I’ve come to the conclusion that I like to fly and to drive because while traveling I have a clear destinations.  While between the two points, there ain’t nothing to it but to do it. Left to my own devices, my internal compass may as well be at the north pole.

Journeying – rambling – tumbling – drifting – Gui Boratto sets a course.  Never caving to the quick hitter, his albums play the long con, the drawn out melody.  A Brazilian producer of three outstanding tech/minimal discs - Chromophobia (2007), Take my Breath Away (2009), and  III (2011) - his work helps shade my own definition of what makes a coherent LP.  The sound is at times discordant and occasionally abrasive, but always compelling, never shying from grandiosity.

That being said, this post identifies three of his tracks, one from each album, that to me paint a compelling narrative.  Emphasis on “to me”, as it is hard to see anything but yourself when you look into the work of others.  The three tracks: “Beautiful Life”, “No Turning Back” and “This is not the End”.  Three of his vocalized tracks, which are the exceptions in his largely instrumental work.    When played in the same chronological order as their respective albums, they lend to each other both a sonic resonance and more literally, a commentary on the world, through the three song journey of a psyche.

Beautiful life

Gui is the exuberance of youth.  He is excitement at endless possibilities, naively only looking forward.  He is simple, hopeful, colorful.  Adventures await, and troubles?  For mere mortals.  Happiness embodied.

No Turning Back

He is the stark realization of the inexorable march of time and reality. Initially he falters, overcome by the harshness, then steels his nerve to brave the cold.   Surrounded by the scope & scale of the world, the most major events become inconsequential.

This is not the End

The wisdom of age.  Calm, Gui is resigned to meditation but not wistful.  Observing is now the default status, living vicariously, reminiscing.  Silent, because he doesn’t learn anything when his lips are moving.

Can you try to describe what you yourself haven’t experienced?  Probably not.  I’m happy dawdling in step one, wondering what happens next.

Gui Boratto – Official Page

theyareoliver, and theyhavemyattention.  Vaughn Oliver and Oliver Goldstein – Oliver – are banging out rippers, ripping out bangers, and generally blowing up my spot.  Singlehandedly responsible for causing disappointment for the future sonic passenger of my whip (Chevy Equinox, tight) due to extreme speaker abuse, this duo flat out dominates.  Having put out solid remixes over the past year and dishing out a few original tracks, they now have an EP with Kitsuné France – Dirty Talk.  Real big surprise, Kitsuné is involved with an awesome upcoming act (check out any Kitsuné compilation, satisfaction guaranteed).

Bangers & Mash, coming right up:

The freshest – Dirty Talk

The sickest – Memories of the Future

The biggest – Sneaky Sound System – Big (Oliver Remix)

The most – Childish Gambino – Heartbeat (Oliver Remix)
For the uninitiated, Childish Gambino is Donald Glover of Community and being awesome. Also known as: dong lover.

The smoothest – Housse de Racket – Roman (Oliver Remix)

So Gus, get on the bus… errr, wagon.

I was recently accused of something so absurd, so preposterous, so wildly insulting, and so entirely accurate, that I  immediately thought of it when I heard Mr. Todd here.  The audio attack was as follows: “Dude, you love space disco”.  Dude, I think you’re right.  Todd Terje – Norwegian Space Disco.  You had me at hellowwww ow ow… check out that dreamboat on the beach.  ”Oh I’m just maxin’ relaxin’ on the shore, wearing striped shirts at sunset.  I’ll swim back out to my sailboat tomorrow morning.”

Also, check out the jams:

Inspector Norse
Suggested Activity – go for a yog

Swing Star (pt1 + pt2)
Suggested Activity – speed knitting

BJØRN TORSKE – Langt Fra Afrika (Todd Terje’s Enda Lengre Miks (Fra Afrika Altså)))
Suggested Activity – dance in a plaid suit in the street on a hot day

Bombay Bicycle Club – Lights Out Words Gone (Todd Terje Remix)
Suggested Activity – listen to more Bombay Bicycle Club
 

After about a thousand plays over the past month, my hand now automatically scrolls to the D’s in my phone when I start my car in the morning.  If you ever have a need to kick-start your morning, there is little more effective than blasting “Nike“ while chugging a coffee:

Starting his career as a bass player for Joakim and others, Juan de Guillebon began in the Paris electronic scene at 14 and has been on the expanding fringe of music ever since.  His debut album Taki 183 vacillates from light to dark, from synth-pop banger to minimal trips, from dreamscape to the dark side of the moon.  As a whole it covers a massive portion of the electronic spectrum, while still making sense as one unit.  As a professional clown I know once said, “devastatingly diverse but fanatically focused”.

Now, if you just heard songs like “Nike” and  ”Matthias & Charlotte“, you might miss the darkness that creeps into this album.  ”Fantasy” is accompanied by a twisted and startling video that begins with innocence and ends with atrocity.  NSFW, NSFL, involves anime, aliens, and is, like I said, twisted.  Not for the faint of heart.  

Anyway this album is a real monster, check out the entire thing here.  Scroll to the bottom for the player.  DyE SoundCloud page here, with remixes.

Cheers,

Kelbs

fresh from outer space land

It doesn’t take long to realize that these aren’t the most normal people you know. Justice has been in the business of melting people’s brains for awhile now. If you need some reassurance of that, give their full-length debut LP, “†”, a quick listen, or its even more pupil-dilating live version, “A Cross the Universe”.

Samples of said insanity below:

Official Trailer (recommend this DVD if you don’t have it)

However, this isn’t a post about Justice circa-2007; this is a post about their new album, “Audio, Video, Disco”, to be released next week. Don’t be fooled by the giant stone cross on the cover, the similarity between the two albums mostly ends there. They get things kicked off with Horsepower, almost as a teaser that this is going to be “† vol. 2″. Here’s a sample:
Horsepower

You’ll quickly notice, though, that this is not another pulsing electro-rock-house album.The emphasis… is on the rock part. Tracks like On’N'On and Newlands sound as at home on rock records of the late 70′s and 80′s as they do here:
Newlands

Justice has never been a band (band? DJs?) that has been particularly focused on the tastes of their fans. Just as the crunchy, ears-bleeding electro-riffs of “†” freaked out a bunch of fans unaccustomed to these kinds of sounds (think about mainstream this album would be perceived as by today’s neon dubstep army), this album is going to piss off fans by being different. It’s worth a listen or ten, but probably won’t fuel your next couch-on-fire riot party.

Especially for this post, I am going to go as light as possible on “analysis” and stick to “listening to this album is like eating marshmallows – fluffy and delicious”.  The reasons are many, but first and foremost is that I/we have no real business critiquing artists who are daily creating new sounds, new genres, and expanding the musical library exponentially.  Second, this is not the type of album that needs to be picked up and looked at under a microscope.

Tycho is Scott Hansen, an artist and producer from San Francisco.  His new LP Dive continues where The Past is Prologue left off – swirling pleasantly into oblivion.  Catchy rhythms, ephemeral vocals, and glassy hooks make you sit down and stay a while.  Strolling through “A Walk”, Scott Hansen drips “Hours” into a “Daydream”, and “Dive”‘s down to the “Coastal Brake”.  If ever song titles were emblematic of the atmosphere presented, Dive effortlessly does so.

Take a listen –  light and refreshing doesn’t begin to cover it.

Tycho – Hours

Tycho – Coastal Brake

Tycho SoundCloud

Scene: Neon Sullivan (Com Truise opener)

Setting: Lincoln Hall

Attendees: Various performers of Barnum & Bailey

Concert Notes: Alan Palomo has added a person or two to his Neon Indian live band since last year.  This change, in addition to the slightly less wacky nature of Era Extraña, results in a Neon Indian that hits the stage harder than before.  While I was a bit distracted by my fellow blogger Duchovny’s parkour style attempts at grinding on the handrail, I saw an act that is much more capable of rocking larger venues.  This was especially made possible by not spending half the show using his wonky magic wand instrument routine (though that is awesome).

Security Notes: While the show largely went by uneventfully, one patron managed to backflip himself over the right side railing approximately 45 seconds into the show.  He was informed this was strike one – and was later asked to drink coffee, and then water.  When said patron was observed hurricaning a Guinness, he was then shown the exit (this was akin to putting a cat in a bathtub).  A compatriot then asked to be kicked out with said original patron, and we obliged.

What were you doing when you were 17? I was a serious computer gamer nerd, took too many AP classes, and played some high school sports.  If I was lucky, a friend would throw a party on the weekend so I could choke down some light beer.  I was significantly less cool than the 17 year old Madeon, who is the subject of this post.

The teaser for his budding touring career is a pretty convincing argument to move to Paris and scum around the neu disco scene.  It sometimes seems like half of all the new music I’m listening to is French, whether its electronic or not.  Anyway, check it out:

I’m no expert on the matter, but the video shows some snippets of him using a launchpad (the keyboard) and ableton live (the software).  The fact that technology makes this type of thing accessible to anyone is mindblowing.  Here is him using this setup for a short mix – this video went viral a few months ago, and its easy to see why.

There are few people who have gotten so much hype over so little actual production – his anthology is currently a short stack of remixes and a few original tracks.  His sound is incredibly crisp and clear, and making many of his own sounds gives it his own flavor – he says he never samples for his original tracks.  Hopefully his tour expands and comes to Chicago eventually – it will be interesting to follow his career.

http://soundcloud.com/madeon

sailing to the hipster graveyard

Just around the corner. Get your sick days ready because Lolla is coming to town and bringing the noise. Rather than fill up this site with the usual paragraph after paragraph of word vomit, straight to the goods.

In order of appearance:

Fuck Buttons – Bright Tomorrow

Hot Chip – Hold On

Chromeo – 100%

Tiga – Luxury

The Strokes – Alone, Together

Metric – Help, I’m Alive

Spoon – I Turn My Camera On

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – 40 Day Dream

Cut Copy – Lights and Music

Phoenix – If I Ever Feel Better

Yeasayer – Ambling Alp

MGMT - Brian Eno

Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition

Felix Da Housecat – We All Wanna Be Prince

Arcade Fire – Month of May

See you at Devo on Thursday night at the Congress – and at the beach on Monday.

Happy trails,

D