April 2011
9 posts
3 tags
Ghosting Season / Chad Valley
It’s not often that you get bands releasing a side project that’s every bit as good as their initial output, so I was slightly sceptical when Manchester minimal/techno duo worriedaboutsatan announced they were going to be doing something slightly different. Fortunately, it’s every bit as good as the band they made their name with. This is perhaps unsurprising as it’s the same two guys working...
Circle Traps – Fjord ; Braille – The Year 3000 ;...
My man Gilles Peterson played a Circle Traps tune – ‘Mirrors and Monuments’ – a few weeks ago, and I was hugely attracted to the way an almost melodic jut could emerge from an initially overwhelming and discordant reverb loop. Similarly impressive was the way in which Circle Traps mastered two of the most difficult-to-moderate dynamics of contemporary electronica: quasi-industrial noise; and...
Averos / Roland M. Dill / Wireman
Rarely has something sounded so naturally epic and computer generated. As ‘Tom’ by Averos reaches the break of the wave, the familiar undulation of “woah-oh-oh” takes its seat and guides the increasingly venomous analogue beat and biting, clashing frequencies to a restful close. This is tribal without being tribal; symphonic without any hint of classical undertone. This is Averos, two-piece from...
Ango / Tale of Us / Austra
Last time out I wrote a long review of the new Digitalism track, and in most respects it was a very harsh assessment: too poppy, monochromic production, comedic drums, dodgy lyrics. Having spent the last two days seeking out ‘2 Hearts’ on the playlist, however, I feel that I was too harsh on the Hamburg Two. In my rush to compare the old live to the new release, I forgot some important things:...
New Digitalism, Vek & Kalkbrenner
Last week I wrote about loving electro-house at university. Forever at the crux of my iPod were Digitalism: my kings; my heroes; my first - and last - recourse at parties I did not host.
After a three year hiatus, they returned at the end of 2010 with the grossly underwhelming ‘Blitz’, an electro vomit which boasted neither the confidence nor the dynamism of Idealism. Now, five months...
Kode9 / Koreless / Deep Space Orchestra /...
Kode9 and the Spaceape - Black Sun
“This love is going to tighten round your neck,” goes the loop, jutting against an unsettling 2-step rhythm and synths straight from Steven de Peven’s shed. A girl moans softly in the distance, seemingly inflicting the pain from the ether. High-pitched needles oscillate, and disappear.
Kode9 & (MC) the Spaceape are back with new album Black Sun, which sits...
Todd Terje is B-b-b-b-back, ya!
At university I went through an electro house stage. Justice. Futurecop. The Whip. And I thought I was the bollocks. My university town was generously populated by people with average taste, bad taste, and no taste at all and I, possessor of a hypemachine account and huge Sony Headphones around my neck, was a fucking daddy in the library grounds listening to MSTRKRFT’s latest mash up.
Many late...
Deadboy / Kenton Slash Demon / Snoretex
A few weeks ago I wrote about the pleasure of a slightly dirty hangover. On that morning I awoke to a midday sun, deep shadows on the lip of a church roof and the eloquent taste of port still on my lips (I hadn’t passed out in the churchyard, before you ask). This Saturday, by contrast, I awoke to the most murderous headache, a true Mephistopheles of pain across my temples.
Contrary to my...
BRISTOL HOUSE of Bashmore: Batty Knee Dance
The weather here at Wonky HQ got “wow” today. Which can only mean one thing. It’s hayfever season.
The pursed plastic flaps of cartons may not appear pusillanimous in the pace of petrifying pollen, but by damnation is the carton’s face itching right now. While others are delighting in the sunshine, the Carton is quivering inside. It’s occasion is to eschew...
March 2011
12 posts
Warpppp
I was, today, taken ill with what can only be described as crippling flu. It was a synapse snapping mother, foraging the temples and worming deep in the sweat glands. Before my courageous decision to take myself home, I was readying myself for a day at the National Archives in Kew, to surround myself with the smell of eighty year-olds desperately arranging their genealogy before their next loo...
