safety scissors / tainted lunch / ~scape
San Francisco based Safety Scissors returns with a squelchy IDM-disco-pop much like his first album. Generally, the way it works is: a bouncy electro house beat is laid down while an endless barrage of bleeps, shifting keyboard lines, and leftfield sound effects keep the music constantly moving in one direction or another. Erlend Oye and Kevin Blechdom provide vocal assistance, while Vladislav Delay adds some programming, but it's Safety Scissors who makes the music so infectious and bubbly you'll find yourself humming along on the first listen.
listen: amnesia, i need you to remind me
listen: l'amour d'cuisine
dominik eulberg / kreucht & fleucht / mischwald
Dominik Eulberg's Flora and Fauna was one of my favorite albums to hit the shelves last year. His latest release Kreucht & Fleucht is a double CD mix. The mix mostly contains neo-jacking and interestingly bleeping German house tracks, with that blunted haze in the production that keeps the beats and bleeps from being too harsh. The first cd focuses on the softer side of the club experience, while cd two rocks a little harder without losing any of its creative edge. Classics like Termiten's "Nordhorn" (a soft melodic bobber secretly released by Villalobos) are blended alongside Sergej Auto's killer "I Am Dirty." This mix coaxes you onto the dancefloor and keeps you there.
listen: dinamo / pele bloss
listen: las velas no arden / i am dirty
dj koze / kosi comes around / kompakt
DJ Koze has released a full-length album on Kompakt entitled Kosi Comes Around. This album has many synthesized references to classic house grooves stripped bare and fucked with sparingly, using everything from strange sounds, odd bass pulses to random squiggling sounds. There's also many odd transitions within tracks, where the beat will minimize and ride for a long time and suddenly burst and change. The stripped down funk combined with the goofy unpredictability of this album makes it eligible for a new hybrid genre name.
listen: brutala square
listen: estrella
sigur ros / takk / geffen
It's been over three years since Sigur Ros released an album, and during this time, there has been much speculation in the press regarding what direction they would take. The band claimed that their new direction would be more "pop," and promised that there was an album with proper song titles in the works. Well here it is, and to say it is "pop" is definitely relative, for Takk is more structured and focused than its predecessor, ( ). The bombastic drums, sweeping strings, falsetto vocals, bowed guitars, and delicate piano melodies are distinctively Sigur Ros, but somehow this album seems happier and more optimistic than their previous albums. This could be their finest album to date.
listen: glosoli
listen: saeglopur
tape / mort aux vaches / staalplaat
Swedish trio, Tape's latest endevour "Mort Aux Vaches" treads a similar path to that of their previous albums; it's another faded postcard from the dew-soaked Swedish countryside, where folky acoustics and field recordings are juxtaposed with electronics and synthesizer. Over six tracks and 33 minutes, these contrasting elements help create some of the most entrancing and infinitely beautiful soundscapes, which should thaw even severely frostbitten hearts. Especially recommended for those who have been enjoying releases by Colleen, Mountains, and Fennesz.
listen: reversed flames
listen: summonspipe
t.raumschmiere / blitzkrieg pop / shitkatapult
brainwashed review
depeche mode / precious video
download sam koivikko / hot pepper
download marat hussein
{sender 030cd} konkord - foodgroover
{ware 048} ziggy kinder - mikrozirkulation
{dumb 017} midiots - traktorizm
{dessous 54} phonique - weapon [tracks and the city remix]
{itiswhatitis 003} drumkomputer - munk [john tejada remix]
{boxer 021} goldfish und der dulz - micro boy
{ware 054} mathias schaffhauser - coincidancetrentmoeller remix
{areal 032} konfekt - quenge liese
{sender 030cd} metope - Crux
{substatic 044} metope - even
{wagon repair 004} mathew jonson - return of the zombie bikers
{mental groove mg.ltd.001} luciano - A2 Untitled