Album Review: The Adventures of Cowboy and Miniman

There seems to be new public enthusiasm for the cut and paste (dare we dredge up the genre-definition of 'big beat'?) pop shinnanigans in the vein of The Go! Team and The Avalanches of late - just look at the success Sonny J is currently seeing in the UK. It is into this mini-genre that Des Peres unleash their latest album, The Adventures of Cowboy and Miniman.

Only this one is schizophrenic. Veering from moments where it relishes in its own sense of explosive pop abandon on 'Dynamite' to the moody LCD Soundsystem with a guitar solo of 'Landed On The Edge Of The World' this is an album not afraid to try things. The album opens with the hip-house party jam of 'Sudden Thought', complete with lush orchestration and cheeky raps yet the closing track is a nice little scratchy punk-funk number. If variety is the spice of life then Des Peres have no worries.

As an album, The Adventures of... can be summed up by the camp 60s freak-out of 'Little Man Falls Out Of The Sky". Sampling the song used as the show's theme-tune, it's like Beck on Eurotrash. Or is it actually just like a McCartney Beatles tune? Who cares, either way it's a lot of fun and reflective of the rest of the album.

Fractured it may be and Des Peres' The Adventures of Cowboy and Miniman may not be the endless summer holiday of The Avalanches Since I Left You, nor is it quite the cotton candy napalm of The Go! Team's début but it is all theirs and, best of all, it is a whole barrel-load of fun.

BP x

Five songs of the year

It's practically 2010 so it's well and truly time to wrap up our final 2008 lists with possibly the most fun one to put together... Our favourite songs:

5. Ice Cream - Muscles

Ice Cream, as a food, is not big and it's not really particularly clever. However, it is a lovely instant pick me up that melts in your mouth all too quickly. Seriously, everyone loves Ice Cream right? Same goes for this song: from the opening "wooh... ahhh" refrain through to the closing yelps ("I don't need your number, I just want to dance with my shirt off!") no other song acted quite so much like a security blanket for BlackPlastic this year. It's disposable and trivial but it's also gorgeous and super lovely: Ice Cream is gonna save the day. Again.

4. So Haunted (Knightlife's Sun-Soaked Reprise) - Cut Copy

Cut Copy's In Ghost Colours is just too right as a body of work for us to strip one track from it for "best song" honours so we will kind of cheat and go with a remix. Ever since the So Cosmic mix hit everyone has wanted this: the glorious italo-enthused re-imagining of So Haunted. The guitars have gone but otherwise this is a remarkably respectful re-edit. What makes it so great is that little freestyle bit at the end: it's like a five-minute holiday romance.

3. Space and the Woods - Late Of The Pier

Space and the woods still sounds just as good as it did when we first heard it, its raucous synths impervious to ageing: the sound of a fist fight with aliens whilst floating in space in a foil suit. Without doubt the highlight of one of our albums of the year, it demonstrates so much in such a short space of time that experiencing it should be considered homework.

2. Paris - Friendly Fires

We have gone on about it again and again and again (and, ahem... again... sorry). It still makes us go all gooey. The drums and cowbells are still lush, the synths still cosy, the fact it was self-produced astounding. France's capital may be over-priced and lack good restaurants or it may be the capital of romance and passion. Either way it has a song better than it deserves.

1. L.E.S Artistes (xxxchange Remix) - Santogold

BlackPlastic has listened to this song so much, put it on so many mix CDs, told so many people about it that it doesn't seem believable that it came out in 2008. Yet it did, and thank heavens for that. Spank Rock's xxxchange delivers a truly stellar remix again, discarding the fuzzy guitars of the original in favour of skyscraper levelling basslines. This version of 'L.E.S Artistes' retains 100% emotional punch but comes off more like the soundtrack to some Terminator war of the future. It ditches all the elements that potentially caused Santogold's début album to be overlooked - "I can say I hope it will be worth what I give up" indeed - an album of tunes like this one would have been a glorious thing.

BP x

Five compilations of the year

Third of four in BlackPlastic's lists of 2008 and the focus for this one is on the best compilations and mixes of the year.

5. Top Ranking: A Diplo Dub

Diplo and Santogold's Top Ranking managed to do them both a disservice as it took Santogold's LP proper (produced by Diplo) and nabbed the best bits then pissed all over what remained. It was a trawl through some of the most exciting tracks of the past couple of years combined with some classics. Panda Bear AND Devo's 'Get Stiff' in the same mix? Yes please.

4. So Cosmic

2008 was all about the free online mix and by far the best of these was Cut Copy's So Cosmic. Okay, so technically this first hit the streets in 07 and we are beginning to sound like a broken record but it didn't appear online until 2008 and it is just. too. good. to. overlook. Beautiful.  And available here.

3. Cosmic Disco?! Cosmic Rock!!!

A big two-fingered salute to the myriad of Italo / Cosmic disco compilations out this year from Eskimo Recordings with Daniele Baldelli and Marco Dionig, Cosmic Rock was the real deal - a mix by someone that was there, unfettered by the desire to recontextual everything through modern eyes. Sure, at times it may have been cheesy but it was never anything other than awesome.

2. Fabric 41 mixed by Luciano

Sure, it may be little more than a Luciano DJ set commuted to CD but when the material an mixing is this good, who cares? The sublime breakdown into M83's 'Church' remains a highpoint of the year.

1. Notwave

Following the two remixes discs and a quiet period Notwace was a breath of fresh air from DFA. the concept itself was good - imagine what New York's experimental No Wave scene would have sounded like if it had never gone away - but the tunes were what made it. Every one not just different to anything else you'll hear on a compilation released in 2008 but sufficiently different from the rest of the album to make listening a joy.

BP x

Five Electronic Albums of the Year

Putting together these lists is always exceedingly difficult. Usually just remembering every record of note from a year is a challenge in itself but to pick just a handful and bestow some sort of special honour on those is practically impossible, this year more than most. For this year has seen some utterly fantastic records. 2007 was a great year due to a few select releases whereas 2008 had a massive breadth of fantastic releases.

A few that deserve mention that fail to make our list: The sophistication of Morgan Geist (and Junior Boy's Greenspan's) sophisticated Double Night Time. Midnight Juggernauts' Dystopia, which successfully paints another chapter in mixing rock music with dance. Metronomy's beautifully wonky Nights Out, a criminally overlooked pop re-birth. Gang Gang Dance's Saint Dymphna didn't even get a BlackPlastic review (we struggle to catch them all) but trust us - it barely misses out getting in our top five, as do the similarly unreviewed Third by Portishead and Los Angeles by Flying Lotus. The Presets grew to be more than just an also ran with Apocalypso - showing a new level of emotion that was missing off of their debut. M83's ode to Donnie Darko teenage kicks, Saturdays = Youth was another terrific addition to Anthony Gonzalez' cannon - it may lack Before The Dawn Heals Us' more ecstatic moments but it did demonstrate an growing level of focus and a refinement of the overall sound.  Hercules & Love Affair's eponymous album has been credited with the rebirth of disco - BlackPlastic isn't sure that has actually happened but that's nothing to do with the quality of this album, which has a level of maturity and sophistication that should ensure it a place in your collection next to Morgan Geist's 2008 album. Hot Chip failed to make the list, possibly purely due to their own desire for experimentation - in places Made In The Dark matches anything the group have previously released, it just suffered for being unfocused (but hey, focusing IS difficult in the dark).

So here is what DID make the list:

5. Hlllyh - The Mae Shi

Not a perfect record by any stretch, but that is the point in the Mae Shi.  Much to the bemusement of his companions BlackPlastic had the luck to catch them live earlier in the year and it was an unfocused, chaotic mess.  And it was fantastic.  Hlllyh is a record that does everything at once and just about makes it work and for that it deserves applause and love.  It's a rambunctious, noisy, angry-punk-pop-hippie-love-in and it gets a big hug from us.

4. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles

As BlackPlastic suspected back when it was reviewed, Crystal Castles' debut was an album that gets better with repeat listens.  Lonely, cold and yet never anything other than totally, uncompromisingly experimental, Crystal Castles have pushed the envelope for all those within the chiptune genre.

3. Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires

A record that is already seemingly suffering from the "Oh I'm slightly embarrassed I got so excited about that one" treatment for some journalists: Fact magazine's songs of the year list contained a snide comment about this album's failure to 'save indie dance'.

BlackPlastic loves Fact but to that we say a big "fuck you" because this album is so platinum-five-stars it's not even funny. If it has failed to set the world alight it is the failure of Fact, BlackPlastic, music publications everywhere and the general public at large for choosing some talent-less twat off X-Factor EVERY SINGLE TIME. It certainly is not a reflection of the ten gloriously produced punk-funk house-jams hear: this is a record to skip a heart beat too.

2. Fantasy Black Channel - Late of the Pier

Like waking up from a 70s slasher porn flick nightmare Fantasy Black Channel sounds like Bowies' imagined future.  The sound is far more cutting edge than the Klaxons managed on their debut and yet it is filtered through a glorious haze of thick chunky basslines from the aforementioned decade that just make it sound sexier than their contemporaries.  By the album's close, Fantasy Black Channel should have you on your knees with a lighter in the air.

1. In Ghost Colours - Cut Copy

If, for some reason, you are in any doubt as to what makes Cut Copy one of the best acts of our time go and grab their superb So Cosmic mix (alternative link) and, if you can't wait, scan forward to 29:30, where they mix Fleetwood Mac's 'Never Forget' with Lifelike's 'So Electric' and create a hands-in-the-air-tears-in-my-eyes anthem that deserves it's own release, the warm electronic waves of Lifelike's tracks gradually surrounding Stevie Nicks' vocals in a beautiful swell.  It is this mixture of old and new that makes Cut Copy so utterly charming, their ability to combine seemingly disparate sounds into one fantastic piece of music, and in the hands of the DFA's Tim Goldsworthy this ability truly shined.  Just check the glorious combination of the shoe-gazing guitar line of 'So Haunted' with the floating-in-space chorus and the final New Order-esque outro.

What's more, In Ghost Colours is a beautifully sequenced album. Ditch the bonus track bundled with the UK CD version and you have a record that fits together just perfectly, tracks bridged with a series of not-inconsequential interludes.

Cut Copy's debut, Bright Like Neon Love, was a fantastic record.  That In Ghost Colours represents a complete step change in everyone's perceptions of their abilities is a testament to the record: You won't hear a better collection of electronic pop songs from 2008.

BP x

Album Review: A Cross The Universe - Justice

Earlier this year Soulwax unleashed the glorious live CD / DVD / Documentary Part of the Weekend Never Dies and it is very difficult not to view and critique A Cross the Universe, itself a live DVD and Documentary / Film, in the same context. And if you do you are left with a far more two dimensional experience: unlike the Soulwax documentary the Justice 'film' is deliberately obtuse. So much so in fact that you will probably feel you know less about the Gallic duo when it is finished than when it began.

Part of the Weekend was an insightful peek into a band that became part of a scene with no name, their influences, their peers and those they have themselves inspired, not to mention life on the road when on a (very) long tour. A Cross the Universe is exclusively a look at the last of these elements and whereas the Soulwax package featured live recordings here there are no full length tracks, just snippets. There is no real insight beyond an anecdotal look at just how weird it is to be a pair of young musicians thrust into fame in a foreign land and at times BlackPlastic was genuinely unsure whether the content on screen was genuine or scripted.

This last fact is probably particularly telling. Real or not, A Cross the Universe is a commentary not on THIS band, but a commentary on being in bands in general and the bizarre and twisted life it leads to. If nothing else, this DVD goes someway to explaining how you end up like Ozzy Osbourne.

So is it any good? BlackPlastic genuinely has no idea.

The CD is a little easier to comment on. You may or may not be aware of the recent controversy surrounding a photo that appeared to show Justice 'playing live' despite that fact their equipment was not plugged in. In good nature the band joked about performing 'unplugged' and argued that the error was noticed when the particular piece of equipment failed to work and there are indeed later shots from the evening that show the equipment with power. This in itself is evidence of the barmyness of being on tour - the fact that such a thing could go unnoticed for long enough that photographic evidence survives.

It also raises a question over whether the recording here is anything more than a studio tweaked version of Cross played to an audience. But it is important to remember that this doesn't actually matter. Firstly because the act of listening to a recorded 'live' event in your home is stupid anyway and secondly because live electronic music is often about little more than spectacle. With none of the vocalists present, what Justice are delivering is the shared experience of enjoying their music with like-minded individuals and, to be honest, putting Cross on shuffle in a big room would work almost as well.

So the tracks are suitably adjusted and there are a couple of re-edits for the die hard fans but the main point off this recording is the audible excitement of the crowd as they cheer and join in. The audio quality is questionable and in BlackPlastic's opinion it isn't as consistent a set as the Soulwax one on Part of the Weekend but there is still enough here to keep you going until the follow up to Cross.

BP x