TARAGANA PYJARAMA (DEN) live in Singapore
Life Is Beautiful (99 Duxton Rd)
Thursday, 16 October 2014
Doors open: 9:30pm
$20 (available online and at the door)

TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE NOW VIA PEATIX
http://www.taragana.peatix.com

LIVE SET (not a DJ set)

Brought to you by Other Sounds. 

When I told DARKSIDE (Nicolas Jaar & Dave Harrington) over the phone that I thought new album Psychic sounded like traditional rock, they were rather amused (and bemused, I suspect). And whilst, it is true that their improvisational performance style was somewhat experimental, it was not difficult to hear the echoes of Pink Floyd (Harrington did a fair Gilmour impression) and other psychedelic space-rock acolytes in the duo’s well-received set at the Ground Theatre *SCAPE on Sunday, 6th April.

Their penchant for improvisation made it that more difficult to identify the songs (I believe 5 or 6 in all) they performed that night. After all, they were taking liberties with the recorded material introducing riffs and rhythms that were spontaneous rather than slavishly reproduced the album. Even the SHAZAM app did not help at all and my guess is that songs like “Golden Arrow”, “Freak Go Home”, “The Only Shrine I’ve Seen” and “Paper Trails”.

In the final analysis, it didn’t matter – although it was ballsy for the duo to play dirge-like passages for the longest time, it made the release of the danceable rhythms that more eagerly embraced! In many ways, DARKSIDE were indulging in their own version of jazz-fusion experiments (why else play Miles Davis’ “Pharaoh’s Dance” during the pre-show festivities?) but updated for contemporary audiences.

So put simply – great light show, great music, passable sound (par for the course) – something different for our avid concert goers here.

This review made possible by Forefront Asia.

BIBIO 

Psychedelic flourishes. Alt-folk quirkiness. Excellent mix between technology and organic sounds. Welcome to the modus oprandi of Bibio!

Watch the trippy video for “Dye the Water Green” below.

Michael Robinson (Director) – To me the video for “Dye The Water Green” held a certain identifiable quality linked with a sense of possibility and exploration – when there is a new place to go, another bend around the corner to uncover, or a different vista coming into view.

Off Bibio’s 2013 album, Silver Wilkinson. Listen below via Spotify.

Not enough? Listen to new track “Down to the Sound” from the The Green E.P. out now!

Order the EP from –
iTunes – smarturl.it/46rxfc
Bleep – smarturl.it/kfyxud
Amazon – smarturl.it/96y2ji
Google Play – smarturl.it/ntt8ca

Silver Wilkinson LP available from –

iTunes – glnk.it/1z5
Bleep – glnk.it/1z2
Amazon – glnk.it/1z3
Google Play – smarturl.it/r071sx

www.facebook.com/pages/Bibio/
twitter.com/Bibio
www.youtube.com/user/mrbibio

Underworld’s Karl Hyde has been in the music business since 1980 and Edgeland is Hyde’s first solo album!

Having fronted Underworld through different genres within the electronic music sphere – before making the big time in the 1990s with techno dance music – it’s refreshing to consider Hyde’s musical approach to his debut solo work.

On Edgeland, Hyde takes his new role as singer-songwriter seriously with a clutch of well-crafted pop-rock songs which exploit his electronic music background to the hilt. The result – memorable melodies, thoughtful lyrics and fresh song arrangements/instrumentations and a worthy addition to the essential listening pile for 2013.

Outstanding tracks include “Angel Cafe” with its ‘found sound’ percussion and heavenly atmospherics; “Your Perfume Was The Best Thing” with its chorus synth hooks and textured harmonies and “Cut Clouds” with its ambient stylings and fragile demeanour. Brilliant.

Official Site

Some new (official) music videos we’ve come across recently … enjoy!

RENDEZVOUS “EGYPT”

TEGAN & SARA “CLOSER”

CINEMASCAPE “PRIVATE PROPERTY”

DALE EARNHARDT JR JR “IF YOU DIDN’T SEE ME (THEN YOU WEREN’T ON THE DANCEFLOOR)”

BAKER “OVERLOAD”

Yeah I know I know, it’s all fookin’ dance pop innit? NEXT!

Message from the NUS Electronic Music Lab: –

Sat & Sun 09 & 10 Mar | 8pm University Cultural Centre Dance Studio | $15

An hour-and-a-half long audio-visual showcase featuring original electronic music by EML members.

Our contemporary environment has been evolving at a tremendous rate and while many struggle to find meaning and purpose in the ever changing environment, some attempt to solve this quandary through the creation of a persona. They view this persona as a safeguard, a comfort zone, and a form of self-empowerment.

Faces, masks, identities – how many do we have, and how real is each one?

Persona is an enhanced audio-visual performance tracing the path of an android and her quest for the perfect persona. She escapes the laboratory where she was programmed to be the perfect alter-ego, and instead travels through the diverse landscape of electronic music – a rendered universe of constructed identities and originally composed music.

Developed by humans as part of a research project in the name of scientific recognition and reputation, it is symbolic of the struggles of the creator and the created over control.

Is the creation of a persona the answer or the problem? Is it the end or the beginning?

Facebook Page

Tickets available from SISTIC.

There are numerous landmarks achieved with this, the debut album of synth-pop combo, Depeche Mode. Released by Mute Records, it was a rare genuine indie album for its time. Speak and Spell contained also many songs which were amongst the first electronic numbers heard on the airwaves e.g. “New Life”, “Just Can’t Get Enough” and my personal favourite, “Dreaming of Me”. The use of synthesizers instead of the usual guitar, bass and drums instrumentation was so refreshing back in 1981. But what made the music of early Depeche Mode so memorable and timeless are the brilliant songs. Pop songs filled with hooks that captured the imagination of the post-punk generation, and taking Kraftwerk’s uncompromising electronic agenda to its logical conclusion. The album was also the only Depeche Mode LP with then-prinicipal songwriter Vince Clarke (who’d go on with further success with Yazoo, The Assembly and Erasure). Martin Gore would come to the fore in Clarke’s absence, turning the outfit towards the darker material it would become world famous for in subsequent years. Three decades later, thanks to the post-punk revival, Speak and Spell is as relevant as it ever was. Essential.

It’s no secret that I have been incredibly wary of the current wave of the Post-Punk Revival, believing that it is mostly warmed up leftovers from a special musical epoch now 25 years old. But of course, there is an exception to every rule.

Chromatics.

This Portland-based band started life as a spiky noisenik outfit and released a debut album in that vein in 2003 viz. Chrome Rats vs Basement Rutz. However, in 2005, Chromatics would undergo radical changes to its lineup with Ruth Radelet (vocals), Johnny Jewel (producer/multi-instrumentalist), and Nat Walker (drums/synthesizer) joining, with guitarist Adam Miller the remaining founder. The result was a sophomore release – Night Drive – that having taken electronica fully on board, with strong hints of the Post-Punk Revival. The track “Tick of the Clock” gained recognition after it was featured on the Drive soundtrack.

Which set the stage for the latest album – Kill for Love – released earlier in 2012, and in my humble estimation, one of the best albums of the Post-Punk Revival era, let alone 2012. Right from the opening cover version of Neil Young’s Hey Hey My My (Into the Black) – the haunting “Into the Black” (video below), it is obvious that Chromatics is not interested in sounding like the rest of the sheep copycat hipster bands out there in the modern rock wasteland.

“Kill for Love” may superficially recall the 80s with its New Order/Depeche Mode references but there is a distinct attitude especially in Radelet’s languid vocal delivery. Miller’s guitar work helps songs like “These Strings Will Never Look the Same” and “Dust to Dust” escape the usual hipster cliches by channeling a hybrid of older sounds coupled with the now-traditional dance pop styles. Not only that but the band’s penchant for emphasizing soundtrack designs in songs like “Broken Mirrors” and “The Eleventh Hour” keeps the aural experience intriguing always.

More thoughtful (and less trippier) than its predecessor but Kill for Love demonstrates that it is possible for uncompromising intelligent and artistic bands to make challenging original music during these fallow years.

You can also listen to Kill for Love in its entirety at Soundcloud!

Swedish House Mafia invades Singapore for the first time on their farewell tour!

(Midas Promotions Press Release)

Sweden’s own Swedish House Mafia is a rousing group of DJs and house producers that are dance floor favorites all over the globe, and for good reason. The crew of electronica powerhouses Axwell, Steve Angello, and Sebastian Ingrosso exploded onto the music scene in 2010 with their first album Until One featuring mega hit singles “One” which achieved international success, hitting #7 on the UK Singles Chart and #3 on the US Dance charts, and “Miami to Ibiza”  which charted at #4 in the UK, and became the groups first #1 hit on the US dance charts.

Riding the wave of their seemingly instant success, the group released “Save the World” featuring John Martin on vocals in early 2011, which also found its spot at #1 on the US dance charts. Later that year they released the song “Antidote” (with Knife Party), followed closely by the single “Greyhound.”

Despite the growing hordes of fans around the world, a successful whirlwind world tour with sell out performances; including one at Madison Square Gardens – the popular group will be calling it quits. It was announced that October 22, 2012 would be the release date of the groups second and final compilation album, Until Now, and will serve as the soundtrack to their farewell tour. The latest single to be released ‘Don’t You Worry Child’ had its live debut at Milton Keynes Bowl in July and gave Swedish House Mafia their first Number 1 single in the UK, and is set to hit the top spot in Australia this week.

The tour, appropriately named “One Last Tour” and notably marked with a 3 dot logo, will encompass shows everywhere from Dubai, South Africa, the UK and all across Europe, the USA, and selected locations in Asia. Singapore fans of this trio can see them perform live at

Event details:

Swedish House Mafia Live in Singapore

Date: 17 January 2013

Venue: Singapore Indoor Stadium

Tickets:

$155 (floor standing) $115 & $85 (all prices excludes booking fees)

Tickets go on sale 15 November. Online sales from 9am, outlets and phone from 10am

Purchase at all authorized SISTIC Agents and Box Office, online at www.sistic.com.sg, via the iNETS mobile app (SMS to 76387) or call the SISTIC hotline at +65 6348 5555.

It’s hard NOT to be impressed by what you hear when you listen to Little People – the moniker of UK based downtempo electronic musician Laurent Clerc. He returns with his second full length album We Are But Hunks Of Wood on Youth & Progress Records. As “Aldgate Pattern” demonstrates (with colorful and intriguing music video to boot), Clerc is a wildly talented electronic artist with amazing insight into blending the right sounds together. Can’t wait for the new album.

Official Site

Harlan began as a solo project of musician/conceptual artist John Norris that has fine art origins – Norris conceived Harlan originally as a recording project that would coexist with a body of paintings for his Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition. Night Loop is the electronic outfit’s third album and this video of “You’re A Teenager” is suitably disturbing and arty at the same time. Review of Night Loop to come.

Harlan – “You’re a Teenager” from John Norris on Vimeo.

ROCKIN’ ALL OVER THE WORLD

FACT. Any band worth its salt transcends genre and style. UK band Hot Chip is commonly labeled as a electronic band and whilst it certainly uses synths/electronics to play its songs, it’s the way the band mixes and matches forms and styles to create something distinctively its own that marks Hot Chip out as one of the greats.

Fifth LP In Our Heads is probably one of the band’s strongest offerings – with a consistently high quality in respect of songwriting and production values, one cannot help but be swept away by the euphoria that its music induces. The highlights for me include the hyperkinetic opening “Motion Sickness”, the chirpy “Don’t Deny Your Heart”, the slinky “These Chains”, the throbbing “Night and Day” and the neo-soulful “Flutes”.

Straddling contemporary dance-pop and indie-rock approaches, Hot Chip‘s In Our Heads comes across as fresh and matured simultaneously. For the boffins out there who like to shake their butts…

Catch HOT CHIP live in Singapore at Avalon this coming Tuesday! Tickets available from Ticketbooth.Brought to you by the kind folks at Untitled Entertainment.

AT THE CONCOURSE 9 JUNE 2012

Gayle Nerva and Sean Nerney out of electropop wonders I Hate This Place made their inaugural appearance at the Esplanade Concourse somewhat bewildered by the surroundings but overcoming nerves and unfamiliarity to deliver what they are best at – strong melodies with cool vibes!

For two sets, the duo performed I Hate This Place material (sans guitarist Roman Tarrasov’s input) and whilst initially having problems with the house sound got into their stride midway through the first set and by the time “Future Girl, Retro Style” closed the set the duo captured the hearts (and ears) of the audience with its catchy tune, bouncy rhythm and clever lyrical concept.

In between the two electropop sets, Gayle Nerva took the spotlight, singing her own original material on acoustic guitar backed by Nerney using his keyboard to produce conventional piano sounds. It worked very well due to Nerva’s excellent vocals, way with a melody and personal heartfelt sentiments. Methinks, Nerva would be a strong candidate to put together an exciting YouTube channel as well! What say you, Gayle?

If you missed out, don’t fret cuz I Hate This Place returns to the Concourse on Wednesday 27th June for more electropop fun. Be there!

Connect with I Hate This Place on Facebook.

At the recent Singapore Music Forum I met a unassuming young man who introduced himself as Sean. Then he mentioned that he had a band/music project called I Hate This Place. Instantly I loved the name and then finally got a link. Whoa! IHTP basically comes from a similar place as Owl City except that IHTP does not suck! Am not being facetious here! As regular visitors would know, I love my synth pop nice and sweet (but not saccharine!)  and Future Girl, Retro Style fits the bill perfectly – you will be singing that chorus by the end of the track, believe me! Check it out below and make sure you come back for more electronic goodness from I Hate This Place.

Official Site

INVISIBLE (DIRTY SOUTH REMIX)

You know I should probably hate ‘hipster’ shit like this, what with the goth chick in hoodie and skinny jeans and all that. Damn song doesn’t even have a chorus and its tonality is predicated upon dance and bass beats. Still… there’s something oddly compelling about this which I cannot shake. Hypnotic even. Oh no… can this mean that I have gone over to the… dark side?

Official Site

LOLA DUTRONIC New York Stories EP (Red Star)

With this Lola Dutronic review, it would be marked down in history – at least for me, as they will be the first artiste that I have ever reviewed for a second time; and maybe with that, more would come in the near future. So let me pen my thoughts diligently as this review progresses…

New York Stories EP is the follow-up to Musique EP, and contains five (only five!?) covers of originals by Blondie (In The Sun), Suicide (Cheree), Johnny Thunders (You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory), Alan Vega and Martin Rev (Keep Your Dreams) and The Fast (Kids Just Wanna Dance), the latter written by the late Miki Zone.

With the first two songs on the tracklist (Kids Just Wanna Dance and Cheree), I had initially thought that Lola Dutronic had ditched and progressed from their previous “lounge-y” sounds and ventured back into the basics of electronica. However, leaning towards my favour, they swing back in style with the remaining tracklist of the EP. I guess it has got a lot to do with the original songs and their lyrical contents, as well as finding the best and most suitable arrangement to improvise the Lola Dutronic sound elements into the tracks, without screwing up the classics.

Pizzicato Five floats into my mind, and even though one is clearly targeted with French pop and the other disbanded with Japanese, one can easily feel the connectivity between both artistes, despite the time lapse and the distance of miles separating them apart. Of course though, nothing really beats P5.

The usual naggy commentary about the number of tracks in an EP and to have more creative writing inputs (instead of just covers) is applicable here to this EP review as well, but don’t let that stop your outreach to this release, unless you are generally put off by artistes doing covers and releasing albums filled with nothing but.

The end result is procrastinatively chilled, and it seems like we’re still stuck in the same hotel room as we were at the start of the Musique EP review, if not, several floors higher and slightly more complexed (with a beautiful room view). Let’s not ever check out.

[CJ]

Buy New York Stories at Amazon

LOLA DUTRONIC – KIDS JUST WANNA DANCE

The new sexay single from the New York Stories EP, out now on Red Star Digital Music. Download it at iTunes. Enjoy the cool 80s electro-pop vibe.

BON IVER Bon Iver (Jagjaguwar)

If you’re an indie music fan, then there’s not much more to say about Bon Iver. Having almost come out of nowhere with a debut album of mythological proportions (you know, the lo-fi cabin recording and so on). Comprising delicate shades of folk, electronica and avant-garde soundscapes, that debut (For Emma, Forever Ago) captured the imagination of indie music fans worldwide.

This eponymous sophomore album builds on the austere foundations of the debut to deliver greater sophistication without sacrificing an iota of the artistic integrity that Bon Iver has come to represent. Consisting of songs named by places, the high art pretensions become irrelevant once the music plays as Justin Vernon and company strip away every artifice and construct to present the raw essence of soul.

Vernon maintains his trademarked affected falsetto double-tracked vocal style as well as the various electronic loops and soundscapes but this time, we have organic instrumentation as well. Acoustic pianos and strings embellish these gorgeously fragile tunes that transport the listener into wind-swept landscapes and snow-topped mountains. Expansive and insular at the same time, songs like Perth, Minnesota WI, Holoscene and Wash. (to name but 4 prime examples) leave no doubt as to the deft ability of Bon Iver to touch and invigorate with melancholy charm.

2011 continues to spoil us music lovers with beautiful musicality that proves conclusively that in the end, good music wins out, no matter what.

Official Site

FUTURE ISLANDS – BEFORE THE BRIDGE

For some reason, this song reminds me very much of the Canadian 80s new wave band, Men Without Hats. I suppose it has something to do with the very idea of North Americans singing with a baritone Anglophile accent. Whatever the form, this Baltimore-based band have enough synth-pop savvy to make good use of the now-popular style. In any case this new single Before the Bridge will be the A-side from the 7″ of the same title, out July 19 on Thrill Jockey. Check it out and make your way to Future Islands…

Future Islands – Before the Bridge by thrilljockey

Official Site

ADEBISI SHANK This Is The Second Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank (Sargent House)

This album is well, er, the second album from Adebisi Shank, an electronic band hailing from Ireland. The band is to say the least, ambitious. They aim to “create a global new form of music” which captures “the anthemic optimism of your era (which) will eventually enrich the entire world”. And do they match up to their aim? Well, whether it will reach the entire world is one matter, but it does create a type of futuristic-progressive-electronic-robots-talking-to-each-other music I’ve never heard before. d.v.d, recently in town for the Mosaic Music Festival, produces the closest type of music found in this album.

Compared to their first album, this record is largely electronic music and less guitar-heavy. It could probably be a video game soundtrack, perhaps even for Pacman. Each track has numerous layers, and in the first track International Dreambeat, video game electronic music is paired with a load of percussion, with heavy guitar-playing. On tracks like Genki Shank, the band shows their versatility by jumping into pop-punk-esque tunes on the guitar. The band also reveals their post-rock influences with clever use of subtle percussion, keyboards and electronic effects on (-_-) (yes, that is the track name). Conor J O’Brien (of Villagers fame) also contributed vocals on Europa, a meaty, unrelenting and heavy track with surprising choral tones at the end.

However, the many tracks start sounding like one continuous track after some time, and it becomes difficult to distinguish them from one another. Each track is also so full of electronic effects that it can get tiring on the ears, and unlike most post-rock albums, there is no creation of soundscapes, but merely the cramming of too many influences, instruments, and effects into 30 plus minutes. The album is overall extremely enjoyable in small doses, but is overambitious at times, sounding like musicians trying out all their ideas in the span of a single recording session.

(Melissa Ng)

CHEMICAL BROTHERS Hanna: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Yet another electronic duo scores a major motion picture, in this case the artist is Chemical Brothers and the film is Hanna. I must say that I really only understood the value of Daft Punk’s score for Tron: Legacy when I saw the movie. No such problem here. Although it would be impossible to assess how successful the soundtrack music is in embellishing Joe Wright’s spy movie, there is little doubt in my mind that this film score is more than able to stand on its own, even without visuals.

There is a childlike motif that permeates through many of the tracks here (due to the subject matter of the film – a teenage girl trained to be a killing machine by her father), which makes for enjoyable listening. Naturally, there will be the gritty fight/chase music, the emotional fear-inducing soundscapes and the Wangerian string-laden epic ‘epiphany’-type moments, one can expect from most action movie scores, but overall, there are enough unique electronic musical highpoints (eg. Hanna’s Theme, The Devil Is In The Details, Marissa Flashback, The Devil Is In the Beat, Bahnhof Rumble) to satisfy fans of Chemical Brothers.

Now available from iTunes.

Official Site

CHEMICAL BROTHERS The Devil Is In The Beats

This new song comes from the critically acclaimed electronic duo who have made an intense and hypnotic score for the upcoming adventure thriller Hanna – in theatres April 8th through Focus Features. A little short but an interesting teaser, one might say…

The Devil Is In The Beats by The Chemical Brothers by Hannamovie

DEATH KIT Devadesi 7 inch single (Fort Lowell)

Devadesi is Death Kit’s debut physical release following the digital release of their first single, I Can Make You Love Me, in 2010. Said to have been formed in response to “a Los Angeles indie rock scene too witheringly lazy to pursue the potential and precision of electronica”, the band clearly has a lot of confidence in what they have to offer to the scene.

The title track, Devadesi, is easily the most ear-catching track of the four tracks available on this 7inch, being very enjoyable, and somewhat reminiscent of Eurythmics yet also having the very recognisable soundscapes that characterize instrumental songs. This track would appeal to the casual electronica fan, as well as the hardcore indie fan, and could possibly be the breakout hit that this fresh band needs.

Tracy Shedd’s cover of I Can Make You Love Me, together with the original song by Death Kit, can both be found on this release, and the contrast could not be any more drastic, with Tracy Shedd’s version sounding more like a folk song, which is rather interesting considering that she is covering an electronica song. Death Kit’s cover of Tracy Shedd’s song, Tear It Up, is rather unnoticeable on this release compared to the other tracks due to the lack of vocals, and seemingly out of place.

Myspace

(Melissa Ng)

PENGILLY’s Ode Vii single (Good Foot)

“Pengilly’s is the project of 20 year old Ric Hollingbery and his band.  Pengilly’s mix orchestral arrangements with beats; shouts, choral phrases and processed sounds.  They play live with strings, brass, laptop, bass and drums” goes the official press bio. Not far off the mark certainly, as this debut single fully demonstrates. Stripped of the electronics, one could conceivably describe Ode Vii as baroque folk-pop and in this way share affinity with the current wave of British neo-folk. A refreshing combination. Augers well for the full length album to come.

Buy | Myspace

TECHY ROMANTICS Touch (Party Bear)

When I first saw Philippine trio Techy Romantics at Baybeats 2010, I was struck by how much it seemed to be a hybrid of electronic music and twee pop! With Dondi Virrey manning the machines, Ryan Villena playing guitar and Camyl Besinga singing on top, it all just seemed perfectly engineered to present the best of technology and romance. Voila! Techy Romantics, indeed!

This 12 track album is a sweet amalgam of cool beats and vibrant fret patterns, just the right amount for Besinga to plead, cajole and persuade you onto the dance floor. Songs like Dance Like Lightning, Touch Move, Daydreams and Walking Away will certainly put you in the right mood to party the night away. Yes, it’s your basic danceable female-fronted synthpop (which is most definitely de rigueur now) but with the added twist of post-punk guitars (think: New Order) spicing things up considerably.

Worth checking out.

Myspace