VISITOR RNB

Wow. The epicality of this radical track by Visitor is just too much to bear. It's certainly pretty cool, and definitely something that I will look forward to hearing more of. Before you even listen to the music, the artwork to the right of this silly bit of writing will tell you that: yes, this will be a good track. It will be. Just look at it. Of course it will be. Why would anybody spend time creating a cool little graphic like that for music that is no good?

So this is 'RNB' by Visitor. They got a bit of traction recently when Jacques Lu Cont who included them in a mini-mix for Annie Mac - perfect when their EP, Coming Home // RNB, is due for launch on 10th September. This will come ahead of a full album launch - details of which I'm sure will come our way soon.

Onto the song itself. It seems to be aligned with the style of retro 80s-ness that is permeating a lot of electronic music at the moment - especially any of the songs associated with the wonderful film Drive. All the right elements are there: we have that rigid bass synth fuzzing in the background, a bit of standing-on-a-cliff guitar solo stuff, the couldn't-be-anything-but-80s drums, some hollow flute synth hopping around over the top, and most importantly - glittering, mood-making bells.



Second-half of the song seems to, using the same sounds, become more of a majestically huge, electronic pop-rock ballad. The vocals are powerfully catchy and exude a sense of the dreaded sing-a-long - not dreaded really, but I just liked the way that sounded. All in all a track to enjoy and headbang to whilst playing some games on the Sega Megadrive or reminiscing about The NeverEnding Story. Or just rocking out in your own private dreamworld. Love this. What an atmosphere it makes!

Like it? Then remember: Visitor Coming Home // RNB EP out 10th September.

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• More Visitor sounds on SoundCloud
• Here is their official site
• This is Visitor's Facebook page
• Follow Visitor on Twitter
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CRYSTAL CASTLES PLAGUE

I was going to hold back on posting this, but I was just told by someone that they heard it on the radio. As the YES/NO blurb reads, it's all about new stuff. Gotta drop it like it's hot yo.

And this is as hot as a witch holding hot iron rods burning at the stake, I have to say. That is: hot and scary.

Crystal Castles have gone from strength to strength. Starting off with their self-titled debut, the duo - Ethan Kath and Alice Glass - began with near-industrial, electronic noise music. This is essentially electro with a DIY/punk aesthetic. It was all very dystopian, all very like broken robots in a grotty 8-bit club playing chiptune rave music. It was different, brutal, energetic. Key tracks for this sound were the devastating 'Alice Practice', the mental 'XXZXCUZX Me', and the painfully good 'Courtship Dating', a reworking of a HEALTH song.

But beginning with their second self-titled album (referred to as Crystal Castles II), they began to veer towards the dark side. People call it drone, witch house, goth trance, blah blah blah. It is what it is and it's dark and electronic, moody and trance-like. Ethan Kath seemed to have ditched his modified synthesiser (he stuck a chip from an Atari soundboard in there to get those bubbly bleeps you hear on their first album) in favour of a certain, piercing Dracula-organ-cum-heavy-trance sound.

And, really, it's no different with their latest: 'Plague'.



In fact, it is a bit different. It's actually more eerily gothic than before. Beginning with a heady bit of drone that wouldn't sound out of place in the basically unlistenable Mater Suspiria Vision's repertoire. However, this soon turns into a distortion-laden slice of energy, complete with Alice's trademark yelps and screams in the background. The quieter parts of this song have seen Alice also sing melodically, something I've never heard before. It's a nice change and a different dynamic - something the duo can use to sculpt very different songs this time around.

The beat is great: though the kick is crazy, the snare is slow and leaves the rhythm hanging in the air, swaying to and fro above the breathy synth work of Ethan. There is some amount of noise and industrialism in here, as with their first album, with the section towards the end of the song including what sounds like a sample of an angle grinder or something as equally sickening yet satisfying to hear.

This song makes you clench your teeth and fit on the floor like you just don't care. Gone is the mashed potato, the twist, even Soulja Boy's Superman dance. This marks the rise of the epileptic. It's all I can imagine when I listen. Kind of like a cross between moshing and rigor mortis.

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• More Crystal Castles music on their SoundCloud
• Crystal Castles on Facebook
• Crystal Castles official site
• Here's the Wikipedia page for Crystal Castles
• Crystal Castles Youtube channel
• Crystal Castles... Myspace
• Follow Crystal Castles on Twitter
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RITUALZ †‡† RHYTHMIC RELEASE

Whilst Ritualz (pictured right) seemed to begin life on the music scene as a herald of strange gothic dance music, distorted out of all recognition and even slightly frightening to even listen to, it seems these days, a few years after his inception (not like that convoluted film), to have calmed down, expressing a desire to move in more conventional patterns. That's how it seems. Or sounds.

There's a peculiar kind synth he uses that seems to not only carry distortion in its movement, but also a sense of buffeting winds and unreal hollowness; for this new song, 'Rhythmic Release', it's no different. Except his inner, perhaps more meditative side has come out and allowed him to turn up the chill on this track, especially in the little quiet bit after the halfway mark. Then we hear another kind of synth that Ritualz likes to use: very high pitched, screeching, trance-style notes. However the regular bass is something new, as are the more meaty-sounding drums. The general sense of dread is gradually slipping away from his songs. In the menacingly authoritative vocal sample he uses in this song is the most 'fear'.


We first saw this kind of change in his experimental veer from the path of gothic dance music, Outworld Music I, which I wrote about in May, and it marked an exciting potential. Perhaps he will break into more mainstream dance circles.

Who knows. All that I know is that this song, though not his strongest ever, has elements within that have the potential to make his music more attractive for a more amount of people.

But is that really what he wants?

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• Check Ritualz on SoundCloud for more music
• Ritualz official site
• Here's the Facebook page for Ritualz
• And Follow Ritualz on Twitter
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DESTINY'S CHILD SAY MY NAME CYRIL HAHN REMIX [FREE DOWNLOAD]

This stunning remix comes straight from the mind of Cyril Hahn, a Swiss-born Canadian producer. It's an unexpected reworking of the absolute tune that is 'Say My Name' by Destiny's Child, and it's been done very, very well.

Starting with some mellow organ-type synths that set the mood for a decidedly chilled, summery vibe, Cyril Hahn goes on to create huge atmosphere in the song - namely with his fabulously sparse deployment of the "Say my name..." sample (which he had doctored with a lower, more masculine pitch), creating a superbly energetic build-up. When all the vocals from the chorus of the original song kick in towards the end of the song, it's like you've been waiting an age for them and it's such a joy to hear them all echoing out from the song like a beautiful boulder of nostalgia.

Everything about this remix is well-done and joyously positive, as if the solemnity of a true carefree attitude had made its way into your very heart and became the beat you danced to on the sand, in the sea, in the sky. It's wonderful.

What's more, you can download it here:

Isn't that great? I'd download it before some kind of limit is reached.

And if you liked that I really really recommend listening to the similar treatment he gives Mariah Carey's seminal 'Touch My Body'.

EDIT 18/04/2019: There is no download anymore. It's not even on SoundCloud.

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• This is Cyril Hahn's Tumblr
• More fabulous music from Cyril Hahn on his SoundCloud
• Here is Cyril Hahn on Facebook
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ALT-J ∆ AN AWESOME WAVE

Finally. Finally. Finally.

Finally, I have drummed up enough energy to write about this amazing album. It truly is. From distorted sub-bass to folk guitar and literary references, this album has it all and delivers it in such a stylishly effortless way, allowing you to sit back and soak it all up like some kind of joyous land sponge with an addictive personality.

I saw that it'd been extensively covered online, yet the word of mouth is only just starting. So please start now, and please share these wonderful sounds to all of your friends. This can be enjoyed in any country, at any time of day, with any people, in any mood, by people of any age, any class, any musical preferences, any backgrounds. I think the word is 'universal'.

So anyway, this is alt-J, or ∆ if you like. The name is how to make that little triangle on Mac keyboards. As mentioned by bassist in the band, Gwil, "in mathematical equations it’s used to show change" and it couldn't have been more apt. The music on this fantastic album An Awesome Wave marks some kind of change: it's very different to a lot of what I've heard before.

Kindly enough the band put the whole album on SoundCloud. That's a tick next to their name. Not only this but they were also kind enough to provide notes to each song. It helps explain the album, which fortunately or unfortunately (depends how you look at it), needs a bit of explaining at some points. 'Intro' for example is described as having been originally called 'Nod to Canon' and in fact acts a tribute to "everything that we have unconsciously borrowed/stolen which has unwittingly contributed to our body of work to date."

That 'canon' encompasses Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are in 'Breezeblocks', Luc Besson's Leon in 'Matilda', Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. and Robert Capa and Gerda Taro (two war photographers) in 'Taro'. In addition to fictional/well-known influences, there's the death of a matador referenced in 'Something Good', a childhood memory in 'Dissolve Me', and a violent experience in 'Bloodflood'. It's packed full to the brim of these influences and is perhaps what makes An Awesome Wave such an enjoyable listen.



For example, I didn't know anything about those war photographers. I looked them up when I first listened to the song. Now I know about them. Things that make new connections in the brain are quite exceptional. But really, alt-J have just used the simplest and most effective formula existing to create music: as Steve Jobs said, "Creativity is just connecting things."

I've already written too much, I'm so sorry. Musically, this album is just as good as it is conceptually. Some stand-out parts, then. There are the altered, guttural vocals on 'Intro' - highlighting the strength and unique nature of the vocals in general. Similarly, the refrained, subsequently layered and sung in a round style 'Please don't go, I love you so' in 'Breezeblocks' is sheer pleasure to listen to (same in 'Matilda' - you forget the power of repetition). The shivering, lusty vocal style in 'Tesselate' is something great too, sounding like whispers from the heart of the world. The refrain in 'Something Good' is beautifully catchy, too.

That song also includes a great drop into its more folksy part at around a quarter of the way into the track, blissfully sending you out in a row boat onto a lake bubbling with new and old sounds that come up to greet you like cartoon fish. The childish, happy rhythms of 'Dissolve Me' support the conceptual childhood memory that runs through the song lyrically and there's this beautiful nostalgia that is ingrained into all parts of that song just popping out of it like fireworks.

Juxtaposition of acoustic guitars (the first interlude, for example), vocal harmonies (splendorous in 'Ms' and the stunning hidden track 'Hand-Made') and real drum sounds with meaty and nearly disfiguring extended bass notes, wildly distorted and spine-straighteningly strong, is refreshing to hear. Strongest in 'Intro', 'Dissolve Me' and especially 'Fitzpleasure' (whose now-and-again guitar riff is hollow, hard and heavy), it's an example of the 'folk-step' sound they seemed to have created.

Just as brilliant creating energy and making you feel crazy as they are being prettily minimalistic and chilled (as in parts of 'Bloodflood' and 'Taro'), these diverse musicians seem set for great things. Could write even more. Says it all. Sorry for wasting your time. Buy this album.

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• alt-J on SoundCloud
• Here's their official site
• And their Tumblr page
• Here they are on Facebook
• This is their YouTube channel
• Follow alt-J on Twitter
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