http://www.spannered.org/music/search/date/down/0/albums/1/ Music, art, film and literature from outside the mainstream bubble, a platform for writers. Spread a little mp3 love. en-gb Copyright 2007 Spannered. All Rights Reserved. Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT 240 http://www.spannered.org/images/skins/spannered/RSS.jpg http://www.spannered.org/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1543/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1543/ The rumours of a B12 Records CD release of all those rare-as-hens-teeth 12”s from back in ‘the golden era of British techno’ has long been mooted — finally the time has arrived. Seven double-CD packages compiling no less than 98 tracks (!!), including every track originally committed to wax and a rather healthy 27 which have never previously seen the light of day in any format. Last Days of Silence, the recent ‘comeback’ album released after more than a decade away, was something of a patchy effort that never quite recaptured those halcyon days of the early 90s, but the moment you put on disc one, volume one of this archive series, opening tracks Metropolis and Obsessed (both plucked from the label's first EP for the duo's … Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1542/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1542/ Having been an admirer of the work of Edinburgh’s Neil Landstrumm since his early recordings for Peacefrog in 1995, I had high hopes when it transpired that, after a number of excellent albums for Tresor, he was signing to Planet Mu. The resulting long-player, Restaurant of Assassins, took him in a rather different direction though — gone were the wonky techno wobbles of such classic albums as Brown By August and Understanding Disinformation, Landstrumm was now immersing himself heavily with the various UK bass scenes: dubstep, grime and breaks. Whilst his production sounded more accomplished than ever (he has always maintained a healthy range of shiny boxes to play about with, even on stage), that album didn’t quite strike the chord with m … Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1541/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1541/ Glasgow’s Stuffrecords has been quietly releasing some outstanding records over the past couple of years, but with this new 12” from Ruaridh Law, one third of The Marcia Blaine School for Girls, appearing here under his confusing solo moniker The Village Orchestra, they have seriously raised the bar. Opener Dwyer effortlessly fuses melodic electronica, mashed up breakbeats and a relentless 4/4 kick with a classic sample from early 90s hardcore (the bassline from DJs Unite Vol. 1). On paper it shouldn't really work, but the result is perfectly balanced — sufficiently banging for the most demanding floor whilst emotive enough to raise the hairs of the nape. This will be a solid fixture in my record bag, a strong contender for my tune of the year. … Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1505/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1505/ From Cuban nostalgia to avant rock weirdness, the peripheral jazz zones of Gent Jazz Festival give Martin Longley much to reflect on in his second round-up of 2008's event. … Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1507/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1507/ Several years in the making and off the back of some fairly constant gigging, Save Your Light For Darker Days is no radical departure for Digitonal, the group headed up by producer Andrew Dobson. Earlier records for the likes of Toytronic and Seed laid a solid foundation of electronica backbone (easy on the DSP) layered mostly with lush, cinematic strings, and this led to appearances on the festival circuit, including the likes of the Big Chill and Glade. And this is music that very much lends itself to a stunning sunset over a large open space, beautiful countryside, lakes… it’s quintessentially English electronic music, heavy on the soundtrack element, nodding (not vigorously of course) to a slew of classical composers. This is about as expressive and melanchol … Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1508/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1508/ Techno music is a funny old game at the moment. The merest hint of fashion, or ego, and the old guard are up in arms. In 2008 then, they are marching with pitchforks on Berlin, waving banners proclaiming ‘we want the old Hawtin back’. It’s understandable, of course. This music was never about image, less so personality (put up your hand if you remember Rising High’s infamous “Faceless Techno Bollocks” t-shirts). It was owned by no one, a treasure discovered by those fortunate and open-minded enough to appreciate it simply on the basis of form. A lot has changed. Mixmag proclaimed that techno is now officially ‘sexy’ music. Er… it always was, thanks. But cue media frenzy. Everyone’s moved to Berlin. ‘Minimal’ is a … Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1509/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1509/ Rodney Smith returns for a fourth album on Big Dada, the label from which he has become inseparable. While Awfully Deep showed a distinct change of direction, the new album sees him return to a similar formula that made Run Come Save Me so popular. The beats and lyrics are infectious and irresistible, soon enough making you reach for the play again button — or bust all kinds of crazy moves in public. Or maybe that’s just me. Seriously though, there’s something about Slime & Reason. Maybe it’s the varied productions, switching around from summer riddims like Again & Again to bass-led headnodders like C.R.U.F.F. or even straight up dancehall bounce like Buff Nuff. Or maybe it’s the lyrics, altern … Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1446/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1446/ Martin Longley travels to the cobblestone streets of Gent, Belgium for a historical tour of jazz's journey from bebop to fusion. … Sun, 03 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1436/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1436/ Debashish Bhattacharya, slide guitar guru and preserver of the ancient Indian classical system, touches down in York with his arsenal of customised axes. … Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1414/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1414/ Laurent Fintoni finds plenty to like in the hotly anticipated debut album from dubstep-techno operative Dave Huismans. … Tue, 27 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1415/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1415/ Daedelus, a man well-known for both his live shows and his ‘unconventional’ sense of dressing, returns to Ninja for a new album. And the good news is that, in the words of the Ninja press release, ‘it’s his most accessible yet’. The album is a homage to early UK rave culture, which Daedelus discovered aged 15. But it comes across as more than a simple tribute. Using early rave culture as an inspiration, Daedelus brings the music 15 years forward — the result being a weird but fascinating hybrid of the old and new, with wonky basslines, grinding synths, club beats and quality raps from guests N’Fa, Taz from Sa-Ra and Paperboy. You might think that trying to cover so much ground would leave the album feeling somewhat unfocused, but it’s th … Tue, 27 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1416/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1416/ LA’s Flying Lotus is a name on everyone’s lips right now, and rightfully so considering the quality, variety and progression of his work to date — from early, loose and wonky Dilla-esque beats and compositions to his more recent bass-heavy bootlegs and his eclectic EP for Warp that takes in everything from laid-back pieces to dancefloor fillers. Now it's time for a first album for the legendary UK electronic label, and it sees the man in top form, delivering 17 tracks of what can only be described as fresh new music that truly takes hip hop forward. Instrumental for the most part, Fly Lo continues to redefine the idea of ‘beat music’. From loose drum programming to distorted synths, hypnotic loops and wobbly basslines, the LA beatmeister serves up the kin … Tue, 27 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1418/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1418/ Kevin Martin can easily be described as an eclectic producer. Over the years he has collaborated with, remixed and produced for a great many artists across a wide range of styles. While The Bug is the project for which he is most known today, in the wake of dubstep’s popularity (and Martin's association with Kode9's Hyperdub label), this new album shows just how pointless it would be to try and box The Bug’s music into any one ‘sound’. Across 12 tracks, Kevin collaborates with 8 MCs and vocalists, including Flowdan, Warrior Queen, Ricky Ranking, Tippa Arie and Roger Robinson, to deliver an apocalyptic soundtrack. The music grabs you from the first bars of opener Angry and only starts to let you go as the mellower Judgement rolls in at the end. … Tue, 27 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1408/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1408/ New material signals a welcome return for techno legends B12, but the Essex boys are not quite back on their feet yet, says Kone-R. … Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1409/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1409/ Something missing in your life? Gianluigi Di Costanzo's new double-CD may be just what's needed to plug the gap... … Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1410/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1410/ 'The band reinventing dance music' and the 'Chas & Dave of Rave' together under one roof? Kone-R heads out in west London. … Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1390/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1390/ After three decades of curmudgeonly scowling, has Mark E Smith finally earned the right to act like James Brown? Martin Longley treks to the UK's West Midlands to find out... … Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1385/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1385/ Martin Longley crams himself into New York's Knitting Factory venue for 2008's Winter Jazzfest. … Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1382/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1382/ What does Autechre's new album sound like? Nothing like Barnsley, that's for sure, says Dave Marcia. … Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1380/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1380/ Bring the noise! Martin Longley catches Sonic Youth's ever-youthful Thurston Moore in New York at the recent showcase gig for his Ecstatic Peace! imprint. … Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1368/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1368/ Acid Sauna, the debut long-player from London-via-Chicago’s Libby Floyd, aka The Doubtful Guest, is a fierce onslaught of 303-driven rave pressure. Opener Slaves is a decent enough marker for what’s contained within: banging drum machine action interlaced with Roland tweakery, overlaid with forebodingly dark synths and pitched-down voice samples — a good example of the kind of thing she’s dropped in recent live sets and shows what she’s capable of. From here she moves through a selection of styles, fusing dub, drum 'n' bass and straight-up party gabba, but despite her background as a classically trained musician (she’s sung with Pavarotti, no less) it all seems rather underwhelming. It’s one of those albums that feels like a … Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1372/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1372/ Balancing Lakes is the third album from Barry Lynn, better known for working under his Boxcutter moniker. Lynn has gained recent critical praise for his dubstep-meets-IDM output for various labels including Mu, but this one is a trip into Lynn’s archives, a move which seems rather questionable as the material does often fall foul of wearing it’s influences perhaps a little too proudly on it’s sleeve.   The first couple of tracks are inoffensive melodic mid-tempo numbers — nice enough but they don’t exactly leap out. From there he moves through several sub-Squarepusher imitations — I’m not sure if anyone remembers the heyday of drill 'n' bass, or even if there was one, but this is straight out of that era. … Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1347/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1347/ Drummer and composer John Hollenbeck comes across as a combination of benign control freak and supremely modest humorist. He's very much the director of his (and his bandmates') pieces, applying some beautifully precise drum-patterns that also have a slippery funkiness sitting alongside their new-music accuracy. He's like a clockwork toy creation, frequently placing objects on his skins to facilitate a rickety, robotic click-clacking. Yet Hollenbeck's between-number asides are darkly funny, riddled with self-deprecating angst, as he sometimes explains the convoluted concepts behind his pieces. Hollenbeck's main forum is The Claudia Quintet, which despite his leadership, has the feel of a fairly democratic unit. On disc, one criticism is that they can sometimes sound too … Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1329/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1329/ The wonderful Hand On The Plow till four more startling tracks from the land, including two heavy reworks from techno maestro Cristian Vogel. The lead cut is a shuffling piece they describe as 'self important R'n'B', which on initial listens left me wondering what on earth they were trying to achieve but on revisiting began to make a certain amount of (admittedly fucked up) sense. Inevitably, I now absolutely love it. Paired with the disco funk of Me Too, a rework which burbles along nicely in a squelchy electro disco style, they make for an odd couple, but then that's what B&T are all about. The Vogel mixes are aimed at a more Tresor type of floor as you might expect, popping and clicking to a crescendo with extra growl. Get your hand on.   ^ … Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1330/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1330/ South London's Combat imprint back in full effect. Gymede and E Blade offer irresistibly skippity breaks, riding all manner of edits before breaking down into off-kilter half-step. The former has been a staple of recent sets of mine and always seems to get people smiling. The spartan gamelan dub of Embrionic is a rather more restrained affair, whilst Blackmass Plastics skank it up on the guest remix tip. Combat are carving a serious niche for themselves in the danger area between breaks, electro and dubstep. Want to smash up the dance? Do not miss this. … Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1312/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1312/ The avuncular George Wein is beaming like he's holding his own personal jam session at home, inviting his favourite players and basking in their glow. Well, this is pretty close to the reality of this opening night of a run at Dizzy's Club, one of New York's best music joints, housed within Jazz At Lincoln Center, which is itself a few blocks south of the main Lincoln Center arts complex, up on the fifth floor of a shopping centre. Bands play in front of a glass-paned background, looking out over the south-west corner of Central Park, surrounded by twinkling skyscrapers, lights suitably dimmed to an organic glow within the club's fine acoustic space. Inviting his favourite players out is essentially what the octogenarian pianist Wein always used to do when programming t … Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1313/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1313/ The incredibly tall Weston hunkers over his dwarfed piano, looking years younger than his eight decades ought to demand. He's in relaxed mode for this intimate late-night gathering on the opening night of his residency. The African experience has been central to the Brooklyn-ite Weston's musical life from a very early point, even though it took him a while to actually steep himself in the continent's reality. This is the smallest manifestation of Randy's African Rhythms concept, a trio that are all seeking to be percussionists, though only one of them officially inhabits that role. Neil Clarke sits surrounded by congas, with Weston choosing not to employ a conventional drummer, but bassist Alex Blake and the leader himself are almost equally concerned with rhythmic attack: the sharply … Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1315/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1315/ Most folks would probably deem Mark Murphy a bit of an eccentric figure, but it's this very individuality that as marked him out as one of the most distinctive jazz singers in the music's history, not only in his voice alone, but in his whole storytelling persona, his demeanour and delivery. Is Murphy in the throes of early senility, so abstract is his poise? Or is this, as it always used to be, his naturally 'stoned' persona, the epitome of hipness and reclined cool? Don't worry about him not being able to find his comb: Murphy's sharp rhythmic command belies a man who knows where things are at... So he might shamble distractedly onstage, but in the end, he's always there at the right moment, directing his young quartet in improvised arrangements, as pianist Misha Piat … Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1269/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1269/ Al Fresco surfaces from a night out in Bristol with sore ears and a severe bout of decompression sickness. … Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/music/1351/ http://www.spannered.org/music/1351/ There are two meaningful Frank Zappa cover bands operating In the UK, each of them excellent in their differing ways. But, as you might expect, The Muffin Men and Zappatistas have their equivalent outfits over in the States, and surely the best of these must be Project/Object, formed in New Jersey, back at the beginning of the 1990s. Whereas Liverpool's Muffin Men have toured regularly with original Mothers Of Invention drummer Jimmy Carl Black (the Zappatistas keep themselves to themselves), Project/Object have magnified this tendency through collaborations with around a dozen Zappa alumni. Their latest spate of dates find them accompanied by singer, saxophonist and flautist Napoleon Murphy Brock, whose key period with Zappa was in the middle 1970s. Brock has been appe … Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT