A.R. Rahman is, simply put, one of the most thrillingly inventive, widely adored, and extremely prolific composers of this generation. His fortuitous partnering with director Mani Ratnam birthed numerous undeniably addicting musical gems, my favorite of which is shared here: the throbbing, kinetic masterpiece Dil Se.
Meanderthals are a truly new hybrid project comprised of Norwegian DJ Rune Lindbæk and English duo Idjut Boy, and recently released their hauntingly unified musical cornucopia of a debut album.
Desire Lines manages to swallow up everything but the kitchen sink, every touchstone of the artists’ collective sound base, while retaining a densely unified sound and singular feel throughout. The entire trip is anchored by a heavy dub foundation and shrouded in a balaeric beach party ensemble, shot through with airy acoustic and scruffy funk electric guitar. Darkly futuristic keyboard lines weave into and around breathless moments of sunny ecstasy that lift the eargasm potential far above mere dance floor slow burns. Every moment is blessed with a loose, jazzy attitude which belies the group’s disconnection from the club and the more introspective nature of this heady excursion. All of these statements are true, yet merely dance around the compulsively head-nodding appeal of Desire Lines. This is an album to unwind to, whether out on the town or back at home. It’s something you’ll end up listening to alone most often, despite the instantly gratifying beats and approachable nature – any friend with a working set of ears would be thankful for an introduction – it’s just too engrossing a listen when surrendering full attention. One look at the cover art probably gave more of an impression than any of this paragraph, but if you have read this far, take my word that the visuals are certainly representative of the majestically dreamlike beauty captured by this album.
[submit to the sound at boomkat or cd universe – and be sure to show some love at the Meanderthals myspace]
With only a handful of released tracks totalling over 30 minutes, Air France have become the favorite new artist many forward-thinking and fun loving music fans. Swathed in sun drenched woozy atmospheres and grounded with a fundamental understanding of beat centered propulsion, this enigmatic duo has managed to become both the hottest ticket from Gothenburg and the leading light in a balearic trance pop revival stretching around the globe. This is the pair of unfathomably striking EPs with which the group has garnered so much attention.
First we have No Way Down. Released in the summer of 2008 with little fanfare, it was luckily picked up on pitchfork‘s radar and received a glowing review, now echoed in hundreds of like minded gushing writeups. This is dangeously addictive electronic love-sound nirvana. Cutting through multilayered samples with the ease of Avalanches, they’ve also got an ear for pop hooks that would make other recent (and excellent) Swedish exports blush. There’s not a second wasted among the six equally brilliant tracks. Forced to pick a standout, Collapsing At Your Doorstep would fit the bill for it’s dreamlike sampled refrain, “sort of like a dream. no – better” flitting over weeping romantic strings and a beach party conga line of percussion. Truthfully, the entire record is required listening.
Speaking of beach parties, here is the first release, On Trade Winds, dropped in 2007. Beach Party is practically the group’s manifesto, the snowball which has since grown into an avalanche of attention. Too many people have listened to and loved the new EP yet remain ignorant of the burgeoning genius on display with these four tracks. Honestly, it should have gone first but recognition beats propriety. Flip these tunes on, line up the second record, and take the whole 36 minutes and 7 seconds in one hit. It’s as simple as that. Words, however eloquent, aren’t equipped to convey the blast of fresh air and heartpounding excitement this music evokes. Once it’s over you’re nearly guaranteed a repeat play. The only problem arises when the craving for more sets in. Hopefully Air France can keep the momentum and swing for the fences again with a new release in the near future. Is a full LP too much to ask?
[available separately as Swedish imports, and download-only from various outlets including klicktrack. Best option is the UK edition at Amazon which contains both EPs for the relatively low price of $17.49 us – an option I wish were available when I discovered them]
Here we have a truly mind warping, expansive, and impulsively danceable new album from Dusty Kid. It’s a headlong rush into ballsy beats and trance-inducing atmospheres seemingly forgotten since the heyday of Underworld or Chemical Brothers. There is a reason, after all, the album is titled A Raver’s Diary.
The record starts things off on a minimal tack, with the first song’s title broadly (but reductively) indicative of the forthcoming beats – Here Comes The Techno. The course is seemingly set for some ambient house, minimal techno, essentially Kompakt-esque left-of-the-dial approach. That notion is neatly sliced apart via Lynchesque, an off-kilter wobble of pulsing dub beats and stratospheric key tones. Tension and surprising depth are revealed as layers are peeled away, then rebuilt with pinpoint accuracy, paving the way toward the rest of the album’s skyward trajectory.
Soaring above cumulonimbus clouds on the quarter-hour behemoth America, the rocketship momentum blasts through affecting surges of echoed guitar tones and romantic organ swells, the distinct feeling of a heart growing four times it’s size. Feeling like a series of towering waves crashing against eardrums, every buildup and breakdown reveals richer textures and an evolving structure. The low-end grows deeper, organs are interrupted by staccato-pulse synths, strings and woodwind gusts wash over the dubby guitar line… and it all recedes into a gentle lull you may have seen coming for miles, but were hoping would happen anyway. It’s instantly rebuilt, vertically, with an intense picked guitar solo as the spine every element wraps seamlessly around. Anyone with a heartbeat would want to repeat the track at once; Dusty Kid never allows the opportunity to arise. Agaphes grabs the torch running full speed and jumps through multiple doorways, burning toward the terminal end of this habit-forming beat odyssey.
After that, it’s okay to hit Play again. In fact, it’s recommended. The perspective is essential for grasping the journey this album takes. He drops the listener straight into a party comprised of the tangible accumulated knowledge of travellers who journeyed to learn what partying meant. Which is to say.. nothing more, nothing less, than the thrill of the rhythm. Have fun.
[get your hands on this at boomkat or check out amazon – if so, make sure to utilize the customer review function to negate the ridiculous shipping-related score of 1 star (by a fellow who obviously doesn’t know what ‘review’ means)]
Underworld could have laid claim, at a certain point in time, of being the greatest band in the world. Of course, Karl Hyde and Rick Smith are modest Brits and known to loathe any self-aggrandizing boasts; the music speaks for itself, on record or in person. They truly bloom in a live environment, as a matter of fact. Where most of their peers are revealed, like the Wizard of Oz, to be little more than men with smoke and mirrors, Underworld unleash a godlike stadium-sized audio invasion. I’m here to share an album, not an experience. So from here we go crazycrazycrazycrazycrazycrazycrazy…
Two years ago, The Field (aka Axel Willner) dropped this masterpiece of maximized minimalism from the sky to explode notions of what infectiously catchy dance music can be built from.
Pure, ecstatic, sustained immediacy. This album hits your aural pleasure centers with laser precision from the first moment until the final echo wash. Using clipped, compressed, shifted, exploded and otherwise modified samples to not only transmit a distinctly amorphous energy, but construct the beats – with each set feeling like micro-worlds unto themselves, tiny galaxies streaming by at high speed. When Willner slows things down, as he does halfway though the aptly-named title track, eureka is the only natural response.
Grabbing throats and forcing attention, each song proceeds to evolve into a hypnosis-inducing pattern. The best ones come on feeling hardwired into some primal wavelength in the hypothalamus, unrelentingly catchy until the last moment when elements unravel and a synth stab reveals itself as a pitched vocal, organ lines deflate into a rhythm bed. An entire song tips over, unravels like a suture, and spills out The Four Tops.
Residing naturally at Kompakt, his sound is pitched somewhere between the progressive ambient techno of The Orb and the ‘pop ambient’ of label founder Gas (Wolfgang Voigt); of course, to fully visualize you’ll have to imagine Willner floating in some sort of dirigible far above the proceedings. Not to say that this is objectively better than either of those artists, of course – The Field simply aspires to loftier atmospheres than his forebears.
To put things laconically: this is four on the floor dance music with enough inner life and microscopic detail to satisfy the deepest of psych connoisseurs, infused with the energy to keep a party stomping though it’s hourlong runtime, and entrancing to the point of total willing surrender. So let go. Put on those headphones. Succumb to the kinetic charms. From here we go sublime, indeed.
[check this grand record out at boomkat or, of course, amazon]
Tanlines are sort of a mystery to me. But these aren’t the kind one gets from passing out on the beach – this one makes indellible instrumental sunny tropical dance music like so:
Basically, these two songs are uplifting, energetic, summery, and addictive. Short on time, these tracks are tall on feeling and instinctually catchy rhythm. Give it a spin and see for yourself.
And Tanlines, to give you more info (available on their myspace), have remixed tracks by the likes of Telepathe, El Guincho, and The Tough Alliance.. if that gives you a hint. Hopefully it also whets your appetite. This is a good discovery waiting for you to make it.
[purchase these tunes at Boomkat, and be sure to tell them how much you enjoy the fun sounds.]
Optimistic Underground 