raisedbydrummachines

I’m a nerdy journalist in my mid-20s, so naturally I need to make lists of everything in order to make sense of the world. Standard stuff….

25. Grouper – A.I.A: Alien Observer/Dream Loss

24. ASAP Rocky – LIVELOVEA$AP

23. Space Dimension Controller – The Pathway To Tiraquon6

22. Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie XX – We’re New Here

21. The Haxan Cloak – The Haxan Cloak

20. James Ferraro – Far Side Virtual

19. Iceage – New Brigade

18. Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972

17. LV & Joshua Idehen – Routes

16. James Blake – James Blake

15. Radiohead – The King Of Limbs

14. Peaking Lights – 936

13. Julia Holter – Tragedy

12. Kuedo – Severant

11. Balam Acab – Wander/Wonder

10. Drake - Take Care

9. Zomby - Dedication

8. The Weeknd - House Of Balloons/Thursday

7. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact

6. Björk - Biophilia

5. Rustie - Glass Swords

4. Roly Porter - Aftertime

3. Clams Casino - Clams Casino (instrumental mixtape)

2. Machinedrum - Room(s)

1. Frank Ocean - nostalgia, ultra

Originally published by Drowned in Sound, December 2011

I love the tail end of the year, mostly because I’m just a geeky kid at heart and I like making lists. Without wanting to make broad generalisations about DiS readers, I assume you probably enjoy making lists too, so you’ll understand that for geeky kids like us the end of the year is like, well… Christmas.

Given the above, it was inevitable that this final Drowned In Bristol column of the year was going to be list based. Although, to be honest, I’ve sort-of bottled-it with this, for one thing it’s a bit undefined; rather than being a list of albums or tracks it’s sort of just a list of, well, stuff – LPs, tracks, artists, promoters, clubnights etc. Secondly, it’s not ranked or anything, just in alphabetical order, and 14 is pretty arbitrary number. Finally, I’m reluctant to use the word ‘best’, as that would imply I’m some kind of omnipotent force in this city with the knowledge to say categorically what’s better than everything else, which would be way off the mark, as I’m sure there’s masses of excellent stuff I’ve missed or forgotten (use the comments section below to mention these things please!) I know, I’m a disgrace to obsessive, geeky music fans everywhere. Anyway, here we go…

Read the full column via Drowned in Sound

Originally published by Fact Magazine, October 2011

It’s a miracle that, with Biophilia, Björk hasn’t become a casualty of her own ambition. Being an album that was, supposedly, originally conceived as a museum installation, then an Imax film – born out of hours of research on the subjects of astrophysics, DNA and natural history – by rights the resulting 10-track release should be an unfocussed mess. Moreover, by opting to release the record alongside an elaborate, interactive iPad app, she put herself in real danger of having the actual music drowned out by the tech-scene’s loud proclamations that she’s heralding the future of music consumption.

Miraculously, the end result that has emerged out of all the hype and hyperbole is a beautifully conceived and eloquently executed album. All the press-release fodder about Björk composing parts of songs on custom-built iPad apps, recording pendulums and playing a Tesla coil could so easily have heralded the death knells of an artist who was reaching for unconventional methods to compensate for a lack of ideas. Yet listening to Biophilia it all begins to make a lot of sense. By avoiding traditional pop instrumentation – opting to feature no guitars or live drums on the album – Björk has managed to give the whole record a unique, unified texture. The choral drone of ‘Cosmogony’, for instance, probably wouldn’t sit so well next to the jungle break-driven outro of ‘Crystalline’ if weren’t for the shared ethereal tone of the two tracks’ instrument parts – but she makes it work remarkably well.

Read the full review via Fact Magazine

Originally published by Drowned in Sound, October 2011

It’s sort of lucky that the weather has taken a grey, autumnal turn over the last couple of days, as the freak heatwave didn’t particularly suit the ambient-heavy, warehouse-dwelling tone of this edition of Drowned in Bristol.

Rather than spend too much time dwelling on things that have already happened, let’s jump in with some new releases and upcoming events. But one quick special mention first to Hype Williams (pictured above), whose set at The Arnolfini a couple of weeks ago is possibly my favourite thing I’ve seen this year. For anyone who missed it, it involved the duo playing a set of their dark, sample-heavy tunes in near darkness accompanied by a speedo-clad body builder pulling poses at the front of the stage for the duration, all backed by an incessant strobe-light and such heavy use of a smoke machine that the venue staff weren’t letting people leave the auditorium for fear of setting off fire alarms. It was bizarre and intense. Which is great. Also, as a sidenote, I think that theatre room in The Arnolfini may be one of my favourite places to see gigs in Bristol, and is criminally underused for that purpose. But I’m digressing…

Read the full column via Drowned in Sound

Originally published by Drowned in Sound, August 2011

Around this point in the summer inner-city music activity always tends to slow down a little - gigs and club nights have been noticeably quieter over the last few weeks, and less people seem to be releasing music. We all need a holiday I guess, and I’m told it has something to do with students.

That said, Bristol seems to find an excuse to have some sort of ‘festival’ every weekend throughout the summer months; which is nothing to complain about. So far this year St Paul’s Carnival stands out as the obvious highlight of these. The addition of the relatively-hidden Red Bull stage (featuring Joker, Julio Bashmore and David Rodigan) made a really excellent companion to the already great range of soundsystems, plus it was nice to catch a live set from former local boy Bass Clef at an afterparty. Also, I just have a borderline-weird thing for jerk chicken and Red Stripe, which helps, I guess.

A personal favourite gig of the past couple of months has been last week’s set from How To Dress Well - although I’ve spoken to a good number of people who’d adamantly disagree with that appraisal. I guess there’s always going to be something inherently divisive about a man somewhat-awkwardly performing (what I’d call) hauntingly beautiful R&B, almost karaoke-style, to a reverb-heavy backing track in the near dark. I’m a fan though. Other than that, Louisiana-based Givers proved to be a really nice surprise highlight at Start The Bus last week, easily one of the liveliest and most interesting guitar bands I’ve caught in ages. Plus they played a Talking Heads medley.

So what’s new? Well, over the past few months there’s been some rather excellent DIY music videos produced by Bristol musicians, so this edition of DiB is going to draw on a few of these. For one thing, it all ties together nicely with some excellent new releases, and for another it means slightly circumnavigating the city’s dance labels this time around - which isn’t to say there hasn’t been any great electronic releases lately, but it’s nice to acknowledge that there’s more to the city than basslines every now and then. Anyway…

Read the full column via Drowned in Sound

Originally published by MusicRadar, July 2011

When Battles released their debut album Mirrored back in 2007 they proved themselves to be a band that were so much more than the sum of their already impressive parts.

Prior to that album’s release the then-four-piece from New York were generally referred via their members’ affiliations to the somewhat-niche American genre of math rock.

During the ’90s drum-powerhouse John Stanier played as a member of experimental hardcore band Helmet; guitarist and synth player Ian Williams was a member of instrumental rockers Don Caballero; guitarist and bassist Dave Konopka performed with cult rock band Lynx, while multi-instrumentalist - and son of legendary jazz musician Anthony Braxton - Tyondai Braxton carved out a name for himself with his loop-manipulating solo work.

Yet Mirrored - which was released on highly regarded electronic label Warp - found success well beyond the leftfield experimental rock crowd it was expected to. Despite being an album with its roots firmly planted in angular guitar music, the record saw the band draw on influences from punk, dance music and prog rock.

The somewhat divisive, pitch-shifted vocals from Braxton and pounding drum work of Stanier helped turn lead single Atlas into a most unlikely hit. And Battles found themselves performing live on the BBC (Later With Jools Holland), soundtracking TV shows and adverts for the likes of Audi and Honda and receiving album of the year nods from the NME, The Guardian and Time magazine.

Reinventing the band

A lot has changed for Battles since Mirrored was released. In August 2010, at a time when the band were already late delivering their much-anticipated second album, it was announced that Braxton had left to focus on his solo work.

Read the full interview via MusicRadar

Originally published by Drowned in Sound, July 2011

Having never seen Prince live before, if you’d told me that he was actually a just work of fiction I probably wouldn’t have found it that unbelievable. He’s an artist who has spent his life behind a veil of mythology; having only rare contact with the press, often limited to bizarre soundbites (“time is a construct of the mind”), his real personality largely obscured by baffling name changes and grandiose life choices. It wouldn’t seem that outlandish to find out he was actually just a mythical creature, a construct of collective consciousness - albeit one attached to one of the strongest back catalogues in pop music history.

This may be a bit of a far-out statement, but it goes some of the way to explaining why it’s so uniquely exciting witnessing this short-in-stature, seemingly-ageless man step take the stage for the first time. It’s closer to what you’d imagine it’d be like to be creeping around the house late-night on Christmas Eve and accidentally catch Santa Clause mid-act than any gig-going experience. He radiates stage presence in a rare way.

Straight off one thing that often gets lost among the rock mythology becomes immediately apparent - more than anything, Prince is one of the most professional and slick performers in the world. The set starts with a ‘soundcheck’, but to call it such gives off the wrong idea - where other artists would hastily bash out some guitar chords and mumble something about their monitors in the direction of the sound desk, Prince has his band launch into unreleased track ‘We Live 2 Get Funky’ while he struts around the stage, giving audio instructions to the tech crew (“warm up those mid-ranges”) and checking the levels with the sort of energy other artists put into playing their biggest hit…

Read the full review via Drowned in Sound

Originally published by Drowned in Sound, June 2011

It seems that all it takes is 24 hours of decent sunshine for the streets of Bristol to take on the ever-so-slightly booze-driven atmosphere of a large scale music festival. As soon as the sun comes out, suddenly the city’s harbour sides and parks become rammed with people (and sure, we’ve had the odd riot too recently, but we’ll gloss over that).

Anyway, welcome to the second Drowned In Bristol column of the year, hopefully providing a bit of a round-up of a few of the music-related things going on and coming up around the start of the summer. As I’ve said before, I’m sure there are things I’m missing, so drop links or opinions about anything interesting in the comment section below…

Read the full column via Drowned in Sound

Originally published by Fact Magazine, June 2011

This cassette-only release is something of a sidestep for already diverse New York-based producer Laurel Halo. The seven tracks on offer are stripped completely of the haunting vocals that characterised last year’s King Felix EP, and are far more freeform than anything on this month’s beat-driven follow-up, Hour Logic. The tape is, essentially, Laurel indulging and exploring the more ambient ends of her influences, composing tracks entirely out of churning atmospherics, lo-fi synth drones and heavy reverb effects.

In that sense it would be easy to write-off this limited release as a mere curiosity – that is, it would be if she hadn’t made such an excellent job of it. Here Laurel has produced an half-an-hour’s worth of totally minimal, ambient music that is skilfully constructed and a joy to listen to. From the wide drone of opener ‘Impulse’, to the minimal techno of the cassette’s final track ‘Head 1’, Antenna is an absorbing and totally serene listen.

Read the full review via Fact Magazine

Originally published by Fact Magazine, May 2011

It says more about the genre than it does the album that Can’t Sleep sounds – in dubstep terms – like a sort of throwback. It’s an album that’s content to roll along at a consistent 140bpm (an increasing rarity these days), makes no overt cross-genre sidesteps and doesn’t slot obviously into any newly-emerging sub-genre. In a blindfold test, stripped of all prior knowledge, you’d probably estimate its release date as somewhere between 2006 and 2009. It is, essentially, a dubstep album.

The things is, none of the above is that much of an issue. While there’s nothing boundary-breaking here, what Kryptic Minds – the formerly d’n’b-orientated production duo of Brett Bigden and Simon Shreeve – have made with Can’t Sleep is a consistent, understated and perfectly pitched dubstep full-length. The album walks a nice line between warmth and menace – at once conjuring up the sort of solitary moods evoked by the album’s title while weaving in atmospheric, nostalgic-sounding lines of melody. As you’d expect from an LP like this, everything is underpinned by a thick, deep sub-bass, but here Kryptic Minds know how to show restraint as much as pack a punch, avoiding any ham-fisted LFO wobbles in favour of brooding pulses.

Read the full review via Fact Magazine