Album Review: DJ Kicks - Booka Shade

Just like buses good DJ-Kicks albums are known to come in threes. Possibly. And as such it is with little surprise then to which BlackPlastic responded to the news that the latest installment, hot on the heels of Got Chip's still-on-heavy-rotation effort, is from Germany's kings of minimal, Booka Shade.

Unsurprisingly the mix on offer here is an entirely different kettle of fish. For every left turn on Hot Chip's album Booka Shade instead illustrate a smooth, considered blend.

Which is not to say there are no suprises... There are. Take Heaven 17's 'Geisha Boys and Temple Girls'. Or Yazoo's 'Situation' for that matter, coming as it does out of the paranoid fog of Booka Shade's own 'Estoril' sounding like a combination of Yello's 'Oh Yeah' and 'No Way Back' by The Adonis. It's just that these tracks are still blended in to the whole and maintain the constant, contemplative mood.

It is this contemplative mood that at one point threatens to ruin, and then saves the same mix. In the middle third a slight over-abundance of icey electro and moody minimal-techno tracks almost make things too melanchollic... The John Carpenter track, 'Arrival at the Library', overlaid with the vocals to Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia's 'Far Away' is a case in point.

Yet whenever things are in danger of getting too formulaic, or blue, or spikey the mix subtle moves off in another direction. Take Brigitte Bardot's 'Contact'. Just as it becomes too much it (somewhat begrudgingly) gives in to Booka Shade's 'Numbers'. And what a track to give in to...

Every DJ Kicks album features an original composition from the DJ and, as their first vocal track, 'Numbers' (much like Hot Chip's shimmering 'My Piano' before it) is a bit special. A moody yet slinky request for your phone digits, 'Numbers' is a love song that is not about the person being propositioned, but surely some other individual... The one that makes the vocalist want to forget. And it's contemplative again, but this time in a refreshing way. Add some strings and you've got something you'd be only too happy to pick-up on the rebound.

Of equal brilliance is Hot Chip's newly released remix of Matthew Dear's already brilliant 'Don & Sherri' (sorry, there is a theme here... It's that Hot Chip are awesome). The original maybe a wonky IDM freak-out, equal parts love-song, stalker anthem and onslaught of creepy paranoia wrapped up into a pop song package. Hot Chip pick it up and run with it and you soon have a bitter-sweet anthem and the lyrics take on numerous hidden depths as Alexis opines the lines 'How could I let you forget me when you don't even know me already?' Hot Chip's take on this song is so good, all naked vocals and twinkling melodic synth stabs, that it is an absolute no-brainer why Booka Shade passed up on label-mates M.A.N.D.Y.'s mix in favour of it here.

'Don & Sherri' and the Matthew Dear LP Asa Breed deserve their own posts they are that good. But rest-assured that as Richard Hawley's 'Last Orders' gets called you will have found much to like here. Booka Shade put in a fine effort here, convincing of their historical knowledge and programming (DJ speak for sequencing) skills. Here's hoping for bus number three.

We Love This Album: Fabric 13 - Michael Mayer

Fate conspires to make BlackPlastic write about Fabric 13 today.



Having started the usual commute to this most understatedly great Fabric mix it was perhaps sheer coincidence that lead to what occurred when the pages of The Guardian was spread open at lunchtime. Or perhaps it was sheer quality...



The Guardian are currently running a serialised look at 1,000 albums you must hear before you die and guess what lie there today, amongst the Meat Loaf and Cilla Black (BlackPlastic kids you not) albums? Only the very Fabric CD BlackPlastic had been reminiscing over that morning.



Fabric 13 isn't the most obvious choice for an album you must hear before you die. With its subtle yet intricatly composed micro-house it's not even the most obvious choice of Fabric albums you must hear before you die.



What Fabric 13 is however, is truly, truly excellent. The first act boasts the sweeping strings of Richard Davis' needy 'Bring Me Closer' and the plodding yet gorgeously atmospheric Piano Mix of Westbam's 'Oldschool, Baby'.



Later on, whilst there is an underlying pop sensibility behind most of what features here there are also darker moments with Thomas Schaeben & Geiger's seemingly Crash inspired 'Really Real' and Magnet's techno heavy 'Abendstern' for example. At all times the structure and pacing of Fabric 13 is also excellent, and a Jackson mix of M83's 'Run Into Flowers' shakes things up in just the right manner.



Starting and ending with two different mixes of Heiko Voss' 'I Think About You' is a final masterstroke. Most tracks wouldn't be good enough to pull it off... This one is, the Geiger Mix starting the album with a slow building storm of acid rain, spacious drums and wavering vocals whilst the original mix finishes the album off with a sweet, swooning pop song. It's a fitting closure for such a love-able mix CD and a revelation that it actually got the nod from the mainstream press.



BP x



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Album Review: Fabriclive 36 - James Murphy and Pat Mahoney

When the kids all ran up to BlackPlastic last month, excitedly asking "What's the new Fabric album like, the one mixed by James Murphy and Pat Mahoney from LCD Soundsystem?" BP didn't know what to say. Other than "Bloody Royal Mail" that is.

Having digested it several times over it can now be summarised thusly: It is somewhat camp, warm, bubbly in places and fairly unpredictable. Opening and closing with Peter Gordon & the Love of Life Orchestra was a good move, with 'Beginning of the Heartbreak' rapidly evolving from a throbbing, strutting piece of kraut rock to a rocking disco loved-up on pills type 'BlackPlastic, THIS is your life' moment.

No review can do this type of mix justice as, just like The Glimmers' recent Eskimo V, there are too many left hand turns to account for. Still, Baby Oliver's 'Prime Time' is probably about riding on the Back To The Future time-travelling train back to the year 1976 and Donald Byrd offers up warm Dad-friendly hedonistic disco-house to get the feet tapping on 'Love Has Come Around'.

G.Q.'s 'Lies' is like Daft Punk 15 years too early, all twisted basslines and vocal snippets twisting around itself to create a wonderful musical collage. Still Going's 'Still Going Theme' marries lush minimal keyboards to large, echoing bass in one of the (slightly) more modern cuts included.

Fabriclive 36 is very much a product of love... At the times where it doesn't feature an excitedly loved-up vocal or a heart-stopping string riff you can rely on the fact that there'll be some obscure gem no-one you know has ever heard. This is real crate digging stuff and it has all been mixed though the first ever model of DJ mixes, giving the whole outing a very warm and analogue feel as the vinyl crackler and pops its way through the mix.

'I Feel Good Put Your Pants On' instructs the bouncy and damn funky Jackson Jones cut. Fabriclive 36 feels just like that... "Don't, don't... Please don't leave me!" cries closing the track. And you won't want to.

BP x

Album Review: Virgo, Blaktro & The Movie Disco - Felix Da Housecat

In which our man Felix gets concept once again.



Three years have passed since the last Felix Da Housecat long-player and it's impossible not to think that he's missed a trick a bit. Following the crossover hit of Kittenz & The Glitz and the overtly commercial Devin Dazzle & The Neon Fever such a large hiatus has killed the momentum somewhat.



Which begs the question, "What now?" The answer comes in the form of yet another concept album, this time supposedly influenced by black pop, disco and electro of the late seventies & early eighties. In reality such insipation is just that - nothing more than inspiration. With the exception of funk shakedown 'It's Your Move' nothing on Virgo, Blaktro ever sounds like anything other than Felix churning out another pop album. An enjoyable re-tread of Devo's 'Snowball' anyone? Hardly black is it.



Still, well constructed pop is a glorious thing and for its part, there are moments of sheer joy here. Indeed the aforementioned Devo re-work 'Sweetfrosti' may add nothing to the original and be completely ridiculous yet it still ends up pretty glorious if only for the fact that *that* synth don't get old.



'Radio' envelopes the listener in a giant melody sandwich, a giant pean to the joy of the wireless, whilst 'Like Something 4 Porno' and its utterly ridiculous lyrics will crowbar their way into your subconscious. The purring 'Lookin' My Best' is total glamour-puss Felix but the album highlights come in the form of 'Tweak' and 'Something For The Dawn'.



Both are Felix's most dancefloor focused tracks Devin Dazzle's lead single 'Watching Cars Go By'. 'Tweak' is total acid techno, reminiscent of '...Strobe' off Felix's unreleased album, I Know Elektrikboy (yes, another concept album) and it sounds like it was made to soundtrack nightclub scenes in films and on TV. Closer 'Future Calls The Dawn' is pure Felix and BlackPlastic loves him for it. Similar in style to both Kittenz and Devin Dazzle it is a driving house number with Felix's trademark vocals with an understated breakdown that's just too cool.



But what's wrong with it? It's just too damn short basically. Of the 16 tracks four (two back to back) are little more than skits and another five are under two-and-a-half minutes long. The result is that much of the album instinctively feels unfinished and, suprisingly for a concept album, unfocussed. It's good to be left wanting more but not if it is at the expense of overall quality. The length would have been fine with a few less but more fleshed out tracks.



Still, what BlackPlastic really wants to know is when Girl's Aloud are going to wake-up and hire Felix as their producer. Now THERE is a concept. As the girl says on one of the skits: Pretty girls don't dance, they just pose to techno.



Paris Is Burning.



BP x



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MP3 Link: Eraser (XXXChange Remix) - Thom Yorke

Yeah, yeah, so every other blog has an opinion on In Rainbows, Radiohead's possibly free, were it not for the guilt, new album. BlackPlastic says "Hell, do what you want, you always do anyway!" but politely reminds you of all the drunken arguments you've had that revolved around the fact that if you could by DRM free downloads straight from the artist you'd at least give them a a bit of money.

Anyway. The cool kids are still wigging out to Thom Yorke's solo effort 'The Eraser' (we mean the extremely awesome song more than the good album) and what would you know, XXXChange, of Spank Rock fame (what do you mean, who?) turns out a mix of Yorke's most beautifully paranoid effort in years. This is on Panda Toes, although Discobelle may have had it first. A commenter on Discobelle likens this to the DFA and they are bang right. Somehow XXXChange has stopped thinking about fine ass for a minute and turned in an understated cut (not that BlackPlastic doesn't love the sick bass on 'Backyard Betty') with some very nice drums. Imagine 'Eraser' meets the DFA mix of Goldfrapp's 'Slide In' and you are half-way there.

Word is there is no release. Grab it whilst it's there. Yes, BlackPlastic knows storage is expensive. This comes with a 'worth 6mb or more' guarantee.