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!

sorry...

I havent blogged in ages, so sorry about that. However, I'm back with a few nice little mp3s for you.

You may remember me raving about Louis La Roche a while ago, well now I can't get enough of his alter-ego Night Facilities!

Simian Mobile Disco - I Got This Down (Night Facilities Remix)

Daft Punk - Prime Time of Your Life (Night Facilities Remix)

Justice - DVNO (Night Facilities Rejiggle)

Thony Ritz - What I Am (Fucked By Louis La Roche)

Chemical Brothers "Push The Button" review

Yes, I realise this review is about 3 years late, but I just bought the whole album so I thought I may as well review it.

Push The Button is a strange album. Despite being the Chems' most commercially successful release, it is regarded by the vast majority of Chemical Brothers fans as their least favourite. I bought the album mainly to investigate how the fuck that managed to happen.

We open up with the first single Galvanize, with vocals from rapper Q-Tip, which is a great track serves as a great opener to both an album or a live set, but really kind of overstays its welcome, the album version clocking in at 6 minutes. Luckily, the next track The Boxer more than makes up for this, with a blinding lead synth, great guest vocals from The Charlatans' Tim Burgess and a squelching dub bassline. I like to think of Galvanize and The Boxer as like neighbors, the latter being a genuinely good friend and the former being that annoying guy across the street that you invite to your party just out of politeness but who just keeps on talking and refuses to leave.

But enough metaphors, on with the review. Next up we have the gigantic, acid tinged stomper Believe. This is an all-out audio assault, a banging drumbeat, screeching electro-shock synths and amazing vocal work from Bloc Party's Kele Okereke. Hmmm.... Anyone else noticing a pattern here? You may have guessed so far that the main focus of this album is guest vocalists. Not necessarily a bad thing, but to be honest, you buy dance music for the beats, not the lyrics. The album is amazingly mixed by the Brothers too, the transition between Believe and Hold Tight London (which contains, surprise surprise, more guest vocals, this time from Anna Lynne) is so seamless you can barely tell where one song ends and another begins.

Just in case you die-hard Chemical-heads aren't feeling this album so far, the boys have snuck in a little gem that's a bit more like their older stuff. This track is Come Inside, a good old Big Beat tune with great guitar and bass lines. And guess what? No guest vocalists on this one, or on the following track The Big Jump!

After that, we return to the guest-star pattern a couple more times, with the next two tracks, anti-war rap anthem Left Right and heartfelt ballad Close Your Eyes, being sung by Anwar Superstar and indie band The Magic Numbers resectively. But then, the final three tracks don't rely on vocals too much. Shake Break Bounce, with its steady beat and mandolin samples, is a well executed track (it was also featured in a car commercial). We then transition into Marvo Ging. I'm still trying to assess exactly which genre this track falls into. This oddball is equal parts electronica and country rock. That's a weird combo...

Finally we close, with the 7-minute house track Surface To Air. This is the way you should close an album, with something epic that touches your heart without relying too heavily (or at all in this case) on vocals.

Yes, Push The Button is an odd album, but just because it's not an instant classic doesn't make it any less enjoyable.


I give The Chemical Brothers' "Push The Button"

4 stars!

For fans of:

Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem, Basement Jaxx, Bob Sinclar

Louis La Roché - Peach EP Review

Brett Ewels is from Lowestoft, England. He has recorded and remixed music under two different aliases (Louis La Roché and Night Facilities), he's currently recording his debut album "I Delete Myself", and he's even gained himself a shitload of exposure after one of his tracks was falsely believed to be a new Daft Punk song. Not many people can say they've done all that at 17 years old.

Brett's first release under the Louis La Roché alias, The Peach EP, is something that proves that us Brits still have the magic. Most of the dance music in britain nowadays is nothing but sugar-coated commercial trance, but this lad is different. This EP has a distinctly French sound to it.

The first track, Peach, is a lively chunk of Eric Prydz-style disco house with stuttered beats and a high pitched vocal sample, while On The Floor and Get On Down could be from the 70s if you wished hard enough. Love (yes, that's the fake Daft Punk one...), loaded with diva vocals, IS very Bangalter-esque, perhaps its no wonder that mix-up happened, and Do You Remember is a full-on disco assault, complete with piano chords and put-on-an-afro-wig-and-sing-into-your-hairbrush vocals.

This up-and-coming producer is going places. He's not just a child prodigy, Louis La Roché is a soon-to-be national treasure.

I give Louis La Roché's "Peach EP"
5 STARS!

For fans of:
Daft Punk, Eric Prydz, Cassius, Michael Jackson

Jesse Meza - Snorlax Owns: EarthBound/Mother version

I just found this hilarious flash animation by Jesse Meza. Remember those two guys that argue about Snorlax? Well, this is the EarthBound version.

Unreleased remixes of Around The World.

Daft Punk's career began over a decade ago, and their recent comeback with their Alive 2007 tour has sparked a huge influx of new unofficial remixes.

We've all heard it. So repetetive it makes Scouting For Girls look like lyrical geniuses. Here are a handful of nice new(ish) remixes of one of Daft Punk's biggest tracks, "Around The World". Its amazing what you can do with a song that's only three words long!

Daft Punk - Around The World (Sesto Sento Remix)
Daft Punk - Around The World (Killdahype Remix)
Daft Punk - Around The World (Kid Dub Remix)
Daft Punk - Around The World (Villains More Cowbell DJ Edit)
Daft Punk - Around The World (Muttonheads Remix)

DJ mixes from Daft Punk and Chemical Brothers

Just got back from my grandma's house. Boring, boring stuff. So here are a couple of DJ sets to chase the boredom away.

Daft Punk - Louis Vuitton DJ Set
Chemical Brothers - Chemical Evening Session 1995

back from holiday

Just got back from a holiday in Derbyshire. We had an indoor pool and I grabbed myself a copy of the Chemical Brothers album 'Surrender' from a record fair and 'More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima' for the Nintendo DS. It was a rather fruitful week.

On a ChemBros related topic, I also ordered a promo vinyl of 'Electronic Battle Weapon 10' from Juno Records yesterday. So now I am waiting on the second vinyl in my "collection", after Daft Punk's Burnin' EP.

More cool stuff from youtube + remixes

Another cool video from YouTube from one of my friends on YouTube, HankJWimbleton678

This is a compilation of various clips full of fire, explosions and mindless destruction! Enjoy!



Plus heres some cool mp3s.

Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow (Van She remix)
Daft Punk - Around The World (I:cube remix)

Daft Punk sprites by Jo_The_Marten

Here are some Daft Punk sprites from my peep Jo_The_Marten

happy summer!

Summer's here guys! I got out of school earlier and my summer vacation just started!

Here's some summery songs for you! Remixes by Casino Inc and Miami Horror plus a mashup by Ben Double M.

Daft Punk - Da Funk (Casino Inc's Amazing Disco Remix)
Ben Double M - HBFS Beach (Daft Punk vs Chris Rea)
Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You (Miami Horror Remix)

Mashes from DJ Zebra + Lobsterdust.

Here's two great mashups I've found recently. First one is a right-clicker, the second one is on zShare.

DJ ZEBRA - VOODOO STRIPES (prodigy vs white stripes)
LOBSTERDUST - EXODUS REVELATIONS (iron maiden vs bob marley)

This week in YouTube...

Every now and then I'll post a video I've seen on YouTube that has made me laugh.

Currently obsessed with this. Comedy duo Smosh are the #1 most subscribed of all time on YouTube and they are REALLY funny.

LOLCANO

My first blog + music.

This is my new blog. I'll post just about anything here. Random blogs, music, YouTube videos...

I have two YouTube accounts, a personal one called JoeMitchell1...
http://www.youtube.com/JoeMitchell1

... And one I have with a few friends called Dain Bramage Studios
http://www.youtube.com/DainBramageStudios

OK, so I need somehing real to post about here, so heres some music by The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk and my friend Dark DJ.

CHEMICAL BROTHERS - GALVANIZE live @ rock am ring
http://www.zshare.net/audio/1446647120c95022/

DARK DJ - U.F.O night rock remix
http://www.zshare.net/audio/14466221a619a755/

DAFT PUNK - ONE MORE TIME house moguls remix
http://www.zshare.net/audio/14467238ec2d75c1/