290105 10:04

thanks for the support + feedback in last week's post - getting those kinds of responses helps to make all this worthwhile, so do leave a comment if you're visiting here and digging the downloads. here's some tunes from artists that appeared on last sunday's show.

AMON TOBIN [BRAZIL]
the lighthouse mp3
gaming is a multi-million (billion?) $$ industry these days and convergence between music, movies and games is now a well-trodden part of the cultural landscape. it therefore comes as little surprise that the company behind the new splinter cell offshoot 'chaos theory' have turned to london's ninja tune to lend them a hand with the soundtrack this time around. this stirs a few memories and my mind drifts fondly back to the 'wipeout' soundtrack - one of the earliest times i can remember when established and respected electronic artists were commissioned to write music exclusively for the game release. so anyway, an interesting day when a new amon tobin track comes courtesy of tom clancy... it's amon at his darkest, full of grandeur and forboding - everything we've come to expect from the brazilian beat scientist.

GUSTAVO LAMAS [ARGENTINA]
amenos mp3
following on from the recent post from carlos lebidinsky, here's some more argentina electronica - this time from gustavo lamas, a profilic producer with releases under his belt on kompakt, traum and akufen's oral label. although this track, and apparently many of his releases to date, suggests an overall tech-house sound, other mp3s on lamas site indicate more experimental, abstract production (click here and check out the two tracks at the top of the page). for more agentinian flavours, check out sonic 360's 'beatwave argentina' collection - a superb collection of new south american beats.

PET [GERMANY]
howlin' pet mp3
super pet (toob remix) mp3
here's a return to visit to groenland records (see half cousin and lunz from recent posts) - this time from german solo artist, pet. the album 'player one ready' kick starts with the excellent 'no yes no' which gives a clear indication of where pet is heading. this is pop music, loud and proud. there's some electronic sensibilities throughout, but it'd be a mistake to lump this into any electro pop or electro clash territory. the above mp3s are both remixes from the album - the first takes the 'no yes no' track and pet gives it a blues / rock makeover (hence the 'howlin' reference) and the second is a remix by toob, aka rich thair - founding member of red snapper. more info on toob and their new album at t-o-o-b.com.

VISIONARY UNDERGROUND [ENGLAND]
urban uproar mp3
100 vibes mp3
self-described as 'nu skool breakbeat' from this 'audio visual breakbeat collective', these guys first came to my attention through their asian dub foundation remix of '1000 mirrors' - certainly for me the best remix of 2004. a four piece from london, their remarkable fusion of contemporary breaks with a clear asian influence takes adf's template and moves it further towards the dancefloor. check out their web site for the full lowdown on the VU crew - an excellention selection of audio (both mp3 and streaming real player), a huge range of visual work and videos - including their new single 'eye of the storm' featuring dr das from adf. the debut album is due to drop soon.

CIBO MATTO [JAPAN]
sci-fi wasabi mp3
+
YOSHIMI & YUKA [JAPAN]
elegant bird mp3
this is an old skool post to celebrate the release of yuka honda's new album 'eucademix', released through john zorn's tzadik label. the album features a one-off return collaboration between yuko and fellow cibo matto playmate miho hatori (whose post-cibo career has included guest vocal spots on beastie boys and gorillaz albums, as well as the excellent brazilian-influenced album 'smokey and miho'). also worth a look is the odd collaboration between yuko and yoshimi from the boredoms, 'flower with no colour'. [get some boredoms mp3s at epitonic here - and i recommend you do!].

THE VIDEO KID [NEW ZEALAND]
runnin' (dub) mp3
finally, a track from NZ artist bret mackenzie - in his solo guise here as the video kid, but he's also part of the excellent NZ collective, the black seeds. he's an also an actor (but don't hold that against him) with shows at the edinburgh fringe and an appearance in peter jackson's 'the fellowship of the ring'. download the smart drop of dub above and check out videokid.tv for more possible lies and hearsay.



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200105 08:31

it was only a matter of time before the record industry decided to get serious about copyright infringement on mp3 blogs. i believe - and hopefully you do too - that mp3 blogs provide a gateway to music for their readers. by downloading 1-2 tracks from an artist from an mp3 blog, you're encouraged to find out more and perhaps buy an album. if the volume of email i receive from independent labels and bands is any indication, then this would appear to be a service in everyone's favour. 'not so' says the international federation of the phonographic industry (IFPI) who this week forced the server closure of mp3 blog moistworks. head over to the site to read the letter and click on the comments section for an interesting range of feedback from readers.

it's worth noting that there a couple of varying schools of thought about posting tracks on mp3 blogs. some group emails between mp3bloggers flew around this week and we definitely fall into three distinct camps. (1) legal mp3s - tracks taken from legitimate sources, i.e. the artist / label has made an mp3 available on their own servers. this is how fat planet works. (2) permission based - blogs post tracks on their own servers, but have asked permission from the artist / label to do so. (3) no permission - blogs post tracks on their own servers, without permission. version (3) is where moistworks sat and is probably the territory that the IFPI will prowl, picking off unsuspecting blogs as they go.

i'll say here and now that i support moistworks and all blogs falling into the last category, irrespective of its legality. i wouldn't be publishing fat planet or have heard a large % of my music collection if it wasn't for those blogs. it's about music education, not piracy - and the two are so far removed from each other as to be laughable. i don't concurr with the idea that by posting 1-2 tracks on an mp3 blog that an artist loses out - these tracks are 'feeders' to buying albums, in the same way that the music industry has marketed singles for years. we know that singles don't make money for an artist, so why worry about an mp3 blog that fulfills the same function? i liken mp3 blogs to radio / television - it's all about promotion. and in this case free, positive promotion - and the IFPI wants to close it down... hopefully one day this will all seem ridiculous, today it seems incredibly harmful and short-sighted.

a final note on streaming - the industry might say 'stream or be damned'. sure, we can stream songs rather than download, but the quality is generally poor, i can't listen to it through anything other than PC speakers and, if you're on a 56K modem, buffering gets to be a bitch. no, i like my music on mp3 - burn it to CD, listen on the iPod etc. the more opportunities i have for listening to the track away from the computer, the more i'm likely to fall in love with it and buy an album.

enough of that, here's the music (from legitmate sources, natch ...)

ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION [ENGLAND]
19 rebellions mp3
another track from the 'enemy of the enemy' album. found a remix of this tune when i was getting deep and dirty insider the uk iTunes store last weekend - in fact, there's a whole 'enemy of the enemy' remix album on there, including two smart mixes of 'la haine' by dark dancehall / breakcore artist the bug. i've now fully converted my brain to the glory of the iTunes store (another knock on effect of mp3 downloading over the years...), so much so that i've put together a fat planet iMix, a compilation that you can download via the iTunes store. if you like the blog and you want to give something back to the artists in $$$, then this is one way to do it. click here for more fat planet iMix info.

LUNZ [GERMANY]
wobbly flu twilight mp3
if you liked half cousin in the recent post, then you might get into this too - taken from the same label, groenland, same vested interest as before. lunz are hans-joachim roedelius and tim story. roedelius is formerly from the band cluster and story is a grammy nominee for his work on 'the legend of sleepy hollow'. i can't confess to knowing much about cluster, but the groenland site has them cited by the chicago tribune as "one of the best-kept secrets of 20th century music". roedelius has also collaborated with luminaries such as brian eno, holger czukay from can and the guys from neu! but expect none of that sound from this mp3 - quite the opposite. this is sparse, piano duets of incredible beauty, taken from their self-titled debut album. it's getting further attention thanks to a 2nd release, a remix project called 'lunz interpretations'. and this isn't some ham-fisted exploitation venture - the remixes take the originals and craft almost entirely new tracks around them. on remix duties are alias, faultline, elbow, adem, ulrich schnauss, icarus, munk and more. there's some streaming samples on the 'radio shack' over at groenland and you should go their shop while you're there and just buy the damn thing.

BALUN [PUERTO RICO]
the glass bicycle mp3
see entry dated 221104 for more info on this electronica three-piece from puerto rico.

EZ3KIEL [FRANCE]
versus mp3
been playing a few tracks on the show recently from the french jarring effects label, from which ez3kiel comes. the label sampler is a mixture of broken beat, dub and skewed hip hop. plenty of mp3s to download from the label site. the band also have a very industrial and smart looking flash site to have a browse around.

DJ SPOOKY [US: NEW YORK]
rebirth of a nation - movement one (rough cut) mp3
spooky brings his 'rebirth of a nation' show to sydney next week for the festival and it's safe to say that i'm getting excited by it. all indications are good (including this rough cut mp3). spooky has taken as his source material d.w. griffith's 'birth of a nation' silent film, widely regarded as the first racist movie and responsible for sparking a resurgence of the kkk. spooky has re-appropriated the film to bring a different message, remixing the soundtrack with his own original material and representing a new edit of the film across three screens. spooky (aka paul d. miller) has a great deal to say on the subject and you can find it all in the articles section of djspooky.com.


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120105 21:27

it's hard getting back into the groove after new year, especially when sydney has just exploded with touring bands, festivals, film events and so much more. january in sydney is when most of the year's major cultural events happen, both high brow and low brow. last week i caught the wonderful philip glass and his orchestra playing a live simultaneous score to the classic 'koyanasqatsi', plus the opening international program in the flickerfest short film festival. this weekend, i'm looking forward to the tom waits / william s.burroughs / robert wilson theatre collaboration 'the black rider', the sydney premiere of the ramones documentary, plus i'm dj-ing as support for sydney's excellent decoder ring. and then there's next week...

this week's fat planet playlist is now online and here's some mp3s from featured artists:

CARLOS LIBEDINSKY [ARGENTINA]
piano secucencia mp3
some tango electronica for you (by way of introduction to two latin influenced tracks on today's blog). there appears to be a growing body of artists working in electronica in argentina - acida, el cholo, index, alex krygier, but it would seem that carlos libendinsky is at the forefront of this movement thanks to his recent release 'narcotango'. described as a collection of music for the moment at a tango club where exhaustion gives way to experimentation, where tradition fades and improvisation takes over. libendinsky talks about this being the 'narcotic power of the tango'. you can find more information and short audio extracts at carloslibedinsky.com.

NOVALIMA [PERU]
sunday canon mp3
one of the best (in many cases only) way to find new music from some regions is the glorious compilation CD. don't be fooled by dumb titles (e.g. 'bellydance extravaganza!') or garish covers of latin women in bikinis - behind many a facade can lie some excellent music. the 'essential beats / flavas' series has been consistently excellent - three volumes of contemporary asian beats, one brazilian and two latin. novalima are a peruvian band that i found through the compilation 'essential latin flavas dos' with their track 'ritmos negros'. they are a four-piece 'collective', scattered around the world in bacelona, hong kong, london and lima. that's what i call a real international collaboration. they describe their music as "heavily driven by afro-peruvian and latin percussions, blended with downtempo, dub, broken and house beats". [site]

CALAMALKA [CANADA]
hear the most mp3
vancouver based musician michael campitelli surfaces here with an outstanding collection of electronic dub on his newly released for the plug research label 'shredder's dub'. i do enjoy a healthy dose of old school dub now and again - but i've also been impressed with the newer schools too, such as france's jarring effects label, and the material on ~scape (such as deadbeat). calamalka's album also touches on the crossover region between dub and downtempo hip hop, and is a great addition to the plug stable. check out plug's epitonic page for downloads from daedelus, dntel and john tejada.

JENS LEKMAN [SWEDEN]
at the department of forgotten songs mp3
i featured this guy back in october, but you can't keep a good blackly comedic singer / songwriter down. this track is culled from a large collection of rare and unreleased songs over at secretlycanadian.com - as it also doubles for the section name on the site, it seemed like an apt mp3 to pick. i also dig this mp3 as it kicks off with a mournfully eerie instrumental segment that plays for half the track.



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050105 09:05

happy new year to y'all. the start of a year is always a good time to blow out the cobwebs, tear down the walls, kick out the jams (or the chairs) - hope you can find some space to do at least one of those things this week...

playlist from the inaugural 2005 show is here, download music from some featured artists right about now >>>

ANCIENT MITH [US: COLORADO]
bloody flags (remix feat. demune & the mole) mp3
kicking off 2005 with a whole roster of artists to get your bandwidth crackling over at motionrecordings.com. i was lead there by the excellent album from mattr and friends called 'consequence of thoughts'. mattr is a producer from switzerland who roped in most of the motion recordings crew on this release for MC duties. this is hip hop from the darkest realm, with mattr pumping out some delicious broken quasi-industrial electronic beats. material from mattr doesn't come easy online, so i've selected a track from one of the 'friends', namely denver-based ancient mith. there's heaps more material to get your hands on, like hawaiin producers demune and hairdresser mike. motion have also launched a remix comp and have provided what seems to be an entire back-catalogue's worth of acapellas to throw into your own mix.

PETER, BJORN & JOHN [SWEDEN]
teen love mp3
played a peter bjorn and john track on the show from the excellent 'it's a trap readers companion volume one' [site] put together by the scandanavian blog run by avi roig. (if you've yet to visit, this is one of the most comprehensive english sites covering scandanavian music in all flavours). this track from the band is a cover of a track by fellow swedes the concretes, whose single 'you can't hurry love' was one of the shining moments of pop greatness in 2004. even without the concretes' signature female lead and spector-esque production, their songwriting still shines through on this track. you can find this on peter bjorn and john's new album 'falling out' [buy here].

HALF COUSIN [SCOTLAND]
country cassette mp3
i have to reveal a vested interest on this - my wife and i produced the web site for half cousin's record label gronland records last year (which, happily, was nominated for 'best label site' in the 2004 online music awards - plug, plug...). bias aside, half cousin's debut album 'the function room' slipped under most radars outside the uk on its release last august, although it landed a very respectable 8.1 on pitchfork. half cousin hail from the outermost area from scotland - from orkney, an island which is reached by a long and bumpy ferry ride from the northern-most tip of the country. orkney is a relatively bleak place, although the sense of nordic history is overpowering - burial chambers and other viking remanants lay scattered across the island. i can't think of a more perfect location to sit down and put together a collection of rich contemporary folk songs, married with angular electronic production. scotland's other famous electronic export boards of canada chose pastoral farmland as their geographic inspiration - take that notion and imagine something darker, yet no less beautiful. [buy here]. more info on their better propaganda page.

UNCUT [CANADA]
understanding the new violence mp3
last year saw the disco-punk, post-punk, new wave ('tell me wot you call it'...) template being rolled out across a great many bands, often to alarmingly tedious effect. thankfully, one of the champions of the sound, lcd soundystem, have recorded an album that puts them at the top of the tree where they belong - due for release later this month. uncut, a four-piece from toronto, have also been referenced in the same arena, but fortunately - on the evidence of this mp3 - they've a lot more to offer. the signature bass-heavy 4-4 is there, but rather than opt for a stripped-back affair (ala lcd), they've layered this with clipped chords, riffs, fuzz and more. seems to be a natural evolution for the new wave sound - perhaps 2005 will be a breakout year for these guys? more info on their site and check out their label, paperbag records, too.




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