Got any Clarky Cat?

As if an obscure Brass Eye reference wasn't enough to make your day, the news that Chris Clark has just dropped his new long player 'Totems Flare' certainly will.

In celebration of this news (and it must be good news as it's forced me to blog after 2 months of silence) i'm throwing up an mp3 from his previous album 'Turning Dragon' to remind you, if necessary', just how good he is.

I haven't yet listened to 'Totems Flare' but if the marked evolution of his work so far is anything to go by, this new album should be an interestingly fresh take on the classic Clark sound.

Clark - New Year Storm

Buy some Clark from Boomkat, you know you want to.

Clarkspace

Tussk Tussk...

There's no need for all this secrecy and subterfuge from Rephlex surrounding The Tuss, everyone knows it's RDJ anyway and it's not like they need to work hard to create interest for new material by Mr James. I suppose if the tunes weren't up to scratch they could have continued the ruse to save face, but the EP Confederation Trough and following LP Rushup Edge (still short at 6 tracks) are simply as good as anything the Twin has ever done. In any guise.

This snippet of a review by Plan B magazine describes the music much better than I could right now:

'Rushup Edge continues the rededication to fast-paced, brain-bruising fun-fun-FUN! shown by the more recent Analords series of releases. There’s plenty of room for simplicity and repetition in music, but these six tracks reinvent themselves every few seconds, constantly refusing to get bored with one rhythm or melody. Every sound is fresh, as though each juicy synth wiggle and crisp beat were harvested from the circuit board in peak condition, Man from del Monte style. Each successive track piles on the layers, until ‘Death Fuck’ sweeps an avalanche through the speakers, leaving ‘Goodbye Rute’ in a realm of glacial relative calm.'

Check it.

From Confederation Trough:

The Tuss - Alspacka (Z-Share)

I especially dig the sample of the sound that's made when you clack your tongue off the roof of your mouth. Inspired.

From Rushup Edge:

The Tuss - Rushup I Bank 12 (Z-Share)
The Tuss - Death Fuck Mental Beats (Z-Share)

Or buy both from Boomkat if you're not down with the whole 'Amazon = world domination' thing.

Get deeper into the enigma and find other songs here, here and here. (The last two look the same but are different).

I'm using Z-Share for this cos fileden has just about filled it's bandwith boots for the month and will be resetting in 6 days.

The Monday Chiller 7# - Caustic Window...

One of Aphex Twin's many monikers, the Caustic Window LP Compilation is for the most part a journey through some very dark and twisted electronica. Thumping bass and techno beats provide no respite, apart from track 4 Italic Eyeball which lays out snappy drums and a rippling, rolling bassline under a breathless vocal and pied-piper style synth melody.

Caustic Window - Italic Eyeball

For a taste of the darkside try the unrelenting squelch-fest that is album-opener Joyrex J4. Listener discretion is advised: may cause eyeballs to melt on repeated listening.

Caustic Window - Joyrex J4

Phew i'm off to listen to some whale song. And... relax. Actually, have you heard that shit? Sounds like dinosaurs having sex. Maybe some Sigur Ros then. D'oh! Sounds like whales having sex.

Find out more about the Window/Twin at Discogs or buy the LP at Boomkat

Do You Know Squarepusher?...

I was lucky enough to get hold of the 3" promo CD entitled Square Window included in pre-orders of Squarepusher's 2004 album Ultravisitor from Warp Records online store.

Wheareas Ultravisitor was truly great in places but probably twice as long as it should have been, Square Window is a succint 20 minute blast of vintage Pusher, and for those not in the know, a perfect introduction to the great man. This is one of those posts where you really love what you're posting and hope that someone else will be as in to it as you. Hey, that's what i'm here for anyway. What i especially love about Square Window is it's total mental and musical breakdown. Each track gets progressively more wilfully obscure, until all that's left is bleeps and blips where once was melody and coherent music. Pick of the bunch is Abacus 2, which skips along and has great layers of sound that build and fade away when the next great melody hits. This is Squarepusher at his experimental best.

Square Window

01 Square Window
02 Abacus 2
03 Venus No.17 (telephone + siren x beats = magic)
04 Itti-Fack
05 Melt 14.6

From Ultravisitor

Tetra-sync

I couldn't do this post without sticking up at least one track from the LP. Tetra-sync is my favourite piece on the album, mainly because my friend Kes pointed out that you can hear the instrumentation switch from live to programmed and then back again, but also because it's a total stomping epic of a tune. Build and release. Build and release.

Official Squarepusher website

Read an interview with Tom and listen to his latest album Hello Everything in FULL at the BBC Collective

Squarepusher Live fansite with loads of sets from festivals, gigs, live video and interviews.

WarpRecords official site

Bleep for digital music downloads from Warp, Planet Mu, Ninjatune and others.

Got love for The Pusher? Hit the comment button charles...

You tube, do you?

In celebration of me finally realising how to post youtube videos on my blog, here is some stuff that i found surfing round the tube in 30 minutes which may interest you. Or not. They're all on a musical tip.

2.25 on this is where the real breakdown happens. You tell em, geeky guy.



The Knife - Heartbeats live in Gothenburg, Sweden, April 12th 2006. I'm really digging the stripped down bass and synths on this.



Monkey Drummer video by Chris Cunningham, music by Aphex Twin. Buy Chris Cunningham's Work of... DVD here. I have it and fully recommend.



Another video from the Work of... series, this time Spike Jonze. The song is Wax - Southern California. I'd love to see inside Spike Jonze's head.