March 2011
12 posts
Songs of Spring
Wow wow wow. The Carton has been resting. Or working. Working hard, in fact. Working so hard, in fact, that it has made a tremendous amount of tea and neglected its normal duties; that is, to educe the spring of new musical composition (NMC) and present it here.
To end this hiatus and start the party, the Carton has scouted the newest sounds to complement the RIDICULOUSLY luscious weather of...
Lucy / BNJMN
I’m not sure how I feel about Benjamin Thomas’ hate towards vowels. I’ve always been a vowel man: their vibrancy; their exigency; and, above all, their aesthetic. But, man, do I forgive Mr Thomas for his deep house and IDM grooves.
BNJMN’s debut record, released on the essential Dutch label Rush Hour, is a really impressive affair. Plastic World combines rigid tempos with more delicate layering,...
2 tags
Kenton Slash Demon - Live Review
Having salivated over the celestial house of Denmark’s Kenton Slash Demon for the last three months, I was tremendously excited to see that they were playing Plan B in Brixton last night. I had spent the day playing rounders in the park, eating a continental brunch I couldn’t really afford, and genuinely glowing in the sunshine’s glory. As the weather beckoned summer, I hoped that Kenton would...
6 tags
Thom Yorke / Burial / Four Tet
What kind of an electronic music blog would we be if we didn’t even mention the fact that three of the most forward thinking musicians and producers of the last 10 years had collaborated and recorded two tracks for you to wrap your ear holes around? A pretty shit one, that’s what.
So I feel obliged to nudge you in the direction of this release from Thom Yorke, Burial and Four Tet. They were given...
Pains of Being Pure at Heart / Benjamin Francis...
There aren’t many days when I feel like going back to my indie roots. As previously illustrated on this blog, I really tire of ‘modern alt’ and Pitchfork really piss me off with the effervescent bias in which I used to delight. I would now consider refusing the NME as kitchen roll. Don’t want those surfaces covered in the faces of the Vaccines now, do we? But man alive have...
Spring / Simon Baker / Dark0 / Jacques Greene
The weekend was a mixture of nostalgia and portent. As many of my contemporaries plan crafty manoeuvres from the back of the rat race, beavering away in London office blocks or enjoying their mid-to-last vestiges of post uni-gap year ‘experience’, I – still grappling with internship applications, volunteer work and future career moves – had a relative weekend blow-out. A friend’s parents put on a...
4 tags
back from the wilderness
For a music lover in the modern age, having your internet terminated is like a guitarist having their hand cut off. Like a footballer having their foot cut off. Like Graeme Swann being given a wet ball to bowl with whilst Bangladesh are hunting down a below-par total in a crucial game in the Cricket World Cup. Sort of. Maybe not.
Whilst my co-writer has been racking up the posts of late, I have...
Drake / Martin Dawson / Andre Detoxx / Seconds to...
First up on this muggy night is something courtesy of Ash Ogden’s ace radio show on Purple Radio (Wednesday 2300-0000), and it inevitably features that old scallywag, Drake. When he isn’t getting wasted with Lil’ Wayne or shattering lyrical boundaries with “What am I doing? Oh yeah, I’m doing me”, he’s lucky enough to see his jaunty rap completely and utterly beautified down low by London producer...
RETROFIT #5 / GLASS JAR
From the label that sounds like a pair of Levis comes Jay Shepheard’s new Retrofit record – this time co-produced with Matthew Burton (who incidentally helped on Retrofit #2).
Trawling through the latest House cuts on Juno, I was pretty disappointed by the recent releases - which for some reason have venerated my anti-genre: nu-disco. What drew me to this record, some way down the bestsellers...
Cricket World Cup /// Omar-S /// Phil Weeks
Man. I was really not looking forward to the Cricket World Cup. The sport sautéed itself after the Ashes and, seemingly like the players, I couldn’t give a hoot by the end of the SEVEN (that’s SEVEN) ODIs. Yet, in just ten days, my ugly full-bunger of misjudgement has been hoiked over cow corner and smashed into Bumble’s smug little face.
For, yesterday, Bumble apparently made a bet on...
Agoria, Impermanence
Lyon-based producer Agoria gave a really interesting interview on Resident Advisor last week about finding domestic harmony and musical inspiration. Recently married and newly focused, Agoria is releasing his third full-length on Infine and Republic of Music, and RA was left in no doubt that his happy and extant life balance is reflected by this new album, Impermanence.
I first posted about Agoria...
February 2011
24 posts
Nicki Minaj - Harlequin - Pinch
Three names you would never normally put together: American pop-star; anonymous French deep house producer; legendary Bristol dubstep producer and dj.
Last week Pinch did a mix for RA. I must say immediately that I am not a huge fan of Pinch’s music. Like my fellow blogger Sam below, I find his particular brand of dubstep a little uncompromising and at times impenetrable. I did, however,...
Pional : We've Been Waiting For You
While many of you were rapaciously indulging in hedonistic activities over Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning, I was doing something far more reckless: painting my kitchen, without a mask. My mum had even bought a pair of those special goggles to prevent paint splatters, and a fleck in the eye later I was modelling the rather special face gear.
At a heady point of wild domesticity, atop a wooden...
