Crate trawling I – London: From Mongo to Fruition

Everything seems to have stopped. Too much work, day and night, coupled with racing across town in secret looking for jobs meant that my free time has been broken into little fragments, usually early in the morning or late at night where it is impossible to do anything properly. It is then you realise how long it takes to do useless tasks like charging your iPod or do something more substantial like actually immersing in a book, writing something or just being happy. Thank god then for immediate consumerist satisfaction and mind emptying vacations to plaster over the shallowness.

A hasty trip to London, partly also to look for jobs, was as vacuous as it gets in terms of clashes with foreignness, new things and intelligent tourism, with neither a monument nor a work of art in site other than a pint of real ale. I did squeeze in a football match which can seem like theatre or art when at its best. Unshakeably, there is always a sense of something Thespian amongst the fans no matter what happens on the pitch. Particular characters are attracted to the stadiums, radiant with beer, replete with cerebral analysis and immediate recourse to ancient history and a nervous clammer for total victory whose drive is honed by the edginess that comes from forever staving off enemies with banter, abuse, threats and the rare act of physical violence. But I digress….

I did manage some crate digging while there at Notting Hill’s fabled Music and Video Exchange stores which is always a great way to dispel the blues.

Trawling through the rock crates is always a little bit more sentimental than browsing through the stock in the electronic store, largely since I listen to far less rock-related stuff these days, but more since its glory days extend far back beyond when techno was a twinkle in the eye. That is just another way of saying that here you find more music that is wrapped in memories and personal mythologies. The blurred, half-conscious remembering of this music is of course what journalist David Keenan labelled as hypnagogic pop, one of the most derided genre terms   of recent memory (see my next post for some more on genre terms…).

So it was that I found myself paying money for little treasures whose only purpose seemed to remind me of the faraway past. In particular, the 7” section delivered many treasures that were part of the regular playlist of DJ Wayne at the mythical Fruition Club in Perth back in the first years of the 90s. Due to the small size of the “scene” it was a chaotic mix of Goths, punks (not too many) and indie kids still confused by the looming acid house invasion. The club was eventually over run by a dance music club, but back then the question was is it ok to like electronic and indie music? The biggest conundrum of the night was always the arrival of Peter Fonda from the 1966 film “The Wild Angels”.

Until the end of the sample, the crowd was always poised waiting to see if it would be Primal Scream’s “Loaded” or Mudhoney’s “In and out of grace”. Half the crown would invariably walk, whereas another half would come running, depending on your allegiance to the guitar. There are always traitors in the midst.

  

But I digress again. As well as Mudhoney or Primal Scream, you would more often than not find Sisters of Mercy playing for the Goth kids. “Temple of Love” was always the standout track for me, but on this trip I managed to pick up the 7” of “This Corrosion” for a paltry sum.



Listening to it now it seems remarkably pallid (sic) and really the smallest stone’s throw from some of the more miserable 80s synth pop on the radio, saved perhaps by the gothic overtones and the forever catchy chorus. Except for the slightly heavier finale, my memory has this song sounding much more menacing and less like a hungover Bowie singing over a Cure track with the Def Leppard guitarist soloing all on the set of Les Miserables staged in the Manhattan of Escape from New York. Memory will never erase the death walk though, a type of dance the Goths used to do to Sisters tracks, parading backwards and forwards with as little passionate expression of the body as possible, but with subtle twists to imply sexual ambiguity and, above all, a theatrical draping of the obligatory cape over the body as one goes down, presumably towards the grave.

One other Goth song that alternatively sounds better than I remember was The Cult's legendary “She sells sanctuary” which I also picked up on 7”.

The riff is still so good it could be holy, aided in particular by some great commercial-styled mixing that really brings the shimmer of the chords and the motoric rumble of the bass to the fore without cheapening them. While the lyrics are largely inane, there is always something uplifting and superhuman in Ian Astbury’s lamented cry “And the world drags me down” even if he is dressed a bit like Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow character in the video.

With a lovely etching of rapper skulls on the B-side was a little 7” version of “Bring the noise” by Public Enemy and Anthrax, is more like a work of art than just a musical toy. Along with Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and Ministry’s “Jesus Built my Hotrod” and “Thieves”  this was one of the all-time heavy tracks for the club.

Speaking of Ministry, I also managed to grab some music by the Revolting Cocks, one of Al Jourgensen’s other bands. While the “Big, Sexy, Land” album I nabbed for £8 had no previous place in my musical memory, the joy of finding the single for “Beers, steers and queers” was as great as the many happy moments it gave us all back in the Fruition Club. The fact that there was plenty of nice Industrial stuff like 12”s by Foetus, Cabaret Voltaire and Atari Teenage Riot on the cheap may suggest that someone dumped a collection or that there is not much interest in this sound these days. This is in contrast to techno where the last two years has seen a formidable rise in industrial sounds, from Adam X and Traversable Wormhole, to Ancient Methods, Stroboscopic Artefacts and more. The origin of this is probably an interesting thesis: is it just the success of Ostgut Ton and Berghain, a backlash against the “designer-as-god” ethos of minimal techno or a subconscious cry from those closer to the ground and the rising tide of unemployment?

I didn’t find this on my “trip”, but who remembers stuff like My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult these days? Another Al Jourgensen project, it’s hard to gauge where the Thrill Kill Kult stand these days, but surely WAX 140 from 1990 must be one of the greatest singles of the era, with hybrid rock-dance music on both sides, Lydia Lunch vocals and freaky drug references.

One last curio was a 7” of Queen’s main theme from the Flash Gordon movie, one of me and my sisters all-time favourite movies as a kid, despite its obvious racist overtones since the evil man was known as Emperor Ming (played excellently and excessively by Ingmar Bergman stalwart Max von Sydow in the 80s movie) from the planet Mongo, and clearly meant to symbolise some threat from the Chinese back then in the 30s when it was created. As a minor piece of trivia, apparently in Australia it was named “Speed Gordon” for the negative connotations of Flash. The censors were apparently no worried about a grid iron player exposing himself, but apparently the connotation of flash meaning “flashy” or untrustworthy, something like “bling” in modern speak. Who knows what connotations you might get from the name Speed Gordon nowadays?

While the A-side is well known and a great track, the less known B-side “Football fight” was quite startling in that it shares more than a passing resemblance to the retro-synth “hypnagogic pop" of the Not Not Fun label and guys like James Ferraro et al. I love the overlaid sample from the movie

“Are your men on the right pills? Maybe I should execute the trainer?”

Sounds like something Roman Abramovich might think?

Betraying bass music

Just out to rave reviews  is Cosmin TRG’s new album “Simulat” on Modeselector’s in vogue 50 Weapons imprint. There are many defining features of the album, most notably its shorter duration, both as a whole and by track, its lighter, ethereal feel compared to other more austere and menacing techno albums from this year and of course, that it is a techno album, and not, for example, dubstep as per the origins of Cosmin Nicolae.

For those who joined just now, Nicolae started out as a dubstep producer, opening with his own, and Hessle Audio’s, account with “Put you down” back in 2007 under his TRG moniker.

Subsequent releases on dubstep labels like Subway, [Naked Lunch], Hot Flush and Immerse saw him maintain more or less the same bass trajectory until 2009. In between, the 2008 edition of Tempa’s land mark mix series Dubstep Allstars even had TRG hold up the late centre of Appleblim’s mix.

But everything seemed to change suddenly in 2010 with the release of “See other people” on Amsterdam’s Rush Hour. While still wearing some of dubstep's clothes (sped up vocals and flustered rhythms) the beat had clearly smoothed out its step into four-four terrain and added a velvety sheen more typical of deep house than grime-descendant tunes.

The follow up “Liebe Sunday” was even more on the other side, leaving dubstep well behind in the dust.

From there it has been all forward and although “Simulat” bears some subtle, but undeniable hall marks of dubstep production, it is essentially all techno. But Cosmin Nicolae is not the first or the only artist to essentially betray bass music by switching genres. We have mentioned already  how Hot Flush label boss Paul Rose aka Scuba has been playing both sides, but largely operates as a techno/house DJ these days. But the first man to step across was undoubtedly Martijn Deykers aka Martyn who went from drum n bass producer on Marcus Intalex’s Revolve:r imprint

To releasing the first defining single of the first wave of dubstep-techno crossover on the same label back in 2007, the legendary “Broken/Shadow Casting”

However, it was only a short time later with the release of his first full-length “Great Lengths” that the last signs of dubstep were disappearing. Now on the eve of the release of his second album “Ghost people” due out soon on Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder label, it seems that there is no turning back. The first single “Masks/Viper” at least would suggest so

But it is not just the artists who are betraying bass music. To a certain point, the media must take some responsibility for this also. Two recent dubstep mix CDs, Youngsta’s Rinse 14 mix  and Distance’s Dubstep Allstars mix (featuring mostly his own tracks) have been criticised on Resident Advisor for essentially sounding like dubstep, albeit old pre-cross over dubstep. This is a fair criticism to a point, as who wants to get caught bogged down in the past (better not mention Chicago house revivalism then)?

However, given the high rate of mutation within bass music, moving rapidly from grime, to dubstep, to UK funky, wonky and now foot work in a matter of years, holding fast to a style might also be a way to preserve some originality, to use the double edged double meaning of the word, implying uniqueness and origin? This is clearly an “ear of the beholder” issue as many of the newer incarnations of bass music are not necessarily always appealing (check the uncertainty about foot work for example), but also that mutation at high speed necessarily implies assimilation or cross fertilisation, thus shifting one genre closer to another and thus essentially contaminating it. This might be the case in point for Cosmin TRG, Scuba and Martyn. Fantastic music, but hardly dubstep anymore, at least in it’s pure, original form where perhaps many would like to say?

Indeed, still talking of criticism, Hyperdub's 5 year double CD from a few years ago was given top marks by Resident Advisor, but with some confusion caused, judging by the intelligent comments. One in particular by bareklik hits the nail on the head:

“Talk about mixing metaphors throughout. For all the sound and fury of a collegiate vernacular and a pitchfork style review, I'm not really sure I understand if you liked or hated the release. You gave it a 4.5 but you spend your 700 words pulling that hipster's chicanery of hiding an insult within a compliment within an insult…

Darkstar's Aidy's... is good, sure, but it's pretty far from leftfield or experimentalism. It's a house track. What's special or surprising about that other than the fact that it's on Hyperdub, an amazing dubstep label? Why would the only real house track (despite Flying Lotus' awesome disco warrior hit) be the best of the batch? It's not even on the same boat with the rest of the comp.”

Essentially, the reviewer takes a double disc set of futuristic bass music and fixates on the house track, perhaps confounded by the sheer variety, awkwardness and invention of the “real” bass music? Other commenters weigh in, pointing out that “If you want the old dubstep sound, break out the old DMZ and Tempa plates.” which now seem prophetic written two years in the past and given the current accusations. So it seems that some don’t like evolution and some do. But where does it leave us all except for betraying bass music? One artists switches genres, another stays, but both betray the music for contaminating it with new while another stagnates it with the old. Meanwhile reviewers and artists seem to want house music and betray the latest incarnation, giving rise to the same problem.

One partial aside from this, Scuba will release a new DJ Kicks mix CD on !K7 in October which promises a mixture of house, techno and of course dubstep (though which vintage should not be a difficult guess). An intriguing inclusion in the mix is a somewhat cover by Sex Worker of the Motown hit “Rhythm of the night”, originally by DeBarge, from last years “Wave Good Bye” album on Not Not Fun.

The "original" is also worth it for the hair:

This is not the first time this year that the California-based low-fi label has featured on a high profile electronic mix CD, the first example being the Agoria Fabric mix. This can only be good news as it would again suggest some cross fertilisation (sic) and goes further to confirm the eclecticism of taste in the age of downloading. However, it is still something of a surprise that sites like Resident Advisor have been slow to pick up on the 100% Silk sublabel of Not Not Fun which releases their more dance floor orientated experiments.

Xavier Hollander’s “Urban Gothic” album on the parent label Not Not Fun was a slightly underwhelming trawl through John Carpenter/Alan Howarth synth territory, but his more electro styled single for 100% Silk was a dance floor bomb in the style of Prins Thomas or the Permanent Vacation label.

A couple of recent singles also show a lot of potential to forge something a bit more unexpected and even less serious than some dance music. One previous release by The Deeep also wotked deep inside the dub reggae spectrum, so who knows where these latest forays will lead?

Agoria

This week I reviewed an interesting mix CD by the French artist Agoria (aka Sébastien Devaud) which forms the latest instalment of the Fabric series. What makes the mix interesting is a blend of good technique, but better selection, often mixing several tracks at a time without overloading the music as often happens in drum n bass music, for example. Here as well he is often choosing tracks from well outside the electronic music fields, incorporating elements of jazz, classical and even of guitar-based psychedelia.

As an example, the first track of the mix is actually a blend of the following three tracks, all in less than three minutes and all interesting in their own right. Opening up is Rene Löwe aka Vainqueur’s “Ranges (theme)” which I reviewed last year and likened to Jack Kerouac watching the ocean at Big Sur.

Overlaid over this are the vocals of the Zodiac Free Arts Club a new group on the Permanent Vacation label who often confuse for releasing indie, house and disco records without batting an eyelid. The group themselves are named after the famous berlin venue which was critical for birthing many Krautrock groups, including Tangerine Dream. This track also pays homage to Krautrockers Popol Vuh, though the vocal stylings are also reminiscent of the Beach Boys as well as Popol Vuh.

Finally, and perhaps most surprisingly, is Ensemble Economique who have released on the Not Not Fun label, amongst others. Despite the bongos and African vibes, “Real thing” is hardly dance floor orientated. The stoner vibes and hazy production of the label and Ensemble Economique is at odds with electronica’s pristine sheen, but nonetheless in the hands of an audiophile like Agoria it works.

And for the whole album in a minute and a half:

Agoria has also just released an album "Impermanence" on his Infiné label which has a couple of interesting tracks on it, even if the whole album is flawed by trying to be “universal” somehow.  One of the standout tracks, for the right and wrong reasons, is “Speechless” which features some amazingly sublime minimal house with a slowly evolving urgency, but is completely ruined by the vocals. Sleazy and cheesy, the dubious eroticism of the lyrics was both written and delivered by none other than Carl Craig who we already saw below has a good sense of humour with the track “Shez Satan” (see April posts). Here, however, he crosses the line of good taste and good humour and the results are just cringe worthy.

“I Wanna take you to Mars Bend you over in a crater and have my way with you

Losing time on the dance floor

ohhh yeah dance for me baby”

However, opening the album is a gentler piano driven track “Kiss my heart” with vocals by the American vocalist Kid A who has a wonderful and completely disorientating voice, sounding somewhere between Björk, Harriet Wheeler of the Sundays and perhaps even Arthur Russell, more so since the track features cello.

“Waiting is half the battle

When you are alone”

Speaking of Arthur Russell, Agoria´s mix also features a remix of his track “Treehouse” from the legendary “World of Echo” album as well as extracts from Sun Ra and Ella Fitzgerald.

Bathetic Records

Here is an interesting label I came across recently called Bathetic Records, who release all their stuff on 7”s and casettes. The style of the label is difficult to pin down, but varies from folk to the more low fi semi-electronic elements of some modern strains of indie, noticeably the Not Not Fun crew who’s roster has crossed over with Bathetic on the odd occasion.

The first video is from Angel Olsen singing a folk piece that is surprisingly haunting and recorded in an interesting homage to 60s psych-folk. The vocal is fragile and delivered with a hint of pain or longing and has received many positive reviews on the web.

Tiniest Lights from Angel Olsen on Vimeo.

Second up is High Wolf, a Frenchman, who apparently lives in exotic locations such as Brazil and Jakarta, who makes low fi analogue tracks with a kind of faux New Age bent that recalls the tongue in cheek “dubious eroticism” of Father Moo and the Black Sheep.

Somewhere in between all these styles and ideas, and with a similar video to Angel Olsen, is the curious group The Wreathes with their debut release.

Wreathes - The Reigns from Death Coast Entertainment on Vimeo.