Album Review: DJ Kicks - Hot Chip

All the cool kids know Hot Chip drop it like it's hot, to the extent that it's almost a bit of a cliche for non-cool accountant types to cite them as there favourite bands. BlackPlastic dislikes cliches and likes accountant types even less, yet it is with some anticipation that it approached the latest, rather orange, installment in the revered DJ Kicks series.

From the outset, as with many of the DJ Kicks albums, this is an eclectic set. Grovesnor's 'Nite Moves' kicks things off and sound exactly like the sort of thing Hot Chip would listen to, with melancholy lyrics mix wih polished electronics and stuttering rhythms.

This mix seems somewhat schizophrenic, cutting from introverted and considered electronics to summery party vibes with little notice - just take the transition from Gramme's noisy 'Like You' into the much subtler 'Persuasion' by Subway as an example. Interestingly despite the apparent juxtaposition of moods the mix works tremendously as a whole, virtually all the cuts are relatively smooth and there is a continuous laid back sunshine feel that would be absolutely perfect for a few beers in the sun if we weren't in the initial stages of a second ice age.

DJ Kicks albums always come with an exclusive from the artists themselves and Hot Chip's is no different, offering up 'My Piano', a happy little ditty about their piano. It is encouraging to know that Hot Chip are already putting the finishing touches on album number three, due later this year.

Other highlights include the always awesome 'Bizarre Love Triangle' by New Order and the frankly scary 'Doppelwhipper' by Gabriel Ananda, whose incessant bleeps and rhythms create a very modern sound scape that makes BlackPlastic wonder if epilepsy can be triggered by noise alone. Far less modern by just as much fun is Etta James and Sugar Pie DeSanto's 'In The Basement, Part One' - a freaky soulful wig out that sounds like the best party your folks never attended.

Lanark's 'The Stone That The Builder Rejected' is mournful and emotional, sounding like The Beach Boys reinterpreted by a machine whilst the unsettling 'Love Affair' by Nôze sounds like the inside of Patrick Bateman's head as he prepares for a date. Weird and slightly compulsive.

Hot Chip's DJ Kicks album is undeniably good fun and it feels that it only gets better as things progress. The final three tracks take the listener through a Roman Flügel mix of Audion's 'Just F******' straight (and somehow virtually seamlessly) into pop perfection in the form Joe Jackson's 'Steppin' Out' before a final, less seamless, left turn into 'Mess Around' by Ray Charles. Get freaky.

Now all we need is some sun, some beers and some partially cooked meat and we'll have a party on our hands.

Album Review: Noise Won't Stop - Shy Child

When Shy Child released their debut album, One With The Sun, back in 2004 there was a fair amount of critical praise from the specialist press - particularly for single 'The Noise Won't Stop'. Sadly it seemed like the band lacked both the production values and the sheer volume to have any real mainstream cross-over potential.

Thankfully Shy Child are back and on their new album Noise Won't Stop they have rectified both of these concerns. The drums are considerably beefier and the is definitely more a new layer of volume and distortion. The observant will already have figured that the new LP's title is a reference to the sleeper hit 'The Noise Won't Stop' and both this and one other track ('Summer' since you ask) make a reappearance in a more polished form.

It really now sounds like Shy Child actually have the sound they probably always thought they had. Opening track and lead single 'Drop The Phone' sounds like a frantic rant carried out by Stressed Eric or possibly Fry in the episode of Futurama when he drinks one hundred coffees. It's a modern anthem about the absolute terror that ensues when one drops their phone and there is so much going on that half the time BlackPlastic is too strung out to even notice the complete wig-out of a sax solo in the background. Who the hell doesn't need that in their lives?

The highly enjoyable Spank Rock (Spank Rock MySpace) feature on Kick Drum, lending some vocals and some stupid bass. The re-tooled 'Noise Won't Stop' suggests that Spank Rock didn't ensure they had all their valuables when they left Shy Child's place as it seems to feature the same completely over the top bass that graces Spank Rock's own 'Backyard Betty'.

'The Volume' and 'Summer' manage to sound like pop music made by kids too cool for pop music, resembling 80s pop and Brit Pop respectively but with edge and added electronics. 'Generation Y (We Got It)' even has a wicked female vocal join-in bit and the album's probably highlight comes in the form of 'Astronaut', which descends into a lush electronic freakout.

BlackPlastic has already noted that the album's unrelenting nature is reminiscent of Test Icicles' frankly fantastic For Screening Purposes Only but it all also feels somewhat like The Rapture's recent Pieces of the People We Love in that it's essentially a bit of a party album with issues. It will be interesting to see where the hell Shy Child can go from here but following a stint supporting The Klaxon's you can be fairly confident that with hooks as enjoyable as the ones found here and a sound so indisputably 'now' this will not be the last we hear from our stressed friends from NYC.

Shy Child - MySpace / Official Site.

Album Review: † - Justice

Potentially the years most anticipated LP so far it seems that, aside from the slightly inevitable cries of 'sellout' that greeted D.A.N.C.E, Justice and their Ed Banger cohorts can do no wrong. Can they keep the pressure on for a whole album? Read on to find out...

So how do a bunch of thrash metal fans that create electronic music kick off an album? Well given that they call themselves Justice and their album is called, simply, † (pronounced 'cross'), it comes as little surprise that things start with an opening track entitled 'Genesis'. From the very outset † sounds like it is determined to destroy your soundsystem and possibly whatever fragile friendship you have with your neighbours, throwing out nasty basslines and pounding drums - this cries out to be played loudly in the car.

'Let There Be Light' continues the theme before distortion gives way to those funky shouting kids on 'D.A.N.C.E', which provides the natural relief one would expect - a sun ray through the clouds, it continues to sound as commercial and damn catchy as ever, but benefits even more from its context on †, the guilty pleasure you'll want to flip straight back to after the album closes.

The Daft Punk influences are never far from view, as demonstrated by 'New Jack', a distorted yet funky freak-out with cut-up vocals. Those familiar with Ed Banger Records' label compilation Ed Rec 2 will know what to expect from 'Phantom Part I', another instrumental distorted funk-fueled breakdown that gradually sounds like it is falling apart until it comes back to life in the form of 'Phantom Part II', a phoenix from the flames that ups the funk with some strings and a little more space.

'Valentine' is exactly the type of slightly camp French electro-wizardry one would expect of Daft Punk, almost reminiscent of 'Veridis Quo' from their one Discovery album. 'The Party' introduces the absolutely wonderful Uffie to the masses. It's fun, adorable and possibly the first thing that Uffie's lent her vocals to that could actually get played on the radio. In fact 'The Party' could just be the laid back sound of the summer and like 'D.A.N.C.E' it acts as a natural counterpoint to the rest of the album.

'DVNO' is fresh filtered vocal house that sounds like the sort of thing Daft Punk should be doing. Again, it's relatively commercial and radio friendly yet retains a spiky enough edge to keep the fans happy.

†'s closing quarter kicks off with 'Stress', sounding like a hand grenade to the face. Huge whirling synths encircle strings whilst the basslines build to the point of spontaneous combustion, at which point the sirens kicks off. 'Stress' is the realization of all of Justice's experiments in downright nasty distortion and as potentially the biggest dancefloor record here it will tear the roof of any club that plays it. You have been warned.

Former single, 'Waters of Nazareth' keeps the volume levels up with its trademark filthy cut-up bassline. In retrospect 'Waters of Nazareth' pretty much sounds like a mission plan for this album, a watershed from the slightly thin sounding (now at least) 'Never Be Alone' (which doesn't appear here). Things draw to a close with the surprisingly down-tempo 'One Minute To Midnight', a nice chunky bass workout that sounds like it wants to be a gansta rap metal record.

† may disappoint some people. It isn't quite as nose-bleed inducing as it could be and there are several rather commercial tracks. BlackPlastic argues that this is no bad thing - if anyone can shake up pop music a little bit it's the Ed Banger crew. We need Uffie on MTV and we need SebAstian remixing Girls Aloud and this record just might help to achieve that. What's more, as a whole † is a killer album with some skull-rupturing climaxes and has done what Daft Punk have been unable to in two albums. When it's in full swing † is so epic it feels like giving birth to He-Man.

On a related note the video for 'D.A.N.C.E' is on YouTube and is rather awesome. Take a look:

Album Review: BUGGEDOut! Presents Suck My Deck - Suck My Deck

In a revamped re-launch Bugged Out reprise their rather ace Suck My Deck series with a set from everybody's new favourite electro rave duo, Simian Mobile Disco.

This latest Suck My Deck consists of a considerably more varied take on things than both Ivan Smagghe's or Damian Lazarus' and is more approachable as a result. Things kick off with Joakim's 'Drumtrax', taken from his excellent Monsters & Silly Songs long-player, it's a slow, somewhat restrained start to an album that is anything but elsewhere.

Liasons Dangereuses and Fast Eddie are thrown into the mix to provide prove a bit of retro savvy, contributing spikey post-punk and hip-house respectively, but for the most part this is recent stuff. Simian Mobile Disco's 'It's The Beat' gets things really going - you quite possibly know it but if you don't the album's almost worth buying for this alone, building from a hip-techno start into something much more melodic when the synths kick in - it's cold, melancholic and awesome. It sounds like the surface of another planet and it just might make the hairs on your neck stand up.

The somewhat minimal yet arse-shakingly funky 'The Madness of Moths' by Vincent Markowski builds into Holden's unapologetic 'Idiot', who proves yet again that he'll be damned if he's going to be contrained by anything as conservative as a genre. If you've not heard 'Idiot' it sounds like a Atari 2600 knocking you out cold with a lump of acid before running off with your car, girlfriend and career. It's ALIVE.

In a move that makes it sound like they were born to be together, SMD gentle massage 'Idiot' into Sebastian's 'Walkman', here pitched up considerably to turn it into something even more ferocious. You can tell you've arrived when you get an article in The Guardian's Guide - 2007 is going to be Ed Banger's year so you better get used this this in your face brand of French distorted house. Not that that should represent a problem - it's fucking awesome after all.

More French craziness comes in the form of Riton's mix of Para One's Midnight Swim. With the help of Switch's midas touch Ms. Thing's Love Guide successfully mixes ragga and dance hall with cranium crushing techno. Simian then go on to utterly destroy the Klaxon's Magick, reducing it to its core elements and reverse engineering nu-rave into a series of vocal cuts and stabbing synths. It's big, very loud, very clever and guaranteed to please almost any dancefloor in the country right now.

Moving into Suck My Deck's closing section, Alter Ego make Partial Arts' 'Trauermusik' somewhat less minimal with their fairly typical yet totally enjoyable squeaky acid. Kerowack's 'Naf Monk' sounds like it was literally created to kill anyone that listened to it and from this comes last-track but one, LFO's 'Freak'. Again, you probably know it, if you don't it's a cut-up mess of acid chaos that those around you will try and tell you isn't even music. Ignore them and play this loudly. Things are brought to a close proper with the eerie, Lynchian 'Love Without Sound' by The White Noise.

They also make it sound too easy, but in the form of Suck My Deck Simian Mobile Disco have created what BlackPlastic would argue is currently 2007's best mix album. It cares little for genre and absolutely nothing at all for the state of your ears but it is utterly glorious all the same. Here's hoping there's a shorter wait for the next Suck My Deck album, and that SMD's forthcoming artist album lives up to the building hype.

Album Review: LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

Every now and then a song comes out that defines a time, a feeling. It redefines what every considers the sound of the time. It messes with genres, starts scenes and starts nightclubs. It starts labels and DJs and bands. In 2002 when James Murphy released 'Losing My Edge' under the guise of LCD Soundsystem it was a call to arms. Self deprecating it may be, but it was also a sideways swipe at all those continually attempting to re-package and re-hype cool. It was a full stop on Electroclash and the start of something new, more intellectual yet at the same time less considered, more vital and raw.

LCD Soundsystem's first eponymous album was never, ever going to fully satisfy. Whilst it was, considered in the right light, a superb album, it almost seemed to lack a little vision. Whilst good by most bands standards, tracks like the Beatles-esque 'Never As Tired As When I'm Waking Up' just felt like they lacked the balls displayed on earlier cuts like 'Beat Connection' (to this day possibly the best LCD Soundsystem track).

Sound of Silver is a different beast. Born out of the renewed enthusiasm Murphy developed whilst constructing his 45:33 piece for Nike from the opening stabs of 'Get Innocuous' Sound of Silver is instantly more ambitious, less content with replicating, more concerned with invention. Driving synth lines encircle Murphy's multi-layered vocals to create an irresistable groove by the time Nancy Wang's vocals kick in... "You can normalize, don't it make you feel alive". What is built must someday collapse and as such 'Get Innocuous' melts away into a torrent of bass and distortion, with a bassline somewhat similar to 'Losing My Edge'.

'Time To Get Away' is angular and funky, like Prince and Talking Heads in one convenient package. With fantastically ramshackle percussion it is also exceptionally well produced.

First single 'North American Scum' is in your face, a diatribe on what it's like to be an American band on tour in the modern world. It shows Murphy's increasing lyrical maturity and is at once insightful and funny.

Based around a portion of the aforementioned 45:33, 'Someone Great' is undoubtedly Murphy's most emotionally resonant recording to date. Washes of acid, synthesizers and a glockenspiel merge to create something epic in scale yet shamelessly modern in sound. Lyrics that deal with loss and confusion cannot help but raise the hairs on the back of BlackPlastic's neck... "I wish that we could talk about it, but there... That's the problem". It may take a few listens to truly appreciate but as the electronics gradually build and engulf the subject matter of the song you cannot help but realise this is a man who has made his most important track to date. "There shouldn't be this reign of silence, but what are the options when someone great is gone?"

'All My Friends' is another departure. Less electronic than anything else on the album so far it rides a beautiful kraut rock piano line that continues throughout the whole song. Distorted guitars slice in and out whist Murphy waxes lyrical about that universal sense of not quite knowing what you're doing with your life. "You spend your first five years trying to get with the plan and the next five years trying to be with your friends again..." he yells. As with 'Someone Great', the beauty of 'All My Friends' is the way it combines absolutely ball-achingly fantastic melody and production with lyrics that not just sound cool but actually mean something. To see this song live would be something very, very special.

At eight minutes and tweny-nine seconds, 'Us v Them' is the longest track on offer. A throbbing post-punk rant against, well, whoever. More reminiscent of some of the best material from LCD's first album and early singles, 'Us v Them' is still great. A soundtrack to quit your job to on a sunny day.

'Watch The Tapes' is in and out, cut and shut post-punk funk. It sounds unstoppable and it probably is. Just when it's arrived with a lovely stripped-back percussion wig out it ends, giving way to...

'Sound of Silver'. The title track is possibly the most minimal track here. Featuring a simple vocal refrain repeated throughout its 7-minute plus duration 'Sound of Silver' is almost an instrumental with words. Lord knows what it's about... The music itself? Silver it does sound, piano riffs fall from space, clicks and high-hats drift by, Murphy's voice turns into an instrument itself. This is pure abstraction, more like 45:33 than anything else here... Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space.

And so to album closer 'New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down'. It's been discussed on these pages before but by God is this a good track. It may be less experimental than everything else here, essentially this sounds like the greatest track Bowie never made, but it is still a departure for LCD Soundsystem and it is done so well. Murphy intelligently dissects post-millennial NY, critiquing what the city has become from the point of view of someone utterly besotted with the city. Like The Velvet Underground's 'Heroin' it sounds like an elegant love song to a woman impossible to live with yet impossible to live without. Indeed perhaps on some levels it is... When Murphy wails "Like a death of the heart, Jesus where do I start? But you're still the one pool where I'd happily drown..." BlackPlastic could almost break down and cry.

Sound of Silver is already not getting the attention and reviews it deserves from the mainstream press. Here is an album so well structured and considered it undoubtedly deserves a spot within your collection. It will make you want to dance, break stuff, cry, make music and it just might change your life.