that was the week that was

so, from your side it has probably looked as if ireallylovemusic has given up the ghost this last few days.

pah.

did you not see my involvement with playlouder this week : here

did you not read the new exclusive freelance hellraiser interview posted : here

and did you not realise that roger (the band) have managed to sucker punch some unknowing record label into releasing their second funk-rock opus, 'backing off is for the other band', so that other folks can pick up on the hardest rockin' fonk this side of the moon.

oh, and i posted a couple of reviews including : sol seppy and wolfmother : here

variety is indeed the spice of life.

mark e

ireallylovemusic

 

men and their machines

hell.o

all sorts of weird grooves have been dug into in the last few days including juno reactor, richard h. kirk, and minimal house mixes by m.a.n.d.y.

but, here's a quick rundown of the stuff i should be telling you about.

to start things off here's a quick rundown on a bunch of ninjatune newbies : fink, ammoncontact, and daedulus.

fink drops the beats, and discovers his love for acoustic guitars with some deft dubbed up touches for his new album, biscuits for breakfast. its a lovely album, that could easily attract accusations of genre bandwagon jumping as the singer songwriter malarkey is rather hot at the moment, but fink manages to make such concerns a non-starter by his sheer quality.

ammoncontact get more muscular than their previous releases, which kind of passed me by. this time around, they have added a chunk of guest vocalists and producers (cut chemist!) to help flesh out their nu-funk vision, and come off with a new album, called vocals strangely enough, that is far far better than i would have ever have expected.

finally, daedulus releases a new album called denies the days demise. which to be honest i have yet to get into as its rather obtuse, dry and hard going, though initial plays reveals a few standouts that i need to investigate further.

on warp : nightmares on wax : in a space outta sound - awful punned up title, but this perfect seasonal album, now that the recent cold weather has drifted into our short term memories. george continues combining the usual melee of dubbed up, scratchy hip hop grooves, soulful melodies and various well sourced samples with consummate ease. of course, it's not going to bust open the doors of originality, but this album will make people feel good when the sun shines. me included.

in other news : posted reviews for the fashion conscious hard rockers wolfmother, out now on modular, and the gorgeous debut album from sol seppy which is out now on gronland

ta ra for now

mark e

ireallylovemusic

"something for the weekend sir ?"

hell.o

heres some funky fun for the weekend.

1. after years and years, the freelance hellraiser has at last got the album off the blocks. gone are all the aspirations of being all freaky and underground, and instead he has decided to become this years fat boy slim vs moby. thing is , as easy as a target this sounds, for the next few weeks the album will make me smile. but hey - go dig around the flashy website and listen for yourself : here

2. nightmares on wax have a new album out on warp records. and the phrase 'same as it ever was' rings true. a little dub, a little soul, and a lot of love and dope. again, easy to hate, but the music is far to perfect for a lazy sunny day, so i aint becoming a hater.  go dig around the site for more bass induced pleasure : here

3. king biscuit time - steve mason drops the beta band off the planet, and goes off to become a solo artist that just so happens to sound like the beta band, but with more pop, more melody, more weirdness and a lot of decent sounds, new album, 'black gold' is out soon. more : here

oh, and virgin megabores are having a huge clearance of old stock that no-one is interested in. dig carefully and you could find some excellent arena rock recordings cds. in my local shop there is the great calla album, 'televise', carlsonics, and the weird the swords project.

go discover people.

mark e

ireallylovemusic

watch : boards of canada

despite not being overly taken in with the bands last album (it would probably make more sense now that i am suffering head aches - going to have to dig it out of the archive), they have new stuff out at the end of may, in the form of an 6 track ep, 'trans canada highway'. incorporating new music, a remix by the anticons odd nosdam.

to get the blood rushing, there is also a video you can download.

watch it : here

in other news : posted reviews and track listings for the new miss kittin mix, and the forthcoming trojan sound system mix, both of which are very different from one another.

usual place people.

till next time.

mark e

ireallylovemusic

 

out of the shadows ..

well this feels weird, a keyboard and a chunk o'noise on the earpplugs, as last week was all about the kids and mickey mouse and a lot of rock-n-roller coasters.

very little to report other than my body hurt, and due to a fortuitous meeting at the airport, i had to check up on stunners international upon my return to 'normality'.

but that's another story.

naturally, when i arrived back @ ireallylovemusic hq i had to force the door open due to all the hopefuls that had landed on the doormat in my absence, and to be totally honest, there was very little that really made my day worthy, other than a new album by being 747 on the always impressive wrath records label.

now, while i was wandering around disney corp paris streets i couldn't get the sigue sigue sputnik track, 'mickey mouse is going to hell' out of my head. this unnatural urge then lead me to find out that the band are back. again! with a new singer. sort of - it's neal x the guitarist, which as there was a lot of blood shed between the various camps involved is totally understandable. the good news is that the music is still exactly the same. lots of rock-n-roll riffs, lots of cheap drums and a chunk of movie samples.

the first real example of the new stuff, 'into the unknown', is now available online : here

to get things back on track, last night i posted a few words on some various singles that could be of interest : here

to finish this off, here's a quick rundown of stuff in the pile :

- fink - biscuits for breakfast - ninjatune trip hop guru discovers acoustic guitars and drops all samples and loops to forge a new career as a creddible singer-songwriter. actually, casting all sceptism aside the songs and execution are in fact rather sublime, and perfect for those days when the headaches loom large.

- adem - love and other planets - the other half of fridge goes in different direction to four tets. not a single laptop broken beat, as adem is all about the inner calm, to make a grown up beautiful album actually.

- temposhark - joy - the electro boys ramp up on the sex factor following their recent depeche mode moodiness and give it their all in this new electro-glam monster. out in a few weeks, but as ever, these things are limited, so heed the warning.

- wolfmother - the album is out soon, and new single, dimension, out now. timewarp 70's rock-n-roll for the cool indie crowd it may be. but fcuk, when the noise is as large and fun as this, who cares!  a lot more detail : here, access to a 4 track album preview : here, and even some live stuff : here. i think that's enough, for now.

more later.

mark e

ireallylovemusic

today the world changed - a little.

hell.o

today became a little more interesting.

firstly, after years of me harping on about age of chance i actually managed to track down 2 mint copies of the debut 12" ep, the twilight world of sonic disco.

one yellow vinyl, one red vinyl. both with perfect inserts (a rarity indeed!)

i have had the ep tracks on cd-r for quite a while, but as i only came to the age of chance groove with their beneath the pavements ep i had never got around to sourcing the older stuff.

and wow are those tracks fantastic. a reissue campaign must happen at some point, as the bands upfront, in-yer-face indie noise with chants and beats sounds as fresh in 2006 as it did back them.

of course i am somewhat biassed, so i'l stop frothing now.

but, this was not all. today, the 6th of april 2006, became the day that the powers that run and control ilm, a well known music based message board, decided to stop the use of the yousendit.com utility for the spreading of music, old, new, or unreleased.

while i never really got into that whole p2p world, i have to admit the odd mp3 via ysi became a rather pleasant treat, and subsequently opened my ears to a lot of new music that i would eventually track down, or, knowing it was not for me, avoid. however, the abuse had become extreme, and so i understand the boards approach, but it does make you wonder, if a small hidden away corner of the web is beginning to feel the pressure of possible legal action, who will be next ?

so, with that in mind, here's an exclusive mp3. miss kubeliks remix of 'help me somebody', originally made by brian eno and david byrnes. the musical components have been released online to allow folks remix/alter as they feel.

so, please set your downloads to stun, for a rather more laid back version of the original, retitled, 'help me symphony' : here

in other news : posted a review for the superb ambi-techno album by grinning ape, 'the greatest ape'. out now on svc records.

that's all for now folks.

mark e

ireallylovemusic

somewhere far far away from the mad crowd

folks.

 

posted a review for a new split ep by 2 bands that i suspect have yet to have much love thrown their way (deepest darkest essex i believe).

the ep is simply called 'beatglider v shinri' and features 2 tracks by each band involved.

i have to say, that on a day that the fsuk (freestylers/cut la roc : big beat revival !) mixtapes have been enjoyed far too much, that these homages to all that involves guitars, harmonies and creation records, have been like a breath of fresh (but strangely familiar) air.

full review : here

 

in other news : ladyfuzz have their debut, kerfuffle, out now. coming on strong as a tv friendly dayglo lurid technicolour artful punk pop version of bloc party (with whom there are plenty of connections, both socially, and sonically), the album has several future indie dance classics, so pop over to the bands myspace hangout and hear for yourself why this band are making people like me smile so much.

 

thank. you.

mark e

ireallylovemusic