Album Review: Kill For Love - Chromatics

Image source: The Mahogany BlogUnlike seemingly everyone else I have not have seen the Ryan Gosling movie Drive yet. Time and a lack-of-opportunity have seemingly kept it at bay. I have spent quite a bit of time the thinking about the eighties influenced soundtrack though, even contributing a few tracks to a mammoth Drive-inspired Spotify playlist made by a friend.

Trying to replicate the soundtrack for a movie you haven't seen seems like a bizarre concept, but I was seduced by the soft, melancholic electronic new wave and post-punk the movie (apparently) contains.

Two tracks featuring the production work Chromatic's Johnny Jewel featured on Drive - one with fellow Chromatic Nat Walker as their side project Desire and one Chromatics track, 'Tick of the Clock'. There were rumours that another side-project from Jewel and Walker, the appropriately named Symmetry - Themes for an Imaginary Film, was originally to be the main soundtrack for the movie. Whilst the rumours have been denied one thing is clear - the dark, eighties post-punk influenced Italo sound of Jewel is what people take away from that movie and the idea of driving at night crops up frequently in their music, titles and artwork as much as it features there.

The Chromatics have cultivated something of a micro-scene since their rebirth from punk band to soft electronic dream-makers and Kill For Love is the ultimate product of their effort. It is long at 92-minutes across 17 songs and much like Symmetry and fellow eighties influenced electronic producer M83's latest double-album, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, this feels like a soundtrack for a movie that doesn't quite exist.

But the length is justified - this is an album that shifts through ballads, mood pieces and the dark frisson of guitar heavy melancholy. The result is such that the music swings from beautiful to dark to heartbreaking and back, but the combinations and phases of this album feel as much like a cohesive story as many movies manage.

Starting with the inky black piano ballad of 'Into the Black', a cover of Neil Young's 'Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)' is a master stroke. Singer Ruth Radelet's vocals form a tribute to musical heroes set against a repeated bass line that sounds like pure Joy Division, the result sounding like Fleetwood Mac covering Neil Young with Hooky on bass.

The heavily auto-tuned vocals of 'These Streets Will Never Look the Same' almost distract from the tense strut of the guitar work but they totally justify their place later on 'Running from the Sun', another piano lead track slowly collapses under it's own emotional gravity, effortlessly showing up The Weeknd in the process.

Things get better they goes on. 'Birds of Paradise', positioned two-thirds of the way through the album (the yet-to-be-mentioned long closer aside for the moment), is a strikingly fragile piece that jumps from smokey vocals and vinyl clicks and pops to a cold, haunting melody. The vocal ends with "You are the black sky, always running for the sun... You're always running from the sun" before a long instrumental close and it is seemingly directed at the protagonist on 'Running from the Sun' (positioned with just one instrumental between it and 'Birds of Paradise').

It is exactly this kind of structure and pacing that means Kill For Love never outstays its welcome, benefiting from the director's cut treatment. Closing with a fourteen-minute instrumental in 'No Escape' feels totally natural... The entire album feels like a movie soundtrack with more to say than most actual movies. It is a conclusion that feels like the fade-to-black end credits to a weird, strung-out road trip.

Kill For Love is released on 21 May, pre-order on CD from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].

Listen to the aforementioned Drive inspired playlist:

Video: Bon Iver at AIR Studios

I'd heard about this video from a friend some time ago but hadn't got around to watching it. This morning I did, and I'm very glad... Take a look, it's a 25-minute video of Bon Iver performing, basically stripped back to just piano and vocals.

The songs themselves, taken from the last album and the Blood Bank EP together with a cover of Bonnie Raitts' 'I Can't Make You Love Me', are a step back from their originals - the video description describing them as 'abstracted'. To me they sound as though they have been consumed through a lens that puts some more space into them - they feel deconstructed with a post-rock feel that throws of some of the shackles of song-writing convention.

Very good stuff anyway. Thanks to @PaulCarvill for the tip.

EP Review: Connections EP - The Units

The Units are the kind of band whose greatness seems to have been obscured by the passing of time. The endless retrospectives of post-punk all too often skip over their role in the rise of the synth. Instead we heave buckets of sloppy sycophantic love onto Throbbing Gristle, Devo and Gary Numan, passing straight by the San Francisco synthpunk scene's heroes without stopping.

Don't get me wrong - Devo and Numan were undeniably innovative and great. If you are prepared to wade through it some of Throbbing Gristle's output is also fantastic. The strange thing is that the Units are just as great as any of these and anyone else from the synth heavy post-punk new wave movement, yet almost no-one has heard of them. Much like Devo and TG, the Units' records felt like an art experiment, veering from one idea to the next, each track like a self-contained canvas: warm and abstract here, falling up the stairs against an electric rock and roll rhythm there.

There have been attempts to re-surface the band - single re-releases, remixes and a well-worth-seeking-out reissue (History of the Units - the Early Years: 1977-1983) - but none of these has really caught on. Maybe that's for the best and they can remain the slightly obscure source of much affection from those that know. Or maybe this latest set of remixes, part of a collection that came as a result of founding member Scott Ryser meeting up with Italian DJ and producer Gianluca Pandullo, will make a difference.

The Connections EP features three tracks from two remixers. Todd Terje (Norway's hottest export since the, erm, Lefse) turns in a remix of 'High Pressure Days' and Pandullo, (here I-Robots) does versions of 'Warm Moving Bodies' and 'Zombo'.

Terje's joyful It's The Arps EP has been making waves over the past few months and it's interesting to hear him apply his style to a much rougher sound on what is probably the Units' best known track. In the bouncing electronics and tight, slightly dampened percussion there is a similarity to Terje's own work, but here it is backing up a slightly noisy punk record. 'High Pressure Days' is already a fantastic record with its smatterings of arpeggiator and broad splashes across the cymbals making a noisy mess of treble and warm mid-range melodies. Terje does well and leaves much of it alone, simply making a version that hangs around a little longer and sounds ever so slightly more contemporary - it doesn't add a huge amount to the original but it doesn't kill any of it either.

The first of I-Robots' remixes, 'Warm Moving Bodies', is the most different to the original of the three tracks here, and probably therefore the most worthwhile if you know the material. The original's three-minute are stretched out to almost eight and the result is a taught nervous affair, dubby drums and bass creating a darker piece that maintains the experimentalism that made the Units what they were in the first place.

The even longer mix of 'Zombo' is arguably little more than a fan's love letter, taking the original's combination of psych-out ambience meets celebratory synth and almost doubling it in length, adding some more space and a bit of noodling and not much else. Imagine the more electronic moments of the Flash Gordon soundtrack via Brian Eno and Aphex Twin's garden shed and you will have a good idea of what to expect. It sounds like floating in space with the cast of Playschool and in my mind that's a pretty glorious thing.

None of these remixes are essential but none of them are bad either and they are at least made by producers who are clearly fans. If this release wins the Units a few more of those then it will be a worthwhile endeavour.

Connections EP is out now on Opilec Music, available on MP3 from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].

Comment: DFA's Five Best Twelves

Image source: The Quietus

I've been a member of eMusic for longer than I care to remember and they recently invited me to submit a top five list to their site from their catalogue. Rather than focusing on new bands and artists I thought I would do something a bit different and select some of the best tracks from one of the many labels on the site. One of the best things about eMusic is how easy it is to browse by label and I regularly find myself checking through the latest releases from my favourites. So which label to pick? There could only really be one choice...

DFA are obviously known for the involvement of James Murphy and their big ticket album releases for the Juan Maclean and The Rapture but there is much more to the label, including a number of fantastic 12" releases that often slip out with little fanfare. DFA and James Murphy have been a massive influence on me and my blog since 'Losing My Edge' first came out in 2002 - here I select five of the best songs from the various 12" releases DFA have put out over the years, with links to check them out on eMusic:

5. 'Two Different Ways (Original)' - Factory Floor

The most recent track on this list, 'Two Different Ways' is a synth heavy, post-industrial acid trip. I've selected it not only because it's good but also because it really captures a certain post-punk experimental spirit that the label has boasted since the beginning. Factory Floor mix live instrumentation with a lot of electronic synth work and it is that blending of rock DIY attitude and electronic avant garde that has always made the label great. This is presumably called 'Two Different Ways' because the release features two versions, the original and the 'Second Way' - a self-referential element that harks back to early DFA / LCD Soundsystem release 'Yeah', which similarly featured two versions (the 'Pretentious Version' and the 'Crass Version'). The divide here is similar - the other second version is a little subtler but I can't resist the more in your face original.

4. 'Yearning' - Black Van

'Yearning' seems too straight up to be a DFA release but somehow it came out anyway and I'm very glad it did. There isn't too much that needs to be said, this is just a really well done piece of Balearic disco. You could call it derivative but only if you have no soul - this is sunny, uplifting heaven.

3. 'Full Grown Man' - Benoit & Sergio

Benoit & Sergio are one of the artists I'm currently most excited about - they have had a couple of EPs out on DFA and every track on the EP this is taken from (Boy Trouble) is an absolute gem. Whilst Benoit & Sergio release music on dance labels and in the 12" / EP format typically used by dance music producers this isn't really dance music - it's closer to blissed out electronic pop. 'Full Grown Man' particularly, at seven-minutes long and with not much happening in it shines precisely because it does so little. It could be accused of being a mood piece, but that is fine with me - the warm 80s feel is sublime.

2. 'Gobline City (Holy Ghost! Remix)' - Panthers

Holy Ghost!'s take on Brooklyn hardcore band the Panthers' 'Goblin City' is that rare thing - a remix that is better than the original. In fact, it's so good that it is better than anything either Holy Ghost! or the Panthers have accomplished individually. Holy Ghost! probably deserve more of the credit though because most of the original gets thrown out and what you end up is nothing like a hardcore rock record but actually an aloof urban disco record but what makes it shine is the combination of the Panthers' guitar solo and the Holy Ghost! synthesised arpeggios about two thirds of the way in.

1. 'Spaghetti Circus' - Still Going

After Still Going dropped the fantastically catchy yet remarkably simply 'Still Going Theme' no-one thought they would be able to live up to it with the comeback and yet somehow they confounded expectations and dropped a follow up that was even better than that previous release. 'Spaghetti Circus' is probably the sexiest, most sunny, soulful house record I've ever heard, sounding like the music is made from pure sweat and sunblock. As with the Panthers record this is really a disco track and once again what really makes it is the fantastic guitar work - it may be perfect for those exciting summer sunsets on the white isle but it will work pretty much anywhere else too.

EP Review: Turning - Headman

It seems like some time since we last heard from Robi Insinna. Better known as Headman he has had a number of well regarded singles and remixes over the years. Whilst his last album, the Dieter Meier (of Yello fame) featuring 1923, was only released two years ago it feels like the limelight has shifted off of Headman a little.

And that is a shame because Headman makes just the kind of slightly scratchy post-punk electro that I happily lap up - place him somewhere between the discordant party noise of Soulwax and the punk funk of !!!. 'Turning', featuring long term collaborator Tara on vocals feels like classic eighties experimental electro breeding discontent. Tara's vocals successfully replicate early Human League's clinical approach with a "Head is turning / machine is burning" couplet whilst clattering drums and itchy guitar work attempt to strangle a warm, bouncing melody.

Aside from the original this EP also features three additional versions of 'Turning'. Insinna's own dub reworks things to give it a more stripped back and percussive latter third, out-shining the original in the process. Emperor Machine's mix is even better though, adding some space for a bigger bass line and some disco flourishes that make this into a real dance floor filler. The definitive version of Headman's biggest hit to date, 'It Rough', was Chicken Lip's mechanical, bass heavy synth version and so there is an element of history repeating itself here - Emperor Machine's Andy Meecham being one half of Chicken Lips. Scott Fraser's dub also takes things down a disco route but whilst the wandering bass is reminiscent of Moroder it lacks the impact of Meecham's version.

Also included are two remixes of previous single 'Be Loved'. The first, from Richard Fearless of Death in Vegas, is a typically sprawling acid psychotic meltdown - the aural equivalent of a boy playing in a toy shop. It has moments where the squelching acid work is a joy, albeit a somewhat unfocused one. I haven't heard the original but I'd wager it doesn't sound much like this. Murphy Jax turns it into a warm, laid back house record that unfortunately does nothing whatsoever for me.

Whilst the latter mixes are slightly hit and miss this is an overly generous EP in the first place - buy it for the first half and the exciting acid straight jacket that is Richard Fearless' input.

Turning is released on 11 May on Relish Records, available for pre-order on MP3 from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].