Album Review: See Mystery Lights - YACHT

In what has at times felt like a somewhat turgid year musically YACHT's debut album for their current form, as a duo rather than just an alterego for Jona Bechtolt, feels like a palate cleanser.

YACHT's initial release for DFA, 'Summersong' (a track actually inspired by the DFA label), set bloggers tongues a-wagging when it was released (last year) but See Mystery Lights picks up the ball and runs, runs, runs with it.

So what you get is an album that, admittedly, sounds post-punk enough to almost actually be from 1982. BlackPlastic isn't about to get holier than thou and tell you to drop this in favour of the new retrospective release from San Francisco post-punkers The Unit though (but you should definitely check that out too). And that is because See Mystery Lights sounds so damn fresh it is irresistible.

More than a simple revisitation of the past, YACHT draw inspiration from some great bands and twist their ideas to create something new. So the throbbing calypso chant of 'Ring The Bell' positively beams with knowing pop-sassiness whilst 'The Afterlife' chimes in with what sounds like the hook from Desmond Dekker's 'Israelites' over a bleepy bouncing synth backing.

Ultimately YACHT just hit on that key post-punk component: pop. Pure infectious pop. It's easy to forget the role pop had in post-punk but listen to Bow Wow Wow and Devo (not to mention the output of most of the bands that made up the New Romantic movement) and it is a wonder why YACHT's album feels like the first candy-pop post-punk record for our generation.

BP x

Available now on Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Review: Fabric 48 - various mixed by Radio Slave

Radio Slave's Fabric album has it's moments of pleasure but still ultimately disappoints.

If you read regularly you likely know that BlackPlastic has long championed Eskimo Recordings' compilations - frankly they are the best producer of compilations currently around - and as such maybe it is too much to expect Fabric 48 to live up to Radio Slave's release for that label, entitled Creatures of the Night (check the BlackPlastic review of that album here). It wouldn't be the first time someone has struggled with a compilation for another label having thrived on Eskimo - just check the Glimmers' okay-but-not-fantastic mixes for DJ Kicks and Fabric.

But the problem is that Fabric 48 paints a very dry picture of Radio Slave. Where Creatures of the Night had a variety of styles, from shouty P Diddy through to The Osmonds via The Kills, Fabric 48 has, well... 13 cuts of tech-house. And not even the exciting, edge of your seat acid influenced stuff. There are tribal rhythms andloooooooong tracks and spoken vocals occasionally but at what point exactly are we supposed to get excited?

And the sad thing is that this is probably closer to what a current Radio Slave set sounds like. Where has the subversiveness gone from the early days where a Radio Slave remix would do something totally unexpected and still consistently turn out great? Why do DJs and producers think everyone is content with a safe set of four-four techno? What drugs are we supposed to be chomping on to make this do anything for us?

Maybe we are wrong. This might be very sophisticated and if you like tribal, deep techno and house, that might be enough. As far as we are concerned tou can keep it - BlackPlastic would much rather get rowdy to Creatures of the Night's dark corners and freaky sounds.

BP x

Fabric 48 is out now, available on CD from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].

Album Review: Two Sunsets - Pastels / Tenniscoats

BlackPlastic may not be familiar with neither The Pastels nor Tenniscoats (an yes, they are two bands) but what we are pretty damn sure of is the fact that this album is beautiful in such an inclusive fashion that it seems hard to imagine someone not enjoying it.

Sure, it is very, very nice - you won't find anything that will scare your nan - but here on Two Sunsets that is definitely a good thing. With carefully picked melodies and a joyfully lazy pace this is an album that feels like a sit down with a cup of tea and a good book.

With The Pastels' experience seeking out and releasing Japanese pop-folk records on their Geographic label, the progression to collaborating with Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats is a natural one.  And the influence is clear, and not just on the several tracks with Japanese vocals, including Title track 'Two Sunsets', but also in the space and atmosphere in the songs.  The result feels distinctly inclusive.

And it is inclusive because these tunes are just so approachable and the instrumentation so interesting. The songs are catchy as hell even when the vocals are intelligible. BlackPlastic struggles to come up with an example of anything similar that doesn't hail from Iceland - a telling thing given how successful Sigur Rós continue to be despite very rarely singing in a language that much more than half a million people on the planet even understand.

BP x

Two Sunsets is out now on Domino, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD.

Album Review: Humbug - Arctic Monkeys

It doesn't matter how many times we hear it, how much the hype grows, how many hip producers get involved or just how much money they generate for Oxfam (which should, admittedly, be applauded): The Arctic Monkeys continue to spectacularly fail to do anything for BlackPlastic.

The problem is that this is music that just feels like it has no real ideas. The praise heaped upon Alex Turner and his band would suggest that they cured cancer but re-visit their first two albums and it seems much more likely that they simply managed to collectively a paint-by-numbers... but everyone got so excited that they failed to notice. Have you listened to 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' lately? Embarrassing, no?

It's not that there is no talent or merit here. Turner's The Last Shadow Puppets side-project was genuinely interesting but sadly there is no danger here - it all feels far too safe. There are no real risks and no invention. Compared to Queens of the Stone Age (whose Josh Homme co-produces here together with James Ford), the White Stripes, hell - even Franz Ferdinand's last album shines like a beacon is sheer experimentation next to this. The trademark razor-wire lyrics may be here but BlackPlastic can't make out the songs from the drudgery they so frequently attempt to portray.

When people continuously comment on the Arctic Monkey's Sheffield background BlackPlastic can't help but fall into a spasm inducing fit of rage. This is a city that has been responsible for some great bands - Pulp, Heaven 17 and Human League. If the Arctic Monkeys have always left you cold Humbug won't change your mind. Do yourself (and Sheffield) a favour and go and listen to one of the aforementioned bands instead - we would recommend Human League's pioneering remix album Love & Dancing, made by cutting up and sticking together the recordings manually. Now that was invention. That took guts.

BP x

Out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3.

Album Review: Temporary Pleasure - Simian Mobile Disco

It's a realisation BlackPlastic made after seeing Simian Mobile Disco live last year but it is worth stating now: we were wrong when we poo-poo'd Simian's stop-gap EP Clocks last year. Once framed within the context of a live or DJ set the tunes suddenly made much more sense.

BlackPlastic may have been longing for another 'Hustler' or 'It's The Beat' but ironically Temporary Pleasure proves that our suspicions were wrong - SMD are best when they go instrumental. It is just unfortunate that this only becomes apparent when listening to their latest album, on which all tracks bar one have a vocal.

Just as Simian Mobile Disco's début album's greatest moment was without doubt the storming, instrumental opener 'Sleep Deprivation' Temporary Pleasure is never better than on the tweaking epic '10,000 Horses Can't Be Wrong'. The difference is that where the last album gained pacing and variety through the different vocal tracks too many here feel a little lazy and phoned-in, with SMD seemingly happy to include them just so they can name-check some people on the sticker that goes on the cover.

The problem is that Temporary Pleasure spectacularly fails deliver on the promise offered in those acidic, tweaking live sets and the glistening album cover, itself suggesting a prog-rock analogue synth concept album. Instead we have an album that feels like a collection of the weakest points from each of the last few Chemical Brothers albums.

Temporary Pleasure - unfortunately an all too apt description: occasional moments of joy but some way short of greatness.

BP x

Temporary Pleasure is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, Special Edition CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].