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News
Reviews
Events
Listen
Feature
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Credits
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July 3 - 16
Earplug is a twice-monthly email magazine, delivering a handpicked selection of news, sounds, videos, and original features
to the international electronic-music community.
"Everyone gets me wrong," says Jamie Lidell. Perhaps that's not surprising, given the singer/producer's stylistic range and his irrepressible theatrics, both onstage
and in the interviewee's chair. Whatever the case, his new album, Jim, indulges clean-lined soul over his usual techno-industrial complex, proving as unpredictable as the singer himself. It seems
electronic soul is at the heart of this issue of Earplug, from disco pioneer Ron Hardy and original electro-punks Suicide to featured albums from Daedelus, Nôze, No Age, 2562, and Ghana's "hiplife" generation. You'll also hear a generous dose of the nameless stuff
in DJ sets from Juan Atkins and Mike Servito, while music critic Dominique Leone, also a musician responsible for one of the year's most schizophonically soulful albums, digs out a playlist of electronic
records brimming with uncommon depth.
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Suicide by Box Set
Nihilistic synth duo honored with six-CD set, singles series
A fertile year for No Wave nostalgia reaches its apex, as one of the movement's forefathers is honored with a year-long series
of special releases. Suicide formed in 1971 when artist, gallery-owner, and singer Alan Vega met Martin Rev, a keyboardist who had studied with jazz great Lennie Tristano. The downtown New York duo created confrontational, cathartic rock, with Rev churning out warm, minimalist keyboard melodies
— a blueprint for synth-pop — while Vega literally and figuratively attacked the audience with spastic spoken word. As Lydia
Lunch says in Marc Masters' new book, No Wave, "[Suicide] were one of the most extreme things. I just fell to my knees in praise of the gods. The terror was such a beautiful
thing to me."
The limited-edition, raw-sounding six-CD set Live 1977-1978, released in June in the UK on BLAST First (Petite), contains concert recordings drawn from New York shows and a support slot for the Clash and Elvis Costello on the group's
first European tour. Only one of the live recordings, "23 Minutes Over Brussels" — which ends when the pissed-off crowd steals
one of Vega's microphones — has ever seen official release.
In addition, a monthly series of 10-inch vinyl singles (also available as downloads) begins in July, with each installment
containing a Suicide rarity along with covers by both an established and upcoming act. The eclectic array of "established"
contributors includes Liars, Spiritualized, Sunn O))) and Pan Sonic, Peaches, Nick Cave's Grinderman, Klaxons, and, surprisingly, Bruce Springsteen, reportedly a fan of Suicide's "Frankie Teardrop."
- Pat Sisson
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Reconstructing Ron Hardy
Legendary Chicago DJ gets the trainspotter treatment
As a DJ for Chicago club the Music Box, Ron Hardy played an instrumental role in the development of early-'80s house music.
Unfortunately, he died of a heroin overdose in 1991, and because of both his and the club's hedonistic reputations, details
on his sets are often elusive. Drawing from bootlegged recordings archived at DeepHousePage, Chicago music writer Jacob Arnold recently reconstructed 40 Hardy sessions, googling song lyrics, posting unidentified MP3 segments to his website, and sifting through his record collection to identify the music that Hardy was DJing some 20 years ago. "It's especially
difficult, because Hardy often looped short sections or was speeding things up and applying EQ," Arnold told Earplug. "It
helps to have a really good memory for bass lines."
The playlists offer a glimpse into what made Ron Hardy a unique and enduring artist: mainly, the breadth of his taste and
his willingness to break new music (to say nothing of his reel-to-reel edits, which paved the way for remixes as we know them
today). "Alongside Frankie Knuckles, he was the single most important figure in the development of house music in Chicago," said Bill Brewster, moderator of
djhistory.com and author of Last Night a DJ Saved My Life. "He was unique because of the time and place he emerged, between the gap in the death of disco and the birth of house. There
was a vacuum, and he was one of the ones who helped to fill it."
Peter Shapiro, author of disco history Turn the Beat Around, offered similar praise: "Unlike Frankie Knuckles, who maintained more of a connection with disco's pretensions of elegance,
Hardy gave house its weirdness: he pitched records way, way up, his edits of disco tracks were faster and harder than those
of Knuckles, and he always peppered his sets with odd sound effects or trippy spoken-word interludes."
- Aaron Leitko
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MORE HEADLINES
Block-Rockin' Brothers
Chemical Brothers issue best-of collection more »
Queens of the Rap Age
Yo! Majesty announce new EP, LP more »
Rock 'n Racism
Lethal Bizzle harassed at Download festival more »
The Mother of All Sound Cards
BBC unearths earliest computer music more »
Five Finger Download
French blog tips a few free, legal tracks more »
Serotonin Reprise
Selway and Szostek announce remix contest more »
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Artist: |
Daedelus |
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| Title: |
Love to Make Music To |
| Label: |
Ninja Tune |
| Release: |
July 9 |
Between his bespoke suits and steampunk-style effects processors, Daedelus could easily be mistaken for a downtempo dandy.
The look sort of fits the prolific producer, who trades in bizarre oscillations and frequencies, often veering toward the
impulsive, exploratory, and wildly inclusive. He gets more club-oriented on Love to Make Music To, a stylistic sideshow ranging from the Go! Team-like jam "Fair Weather Friends" and the sugary R&B chorus of "My Beau" to
the club grit of "Bass in It" and the massive synths of "Hrs:Mins:Secs." Complex and with a deep well of guest vocalists,
the songs can get a bit schmaltzy, but there's a romantic hiding inside this Victorian. Whether he's in the middle of an airy
reverie or a thudding bass line, Daedelus maintains an endearing, whimsical touch.
- Pat Sisson
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Artist: |
Nôze |
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| Title: |
Songs on the Rocks |
| Label: |
Get Physical |
| Release: |
April 29 |
French dance-plus duo Nôze don't have to try to be weird — it's just the way they are. Songs on the Rocks is at once their most spontaneous and satisfying album. The duo seems as interested in conducting its own personal party
as guiding one for others; as such, off-kilter details emerge everywhere, from Dani Siciliano's French vocals on "Danse Avec
Moi" to the shards of plinked strings, military drums, and woodwind sighs rifling through "Ethiopo." "L'Inconnu du Placard"
is similarly strange, incorporating vocals that sound like Shane MacGowan caught in a Christmas pageant. Noted single "Remember
Love" also makes a return, sounding as offbeat but sanely gorgeous as it did last year. The difference? Now it has an album
to match.
- Michaelangelo Matos
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Artist: |
No Age |
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| Title: |
Nouns |
| Label: |
Sub Pop |
| Release: |
May 6 |
Whether you classify them as indie rock for people that miss the salad days (i.e. the late '80s and early '90s) or just another
clever drums, guitar, and feedback duo playing punk for hip kids, No Age have slammed their way into a lot of unlikely circles.
The first record on Sub Pop's new roster worthy of the label's legacy (at least since Wolf Eyes' brilliant 2006 torture mechanism
Human Animal), Nouns is grubby, lo-fi, and best served live and iron-foundry loud. Save for a pair of wandering near-jams, "Impossible Bouquet"
and "Keechie," the 30-minute album is relentless: mixed-down, granite vocals carry attitude more than words; guitars pull
out of fuzzy backdrops into powerful, Pixie-ish hooks; and cymbals splash and flood over nearly everything. It's destructive,
stunning, and executed with the meticulous-yet-reckless abandon of a nighttime bomb raid.
- Michael Byrne
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Artist: |
2562 |
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| Title: |
Aerial |
| Label: |
Tectonic |
| Release: |
May 28 |
As a moniker, 2562 (a name taken from the Hague zip code of producer Dave Huisman) is at once specific and anonymous. Aerial, Husiman's debut album as 2562 on Tectonic, is similarly hard to pin down, cordoning off a noir zone that's occupied sparsely
by a smattering of convulsing phantoms. 2562 coldly dishes out signature dubstep components — a skulking clomp, the percussive
clatter of metals, spastic bass eels. Still, writhing in the echo-blurred mist, the pulsing diodes of minimal techno are faintly
audible. "Channel Two" splashes synths at a gelatinous bass line that anxiously double-dribbles. A linear slink hits all manner
of potholes as it courses along the nauseous, radioactive low end of "Techno Dread." On "Basin Dub," a slab of vinyl (or is
that a bubbly bong drag?) crackles in time to a snap-crash clobber. While not as ruminative as Burial, 2562 still manages
some mesmerizingly tense climates.
- Bernardo Rondeau
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Artist: |
Various |
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| Title: |
Black Stars: Ghana's Hiplife Generation |
| Label: |
Out Here |
| Release: |
April 4 |
Hip-hop has been a fact of musical life in Africa for a good while now, but it's taken some time for its permutations there
to reach the wider world. Further confounding its global reception, the music tends to mix thoroughly with whatever is going
on locally before it re-emerges. In Ghana's case, that transmutation takes the form of "hiplife," a cross between R&B, hip-hop,
and highlife that produces bubbling, potent beats. The best songs on this smart, 14-song compilation are ebullient, but let
the edges show: "Modern Ghanaians," for instance, merges deep-house pulses with dancehall's lurch and glorious vocal harmonies.
At the other end of the spectrum, Pidgen All Stars' "Toto Mechanic" is a Ghana-style take on agreeably libidinous electro.
The convincer here, however, is "Kangaroo" by Tic Tac feat. Batman Samini & D'banj, a dance-craze record in which acoustic
guitars and airy keyboards gradually give way to boisterous, rough dancehall chanting.
- Michaelangelo Matos
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REVIEW: Sónar
June 19-21
Barcelona, Spain
www.sonar.es
The star-studded lineup at the 15th-annual Sónar boasted dozens of big-time DJs, including festival staples like Richie Hawtin and Ricardo Villalobos, alongside less straightforwardly "dance" acts such as Goldfrapp. Tens-of-thousands of festival-goers crowded into countless on- and offsite venues (that's without mentioning the afterparties).
What's more, massive crowds packed a stadium-sized venue, located in an industrial neighborhood outside picturesque Barcelona,
for the nighttime events. All of this made it pretty easy to feel disoriented.
Of course, there was still plenty to celebrate. The crowning achievement of the festival was a reunion performance of X-102's
Discovers the Rings of Saturn — a legendary early-'90s project by Detroit hero Robert Hood, Underground Resistance's "Mad" Mike Banks, and techno celeb
Jeff Mills. Mills and Banks' transporting live set unfolded in front of giant screens displaying images of planets and the
swirling cosmos. A departure from Sónar's typical dance-floor mandate, beatless ambient music filled out the first half-hour.
When Mills slowly began introducing beats into the equation — cresting into the first instantly recognizable Detroit techno
classic — it sent shockwaves through the enraptured audience. The music felt strange and futuristic — perhaps, ironically, as bold and new as it did in 1992.
keep reading »
Teenage Jesus & the Jerks
June 13, 2008
New York, NY
www.knittingfactory.com
As difficult to endure as they were to escape, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks were the ultimate in sensory deprivation — a harrowing,
full-body thrash capped by the expert vocal abrasions of the legendary Lydia Lunch. The East Village institution was at the
forefront of the city's late-'70s No Wave scene, conjuring an uncompromising racket light years beyond punk rock's self-aware
anarchy. While the group was immortalized on the Brian Eno-curated No New York compilation, it burned out well before the feedback faded. After a mere two years of expletive-ridden, audience-baiting shows,
the band called it quits — a boil pressed back into the East Village skin from which it sprouted.
As such, nostalgia for the group has a stale reek — the seemingly antithetical rot of a band whose intent was to eradicate
all that had come before, and to genuinely alienate everyone. But, then, time has a way of smoothing over these types of conundrums, especially when the revisions are brokered by members
of Sonic Youth. In honor of Thurston Moore and Byron Coley's recent scene-codifying tome No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976-1980., Lunch agreed to revive the old band moniker for a single evening.
keep reading »
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MORE EVENTS
Celebrate Brooklyn! Summer Series
Through August 9
New York, NY
Central Park SummerStage
Through August 17
New York, NY
Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Festival
July 3-5
Sète, France
P.S.1 Warm Up
July 5 - Sept 6
New York, NY
Pohoda Festival
July 18 & 19
Trencin, Slovakia
Melt! Festival
July 18-20
Ferropolis, Germany
Pitchfork Festival
July 18-20
Chicago, IL
Soundwave Festival
July 18-20
Vancouver Island, BC
HARD Summer Festival
July 19
Los Angeles, CA
Audioriver
August 1 & 2
Plock, Poland
Creamfields Andalucía
August 9
Playa de Guardias Viejas, Spain
Outside Lands
August 22-24
San Francisco, CA
Numusic
September 3-7
Stavanger, Norway
Minitek
September 12-14
New York, NY
Decibel Festival
September 25-28
Seattle, WA
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DJ Mike Servito: Live at One Step Beyond (MP3)
Last March, Detroit's Mike Servito rocked Flavorpill's One Step Beyond party at the American Museum of Natural History, mixing
up brittle disco with dub techno, deep house, and jawdropping electro jams.
 LISTEN |
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Juan Atkins: Live at RBMA Taster, Lisbon (stream)
"Jazz Is the Teacher," proclaims one of Juan Atkins' most famous tracks. In this lush, luscious hour of deep techno, it becomes
absolutely clear that he's one, as well.
LISTEN |
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Sinden: We Make It Good Volume 03 (MP3)
Ain't nothing subtle about Sinden. Beginning with this mix's declaration that "We come to kick some ass," he goes on to do
just that, with heavy lazer-bass action from Don Rimini, Hervé, and Skream, and lots of exclusives for good measure.
LISTEN |
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Ambivalent & JPLS: Minus Ten-Year Anniversary Podcast (MP3)
Minus' Ambivalent and JPLS gleam the cube in honor of their label's tenth, or "aluminum" anniversary — an appropriate fit
for their sleek, metallic sound.
LISTEN |
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Professor Genius: Tribeca Grand Promo Mix (MP3)
Jersey City's resident disco whiz Professor Genius lays out his theory of harmonic convergence in 45 minutes of swollen synths,
Italo splendor, gated '80s drums, and even a little synth-pop mischief.
LISTEN |
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Looking for more hot mix sets and fresh new tracks? Check out Blentwell for an ongoing document of the evolution of blended music online.
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WATCH
Lucky Loops
Janek Schaefer explains Extended Play watch »
Skate and Destroy
Classixx, "Cold Act Ill" watch »
That's Some Wrap
Jamie Lidell live at Pitchfork Festival '07 watch »
Effin' Inscrutable
No Age premiere on FNMTV watch »
Back to Náttúra
Sigur Rós, Björk, and Ólöf Arnalds, "Gobbldigook" watch »
Girl's Gone Wild
Girl Talk, "Shut the Club Down" watch »
Dirty Dancing
The Ting Tings, "Shut Up and Let Me Go" watch »
Kwaito Goes Techno
DJ Mujava, "Township Funk" watch »
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Jiminy Cricket
Jamie Lidell chirps a different strain of soul
When it comes to playing that funky music, any white boy can sashay into a studio, push some buttons, and walk out a blue-eyed
pop star. But few vocalists of any shade can carry a tune while simultaneously carrying off a range of absurd antics. In addition
to breaking out the beatbox, Jamie Lidell samples and loops himself into a howling chorus of banshees, unleashing his inner soul-man in a caped romp across the stage.
Dressed to the nines, but no less naked for it, Lidell has banged his sweet pipes at Warp over the course of three albums,
making the former IDM label sound more like Stax or Motown. On his latest release, the intimately titled Jim, Lidell brings Burt Bacharach-style harmonics to the dub plate. Earplug's Jorge Hernandez asked the man about his unlikely
career trajectory, his sartorial prowess, and how "the voice" reacts to a specific nightmare scenario.
Earplug: The "Sonic Scientist" has a band now. How's that going?
Jamie Lidell: For once in my life, I'm not alone anymore. I'm just surrounded, in fact, by wood and brass, plastic-coated chunks of pain.
And primitive-looking sticks. I guess that's what they call progress. Hard to see how, but hey, I just sing, baby! No, in
all seriousness, it's like breaking out of a drug habit. I'm learning how to rip again, to take the mic and treat it to a
night out. There's more of me on the walkabout now, promenading about with the powerhouse behind me. A feather in a hurricane
was how it felt. Now I am like a windsock — letting it blow and never suck.
EP: Jim is a patchwork of an album. How do you decide what to leave out?
JL: If I told you that, you might try and become me. That's why all I'll say is, everyone gets me wrong. It's not simply a question
of what stays and what goes; it's a question of why go at all. This is far more fundamental, and crushes journalistic concerns
about time and relevance, which are purely concerns about fashion. It's as important as a haircut. That's all.
EP: What solidified this more pop direction?
keep reading »
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MORE FEATURES
Barbed-Wire Rope
US "terror policy" keeping bands out more »
Effed Up
Hua Hsu ponders unprintable band names more »
Celebrate the Main Stage
The Guardian fetes Sónar more »
Applepip
Skull Disco's Appleblim splices dubstep with techno more »
Finger-Lickin' Good
Theo Parrish, Jimmy Edgar, Lindstrøm on musical moments more »
Take It to the Bridge
Timbaland is the crucial link between pop and hip-hop more »
Gas Expanding
Simon Reynolds contemplates Wolfgang Voigt more »
Coming Down
Ben Watt's survival top 10 more »
Cosmic Goblin
Claudio Simonetti on Italo-disco history more »
Brothers Gonna Work It Out
Brothers' Vibe brings NY house to Ibiza more »
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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.
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Frequent Pitchfork contributor Dominique Leone is one of contemporary music criticism's most eloquent voices. He's also a
musician himself, and his self-titled debut, released on Lindstrøm's Strømland label happily gives his colleagues a run for
their money: part avant-disco, part rock operatics, part lo-fi pop, it gleefully defies words. CMJ described it as a midway point between the Beatles and the Boredoms, but that doesn't tell half the story. (You'd have to
add Tom Zé, Thomas Dolby, ABBA, and maybe even Melt-Banana to the complex intersection.) Dominique Leone is available now on CD and digital download; a vinyl version of the album will follow later this year on Important, along
with a vinyl re-press of last year's digital-only Clairevoyage, on Feedelity.
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- Shonky, Time Zero LP (Freak n' Chic)
French minimal techno with more than a splash of cosmic haze and fuzzy euphoria. Good for zoning out, though my fave tracks
("Nebula," "Galactica") work as psychedelic set glue.
- Cristian Vogel, The Never Engine (Tresor)
His first new record since 2005's great Station 55, and both more spacey and straightforward. Not sure I've heard Vogel this minimal, but it suits him fine. Jim who?
- El Guincho, "Costa Costa Paraíso" (Discoteca Océano)
Track seven from Alegranza. Sunny, celebratory, busy but light; great dance music.
- Minilogue, "Jamaica" (Cocoon)
The snare break at six minutes is greatness.
- Marco Bailey & Tom Hades, "Exorcism" (MB Elektronics)
Track two from Bailey and Hades' E=MB2 LP. Really warm track, but with a fuzziness that reminds me a little bit of the first Suicide record.
- Claro Intelecto, "Rise" (Modern Love)
Minimal, tropical sounding techno from Mark Stewart. Very subtle, and pretty in a sparse, almost bleak way. Sucks the air
out of me.
- Ricardo Villalobos, "Fabric 36" (Fabric)
Took me a while to come around on this music, but the sound of the drum tracks, and sheer balls it takes to trust people will
listen to something that takes so long to unfold, won me over.
- Phutura, "Primo Studio Dinamico - Meta ta Phisika (Giorgio Gigli Remix)" (Registrazioni Italiane)
Cosmic, way-the-fuck-out-there remix by Gigli of fellow Italian Phutura. Shrooms and beats.
- Stephan Bodzin, "Bremen-Ost" (Herzblut)
Bodzin sometimes gets called out for over-consistency, or even blandness. Don't believe the hype. Believe the prettiness and
phasing little synth pings on this track.
- Syclops, "Naoka's F" (DFA)
Track three from the I've Got My Eye on You LP. I don't know how Maurice Fulton gets such realistic drum sounds and performances from his machines, but he sure stews
up furry, good-mood music.
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About Us |
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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.
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Advertising Partners |
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Every other week, Earplug presents one exclusive advertising partner. Click for more information about advertising opportunities on Earplug and across all Flavorpill publications.
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Cover Art |
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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.
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Submissions/Feedback |
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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 publishes a series of online magazines, covering
ART, BOOKS, NEWS, and cultural events in six cities — NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, SAN FRANCISCO, CHICAGO, MIAMI, and LONDON. Coming soon: STYLE/DESIGN and FILM. Subscribe now.
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