Month: May 2006

Excuse me, but do you carry a licence for that voice, sir? Almost everything about Absentee has great weight to it, from their surefooted pace through to the maudlin gravity of the failure and black comic hopelessness informing the lyrics. But no aspect carries more clout than Dan Michaelson’s obscenely hefty vocal chords. It is possibly the eighth wonder of the indie world, they could handle the security duties of a medium-large category venue single handed and could certainly blow Continue Reading

Another short, sharp shock of electric from the leftside. Raising the pace slightly on last weeks ‘Get Lost!’ compilation is the latest ‘Bugged Out Mix’ session, this time from that kitsch, camp, eurotrashing record pusher, Miss Kittin. The third in Resist Record’s ‘Bugged Out’ series following Erol Alkan (2005) and Felix Da Housecat (2003) the globetrotting sexoid Miss Kittin has subtitled her own mix session ‘Perfect Night’, a  representative mix of her current club style which is by turns ambient, Continue Reading

What works for some people, doesn’t always work for others, and whilst the shape-shifting, side-winding, theatrical burlesque perfected by Stephin Merrit’s ’69 Love Songs’ works for Stephen Merrit, the same display of outrageous versatility in the hands of ‘proper’ bands like ‘Gram Rabbit’ seems awkward by comparison. You see, Stephin Merrit is one man. The Magnetic Fields too are ostensibly just one man. One man can lunge, lurch and leap and the whole thing still seems coordinated, but when a Continue Reading

There’s some music that really isn’t meant to be written about, and ‘Position Normal’s ‘Jimmy Had Jane’ featured on the beautifully loony, ‘Get Lost!’ compilation illustrates this point rather adequately. It’s not really dance, it’s not really jazz, it’s not really easy-listening, it’s not really a song. It’s not really one thing or the other, in much the same way a Pot Noodle is neither a square-meal in itself or a satisfying snack. And not knowing how to describe it, Continue Reading

Sitting nervously somewhere between the outrageous, manic pop of Japanese bands like Polysics, the thrashing, eccentric beehive of bands like the B52s and Apples In Stereo, the genderless cyber punk of acts like Sigue Sigue Sputnik and the post-punk chic of The Rapture, The Death Set spit, growl and bomb their way into the headlights of an oncoming chart vehicle. Born out of Sydney’s experimental rock outfit, Black Panda, the ‘To’ EP features just over a half dozen crazy, pop-art Continue Reading

This is what hip-hop is about; the mash is minimal but rich, the delivery fat and smooth, the beats supportive and the rhyming abilities stretchy. It’s also the kind of material that can be performed live without sounding totally shredded. The real beauty of great production lies in making the producer sound invisible – making it sound like the sessions took place without him. Too many hip-hop records, even great hip-hop records, sound like they impose a no-limit ruling on Continue Reading

If you were ever turned on by the curmudgeonly slurred miserablism of folks like Swell, Smog and John Cale then ‘Fort Recovery’ is likely to leave you hot, thirsty and grasping for the fizz laden rock of tracks like ‘Covered Up In Mines’, ‘Calling Thermatico’ and ‘Take A Rake’, each crawling languorously towards somekind of strung-out existentialism and each showcasing the raw, soporific vocal feats of one Will Johnson of Centro-Matic. Part dreamy, part dusty, part pretty, part all-black, Will Continue Reading

For those not already in the know, The Winter Music Conference is the weeklong dance music event, held every March since the mid-1980s in Miami. Yeah, there’s no end of simple arse in your face music lovers and 24 hour party people in attendance and no end of totty, but the event is really aimed at industry professionals, record label representatives, promoters or people just looking for a slice of the future action; people like Fatboy Slim, for instance. In Continue Reading