by Miné Salkin | Mar 18, 2009 | albums
Looking back to 1999, Zombie Nation’s single “Kernkraft 400” set the standard as one of the most innovative dance songs to date, maybe of all time. Luckily for us, Munich-based DJ Florian Senfter, a.k.a. John Starlight has done it again. The highly-anticipated fourth album Zombielicious is an intoxicating adventure through bass thumping, heart pounding surreal electronic dance soundscapes. If you merged the quirky weirdness of early Chemical Brothers, the rhythmic complexity of Justice, and peppered in sounds from the 1970’s, this is what you would get. The album kicks off with “Mas De Todo,” a highly energetic and almost cerebral voyage through trance-like passages that draw out the most visceral and fierce kind of dancing. The track “Get It” uses a spiky double-amped bass drum that brings to mind the cocky strut of an oversexed, urban kid who “wants it/ and gets it all the time.” The album even takes a detour into a 1970’s horror-style genre with “Supercake 53,” complete with computerized tambourines and razor-sharp synthesizers. Although Senfter samples from myriads of different sounds and styles, such as the funk-tech vibes of tracks like “Worth It pts. 1&2,” the overall sound is still strikingly organic and natural.
ZN: made to make your mouth water
You release your music on both CD and vinyl. At the end of the day, do you prefer the razor sharpness of digital music, or the warm clubby feel of analog sound?
There can be only one answer: Vinyl! My production is based on analogue hardware instruments because I want to create a warm atmosphere. I feel that this is the most pleasant sound to the human ear. Most people now enjoy music as MP3s on laptop speakers. That is the real tragedy, because producers make music that sounds good on laptop speakers now. So you get squeaky, distorted melodies instead of dynamics and bass.
On the new album, you have a song with My Robot Friend, one of the hottest electronica acts out of NYC. What was it like working with Howard Robot?
We’ve been good friends for years now. The last time I played in NYC the last time he joined me spontaneously me to perform “The Cut”, which we collaborated on for my last album Black Toys. People went crazy when he came out in his costume that was made of hundreds of LEDs and lights. He worked so hard on that costume.
Is there a difference between electronic dance music in Europe compared to the United States, or anywhere else in the world you’ve been to? I think the main difference between Europe and the US is that in Europe there is more a scene of regular electronic clubs and parties, while in the US the shows have more one off concert character. Let’s say half of the audience comes to see the specific artist, and the other half is there because they know the party is always good. (UKW Records).
by Miné Salkin | Mar 16, 2009 | albums
for EXCLAIM! Frequencies
Various Artists
Rauschgold-Alec Empire Plays Staubgold
Eat Your Heart Out Records (www.alec-empire.com)
Rauschgold, Alec Empire’s second installation of DJ mix projects, is a much like a lesson in German cultural theory. For the most part, Empire samples across the gambit of dance, dirty scratchy beats and even downtempo stuff from all over the country, quickly bringing one up to speed about how innovative and quirky the Germans can be. For example, a song by Die Welttraumforscher (loosely translated meaning “the world’s greatest researchers) called “Liebe Lilli” sounds like a awkward, but charming admonition of love. Also, “Ice Bertolt Brecht” by Schwabinggrad Ballett is an eerily haunting two and a half minute chant, titled after a famous pseudo-existentialist German playwright who wrote of absurdity and alienation. Backed by a strong base lead and something that sounds like an atom bomb about to explode, this song and many others on the album find a delicate balance between cacophony and charm. Rauschgold is an experiment in electronic distortion and psychedelia that should come with a seizure warning label.
by Miné Salkin | Mar 13, 2009 | albums
MSTRKRFT
Fist of God
Last Gang Records
this will rock your socks off
After a near three-year wait, Jesse F. Keeler and Al-P have released the highly energized sophomore album that is purposely designed to set your ears and head ablaze. For any electronica enthusiast, it’s easy to see that this album will be devoured in clubs and house parties in the months to come, because it shows the multitude of sounds that can be harmoniously bridged together through this wonderful genre. Caught somewhere between the catchy eccentricity of their earlier work The Looks, but with a bigger emphasis on dancing and complexity of rhythms, Fist of God shows the progressive, coming of age for the Ontario-based electro-duo. Tracks such as “1000 Cigarettes,” and “So Deep” are addictive and catchy as hell, reflecting the hyped up, ADD-riddled generation this band caters to. At the same time, the album shows a greater diversity of sound as it incorporates definitive traces of Death From Above 1979‘s manic metal crunch, and also the deep, anthematic beats that Keeler brought to his other project, Femme Fatale. What we get are very sexy results: the effects of well-rounded and well-versed musicmanship accomplished with a machine-like exactness. What’s most impressive about the album is added hip-hop sequences, sampling artists like Wu-Tang‘s Ghostface Killah, they mesh the plurality of these styles with great mastery, avoiding the oft-cheesiness this combination often produces. The name says it all: Fist of God conquers all styles of music with a tireless, omnipotent kind of force that makes one dance all night long.
by Miné Salkin | Jan 15, 2009 | albums
Hailing from Nunavut, Lucie Idlout’s album is full of sweet contradiction. She’s one of those singers who can pull off the most soulful lines while sounding rougher than a train wreck – a sort of midnight Whisky rasp that sounds uniquely feminine too. After a while, this album sounds a lot like late Alice in Chains, because both Idlout and Layne Staley have the voice of a 300-pound trucker despite their deceivingly slender builds.
idlout could beat you to a bloody pulp if she wanted to
When she croons “Drunk last night/ and got into a fight” in the track “My Shine,” it brings to mind a pretty girl with soft hair who’s just much tougher that she appears. Laid with predominantly heavy, distortion-rich guitars, Idlout manages to maintain harmonic integrity despite the harshness of her instrumental entourage.
The album peaks at “Belly Down,” where Idlout tells a commonplace, but compelling story of alienation. Wailing out lines like “She once was a beauty queen/ in a small town world/ she shattered all her dreams/ hanging out with big city girls,” our character becomes a junkie in a gritty industrial grotto.
While Idlout has the technical skill and a fantastic voice, her lyrical integrity leaves much to be desired. Drinking and fighting certainly has its merits, but even in the world of rock and roll those aren’t always enough.
by Miné Salkin | Nov 20, 2008 | albums
Fall
(DDG Records)
Fall, the third EP by The Great Outdoors offers a consolation for summer lovers basking in the afterglow of the falling leaves and rustling sounds of this soft season. Belting out lyrics about ten thousand baby birds amongst a mellow plethora of bluesy sounds, the album shows a softer side of the band whose last work Summer was surprisingly rocky for the folk-blues quintet. The band members are Adam Nation and Steven Wells, who sing and play guitar, Randy Forrester on keys, bassist Craig McCaul, and drummer Steven Wegelin, and are best described as talented but curmudgeonly. The album starts out with “Under the Sun,” a nostalgic tune about the finality of summer and the progression of time that drifts further and further into a colder place. Frontman Nation sings “Black Water Road” with a Dylan-like intimacy that makes your eyes water. The chorus gets surprisingly loud at one part in “Ten Thousand Baby Birds,” when Wells rips into lyrics like “She’s seen/Better days for me” while shredding his electric guitar. While the band seems at peace with the growing cold, there’s a sense of frustration and anger which is quickly followed by a redemptive softness. At the last track “The Garden,” there’s a chorus singing “will you meet me in the spring time/ when the rain is falling down,” while the strings of a banjo are plucked almost orchestrally. Overall, Fall has many strengths as a seasonal album, and makes the cold transition a little easier.
by Miné Salkin | Sep 21, 2008 | albums
i don't think these children were ever breastfed
Yolk of the Golden Egg
Dandi Wind
Summer Lovers Unlimited
Dandi Wind’s new album Yolk of the Golden Egg is a sonic journey that challenges every spectrum of electronica. Caught somewhere between a surreal utopic musical vision, and something that could only have been spawned from a ritualistic love orgy between Kate Bush, Bjork and Aphex Twin’s Richard D. James, the record shows no weaknesses. It opens with “The Battle of Verdun,” aptly catching the industrial bustle of its Quebec recording locale, and moves through what seems like a futuristic, cacophonic scene of torture. Raw, edgy and highly textured, the sounds take detours through the complexity of the psyche in a way that could be likened to the spiritual despair and disillusionment of Trent Reznor, but with more emphasis on a clear articulation of ugliness. Never failing to surprise, the song “Johatsu” sounds like a cracked-out late 80’s dance exercise tape, while suggesting the theme that would should all “surrender to the machine.” The album climaxes with the final track entitled “Dance of the Paralytic,” whose bass-rich beat is juxtaposed against an ineffable wet thumping noise that brings amniotic fluid to mind. While overtly corporeal, the album points at an introspective notion in quoting Dostoevsky and the parable of the old dreamer rummaging through his dreams in vain. While its message is not always accessible, Yolk of the Golden Egg is a worthwhile musical venture for those who want something a little more violent in spirit.
