EP Review: Heartbeat - Night Plane

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Heartbeat - Night Plane

This release from Night Plane represents a an interesting first, coming out as it does on a brand new label within the Wolf + Lamb stable. Heartbeat represents the debut release from one Soul Clap Records.

Night Plane is Brooklynite William Rauscher and this EP shows off his broad range of abilities, from crunchy grunge guitars and indie-cool through to deep electronic house.

The title track, 'Heartbeat', has a surpringly loose, live feel to it. Looping drums and a scratchy, bluesy guitar line open the door on a song that aims straight for the midpoint between rock and dance. Long-time, friend of Rauscher, Casey Gibbs provides the slightly yobish vocals and a fair amount of attitude.

Next up, 'Foreign Affairs' is a much slower, gentler ride. Vocals fade in and out of the mix whilst a series of warm melodies are built from layers of guitars. It's a stark contrast to that opening track but it captures a sense of useless yearning that stems from love divided by distance and sets the tone and pace for what follows across this EP.

Perhaps most intriguing on this EP is the cover of 90s slacker-indie legends Pavement's 'Gold Soundz'. Pavement aren't the sort of band that frequently get referenced by DJs and electronic producers so it's unusual to hear their music re-imagined in this way... In fact covers of Pavement seem to be fairly rare full-stop. At this point I have to confess a little worry as to how this version would turn out, but the fact that the vocals are provided by Heather D'Angelo of Au Revoir Simone suggests a fair amount of indie sophistication. The result is thick, warm, starry-eyed and full of teenaged wonder and it feels destined to soundtrack the sunrise after a long evening of excitement. Malkmus would almost certainly hate it, but leave the baggage of the source material behind and it's a pretty track.

D'Angelo remains on vocal duties for 'Gates Of Dawn', a slightly deeper warm house track. The title suggests it is aimed at those moments of darkness just before the sun breaks and the beautiful swirling sound is a perfect fit. Shimmering guitar licks, D'Angelo's trademark deadpan vocals and occasional warm keys create an emotive soundscape. It's the electronics and deep drum kick that gives the track its feel though, the sense of surviving a long night. 

Remixes of 'Gates Of Dawn' come from Wolf + Lamb and Burning Man. Wolf + Lamb stay faithful and just give things a bit more treble, more melodic bass and a snare. The Burning Man mix is also fairly straight with the original, with a dark acid bass that contrasts to a vocal placed higher in the mix and greater prominence for the keys.

Heartbeat is a promising EP, not just for Night Plane but for the entire Soul Clap Records proposition. Intelligent, soulful dance music with indie references? I'll gladly take it if it stays this cool.

Heartbeat is out now on Soul Clap Records, available from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 [affiliate link]. Listen via Spotify below:

EP Review: Out of Phase / Shout - Tiger Stripes feat. Pete Fij / My Favorite Robot & Silky

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Out of Phase / Shout - Tiger Stripes feat Pete Fij / Silky & My Favorite Robot

This new split EP from the My Favorite Robot label features just two tracks but there is enough here to make it an interesting listen. The label have been fairly successful in pairing up artists in the past, whether on their 'Stimulus Package' series of their previous split EPs.

Up first is Tiger Stripes - real name Mikael Nodgren - who hails from Stokholm and has already released material on My Favourite Robot Records earlier this year in the form of his Crossroads EP.

Here Nodgren delivers a twisted piece of electronic soul. Both the vocals from Pete Fij and the overall production style recall eighties synth pop but the track is dark even given the sounds it references - Soft Cell and Depeche Mode. The track features a fluid sounding bass line and ghostly synths that provide a contrast to the largely mechanical rhythms and together it's an emotional track that still manages to work in a club setting.

My Favorite Robot is the trio of James Teej, Jared Simms and Voytek Koran and here they team up with London's Silky to create a new take on Tears For Fears' 'Shout'. It's difficult to assess such a record without an emotional response based on the original record. For me, that connection probably makes this track seem both better and worse than it actually is.

In my view Tears For Fears are probably one of the finest bands on the eighties, all three of their original albums as a duo demonstrating a fantastic combination of songwriting and stellar production work across a range of classic tracks. Of these 'Shout' is clearly one of the best known, Roland Orzabel's vocal instantly recognisable against the drum-heavy track.

Remixing something so iconic is either bold, foolish or perhaps both. Whilst this track remains enjoyable it ultimately loses more than it gains as it comes under My Favorite Robot's surgeon's scalpel. The original version's giant drum sound is replaced with an appropriately large alternative but it lacks the same bite. The punchy bell-chimes that feature in the original are dropped so low in the mix as to render them impotent, meaning a key distinctive part of the track (and one that would survive remixing well) gets lost. On the plus side the acid-heavy extended bridge and outro is where the value is, chunky drum-sets and some vicious bass ensuring it will sound ferocious on the dance floor.

Out Of Phase / Shout is out on Monday through My Favorite Robot Records.

EP Review: Heartbreaker Remixes - Crazy P

Crazy P seem to have come along way since they dropped the 'enis' and became just Crazy P. Once upon a time that name felt like a lead weight around their necks and yet they have happily outgrown it, becoming one of the UK's more dependable cross-over acts.

'Heartbreaker' retains the sophisticated disco edge the band have always focused on and applies it to the sort of soft house sound they have gravitated towards over the years. It's a refined, soulful track, full of detail - whether it's the muted blues rock guitars, the sweeping strings, the melodic but melancholic New Order-style bass line or the tight, live percussion. It's difficult to hear this and not want to check out the latest album, When We On, from which this is lifted.

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Heartbreaker Remixes - Crazy P

The label behind this release, 2020 Vision, selected the first remixer based on his ability to rock a party without sacrificing his deep and classic style. Its something Mark E manages to demonstrate with aplomb here. His mix turns this into a taught track full of nervous energy - the bass feeling cavernous and deep and each element cut into tiny snippets which are layered together to make something as haunting and beautiful as the original, but much heavier sounding. With gentle reverb and retaining parts of the original string section it gives the track another interesting twist on the post-punk meets disco sound it comes from.

The final mix comes from Huxley, who applies his trademark chunky house-meets-garage sound to the track. It's a stark yet elegantly achieved contrast captured on this record, those gentle soulful strings and the guitar work segueing into the harder, bass-orientated sections.

All three mixes here totally deliver in terms of quality and the overall package is varied enough to keep things very interesting. In other words, this is a release well worth checking out. 

Heartbreaker Remixes is released through 2020 Vision on 10 December. Pre-order on MP3 from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link] or preview the EP on Soundcloud below:

Album Review: Funky Highlife - C.K. Mann & His Carousel 7

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Funky Highlife - C.K. Mann & His Carousel 7

C.K. Mann first rose to fame I'm the early 60s playing guitars in Ghana with Moses Kweku Oppong I'm the Kakaikus Guitar Band before moving to lead the band Ocean's Strings until 1966. Funky Highlife is the latest re-release in Mr Bongo's never ending pursuit of gems from the past, coming as part of the Classic African Recordings Series. 

Funky Highlife was originally released through the Essiebons label but according to the manager of that label, Dick Essilfe Bondzie, the album never reached the audience it could have due to an economic downturn in Ghana which subsequently lead to a lack of vinyl for vinyl factories. Bad times.

African music has often influence mainstream music, with regular growths in popularity and influence over the past few decades. Whether the post punk experimentations of the early 80s or the influence on hip-hop and soul in the late 90s or the subsequent re-influence on noughties indie via post punks revival. Funky Highlife is a fusion of African sounds, Latin American music & style and soul.

This re-release comes in two flavours - the original on vinyl, which features two extended medleys, and an extended CD with and extra 40-minutes of music across eight songs. It's hard to deny that this sounds richer, more authentic and ultimately better on LP, and since the vinyl release also includes a download code it is clearly the version to get.

The actual music is hard not to love - laid back Highlife fused to Latin-jazz elements and soul. The 'Asafo Beesuon' medley is gently strummed and hummed, an infectious and joyful patter. Melodies are plucked out in a relaxed way and the music and vocals create a laid-back mood. 'Beebi A Odo Wo' is a little less horizontal, a snappy and soulful track with sharper rhythms, jazz-influenced guitar and some well timed brass.

Highlife is a style of music originating in Ghana influenced by jazz, with horns and layered guitars commonly featuring. These days it's perhaps a little less common to hear it called out than Afrobeat, Nigeria's equivalent - and it lacks the kind of attention that Fela Kuti's success brought to the latter. It has still had periods of larger success as a genre though, rising to popularity in the in the 60s.

Funky Highlife, either in its original or extended forms, is music to embrace and cherish, to chase the blues and cloud away. It comes together to make something bigger than any individual moment - instead its a record to leave to unfurl whilst business of life goes on around you.

Funky Highlife is out now on Mr Bongo, available from Amazon.co.uk on LP or MP3 [affiliate links]. You can preview the album in Soundcloud below:

Album Review: The Incline Of Western Salivation Pt III - Alixander III

The Alixander III behind this release would actually be Alphonse Alixander Lanza III, who is almost certainly better known to you as the III in disco-house outfit Azari & III. The Incline Of Western Salivation Pt III is his first full length debut release and it kicks pretty much everything from his other outfit at the door.

Some facts about The Incline:

• It's long, although nowhere near as long as the press release suggests - 92 minutes in comparison to the claimed "almost 2 hours". Maybe it just felt that long. I'm pretty sure it did.

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The Incline Of Western Salivation Pt III - Alixander III

• The album is almost entirely vocal-free and if you come in expecting anything like the pop-dance tracks of Azari & III you'll find yourself a long way from Kansas. Toto. This is deep, dark, trippy techno and tech-house.

• At its best The Incline feels like an abandonment of inhibition, and that seems very much to be the ambition of its creator. 'Donuts' is psychedelic, intense and intimate - a tight, sweaty mess of electronic squelches and out-of-phase melodies.

• This album seems to signify a growing interest in minimal techno and electronic music. Minimal was frequently tipped for the big time (there's an oxymoron) back in the mid-noughties but it never really caught-on. I'm still not convinced it will - it just doesn't have the potential for mainstream cross-over that almost ever other genre does, by definition not much happens. That doesn't seem to deter the number of producers churning it out - in turns of output alone minimal electronic music only seems to be growing.

• Ultimately some of this is good, but a lot of it feels pointless. Dress it up as "challenging" if you want, I just don't buy it. I've listened to and covered plenty of minimal, techno and IDM over the years and it only really becomes anything more than drug music when you start to actually do something with it. Jaar skirts around jazz and soul, Stott slows it the fuck down and fills it with paranoia, Villalobos does everything he possibly can to it.

The Incline Of Western Salivation Pt III cares about me about as much as a three-year-old on Ribena and the old-style, artificially-coloured blue smarties. Stop beating me round the head and let me learn to give a shit. For every five minutes of interesting production work, texture and melody here there are another fifteen that just might make you view the pains of tinnitus in a whole new light. 

In conclusion:

• 90-minutes is too much.

• Ending on a 23-minute track is too much.

• 90-minutes is too much.

• Maybe I'm getting too old for this.

The Incline Of Western Salivation Pt III out on 7 December, available to pre-order on MP3 from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].