Sunday 27 April 2008

mY Indie Soul # 23

mY Indie Soul # 23

Electronic | Experimental | IDM | Alternative | Punk | Electro

Artwork by Ray Caesar



Download | Listen

Raz Ohara and the Odd Orchestra - Where he at [ Apparat remix ]
" Apparat - Things To Be Frickled " - 2008

Raz Ohara is a native of Denmark who’s been resident in Berlin for some time. His first two solo albums for the Kitty-Yo label, Realtime Voyeur and The Last Legend saw Raz’s alter ego grow from quirky, original new-kid-on-the-block to confident, accomplished artist, consolidating the wit and intelligence which have made him an underground sensation. Flitting effortlessly between house, hip-hop, ambient electronics, reggae, downtempo, indie and Prince-esque soul inflections, Raz earned comparisons to US renaissance man Beck. Remixed by the likes of Richard Davis, Matthias Schaffhauser, Smash TV, Pier Bucci and Geiger, Raz Ohara was rightly earmarked for great things.
Raz Ohara and The Odd Orchestra is without doubt the most unusual album Get Physical has yet released, and it may prove to be one of their best. An album of real artistic integrity, this is avant-garde pop music at its most deep, timeless and affecting.



Kammerflimmer Kollektief - Seen
" Maander " - 2001

Kammerflimmer Kollektief began as the one-man experimental excursions of Thomas Weber. Trapping ambient noise, live and synthetic drums, guitars, strings, upright bass and keyboards into interlocking rhythmic explosions, Weber expanded the group to a live six piece in 1999 and has been brilliant and busy ever since. From their Karlsruhe, Germany home base, this ensemble effortlessly blends experimental electronic elements and moody free-form jazz to stunning effect.



Plat - Paling (Muse)
" Compulsion " - 2005

Plat is another in an ongoing stream of groups hailing from Iceland, but the group's sound is radically unlike that of its better-known compatriots Múm and Sigur Rós. To some degree that's attributable to Arnar Helgi Adalsteinsson and Vilhjalmur Pálsson's unusual creative approach as the duo records virtually everything they play and later sculpts the material into final form. Their hallucinogenic acoustic-electronic mix sounds both organically fluid yet deliberately considered—cool, experimental music perhaps, but one that never loses its soul.



Zoe Keating - We Insist
" One Cello x 16: Natoma " - 2005

Armed with just her cello and a small box of electronics, Zoë Keating has performed outdoors in the Nevada desert, in medieval churches, in punk clubs, and before thousands of screaming teenagers in mainstream rock venues across North America and Europe.

Classically trained from the age of eight, Zoë developed her signature style improvising for late night crowds in her San Francisco warehouse space. Her album "One Cello x 16: Natoma", which rose to #2 on the iTunes Classical and Electronica charts, is the direct result of that experimentation. Inhabiting its own territory somewhere between classical and electronica, Keating's works for layered cello have been called luminous, haunting and complex.



Apparat - Steinholz [ Monolake Remix ]
" Things To Be Frickled " - 2008

Apparat is the bridge over the German gap of melancholic glitch between Manchester and Laptop-USA. His smart wiring of emotions produces a virtual musical reality, which is based upon different genres, depending on the surrounding of the “apparat”. In his studio, dense, dark and majestic clouds of elegiac pop and heavy Electronica built up to a coherent and emotionally charged atmosphere. Live, on the other hand, the dance floor seems to be repelled to rave from the Bermuda Triangle with its axes Techno, IDM and Elektro. Those styles cannot necessarily be distinguished and heard on every of his releases, but since he started out with a much harder pace of electronic music in the early nineties, his influences are definitely Techno and Elektro as well.



Sebastian Tellier - Divine [ Midnight Juggernauts Remix ]
" Divine EP " - 2008

‘Divine’ is a supremely uplifting slice of electro funk with beach boy-esque harmonies and the single package comes complete with added doo-wop, and significant re-arrangement, in its new Radio version form and also with killer remixes from Australia’s Midnight Juggernauts and France’s latest exciting electronic producer/artist Danger.

Sebastien, France’s inspired choice as their 2008 Eurovision representative, will also perform Divine at this year’s Song Contest to be held in Belgrade on 24th May. !!!! This will be the first time in the history of the contest that the French entry will be sung entirely in English.

Now, even more than ever, Sebastien is the one true artist who clearly connects the vanguard of France's modern generations of musical magicians, from Gainsbourg to Air, through Mr.Oizo and the new electronic Ed Banger exporters. The gel which joins are the genial pioneers, Daft Punk, one half of which, Guy Manuel De Homem-Christo, has produced this and the seminal new album.



Tortoise & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Love Is Love
" The Brave And The Bold " - 2006

The Brave And The Bold chronicles an iceboat journey of co-captains Will Oldham and Tortoise into the charted but frozen waters of pop and rock’s thinning edges. As they soldier through, both singer and band rest and bathe in the comfort of what they've done recently and successfully. The rabid yodel of Oldham's quasi-Appalachian hillside adjudication, so predictably central to the Palace era, never once bubbles through the molasses yawn here. The languid drawl given to so much homespun obscenity pours itself in nicely empty molds of words by Springsteen, Elton John, and Richard Thompson, among others.



These New Puritans - Infinity Ytinifni
" Beat Pyramid " - 2008

In common with their influences, These New Puritans' sound is eclectic. In a recent interview with The Cuckoo Press Magazine, Jack said that "Wu Tang Clan are massively influential. "'Spitting the code', as Roots Manuva puts it, is what I do". While The Guardian said that "These New Puritans make stern threatening punk inspired by The Fall, Franz Kafka and Elizabethan magician John Dee". Artrocker Magazine has described TNPS as sounding like "Sheffield and Berlin synths, '90s alt rock Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo drones; Underworld beats, and all in the most contemporary of contexts," while in a review of Beat Pyramid, Vice Magazine said "Sharp, strange and enchanting, there aren't many bands around like These New Puritans. Contrary to this though the NME review of their album states "Somebody once attempted to convince us that These New Puritans are original. They failed: onstage, the guy looks and twitches just like Ian Curtis, and musically, they sound pretty much exactly the same as The Fall." Barnett often states that he really doesn't think much about influences.



Duchess Says - Ccut Upp (Original Version)
" Anthologie des 3 Perchoirs " - 2008

Duchess Says was created in late 2003 in Montreal by four influent members of the Church of Budgerigars who decided to collaborate together in a common musical project. Their goal was to insure a faithful representation of the message of the Duchess (or spiritual budgie) through a precise artistic dialog. Composed of A-Claude (vox, keytar, guit, programmations), Ismaël (keyboard,guitar, programmations), Phil (guitar, bass,feedbacks) and Simon Says (lo-fi beats, drums and doubtful noises). Duchess Says is serving a repertory of “moog rock” songs strong in images and enormoustly intense live performances! Their musical influences range from no wave, new wave, punk, to cinema and visual arts. If you pay attention, you could see them perform in the most unusual places such as golf courses, shop windows, vacant buildings, etc. Duchess Says has the mandate to decontextualise the rock and to promote simultaneously their Church on the way.



Does it Offend you Yeah - With a Heavy Heart i Regret to Inform You
" You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into " - 2008

Does It Offend You, Yeah? are often compared to dance-oriented acts like Daft Punk, Justice and Digitalism.[attribution needed] However, NME has also compared them to bands like Muse and !!! due to their heavier, more 'live' sound. The group are known for their raucous live shows, which often end in stage diving and broken instruments

The band revealed the origins of their name as being from British sitcom The Office. In an interview with NME.com, synth player Dan Coop explained: "Everybody thinks the name is some kind of statement but it's a quote from David Brent in an episode of 'The Office'. "When me and James Rushent first started writing music together we decided to put it up on MySpace. We needed a name to put as our profile name so just put what was the first thing that was said on TV, we switched it on and Ricky Gervais said 'Does it offend you, yeah? My drinking?' so we just went with that. No thought went into it whatsoever."



Digitalism - Yes, I Don't Want This
" Moshi Moshi EP " - 2008

DIGITALISM is dirty electro pogo shit hammered by the two studio junkies Jens "Jence" Moelle and Ismail "Isi" Tuefekci and comes directly from the underground electro-indie scene.
It all began a while ago when Jens was working in Hamburg's "Underground Solution" record store , same store where Kid Alex began his career as a record seller - when Isi stepped in the store and had a first chat with Jens. Shortly after they went in Jens Studio and DIGITALISM was born. Jens did have keyboard practice for around four years and vocal practice for a year. He is writing the lyrics and sings them in his post-punkish way while the music is written and produced by the two knock-out musicians together.



Holy Fuck - The Pulse
" LP " - 2007

Holy Fuck is a lo-fi improvisational experimental band from Toronto/Halifax, Canada. They are a part of Dependent Music, a music label/collective that began in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in 1994. Called “Toronto’s evil supergroup”, Holy Fuck includes, at various times, members of other notable bands King Cobb Steelie, By Divine Right, Wintersleep, Enon, and Blue Rodeo.

Holy Fuck mimics modern electronic music without using modern fail-safes like laptops and programmed backing tracks For 2005’s NXNE festival they armed themselves with a drum set, a bass guitar, a myriad of toy keyboards, guitar pedals, mixers, and even a 35 mm film synchronizer and hit the stage, without even rehearsing.



The Bloody Beetroots - Mac Mac
" I Love the The Bloody Beetroots " - 2008

The Bloody Beetroots are an electro/club collective currently ripping up Italy with their own heavy beats, and continuously throwing out remix after remix as they make themselves known to the rest of Europe.

As well as featuring on Hostage’s ‘Gluttony’ EP - along with Felix Cartal - The Bloody Beetroots have remixed tracks by the likes of Fox n’Wolf, Etienne De Crecy, The Toxic Avenger, and their own take on Michael Sembello’s ‘She’s a Maniac’

The Bloody Beetroots are currently making their way around Europe with a number of slots on the continent and in the UK.



Ascii Disko - Black Summer
" Total Destruction is The Only Solution EP " - 2007

Daniel Holc, born in Hamburg (Germany), known in electro-music world as Ascii.Disko.
He played guitar in the band Slown and now plays keyboard and guitar with his other band of indie-rock Sci-Fi, Venus Vegas.
He is able to do new sounds that fit between electro and indie, and his albums sound between acid house and 80’s techno, similar to italo-disco.
Ascii.Disko(2003) and recently Alias (2006) are his two albums.