Scratch Massive - Naked

These days BlackPlastic is constantly inundated with emails asking, "What is absolutely the best mix album to be released this year?". Just this week a total of three have fallen through our letter box.

Now whilst BlackPlastic appreciates that everybody else is rather busy selling you the merits of New Jack Swing due to its use of soulful harmonies combined with sheer attitude, sometimes you can't go wrong with a bit of French house. Cue Scratch Massive, French dons of rock influenced house (or should that be the other way round?), releasing the rather enjoyable Naked mix, recorded live in some club in France, not a pure house record you might argue. And you would be right, but who wants something so predictable anyway?

The mixing may at times be a little cut 'n' shut but it is very hard to fault an album with such fantastic music on it. From the first track, Pixeltan's 'Get Up/Say What', everything is killer. Dieter Schmidt's 'Morse Code From the Cold War' is so digi-cool that BlackPlastic wants to turn into a series of noughts and ones, whilst the two minutes of acid that Soldout's 'I Don't Want To Have Sex With You' subjects you to are almost certainly the most exciting thing that will happen to your stereo this year.

Moving on, you'll find Soulwax's 'NY Excuse', the only Soulwax tune that was a Nite Version before Nite Versions existed, and 4 Hero's ridiculous 'Mr Kirk's Nightmare Energize 96', a song that obviously pre-dates Dego discover subtlety or soul. !!! (that's "chk chk chk" to you, damn fool!) get cut-up on our arses in the form of 'Intensidifier Sunraccapellelectroshit mix 03', a song that is pretty much as "out there" as the title suggests, and by the fourth minute it is twice as good as anything they've released since 'Me And Giuliani Down By The School Yard (A True Story)'. Scary title of the album award goes to Out Hud, with 'Put It Away, Put It Away, Put It Away, Dad', featuring a vocal that is almost too pitched up to be comprehendible but sounds like a voice saying, somewhat disturbingly, "no, noo, noooo, nooooo". WhoMadeWho do there silly cover thing that they are, since this year's 'Satisfaction', increasingly becoming known for, in the form of 'Flat Beat'.

Scratch Massive even play two of their own songs, albeit in a remixed state, in the form of the Sex Schon mix of 'Make It High' and the fantastic break mix of 'Girls on the Top', the pair of which playfully twirl in-and-out of each other. Huntemann samples the Beastie Boys on 'Bodyrockin'' and throws in a filthy and dark bassline. By Naked's close everything has gone completely bonkers, with Death In Vegas' 'So You Say You Lost Your Baby', featuring Paul Wellar on vocal duty (an offense BlackPlastic will let slide this one time), being chased off by Nina Hagen on 'Naturträne', a punk-opera to finish things off properly. Indeed.

Anyway, what are you doing? Go and buy it, it's the best compilation of the past twelve months... at least!

Amazon don't stock this, but you can get it from Play here.

November song of the month...

Busy as always, BlackPlastic is running a little bit late this month. Having gone to the musically diverse Iceland last month BlackPlastic's November song of the month shall be something discovered in Reykjavik.

Johann Johannson - 10 Rokkstig

Whilst stumbling through the icy cold of Reykjavik BlackPlastic happened to stumble upon a record shop by the name 12tonar. Initially lured in by the coffee advertised on the sign outside, on the inside BlackPlastic found a friendly group of staff who made customers free espresso and offered portable CD players to customers so they could listen to any music that took their fancy. Not only that but the shop is apparently an old haunt for the likes of Sigur Rós and Mum.

BlackPlastic soon realised this was more than a record shop, with many of the most popular CDs being released on the 12tonar label, including several that are regarded as Iceland's finest music. One such CD was Johann Johannson's Dis, nominated for the Icelandic Music Awards in 2004, which is inspired by life in the strange capital that is Reykjavik. Dis transfers both the coldness of the landscape and the warmth of the people onto record at the same time, but it is one song inparticularr that really captured BlackPlastic's imagination.

10 Rokkstig (no idea about the name) stands out from an otherwise electronic album through its use of live guitars and drums in a way that stillmanagess to feel incredibly warm. An instrumental that lasts just over 2 minutes it somehow manages to sparkle in a way that feels so unique. The guitars throb with an excitement that seem to just come out of nowhere and is complimented perfectly by the use of electronics. This is a song that somehow snaps, crackle and pops so much throughout its short lifetime that it is impossible to walk away untouched.

Sadly BlackPlastic has been unable to find anywhere outside Iceland where you can purchase Dis, but if you do find somewhere please post a comment, since there are some other 12tonar releases I would love to get my hands on. Otherwise you will need to take a trip to Iceland. Just keep your wallet close since Iceland's small economy and the exchange rates can make a trip to 12tonar rather pricey if you are as into music as BlackPlastic.

P.S. In all seriousness, if you go to Iceland it is worth bearing in mind that some CDs are available in the duty free shop at the airport (you can visit on the way into the country as well as the way out) and they are likely to stock this release.

Retro-Spex - Jun Ray Song Chang

BlackPlastic takes a look at a classic album with Asa-Chang & Junray - Jun Ray Song Chang.

Asa-Chang & Junray's Jun Ray Song Chang is likely to be unlike anything you've ever heard. Mixing classic Japanese styles with avant garde stylings. Imagine Aphex Twin getting it on with a pair of bongos and some strings and you are not a million miles away.

First track 'Hana' is the closest they have ever had (or probably ever will have) to a hit, mixing drums, strings and cut-up Japanese vocals into a bizarre yet highly atmospheric experience that builds and builds into a terrific climax. 'Preach' adds some brass into the mix and the "vocals" get even stranger. 'Kobana' sounds like 'Hana' put trough a weirdimizer machine, taking what was odd in the first place and running with it. 'Nigatsu' features weird disjointed and slightly scary singing and atmospheric rain building into a fantastic guitar line that sounds like the soundtrack to the most kick-ass kung-fu movie you never saw. 'Goo-Gung-Gung' is the soundtrack to a crazy computer game, sounding like Street Fighter II with an acid injection. 'Tabla Bol (Catastrophe)' sounds like you've accidentally walked into some bizarre Japanese ritual.

Jun Ray Song Chang is hallucinogenic. It is almost impossible to listen to without imagining images. 'Jippun' conjures up images of flutes and recorders turning into trees and unstoppably growing up and up and up and up and up. BlackPlastic isn't going strange. Words do not do this music justice, it just drips in atmosphere and it is unbelievable that no-one has tried to set it to animation. You just have to hear it to understand.

And on that note, why not buy it from Amazon here.

Speakers Push The Air...

Just a quick one to say that if you ever fancy a bit more BlackPlastic when you've read everything here you can also check out Speakers Push the Air. BlackPlastic writes there under the guise of one Adam Russell.

Why not check out the review of Gemma Hayes' (pictured) new album, The Roads Don't Love You here?

Just make sure you come back.

Oh, and if buy chance you fancy purchasing the Gemma Hayes album when it is released on Monday 31 October, why not click here to purchase it from Amazon?

Ladytron - Witching Hour

The guys in monochrome are back to freeze our hearts.

BlackPlastic has been a fan of Ladytron for a while now, and even the name of the site is a (partial) tip of the hat in their direction ('Black Plastic' being a song of the Light & Magic LP). Much has been made of the 'Tron's new "analogue" sound and their new (occasional) use of guitars. In truth, Witching Hour is no more than the natural progression displayed between the asymmetric pop of 604 and Light & Magic's self-knowing-pitch-black-cooler-than-thou skin-deep sheen.

Witching Hour, just as Light & Magic does, hangs together nicely as an album. Things get off to a good start with 'High Rise', synths swirling around live drums. It is easy to imagine that the new Ladytron are a more entertaining live-act. 'High Rise' is followed by latest single 'Destroy Everything You Touch'. 'Destroy...' is perfect Ladytron, cold-as-ice vocals combine with melancholic melodies to create a something far greater than the sum of its (relatively simple) parts. First single, 'Sugar', is perhaps the most obvious beneficiary of added guitars, transforming itself into a rawer creature as a result.

'Fighting in Built-Up Areas' is a definite highlight, sounding like your grandchildren getting rowdy and smashing the streets up in the name of freedom of speech, and it also marks the beginning of this album's departure into experimental territory. 'Last Man Standing' is slightly more melodic than most of the 'tron's catalogue whilst 'Weekend' is a grinding, sexy affair backed with atmospheric guitars that refuse to behave, preferring to be ambient noise rather than anything solid. 'Beauty' is stark and raw to the point where it almost sounds personal (not something Ladytron are accustomed to being) but it is Witching Hour's final two tracks that really shine.

'White Light Generation' sounds like a loved-up The Jesus & Mary Chain have joined turned up, upbeat drums joining quasi-melodic distorted guitars all lifting the same morose vocals up to a higher place. Ethereal is the word. Final track, 'All The Way' is more of the same but it almost sounds like a Christmas song if it wasn't for a deliberately mis-placed key change. It builds and builds like a flower, and it almost wants to shout, "Thank God it's them, instead of you". But it doesn't.

At its core, Witching Hour is still the same brand of emotionless electo-pop music, but that's still a good thing. The addition of organics (not the shampoo) shows they also have a bit of soul, which is no bad thing. If nothing else, check out the final two tracks. Do it.

Get Ladytron's Witching Hour here.