| #701 |
|
2004 |
Perilous 701 There’s two schools of thought at the moment about electronic music. One says that the return of vocals is a welcome relief from the decade or more of faceless instrumentals. The other decries this, claiming that the last thing anyone needs is more disposable pop, or worse, faux soul. The former finds reassurance in the solid crossover between indie rock and electronics with music from Clue To Kalo (Adelaide’s Leaf signing), or a plethora of overseas acts Pulseprogramming, Schneider TM, Manitoba through to the rounded melodies of Kompakt’s Superpitcher, and the song-techno of Matthew Dear on Ghostly/Spectral. For the negative, witness the bootlegs that still refuse to die and the trend for more than a few locals electronic producers and DJs to start joining dull rock bands or making cheesy pop. In the midst of all this is the ‘other’ return to vocals – hip hop. Even this year’s Sonar festival in Barcelona is littered with hip hop acts – from Gangstarr to Madlib, Beans and Boom Bip. I’m certain that part of this return to voice is in part driven by the post S11 need to say something, anything. Silence is not an option, or if it is then it’s quite a conservative one. The new Funkstorung album Disconnected (K7) is almost a wholly vocal affair. There’s a smattering of hip hop from guests Tes and Sonic Sum, but also soul and soft rock – Louise Rhodes from Lamb. Almost all the messed up electronics are smothered in these vocals which distances this record far from Funkstorung’s past, and has the unfortunate effect of making it all a bit generic. Likewise the new Ubin album, Star-Lo (Creative Vibes) which leaves their semi-experimental past far behind. The production is slick and syrupy, the vocals dripping with mainstream pop sensibilities, which has a slightly ill-making effect. There’s no denying there is talent here but mainstream pop has already been infected with DSP trickery and crazy beats and has been for several years now. Clearly Ubin are trying to find a new sound and are inspired by the changes wrought on pop by technological change and Timbaland and the Neptunes, but at the end of the day, Britney’s Toxic is far more interesting than most of the stuff on the Ubin record, which is a shame. Also in Sydney, Dsico is himself trying to move away from the bootlegs that have made him famous – famous enough to be flown to Russia to play a show in Moscow next week. Since leaving his duo Cindii which was really quite a technically-focussed music making machine, the constant immersion in pop songs seems to have swung him around totally. If he actually had owned turntables then LCD Soundsystem’s quip about “selling your turntables and buying guitars” would ring true. Lots of people are curious to see if he can actually find a niche outside of bootlegs that fits. Anyway, Frigid is rocking on at the @Newtown on Sunday evenings with crowds continuing to grow. We’ve got a launch of the new Tortoise album on Sunday 18th with Buggin and Kris Keogh from Collapsed Records in Darwin, then the only Sydney show of Adam Johnson on the 25th. Adam is probably most well known for his killer track on the K7 compilation Mas Confusion compiled by Funkstorung. He also has an very lush and warm full length album on Miami’s Merck label. Along with his set, Blaze will be doing a set of electro-ish stuff and there’ll be some Merck giveaways . . . . oh, its free entry too. Yellow Peril (www.snarl.org)  Goto
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