Album Review: Manners - Passion Pit

BlackPlastic has slept on this one a little - there has been a lot to cover but you generally know when we come back to something that has been out a while it is usually because it is worth it.

Manners is so up our street that if it was any more to our tastes it would be less living in our house, more peeking round the bedroom door trying to tempt us into a bit of nooky. An insatiably perky band, Passion Pit sound like Lo Fi Fnk force fed Coca-Cola with an added teaspoon of sugar once per minute until they could write a whole album. Much like Iceland's FM Belfast this is a band that mash together the sweetest elements of a few different bands - BlackPlastic is thinking the Spinto Band, Shout Out Louds and the Go! Team - and come out smelling of cotton candy.

Take 'Little Secrets' - with it's chorus of children singing it should by all rights be a disaster. Instead it is a glorious, awesome motivational cheer-leading anthem. 'The Reeling' is equaly glorious - like a first kiss, a holiday and a rollercoaster all in one - whilst 'Sleepyhead' sounds like the Avalanches trapped in a tropical snow globe.  That's a good thing.

And every single track here is like a beautiful day that sticks in your belly like a thorn because you know that you can't keep it up. Passion Pit may struggle to continue making music as joyful as that on Manners but BlackPlastic is sure looking forward to hearing them try.

It's simple really. Joyous electronic pop: In the words of Vin Diesel in xXx we live for this shit.

Available on Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

BP x

Album Review: Lumina - The Rogue Element

Coming from the same school of thought as Simian Mobile Disco and Justice but without the pop hooks, Lumina is the aka Ben Medcalf's second album as Rogue Element and having had a listen it is difficult to understand why he isn't better known.

Lumina for the most delivers a noisy, bombastic, swinging-from-the-chandaliers style party and from the opening title track it sounds like the sound Simian Mobile Disco are aiming for with their second album. There a vicious stabs of acid and swirling synthesizers in a combination that defies easy categorisation. All BlackPlastic can say is that it has elements of techno and even trance but that it's still definitely house music.

Regardless of how you label it, this is music to lose memories to. 'Binary Suite', 'Sidewinder' and 'Lumina' are all full on brilliant technicolor brain-seizures. And when Lumina isn't swinging from the chandeliers things get even better - the broken beats of 'In Place' build to a distorted climax whilst 'Mistakes', the only track with a proper vocal, is the album's highlight. It's slower than the rest of the album but builds and builds into a magnificent electro-ballad, all snappy beats and distorted melodies.

Lumina is a triumphant record - an album that manages to be accessible without any danger of selling out. The golden boys of dance music just got some competition: The Rogue Element.

Lumina is released on 29 June on Exceptional.  Available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].

BP x

Album Review: Fabric 47 - Various mixed by Jay Haze

Fabric 47 crashes your party like a much cooler than you stranger. It has seen things you haven't seen and has layers you failed to anticipate.

This is a mix that demonstrates a clear disregard for genre, style or pigeon-hole. Jay Haze has created a sound that manages to bring together disparate styles in a fashion that feels totally natural with none of the sense of forced fun of a consciously eclectic mix. Starting with the jazzy opener 'Awakening', from Haze himself, the listener is taken through Lil Dirty Ghetto Bastard's paranoid tech-blues record 'An Hour to Fly' and onto Mike Dunn AKA Mr 69's hip-house 'Phreaky Motherfucker' in quick succession and, at three tracks in, it's unquestionably the most exciting start for a Fabric album in recent memory.

Jay Haze is known as a DJ, label owner (TuningSpork, Contexterrior and Future Dub) and artist (as himself and under the Fuckpony moniker) and BlackPlastic has to admit that until now none of his work had particularly resonated. It can be troubling when a label owner and prolific artist makes a mix - there is a danger they will focus too much on their own work and labels, creating a mix without variety. No danger of that here however - Haze's own tracks are all dramatically different in themselves and there is plenty of work from others here. This is a mix not intent to stay still - taking in techno, house, hip-hop, dub, blues and jazz in a wholly modern and exciting way.

It's without doubt one of the most creative Fabric albums in ages, the slow burning dub, hip-hop and jazz moments providing real flow and being handled sympathetically. Catrat's reggae tinged 'Freedom', remixed by Haze, slots into the mix wonderfully despite a dramatically lower BPM count. Similarly, The Last Poet's 'When The Revolution Comes' provides an angry counterweight for the album, riding on top the clicks and bleeps of Pheek's 'Soundscape'. Closing on the emotional, jazzy hip-hop of the exclusive cut 'Something To Say' by Rockey puts a beautiful full stop on the set - an honest explanation of what it is to love music and what it does and means to people.

Fabric 47 is so fresh it inevitably makes the rest of your record collection feel a little stale.

Fabric 47 is released on July 13 in the UK and August 11 in the US.  You can subscribe to the Fabric CD series at the FabricFirst website. It is worth noting that Haze is donating the fee from this mix to a charity currently working in the Democratic Republic of Congo - Merlin Health Services.

BP x

MP3: Danse En France (Kotchy) - Fischerspooner

BlackPlastic has put a couple of Kotchy MP3s up recently but this is definitely one of our favourites.  'Danse En France' is one of the recent Fischerspooner tracks that has come out on Kitsune and if you have followed the recent Kistune Maison compilations you have likely already heard it.

The remix features on Fischerspooner's new album and Kotchy gives it a really lazy r&b vibe - mixed with the spooked French vocals the whole thing feels slightly disorientated and on edge. Featuring a nice crunchy synththis, like lots of Kotchy's work, manages to be two things at once - sleazy French soul and Neptunes-esque New York hip-hop - without getting lost in between the too.  

Check it out and download 'Danse En France (Kotchy Remix)' by Fischerspooner here (right click, save as).

BP x

News: A couple of cool remix competitions

Okay - two remix contests for the price. Admittedly that's, erm, free... but you get the point. BlackPlastic thought it made sense to double up.

First up is Ernesto's forthcoming single, 'Bassline', due for release on 29 June on Exceptional Records. Hailing from Sweden Ernesto makes soulful electro - imagine the clean considered music of Junior Boys but with added funk or just check it out in the player below:

Ernesto - Bassline (out June 29th) by exceptionalrecords

You can download the zip file containing the tracks components here and the winner, chosen by Ernesto, will receive an Exceptional Records goody bag including a signed copy of the single plus their track will be streamable from the Exceptional website with a link back to your own site. To enter the competition email your entry to [competition closed] as a low res MP3 by 6 July with the subject line ‘Ernesto Remix comp’. Include your name, contact number and website address if you have one.

The next competition is in celebration of Tim Sheridan and his notorious veryverywrongindeed night coming to Fabric's sister club Matter on Saturday 27 June.  It's set to be an interesting night and Tim will be joined by Spektre and Jesper Dahlback on the decks.  Most of the tracks Tim plays are from his VVWI record label, picked up from wherever he finds them on his travels and his determination to avoid the majors is evident in this competition, where he is inviting budding bedroom producers to remix the forthcoming single 'Villain'.

The winners will get invited along as VIPs to the night at Matter and Tim will play the track out on the night.  Head over to the VVWI website for details.  The closing date is 25 June.