UN CADDIE RENVERSE DANS L’HERBE [BRAZIL]
<www.mst.org.br> mp3
un caddie renverse dans l’herbe (which seems to translate as “a caddy reverses in the grass”, but i am obviously willing to stand corrected) is brazilian born, barcelona based didac p. lagarriga. taking a broader approach to music, didac is an artist working across sound, visual art and texts and has been taking his work around the world for the best part of ten years (including a few appearances at sonar). the above track – a beautiful looping, tumbling mix of traditional instrumentation, starting & ending as neo-folk and dropping something entirely unique in the centre of the track. it’s taken from his most recent album ‘like a packed cupboard but quite’, on which didac is credited as playing balaphon, mbira, kalimba, melodica, chimes and “software”. of the tracks i’ve come across (including one on a recent wire sampler), many of them have a URL as the title, demanding an immediate search online for the subject – in this case, “brazil’s landless workers movement” (an english version can be found here). didac’s site with more real player samples is at oozebap.org/renverse.
BLASTCORP [AUSTRALIA]
stars never fall (dsico hack) mp3
self-titled “no talent hack” dsico – one of australia’s long-serving new breed of producers, remixers, songwriters – has dug up a few unreleased gems from his archives and served them to us on a nice shiny platter. click for those, plus a few other mp3s from back in the day (including his bizarre rage against the machine cover). his blastcorp mix is by far the best of the mxs on offer, a new-wave makeover adding a generous 4/4, 80s handclaps, driving bass and a gorgeous wall of noise towards the climax. tidy work. as for blastcorp, he’s darwin-based kris keogh – a new release is due on the excellent city centre offices label very soon. more blastcorp downloads here.
MRS PILGRIMM [ENGLAND]
the love i don’t show mp3
gotta gotta get down mp3
mrs pilgrimm, aka sophie williams, is a cellist by trade who has a long history with lou barlow, is featured on michael rother’s (neu!) new album and has a remix disc ready to drop featuring the talents of sonic boom (spacemen 3) & j peter scwalmm (brian eno). a cursory click on the above mp3s gives an instant flavour – a bare, stripped back sound wherein sophie exploits all possible aspects of the cello as an instrument (the fact that you rarely hear straight ‘bowed’ cello is telling). the vocal, an unashamed south england drawl, harks to the more casual aspects of bjork‘s performance and not nearly as annoying as our other favourite little pixie, joanna newsom. more info and other mp3s here.
new kids on the blog: it’s a fat planet indeed – myke from shortwave music dropped me a line and what a glorious treasure-trove his blog truly is. any blog that has the disclaimer ‘not for the faint-hearted’ is worth a trip. myke has been ‘collecting’ sounds for years, mostly by recording off-air transmissions from shortwave radio around the world. the results are bizarre and outstanding – try this gorgeous ‘mystery torch song‘ from the ukraine for an idea of what’s in store. // hi to matt from bomarr blog who dropped me a line introducing his blog. recent posts include the excellent takako minewaka, b, fleischmann, bonnie prince billy and – oddly – david koresh… // always good to see another australian blog – reverb city dropped by to say g’day, with a good selection tracks including gina villalobos, treetops, red riders and loads more // hello! suprise! is the marvellous title of a new blog specialising in the swedish music scene with daily news updates and regular mp3 posting. just like hansel, sweden is so hot right now – so bookmark this one to stay up to date.