食品まつり A.K.A FOODMAN 核 [NUCLEUS] FT. ​ARISTOPHANES 貍貓

It's always a really fun thing to experience a new song from Aristophanes貍貓. She's a rapper from Taiwan who is also a teacher (mainly helping to write children write stories, as I found out when I interviewed her) – the subjects she talks about in her raps range from the politics of Taiwan and the prospective lives of unborn children, to her own versions of Chinese folk tales; her voice is elastic, shaped and pulled by its master to express feelings and passions in each rap very effectively.

But what's also exciting about Aristophanes is how she presents her work: each song is a collaboration with an awesome producer. There's Lidly's blissful beats, the harsh electro of Sonic Deadhorse, canooooopy's experimentalism and Petechan's traditional boom-bap breed of hip hop, and the chill of Luviia (who recently provided a guest mix for YES/NO), to name a few. It's a varied bunch of beatsmiths and trackmakers who help to augment Aristophanes' intense flow sharp, interesting soundscapes.

And it's happened again. She's collaborated with Nagoya-based trackmaker, DJ and painter, 食品まつり aka Foodman (the Japanese, 'shokuhin matsuri', means 'Food Festival') to produce the wildly experimental track '核' – which in Chinese ('Hé') means 'Nucleus' or 'Nuclear' or 'Stone' (just 'Nucleus' – 'Kaku' – in Japanese). Prepare your ears.

I've been meaning, or rather waiting, to write about Foodman for a while, having kept my eyes and ears on his SoundCloud since I stumbled across it a few months ago; right now, it seems a good a time as ever to feature his surreal, noisy music. Screaming into life, his latest work with Aristophanes features endlessly distorted samples, placed in simple melodic patterns that sound like electric guitar riffs put through an industrial blender with a ZX Spectrum. The almost indistinct beat carries with it a juke rhythm punctuated by booming heart-thuds of kick drum, your mind picking out the typical syncopation carried in the genre amidst the atonal white noise screeches and permitting your head to nod a little. It's juicily grating.

The perfect partner for Foodman's fractured sounds, Aristophanes' rap is typically frenetic, marked by burning intakes of breath and the spitting out of sharp syllables in a harsh yet near-lethargic, sometimes sensual whispering. Her flow is vital and colourful, the perfect match for her words which are unique in that they discuss subject matter not typically discussed in rap. Through quantum mechanics and metaphysics she poses existential questions and statements: "Can you get closer to the truth after burning your imagination?" – "You need gods, so you create them" – "penetrate the line between life and death by your thoughts." Thankfully there is a translation of her Mandarin rhymes, and what becomes evident is Aristophanes' eminence as a cerebral, poetic rapper whose lyrics aim to provoke as much thought and cause as much alarm as other rappers do; but being an individual person, she does it her way.

Read through those lyrics by clicking round about here.

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Listen to 食品まつり aka Foodman on SoundCloud
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Follow 食品まつり aka Foodman on Twitter

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AUSTRA FORGIVE ME

Described as two souls seeking and finding forgiveness in each other, this new video for 'Forgive Me' by Canadian electropop band Austra depicts the shady nightlife of a park. I gotta say, I know that some parks ARE like this or at least I've heard about it. I've never been in a park like that - well, clearly not at the right (or wrong?) time. In any case, it's a strange choice this track which feels a lot more personal than these anonymous sex acts but I suppose forgiveness, or the desire to be forgiven, is not always directed at one person or thing: some people feel like they need the world itself to forgive them. They need a general kind of absolution for their own guilt. Maybe?

Instantly, this track is wholly danceable, featuring a pacing 4/4 beat with meaty snare, occasional hi-hats and woodblock decoration, evoking a disco beat. bass guitar fragments underpin the beat, yet there's a darkness here with rumbles of twisted synth bass crunching up above the clicking percussion and simpering organs that give this a decidedly plaintive feel. Sharp, tormented strings make a brief appearance, summoning a sadness alongside a rising tide of gooey bass. Of course, by its very title this track is apologetic and its not only illustrated by the music but by the vocals too.

Especially by the vocals. Whether they are deliciously layered or singing solo, it's clear that the voice - which is the voice of lead singer Katie Stelmanis - can not only carry a note but also carry emotion, too. Her distinct lilt first makes itself known in the first few seconds of the song, where it trembles with a frustration inherent in the pleading lyrics: "What do I have to do to make you forgive me?" It echoes with guilt yet there's a smootheness there, aimed at placating whomever the lyrics are aimed at. 'Forgive Me' stands as a progression within electropop, fusing a minimalist disco sensibility with gifted vocals for the creation of a thoughtful or reflective atmosphere on the dancefloor.

This comes from Austra's Summer-released second album Olympia and it'll be released as a single on 25th November.

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