Gig: Nouveaunoise (Academy 2, Dublin, July 2nd)

This Friday, those enigmatic devils of organic electronica and lush breaks (if such a thing exists) Nouveaunoise, shall be releasing their début album to the masses. Titled Paraphrase Accolade, the duo will be playing shindigs from the long-player in an ultra-rare full live show - with musicians and stuff (probably)!!
Like the voyeuristic notion of watching two Brighton based rent-boys getting in a fight to the death over the last remaining kerb crawler in the encroaching daylight, catching this show may well be a once in a lifetime experience. Unlike, the constant pulling of shirts in alleyways, I'm sure it will all be lovely.

This modern day boogie commences at the Academy 2 on Abbey Street, Dublin at a smart 10pm and is a measly €5 on the door. In some shops, that's price of a sandwich... a bloody sandwich or maybe even a roll, with chicken, lettuce, tomatoes and mayonnaise. Add a paper cup of poor tea on to that and you have a pretty expensive lunch. I quite like chicken, especially if it's rather dry - more sumptuous that way, but normally stop people when it comes to mayonnaise; I just can't stand the stuff - it tastes like wretched glop dipped in oil!! Lettuce I can deal with, but tomatoes are a no-no, despite the fact that tomato ketchup is a personal favourite - sometimes when I'm alone, the lights get turned off and I will sit in my darkened room with swimming goggles on and smear the stuff all over my lumpy body.

Naturally enough, Nouveaunoise will not be playing this endeavour alone. Support will be coming from the rather marvellous Bull Munro (whose name makes think of old newspaper comics) and Subway Mike - yet another sandwich reference...
Paraphrase Accolade the debut by Nouveaunoise will be available on the night and in shops the 2nd of July. Now raise your arms and scream "hooray!!"

The Return of Lakker

It feels like a few years since I last came across anything from Lakker. The Dublin two-piece often displayed a wonderful knack for creating uneasy, yet delectable electronica with glitch tints. With explorations into side-projects and non-music endeavours called to a temporary halt, Lakker have returned to the fore with pale-coloured, sickly piece of music.
If the new sample were a fish, its potentially lay with being a cod. Maybe a haddock.

A new EP, titled Loudmouth to be released on Stasis Records, is on the horizon and their new blog carries "Oeace"; a sample from the release. The release also features guest jobs from Fran Hartnett, Rory St John and Nomina - I have no idea who any of them are, but insider sources have led me to believe that they are all communist infiltrator's desperate to spread the red word amongst a rampantly blue society. BE VERY, VERY CAREFUL!! REPORT ALL PEOPLE WITH UNI-BROWS TO THE POLICE IMMEDIATELY!! THEY CANNOT BE TRUSTED!!
Loudmouth will be available from all major digital retailers. Spare five-and-a-half minutes, for it is a pretty sweet bit of haunting electronic wonderment.

Something for the Weekend: Republica "Ready to Go"

When English band Republica released "Ready to Go" in 1996, it must be said that I had a huge thing for lead singer Saffron when all of 14-years-old. So it may be no surprise that I at the ripe old age of 28, the Nigerian born lady still tickles my inner groin in the same way that sweet tea tickles my noise and air box.
The band really weren't around for very long and were for all intents and purposes, a 'one-hit wonder'; although their follow-up "Drop Dead Gorgeous" actually reached higher in the charts, no one can remember what it sounds like.

Such a shame then that the video to represent Republica's sole hit is so fucking irritating. Essentially the promo-video for "Ready to Go" has all the artistic merit of a 4-year-old vomiting on a blank canvas and his/her parent's calling it a masterpiece. To put this into perspective, it has all the subtle of Sylvester Stallone reading Hamlet, while pneumatic drills interject every word with harsh charges of chain-link tearing on concrete.
So nauseating in fact, is this sub-4 minute wonder, that it seems almost designed to impregnate one with epilepsy upon initial viewing; however if you wish to watch a video where a freak of a director plays with the zoom button for the entire duration, then be my guest. Just don't expect me to pick you up off the floor afterwards. At least the world will never have to worry about them again, right? Right???

Well worry no more folks, because in April of this year Republica announced that they were getting back together and that a(nother) remix of "Ready to Go" was about to hit shelves everywhere. If only a word had been invented that could adequately express my joy, wonderment or horror - beware not, Republica will be coming to a gig/festival near you soon (probably).

The Sound of Music

Not content to sit alone, the screeching sound was occasionally joined by similar frenzied sonic lines; all moving within eachother and testing the limits of their partners. As one line grew in both volume and pitch, a second would filter itself into the conversation, only waiting for the third to tempt oneself to the now notorious aural haze.
For a time, the protagonists would stutter and stumble as the fault lines became ever more apparent, however rather than being a tame closing section, the truth was ever more brutal. A sudden burst, a thunderous roar matched only by the sound of my heart sinking, shattered any thoughts of contemplation as if it were second rate glass. This violent push of air - sound's own equivalent of catatonia - very nearly ruptured my surface-only calm, in the same way it had torn my patience some time earlier.

This could have been a Miles Davis album from his somewhat more whacked out days of musicianship - sadly, it was just the sound of several children in the seats behind me during a flight from Dublin to London. Thanks to several delays and hold-ups at either end, this aural punishment lasted a mere 100 minutes. I don't think I have ever been so happy to land in London.
I'm absolutely shot...

Something for the Weekend: Sometimes People are Just Nice!!

So anyway, here's this viral video going around; however normally I'd avoid these somewhat, because they remind me too much of plagues started by marketing company's; often with the aim of rendering mindless people that inanimate objects can entice some sort of "experience". Thankfully, there are people out there that do not swim in shit, however this particular viral is just nice.

The story goes, it was this bus driver's birthday and the company along with supporters and passengers decided to give him a heartwarming birthday present. For once, I'm not going to be a brick of shit - this is just nice. Enjoy it.

Remix: Le Galaxie "Beyond Transworld [Dirtburd Remix}"

The rather tall Irish producer Sean Corcoran, has thrown together a rather delectable remix of "Beyond Transworld" by Le Galaxie.
Named the 'Dirtburd Remix' - after what I am led to believe is some sort of wild fox - the song falls into the depths of octaves that only exist in a black hole on the right hand side of Kilkenny. So shockingly sweet is the remix, that it devises a whole new meaning to term "aural sex".
(Get it?? Eh....Ehhhh... If not, you're probably a fucking sexual cannibal suffering from eternal dead leg!)

Le Galaxie - Beyond Transworld [Dirtburd Remix} by iamseancorcoran

The Art of Irrelevance

If you fancy a definition of irrelevant bullshit, then look no further than Mojo / the Mojo awards:

“Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page was inducted into the Mojo Hall Of Fame at the Mojo magazine awards last night. Kasabian's single Fire was named song of the year.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be a great British tradition unless Mani weighed in with his usual brand of enlightened garbage and proving once again that he represents that anti-thesis of dulcet tones. He thinks that:

“…people (in British music) are too career-orientated. They're afraid, or record companies will not allow them to take risks, and that just makes everything so uniform."

Very rich Mani, considering you’re in a supergroup with Peter Hook, Andy Rourke and Gary Briggs.

Something for the Weekend: Depeche Mode "Personal Jesus"

Released on Mute Records in August 1989, "Personal Jesus" was Depeche Mode's last hurrah of the decade that made them and was at the time, it was also Warner Music's highest selling 12-inch single.
Taken from their end of decade album, Violator, the heavy leaning guitar sound was quite a departure for the foursome best known for mixing it with keyboards and electronic instrumentation and it reinvigorated the band once again following the success of their 1987 long player, Music for the Masses.

In early 1990, the band released possibly their best known single, "Enjoy the Silence" and while the band remained commercially successful for a period thereafter, Violator was probably the last time Depeche Mode were truly relevant. As good as "Enjoy the Silence" is (and it is), "Personal Jesus" is the track that really punches the listener in the face with a brick wrapped in a cotton sock.
Over the years, there have been several cover versions; most notably from Marilyn Manson and Johnny Cash, while US teen-pop monster, Hilary Duff sampled the main guitar riff in a single in an attempt to kill off what was left of her vacuous dead-eye fanbase.
Twenty-one years later and Violator still stands up as an excellent body of body of work that could kick the living shit out of most albums released today.

Musical Fuck-Bullets

"Whoever thought it was a good idea to mix 'Billy Jean' and 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' should be fucking castrated!
People that do this are talentless cunts... Fuck you, you dick-cocks!"
--------

This actually came out ages ago, but this note had been sitting in my jacket pocket since last summer. This overlong piece of shit is - seriously - a wretched piece of fucking drivel.

It sounds questionable if both songs are even in the same key, while one of the songs was definitely slowed right down to "fit" the other. In terms of stylings, they are diametrically opposed in every conceivable way.
I like food, but it doesn't mean I'm going to eat carrots with chocolate ice cream.

(June 2010) Easy Music for Difficult Ears Spotify Playlist

Holy shit I'm tired. And by that I mean "here's another Spotify monthly playlist from the grandiose ears of self" or some other shite like that... There shall be mentaldom, animals fighting out to the death and probably boogieing while we're at it!!
Hooray and stuff.... I'm off to make some nice tea.

June 2010 Playlist

1. Dandi Wind "Umbilical Noose" (Bait the Tapes, 2005 Bongo Beat Records) Buy it
   
2. Crystal Castles "Celestica" (Crystal Castles [II], 2010 Polydor) Buy it
3. Siriusmo "High Together" (Kitsune Maison Compilation 8, 2009 Kitsune France) Buy it
4. Kylie Minogue "Confide in Me" (Kylie Minogue, 1994 BMG) Buy it
5. Juana Molina "Mantra del Bicho Feo" (Segundo, 2004 Domino Recordings) Buy it
6. New Order "Temptation (12" Mix Version)" (Movement Re-release, 2008 London/Warner Music) Buy it
7. Air "Dirty Trip" (Virgin Suicides, 1999 EMI France) Buy it
8. Madness "The Return of the Los Palmas 7" (Absolutely, 1980 Stiff Records) Buy it
9. S Piliso and His Super Seven "Kuya Hanjwa" (Next Stop... Soweto - Township Sounds from the Golden Age of Mbaqangwa, 2010 Strut Records) Buy it
10. Joe Strummer "Nica Libre" (Walker, 1987 Virgin Records America) Buy it
11. Bonzo Dog Band "Alley Oop" (The Bonzo Dog Band Volume 3 - Dog Ends, 1992 EMI Records) Buy it
12. Derek Martin "Daddy Rollin' Stone" (Testify, 1998 EMI Records) Buy it
13. Django Reinhardt "Solitude" (The Complete Jazz series 1937 Volume 1, 2009 Complete Jazz Series) Buy it
14. Chico Hamilton "Day Dream (featuring Eric Dolphy)" (The Original Ellington Suite, 2000 Blue Note Records) Buy it
15. Alice Coltrane "Oceanic Beloved" (A Monastic Trio, 1968 MCA Records) Buy it
16. Pharoah Sanders "Village of the Pharoahs, Parts 1, 2 and 3)" (Village of the Pharoahs, 1973 The Verve Music Group) Buy it
17. Ghazal "Eternity" (The Rain, 2003 ECM Records) Buy it

May 2010 Playlist
April 2010 Playlist
March 2010 Playlist

Something for the Weekend: Crystal Castles "Celestica"

I hated Crystal Castle’s self-titled début album when it came out in 2008 – to my ears, it just sounded like an amateurish attempt at 8-bit/industrial muzak. It took a number of listens to numb oneself enough to be able to sit through “Alice Practice” and while it doesn’t quite grate as much as use to, it still irritates somewhat – it’s not a shiver down my spine, rather a creeping claw that I feel. After a while, it was just boring – the sinking feeling that I had heard bands do this and better.

The arrival of the Canadian duo’s second album – also frustratingly called Crystal Castles – did not initially fill me with glee, but even the most hardened prick (that would be me) could not deny that it is a significant and surprising step forward. At times still harsh and corrosive, yet embracing subtleties and emotions that their debut often shunned, Crystal Castles is far more approachable than Crystal Castles…. Eh…that is to say II is better than I.

The opening single, “Celestica”, is by far one of the best songs on the album. Whereas the Alice Glass of old would most likely commit throaty torture to great through the song, “Celestica” showcases a softer approach to the vocals that almost swim under the veil of death – that the album cover features a little girl standing in a graveyard amidst headstones under darkening evening light is a clue to the rather sombre mood of this album. Crystal Castles could have easily remade their début and the chances are, they would have sunk because of it, but their second long player truly is a giant step forward.

Unfortunately, there does not appear to a video for “Celestica”, so for now here are Crystal Castles performing the song on Jools Holland last week.

Popical Island; All-Day Pop Extravaganza (Whelan's, Dublin; Jun 19th)

Starting on Saturday June 19th at 3pm, the wonderful folks at Popical Island will host a fantasmajolic all-day festival upstairs in Whelan's in Wexford St (Dublin) and to top it all off, the shindig is completely free. Performing at the all-dayer will be Easy Music... favourites Groom, Yeh Deadlies, Land Lovers and Pantone247. Admittedly I've never heard of any of the other folks playing, but that has never stopped me before.

The Popical Island chaps will also be DJ-ing the show to a rather late close, so it is in all your best interests to go on down and boogie like an off-your-face student, following several hours of poisonous alcohol and cheap "questionable" Ecstasy... not that I would condone such a thing.

*Things have been rather quite of late, but be patient you maladjusted malcontents. The June 2010 Spotify Playlist (which will be naturally potent and arse boogie-ingly good) shall be sweet for Friday love and stuff. OK, yeah? Deadly.