DSICO [AUSTRALIA]
morning city stirs (blastcorp’s pop mix)
staying in the home town for this one – sydney’s luke collison, aka dsico. after forging a successful path as a bootlegger & mashup artist, luke wisely saw the writing was on the wall for that particular genre excursion and began releasing his own original material. the e.p. ‘you fight like a girl’ was a blend of electro, post punk, new wave etc and the killer touch of luke’s own vocals. the new e.p. is called ‘fool’ and features five new tracks, plus twelve (count ’em) remixes from a fantastic assortment of predominently australian bands & producers: the emergency, bleepin j squawkins, ollo and blastcorp, as well as a turn from scottish dj & producer keith mcivor, aka twitch from optimo. an unmissable package – check out five preview mp3 at spasticated records, and then do the decent thing and buy it here. on a separate tangent, check out dsico‘s cover version of ‘personal jesus‘ that crops on the freshly minted – and long, long time coming – ‘depeche mode violated‘ project. similar to recent takes on the clash and the prodigy, ‘dmv’ presents a reworking of the original ‘violator’ album, sequenced identically, featuring new remixes and reversions (and cover art for yr old school jewel case). as a huge fan of the original (mode’s best after ‘black celebration’), i thought this was a fascinating journey; low on sacrilege, high on originality.
MELODIUM [FRANCE]
hellomusic (ochre remix)
melodium‘s recent album ‘la t√ôte qui flotte’ is a hugely impressive affair. recorded outdoors with an MD recorder, laurence girard took to the country with an assortment of acoustic instruments, then later edited and resequenced the parts in his home studio. the results are breath-taking – an acoustic folk-pop album, infused with sharp electronic programming, a hybrid often sought after by many in the ‘folktronica’ genre, but rarely acheived – and certainly not to this standard. his new e.p. ǃÙhum hum & bla blaǃ٠features five new tracks and three remixes from ‘la t√ôte qui flotte’ from marsen jules, audioroom and ochre (above). this latter remix from the uk-based toytronics artist is an electronic gem, the lush strings throughout complimented by a deep leftfield rhythm, a flash of acoustic guitar and, somewhere in the middle, a dying keyboard heaves its last breath. download the e.p. for free at archive.org. more info on melodium at autres directions in music and further mp3 goodies from ochre at ochremusic.com.
VON SPAR [GERMANY]
bunsenwahrheiten
a little bit of agit-rock post punk from out of germany. led by mahmoud von spar (from the oliver twist band), von spar crop up on the new compilation from trevor jackson’s output label, ‘channel four’ with a great track called ‘dog machine’. (the album also features colder, mu, circlesquare – a great patrick wolf remix of one of their tracks, dk7, kreeps and scotland’s george demure amongst many others and comes hightly recommended). the above mp3 is conventionally a little more straightforward than ‘dog machine’, but serves as a good indicator of how germans marry their own unique contemporary rock sound with a movement born in early 80s. the trio are from cologne and their album ‘the unrestrcited liberty of the private initiative’ is available now on lado records.
THIS WEEK’S RADIO SHOW: the feature album was the self-titled release from israeli duo balkan beat box, an inventive mix of traditional balkan, gypsy, north african and southern meditteranean music, all brought delightfully up to date with contemporary electronic production and dancefloor sensibilities. more info at balkanbeatbox.com and at jdub records.