Cepia - Natura Morta

We've been hearing a lot from Ghostly International this year, mainly because of Mathew Dear (a.k.a False a.k.a Audion a.k.a Jabberjaw)'s album Asa Breed, which will without a doubt be at the top of 2007 best albums.

Cepia's Natura Morta is now out and is another proof that Ghostly is a very nice label.
I guess Cepia's music is close to what Autechre guys would have done if they had a computer at the age of 12. Complex and sweet.

Cepia - Opening Parade
Cepia - Hoarse

Apache Beat

It's now official. We have a new best-band-name-of-the-world band. And - is it really a surprise? - they're from NYC.

Apache Beat

And where do they come from? Neu!'s multi-instrumentist Klaus Dinger used to describe its minimalist drum patterns of "apache beat". And so here we are.

The recent revelation of this band troubles me quite a lot:

1) Why do so many exciting bands come from NYC?
2) Why do so many exciting bands have a "krautrock-influenced" sticker on their face?

Anyway, the music is great.
Even if the tracks are only demos, I love their uptight drum/bass parts and besides the lead singer has a sort of Siouxsie voice which gives their songs a very sexy and deep aspect.
Oh and also the synths are nice.
Blood Thrills is going to be a hit, I predict.

Apache Beat on myspace

Animal Collective - Peacebone Video

It looks a bit like Chris Cunningham's videos for Aphex Twin or Squarepusher: strange, creepy and awesome.

Battles Live @ The First Unitarian Church (7/07)

Rechenzentrum - Silence DVD

The last time we discographically heard about the guys from Rechenzentrum (Christian Conrad & Marcus Weiser), it was for their cd + dvd Director's Cut on the über-cult Mille Plateaux label.
An absolute masterpiece between pure german minimal dance music and contemporary art video happening. And gigs full of atmospheric pictures, macintosh laptops and weird organic sounds.

Then they went on to their Emperor Remixed project, "an experimental reworking of Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto". And to add to their megalomaniac genius, they performed it 7 times: in Japan, Korea, China and Berlin. An extract:



Silence, the new Rechenzentrum dvd will be released on October 12 on Weiser Music.
All the videos are avalaible here.

Rechenzentrum's website

Joy Division LPs re-released

Control, the biopic around Ian Curtis' life as frontman of Joy Division, is announced as a pure masterpiece after its grounbreaking premiere at Cannes in May.
The movie will be out in France on the 24th September and I don't really understand why France first.

Anyway. The point is that Unknown Pleasures, Closer and Still will be re-released next month and to show that this is not just a vulgar marketing operation to make me buy a second time those records, each of them will come with an extra live CD.

Radiohead - Arpeggi

Alors que le nouvel album de Radiohead ne sortira pas avant 2008 et qu'on sait dores et déjà qu'il contiendra des choeurs d'enfants, un titre de ce prochain album est disponible, Arpeggi, que le groupe interprète déja depuis deux ans sur scène.

Radiohead - Arpeggi

Animal Collective - Live at Midi Festival

For those who didn't noticed, I am absolutely lost in admiration at Animal Collective.
I've seen them twice this summer and their set is not so much about Strawberry Jam. Many songs are "new", even newer then the new album.

Here the gig they performed at the Midi Festival (on the french riviera).
It's just absolutely brilliant. The third video features two of the most beautiful A.C song ever.

Loch Raven (from Feels)



Leaf House (from Sung Tongs)


Tasty Places / Am I real (?)
Material Things / Fancy Things / Social Status / Little Girl (?)



Walk around with you (?)

Daft Punk - Robots after all

Publié dans mixmag:

1. ABLETON
"Le concert tourne sur Ableton Live et sur de gros ordinateurs construits sur mesure, qu'on gèrent via des controlleurs midi Berhinger BCR2000."

2. SCREENS
"Juste à côté des moniteurs il y a quatre MiniMoog Voyagers, le grand classique des synthétiseurs analogiques. Ils ont plus de trente ans."

3. MOOGS
"On peut mixer, mélanger, filtrer, sampler, triturer les sons, transposer ou déconstruire nos lignes de synthés."

4. VISUALS
"Il y a des connexions entre notre plateforme et les lumières et les visuels du concert. Les ingénieurs qui s'occupent des lumières et de la vidéo peuvent aussi controler ces effets pendant le concert."

5. SYNTHS
"A l'intérieur de la pyramide il y a des synthés et des controlleurs connectés aux ordinateurs et aux autres équipements, qui sont sur des tours derrière la scène."

6. TEAMWORK
"Monter l'équipement pour la musique, les lumières, les installations vidéos et la pyramide pour chaque concert demande environ 10 personnes, dont nous deux."

___

[*..*]
o

Par ailleurs, des rumeurs concernant un éventuel CD live, le cerise sur la pyramide, semblent se confirmer. Il serait tiré du concert du 14 Juin 2007 à Bercy.
Il sortirait vers Novembre et ne serait pas accompagner de DVD. Booouuuh !!!

Et pour la route:

Brian "God only knows" Wilson

Brian Wilson - Midnight's another day

Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

There's no such band as Animal Collective. For many reasons. For their genius, their humility, their outfits, their instruments, their voices. And I guess for their sound.

But one of the most striking thing about them is this: there's not one single album they've made on which you can get a definitive judgement, something like:
"Well, Revolver is definitely above all the others" or
"n°1: Fear of Music - 9,12/10, n°2: Remain in Light - 8,38/10, ...".
You never actually know an Animal Collective album, there's always things left to discover.
Two weeks ago I thought Feels was their best album. Then I listened to Spirits they're gone, Spirit they've vanished. And what about Sung Tongs? I had always thought it was too soft, too guitar-driven, too mellow. But hell yeah it is. And that's just what makes it so beautiful.

I guess that's what makes it so absolutely useless to give any opinion about a new A.C album. So I won't give mine because it won't be the same in 10 minutes.

Let's just say that Strawberry Jam will be out on Domino on September 10th.
It's less moving, but more electronic, more frenetic.
It sounds a lot like Turn into something which - hmmm, interesting - was the last song of Feels. There's 9 songs and the sleeve is, for once, really horrible.

Animal Collective - Fireworks
Animal Collective - Derek
Animal Collective - Peacebone

Preorder LP over here

LCD Soundsystem + The Arcade Fire

After several joint gigs, I guess very accurately described by Pitchfork as "The Second Coming of the Messiah", The Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem seem to get along quite well.
And this is great news, because this thing is History. The type of story you'll tell your children as soon as they're old enough to hear.

So if you didn't have the chance to see them live together, please don't mess everything up and purchase this 7":

Side A : Joy Division - "No Love Lost" (LCD Soundsystem cover)
Side B : France Gall - "Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son" (Arcade Fire cover)

that will be available on the bands websites only.

If this tour is really the Second Coming of the Messiah, then you definitely need to have this record. Saint James Murphy and Saint Win Butler would be so disappointed if you show up at the Last Judgement without their record in your American Apparel nylon gym bag. And who would like such a thing to happen?

Ricardo Villalobos - Dexter

SuperMayer

Superpitcher + Michael Mayer = SuperMayer
Ayant déja signé plusieurs remixes pour Losoul, Gui Boratto,... sous ce pseudo, les deux compères de Kompakt sortiront leur premier album commun sur le label susdit le 17 septembre.
Vu les premiers extraits ca risque d'être bourrin et classe. Kompakt quoi.

SuperMayer - Two of us

Black Dice

Comme disent les Anglais: "Oi Oi Oi, new material from Black Dice".
Après trois disques et une poignées d'EP sur DFA, Black Dice sortira son quatrième album Load Blown sur Fat Cat, le confidentiel mais démentiel label d'Animal Collective.
Et tout ca le 23 Octobre.

D'ici là:

Black Dice - Kokomo