----------------------------------
Contact ...
Send submissions to anuncontrollableurge [at] gmail [dot] com. Or just say hey. It's all good.
----------------------------------
Neeeerrrrrds!!!
Almost Funny
Clean Undies
Expressway to Yr Skull
End of Radio
Friendship Bracelet
Get Off the Coast
The Mummies!
Music is a Sin
The Mythical Good Part
Peace & Rhythm
Sex Sux (Amen)
SoundWord
Strange Light
Sweet Baby Lou
WMUA-FM91.1
WMUA Blog
----------------------------------
----------------------------------
Search this blog:
Video with 3 notes
After seeing Quintron’s DrumBuddy operating in real life, I needed a better idea of what the thing was actually doing. I got it now (more or less).
Audio with 45 plays with 4 notes
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Tobacco featuring Beck - Fresh Hex
Maniac Meat (Anticon)
New Tobacco! Yes! To recap: Tobacco is in a group called Black Moth Super Rainbow that makes awesome pop/rock music with sweet analog synthesizers and vocoders all over the place. His last solo record, Fucked Up Friends, was the coolest hip-hop record of 2008 that featured exactly one song with someone rapping. (That someone, by the way, was Aesop Rock, and that song, Dirt, was excellent).
Now, I was a bit bummed with the latest Black Moth Super Rainbow record. I’d hoped they’d be moving in a dirtier direction, and they pretty much continued doing what they’d been doing for the last few records. I guess that’s still cool and everything, but after hearing Fucked Up Friends, I think that seems like the way they should be going. The record is all about groove and grit, and somehow, using all electronic instruments, dude managed to make one of the most raw-sounding records out there. After that, returning to the crisper sound of Black Moth Super Rainbow felt like Husker Du deciding to go back and do another hardcore-punk record after Everything Falls Apart. They’re both great, but there’s still work to be done in this newly-tapped area.
Alright, now we’re caught up. The new record, Maniac Meat, continues in the dirtier, crunchier, slightly sleazier path Fucked Up Friends started down. But where Fucked Up Friends was basically a hip-hop record without the rhymes, Maniac Meat is something else. The press blurb sent out with the record mentions Daft Punk, and I’m not really in a position to evaluate that, but I will say it sounds more like what I might have thought the music of the future would sound like while I was listening to the soundtrack of Streets of Rage 2. Is that what Daft Punk is going for? I don’t know, but the point is, this record is right-the-fuck-on.
The record drops May 25th on Anticon, and, while there’s no Aesop on this one, I think they broke even by having two songs featuring Beck.
Audio with 15 plays with 1 note
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Keys and Laser Teeth - Wizard
Keys and Laser Teeth EP (self-released)
Keys and Laser Teeth casts prismatic spray. Seven shimmering, intertwined, multicolored beams of light to spray from his hand. You take 40 points of acid damage and are sent to another plane.
Wait… is that not what this song is about? What’s it about then? Robots fucking? Probably.
I’m not sure what I’m talking about right now, but check this EP out. While listening, I was reminded of both Silk Flowers and I Am The Dot [look for something about him here later this week]. The whole thing’s available for download here, and I recommend it if you enjoy SYNTHESIZERRRS. Are you drunk right now? The way you’re reading this leads me to believe you’re drunk.
Audio with 16 plays with 4 notes
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Magic Places - In the Conservatory…
The Time-Traveler’s Pocket Guidebook Demo
I don’t care what anyone else has to say on this matter, because I’m closing it right now. The Legend of Zelda has proven to be the most influential object on American indie music of the past two decades. Also, fuck Zelda II. That shit was garbage. Don’t even try to tell me that Ocarina of Time, A Link From the Past, and Link’s Awakening, in that order, are not the best things to happen to the world ever.
In conclusion, check this out.
Video with 2 notes
I’ve just returned from Gamelan Galak Tika & Ensemble Robot’s performance at Bowker Auditorium on the UMass campus, and, although I’ve had some odd luck with performances at the space, I was quite happy with tonight’s performance.
I’ve never seen gamelan in person before, and the performance seemed to take in to account that there would be many unfamiliar with the style in the audience. They began with two traditional pieces, providing an introduction to the music that was almost aggressively complex in rhythm and tempo. There were so many changes in meter and speed that I almost forgot to pay attention to the actual timbre of each instrument. For a drummer, I don’t think there could be a sight more exciting than a stage full of people wielding hammers, and they really went to town up there knocking the shit out of whatever those things were. I’m still not sure what most of those instruments were, although I’m pretty sure somebody was playing a turtle.
The second piece also made use of two traditional Balinese dancers. Once they were announced, I began to wonder how one would dance to music that made time it’s bitch like that. The answer was that they dance both fluidly, and at times robotically. The expressions on the dancers faces were creepily intense; the piece was about two bumblebees playing, but, to my ears, it sounded so much darker. With the expressions of the dancers so intensely statuesque, the whole thing was almost macabre. It ended up being the high point of the night, I thought, and it made me wish I had more than five dollars in my pocket, since CD’s were fifteen.
After that, they moved on to their original compositions, each of which involved contemporary western instrumentation, creating interesting textures in combination with the traditional gamelan. The star performer of the night was Heliphon, described by Ensemble Robot’s website as “a double-helix shaped robotic metallophone … it uses solenoids to hammer metal keys, and each key lights up as it plays.” The instrument sounds like a glockenspiel, and though I won’t say it’s the prettiest sounding thing I’ve ever heard, it meshed well with the rest of what was happening. Also used in these pieces were electric bass that ranged from droning to straight funk, electric guitar that was almost Quinian in style, as well as violin, accordion, an EWI, and an upright bass.
The original compositions, while interesting in the variety in timbre, did seem to lack the intensely complex rhythms of the traditional songs. Musicians were playing in multiple time signatures at once, but the changes arrived at a much less rapid pace, and though I think it may have been a bit much to continue like that the whole time, I do think they may have shot their wad by beginning the way they did. I think that, and the fact that the Heliphon was not actually just C-3PO playing the glockenspiel were my only complaints.
Audio with 6 plays
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Claps - Fold
New Science (Guilt Ridden Pop)
I’m not a huge fan of the six-song-EP-featuring-three-remixes-of-the-same-song thing, but, as you might already be aware, I am a big fan of robot noises. And, I suppose it’s alright that there are only three songs on New Science, because they’re all kickin’. ”Folds,” the one they remixed three times, is dynamite, so I can see why they might try and milk that one for all it’s got. Check it out above.
Minimal-wave synthesizers, and electro-drum machines. What else do you need to know? Nothing. Nothing else.
Audio with 16 plays with 3 notes
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Polysics - Shout Aloud!
Absolute Polysics (Myspace Records)
I’m kind of annoyed I only just now found out that there’s a new Polysics record. It’s been out for a month now, and their US tour just ended Friday. Where have I been?
But the good news is, it’s great. If you’ve heard the Japanese quartet before, you know what to expect: high-energy synth-punk heavily influenced by, of course, DEVO. If you’ve not heard them before … expect that.
I could go on all day about how great this band is, but I don’t think I need to. Just check them out. This record kicks my ass so hard.
Also, this is from their website, and it’s just one example of many proving that Japanese people are the best thing ever to happen to the internet:
We Polysics are in San Francisco!!
Finally, Polysics US TOUR is starting.
At the same time, Polysics started Twitter! The member of Polysics tweets on this ABSOLUTE USA TOUR.
Please follow us!
So, Polysics started Twitter! Hooray!
“Young OH! OH!,” from Absolute Polysics.
Audio with 12 plays
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Bird Show Band - BSB Synthesizer Solo
Bird Show Band (Amish Records)
As has been made obvious by the album cover, instrumentation on Bird Show Band’s self-titled debut includes a Moog Voyager and an ARP 2600. Though much of the record is based out of modern jazz structure, the synthesizers are utilized quite creatively, to some spacey and often strange effects. Matmos fans take note.
The record clocks in at around 37 minutes, and, making use of both previously mentioned synths, as well as an array of percussion and an upright bass, is rewarding throughout. ”Quintet Two” is heavily grounded in jazz, but utilizes the unique timbre of the synths to really break free of the mold. ”BSB Synthesizer Solo” creates interesting textures and I can only assume is some sort of tribute to the Backstreet Boys.
