Play | The Rhapsody Editorial Music Blog: Philip Sherburne Category Feed

Close to the Vest: Gay Pop Has the Upper Hand

2009-11-13T22:37:42Z

Lest there be any doubt about it, Lady Gaga wants us to know that her song "Poker Face" is about fantasizing about women when she's hooking up with men. (It's a double entendre, capiche?) Sure, you could write that off as merely an attempt to stir up a little controversy -- although, if it's a ploy, it pales in comparison with her teasing suggestion that she may or may not have hermaphroditic features. But Gaga has backed up her sexuality in interviews, insisting that "people are born the way they are," and she's vocal in her support for gay and lesbian communities. Whatever you may think of her music, it's a refreshingly different approach from Katy Perry, who flirts with Sapphos on "I Kissed a Girl" -- mostly for the benefit of her ego and her boyfriend -- and then gets regressive on "Ur So Gay," her ode to an insufficiently butch boyfriend. ("I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf" -- classy!)

But pop music has always been a proving ground for the public's evolving attitudes toward sexuality, from Little Richard to Liberace, Prince to Peaches, out-and-proud disco to rap's confused "No homo." Check these key moments in gay-themed pop from the past few decades, and add your own favorite picks in the comments below. ]]> Click here to join.

Lou Reed, "Take a Walk on the Wild Side"
Whatever you make of the phrase "colored girls," Lou Reed's 1972 portrait of transvestites, hustlers and sundry other back-alley survivors is as tender as it gets, the rhythm-and-blues equivalent of Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho.

David Bowie, "Lady Stardust"
Makeup and animal grace: artifice and essence come together in Bowie's glam-rock torch song about double identity and a love he "could not obey." One of pop's earliest openly bisexual artists, Bowie later vacillated about his true inclinations, though in a 2002 interview with Blender he blamed America's "puritanical" instincts for his mixed messages over the years.

Grace Jones, "Pull Up To the Bumper"
Despite the automotive imagery, Grace Jones' 1981 disco hit "Pull Up to the Bumper" wasn't really about traffic safety -- something that needed no further explanation in the underground clubs and Fire Island parties where the fans of this androgynous Amazon thronged.

Bronski Beat, "Smalltown Boy"
Bronski Beat's 1984 album The Age of Consent was a defiant cry for gay rights, with an inner sleeve showing the hypocrisy of more restrictive "age of consent" laws gays; its standout track, "Smalltown Boy," is a heartbreaking tale of a boy banished for his sexuality. The video drove the point home with a stark portrayal of homophobic violence.

The Smiths, "This Charming Man"
A punctured bicycle tire, a desolate hillside and the smooth leather seats of a stranger's car set the scene for this concise yet cryptic tale of a teenage awakening. Whoever the narrator is supposed to be, the song offers an intriguing chapter in the life of the band's famously celibate singer, Morrisey.

Blur, "Girls and Boys"
With a hint of post-punk sneer and a jubilant disco bounce, Blur neatly summed up the '90s' queer-friendly ethos with a simple equation: "Girls who are boys/ Who like boys to be girls/ Who do boys like they're girls/ Who do girls like they're boys/ Always should be someone you really love."

Pansy Division, "Anthem"
Punk rock has been little more hospitable to gays than mainstream society; leave it to queercore pioneers Pansy Division to raise their freak flag high with pride (and the requisite sneer).

t.A.T.u., "Malchik Gay"
Take a Russian Svengali, Eurovision, two underage girls in skimpy outfits, screen kisses and Sapphic lyrics, and you've got t.A.T.u., one of the more cynical exercises in gaysploitation in recent memory. (Subtract one demerit for their recent condemnation of gay-bashing Moscow cops and skinheads.)

Franz Ferdinand, "Michael"
In which the Scottish dandies get all hot and bothered by a sticky, stubbly, "dance whore" on a silver platter named Michael. Who cares if the band members all profess to be straight; the song's not about identity, but the pure, unpredictable rush of desire. What could be more rock 'n' roll than that?

Willie Nelson, "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other"
Long before Brokeback Mountain, Willie Nelson recorded Ned Sublette's gay cowboy anthem "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other," whose title speaks for itself. Recorded in the '80s, Nelson let it out of the closet in the wake of Ang Lee's film -- and in solidarity with the coming-out of Nelson's longtime tour manager.

Concentric Pleasures: Phoenix, Vitalic, Redshape

2009-11-08T23:56:06Z

There are three really cool things about my job. One of them is getting to turn people on to the music I'm most jazzed about: it's a license to pontificate, really -- a pulpit for strictly musical evangelism. But, recognizing that my own tastes can be, shall we say, peculiar, I also try to listen with open ears and the humble reminder that what doesn't float my boat (a rather cramped dinghy, it sometimes appears) may carry another listener's craft all the way to shore. They talk about the critic's role as a "filter," but I'm really more like a theater usher, lighting your way to the appropriate aisle.

]]>
Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Remix Collection)
Let's face it: it's hard to further polish a gem like Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. And to be fair, this collection of remixes from the album doesn't really try, offering instead a selection of agreeable alterations from the likes of Alex Metric, Passion Pit and others, who generally tug the French rockers off the stage and into the middle of the dancefloor. But the best mixes go further afield, like Turzi's hushed electro reverie, YACHT's Phillip Glass disco revamp and, particularly, Animal Collective's reverb-soaked reverie.

Vitalic, Flashmob
Pascal Arbez keeps up his walloping pace on the follow-up to 2005's electro-house touchstone, OK Cowboy. His mechanized disco rhythms are as overdriven as ever, and his synths are as subtle as paint stripper, peeling back the high end in an ecstasy of treble. But while these rave-tested anthems are built to thrill, there's enough pop structure and sonic nuance to keep the mood versatile.

Redshape, The Dance Paradox
The musician known as Redshape's identity is still a secret, but no one wonders much about the man behind the red mask these days because, frankly, his music says more than any bio could. In keeping with his 12-inch singles, The Dance Paradox revels in the steely melancholia of classic Detroit techno, with synths creaking and battered drums swinging like a post-apocalyptic playground. Imagine Burial illuminated by spotlights and given a high-voltage jolt, brooding and punishing in equal measure.

Neon Indian, Psychic Charms
There's little wonder about Texan Alon Palomo's moniker on his debut, a home-produced blast of fluorescent effervescence and Day-Glo tone color. He wields samples like the Avalanches and drops fuzzy, gritty funk in a Stones Throw vein, on tracks that are nominally lo-fi but have plenty of punch behind their yacht-rock choruses. What do you call this kind of psychedelic, style-scavenging indie pop? Who knows, but lined up with Cfcf, Wavves and even Animal Collective, it sounds very 2009.

Various, 5: Five Years of Hyperdub
After five years of warping dubstep into ever wilder, woolier shapes, London's Hyperdub label -- home to artists like Burial, Zomby and label-head Kode9 -- releases a sprawling compendium of counterintuitive bass explorations. Running from lo-fi, video-game bleepery to digital lovers' rock, the double-disc comp encapsulates half a decade of dance music on the peripheries -- and suggests plenty of evolutionary possibilities in the years to come.

F*ck Buttons, Tarot Sport
F*ck Buttons' second album features Two Lone Swordsmen's Andrew Weatherall on the boards, but don't expect another Screamadelica. Laying into savage, techno-ready kick drums and cranking the synths and guitars well into the red, the Bristol band achieves a rare fusion of dance-music form and oozing, psychedelic content. "Olympians" is throbbing fluo-pop like a niced-up HEALTH; "Phantom Limbs" turns This Heat's metallic clang into bracing, wind-tunnel funk. It's ecstatic, mind-bending stuff, and it might just change the way you think about both "rock" and "electronic music."

The xx, The xx
Twenty-year-olds aren't supposed to sound like this: this confident, this subtle, this sensual, this weary. Borrowing the pace from slowcore icons Low and an R&B rhythmic sensibility from electro-poppers Junior Boys, the London co-ed quartet turns spindly four-bar progressions swathed in reverb into minimalist pop that's alternately jewel-toned and charcoal-streaked. Breathy boy/girl vocals up the intimacy factor even as they dissipate into a world-weary haze, making this the perfect accompaniment for breakups and breakup sex alike.

Playlist: Unpacking The XX

2009-10-19T18:57:34Z

The likely pick for my favorite album of 2009 is looking to be the self-titled debut from the xx, a co-ed London quartet of 20-year-olds whose self-produced album is a masterpiece of sensuality and restraint. Even I'm surprised at my enthusiasm for the record: it doesn't necessarily reach out and grab you on first listen, favoring atmospheres over hooks and suggestion over immediacy. Still, I have a hard time listening to it only once in a given sitting (one of the pleasures of a 39-minute album).

One of the things I like about the record is how it distills so many influences into such a simple, unassuming form: there's a vintage rock 'n' roll patina borrowed from Sun Studios-era Elvis and, less authentically vintage, Chris Isaak's "Wicked Games" (which serves as the barely disguised foundation for the xx's "Infinity"). The welling bass is reminiscent of dubstep and UK garage, and the sullen ambiance recalls post-punk and early goth; the song structures suggest the molasses Americana of Galaxie 500 and their prot�g�s, like Low, Yo La Tengo and Mazzy Star.

The more you listen, the more references you can spot, floating like drops of oil on the surface of the xx's inky, glistening infusion. Since I can't just keep listening to their album on a constant loop (can I?), I put together a playlist that pulls together a number of possible xx influences—as well as a few contemporaries who achieve a similarly dark, viscous bliss in their music—including all the above plus Slowdive, Hugo Largo, David Bowie, Massive Attack, David Sylvian, Cocteau Twins, Seefeel, Brian Eno and many, many more. Listen to a sampling below, and check out the whole playlist here at Rhapsody's Playlist Central.

Concentric Pleasures: Basement Jaxx, Massive Attack, Fennesz

2009-10-13T08:02:41Z

The fall release schedule has kicked in, in earnest, and the electronic-music world is humming like an overheated Theremin. From Basement Jaxx' cyborg pop to the nether reaches of the underground, here's a selection of recent records that don't require a PhD in electronic subgenres to appreciate.

]]> Basement Jaxx, Scars
The Jaxx are back, and as always, they're sounding weird -- in a good way. Despite protestations that Scars would mark a return to their club roots, this is brain-scrambling future pop. The sitars-'n'-filter-disco rush of "Raindrops" is an obvious crowdpleaser in vintage Jaxx mode, while "Scars," featuring Kelis, sounds like a 21st-century rendition of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. And while I've never been entirely convinced by Santigold's carefully styled cool, I can't help but fall for her on "Saga," which takes direction straight from the hyperkinetic playbook of two-tone veterans the Selecter.

Massive Attack, Splitting the Atom
Perhaps spurred by Portishead's unexpected 2008 comeback, Massive Attack return from several years of virtual inactivity sounding unexpectedly inspired. The organ-drenched "Splitting" features the honeyed voice of Horace Andy and sounds something like Stereolab chopped 'n' screwed; "Pray for Rain" pairs TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe with waterlogged pianos, rolling toms and the kind of brooding bass that's always been Massive Attack's forte. "Psyche (Flash Treatment)," featuring Martina Topley-Bird, evokes a little of Fever Ray's bleepy melancholy, while Fever Ray co-producers Van Rivers and the Subliminal Kid put a techno tinge on "Bulletproof Love," fronted by Elbow's Guy Garvey. The EP is a teaser for a new Massive Attack album due out in February. If that's got you salivating, get a load of this news: Massive Attack's Daddy G has said that the group is also planning a dub version of the album, akin to 1995's Mad Professor-mixed No Protection, in collaboration with none other than U.K. avant-dubstepper Burial. (Then again, given what came of Burial's long-promised, never-delivered DJ Kicks mix, we'll believe it when we see it.)

Cortney Tidwell, Don't Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up Remixes
Nashville's Cortney Tidwell was responsible for one of 2007's cult faves in the form of "Don't Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up," an ethereal, guitars-'n'-glitches ballad graced by her spooky, heartbroken croon; Ewan Pearson was responsible for spinning its golden filaments into the year's unlikeliest dancefloor anthem. Now, the recently revived R&S label has reissued the single with additional remixes, and it's just as essential as before. In addition to Pearson's original "Objects in Space" remixes (in vocal, instrumental and radio versions), there's a delirious drums-and-voice workout from minimal technician Sei A. But the most stunning selection is Pearson's "All This Has Happened Before" mix, which turns Tidwell's vocals, along with M83-caliber guitars and synths, into a beatless, nine-minute swoon.

Loscil, Strathcona Variations
Ambient fanatics, rejoice. Three years after his masterful album Plume, Vancouver's Loscil is finally back with another slab of infinite bliss-out. Only three tracks long, the EP -- released on Ghostly, rather than Loscil's longtime home base, Kranky -- may be short, but man, is it sweet, suggesting Arvo P�rt as interpreted by Fennesz or Klimek. Rinse, repeat and drift off.

Sparklehorse + Fennesz, In the Fishtank 15
Finally, speaking of Fennesz, the Viennese ambient maestro expands his list of unlikely partnerships -- which includes Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jim O'Rourke and Pita -- with In the Fishtank 15, a collaboration with the Americana-tinged Sparklehorse. Tremolo-treated vocals bubble up like fish hiccups while battered electric guitar lines corrode beneath layers of digital effects. They couldn't have chosen a better title for this curious, captivating set of underwater meditations.

New Moon Rising

2009-09-25T16:53:35Z

The era of the celebrity DJ is on the wane. These days, the real big-tent tastemakers are music supervisors: the behind-the-scenes types with the knack for administering just the right dose of Snow Patrol at the tear-jerking climax of a Grey's Anatomy episode. And no one does that better than Alex Patsavas, whose keen ears and bursting Rolodex have put their sonic stamp on Grey's Anatomy, The O.C., Gossip Girl, and a little yarn about vampires called Twilight, whose soundtrack went on to sell 2.2 million copies.

]]> Iron and Wine and the Black Ghosts alongside megastars Muse and Linkin Park, Patsavas drinks deeply from the indie-rock vein with his selections for New Moon. Last week Stephenie Meyer, author of the best-selling novels behind the films, announced the sequel's soundtrack on her blog. The track listing offers a who's who of both yielding sensitivity and kohl-eyed cool, featuring artists like Death Cab for Cutie, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the Killers, all experts in nocturnal angst. (Not to mention OK Go, whose superhuman stamina on the treadmill suggests that they might actually be vampires themselves.)

Perhaps we shouldn't give all the credit to Patsavas: after all, Meyer herself is an avowed fan of left-of-field faves like Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear, and the latter turn up on New Moon with a new song, "Slow Life." While Brooklynites may be scratching their rumpled heads over that one, it's not the only surprise on the album. Radiohead's Thom Yorke makes a rare appearance, as do the folksy Bon Iver and St. Vincent, teaming up in an even rarer duet performance. Even hardcore indie insiders may be unfamiliar with Hurricane Bells, aka Longwave's Steve Schlitz, who until just a few weeks ago was still flying in stealth mode, as he told EW.com in a hastily arranged interview.

The New Moon soundtrack comes out October 20, a month before the film hits theaters nationwide. See below for the track listing. At Rhapsody, you can listen to all these artist, anytime, and you can even take it with you anywhere with our new iPhone app. So, be sure to sign up for your free trial Rhapsody membership, and, in the meantime, whet your appetite with our exclusive playlist of tunes by the soundtrack's artists. After all, with vampires on the march, don't you want to be prepared?

Death Cab for Cutie, "Meet Me on the Equinox"
Band of Skulls, "Friends"
Thom Yorke, "Hearing Damage"
Lykke Li, "Possibility"
The Killers, "A White Demon Love Song"
Anya Marina, "Satellite Heart"
Muse, "I Belong to You (New Moon Remix)"
Bon Iver & St. Vincent, "Roslyn"
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, "Done All Wrong"
Hurricane Bells, "Monsters"
Sea Wolf, "The Violet Hour"
OK Go, "Shooting the Moon"
Grizzly Bear, "Slow Life"
Editors, "No Sound but the Wind"
Alexandre Desplat, "New Moon (The Meadow)"

A Get-Well-Soon Playlist for Marilyn Manson

2009-09-24T22:00:18Z

The H1N1 Influenza virus -- popularly known, to the chagrin of the Other White Meat industry, as "swine flu" -- keeps spreading. And with some estimates claiming that it could affect as many as two to three billion people, it's only natural that celebrities will be stricken, along with the rest of us schlubs. (I'm not a doctor, but I play one on this blog.) From the cases reported so far, it looks like swine flu is not immune to irony. CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta got it. Epidemiologist and Huffington Post medical blogger Larry Brilliant, M.D. got it -- just days after agreeing to write an article on the disease, at that. (In addition to all its other evil powers, swine flu also apparently rifles through your email. Maybe they should call it crazy ex-girlfriend flu?) And now, it turns out, Marilyn Manson has gotten it too.]]>
I know that swine flu is no laughing matter, despite the HuffPo doc's assertion that many people "joke about it and don't give it the respect it deserves. Swine flu is the Rodney Dangerfield of pandemics." (Who am I to argue with a guy named Dr. Larry Brilliant? I don't laugh at Rodney Dangerfield jokes, either.) After all, when even a dark prince like Marilyn Manson proves susceptible to snout gout, who among us is safe? (You'd think that the virus would have taken one look at Manson's terrifying visage and turned on its amoebic heels. With his pallor, how did the microbic critters even figure out he was alive in the first place?)

"Unfortunately, I am going to survive," wrote Manson on his Facebook page, clearly taking things in stride. We'll strike that "unfortunately," because frankly, a world without Marilyn Manson is not a world we really want to imagine. (Where would we get our Mansinthe?) Having lost the King of Pop, we're not about to lose the King of Shock-Schlock. So, wishing our beloved Celebritarian a speedy recovery, we whipped up an audio get-well card: a whopping dose of tunes dedicated expressly to our favorite cross-dressing, human-skeleton-collecting, starlet-dating-and-divorcing, scary-contact-lens-wearing Man in Black: James Brown's "Cold Sweat." Run-D.M.C.'s "You Be Illin'." M.I.A.'s "Bird Flu." Peggy Lee's "Fever." Ne-Yo's "So Sick." Queens of the Stone Age's "Sick, Sick, Sick." Motley Crue's "Generation Swine," of course, along with Today Is the Day's "Kiss the Pig." Even Jello Biafra's Tumor Cirus doing the scarily prescient "Swine Flu," from way back in 1991. And much, much more. If this "Soul Vaccination" (Tower of Power) doesn't do the trick, we recommend you "Up the Dose" (Mentors). With cuts from the Rolling Stones, Steely Dan, TV on the Radio, Misfits and more, the antibody's gotta be in here somewhere. But whatever happens, just remember Screamin' Jay Hawkins' sage advice, and "Shut Your Mouth When Your Sneeze."

Get well soon, Marilyn. If we can do anything for you while you're down -- send out for pork fried rice, BLTs, a piping hot bowl of chitlins -- just say the word.

Concentric Pleasures: Remixing LCD Soundsystem

2009-09-21T04:20:05Z

You have to give DFA credit for not resting on their laurels. The label's a figurehead of this decade's indie-dance scene, with an almost unnervingly astute sense for the nuances of 21st-century cool. And yet, aside from certain hallmarks of the DFA style -- ropy bass lines, disaffected vocals, judicious use of cowbell -- they have yet to settle into a pattern. (Black Meteoric Star's psychedelic, home-soldered acid house isn't exactly par for the indie course.)

Their habit of reaching outside their own scene when commissioning remixes is equally commendable. In addition to marquis names like Soulwax and Franz Ferdinand, DFA also tap artists -- like Carl Craig, Baby Ford and Luomo -- who resonate with house and techno die-hards, but have little foothold in American indie circles. It's not just a question of credibility; the stream of new input keeps DFA's mutable sound continually refreshed.

A stellar new collection of remixes of LCD Soundsystem's 45:33, James Murphy's Nike-sponsored album from 2006, is a case in point. Theo Parrish, Prins Thomas, Runaway, Trus'Me, Prince Language, Padded Cell, Pilooski and Riley Reinhold all take the ball and run as far as they can, touching down everywhere from Detroit downbeat to Norwegian disco. Read on for a rundown of the parties involved, with recommendations for further listening from each.

]]> Theo Parrish
He's a Detroit legend, but Theo Parrish's legacy isn't limited to techno. Like Moodymann, he injects house and techno with a heavy dose of funk and disco, and the results smolder until they explode. His 1998 album First Floor finds him worrying away at hypnotic loops of battered synths and sampled soul; his 13-minute rework of Sun Ra's "Saga of Resistance" is a masterpiece of moody groove.

Prins Thomas
A frequent collaborator with his fellow countryman Hans-Peter Lindstrom, Norway's Prins Thomas is a master of unassuming drama. His long, evolving, percussive reworks take "cosmic" disco ever further into the outer limits: see, for instance, his four expansive edits of Lindstrom's Where You Go I Go Too. He shows even more variety on reworks of the Figurines' "Hey Girl," Toby Tobias' "A Close Shave" and Studio's "Life's a Beach!"

Pilooski
This French artist, affiliated with Paris' D-I-R-T-Y Soundsystem, is seriously bananas flamb�. His LCD remix is typically mutant electro-pop, with the vocodered phrase "Do you like something French" repeated ad absurdium. For those who answer "yes," don't miss his soulful edit of Nina Simone's "Take Care of Business" or his clattery rework for Von Sudenfed (aka Mouse on Mars and the Fall's Mark E. Smith), which stacks its chunky guitars, vox, keyboards and drums like a game of Jenga.

Runaway
Runaway -- Marcos Cabral and Jacques Renault, with birth names so cool they don't need aliases -- live in Brooklyn and vibe off old New York and Chicago house. Their "Brooklyn Club Jam," released jointly by DFA and Radio Slave's Rekids label (and also remixed to blissful effect by New York's Brennan Green), is a chiming piano-house epic that evokes the spirit of Berlin's thundering warehouse parties.

Prince Language
Like DFA's Still Going, Prince Language draws inspiration from the crossover between disco and early house, but his productions don't sound any less urgent for their debt to an era of kinder, gentler dance music. His dub of the Juan Maclean's "Happy House" is the bees' knees (for bees that stage roller discos on grand pianos).

Trus'Me
Gilles Peterson calls Trus'Me "the most interesting and promising young producer in the country right now." He means England, but you wouldn't necessarily guess that Trus'Me is a Mancunian, given his penchant for low-slung, Midwestern funk. Check his 2008 album Working Nights plus remixes for Amp Fiddler for a taste of his slow-mo stuff.

Padded Cell
Like their DC Recordings labelmates White Light Circus and the Emperor Machine, Padded Cell (Bronx Dogs' Richard Sen and Dirty Beatniks' Neil Beatnik) specialize in dark, slightly menacing funk with a retro-futurist touch and a dubby disco blush. Explore more on their 2009 album Night Must Fall along with multiple EPs, and dig deeper with DC's Death Before Distemper volumes three and four.

Riley Reinhold
Riley Reinhold helms the labels Traum, Trapez and My Best Friend, which -- along with Kompakt -- helped establish Cologne as the world capital for a particular strain of resonant, reductionist electronic music. He's not the most obvious choice of remixer for LCD. Hear his spare, slightly melancholic interpretation of classic minimal techno on singles like Lull, Sunset Sound and Balsamic Times, whose title goes to the heart of Reinhold's bittersweet undertones.

Concentric Pleasures: El Guincho, Lusine, Vladislav Delay

2009-09-12T15:57:26Z

El Guincho (photo: Oliver Faig)

This week's column has no explicit theme, but there might be an implicit one: all five of these albums explore what happens when you combine traditional acoustic and electric instruments with electronic processing and production. Three of them make heavy use of vocals. Four are new, another is a decade old, and one of them sounds way older -- in a good way.

El Guincho, "Antillas" remixes: EP1 and EP2

El Guincho's music is so full of energy and ideas, it's often hard to believe that it's the work of a single artist: listening to his 2008 debut, Alegranza, feels like standing on a hilltop equidistant from three or four different stages at a world music fest, with soca, Afropop, tropicalia and psychedelic rock swirling in the air and shifting with the winds. Now the Spanish musician has reissued "Antillas," one of the album's standout tracks, to a diverse crew of remixers who take his ideas even farther afield. Most of them stay true to the sunny-day spirit of the original, homing in on Highlife-inspired guitars and delirious, Animal Collective-styled chants. Spank Rock's XXXchange comes up with a dazzling slab of Technicolor exuberance in the spirit of DFA or Carl Craig. Norway's Prins Thomas, a master of hypnotic disco, seems to have come across a few of the helium-fueled balloons that once floated above the floor of David Mancuso's Loft; full of bluegrass guitar and manic hand claps, it's as unstoppable as a five-year-old's birthday party. Cee, of Germany's dub outfit Al-Haca, takes the opposite approach, layering atonal voices over quavering bass and stripped-down percussion halfway between dubstep and the bleakest techno: it's "Antillas" all right, but as heard from the other end of a black hole.

]]> Lusine, A Certain Distance

Built upon a bed of Seattle producer Lusine's typically fine-tooled rhythms, A Certain Distance indulges a jones for lushness with enveloping synths, acoustic samples and quietly dazzling vocals, layered and processed to spine-tingling effect. Downbeat in mood, the tracks sparkle with unusual clarity. There's no blur in Lusine's ultra-HD world. The easygoing "Twilight" projects singer Vilja Larjosto's supple voice as if through a prism, throwing rainbows in its wake, and "Two Dots" is even more colorful, with Larjosto's multitracked vocals fluttering like pennants stretched to the horizon. The album's out on Ghostly, which only makes sense: file this one alongside School of Seven Bells' Iamundernodisguise.

Vladislav Delay, Tummaa

Sasu Ripatti (aka Vladislav Delay, Luomo and Uusitalo) has often alluded to his background as a jazz drummer, and he recently picked up the sticks again for the Moritz von Oswald Trio. He must be making up for lost time with his new album, Tummaa. The rhythms derive from Ripatti's own playing — not on a traditional drum kit, but rather a battery of metal objects and custom percussion instruments — and he's assisted by Lucio Capece playing reeds and Craig Armstrong on piano and Rhodes. The results, torn between dub pulse and arrhythmic flicker, are as immersive as anything he's done to date. Dark and free-spirited, the album draws equally from dubstep and free-improvisers AMM -- a neat trick.

Robin Guthrie, Carousel

I won't pretend that I've followed Robin Guthrie's career post-Cocteau Twins with much diligence (I was surprised, in fact, to find that Rhapsody has five albums by him, both solo and with Harold Budd, plus two EPs). I also won't pretend that he doesn't sound a lot like a version of the Cocteau Twins sans Liz Fraser on Carousel, his new album. But who's complaining? Cotton-candy guitar filigree runs through oodles of reverb -- carried by the Cocteaus' brooding bass and drum interplay, what more could you want? Instrumental or no, these are fully formed songs, not just Frippertronic atmospherics, with generous depth. If you'd have told me these were unearthed sessions from two decades ago, I wouldn't have doubted it. Not that the album sounds dated. Quite the contrary: it only reinforces how singular and enduring Guthrie's supple sound has always been, and remains.

Mr. Scruff, Keep It Unreal (10th Anniversary Analogue Remaster Edition)

You never need an excuse to pull out Mr. Scruff's Keep It Unreal, but we'll give you one anyway. The Mancunian doodler's sampladelic masterpiece turns 10 this fall, and to celebrate the occasion Ninja Tune has released a remastered version of the album complete with eight new tracks. His vintage-leaning, fun-loving cutups haven't aged a day: this is timeless, toe-scuffing funk tailor-made for road trips, picnics and weekends at the beach. (Perfect, in other words, for Rhapsody on your iPhone.)

Owl City's Pajama Party Songs

2009-09-06T15:37:49Z

Owl City (photo: Pamela Littky)

While Gawker reports that Michael Cera is losing his cool, there arrives a new torchbearer for gangly teenaged sincerity. Minnesota's Adam Young launched his electronic-pop project, Owl City, while passing the time in his parents' basement; his MySpace page lists "God," "optimism," "foreign accents" and "G-rated movies" as influences. Taking cues from the Postal Service's fusion of skittery digital rhythms and unabashedly emo melodies, Owl City's new album, Ocean Eyes, channels the bright-eyed rush of the teenage sublime into the sweetest -- well, bittersweetest -- sound possible. With the album casting its rosy glow over the electronic and rock charts, the daydreaming insomniac found the time to share with us an exclusive playlist: Owl City's Pajama Party Songs, complete with his own track-by-track commentary. With a surprisingly ambitious selection running from Hella through Boards of Canada and the experimental computer musician Alva Noto -- and, uh, Shaquille O'Neal -- even die-hard cynics will find it hard not to open up to Mr. Young-at-Heart.

Hella, "Welcome to the Jungle Baby, Your Gonna Live!"
"This song makes me wanna throw a huge pizza party with the Chicago Bulls."
Alva Noto, "jr: for katsushika hokusai"
"I wake up every morning and brush my teeth to this song. My pearly whites are incredibly clean."
Boards of Canada, "Dayvan Cowboy"
"Of dusk and dust and dreams."
Shaquille O'Neal, "My Dear"
"Best song in the history of recorded music. Ever."
Pelican, "Last Day of Winter"
"Indoor swimming music."
The Field, "I Have the Moon, You Have the Internet"
"Brilliant minimalist house."
Taylor Swift, "Love Story"
"Sigh."
Botch, "To Our Friends in the Great White North"
"Go-cart music."
Amon Tobin, "Get Your Snack On"
"This song makes me wanna hang out with my mailman."
Hammock, "When the Sky Pours Down Like a Fountain"
"Snuggle music."

Concentric Pleasures: Sally Shapiro, Yacht, Health

2009-09-05T19:58:44Z

Sally Shapiro

Summer's all but officially over, and boy does it feel like it. These three albums may be grounded in libidinal sounds like disco and punk, but there's nevertheless something coolly distant, even alienating about them. (That's part of their charm.) They might make for an entirely unscientific sampling of the current indie dance landscape, but from their heightened affect to their stylistic feints, I think all three speak to a creeping sense of anxiety in the pop underground, both explicit and unconscious.

Sally Shapiro, My Guilty Pleasure

If the term "ice princess" wasn't invented for Sally Shapiro, it's entirely possible she was invented for it. (And she is, let's not forget, an invention: Sally Shapiro is only the nom de microfon of a Swedish shrinking violet whose real name, she demurs, is "something else.") Even singing songs like "Love in July," she sounds about as summery as a steel-blue shock of glacier: her breathy, oddly translucent voice rises up from the mix like the vapors from a frostbitten kiss. Of course, much of the credit for My Guilty Pleasure's deep-freeze aesthetic goes to producer Johan Agebj�rn, whose Italo-disco-inspired arpeggios feel as sharply limned as the edges of a snowflake. All the gleaming surfaces can get a bit dizzying after a while -- Royksopp's Junior, a similar attempt at cryogenic disco, sounds positively tropical in comparison -- but there's a thawing respite in the trance-tossed "Dying in Africa," which summons visions of the Field's disappearing horizons.

YACHT, See Mystery Lights

YACHT's full-length DFA debut sounds almost like the work of a different band than the one responsible for I Believe in You. Your Magic Is Real. On the Portland, Ore., band's new album Psychic City, the skittery electronic touches of earlier albums cede the center ground to more muscular guitar-drums-and-bass arrangements. Instead of sketching around the outlines of pop, Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans now home in on the shape of their songs in bold strokes. YACHT aren't shy about their magpie tendencies: "Pyschic City" and "It's Boring" take cues from the Pixies and Pylon, while more futuristic joints like "I'm in Love with a Ripper" open their arms wide to encompass '80s synth-pop and '00s R&B, via ZTT-inspired sampling and delirious flights of Auto-Tune. (There's even a trace of the Durutti Column in the limpid guitars of the opening "Ring the Bell.") It's far more engaging than fellow Portlanders Glass Candy, whose No Wave disco wants for YACHT's irreverent, inquisitive spirit. From the low-slung bass to Evans' slouchy delivery, the album's a no-brainer fit for DFA, currently running this corner of the indie dance scene. But despite the obligatory grounding in the punkier side of disco, it still sounds unlike anything else on the label.

Health, Get Color

Health's machinic rhythms and queasy oscillators, laced with digital tics and freaky effects, draw an imaginary line from Sonic Youth's swollen amplifiers to the nether space of the motherboard. Like Liars, Animal Collective and Battles, the L.A. band pulls at rock's ragged edges in both style and sonics. The new album, Get Color, is both heavier and trickier than their debut: songs like "Death+" sound like a cross between Helmet and Aphex Twin -- part death march, part angels' chorus. The band's tendency to lock into a trance-inducing churn sometimes leaves you wishing for more in the way of songwriting; maybe that last, as-yet-untaken leap is what gives the music such a palpable sense of struggle -- witness the fiery permutations of "We Are Water," where the band wrestles with the ghosts of prog rock, hardcore and techno; the song's imbued with a sense of almost incendiary frustration as it twists and turns.

50 Hot Summer House Anthems

2009-08-29T22:21:10Z

When none other than Diddy starts spitting over vintage-styled, Chicago-inspired jack tracks, you know that house music's capital is on the rise. But don't take Diddy's word for it, as entertaining as it is to hear him grumbling, "You can't even get into your thing on a four-minute version" on DJ Hell's upcoming track "The DJ." (Radio Slave clearly knows what Diddy's talking about: his remix clocks in at an incredible 28 � minutes long.)

House music's always been in for the long haul, and this summer it more than pulls its weight as the familiar, disco-driven sound of classic deep house -- pioneered by producers like Phuture, Larry Heard, Jesse Saunders, Frankie Knuckles, Pal Joey, Moodymann, Theo Parrish -- seeps back into dance music, from the basement dives to the megaclubs. We put together a playlist of 50 of 2009's hottest house anthems to keep you moving into the dog days of summer.

Check a selection below, or sign up for your free Rhapsody trial membership and listen to the full playlist as well high-quality audio all your favorite house and electronic as much as you want and anytime you want. ]]>

Dancing Like It's 1999

2009-08-23T21:20:41Z

Ah, 1999, we hardly knew ye: we were so caught up in preparing for the looming millennial ball drop that we dropped the ball on savoring the waning days of a thousand-year stretch that began with the founding of Norway and ended, as usual, with Dick Clark holding court in Times Square, as I'm pretty sure he'd done every year since around the time of the Norman Conquest. (The big difference at 1999's New Year's Eve parties was that people seemed to be listening to a lot more Prince, for whatever reason.)

Blame the Y2K bug for our inattention. But at least we danced. Oh, how we danced. Basement Jaxx, Underworld, the Chemical Brothers, Moby and other relics of the rave era were enjoying proper pop credibility. Dr. Dre was "Still D.R.E.," while Britney was, well, still Britney, but without the "b*tch." Le Tigre proved that riot grrrls were down with the disco. And the underground was teeming with activity, from U.K. garage to minimal techno. Relive it all with our five-hour playlist of the best dance tracks that 1999 had to offer. Don't you deserve a break from the "oughts"? Thought so. Check a sampling below, and get the whole thing here at Playlist Central.

Concentric Pleasures: Tortoise, Matthew Herbert, Basement Jaxx

2009-08-21T04:38:07Z

August is a slow month for record releases, so I thought I'd highlight some upcoming news. Don't worry, we've got plenty of new music for you as well -- scroll down for a playlist featuring the Hyperdub debut of Global Communication's Mark Pritchard and Sa-Ra's Om'mas Keith; breakbeat maven Si Begg and bleep veterans Unique 3; an Autechre new remix of the Black Dog; offbeat house from Who Made Who and DJ Koze; a new Boys Noize-approved banger from D.I.M.; club-ready remixes of classic Fatboy Slim; a brief introduction to the Troubled Mind of the Gaslamp Killer, the newest signing to Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder imprint; and a new track from downtempo stalwarts Zero 7.

]]> Tortoise may have developed a rep as a jam band for discerning indie rockers, but early in their career they also forged strong bonds with the dance-music world, thanks to remixes from the likes of UNKLE, Luke Vibert and even Chicago house legend Derrick Carter. (Frustratingly, those 12-inch-only sides were left off the band's A Lazarus Taxon box set, but you can hear Derrick Carter's mix on his own Nearest Hits and Greatest Misses.) With the recent Beacons of Ancestorship leaning toward a more electronic sound than Tortoise had attempted in years, the Beacons of Ancestorship Remixes 12-inch feels like a natural progression. Out August 18 on limited vinyl, the package features a rework of "High Class Slim Came Floatin' In" from Boredoms' Yamatsuka Eye and a mind-blowing edit of "Gigantes" from none other than Mark Ernestus, of Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound fame. Start salivating now.

Matthew Herbert has long put the sounds of everyday life front and center in his productions, from the ambient clatter of Around the House to the sonic smorgasbord of Plat du Jour, which featured, among other things, the sound of thousands of people simultaneously biting into organic apples. Now, Herbert invites all and sundry to take part in the recording of his forthcoming album, to be made entirely of sounds recorded at Frankfurt, Germany's Robert Johnson club. Herbert's label, Accidental, announces, "From 8-10pm every person there will be invited to make noises. There will be various microphones placed both outside and inside the club (including the toilets) to capture everything. The name of everyone who attends will be listed on the record (unless anonymity is preferred) and will receive a free promo copy of the record when it's finished. There will probably be cameras there too, so be prepared to be documented. Everyone is welcome to come along and take part."

Herbert isn't the only musician returning to his club roots. Basement Jaxx have announced that their forthcoming album, Scars, will mark a return to their dance music roots. "Scars is very much back to the kind of thing we used to do," says Felix Buxton, echoed by Simon Ratcliffe: "It's something we haven't done for a long time." Still, don't expect a total retreat from the polymorphous pop they perfected with 2001's hook-heavy Rooty. Scars features guest appearances from Santigold, Yo Majesty, Amp Fiddler and even Yoko Ono; the one and only Kelis fronts the title track. The duo pulls the bandages off Scars on October 6.

Live Review: Mocky in Berlin

2009-08-13T04:43:51Z

Mocky's new album, Saskamodie, makes great use of the Paris studio in which it was recorded, channeling the spirit of artists who have previously recorded there -- Nina Simone, Serge Gainsbourg -- into a wonderfully warm and intimate take on '60s lounge pop. The presence of friends and co-conspirators like Jamie Lidell and Feist only enhances the Canadian musician's ample, obvious talents as a songwriter, arranger and multi-instrumentalist.

Mocky's recent performance in his current hometown, Berlin, didn't feature any of those names, and the setting couldn't have been more different from the celebrated Paris studio. The show took place at Badeschiff, an artificial beach along the banks of the Spree river, where the band performed beneath a plastic tarp while the crowd sat in folding hammock chairs or sprawled on damp sand. Berlin's clockwork summer showers had begun shortly after soundcheck and let up, more or less, right about the time the band came on stage. (Serendipity, or something more?)

]]> Bebel Gilberto singing a sultry, sunny bossa nova that seemed to mock the grey skies above, as well as the players on stage. "Can someone kill the DJ?" asked Mocky into the microphone, as a promoter scrambled to find the offending fader. Pause. "Turn that music off, too."

But the makeshift environment turned out to be the perfect setting for Mocky's homespun soul. The group -- including a pianist on a Fender Rhodes, Taylor Savvy on standup bass, a flutist and a string trio -- took the stage wearing bizarre, wide-brimmed sombreros hung with a good 18 inches of dangling, silky fringe; you wondered how the players didn't get the stuff stuck between their fingers and their instruments. The hats only lasted one song, but they sufficiently underscored the concert's ever-so-slightly madcap vibe. (Pun not entirely intended. Speaking of madcap, don't miss the album's genius, Zelig-like video, "Mockumentary.")

Mocky led his group through a faithful interpretation of the bulk of the album's songs, but with lots of room left for improvisation, impulsiveness and plain old fun. Virtually every player took an extended solo at one point or another. Mocky, his curls flopping about his forehead, dug into his drum kit with evident satisfaction, expertly maneuvering tempo shifts as he played his way around the beat. What he lacked in polish, he more than made up for in enthusiasm.

The string arrangements added an extra dimension to the small-combo sound: bursts of bright, augmented chords as refreshing as a Campari on the Riviera. But the real magic lay in the interaction between players. (Mocky and Savvy seemed to have a running joke going between them; their fills felt like wisecracks in a good-natured game of one-upmanship.) As relaxed as the music was, everyone scrambled to be useful. When laying off their own instruments, musicians would shake noisemakers hung around their necks, evoking the lazy rustle of a thatched roof in the tropics.

"Goofy" might be one word for those kinds of antics, but the band had the chops to pull it off. In the show's most spirited passage, the group broke down "Saskamodie" into a loose, chugging approximation of Philip Glass or Steve Reich, turning 8th-note patter into a gauzy harmonic weave. The flutist sang her notes higher and higher, looking almost surprised herself with her final, warbly steps up the scale. Taylor Savvy slurred around the offbeats, quite possibly on the verge of laughter. No one was having more fun than the musicians were, but the audience came in a close, envious second -- damp sand and all.

Watch Mocky and the Saskamodie Orchestra performing Earth, Wind & Fire's "September" at Badeschiff here, and listen to Saskamodie in our playlist.

Om Records: 15 Years in 15 Tracks

2009-08-06T01:32:09Z

San Francisco's Om label is celebrating 15 years with the aptly titled Om 15, a double-disc compilation featuring label long-timers (J-Boogie, Lance De Sardi, Mike Monday [pictured], Pezzner) as well as illustrious guests from across the dance scene: Spirit Catcher, Radio Slave, Atjazz, Christian Prommer, even Bugz in the Attic's Daz-I-Kue, a broken-beat heavyweight who's been relatively quiet in recent years. Reflecting Om's uptempo and downtempo poles, the comp divides roughly into two parts. You'll find various shades of deep house, tech-house, disco-house and even hip-house (thanks Daz!) on Disc 1. Disc 2 is mellower, but it's surprisingly varied and surprisingly invigorating, with rootsy dub (Idan K & the Movements of Rhythm), starry-eyed deep house (Charles Webster and Samantha James) and shades of '90s ambient. Listen to the entire compilation embedded in the playlist below.

To commemorate the occasion, the label put together an exclusive playlist for Rhapsody. Om Records: 15 Years in 15 Tracks blazes through the label's history with tracks from Naked Music NYC, People Under the Stairs, King Kooba and more. For an even fuller overview, check out our own massive playlist featuring over 100 tracks from the Om archives, and read about five classic Om albums after the jump.

]]> Mark Farina, Mushroom Jazz
This 1996 mix from Chicago's Mark Farina became an instant downtempo classic, leading to five sequels (and counting) and becoming the first mix series ever to spawn its very own "best of" collection.

Various, Deep Concentration
From double-jointed scratchwork to conscious hip-hop from the East Bay, this '97 comp features killer cuts from Peanut Butter Wolf, Latyrx Paul and more. Prince Paul goes way, way out, and Cut Chemist's "Lesson 6 - The Lecture" is textbook turntablism.

Rithma, Music Fiction
On 2002's Music Fiction, So Cal deep-funk maven Rithma juices up tight, skippy house grooves with scads of fat synths, jazzy twists and turns, and even the odd flugelhorn.

Mike Monday, Songs Without Words
Probably my favorite Om release, this is also one of the label's most idiosyncratic. Mike Monday's weird, warbly grooves run the gamut from brassy electro-house to blistering minimal techno. He does a nice dubstep turn on "Grace," but he's also not afraid of getting flat-out goofy.

Greenskeepers, Pleetch
Chicago's Greenskeepers draw from '20s jazz, classic disco and contemporary house in their toe-scuffing slow jams and quirky, opalescent funk.