line|noise

“Don’t undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible” - Edwin Land

“Life is like a tangled ball of wool, which the beginning it starts from nothing, and ends to nothing.” - Hiatus “Delam (feat. Dad)”

In the last few years, off and on, I started to hear this term “Deep House” and DJ’s exploring “deeper” sounds in mixes. And frankly, it seemed like a lot of silliness. The songs that fell under this classification all just sounded like some basic tech house, an interesting synth or two mixed in and a touch more bass than usual, which I figured was the “deep” element everyone kept talking about. Sometimes I was confused by how sparse some of it sounded; I often wondered “why such a stark sound?” Where many styles of electronic music seemed to grow and grow in detail and sonic complexity- even birthing the sub-genre “complextro”- Deep House seemed to be pushing something simple and maybe trying to create a little bit of joy in it as well. But that took me awhile to see, indeed Nick Warren experimented in a previously reviewed Balance 018 mix with predominantly deep house artists and I was not very forgiving of it as a result. But as per the usual, it always takes a certain artist to “explain” a genre in a particular way way, before I fall in head over heels. It’s always just a matter of finding that primer.

In 2014, long after I had deleted that previously mentioned Balance mix album, I had been listening heavily to Above & Beyond’s Group Therapy podcast, of which I remain an avid fan. And on a particular episode, the record of the week was a track by Lane 8 called “Every Night.” I remember so clearly for two reasons:

1. The track is ridiculously brilliant, beautiful and emotionally poignant. 2. The bass was so prominent in the mix of the track I had to turn down the low end eq on my car’s stereo.

Lane 8, also known as Daniel Goldstein, was in many ways my first wonderful intro to Deep House that made sense, or that I enjoyed. His music, released [at first] on the label Anjunadeep was immediately addictive and he seemed to have the style of music just nailed down. Daniel’s music is a masterclass in clean, austere production with above all, a clear vision. Where artist styles can wander release to release- and Lane 8 does delve into different styles- he knows how much a track needs and knows when to stop. No matter the release, he seems to make a conscious effort to have a clear melody and percussion with wonderful texture and swing. But most important, song to song, is the ridiculously loud bass, which might be the straightjacket that led Lane 8 to Deep House to begin with. Daniel’s music is extremely bass heavy, a watchword of Deep House, but also the emphasis of his own productions, meaning that the sub-genre probably found him instead of him finding it. There are inherent emotional themes in Deep House, a tie to a spiritual vocal sound and a clear harkening back to House when it started in Chicago. Even if the music is imbued with new performances or old samples, there is an attempt to recapture something thought to be lost in modern electronic music. Indeed, the relatively modern rediscovery of Deep House and the growth of various labels- most notably Anjunadeep lead by Jody Wisternoff, Toolroom Records and Suara- seem to have an intent, as if they are vending curios at a nostalgia shop. This isn’t some rehashing of sounds or boring recreations of a time long past, this is a series of old and young artists creating a discussion about electronic music song by song, asking where this music has been and trying to direct a style of it into a new direction. I wonder sometimes if EDM is having a midlife crisis and this modern perspective of Deep House and the wholesale latching on by audiences- indeed the “deep” areas or afterparties at shows are sometimes the hottest ticket to get- has resulted in this music’s continued growth. The sound clearly takes advantage of modern production methods, but there is a sentimentality that pervades the music, a drive to bring it back to the core sound that brought about electronic music in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I find an example of this sentimentalism in the latest Anjunadeep 08, where Hiatus uses his father’s spoken word in persian and english as a rich, aged instrument. Regardless of the rest of the mix- which is brilliant- I keep going back to the opener often listening on repeat, because the song is so affecting.

But I digress,

Three years ago, I bought my wife a Polaroid SX-70, and I’ll admit it was partially selfish because the sound reminded me of my recently passed grandmother who took photos of my brother and I with her polaroid. But what I found in the camera was this strange wonderfulness in its oddly imperfect nature and how the camera’s design seemed resolutely new even though it is over forty years old. I know instant photography has grappled itself back into style with products like instax and the remarkable work by Impossible Project to reformulate Polaroid film using the last polaroid fabrication plant in existence. There seems to be, in my generation and those generations surrounding it a familiarity with objects and styles of the past- which is expected of every generation- but using the modern tools at their disposal to truly delve into the past and composite those findings into something new and modern. The world has gotten remarkably good at recording things and making them easy to find. And I wonder if Deep House is partially a result of the fact that it is really very easy now to delve into classic house tracks, even you can do it! If this a reply by those who never got to see Frankie Knuckles spin at the Warehouse or the Power Plant, or Sasha & Digweed pull an eight hour set at Twilo. The idea of an “old” style club, with long DJ set times, no cell phones and a fantastic vibe are a feature of club culture that we all miss and at least one deep house artist seems to be trying to do something about it. Lane 8’s “This Never Happened” parties are on face value, an impossible feat these days: No Cell Phones, No Cameras. There aren’t promo photos for these parties, they are just like it was when Electronic Music was sound of misfits, gone after the set is finished. An empty room after the music stops, some stories to tell your friends, but in the end, this never happened.

It seems to me that these latest artists led by veteran producers as label heads, this fusion of old house styles and new production techniques is at its heart a sentimental movement, because house music started everything for electronic music. And maybe its time to bring it to the forefront again.

I highly recommend you listen to everything Lane 8 has ever made, if you be an Apple Music user, check here. If you prefer Beatport, check here.

Anjundeep 08 is a mix you should hear right now. Go do that.

Also, for fun, go listen to Bad Boy Bills bangin’ the box 5, because it’s almost 16 year old house and it is STILL fantastic.

And as always, keep your headphones on.

In the past I have discussed, at length, the ways that electronic music got into my life. But I can trace back that first listen- that promethean moment- to a movie theatre in Tustin, California, in 1995. It was a thing back in the 90's as you may well remember, that a movie had to have a good soundtrack. It made good business sense: one wholly separate revenue stream from CD sales that could make money even if the movie tanked. And since most movie studios either owned or were tied to a record label in some way, it really was low hanging fruit. It was also evil genius: want to break a band without spending boatloads on the requisite music video? Put the song on the trailer, then put the song on the soundtrack and do a compilation music video using footage from the movie, with some antics from the band and BOOM! New band for a fraction of the price. An ironical (and iconic) example is a video directed by Kevin Smith for a song featured in the Mallrats Soundtrack link here. Say what you will about Kevin Smith, but he sure knew how to nail 90′s cliché right on the head. Studio time could even be bundled into the movie budget. It was genius. But the odd thing is just how good some of these soundtracks were/are; "Can't Hardly Wait", "Cruel Intentions", hell the TV Show "Charmed" owes its intro song to "The Craft" soundtrack originally releasing Love Spit Love's far superior cover of The Smiths' "How Soon is Now?" and originally associating that song with magic and the occult. If you go back to the nineties and compare to soundtracks today- with some exceptions granted- it really was the golden age of the medium, even if the accompanying films left something to be desired, or didn’t age well upon review. These compilations ended up being free form dadaism, sampling music across styles and genres in order to generate reactions. Got an emotional yet outsider character on the screen? Throw Stabbing Westward onto the track list (The Faculty), need a sporto get-psyched and rebel song? How about Foo Fighters' "Hero" or "Nice Guys Finish Last" from Green Day (Varsity Blues), or go full Brit pop and launch or revitalize like half a dozen bands' careers a la the Trainspotting Soundtrack (e.g. Underworld, Iggy Pop, New Order, Primal Scream, Bedrock/Digweed). Bear in mind, "Lust for Life" was a cult classic but by no means a well known song (or record) for a whole generation prior to Danny Boyle using it to stunning effect in the film. "Lust for Life” was released in 1977, it didn't exist for babies of the eighties, but there Iggy stood, doing his signature heroin strut on MTV in 1996 alongside the cast of the film. It's absolutely ridiculous. These releases bent and rearranged pop culture, for what seemed like purely capitalistic, or ever anarchic ends. But sometimes, soundtracks changed music. And here we reach "Hackers." Dear readers, Hackers really is a terrible film. Few will ever appreciate such timeless lines like: "You guys! This is insanely great! She's got a 28.8bps modem!" A strong likelihood for someone in their thirties being able to quote Ginsberg can be attributed to this terrible yarn as well. The entire film revolved around consumer technology which was out of date the day the film was released. With a Rotten Tomatoes Score of 33% it does beat the 2015 "Fantastic Four" reboot, but can claim few other accolades. Except for the soundtrack. The soundtrack was apparently successful, so successful in fact, that 2 more compact discs of completely unused-in-the-film music were released. Kind of ridiculous when you think about it: A film that did not do well in any format it was released in had three soundtracks released using promotional material from the film... why? But I digress: a few years ago (read here: 2002-2007) I was one of many moderators on a message board for a now defunct website called the bt-network.org. At the time, discographies- especially for electronic music artists- were a hard thing to come by. Even if the artist was signed with a major label, they might be doing small releases, aliases, white label prints, unauthorized remixes and there was no Soundcloud to help the listener find such things, or really much of any method to post it online, of course leaving out early “deep net” (ICQ and Sharing Boards) that was all a bit too advanced for me. The bt-network website had the entire discography of one artist: Brian Transeau, aka BT. Brian was releasing a huge amount of music... some of it shameless and trashy house, but none of it really bad, in fact, some of it kind of earth shattering. Also, he was using a 303 (with the devilfish mod) to stunning effect on almost every track he was releasing, fusing piano and 303 melodies into a new brand of electronic music. At the time, the term “Dream House” was being thrown around, or Melodic Trance, but then the banner term- and equally pretentious- Progressive Trance label was settled upon. But he was, at the time, working at a prodigious rate: discogs.com credits Brian Transeau with 171 remixes and damn it all if I didn’t try to hear and or collect every single one. Along with that, as if by no effort at all, he released three incredible albums, Ima, ESCM (electric sky church music) and Movement in Still Life (to be referred after this as MISL). Though BT has since released important albums and some solid releases, these three represent my first experience with his music and here, we get back to Hackers. The first release of the Hackers soundtrack includes some truly heavy hitters in electronic music: Carl Cox, my favorite boys from Essex, Underworld, Orbital with the truly timeless “Halcyon & On & On,” Stereo MC’s, Leftfield, The Prodigy and Kruder & Dorfmeister, electronic music’s own Simon & Garfunkle. But the second album had BT, with his jaw dropping release, “Remember.” I think it’s hard to go back and remember that electronic music was so hard to understand back then, it was truly hard to know what sounds were “real” or if everything was synths, how the sounds were made and at that point I had no understanding of music production what so ever. Here is a track with everything; “Remember” opens with pianos and atmospherics, then jumps right into a stuttered two-step break beat, then enters an almost pop hook with clearly ripped off Peter Hook bass, a severely distorted, almost unrecognizable guitar and then finally transitioning into a classic four on the floor sound more clearly reminiscent of BT’s prior releases. Let’s not forget that Jan Johnston is also at her best here, passionately singing of longing and unrequited love. This song has it all, finally reaching a very solid pop/house hook with some truly wonderful production work that still holds up today. It is arguably one of Brian Transeau’s finest songs, his most creative time and at one point when he has not been tied down by his trademark “Stutter Edit.” This was my first discovery of BT and it was an incredibly important song, because his music brought me to discover so many other artists, so many other styles of music. I was locked in to his music for years after this, seeing him live on more than one occasion, again frequenting the bt-network but all of it was due to this first moment and the groundbreaking music that followed it. I can not say that BT’s current releases have moved me as much- excluding “Tomahawk” and some other recent tracks- but this music that he first released are to this day cd’s I still own and music I still listen to. His music was “my” music for so many years, it was the music I tried to get people in to and the albums I loved to share.

And all thanks to a ridiculously terrible nineties film, called Hackers.

It really must be said that without BT’s music, I would have had a hard time finding Adam Freeland, Sasha, DJ Rap, Paul Van Dyk, Beber & Tamara, Gabriel & Dresden, Grayarea and dozens more. Through remixes, DJ mixes where BT’s music was featured, raves and parties where he headlined, I found artists that I’ve followed since discovering them. For that, I really am grateful.

Remember, as I have not said it in a long time, keep your headphones on.

I’ll happily admit it: I am a huge U2 fan. Their music has been in my life long before I knew band names and frankly, they have developed and evolved in so many ways where other bands simply languished and decayed. Lately, their records have not been to my liking, but “lately” for most fans goes way back with U2. For me, not so much. POP was the last great U2 record, with “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” for a few tracks* and “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” for the amazing B-Side “Summer Rain” and, in all fairness “Walk On.” Many fans stop their adoration at Achtung Baby, which of course, is an absolute travesty. POP was brilliant, it was performance art, but first you have to describe the tools and method used for this particular art.

Europe (and secretly New York, Detroit and Chicago) had been developing the dance music vocabulary for decades by the late nineties, indeed New Order- in 1980- in the wake of Joy Division’s deformation due to Ian Curtis’ suicide, band members listened to Italian Disco, post disco and electro whilst on holiday in New York, inspiring their first forays into dance music. Dance music helped to get them out of their creative doldrums having lost their friend and lead singer. Dance music was written into the collective conscious of at least 2 generations in Europe by the late 90’s, where in the U.S., we burnt our Disco Records** in effigy at the end of the disco era. Achtung Baby had been the first foray into true electronic music by U2, along with the “One EP,” but it had only been the start, the band members of U2 had been inspired by dance music much like New Order had been. Adam Clayton cites “Leftism” by Leftfield to be his all time favorite record. Leftfield, a pioneering electronic music outfit (and apparently back behind the mixing desk!***), cited by a rock n roll bassist is no small thing.

Also, it seemed the concept of fame, though hugely appealing to Bono’s stage persona, had left U2 with a crisis of conscience, a smattering of catholic guilt even. The band had a sense that their identities had been made unclean by this stratospheric fame. They had decided the best thing to do was destroy it all. Zooropa and Achtung Baby were farce: poking fun at the further evolving “me generation,” American consumerism, modern television (MTV especially) and the band’s identity as rock’s own royalty.

If Achtung Baby was meant to be farce, then POP was baroque theatre.

U2 was living in and fine tuning the roles of rock stars, in order to mock it all. They knew their stage and video personas were a joke. So, U2 announced their tour in a Kmart, Bono cut his hair that had been such a huge part of “The Fly’s” identity in Achtung Baby’s (and Zooropa’s) videos and tour. Their live act had a huge UFO Lemon/disco ball. Edge was using a disco ball reflective Gibson les Paul on stage (and in the videos) and the 90’s fashions were ridiculous even for Bono’s standards, hell they were ridiculous for a 90’s teen film. It all looks like some coked out fantasy, where Edge or Adam Clayton will look at the camera and warn “This is Bat Country!” As Bono carries on with his singing.

The record was reported as “hurried” at the end and “too technical” for live reproduction. Bono, during an interview regarding the tour quipped each of Edge’s “toes” would be utilized for the guitarist’s massive effects board. Bono’s vocals were completed mere days before final masters were delivered for printing, with a tour already announced and planned.

There appeared to be drama and comedy just oozing from the band and the album itself. And frankly, this record deserved it. It was magnificent in scope, brilliantly produced, poignant, a time capsule for a newly emerging music (that had been hiding in basement clubs and illegal parties for decades) and remarkable changes in Irish politics.

It was and remains an iconic record that everyone has chosen to forget. And why? Because it’s electronic music, because it’s different and it’s most certainly NOT POP.

At the heart of the record were 2 things that make it a brilliant album: 1.) low end. Just listen the bottom end of these songs. Discotheque hits like a drum n bass record, from today. As in, this record was so well produced it sounded like music from the future.

2.) lyrics. Quite possibly the last great lyrical U2 record. Heartbreaking, beautiful, self aggrandizing, ego shredding, a burnt effigy of a record.

However, it was commercially a failure especially in the U.S., like no other U2 record has been prior or post. Even Rattle & Hum was raised from it’s own self indulgent “documentary” because of the absolutely brilliant record that was released with it. Yet POP stands out as a failure, which for me always suggests someone somewhere missed something absolutely huge. Maybe people weren’t ready for it. Watch MTV News from back then and all they had to say was “U2 is experimenting in the studio with ‘techno-style’ loops” (They also suggested Guns n Roses were doing the same for the as yet unnamed “Chinese Politics”). No one knew what it meant to layer a live drummer and a drum machine, well, no one outside of vaguely understood club cultures at least.

Such a beautiful thing to offer up, that has been mocked and belittled from the get go. The Edge was forming the sonic vocabulary he has been using ever since, bringing grit, texture and modulation along with his echo box and delays.

Bono was writing lyrics with the rebel yell that had come from his generation, the generation who had had to starve themselves to death****, who hadn’t just hated the architecture of Margret Thatcher, but rather, her terrible obsession with control, across the Falkland Islands, across Northern Ireland and Bono finds himself sincerely questioning if he really has done anything in writing music, if he has done anything at all. Further, his faith- a cornerstone of U2’s lyrical message- seems battered, scarred and in true catholic fashion, shakey.

POP is the record that Edge said good night to the exclusivity of high notes; he kept the upper spectrum but also started to dig deeper into the low end and the mid range he had muted for so many years. But he cut a hole into the universe, he cut a hole through the world with “Gone” and goddammit, nobody seemed to notice. Some of the hardest, most distorted melodies he had ever managed to push through his Gibson Explorer can be found on this album. It was a masterpiece, a frenetic wake up call to music in the US: be here now, listen to this. Sadly, I think it took another 20 years for dance music to rush into the American conscience and still more tragic, led by the likes of David Guetta and The Swedish House Mafia. It seems, sometimes, that this music deserved Bono and the Edge as its emissaries, not will.i.am, not Avicii.

* The filter used on “Love And Peace or Else” is absolutely epic. Edge’s solo that the filter precedes is equally fucking clutch. **Disco Demolition Night https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition_Night *** Check their soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/leftfield/ **** Bobby Sands and 9 other prisoners died in a hunger strike in 1981. Arguably, Margret Thatcher could have prevented their deaths.

Sasha's new Involver record, the third and apparently final* in the series, is a very complex, beautiful album. Though thoroughly danceable, accessible and characteristically Sasha, the cutting edge element here, are the surprising use of vocals. Now, if you go back, you'll notice that vocals are present throughout all of the Involver series, including the wonderful "Talk Amongst Yourselves" by Grand National (a lovely band in their own right) and The Engineers last collaboration ever on Involver 2, "Sometimes I Realise". But on those records, the manipulations and profound production style that is Sasha's trademark was on the instrumentation, the use of analog synths in Involver 2 and the freshman excitement of experimentalism found throughout the first release.

Here, as contrast, some of the most incredible moments are the subtle programming and edits of the vocals, or how they are framed in the mix, a la "Small Talk" by Ultraísta and the directly preceding "Battleships" which is a collaboration between Benjamin Damage & Doc Daneeka & featuring Abigail Wyles. In both cases, the mix is heavily vocal driven, the accompanying sounds- backbeat, bass and synths- providing a chassis to a thoroughly smooth overall sound emphasizing unforgettable vocal edits and melodies.

There are also lovely bits of texture in the sound, random over-washed percussion providing a cloak of dingy, forbidding darkness, as if walking though late 19th century Whitechapel on a cold fall evening.

The final theme I find most interesting is a true harking back to a house, almost disco mentality for all of the music present here. As said above, the record is very danceable, extremely club centered (and this is a very good thing), but where Airdrawndagger and even the first Involver could have been thought of as a thinking man's album, here the emphasis is clearly on movement. And with a welcome minimalism that harks back to a fresh faced disco scene, or the early San Francisco house scene in the 90's. Scott Hardkiss passed away only a week ago as I write this and Sasha's latest effort seems to pay unintentional homage to this early progenitor of the modern dance music sound**

I enjoy this record thoroughly, mainly for its surprises, the brilliant mixing duties and the beautiful range of sounds, songs that were employed and gorgeous, almost tragic feel to the whole record. I have enjoyed each entry to the Involver Series as it may now be called, but this one has a certain permanence, a feel of timeless style and really a lot of heart put into it. I have been a fan of Sasha as a DJ and producer for a very long time, but this one has a distinct atmosphere to it, a room with a view as it were. I highly recommend listening to this wonderful album and I strongly suggest listening as a continuous mix as the individual tracks have distinct replay value; you may never get past track 6, and of course, you really should get to the end.

On a final, practical note, I do highly recommend purchasing the CD- as with the entire Involver Series- mainly because of the exquisite and conceptual album art available throughout. Beautiful work on all fronts, Cheers to Mr. Coe and his team for doing such a wonderful job. Hats off to all the original artists as well, the talent shines through even with the lens of Sasha's sound further articulating their music.

Keep your headphones on.

_backchat

* Sasha is interviewed in the album liner notes, discussing the creative process and the lengths gone through to make this album happen and, in the final sentence states, "Yes this is the last one." I must say, I'm a bit sad for this news.

The XX weirds me out. At first I thought they were from Paris, absolutely convinced the female singer Romy Madley Croft was French. Maybe they were from Manchester, as the guitar and the song style seemed to resemble Martin Hannet's mile-away mic'ing. The pitch black darkness of all the songs make you feel like the songs need to be listened to with the lights off, eyes shut tight.

I can't stop listening to angels.

I keep thinking the song style should fall apart mid-listen, the songs are so deceptively simple and loose. But the message and emotion is clear and beautiful.

"Coexist" feels like Burial & Four Tet had a hand in the beats, the backbeat is just gorgeous work and Jamie really shines here.  Thom Yorke should come in on the vocal, honest to god it captures that wonderful south London sound in electronic music. The album feels like a dark night at the disco.

But then, I can't stop repeating angels.

The first record seemed joyful, childish (in it's optimism, not the song writing), and I was fascinated by the rhythm and the minimalist melodies. Nothing felt contrived, the music seemed to have just enough to be perfect and absolutely nothing more. "Coexist" is lush and markedly passionate, poignant even, a line drawn in the sand for the songwriters; "this is what we feel."

The guitars are so dead simple: a gibson les paul, with vintage-ish plate reverb, possibly an echo box. Oftentimes guitarists rely heavily on an effect (or effects) to create a sound, a la The Edge. Here, The XX have established a signature that is unmistakably them, with mere garage-band effects. In that, they are quite similar to Edge, the utter simplicity of the "Unforgettable Fire" using the Memory Man Echo Box almost entirely for- what would become- his signature sound.

Again the XX just leave me confused, they shouldn't work. No one should buy into any of these songs, it's just too good to be true. The beats reek of Brooklyn hip hop and nights at the old Twilo dance club on 27th street. The vintage feel, their whole style is absolutely foreign, wonderful and nearing unbelievability. Yet, here they stand, immutable… The Uncanny XX.

Which record is better? I'm going to say "Coexist". There are blood stains miring the first record due to firing of a certain band member and the sound of the second record seems to be a bit purer, having a clean, danceable, house-inspired backbeat. And the bass is just damn sexy throughout the whole record, sounding more professional, simply better.

keep your headphones on.

I will start with some relatively old news, but exciting stuff all the same.

Burial has released another EP called “Truant” which is also the name of the first track, spanning 12 minutes or so. What I found to be so curious about this release is the continued evolution of the “Chapter” theme I discussed in the “Kindred EP” review so many months ago. Though Burial continues to rely on the minimalist tone of vinyl noise and South London rain, he is also creating melody that is hauntingly beautiful. And, in an extremely interesting move, self sampling old sounds and running them through yet another gamut of effects and his characteristic, endless tweaking.

The finished product is truly an interesting listen, one with a great deal of semblance to the “Kindred EP” in flow and feel, but there are some- dare I say- almost joyful moments in the record. There are crescendos that build slightly but are then washed away by vinyl skips and sandman-esque bumps in the night. I find this EP a rather moving release; with some moments that are so surprisingly beautiful it seems Burial is expanding his emotional palette, not just his extremely creative sound design skills. It’s just a lovely continuation of his current work, but I truly wish for him to release a complete record, though at this point, I imagine it would be just one continuous track, randomly named and a fearsome thing to behold. I would buy a physical format for sure.

The release is beautiful and the best deal for it is on hyperdub’s website here for a measly 3 pound 49 (approximately $5.67 at today’s exchange). Though I normally suggest acquiring through Beatport (which you can do of course), this release is easiest to purchase from those lovely blokes at Hyperdub. By far the least expensive and the direct support of such a wonderful label is a truly good thing.

keep your headphones on.

The Smashing Pumpkins can be credited with being the most important american grunge band for the massive contribution they made to the style and frankly, the fact that they were and remain better musicians than Nirvana ever were.

Sadly, Nirvana is often said in the same breath (as I did above) with the Pumpkins, but for truly iconic, beautiful songs, alongside aggressive, abrasive and frankly hard tracks, the Pumpkins were much more successful. Mellon Collie was arguably one of the best records of the 90's and it still holds up remarkably well, mainly because of Billy's prolific song writing at that time and Flood's brilliant production abilities. Siamese Dream is also bolstered by the startlingly loud mixing work of Butch Vig. But technicality aside, "Bullet With Butterfly Wings", "1979", "Zero", "Tonight, Tonight" to name just a few are found on a single album... most bands can't get two consecutively successful singles in a career, yet Mellon Collie had 5 and the entire record was delectable, from start to finish. The singles were so successful, they were packaged together on the amazing, iconic, beautifully designed, "Aeroplane Flies High" box set. The B-Sides, included on each single were- if I may continue to gush- gorgeous, including a lovely cover of Blondie's "Dreaming", the haunting "Set The Ray to Jerry" and the gorgeous "Cherry". What's so amazing about this era of music for The Smashing Pumpkins was that they had already released 3 albums that had been successful in their own right; Gish, Pices Iscariot and Siamese Dream, let alone the beautiful "Drown" on the Singles Soundtrack. This one period of 2-3 years of singles, album and touring, though marred by the heroin overdose of their touring keyboardist (RIP John Melvion), was a universe onto itself, a level of success that most musicians would pray for to have, even with all that the Pumpkins have done before and since.

That epoch then certainly passed and "Ava Adore", though a beautiful record, seemed a half hearted followup to Mellon Collie, but how do you follow up such an incredible album? Even Machina, the spiritual successor to Mellon Collie, just felt slightly off, save for the incredible "Everlasting Gaze" and my personal favorite "Stand Inside Your Love". Even with Auf Du Mar's metric ton bass work and the return of Jimmy C on the drum kit, the songs could not bring back that experience of Mellon Collie. I think it was Billy trying to as hard as he could to close pandora's box; he'd gone so far with gargantuan melody and over the top arrangements, many of his listeners couldn't go back to the four piece band that could yell louder than God. This post punk style had been what the Pumpkins did for so long and still do so very very well, but Corgan had taken the band to different places, they simply were not that kind of outfit anymore.

Most people, after seeing their own band fall apart (but still unified enough to release the notable fuck you of "Friends & Enemies of Rock & Roll"), doing the soundtrack for "Stigamata" and so forth, most people would just call it a day. The band had done a VH1's Storytellers, which again suggests finality in a band. And I think a great deal of pumpkins fans did believe the band was over, what with a greatest hits release on the Tower Records shelves, D'Arcy and James Iha publicly being rather uncouth in their depiction of Billy Corgan*, the pumpkins appeared completely over. Billy even released his first true solo effort, TheFutureEmbrace after ZWAN's short-lived superband status.

Billy himself seemed to go off the deep end, becoming deeply religious- the hallmark of forthcoming failure and career tragedy- thanking "the virgin mary and all her angels" in the liner notes of Zeitgeist. And of course, Zeitgeist came out, with some brilliant, hard-as-a-coffin-nail riffs but again, just not really all the way there. Even Chamberlin's (now truly and fully sober) top notch drum work could not make the record complete, like past SP records had been.

So, I even let it go, gave up hope, waved the white flag and just kept listening to mellon collie or siamese dream (expertly remastered in 2011 FYI) in a form of remembrance of that band that for me was one of the most important and sentimental of the 90's. But today, for my lack of following any updates or updaters of SP, I found that Oceania was released 3 days ago (6-19-2012). This record, with a completely fresh faced crew backing Billy Corgan (the bassist is actually one of the children photographed in the Siamese Dream cover!), we get to hear something... well something new, something, that appears rather ambitious.

I will confess, when "Today" first broke on MTV, I was confused by the grunge style and, with my brother's forced musical education, I did not enjoy this new, looser, not as precise sound that was becoming popular. It was not until Mellon Collie that I was truly sold on SP and then I realized my own horrible misjudgment. I promptly went through the strikingly wonderful Siamese Dream and loved it so very much. But my point being is that often, Billy's songwriting style does not always render an immediately addictive track, often Smashing Pumpkins records are really the music you never knew you needed. And Oceania is that, some challenging listens, but then, some absolutely incredible new sounds, a really sophisticated use of synths and some beautiful replies to the past, especially on "The Chimera" which has a nice "Geek USA" styled opener.

I am so fond of records like this, the ones that appear to be the artist's "coming home" record, where they are able to respect how to they got here, use it and inject what they've learned along the way to create something lovely and new. Billy's personal life has also been quite rocky as of late, and though I hate to say it, that's often a good thing for songwriters. This record, for it's remarkable pedigree, demands a full listen through and a thorough listen, especially with how clean Billy's vocals are, the drummer's wonderful adherence to the SP "Sound" with Jimmy's use of heavy shuffles and breaks. But the guitars are so very very Billy. They're just so big, so loud and screaming and that great heavy midrange warmth that we loved so much in the grunge era.

I'm just so happy that not all the legends have died. Cheers to SP for making something new and tough and beautiful. One more really nice feature of this album, it's available on the SP site is that you can buy the record via your preferred codec, all for one price.

Keep your headphones on.

_backchat

* Sadly, those two forgot their careers hinged so much on Billy, that they would always and only ever be known as part of Billy Corgan's band, so their vitriol was a rather childish.

In 2002, Underworld, still trying to understand their identity as a duo sans Darren Emerson, released a record called a hundred days off.

Beaucoup Fish, their previous album, had been a difficult record to produce and altogether had not been their best release. Subsequently, a hundred days off, as the name states, was delayed for months, leading the public to believe the group was over, that they had lost something, or simply run their course.

A hundred days off was one of those records; there was a brooding darkness, discussions of solace and unrequited love, but then also, a wonderful ginsberg style spoken word, both by Hyde and the mysterious "Juanita" (we're never given any other information than that), with some joyful small-talk interspersed throughout the record. The music goes from cold mechanical techno to really deep and melodic chill, with some guitar twang mixed in for kicks. Hyde does his first experimentation with the long chanting melodies in his vocal, instead of just his standard, near military cadence. There are beautiful moments of textural synthesis and a very hook oriented song writing style, where the past records, especially their earliest, were much more about the journey of the song. The bass is, as always with Underworld, thick and fast and omnipresent, which I will never grow tired of.

Though, the two songs I find the most interesting are Dinosaur Adventure 3D and Luetin, which are probably the most dissimilar tracks on the album, but are truly beautiful, interesting songs with a real sense of place and identity. Where the record's own wonderful flow makes many of the songs congeal into a single, enjoyable whole, those two songs speak the most to me and remain individual moments.

The production, though showing minor signs of age, is still top notch, per the usual with Underworld, what we have come to expect and we as listeners have never really been let down.

Up until this record, Underworld had been an unknowable geometry for me; a hard to understand group that wrote songs which occasionally floored me, and then other times left me wondering what I had just listened to. After this record, I felt I finally understood their sound and enjoyed it, instead of just privately worshiping "Cowgirl" and "Rez". Be it that this record was more accessible, or the confusing styles were all Darren Emerson's doing*, I don't know, but I highly recommend giving this beautiful record a solid listen, as I have been doing so today.

Another reason, aside from the record being a beautiful cornerstone of modern EDM, is that the boys from Essex have kindly made the album a free download today, due to this day marking 100 days off of the 2012 London Olympics, which Underworld are kindly providing the soundtrack to.

Do listen here

keep your headphones on.

_backchat.

Burial, once again, has been kind enough to come out of hiding in South London quickly enough to give us thirty minutes and thirty-eight seconds of truly beautiful music.

I must say, I did not know what to make of the Kindred EP at first, it's lonely and truly challenging, even for burial. Where his first record was a true education in minimalist production techniques, his new, crisper sound has also given way to a more destroyed sonic palette; even the consistency of playback is victim to his constant tinkering, leaving odd, tape or vinyl like stops.  I will be honest, there were multiple stops and clips I thought were originally due to me listening to the songs on Hyperdub's website, which had been absolutely brutally attacked with purchases for the new Burial EP and its bandwidth was suffering for it. There are breaks and off beat stoppages of the songs so random it seems mistaken.

To the uninitiated, this could sound fantastically annoying: a record replete with small gaps and interruptions in the detail and structure of the music the artist is presenting.

The uninitiated would be soundly forgiven.

The Kindred EP is Burial's new brand of songwriting, one profoundly driven by a chapter like sense of progression. Where most song writing is single subject, only varying slightly from a given theme, Burial will wholly abandon the current scope of music and take on a completely new set of instruments, beats and mood. Also, these chapters, though certainly "visible" in the musical sense, are extremely disparate. For example, pianos are visited at the end of Ashtray Wasp, a song begun with an extreme, paranoia inducing pitch bended melody, sided with Bevan's signature effected vocal samples and easily one of his fastest beats. His use of side chaining is as well, new and falling in slightly with the rest of EDM, where that production technique has become common place. However, Burial insists upon using it to his own ends, and his own way, again to produce extreme points of mood and isolation.

No matter whom you are with when you listen to this record, you become markedly alone.

Remarkably however, this new style works, to incredible effect.

Where the Street Halo EP was experimenting with the "open roof" of volumes in digital music production, Kindred appears to be experimenting with the boundaries of continuity and what is indeed the core sound of Burial, what moves him to create music. Experimentalism, or marked departures from previous styles are dangerous territory. Artists are guaranteed to lose some fan base (see my previous posts on Cut Copy for example). However Burial seems to be outside of this rule, as if he has his own set of physics to adhere to. His style is change, his growth is what makes me listen to him and nearly beg for a new record from him regularly.

I do not know how William Bevan managed to completely change the rules on us, but, here we are, always asking to be surprised by his music and not ever being let down.

Oh and most importantly, listen all the way to the end of each track, do not skip ahead. Oftentimes the gifts that Burial leaves for us to hear are at the end of the track. I will confess to not enjoying the first track, for which the EP is named, as much as the next two, Loner & Ashtray Wasp, but still, an amazing record all told.

keep your headphones on.

Most people have a starting point for the music they obsess about, electronic music fans most of which. For a format of music so diverse in genre and style, EDM listeners can often trace where the sound first got to them, when in their lives it happened, their first rave and how they got to now. It’s a right of passage in dance music; you have to know where you started to explain where you are.

For me, this was trance and progressive. Yes the uplifting, often embarrassingly beautiful and piano whoring style that lots of 90’s kids discovered via movie soundtracks or random nights out in the city (for me, it was the former). First discovering BT, then to Christopher Lawrence, Robert Miles, Tiesto, Oakenfold (back when he actually cared about the scene he helped create), Paul Van Dyk, Richard Humpty Vision, Tall Paul, the list is as long as an NYE party’s billing. However, as my tastes evolved, I stepped away from trance almost entirely, viewing it as kid’s stuff, the fluffy, sweeter, less spicy, even dumbed down version of electronic music, trading it for the dance music that was happening in the less popular booths and clubs. I’ll be honest, I felt a bit above many trance listeners, figuring they’d at one point “figure it out” and head more towards progressive house, breaks, dnb, glitch, chill and experimental like it seems that everyone does. And maybe, back then I was right. Paul Oakenfold had gone from genuinely distributing exciting house and trance via mix tapes and releases on his label Tranceport, to using trance as a vehicle for money and notoriety, singlehandedly destroying a lot of the legitimacy created at the tail end of the 90’s that electronic music had built for itself in American ears.

But thankfully, even after he’d rehashed his old hits*, made “electronic” and “techno” a dirty word in music, Paul still couldn’t destroy it all. It seemed, as the cheesy trance went on spinning itself right into the ground in a rumpelstiltskin-esque fit, some producers were trying to figure out where- if anywhere at all- trance fit into the modern, legitimate voice of EDM. Of course the old stuff would remain, easy to digest “pop” dance music labeled as trance, but what about something new, a retooling of the old gated sounds, strings and pianos?

In 1999, two gentlemen, Jono Grant and Paavo Siljamäki, whilst attending University in Westminster, started working on music together, calling themselves “Dirt Devils,” “Freestate,” “Anjunabeats” and others. At one point they released a track called “Volume One” on their own newly created label, called Anjunabeats. Later on, a promoter and producer Tony McGuinness joined the ranks as they cowrote a remix. Together, they agreed upon a new name, “Above & Beyond” and proceeded to release mixes, singles and remixes on their Anjunabeats label. Though originally just a vehicle for their own releases, Anjunabeats became an all important voice in the reformation of trance and the gathering of a great deal of musical styles into the modern perspective of progressive trance, including electro elements, progressive house, breaks and techno.

I however, was a bit late to discover Above & Beyond, or rather more accurately, to give them an honest, objective listen. But I will give credit to iTunes, via the early iTunes Genius project called “Just for You” I was suggested to give a look to the Anjunabeats 100 mix, a cross section of the first 100 releases on the Anjunabeats label, celebrating that landmark. I was, at the time, relying a great deal on public transportation and as a result, I had time to give this release a few serious listens.

What I found was that trance, what I had thought was a stagnant style of music, had been growing, developing and extending itself into other genres. Trance was dynamic, evolving and no longer the kid’s stuff, cotton candy sweet silliness of DJ Sammy (which always struck me as more happy hardcore than trance anyway). Above & Beyond had apparently- whilst ruffling quite a few feathers-supplanted all of the old guard of trance royalty and become the Kings of the style, both in it’s proliferation, via their label and their astoundingly powerful releases. It’s rather profound how these three gentlemen have, along with the artists they’ve given pulpits to, given a genre new life and new legitimacy.

The reason for this entire article, is “Anjunabeats Volume 9” which is relatively hot off the presses, just released last November. And contained herein is an amazing scope of music, impeccably mixed, using a really incredible selection of tracks. The first disc is modern trance, huge synths, huge buildups, reverbed so that they sound miles across. The especially wonderful track by A&B, “You Got To Go” is expertly remixed by Kyau and Albert to stunning effect, and really the only vocals in the first disc.

The second disc is much funkier, techier and mechanical. But also, mixed in are gorgeous vocals, some darker elements and a lovely few bits of piano. All of it, every track is listenable, enjoyable and downright fist pumpingly good. I adore this release, from beginning to end.

I don’t care that it’s trance, I don’t even feel like I have to explain myself anymore, because trance isn’t what it used to be. It’s just dammed good and excitingly new. It’s like I just heard “Flaming June” for the first time, or “Fable”. Trance is again, all brand new.

keep your headphones on.

_backchat.

Electronic Music has never been known for being the source of cool kids or heartthrobs. In fact, may of our most prized artists are misanthropic, submarine driving savants (a la Aphex Twin). Our heroes are anonymous, often faceless characters that really only communicate with fans via speaker output, even the generally accepted concept of a DJ spinning records puts the booth between the artist and the fans. In the end, from the many artists I've been lucky to meet, this may actually be a good thing, as their music always seems to eclipse their actual humanness.

But where EDM, for the majority of its existence has had such round peg/square whole individuals, we are starting to get cool somehow. Our newest generation of voices, from Skrillex to The Dusty Kid, the artists we are so mesmerized by are profoundly young, reasonable, socially amicable fellows. Save- of course- for the occasional odd haircut, our current popular artists are, dare I say cool. The music even appears to become more friendly, less aggressive, even as the popular music of EDM, namely dubstep, has appeared to get darker and more dingy (we will of course, omit Korn's rather sad attempt at staying pertinent in pop culture, or rather, omit them altogether from pop culture if at all possible). Frankly, we're faced with an interesting situation, we have no upstarts, young turks or Robespierre's, we have no punks, no Sex Pistols, no Clash. Put more simply, by Alice Cooper himself "... [I] looked around and I said, 'Rock 'n' roll is full of Peter Pans. Where's Captain Hook?'

Indeed, our "villains" used to be all found contained inside one of our most proud sub genres, Drum & Bass. Often times, Dieselboy would be found referencing Dungeons & Dragons, Roni Size was known for sampling scores that were horror themed, or even the villain's march of a given film (at one point even the Imperial March from John William's score of Star Wars). But with the fall of Drum & Bass, or more accurately its fragmentation, we lost the darker side of electronic music. And by darker side, I do not mean Terrorcore or some other esoteric citing from Ishkur's wonderful Guide to Electronic Music**. However, a lot of us seemed to have missed the fast forward rise of Indie Dance, [the rebirth of] Electro or the Nu-Disco scene. And nobody thought this shot of life to our hungry veins would come from the Atlanta club scene. Honestly... Atlanta?

But quietly, at least outside of the clubs like Masquerade and the truly prolific "Fuck Yes!" Parties, a few very notable artists have been retooling an rethinking what you can do with EDM. And one particular artist, with a deep background in Drum n Bass has become a promethean voice in the Electro and Indie Dance scenes. Le Castle Vania, aka Dylan Eiland, who has taken the pitch bending, call and response song writing, Indiana Jones style drops of DnB whilst adding trance build ups, massively crushed compression and progressive house hooks, creating something entirely new. I know I have mentioned this artist before, positively gushing about this sound and how excited I am to see where this new scene and style goes, but it really must be made clear, the future of electronic dance music is going to be shaped by the likes of Le Castle Vania, Computer Club, Designer Drugs, Fukk Off, Andy's iLL, Steve Aoki and a few more here and there. We've found our Captain Hook, hidden away in the portamento of our synths, the speed up and slow down cross fade tool in Logic Pro, the distortion settings in Reason's Scream Distortion Module and the ratio dial of our compressors. Be aware, keep your headphones on and get to finding LCV, follow Computer Club and find his immaculate retooling of New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle," check out Andy's iLL remix of Caribou's "Sun" and the Designer Drugs remix of "We Run The Nite" by Tonite Only. Do not miss this before it gets destroyed by enterprising record labels, get to this sound now. Much respect to these artists for the sheer force of will it takes to create a new indie scene.

Regards,

_backchat.

*For the interview regarding Alice Cooper and where I cited that quote: go here