Single Review: Shark's Tooth - Archie Bronson Outfit

The Archie Bronson Outfit's new track, taken from the forthcoming Coconut album (out 1 March), is exactly the kind of scratchy alienating music BlackPlastic hopes is playing when we finally lose the plot and the fine thread that keeps the world the right way up snaps.

It's angst then, but the best kind of angst - artsy and well dressed. With a wall of distorted guitar-work 'Shark's Tooth' manages to create a sound that actually feels like the serrated edge of its namesake.

The forthcoming album is produced by ex-DFA (yes, ex) darling Tim Goldsworthy. Judging by this effort it is likely to be a big departure from his work with Hercules & Love Affair and Cut Copy into the realm of jerky guitar post-punk. Which makes BlackPlastic excited. If it is all as good as this then it will be a significant achievement for both band a knob-twiddler.

Check it out the Ferry Gouw directed video above and, even better, head over to the Archie Bronson Outfit website to download the MP3 for free.  The 7" is out on Monday.

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Album Review: Boca Negra - Chicago Underground Duo

Boca Negra - it evokes foreign places, exoticism and, meaning "black mouth" evokes feelings of infinity (it apparently represents an endless consumption of information). And Chicago Underground Duo sound like they should have made house music back when house was a place not a genre.

They don't, however. But Boca Negra is no less exciting for that fact. Instead it is just too damn cool, Chicago Underground Duo's sounds creating an effortless yet sophisticated and ultimately considered melange.

Chicago Underground Duo's album is ultimately a free-jazz-folk-music affair. Yet if, as they say, writing about music is as stupid as dancing about architecture then you could argue that assigning a genre to music like this feels as ridiculous as skydiving about partical physics.

What there is no argument over is the fact that Boca Negra is a beautiful record. Whether soothing, as on the refined and soulful 'Vergence', or obtuse, funky and playful as on 'Spy On The Floor' it is a shattered picture frame of enticing images. In some respects it is a collection of mood pieces but played with such aplomb, such attention to detail that it sounds like the soundtrack to the best movie you have never seen.

Boca Negra is a cinematic album and it is at its best when full of the space and exposed, broken rhythms as on 'Lauging With The Sun'. Like much great instramental music different people will feel different things from listening to Chicago Underground Duo: BlackPlastic feels a sense of wonderment.

BP x

Preview Chicago Underground Duo's Boca Negra by downloading the MP3 of 'Spy On The Floor' [right click, save as].

Boca Negra is out now on Thrill Jockey, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and LP [affiliate links].

EP Review / Video / Download: The Crackdown Project - Billie Ray Martin

Much of the music BlackPlastic appreciate stems in one form or another from the incredibly varied and creative post-punk scene in the late seventies and early eighties.  Some of the bands involved in this scene are incredibly well known (Joy Division, New Order, Human League etc.) whilst some, for example The Units, are much less known.

Unsurprisingly the majority of artists fall somewhere in between, and one such example would be Cabaret Voltaire - a Sheffield band considered hugely influential who yet these days appear to be relatively unknown amongst the younger generations outside of real muso circles.

Germany's Billie Ray Martin, who is perhaps best known for work as a member of Electribe 101 and mid-nineties house record 'Your Loving Arms' but has also recently got into the post-electroclash scene (collaborating with Hell, for example), has decided that Cabaret Voltaire deserve a revisit.  The result is The Crackdown Project, which is made up of two cover versions - 'The Crackdown' and 'Just Fascination', with additional vocals from Stephen Mallinder from Cabaret Voltaire. Rather than releasing the tracks via conventional channels Billie Ray Martin has taken the somewhat unusual step of collaborating with Mininova to release some remixes and, shortly, the EP on torrent sites.

The result is surprisingly good, particular on 'The Crackdown', which mixes Billie Ray's somewhat decadent vocals with an crunchy, industrial bass line. Add in her spoken vocal sparing with Mallinder and you have a track that treads an interesting line between sleazy and beautiful.

Check out the video for 'The Crackdown' above and the ballad-esque Phil RetroSpector Mix below.  The project is to be released in two parts, with Sold Out to Disco coming out on 15 February followed by Darkness Restoredon 15 March.  Each release will feature a variety of remixes of the two tracks and in addition to Torrent sites will be available through digital outlets worldwide - remember to support the artist.

Download an MP3 Minimix of the release mixed by Celebrity Murder Party here [right click, save as].

Album Review: FabricLive 50 - dBridge & Instra:mental present Autonomic

dBridge & Instra:mental's Autonomic mix for FabricLive eschews expectations for a drum 'n' bass mix by slowing things down. Right down.

After collaborating on a track together, dBridge and Instra:mental collaborated to form Autonomatic - ultimately a club night with spin-offs, the most significant of which is, as the press release say, ultimately a style of music.

Because FabricLive 50 doesn't just slow things down. It is considerably slower than even a breakbeat set, with the tempo coming in below a chilled out 100bpm. This is still distinctively dnb though, and both dBridge (formerly part of the fairly legendary Bad Company) and Instra:mental clearly know their craft.

The album opener, Riva's 'Seems Like', glides a soulful vocal over a spacious backing that gently melds into Instra:mental's own 'From The Start' but as soulful as the whole thing feels the beats are deep, percussive and ultimately pure liquid drum 'n' bass.

But slow drum 'n' bass sounds about as much fun as stretching out the Queen's speech to last the whole of Christmas day, Boxing day and maybe even right up to New Year's Eve... Surely the point is that it gets you moving, the rolling basslines, pitched vocals, and the last thing we want is more bloody dubstep.

But as we said, dBridge and Instra:mental clearly know what they are doing. Just as liquid dnb made BlackPlastic's heart go aquiver about eight years ago by giving the genre vocals and, as a result, a tune, FabricLive 50 works because of the space the production gets. There are relatively few vocals here as it happens but the speed gives the album an intelligent, soulful feel more reminiscent of Jazzanova and the Compost label than any dnb or dubstep we ever heard.

FabricLive 50 is actually fairly reminiscent of Global Communication's Fabric album (Fabric 26), robotic yet soulful... Ferocious let subtle. By redefining what drum 'n' bass is dBridge and Instra:mental have just pushed a genre forward that desperately needed innovation. Dubstep be damned - dnb died and Autonomic just brought it back.

BP x

Check out the 30-minute promo mix over at Fabric's MixCloud page.

FabricLive 50 is out on 15 February, available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link].

Single Review: U Can Dance - Hell

Hell's last album Teufelswerk felt impenetrable purely due to its sheer length - it turns out that two discs of camp German techno is not necessarily always a good idea.

So the chance to focus on one track at a time is welcome, particularly when it features guest vocals from Bryan Ferry and boasts remixes from Carl Craig, Tim Goldsworthy and Simian Mobile Disco.

If you know any Hell then the original track sounds exactly as you would expect it to. It is Bryan Ferry, crooning at you through the lowered partition screen whilst you bomb it along the Autobahn in a black Limosouine at 3:30 in the morning. Ultimately it's functional but not a patch on Hell's fantastic 'Tragic Picture Show' on NY Muscle.

The remixes have a lot to live up to - RadioSlave's thirty-minute mix of 'The DJ', on which Hell was joined by a(nother) angry rant courtesy P Diddy about the fact that real DJs play it looooong ("15 minute versions!"), was clever if a little obvious but more importantly it was well executed.

Inevitably nothing here lives up to that, probably due to the source material more than anything. Carl Craig turns in two mixes, imaginatively entitled Mix One and Mix Two. The first adds a bit of synth but is a fairly functional version of the original, just re-tooled for dancefloors. Mix Two is more ambitious and strips back much of the original's production, eventually adding in a fairly serious bit of acid. Sadly when the full vocal is introduced it can't help but feel forced, and the music and vocal melodies clash. It is a shame the vocal was not applied more sparingly.

Simian Mobile Disco's mix amps up the paranoia, dousing Ferry in petrol and threatening to spit cigar butts at his head. The resulting horror show (think Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet) is much more consistent, with the vocal doing far less to constrain the track than Craig's first mix and fighting with it far less than his second. It eventually dissolves into hiss but sadly lacks the conviction to leave it that way, coming back in for the inevitably dull DJ outro.

Of all the mixes you would perhaps expect Goldsworthy to be the best positioned to handle this track, Goldsworthy having worked with Andrew Butler as Hercules & Love Affair, whose vocals share a certain pomp with Ferry. And Goldsworthy's mix is easily best - the most effortless, going with the vocal rather than against it but at its best on the percussive outro once it is abandoned.

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