Album Review: Arminico Hewa - OOIOO

What happens if you mix Gang Gang Dance's distorted and shattered take on urban music and melt it down with the Battles and Asa Chung & Junray?

Something like this. A unhinged, disjointed piece of post-math-rock.

And to listen to it is to hear one of the strangest records BlackPlastic has heard in a while. Scat vocals, yelps, acid... African percussion...

Basically Arminico Hewa is every passing fad of the past couple of years played at once. Up close it is all far too much and BlackPlastic certainly wouldn't recommend playing it on a first date or listening to it whilst you sleep (unless you, your partner, or both are mental) but take a step back and it is kind of beautiful: Free of form or structure. So base it really underlines the similarity between humans and animals - just try listening to 'Irorun' and you will see what we mean.

So weird and full-on in might make you puke. Which is kind of awesome in our book.

BP x

Arminico Hewa is out on 2 November on Thrill Jockey, available for order now on Amazon.co.uk on CD and LP [affiliate links].

Album Review: The Real Feel - Spiral Stairs

If BlackPlastic could do one thing to make the world a slightly better place it would make it illegal for smug bankers to use their BlackBerry on the train for anything other than calling the wife or accessing porn. Presented with countless opportunities however, an endless magic lamp if you will, then just one thing BlackPlastic would do is hide this début solo offering from Pavement's wayward Spiral Stairs inside the case for every single copy of the Arctic Monkeys last album.

Because whilst, predictably, this isn't a patch on any of Pavement's output, it does achieve a bluesy, melancholic, whisky-soaked sound that feels like the kind of album the Monkeys thought they we making.

The Real Feel is a slow and thoughtful album that shines due to it's space and timing. Opener 'True Love' may feel a bit too formulaic (if at least authentic) but there is much more elsewhere - 'Call The Ceasefire' is morose, wounded and self-pitying yet compellingly so. 'Cold Change' manages to convey a nervous optimism in its join-in "bup-bup-bup-bup-bup-ba-ba" chorus, like the audio equivalent of dusting yourself off after a fall that only one other person saw. Forthcoming single 'Stole Pills' changes things up nicely mid-album with a flick-knife jangly punk vibe.

But The Real Feel hasn't really got any new ideas. And that isn't necessarily a criticism, yet more of an observation. There are moments of delicacy here delivered in such a gimmick-free fashion that the fact that you may as well have heard it all before feels unimportant. It's not the slacker-gold soundz of Pavement, but it's not bad.

The Real Feel is out now on Domino, available on CD from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].

BP x

Album Review: 24/7 - GusGus

GusGus' move to Kompakt for their latest album release speaks volumes. This is an album that only continues the move away from the accessible pop-tech-house of Attention that we glimpsed on last album Forever.

And such a move represents a decision that BlackPlastic can't help but lament. In a typically Icelandic fashion 24/7 is a slightly unhinged minimal tech-house album.

BlackPlastic will precede what we are about to say with the assertion that 24/7 does contain moments of greatness - the soulful vocals of 'Hateful' and the contrast between it's angular, unemotional production and its lyrical content.

But everything is so damned spaced out, in both senses of the phrases. The vocals and minimal sound create a weird sense of isolation - the whole album feels delirious - and at the same time it feels like everything is built with such a focus on slow progression that the result is an album incapable of surprising the listener. Case in point - 'On The Job' with it's repeated shouts of "On the job, 24/7 never stop!" over it's 11-minute length... It's an acidic tripped out epic but it ultimately feels meaningless.

The synthesizers are, as always with GusGus, key here. Therefore you can understand why they have tried to strip everything else out - the likes of the evil sounding, acidic 'Take Me Baby' are far better than your average minimal output. The album is a paranoid, lonely one that conjures the feeling of the band's cold homeland in a way so far from the likes of Sigur Rós that it bears no comparison.

The problem is that GusGus also know how to write a good tune, yet on 24/7 it feels like all the actual tunes have been sacrificed - put out to pasture in favour of a concept that simply doesn't have the mileage to compare favorably to their earlier work.

BP x

24/7 is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and LP [affiliate links].

Album Review: Impossible Ark: A Compilation - Various Artists

Released on Unfold, Impossible Ark: A Compilation features a selection of recent tracks from the stable of jazz stable Impossible Ark.

Modern jazz is always in danger of trying far to hard as far as BlackPlastic is concerned - adding the tag to another genre or getting so noodle-y that any semblance of melody evaporates just doesn't do jazz justice. Impossible Ark's merits are obvious in that this set doesn't risk any of this - instead it treads a pure line through a set of tracks that are timeless enough to make guessing their age practically impossible.

From the opening of the floaty and spacious 'What Is Life' from the Fiction Trio this album is just drenched in class. The Rhythmatic Orchestra's 'African Mailman' fuses salsa rhythms to a pair of jazzy solos from a piano and a flute, creating that perfect laid back afternoon vibe.

Jeb Jay Nichols provides a couple of vocal tracks, with the organic sounding 'Lake Whitfield' proving a highlight. Contemporary vocal jazz is often in danger of losing the magic beneath a collection of too highly polished session musicians - not so here, Nichols' band provide some of the most beautifully understated instrumentation BlackPlastic has ever heard.

Accessible yet authentic - Impossible Ark: A Compilation is genuinely a little bit spellbinding. Ending on the muted brass of The Voices of Time's 'Solstice', BlackPlastic cannot imagine a better way to spend the day than sipping coffee and taking in all the sites the world as to offer whilst soaking in these jazzy vibes.

BP x

Impossible Ark: A Compilation is released through Unfold on 5 October, available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD [Affiliate Link].

Album Review: FabricLive 48 - various mixed by Filthy Dukes

FabricLive 48 is something of a return to form for the series. Of sorts at least.

Following a recent mixture of slightly too fashionable, genre-of-the-moment artists and non-descript mixes FabricLive 48, under the control of the Filthy Dukes, gets back to the bread and butter of what the FabricLive discs can be when they are at their best.

It's eclectic, wonky disco, house and acid drenched tech-house. And it is pretty much all right up BlackPlastc's street. Aeroplane's mix of Sébastien Tellier's 'Kilometer' is still gloriously paced, thick like treacle. 80skidz 'Miss Marz' still sounds timeless, energetic with a hint of melancholy and The Proxy remix of Tiga's 'What Your Need' descends into suitable chaos as the Soulwax mix of Daft Punk's 'Robot Rock' kicks in.

But here is the problem: you probably know all of these tracks. And you probably know most of the other tracks on the album too. There are some great, inventive moments - Mr Oizo's 'Pourriture 7' mixing into Jack Peñate's 'Tonight's Today' is one such stroke of genius. And some tracks are good enough to survive the exposure - we certainly don't resent hearing Lifelike's 'Sequencer' more than is strictly necessary. But, seriously... BlackPlastic does not need to hear Mujava's 'Township Funk' again. Probably ever.

FabricLive 48 is like a mix album made by a friend featuring a stack of you favourite records from the past year or so. It would be a great mix to hear out but without much inventiveness in the tracklist this is unlikely to keep you coming back.

BP x