INC. ANGEL [VIDEO]

It was really weird when I stumbled across this song because I was sure, in fact I was rather certain, that I had heard of someone called Inc. before. And sure enough, I had. I scrolled back through the posts I've done over the two years this blog has been active (albeit with some blips in activity - but how art reflects life!) and found a draft post I'd saved for a live performance by Inc.. I really dug it at the time and I suppose I do still dig it now.

[actual words from the draft] It's called 'A Usual Thang', but is actually a live rehearsal of two of their songs, 'Special Tensions' and 'Fountains'. I'm sure you'll agree it's pretty interesting. Nothing but a few guys playing their lovely music in what seems like a warehouse. Formerly Teen Inc., the band is fronted by twin brothers, Andrew and Daniel Aged. As for their music, it's a sometimes speedy, sometimes soul-filled melting pot of 80s jazz fusion and early Prince. Even the guitar effect used during a solo about three quarters of the way through makes the guitar sound like a soft synth.[end]

How funny. If you're interested in that, you can watch it here.

Anyway, now they have some new music. This particular one is called 'Angel' and it's really to celebrate the video release because the album it's from, No World - their debut - was out 19th February this year.

What we have now is a majorly R&B-influenced song. It's undeniably sexy. The beat that's slow and every now and again marks the ends of bars with agitated fills and extra heart-pounding kicks. Speaking of the beat actually, it's lovely. Those snare rimshots (lol I know but that's what they're CALLED) are something else. Wholly ambient synth gives this bubblesome, quilted or maybe isolated vibe to the song - like it's cut off from the rest of the world. Intergalactic whistles chime in and out in slow patterns.

The vocals are really nice, too, striking a pretty balance between whispering and pleading. The lyrics are touching too. Why not listen to them and space out for a bit? You know what I mean? Cause you can. Cause it's that kind of song. That kind of sound. It's just like a futuristic slow jam wearing the filigree of new-school R&B sex music, complete even with cheeseball electric guitar whines that creep in - it's all rather good. I like it a lot. Do you?

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ARISTOPHANES 貍貓 FT SUMI & PETECHAN 牆裡人 THE WALL

Here is some more from Groove Bunny Records, the up and coming Chinese label who recently facilitated the release of Madpete's Cantonese Boom Bap. This is a little different in that it features more than one, more than two, artists on the track. First of all we have Aristophanes, the young female rapper from Taiwan - the first time I wrote about her it was for her song 'The Peach Blossom' (you should check it out). Secondly, we have one half of Madpete: Petechan, Taiwanese producer who has also created the beats on this track. Thirdly, there are the vocals of Sumi - a Belgium-based singer.

All of that comes together in this lovely track '牆裡人 / The Wall'. It is at once dominated by the undeniable head-bopping old school hip hop vibe that Petechan has constructed. Completely off-kilter and dripping with swagger, it is gloriously left to sparkle without too much heavy bass or other synth instruments floating in its way: in this way it's a kind of minimalistic song. The beat features glass-cracking hi-hats, unassuming kicks, heavy-duty snares. Samples sparkle and cheeky organs peek through the beat playfully.

Sumi provides sung vocals, a dreamlike sound that stretch out almost like a chorus. They're given pride of place towards the end of the song, suiting the beat-instrumental perfectly - adding softness to the general harsh reality of the live-sounding drums. Just another nice element of this nice song.

As always, Aristophanes' voice is flawless. It's so expressive, lilting in and out of the Mandarin bars, aching along with her words, sometimes whispering with a sultry hiss. Not always as before, however - her voice has been more layered this time, allowed to bounce around afterwards. And that's not a bad sound at all - I could actually listen to a lot more of her voice, so to have it echoing around and displayed with a fuller sound is a great thing, really.

Back to waiting now for more Aristophanes. Perhaps an album one day? Could be a possibility. Now that she's with Groove Bunny Records, it's a distinct likelihood. And with many artists willing to collaborate with her to create great sounds, there's a chance it could be a very diverse, interesting and very cool recording indeed.

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Listen to Sumi on SoundCloud

Listen to Petechan on SoundCloud

CUUSHE TWILIGHT

I first stumbled across Japanese artist Cuushe when I covered her for Dummy magazine - in particular it was the beautiful video for her equally beautiful song 'Airy Me'. Lovely stuff. It came as a re-edit of a track from her debut album Red Rocket Telepathy. Now, however, we are focused wholeheartedly on her new album called Butterfly Case, which is where this particular song - 'Twilight' - comes from.

It's quite beautiful, much like the other song of hers that I wrote about. And I think in that point you can find a comfortable level of constancy within the work of the Kyoto-born-but-Berlin-based Cuushe (real name I-don't-know): beauty. The first thing you notice, regardless of what the music is doing - which is not to say that the music, the "sounds", are not important - is Cuushe's voice. It's always quite a breathtaking experience listening to her voice. If not breathtaking, then at least undeniably relaxing. Which is kind of the same thing: it takes your energy away, saps you, lays you down and caresses your eyelids and eardrums. It's really no different in 'Twilight'; whispering, it feels closer to you, more personal, heartfelt, even secret.

Get involved.

Produced by flau records label boss aus, there's glossy bass like crystal water rushes behind wobbling synths and real instrument (piano) sounds that glitter over the top like little drops of sunlight. Everything is in some way distorted, especially when it reaches the shimmering middle section, where a muffled kick sound begins to take control, and trance-like synths bust in. Frantic percussion, sounding like the rapid turning of pages, joins in whilst the whirlwind of slow sounds continues to blow its gusts of hazy synth wash.

It calms down towards the end, becoming much like it was at the beginning. Twilight is a time of not-day and not-night, and this song is not-energetic and not-chilled at the same time: it is a world of magic floating-down-a-river meditative relaxation combined with active movement that brims with life. It really is something that's nice to listen to - this contrast works really well. If you like this then you'd probably like it all - it's out 23rd September on the indomitable flau records.

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THE ORWELLS WHO NEEDS YOU [VIDEO]

I know I don't often post about bands so much - I am not sure why that is. Before I began writing this post I was wondering, "Why is that?" and I thought that perhaps bands are more likely to have management, PR, etc. than people sitting in their bedrooms (horrible stereotype but there you go) making electronic music. So people who make electronic music are more numerous. Thus they're easier to find. Thus I post about them a little bit more and GOD what a horrid and pretentious word "thus" is. I'm sorry about that. Anyway, I might be wrong, ok? So don't worry.

Here we have The Orwells with a nice chirpy song called 'Who Needs You'. I first heard about The Orwells, a band from Chicago, when Palma Violets were talking on the radio about touring with them in America. They played one of their songs and I liked it. Fast forward to now, and I am finally getting around to writing about them. I still have "The Orwells" scrawled on a scrappy piece of paper somewhere as a crappy reminder.

It's a bouncy, rhythmically distorted number that has more in common with English stuff like The Libertines, for example - just listen to those staccato chords at the end of each chorus cycle: positively brimming with the pogo-bop of pop-punk. The drums are thick and create a dancefloor stomper, and the instruments don't overwhelm the vocals, instead being given their own, voice-free chance to shine. Speaking of the vocals, in fact, they're unique in their rich and raspy yelling, something that you wouldn't necessarily expect with this kind of music - something more high-pitched and affected would be more the kind of thing. For me anyway. However, it works perfectly. In fact, I love the vocals in this song. I think they are what give it their kinda indefinable edge - you can detect urgency and energy with them. The music backs them up very nicely.

The Who Needs You EP will by out 9th September (UK; 10th US). More juddering sounds to keep the onset of Autumn at bay, I hope!

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GAMMA-F7 TWO TONE PITCH BENT

And now I have something for you that comes from an artist who seems to come from nowhere and has no ties and is known only by some people on SoundCloud. But that's not a problem. I just think it adds to mystique - not that mystique is something that makes music sound any different or better or anything. It's just an interesting facet. The artist in question is Gamma-F7 and the song in question is 'Two Tone Pitch Bent'.

Nice and nothingy - no emotion, no feelings, just a fantasy adventure inside some kind of intergalactic magic carpet-slash-circuit board. It's a cool, cold, icy kind of sound. Something created in a laboratory for major funk experiments. The rhythm of a thousand dancing harddrives in tandem. That kind of thing u know. It's quite unique in that there seem to be two different beats going on at the same time: something quite fast, tittering and skipped-out hi-hats; then there's something slow, almost a dubstep beat, a slow two-step kinda thing.

In a medley of chopped up samples, the song exists. It is made up entirely of chopped up samples. Not that that's a bad thing. It actually isn't a bad thing at all. As interrupted vocal samples breathe through the scintillating sounds, almost like neon-glowing glass cascading down a day-glo waterfall, hollow synth chords mark the song's progression alongside, of course, the beat - the snare appearing like a punch from nowhere in virtual reality.

Generally, it is just a very busy and energetic sound. Partly coming from the glitchy elements where samples are held back and riffed upon like toy sub-machine guns. I like how it slows gradually towards the end, eventually becoming just a completely slowed-down version of its former self. The shutting down of some huge, glossy, imaginary machine. Internet music. Hope you enjoyed it.

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Listen to Gamma-F7 on Soundcloud