Friday, May 16, 2008
Are You Having a Laugh?
OK, so we all love quality music and many of us spend endless hours searching out cutting edge tracks or rare classics but do you ever wonder whether you're taking things a little too seriously and should perhaps lighten up a bit? If so, then today's post may come as a refreshing change as it focuses on a pair or artists that introduce a welcome dose of humour into the world of electronic music.Basing their name on their original recording medium of choice, Cassetteboy have been knocking out snippets of cut and paste humour since the turn of the century with some side-splitting results. Their approach is to generally record sections of audio then rearrange it all to make a mockery of the subject matter in question. While this is perhaps nothing that hasn't been done by others, Cassetteboy manage to maintain consistently good results by keeping the jokes short and sweet and mixing the audio commentary up with musical interludes and full blown comedy songs.
Targets range from world leaders through TV personalities, fellow musicians, the general public plus just some stuff they've produced because it's damn funny.
The guys have got a new album, Carry on Breathing, out on Barry's Bootleg's next month and it's well worth the investment. Their dig at possibly one of the most annoying men on radio features below as does some of their earlier work; a clever splicing of the commetary from the bi-annual tedium of Big Brother and a surefire chat-up winner for all you male charmers out there.
The selections below provide but a mere glimpse of what an album has to offer with the latest one weighing in at around 100 tracks. Keep your eyes peeled for it hitting the shops and you can also catch the guys on tour soon including slots at Glastonbury and the Glade Festival.
Cassetteboy - Why Brother // Inside a Whale's Cock (2003)
Cassetteboy - Cassetteboy // Dead Horse (2005)
Cassetteboy - Chris Moyles // Carry on Breathing (2008)
Labels: Barry's Bootlegs, Cassetteboy
Monday, May 12, 2008
Illectro Works
Electronica duo 7 Hurtz make a welcome return to the fore with a new EP on the Process label. We'd like to take some of the credit for their return and subsequent naming of their new EP, "Illectronic #1". We await our royalty cheque with bated breath ;-)The duo have been quiet since 2003 with their last release "Electroleum" on Trevor Jackson's now legendary defunct label Output Recordings. New track "Illectro" is yet more subtle and melodic Electro with spaced out synths riding high and soaring strings. The other two tracks "The 5 Voices of The Prophet" and "Snowblind" are more melancholic affairs reminiscent of Plaid and Black Dog Productions
The Illectronic #1 EP is out now on Process. Buy the tracks at Juno Download
7 Hurtz - Illectro // Process
I couldn't leave without sharing one of their classics. "Stokers Motor" was the track that got me into their sound and still sounds totally fresh and relevant today. The remix version here has extra vocal samples in the breakdown and wailing sirens to really lift it somewhere special. Classic.
Labels: 7 Hurtz, Electro, Output Recordings, Process
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
A Fine Beast
Promise of a Minilogue album has been brewing for a while now and after 3 years in the making it's finally dropped. What's perhaps more impressive than the actual delivery finally arriving is that unlike many such elongated projects this one's actually worth the wait! Furthermore it'll take you a fair while to fully absorb it as the CD version is spread over two discs. Disc one (and the vinyl version) contain the dancefloor cuts all of which are in techno / minimal groove and contain plenty of pops, clicks and jackin' rhythms to keep you nicely interested. Tracks are structured rather than just loop-based; a format which gets further room to grow in the fact that the CD version is a seamless journey from start to finish so tracks build nicely up and down again as they blend smoothly into one another.Disc two continues to deliver on the consistently high quality but this time things are focused squarely on armchair raving as these are chilled out vibes, some of which are totally beatless. Additional discs of this nature often end sitting on the sidelines but after several listens of this one the beauty of the tracks is still growing rather than fading for me and this disc easily stands up as a quality long player in its own right.
So folks, in case you hadn't guessed, I'm rather smitten with this particular opus and am eagerly awaiting the restock of the vinyl version at my local record emporium!
I've posted a cut up from each of the discs below but these are only promo versions so come with a nice lady reminding you of this. You can pick up a proper copy of here.
Minilogue - Cow, Crickets And Clay (Promo Version) //Animals LP (Cocoon Recordings)
Minilogue - Six Arms and One Leg (Promo Version) // Animals LP (Cocoon Recordings)
Labels: Cocoon Recordings, Minilogue
Thursday, May 01, 2008
ill-ec-tro-nic @ Islington Academy
Next Friday, 9th May the ill-ec-tro-nic goes large with a night at Islington Academy. Promoted by Mark Solo, one of the residents at our monthly Cafe1001 night (next one next Thursday btw), a veritable smorgasbord of electronic delights will be on offer ranging from a DJ set from the chart-bothering Infadels through the one man live electro madness of Drums of Death to the tastiest techno grooves of our own Langer and Deep Down and Dirty's Simon Morel.Tickets £4 advance / £5 on the door.
Hope to see you there!
Labels: DDD, Drums of Death, ill-ec-tro-nic, Infadels, Islington Academy, Mark Solo
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Guilt(y) Pleasures
Another amazing remix from Pantha Du Prince dropped into my inbox last week. This time he turns his talents to Indie popsters The Long Blondes. To be honest I don't think I've ever heard any of their records but I'm very tempted to check their material after hearing this.As usual Pantha Du Prince adds his classic synth washes and melodic structure which creates a beautiful fusion with the hushed ethereal vocals touches.
This mix is definitely as good if not better than his Animal Collective mix which we posted a few weeks ago. Taken from the album 'Couples', 'Guilt' will be released as a single on the 26th of May. Buy
The Long Blondes - Guilt (Pantha Du Prince Remix) // Rough Trade
Labels: Pantha Du Prince, Remixes, Rough Trade, The Long Blondes
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Boss Sounds
This track by 'The Boss' has been a guilty pleasure of mine since my teens. We aren't the first blog to post this and undoubtabley not the last. Cousin Cole has given 'I'm On Fire' a masterly re-fix that is brilliantly simple utilising extra synths and a subtle 4/4 beat.Todd Terje recently used this track in his Resident Adviser podcast and I can see this mix causing quite a stir over the summer. It's a perfect Balearic terrace tune.
This track features on Cole's Tambourine Dream mix album and EP. The super-limited (200 hand-screened copies) unmixed CDs for Tambourine Dream (with a bonus track from Pocketknife) will be in shops in a week or so. Buy Here
Bruce Springsteen - I'm On Fire (Cousin Cole's Bad Desire Mix)
Labels: Bruce Springsteen, Remixes, Rock
Monday, April 21, 2008
Fabric Competition - Tickets for Saturday
This Saturday sees the launch of Craig Richards' new night 'The Nothing Special' at his long term residency Fabric. The idea behind the night is to showcase live acts and to start things off he's got a couple of corker's lined up in the shape of Deepchord / Echospace and Convextion. I've waxed lyrical about Convextion on these pages before and Echospace's Coldest Season LP was one of my favourite albums of last year. Large sections of the album are indeed very ambient and unlikely to whip up any kind of dancefloor frenzy but by all accounts, the boys turn things up several notches for their live performance and even rocked Berlin's mighty Berghain.As ever with Fabric, Room 2 is far from an afterthought and this week includes Joris Voorn and Par Grindvik. The full lineup is available here.
Fabric has once again given us a pair of tickets to give away so for a chance to win them send an e-mail to us at illectronic.blog(AT)gmail.com with your answer to the following question and the lucky winner will be picked at random and notified on Friday:
Q) Which seminal Convextion track was remixed by both Deepchord and Echospace last year?
And for those of you not able to make it down this weekend or not sure why I'm blabbering on about these guys, here's your usual helping of musical treats:
Echospace - Celestialis // The Coldest Season LP (buy)
Joris Voorn - Resident Advisor Podcast (RA062)
Labels: Convextion, Deepchord, Echospace, Fabric, Joris Voorn, Par Grindvik
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Imperialist Electronics
I got sent some rather nice tracks from a producer with the curious moniker, Goodbye Prussia. I'm not entirely sure whether the Kaiser would approve of Electro mixed with Techno and Dubstep influences but it certainly floats our boat here at the ill-ec-tro-nic.There isn't a great deal of info that I have gleaned about the tracks except to say that they are from an unsigned producer from Leeds in the UK, not, as one may suspect, a imperialistic German holed up in bunker somewhere on the Baltic coast.
The tracks remind me a lot of the output of Radioactive Man and Two Lone Swordsmen with their sharp electro pulses and dark basslines. Well worth checking
Goodbye Prussia - Milk Boat // Unreleased
Goodbye Prussia - Drawing Board // Unreleased
Milk Boat/Drawing Board are like two movements of the same track. New track Hologram follows on from this sound adding extra synths to the mix.
Goodbye Prussia - Hollogram // Unreleased
Labels: Electro, Goodbye Prussia
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Better Late Than Never
I've been thinking for a while that I should put this mix on the blog but just never seem to get round to it. It's one I knocked up for my Soliton Research site a couple of months back and while I certainly won't be winning the DMC championships anytime soon, I'm reasonably happy with the end product:RAW - Double Take (SRM05)
1) Najem Sworb - Hydrocarbon
2) Hearthrob - Baby Kate (Konrad Black Remix)
3) Redshape - Unfinished Symmetry (Part 1 & 2)
4) Gui Boratto - Matryoshka
5) Redshape - Black Dust
6) Marc Houle - Techno Vocals
7) Ellen Allien - Go (Marcel Dettmann Remix)
8) Marc Houle - Bay of Figs
9) Emptyset - Isokon
10) Najem Sworb - Not Only
11) Dettmann / Klock - Places Like This
12) Henrik Schwarz - Robert & Dornroosje
13) Convextion - Spice Tea
Labels: Soliton Research
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Clear Intelect
Metanarrative is the brand new album from Mark Stewart aka Claro Intelecto on Manchester's excellent Modern Love imprint. It is a natural progression on from his last album Neurofibro which appeared on Ai Records back in 2004. Since then Mark has been busy recording material for the Warehouse Sessions series of 12"s of which he is now up to part 4.The album moves on from the Electro influences of his previous work on Ai to the more Dub inflected Techno which is a product of new influences from label mate and live partner Andy Stott. Indeed the first four tracks can be seen as nods back to his past whereas the last four are directions for the future.
Metanarrative is a very concise piece of work which takes time to seep into your consciousness, but does reveal its depth after several listens.
Claro Intelecto - Dependent // Modern Love
Pick up a copy of the album or download the high quality version at Boomkat
Labels: Andy Stott, Claro Intelecto, Modern Love
