Irony Doesn't Kill People, Curmudgeons Do
Being allergic to most things ironic, I half-expected to get some kind of rash from rubbing up too close to Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do, Diplo and Switch's kinda-sorta concept album about a one-armed commando from Jamaica named Major Lazer. (It's all very Gorillaz meets, oh, I don't know, Dr. Alimantado or something, or Rex the Dog meets rockers uptown.) But the record's actually kind of awesome. The first track alone features surf guitar; horse whinneys and clip-clopping hooves; Nokia ringtones; cash-register bells; a hyperactive Santigold loop; and gruff, absurdist chat from Mr. Lex. The album's first half offers a solid stretch of dancehall bangers and earnest lovers' rock; Major Lazer achieve genius with "Baby," a 67-second sketch featuring the roly-poly-voiced Prince Zimboo waxing philosophical to a newborn. (The baby has "built-in Auto-Tune," wouldn't you know.) For all the goofiness, Diplo and Switch flex considerable muscle with tracks like the supercolliding "Anything Goes" and the martial, minimalist "Pon De Floor." To make the latter beat, one imagines the producers having rigged up a Whac-a-Mole game with those toy cans that moo when turned upside down. As The Hudsucker Proxy's Norville Barnes would say, "You know, for kids."
Declare Independence
It's tempting to say that Bjork is the polar opposite of the zany Major Lazer, except for the fact that the Icelandic singer and conceptualist clearly values absurdity as much as they do -- just put toward more ambiguous and, in recent years, less populist ends. A new collection of remixed Bjork songs regards the dancefloor with equal parts desire and distrust. Tackling tracks from 2007's Volta, Voltaic: The Volta Mixes runs the gamut from Alva Noto's tilted pinball meltdown to XXXChange's no-nonsense punky electro disco. Matthew Herbert skulks past the DJ booth with a charred guitar amp tucked under his arm, while Modeselektor, Simian Mobile Disco and Sinden offer alternately sleek and bleepy variations on a techno theme.
If you prefer unadulterated Bjork, Voltaic attempts to capture the immediacy of her live show via a studio recreation. Fresh from her Volta tour, Bjork and backing musicians (including Mark Bell, Chris Corsano and a 10-piece brass section) set their stage show to tape in London's Olympic Studios. Putting a twist on live recordings -- of which she's created plenty -- the album reinterprets both classics ("Army of Me") and new material ("Declare Independence") with stripped-down urgency. Rebuilt from the ground up, many songs bear little relation to their studio versions, proving that the material has evolved on pace with the malleable singer.
Single File
Black Strobe's Arnaud Rebotini dusted off his collection of vintage analog synthesizers to make Music Components, a throbbing album of melodic techno that was banged out in five days of jamming. Tech fetishists might want to have a bib handy before they check the photos of the Parisian musician's gear on his MySpace page. Key cut: "CM."
Fans of Thomas Fehlmann are in luck. The revived R&S label has digitally reissued Good Fridge, a decade-old classic by the sometime Orb member and Kompakt signee. Recorded between 1990 and 1998, the 20-track collection spans lush ambient techno and glistening living-room rave music, and will please fans of Aphex Twin, Mu-Ziq and Sun Electric. Key cut: "Schizophrenia," featuring Basic Channel's Moritz von Oswald.
For the single-minded among you, a few new EPs worth checking: Ewan Pearson gives Junior Boys' "Hazel" not one but three remixes, spanning gooey disco, New Wave R&B and Lite-Brite house music. Animal Collective's "Summertime Clothes" gets a vigorous going-over by L.A. boogie funkster Dam Funk and dubsteppers Zomby and LD. If it's dubstep you're after, don't miss the new Planet Mu singles from Floating Points and Brackles. And new U.K. label Infrasonic makes a strong showing with their split EP from Ike Release and Hot City, two Londoners in love with the sounds of acid house and 2-step garage.
It's tempting to say that Bjork is the polar opposite of the zany Major Lazer, except for the fact that the Icelandic singer and conceptualist clearly values absurdity as much as they do -- just put toward more ambiguous and, in recent years, less populist ends. A new collection of remixed Bjork songs regards the dancefloor with equal parts desire and distrust. Tackling tracks from 2007's Volta, Voltaic: The Volta Mixes runs the gamut from Alva Noto's tilted pinball meltdown to XXXChange's no-nonsense punky electro disco. Matthew Herbert skulks past the DJ booth with a charred guitar amp tucked under his arm, while Modeselektor, Simian Mobile Disco and Sinden offer alternately sleek and bleepy variations on a techno theme.
If you prefer unadulterated Bjork, Voltaic attempts to capture the immediacy of her live show via a studio recreation. Fresh from her Volta tour, Bjork and backing musicians (including Mark Bell, Chris Corsano and a 10-piece brass section) set their stage show to tape in London's Olympic Studios. Putting a twist on live recordings -- of which she's created plenty -- the album reinterprets both classics ("Army of Me") and new material ("Declare Independence") with stripped-down urgency. Rebuilt from the ground up, many songs bear little relation to their studio versions, proving that the material has evolved on pace with the malleable singer.
Single File
Black Strobe's Arnaud Rebotini dusted off his collection of vintage analog synthesizers to make Music Components, a throbbing album of melodic techno that was banged out in five days of jamming. Tech fetishists might want to have a bib handy before they check the photos of the Parisian musician's gear on his MySpace page. Key cut: "CM."
Fans of Thomas Fehlmann are in luck. The revived R&S label has digitally reissued Good Fridge, a decade-old classic by the sometime Orb member and Kompakt signee. Recorded between 1990 and 1998, the 20-track collection spans lush ambient techno and glistening living-room rave music, and will please fans of Aphex Twin, Mu-Ziq and Sun Electric. Key cut: "Schizophrenia," featuring Basic Channel's Moritz von Oswald.
For the single-minded among you, a few new EPs worth checking: Ewan Pearson gives Junior Boys' "Hazel" not one but three remixes, spanning gooey disco, New Wave R&B and Lite-Brite house music. Animal Collective's "Summertime Clothes" gets a vigorous going-over by L.A. boogie funkster Dam Funk and dubsteppers Zomby and LD. If it's dubstep you're after, don't miss the new Planet Mu singles from Floating Points and Brackles. And new U.K. label Infrasonic makes a strong showing with their split EP from Ike Release and Hot City, two Londoners in love with the sounds of acid house and 2-step garage.
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
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