Review Pitchfork February 5, 2010 Link 7.1 Finding patterns in Madlib’s rambling yet brilliant production work can be difficult, but on his new In Search of Stoney Jackson album, he doesn’t take long to zero-in on some recurring themes. An obscure sample ushers in “Chittlins & Pepsi”, a stick-to-your guts blend of flashy soul and […]
Interview Pitchfork January 18, 2010 Link Kieran Hebden describes his recent stint as a monthly resident at London’s Plastic People club as inspirational. Coming from him, it doesn’t sound like the typical DJ platitude. With the night to himself and an enthusiastic crowd open to anything from highlife to Art Blakey or Carl Craig, it […]
Music Review Pitchfork January 18, 2010 Link Independence is thrilling, but after those first tentative or defiant steps towards freedom, the urge to look back and survey the situation you just left can be hard to resist. That seemingly contradictory perspective, looking both forward and backwards, was at play when Rjd2 wrote The Colossus. His […]
Music Review Pitchfork January 6, 2010 Link The cobbled-together beast from Greek mythology known as a chimera should be a recognizable concept for fans of electronic music, a genre that has evolved via the repurposing, re-contextualizing, and splicing together of sounds and samples. The instrumental, electro-acoustic Austrian trio Radian has spent more than a decade […]
Feature Pitchfork December 18, 2009 Link 18. Atlas Sound Logos [Kranky] While it has plenty of watery drips and washed-out backdrops, Bradford Cox’s Atlas Sound project can also be very blunt. Like his work with Deerhunter, he places gothic horror side-by-side with gorgeous guitar riffs and sonic textures, a disarming combination. But Logos makes it […]
Article Pitchfork December 14, 2009 Link 91. HEALTH “Die Slow” [Lovepump United] It’s fitting that HEALTH’s most melodic song to date manages to rip and rend something sweet from a grind. It’s a hook that could have been fashioned from sheet metal, but adorned with wiry guitar and Jacob Duzsik’s airy vocals, the cycling, jagged […]
Review Pitchfork November 30 Link 6.8 Jahdan Blakkamoore’s solo debut begins with familiar sounds: a coy flute melody, a clapping cadence, and then the sub-aqueous bass notes of Baby Kite and Nokea’s “Reef”, the slow burner that kicks off DJ /rupture’s Uproot mix. The track– co-produced here by Rupture and Matt Shadetek and rechristened “Get […]
Article Pitchfork November 25, 2009 Link Krautrock: Cosmic Rock and Its Legacy Edited by Nikolaos Kotsopoulos; Black Dog publishing This thick tome might as well be called the field guide to krautrock (“notice the long, unkempt hair and colorful plumage on Gerd”). The original genre tag in part represented the condescension directed toward this vibrant […]
Interview Pitchfork November 23, 2009 Link A lecturer in music culture at the University of East London, Scottish producer, DJ, and theorist Steve Goodman is anything but an ivory tower intellectual. How many of your professors have spun at Fabric? Under the name Kode9, he has immersed himself in the subject he writes about and […]
Music Review Pitchfork November 10, 2009 Link 7.7 “Life is nothing but death and taxes/ And all the trees that get the axes,” Pylon singer Vanessa Briscoe Hay dryly coos on “K”, against a backdrop of prickly guitar tones and a taut bass line. “I’m tired of moving my jaw,” she also sneers, in case […]