Penny and Ashtray
Penny and Ashtray hail from Osaka, Japan (their real names are Momoyo Kubo and Tamotsu Ide). I could call their music a cross between minimalist techno and chip music…but I’d be more direct to say it’s straight hyp-mo-tiz-ing. Their debut album, The Secrets of Galaxy Z, spans the gamut from floor-bangers to thoughtful instrumentals—which makes the repetitive nature of their style far more durable. In addition to recording 47 minutes of original material this past year, they found time to participate in Flunk’s remix competition. May they never run out of batteries…
Santogold
I know I’ve been taking the “summer hours” concept a little too seriously, but it’s hard to do anything but enjoy summer when you have something stuck in your iPod like Top Ranking, Diplo’s “mixtape” treatment of Santogold’s debut album. Diplo’s dub-bass-electro-hop concoction provides a textured playground for Santi White’s angelic and sassy brand of new wave. Unreleased mixes of Santi tracks bounce in and out between cuts from Three 6 Mafia, Benga, B-52s, Ratatat, and Sir Mix-a-Lot—there’s a smile around every corner. (If this sounds familiar, Diplo did the same for the last big indie “it” girl, M.I.A., on the eve of her debut album with the 2004 mixtape Piracy Funds Terrorism.)
Now, if you’re picturing me just swaying away in a shady hammock you’re only partly right. Top Ranking also got me off my butt and running every morning (five weeks and counting!). And it’s been the soundtrack to some spontaneous summer grill action… I don’t mean to overpromise but I guarantee it will make your life better—even if that means you forget to update your blog for over a month.
These tracks are some tasty Santogold remixes featured on Diplo’s Mad Decent label, though they’re not even on Top Ranking. For that, you’ll want to head over to turntablelab.com and drop $12 for the 75-minute mix.
Shelleyan Orphan
As some of you know, I spent the first half of the ’90s living in Provo, Utah. I worked at two CD stores during that time and it’s quite possible that I sold more CDs by The Sundays than any other band. Perhaps there was a common misinterpretation of the Fourth Commandment but Provo couldn’t get enough of The Sundays. Which leads to my story…
There was this guy who came in to the CD store one night and he said, “I love The Sundays. Do they have any other albums out?”
“No,” I said, “but if you like them you might enjoy Shelleyan Orphan. Similar female vocals and even more interesting instrumentation and song structures.”
“Hmm,” he said. “I don’t know. Do they sound just like The Sundays?”
“They’re even better,” I said, handing him a copy of Century Flower (the most Sundays-ish of their three albums). “If you don’t think so, you can return the CD.” Keep in mind, according to store policy I could not return opened merchandise, so this would have meant me buying back as used and paying him the difference. My co-workers warned me, this guy wasn’t going to go for something as adventurous as Shelleyan Orphan. But I was sure he’d not only appreciate my recommendation but tell all his friends about his new find.
Same time the next day, he walks in. “I didn’t like it. It doesn’t sound anything like The Sundays.”
That’s when I realized, to go back to the Bible, I was casting pearls before swine. I wasn’t going to be able to talk him into liking Shelleyan Orphan. So I paid the man from my own pocket and told him he wasn’t getting any more advice from me. “Let me know when the new Sundays album comes out,” he said, as he walked out the door.
Shelleyan Orphan disbanded shortly thereafter, no doubt disheartened that some dork in Utah didn’t think they sounded enough like The Sundays. After 15 years of soul-searching and playing in other bands, Caroline Crawley and Jemaur Tayle have recorded a new Shelleyan Orphan record, We Have Everything We Need, available in October 2008. Please enjoy the bluegrass-inspired single, which I will admit sounds nothing like The Sundays.
Zoos of Berlin
I’m at least six months late in writing about this Detroit-based quintet, which gives me the luxury (or burden) of reacting not only to their music, but to others’ reactions to their music. One rarely hears Zoos of Berlin mentioned without a reference to Brian Eno and David Bowie collabos. And while there are certainly similarities, especially in Trevor Naud’s cool, spacey vocals, to focus on that is to miss the range that Zoos demonstrate live, or even in the three songs on their debut EP. “Below the Old House” serves up ebullient psychedelia then resolves in a trance-inducing ending. “Speak Well of Manderlay” romps and stomps about with an amped-up Baroque air. Then there’s “On Large Amusements,” my personal favorite, which fits a sprawling shoegazerly jam into an efficient two-and-a-half minutes—leaving you hungry for more. They’ve kindly permitted us to make all three tracks available for download so you can decide for yourself which Zoos of Berlin you like the most. Have fun.
Chromeo
Four years later (look how short our posts used to be back then…) and Chromeo are still making us feel touched for the very first time with their naughty ’80s dance funk. Their latest release offers their sophomore album, Fancy Footwork, plus a bonus disc of greatest hits, videos, and remixes (though there are at least twice as many still floating out there in clubland). Get your tight white pants on for this action.
Previous post (from 6/21/04):
A faithful homage to ’80s processed funk phenomena (Jesse Johnson’s Revue, Timex Social Club, Oran “Juice” Jones, et al), “Needy Girl” could be my not-so-guilty pleasure of the summer. (This post updated on 09.16.04 with a couple of swell “Me & My Man” remixes.)
Butcher the Bar
First, my apologies for the unplanned hiatus from 3hive. It’s been a month since my last post, though I swear it doesn’t feel like it. To break the silence I’m taking it back to the old school—or is it the new school?—folk genre. Don’t know if it’s Joe’s long-awaited John Prine post or the near perfect weather here in Southeast Michigan (mid 70s and clear blue skies, ftw) but my ears seem to have an insatiable appetite for what Joel Nicholson, aka Butcher the Bar, cooked up in his bedroom studio in Manchester, England. His songs are immediately gratifying, they waste no time explaining themselves. Bare, beautiful guitar work and hushed lyrics of human relationship, of coming and going. As with all good stories, it’s what’s not said (or sung or played) that matters most. This is a truth that most 22-year-old musicians don’t learn until some time after their debut album, which is what makes Butcher the Bar’s Sleep at Your Own Speed that much more impressive.
Electric President
My promo copy of Electric President’s new album Sleep Well is practically worn out already, but luckily, the release date for the new disc is just a few days away. Dreamy like the last one, but dark and brooding too, Ben Cooper and Alex Kane are still rocking the electrorganic (it does work, Sam) in the available-for-free-download, opening track “Monster,” as well as a bunch of other great spins on the disc. Check out the tinkly little piano in this song, the falsetto vocals in “We will Walk through Walls,” and the oh-so-true chorus of “It’s an Ugly Life,” all of these backed by occasional boops and bips and computer scratches.
Monsters [MP3, 7.8MB, 128kbps]
Sam’s original post: 01/21/06
Jacksonville, Florida’s Ben Cooper and Alex Kane had been collaborating as Radical Face Versus Phalex Sledgehammer for a couple years, when they mercifully decided to change their name to Electric President. They put together a five-song EP called You Have the Right to Remain Awesome which found its way to the Morr Music offices in Berlin. Morr now brings us their debut long-player which is nothing short of dreamy. Electric President’s electrorganic (just made that term up) pop fits right alongside labelmates Lali Puna, Styrofoam, b.fleischmann, and Mum. Ben also records solo as Radical Face (hence the duo’s original moniker) and should have an album out (also on Morr) later this year. He also makes really nice paintings. And he’s only 23. Yeah, I know…showoff.
Insomnia [MP3, 9.9MB, 320kbps]
Good Morning, Hypocrite [MP3, 7.4MB, 192kbps]
Label My Mind: Blown [MP3, 5.6MB, 192kbps]
Steinski
Someday, when every respectable university offers sampling/remix/mashup culture curricula and tweed jackets are replaced by hoodies, expect to find lectures devoted to a particular five minutes and 23 seconds of musical history: Double Dee and Steinski’s “The Payoff Mix.” The track, an entry by a couple of first-time bedroom producers to a remix contest put on by Tommy Boy Records in 1983, has shaped both underground and popular music for decades (two and a half to be exact) and still stands on its own two legs… The technique of audio juxtaposition and recontextualization (otherwise known as “rewind moments”) and even the specific samples the duo used on that pioneering track have become as common to hip-hop, remixes, and mash-ups as backspins and “yes y’alls” — if you can’t help but read, “And, say children, what does it all mean?” in the voice of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia (even if you had no idea who you were imitating) you’ve been affected by Double Dee and Steinski.
Steinski’s musical “career” started much later than most; he was 32 years old when he created “The Payoff Mix” and didn’t make any money from the record because it was comprised entirely of illegal samples. This makes the thorough and long-overdue Steinski retrospective, What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006, all the more impressive as you take in the full range of his work — everything from “The Lessons” (the first three tracks he made with Double Dee) to his audio documentaries of the JFK assasination and 9/11 to an hour-long mashup bonanza he produced for Coldcut’s Solid Steel show on the BBC. Class is in session…
Molly Shannon, Molly Shannon
These guys dig women…or their names, at least. Not just the “Saturday Night Live” star after which they’re named (twice, for good measure), but every track on their debut album is named after famous-to-obscure female celebrities (if you can identify all of them without the help of Google, my hat’s off to you). What connection they all have with each other is a mystery to me (“Batgirl, Miss America 1954, and a French physicist walk into a bar…”). And that mystery is only furthered by their nearly unintelligible lyrics and eclectic compositions (ranging from Eno-esque to bluegrass to indie spunk). What I do know is some strangely compelling songs emerge from the artsy din, “Bianca Montale” probably being the most conventional of the lot.