Bleeding Muddy Water

Those who liked the moodier, more atmospheric material on the last Mark Lanegan Band offering, 2004's Bubblegum, will find much to enjoy on Blues Funeral -- an album that has little to do with blues as a musical form. Lanegan has been a busy man since Bubblegum. In the nearly eight ensuing years, he's issued three records with Isobel Campbell, joined Greg Dulli in the Gutter Twins, guested on albums by the Twilight Singers and UNKLE, and was the lead vocalist on most of the last two Soulsavers offerings. Produced by Eleven guitarist Alain Johannes (who also fulfills that role here as well as playing bass, keyboards, and percussion), Blues Funeral finds Lanegan in a musically ambitious place. His voice is deeper, smokier, but more restrained, even on the few straight-up rockers.

While the album is sequenced seamlessly, with varying textures and dynamics, there are standouts. Of the two tracks that feature the mysterious guitarist Duke Garwood, "Bleeding Muddy Water" is a mournful, midtempo dirge. Dulli's guest spot on backing vocals on the Ennio Morricone-inspired spaghetti westernism of "St Louis Elegy" is beautifully rendered; Joshua Homme lends his guitar to the over-the-rails rock in "Riot in My House." Electronics also have a prominent place on Blues Funeral -- and not merely as atmospheric add-ons. I was very surprised to hear this, as I never expected somewhat of a techno beat with his voice on it. "Harborview Hospital"'s meld of keyboards and guitars touch on U2's Joshua Tree period and late-'80s New Order. Weird as that reads, if anything, these expansive retro sonics provide Lanegan's raspy baritone a foil, with added texture that lends not only a sense of beauty, but walks out the tension between elegiac lyric and harmonic lyricism. "Leviathan" is the only thing that really approaches blues here, though it's via a 21st century approximation of Led Zeppelin's darker, airier moments on Physical Graffiti. Blues Funeral, while an adventurous, strident, and complex album, will likely polarize longstanding Lanegan fans. If one is looking for the kind of balls out rock that he's made with Queens of the Stone Age, this might be a bit too "soft" for you.

If you already love Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, then Mark Lanegan is your man.

Listen to "Bleeding Muddy Water" here.



Buy your copy of Blues Funeral Here.

Coum

Richard Fearless, aka Death In Vegas, emerged in the UK in the late 90's with some of that era’s most unusual records, fusing electro, dub, rock, psychedelia, soul and solid-gone experimentation to create a sound that was spacious and other-worldly, while also segueing with the pop mainstream. His new album, ‘Trans Love Energies’, marks a return to his roots in minimal techno, deploying the rudimentary gear behind all the classics of the original Detroit/Chicago era to try and spirit up fresh atmospheres.

In Autumn 2009, Fearless was buzzing about being reunited with some of his vintage analogue electronic gear from his old Contino Rooms studio. After five years living in different cities, he and his old ’Vegas engineer, Tim Holmes, had gone their separate ways. Hiring a new room at Andrew Weatherall’s Rotters Golf Club studio in Shoreditch, Richard found himself newly emboldened to tinker around solo in his electro-sonic playground.

It's fun to note Richard's palette of gadgets-- a 303, an 808, a 909, a Korg MS-20 synth, a Roland SH-09 – the stuff that inspirational old Trax and Metroplex tunes were made on. In New York, he’d been grooving the whole Cold Wave revival of 1980s synth music, snapping up records on the Minimal Wave label by obscure old groups like Linear Movement, as well as tracking back to old favourites like Harmonia’s ‘Notre Dame’, or David Bowie’s ‘Low’ album. Also, by the by: Detroit’s Perspects/Le Car, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Syd Barrett, Jackno, Exuma, The Black Angels and Howlin’ Wolf.

When he played the first fruits of his labors to friends and associates, they’d all say, This doesn’t sound like Black Acid, this sounds like Death In Vegas – an alias, which Fearless had subconsciously considered laid to rest. Assuming that identity again, just him on his own, was finally something he was prepared to take on at this point in his life. It would also entail finally going properly public, on record, as a singer.

“It wasn’t a conscious thing for me to sing with Death In Vegas,” Richard says, “but one good reason for me to do it was, there weren’t going to be loads of guests singing on this record. You know what? I toured four albums without vocalists. I always had to treat the original vocal tracks [in pre-production], and really make them sound like samples, because, say, with ‘Scorpio Rising’, we obviously wouldn’t be having Liam on tour with us. If I did another whole album with just guests on it, I wasn’t gonna want to tour it. It’s just boring. So, it was a bit like, Right, I’m back on the vocal thing.”

So, that’s Richard you hear at the beginning of ‘Trans Love Energies’, reciting an elegy for a succession of songwriting heroes, against ‘Silver Time Machine’’s VU-meets-TG desolation, and yowling over ‘Black Hole’’s pulsating baroque-‘n’-roll grandeur. Originally, The Kills’s Jamie Hince had been lined up to sing and play guitar on ‘Black Hole’, but when scheduling proved difficult, Richard tried it out himself. “I’m really glad I did,” he says, “it feels like it’s more mine this way”.

Richard hadn’t entirely closed himself off from the idea of working with other singers. He had a certain epiphany on hearing ‘Beat On The Pulse’, the debut single from Austra, on Toronto’s Paper Bag label, particularly the operatic tones of Katie Stelmanis. He dropped them an email, and quickly received a reply gushing about her love of Death In Vegas. At the end of Austra’s European tour, Katie stayed on in London for a couple of days, which actually ended up nearer three weeks, and voiced her parts ‘Your Loft My Acid’, and ‘Witch Dance’, which have more of an ethereal, Cocteau Twins-y feel than the full-tilt operatic belting for which Stelmanis is becoming renowned.

Having just started out on the path to discovering his own voice, Fearless says he’s into using it with a firm consciousness of its place in the whole production. He cites Matthew Dear’s ‘Slowdance’ as his model – haunting electronic pop music, which points resolutely forward into the remainder of the 21st century. ‘Trans Love Energies’ is palpably, urgently, on the same page.

“The best dub and the best techno – it’s all about minimal components, conjuring up the most feeling from the least tools. If you can trigger emotion with the most minimal amount of sound, that’s job done as far as I’m concerned.”

You make the call with Coum here:



Watch an interview!!



Buy your copy of Trans-Love Energies (or get caught up on others) here.

Mind Bending

Back On Time

Plug —
Back On Time

ZEN177

Released 09/01/2012

In early 2011 Luke Vibert (who happened to be bringing to Ninja Tune HQ cushions designed like 808 drum machines as a present!) said that he had just found some, long-lost never heard before DATs dated 1995-1998 and entitled Plug. This we are sure will bring bearded pogoing type excitement for many of you but for those that doesn't happen to here's a quick recap....

In 1996 Blue Angel Recordings (later Blue Planet) an imprint of the legendary Rising High label released the Drum 'N' Bass for Papa album by Plug AKA West Country king of kitschtronica Luke Vibert, whom at that time had only released under his Wagon Christ moniker. The album cover was an old picture of his professional magician grandfather Frank which only added to the oddness in the best of ways. The album was largely ignored by the D'n'B purists at the time, however it was hailed by many beyond, and remains to this day one of the acclaimed records to emerge from the buoyant and hugely influential electronic scene of the south-west in the 90's. Alongside people like Aphex Twin, Tom Middleton, Grant Wilson-Claridge and Jeremy Simmonds and away from the lights and police of the big cities they put on club nights, filled cassettes with new tunes, hijacked the pirates and revelled in all that was original, twisted and like nothing else before. And whilst there is no doubting the talent of all these individuals, it has always been Vibert's keen sense of humour and also funk that enabled him to evolve to a stage to make a landmark release such as Drum 'N' Bass for Papa.

So a few years later and somewhat ahead of the curve, Vibert shook up D'n'B - at that point no album had been released in the genre that departed from the formulaic template. Avant-jungle that wasn't made for the "club", the album was an eccentric bolt from the blue, it shocked many of Vibert's contemporaries but went on to influence many, most notably Squarepusher.

At the same time Luke's Wagon Christ project was being snapped up by Chemical Brothers A+R man at Virgin Records for his 3rd album, so a new name was needed for his eccentric d'n'b output, and Plug was born. Until now Plug has yielded just one album - possibly only a humble man like Luke Vibert would have a whole album of top-quality electronic tracks just sat around for over 15 years and not release them. The 10 tracks on offer here include the proto-garage vocal stylings of "Feeling So Special", the demented circus-organs of "No Reality", the hilariously titled "Come On My Skeleton", the old-skool rinse out of "Mind Bending", the skewed bollywoodisms of "A Quick Plug for A New Shot" and all with impeccably produced jungle credentials as the bed.

Sounding brand new as well as being a lost classic from a electronic icon, Back On Time is a release that anybody interested in the progression of dance music should be very curious to hear and enjoy.

Listen to Mind Bending here:



Buy your copy of Back on Time here.