Archive: Nov 2006

1. No Brainer, double-trouble PSA and a CONTEST!

   11/30/2006 1:25 pm 2 Comments

   
   Kerrier District – Ce Porte
   Now, as the title of this post indicates, this is a total no-brainer. Kerrier District is one of the many alter-ego’s of the UK’s Luke Vibert – he could be called “the electronic producer’s producer” since he’s been releasing music since the early 90s, spanning a half-dozen labels (including MoWax, WARP, and Ninja Tune) and nearly as many pseudonyms, from work under his own name, to Wagon Christ, Plug, Amen Andrews, Ace of Clubs and Butler Kiev.
   Much of Vibert’s earlier output is either hardcore breakbeats and jungle-style madness, or (very dope) hip-hop-tempo beats that would now be called “downtempo”, but the Kerrier District project – which first saw a full-length album released by Rephlex in early 2004 – is real-deal electronic DISCO music. Slightly slow tempos (not quite “cosmic” but still low in the 100s BPM-wise), bouncing, rubbery synth-bass, hand claps and cowbells – the stuff is awesome and I’ve been telling people such since I first heard it (and purchased the triple-vinyl) at the Turntable Lab back then. Anyway, this song is from the new Kerrier District 2 extended EP, available on CD or on two 12″s, and is HIGHLY recommended.
   Purchase it from our friends at Forced Exposure or the Turntable Lab – as I said, if you like this kind of thing you shouldn’t have to think twice about it, as this is another essential purchase. Do it.
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   PSA #1 + hot sexxxy Contest:
   Our friends at Modular have a pair of bi-coastal parties lined up, featuring live performances by SoftLightes, Thieves Like Us, and the first US performances by their latest signees, New Young Pony Club (whom you may recognize from their stone-cold jam, “Ice Cream” that has been on a lot of DJ mixes, and is now in some ad on the teevee – you can download it from Modular here), as well as DJ-sets by Gang of Neon, Juan Maclean, M.A. of la decadanse, and some other special guests (Tim Sweeney in the house?). Here are the Flyers for the first-ever Modular LA party (Wednesday, Dec 6th), and the Modular Monthly (special X-Mas edition!!) NYC party (Saturday Dec 9th):
   
   (click for larger image)
   You can snag (cheaper) advanced tickets via Groovetickets, or pay at the door, OR a couple of you can get a pair of tickets this way. Just email me – blair AT music.for-robots.com – with the answer to this (rather easy) question: What is the name of the Modular artist and the song-title, circa early ’00s, that famously samples (as one of the only ones to ever be legally licensed) Madonna? I’ve only got two pairs of tix – one for each show – so it is strictly first-come, first-serve. Update: I have a winner for the LA show (good work Justin!), so any of you NY kids have guesses?
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   PSA #2:
   I am, once again, hitting the decks at Good World this Friday night – it is a cozy bar and restaurant in the LES (Orchard just below Canal) – I’ll be rocking the disco, electro, 80s, pajamapartyjamz all night long, so swing on by, have a drink, dance, be merry, etc. I promise I won’t play too many Justin Timberlake songs.

2. Shhhh…

   11/28/2006 4:10 pm 15 Comments

   
   Coming Soon…

3. You had me at 8-bits…

   7:59 am 4 Comments

   

   メトロイド　小ボス部屋(â… )〜クレイド – 田中宏和
   (that is to say…)
   Metroid Mini Boss’ Room Theme: Kraid – Tanaka (can’t read the Kanji)
   Yep. It’s throwback time this Monday on MFR. Waaaaay back. Like, mid-80s, I’m fewer than 10 years old, my neighbor just got a NES and my hippie parents haven’t figured it out yet to know better than to keep me away from it. Metroid. Ikari Warriors. Contra. Zelda. Fucking Rush’n Attack. Stone cold classics, all, and you know what blows my mind? How many little samples pop up from the scores of these games in everything from hip-hop to electronica to (duh) J-Pop. Is it because we all miss those days dearly? Probably. But is it also because the music was totally kick ass in half those games? Fuck yes. Who hasn’t played Mega Man III that still hums the stage music from time to time? Even girls love the themes from Metroid and Mario.
   They’re realizing what a gold mine they’re sitting on, over in the land of Nippon. As part of the 20-year anniversary, they’re releasing all sorts of amazing toys that recapture the look and feel, and several volumes of music from only the bestselling NES titles of all time! You can [order it from Play-asia.com], or you might be able to find it on the Japanese iTunes store.
   Also…
   
   MFR would like to welcome the newest in the small flock of subdomain-blogs huddled beneath the warm wing of the Robots, Games.For-Robots! Our food blog was a nice departure while it lasted (though it’s still crawling along), and GFR should give the Robots’ vidiot side a chance to distill the mess of gaming culture to the most relevant news and warm-n-fuzzy nostalgia trips, and perhaps serve up some old gems MFR-style as their copyrights fall into public domain from time to time. Current events, next-gen console bits, console hacking, overlooked game reviews, and funny bits from the world’s biggest digital hobby… it’ll all be there. We hope those of you who share this interest enjoy it (this old Katamari Damacy post still gets hammered a few hundred times a week via Google after all…), and for those of you who ain’t into such things, we hope you continue to enjoy the quality music you’re used to hearing on MFR.

4. Share With Me

   11/27/2006 1:38 pm 10 Comments

   Gossip – Listen Up [mstrkrft remix].
   My holiday weekend was like a god damn zach braff movie. Sick family members, thanksgiving, a 10-year high school reunion… it was emotionally and physically exhausting. But here we are, back in Los Angeles. It rained today, which is nice.
   Oh, and here’s this fucking awesome remix from the Gossip. I don’t know if you guys have been keeping up, but there have been a couple of amazing singles by these kids on KRS in the last few months. This one comes off the brand new 10 inch. There’s also a 12″ of Standing in the Way of Control that is downright amazing. Seriously. These guys are killing it. Sometimes, a band comes along that just knows show to present itself, and Gossip are one of those bands. They just know that a remix from Playgroup, or Soulwax, is exactly what they want to sound like. And it works. Her soulful voice and the ravey synths and the clattering percussion. It’s a recipe that plumps when you cook it.
   You can find ‘em in digital format from our friends over at emusic, which I highly recommend.

5. Beautiful post post

   12:10 pm 9 Comments

   
   Christopher Willits – Yellow Spring
   Our friends over at Ghostly International almost slipped this one by me. See, I’ve had this new album by Christopher Willits, Surf Boundaries, sitting amongst my to-review stacks for a minute now, but kept passing it by.
   But this weekend, as the haze of turkeystuffingcranberryconfitpiepiepiepie was wearing off, I made a point of going through said stacks of CDs, and pulled Willits’ album out, with a knowing hunch that it would be worth listening to, and probably worth writing about. That hunch paid off, big time. Today, still in a haze, I felt the need for something soothing to pull me out of it, and Bingo! Surf Boundaries is full of gorgeous, hazy, glitchy, multi-layered tone poems that are totally soothing the savage beast in me and making this Monday so much more bearable.
   Willits has been making music for years now – he is a guitarist and sound-artist who has released a number of abstract and experimental albums, he has collaborated with a number of musicians (Kid606, Matmos, Paul D’Amour, and Ryuichi Sakamoto among others) and multimedia artists from his home base in San Francisco. On top of this, he custom designs all the signal processors he uses with his guitars, so the sounds he coaxes out of them are entirely his own creation. He has a number of other folks working with him on the album, providing additional vocals, as well as horns, drums, viola, vibraphone and other percussion, rounding (and filling) out his compositions. There’s lots more info about him and the album on his Ghostly page.
   One of his songs – “Colors Shifting”, a beautiful and subtle slow burning dreamy pop song – previously appeared on Ghostly’s Idol Tryouts 2 from earlier this year, so it makes sense that the mostly-techno Ann Arbor label would give him free reign on his full length, which came out a few weeks back. The album is, as I said, soothing and beautiful, but there are also a few tracks, like this one, that are real doozies – all clash and clatter, but melodic and captivating. Reminds me of Four Tet or Manitoba at their best. Very highly recommended.
   The album is available at fine retailers everywhere, and available for download via iTunes and eMusic.
   Also, Willits is on tour right now – he’ll be here in NYC tomorrow night at Joe’s Pub – see the tour flyer here for more dates. AND (I think this is one of the coolest ideas I’ve heard in a while) there is a remix competition for the song “Colors Shifting” – Willits will select the best remix, and the winning mix will be included on an XLR8R Incite CD compilation, which will be included in copies of a future issue of XLR8R Magazine. The song – in multi track form – is available via a Creative Commons license, so this is all totally legit. The contest and all necessary information is available right here. Get cracking!

6. Podcastin’ MP3′s (say to the tune of Big Pimpin’)

   11/26/2006 5:32 pm 4 Comments

   

   While we’ve had an RSS feed going since the inception here at MFR, it might interest some portion of our large feed-readership (and site readership) to know that our feed now contains enclosures; that is to say, the MFR feed now functions technically as a Podcast. The feed URL remains the same either way:
   http://feeds.feedburner.com/MFR
   But you can now feed it straight to iTunes if you wish, by using the “Subscribe to Podcast” menu option in the “Advanced” menu:

   

   Hope everyone had a good turkey day, and enjoy!

7. Maison, Maison

   11/25/2006 8:55 pm 4 Comments

   
   The Valentinos – Kafka (Bag Raiders What Y’all Kno ‘Bout Seven remix)
   The Kitsuné (“fox” in Japanese) battle system returns in very strong form, with Maison Compilation 3, out this week. Fourteen (plus a bonus track) mostly-new songs from all over the world. Starting with the UK, we have Simian Mobile Disco in a somewhat subdued, slo-mo style, the Van She remix of Klaxons, Freeform Five, Dead Disco remixed by Metronomy, and the Whip; the US, via that amazing Soulwax remix of the Gossip, and Oh No! Oh My!; Alex Gopher representing Paris; Sweden, via Fox ‘n Wolf, and Erlend Øye’s Whitest Boy Alive project; Berliner Boys Noize; and these Valentinos guys, from Australia. There are a couple of missteps – the inclusion of the Lovely Feathers (who I posted here) seems an odd choice for dance-y indie rock, but it is still a good track. Same goes for the Fox ‘n Wolf song – don’t get me wrong here, “Youth Alcoholic” is a great song, but it has been around for a couple of years now.
   Anyway, the Valentinos are a young Aussie band whom you’ll likely be hearing more from in the next six months or so… they’re a five piece from Sydney, who hale from the scene of next-wave bands (Van She, Presets, Bang Gang, Midnight Juggernauts, &c.) that are getting a lot of attention here in the US and in Europe. Their inclusion on a Kitsuné compilation will likely lead to all that much more attention for them, as the Kitsuné stamp of approval is like hipster manna from heaven. Also worth noting are the remixers, the so-called Bag Raiders, a young (likely insane) trio from Sydney who’ve got a wild live show of covers and are often heard DJ-ing around OZ – check their myspace page or website for some info and more of their remix work.
   So, I suppose the question is this: is Kitsuné Maison 3 an essential purchase? Honestly, yes it is. Like many of you, I do my damnedest to snatch up all the Kitsuné releases that I can, and this should be no exception. There are a handful of things on here that you won’t likely find other places, and the totally ridiculous hidden bonus track, exclusive-to-KM3 remix of “Zdarlight” (that will totally melt dancefloors) as well as the remixes make it well worth seeking out. Your easy US-based source to start with would be the fine folks at the Turntable Lab – they’ll likely have it by the end of the week, so get to it!
   Happy post-Thanksgiving weekend guys!

8. It’s too late for you, and it’s too late for me

   11/24/2006 8:52 am 6 Comments

   

   Are you still in your post-Thanksgiving haze? Have you been napping on the couch for the past 18 hours, half-listening to John Madden’s jowly bark? Well snap out of it! I present to you: Mouthful of Bees.
   Mouthful of Bees - The Now.
   I think all us Robots have posted at one time or another about the thrill of hearing something great when it’s least expected. We’ll receive something in the mail that we’ve never heard of, and take a few minutes from our day to pop it in the player. Sometimes what comes out of the speakers is something thrilling and exciting.
   That’s what happened to me with Mouthful Of Bees. “The Now” is from their record The End, which is overall just a great piece of music. Their next one will be released on Afternoon Records. Afternoon is also the home to One For The Team, a great band I posted a while back, and One For The Team’s frontman Ian Anderson is also Afternoon Records’ frontman. (And not to embarrass the guy or anything, but click here to listen to a Minnesota Public Radio story about how Anderson somehow juggles college with helming a respected Minneapolis indie label and fronting an awesome rock band.)
   Anyway, I don’t know much about Mouthful Of Bees. I know they self-released The End a few months ago, and now they have distribution with Afternoon, so it’s pretty great that the record will get some more attention now. I love this song, how it starts out with that riff and then dissolves into organized chaos. Gets me every time. And do yourself a favor, listen to their other tunes on MySpace, especially “Talking,” which has another great guitar part to dance around to.
   To get the record, I’d suggest contacting the band via MySpace.