Controlling your allegiance

Not Japanese. Not exactly popstars. Definitely awesome.

Jaws in space: That was the simple description for Ridley Scott's Alien. Die Hard on a bus: Speed in a nutshell. Hollywood movie pitches have evolved shorthand ways of describing things that leave you in no doubt that they're going to be awesome. And for the Japanese Popstars that description would be: Irish Chemical Brothers.

Joyfully noisy beats? Check. Acid squelches? Check. Eclectic sounds? Check. Great guest vocalists? Knack for writing a great song? Amazing live? Check. Check. Check. The Japanese Popstars are every bit as good as The Chems, yet the chaps from the emerald isle are mystifyingly relatively unknown by comparison in the mainstream.

Controlling your allegiance is their second album and it's a belter from the off. 'Let go' with Green Velvet sets the mood, filtered male and female voices giving the order '...just relax and let go' over an incessant driving beat before shimmering bleeps and squelches are unleashed. Next up is 'Catapult' another propulsive drumbeat builds and builds, like a catapult being pulled taught, before releasing into a driving progressive house number with ravey keyboard stabs reminiscent of early Underworld. Track three is a real stand out, 'Song for Lisa' with beats and shimmering sounds that swell and fade beneath a stunning vocal from Irish singer Lisa Hannigan.



And so it goes, the album ebbing and flowing to the tune of bleeps and bass, filtered sounds, drum claps and effervescent fizzing chords. It's like the Chems decided to have a rave round at Orbital's place, invited Junkie XL and nicked Underworld's gear to do it with. There are hints of electro, such as 'Take Forever' featuring The Cure's Robert Smith on vocals. And more downbeat numbers like the sultry 'Fight the night' acting as a brief respite from the big dancefloor weapons. 'Destroy' features a sinister snare and spoken word vocal from Jon Spencer (of the Blues Explosion) that builds in menace to total destruction.



'Without Sound' is a real misnomer, a gorgeous late night house number rich in sonic beauty, while penultimate track 'Falcon Punch' packs a hit truly worthy of its name. Acid squelches reappear, 808s reverberate from ear to ear, while a robotic voice issues commands only a computer could understand, all backed by a hard 4/4 beat. Closer 'Joshua' is a shiny blast of electro house with vocals from Tom Smith of The Editors, an elegant full stop to an album that can be described in even fewer words than a Hollywood movie pitch: aural perfection.

Enpyschedelia electronica

Would it be too cheesy to say this album is a hoot?

If there's one thing I love, it's a good remix. Electronic music is filled with re-interpretations of classic tracks, some from the same genre, some from wildly different ones. 'Reanimations' by Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve is a bit of both. But before I talk about the remixes, it's worth mentioning about the duo behind them. Erol Alkan is a well-known DJ and producer in his own right, but for BTWS (it's easier than typing it out over and over again) he's joined by electronic music royalty in the shape of Richard Norris from The Grid (don't worry if you've never heard of them, one of their albums will be on here shortly, I promise). For me, that's a pretty outstanding combination. And the results are equally outstanding.

Unusually for electronic remixes, the inspiration for each of these 'reanimations' is the past not the future. 60s psychedelia to be precise. The first track sets out the statement of intent. BTWS transform 'Battlescars' by The Chemical Brothers into a smoky haze of sitar and bongos. It shouldn't work but it does, eclipsing the brilliant original in my opinion. Another highlight is the reverb heavy masterpiece reworking of 'Roscoe' from indie band Midlake. Laid back syncopation (wicked cymbals man) backwards guitars bring the vocals back from the future to the decade of peace and love.


Goldfrapp's 'Happiness' is made even hazier than the hippy original, as is Findlay Brown's 'Losing The Will To Survive', while The Real Ones' 'Outlaw' is gloriously trippy with more flashes of sitar, jangly guitars, jingly pianos and marching band drums. This is music for hazy sunny days, for relaxing in the park as the sun glitters through the trees.

Badly Drawn Boy, Simian Mobile Disco and Franz Ferdinand all get the Wizard's remix treatment too, taking great originals and, if anything, making them even more original.

Remixes are a great way of seeing someone else's intrepretation of a track. In electronica it can also be a way of discovering a new talent through the transformation of the existing one.

But 'Reanimations' is much more than just a collection of remixes, it feels like a coherent artist album, a sonic story. Just one that uses snippets of someone else's words.

Tangram

Unassuming cover, kick-ass contents...

An admission: I love dubstep. I know it's quite trendy to knock it and having listened to quite a few albums filled with nothing but Whomp-Whomp-Whomp, I can see why it's fallen out of favour so fast. But if there's one electronic sub-genre that feels like the future, it's this one. Music for spaceships, albeit dark stricken ones, set adrift with deadly aliens lurking around every corner.

And that's how I'd describe Tangram by Reso. Part breakbeat, part dark electronica, all earth-shattering bassline, this is dubstep from the year 3000. From the epic opener 'Exoframe' onwards, with its sci-fi breaks, soundtrack synthesisers and relentless bass, Tangram throws one hard-edged tune after another. 'Creature', quite appropriately, feels like something from another planet, throwing tough beats at you from the outset, before 'Axion' takes the pace up another level with some epic freeform drumming and terrifyingly big bassy wobble. It's thrilling stuff - just don't listen with the lights off.



The album does have lighter moments, 'Coronium' is a spacey ambient piece, leading up to 'Simple Pleasures' a slow breakbeat number with more sounds made from the infinite. 'Virtua Rhythm' is old skool DnB, with a hint of early 00's video game beat 'em up soundtrack thrown in for good measure.

From 'Nempo' onwards things get darker and darker, big drums, crushing bass and metallic screeches are tempered against an almost oriental sound. 'Backwards glance' is a funky slice of sci-fi two-step, before 'Half life's' epic synths build and stunning bass hits build up to the album's stand out track: 'Ishimura'. Sampling science fiction horror video game Dead Space, this is a track every bit as frightening as facing flesh eating aliens in the dark. Closer 'Tabris' is a frenzy of breaks and bass, a joyfully noisy affair that gets the blood pumping like a rocket trip to an far away world.

Tangram is dubstep, but not as we know it. And I'm proud to say I love it...

Audio candy

Cool cover, even cooler tunes...

Maybe it's because today was a sunny day. Maybe it's because I had the iPod on random. Maybe it's because it's a staggering 13 years since this album was released, but today felt as good a time as any to talk about one of the sweetest electronic albums I own, Lemon Jelly's debut: KY.

A collection of EPs made into one incredibly lovely LP, it's the audio equivalent of confectionery; a bag of sonic sweeties that surprises with every bite. The whole album feels sugar-coated in loveliness, with samples that make you grin and warm beats that wrap you in a sunshine of sound. This is undoubtedly a summer kind of album, but with enough magic to make you feel a little christmassy at the same time.

As I've already mentioned, this album is a decade and three old now and despite its brilliance, every time I mention it to people I'm faced with blank looks. This just isn't on. I mean just listen to it...


Opening track 'In the Bath' sets the tone nicely. Downbeat, chilled but with a warm sense of humour throughout it blew me away from the first time I heard it. Things get even better with 'His Majesty King Raam' a sparkling children's lullaby that makes beautiful use of strings and glockenspiel before a gentle drop beat and laid back scratching takes it down to the beach. This masterpiece is then followed by my favourite track on the album, 'The Staunton Lick'. The tune bizarrely starts like an audio instructional piece for playing a guitar chord (the Staunton Lick itself) before being joined by other summery guitars and beats. You can feel the temperature go up by several degrees as soon as it starts, clouds part, rays shine down. Bliss.
Quirky samples play a huge part in making KY special. Lemon Jelly have a knack for finding shiny pieces of audio goodness, odd pieces of dialogue taken from everything from children's TV to self help CDs to-where-on-earth-did-they-find-that? nuggets - not to mention beats that get the head nodding and the feet tapping. At the time the music from KY appeared in adverts, TV promos, TV programmes (pretty sure Spaced included practically the whole album), films (Swordfish, for one) and shops and bars across the land. But now? Barely anyone remembers KY, which is a shame because the music of Lemon Jelly has aged well for such a fun and lighthearted piece.
We all need a little sweetness in our lives, so make sure you grab yourself a dollop of Lemon Jelly. You won't regret it...

Cool and deadly

The best soundtrack to a film never made

Punisher, Blade, We Took Pelham. Nope they're not names of films (okay, actually they are), they're the names of some of the tracks on Deadly Avenger's debut album from 2002, 'Deep Red'. Very much inspired by Hollywood's finest movies with a B (there's even a sample from The Crow in there somewhere), Deep Red is the finest soundtrack to a film never made.

You can picture the scenes each piece conjures up. 'We Took Pelham' is the opening salvo, introducing the titles and setting the scene. Think a gang 'tooling up' for one last big job, or the hero down but not out seeking redemption. It's unashamedly epic. 'Punisher' follows after a quick skit, raising the tempo once more. This is a manic car chase, a scramble for freedom, fleeing the authorities in the nick of time. And on it goes... 'The Quest part 1' takes it down a notch, a reflective moment for the audience to catch their breath before 'Blade' takes things down an oriental breakbeat path (training for the end battle perhaps?).

'Day One' takes a detour to a downtown bar, as funky and retro as a pimpin' police informant. 'Love Sounds' is the albums love scene, though it's definitely one that cuts to the moonlight shot before any naughtiness happens. The movie moods continue, from action to pause, cool to deadly as we build towards the big crescendo, the innocuously titled but truly epic 'Outro'. Without wanting to spoil the ending, I'm pretty sure the good guys win.

Then the credits roll and the lights go on. Just remember to give your 3D glasses back on the way out.

Fingas of fun

An album cover as mad as its contents...

Fingathing were a fenomenon (sorry) I discovered through the now defunct Manchester instrumental hip hop label Grand Central. I'd been a fan of the label's owners Rae & Christian since their debut 'Northern Sulphuric Soul' (check it out, it's ace...) and decided to look at some of their contemporaries too. Fingathing stood out for a number of reasons. One, the dynamic duo are made up of Sneaky, a classically trained Double Bass player, and DJ Peter Parker (really, really hope it's his real name). Decks and Double Bass are not the most obvious pairing but believe me it works. And two, their album artwork (created by artist Chris Drury) is some of the most random I've ever seen. Hands that are also wrestlers, in a comic book stylee, how could I resist?

Thing is, there's more to this dynamic duo than just pure quirk. Their music, filled with crazy film and TV samples, Double Bass noodlings and hip hop beats just can't help but make you smile. It's music with a sense of humour, but also a sense of deep cool. This is epitomised by one of the album's stand out tracks, 'Haze'. It begins with the sample: "Mmm, time to lay down some serious sound..." before a bluesy organ riff kicks in and some kicking bass. Vinyl crackles, scratches and laidback guitar licks then follow, creating a smoky mood every bit as thick and cloudy as the title suggests.

Other epic pieces on this 22 track long player include the sample laden 'Ogre', made even heavier with big drop beats, scratching and plenty of bass of the double variety. 'Criminal Robots' is another turntable-tastic number, with fun samples dialogue from the film War Games adding an extra layer of wit to proceedings before the beats and scratching kick in. 'Once upon a time in the East' is a more laid-back affair, with a hint of high plains drifter to it before finishing with a sample from a western that leads beautifully into the album's title track: 'Superhero Music'. "Think clearer, Run faster, jump higher and hit harder than anyone alive!" goes just one of the scratched in samples in this epic hero of a tune.

Maybe it's having Spiderman's alter ego's name, or the bonkers comic book hand wrestlers, but Superhero Music is a fingathing like no other.

Fighting crime has never sounded cooler.

Start a new life

A new life in sound...

There is electronic music designed to move your feet. That sways the hips and lures you on to the dancefloor. In fact in most cases they even call it 'dance'. Then there is the kind that gets your head nodding instead. Composed to help you through the post-club comedown, more Sunday morning than Saturday night. Start a new life by Slacker is the latter; a blissfully laid-back album that can also be surprisingly funky when it wants to be.

It's one of those wonderful long players that deserves to be far better-known than it is, with tracks destined to end up in mobile phone adverts (in fact I'm pretty sure one did) or soundtracking quirky BBC documentaries rather than troubling the charts. A great shame, made more so by the fact that it was the last album made by Shem McCauley before he died in 2012.

Shem actually started out producing the foot-moving variety of electronica, both as Slacker ('Scared' was a storming mid-nineties dance monster) and as Ramp. Produced in Thailand, after an extended break from music, this album has a chilled-ness that can only come from spending time in a place with lots of beaches and lots of sunshine.

Think balearic but with a touch of asian spice: Big slow drums crash, trippy snippets of dialogue waft in and out, haunting, otherworldly tribal chants chip in occasionally and strange sounds resonate back and forth from speaker to speaker. It's awesome stuff. The track names speak volumes - 'A million dreams', 'Help me here', 'See the world', 'Come back home' - it's like a peaceful journey through the mind of a man who has explored the realms of electronica and found a great place to begin again. To start a new life, I guess...

RIP Shem, you and your music will be missed.