Album Review: Acolyte - Delphic

Delphic have always pretty much had 'BlackPlastic' written all over them. At least metaphorically speaking, though we are open to sponsorship deals. Their method of writing music using laptops and then recreating the result using live instruments tends to suggest the kind of rock-influenced-dance we go all wobbly for (and we certainly enjoyed 'Counterpoint').

So the debut album was always going to be anticipated - particularly when you throw in Ewan Pearson on production duties. The references are obvious - yes, Acolyte sounds a lot like some New Order and, to be honest, even more like 2008's Friendly Fires debut.

And whilst BlackPlastic loves both of those bands it is this inherent similarity that holds Acolyte down a little. There is a danger that they don't do enough to stand out, sometimes even from themselves, with certain songs sounding similar.

Yet they can clearly write a tune. Current single 'Doubt', with sample vox rhythms and near-spoken verse is all metallic perfection, less played and more built. Both 'This Momentary' and 'Counterpoint' tread a thin line between emotional technology and plain Emo, but ultimately feel all the more engaging for it. This is dance music for the car and the train journey - a nice rhythm but it is as more about the head as the feet.

It is title track 'Acolyte', 'Remain' and the catchy 'Red Lights' that make this album though. The former is the only true instrumental, rousing and epic like trance played by a live band, whilst 'Remain' is the closest the album gets to house, with a skippy beat and warmer bass combined with a melancholic piano refrain. As the album's last track proper it makes a fitting conclusion prior, although it is a shame the progressive house blast off of 'Afterstate' got relegated to an iTunes exclusive.

'Red Lights' is the opposite of these tracks - heady, excitable and quite probably ill-advised. It's the pre-credits airport taxi-dash into the arms of the unobtainable A-list movie star. It's the excitable first kiss of punching above your romantic weight. It's leaving behind jobs, problems and history. And the enthusiasm is beautifully infectious - like watching someone so in love that it rubs off.

What the above tracks prove is that Delphic are a better band than Acolyte is an album. The contrast of 'Doubt' to 'Remain' to 'Afterstate' to 'Acolyte' to 'Red Lights' - there are enough ideas here to make a great album, it is just that what remains feels a little sub-par in comparison.

BP x

Acolyte is out now, available on Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Revew: There Is Love In You - Four Tet

Four Tet has long been one of electronic music's true pioneers. Not satisfied with the status quo each release from Kieran Hebden seems determined to push the envelope in a slightly different fashion.

It is an approach which has won him many fans. Especially when the experimental approach has come together with the right aesthetic and, importantly, tunes, as on the legendary 'folktronica' Rounds.

And to cut a long story short There Is Love In You doesn't disappoint. Finding a happy middle ground somewhere between the slow emotive tunes of Rounds and the more 'out there' sound of Everyhing Ecstatic, Four Tet's new album sounds like someone who has finally found their natural sound. Which means the focus can truly be on the detail.

As on the slowly evolving 'Love Cry'. With its casual but tight live rhythm section and bouncing bass it is a song that wraps itself around your cranium like melting ice around a cold drink.

There Is Love In You pushes Hebden's sound simultaneously towards the organic and the electronic. With the low-slung vibes of Flying Lotus, complete with twisted vocal samples, combined with meticulously detailed, tight rhythms this album sounds like a J Dilla experiment that fell from the heavens only to be reconstructed by someone with no idea which bit goes where. And that is a glorious thing.

So this is an album that evolves things, sure... But it hasn't lost sight of what made its predecessors great.  With melodies that carry emotion and production that makes you want to move this is electronic music for all. 

Last year we benefited from a number of bands who finally sounded like they were at the top of their game - comfortable in their own sound. This is another one of those albums. There Is A Love In You doesn't change the game in the same way Rounds did. Instead it just proves Four Tet is better at the bloody game.

BP x

You can currently stream There Is Love In You in its entirety at Four Tet's SoundCloud page.

There Is Love In You is out on Domino on Monday, available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD now [affiliate link].

Album Review: The Flexible Entertainer - Pit Er Pat

Pit Er Pat's latest album is new, entitled The Flexible Entertainer and not particularly easy to sum up in a catchy soundbite at the start of a review.

Pit Er Pat's thing has always been about the atmospherics, moods and textures of their sound and this record is no different. Written for live performance on tour in Europe and later laid down in the studio it is uncompromisingly angular. The sound picks up where Gang Gang Dance's Saint Dymphna and Telepath's Dance Mother left off, carving out a rhythm from non congruent sounds.

The difference is that there is no relief. There is no pay-off. Where Saint Dymphna blows a gasket under the pressure and album-highlight 'Vacuum' sweeps in like a desert oasis, spacious and forgiving to the tracks it follows, The Flexible Entertainer just keeps on piling it on. Where Gang Gang Dance make pop music with Tinchy Stryder on 'Princes' Pit Er Pat feel far too po-faced to play with what their music could be. There are hints of R'n'B in 'Water' and the first half of 'Emperor of Charms' shines but it isn't enough.

The Flexible Entertainer is a record that thinks it is far cleverer than it really is. Snapshots intrigue but sustained listening suffocates.

Download 'Water' by Pit Er Pat on MP3 [right click, save as].

BP x

The Flexible Entertainer is out on Thrill Jockey on Monday, it is available for pre-order now from Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link].

Album Review: Fabric 50 - Various mixed by Martyn

Somehow both 2008 and 2009 seem to have been proclaimed "The Year of Dubstep"... Something that quite frankly bores BlackPlastic to tears because, well... It's just slowed down UK Garage really, isn't it? And you can try and big it up to be something more than that but as 'new genres' go it's treading what is already pretty well trodden ground. So Fabric 50, compiled and mixed by Martyn, is yet another bloody dubstep compilation.

Yet, actually, it's pretty darn good. And BlackPlastic can't really agree that this is any more 'dubstep' than it is 'nu skool breaks'. Or any other breaks genre really because in all honesty this shares more with the bass heavy breaks sound of early Stanton Warriors than any dubstep we ever heard.

Semantics aside Fabric 50 may be good, but it actually makes a bad first impression. Hudson Mohawke's opener 'Joy Fantastic' does a serviceable impression of Stankonia-era Outkast - it is fine but hardly as good as the real thing. And whilst Nubian Mindz's 'Bossa Boogie' is actually an enjoyably chunky take on breakbeat things begin to head downhill from there. Altered Native's 'Rass Out' is instantly forgettable and Zomby has two tracks early on in the album that utterly fail to justify the hype heaped upon him.

But things quickly turn around on DJBone's 'We Control The Beat'. It's an absolutely lush, warm slice of sound the introduces a house feel to Martyn's set that is more or less kept through to the end from that point on. Before you know it you're dizzy, staring at the floor to Martyn's dubby-ska mix of Detachments' 'Circles' and Joy Orbison's soulful and snappy 'Brkln Clln' (Broklyn Calling?).

And BlackPlastic can't help but feel that this slowed down garage album specifically just might be worth getting excited about. The twee pitched up samples of Burial come off like Sweet Female Attitude on PMT. But in comparison whilst Joy Orbison and Martyn may not justify a whole new genre tag (it's still just soulful breakbeat) they definitely worth listening to. Roska's mix of Martyn's 'These Words' is thick and paranoid and delicious and, unsurprisingly, it is Martyn's own productions that really shine in this mix - 'Friedrichstrasse' being another prime example.

Closing on Jan Driver's relative hard 'Rat Alert' followed by the funky and filtered 'Trilingual Dance Sexperience' by Dorian Concept, Fabric 50 is a confusing mix to the end. It's eclectic and confused and it starts badly, yet there it also clearly demonstrates why Martyn is one to watch.

BP x

Fabric 50 is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Review: Real Life Is No Cool - Lindstrøm & Christabelle

With snow covering the ground in England at present reviewing Lindstrøm's latest album, a collaboration with vocalist Christabelle, feels a little incongruous. Yet at the same time it's a perfect fit, and that is because more than anything else Lindstrøm has done, even his laid back cosmic disco collaborations with Prins Thomas, Real Life Is No Cool feels like the warmth of the sun shining on your face.

Once past the slightly uncomfortable entrance of looping, reversed vocals Real Life Is No Cool quickly settles into a groove of tropical sounding beach vibes. It is quickly apparent that this is Lindstrøm's most straight-up house album yet. Opening track 'Looking For What' boasts a soulful piano refrain and waddling bassline that wouldn't sound out of place in a modern deep house track but it is the playfulness between the music and Christabelle's vocals that really lift things up, as on the break three minutes into this opening track.

There are traces of disco, Moroder and 80s experimentation throughout, as on the thick, heavy bassline of 'Lovesick', the sheer camp-celebration of 'Baby Can't Stop' or the acidic synthesizers of 'Let's Practice'. But more than anything this album is simply a relaxed lie down in the sun. At its best the result is utterly sublime - the repeated vocal refrain from the shimmering 'Keep It Up' feels like a dip in a pool whilst the impeccable stop-start timing of 'High & Low' ends things on a high note.

By basing the album around Christabelle's performance Lindstrøm has given Real Life Is No Cool a greater emotional depth that makes this album more than just excellent, it also makes it interesting and beautiful.

It may be cold outside but Real Life Is No Cool will undoubtedly chase away the chill.

Whilst the CD version doesn't see a full release for more than a month it is currently available at Rough Trade, where it comes packaged with two bonus CDs, one featuring remixes (including the ace Aeroplane mix of 'Baby Can't Stop') and another featuring an exclusive 43-minute cover of the Christmas classic 'Little Drummer Boy'. The latter proves a highlight provided you are prepared to ride its utterly bonkers journey to completion. Based around the song's trademark marching-band rhythm it gradually drills itself into you skull.  In the closing minutes it begins to sound like a bizarre sci-fi epic space-war battle march, only one which culminates not in laser fire and trench-runs but in a battle where the weapons are snowballs and mince pies. It's totally ridiculous, and frankly essential Christmas listening as a result.

BP x

Real Life Is No Cool is available now from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 and released on January 25 on CD and LP [affiliate links].