scissorkick

I realized recently that I had listed The Joe Beats Experiment in my top records of the year yet never actually did a post on this amazing remix project. On a personal level, there wasn't a more affecting record released in 2005. We all have a unique path that leads to our present musical identity, and it seems that I share at least a stretch of that road with producer Joe Beats, who is known by many for his tracks with Sage Francis and Non-Prophets. Dude drops remixes of some of my favorite indie rock tracks on last year's Indie Rock Blues and really blew my mind with nods to June of '44 and The Minutemen. It's important however for me to solidly express that this record is not a novelty release. In fact it is one of the most professional remix records I've heard in ages, ranking up there with Buddy Peace and Zilla's Warp Remix and the fantastic, relatively unknown downtempo mix CD from San Diego's Gaslamp Killers. Joe Beat's uh, beats, tether eat track on this record to the next and provide a solid base from which he works an astonishgly adroit sense of songwriting. Yes, songwriting. Because remixes of this caliber -- cut, pasted, flipped, reworked, looped, and restructured -- require a more sophisticated approach than simply layering some Blue Note breaks underneath an acapella section of a Will Oldham track. Not surpsingly, much of the record mirrors the early tones laid down by Entroducing and the presence of DJ Signify on the cut only adds to the generally dark tone of this album. I cannot recommend this enought for people who balance their musical diets with equal amounts of quality indie rock and quality beats. Kudos to Joe Beats for beating me to the punch on an idea floating around in my head for years. You all should be thankful as well because my attempt wouldn't have been remotely close to the superior quality of this shit. Of course a record like this has added resonance for those familiar with the source material but don't let that stop you from checking it out. Resources

Posted by Steve at 1/29/2006 08:06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

It's cold in NYC but my hands are not yet shivering. The stuttered title of today's post is no mistake, although please don't mix up the French indie folk of Hey Hey My My for the Junior Senior song of a similar name. Instead, you should know that the band's name comes from a Neil Young track, "Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)" and that their instantly endearing brand of indie folk sounds more like classic Young than something you'd expect to encounter on Scandinavian dance floors. This track was sent over to me in an email by Chloe, manager of the aforementioned band consisting of two dudes named Julien. Sort of hard to get more French than a folk duo with two Juliens, but the sound feels a lot more like classic Americana -- Young, Nick Drake, Johnny Cash -- with a bit of an updated break. Suprisingly, it's the drums that really move this track along and point to great potential for this small, relatively unknown duo. I only have a single track to base this on of course, but for some reason, the charm and affect of this one sample points my optimism toward the East. Resources

Posted by Steve at 1/27/2006 01:05:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

We're getting acoustic on your ass once again. Seems like SK is starting to build a small reputation as the place for cinematic instrumentals of the acoustic/electronic variety. Hey, it's perfectly fine on this end, so please keep sending us records you think we'd like. Not only will we post them if they fit our M.O., but I can guarantee they will end up on a mix or in a DJ set shortly thereafter. Today's post fits nicely with recent stuff from King Seven, DoF and Ill Gotten Gains. It's a nice, mellow little acoustic guitar/breakbeat ditty by Chicago's Anomaly. Truthfully, I wasn't hip to this Windy City producer before I was sent this record but after a few listens to his unique take on instrumental hip-hop, I knew others would want to check out his recent sophmore release The Long Road. In it's darkest moments it's not uncommon to think DJ Shadow or DJ Krush but overall there's a real contemporary feel to it. These days, it's not just about beats; it's about texture. And because so many young producers are products of an age that exposed them to hip-hop, electronic, indie rock, metal and so on, we are finally entering a period of real musical innovation. Fuck grime, baille funk and the age of the over-hyped wedding DJ set. Real, accessible innovation (I know Wire is filled with all types of next level shit) is happening not at street level, but one flight up. Resources

Posted by Steve at 1/24/2006 08:34:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

The most fulfilling aspect of blogging is creating new relationships with readers who connect with the music. There's probably hundreds of tracks out there, floating in the weird unattended ether online, that would make perfect scissorkick posts. It's just up to me to find them -- or in the case of today's post -- finding them based on the suggestion of a reader. Actually, it's even better when said reader actually sends you the track! This awesome cinematic instrumental from Grand Central Records newest label compilation by Ill Gotten Gains is a total winner and what you would expect from SK. But don't thank me. Thank a scissorkick reader that goes by Jo. I know about as much of the anonymous tipster as I do about Ill Gotten Gains. I have a few older tracks from other Grand Central Comps and that's it. Not much online, not much anywhere. If you have some clues, let us know. But "Spirit of '67" is really all you'll need to jumpstart your own quest. Nice acoustic guitar, tight break, warm keys. This is moody instrumental headphone shit at it's finest. And I'm sure you'll agree.

Ill Gotten Gains :: "Spirit of '67"

Posted by Steve at 1/20/2006 08:41:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

This blog thing has its obvious advantages. Free music of course, but often that means 75% of unlistenable crap that has little relationship to the kinds of things I post up here. I try to keep up with shit, so when something surfaces that was otherwise off the radar, its a small victory. That's exatly what happened with Ominous from Border Crossing a connected UK trio who will soon be a staple of your downtempo explorations. These dudes come from serious West London musical stock (read their bio on the site linked below) and bring a pro debut that channels Massive Attack and that seminal group's many acolytes. Apparantly the record was released in 2004 and sort of slipped by but I am sure this re-release by the new Sound Recordings imprint -- which strangely enough counts SK friend Drake as label artist -- will definitely turn heads. I'm sure you UK readers already are on this, but you US heads need to check Border Crossing. Resources

Posted by Steve at 1/19/2006 01:42:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

Back from vacation and ready to drop a huge amount of new stuff for '06. Today's post is a rare yet serendipitous event for MP3 blogging -- an obscure, practically anonymous remix of a popular artist that warrants repeat listens. I get a lot of great stuff sent to me but generally the anonymous links or MP3s are less than stellar. However, every so often I get something like this remix of Beck's "Girl" by some cat named Ganglion. I truly don't know anything else about him/her and an exhaustive google sessin revealed very little about the artist or remix. Even an email to the return address yielded dead ends. Since Beck recently released his Guerolito remix record, I figured this would be an apporpriate time to post this. The remix takes a generally uptempo track and slows the verses down with a nice indie acoustic guitar and overdriven electronic snares set to headnod. The chorus has a nice indie electro feel, and the entire track works nicely, even better than some of the offerings on Beck's official release. Good work, whoever you are. Enjoy!

Beck :: "Girl" (Ganglion "Girble" Remix)

Posted by Steve at 1/16/2006 03:45:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

Blatant self-promotion alert! In the interests of Boards of Canada and tastefully designed print magazine fans, I draw your attention not to myself but to my favorite collection of collated and bound pages, RE:UP. The new issue, which is being placed on shelves as I type, features a cover story and interview with Boards of Canada that I was lucky enough to do while on a recent trip to Scotland. It is the only interview with the brothers you will find in an American magazine this year, granted exclusively to RE:UP with great assistance from our friends Brock over at Moutermouth Media and Stephen at Warp. It was a humbling experience to say the least, having been a fan for nearly a decade, and rather than recount the meeting or summarize the piece -- which is FILLED to the brim with insightful quotes on a wide variety of topics -- I'll just recommend that you pick it up. Check the link below for more info. Who wants to read the opinions of some fanboy anyway, so I focused the majority of the feature around the boys themselves and what they, after years of calculated media silence, wanted the world to know about them. I think it's a great supplement to recent articles in UK's The Wire and the German magazine Groove. Trying to be as objective as I can, I really think fans will come away from the interview with a more well-rounded idea of what these two electronic wizards are like. As a teaser, I posted a really old, cassette-only track from the BoC archives. Mike and Marcus hinted that there are thousands of unreleased songs that will possibly be released in coming years, either as BoC or under a pseudonym, but on this particular topic they were intentionally vague. "Sequoia" is one of my favorite early BoC tracks -- heavy on the rolling synth and static electric atmosphere -- and is a good starting point to their nearly 20 years of musical evolution. Enjoy. Resources

Posted by Steve at 1/04/2006 05:07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments   

Like them or hate them, "Best Of" lists are a great way to remember the most talked about (or sometimes tragically overlooked) records of the past year. With iPods and MP3 blogs now regular tools available to music lovers, we often forget records that for a day, week or month were on heavy rotation, quickly to be replaced by the next new favorite. None of these records are ranked. Believe me, it's hard enough to select just 25, so I've arranged them in alphabetical order, irrespective of genre, all worthy of a first, second or hundreth listen through. Scissorkick believes an eclectic musical diet is a healthy one, so you'll find some rock, some electronic, some world and even a metal record among our favorite 25 of 2005. Please enjoy the list. I know I have certainly overlooked some deserving records. Use the comments not to point out obvious omissions on the list (again, it's only 25 deep), but add some other great records and suggestions that you think fellow scissorkick readers would love to here. Enjoy and Happy New Year.
SCISSORPICKS 2005 The records we've been living on, dancing to, driving with and that have generally provided the soundtrack to the last 365 days of breathing. ALAN BRAXE "THE UPPER CUTS" (Play It Again Sam) BECK "GUERO" (Interscope) BLOC PARTY "SILENT ALARM" (Vice) BOARDS OF CANADA “THE CAMPFIRE HEADPHASE” (Warp) BONOBO "LIVE SESSIONS" (NINJA TUNE) BOOM BIP “BLUE EYED IN THE RED ROOM” (Lex) BROADCAST “TENDER BUTTONS” (Warp) CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH “S/T” LP (Self-Released) COMMON "BE" (Geffen) DAMIAN JR. GONG MARLEY "WELCOME TO JAMROCK" (Universal) DANGERDOOM "THE MOUSE AND THE MASK" (Epitaph) GORILLAZ "DEMON DAYS" (Virgin) ISOLEE "WE ARE MONSTER" (Playhouse) JAGA JAZZIST “WHAT WE MUST” (Ninja Tune) JOE BEATS EXPERIMENT "INDIE ROCK BLUES" (Arbeid) KANYE WEST "LATE REGISTRATION" (Roc-A-Fella) KONONO NO 1 "CONGOTRONICS" (Crammed Discs) LCD SOUNDSYSTEM "S/T" (DFA/EMI) M83 "BEFORE THE DAWN HEALS US" (MUTE) M.I.A. “ARULAR” (XL) MICE PARADE "BEM VINDA-VONTANDE" (Bubblecore) NICOLAY "CITY LIGHTS VOL. 1.5" (BBE) OUT HUD “LET US NEVER SPEAK OF IT AGAIN” (KRANKY) PELICAN “THE FIRE IN OUR THROATS WILL BECKON THE THAW” (HYDRA HEAD) SEU JORGE "CRU" (SONY JAPAN) STARS "SET YOURSELF ON FIRE" (ARTS & CRAFTS) TUNNG"MOTHER'S DAUGHTER & OTHER SONGS" (STATIC CARAVAN) THE BEST OF THE REST See, after studying this list, I realized that I simply could not leave out some other records that made 2005 a really successful and eclectic musical year. Check these too if you haven't already. AMADOU & MARIAM "DIMANCHE A BAMAKO" (Nonesuch) BLOOD ON THE WALL "AWESOMER" (The Social Registry) THE BOOKS "LOST & SAFE" (Tomlab) CAGE "HELL'S WINTER" (Definitive Jux) THE CLIENTELE “STRANGE GEOMETRY” (Merge) DADDY G "DJ KICKS" (!K7) EARLY MAN "CLOSING IN" (Matador) EDAN "BEAUTY & THE BEAT" (Lewis) FAT FREDDY'S DROP "BASED ON A TRUE STORY" (The Drop) GOBLIN COCK "BAGGED AND BOARDED" (Absolutely Kosher) HOLOPAW "QUIT +/ OR FIGHT" (Sub Pop) IRON & WINE/CALEXICO "IN THE REINS" (Overcoat) JAMIE LIDELL "MULTIPLY" (Warp) THE JUAN MACLEAN "LESS THAN HUMAN" (DFA) JAZZANOVA "REMIXES 2002-2005" (Sonar Kollektiv) MINOTAUR SHOCK "MARITIME" (4AD) THE NATIONAL "ALLIGATOR" (Beggars Banquet) ROOTS MANUVA "AWFULLY DEEP" (Big Dada) STEVE SPACEK "SPACE SHIFT" (Sound in Color) VASHTI BUNYAN "LOOKAFTERING" (Fat Cat) VITALIC "OKAY COWBOY" (Pias) ZION I "TRUE & LIVIN'" (LIveUp)

Posted by Steve at 1/02/2006 11:44:00 PM | Permalink | Comments