Album Review: Mexico City - GU32 Mixed by Adam Freeland

Adam Freeland is not cool. No way. Maybe once... But certainly not these days.

Global Underground... Pfft. They are so lame. Stupid prog compilations churned out like the FIFA series of computer games, without any thought as to why they should even bother still existing.

Why then, is BlackPlastic even worrying its pretty little head about this release? It has something to do with the fact that the tracklist doesn't contain a single John Digweed track but instead reads like a who's who in the cool list of right now. Spank Rock are here with the Switch remix of 'Bump', Mr. Oizo turns up for 'Half An Edit' and yes, Justice are here too. What's more there is some sort of concept, be it a slightly wishy washy one.

Disco Uno is party central... But Adam, dear Adam, has fucked with things a little bit. This means the lovely Thomas Bangalter mix of DJ Mehdi's 'Signatune' gets further tweaked and twisted to fulfill Adam's evil plans before getting entirely decimated by Phones' 'Sharpen The Knives', a track so evil BlackPlastic expects Bush to launch a war on Paul Epworth once the old war on terror has died down. The Para One remix of the crazy Icelandic Queen-wannabes, Trabant, on 'The One' sounds so divorced from the original that you wonder why Trabant bothered to pay the bill. Still, these French guys know what they're doing, right? Even Adam's own exclusive track, 'Silverlake Pills' is pretty enjoyable with similar synth washes to 'Signatune', a freaking rediculous bassline and some nice snappy drums.

CD one is finished off in a suitably fashion with Evil 9's 'Happy Ending', a post-punk breakbeat shakedown and as a mix it is very enjoyable and accessible if in danger of being a little formulaic.

Concept two and disc two then is Drone. Or e-Drone. Taking cues from shoegazing bands such as My Bloody Valentine this 'new genre' is Adam's attempt to fuse the wall of sound approach of these bands to electronic music. It's an interesting idea and in places works well, generally when it veers as close rock music as possible.

CD two starts with Spacemen 3 (who went on the become Spiritulized) and 'Ecstasy Symphony', but at two minutes long this is little more than a blissed out intro. Several deep electronic cuts follow, My My's 'Butterflies & Zebras' introduces a warm melodic bassline and Justus Kohncke strips things back to a piano and the odd brief stab of distortion for 'Advance'. It is track five and 120 Days' 'Come Out, Come Down, Fade Out, Be Gone' before the concept is really fleshed out beyond its bones. A chugging techno track with flat but live sounding drums, 'Come Out...' manages to capture the feeling aimed for, even if the singer does sound a little too like Grant Nicholas from Feeder.

Things really hit their stride just over three minutes into 120 Days, when synths encircle the throbbing basslines and everything descends into a hiss. It is apparent that what makes this new 'sound', if you can bare to believe in such a thing, is the contrast. Nice and nasty distortion arrives in the forms of Gui Boratto's 'Terminal' and Holden's 'Lump' respectively before things head back towards the more rock tinged sound in the form of Cobblestone Jazz with 'Dump Truck' and Silversun Pickups 'Lazy Eye'.

In its conventional form 'Lazy Eye' sounds a little like the Pixies covering a Foo Fighters song but here Freeland effectively throws in a guitar-based muted pop-song into his mix before letting it hit a self destruct button two minutes in that drowns the singer in a wall of post-rock noise. As a DJ tool it works quite well as a completely unexpected left turn. What a dancefloor's reaction to this would be is anyone's guess but BlackPlastic would love to see.

'Lazy Eye' eventually dissolves into Substance & Vainqueur's 'Immersion', which in turn gets sliced into by Fujiya & Miyagi's enjoyable 'Ankle Injuries', used here in a way that neatly counteracts the somewhat clinical introduction to the sunnier feel of the main song proper.

By the time Andrew Weatherall's 'Feathers' rolls around Freeland's intentions are a little clearer, and BlackPlastic can't help but think that Weatherall's track was perhaps a major inspiration for this project. A post-punk electronic machine of a track that sounds closer to its source material than many other so called 'new-post-punk' bands whilst also sounding thoroughly modern itself. It is Freeland's own mix of 80s band B-Movie's 'Nowhere Girl' that provides the album highlight however... A throbbing, chugging slab of melting rock that demands the listener to turn it up just one more notch. Drums crash and vocals roll in and out but it is the bassline slicing in and out of the mix and the distorted melody that provide the real excitement. It was already used to great effect on Evil Nine's Fabric Live mix but here is makes even more sense - another clear inspiration for this mix as a whole.

It seems unlikely that Freeland has truly invented a new genre, what is certain whoever is that he has created the most exciting Global Underground CD in ages and as a New Order style bassline carries the second CD out on a mix of Mylo's 'Paris 400' it feels like a real journey that the listening will want to repeat.

Feeling Feisty - Van She remix 'out there'

Every now and again you hear a track and you like it. You like it so much you have to cheekily skip back to the beginning once it ends. This happens to BlackPlastic 2.23 times a week.

Every now and again a track fulfills the above requirement but you also find whenever you get in your car you just have to stick this tune on before playing anything else. This happens to BlackPlastic 1.45 times a month.

Every now and again you find a track so utterly delicious you can't help but play it again and again. You want to subject everyone you know to it. You want to hear it as soon as you get up, you want it to be the last thing you hear at night. You want to make it your mobile ringtone but you'd never be able to answer your phone again because you wouldn't want to stop the sound. This hardly ever happens.

Ladies and Gentlemen, go forth and listen to the Van She remix of Feist's 1234.

Brilliant, no? This sounds like about four of your favourite songs playing at once and yet it still sounding right. It is dripping in summer. It makes BlackPlastic's heart flutter.

Enjoy.

P.S. If you like this check out the Postal Service remix of 'Mushaboom' (covered by BlackPlastic here). Also shell out some cash on Van She's gorgeous 'Kelly', it's on eMusic and probably iTunes.

Queen + Acid = QUUEEEEEEN!

Whilst trawling the archives of the rather sexy Missing Toof BlackPlastic happened across this freaking awesome acid workout of a mix of Queen's 'Radio Gaga'. There is no doubt more people should be playing Queen - just check out The Glimmer's use of Body Language on their eponymous Eskimo Recordings release if you need further evidence.

Anyway, what you have here is six point five minutes of acid and Mercury in a fashion that might make you want to get lost... Imagine this on the Terrace at Space. The remixers are Zhiguli. BlackPlastic knows nothing about them but they must be geniuses. They have a website with downloads and stuff here.

Album Review: DJ Kicks - Hot Chip

All the cool kids know Hot Chip drop it like it's hot, to the extent that it's almost a bit of a cliche for non-cool accountant types to cite them as there favourite bands. BlackPlastic dislikes cliches and likes accountant types even less, yet it is with some anticipation that it approached the latest, rather orange, installment in the revered DJ Kicks series.

From the outset, as with many of the DJ Kicks albums, this is an eclectic set. Grovesnor's 'Nite Moves' kicks things off and sound exactly like the sort of thing Hot Chip would listen to, with melancholy lyrics mix wih polished electronics and stuttering rhythms.

This mix seems somewhat schizophrenic, cutting from introverted and considered electronics to summery party vibes with little notice - just take the transition from Gramme's noisy 'Like You' into the much subtler 'Persuasion' by Subway as an example. Interestingly despite the apparent juxtaposition of moods the mix works tremendously as a whole, virtually all the cuts are relatively smooth and there is a continuous laid back sunshine feel that would be absolutely perfect for a few beers in the sun if we weren't in the initial stages of a second ice age.

DJ Kicks albums always come with an exclusive from the artists themselves and Hot Chip's is no different, offering up 'My Piano', a happy little ditty about their piano. It is encouraging to know that Hot Chip are already putting the finishing touches on album number three, due later this year.

Other highlights include the always awesome 'Bizarre Love Triangle' by New Order and the frankly scary 'Doppelwhipper' by Gabriel Ananda, whose incessant bleeps and rhythms create a very modern sound scape that makes BlackPlastic wonder if epilepsy can be triggered by noise alone. Far less modern by just as much fun is Etta James and Sugar Pie DeSanto's 'In The Basement, Part One' - a freaky soulful wig out that sounds like the best party your folks never attended.

Lanark's 'The Stone That The Builder Rejected' is mournful and emotional, sounding like The Beach Boys reinterpreted by a machine whilst the unsettling 'Love Affair' by Nôze sounds like the inside of Patrick Bateman's head as he prepares for a date. Weird and slightly compulsive.

Hot Chip's DJ Kicks album is undeniably good fun and it feels that it only gets better as things progress. The final three tracks take the listener through a Roman Flügel mix of Audion's 'Just F******' straight (and somehow virtually seamlessly) into pop perfection in the form Joe Jackson's 'Steppin' Out' before a final, less seamless, left turn into 'Mess Around' by Ray Charles. Get freaky.

Now all we need is some sun, some beers and some partially cooked meat and we'll have a party on our hands.

Album Review: Noise Won't Stop - Shy Child

When Shy Child released their debut album, One With The Sun, back in 2004 there was a fair amount of critical praise from the specialist press - particularly for single 'The Noise Won't Stop'. Sadly it seemed like the band lacked both the production values and the sheer volume to have any real mainstream cross-over potential.

Thankfully Shy Child are back and on their new album Noise Won't Stop they have rectified both of these concerns. The drums are considerably beefier and the is definitely more a new layer of volume and distortion. The observant will already have figured that the new LP's title is a reference to the sleeper hit 'The Noise Won't Stop' and both this and one other track ('Summer' since you ask) make a reappearance in a more polished form.

It really now sounds like Shy Child actually have the sound they probably always thought they had. Opening track and lead single 'Drop The Phone' sounds like a frantic rant carried out by Stressed Eric or possibly Fry in the episode of Futurama when he drinks one hundred coffees. It's a modern anthem about the absolute terror that ensues when one drops their phone and there is so much going on that half the time BlackPlastic is too strung out to even notice the complete wig-out of a sax solo in the background. Who the hell doesn't need that in their lives?

The highly enjoyable Spank Rock (Spank Rock MySpace) feature on Kick Drum, lending some vocals and some stupid bass. The re-tooled 'Noise Won't Stop' suggests that Spank Rock didn't ensure they had all their valuables when they left Shy Child's place as it seems to feature the same completely over the top bass that graces Spank Rock's own 'Backyard Betty'.

'The Volume' and 'Summer' manage to sound like pop music made by kids too cool for pop music, resembling 80s pop and Brit Pop respectively but with edge and added electronics. 'Generation Y (We Got It)' even has a wicked female vocal join-in bit and the album's probably highlight comes in the form of 'Astronaut', which descends into a lush electronic freakout.

BlackPlastic has already noted that the album's unrelenting nature is reminiscent of Test Icicles' frankly fantastic For Screening Purposes Only but it all also feels somewhat like The Rapture's recent Pieces of the People We Love in that it's essentially a bit of a party album with issues. It will be interesting to see where the hell Shy Child can go from here but following a stint supporting The Klaxon's you can be fairly confident that with hooks as enjoyable as the ones found here and a sound so indisputably 'now' this will not be the last we hear from our stressed friends from NYC.

Shy Child - MySpace / Official Site.