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It's hard not to love this kind of super-international cross-pollination: France's Institubes has enlisted Brooklyn's Curses! (aka Drop The Lime) and Germany's D.I.M. to remix "Road To Recovery," the latest infectious single from Australia's Midnight Juggernauts. The result is a double-sided destroyer...
expand review of a single that definitely does not get filed under "world music." Curses! does a fake-out on his remix(1), starting off with a messy-sounding take on the original which quickly implodes on itself and turns into a straight-up pounding house mix. (Okay, not "straight-up house" - this is Drop The Lime, after all.) If you liked D.I.M.'s singles on Tiga's Turbo label, you'll be loving his remix(2) here, which features the same bassy, hypnotic techno as "Airbus Baby" and "Sysiphos" along with some of the Juggernauts' angelic harmonies and laser synths. Plays at 45. -Larri Byrd
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Lovely stuff from Brooklyn's critical sweethearts, Grizzly Bear, featuring ex-members of Lab faves Department of Eagles. "Knife(1)" was a standout from their 2006 album Yellow House, sporting sparse percussion, skritchy guitars and some seriously ethereal harmonies. (I'm partial to the CSS cover...
expand review version myself.) Flip features an edit of the folky "Easier(2)," also from Yellow House. Trippy artwork on the center label which I don't follow at all. Is dude supposed to be a Klingon? -Larri Byrd
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Every time I hear the name XXXChange, all I can think of is freaking hard to his beats in a packed, sweaty bar on New Years' '04! It's been a while since they broke the small bar circuit and now its expansion...
expand review time. Here, Spank Rock's producer adds his percussive punch to Person's "Business Class(1)." Imagine new rock/soul vocals mixed with slow funk drums and an Italo sound kit. It's pretty crazy. I already know many of you will head straight for the instrumental(2), and I don't blame you – it's cleaner and sometimes you're not in the mood to hear a dude singing about how he only likes high maintenance breezies. The glitchy album mix(3) graces the flipside, along with an intense, glitchy electro remix of "Pharisee Pride(4)" by Outputmessage. Too bad no Instrumental for that one, the vocals get a little cheesy. -Commish
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If you have a soft spot for early 80's style r'n'b funk beats, squiggle synth and vocoder action (like me), then you already know Chromeo is pretty much one of the only groups making original material in that style these days (and...
expand review doing it up proper). "Tenderoni(1)" continues their reign of serious synthesizer funk with Dave 1 busting the smoothy smooth vox and P-Thug rocking the keys to make you boogie out your seat. The OG mix is fresh to begin with, but they went ahead and threw in the beefed up MSTRKRFT version(2) which ups the intensity to stadium-rocking levels, and the twisted Sinden Remix(3) to make people loose their shit. Another very crate-worthy 12" from the Chromeo dudes. -snackmaster
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#3 of 3 new singles for the Stripes' latest -- each version comes on different colored vinyl in a deluxe 7" pic sleeve with bonus trading card and poster. This version (black vinyl) features an alternate "acoustic mariachi version" of the single...
expand review "Conquest(1)," backed with the previously unreleased "Cash Grab Complications On The Matter(2)," both produced by Beck. -Larri Byrd
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NOTE: This LP comes with a coupon for a free MP3 download of the album, including tracks not found on the vinyl. Just go to the URL on the coupon, enter the unique code and download 192kbps MP3s direct from Secretly Canadian's...
expand review website.
This is Bobb Trimble's insanely rare debut LP, released in 1980, though it sounds like it could've come out of any decade from '65 to present... and maybe beyond. Secretly Canadian has mercifully reissued Bobb's two most sought after records, so now you don't have to drop few hundred ducats on the Bay just for the privelege of hearing his truly unique brand of psych / space / rock / folk (not to mention that otherworldly falsetto). Young Jonesy (of Caps & Jones) put me on to Bobb and I was smitten from the first time I heard "Glass Menagerie Fantasies(1)." Not to sound like a prematurely old man, but THEY DON'T MAKE SHIT LIKE THIS ANYMORE. Even when Bobb was recording this in 1980, he wasn't emulating the music of the changing times, but his idols like (Syd Barrett-era) Pink Floyd, (early) Bowie and The (weed smoking) Beatles. Filtered through Bobb's cracked kaleidoscope, it comes out as a more authentic and freaky trip than those guys ever cooked up in an expensive studio. Check out: "One Mile From Heaven(2)," "When The Raven Calls(3)," "Night At The Asylum(4)" and "Your Little Pawn(5)." 8 tracks on the vinyl; 11 on the digital download. Highly recommended. -Larri Byrd
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