I’ve been scavengering the internetz trying to find electronic music equivalent to star births. I think I achieved my goal… I found three tracks that are every bit as pulsating and illuminating as the cycles of space. The first track is by Futurecop!, which has been floating around for a little bit, but I’m fucking sideways in love with it. This new supersonic space synth falling out of Valerie Cherie is making my life right now. Futurecop! impresses me mostly because he modernizes and mimics the sentimentality of eighties soundtracks with delicate intimacy. “Starworshipper” is one of his best tracks.
Futurecop! far left
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
This song has a brutish tone that reeks of bloody knife fights in grease splattered alleys. About thirty seconds after the dark warbled bass introduces the track a lighter, yet still creepy Goblin-like synth riff creates an eerie melody. Power Glove’s myspace .
On Thursday morning I spoke to Kim from one of my favorite bands, Australian electro duo The Presets. The interview was ostensibly to promote their new album “Apocalypso“, their upcoming US tour and all the usual PR kerfluffle. But mostly I was interested in hearing what I don’t normally get enough of in interviews: the musicians talking in detail about how they make their music.
Baron von Luxxury: The electronic/indie rock crossover landscape has changed so much since your debut “Beams” three years ago. Since then we’ve seen acts like Justice, Cut Copy and Midnight Juggernauts continue to blur the genre lines and to bridge the gap between the “rock” and “dance” music audiences. What changes have you noticed?
KIM: Five years ago “House of Jealous Lovers” had just come out, dance and rock music were just coming together, and we were playing clubs to 20 people who didnt know what to do with us. Eventually we built it up to really big shows, and what was an underground thing Australia is now mainstream culture. For example our album and Cut Copy’s album debuted #1 on the Australian charts and ours has been top 10 for 12 weeks now. Its weird, its gone from being something that was underground and subversive and is now mainstream culture in Australia. Imagine if Justice debuted at #1 in the US, it a bit of a headfuck! But it’s definitely a good sign, particularly when you have all this American Idol manufactured stuff going on and everyone is resigning themselves that that’s how pop music should be. So it seems promising.
BvL: I imagine it must be incredibly gratifying to go from playing to 20 people to having a #1 record!
KIM: Yeah, and even this time last year we were still underground. It wasn’t til October last year that mainstream radio picked up on us, like they couldnt ignore the size of the shows anymore or the culture around it. Its just really cool! Its one of those things as an artist, you want as many people to get into what you do, but also retain your credibility. It’s a fine line you tread. It’s weird to have a moment where everything you imagined going well has come together and happened. It is really gratifying, rare and special.
(Interview continues below…)
BVL: The new album “Apocalypso” is fantastic. The biggest difference to my ears is that it sounds much bigger than “Beams.”
KIM: I’m glad you think it sounds bigger! When we made Beams we hadnt toured much, it was just us with our weird take on indie electronic music. But after touring for two and a half years on that record it became obvious what we were: “warped techno.” We found we really love that moment when we play when there’s just breakdowns and buildups, and everyone punching the air, and we wanted to encapsulate that particular energy for this record. So we really stripped every thing back to make it bigger. That was one of the most important lessons we learned, we really wanted to be sparing about what we used to maximize the impact.
BVL: That reminds me of a documentary I saw about Queen where Brian May talks about how on one song the more guitars they added the smaller it sounded. So they reduced the overdubs to two or three and suddenly it sounded massive.
KIM: Your canvas is only so big, and there are ways of maximizing it: if you take stuff out, you boost what’s there. Its a bit like packing a fridge…Um, wait, that doesn’t make sense. But yeah, it’s a common mistake when you make music; I hate it when people say “less is more” but its so true: the less you use the more space you have to make what you are doing bigger. Its a real lesson we learned.
BVL: Lets talk about the songwriting process. Walk us through how you wrote the song “My People.”
KIM: The initial thing was the kick drum and the bassline, that was real start of the track [he sings it]: “do do do do do- doo doo doo.” It sounded real early-2000 Electroclash, fucking stupid [laughs]. But what was cool about it was the thing that became verse. And from there it was a bit of a labor. It took six months and many versions, but we kept hacking into it to make it sound like “us.”
There’s not too much in the track: there was the bassline, getting the right sounds for the drums, and an arpeggiated synth that comes in the chorus. So there’s only like three things and the vocal in the song. When you are doing “less is more” you need to make your choices super right. We tried different choruses, chord progressions and vocal melodies. But pretty much everything you hear in the verse was always there in the guide vocal, which is where Julian will just grab a mic and sing nonsense words that eventually turn into lyrics.
So it was chorus that was the problem, we had a few that didnt really lift off. Eventually we got to the AC/DC “Thunderstruck” backing vocal thing which was initially in the bassline. Then we had this idea of the 90s vocal sample thing, just chopping bits of the vocal and playing it on a keyboard. So its just a question of taste and style that gets a song like that finished. It was much harder to finish that song than anything else because it was first thing since “Beams” that was our own thing and we wanted to set a new stage to for what we were doing. But once we got it out everything else on the record was much easier.
(Interview continues below…)
Video: “My People” - The Presets
BVL: So how did the rest of the album come together amongst all of your touring?
KIM: We started get ideas together February of last year. We each had a set up with Pro Tools, some preamps, instruments on a farm in New South Wales near the beach. Then we left that to tour and everything was done on laptops. We were in Berlin for a few months last year and did lots of things with softsynths as guides but that ended up being in the final. And then August til January we were just working every day on the album.
What’s interesting to me is what happens by doing stuff. I guess “I have this whole song in my head” happens to a lot of people, but to me the most interesting things happen by it being a daily routine and a process. A lot of times you think you know what you’re doing and it bites you in the ass and turns into something different.
I have this vague lust and desire to make music. Maybe at one point the vision was much stronger, but now its more about doing it. I just try and demystify the bullshit around creativity. I was inspired by Terry Riley interview where he said he works with a 9-5 schedule Monday through Friday. It’s not the mythology of rock and roll: it’s just fucking turning up and doing a job. That’s cool to me, that you can sit at a piano or computer and have nothing in your head but anytime you sit down to do something somethings gonna happen. Its so interlinked, anything creative: cooking, reading, its all related, and like cooking, if you make music, it’s about it being satisfying and hopefully delicious.
Four more things you should know about The Presets:
1. Their new album Apocalypso is out now on Modular, you can buy it on Amazon;
2. KIM is DJing this Tuesday July 22, at Cinespace Los Angeles w/Steve Aoki and friends;
3. They are returning to the US in September, and tour dates are coming soon;
4. They do the Myspace thing.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
UPDATE: Cut Copy & The Presets Announce Joint Headline Tour!
Modular Presents is proud to announce that Cut Copy & The Presets will join forces to storm across North America for a co-headline tour this September and October. The Modular labelmates will be supporting their current albums In Ghost Colours and Apocalypso respectively.
Expect a friendly but fierce rivalry to blow each other off the stage each night, special guests and a date or two to be added where there seem to be obvious omissions:
SAT 9/13 - Monolith Festival - Denver, CO
MON 9/15 – The Record Bar - Kansas City, MO
TUES 9/16 - Fine Line Music Cafe- Minneaplis, MN
WED 9/17 - Metro - Chicago, IL
FRI 9/19 Sound Academy - Toronto, Ontario
SAT 9/20 - Club Soda - Montreal, Quebec
SUN 9/21 - Webster Hall - New York City, NY
MON 9/22 - Webster Hall - New York City, NY
TUE 9/23 - Paradise - Boston, MA
THURS 9/25 – The Trocadero Theater - Philadelphia, PA
FRI 9/26 9:30 Club - Washington D.C.
SAT 9/27 Masquerade - Atlanta, GA
MON 9/29 - Emo’s Alternative Lounge - Austin, TX
TUES 9/30 - Granada Theater - Dallas, TX
FRI 10/3 – The Glass House - Pomona, CA
SUN 10/5 - Mezzanine - San Francisco, CA
TUES 10/7 - Hawthorne Theater - Portland, OR
WED 10/8 - Showbox At The Market - Seattle, WA
THURS 10/9 - Commodore Ballroom - Vancouver, B.C.
Tickets are on sale this week. Check your local dealer for more info.
I get the impression Sixtrak is obsessed with our horned animal friend, the deer. Deer skulls, deers made out of silver paper, deers on buses. Yes, you name it, Sixtrak lives in a world of deers and electro. They hail from the United Kingdom and are comprised of two members, EJ on synth/vocals and Andrew 3000 on synth/vocals/talkbox/bass. Their electronic concoctions are whimsically fun, full of ass-bouncing bass beats and sentimental samples (like the synth riff in Van Halen’s “Jump”). CSS’s “Alala” has been overly-overly-fucking-remixed, amirite. But, Sixtrak’s remix is a good variance from the typical direction remixes take with “Alala.” My skull didn’t explode after listening to it, in fact, I loved it. And they are not only clever remixers! They create original tracks such as “Rock with the Monster.” Enjoy.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
It’s been way too long since my last post. We’ve been getting great music, but I just haven’t had the time. So I’m going to have to make up for lost time now…
Here’s the newest video from Esser. I’ve got a good feeling about this 23 year old kid. I think he’s gonna be huge.
If you missed his last video you should check that one out too:
The Frail is one of my current fave SF bands and they recently put a sampler of their new album on myspace. They also put some remixes for free downloads… go get them. You can check out “Count On Me” Doberman remix below.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
We all love ourselves some Designer Drugs now and again. Well, they’re working on their debut album and in the meantime they’re sharing this super fun remix of Messinian’s “Throw It Away.”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Toddla T has a great way of mixing sounds together. This remix of Little Dragon’s song “Recommendation” is different and has really perked my ears… give it a listen:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Lastly, The Black Ghosts debut album is out… I can’t stop listening to it and it’s definitely one of my favorites of the year (so far). You should go get it.
I know these are few and far between now but I was working on a Dj mix and these two songs (Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” and The Youngster’s “Phoenix”) seemed to just work together. It might be repetative or boring, but I’ve been listening to a lot of minimal lately. I like it. P.S. I saw something on going.com that said something like “We can’t decide what we like about DJ Johnatron more, his name or his music”. Its the name. Definitely.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I’ve been on an italo-disco binge (duh), so it comes as no surprise that I was doe eyed when I found out Moulinex redid the Pineapple’s “Closer.” Let me preface with the fact that Discoworkout loves Moulinex. He’s one half of Disco-Texas, the other half being Xinobi, and he’s injected new energy into the electronic music scene. It’s heart warming to know Moulinex loves cuddling by the fire to some Pineapples as well.
The Pineapples “Closer” is really fucking good, mostly because it strays from the general dullness that pervades a lot of italo-disco. That tricky black hole of generic bass that most tracks fall into is avoided in “Closer” with its catchy synth hooks. The only thing that makes the song slightly irritating is the vocals. It sounds like a horrific karaoke singer (like me..)… but whatever. The dub version is much better because you don’t have to hear the creepy vocalist as frequently. But other than that the track is one of the best italo-disco tracks ever made and dominated Chicago house dance floors in the late 80’s
Minimal. Techno. The Youngsters. Not much info needed.
Their new EP is worth your two dollars. I think the synth arrangements are quite clever and accessible. I highly, highly recommend it. Check out their myspace.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
This comes straight from SF minimal label Dirtybird which churns out some of the best most inventive minimal/tech minimal/minimal house in the world. The Martin Brothers are Christian Martin and Justin Martin, two true wizards alone and an unstoppable superpower together. Note that I have left my favorite song from the EP off the post (title track Rocket Surgery) which means you have to either: 1. Wait 7 days for the mp3s to be available to be bought or 2. Buy the gorgeous vinyl.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Oh jesus. I found this track on YouTube and it’s a priceless gem of simplistic-robotic-erotic synth. My favorite part about YouTube? The ridiculous comments.. case in point:
sevaxtian (5 months ago)
can it be a good song, but almost does not have chorus, who produce this? a homeless in exchange of chessburguer?
Hilary - Drop Your Pants (1984)
Chessburguer! INDEED. I actually like the track, but I guess sexvation felt otherwise.
Baltimora is one of those bands that makes Italo Disco seem even more kitschy and cringe-inducing than normal. Horrific graphic design and videos which basically consist of shitting pixels into palm trees and putting dancing hands behind an awkward gangly white man. Such mentioned awkward gangly white man was actually a mere dancing frontman named Jimmy McShane and not the lead vocalist. Videos are so cleverly deceptive like that. I totally thought he was singing the tracks… But anyway, I’m sure you’ve heard “Tarzan Boy” quaking local shopping malls or blasting from Pride parade floats. It’s Baltimora’s lone, gigantor international hit. I could lie and say I hate to admit I like it, but I don’t. I love admitting I like it.
I’ve posted the “Tarzan Boy” mp3, but featured the “Jukebox Boy” video. I think I laughed so hard I cried when I first saw this Baltimora video. He floats on a fucking spinning blue record… walks around in an obviously fake pool and pretends hes speeding in a car with the wind in his hair. It’s insanely magical.
Doesn’t the pouch in his alladin pants look like a giant elephant ball sack?
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Johnatron, Baron von Luxxury and BearBaby are three kids from San FranDisco. If we’ve posted your music it’s because we love it and want to help spread the word. If you’d like us to take it down - or, even better, if you want to send us some music click the record below.
