Album Review / MP3 Download: FabricLive 49 - various mixed by Buraka Som Sistema

Judging by FabricLive 49 Burakama Som Sistema are a goddamn cussing noisy bunch. Make no mistake, this album feels like being tied to the front of Alton Tower's biggest rollercoaster (is that still the Oblivion?) for an hour or so with an emotionally epic hangover.

To be honest BlackPlastic was ready to slate it but instead we will say this - you will like FabricLive49 if:

• You like the sound that several travelling fair grounds would make if you put then all in the same place at once and told them to SCREAM IF YOU WANNA GO FAAAAAASTTAAAAAA!
• You hate your own head.
• You have some incredibly persistent guilty voice inside your soul constantly reminding you that you butchered your mother.
• You are on more drugs than BlackPlastic has ever tried.

There are a few better moments but, in all honesty, they are not good - they just gave BlackPlastic a bit of a breather because they didn't sound like a baby screaming.

It might be built to sound like a soundclash but to BlackPlastic it just IS a soundclash.

Download the full version of 'Kurum (Roulet Remix)' by Buraka Som Sistema, which appears on FabricLive 49 for a taste [right click, save as].

BP x

FabricLive 49 is out tomorrow, available for pre-order now from Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link].

Album Review: The Repeat Factor - Portformat

BlackPlastic used to love hip-hop but these days we can't help but feel let down by the genre... Maybe we were just never real fans of real hip-hop, maybe when we spent so much time listening to those early Roots albums, the Tribe Called Quest back-cat and anything J Dilla touched we were just enjoying the stuff middle class suburban kids are supposed to dig. Maybe we weren't real.

But the truth is that if someone has made a genuinely brilliant hip-hop album in the past four years then we missed it. Even the near-universally-acclaimed MF Doom feels over-hyped.

It's with some surprise and a pang of nervousness then that BlackPlastic snuck a smile and shuffled back-and-forth to the beat on Portformat's debut album. Because on first listen it's good. Very good.

Bad news first. If you wanted to level criticism at The Repeat Factor you would be justified in complaining that the vocals fall short. Portformat's The Repeat Factor is really a demonstration of his production skill - the vocals suffer in the way that you would expect of an album that is producer, not MC, lead. They aren't bad - they just don't lead the music or captivate the listener.

What is good though is the production. With a loose, filtered feel it is vey reminiscent of J Dilla - but not the oft-immitated, vocal-sample based work he produced towards the end of his career. Instead The Repeat Factor sounds more like his work with A Tribe Called Quest on The Love Movement.

And it may be BlackPlastic's soft-spot for indie hip-hop showing again but The Repeat Factor is best when it strays into the left-field, as on 'U Gotta Find', the wonderfully textured 'Mothership' or on any of the superb instrumentals (or which particular note goes to 'Bionic Arms').

The jazzy touches and bags of space make The Repeat Factor shine. This is an album that manages to sound modern and yet still demonstrates that less IS more. It just about restores BlackPlastic's faith in hip-hop.

BP x

The Repeat Factor is released on Tokyo Dawn on 3 December 2009.

Single Review: I Won't Kneel - Groove Armada

'I Won't Kneel' is Groove Armada's first proper single from a new album since the better-than-expected Soundboy Rock. And it would be easy to write it off and BlackPlastic is sure that many - except PopJustice possibly - will. Groove Armada just aren't cool.

But we tell you something - 'I Won't Kneel' is fab. It's a sparkling-modern-power-ballad-epic. It's a hands-in-the-air girl-power-boy-power-everyone-power liberation anthem. It's not cool, but it tears the fucking roof off and beside, this is what good pop music should be like. Gaga can goo goo all she wants, give us this any day.

BP x

I Won't Kneel is out now, available on Amazon.co.uk on CD, 12" and for a limited time on MP3 for just £0.29 [affiliate links].

MP3: Tupac Robot Club Rock (Kill Em All, Let Wiley Sort It Out remix) - Filthy Dukes

BlackPlastic recently reviewed Filthy Dukes' FabricLive album and, pretty much, we said it was good in a somewhat predictable way...

This track is not, as we hoped, some sort of Daft Punk / Tupac mashup but is instead a fairly full-on Wiley-style banger. It could definitely be accused of being more than just a little bit cheesy (check those keys!) but the bassline ensures it is at least worthy of a few moments of your time and is fairly representative of their Fabric disk... If you like this there's a good chance you will like FabricLive 48.

Download and enjoy! [right click, save as]

BP x

News: Seriously Social / Bugged Out 'Dream Party' Competition

BlackPlastic hearts Bugged Out almost as much as we heart dreaming up ridiculous party / 'high concept' night clubs and so it is with great joy that we heard about Seriously Social's dream party competition with Bugged Out.

The idea is simple - you've got £30,000 and Bugged Out DJ Johnny Burgess... the world is your oyster. Every idea is considered by a panel of judges before the best 25 go before a public vote. If your party idea is selected then you get to do it for real!

BlackPlastic has already entered... Expect photos if we win!

To give you some inspiration here is Johnny recounting his favourite ever Bugged Out night (it made BlackPlastic a bit emotional):

My favourite Bugged Out night. Daft Punk, Liverpool, 1998. 
From Bugged Out my most enduring memory is from 1998. It was the fourth birthday and we had tried to get Daft Punk to DJ at it. They had played for us since our first year but we kept getting vague 'maybe's and then a  'no' from their manager Pedro Winter. So we printed the flyers and posters with the existing line up and carried on with the promotion. Then the week of the show Pedro got in touch to ask if we would be interested in Thomas Bangalter coming over to play a live set. Thomas had just had the biggest club hit of the summer as Stardust with Music Sounds Better With You and also that Gym Tonic tune. Of course we were up for it. Then the day before the show Pedro rang again and said that Guy Manuel would like to come along too so perhaps we would be interested in squeezing Daft Punk onto the bill after all. So when people turned up to the club they were greeted with the news. There was no twitter back then and people didn't even check websites that often so we announced it with the words Daft Punk scrawled on the existing posters in marker pen! Thomas played Music Sounds Better With You live from the DJ booth and then him and Guy-Man started their DJ set with Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday. I think I had something in my eye at that moment. As it was a last minute booking I don't think we really paid anything other than their train fares and hotels so we left them a box set each of The Beach Boys Pet Sounds on their hotel beds as a way of saying thanks. Different times indeed...

To enter simply head over to the Seriously Social Facebook page, become a fan and submit your entry. Closing date is Monday but it only takes a minute.

BP x