was spilling onto the stage, and there were friendly faces everywhere you turned. Playing to a crowd that up for it is what makes DJing completely worth it. All those nights playing to a mostly emplty dancefloor suddenly seem worth the graft. Nights like Weds only come around once or twice a year but when they do it's the best feeling imagineable.

And to top it all off (it didn;t really matter) but Lofi Hifi won the competition, and I instigated a spotaneous three cheers for FYC to a packed room (ah bless cheap vodka).

Anyway, I'll post my mix tomorrow when I haven't got to get up in the morning at 10 the next day.

Violet Violet

myspace.com/violetviolet1

New and Future releases

Saw the Mystery Jets play a free gig at Exeter Uni yesterday - and I'm really liking their new stuff. Twenty One is released "very soon indeed" and they've taken a great direction with it. Their new stuff uses all the talents of the band - Blaine's haunting voice (flecked with a hint of vibrato, reminiscent of Jeff Buckley, though he still very much has his own unique style) on Flakes, William's voice and songwriting talents on Young Love, the counter edge that Kai's voice brings and some beautiful bass riffs, especially on 'Half in Love with Elizabeth'. We were treated to an exclusive half and half acoustic/electric version of that particular song when the audience couldn't choose between the version they wanted to hear. They also plucked a yoing lady from the crowd to sing laura Marling's part on Young Love - and despite the fact that the lady in question confessed she 'couldn't sing at all' - she got up on stage and gave it a great go and at the same time created a truly magic moment.

It was fantastic to see a band playing such new material at a time when they're still revelling in the quality of the songs they've just written. There was a genuine enjoyment and freshness to their playing that no doubt begins to wain once the album is released. And they're such nice lads too - you got a real sense of ego-lessness which made a warm, intimate atmosphere.

We met them before when they DJed at Lofi Hifi and there was no sense of fame going to their heads then - and nothing's changed. Unrelated really, but I also once had sex in the same room as Kai. Fact. Not with Kai may I point out. And the atmopshere was intimate then too. they've just got it going on.

Great pop songs, and I have my fingers crossed that the rest of the album is as good as the tracks I've heard.

head to the myspace for a listen.

I know I always go on about Carl Craig - but very excited about the Carl Craig Sessions CD just released. As Phonica says
" New double CD collection highlighting why Carl Craig is one of the best remixers & producers in the world. 23 tracks from classic techno tracks to recent 2007 remixes (a lot of which have been only available on vinyl!) - its only when you see them all here in one place, that you realise how prolific & consitent he is"


I rarely dare play out the Like A Child remix - It's such a great tune - but in the way that his brand of techno is it's quite a subtle brilliance - it has to be dropped at the right time in a set, when everyone's really into the music - or the kind of crowd who'd really appreciate this kind of stuff - in short supply in Exeter sadly.

Anyway - this track is an anthem in the making:
Francesco Tristano - The Melody (Carl Craig Remix)

The album is out now and at £13.99 I will be getting myself a copy very soon. review will follow.

Also worth a mention:


As the promoters have said:


"It's all happening in a beautiful 600-man private space (good for all the smokers amongst you) with massive projections and other quirks and performances in an accessible East London warehouse. On top of this it's a very reasonable £5 a head with option to bring your own booze. However, there will be a fully stocked bar in the venue should you find yourself without a drink."

BYO + smoking + Nathan Fake = unmissable

Answers and heavy rotation

copyright Alex Cambell 2007


First the (belated) answers to my cryptic quiz


a) Green Velvet - No Sex
b) Junior Boys - Like A Child (Carl Craig Remix) - haven't been able to get this out of my head for days and weeks, absolutely relentless. How one great bass riff can be made to sound masterful for 8 minutes I don't know.
c) Johnny Foreigner - Champagne Girls I Have Known - another track that I can't seem to shake. Saw them a few weeks back and their live show is as good as the EP. So brilliantly driving, never letting you get comfortable, always throwing something new at you, yet never once swaying from catchy pop brilliance.

A few tracks on heavy rotation this week:

Glass Candy - Candy Castle
I gather I'm a bit late on picking up this one but for anyone who hasn't heard this one then grab a listen. Coming on the exciting Italians Do It Better imprint, they take the classic Italodisco sound and a perfectly produced vintage synth and have created something both vicious and haunting. Like disco dancing in treacle. It makes me want to pop over to Portland and have a play with their synths, and to make a track with bass that prominent in the mix.

Another tune of the moment that does a similar bass-centric thing is Ebony Bones - We Know All About You.

It's the first properly blistering pop tune I've heard in a few weeks, and it just makes me very excited. I love the layering up of drums in the opening minute, getting more and more frantic to the point of bursting, and doesn;t allow you not to get your groove on. I also like the latino flavour and experimentation going on in the percussion. Proof that you don't just need a drum machine to make good dance music - this takes some of my favourite percussive elements: hand clapping (ala Etalking), strange little samples, melodic junk drumming (on what sounds like bottles containing different levels of water), counter rhythms.

Also very very worth checking out is the NLLR Mixtape project (unsure if this link will work - if not search for it on facebook- a series of free mixtapes from some big name in electronic music with new mixes posted regularly. It is run by Lee Norman Williams of No Love Lost Records - the blurb explains more:

"Launched in November 2007 by lifelong dance music fanatic Lee Norman Williams, the NLLR Mixtape Project is a free side-project of his dance music record label No Love Lost Records, featuring masterfully mixed sets by talents of every genre and sub genre of the music we love... dance and electronica. It doesn’t matter if you’re a fan of -- deep breath -- Techno, Electro, House, Drum’N’Bass, Bassline, Dubstep, Trance, Breaks, Hard Dance, Hardcore, Progressive, Minimal, Micro, Blog, Bmore, Garage, Grime, Hip Hop or IDM, I love them all, which means you’ll get to hear them all."

with mixes from OCELOT
LAURA HEATH
MEMEME
THE BLOODY BEETROOTS
TRONIK YOUTH
L.A.O.S.
RUPERT ROMARO
MARAL SALMASSI
TYSKERHAR
CONGOROCK
ARTHUR BARR
MISTRESS DE FUNK
ZOMBIE DISCO SQUAD
CRYPTONITES
ZOLTAR (SPEAKS)
JAHCOOZI
LILLICA LIBERTINE this is exciting stuff, and the quality is up there.

Enjoy. x