Video: Circles - THIS IS A SHAKEDOWN!

An interesting video from Ohio band THIS IS A SHAKEDOWN! who make an interesting mix of rock and electro - think the kind of mix that the likes of Adam Freeland are currently peddling but with bigger choruses. The video was made with apparently no budget at all using 21 borrowed Mac Books, with the video being shot on the embedded iSight cameras using Photobooth - creative!

THIS IS A SHAKEDOWN!'s debut album, entitled Love Kills, came out in May on Reversed Image Unlimited. Check out THIS IS A SHAKEDOWN!'s MySpace and Twitter for more.

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Album Review: Hard Islands - Nathan Fake

Evolutionary viewpoint:

Nathan Fake < God < Nathan Fake 2.0

Okay, maybe not quite true but what BlackPlastic is getting at is that Nathan Fake has changed. Grown. Developed. Evolved.

And the result is rather good.

Hard Islands feels like the love child of Nathan Fake's début, Drowning In a Sea of Love, and the best bits of James Holden's The Idiots Are Winning (released, as Hard Islands is, on Fake's own Border Community). The fuzzy, shoe-gazing rock and folk tinged elements of Fake's last record can still just about be heard deep in here but this is a much more dancefloor focused record and it's much harder as a result. And here is where Holden comes in - when we say dancefloor focused we mean the kind of dancefloor where the punters all sport quizical looks and struggle to move in time to the music.

Because Hard Islands sounds like minimal techno as created by someone who has never heard a techno record. It's the sound of music reverse engineered, disassembled and reassembled. Holden's track 'Idiot' is the closest thing BlackPlastic has heard to this but Nathan Fake has taken things one step further, creating six tracks that refuse to comply to the generally accepted standards of how dance music should "work".

At it's best the results are thrilling - the shifting, bouncing rhythms of 'Basic Mountain', the jerky acid of 'Castle Rising' - and by focusing on just six tracks, forgoing a full album for a mini album, Fake has created a set that doesn't out-stay its welcome.

Available on Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 (affiliate links).

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Album Review: Days Away - Nonagon

Nonagon is that rarest of things - a musician giving away music that is not just passable, it's actually exceptional. Self released and available for free in 128k MP3 or sold on a 'name your price' basis for a higher quality format of your choice (pretty much anything you can think of), Days Away is an atmospheric trip through the mind of its creator, John Brian Kirby.

A varied album, Days Away is in essence all leftfield electronic music. There are a ton of influences - touches of Four Tet, traces of Amon Tobin an Burial - but on the whole it's different enough that, as an album, it stands on its own two feet.

A whole range of styles and genres are taken in - atmospheric breaks on 'Fixed Action Pattern', sample laden hip-hop beats on 'Mr Sniggles' House' and ambient drum n bass on 'South Without a Candle' - and Nonagon really gets the chance to show off his production skills. The problem with self-produced, self-released electronic albums is that without the knowledge and experience of a producer guiding things the result sounds flat and lakes pace.

With the help of Steve Hall, who mastered the album, Days Away confidently circumvents any such concerns. Take 'Underlayed By Reflection' for example, a near-on nine minute intelligent drum n bass track. Many well known DJs and producers would struggle within that framework yet Nonagon doesn't just deliver production that feels fresh and professional, the track is also fantastically sequenced, building and developing throughout its length.

If you are a fan of leftfield dance music you would be a fool not to at least check Days Away out. It's free to try after all.

Available to download from Bandcamp. If you enjoy this music please support the artist and pay for a higher quality download.

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Album Review: Kitsuné Maison Compilation 7 - Various Artists

If Kitsuné Maison 6 was the melodic one and 5 was Gold then this one may sadly go down as the phoned in one. It's true ladies and gents, the Maison series has jumped the shark.

It's hard to put your finger on but there is just a general lack of any sense of care and attention here. Maybe BlackPlastic has come to expect too much but, for the first time on a Kitsuné album, there is padding on the tracklisting.

Chateau Marmont's vocodered 'Beagle' is possibly the world's dullest 80s / French house hybrid - whoever picked this out of all the tracks in the world needs a slap. Similarly Renaissance Man's 'Rythym' seems content to deliver exactly 0.3 ideas across the length of the entire track. Worst of all is La Roux's return on Lifelike's mix of 'In For The Kill'. Fine, it's a catchy tune - we already admitted we liked it - and we know Kitsuné were there first, releasing 'Quicksand' last year. And Lifelike is ACE. But seriously - we all know La Roux isn't cool and will be over before her forth single.

However - when Kitsuné Maison Compilation 7 works, it really works. And it is on the laid back, sun drenched tracks this happens most. Two Door Cinema Club sound like Phoenix at the top of their game on 'Something Good Can Work' whilst Phoenix sound like, well, themselves at the top of their game on the blissful Classixx version of 'Lisztomania'. Even the Golden Filter almost manage to explain their hype on the slow and funky 'Favourite Things' whilst Autokratz finally deliver on the Yuksek mix of 'Always More'. The highlight though - Prins Thomas' mix of James Yuill's 'This Sweet Love' is not just good - it's a glorious summer's walk of a track, surpassing anything that's ever appeared on a Maison compilation in BlackPlastic's opinion.

Inconsistent then - some of the best tracks from the series combined with some of the worst. It's a shame - a little more QC and Kitsuné Maison 7 could have been the best yet.

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Album Review: FabricLive 46 - Various mixed by LTJ Bukem

Some background info: it has been some time since BlackPlastic last enjoyed any drum 'n' bass. A long time in fact. After the popularity of the Movement scene and a period of stellar tracks and artists around 2002 nothing quite felt right.

There just didn't seem to be anything new. Sure, there will be those that disagree but the truth is: DnB died in 2004.

LTJ Bukem's FabricLive mix doesn't really do anything new. So, in principle at least, there is nothing to see here. But... Golly, it is hard to turn your back on this disc. Flowing in through your speakers like the one that got away FabricLive 46 isn't just good - it's wonderful and undeniable. It's a reminder of what was so interesting about drum 'n' bass in the first time.

FabricLive 46 is summer barbecues, beers in the garden, dancing in the sunshine, killing time in the park and staying up all night to watch the sunrise. Maybe it helps that BlackPlastic is reminded of empty summers as a student when hearing this style of music but there are some wonderful feelings in the first half of this mix.

The sound itself is what you would expect if you are familiar with Bukem's work. His trademark 'intelligent' sound is combined with the some slightly harder, rolling bass lines (on the Madcap mix of Villem's 'Inflated Tear' for example) and there has been a lovely, warm development into a slightly more liquid DnB sound.

Admittedly things tail off a little in the latter third before coming back again for a nice climax in the filtered 'So In Need' by Syncopix. The album isn't perfect by any stretch and it still fails to match the heights of the early Movement mix albums or the superb Soulful Behaviour mix from Defunct. One thing is for sure however - this is the best drum n bass mix Fabric have released in years... Bring on the summer.

FabricLive 46: LTJ Bukem is released to Fabric First members on 1 June and goes on general release on 15 June.  Subscribe to Fabric First at the Fabric London website.

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