Review: Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel

Klaxons? Get real. Metronomy? Fuck off! Late Of The Pier are the new masters of electro-punk.

Their debut, "Fantasy Black Channel" is a chaotic mass of crunchy indie guitars and euphoric synthwork that hits you right in your face, pisses in your pint of Guinness and blazes off before you have a chance to catch your breath. From the heavy electric blues of "VW" and "Hot Tent Blues", throught the euphoric synthy rock'n'roll of "Random Firl" and  the aptly titled "Whitesnake" right into the fizz-bang-fuck-off energy of "Focker" and "Dose A", this album has a bit of everything. "The Enemy Are The Future" is a delicious slice of indie-disco, although it does drag on for 6 minutes and eventually you probably will get bored of hearing Sam Dust croon "It's an easy life, easy life". "Space And The Woods" and "Broken" are stadium-worthy fist-in-the-air anthems. And "Mad Dogs And Englishman", with its prickly guitars, is what it would sound like if Bloc Party had a one night stand with Foals in a pub toilet.

This is new-rave at its very best. Just the right balance between dance and rock, changing from Human League to Justice to Muse in the blink of an eye. Plus the frontman has nice hair. What more could you want?

I give "Fantasy Black Channel" 4 stars!

For fans of: Klaxons, Human League, The Offspring

Quick review: Justice - A Cross the Universe

Thought Alive 2007 was epic? You ain't seen nothing yet.

Justice's first live album, A Cross The Universe, just further goes to prove that Justice rock harder than any so-called "real band" ever could. What? You don't believe me? Oh, how predictable, you're using "D.A.N.C.E" and "We Are Your Friends" as evidence. Well you clearly haven't heard them spasming over Metallica samples and "Atlantis To Interzone" sirens.

Listen to this album. And if you're you're not jumping around and headbanging by the end, you have no soul. 

I give Justice's "A Cross The Universe" 5 STARS!

For fans of: Crystal Castles, Klaxons, Metallica

Digitalism

So, a couple of days ago I found out Digitalism were holding a remix contest for their track Taken Away. It ends tomorrow. So, the difference in time between those two moments means my entry was pretty rushed.

Even though I slapped it together pretty quick, I'm rather proud of my "Dissected" remix, so if you want to check it out, head to my MySpace.

There's no way my remix can beat this however...

Digitalism - Idealistic (Night Facilities Remix)

And while I'm on the subject of Digitalism...

Klaxons - Atlantis To Interzone (Digitalism's Klix Klax R-R-Remix)

Daft Punk remix action and stuff

Some lovely Daft Punk remixes that I have recently acquired.

Aerodynamic (Northie Remix)

Da Funk (Johnatron Edit)

Aerodynamic (Johnatron Remix)

Harder Better Faster Stronger (Ghetto Ruckus Remix)

One More Time (Redial Goes To Hell Remix)

Album Review - Crystal Castles

Two album reviews in two days? I've been busy haven't I?

Crystal Castles are one boy and one girl from Toronto, Canada. And they are quickly becoming the most infamous band on the planet, thanks to the mental onstage antics of frontmonster Alice Glass.

Their self titled debut opens with called "Untrust Us". This track is OK, but in my honest opinion it is only placed as the opener to lull the listener into a false sense of security for the next track. "Alice Practice" is chaos on the ears, with Alice screaming inaudible lyrics over Ethan Kath's circuitboard theatrics that sound like the Super Mario Bros being assaulted with a sledgehammer. After that, we settle down (a little bit) with "Crimewave" featuring noise-rockers HEALTH, and the 8-bit ambience of "Magic Spells". Don't settle down too much though, because next, we are launched into audio-riot "Xxzxcuzx Me", which is what it would sound like if your Game Boy could fight back, a chaotic mass of Atari sound effect noise and angry vocals.

If you can still hear after that last track, next up is nonsensical electro bopper "Air War", with odd vocal samples over catchy bloops that will be stuck in your head for weeks. After that though is when things really start to get a bit scarier... Next track "Courtship Dating" is a catchy-but-frightening combination of gruesome subject matter (apparently it's about killing an ex-lover and stuffing him) and catchy glitch beats, punctuated by sampled roars and screams.

Crystal Castles like fucking chameleons on this album. the last track was about human taxidermy for christ's sake, and then the next track "Good Time" is actually a very upbeat, cheerful dance-pop ditty, I actually found myself smiling and dancing to this track while typing. Yes, this album is a rollercoaster thrill-ride of epic proportions, jerking between gruesome subject matter to something really happy in a blink. "1991" could've been plucked straight from a Castlevania game, and "Vanished" samples the vocals from Van She's "Sex City". "Black Panther" is a weird track, sounding incredibly upbeat at first, but does in fact have some more horrible subject matter (a mother drowning her children, if you must know).

There are so many tracks on this album, I simply can't write about every track. So I'm going to just give it 5 stars now!

For fans of: Simian Mobile Disco, Justice, SebastiAn, Boy 8-bit

Album Review - Deadmau5 "Random Album Title"

The word "innovative" isn't thrown around much these days. Well, unless you're the bastard child of at least 10 electronic music genres and you're name's Deadmau5. Without even listening to his music, you can tell that canadian producer Joel Zimmerman who shrouds himself in a giant red mouse head (complete with light-up eyes) and has formed a supergroup with Tommy Lee entitled WTF? has never been fond of conformism.

"Random Album Title" opens with 8-minute electro-tinged stomper "Sometimes Things Get Whatever", with catchy, glitched up vocals. "Slip" and "Some Kind of Blue" flirt with trance, and then "Brazil (2nd Edit)" and "Faxing Berlin" take it home and fuck it. Deadmau5 is a keen experimenter, dabbling with trance, electro and techno with a sort of minimalism that has earned him a reputation as one of the most innovative DJs out there. With no track on the album coming in at below 6 minutes (apart from the little piano interlude before "Faxing Berlin"), make no mistake, this album is epic.

However, the problem with epic albums is that while some tracks are real dancefloor fillers, some are simply repetitive four-to-the-floor slogs that eventually get boring after a few listens. "Complications" wouldn't be a bad track if it was shortened a bit, but clocking in at almost 10 minutes, it is pretty much a filler track that is simply not needed.

Nontheless, this album is epic in all ways possible. With albums like this, Deadmau5 could very well be the most innovative act since Daft Punk.

I give Deadmau5's "Random Album Title" 4 stars!

For fans of: Calvin Harris, Paul Oakenfold, Eric Prydz, Simian Mobile Disco.

Daft Punk DJ on Pete Tong's show from 2001.

Daft Punk's "Heroes of 2001 Hotmix" ripped from Radio 1.

Thanks to Electromatic for hooking me up with this!