Yikes

"Hezbollah spent the last six years dispersing about 12,000 rockets across southern Lebanon in a vast web of hidden caches, all divided into local zones with independent command."

NYT - A New Enemy Gains On The U.S.

Japanese Playboy

So I missed a couple days, which means I'm still as unreliable as ever. But (there's always a but), in order to make up for it, here's three (!) songs for y'all, and there's even a bit of variety here -- meaning, actual songs w/ lyrics and a discernible melody and maybe even a live instrument or two! But (see, I told you) I'll start off w/ something straight out of the pages of this book I am reading.

Pheek - Bird In Bell

A really fantastic track that I've been wanting to post for a while but for some reason never got around to doing. It reminds me of a more dance-oriented "Lipostudio" from A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure. All sorts of weird noises bouncing back and forth and a simple little four-note melody juggling on and off and then the crazy atmospherics around the 4:30 mark; all of these combine to create a stellar seven minutes.

I'm really not into DFA 1979. I tried, but I just couldn't help thinking they were some sort of joke. I mean, after hearing Lightning Bolt arm themselves w/ only bass, drums and vox and then tear a fucking hole straight through my head, these guys seem like pussies. But (again!) this remix proved me wrong. Braxe & Falke take this stupid riff and then turn it into disco gold in the chorus, and I coudn't ask for anything more.

Death From Above 1979 - Black History Month [Alan Braxe & Fred Falke Remix]

Moving on from butt-rock to cheese-pop, this little gem comes from Jens Lekman's release last year -- you know, the one w/ "Maple Leaves." While that song is darling, funny, a "perfect pop gem," *insert yr own music crit banality*, &etc., it was this track that really made me love the guy. The horn line, the shout out to Warren G and the summer of 1993, the drunken (?) chorus of singers (bum-ba-bum-ba-Bum-Ba-Bum-Ba-BUM-BA-BUM-BA-BUM), the whole house-party vibe; I still can't help but smile each time I hear it.

Jens Lekman - A Sweet Summer's Night On Hammer Hill

I/They Don't Have No Function

This kid's only 20 years old and already he's got a few 12" under his belt. Kinda makes me jealous. This comes from the Traum Schallplatten compilation Interkontinental 5, which I have not heard the rest of yet and cannot comment on. I can say, however, that this track gets my hopes up for the rest of the record. I first heard it when I had the living room stereo cranked up one morning while I was in the shower, and I had to get out and listen to the whole thing again. Around the 4:30 mark, the entire track swells like a supernova waiting to explode and then rides out on a funky little tractor beam synth line that sucks me right in.

Jesse Somfay - Fabergé

In other news, head over to music (for robots) and download the Gui Boratto track of the new Kompakt Total 7 compilation coming out soon. I seem to remember an ILM thread where someone joked that Thom Yorke's solo album was going to be a minimal techno album. Well, "Arquipelago" just might be what it would sound like. C'mon! It's just too close!

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Buy Interkontinental 5

It's A Hollow Earth, I Tell You!

The post has started, but I'm not quite sure what I'm about to post. Here's an image for you to ponder while I work on my decision making. Hang in there.


OK...got it. This came out a few months ago on Initial Cuts, but a quick check on the ole Hype Machine says only one other person posted it, and that was nearly three months ago now, so it deserves a rehash.

[T]ékël - Smet

I guess Julien & Loïc were having a difficult time getting their clothes cleaned while they were making this track. Hopefully, they have since sorted that all out. Unless the lack of clean shirts and jeans was the reason this track is so massively good, then, please keep those clothes dirty, boys.

In other exciting news, Thomas Pynchon has a new novel coming out December 5th. Reports from the front state that "Against the Day" will be the title. I'm not so sure what I think of that. I think if I saw it in a bookstore and had no idea who Pynchon was that I might pass it up. Perhaps all the grass has muddled his aging mind. Let's hope it delivers; although at 992 pages, it may take a while for any final judgment to be made.

I'm aiming for a post a day this week. (Well, technically it's Tuesday already, but fuck midnight as some sort of day-cutoff. The day ends when my eyes close.) So check back for new things each day. Friday was my last day at work before I move up north, so I have the whole week to pack, read, check out new music, learn to use Reaktor, etc., and I figured this might be a good time to get in the habit of updating this space more frequently.

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Buy [T]ékël

And I thought that the textbook buy-back policy was scandalous...

While the exactness of the two textbooks isn't what scares me so much, the rest of this article is terribly frightening.

For instance, “Their [the author's] level of participation is based on their particular interest or their contractual relationship with the publisher.” [my italics]

So, basically, an author is no longer responsible for what is released under his/her name. Fuck you and your lawyer fathers, America.

Everybody's Got a Heart to Sink

Well, well; I would have never expected a certain Major Swellings (read: alter ego of 1/2 of your favorite disco saviors) and probably the greatest guitar hero of the past 15 or so years to ever be connected in any way. But, folks, no doubt stranger things have been concocted before, and the result is rather excellent. Head on over to THISISNOTANEXIT and get it before it's too late.

And keeping things in the same vein, here's another remix from Prins Thomas, and while this one is a bit more expected, it's nonetheless shimmeringly gorgeous.

Lindstrøm And Christabelle - Music (In My Mind) [Prins Thomas Remix]

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Buy Stephen Malkmus

Buy Lindstrøm And Christabelle

Headbutts To The Chest

It's fantastic (as if you couldn't have guessed). The bass line is effing killer. Those magenta-red sunsets at Mountain Lake must have been speaking to Mr. Eulberg.

Gabriel Ananda - Ihre Persönliche Glücksmelodie [Dominik Eulberg Remix]

What a shame...


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Buy Gabriel Ananda

"Quotations nullify all presence."

The problem w/ typographical experimentation is that the imagination lessens in its presence.

If you have not listend to Richard Carnage's "Don't Techno For An Answer" mix then your heart is not beating.

Why did no one tell my about Gang Gang Dance? Thank God I have friends like J.T. God's Money may just be the best album I have heard in a long, long time. I'm not even sure about which track to post. Here's something from it. Just get it and listen to the whole album.

Gang Gang Dance - Glory In Itself / Egyptian

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Buy Gang Gang Dance

"To shoot a genocidal robot policeman in the defense of life is a sacred act."

I am supposed to have this in my hands today:But because FedEx is run by a bunch of assholes who sent my shit halfway across the country in the wrong direction (maybe Lloyd Christmas was driving the van...) when it was just two hours away, I won't have it for another week or so. So fuck FedEx (and I guess I'm not alone in this either).

But enough about that. If you aren't listening to the Dublab podcast, then maybe an improv session from Matmos & Keith Fullerton Whitman might get you interested? It's a 32-minute computer freak-out that you must put some headphones on for. And speaking of podcasts...you are listening to Beats In Space, aren't you???

Enough hyperlinks! Here's some music. A new track from Loco Dice out of Düsseldorf. The first I had heard this guy was on the min2MAX compliation that came out earlier this year, but apparently he has had quite a career (Usher! R. Kelly! Snoop Dogg!). This is from his 12" that came out on M_nus just a few weeks ago.

Loco Dice - Seeing Through Shadows

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Buy Loco Dice