Single Review: Under Control (Alex Metric Remix) - Freeland

When BlackPlastic first heard this mix of Freeland's Lead single from the next album on the radio whilst making dinner it wasn't long before focus was abandonned, the volume cranked up and arms were flailing all over the room in something that may or may not have resembled dancing.

'Under Control' continues Adam Freeland's move towards a more rock orientated sound and features a vocal from someone who sounds very much like (but presumeably isn't) one James Murphy. It's quite good...

...But dammit, this is better. Alex Metric's remix jams a square peg in a round hole and whacks it with a mallet several times and the resulting mess is lovely. Featuring the kind of frictional, discordant synthesizers that make BlackPlastic get hot and sweaty over anything that comes out of the Soulwax stable in combination with a jagged, fuzzy rock edge, this mix takes the original to new heights. All it needs is a little more length and a more climatic finale.

What's more, it's available as a free download over at Freeland.fm. All you've got to you is give up your email address.  You can also download a digital version of the single there or get a vinyl / MP3 bundle (with FLAC options).

Do it.

BP x

Album Review: Fabric 45 - various mixed by Claude VonStroke

Claude VonStroke has something of an identity problem. His breakthrough track 'Who's Afraid Of Detroit', with it's spooky, spacious take on minimal and Detroit techno, was met with pretty much universal acclaim. It was the kind of track any DJ could get away with dropping. Yet whilst VonStroke's 'The Whistler' managed to garner a certain degree of attention it certainly didn't achieve the same level of acclaim.

VonStroke, or Barclay Crenshaw to give him his proper name, started making hip-hop and got into house and techno after being forced to write the soundtrack for a documentary he helped make on superstar DJs. Unable to afford to license music from the DJs themselves VonStroke and his fellow collaborators on the film wrote and made all the music themselves, replicating the style of each DJ. Given his background, a lack of identity is perhaps a little understandable - he has neither managed to create a great artist album nor is he regarded as a truly great DJ. A least not yet.

Because Fabric 46 is actually a pretty consistent and coherent mix. Odd, given VonStroke's history and his own assertion that this mix deliberately a mixture of styles. It's a testament to the sequencing then that the likes of the sleazy Detroit Grand Pubahs' 'Big Onion' manage to sit in a mix that also dabbles in strings (in the fantastic instrumental dub of Kiki's 'Immortal') and contains touches of jazz (Robag Whrume's tech-house 'Guppipepitsche') and the intelligent noodling of two Stimming tracks.  Claude has deliberately twisted this mix in on itself and chopped the tracks up to the point where the whole thing flows.

Fabric 46 is another tech-house mix and whilst it is varied Claude VonStroke hasn't exactly torn up the rule book here. What he has done however is construct a mix that progresses and does far more and with more consistency than many others could do within the confines of the genres visited throughout the album.

BP x

Album Review: Fantasies - Metric

BlackPlastic had something else chalked in for a review today but this suited the current mood better.

And that's because Metric's latest proves that they still create the perfect soundtrack to a grey day. Fantasies is moody and aggravated and still hasn't quite forgiven you yet. Fantasies is rainy days and skivey days spent in strange places. Fantasies is not knowing the answers, not knowing the solutions. Fantasies may be the solution or may just be another part of the problem.

As an album it might be Metric's most sophisticated yet. It is certainly more measured and consistent, but it also has some of their biggest single songs. 'Help I'm Alive', with its insistent beat and soaring chorus is fantastically conflicted and the break, where it drops to just the bass and vocal, is glorious. Other highlights come in the ugly truth of 'Gold Guns Girls' and closing track 'Stadium Rock', with the former sounding like a friend telling you the ugly truth from which you have long hidden whilst the latter calls Yeah Yeah Yeahs to mind with its squawks and Nick Zinner-esque guitar work.

If BlackPlastic is going to spend an afternoon battered and bruised it can't think of a better album to soundtrack it. Fantasies sounds like the brutal honesty of someone who can do nothing but tell the truth, and sometimes we all need a bit of humble pie.

BP x

Released on 27 April 2009, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3

MP3: We Are The People (Kotchy Remix) - Empire of the Sun

One of the highlights from Empire of the Sun's dreamy debut, 'We Are The People' in its original form has lovely Fleetwood Mac-esque guitars and more those falsetto vocals.  Kotchy's remix gives the track a stuttering percussive backing and as the rain pours down outside BlackPlastic's window this track suddenly feels appropriate - less like the summery days of 'Walking On a Dream' and much more like an overcast, melancholic lazy day - and it's rather nice.  Best of all is the break with a rumbling bassline that strips back to the vocal before reintroducing the beat.

Kotchy, with his funky, almost subdued but effortlessly sexy productions and hushed vocals looks like one to watch.  Head over to RCRD LBL to check some of his own work (BlackPlastic particularly recommends 'Sing What You Want').  His debut album 89 is out soon and EP I'd Have To Be High drops next week.

Download We Are The People (Kotchy Remix) by Empire of the Sun (right click, save as).

BP x

Album Review: Kitsuné Tabloid - Various selected by Phoenix

In a departure for Kitsuné this is neither remotely dance related nor mixed. It is a compilation in the classic sense, as Phoenix select a range of songs - almost all of which are at least ten years old (usually more) - that they love and that inspire them.

Being the well mannered possessors of catholic taste that they are, Phoenix's first compilation is a considered, methodical and, most of all, utterly beautiful affair. From the opening strains of Kiss' 'Love Theme From Kiss' the latest Kitsuné Tabloid (Digitalism provided the first) is like losing yourself in a good book. It's a journey full of texture and detail and feeling beyond that which should be provided by a mere Tabloid.

As you might expect from Phoenix the overall sound oozes intelligent sensuality. The sublime 'Rise Above' from The Dirty Projectors is a case in point - unbelievably for an artist that specializes in covering Black Flag records they have never heard it is a gorgeous piece of folk music with the kind of falsetto vocals that will soon have you making a fool of yourself when no-one is watching.

Pretty much every track is a highlight - whilst Elvis Costello & The Attractions' morose 'Shipbuilding', Urge Overkill's 'Stull (Part One)', Irma Thomas' 'It's Raining' and Lou Reed's stunning 'Street Hassle' stick in BlackPlastic's head but there are plenty more gems here. Oh, and of course Tangerine Dream's 'Love On A Real Train' is always gorgeous as well.

Phoenix have described this album as selfish - it's just what they would make for themselves. What's great is that in the hands of the right person, the selfish album they make for themslves is the most interesting. It's autobiographical and it's genuine.

BP x

Available on Amazon.co.uk on CD (not available on MP3 yet as far as BlackPlastic knows, plus the artwork is lovely).