 |
 |
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
| |
 |
News
Reviews
Events
Listen
Feature
Charts
Credits
|
|
November 8 - 21
Earplug is a twice-monthly email magazine, delivering a handpicked selection of news, sounds, videos, and original features
to the international electronic-music community.
"When I started out, I was almost obsessed," says globe-trotting beatsmith Guillermo Scott Herren (aka Prefuse 73) of his affinity for sonic editing. In this issue, Herren expounds on his turn toward a more fluid, unadulterated style:
"Lately I've eased up on that, and now the words are much more important and present." He isn't the only electronic musician
in search of more direct forms of presentation: heading up our Reviews section, both Cobblestone Jazz and Arp offer albums heavily indebted to real-time processes. In Listen, we offer a rare live set from the Cobblestone combo, as well as an even more uncommon acoustic session from Matthew Dear's
Big Hands. In Events, we review two gatherings aimed at bridging the gap between technology and environmental sound. And for those who still like
a little artifice, we screen Dan Deacon's spasm-inducing DVD, glowing skulls and all.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
Riding High
Thrill Jockey to release 15-year anniversary box set
This year marks the 15th anniversary of Thrill Jockey, a label famed for embracing rock bands who want to be laptoppers and electronicists who secretly seek guitars. In celebration,
the Chicago institution is releasing a limited-edition box set featuring nine 7-inch singles — the result of a free-form song
swap by the label's artists. Making the project all the more special, there are no plans to release these versions of the
songs on CD.
Thrill Jockey founder Bettina Richards has maintained the label's small-format roots by continuing to issue the occasional
7-inch, including platters from the National Trust and the Lonesome Organist. "It was the format that I thought was best suited to the concept," says Richards. "I loved Blast First's Devil's Jukebox 7-inch box, which I've had for years; that was also part of the inspiration."
The set includes contributions from label mainstays like the Sea and Cake, Califone, Adult., and Tortoise, and, with artists free to cover any song from the catalog, the results are often surprising. "I didn't
expect David Byrne to write more lyrics for the Fiery Furnaces song," says Richards, "and I did not think anyone would take on OOIOO."
Tortoise go to extremes, tackling Nobukazu Takemura's electro-acoustic "Falls Lake," while Richards compares Bobby Conn's cover of Freakwater's "Washed in the Blood" to Boney M. And with Caribbean/German disco stylings appearing on an indie-rock release, it looks to be a devilish jukebox indeed. (ML/PS)
|
|
| |
|
Shut Up and Dance
Surgeon to release first-ever mix CD on Warp
If your autumn has been filled with too many rainbows and smiley faces, Warp Records has the solution: This Is for You Shits is the first-ever commercially available mix CD from Surgeon (aka Anthony Childs), a producer long known as one of techno's most unrelenting selectors. Don't expect a treatise on the
state of techno trends — at least, one that's not polemic. Recorded in 2006, and taking its title from '70s proto-punks Suicide,
the 62-minute mix — encoded as a single track — blows through punishing, industrial-strength cuts from the likes of Scorn, Throbbing Gristle, Aphex Twin, Autechre, Curve, Monolake, Whitehouse, Vex'd, and Surgeon's own British Murder Boys. (Now there's a name that's all sweetness and light.) Limited to 1,000 copies, This Is for You Shits will be made available exclusively through the new Warpmart site when it re-launches in mid-November. For a taste of Surgeon's terror tactics, you can download his Neck Face mix for free at DJ-Surgeon.com. (PS)
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
MORE HEADLINES
Mighty Fina
Fina Music adds Rune Grammofon, Smalltown to download site more »
Lifting the Needle
Stylus ceases publication more »
Bassline is the Place
Bassline house keeps UK garage alive more »
Palindroning
To Rococo Rot release new album more »
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
Artist: |
Cobblestone Jazz |
|
| Title: |
23 Seconds |
| Label: |
!K7 |
| Release: |
October 23 |
Leaping between keys and laptop, Cobblestone Jazz — aka Danuel Tate, Tyger Dhula, and Canadian techno hero Mathew Jonson —
drop rock-steady rhythms over slowly transforming phrases and space-junk arpeggios. The tunes flit and glide, eventually settling
somewhere between systems music and greyscale fusion. Despite the presence of limber, slippery bass, 23 Seconds is as light as air, with gaseous vocoder whispers skimming across each track's reflective surfaces. The trio does sometimes
hover uncomfortably close to metronomic bland-out, but both the itchy insistence of "Saturday Night" and the bleached skip
of "Peace Offering" jolt things back to life. Featured on the second disc, a live set recorded in Madrid offers an example
of the trio's loose-limbed, improvisatory aesthetic, with mutant motifs snaking around each other like ivy climbing stone
walls. (JD)
|
| |
 |
Artist: |
Chica and the Folder |
|
| Title: |
Under the Balcony |
| Label: |
Monika Enterprise |
| Release: |
September 11 |
Chica and the Folder — Chica Paula's duo with Max Loderbauer — are shapeshifters. By turns tender and quirky, lush and dryly
synthetic, Under the Balcony folds acoustic guitars, kalimba, harmonium, vintage synthesizers, and Paula's husky alto into a compact album brimming with
oblique hooks, oddball rhythms, and polylingual play. On "Perfect Day (Sometimes)," the duo morphs Durutti Column-inspired
guitar figures and rudimentary drum machining into a restrained new-wave stomp before embracing a Latin-tinged, virtual-big-band
sound reminiscent of Señor Coconut. Chica's transmogrifying powers shouldn't surprise: like her brother Martin Schopf (aka
Dandy Jack), the Chilean/German singer/producer is adept at straddling hemispheres. "Angelus Novus" folds Chilean poet Nicanor
Parra's words into a full-spectrum synthetic thrum, and throughout the record, moments of overwhelming gorgeousness creep
up as suddenly as UFOs hovering over the Atacama Desert. Irreducible, incomparable, and far from contemporary electronic pop's
usual timeline, this is one folder that won't yellow with age. (PS)
|
| |
 |
Artist: |
Arp |
|
| Title: |
In Light |
| Label: |
Smalltown Supersound |
| Release: |
November 6 |
When ex-Tussle member Alexis Georgopoulos named his new solo project Arp, smart money said analog keyboards would play a big
role. But who knew Georgopoulos would go from dance-rock mediator to synthesizer mystic? Where Tussle's Can-inspired, corkscrew
grooves were exercises in tightening already taut rhythms, the music of Arp is about losing yourself in airy textures and
electro-acoustic ambience. In Light overflows with placid and gently churning grooves, untouched by bass or drum machines and begging for placement behind a
sci-fi film's cinematic panning shot. Conceived and performed live as part of a 2006 art exhibit, the tracks move (and sometimes
meander) at the comparatively glacial pace of installation art, morphing to the drip of molasses-thick synth lines. Meanwhile,
small details like the squirming sounds of "Fireflies on the Water" or the slightly flinty flute on "Rising Sun" give the
album an organic feel that transcends its somewhat sterile gallery origins. (PCS)
|
| |
 |
Artist: |
Sun Electric |
|
| Title: |
Lost & Found (1998-2000) |
| Label: |
Shitkatapult |
| Release: |
October 23 |
While often associated with the ambient explosion of the '90s, Sun Electric were never quite comparable to peers like the
Orb or Orbital. Their discs for the R&S and Apollo labels always seemed more interested in sound design than astral projection
(even if the former often led to the latter), and they never let a propensity for the breakbeat or the 4/4 pulse tie them
to Earth. Recorded during and after the sessions for their last album, 1999's Via Nostra, Lost & Found collects ten tracks of unclassifiable computer funk. Encompassing hypercolored future-jazz, digital motorik, Laudanum lounge,
and sprightly ambient, the songs sound even more unusual now than they might have then, if only because no one is releasing
music like this any more. As billowing and as hyperreal as the Epcot globe wrapped in one of Christo's canvases, Lost & Found synthesizes seemingly irreconcilable timbres and rhythms into a world-music sampler from an alternate dimension. (PS)
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
MULTIMEDIA: DVD
|
|
|
Artist:
|
Dan Deacon/Jimmy Joe Roche |
| Title: |
Ultimate Reality |
| Label: |
Carpark |
| Release: |
November 20 |
|
|
A Dan Deacon show is conjured out of almost nothing — a stroboscopic green skull, house lighting set to "epilepsy," and the
man himself hunched at the edge of the stage — but somehow it still works. Deacon's jittery, oddly cathartic performances
are like gatherings of a neon cult, and his success must have left him wondering: "If I can do that with a flashing skull,
what could I do with more?" Luckily, the master knob-twiddler is surrounded by the Wham City posse of viz-art nerds; it's from those ranks that Joe Roche steps up, providing a hyperkinetic, half-hour collage of psychedelic
effects and Schwarzenegger movies to supplement Ultimate Reality, Deacon's multimedia follow-up to Spiderman of the Rings. Heavy on mirror effects and brightly colored filters, the images are as psychedelic as can be, and the tunes are propped
by a pair of flesh-and-bone drummers with bizarre and fairly awesome results. Aside from ditching the chipmunk vocals, Deacon
doesn't stray too far from the Spiderman formula, continuing to use tempo builds and soaring Casio choruses. He's planning to support the release with a winter tour,
leaving watchers of this offering with only one question: When this show hits the road, are the kids going to dance, or simply
fall under the spell of stunning projections? (MB)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
REVIEW: Atmospheres: Field Recording and the World of Natural Sound
October 21–26
London, UK
www.museumgardenhistory.org/fieldrec.htm
It seems awfully appropriate that this maelstrom of found and stolen sounds was performed in the Museum of Garden History.
A former church, the space is now a temple to the outdoors. Of course, while the space remained impressive, the audience was
the real player in the six-day festival of field recording and "natural" sound. Peter Cusack opened with beautiful, ethereal electromagnetic recordings of unlikely sites — including Highbury and Islington Station —
while Leafcutter John's strange exploits had the rabble seated on the church floor, recording samples to be fed into his laptop. Midweek, after
Biosphere's first outing, former Cabaret Voltaire member Chris Watson joined Sweden's BJ Nilsen, recreating their Storm album in 5.1 surround. In both of his appearances, Biosphere layered ambient recordings with strange synths and thundering
horns, as a clamorous collection of discord, jarring and purring through odd rhythms, left the audience in a freakish, quad-sound
stupor. Scanner, meanwhile, offered closure to the festival with a tribute to his friend Derek Jarman's The Garden Is Full of Metal. Pulling together cyclic blips and strange motes of everyday sound to join with Jarman's Super-8 work, Scanner rounded out
the ear-opening festival with impeccable composition, dark velveteen aplomb, and truly experimental style. (OS)
REVIEW: Ear to the Earth
Oct 12-20
Judson Church, NY
www.emfproductions.org/year0708/e2eoverview.html
Like the Atmospheres festival across the Atlantic, New York's Ear to the Earth speaks to the growing interest in electro-acoustic environmental
sound recording — making clear the similarities between laptoppers and wildlife phonographers. In the festival's second edition,
the central thrust was the connection between abstract sound and specific environmentalist concerns. Bernie Krause — originally a member of '60s folkies the Weavers and later at the vanguard of early Moog-twiddling — set the tone with a
presentation discussing the ways in which man-made noise dominates subtle tweets and chirps in even the most outlying areas
of civilization. Arguing that windswept desolation is no longer so easy to achieve, his presentation was clunkily lo-tech
but charmingly communicative, maintaining the audience's rapt attention.
Italian composer Walter Branchi was also in town, presenting three pieces from Intero, an ongoing series that explores minimalism in the truest sense of the term. His granular clouds were almost non-existent
at times, sounding sneaky and susurrant as David Monacchi blew softly into his Indian bansuri flute. Branchi required no applause, and his trance-inducing work didn't so much end as disappear seamlessly into the natural
ambience of the New York Friends Meeting House.
Of course, it was the opening night performance — the New York premiere of John Cage's A Dip in the Lake, a piece published by the composer in 1978 and first realized four years later in Chicago — that impressed on the grandest
scale. Cage provided a detailed map/score and instructions for "random" recording across any given city, and in this interpretation
by Bill Blakeney, Gayle Young, and George Boski, Toronto became the focus. A multitude of loudspeakers was arrayed throughout
Judson Church, spreading the sounds of Toronto as an ebbing and flowing babble. There wasn't much to look at, so closing one's
eyes was advised, a move that allowed attendees to better spatialize a heady rush of cacophonic delight. Gradually, the audience
grew confident, like cautious animals exploring a new territory, and began wandering about the church to find new sonic permutations.
The ideal method, of course, would have been to perambulate with eyes still closed, careering into walls and audience alike,
beautifully disorientated. (ML)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
MYM Extra 002 presents Cobblestone Jazz Live (stream)
As fantastic as their records may be, Cobblestone Jazz are first and foremost a live band. Here, they fuse Danuel Tate's fearsome
keyboard skills with Mathew Jonson and Tyger Dhula's fierce analog synths and drums, cretaing a performance that is unique
and unrepeatable.
 LISTEN |
|
|
|
Mathew Dear: Live at the Current (stream/MP3)
Who would have guessed when "Mouth to Mouth" was starting to rule clubland that within a year or so Matthew Dear would be
performing unplugged, as it were, on Minnesota Public Radio? This set includes acoustic renditions of three songs from Asa Breed, his new album for Ghostly.
LISTEN |
|
|
|
Jeremy Greenspan: Live on Toronto Treasures (stream)
Junior Boys' Jeremy Greenspan goes long into left field on this mixture of twisted disco and unorthodox dance music, tapping
Kelley Polar, Joakim, Radio Slave, and Front 242 along the way.
LISTEN |
|
|
|
Nick Craddock: Süd Electronic Mix (MP3)
You can find Nick Craddock's fingerprints in many a nook and cranny of London's music industry — in DJ booths as much as anywhere
else. A resident DJ for Alan Abrahams' (aka Portable) Süd Electronic label, he uses this opportunity to flesh out a freaky
little mix of deep house, bit-chomping techno, and demure minimal.
LISTEN |
|
|
|
Complete Control Radio (stream)
With Anton Corbijn's Ian Curtis biopic upping interest levels in the life and times of Joy Division, Viva Radio's multi-part
history offers tracks from Joy Division, New Order, and their influences, as well as interviews with the likes of Jon Savage,
Matthew Higgs, and Simon Reynolds.
LISTEN |
|
|
 |
Looking for more hot mix sets and fresh new tracks? Check out Blentwell for an ongoing document of the evolution of blended music online.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
WATCH
Panda Bear, "Comfy in Nautica"
Yacht rock for the psychedelic set watch »
Liars, "Houseclouds"
Art rock goes big beat, loves kittens watch »
Black Dice, "Kokomo"
Rainbow overload watch »
The Black Ghosts, "Some Way Through This"
Theo and Simon Lord are your friends watch »
UNKLE, "Hold My Hand"
Heroin chic will never go out of style watch »
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Minced Beats
Prefuse 73 puts hip-hop through its paces
For almost a decade, Prefuse 73 has rocked Warp's glitch-pop roster with hyper-edited, slightly schizophrenic, somewhat melancholy hopscotch beats. While globe-trotting
in support of his latest CD, Preparations, Guillermo Scott Herren (also one half of Savath y Savalas) set aside a couple of hours to talk roots, edits, and karma with
Earplug's Jorge Hernandez.
Earplug: What inspired your time in Spain?
Guillermo Scott Herren: My father's Spanish and my mom's Cuban/Irish. I was born in Miami, but I came up in Atlanta — a largely black-and-white world.
So, I didn't have a chance to dig into that part of myself. People would say, "You're what?" The whole time I was [living]
in Spain, I was devoted to absorbing the culture, the people and getting a sense of myself.
EP: Did you do any partying?
GSH: I know I'm on one of the ultimate electronic labels, and I love Warp — they've been nothing but good to me — but I really
consider myself a hip-hop artist. I don't really know much about electronic music and the club scene's not my thing; so no,
I didn't party at all.
EP: Are you tight with other Latino/Hispanic electronic artists like Tommy Guerrero, Kid 606, or Matias Aguayo?
GSH: Tommy's my boy. I love that guy. His head and heart are totally in the right place and his music's great. A couple others
I've actually had trouble with. At a recent festival I had words with someone over the heritage thing. I'm not going to name
names because it's not important.
EP: Fair enough. I saw your newborn's picture on MySpace. How's that going?
keep reading »
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
MORE FEATURES
Glittery Leaves
Goldfrapp to release Seventh Tree more »
Ghetto Gothic
Trent Reznor, Saul Williams team up on Niggy Tardust more »
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Harpsichord
Oliver Sacks explores music and neuroscience more »
Pots of Gold
Scott Plagenhoef on Radiohead's digital play more »
Upbeat on Downloads
MP3 blogs foster "musical democratization" more »
Unflappably Unhurried
Lovely Music lives in real time more »
The Teacher
Professor Genius talks to 24:Hours more »
Take Cover
Designers reinvent album art for the digital age more »
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Each issue, Earplug sneaks a peek inside the crates of our favorite DJs. We'll even help you beef up your own bag: click on
selected titles to preview tracks, download MP3s, or purchase vinyl.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
In addition to his high-profile DJ career at Danish superclub Vega, Kasper Bjørke keeps busy with partner and WhoMadeWho member
Tomas Barford (aka TomBoy), recording as well-known electronic outfit FILUR. In Gumbo, Bjørke's electrifying new album, suffuses the best parts of edgy club music, punk-funk, and intelligent pop with a cinematic
effervescence, and its single "Back and Spine" recently charted at No. 1 on iTunes Denmark.
|
|
- Digitalism, "Idealistic (WhoMadeWho Re-Interpretation)" (Astralwerks/Caroline)
- FM Belfast, "Lotus (Kasper Bjørke Remix)" (Thugfucker)
- Bloc Party, "Flux (TomBoy Remix)" (Wichita)
- Dubfire, "RibCage" (Desolat)
- As in RebekkaMaria, "She Lion (Kasper Bjørke Remix)" (Attack)
- Prinzhorn Dance School, "Space Invader (Optimo Remix)" (DFA)
- Dusty Kid, "The Cat (Crookers Remix)" (Southern Fried)
- Kasper Bjørke, "Igo Ugo (Album Version)" (Plant)
- Booty Cologne, "Shake Wut Ya Mama Gave Ya (Don't Feed the Monkey Remix)" (A:larm)
- LCD Soundsystem, "Time to Get Away (Gucci Soundsystem Remix)" (DFA/EMI)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
About Us |
| |
Earplug is an email magazine dedicated to electronic music and its many dynamic styles and influences. Published twice-monthly,
it features a handpicked selection of music news, cultural spotlights, tip sheets, CD reviews, original reporting, and music
festival previews and reviews. Earplug offers only pure editorial and unbiased news — no money is accepted from any artists,
labels, promoters, or companies seeking mention.
|
|
| |
| |
Media Partnerships |
| |
Every other week, Earplug presents one exclusive media partner. Click for more information about advertising opportunities on Earplug and across all Flavorpill publications.
|
|
| |
| |
Cover Art |
| |
We have an open call to create the covers that run at the top of each issue. If you would like to submit a design, please
email us at design and we'll send you the necessary specs.
|
|
| |
| |
Submissions/Feedback |
| |
Tell us what you think is exciting and worth including in Earplug by dropping us an email at tips. Writers interested in getting even more involved should reach us at contribute. To criticize, praise, or generally comment on this publication, please send an email to feedback.
In addition to this twice-monthly digest of new electronic music, Flavorpill also publishes ten other email magazines, covering
ART, BOOKS, NEWS, FASHION, and cultural events in six cities — NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, SAN FRANCISCO, CHICAGO, MIAMI, and LONDON.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
   |
