FMA Blog

So are you down with some electro party music from France?  In my search for some on FMA I chanced upon these great tracks from Computer Truck (Julien Daigremont) which perfectly fit the bill. 

Rock the Boulevard, Reach the Bourgeois is Computer Truck's first full length which was released in 2006 by Da! Heard It Records and offered up here on the good old FMA.  This is a great release full of sweet lo-fi electro rave-ups with a touch of noise here and there.  Check out "Complimenti" and enjoy.

Anticipate Recordings is putting on a showcase tonight at Littlefield in Brooklyn. There will be live music from Ezekiel Honig, Sawako, Alexander Kaline, a DJ set by Borne, and visuals by Joshue Ott (details).

The Anticipate night is part of the NY incarnation of Poland's esteemed Unsound Festival, which is hitting venues throughout the city with an exciting set of music, art, and workshops until Feb 14 (check out ISSUE Project Room's write-up for more).

Anticipate was founded in 2007 by Ezekiel Honig, a NY-based electronic musician and sound designer. A few months ago, Pushbinlou featured Ezekiel Honig's It's Getting Cold Outside EP, released on Philadelphia's Unfound Sound netlabel in 2005 (not to be confused with Unsound Festival!). Here's a track form that EP

Anticipate is primarily a label dealing in physical objects -- some limited to as few as 50 copies, others distributed far and wide through Kompakt. In 2007, they released a free Creative Commons set of field recordings Japanese-born sound sculptor Sawako, recorded while on tour around the world. It was released under a Creative Commons Attribution license, encouraging the world to remix. The first volume of remixes featured members of the extended Anticipate family, including tracks from Sawako herself, Ezekiel Honig, and this one from Portland-based artist Strategy (Community Pool tapes, Kranky), while the second volume (cover art pictured above-left) featured a set of highlights from the CC-powered open call for submissions.

Last year, Sawako stopped by WFMU for a live performance on Bethany's Stochastic Hit Parade, which was featured by PushbinLou here.

Unsound Festival New York kicked off last Thursday evening (2/4) – marking the first incarnation of the innovative performance and lecture series outside its homeland of Poland. Founded in Kraków in 2003 by curator Mat Schulz, Unsound Festival explores the intersections between “electronic, experimental, independent, post-classical, and club music scenes.” After only four days time, the festival is already crowded with stunning highlights. I caught the opening night show at Lincoln Center featuring a terrific set from Finnish DJ/composer/drummer Vladislav Delay (whose Tummaa album was probably my fav release of 09) in collaboration with German video artist Lillevan. Still recovering (in a variety of ways) from a startlingly fresh sequence of programming at Le Poisson Rouge last night: performances of classical music touchstones Pictures at an Exhibition (Moussorgsky) and Bolero (Ravel) were followed by an absolutely resplendent, mind-blowing set of abstract electronic improvisations from the North American debut of the Moritz Von Oswald Trio, featuring surprise guests Francois K (!) and Carl Craig (!!).  Levon Vincent closed the event with a blistering DJ set that carried on until the very early morning hours (I’m lame and only made it until about 3:30am…)

ISSUE Project Room will host two events in the festival this week. The “Electronic Bridge” program on Tuesday night (2/9) serves as the first in a thread of thematic shows under the Eastern Promise banner, seeking to highlight a number of important Eastern European artists generally underexposed in the U.S. The “Electronic Bridge” will feature a diverse array of experimental electronic music from Zavoloka (Ukraine) and Zenial (Poland), as well as a set from NY local Bora Yoon in collaboration with composer R. Luke DuBois on the live video tip. To whet appetites for what should be a fantastic show, I’ve compiled a dope little mix featuring works from the artists on the program.

Check here and here for more info on the two shows at ISSUE, and here for a full schedule of the rest of the festival.

At 36 years of age, I find myself growing more restless by the day.  There are times that I feel twice my age, destined to become the ranting old coot that throws stuff from his front porch at passersby just because I can.  I resent the fact that my waking hours are spent at a place doing duties I could care less about and then having to steal back time and fight off sleep to do what I'm passionate about.  I resent a lot of sh*t, actually.

With that being said, it's nice to look upon the youth and see boundless potential, to know that there are heads coming up behind me that are light years ahead in possibilities.  Consider the young lord out of Hollywood, Florida named Black Ant, beatmaker in training.   Judging from his Free Beats Sel. 3 collection, he is well on his way to being a pad-punching, knob-twiddling Jedi.  Joints like the horn-drenched "government funded weed" and the head nod-inducing "Underdog" make me smile, plus they have me excited about what this hip-hop wunderkind will be creating in the next five years.

Sit back, relax, and take a minute and change to achieve bliss with the spaced-out selection "Oh K."  And once it's over, remind yourself that the brother's still in high school...

Listen to the voices of these four male artists.

Timber Timbre is a Canadian folk rock band whose sole core member is Taylor Kirk. Taylor has released three albums. His sound has been described as "an aesthetic rooted in swampy, ragged blues" and beautifully restrained blues from an alternative universe". His stage name plays on the sound of his beat-up guitar (timbre)) and the noise his father would yell (timber) when trees fell on his farm.

Patrick Watson is a musical mad scientist. In 2007 his album, Close to Paradise, won the prestigious Polaris Prize. He's a singer, composer, songwriter and producer, he can do it all.

Bahamas is Afie Jurvanen. Singing love songs Bahamas is known to 'melt the rocks in your glass'. Bahamas solo project, Pink Strat, was released in 2009. Previously Afie played with PasoMino, Great Lake Swimmers, The Stils, Amy Millan, Jason Collett, Hayden and many many more.

There's a buzz around Calgary Alberta's Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir. The band was thrown together on a week's notice for a gig. Their 2003 debut recording, Saint Hubert, cracked numberous campus radio top 20 play lists. Singer Judd came up with the band's name as he was walking in the mountains. But they are not from the  mountains, neither are they a choir and they do not preach gospel. Their music is inspired from the sounds of the Mississippi Delta and Appalachian mountains. Judd's wonderfully chewy vocals are something to awe at.

When Mike Mangino and Chris Shepard started writing music together in the late 1970s, their goal was not to develop a repertoire and play gigs, or even to perform live in front of any audience. Everything they needed was right there in Piscataway NJ: a basement full of musical toys and instruments, novelty space microphones, a TR-606 (the same "Roland" who was listed as a member of Big Black), a SH-09 (Cabaret Voltaire's favorite synth), and -- perhaps most importantly -- a tape recorder. Every Monday night, they'd write a new song from scratch. A couple hours later, the song was recorded, never to be performed again.

By 1981, this dedication to spontanious creativity had already produced countless recordings, and the duo began releasing cassettes as Smersh via their own Atlas King label. A definitive Smersh discography may not even be possible, but this one lists more than 30 Atlas King cassettes. As these tapes traded their way across continents, Smersh developed a devoted following in places far beyond Piscataway, leading to releases on dozens of other labels from across the globe. A 15 song sampler featuring some of the many highlights from Smersh's vast discography, spanning 1983-1993, is now available here at the Free Music Archive.

My obsession with Smersh began relatively recently, when I first heard the song "Sweet Little Bishop" in the WFMU library, off a 7'' released by Sweden's Börft label in 1991 (listen). Then it got stuck in my head for several days straight. My subconscious couldn't remember what it was at first, mixed it up with some bizarre Prince song. But then i remembered that mysterious Smersh 7'' -- the one that stood out amongst the other Börft stuff in the library (Swedish artists like Frak and Enhänta Bödlar, who are also uncategorizable and each worthy of their own post!). I set about tracking down as much info as possible find about Smersh...

(Poster left Henry Owings, photo right Greg Cristman) We were honored to have Teutonic titans Faust headline the first night of WFMU Fest (which ran October 1-3 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg and also included the likes of TV Ghost, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Talk Normal, VeeDee, Pissed Jeans, Drunkdriver, Sightings, Aluk Todolo, Cold Cave, and the Guinea Worms); it's a rare occassion for these living legends to hit American shores. They without doubt had a healthy hand in shaping modern experimental, industrial, electronic and even pop music; in Julian Cope's words, "there is no group more mythical."

For those who were hesitant to see what a nearly 40 year old band held near and dear to their hearts could be up to, doubts were instantly dispelled as the crowd was treated to a heavy dose of Faust IV-heavy classics and crazed improvisations that  seized the moment (coupled with live painting and cement mixer  action). A few weeks back Faust OK'd a broadcast of the set, and I had an opportunity to chat at length with Jean-Herve Peron and his dog (streaming archive from my January 19th show is here, and you can go right to the interview segment here), and now we're happy to say you can grab the entire October 1st WFMU Fest show on MP3! Severe thanks to Regina Greene, Jean-Herve, and Scott Williams for the fantastic mix. By the way, a few other of that weekend's artists (namely Talk Normal and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks) have all posted some Mp3s from WFMU Fest on the Free Music Archive. Enjoy!

I've been enjoying a number of artists from the Swiss Creative Commons label Das Andere Selbst lately: mellow, chirpy, gurgly, experimental pop with an oddball edge. My faves include Exteenager (Elia, who runs the DAS label/site), GB (pka Gateau Blasters, coming to the U.S. this Spring), and Mela Zeta (from Italy).

Related to the DAS label is Wildrfid, who put out some great limited-edition 12" records last year by GB, Uiutna, and Cancelled. Also affiliated is Zonoff, a site with plenty of Creative Commons MP3s and vids for the taking.

Check out the great track "Golosinas" by Mela Zeta below. The intro almost sounds like the opening notes to "These Boots Are Made For Walking."

OK, first things first: She's not really Canadian.

She was born in Virginia and grew up in Tacoma. But she went to school in Vancouver, and that's where she got involved with Canadian cuddlecore band Cub (remember Betti-Cola?), and started making her own music. Not long afterwards, she hooked up with those New Pornographers dudes, and before you know it, indie superstardom.

But Canadians love her. CBC Radio calls her an "honourary Canadian," and that's where the track below is from, courtesy of new Free Music Archive curators CBC Radio 3.

But here's something I didn't know that I just found out: Her latest album actually debuted at #3 on Billboard's Hot 100 when it came out last March. So I guess Americans love her a lot, too.