290805 08:16

germany's kraftwerk have been re-interpreted, remixed and re-imagined many times over - the net result of which is that their legend grows ever larger, thanks to the many artists and writers who consider them to be such a profound influence. the band themselves however have done very little in the last 20 years to propell their story forward - every release since 1986's 'electric cafe' has been a remix / re-tread / live set, sufficient enough to preserve their place in history without any substantial revisions. the latest addition to the cover version canon is mute records' 'trans slovenia express vol.2', released eleven years after the first volume and covering the same philosophical terrain. kraftwerk once described their sound as 'industrial folk music' (or "industrielle volksmusik") , so it does seem strangely fitting that slovenian artists - mining traditions of indigenous folk music and an economy based on heavy industry - should choose this particular route with which to thrust themselves onto the world stage. the collection is diverse - from laibach's loose interpretation of the project (i.e. 'the imaginary sound of kraftwerk remixing a laibach track') to the foolhardy - iturk rounding the album off with some very poor 4-4. sandwiched between them however are a few gems - silence's 'hall of mirrors' featuring anne clark, torul's 'it's more fun to compute' and octex's 'telephone call'. the two stand-outs however are 'radioactivity' by the string quartet rozmarinke (featuring the vocalist from silence) and the stroj's 'metal on metal'. a visit to their respective web sites unearthed the following tracks. for more info on 'trans slovenia express vol.2' and to hear sound samples, go to mute.com.

ROZMARINKE [SLOVENIA]
klise mp3
think of contemporary all-girl string quartets and the sad unfortunate truth is that bond springs to mind. an ugly thought, i know. fortunately rozmarinke ('the rosemaries') seem to be operating in a dimension entirely removed from such audio detritus. founded in 1994, they've forged a strong resume of chamber performances, interspersed with collaborations with slovenia's contemporary artists such as silence, pax and zaklonis ce prepeva. their extensive work with silence has almost eclipsed their own release schedule; the strange fly in their otherwise impeccable collaborative ointment being their attempted entry into the eurovision song contest in 2004 with a silence-penned instrumental track called 'cliché'. sadly, they came second in the slovenian heats, so the rest of the world missed out on seeing that particular nugget. perhaps it was the for the best... [rozmarinke.com]

THE STROJ [SLOVENIA]
transsibiria 720 mp3
kung fu mp3
hopefully you're familiar with test dept, because it will make this lazy comparison a lot easier. scottish performance group test dept made a substantially loud name for themselves in the 1980s - welding metallic percussion performance to large scale theatre pieces, the result of which will remain a high-point in scottish art for some time to come. years later, enter the stroj (pronounced 'stroy') - manhandling much the same concept, albeit married with a love of pryotechnics. combined they describe themselves in the third person as an 'audio rythmical machine', their performances are 'urban rituals' and they 'call for the listener's motoric action'. wait, there's more: "the sounds produced through the machine by the tribe members' bodily energy should be listened to with whole body, while cyclic structures transfer you into the sound-landscape of trance and ecstasy". good luck with those mp3s people, see you in the garden for the comedown. [thestroj.com]

THIS WEEK'S RADIO SHOW: playlist is now online.



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220805 08:18

ENDUSER [US:OHIO]
not so distant drums mp3
this track represents one of those instances of having your preconceptions blown in the space of four minutes. never before has bollywood sounded so mind-altering than in this breakcore / broken beat widescreen presentation courtesy of ohio's enduser, aka solo producer lynn standafer. both bhangra and breakcore can be found filed away in my cd library, i just never assumed i would ever find them together in the same temple. and now that i have, their marriage seems absolutely right and absolutely essential. and enduser's breakcore is not as damaging as say something like shitmat, it's far more considered - the deft editing shines through admist the bewildering choas of the beats. this track comes from last year's e.p. 'bollywood breaks', which also features contributions from larvae, mad e.p. and line47 (co-founder of enduser's sonicterror label). nip over to the adnoiseam site for further excerpts from this release as well as hours worth of other mp3s from the label's catalouge. more info on enduser here.

P-LOVE [CANADA]
blue and brown (feat. bonobo) mp3
bully records bring something very special to your door with their new release, the debut full-length from p-love. under the p-love name, paolo kapunan has appeared on releases not only through bully, but also on mush and ninja tune which should give you an instant indication of the territory he's exploring. on the history front, sixtoo features heavily in p-love's collaborative resume, as does the dex-trimental kid koala. the album, due 20th september, is called 'all in your mind' and features another sixtoo buddy matt kelly, plus bonobo (as heard above), simon from quantic soul orchestra and brazilian producer amon tobin. in stark contrast to the above post, this mp3 begins with the lightest of touches and keeps the beats on hard restraint until the climax. if this is any indication of what's to come, p-love will be all over your favourite music magazine in the next few weeks.

BOSTICH [MEXICO]
autobanda mp3
polaris mp3
a long overdue follow-up to the recent nortec collective interview on the fat planet show a few weeks back. bostich is ramon amezcua from tiajuana. a former dentist (ah, the rhythm of the drill!), amezuca has been on the bostich tip for the last 17 years, and in 1999 released the first 'nortec' track, the above mp3 'polaris'. this was regarded as break-through moment in mexican music, fusing the traditional 'nortena' sound with contemporary production - a technique oft-used for other traditional sounds worldwide, but never adapted to nortena. thus, the nortec collective was born and they've been keeping headz nodding on their many ventures ever since. the new nortec record 'the tijuana sessions vol.3' naturally features bostich alongside fellow nortec-ers clorofila, fussible, hiperboreal and panóptica. get the full back story at the home of nortec, mil records and more mp3s from bostich at bostich.com.

THIS WEEK'S RADIO SHOW: playlist is now online. the feature album this week has had a long gestation before it finally reached australian shores. crammed disc's 'electric gypsyland' was first released back in april last year, and is only now getting a respectable local release. at first glance, electronic remixes of balkan music might raise a few hairs, but praise is due to crammed for not going for the obvious commerical market, offering instead an eclectic and often experimental selection of mixes of taraf de haidouks and the kocani orkestar from the likes of avant-jazz producer juryman, the marvellous arto lindsay and uk-dub producer bigga bush from rockers hi-fi. more info here.



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170805 07:46

KAMPION [MEXICO]
invisible mp3
the evolution of abstract hip hop continues, taking in a central american flavour here thanks to guillermo guevára, releasing tracks under the name kampion. guillermo comes from a mexican production crew called duopandamix, who recently appeared at the benicassim festival with other well-known mexican producers murcof and fax. their 2003 album 'afternuclearbomb' appeared on mexico's home for techno / electronica / downbeat, static records. for kampion, guillermo has chosen to give away the music for free, via mp3 label filtro. six months into their life, filtro have eight releases under their belt including work from alvaro ruiz (dubbed by filtro as "the most prolific electronic music producer from mexico") and remixes of work by manrico montero (a fine collection of rmxs from 14 mexican artists). if IDM or broken beat is your music of choice, filtro and static are your entry points for the mexican scene.

DJ FLACK [U.S: BOSTON]
prague rock mp3
if you enjoyed murderbot's mp3 two weeks ago, check this from dj flack's 'house of cards' e.p.. on a much more downtempo than the frenetic breakcore of his mashit label mate, dj flack is antony flackett, boston-based dj and multimedia artist. the production has much the same cracked sounds as you might expect from fat planet favourite, mutamassik - a liberal sampling of international instrumentation (strings, horns and more) is spliced with dirty beats and killer editing, producing a twisted and disjointed slice of broken beat. his site has a few more mp3 to enjoy (on more of a dub tip) and you can also download his latest mashit release here.

NETTLE [SPAIN]
myanmar (timeblind remix) mp3
i've been rolling around like a pig in shit over at the crucial systems site - one of the finest selections of mp3s this side of christmas. crucial systems is the online home for timeblind, otherwise known as chris sattinger. a one time classical saxophonist, chris has made his way through a multiplicity of genres to get to where he is today - from free jazz, industrial, acid house, techno to broken beat, breakcore and dub. none of that history is discarded, it's a joy to find traces of them all, even in the same piece. the above mp3 was originally released on nettle's 'firecamp stories remixed' series - nettle being another psuedonym for the talented dj and producer dj rupture. visit the agriculture site for more mp3s from this and other nettle releases.

THIS WEEK'S RADIO SHOW: sunday's playlist is online here.

FAT PLANET DJ SET: last saturday, i was at the mandarin club in sydney, playing a set supporting tujiko noriko. being somewhat self-indulgent, i opted for a full japanese set which went a little something like this:

OGURUSU NORIHIDE 5:00
SKETCHSHOW night talker
CORNELIUS a point re:view remix (by masaki sakamoto)
SUSUMU YAKOTA kodomotachi
YOSHIMI & YUKA ha wa ii na
HIMURO ushimitz
RIOW ARIA hyp
NEUTRINO syupaman
BUFFALO DAUGHTER i
OOIOO ene soda
YUKA HONDA limoncello
COPPE paper soap
MIHO HATORI night light
DOKAKA minato
KIIIIII! brown girl in the ring
THE BOREDOMS spiral
BUFFALO DAUGHTER cyclic
J.O.Y. sunplus
NI-HAO! liger
LIMITED EXPRESS (HAS GONE) there she goes

if you're a fan of tujiko's work, then check out this 40-minute live set, courtesy of pilota.fm and their trollofon festival. this essentially involves artists preforming live inside a tram carriage, the well-loved norwegian tBus. it's all very strange, and all very wonderful.



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080805 20:21

BOOTLEG MXS & MASHUPS
[no.3 in an irregular series]

here we are again at bootleg HQ, taking a break from your run-of-the-mill mp3 blogging to focus on commercially unavailable remixes and bastard pop greats. kudos to these particular editing junkies for taking these tunes to the next level.

carrasco - m.i.a.'s thing mp3
in which carrasco drops m.i.a.'s 'pull up the people' over amerie's 'one thing' with deliciously tasty results. now being the owner of both amerie and ciara albums, i think that while ciara's three top tunes win out, overall amerie's album is the winner. disappointed at the fact that the 2nd half of ciara's full-length drops into bland ballad territory. and then of course there's m.i.a. - who finally appeared on one of australia's commercial tv networks this weekend, with the 'bucky done gun' clip. maybe the gal is going to crossover after all?

boojiboy - thug times mp3
there's a heap of quality boots over on boojiboy's site. this post was a close tie with the excellent mashing of m.i.a. with can's 'i want more', but i don't want to overload on the whole m.i.a. thing. so instead you get tweet's 'thug man' mixed with the human league - what a combo - the league track 'hard times' taken from their excellent remix album 'love and dancing'. the album was one of the first (certainly in the uk) remix albums back in 1981 and features dub versions of tracks from 'dare', re-rubbed by martin rushnet. i can't recommend it highly enough, particularly for the way it erases the narrative of 'don't you want me' and re-creates it in dub disco style.

dj skeletor - bionic girl link
click above link to download from yousendit.com (mp3 available for a limited time)
mixing gwen stefani's 'hollerback girl' with the south rakkas crew's dancehall booty goodness. of all the (many) gwen boots that are around at the moment, this for me is the cream of the crop. it almost made me actually like gwen, god knows i was never a fan of no doubt, but then i caught her new video clip and it felt like a cold shower from the pits of hell. urrg. (original mp3 found on boomselection - about time for a site update, doctor boom?)

cry on my console - remix of diplo's 'way more' mp3
josh console has made some tasty mixes in the past - his version of j-kwon's 'tipsy' being a stand out. here he takes on the miami boy with, once again, top notch results. check out his site for more mxs. for another take on this particualr diplo track, try and track down the smart baile funk version - 'jorghino's carioca funk remix'.

dunproofin - remix of lady sovereign's random mp3
couldn't finish this round-up of boots without some action from the SOV. if history determines that sov and dizzee came to represent the public face of grime, then i think justice would have been done. check out too sov's hilarious piss-take of jentina - 'sad ass stripah', proves without any doubt that this gal has class. more mixes from dunproofin here.


THIS WEEK'S RADIO SHOW: sunday's playlist is online here.

FAT PLANET DJ SET: this saturday i'll be playing a 100% japanese set, supporting tujiko noriko at sydney's mandarin club. a great excuse to avoid party music entirely, and get obscure, experimental and abstract on your ass. scroll down to my entry on 14th july for more info + mp3. last night i did a set at uber lingua at candy's apartment in sydney. if you were there, and you were dancing, you have my thanx. good to see that baile funk is going down well in the city of sin. this is what i played out -

TOMAZINHO 100% nike
MC VANESSINHA dance de peteca
FUNK NEUROTICA deyse 2004
DEISE TIGRONA injecao
M.I.A. bucky done gun
DIPLO diplo rhythm (newsflash rmx)
TIJUANA pula
FUNK NEUROTICA lanchinho rmx
LBR monda's beat
MISSY ELLIOTT, VYBZ KARTEL & M.I.A. bad man
THE BUG feat WARRIOR QUEEN aktion pak
DC J billy jungle
KELIS, BEENIE MAN & T.K.O. trick me (punchline rmx)
CE'CILE hot like we
DJ STIN soormey (o-ji rmx)
TY oh you want more? (refix feat. ROOTS MANUVA)

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020805 08:50

LALI PUNA [GERMANY]

from 'i thought i was over that':
together in electric dreams mp3
(this is) the dream of evan and chan (remix for dntel) mp3
from 'scary world theory':
nin-com-pop mp3
from 'tridecoder':
603 mp3
everywhere and allover mp3

lali puna, always seemingly the bridesmaid and never the bride. they've been making consistently intelligent electronic pop music for many years, three albums in the bag, and they still have yet to match the public visibility of many of their contemporaries. and it's clear that their peers respect lali puna's work - you need simply look at the long list of people who turn up on their new b-sides, rarities and remix collection ' i thought i was over that'. they include boom bip, two lone swordsmen, to rococo rot, alias, sixtoo and more. despite an apparent lack of recognition, this collection is clearly aimed at a growing fan base, one that may have neglected the earlier albums, and who may have come on board for last year's 'faking the books'. if you're absolutely new, this is a good starting point, a wide variety of sounds and styles are represented, from the glittering acoustic glitch of boom bip's micronomic remix to the band's electro dub take on their own remix of 'left handed'. there's also some new material too and two covers of slowdive and phil oakey tracks (see above mp3). what's next for lali puna? the duo at the core of the band, the notwist's markus archer and vocalist valerie trebeljahr, have just released a 7" single on morr's new imprint, 'a number of small things'. the single is a cover of a magnetic fields tracks called 'papa was a rodeo' and the single is credited not to lali puna, but to 'john yoko' - presumably something to do with the standing joke that the couple are the new john and yoko. you can hear a stream of the single at morrmusic.com

THIS WEEK'S RADIO SHOW: check the playlist here. lali puna's album was the featured album, also recommening the new e.p. from sigur ros collaborators amina - here's an mp3 excerpt of the track 'hemipode', check out the sigur ros site for more info.

FAT PLANET DJ SET: this sunday (7th august), i'll be dj-ing at uber lingua at candy's apartment in kings cross in sydney. there'll be some baile funk getting a long overdue airing, plus some dancehall and bhangra and some other new shit that fits. also playing on the night will be gong baby (new project from anything but roy), mixing traditional indonesian music with drum'n'bass, plus sven simulucrum and mr koto. more info here.

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