Lately, while certain technological gadgets of mine randomly play my music collection for me, I’ve heard unfamiliar, electronic, yet warm compositions capable of producing pleasant states of relaxation and reverie. It’s occured several times. Each time, as I’ve awakened from from this other world in which I’ve found myself, I glance down at the guilty party, and it’s been Nnnj. Nnnj (pronounced “inch”) relies on many sounds: global rhythms, glitchy programming, and trip-hop, but is beholden to none. Neither his name, album title (Monkey Straddle) nor its cover art is pretty, but the music itself is gorgeous.
Les Georges Leningrad
Petrochemical Rock. That’s how Les Georges Leningrad describe their music. These crazy Montreal post-punks are concussive, explosive, and just plain loopy. Imagine Atari Teenage Riot raised as Quebequois on The Fall and performance art.
Popkan
This oughta keep your holiday weekend percolatin’. Hey, if anyone can, Popkan! (What do you expect? I’m on vacation here…)
Tom Vek
In one of our 2004 Year-End Lists we each named the artists we wished would make MP3s available so we could rave about them on 3hive. Well, dreams do come true, people, as I can finally cross one Tom Vek off that list — just in time for his debut album to drop Stateside. The unassuming Londoner records deliciously tense, warm, and infectious songs from his parents’ garage. Feel free to listen in your garage, or wherever else you see fit.
Kettel
These examples of Kettel’s finer moments, wherein cut-up jazz breaks and organic field sounds stroll hand-in-hand, make me wonder why he hasn’t received as much notoriety as, say, Four Tet. He, by the way, is Reimer Eising. To browse/buy from his catalog, check the newly madeover kracfive site. (Overdue props to Disquiet for opening my ears to Kettel a while back.)
Kiss Me Deadly
Regular readers of 3hive will recall Sam mentioning on Monday that he should be tested for OCD (although I would replace “tested” with “treated”). You will also recall my many posts that taken together demonstrate my own obsessive compulsive behavior. It’s music; how could we react any other way? The focus of this week’s OCD-ness is another Montreal band on the Alien8 label, Kiss Me Deadly. Formerly emo/math rock, KMD have moved towards a dancier sound that’s still deeply EMOtional, full of earnest energy and rather dependent on the ’80s. If only KMD had been around in the ’80s, I might have actually enjoyed years of school and church dances. These songs from KMD’s tour-only EP Amoureux Cosmiques provide a glimpse into their full-length due out this fall.
Ezekiel Honig
Who’d have thought the “hook” stuck in my head for the past few days would be the sweet rhythm of what sounds like a printer feed tray being lifted and dropped? I know, I know, I should get checked for OCD. But Ezekiel Honig does have an ear for the latent musicality in such found sounds, which he uses to infuse his minimalist headphone techno with a real warm-blooded feel.
Solvent
I originaly posted Solvent 16 months ago. In fact, they were one of the first bands featured on 3hive. Just days after, Ghostly pulled down their full-length MP3s due to bandwidth constraints and there went my Solvent post. As Sean points out over in the News section, Ghostly’s recently found some bandwidth in their hearts and now offer, among others, this gem from Solvent’s latest, Elevators and Oscillators. For the record, my original post was one line: “Proof once again from the Ghostly Massive that machines do have souls.” Still holds true today.
The Unicorns
These Montreal hipsters do — oops, I mean, did — play a lovely brand of ’80s-tinged rock/pop/dance music. Slated as the next big thing, they instead split up. What can I say? It happens to the best of them, but that’s still no excuse to pass over these songs. Get those feet a-dancing!
Mus
Please do not confuse Mus, the delightful Spanish duo of Fran Gayo and Mónica Vacas, with MUS, short for Memphis University School, the all-boy prep school I attended from 7th through 9th grades. First of all, Mus has a female, and there were no females at MUS. Mus use the soaring female voice as an instrument, highlighting their minimal approach, be it coolly electronic or calmly acoustic. And that voice sings in Asturian, from the Principality of Asturias in northwest Spain, making Mus as mysterious as a girl at an all-boy prep school.