I’m not going to say anything about New Order. I think that speaks for itself.
What I will say is that Korallreven, along with Kisses and Delorean and Pallers and every other Swedish duo longing for the beach, are providing evidence that it’s not only lo-fi autuers that have a fixation with all things sun, surf and summer. I guess everybody likes those things. At least for another six months.
The irony here, though, is that while all this blog friendly house is evocative of the beach and comatose days lost to indulgent nights, it’s all endorsed by guys (always guys) too busy glued to their laptops indoors with the curtains closed to even get a ray of sun on their pallid skin. It appears as if I’m among that lucky clique now too.
Korralreven – “The Truest Faith”
(Photo: Markus Nurmi)
As you all know, Seams is celebrating the release of his now-sold-out debut 12″ Nightcycles with a free show at Puregroove on Monday 3rd May.
We can now announce that not only will he be joined by friends Shells (live) and Becoming Real (DJ), but also by very ‘special guest’ and recent touring partner Gold Panda, whom you may remember from Tough Love Is 4 last year.
It’s free entry and starts at 18:30. Stage times will be posted nearer the day. Follow this link to the Facebook event.
(Photo: Jess Gough)
Although it seems like it’s been out forever because the whole world has been getting excited about it, today we officially release the super limited 12″ 5 track white label pressing of Seams’ “Nightcycles”.
Since only 100 copies were actually made, they’re nearly all sold out, but if you’re quick you’ll be able to pick up one by clicking this link and exchanging money. You know the drill. It’s also available on all download services iTunes, Amazon et al.
What’s more, a lot of good people with loud voices have been putting their money where those loud voices come from and writing nice things about Seams. I’ve been so good as to list them below.
PRESS:
Pitchfork
Dazed Digital
Dazed and Confused
The Line of Best Fit
Pinglewood
Tough Love Records presents…
Seams – Nightcycles + rmxs – 12″ Launch Party
Monday 3rd May @ Puregroove Records
Seams (live)
Shells (live)
+ a very special guest (live)*
Becoming Real (DJ set)
18:30-23:00
FREE entry
Facebook event
Pre-order the Seams 12″ from here now (last few copies left of a run of 100):
* special guest announced week before. Actually genuinely special, believe…
The Fair Ohs sound like Paul Simon, but, y’know, punk. It’s surprising, then, that drummer Joe is heavily into 80s R&B. Or maybe it’s not? Everyone hears things differently.
Since Eddy has already made a mix of African music for me for Platform, I asked Joe to do the same for the music he loves. There will be no favourtism here (Matt was going to do one too, but technology let us down). Perhaps it’s not that representative of Fair Ohs, but it’s Monday and these 9 songs of pure fire make the weekend sound like it goes on forever. Here’s Joe in his own words:
“This is a mix of 80s soul music that I grew up listening to through my parents and as an adult have listen to obsessively. The first three tracks are Jam and Lewis productions; my favourite producers. To me everything they touched in the 80s was just pure gold. The first track here by Alexander O’Neal is a slightly different style for them (made in 1990 where they were starting to develop a New Jack Swing influenced style) but shows how powerful Alex is when he is pissed off in contrast to the last track of his on this mix, ‘Sunshine’, where he is just as comfortable with a ballad. I love this man and still go to his shows whenever he is in town (I missed out on seeing him in the 80s, but what could I do, I was a child!).
The tracks by Cherrelle and SOS Band show more typical Jam and Lewis productions, with Terry Lewis’ idiosyncratic p-funk influenced bass parts and Jimmy Jam’s expert ear for amazing chords, and also their use of the 808 drum machine and Oberheim synths. The Womack and Womack track here I love becuase of how sincere and haunting it is . Luther Vandross’ ‘Give Me the Reason’ combines his technically perfect vocal delivery with jagged, almost industrial, drum programming, as does Teddy’s ‘I Never Felt Like Dancing’.
This music doesn’t really influence what I do with Fair Ohs (We got Paul Simon for that!) but I take a lot of influence from this for a futuristic soul group called The One . ”
Tracklisting
1. Alexander O’Neal – “Somebody Changed Your Mind”
2. Cherrelle – “Will You Satisfy?”
3. SOS Band – “Just The Way You Like It”
4. Womack and Womack – “Strange and Funny”
5. Bobby Womack – “I Can’t Stay Mad”
6. Morris Day – “Love Is A Game”
7. Luther Vandross – “Give Me The Reason”
8. Teddy Pendergrass – I Never Felt Like Dancing
9. Alexander O’Neal – “Sunshine”
(Photo: Kelley Smith)
I read that ‘unfinished’ music is currently de rigeur. I read that lo-fi is the ultimate expression of this sensibility; the perfect form for an incomplete idea, not an economically pragmatic way of documenting what has already been perfectly conceived.
Because when thought about, there’s an obvious inherent complicity between a lack of fidelity and the development of an idea: the white noise of distortion reflects the white noise of conception. Do ideas ever arrive in crystal clear perfect clarity? Do artists always know why they do what they are doing before it’s already done? When only receiving things in end form, it’s easy to be tricked into thinking that’s how it always was and was meant to be. But what about process, what about the seams, what about the ‘getting to’? Lo-fi is the expression of those mechanics.
So, to describe the aesthetic of Beaty Heart as ‘lo-fi’ misses something key. Not in terms of sound, but conceptually, in the ragged edges, in the pronounced, sometimes jarring, hop between one idea and the next, you can hear the internal process as external, the form forming, the lo-fi static of conception. Beaty Heart call this version of “COLA” a demo, but then, just maybe, any version of “COLA” would always be a demo? “COLA” is thinking aloud, and loud.
What’s more, “COLA” is a jumping off point for whatever comes next. And as jumping off points go, it’s awfully high, way up where the clouds form and the next step is undetermind. But when they emerge out of that murky mountain mist – when they fully appear – there’s enough in “COLA” to suggest you’re gonna see them rainbow as perfect light. It’s worth remembering, stars, as light, don’t stand still in the night sky.
Beaty Heart – “COLA”
(Photo: Sylvain-Emmanuel .P)
Once: BlackCrystalBearWolfKids.
Then: SummerSurfBeachDreamGirls.
Soon: Something Else.
But not until the end of this song; one final look back over the shoulder, and then the past no longer, only the future, on repeat, forever.
Dream Cop – “Beach City/Carol I Know”
Wednesday 7th April 2010
OLD MONEY VI
Tough Love Records presents…
OLD MONEY @The Stag’s Head, Dalston
Saturday 17th April
Internet Forever – 22:30
Wet Paint- 21:45
The Proper Ornaments - 21:00
Tough Love DJs
Home.Under.Ground DJs
French Kissing DJs
FREE entry
20:00-01:30
Thanks to Ralph Wilson for the poster.
The Future isn’t as good as it used to be. The Future is The Road. The Future is 2012. The Future’s over before we even get there. Tomorrow is already written in the fiction of today and the words are black and charred, and the sun is crashing down on our damned souls turning us to ash and cinder and ill heat.
Why, then, the rush, the plan-making, the looking-forward-to? Let time drag long and slow like broken clocks, be drawn out forever sitting here in yesterday’s blackhole.
Don’t look back? I’m not looking anywhere else. I couldn’t stand the sight.
Slow Animal – “Sitting Here”
(Photo: Ashlie Chavez)
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Slow Animal have an entire EP free to download from their BandCamp here.
