Thursday 27 May 2010

The sounds of industry marching ever onwards. Gatekeeper, //Tense//, The Present Moment and Valis.


There's a great few bands about at the moment gaining some ground up the foothills of recognition that are sporting that 80s influenced, dark industrial electro sound, all brooding yet funky, throbbing, sexual and dancey yet filled with drone and noise!

The principle bands that are on my radar are all from the United States and I've written about most of them already so here I'll just be posting their stuff for you to listen to. Lots of it can be downloaded form their Soundcloud or Fairtilizer pages.

The Present Moment are from LA and have a CD out on Disaro. Most of their songs can be downloaded from their Soundcloud page but they're in wav format not mp3. I love the cover they've done here on the 2nd track!

Times Like This by ThePresentMoment
SEASON OF THE WITCH by ThePresentMoment

//Tense// I have already written about as well. And are pretty much my favourites of this bunch.
From Houston,Texas they have an album out on Desire Records, one pending on Disaro and are just about to play their first New York gig on the 16th June. More tracks to listen to, or buy here.
Facebook here.


Valis are from Chicago, a bit of a hub for this sound, they again are a two piece and create a sound so meaty and bass filled that it just funks the club out when you play it loud.
Awesome, un-stopable and relentless!!
Exigesis by V A L I S


The final one of these four is the longest running and maybe most well known, GATEKEEPER is also from Chicago and gets up and runs with the Industrial electro sound making horror club hits that march all over everything!
I cant find any embedable players for GATEKEEPERS stuff so YouTube vids will have to suffice.
First is from the vinyl EP available to buy from the myspace and the second is from a very recent live gig in Brooklyn!





Tuesday 25 May 2010

Geneva Jacuzzi live footage!



Geneva Jacuzzi performing "Do I Sad?" and "Love Stories" from her new album Lamaze at The Echo in LA last sunday. Some could see this as being totally pretentious but I just think this is amazing!
Lamaze limited edition vinyl will finally be available for pre-order at vinylinternational.com on June 1st.

New Klaxons, Flashover and //Tense// mixtape.



This is my 100th blog post so its kind of nice that its also new Klaxons time.. finally!! The Album is supposedly out on 21st August!!
This song "Flashover" is classic Klaxons, sounding like the last album for sure though a bit like Liars too! Hope there's some heavy stuff like "Four Horsemen of 2012" on there as well!


And for fans of late 80s early 90s dance music //Tense// have created a blinding mixtape, playable above, which can also be downloaded from the home site if you click through on the title in blue on the player. This is the track listing:

1. Taste of Sugar – Hmmm Hmmm
2. 20 – Acid to Body (pillentanz mix einz)
3. Pick a Number – Groovy (12" mix)
4. The Beatmasters with Merlin – Who’s in the House (DJ Pierre Mix)
5. React – Love Reaction (Vocal Attack)
6. Inner City – Ain’t Nobody Better (Magic Juan Techno Trix Mix)
7. Pleasure Pump – Fantasize Me
8. Boris Badenough – Hey Rocky! (Instrumental)
9. Dammit, I need to double check, I forgot
10. LaTour – Cold (Ralphi’s Club Mix)

Monday 24 May 2010

The Present Moment -The Damage Is Loved video


LA industrial EBMists The Present Moment have a new video out for their song The Damage Is Loved which goes all black metal in that its set in the woods, its also great to see a band like this do what's close to being a home made 'high rotation' video.
They have a cd out via Disaro. Go get it now, be the first amongst your friends!

✝ NO VIRGIN ✝ interview!

Following my last post on ✝ NO VIRGIN ✝ I did a brief interview thingy and got some answers and info on the band, as well as an insight into the background to his DOWNER EP. I'm really looking forward to EP number two now, which he describes as being a "Fast paced black industrial sound!" I really hope that EBM sound really is going to take off this year, with bands like //Tense // leading the way!!
Anyway read on:


Fokkawolfe:
Did you put the EP out yourself?

✝ NO VIRGIN ✝:
"I put the EP out myself, everything heard has been created and put together by (me).
The DOWNER EP is pt. I of II EP's being released.
A man outside my window was speedballing whilst I'd been mapping out the ideas for the project. So DOWNER, as you've heard, features the brooding, slower sounds of Hell. While the second EP, UPPER, will take on a fast-paced black industrial sound.

F:
Do you plan to play it out live?

✝ NO VIRGIN ✝:
"I'll be playing Bloodstock in a few weeks downtown. I have a band playing behind me as I sing in my old girlfriend's bondage. I think the live atmosphere is just as important as the one I have created in your head already."

F:
Where exactly are you from, is it really Inglewood?

✝ NO VIRGIN ✝:
"I do live in Inglewood."

F:
How would you describe your sound and do you like people putting these genre titles over bands -for example Witch House?

✝ NO VIRGIN ✝:
"I'm recreating how I view Hell to be. I take into account a lot of my own personal experiences as I try to include them into the sound as well, whether that might be a gun shot or a friend crying... Though we, as humans, shouldn't fear this realm, but embrace it. I find such themes to be incredibly lusty. The sound provokes a morbid but sexually stimulating experience. Like sneaking into your first goth club and seeing a pale sex demon lick her black lips and snap her glove at you.
I could care less about how people choose to classify a band."


Sunday 23 May 2010

✝ NO VIRGIN ✝ and μnłıłĿΞΔ. Witch House post #3

Two great sounds for you here.
First is an artist called μnłıłĿΞΔ (I think thats pronounced "Untitled") This is some great unsigned unknown music from somewhere but we'll probably never know.
Its 90s dance music for fish people under the sea, rumbling synths like breaking waves high above, the speeded up vocals of tiny squid babies and slowed down hand claps of the mother octopus! μnłıłĿΞΔ's myspace is an empty one and as Soundcloud goes little info can be got from that. But this has all the hallmarks of Disaro or affiliates.
Download for free from the right hand side of each player (click on the downwards arrow!)
wtf? izzu? (ruff draft) by μnłıłĿΞΔ
destineee (ruff drft) by μnłıłĿΞΔ


The second is ✝ NO VIRGIN ✝. Supposedly from Inglewood, this has all the slow scary beats and haunted children's voices, shrieking synths howls and gunshot samples of a satanists crack den.

His "DOWNER EP" is available to download for free from his myspace or via this direct link:

Its all proper gothed up crack hip hop, with a truly dark and nasty Gucci Mane remix and a brilliant track called Pedal$ which features a child repetitively singing "Jesus loves me, loves me, He loves me"

Go grab it now!




Friday 21 May 2010

///▲▲▲\\\, videos and name change! Witch House post #2

Witch house stalwart ///▲▲▲\\\ (pronounced Void) has become known as HORSE MACGYVER!
His Myspace, the only way to really access his stuff other than buying the music from the Disaro record label, has gone and got the new name and there's also a new track up as well called "e x p blow wave". At ten minutes forty six seconds its full of metal machine music guitar crunches, vague ranting and straight up noise!
Maybe this is a new start with many other bands in this genre abandoning their names and flying off on another path.. though I kinda hope not!

///▲▲▲\\\ has created some amazing tracks, "Tetanus Wine" for example could beat Aphex Twin in a race to out tape warp each other. Listen and download that track from the Fader website!
While still known as ///▲▲▲\\\ this video came into being:

///▲▲▲\\\ - rub from fsck. on Vimeo.

As did this video:

Thursday 20 May 2010

GR†LL GR†LL. Witch House post #1

GR†LLGR†LL are from Paris.. and Denmark and.. well in the intentionally mysterious and un-pronounceable world of Witch House these things don't really matter. The First rule of Witch House is don't talk about Witch House, keep it hidden and in the cold unless it spoils like a lovingly prepared cake left out overnight.
But with a hoard or artists emerging from the gloom to share their satanic down-tempo with us, its only right that people write about these bands, Djs and Remixers. The music is awesome and their visual aesthetic trumps any other emerging genre!
So anyway back to GR†LLGR†LL who are rocking a fantastic crack-hop, drone world, filled with slowed down indian chants and looming menace. Anyone who can remix Nirvanas "Something In The Way" by slowing down the vocals to at least half their original speed and make it sound better than the original is just awesome beyond belief!
Here are a couple of tracks from GR†LLGR†LLs Soundcloud page, all three can be downloaded:

U††A by GRiLLGRiLL
SentimentalDaneHeart by GRiLLGRiLL
THEYALLsay/SssHhh w.h sutter pikkemand by GRiLLGRiLL

Disaro is the label to find GR†LLGR†LL and they have a release via them.
With all of these Witch House bands if you can be allowed to join the Last.Fm "WITCH HOUSE" group then you can get access to their share thread of loads of free downloads. Thing is you probably wont be allowed to join 'cos the creators are like that!

Tuesday 18 May 2010

Lemonade Dance Part and Echo Lake!

So.. news about my last post, Blissed Out is actually a collaboration between Bye Bye Blackbird and Atlantic At Pacific which has now changed into another project called Lemonade Dance Party! This too will soon be renamed as, according to Atlantic At Pacific, it was a drunken mistake!
It might seem a bit weird blogging about a project that will soon change into something else but when the music is this nice it just seems right.
I think what I'm trying to say is keep an eye out (and an ear) for what these bands do next, because it can't help but be going somewhere great!





Closer to home than LA this time and you should also definitely listen to Echo Lake, a four piece based in East London that deliver an epic wash of lo-fi, brimming over with reverb and shoe gaze based ambiance.
Coming from the same place as Real Estate, Beach House and Porcelain Raft more than the synth based world of say Neon Indian, their song "Everything is Real" will take you away on a balloon ride over hipstermatic landscapes of colliding continents and distant sun splashed rivers. Great stuff.

Monday 17 May 2010

Paralyse Humanity Sequence, plus who is Blissed Out?

Now I dont really know much about Blissed Out, its definitely not the Blissed Out who come from New York and are halfway chillwave and halfway drone noise. What I do know is that this Blissed Out are really great chillwave music and its free and you can get it a three track EP called "Pure" from their bandcamp here! (UPDATE: I think that their bandcamp page has been taken down. but see Lemonade Dance Party above for more info!)

Their myspace has no music on it anymore and only 3 real friends, Atlantic At Pacific, Me and cheesy LA rocker Vince Falzone!
I think this could be a side project of Atlantic At Pacific or Bye Bye Blackbird, (who originally recommended them) but why would either of those two bands would want to do a side project of very similar stuff?
The best guess is they are a new band waiting to find a better name, one that isnt already taken, but who knows and who cares so long as you can still listen to their wonderfully smacked out jams!

Coming from Chicago you expect some dark and dangerous EBM based electronica but Paralyse Humanity Sequence swim in the blue sea of chillwave!
The project of one guy, Nick Donlin, who describes his music as the dramatic background music of the O.C. This is full of reverbed harmonies, echoing guitar and implied waves breaking on shimmering shoegaze beaches. He's got a EP to download for free from his myspace (here's the direct link) and is looking for shows, so if you're a promoter in Chicago contact him!
This is his Facebook as well.
He only has preview edits of his songs up on YouTube but this will still give you an idea of his sound!


More Chillwave from Atlantic At Pacific!


Found another brilliant Californian Chillwave creation, Atlantic At Pacific from Santa Cruz.
He has an EP called Weddings coming soon this summer on Alchemist Records, an artists music collective.
In the meantime he has 2 tracks on Bandcamp to download for free:
here and here.
This is great chillwave stuff, get it, pop it into a playlist and drift off somewhere fun!



To remind you of how good the top players in this scene can be here is Neon Indian playing "Should Have Taken Acid With You" live in February of this year, I dare you to not get it stuck in your head!

Friday 14 May 2010

Lazer Crystal, Love Rhombus.

Lazer Crystal - Love Rhombus from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

New Lazer Crystal awesomeness! Album coming soon.

Turbowolf live at The Great Escpape.

I love hardcore gigs, the crowd are always up for dancing/moshing and when Turbowolf played earlier today at The Loft in Brighton as part of a free Great Escape gig things totally kicked off in the crowd. Two songs in their singer told the crowd to move forward and everyone did straight away, then when he said to dance to the next song a proper moshpit formed with pushing, shoving and eventually a huge gap in the crowd occupied by two guys almost having a fight!
Here is some footage of them playing last year to give you an idea.



I also snapped up one of their awesome t.shirts, this one to be exact called Beast Of The Sea:
You can buy them online from here: Turbowolf Bigcartel

Wednesday 12 May 2010

Red Tide and Las Robertas.


Two great free albums to download for you here.

First is a self released album, that came out in October last year, by LA band Red Tide.
This is a shoegazey, post rock feel with a clean psychedelic grunge element. A Radiohead/Jeff Buckley feel. It harks back to an American 90s sound in a really progressive way. The 7 track mini album is available to download for free from the bands Bandcamp profile.
They are playing various dates around California over the next few months so go see them if you can!




The second band is Las Robertas.

A lo-fi, 60s inspired garage group from Costa Rica.
These four girls have a sound to easily rival bands like Vivian Girls, Best Coast or Girls At Dawn.
They also have made their album available for free via Bandcamp. It's ten tracks long and is entitled Cry Out Loud. They also have a blog.
Its great to find a band making amazing music from somewhere you wouldn't perhaps expect. If you were only going to download one of these two bands albums go for this one!!

Monday 10 May 2010

White Car and Clique Talk, EBM to Ballerica.


In Chicago literally just down the block from Gatekeeper and Valis (who I wrote about last week) live White Car, another EBM inspired two piece. Less poundingly forceful than Valis but just as intense White Car work their way into your brain like a teenage valium induced trance during an all night SNES marathon. White Car haven't forced you onto the dance floor but they have cornered you in the back room of the club and wont let you leave!

Their debut self titled 12" EP was out on the 16th February this year on Rainbow Body Records but was only pressed in an edition of 500 so hurry if you want one!

Below is a low quality fan vid of White Car live but its still worth it!

White Car from courtney Reagor on Vimeo.
It's also important you hear Clique Talk, a three piece which includes the two guys from Valis. Clique Talk follow a vaguely more electro avenue, Italiano Disco sounds and a more straight forward, discoed "get on the dancefloor and stare into the glitter heavens" kind of attitude. Again like Valis they have brilliant pop sensibilities, epic dancefloor noise!
Here are a couple of their tracks, there are six more to download for free from their Soundcloud page.
Mutant Woman by cliquetalk
Hell is Other People Single Mix by cliquetalk
So Chicago is a proper little hive of 80s synth based awesomeness at the moment. Keep an eye out for more bands bubbling up to its dark and oily surface!

Sunday 2 May 2010

VALIS =Awesome!

Valis come from Chicago and make damned heavy industrial electro, in the same vein as //Tense// all sweating muscle and black leather, 80s topgun sunglasses and dark thumping basslines. There's also a feeling of fellow Chicago resident Gatekeeper.
This sound threatens you like an American muscle car being driven by a sex crazed cop! Run for you life but run in time to the beat!
There is pretty much no info on this band, (even their myspace has only 16 friends) but they sound absolutely immense and if you live in Chicago or can get there then Valis are playing at Hot On The Heels Of Love on 4th May which is this tuesday! (just wish I could make it!)

This is just one of many brilliant bands around at the moment making industrial electro noises straight out of the Terminators TechNoir club.
If you can get to a beach this summer then you should be rocking the Chillwave but if you're stuck in an urban sprawl, if you're stuck in a landlocked city, if you only get up when its dark and that's just to get back on the dancefloor then you have to be hitting up the industrial sounds this year!!
Download 3 great VALIS tracks from soundcloud and listen below. Black Carbon by V A L I S
The Running ManbyV A L I S Exigesis by V A L I S

Saturday 1 May 2010