SONIC DEADHORSE FT ARISTOPHANES 貍貓 THE ARRESTED

Wow well I have been sort of quietly anticipating something new from Aristophanes (貍貓) and here it has arrived - with knobs on. Yes with knobs on - it's an English expression. With bells on. That's right, in addition, another talent comes screaming out of Taiwan: Sonic Deadhorse. The song is technically his, Aristophanes only featuring on it, but featuring or not, she still totally kills it with her vocal skill.

If you feel like you're missing something, Aristophanes is a young female rapper from Taiwan whose talents I am rather enjoying at the moment. I wrote about her song 'The Peach Blossom' a while back, and I also wrote something about her for Dummy magazine too. She raps in Mandarin Chinese, which you'd think would cause a problem with me not being able to understand Mandarin Chinese and all, but two things: a) she provides the lyrics, so you can translate them and get an idea of what's being said; b) the WAY she raps, the way she expresses herself through her voice, is very evocative. So there you go.

Sonic Deadhorse, on the other hand, is very new to me. One thing's for sure: he packs a punch. In this song at least, 'The Arrested', he crosses genres to deliver an all-out assault on the ears. It's a sound of aggression, frustration, anger, but crafted very well instead of being just a mess of sounds which can happen too often with this kind of style. He calls it "music for lonely urban women and men, the youths captivated by literature and art, dumb rockers, and the crazy ravers" - "post rock whimpers affecting sorrow violent electro." I like those descriptions.

So on we go. I've coloured the SoundCloud player the colour of the song: bright passionate maraschino-cherry-red.

First of all there's a sample from a French film floating over chilled piano tinkling (I'm guessing it's from a Truffaut film). Then without warning, the song cracks its knuckles and gets down, a flurry of wound-up snares battling together in a violent breakbeat style, low synth earthquaking below. The beat changes throughout the song, going from that frenetic style into dubstep by way of a glitchy break, and then for the finale the two patterns almost become mixed together. That last part - wow. It's a hurricane of noise, epic-sounding electro-rock brought to an untamed boiling point with wild synths and thunderous percussion, Aristophanes' voice now distorted and megaphonic, sounding every bit as explosive as the music behind her voice.

It's interesting because I wouldn't have thought that her rap would suit a song like this, but evidently it does. She whips up her own storm, adding to the already-savage tempest that the beat has created, skilfully weaving in and out of insignificance, sadness, righteousness, beginning the song in a small empty room speaking as another person but by the end admitting that she was that person all along, was projecting her emotions onto her, yet is still in that small empty room. Looking through the lyrics, although Google Translate is far from perfect, you get a sense of how able she is to at expressing her emotions - and honesty is key for a rap that's gonna sound any good. And it does sound good. Sounds damn good.

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VIRTUAL FLANNEL NEON WAVES

Ok so this really old, well, the song is but I think the album has basically just been released so I'll just talk about the title track and if you like that then... then well the rest is up to you. You can go stream it all can't ya, cause this is the intonet and that's how it do.

What am I on about, I hear you ask. Well, I am talking about Virtual Flannel. I have never heard of this person before but you learn something new every day don't you, or that's what everyone says anyway. I like the name Virtual Flannel, but it strikes me as something imperceptible, like a virtual shower or bath - these things will only clean you virtually. Not actually. Maybe that's what the name is suggesting: that music is just a "virtual flannel"; it gives you a sense of feeling emotions, being someplace, or maybe actually being mentally cleaned or purified - it allows some sort of catharsis. And in that sense music could be seen as an artificial provocateur.

Maybe I'm just reading too much into it. Probably am. But it's a little food for thought. In any case, the song is 'Neon Waves' and it's the title track from VF's new album Neon Waves (duh). Please listen to it now ok.

Those synths at the beginning create an otherworldly feel, almost like this music exists only virtually (haha) and not actually - like it can only ever be digital. Which is funny because the album has also been released on tape. Moving on, the song follows a swaggering hip hop beat and is shot with many noises that turn it into a luscious corridor of music. Record crackles and tiny super-high-pitched candy popping noise give it ambience, filling in the gaps where the beat cannot reach. A stair-climbing bassline smooths its way below the sounds. Glitch hop yeah.

It's like being taken on a journey - and one that feels like it won't end because it fades out magically at the end. It is space-age yet totally now in terms of its sound, the synth oh-so medically clean yet the beat clacking and clunky. Expect more of this kind of sound if you buy the album - it's glitchy and fluid and easy on the ears. A real treat.

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NEON BUNNY (야광토끼) OH MY PRINCE (왕자님)

I feel like crying because my laptop has become so slow that I end up waiting rather substantially when switching between windows, tabs, waiting for pages to load. Has it finally come to getting a new laptop? Probably not. a) I am impoverished. b) I don't want to waste something that kind of works. So anyway, with that aside over with, let's get on with it.

Today it is something a bit different to what you might be used to me posting. After seeing a program about TV in South Korea last night I decided that it would be interesting to have a look about South Korean music today. Wow. I have spent all day looking so far and I've barely eaten, just been sitting here clicking and getting frustrated at my slow laptop (yes when you need more than one tab on a browser open a fast laptop is preferable) and some of the music I've found is really nice. One thing I discovered was this song. A lot of places are classing it as K-pop and I suppose that's right: it's pop (basically) and it's K - Korean. Makes sense.

On the other hand, some people are saying it's K-indie. Korean indie. Who knows. Given that she's an independent artist, I'd say the latter to be honest. It's by a girl who goes by the name of Neon Bunny (real name: Lim Yoo-jin) and it's called 왕자님 ('Oh My Prince' ... I think). She's had to my knowledge only one album out, Seoulight, released in 2011 and a mini-album or closer to an EP last year called Happy Ending. She used to be in indie band The Black Skirts and recently, like this month, collaborated with electro artist Smells on the recent-ish song 'Listen To Your Heart'. Anyway that's all a whirlwind of information that probably doesn't mean very much to you.

So once you've listened to the song, you can see what I mean about it being pop. It sounds poppy, that's for sure. However it's more the retro-style kinda 80s pop that people like College are making - yes indeed, this song is kind of an upbeat version of the kinds of songs you'd find on the soundtrack for Drive. It's all there: the beefy drums whose snares I very much like, the soft analogue synth arpeggios, palm muted reverbed 'n' chorused guitars even make an appearance. What's different is the stuttering screech of synth chords in the verse and the ornamentation of the beat, lavished as it is with open hi-hats and the occasional clap. Neon Bunny's vocals are perfect, too, spreading a catchy melody veiled ever-so-slightly with far-off reverb.

It might not be totally "out there", but things don't need to be "out there" to be good. And this I do believe is good. It's really nice to listen to, has a catchy melody and a thumper of a beat supported by saw-wave bass synth that judders your brain. It's all pleasant though, a brightly coloured ride through a sunny sky. I'd be very happy to hear more from this artist. For the moment, though, this is just right for summer - and so it should be, it was released around this time last year. But this summer's better cause it's actually nice weather.

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TOURIST PEAKS

Might be late on this one but it's on my to-write list and by gor am I gonna write it. I mean, who cares anyway. It's new enough for me. It's my site and that's that. Sorry.

So yeah anyway this is some music from Tourist, aka the real life person William Phillips (probably) who is from London. The song is called 'Peaks' and it was released on XLR8R (it's a site and NOT a number plate, apparently) like a month ago so I am sorry about the lateness. Tourist as a general artist been on my list ever since a friend recommended I listen to it but all the other stuff on his SoundCloud is 5 months old or more, boohoo. In this instance I do heartily suggest listening to basically everything on his SoundCloud. It's very good.

What genre of music does Tourist make? What genre of music is 'Peaks'? Nice, that's what. Simple as that.

However, in all seriousness the music of 'Peaks' is inlaid with a garage beat, reflecting a typically London sound with skipping hi-hats and occasional claps - yet the music itself is something else. I guess you'd call it "future garage" or something like that. The synth work is quite experimental, switching from low register saw-waves to higher hollow chords and pitch-bent screamers. To back this up there's some subtle synth bass, too. This provides a nice bed on which a vocal sample is played with like a piece of yielding Play-Doh, stretched in especially wonderful ways at around the 4:30 mark. By the end the beat is bigger and less fractured, leaving you almost reeling from the soft offensive on the ears.

Lovely shtuff. I am interested to see what will come next from Tourist - could be this year. Who knows. I don't.

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PARA ONE YOU TOO [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Just saw this on Twitter and had to write about it. Coming from co-founder of Marble records Jean Baptiste de Laubier, aka Para One, it is a wonderful song that incorporates elements of classic dance numbers to create a pretty euphoric vibe. It's called 'You Too' and you too should listen to it most definitely.

It's come just at the right time of year, especially taking into consideration the recent VERY NICE WEATHER that we're seeing in the South of England (yeah, we can say that too y'know, just like South of France... kind of) - that's because it's a pretty much a summer anthem. There's so much in it that just screams "fun in the sun", a Balearic atmosphere that only the most hardy detractors of dance music are immune to - in these instances it's like using Earthquake against a Flying-type Pokémon: not gonna work. But that's them. To each their own.

In essence, 'You Too' is basically a live edit of Para One's 'You' that he has been slipping into his late night DJ sets recently. The original bubbled along with soft watery synth, produced with cutting attention. 'You Too', however, goes a little differently.

Keeping the original chord progression of the original, the song begins with stuttering synth supported by a skipping beat and booming bass that soon give way to house piano chords. What a nostalgic feeling these evoke, even though I am not old enough to remember when this kind of sound was new. These are not the lifeforce of the song, however: warm synth rises up out of the bashing rhythm of the piano. The twisted vocal sample from the original still comes back, having pride of place when the atmosphere in the song plateaus out as well as before its mountainous build-ups.

It continues like this, Para One altering the dynamics of the song throughout to provide a luminary experience for all who hear the song, chilling them out one minute before getting them to jump on their feet - all without telling them to do so. It's the kind of song that a lot of people will say belongs only in clubs and that's it, but I can already imagine hearing this in the sweltering streets, in gardens fogged with barbecue smoke and the glint of the sun through half-frozen beer bottles. It's for summer.

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