April Song of the Month...

BlackPlastic has been catching some rays (despite the complete lack of tan) in Barcelona, so we're running a bit late with song of the month. So sue me.

This month's song is Munk's 'Kick Out The Chairs'. Featuring, as all the best songs do, James Murphy and Nancy Wang on vocal duties, 'Kick Out The Chairs' is a post-punk riot featuring completely inane vocals ("Kick out the chairs, motherfuckers! Kick out the chairs! We are all custom made!"). I have no real idea what it is about but it is impossible to stop singing or thinking about it once it has seeped into your sub-consciousness. What's more, there's a lush little breakdown around the three minute mark with punchy-as-fuck drums that nicely sets off the rest of the tune.

BlackPlastic originally heard 'Kick Out The Chairs' when it was posted on Fluxblog.org some time ago, so we cannot take all the credit. The reason it's getting a head-nod now is that it seems to have found it's way into my head a lot more recently than it ever did in the past. What's more, whilst in Barcelona I stumbled upon a lush record shop called cd drome, if you go there (or Madrid, where I believe they have a sister store) check it out. Inside I found a cool little compilation of Gomma artists mixed by Munk, featuring a cool WhoMadeWho version of this tune. Come back in a bit and I'll have a full album review and cover this mix in a bit more detail...

To purchase the Munk album Aperitivo, featuring the original version of 'Kick Out The Chairs', on Amazon click here.

To Purchase the Gomma compilation album, Gommagang Volume 3, featuring the WhoMadeWho version on Amazon click here.

Purchase 'Kick Out The Chairs' on iTunes (it's only 79p remember... Take the risk!) click here:

Hot Chip - Over & Over

Over & Over has already been out a couple of weeks and if you haven't already got it BlackPlastic struggles to perceive you as a real man and suggests you get down to HMV quick smart. If for some reason you remain unconvinced then read-on to find out why Hot Chip are so great...

Hot Chip have been knocking around a while now but since supporting LCD Soundsystem last year they have become "everybody's brand new favourite band", and whilst debut LP Over & Over was released back in the hazy days of 2004 it still sounds as fresh as a Mini Milk on a hot summer's day. Fast forward to the oh-six and our friends are back with a new single and, sure enough, a new album coming in the shape of Over & Over and The Warning respectively.

Not much needs to be said but 'Over & Over' is as triumphantly bizarre as everything else Hot Chip have released, a mish-mash of punk-funk rhythms, school-yard spell-outs and insanely catchy choruses about the wonders of repetition. What's more the lyrics are frankly ace - if you haven't already read about the line "Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal / The smell of repetition really is in you" you really don't waste enough time reading the mediocre
UK music press...

Here's hoping that once The Warning drops Hot Chip get the mega-stardom they deserve...

Choose a link below to purchase Over & Over:

Amazon

March Song of the Month...

This month BlackPlastic would like to highlight the brilliance of M83 and in particular their ode to those years of our lives where everything seems far more important than it is, 'Teen Angst'.

Upon first hearing M83 BlackPlastic suspected that they might be a poor man's Ulrich Schnauss, congering laid back melodies that flow along a similar vein but lack the emotional impact of Schnauss' best work (listen to 'On My Own' for example). Upon hearing M83's second album, Before The Dawn Heals Us, BlackPlastic was forced to reconsider.

Everything about Before The Dawn Heals Us is a wonder. The art work is beautifully designed and whilst the album treads a journey that takes in many different sounds, from the lush apathy of 'Don't Save Us From The Flames' to the adrenaline-fueled horror-movie-inspired 'Car Crash Terror!', it works as a cohesive whole. M83 sound like a My Bloody Valentine or Jesus and The Mary Chain that have evolved to a state beyond the use of mere physical instruments. 'Teen Angst' is the undeniable highlight of M83's backcat to date - a piece of music that sets out to destroy what we know as pop music. This is a song that is more exciting, accesible, joyous, thrilling and pure than anything that will grace the UK top ten this year or, probably, any other.

To buy M83's 'Before The Dawn Heals Us' from Amazon for £5.97 click here.

To buy 'Teen Angst' from iTunes click here.

Warsawa Freedom

As long suspected, creativity DOES exist in the BlackPlastic genes, for his younger brother has been busy creating music for the masses over at MySpace, with a friend under the guise of Wasawa Freedom. I suggest you check it out if you like melancholic electronic music. The reinterpretation of Joy Division's 'Atmosphere', here named 'Breaking Free of the Atmosphere', is particularly enticing... Check them out before they make an album that NME claim is "the best thing to happen to music since electricity", send several record labels bust in a ridiculous bidding war and thus change the landscape of music forever more before selling out and becoming judges on X Factor.

ALBUM REVIEW: Tiga - Sexor

Canada's techno demi-god finally gets around to releasing his long-awaited debut LP, Sexor.

Kicking off with a 50 second introduction to the World of Sexor, this is an album that doesn't quite know what it wants to be. Opening track proper, '(Far From) Home' is knowing Prince-like synth-techpop. Production values are high and interestingly the Soulwax brothers were involved with a good number of the tracks on Sexor and '(Far From) Home' is one of those. Next up is the hit single 'You Gonna Want Me' featuring Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters-fame on falsetto duties. Whilst not as instantly memorable as some of Tiga's earlier work, 'You Gonna Want Me' fits Shears well without alienating Tiga's fans in the slightest.

'High School' sends Sexor into a more techno inspired direction (whilst maintaining some room for Tiga's deadly camp vocals) before the somewhat aggressive Public Enemy cover 'Louder Than a Bomb' gets it's full groove-on with lovely warm bass-lines that conjure images of back-in-the-day. At three minutes fifteen it isn't really long enough, yet it leads straight into the even better 'Pleasure from the Bass', mixing up more oldschool basslines with a fantastic futurist production style and the odd stab of acid. The pop melodies are a distant memory by the time the throbbing techno of 'Who's That?' steamrolls the listener into submission.

The album's second cover turns up in a take on Nine Inch Nails' 'Down In It'. There is something in Tiga's production techniques that almost always adds something new to a song (with the sole exception of his take on Felix Da Housecat's 'Madame Hollywood'), and this is no different making a minimalistic introspective piece on an album that otherwise lets the listener get no closer to Tiga, hiding beneath a veneer of cool.

'The Ballad of Sexor' takes things back into a more melodic direction before one of the album's highlights, the full-on diesel-powered locomotive that is the last single, 'Good as Gold' - "And now I know, who's in control" sings Tiga. '(Far From) Home the Speed of Sexor Reprise' sees the album's opening melody stripped back and re-interpreted with a little less pop-nouse and a little more acid. 'Burning Down the House' is a take on the Talking Heads' classic. If you know Tiga and you know the song, you should be able to imagine the 303 riding sensation that is this version. '3 Weeks' is drowned in distortion and a slice of 21st pop perfection.

The album closes with the Soulwax co-written 'Brothers'. It is a mix of all the above with a Hooky style lead-bassline and is definitely another highlight. The final (ghost) track is introduced by a fan proclaiming Tiga as a god, and to be fair, Sexor is great. It may zig-zag from pop to techno and back, but what else did you expect? Whilst the mainstream media may continue to be oblivious the likes of Tiga, Richard X and Stuart Price are carving a new pop landscape, and Sexor is the first essential album of 2006.