Album Review: Innerspeaker - Tame Impala

2010 feels like it has been the year of the grower... Many of BlackPlastic's favourite records from the past twelve months have been those that hold something back, saving greatness for those that persevere.

We have already covered Flying Lotus' Cosmogramma but you can now add Tame Impala's Innerspeaker to this list.

Not instantly picked up on by many and certainly not as celebrated as it should be, Tame Impala's debut of spiralling prog-rock and thick, chunky bass lines sounds unlike anything else you will hear this year. Innerspeaker is like a trip through all of the best parts of seventies rock but with the added benefit of hindsight. The record is tightly wound into a cohesive whole that feels like one monster trip. Sure, it's retro, but unashamedly so and with a focus on production that sparkles and song-writing that feels timeless.

The closest thing to Tame Impala would be the introspective experimentation of the Flaming Lips combined with the shining bombast of Secret Machines. No bad thing in itself, and yet the band bring their own style, an added layer of psychedelia that is hard to resist.

If you have read anything about Tame Impala it probably mentioned 'Why Won't You Make Up You Mind' - a stand out track on an album that feels like a proper album to the point where individual highlights are difficult to pick out. And 'Why Don't You Make Up Your Mind' is undeniably great, awash as it is in harmonious vocals layered atop crying guitars that pan from left to right to left - only prog-rock can get off so much on the concept of stereo.

But to focus on 'Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind' is to miss much. There is the rapid thrill of 'Desire Be Desire Go', 'Alter Ego' with its looping drum section and acid soaked guitars that give way to a delicate bridge section and the Jurassic sized bass of 'The Bold Arrow of Time' for starters. Probably best of all in BlackPlastic's opinion however would be album opener 'It Is Not Meant To Be'. A ballad for the pessimist it opens proceedings in a wave of radio static before the drums crash in sounding like a prog take on A Tribe Called Quest's thrilling 'Scenario'. The result is wonderful. Singer Kevin Parker's vocals sound resigned in the best possible way -  stoned, smitten and content to be even classed as in the race.

Innerspeaker is another one of those records you can't help but come back to. Each further listen feels like scratching away another layer of the silver crap that coats lottery scratch cards and you never quite know what else might lie beneath. Epic.

BP x

Innerspeaker is out now on Modular, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Review: From The Cradle To The Rave - Shit Robot

BlackPlastic has appreciated the work of Shit Robot since their track 'Wrong Galaxy' appeared on Radio Slave's rather excellent Creature Of The Night compilation back in 2007.

Back then 'Wrong Galaxy' felt like a breath of fresh air - proper techno done properly at a time when dance music was obsessed with being anything it wasn't. Electroclash, post-punk, rock music - all were greatly incorporated into tracks that worked on the dance floor, but sometimes less is more. And in essence From The Cradle To The Rave delivers on the promise of that first single.

Notably absent though it may be, 'Wrong Galaxy' is a demonstration of Shit Robot alter-ego Marcus Lambkin's approach to music. And so when album opener 'Tuff Enuff' turns up with it's functional, driving bass line, spoken vocals and minimal synth washes it is clear that this album will leave you wanting more, not less.

There are a couple of moments that may fail to live up to the heights that Shit Robot can sometimes achieve - 'I Found Love' feels unnecessary, particularly compared to the imagination demonstrated on previous singles 'I Gotta Feeling' or the dizzying 'Simple Things (Work It Out)'.

'Simple Things' itself remains the best thing Shit Robot have released - a track so perfectly formed that it simply never gets old, the perfect combination of classic techno and house where the real innovation comes from nothing but the bloody-minded quality of the thing.

The Alexis Taylor guest spot on 'Losing My Patience' is great and 'Take 'Em Up', featuring Nancy Whang, is even better - a slick slice of eighties-pop sheen. Things round out with previous single 'Triumph!!!' and frankly it's an appropriate name and an appropriate conclusion.

Cradle To The Rave succeeds because it is so focused - compared to much of DFA's output this is remarkably straight forward house music, but it is all the better for that fact.

BP x

From The Cradle To The Rave is out now on DFA, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

Single Review: Rave On Kids - Acid Invaders

Acid Invaders' 'Rave On Kids' doesn't really require a review, because quite simply it does what it says. This is an acid assault on the senses - it's not clever but it's pretty fucking big.

So 'Rave On Kids' is the right mix of old fashioned acid application fused with wonky bass. Campy robot vocals encourage us to take a trip to New York city (is it just BlackPlastic's imagination or are stupid vocals about New York back in?) and basically this is a track to lose memories to. And quite frankly, we like that.

'You Should Have Known Better' on the flip side feels a little like revenge. If 'Rave On Kids' is simplistic good fun then 'You Should Have Known Better' is what happens when you wake up in the corner of the nightclub without your phone, wallet or keys and the sense that you missed out on something important. The title is deeply relevant - the much darker chugging acid this time dosed in guilt and uneasiness.

BlackPlastic has no idea where Acid Invaders can go from here - it pretty much feels like they just nailed the genre of their namesake - but for the moment, stick in on and forget how you got here.

BP x

Rave On Kids is out today on Introduce Records.

Album Review: Infinite Love - Dustin Wong

Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes, well, he eats you. Or so says the stranger to the Dude in the Coen Brother's rather majestic The Big Lebowski.

In other words, life is bittersweet and full of surprises. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Dustin Wong's Infinite Love feels like an album built for the days you win and the days you lose.

A concept album that calls to mind the Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs in reverse, Infinite Love is actually two albums. Or perhaps the same album twice. Both start the same but they diverge halfway through, giving the listener a choice of experiences. Each version of the album consists of 15 un-named 'tracks' but each of these blends into the next and are purely for navigation. Ultimately this is one piece of music, just in two versions, the 'Brother' version and the 'Sister' version.

With a continuous, instrumental approach it almost feels ambient. But it is actually pretty much all warmly strummed rhythm guitar music. Imagine if Here-Come-The-Warm-Jets-Eno bumped into Music-For-Airports-Eno and you would be halfway there. It should be impenetrable, pretentious and dull but it is anything but.

Infinite Love is a heart-warming victory lap. Dustin Wong was inspired by orchestral music on this album and it shows in the ambition and use of space - this is as exciting and experimental an album as you could expect.

BP x

Infinite Love is out now on Thrill Jockey, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD+DVD and LP+DVD [affiliate links].

EP Review: Klavierwerke EP - James Blake

Sure, accuse us of hyperbole, but James Blake's latest EP is what genius would sound like if you distilled it down to twenty-minutes of music and then just let it be.

Nowhere is this demonstrated more confidently than on the already hyped-to-shit 'I Only Know (What I Know Now)'. What makes this record so good? It's Blake's confidence in his own conviction. He basically takes one really good idea, marinades it, lets the thing infuse for a moment and then kills it. Moby made two whole fucking albums based on old soul samples that all sound the same. Here James Blake has taken one gorgeous snippet of a vocal and simply made the best record you could out of it. And that is the genius - there is no kitchen sink here, just one idea the composer really believed in.

BlackPlastic has long held dubstep to be speed garage for people with beards and, well, it is. But then this isn't really dubstep - it's just the best things to ever come out of the dubstep scene.

BP x

The Klavierwerke EP is out now on R&S Records, available from Amazon.co.uk on MP3.