Perhaps ironic given his pseudonym but out of the heavy hitters within the Get Physical stable DJ T seems to have been the least prolific within the medium of the mix CD. Both Booka Shade and M.A.N.D.Y. have released mixes in the past (in the latter's case seemingly at the expense of ever getting an album out) but this is, to BlackPlastic's knowledge, DJ T's first.

Even more surprising, given DJ T's tendancy for producing club tracks rather than the introspective albums of some of his label mates (Bronnt Industries Kapital or Booka Shade and particularly their The Sun and The Neon Light album) Fabric 51 is surprisingly deep. Refreshingly so.

It is an album that is much slower and thoughtful than BlackPlastic would have anticipated. Michael J Collins eases the listener in with the minimal and atmospheric 'I Just Wanna Be Your Disco Bitch' and with that the pacing is set - nice and slow - for what follows. And what follows is pretty fabulous. The Salax Peep Show Remix of 'A Million Secrets' by Stuffa sounds like some whining indie boys taken straight from the cover of NME yet rapidly thrust into a dubby, emotive minimal workout - and shockingly it works.

This slow, twisted vibe runs throughout the rest of Fabric 51 to create something that really feels different. Danton Eeprom's 'Give Me Pain' sounds like Metronomy meets Hot Chip in a race to the cool indie kid dance floor and the kick, when it hits, is pure joy. And the level of experimental liberalism never fails to land well - even the bohemian 'Jesus Was A B-Boy' from Ben Mono featuring Jemeni hits with well aimed humour. Hell - BlackPlastic recently said that we never wanted to hear DJ Mujava's 'Township Funk' again and yet DJ T even makes us take that back for the Crazy P mix, applied here, is a thing of melancholic joy.

DJ T has undeniably managed to exceed expectations here. Whilst he may be not have the catalogue of mix albums of M.A.N.D.Y. he has just delivered a mix level with some of their best and the finest Fabric album in a good few months.

BP x

Fabric 51 is released on Monday - order now from Amazon.co.uk on CD or MP3 [affiliate links].

Following our recent competition BlackPlastic figured we better taste the pudding with Red Bull's 12x12 event at the Scala.

Be under no illusion - this was a made for TV production with a line up designed to present the maximum number of photo opportunities. Not that the line up wasn’t worthy or even good, but the whole concept, designed to celebrate London’s dance culture, in many ways missed the point. 12 DJs and producers each playing their biggest hit for 12 minutes with more photographers in attendance than punters makes for a strange vibe and ironically, something unlike any London club night over the last 20 years of nights that we were there to celebrate.

Forgive us for being churlish, we’re sure it looked great in the trade press and the event’s corporate veneer did mean we had unprecedented access to the stars. It also made for some compulsively bizarre viewing, MJ Cole gurning his way through an MP3 of 'Sincere' stands out - twelve minutes just about saved by the bizarreness and Cole having Nero's rather more contemporary dubstep remix of the track to fall back on.

Arthur Baker was a ubiquitous presence throughout the Scala for personal photo-ops but when he played Planet Rock you remembered why this clash of German electro and funk was so epoch-making. Martyn Ware predictably played 'Temptation', unpredictably, he played a version with a 90s Euro-dance beat and sang over the top. Just as the embarrassment got too much, like your dad doing karaoke, he saved it by playing his stylish, 80s ballad 'Let Me Go', and that shows what a good song 'Let Me Go' is.

Despite all the pretence, it was the drum and bass DJs who stole the show for the crowd by playing jump-up greatest hits sets with the night’s genuine highlight coming when Ms Dynamite joined Zinc on stage for a rip-snorting p.a. of 'Wile Out'.

We suppose 12x12 proved that the most important element of any night is something that all the DJs and crates of Red Bull in the world can’t make up for, something that Russ Abbott presciently referred to as ‘atmosphere.’

BP x

Following BlackPlastic's earlier post today we have a pair of tickets to give away to this Thursday's Red Bull Music Academy 12 x 12 event at the Scala in London.

So what is 12 x 12? Basically Red Bull have taken twelve legendary producers and musicians and twelve anthems and given each of them twelve minutes to perform their song - each of which has had a defining impact on London's musical landscape and club culture. Knitting all of this together are handovers from each producer to the next that will highlight the performers personal connection to the following act as well as visualisation courtesy of Hexstatic (for those that don't know, this is a. good. thing.)

Find details in the flyer here or head over to the Red Bull Music Academy website. Tickets can be ordered from TicketWeb.

With a line up featuring Arthur Baker, Peter Hook, Robert Owens, Zinc, X-Press 2 and Roni Size it looks set to be an interesting evening. It's worth noting the proceeds go to War Child too.  Full line-up below:

• A Guy Called Gerald (London)
• Arthur Baker (London)
• Jazzie B (Soul II Soul, London)
• Martyn Ware (Human League, Heaven 17, London)
• MJ Cole (Prolific, London)
• Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order, Manchester)
• Robert Owens (Fingers Inc., London)
• Roni Size (Full Cycle, V Recordings, Bristol)
• Shades Of Rhythm (London)
• Shy FX & Stamina MC (Digital Soundboy, London)
• X-Press 2 (Junior Boy’s Own, Skint, London)
• Zinc (Bingo Beats, London) & Dynamite MC (Strong Records, London)

Tickets are £12 in advance and £15 on the door  or you can win a pair here! The event is on from 8pm to 12am.

So what do you need to win tickets? It's a tight timeline so we will make it as easy as possible - simply drop us an email at competitions@blackplastic.co.uk or complete our contact form and use the subject 'I want to give Hooky a kiss' [competition now closed - thanks for your entries].  The event is on Thursday so the competition will close at 10am on Thursday 11 March.

The winner will be notified by email on Thursday afternoon so please check your email and check your spam filters!

BP x

This jaunty little number recently landed in the old BlackPlastic inbox and instantly struck us as something a bit different.  What BlackPlastic doesn't know about The Good The Bad isn't worth knowing. Probably:

1. The are from Copenhagen, where this video was shot.
2. The video is directed by Bob Harlow and Martyn Thomas from Stichthat.tv and quite possible is NSFW.
3. Their songs appear to be numbered rather than named, which appeals in a ruthlessly efficient type way.  '026' is taken from the imaginatively titled forthcoming album From 018 to 033.
4. This song totally kicks the arse out of your day.

So that's it.  BlackPlastic's girlfriend said: "What's the betting this song will end up on a car advert by the end of the year?!", to which BlackPlastic replied: "None - the ad men just aren't cool enough".

Enjoy.

BP x

Tunng's new album greets listeners like a long lost friend coming in and giving you a big romantic passionate kiss. ...And Then We Saw Land's opening track 'Hustle' is so infectious that offering it upfront without the listener having put in any effort whatsoever feels like a treat akin to early payday in December.

The problem with early pay is that it leaves you feeling short-changed in January as the weeks drag on. BlackPlastic wouldn't go so far as to acuse Tunng of giving us the same feeling but the tone and pace of the album innevitably dips from this heady start.

Yet ...And Then We Saw Land is a lovely piece of melodic folk music that manages to contain electronic flourishes and reflects elements of anti-folk in it's lo-fi feel and the likes of múm in its playfulness. And when it works it really bloody works: 'The Roadside', for example, features a fantastic wandering, almost meandering introduction and builds in a lovely cinematic fashion.

So Tunng's album is by no means a mixed bag - it just has some good bits and some utterly sublime bits, like on that album opener or the stop-start rhymic vocals of 'Sashimi'. ...And Then We Saw Land is a grand day out of a record. A joyful, joyful experience - it feels like a car journey at the beginning of a holiday.

Download 'Don't Look Down Or Back' on MP3 by Tunng, taken from ...And Then We Saw Land [right click, save as].

BP x

...And Then We Saw Land is out on tomorrow, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

This new video for Nobody Beats the Drum's new track 'Grindin'' initially look like a simple, all be it cool, computer generated visualisation of the track... Only when you are a third in does it become apparent that it is actually stop frame animation.

The video is honestly seriously cool and really reminds BlackPlastic of Michel Gondry's work and since he is our favourite ever music video director that is glowing praise.  The video was actually made not by some high profile director but by the band's own VJ / visual artist Rogier van der Zwaag and it is comprised of 4,085 photos stitched together to create one continuous whole.  The end result is a bit of a head fuck - it seems to gradually build up until so much is happening that it becomes a little unnerving.

The tune itself is decent too, a nice wonky electro anthem.

Download Nobody Beats the Drum's 'Grindin'' on MP3 [right click, save as]

If you are interested in seeing how the video was made there is a making of short film on YouTube too.

BP x

One of BlackPlastic's favourite little gems from last year was Passion Pit's totally infectious Manners album. By throwing everything AND the kitchen sink into their material they manage to cram as many joyful ideas into one song as many bands struggle to deliver in an album... And do so in a way that feels like Christmas and your birthday all at once.

Passion Pit are on tour in the UK next month and to celebrate we have a pair of tickets for the Nottingham gig to give away.  To be in with a chance of winning you need to be able to get to and from the venue on the night of the concert and answer this question:

What, accordingly to BlackPlastic's review of Manners, do Passion Pit smell like?

To enter drop us a note through the BlackPlastic.co.uk Contact Form or drop us a note at competitions@blackplastic.co.uk using the subject 'Passion Pit Competition'. The closing date is 4 March 2010 [competition now closed].

Most of the dates are sold out but Bristol, Norwich and Nottingham still have tickets available.

Tour details, taken from the Passion Pit site:

BP x

The press release postulates that Burn And Rise, Panic Girl's debut EP, offers a distinctive hybrid of trip-hop meets electronica.

On the whole it is right. BlackPlastic is not entirely sure how distinctive such a combination is but we would be lying if we didn't agree that the result is catchy.  The attention given to detail and something of the overall melancholic vibe to the record actually remind BlackPlastic of some of the more memorable offerings that came out of the progressive house rebirth back in the early noughties - the vocal tracks here being specifically reminiscent of Satoshi Tomiie's collaborations with Kelli Ali on 2000's Full Lick.

The difference is that Panic Girl's EP is much slower and sounds much more organic than any tech house and, to be honest, the variety and production flourishes stand Burn And Rise far apart from any of the staid, dull efforts that often get categorised as a mixture of trip-hop and electronica. At its best, as on the peaceful, zen-like 'Hide And Seek' Panic Girl is clearly excellent - the track boasts a wonderfully global feeling sound, and despite Panic Girl hailing from Germany the track feels equal parts east and west.

Check out the video to 'Burn And Rise', directed by award winning director Reza Dolatabadi, above. Burn And Rise the EP is out next Thursday 25 February on shadybrain.

BP x

The Archie Bronson Outfit's new track, taken from the forthcoming Coconut album (out 1 March), is exactly the kind of scratchy alienating music BlackPlastic hopes is playing when we finally lose the plot and the fine thread that keeps the world the right way up snaps.

It's angst then, but the best kind of angst - artsy and well dressed. With a wall of distorted guitar-work 'Shark's Tooth' manages to create a sound that actually feels like the serrated edge of its namesake.

The forthcoming album is produced by ex-DFA (yes, ex) darling Tim Goldsworthy. Judging by this effort it is likely to be a big departure from his work with Hercules & Love Affair and Cut Copy into the realm of jerky guitar post-punk. Which makes BlackPlastic excited. If it is all as good as this then it will be a significant achievement for both band a knob-twiddler.

Check it out the Ferry Gouw directed video above and, even better, head over to the Archie Bronson Outfit website to download the MP3 for free.  The 7" is out on Monday.

BP x