Album Review: Places Like This - Architecture In Helsinki

Music that can make kids giggle and yet still sound emotional and vital is exactly the sort of thing that makes BlackPlastic go a big rubbery one and as such Architecture In Helsinki have long been a favourite.

Following up on 2005's 'five freaking stars without a doubt' debut, In Case We Die, Places Like This represents album numero duo.

At barely 30 minutes long some could argue why bother going to the effort of designing such a lovely album cover, but still, things kick off with 'Red Turned White' and the sound is noticeably snappier, with an increasing rock sound exposed in some places whilst at other times things sound decidedly more urban.

Places Like This' first single 'Heart It Races' still sounds like the version of The Lion King BlackPlastic once experienced after experimenting a little too hard with organic substances and when it reaches a natural climax two minutes in BlackPlastic can't help but make frankly ridiculous maraca movements to the screams of "heart it races some more!"

Whilst nothing else on the album is quite as immediate as 'Heart It Races', and indeed Places Like This lacks the overall cohesion of In Case We Die there is still so much to enjoy in the short thirty odd minutes on offer that BlackPlastic is sure to end up five staring a lot in iTunes in time. 'Hold Music' sounds far too rowdy to be used as hold music by anyone bar BlackPlastic, coming across like a drunken fall down a staircase that does nothing but inspire laughter.

Surely a future single, 'Like It Or Not' starts off in true Archictecture In Helsinki fashion with the first forty seconds spent repeating the lyrics "Singing 'Waa Waaa Waa Waaa Waaa Waaa Waaa Waa Waaa Waaa"... It's probably not not going to win a grammy but fuck it, it sounds lie the most exciting street party ever and makes BlackPlastic want to dance on the ceiling whilst singing "Her mom thinks she's in love with you and I'm not". BlackPlastic has no idea if it has the lyrics right and frankly doesn't care.

Closing on 'Same Old Innocence', a crisp electronic funk shout-along rocker there is no doubting that another 10 minutes would have only added to the joy but you can't fault Architecture In Helsinki for their sheer confidence. Places Like This sounds like a band total in command of their sound and who frankly don't much care about the fame or the money. In fact it is a little difficult to listen to Places Like This without BlackPlastic seeing a bunch of hippies banging out the tunes on a set of saucepans whilst simply doing their best to avoid getting a proper job. Frankly if BlackPlastic can do anything as grand as listening to Architecture In Helsinki and help someone avoid getting a proper job consider it done... Maybe you feel the same way?

If you still want convincing just how much fun you could be having right now check out the Paris street party rendition of 'Like It Or Not' in the video here. It's so good it makes BlackPlastic want to cry man-tears of joy.

Album Review: Mexico City - GU32 Mixed by Adam Freeland

Adam Freeland is not cool. No way. Maybe once... But certainly not these days.

Global Underground... Pfft. They are so lame. Stupid prog compilations churned out like the FIFA series of computer games, without any thought as to why they should even bother still existing.

Why then, is BlackPlastic even worrying its pretty little head about this release? It has something to do with the fact that the tracklist doesn't contain a single John Digweed track but instead reads like a who's who in the cool list of right now. Spank Rock are here with the Switch remix of 'Bump', Mr. Oizo turns up for 'Half An Edit' and yes, Justice are here too. What's more there is some sort of concept, be it a slightly wishy washy one.

Disco Uno is party central... But Adam, dear Adam, has fucked with things a little bit. This means the lovely Thomas Bangalter mix of DJ Mehdi's 'Signatune' gets further tweaked and twisted to fulfill Adam's evil plans before getting entirely decimated by Phones' 'Sharpen The Knives', a track so evil BlackPlastic expects Bush to launch a war on Paul Epworth once the old war on terror has died down. The Para One remix of the crazy Icelandic Queen-wannabes, Trabant, on 'The One' sounds so divorced from the original that you wonder why Trabant bothered to pay the bill. Still, these French guys know what they're doing, right? Even Adam's own exclusive track, 'Silverlake Pills' is pretty enjoyable with similar synth washes to 'Signatune', a freaking rediculous bassline and some nice snappy drums.

CD one is finished off in a suitably fashion with Evil 9's 'Happy Ending', a post-punk breakbeat shakedown and as a mix it is very enjoyable and accessible if in danger of being a little formulaic.

Concept two and disc two then is Drone. Or e-Drone. Taking cues from shoegazing bands such as My Bloody Valentine this 'new genre' is Adam's attempt to fuse the wall of sound approach of these bands to electronic music. It's an interesting idea and in places works well, generally when it veers as close rock music as possible.

CD two starts with Spacemen 3 (who went on the become Spiritulized) and 'Ecstasy Symphony', but at two minutes long this is little more than a blissed out intro. Several deep electronic cuts follow, My My's 'Butterflies & Zebras' introduces a warm melodic bassline and Justus Kohncke strips things back to a piano and the odd brief stab of distortion for 'Advance'. It is track five and 120 Days' 'Come Out, Come Down, Fade Out, Be Gone' before the concept is really fleshed out beyond its bones. A chugging techno track with flat but live sounding drums, 'Come Out...' manages to capture the feeling aimed for, even if the singer does sound a little too like Grant Nicholas from Feeder.

Things really hit their stride just over three minutes into 120 Days, when synths encircle the throbbing basslines and everything descends into a hiss. It is apparent that what makes this new 'sound', if you can bare to believe in such a thing, is the contrast. Nice and nasty distortion arrives in the forms of Gui Boratto's 'Terminal' and Holden's 'Lump' respectively before things head back towards the more rock tinged sound in the form of Cobblestone Jazz with 'Dump Truck' and Silversun Pickups 'Lazy Eye'.

In its conventional form 'Lazy Eye' sounds a little like the Pixies covering a Foo Fighters song but here Freeland effectively throws in a guitar-based muted pop-song into his mix before letting it hit a self destruct button two minutes in that drowns the singer in a wall of post-rock noise. As a DJ tool it works quite well as a completely unexpected left turn. What a dancefloor's reaction to this would be is anyone's guess but BlackPlastic would love to see.

'Lazy Eye' eventually dissolves into Substance & Vainqueur's 'Immersion', which in turn gets sliced into by Fujiya & Miyagi's enjoyable 'Ankle Injuries', used here in a way that neatly counteracts the somewhat clinical introduction to the sunnier feel of the main song proper.

By the time Andrew Weatherall's 'Feathers' rolls around Freeland's intentions are a little clearer, and BlackPlastic can't help but think that Weatherall's track was perhaps a major inspiration for this project. A post-punk electronic machine of a track that sounds closer to its source material than many other so called 'new-post-punk' bands whilst also sounding thoroughly modern itself. It is Freeland's own mix of 80s band B-Movie's 'Nowhere Girl' that provides the album highlight however... A throbbing, chugging slab of melting rock that demands the listener to turn it up just one more notch. Drums crash and vocals roll in and out but it is the bassline slicing in and out of the mix and the distorted melody that provide the real excitement. It was already used to great effect on Evil Nine's Fabric Live mix but here is makes even more sense - another clear inspiration for this mix as a whole.

It seems unlikely that Freeland has truly invented a new genre, what is certain whoever is that he has created the most exciting Global Underground CD in ages and as a New Order style bassline carries the second CD out on a mix of Mylo's 'Paris 400' it feels like a real journey that the listening will want to repeat.

Feeling Feisty - Van She remix 'out there'

Every now and again you hear a track and you like it. You like it so much you have to cheekily skip back to the beginning once it ends. This happens to BlackPlastic 2.23 times a week.

Every now and again a track fulfills the above requirement but you also find whenever you get in your car you just have to stick this tune on before playing anything else. This happens to BlackPlastic 1.45 times a month.

Every now and again you find a track so utterly delicious you can't help but play it again and again. You want to subject everyone you know to it. You want to hear it as soon as you get up, you want it to be the last thing you hear at night. You want to make it your mobile ringtone but you'd never be able to answer your phone again because you wouldn't want to stop the sound. This hardly ever happens.

Ladies and Gentlemen, go forth and listen to the Van She remix of Feist's 1234.

Brilliant, no? This sounds like about four of your favourite songs playing at once and yet it still sounding right. It is dripping in summer. It makes BlackPlastic's heart flutter.

Enjoy.

P.S. If you like this check out the Postal Service remix of 'Mushaboom' (covered by BlackPlastic here). Also shell out some cash on Van She's gorgeous 'Kelly', it's on eMusic and probably iTunes.

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: