I freaking love it when a planned Res post is interrupted by something urgent and awesome. Today’s cause of Postus Interruptus? That Rex The Dog album is FINALLY SEEING THE LIGHT OF DAY. An entire calendar year…or two… after it was first listed as “available in like a week” from the Kompakt promobot (who has since died an untimely and unfortunate death-if you’re still out there, Kompakt promobot or Forced Exposurebot, holla), Rex The Dog’s Rex The Dog Show is finally due to be available on Hundehaus Records in September. And, in true too-cute-to-rave Rex fashion…there’s a comic about it. Hey, Rex, tell us about your forthcoming album?
Rex also explains it all for you:
You can get yourself up to speed on The Rex The Dog Show (which, hopefully, will do a bit more honest-to-god US touring than the PTR show) by checking out the release comic here.
…..oh yeah, something else.
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She-who-must-not-be-named-for-fear-of-blogsuit has a whisp of a song remixed into a gothtro stomper. I like this one. A lot. It’s how I always thought the original should sound (so shove it, Cronefrappuccino).
With all this talk about Res repping Brooklyn, I thought I’d ressurect a vastly-overdue-for-posting song from where the other half of Resonator resides-Atlanta.
One of the biggest surprises the past year has held for me is that of the resurgence of dreamy, wind-and-feedback swept school of shoegaze. Don’t get me wrong, I’d sell my left anything (or right anything, or only anything) for the chance to experience My Bloody Valentine raging into “You Made Me Realise” for like 25 minutes until synapses are bloody pulps, nerves are raw and all sound is apathy-inducing, but on a day-to-day basis I’ll take the snowy dream-pop broken hearts club band over the former, if you don’t mind. Lismore abandoned the prettydrone aesthetic whole-heartedly a few years back, and since then I’ve been wondering if it was left for dead. Thankfully, 2008 has proven I need not worry.
It should be fitting, then, that when I saw Atlanta-based Lou Martyr (formerly of Res favorites One Hand Loves The Other, who have called it a night in terms of production as a collective whole) perform with another Atlanta musician with whom I was way less familiar, Nerdkween, at the one-year anniversary of Wordsmiths, it was the latter who left me utterly stunned. Don’t get me wrong-in a solo capacity, working through older material and some covers, Lou was completely angelic-Nerdkween, however, was an unexpected teacup tempest.
Surrounding herself with what I’m going to call “seriously analogue looping mechanisms” (actually tiny, portable boomboxes) she used to create walls of ambient sound, Nerdkween matched jaw-dropping white-noise soundscapes with lo-fidelity acoustic songs, all seemingly themed on the concept of moving and searching for…something. Doesn’t matter-I, literally, found myself with my head back, eyes closed, utterly lost in her sonic world. And, yeah, I ambushed her as soon as I could move again. Posing on this has taken me too long.
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“Earning My Disgrace” is a soft,tinkling ballad, counterbalanced with the tiniest bit of hope every time Nerdkween’s fragile voice makes it out of the mix. With the sonic disturbances lying just beneath and just behind the song’s surface, this thing threatens to either fall apart or fly into the sun at any second. I could keep this on repeat for hours and not realize it.
The whole album is entirely worth it, and each song weaves itself into the tapestry of the next and adds to the overall feel of nearly 45 minutes of dark, glistening haze that’s achingly real. Pick it up from Stickfigure (where there’s also another song sample).
New York’s only monthly chiptune series returns, this time at The Tank’s new venue at DCTV! If you had been to a show over the last two months at The Tank, you know that there was some serious crap (no pun intended) going down, and it’s definitely a pleasure to be in a space that has that new venue smell (at least, new to us). If you attended the mind-and-circuit bending festivities of Bent Festival 2008, then you’ve already been to DCTV and know that you’re going to have room to breathe and room to dance– but know that the organizers of this month’s Pulsewave are taking full advantage of the increase in space.
This is a super-special Pulsewave because my little brother is coming to town for his first chiptune show EVER! Ok, ok, it’s actually extra special because we have a new venue AND because Damian and the crew from This Spartan Life will be MCing and presenting machinima videos live for a multimedia, game reappropriation extravaganza.
On hand to provide beats will be the one and only Neil Voss (he wrote some tunes for a couple of games you might have played called Tetrisphere and The New Tetris) making a very rare live appearance– see him now while you still can!
Unicorn Dream Attack, the most adorably named chip-artist of all time (sorry, Girljoy, he’s just barely got you beat) is coming in from Minneapolis to lay down some of his patented Love Bits.
I’m particularly fond of his cover of The Pixies’ “Monkey Gone to Heaven,” even though I can take or leave the original.
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And finally, the man who flipped all the breakers and had us jumping around in the dark to the music still banging in our ears when he killed the power… The one, the only, 8GB!
Pic by silvertje http://www.annehelmond.nl/
To keep with the cover theme, here’s the 8GB Z80 version of Kraftwerk’s “Die Roboter.”
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And to give you a better, though by no means completely representative idea of the stompers that this guy puts on live, I’ll throw in an original. Take the intensity of this and turn it up to +80 and you MIGHT have an idea of how hard you’ll dance on Saturday night.
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My two favorite bands from Australia named after things you have or do on your computer are coming to the States for a dual headlining tour guaranteed to knock your SOCKS OFF.
Tickets are now on sale at ticketbastard, so get ‘em while they’re still available, because this is the dance party you are going to kick yourself if you miss. Resonator is going to have a lot of coverage of these guys coming at you in the lead up to Hacks and me attending the NYC shows, so stay tuned!
Dates:
SAT 9/13 - Monolith Festival - Denver, CO
MON 9/15 – The Record Bar - Kansas City, MO
TUES 9/16 - Fine Line Music Cafe- Minneaplis, MN
WED 9/17 - Metro - Chicago, IL
FRI 9/19 Sound Academy - Toronto, Ontario
SAT 9/20 - Club Soda - Montreal, Quebec
SUN 9/21 - Webster Hall - New York City, NY
MON 9/22 - Webster Hall - New York City, NY
TUE 9/23 - Paradise - Boston, MA
THURS 9/25 – The Trocadero Theater - Philadelphia, PA
FRI 9/26 9:30 Club - Washington D.C.
SAT 9/27 Masquerade - Atlanta, GA
MON 9/29 - Emo’s Alternative Lounge - Austin, TX
TUES 9/30 - Granada Theater - Dallas, TX
FRI 10/3 – The Glass House - Pomona, CA
SUN 10/5 - Mezzanine - San Francisco, CA
TUES 10/7 - Hawthorne Theater - Portland, OR
WED 10/8 - Showbox At The Market - Seattle, WA
THURS 10/9 - Commodore Ballroom - Vancouver, B.C.
Well.. I kinda did. I haven’t posted about them in forever, nor I have received any updates from
them in quite some time. They’re one of my favorite lesser-known producers and I don’t think there’s a remix of original piece of there’s that I haven’t enjoyed.
Backtracking… Trixie and were discussing the awesomeness that is The Presets this morning, her saying they were both a prog house band in disguise and that the Miami Horror remix of “Talk Like That” -while good- is a let down if you’re expecting the original (and I agree with her) and me saying, well, “ZOMG” a lot, honestly. But it made me go investigate some of my other favorite Australian bands and that’s when I though of Like Woah!
There’s nothing on their myspace to indicate it.. but they silently dropped 3 remixes last month and they are all up to quality I’ve come to love and respect from them. Circle.Square.Triangle had the exclusive, so props to them for being cooler than me.
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As a bonus, here’s some previously posted material by them that can still rock a crowd out:
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It’s pretty awesome when, unexpectedly, a track ends up in my email inbox that not only touts itself as reminiscent of a Kompakt Speicher release but also manages to hold to the expectation that creates. A blast from Moodgadget Records brought with it a handful of treats I’ve yet to unwrap, and this one, which I’ve already devoured and am regurgitating for you to also taste. It’s how baby birds get their music.
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I know nothing about Frank other than what I’m told, which is that his influences are “AFX, Audion, Mr Oizo and James T Cotton”-which, c’mon, are not bad things at all. It’s his forthcoming Moodgadget EP Unshaven Face which is given the “RIYL Speicher” workover, and this track actually *does* hold true to said workover. Bouncing, frothy and pretty simultaneously, it does totally ring with the feeling one would get from blind-buying the old Kompakt 12″s imprinted with that now-infamous dragon-clawed double-headed eagle and letting oneself get lost in a bubbly, bobbled tech-freak world.
Oh, hai guise… Ok, ok, ok. First of all, I’m not going to do the usual “…trixie shows up and apologizes for not posting for three months” thing because, honestly, I’ve been busy working on my life long dream of being the female, short, blonde, American version of Tony Wilson, and that’s why you haven’t seen me in awhile. I’m still working hard bringing people new music, I’ve just kind of limited my scope to the “live” and “NYC” part of that job. You guys wouldn’t believe how hard it is to jump on to Res and write a post after sending ten thousand emails to coordinate people playing shows or after a successful show with a few beers in my stress-related-ulcerated stomach.
BUT… The “day job,” as they’re called because it’s what you DON’T want to do and not because of the time it takes place, has ended and I am doing the “making cool stuff happen” thing full time, so now I have the chance to come back to you guys with some really sick music. In the spirit of my new position at The Tank, NYC’s stronghold for 8-bit, here’s a whole slew of chip music that I’ve been enjoying this summer.
First off, trash80’s absolutely brilliant Icarus EP* has been the soundtrack to this summer– lush, sexy, sundrenched Balearic-bit for those who dream of an alternate reality Ibiza where Nullsleep and Bit Shifter hold court like Sasha and Steve Lawler once did at Space. Like all 8bitpeoples releases, it is free for download and sharing under Creative Commons, so follow that link and grab it.
Despite technical difficulties as a result of him overpowering the house system during his set at May’s Pulsewave, he kicked off my summer with an ear to ear smile stretched across my sweaty face. Here’s 2Player Productions’ rather disorienting video of “Missing You” from that night:
Though “Missing You” seems to be the universally sanctioned hit from the release, “Sodium Sonet” is actually my favorite.
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On the other side of the spectrum from trash80, I’ve been digging the 8bit + sparkling speedcore hybrid side project of industrial artist Aliceffekt. Called MALICE, it’s the sonic equivalent of grinding metal against metal to shoot dazzling sparks– one part hard and savage bass line to one part silver-filigreed synth lead, it’s definitely an exciting first entry into chiptunes and I’m looking forward to how this project progresses (as well as a super-secret OTHER side project of lush, melody-driven IDM that Resonator will probably be lucky enough to preview in the coming months).
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Malice - L
(Note: The ID3 tags for this release come up with a bunch of Japanese stuff, so you may not be able to find it in iTunes by typing “MALICE.” To preserve the integrity of what the artist wants, however, I didn’t change the ID3 tags. Go blame them.)
MALICE is also available for free here. I definitely recommend downloading the entire album, as each track is mixed into the other so it’s hard to really listen to one on its own without hearing the tail end/beginning of another.
And finally– Argentina’s 8GB is pure, full on, hands in the air dance-till-you-can’t-move insanity. If you missed his set at Pulsewave’s 2nd Birthday back in March where his set rocked so hard that he caused a black-out, here’s a sample of what you can expect when he returns this month! (More on that coming later in the week– look out for it, because it’s going to be BONKERS!)
Tonight, come play “spot Trixie and Hacks at the Black Ghosts show”! (hint, we’ll both be dancing our asses off and odds are they’ll be a bunch of people watching us do so).
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There’s something to be said for taking a decade to refine a sound. For forward-thinking electronic producer/songwriter/at-times-Bjork-bandmember Leila, the 10 years from her spaced, airy and fluttering Like The Weather ’til now have seen her move from sunshine to deep, dark nightmare/dreamscape soundplay.
If I were to say that Blood, Looms and Blooms sounds wonderfully, fantastically and (yes) refreshingly like what the label WARP used to immediately conjure, hopefully I’ll have said all I need to-because it’s an electronic masterpiece. Four and a half stars and a giant luminescent moon would be the rating, were I to ascribe one, to this absolute, stunning winner. In terms of composition, it flows from run-through potlucks melting dubstep and 8bit into something way more ominous (and, thankfully, less boring) than either genre could ever manage on its own to polished head-fucks of otherworldly, demented pop bliss. If I’ve not made my point, Blood, Looms andBlooms is a dark, heavily twisted, dark, dark (dark) record, but one that finds the concept of making “dark” sounds to be an atmosphere and a beginning, rather than both means and end-a statment made concrete perfectly by the album’s gorgeous cover art. Blood, Looms and Blooms is a sonic tribute to the triumphs and pitfalls, the majestic terror and horrible beauty of what happens in the dark.
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The first audible quirk on the album, “Time to Blow” is an ode to rage soundtracked by what I’ve grown comfortable over the years dubbing “a Plaid-esque sproing”. If that means nothing to you you’ve never listened to Plaid and that’s that. Most notable here is the fact that the smooth, silken vocal croon, never once veering into the lyrically-implied red, comes from Terry FUCKING Hall of The Specials. Ask your grandfather.Or R Jamz.
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A B-side to the 12″ pre-album release of “Mettle” as a single, “Heaven Sent”is far too crystalline and uplifting to fit within the Blood, Looms and Blooms context (which is why I’m fine with the album closing on the “Why Should I?” note). Taken on its own merits, though, “Heaven Sent” is…well, exactly what I just said-crystalline and uplifting. Every bit a beauty.
I meant to put this out on Sunday, and then my title would have been more “Last Night blah blah blah” but I’m lazy and swamped with work and blah blah blah, so oh well.
Saturday night played host to Hacks his new friend Toba taking a trip to Tribeca Grand and dancing till the lights came on while one bearded deejay/bass player named Fred Falke rocked the crowd. But wait, I should tell this story properly. See it all started with this:
Toba: “Hey, let’s hang out”
Hacks: “Ok, I’m going to see Fred Falke tonight, wanna go”
Toba: “Who’s that?”
Hacks: “This really good deejay/producer”
Toba: “Ok”
And there we have it! Thus began a night of epic proportions sprouting from those elegant and powerful words. Well, it didn’t quite begin then..
We had to traverse our way to the Tribeca Grand first, spend an (even-for-manhattan) excessive amount on a couple drinks while one solid opener (David P) and one not so solid opener (the other guy) got the crowd warmed up to the night.
Then comes Fred Falke, looking all in the world like he just finished watching a football game in the corner pub, ready to rock out the crowd.
I danced. From start to finish. Until the lights came on and my sweat drenched body was protesting (Seriously kids, I was so sweaty my shirt was dripping water on the floor). He opened with a live bass performance, proceeded to destroy things with a 3 hour, trigger finger controlled Ableton set, and then winded the night down with another live bass performance before the lights finally came on and everyone scurried like rats to GTFO.
It was the best night of dancing I’ve had in a long long time. In fact, I danced so hard, I couldn’t even stop to talk to the cute girl with the red headband next to me. Ah well.
And now, here’s the mega post. Because I doubt half of you even read the above anyway:
I distinctly recall “Sanctuary” from Saturday.. it totally got my 5th wind kicked in and desrves to be the first track you listen to.
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