Album Review: Lumina - The Rogue Element

Coming from the same school of thought as Simian Mobile Disco and Justice but without the pop hooks, Lumina is the aka Ben Medcalf's second album as Rogue Element and having had a listen it is difficult to understand why he isn't better known.

Lumina for the most delivers a noisy, bombastic, swinging-from-the-chandaliers style party and from the opening title track it sounds like the sound Simian Mobile Disco are aiming for with their second album. There a vicious stabs of acid and swirling synthesizers in a combination that defies easy categorisation. All BlackPlastic can say is that it has elements of techno and even trance but that it's still definitely house music.

Regardless of how you label it, this is music to lose memories to. 'Binary Suite', 'Sidewinder' and 'Lumina' are all full on brilliant technicolor brain-seizures. And when Lumina isn't swinging from the chandeliers things get even better - the broken beats of 'In Place' build to a distorted climax whilst 'Mistakes', the only track with a proper vocal, is the album's highlight. It's slower than the rest of the album but builds and builds into a magnificent electro-ballad, all snappy beats and distorted melodies.

Lumina is a triumphant record - an album that manages to be accessible without any danger of selling out. The golden boys of dance music just got some competition: The Rogue Element.

Lumina is released on 29 June on Exceptional.  Available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].

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Album Review: Fabric 47 - Various mixed by Jay Haze

Fabric 47 crashes your party like a much cooler than you stranger. It has seen things you haven't seen and has layers you failed to anticipate.

This is a mix that demonstrates a clear disregard for genre, style or pigeon-hole. Jay Haze has created a sound that manages to bring together disparate styles in a fashion that feels totally natural with none of the sense of forced fun of a consciously eclectic mix. Starting with the jazzy opener 'Awakening', from Haze himself, the listener is taken through Lil Dirty Ghetto Bastard's paranoid tech-blues record 'An Hour to Fly' and onto Mike Dunn AKA Mr 69's hip-house 'Phreaky Motherfucker' in quick succession and, at three tracks in, it's unquestionably the most exciting start for a Fabric album in recent memory.

Jay Haze is known as a DJ, label owner (TuningSpork, Contexterrior and Future Dub) and artist (as himself and under the Fuckpony moniker) and BlackPlastic has to admit that until now none of his work had particularly resonated. It can be troubling when a label owner and prolific artist makes a mix - there is a danger they will focus too much on their own work and labels, creating a mix without variety. No danger of that here however - Haze's own tracks are all dramatically different in themselves and there is plenty of work from others here. This is a mix not intent to stay still - taking in techno, house, hip-hop, dub, blues and jazz in a wholly modern and exciting way.

It's without doubt one of the most creative Fabric albums in ages, the slow burning dub, hip-hop and jazz moments providing real flow and being handled sympathetically. Catrat's reggae tinged 'Freedom', remixed by Haze, slots into the mix wonderfully despite a dramatically lower BPM count. Similarly, The Last Poet's 'When The Revolution Comes' provides an angry counterweight for the album, riding on top the clicks and bleeps of Pheek's 'Soundscape'. Closing on the emotional, jazzy hip-hop of the exclusive cut 'Something To Say' by Rockey puts a beautiful full stop on the set - an honest explanation of what it is to love music and what it does and means to people.

Fabric 47 is so fresh it inevitably makes the rest of your record collection feel a little stale.

Fabric 47 is released on July 13 in the UK and August 11 in the US.  You can subscribe to the Fabric CD series at the FabricFirst website. It is worth noting that Haze is donating the fee from this mix to a charity currently working in the Democratic Republic of Congo - Merlin Health Services.

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Album Review: Cope - Freeland

Freeland, Adam Freeland's "band" project, originally launched off the back of the rather awesome 'We Want Your Soul' back in 2003. The harder, rock influenced sound was a departure for Freeland (the man rather than the 'band') from his nu-skool breaks origins but the ideas just seemed to run out over the length of the album, ending up like a breakbeat version of the abysmal Kosheen.

When 'Under Control' dropped a couple of months ago it got BlackPlastic a bit excited. The vocals clearly wished they were LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy but the overall package had enough attitude to make it work, particularly on Alex Metric's mix. Incorporating 'Under Control' as a starting point and recruiting a number of successful musicians an producers (Tommy Lee, the Pixies' Joey Santiago and Jerry Casale of Devo amongst others) things looked good for Cope...

...And on the whole, it delivers. Whether it is on the dread-soaked, paranoia drenched 'Strange Things' or the melancholic M83-esque downer 'Mancry' Cope is likely to have moments that appeal whatever your taste. The variety of styles and techniques that Freeland has obviously picked up through DJing and remixing really pays dividends here - BlackPlastic has long sung the praises of Freeland's mix of B-Movie's eighties track 'Nowhere Girl'. The distortion and shoe-gazing sounds on that remix and his Global Underground disc it featured on are all over this.

So it's not perfect. It's a little long and there is a little bit of padding plus BlackPlastic can't help but long for the faster, harder remixes. But the best things often aren't perfect: in a similar way to Evil Nine's They Live! from last year, Cope is likely to keep you coming back regardless.

As a faster check out the free mix Adam put together for Discobelle. It encompasses a number of Cope's tracks in a more dance floor focused mix.

Cope is available to order now across a variety of formats from Freeland.fm.

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Album Review: II - Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas

When Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas collaborated on their eponymous album for Eskimo two years ago it became the kind of cult hit most producers only dream of. Not only was it released to huge praise but it also helped kick start a Renaissance in italo and cosmic disco that has sent ripples of influence across much electronic music since.

Back with a follow-up, once again on & Eskimo Recordings, II is unsurprisingly more of the same.  Yet if more of the same was ever more welcome, BlackPlastic can't put his finger on when that would be.

And once again, this is a beautiful record. It's slow and slightly ponderous but at the same time does so much across its length that to complain would be churlish. The mood is literally perfect. This is a record to consume with an espresso whilst watching the sun rise and with a beer whilst watching the sun set. With the current bought of good weather we have recently seen in the UK BlackPlastic can't imagine a better soundtrack for being lazy in the sunshine.

Words can't really convey what it is like to listen to - instead of reading just go and check it out.

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Album Review: Bitte Orca - The Dirty Projectors

The Dirty Projectors at their best create music that feels so completely their own that they are always unmistakably them. Even when they are collaborating with others, as they did with David Byrne on this year's Dark Was The Night compilation, or covering another band's material, as on last album Rise Above (albeit re-imagined, from the memory of Black Flag records) they lose none of their individuality.

Bitte Orca perfectly retains this over-worldly, unique feeling. With all of the human sexuality that Dave Longstreth's falsetto vocals managed to capture on the sublime Rise Above this is an album from a band that can both see and realise their own potential. Streamlined yet playfully creative, Bitta Orca manages to deliver an album that focuses Longstreth's experimentalism into something coherent and unashamedly "pop".

But it's still by no means conventional - it's just that the songs themselves are now calling the shots. The chorus of 'Useful Chamber' for example, with quick and punchy shouts of "Bitte Orca, Bitte Orca!", gives way to a fret wig-out on the guitar before dissolving into a dreamlike vocal that sounds like a kid spinning around until they fall down dizzy into the arms of love.  It's experimental and interesting and yet still completely immediate and catchy.

Lead single 'Stillness Is The Move' boasts a snappy solo vocal from Amber Coffman that sounds like getting up and stepping over the root cause of your problems, no longer being held back by the daily grind. The strings that kick in halfway through turn it into what is probably the Dirty Projectors finest track to date - an organic, fresh R&B anthem.

Along with bands like TV On The Radio, the Dirty Projectors are forging a new pop-centric future for art-rock. The charm of Bitte Orca is that it sounds totally without time and without classification - taking the best elements from 50 years of pop music and rock without sacrificing any inventiveness. The result is one of the most beautiful records BlackPlastic has heard in a long time.

Bitte Orca is released on Monday on Domino Records on CD, MP3, LP and cassette.  No, BlackPlastic isn't joking. Both the cassette and LP come with codes to download the album as an MP3.  Available to order now on Amazon.co.uk on CD and LP, although obviously everyone knows cassette is the format to go for [Affiliate Links].

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