label profile: BPitch Control.

Did you know, Germany has the largest electronic music scene in the world? No, me neither. However, when you take into consideration the amount of outstanding electronic labels that are based in Germany today, it does not surprise me one bit. Amidst this impressive Deutsch collective are popular labels such as Studio !K7, Mille Plateaux and Kompakt. However, my personal favourite comes in the form of BPitch. 

BPitch Control is a techno and IDM label founded in 1997 in Berlin by DJ and produce Ellen Allien. Ellen started her music career as a DJ at legendary Berlin club Tresor back in 1992, from this spawned her own Berlin radio show and record label, both under the moniker of "Braincandy".However, due to poor sales, Allien was forced to shut down all Braincandy operations in 1997 and began organizing parties under the name of BPitch instead. In 1999 she ventured back into the world of record distribution and founded BPitch Control, which was highly successful from the word go, with heralded releases from the likes of Sascha Funke and Tok Tok. The label has since launched the careers of popular production outfits such as Modeselektor and Apparat. Starting with Ellen Allien, I'm going to take you through the core members BPitch family, exploiting their lovechildren and sharing a couple of mp3s along the way. Genießen.

Ellen Allien.

The creation of BPitch allowed Ellen to distribute her own music, which is best described as a distinctive blend of techno and dance, with noticeable experimental tendencies. She released her debut album Stadtkind (an ode to her beloved Berlin) in 2001, and has since released 3 more LPs to much critical acclaim, as well as a collaboration with fellow BPitch family member Apparat (more from that later). She is also famed for a number of alarmingly popular Mix CDs, produced for the likes of Fabric and Boogybytes, as well as BPitch's own Control Camping Compilation. Her fifth studio album Sool is due for release next month. In the meantime, here are some mp3's for yo' asses.

Ellen Allien - Sehnsucht

Ellen Allien - Its

Apparat.

Next up is Berlin-based Apparat, who started out making dance-floor orientated techno, however, but over time has leaned more toward ambient and IDM music, stating "I've become more interested in designing sounds than beats". Apparat has released five solo albums, the first of which was highly praised by the late John Peel, as well as a joint album with Ellen Allien Orchestra of Bubbles. Although signed to BPitch, Apparat co-owns popular German electronic label Shitkatapult. Here are some mp3s from his much-loved 2007 album Walls as well as a couple from Orchestar of Bubbles.

Apparat - Arcadia

Apparat- You Don't Know Me

Ellen Allien & Apparat - Jet

Ellen Allien & Apparat - Bubbles

Modeselektor.

Now for my favourite of the bunch - Modeselektor, who too hail from - you guessed it - Berlin. The boys - Gernot Bronset and Sebastian Szary - draw heavily from IDM, glitch, hip-hop and electro, and produce all their material with self developed software. The band have released two superb albums, as well as material in collaboration with Apparat under the moniker of "Moderat". Modeselektor are a favourite of Thom Yorke, who frequently speaks of them in the press. Yorke even provided guest vocals on the bands 2007 album Happy Birthday!. Here is some Modeselektor (and Moderat) for you to enjoy.

Modeselektor - Kill Bill (Vol. 4)

Modeselektor - Sucker Pin

Moderat - Mode2

Well that brings us to the end of our BPitch journey, I hope you get as much pleasure reading/ listening to the mp3s as I did writing this shit. Thank you.

For more BPitch information, check their official site here.

news: Burial DJ-KiCKS.

Always a good time for a rare bit of Burial news. According to a press release from Studio !K7 earlier today, the enigmatic dubstep producer is next in line to compile a DJ-KiCKS compilation for the label. For those who are unfamiliar, DJ-KiCKS is a series of DJ-mix albums mixed by various various artists, not dissimilar to the Back to Mine or Late Night Tales series. !K7 release roughly two to three mixes a year and past contributers include Carl Craig, Hot Chip and Four Tet. I'm not usually into mixes like this, but with rumors that Burial will treat his favored dubstep, techno and r&b tracks with his own unique production style before mixing them with exclusive material, I will defo be checking this out. 

Just like his identity, the tracklisting is still top-secret, but I will keep you posted. Burials DJ-KiCKS drops June 23rd. In the meantime, enjoy Archangel taken from Burials spectacular 2007 album Untrue and his dubtastic mix of Thom Yorke's And It Rained All Night. mp3s:

Burial - Archangel

Thom Yorke - And It Rained All Night (Burial Remix)

video: Dan Deacon - Okie Dokie.

Ahh, a Sunday evening treat for you all, the brand spanking new (well not quite, but who's here to argue?) video from Baltimore-based electronic-eccentric Dan Deacon. Deacon lies somewhere between Daft Punk and Daniel Johnston in my record collection, which is funny because if you put the two in a blender, add a bunch of crazy shit and speed it up, you would probably get Okie Dokie, the latest single to be taken from Deacon's Spiderman of the Rings, another one of my favourites of 2007. 

The video, directed by David Hughes, does a fantastic job of transferring the energy of Deacon's immense live performances into a kaleidoscopic jumble of trippy skulls, vintage commercial footage, TV dinners, fighting robots, rockets, rainbows of feedback and a sweaty Deacon doing his thang. It also gave me a migraine. Enjoy.

mp3: Dan Deacon - Okie Dokie

introducing: White Williams.

Joe Williams hails from Cleveland, Ohio. He started playing music with local noise bands at the age of 15, some of whom got to open shows for the likes of Black Dice and The Rapture. Williams later gravitated to a more electronic pop sound, which resulted in his solo act - White Williams. William's debut album Smoke was released stateside to much acclaim last November on Tigerbeat6 and is set for a UK release next week on Domino imprint Double Six Records. The album, one of my favourites of 07 (I imported it because I care folks, and we have the same initials) is a coulourful collection of nostalgic and unapologetic pop songs. Mucho recommended, even if it does include a cover of The Strangeloves 1965 hit I Want Candy, which has been covered previously by the likes of Bow Wow Wow and er, Melanie C to name but a few. Album highlight and new single New Violence has been getting a lil' bit of Radio One airplay recently, which is always nice to see. Check it out below and be be sure to pick up the album on Monday. 

mp3: White Williams - New Violence

video(s): Yeasayer on Later.

Bit late on this one, but did anyone else see Yeasayer on Later With Jools Holland last week? The band performed two tracks - 2080 and Sunrise - from their debut album All Hour Cymbals, one of my favourite releases of last year, and they were remarkable. I had no idea they were so tight live. You could basically see the jealousy on the other acts faces as they watched the band play. And for those of you who caught the whole show, you too would've seen The Kooks announce Yeasayer as 'their new favourite band'. Lucky Yeasayer. Check it out below, and if you haven't already, go and buy All Hour Cymbals.

mp3: Yeasayer - 2080

You can catch Yeasayer live at London's ULU on May 12th. Tickets priced £10. For more information click here.

Appy-Polly-Loggies.

To my three/four dear fans, my upmost apologies for my three-day absence of posting, I've been rather busy of late (Mario Kart Wii - wahooo), but to make up for it, here is a longish post consisting of several things I have been feelin' recently and a couple of mp3s to accompany. Enjoy.

First up is Dirty Projectors (artist name of Brooklyn-based musician Dave Longstreth). It was announced sometime last week that Dirty Projectors would be replacing Liars for the support slot of the ATP-curated Battles date in May. Whilst I'm still in mourning of Liars having pulled out, boy I am I excited about seeing Dirty Projectors. For some reason unknown to me, I ignored DP's superb 2007 offering Rise Above, an album consisting of covers of tracks taken from Black Flag's seminal 1981 album Damaged as reimagined from memory. Longstreth replaces Black Flag's hardcore punk sound with a mix of classical orchestration, samples and skewed rhythms, creating something rather special in the process.   

mp3: Dirty Projectors - No More

Next up is another act who too for reasons beyond my control passed me by in 2007. The delightfully-named Psychedelic Horseshit are a three-piece from Columbus, Ohio, who make music they themselves describe as 'shitgaze'. Their raw, jumbled fusion of fuzzy guitars, synth organs and brittled drums make them sound like Times New Viking's rougher little brother. Their first full-length Magic Flowers Droned came out on Slitbreeze Records at the end of the last year, it's really fucking good. Here is an mp3 for you to enjoy, my pick of the post.

mp3: Psychedelic Horseshit - New Wave Hippies 

My third pick is Graveyard Girl, the second single to be taken from French electronic musician M83 (real name Anthony Gonzales) new record Saturdays = Youth, which is out now on Mute. You may know M83 for his remix work, which includes tracks for Bloc Party and Goldfrapp to name but a few, however, it is his shoegaze (not to be confused with our new favourite genre shitgaze peeps) inspired solo work that stands out for me the most. Saturdays = Youth has a different kind of heft to his previous records, yet it still rich in M83 conventions such as heavy usage of reverb effects and softly spoken vocals. Check it out.

mp3: M83 - Graveyard Girl

I won't pretend to you that I know loads of shit about African music, because I don't. However, I do know that the new album from Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté is great stuff. Toumani comes from a long family tradition of kora players and has been playing music for over 20 years now. Just like Konono N°1, he collaborated with Björk on her 2007 album Volta and is currently the opening act on her tour of the UK. The Mande Variations is Toumani's second solo offering, as well as his first since 1988. The album is just the man and his unadorned kora, recorded with maximum clarity as he pays tribute to his roots and peers. Defo recommended.

mp3: Toumani Diabaté - Ali Farka Toure

My last offering to you is the latest single to be taken from Why?'s highly-recommended third album Alopecia, which I first wrote about as one of my favourite albums released back in March. I seriously cannot get enough of Song Of The Sad Assassin, the line "Billy the kid did what he did and he died" is fantastic in its own right and the video for the single is directed by animator Mike L. Mayfield, known for his work on American Dad and Family Guy. What more could you possibly want? 

mp3: Why? - Song Of The Sad Assassin

preview: No Age - Nouns.

I've been wanting to write about L.A experimental art-punk duo No Age for quite some time now. The band - guitarist Randy Randall and singing drummer Dean Spunt - formed in late 2005 from the ashes of hardcore punk band Wives and played their first proper show at downtown LA art-hole The Smell in April 2006. However, it wasn't until the release of Weirdo Rippers (a collection of five EPs released on five different labels early in the bands career) in 2007 that the band entered our lives. Weirdo Rippers was released on FatCat to much critical acclaim (it ranked 12th on Pitchfork's Top 50 albums of 2007 and 8th on Drowned in Sound's) and resulted in the band being whisked into the loving arms of Seattle's SubPop Records. 

Nouns, the bands 'proper' debut, consists of 12 new tracks and is set for release on SubPop on May 5th. The first single to be taken from the album is Eraser. The track opens with a chiming acoustic guitar, a bright tambourine and an undercurrent of fuzz, before turning into a textbook example of the bands noise-pop aesthetic. It may well be the bands most accessible song yet, definitely a good sign for what the album will have to offer. Check it for yo'self. 

mp3: No Age - Eraser 

You can catch No Age live alongside Ex-Models on May 21 at London's Highbury Garage.

video: These New Puritans - Swords of Truth.

Swords of Truth is the latest single to be taken from Southend droogs These New Puritans debut album Beat Pyramid. The video (which appeared online sometime last week but was curiously taken down until today) sees lead singer Jack Barnett looking slightly awkward whilst singing to the camera as well as a lot of geometrical effects. Excellent. Sample-heavy, Swords of Truth is arguably the strongest track from Beat Pyramid. One Jamie Reynolds (of Klaxons) described the track as the "greatest black song ever made by white guys" - interesting stuff. Supposedly the tracks name was inspired by Liquid Swords-era GZA, which is certainly plausible as the band are self-confessed Wu-Tang fans. The track was also my ringtone for quite sometime for all you readers who are interested in my private life and whatnot... Enjoy the video.

Beat Pyramid is out now on Domino. 

introducing: HEALTH.

HEALTH are a noise rock quartet from Los Angeles who gained much exposure after touring and releasing two alarmingly popular split singles with Crystal Castles. Their self-titled debut was released at the end of last year (late to the party!) via Lovepump United. The album, recorded at the bands favourite setting, downtown LA avant-garde club The Smell, home to the likes of No Age and Mika Miko, is a breathless mix of the tribal thumps, ostentatious pounds and synth squirts. The bands unusual sound can be partially accredited to the use of Zoothorn, which is a permutation of a microphone and guitar pedal and an occasional unsymetrical atonal sound. Definitely for fans of Liars, Boredoms or Black Dice. 

HEALTH will be playing a one-off London date at Cafe Luminaire on May 1st alongside Skeletons & The King's of all Cities and Pre. Tickets are £6. For more tour information, click here.

mp3: Health - Triceratops

mp3: Health - Crimewave

remembering: Kurt Cobain.

Today - April 5th - marks the 14th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's tragic death. Say what you like about Kurt, he certainly made a mighty impact on the music world. Rather than remembering Kurt for everything illustrious he did with Nirvana, and showing you a video from Unplugged in New York (which don't get me wrong, would still be worthy), I am going to talk about his eclectic and superb taste in music other than his own.

Kurt Cobain spoke often of his favorite bands/artists in the press. Interviews were littered with references to obscure performers such as the Melvins, Daniel Johnston, The Raincoats, Meat Puppets, Wipers, The Vaselines and Young Marble Giants. Cobain was eventually able to convince record labels to reissue albums by his beloved Raincoats (Geffen) and The Vaselines (Sub Pop). Cobain also recorded covers of songs by The Vaselines, David Bowie, Meat Puppets and Leadbelly for Nirvana's classic performance on MTV's Unplugged in New York as well as further Vaselines tracks and a cover of Devo's Turnaround for B-sides and rarities compilation Insecticide. After Kurt's death, a list was found (and later published) in Kurt's journal of his Top 50 Albums of all time. The diverse list contained everybody from The Beatles to Black Flag, Swans to the Stooges, Public Enemy to Public Image and everything in between. The list can be found here. Below is a short selection of some of Kurt's more diverse and lesser-known faves, just going to show how musically-advanced he was on and off of the stage. 

36. Flipper - Generic Flipper

Kurt made his love for San Francisco noise/punk band Flipper very public through a series of self-made Flipper t-shirts that can be seen on Cobain in the inlay of the Nirvanas In Utero as well as on the band's first performance on Saturday Night Live in 1992.  Generic Flipper was the band's first studio release. It is regarded by most fans as their finest, and is definitely their most acclaimed. It is considered groundbreaking in its dabbling with sludge and heavy rock whilst still being considered a punk album. These days, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic tours and plays with Flipper and is considered a full-time member. 

mp3: Flipper - Life

35. Daniel Johnston - Yip Jump Music

Yip Jump Music was the fifth self-released cassette by bipolar singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston. Released in 1983, Yip Jump Music was recorded in Johnston's brother's garage and was the first of his releases to feature himself, predominantly, on the organ. Johnston's blend of childlike naivety and dark themes has inspired countless musicians, Kurt being one of them. Cobain's love for Johnston was too made public through the countless wearing of Daniel Johnston t-shirts.

mp3: Daniel Johnston - Speeding Motorcycle

22. Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth 

Young Marble Giants were a post-punk outfit from Cardiff, Wales. Their music was constructed around the powerful and minimal instrumentation of brothers Phillip and Stuart Moxham supporting the naive untrained vocals of Alison Statton. Colossal Youth was their first and only LP. The album was released on Rough Trade in 1980 to much critical acclaim and is highly influential to this day. Kurt once said of the album "Isn't it weird how, when you hear something like that, you still get excited, even though you know you shouldn't? I first heard Colossal Youth on the radio, after I started getting into K music when I lived in Olympia. It was a year before I put out the 'Bleach' album". 

mp3: Young Marble Giants - Credit In The Straight World

13. Gang of Four - Entertainment!

Entertainment! is the 1979 debut album by post-punk band Gang of Four. The album shows clear influences on punk, yet also incorporates funk and less-obvious influences of reggae and dub, similar to other bands at that time such as PiL and Pere Ubu. Gang of Four's angular, articulate style is often replicated by bands today. As well as Kurt's and my own, Entertainment! is known to frequently feature on Top Album lists. 

mp3: Gang of Four - Ether

04. The Vaselines - Pink EP

The Vaselines were an indie rock band from Bellshill, Scotland consisting of Eugene Kelly and and Frances McKee. Kurt Cobain once described  Kelly and McKee as his "most favourite songwriters in the whole world". Though the band were not widely known outside of the Scotland during their short career, their association with Nirvana brought exposure to the band. With songs covered for Nirvana's Insecticide and MTV Unplugged in New York albums respectively, the band gained a new audience (thats how I got into The Vaselines). At the 1991 Reading Festival, Eugene Kelly joined Nirvana on stage for a performance of Molly's Lips.

Mp3: The Vaselines - Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam

news: Grizzly Bear to open for Radiohead.

I recently posted about Liars pulling out of a series of UK commitments (bastards) as they had bagged the main support slot for Radiohead's mammoth tour of America. Today, with no resentment whatsoever, I am happy to announce Brooklyn's finest - Grizzly Bear - will be opening for the Oxford quintet on a string of their upcoming U.S shows as confirmed by a Radiohead publicist earlier today. What shows exactly the guys will be opening for are yet to be announced, so you better buy tickets to them all just to be safe. I hope the dates will generate massive exposure for the guys, they certainly deserve it.

mp3: Grizzly Bear - Knife 

from the vault: No New York.

By 1977, the New York punk scene had run out of steam. The major bands - Television, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie, Patti Smith - were all signed to big labels and constantly away from the city touring. Meanwhile, the upstart Brit's stole NY's thunder by upping punk's outrage element with anarchist rhetoric and a subversive anti-fashion look that was light years ahead than the scruffy leather-jacket retro look. On top of this, New York punk was frequently criticised for not being sufficiently forward looking. Even the scene's most adventurous band, Television, drew heavily from on late sixties acid rock. It seemed like the City had perhaps had its moment, that was until a second generation of innovation charged New York bands emerged, who came to be called 'No Wave'.

No Wave was a short-lived but highly influential art-music scene that thrived briefly in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  The term 'No Wave' was in part a parody rejecting the commercial elements of the then popular New-Wave genre. Search through the history of music and you'll only find a handful of precedents for No Wave: Velvet Underground at their least songful, The Plastic Ono Band and Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica. But, crucially, the No Wave bands acted as if they had no ancestors at all. No Wave was defined less by a sound than by this 'Year Zero' approach. Musically, the groups ranged from jazz, funk, blues, punk rock, avant-garde and experimental rock. There are however certain common elements such as repetitive driving rhythms, abrasive sounds and lyrics focused on confrontation and nihilism.

No New York is a compilation album released in 1978 by Antilles Records under the curation of producer Brian Eno, who at the time had already worked with the likes of Devo and Talking Heads. Eno was so taken by No Wave, that he invited four of the scenes best artists - James Chance and the Contortions, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Mars and DNA - to contribute four songs each to make-up what is now considered  by many (including yours truly) as the definitive album documenting the movement. 

No Wave has had a notable influence of noise bands such as Big Black and Helmet. It also heavily influenced the early sound of Sonic Youth as well as more modern bands such as Ex Models and Liars. Numerous books have been released documenting the movement of the scene in great detail including No Wave by Marc Masters and Rob Young, and No Wave: Post Punk: Underground. New York 1976-1980 by Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth) and Byron Coley. I urge you to check them out. In the meantime, here are my picks from No New York. 

mp3s:

DNA - Not Moving

James Chance and the Contortions - Dish It Out

Teenage Jesus & The Jerks - Burning Rubber