Category: Electronica (Page 18 of 34)

The Octopus Project: Golden Beds EP

August 7, 2009 /

Patton Oswalt joked that Austin was one of those cities that lives in a magical bubble that protects its residents from the chaos and the muck that surrounds them (“You mean I can’t pay for a sandwich with a song?”), and this five-track EP by playful electronic enthusiasts Octopus Project, their first effort since 2007’s Hello, Avalanche, bears that out. Leadoff song “Wet Gold” rocks a Theremin and boy-girl vocals to a beat that Stereolab would have killed for, but the band launches a full-on guitar assault on follow-up track “Moon Boil.” They finish the EP with three instrumentals (!), ranging from trippy (“Rorol”) to pogo-tastic (the Death Cab-esque “Wood Trumpet”). It’s the work of a band with a love for all things pop but a healthy disregard for all things popular. Lord knows we could use a few more bands like that these days. Peek-a-Boo 2009

Octopus Project MySpace page

Ambient, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Electronica, Instrumental, Pop, Rock

Herclues And Love Affair: Sidetracked

July 31, 2009 /

Hercules and Love Affair are the dominant force in the drive to bring disco back to the dance floors in America. First with their insanely great self-titled debut and now with Sidetracked, a DJ mix arranged by Hercules’ creative force Andy Butler. Not surprisingly, Sidetracked is predominately a disco record, either with classic disco-era tracks like Todd Terry and Class Action’s
“Weekend” or with retro-sounding tracks such as the new Hercules & Love Affair track “I Can’t Wait.” Acid house and straight-up old-school house also make cameos on Sidetracked early on with tracks by Dubwise and WestBam, but by the halfway point they’re gone, making the way for vintage disco extravaganzas such as Studio X, Ray Martinez and the Rainbow Team. This isn’t Nu-Disco, this is straight up ’70s and early ’80s old-school disco, and that’s not a sound that has aged well for some, no matter how much they like modern dance music. If you were around back then or just want to hear what your parents did coke to back in the day, then you’ll probably eat this up. But for those of you more interested in dance-punk, DnB, or other more 21st century dancefloor sounds, you probably won’t find much of note on Sidetracked. (Renaissance Recordings 2009)

Hercules And Love Affair MySpace Page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Dance, Electronica

INF: The Go Round

July 31, 2009 /

Breaks records are usually intended for DJs, when they can be mixed and sampled with other tracks for DJ sets or remixes. Once in a while, though, one can break through to more mainstream audiences. DJ Food did it with their Jazz Brakes series, and now it looks like INF might with The Go Round, an infectious collection of ’60s-influenced loops, grooves and beats. The Go Round sounds like some magical out-of-place artifact from 1960s London, combining groovy instrumentals with modern beats to create a soundtrack to the best crime movie Michael Caine never made. One can imagine Mini Coopers tearing through the streets to the pulse-pounding beats of the title track, a romantic interlude to the gentle guitar strums and eastern drum beats of “The Boogie Man” and the final fight scene to the awesomely named “Power Move, Baby.” The Go Round is brief, clocking it at just over half an hour, so it’s not a lot of bang for your buck. But it’s still a fun listen that would serve as great background music for a party, dinner, or car chase. (Beats Broke 2009)

INF’s MySpace Page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Dance, Electronica, Instrumental

Bad Boy Bill: The Album

July 24, 2009 /

Bad Boy Bill has been a DJ for what seems like forever, starting in the late ’80s and churning out amazing mix after mix ever since. His Bangin’ the Box series and House Connection albums (with Richard ‘Humpty’ Vission) are legendary collections of Hi-NRG house that never let up, sometimes mixing over 40 tracks in the course of an hour. It’s amazing that it has taken him this long to create an artist album comprised entirely of original material. It’s even more amazing that it’s not all together that good. Instead of focusing on the frantic house that made Bill a standard in dance clubs worldwide, Bill’s decided to embrace standard dance-pop for The Album. Some of it is great, like the throbbing “Headlock” or the single “Fast Life,” but the rest of the songs are too derivative, annoying or just plain boring. Even worse is his pointless cover of Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit,” which takes the song’s classic hook and buries it with annoying fader effects, giving you a maddening taste of it before cutting it away. The best tracks on The Album will probably show up in a Bad Boy Bill mix eventually, and will probably sound even better, so there’ s no point in picking up this very unfortunate misfire. (Nettwerk Records 2009)

Bad Boy Bill MySpace Page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Dance, Electronica, Pop

Polly Scattergood: Polly Scattergood

July 24, 2009 /

Polly Scattergood is the latest graduate of the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology to end up with a record deal. Past graduates from prestigious London school include Amy Winehouse, Imogen Heap, Adele and every member of the rock group Noisettes. It seems that school in “Fame” has nothing on this place. Her self-titled debut shows the promise of the school’s past alumni, even if it is a bit uneven at times. Most of that potential shows itself in “I Hate The Way,” a seven-minute confessional of an opening number that shares the details of a failed relationship with brutal honesty, stark imagery and sonic beauty. It’s an amazing song and a brilliant introduction to the album, so brilliant that nothing that follows has any chance of living up to it. Pitfalls that follow include “Please Don’t Touch,” a strange pop song about obsessive men, and “Bunny Club,” which features the befuddling refrain of “I’ve got a dog and a gun and I’m living in London.” Many of the lesser tracks on Scattergood’s self-titled debut try to confine her quirkiness to an electronic-pop sound, she works much better when she embraces her wild side, with bold and daring tracks like “Nitrogen Pink” and “Untitled 27” where she lets her voice and her powerful lyrics loose without restraint. It may not be perfect but the potential here is off the charts. Fans of Kate Bush and Emmy the Great should definitely take notice now. (Mute, 2009)

Polly Scattergood’s MySpace Page

Alternative, CD Reviews, Electronica, Pop, Rock

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