Mush

Now, in the wake of copious amounts of DnB and primate-infidelity, Mixt Ape would like to point out that although he has no physical presence in this world, that doesn't mean he doesn't have a heart.

WARNING - No chronological relevance here whatsoever, their last release was a few years ago.

Soppy eyes, silky facial hair and no visible possibility of aggression? Well then, some bands look exactly like they sound. Band Of Horses are a straight-up mushy Southern rock band with two album releases under their belt (Everything All The Time and Cease To Begin). So what's so special about them? Well, that's exactly it, I really don't think there is anything. Yet, their music remains thoroughly listenable and emotive.

Take the first album for example, Everything All The Time. We're talking inoffensive, simply orchestrated soft rock. Instrumentally, expect little else except reverb-smothered clean guitars (bordering on the crunchy in places), atmospherically down-paced rock drums with cymbals galore and flat, characteristically supplemental (nearing the inaudible) basslines. Oh wait I just heard a piano... Anyway, this uncomplicated but effective base layer serves perfectly to springboard
the only thing about their sound that really stands out: the vocals. Frontman Ben Bridwell's baby-voiced warbling is definitely the selling point for the band. His soft consonants and charmingly bizarre accent when delivering words like 'funeral' ('fyoonairawl!') are projected across your ears with a hefty encasing of soaring reverb, completing their idiosyncratically innocent-yet-big sound, one that never quite manages to be annoying. Their gentle but oddly haunting melodies - despite sounding very similar across the entirety of the first album - complete their easy-on-the-ears mushy formula.

However, many people (especially that penis-carrying brand), myself included, might be tempted to instantly dismiss their effeminate wailing as pure premature ejaculation material. They really don't help themselves here, the lyrics in the outro of 'Ode To LRC' for example are completely comprised of 'The world is such a wonderful place/The world is such a wonderful place/Lah di dah/Lah dah di dah dah' - no, I'm genuinely serious. But at the end of the day, is there really anything wrong with that? We don't always need to hear Thom Yorke mumbling about cannibalism and Canary Wharf, or Justin Vernon spouting (albeit beautiful) poetic drivel about moons and wombs. What this kind of music does is appeal to that part of (almost) everyone that remains impenetrable to the complexities of life, where songs about settling down with a wife (Marry Song), and songs about funerals (The Funeral) - with nothing profound to say about either i might add - do touch the heartstrings. We (I) might feel embarrassed about it, but at the end of the day it's Band Of Horses and mush like it that calm the soul and warm the heart.

Having said that, Band Of Horses are touring with Snow Patrol. So, if you feel like sticking to the 'mush is shit' philosophy, I can't blame you.

If you're still interested though, here (as well as the links given above) are their best:

No One's Gonna Love You - Single off their second album, and what attracted me to them in the first place. Characteristic of the more ambitious and diverse production of the album (in opposition to the static sound of the first), its gentle combination of clean guitar and flute-like keyboard, coupled with a more complex vocal reverb, set a more distinctive background for more charming and cutesy vocals: 'anything to make you smile, you are the ever-living ghost of what once was...And no one's ever gonna love you more than I do'. Yup, it's pretty fucking mushy right? The melodies keep it undefeatable.

Weed Party - Less ambitious but much more upbeat track off the first album. Harmlessly indie crunchy guitar riffs and drums cue yet more classic Bridwell vocals, complete with that down-the-scale melody at the end of a line.

Cigarettes, Wedding Bands - Rarely bitter-sounding track off the second album. 'The house is not the same since you left it that day...our parents held cigarettes, wedding bands while they lie tonight'

The First Song - And another off the first album, this one essentially serving as a template for the whole record. Except for the unbeatable The Funeral (see above), expect nothing too different from this track.

Yellow Wings and Caribou in Sweet Harmony flooded with Pretty Lights. Could This Be Real?

Here's a few recent tracks to whet your tastebuds for a hench plateful of 'is-it-the-best-thing-since-DJ-Shadow' sampling genius, that's Pretty Lights.


Caribou - Odessa

Bear with those funky noises in the intro (I realise it sounds like some kind of muppet orgy), although the psychedelia does continue, it becomes more interesting. Hazy vocals seem to narrate some sort of odd eighties acid trip musical comprised of funky guitar, tambourine, tacky bass and, yes, muppet orgasms.

Keepaway - Yellow Wings

Still pretty psychedelic here, this all very Animal Collective. Chanty samples and tribal tom beats precede reverb-laced and chunky-toned guitar (oddly reminiscent of Friendly Fires) and VERY Animal Collective vocals, those campfire harmonies easily ripped off of My Girls. Still, influence-bordering-on-thievery is prerequisite these days so no harm done, and it does sound very nice.


Danny Byrd - Sweet Harmony (feat. Liquid)

It's already been B-listed by radio 1 (even better than his massive Red Mist VIP achieved) so grit your teeth and prepare for its day-time hammering by Jo TWATTING Whiley amongst others. Apparently a re-work of an early-nineties classic, that would make the (also good) Jungle Mix a remix of a rework of an original track. Nice. Well Danny's done well (despite his horribly bald head), fitting the classic 90s piano riff and vocal to some updated liquid breaks and enveloped bass. Also that 'let's go' sample will seem familiar from being used (more effectively) on The Prodigy's Everybody In The Place. Also the midpoint of the track boasts a mightily cheeky jittery bass dive. Still, the Jungle mix is a bit more obviously satisfying, the similar mix being inevitably torn apart in CLASSIC Danny Byrd fashion with a cheeky sample, some jungle rolls, DnB klaxon and bleeps. Very reminiscent of his eclectic and bouncy Shock Out. Noice.

Still hungry? Better be.



Derek Vincent Smith (yeah, name as badass as his hat) AKA Pretty Lights is a BLADDY magician with a sampler. As you can see from the clip above, all he needs is a fucking box with lights on (that's a monome for anyone who gives a shit) and a few gadgets to seamlessly cut and loop samples with the cold efficiency of a Bosnian general.

To be honest, his music isn't really anything like the aforementioned DJ Shadow (top picture, those ignorant please for the love of god check out Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt, ...Meets His Maker and Midnight In A Perfect World) but there haven't exactly been all that many alternative white baseball-cap-wearing hip-hop-sampling artists with as compositional an attitude as it's possible to have when using ONLY samples - at least not on my radar, and they do look very similar. DJ Shadow's Entroducing... made it possible for artists (I think it's fair to say the man has transcended the title of DJ to artist) like Pretty Lights (bottom picture) to stick with the free and adventurous philosophy of creating individual, rich and profound music without technically 'composing' anything. What's also amazing about both of these guys is their record collections - how the fuck can anyone find SO MANY amazing samples from presumably obscure soul, funk and hip hop records?

Pretty Lights' sound is a lot less dark than DJ Shadow's , sampling warmer soul/disco/funk records in as melodic but usually less atmospheric way, more modern hip-hop snippets and old school hip-hop beats adding punch to an otherwise warm and accessible sound. The closest his sound gets to Shadow's (and probably his most impressive track) is More Important Than Michael Jordan which lays atmospheric piano down and teases the stereo extremes with poignant spoken samples and echoes. What separates the man from Shadow is a slightly more eclectic range of genres (the bass wobbles on this track come close to dubstep) and a more progressive feel to most of his tracks. Also, while he doesn't boast QUITE the variety of sounds Shadow manages, there is the odd deviation from squelchy, warm and soulful (best encapsulated in Hot Like Sauce, ) such as his rarely short and sweet ode to the badass How We Do. More recently released and proof he's still shit hot was Fly Away Another Day from last year (again with plenty of wobbles, the man makes more clear why Snoop Dogg, Rihanna and hip-hop in general are feeling some links to dubstep).

What's also pretty impressive about his music is that there's a whole fucking lot of it (just the one double-disk album Filling Up The City Skies lasts a hefty near three hours) and all for free. Seeing as the man deals only in non-original material he's been kind enough to provide EVERYTHING for free download on his site, although the music itself merits a donation, which you can do alongside the downloads. The only thing I might say critically about the project is that each track packs an individual punch, but (as with many albums) when you listen to entire album the dynamic is diluted a bit, which isn't surprising given that each track averages six minutes or more. But that's no reason not to scoop it all up like gold dust. Munch away.

Oh, and


Sub Focus - Could This Be Real (Sub Focus DnB Remix)

Cos I'm Sub Focus' bitch. And the original was pretty shite...

Mixt Ape Snippets

Just to say that from now on I'll be filling in those ghastly musical silences between weekly major posts on this blog with ramblings and mini recommendations on Mixt Ape's Twitter and Facebook pages, see box to the right to follow/become a fan.

Mixt Ape loves you.

Have a treat. From the Mixt Ape teat.

Hunter-Gathering

My imaginary female self has been foraging for the odd rock/folk/alternative berry, while masculine tribe leader me has been hunting a whole lot of meaty dnb/dub/electronica with a MASSIVE FUCKING SPEAR. Here you go tribespeople:


Berries first.


Surfer Blood - Floating Vibes

What's this? Guitars? Yeah, I found some unassuming and simple indie rock that didn't send me running for the hills. Catchy, muddy guitar riffs open a track that does exactly what it says on the tin. Although ironically the kind of guys who completely oppose surfer kids, this track really wouldn't seem out of place sound-tracking some American teen drama while the sun sets over the wash and some unrealistically-beautiful 'teenagers' (25, minimum) frolic hilariously about in celebration of the happy ending of a classically dramatic year. Oh, what? They're from Florida? Cue some strings in the closing minute to lather some thin layer of 'integrity'. Actually, I quite like it all.


JJ - Let Go

I think these guys also produce some hip-hop-infused electronica, but I'm happy with what's here. Dreamy vocals float over sparse, echoey pianos and guitars and retro synths. Think of tacky eighties-esque school disco slow dances. 'I like your sleeves, they're real big.'


Laura Gibson & Ethan Rose - Younger

If I'm entirely honest I'm not yet completely convinced by this track, but something about it intrigues me. Minimal and with very little direction or apparent structure, it's basically an odd scattering of soothing female vocal mumbles over ambient samples of rattling, jingling things. Having said that, whack some headphones on and those shimmering synth pads smothering the corners of your ears do seem to glue it all together pretty pleasantly.

But don't let those measly berries put you off. The lads are bringing in the prize kills.


Meaty, meaty meat.

Sorry, not much clever here, but BIG for sure.

Noisia - Deception

MEATY MEATY dnb! Noisia bring that persistently MASSIVE drop for this characteristically pounding new release. Although inevitably not a patch on last year's Stigma, it's still quite a banger. This is the kind of music that was made to scare grannies.


Johnny L - Evah

And then some more. This sounds like someone took a big spoonful of the late nineties and poured it into a modern-day dnb jelly-mould. Basically, it's plenty trancey, with tinny house hi-hats incorporated into its breakbeat, and beautifully cheesy trance pianos and blaring synth lines completing the distinct flavour.


AC Slater - Jack Got Jacked (Jack Beats Remix)

So why not something more housey? I've gone all club here, but it's a cheeky one. Saw-synths cue blistering wobble mania.


Rusko - Cockney Thug


Yeah, definitely nothing subtle about this one. What could make dub even more in-your-face? Oh, apparently Vinnie Jones samples and synth-horn. 'WAKE THE FUCK UP'.

Boxcutter - Glyphic

But who said dubstep can't be subtle? I finally found a dub producer and album I consistently enjoy, but then again it's probably cos it's a crossover, dub roots smeared with IDM elements. A lonesome producer of this kind of music out in his homeland of Northern Ireland, this man does for dubstep what Squarepusher and Aphex Twin did for jungle back in the nineties. A slowly dragged out introduction proves worth the wait as the sound-scape is stuffed full of choppy bass wobbles and echoey effects. Probably my favourite track here.


Martyn - All I Have Is Memories

Staggering but chilled breakbeat here, with all the snappiness of earlier garage, but the intelligence of more modern electronica. It's a comedown track, but with plenty of kick for that 'mummy, I don't want to go home' feeling preceding a groggy homecoming, also right at home on a night-time drive.


Here's some I made earlier. 2003 was a good year for dnb it would seem.

Twisted Individual - Bandwagon Blues

Clowny to the extreme, the wobbles on TI's cheeky response to criticisms of their 'singular' sound are over the top in exactly the right kinda way.


Fresh - Signal

Back to the time when breaks were even more aggressive, changing from bar to bar like some ultra-violent bruce lee fight scene. Tasty.

2009 Runoff

In keeping with being CLASSICALLY behind, I'm about to venture yet again back to last year. I'm livin' in the past, what you gonna do about it?

So basically, I've spent the last year holding desperately onto some kind of tasteful independence from the subscribed list of what's good - AKA the Hype Machine.

It's clearly a fantastic resource and a great concept (to merge the collective tastes of hundreds of different music blogs) but I think it gets a bit circular as bloggers notice what other bloggers are saying is cool, then re-post the same music, so that it snowballs and something (very possible SHIT) that a few blogs liked early on becomes invincible in the snooty eyes of the musical blogosphere, and thrives on little more than hype. Hence, hype machine.

HAVING SAID THAT they just finished compiling their 2009 'musical zeitgeist' which listed the year's 50 best albums and artists and a handful of the most hyped tracks as per the musical dogma, and I was forced to eat a small delicatessen bag full of my own words. Yummy.

So, listening to their collection of top tracks, a few sprung out at me that made me feel guilty for leaving them out of my 2009 reminiscing. Here they are in all their outdated, mixt-ape-proving-wrong glory:




Florence + The Machine - You Got The Love (The XX Remix)

This one forced me to sulkily pour away a few of my preconceptions, like non-alcoholic beer you'd been sipping nonchalantly for hours under the impression it was regular 5%. Yeahp, I've been forced to sober up to realising that I might have been wrong about BOTH artists in the title. I've always been weirdly suspicious of female-fronted bands (it's probably cos girls are shit at music. :) ) and the XX seemed annoyingly sedate to me. Plus I was clearly suffering from that arrogant aversion to hype in both cases. But this remix in all its glittery splendour is making me think I shouldn't have ignored two of 2009's most prominent artists. It's fucking lovely, its staccato beats and deep bass are a bit reminiscent of old school UK garage (sweet, like chocolate boy?) but without the guilt that went with it, and the singers' replacement vocals perfectly fit the weirdly dispassionate yet emotional sound to the track (and the XX generally if I'm not wrong) before the actual Florence samples begin bleeding through, chopped up and knocked about with effects. This being the second Florence remix I've fucking loved (see Drumming Song remix a couple of posts down) my words might just end up in the shitter.



Sigur Rós vs Mobb Deep - Shook (Emancipator Mash Up)

Probably my favourite one here, although more for the Sigur side than Mobb Deep's, Emancipator takes Jonsi's vocals from an otherwise gentle and fluid track and supremely beats the shit out of it with a sampler, creating an entirely new melody, before Mobb Deep comes back from the nineties to bounce verse off of an otherwise soul-touching track. Still, he's totally allowed to, it's cool.




Notorious B.I.G. - Party And Bullshit (Ratatat Remix)

Here's where the hip hop can definitely happen. Biggie + Ratatat's cheeky production = beyond the grave satisfaction.


Radiohead - Reckoner (The Twelves Remix)

And I failed to hear this last year probably owing to my sensible suspicion of radiohead remixes. This one does pretty well though, the twelves seem to have a way with the upbeat transformation of very haunting minor songs (hear their remix of Fever Ray).


We Plants Are Happy Plants - Apollo

Unsigned euphoric bleepy electronica. I possibly only remembered this artist when mishearing the name as 'Weed Plants Are Happy Plants' which I reckon would be much better. Still, ears peeled for this one.


Yeah, so there are the ones I'll give Hype Machine. Well done lads and ladettes, you did good. Listen to these tracks and more on their radio show/podcast (and try to fight the temptation to kill things when their presenter speaks. She says EVERYTHING in the same tone of voice like she's a Californian freshman ready for spring break).

Randoms

Just a few tracks that slipped fresh into my ears in recent days, along with some pathetic links between each:

The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock - Colouring of Pigeons

Splashed all over bloggers this week like snow and swine flu dregs over the British public is this preview into the imminent project involving The Knife (Andersson's Fever Ray project still mustily wafting in 2009's wake, it being almost universally agreed upon as integral to the year's sonic zeitgeist). Basically, this track is one of many that will comprise a Danish opera based on Darwin's On the Origin of the Species. And yeah, it's about as weird as it sounds, though completely accessible. Expect this to be not only the first but the last post I ever make about opera. You can find out more on the group's website, and there's a free download of the track available to anyone who joins their mailing list. It's only about two clicks away, I'm not giving a direct link fool!


Collections of Colonies of Bees - Flocks III

From pigeons to birds in general. Not new this time, but equal in length (yeahp, both tracks are 11 minutes long, what you gonna do?) The group make up several parts of Volcano Choir, who I've blogged about already and released their album Unmap this year (listen for anyone too lazy to scroll down) in collaboration with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. They're all chums basically, and you can hear the distinctive emphatic swells in instrumentation throughout that both Jagjaguwar-signed artists share. It's essentially a very long and drawn-out lovely mess of traditional instruments sampled in a pseudo-ambient (it's not exactly sleepy) fashion, lots of guitars and repetitive cymbal rushes pieced together like electronica. It's either fantastically profound and complex or victim to a bit too much artistic license, but it sits well on the ears in any case. Try the whole album (Birds), this track was chosen just because it was the only one readily available for download, Flocks IV is actually superior.


Easy Star All-Stars - Airbag

Okay, the best I can do for some kind of link between this and the previous track is as follows: the last track had a lot of cymbal rushes, Thom Yorke released a track called Cymbal Rush (his live version alongside Flea was pretty special), Thom Yorke leads nicely on to Radiohead! Anyway, a massive drop in profundity there, it's the opening track to the dub reggae rework/cover of Radiohead's OK Computer, which seems to equally offend and impress previous fans (I think it's the fanboys who feel insulted. Get over yourselves). Does exactly what it says on the tin, it's the same track, pretty similar arrangement only with accentuated offbeat, horns, rasta vocals and dub-style delays. What I like about these dub reworks of classic albums (see Dub Side of the Moon, Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band) which overly-rigid radioheads don't seem to grasp is that the covers are respectful and playful. They know there's nothing serious about a reggae cover (although the musicianship and arrangements are pretty meticulous) and are only messing about with music they fully respect, leaving the melodies fairly well alone. All these do is provide a bit of a giggle and remind you what you loved about the albums in the first place. To me, Airbag is the definitive Radiohead track of all time (in what other track does each member's input shine through so strongly?) but I don't like this cover any less. The rework of Let Down on this album (Radiodread) is definitely the best - featuring Toots & The Maytals - but I've had that knocking about for ages. Even Thom Yorke himself heartily agreed that the Toots cover of the track was superior. Nuff said.


Future Prophecies - Dreadlock

And we've definitely hit rock bottom in the profundity pot here. It's some pretty old DnB, and it's definitely not the intelligent type. It just reappeared in my iTunes recently after I enjoyed it far too much (causing some temporarily dangerous driving, I'm not gonna lie) in an old Fabriclive mix. Plus, the title has a semantic link to the last track :) Expect a repetitive and coarse synth line. Shut up and take it like a man.

So long Paul MacInnes

Isn't the Guardian a beautiful thing? Proudly-intellectual leftyism aside, the cultural commentary provided in their weekly Saturday supplements the Guide and the Weekend never fails to prove insightful and entertaining. The love-children of these sections includes the fantastic Guardian music website and its regular and on-the-ball Music Weekly podcast.

Anyway, the chronological relevance of my unashamed arse-kissing here is that the long-standing main presenter of the podcast, the firm-tasted and (in terms of new music given the 'cool' label) hard-to-convince Paul MacInnes, has just had his last cast. Definitely worth checking out (I'd recommend a trip to the iTunes store to subscribe the the whole podcast), the last podcast summed up Music Weekly's place in 2009 through a series of exclusive live performances from guests they'd had on the show, including performances by Ellie Goulding (in one live track boosting my opinion of her) and Mumford & Sons. Although unrepresentatively acousticy, the mix of artists on this week's cast do mirror the variety yet persistent quirk rife on the podcast generally.

So anyways, I mourn the loss of the bloke, and hope the podcast retains its reliability without him - the man had a rarely free-of-bullshit attitude to music commentary and tastes which were comfortably compatible with mine. It's definitely worth checking out any previous episodes to reel in the last of his musical-taste-juices before his replacement comes in.

Oh, look, I didn't really talk about music at all. Just music journalism. And I gave away one of my sources! Fuck it, if there's one thing wrong with music blogs, it's their pretentious avoidance of mentioning the places where all their recommendations usually stem from. No, we're not all musical hunter-gatherers waiting by the proverbial stream for the first catch, we're just nicking the best crop from others' nets.