Album Review: Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads - Dustin Wong

Dustin Wong - Diagonally Talking Echo from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Dustin Wong's first solo album Infinite Love was both weird and wonderful, coming out of left field to create a bizarre concept album based around his experimental instrumental guitar work. As a double album it seemed like it would be a daunting listen but it turned out to be anything but. This follow up is shorter and therefore a little more approachable... But in reigning in the scope has it lost some of the magic?

Basically the answer is no. The shorter duration makes the album feel more focused and yet it actually feels more experimental. The music strays into more processed, fractured and electronic sounds and at times it all creates a staggering collage of noise unlike anything you have heard.

The beauty of Wong's sound is in the rhythmic warmth of it all. Each song typically consists of a passage or two that begins simply but gradually builds and layers into a more and more complex piece of music, transforming itself from something delicate and quiet to a far more triumphant conclusion. This is actually the result of Wong's recording process, which involves using pedals to loop elements throughout the song. It means the songs innevitably get increasingly complex as they progress. In fact Wong apparently recorded much this album live, using just a few overdubs to move sounds through the stereo field. The result is a dizzy mix of Eastern-influenced post-rock and folk.

Dreams Say... has some spellbinding moments and it stands up to Wong's previous solo album. It is interesting to hear his ideas gradually evolve and transform his music, often over the course of a single song, and it is this organic growth that makes his music appealing. Despite a shorter duration, I can't help but feel there is still a little too much here to not feel a bit overwhelmed. And yet the best bits shine enough that it is worth persevering. Wong's dreams are complex, overwhelming and at times beautifully uplifting - and well worth listening to.

Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads is out on 20 February on Thrill Jockey, available to pre-order on Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link].

EP Review: Modern Heat EP - MAM

Image source: DJ MagMiguel Campbell and Matt Hughes' new EP as MAM is as tight as a nut. Slick disco stabs, funky MJ style yelps and heavy baselines abound. Take Metro Area and give it a French Touch twist, serve in a long glass over ice.

What you have here is a four-track EP of funk and disco inspired house and, well, it's inspired. 'Modern Heat' is filtered heavy disco funk, whilst 'Crushed Ice' is sleazy eighties funk that channels pure Discovery-era Daft Punk.

The guitar work on the latter yearns for someone to dance with and whilst it may be a little slow for the main room this is perfect for the more discerning bars out there. As if to answer your prays 'Crushed Ice' also gets a remix that just gives it a bit more oomph. Perfect.

The final offering, 'Sunset Funk' is pretty much placed between the other two tracks, mixing the filtered disco of 'Crushed Ice' with the squelching synth funk work of 'Modern Heat'.

With no bells or whistles this EP pretty much just focuses on doing one thing well. And do just that it does.

BP x

Modern Heat EP is released on Fina on 19 February, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 [affiliate link].

Single Review: Game Over - Pool

Pool's 'Game Over' is a tribute to video games. You don't get enough of those in music in my opinion - who needs love when you've got a 20-hour-a-week Skyrim habit? Of course there could e some sort of clever analogue to love or getting drunk or something going on here but I'm going to plump for the assumption that this Hamburg three-piece just really dig their Donkey Kong.

It's a pretty awesomely catchy-pop record with a lovely bounce to the bass line and a slightly scratchy guitar rhythm. It also sounds quite a bit like Alphabetical-era Phoenix which basically means rather good.

'Don't Say My Name' is similar in style, if ever so slightly less infectious. The rhythm here is tight and fast, the overall feel being a great mixture of a live sound combined with a strong production.

The single also comes with two remixes, one of each track. Solomun takes the vocals from 'Game Over' and puts it on the top of a funky, loose proto-house bass line - either element is fine on it's own but the vocal and the melody just don't really gel for me. Stimming's remix of 'Don't Say My Name' is much better, reigning the track back into a disco-influenced dub that leaves behind almost all of the vocal.

Worth a listen. We like bookish indie euro kids.

Check out a previews of all four tracks below (the order is the original of 'Don't Say My Name', the Stimming mix, the original or 'Game Over' and then the Solomun mix):

BP x

Game Over is out on 2DIY4 on 30 January, you can order it now on Amazon.co.uk on MP3 [afffiliate link].

EP Review / Download: Sweat Mode - Ghost Mutt

The world seems to have gone a bit R&B crazy recently, with indie kids swooning over the Weeknd's rich, slow and dark production style and warts and all lyrical style. I've never been much of a fan of the genre aside from the odd track with particularly robotic production (Aaliyah's 'Try Again', Brandy's 'What About Us?’) but something is definitely happening. Kanye's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy totally changed my perception of what he was capable of as an artist, the confessional lyrics laced with self-loathing made the album an uncomfortable one to listen to. It's a style Drake seems to have been running with - his last album Take Care is full of moody, slow tracks and his staggering hashtag-styled continuous rap bursts.

Ghost Mutt may not be caught up in the same rat hole of self-doubt as all of the above but Sweat Mode nevertheless points a way forward for R&B. This is a very brief EP at just 12 minutes but it features four short jams that play up the best thing about modern R&B: there's no need to hurry. These songs may be short but they aren't fast - you've just got four sensual workouts that meld vocal snatches with echoing bass and space. It's feels like a natural meeting point between electro, dub-step and R&B and I can't help but feel impressed.

Stream it above - it is definitely worth checking out and available as a pay what you want download from Donky Pitch (in other words free if you are tight).

BP x

Single Review / Stream: Orion remixes - Sons & Daughters

I was a big fan of Sons & Daughters' Mirror! Mirror! album that came out last year and the band have just followed it up with their second batch of remixes, this time focused on 'Orion' (Optimo and Andy Blake have already had a go at 'Silver Spell').

Have a listen in the player above. The Wrong Island mix is pretty decent, spacey and a bit spooky with a massive synth build whilst the Umberto mix is unfortunately pretty forgettable. It's the Emporer Machine mix you should really check out though. Emporer Machine is actually Andy Meecham, one half of the under-rated Chicken Lips, and this mix really takes the original to another level - it retains the same aggresiveness but cuts it through with bubbling electronic bass. It's pretty special and frankly a lesson in good remixing, probably adding as much detail and effort as the original recording.

BP x

The Orion Remixes package is released on Domino on 20 February, you can pre-order is on 12" from Amazon.co.uk here [affiliate link].