scissorkick

Sorry for not posting, but I have been absolutely slammed at work, coming in weekends, postponing meetings, generally living the sort of life I had hoped to avoid in my youthful delusions of grandeur. As the big 30 approaches this coming Friday, I wonder what music will be like in the next 15 years, and hope that the recent wave of great young tastemakers are around, established and taking over the underground in 2020. One of the great, new labels/artists I'm talking about is Jack to Phono introduced to scissorkick by the infamous Shepdog of Kudos and Pork Recordings. He hooked us up with this sampler of really nice nuggets, Who Shot Jacques Laverne that came out in 2004 and runs the gamut from UK-via-Denmark future funk to some smartly applied novelty breaks ala Ninja Tune, Grand Central and the kindred spirits who look at downtempo not as Ibiza-oriented chill out, but heavy dance floor movers or thought-provoking headphone compositions. Check these two tracks -- by 777 (an alias of Grand Central's Jon Kennedy) and Beatphreak respectively -- that show the broad palette of this fantastic upstart. For more info about Jack to Phono click here for their Web site

777 :: "Red Wine Bakery" Beatphreak :: "Little Hammond"

Posted by Steve at 2/28/2005 08:23:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

This work week has started out as a bit of a mess for me, as I basically wasted a holiday with a massive hangover, and now have to cram so much shit into a short 4-day period that I can already feel the stress invading my gut. So, you get some well-timed (and perfectly suited) schizoid pop today via Fog. Andrew Broder has recorded as Fog and Hymie's Basement for Ninja Tune and Lex Records respectively, and his new 10th Avenue Freakout is definitely another chapter in his increasingly robust tome of modern, lo-fi psychedelia. Half part Freed Weed and half part twisted tape loop science, Broder makes messy music the way we make messy piles of our favorite things -- clothes, records, books and food. Should start the week off nicely, with some real nuggets on the queue for tomorrow. For more info about Fog, check out the Fog Time Waster To purchase records, check out the Ninja Tune Web site

Fog :: "We're Winning"

Posted by Steve at 2/22/2005 06:07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

Since I skipped posts on Wednedsay and Thursday, you get a double dose to end your work week. Since both Aaron and I returned from the London with some killer vinyl, expect some European obscurity over the next month. Normal Position is a duo introduced to me by Aaron -- to him by the Shepdog -- on the awesome Deep-Water imprint, whose releases include tracks from Psapp (see the sidebar), Quantic and Hint, all of whom are scissorkick favorites. But today's post "Verb" has quickly become one of my favored songs of the moment with its discordant opening sample, indelible floating electro-violin patterned synth melody, moody drums and a truly breathtaking middle passage that emotes with true Mike Paradinas or Boards of Canada heaviness. Seriously, check this track. It is completey infectious. For more info about Normal Position, check out their web site

Normal Position :: "Verb"

Posted by Steve at 2/18/2005 10:00:00 AM | Permalink | Comments   

Here's a real exclusive, delivered just a few days ago to scissorkick by Chris of d_rradio himself. This promising English group -- which includes Chris Tate, Michael Todd, Ian Smith and Paul Patterson -- successfully avoids many of the cliches that currently plague bands who share an affection of both electronics and live instrumentation. Like Boom Bip or Four Tet, they navigate the somewhat overpopulated waters of the style with significant skill, moving between minimal electronic sterility and layered organic textures with seemingly without effort. "Bag of Lovely" is an unreleased track made specially available to scissorkick readers, so make sure to download this one because it is a real nugget of inspired playing/programming. An initial listen induced imagery of Tortoise's rendition of a Zimbabwean Jit as remixed by Looper. Yeah, it's happy music. Check out d_rradio's trio of 7"s and "Underscore", a superb 7 track mini-album that had I known about it earlier, would have surely made scissorkick's list of 2004's best records. Get more information about d_rradio here Read this nice piece on d_rradio at Absorb.org

d_rradio :: "Bag of Lovely"

Posted by Steve at 2/18/2005 09:17:00 AM | Permalink | Comments   

This is another scissorkick exclusive coming straight from the crates today. Big thanks to Aaron (DRM) for digitizing this track and for dropping it on our unsuspecting heads. He definitely beat me to the punch with this gem of a 12" from Banzai Republic, who I know very little about actually but I can almost guarantee this is the first MP3 blog to post this absolutely fantastic rework of The Beatles classic "Blackbird." You'd think it would be impossible to pull this off by removing most of the indelible guitar, yet the vocal melody keeps things familiar while the programmng is subtle and smart enough to add a completely unique perspective on a pastoral Beatles favorite. This is a successful cover in all of the most fundamental ways one can judge such a thing. Respect for the original. A new angle displaying the character of the producer covering the track. A fantastic track independent of the original. I hope you enjoy this as much as we do. Read more about Banzai Republic, including discography and more MP3s, here

Banzai Republic vs. The Beatles :: "Blackbird"

Posted by Steve at 2/15/2005 05:41:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

It's always hard to know when to say when. Sure, that 8th vodka tonic at 3:45 AM may seem like a great idea, but is it worth the living hell of an all-day hangover? Of course it is. And it is with the same reckless abandon that I will succumb to the demons of self-promotion, posting a track from my boys Master Mosquito that has been given the Deutsch deconstruction by our freund Schall in Germany. Rapping under the alias CORD, he's dropped a couple of verses on top of a slighlty tweaked mix of "No Vacancy" and "Sacket Street Stitches" and in the process transformed a moody instrumental into a pretty tight hip-hop banger -- the last thing I think the Master Mosquitos (Aaron, Dave, Jamie and Mujaji) could have envisioned. Sure, the novelty of hearing "Master Mosquito" and "Bastard Jazz" shoutouts in English sandwiched between German verses is awesome enough, but this track is definitely a strong shot of musical, thought-provoking world hip-hop. Take a listen. And if you want to pick-up the original 12", try Turntable Lab, Groove Distribution or Kudos in Europe.

Master Mosquito :: "No Vacancy/Sackett Street Stitches" (CORD's Vocal Uber-mix)

Posted by Steve at 2/11/2005 12:11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

What's the measure of a great band? For some the measure of a great band is represented soley by numbers, for others it's the quality of the live performance. For most it is simply a feeling, an intimate connection to the music that transcends peripheral ephemera like song titles, graphic design and marketing. And yes, when a band focuses efforts on both live and recorded material with a balanced devotion, you indeed have something special. Readers of scissorkick know how much we love bands like Cinematic Orchestra and Jaga Jazzist, and for much of the same compelling reasons I now add Mice Parade to this short list. Today's post is an extremely rare glimpse at Adam Pierce and company's newest outing due April 19th on his solid Bubblecore imprint. The CD-R I received to review for Resonance didn't even include song titles, so I apologize for the anonymity, but I hope you'll agree that names are merely formalities here. This is deep stuff, with the emotive guitar meandering and solid percussive signature regularly affixed to Pierce's compositional style. Live, they are simply not to be missed and the word on the street (from a recent interview) is that Mice Parade and Boom Bip will be sharing East Coast dates in the Spring. Nice. Learn more about Mice Parade here Buy Mice Parade records here

Mice Parade :: "Track 4" from Bem-Vinda Vontade

Posted by Steve at 2/09/2005 11:41:54 AM | Permalink | Comments   

DJ Food's Strictly Kev has always been one of the foremost proprietors of cut-up music, so who better to serve up a brief history of the tradition than the orignal chef himself. Today's post, which will only be up for a week due to the size of the download and the bandwith I am sure to eat up by mirroring this mix, is absolute historical record. It is the blood and sweat, passion and obsession, that Kev has always translated in his mixes and live sets, and surely represents the most complete record of cut-ups (mash ups, tape manipulation, turntable megamixes) that I have been priveleged to listen to. If that's not a compelling reason to listen, then check out the complete track listing which is sure to blow your mind whether you write for Wax Poetics or not. It is simply awesome, a record of old and new, released and unreleased tracks, that will vault this mix into the even more obscure pantheon of legendary mixes . The version currently available here, which differs from the original aired on his radio show, includes additional vocal passages from Paul Morley's recently publlished "Words and Music" as read by the author himself. Click here to read more about DJ Food Click here for more info about the Raiding project and its origins/motivation
DJ Food :: "Raiding the 20th Century Mix"

Posted by Steve at 2/08/2005 01:06:49 PM | Permalink | Comments   

Although alot of scissorkick's UK readers are probably sick to death of this nugget from the West London Bugz in the Attic collective, we here in the US are just getting wind of this absolutely massive dance floor hurricane. Those unfamiliar with the Bugz crew and main men Orin "Afronaught" Walters, Seiji, Kaidi Tatham and Daz-I-Kue, will discover that for years the collective have been cultivating a West London broken beat sound that has hit peaks, but never one as gargantuan as "Booty La La." The undeniable blend of crisp drums, thick machine bass, vintage keys and soulful, acerbic vocals makes this easily one of the most automatic bangers heard in a bit. Sure, the UK headz have already raised their pints in acknowledgement. Now I get to destroy unsuspecting US crowds and none will be the wiser. It's as if Ray Parker Jr. got together with Slimer and the Ghostbusters to cross musical streams from the 80s and 00s. Ask Gozer, these Bugz are definitely the real keymasters. Buy the 12" here. Read/learn more about Bugz in the Attic here.

Bugz in the Attic :: "Booty La La"

Posted by Steve at 2/07/2005 05:59:25 PM | Permalink | Comments   

Super quick post today. Apologies to Outhud who certainly deserve more attention than this. Fans of the !!!-affiliated band may be initially shocked by the presence of vocals on the forthcoming Let Us Never Speak of It Again released on Kranky but after sitting down and really getting into it, the production on this sophomore outing is truly interesting. S.t.r.e.e.t.d.a.d.'s strength was its moodiness, it being an instrumental affair and all, but the new record, while firmly planting the group's roots in the ESG/Kronk NYC school of all-inclusive urban funk, has a character all its own. "Old Nude" is a great representation of what I'm trying to communicate, so stop reading and start downloading. This one will only be up for a limited time.

Outhud :: "Old Nude"

Posted by Steve at 2/02/2005 04:07:07 PM | Permalink | Comments