Album Review: The Man With The Case - Samuel L. Session

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Sorry to any fans that have stumbled across the humble BlackPlastic blog but techno... Well, it's just inherently boring. By definition it is a genre so obsessed with detail and finish that, aside from the initial tracks out of Detroit that defined the genre, any release that proudly sports the label is pretty much unapproachable for the layman. You gotta have a belly full of pills or a head fulla maths to care.

Samuel L. Session has been releasing tracks since 1996 however, so you could be mistaken for falsely believing that this album, his first artist album, is either an exception to the rule or the turgid dirge that proves it.

Instead The Man With The Case is a bit of a mixed bag. It is unapologetically a techno album first and foremost. That means there is a lot of nothing here. BlackPlastic is ultimately left cold by the incessant beat, the measured perfection, the lack of passion. Yet there is still a little bit of charm to some of the tracks that make up this album. The highlight has to be album opener 'Time', which has the warmth of Chicago mixed with the robotic urban perception of Detroit. The result is a truly thrilling track that transcends genre-definition.

The problem is that whilst there are hints of the same passion and intelligence elsewhere on the album, the driving bass of 'My People' for example, they are ultimately spread so thinly across its length that they lose any bite. This is still just techno. Do yourself a favour - download 'Time' but leave the rest on the shelf.

BP x

The Man With The Case is out now on Be As One, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link].

Album Review: Arminico Hewa - OOIOO

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What happens if you mix Gang Gang Dance's distorted and shattered take on urban music and melt it down with the Battles and Asa Chung & Junray?

Something like this. A unhinged, disjointed piece of post-math-rock.

And to listen to it is to hear one of the strangest records BlackPlastic has heard in a while. Scat vocals, yelps, acid... African percussion...

Basically Arminico Hewa is every passing fad of the past couple of years played at once. Up close it is all far too much and BlackPlastic certainly wouldn't recommend playing it on a first date or listening to it whilst you sleep (unless you, your partner, or both are mental) but take a step back and it is kind of beautiful: Free of form or structure. So base it really underlines the similarity between humans and animals - just try listening to 'Irorun' and you will see what we mean.

So weird and full-on in might make you puke. Which is kind of awesome in our book.

BP x

Arminico Hewa is out on 2 November on Thrill Jockey, available for order now on Amazon.co.uk on CD and LP [affiliate links].

News: Free MP3 Downloads from R&S Records

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R&S are running a giveaway at the moment where you can get five MP3s for subscribing to their newsletter.  The output of the R&S label is good enough that this represents a win-win scenario, truth be told.

BlackPlastic has been listening to one of the tracks - 'O'Loco (Sei A Remix)' by Sun Electric - and it is worth subscribing just to get this one track. Sun Electric have been releasing music on R&S since 1992 whilst Sei A (real name Andy Graham) apparently counts Ben Watt and Tiga as fans.

The track itself is a dubby, progressive track and it is the first time in years that BlackPlastic has heard a track of this style that manages to sound fresh. As one of the few progressive house DJs BlackPlastic doesn't always feel bored by it didn't surprise BlackPlastic when we discovered that Hernan Cattaneo is also a big fan of Sei A.

Head over to R&S to check it out!

BP x

Album Review: The Real Feel - Spiral Stairs

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If BlackPlastic could do one thing to make the world a slightly better place it would make it illegal for smug bankers to use their BlackBerry on the train for anything other than calling the wife or accessing porn. Presented with countless opportunities however, an endless magic lamp if you will, then just one thing BlackPlastic would do is hide this début solo offering from Pavement's wayward Spiral Stairs inside the case for every single copy of the Arctic Monkeys last album.

Because whilst, predictably, this isn't a patch on any of Pavement's output, it does achieve a bluesy, melancholic, whisky-soaked sound that feels like the kind of album the Monkeys thought they we making.

The Real Feel is a slow and thoughtful album that shines due to it's space and timing. Opener 'True Love' may feel a bit too formulaic (if at least authentic) but there is much more elsewhere - 'Call The Ceasefire' is morose, wounded and self-pitying yet compellingly so. 'Cold Change' manages to convey a nervous optimism in its join-in "bup-bup-bup-bup-bup-ba-ba" chorus, like the audio equivalent of dusting yourself off after a fall that only one other person saw. Forthcoming single 'Stole Pills' changes things up nicely mid-album with a flick-knife jangly punk vibe.

But The Real Feel hasn't really got any new ideas. And that isn't necessarily a criticism, yet more of an observation. There are moments of delicacy here delivered in such a gimmick-free fashion that the fact that you may as well have heard it all before feels unimportant. It's not the slacker-gold soundz of Pavement, but it's not bad.

The Real Feel is out now on Domino, available on CD from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].

BP x