EP Review: Bad Guys Won / Hummingbirds - Titeknots

There's a lush Classic vibe to this latest double A-side single from London house producer Titeknots, the third in quick succession coming out in Tru Thoughts. It also reminds me of the kind of sound Swag were pushing back in the early noughties, but it still sounds just as fresh today.

Expect heads-down house music with plenty of jazzy flourishes, in other words. Up first, Bad Guys Won is a swirling flurry of keys and looped live bass, together with sharp drums and cut-up vocals.

Hummingbirds is even fresher in my opinion. Taughtly wound bass creates a looping sensation throughout the track, set against shuffling rhythms that give the track a real basement jazz vibe. Quality.

Bad Guys Won / Hummingbirds is out now through Tru Thoughts. Stream all of the Tru Thoughts Titeknots singles on Soundcloud below. You can purchase the single on MP3 through Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].

Titeknots is currently in the midst of a run of quick fire single releases on @tru-thoughts Here they are all collected, with the latest release at the top. All singles can be bought here: http://titeknots.bandcamp.com or here: http://shop.etchshop.co.uk/artists/titeknots

Stream: Flashbacks - Next To Paradise

London based electronic music

Lovely bouncy electronic house music with a London twist.

Album Review: Like A Machine - The Emperor Machine

Andy Meecham's new album as The Emperor Machine follows a slew of slinky singles featuring his new vocal partner and it mostly delivers on the promise of those releases that led us up to this point.

Meecham has specifically highlighted his love of the album format, paying tribute to the fact that albums enable you to get 'weirder' in a way shorter forms of music do not... That combined with that new (still curiously unnamed) vocalist gives Like A Machine a left-field analogue component that certainly benefits his sound.

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Opening with the evil bass-heavy sounds of Theme From Magical Ring, Like A Machine initially sounds like a bad-ass sci-fi funk exploitation flick. It screams out for someone to create a version with some rhymes dropped on it - the thick and sinister and slow melodies the sickest hip-hop track you never heard.

Theme From Magical Ring is quickly followed by a stripped back, more raw and punk influenced version of the title track and lead single. It is another similarly aggressive and foreboding piece, full of the sensuality it always had but back here with added vitriol. At three-and-a-half-minutes it will leave you wanting, but perhaps that is a statement in itself.

The first six-minutes of Like A Machine are almost certainly its best, but that says more about  how electric they feel than it does of the rest of the album. Current single RMI Is All I Want introduces a disco swagger that re-occurs a couple of times through the album, particularly on the Todd Terje featuring So.Ma.So - expect plenty of analogue synth and bass lines that make your backside bounce. Both are playful yet grimey.

Free from the constraints of the single format The Emperor Machine concept benefits in exactly the increased expansiveness Meecham has alluded to. That rework of the title track would never lead a single, and there are moments of psychedelic weirdness - as on the slow and cosmic Sonique. Varied and assertive, Like A Machine is a weird, but enjoyable, trip.

Like A Machine is out on May 19 through Southern Fried. Pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links]. Preview RMI Is All I Want on Soundcloud below:

Buy on Beatport: http://bit.ly/RMIBeatport Buy on iTunes: http://bit.ly/1f9OP2v Buy vinyl: http://bit.ly/RMIvinyl Taken from the album 'Like A Machine' coming soon: http://bit.ly/EMLikeAMachineAmazon http://www.facebook.com/theemperormachine

Stream: Fire Fire - Our Mother

Strong electronic falsetto pop here. Our Mother come from Seven Sisters in north London. Keep an eye out for the second side to this release, imaginatively entitled Lion OS X, to come later this month followed by some local live dates.

Video: Chandelier - Sia

This video is what I wish I was able to do to express myself in a daily basis. Don't just dance like no-one is watch: dance like no-one is watching AND you are fucking amazing AND your life absolutely totally depends on it.

I'm not really sure where Sia has been for the past four years, but this seems like a significant sidestep into indie R&B and it's pretty amazing.