Oscillations From Another Dimension: Silver Apples

Silver Apples: Oscillations, Seagreen Serenades and Lovefingers
From: Silver Apples [Kapp Records, 1968]

Late to the party once again, it slipped my mind that Portishead's extraordinary new album, Third, was released while I was on a break. I was one of the many who had assumed the band's time had come and gone and was not exactly over ecstatic about the revival of a trip hop group but, if you haven't heard this yet, I can only give my strongest endorsement to check it out - blows all preconceptions out of the water.

Anyway, if you have seen any of the press around the album then the band name Silver Apples will no doubt have cropped up a couple of hundred times. An obvious influence on some of Portishead's new material, the constant hip name checking will hopefully lead to a wider interest in this ground breaking duo's work.

Using a 1940's oscillator the two band members, the impressively named Simeon Coxe III and the less impressively named Danny Taylor, crafted an orchestra of pedals and keys to create music that was less ahead of it's time, more beamed from another universe. Forty years after the release of their debut album the group still sound pretty much unlike anything else out there and thankfully these days you can pick up their first two albums pretty cheap on reissue.

Oscillations, a track that lives up to it's title is the one most recognisably referenced on Third with it's relentless bass drums and electronic squeaks offset by Simeon's slightly ethereal voice.

Seagreen Serenades highlights the beauty that the band crafted from these ancient instruments as the melodic electronica interacts with what sounds like a recorder, the bass relentlessly throbbing underneath.

I also just had to include Lovefingers for that epic break that kicks off the track, the whole percussion on the track making it hard to believe it's a good forty years old.

Understandably widely ignored on their release the band experienced a revival of sorts after bootleg releases of their two albums in the mid nineties leading to new albums plus the release of their original third album The Garden. Danny Taylor has now sadly passed away but Simeon is still going strong touring the country and you can find more about what he's up to on his official website.

Who Knows The Best Song You'll Hear Today.(?)

Who Knows - Marion Black
from 7" on Capsoul (1970). Also available on The Numero Group's Eccentric Soul No. 1.

Smoke & Mirrors - RJD2
from 12" on Definitive Jux (2003). Also on the Dead Ringer album.

Who Knows - Quantic Soul Orchestra f/ Kabir
from the album Tropidelico on Tru Thoughts (2007).

Hello readers. I apologize for being so long between posts, my excuses are a tough bought of cold gettin' ill that knocked me out for a week and subsequent intense endeavors in nanophotonics and casimir force studies. But Junior really held it down solo style and Kevin brought another anatomy of a sample super-post, so you've been in good hands.

Briefly, I am putting up a wonderfully bluesy soul song (or a beautifully soulful blues song) by Marion Black called "Who Knows." From the small and short-lived Columbus, Ohio, Capsoul label, this track is so wonderful with great vocals, a killer bass guitar riff, tight drums, and the real sprinkles on my cupcake is the piano vamps. Just about a perfect song...I even dig how the recording just runs out on the 45 while the song feels like it will go on like our hero.

Columbus's own RJD2 utilized this track heavily in "Smoke & Mirrors" off his debut album Dead Ringer. The drums and bass guitar are still there and the vocals of course just a little slowed down. This track is so great, just listen to all the tricks and pans and subtle textures (the second vocal track and piano heavy 3rd minute being the toppest notch). I could go on and on about my love of this track and Dead Ringer in general, but I'll stop in a poor effort to keep this post at a reasonable length. I do want to put in my 2 cents about the hate that flowed around RJD2's emo/rock album and DJ Shadow's half hyphy/third rock/one sixth electronic album this year. I recognize the desire to hear the next Endtroducing or Dead Ringer but regardless of how much i like the results, I'm excited to see these cats try something off track from their other work and explore. I saw an interview with George Lucas where he was asked about getting pilloried for the original Star Wars re-edits and the maudlin tone of the pre-quels and he said, "These are the movies I wanted to see so I made them. If people are so convinced it is wrong, they should make the movie they want to see."

One guy who has been filling the need and craving for beat driven album is Will Holland (aka Quantic) who puts out a wide range of funky material either electronic (as Quantic) or recorded with a band (as Quantic Soul Orchestra). The latest QSO album is one of my favorite albums of the year (look for the definitive list coming soon) and low and behold it has a superb cover of "Who Knows" with Kabir Malik Green of Panama's Los Fabulosos Festivals on vocals. Most of the Tropidelico album is far more Latin in flavor as it was inspired by Holland's extensive traveling and performing throughout Central and South America, but it is all amazing.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

Kutiman - He'll Try Anything Once

And Out - Kutiman


No Groove Where I Come From - Kutiman f/ Elran Dekel

both from the Kutiman's self-titled debut album on Melting Pot Music (2007).

Music Is Ruling My Life (DJ Day Remix) - Kutiman

from the 12" on Melting Pot Music (2007).

Working a website like Ear Fuzz has many blessings, and the most tangible if not necessarily the best is all the kind folks at record labels who are willing to feed the compulsion hunger to hear new music by sharing their releases. I hate to say it, but sometimes I can get complacent about how great a system this is when I have gone through a stack (both real and virtual) of tunes that didn't do much for me. However, my thin veneer of jaded music commentator quickly fell away when the lovely folks of Melting Pot Music sent me their latest CD, the self-titled album by Israeli musician Kutiman (ne Ophir Kutiel).

Melting Pot has been putting outstanding music into beathead's waiting hands since 2002; all of it with an over-riding sense of funkiness. The label's artists are a world wide diaspora (New Zealand, Israel, Germany, USA, etc) and come in with excellent hard funk (Lefties Soul Connection), instrumental hip hop (A-Ko), and even an classic sing/rap Mos Def sound-a-like (note: a good thing) (Miles Bonny). Kutiman actually brings a large number of styles to the table in his album. A mix of electronic production and Kutiman's own multi-instrumental skills, "And Out" captures the old mid-70s jazz-funk sound very well layering noodley organ riffs and synthesizer scales over punchy, cymbal-laden drum fills. This is probably my favorite track on the album.

"No Groove Where I Come From" is leans more to the funky soul side with a minute long instrumental lead in that gets kind of spacey before vocalist Elran Dekel and various horns start their interplay. Great flute and drums throughout. Finally, to make up for our 2 week absence, I've added a third track today which is the great DJ Day's (another MPM artist) remix of "Music Is Ruling My Life," which can be found on the single release. Day keeps many of the elements of Kutiman's original intact, including the ridiculously bouncy+slinky bassline. This remix in particular has been constant aural companion lately to keep me warm as the weather sours. Lots of good stuff from a young artist and an exciting young label.

Battle of the Beats: Typewriter vs. Printer

The Lyricist - Richy Pitch f/ J-Live
from the Live At Home EP on Sevenheads (2002)
Removed at the request of the artist. I definitely recommend purchasing, and you can find the vinyl here among other places, the cd here, or download here.

The Many and The Few - The Matthew Herbert Big Band
The Three W's - The Matthew Herbert Big Band
both from the album Goodbye Swingtime on Accidental (2003).

Recently I have been on a real kick for music from the indy rap boom years of the late 90s/early 00s. This Richy Pitch produced track came a little late in that run, but it features indy standard bearer J-Live on the mic, so some slack can be cut. RP lays down a nice, soulful bit of boom bap with snare and an organ lick that provides a great bed-rock for in turn J-Live's dexterous lyrics, DJ Go's scratches, and live flute by Lorna Reah. Even a full fledged sample by Sean "You're the man now, dog" Connery brings home the other sample element here, old fashioned typewriter clicks and dings. I'm old enough to actually remember using a typewriter to fill out my high school application, but I cannot say have any nostalgia for that old beast.

One of the great things about music is the connections that are possible and in hearing RP's typewriter beats I was reminded of Herbert's big band jazz album Goodbye Swingtime. In that album, Herbert's taste for conceptual projects meant using sample sources related to political writing add to his heavily chopped and edited versions of big band arrangements he made (with Pete Wraight). In "The Many and The Few," Jamie Lidell's stacatto jazz singing is augmented by a typewriter sample again (although it is actually audio from phone books from around the world being dropped at various heights - yep that's right).

The Goodbye Swingtime album is so good start to finish I had to put another track up. "The Three W's" features Herbert's dot matrix printer churning out pages from the website www.soaw.org. (NOTE: for the politically motivated soaw.org can be a very informative read.) Herbert wrote a personal contract on how we will make music - sort of the Dogme 95 of sample-based music - called PCCOM. But despite all the subtext and constraints on his music his arranging skill creates fantastic opportunities for his musicians and especially vocalists. Mara Carlyle shines with her haunting vocals on "The Three W's," but really Herbert finds a voice and use for each of member of his band (bass, drums, piano, a full set of brass and woodwinds including some of the UK's more famous swing musicians). Herbert and Wraight remind me of Stan Kenton in terms of the arrangements that appear to be the backbone of these compositions. Wonderful! Another connection to dive into.

Do Not Adjust Your Set

Spooky: Can't Remember and Do Not Adjust Your Set
From: Stereo EP (Generic, 1995)

One of the most gruelling decisions when compiling a tape for someone is when you have two great tracks from the same piece of vinyl and only space for one of them.

An album that always threw up this problem for me was Spooky's Stereo EP. Not to be confused with That Subliminal Kid, DJ Spooky, this group comprised of two English guys who released a number of quality productions covering breakbeat to techno in the mid nineties.

Originally purchased for the title track, a heavy breakbeat number aimed for the dancefloor, I quickly found out that the true gems were the two slower numbers on the EP. While undeniably influenced by Aphex Twin the two tracks were still pretty different from anything else around at the time and also from anything else in Spooky's catalogue, consisting of subtle layers and more organic sounds.

I was always torn between which one of the tracks was stronger, sometimes I'd lean towards Can't Remember's epic melodies and grandiose nature, other days Do Not Adjust Your Set would win me over with it's soft steel drums and more upbeat tone.

Anyway, with the wonder of cyberspace I can give you both tracks for your listening pleasure and let you make up your own mind. Enjoy.

Show me how to sow your seeds

Sixtoo: The Honesty of Constant Human Error (Meaty Ogre remix)
From Remixing Glass 3" CD (2005, self-released)

Sixtoo's recent LP, Chewing on Glass and Other Miracle Cures, was largely devoid of the human voice, favoring dark, dense instrumentals over verses and choruses. On the short remix EP that followed, Chicago beatmaker Meaty Ogre did something interesting with one of Sixtoo's songs. In addition to the usual remix stylistics (re-sequencing, tweaking samples, etc.), Meaty recorded his own singing over what was originally an instrumental track, writing lyrics based on the song's title and adding a new dimension to the song in the process. Given that remix EPs and LPs are almost obligatory for any major hip-hop/electronic album these days, it's nice to see someone taking a somewhat different approach in flipping in the script.

A Glitch in the System

Aphex Twin: Flim
From Come to Daddy [Sire, 1997]

Back in undergrad I took this film class and for one of the assignments this kid made a short animated film that featured "Flim." When I first heard it I thought it was amazing and immediately downloaded it when I got home, but after many years and a retired computer the track was lost and I could never for the life of me remember the title. I eventually stumbled across it on some random blog a few months ago and couldn't be happier to be reunited with this superb track (one of the many reasons why mp3 blogs are tight).

I'm not a huge Aphex Twin fan, but the mind behind what's regarded as one of the most accomplished electronic artists is Richard D. James. His range of work is vast, experimenting with techno, ambient, glitch, and electronica and mashing them all together in this homemade stew he calls home. I've taken a listen to some of his other work, but none of it quite attracted me as much as "Flim" which I think is wonderfully mysterious and explosively rich. I've been known to play this track on repeat for extended periods of time, but I don't expect everyone to develop the same type of infatuation as myself.

Diplo

Diplo: Solid Steel Excerpt 1 and Solid Steel Excerpt 2
From Solid Steel July 19, 2004

After hearing Diplo and Tripledouble's AEIOU Two mix over a year ago it wasn't surprising to see Diplo become 2004's posterchild for hip hop and dj music. He is what RJD2 was a few years ago, with constant comparisons to the almighty DJ Shadow, but unlike many Shadow wanabees, Diplo brought a distinctive southern sound, paying homage to dirty south, crunk, and miami bass. In my opinion, his debut Florida on Big Dada was one of the best releases of last year.

Having said that, I'm off to Davis, CA for the weekend to DJ my friend's annual Cinco De June party, so I'm leaving you with a couple snippets of a mix Diplo did for Solid Steel back on July 19, 2004. What's cool about this is it seems to almost play out like a dedication to Shadow as he remixes many of his tracks using southern flare as well as showcasing a lot of his own music. The track selection is top notch, and like other mixes of his there are many blood shitting moments, like Roy Ayers into Terror Squad blended with Shadow's "Six Days" and then into "Hardcore Instrumental Hip Hop," or the even more surprising Weezer blended with Youngbloodz, Lil' Flip, and Radiohead. Truly imaginitive work and worth the search on your favorite mp3 client.

Roots of Four (Tet)

Four Tet: The Butterfly Effect
From Dialogue (Output, 1999)

Four Tet (Kieran Hebden) released a new album, Everything Ecstatic, today. If you read any review of it, I guarantee that the following three words will appear: "folktronica" (the genre tag that Hebden's music has been burdened with), Pause and Rounds (his second and third albums, respectively). However, critics almost never mention Four Tet's debut, Dialogue, which complicates the common thesis that Four Tet = countryside + computers. The songs on Dialogue have more in common with free jazz than folk. The Butterfly Effect, for example, throws hyperactive percussion and squawking sax lines into the mix, along with Hebden's signature drum programming and twinkling melodies.

Foreign Shores

Aoki Takamasa: Walk on the Ocean
From Simply Funk (Progressive Form, 2004)
They've Been Waiting
From Quantum (Cirque, 2003)

In the age of the internet, I (like many heads), tend to believe that any worthy new music, no matter where in the globe it originates, will eventually make its way to my ears. Last month, I saw Aoki Takamasa perform in New York, and I realized how wrong I was. I'd never heard of him before that night, but his sound manipulations blew me away, and I copped two of his CDs on my way out. Aoki is a true international bell ringer, born in Osaka, Japan and currently living in Paris, France. His music isn't that stylistically separate from the legions of laptop producers out there, but it has a certain emotional tinge that many similar-sounding artists lack.

"Walk on the Ocean" is easily the most accessible track on either album, due largely to presence of Glen Phillips (from rock band Toad the Wet Sprocket). Phillips isn't the greatest singer, so it's Aoki who steals the show here, combining his own gently pulsating digital texture with fractured reflections of Phillips' vocals.

"They've Been Waiting" also features singing, but in a very different way. A wordless female vocal, sustained for five minutes and smeared across the stereo field, becomes the heart of the song, surrounded by soft synths and minimal click percussion. This is a great track to listen to on headphones just before falling asleep at night.

Blowin' up the spot

Amon Tobin - Verbal (Boom Bip remix)
From: Verbal 12" (Ninja Tune, 2003)
Boom Bip - Last Walk Around Mirror Lake (Boards of Canada remix)
From: From Left to Right EP (Lex, 2003)

Bryan Hollon (aka Boom Bip) is one of the several artists currently exploring the grey area that exists between hip-hop, indie rock, and electronic music. Like Sixtoo, Hollon has managed to shed the label of 'Anticon beatmaker' and move on to a successful solo career as a producer. His music sounds simultaneously huge and tiny; I'm never quite sure if I should be listening to it on speakers or headphones. Anyway, here are two of my favorite non-album cuts, showcasing Boom Bip as both remixer and remixed.

Pieces and Beats

Nightmares on Wax: "Playtime (John McEntire remix)"
From Warp 10+3 (Warp, 1999)
The Pastels: "Remote Climbs (John McEntire remix)"
From Illuminati (Up, 1999)
John McEntire: "Quinn Goes to Town"
From Reach the Rock Soundtrack (Hefty, 1998)
Coldcut: "More Beats and pieces (John McEntire Tortoise mix)"
From More Beats and Pieces 12" (Ninjatune, 1997)

A request for the John McEntire version of "More Beats and Pieces" got me thinking about the breadth of the Tortoise co-founder's solo material. Reverb, lost-in-space bloops, and clipped drum samples abound. While not necessarily DJ friendly, these tracks avoid congruence for just long enough to make the eventual backbeat or consonant melody line snap you to attention. Somewhere between cocktail party background music and stoned headphone rhapsodies, these tracks don't grab you by the neck so much as they seep into your skin.

I Am The Fun Blame Monster

Menomena: "E. Is Stable" and "Oahu"
From I Am The Fun Blame Monster [Muuuhahaha!, 2003]

I think the thing that upsets me the most about this whole music thing, or at least frustrates me the most, is the time commitment that's involved. I mean I've got about 300 records sitting next to my turntables that I have yet to listen to, and with a steady stream constantly coming in, that pile doesn't seem to have diminished over the last year. That makes it almost impossible to keep up with all the new music that's coming out, and even though my interest in the latest Def Jux or indie rock record have waned considerably, I think I still realize how much amazing music is passing me by.

This fact became all too clear to me when I listened to Menomena's first album entitled I Am The Fun Blame Monster. I remember reading the review on Pitchfork months ago, thinking that they sounded like something I would dig and proceeding to etch them somewhere deep in my music memory bank. Well a couple weeks ago I came across their album on soulseek and proceeded to download it (which is of course wrong and is an activity I don't condone). I listened it on the way to school the next day and was simply mesmorized by what I was hearing, so impressed in fact that I made a special trip to Amoeba Records that night to pick it up. The $32 price tag for a vinyl copy, although quite high for a new release, didn't phase me as I was determined to get this piece of music on wax. At home I realized what justified such an expense after it took me three minutes to figure out how to get the record out of the sleeve. It unfolds like a typical gatefold cover would, although neither end yields a record. Instead their is a center piece that, when applied with enough brain power, unfolds kind of like one of those cootie catcher things you used to make in elementary school, with the surrounding area of the "catcher" made to look like the gaping mouth of a monster, and out of this mouth comes the record. Very cool concept indeed, but so annoying that it prompted me to slip it in a plain white sleeve and file the cover away so I never have to deal with it again.

Nevertheless, this seems to be the type of creativity that embodies Menomena, a three-piece outfit from Portland, Oregon who's frontman Brent Knopf decided to write a special computer program called Deeler that would allow his band to "improvise short ideas and use them as the building blocks for broad, loop-based compositions which they then learn to play live."

Mmmkay, whatever. I'm not sure if I quite get it, but the music is unbelievably lush and deep, borrowing sounds from hip hop, glitch, and indie rock and sort of throwing it into this musical soup. For a better idea of what their influences are, Dusted Magazine did a nice feature on their current likings that do manage to make subtle appearances in their music.

I must say, I had a hell of a time deciding what songs to present here since almost all of them are worthy, but naturally I seem to be drawn to the drum heavy tracks, one of these being "E. Is Stable." I just love the way the individual components come together, from the guitar slides, clumsy bass line, soft piano keys, aggressive drums, and punctuated vocals.

"Oahu" is probably my favorite track on the album. For whatever reason thoughts of Boards of Canada, Tortoise, Coldplay, and Savath and Savalas have all gone through my head while listening to this track, but really it sounds nothing like any of them and that's why I think so many people are going nuts over these guys. I won't go into the details of this one, just do yourself a favor and download it, turn your speakers up high, lay down, close your eyes, and let your mind wander. So lovely.

Much more information can be found on their website(god forbid they have any fans in Japan). Really though, their website is on some serious early 90's look what I can do with webpages shit. Arduous to get through, but there's some worthwhile information there including rare and unreleased tracks, weird pictures, and random tid bits. I must emphasize again the abominable design skills which I'm sure is supposed to symbolize some kind of irony.

Stick to making music guys.

Timz N [Hood] Chek

Hood: "The Lost You"
From Outside Closer (Domino, 2005)

Hood sound kinda like The Notwist: unforced interlacing of rock and electronics, understated vocals, Anticon collaborations. In their 10-plus years of existence, they've released a bunch of their material in unconventional formats (EP, 7", 10", split single), but it turns out they're not so bad at making old-fashioned albums, either. I picked up Hood's latest, Outside Closer, the other day, and I've been listening to it pretty steadily ever since. "The Lost You" is the album's centerpiece, both sequentially and emotionally. At first, the chopped beatwork sounds like a Prefuse 73 outtake, but within a minute the song takes a turn for the anthemic and never looks back. I imagine indie kids (even the ones who are too cool to dance) wilding out to this at some after-hours loft party, holding on to their cigarettes and their dreams.

You're going to get exactly what you deserve....

Presage: The Media
From: Outer Perimeter (Future Primitive, 1998)
Presage: Aliens
From: Outer Perimeter (Future Primitive, 1998)
Presage: One Breaker, One Move
From: Breakin Rules EP (Devious, 1997)
Presage: Invitation 2 Hell
From: Urban Revolutions (Future Primitive, 2000)

So the rad thing about this whole mp3 blog phenomenon is that it's like being a DJ, but with a more captive audience that you get to yammer at for a little bit. It's like when you lived in the dorms, and would invite your little crew over, sit in beanbag chairs, and stare at the stereo for a half hour. Appropriately enough, for my first foray into this internet music opium den, I'm pulling out a couple records by a crew whose music received its fair share of late night blacklit appreciation.

Presage's Outer perimeter pretty much split my wig as far as what could be done within the dj mixtape format. I dig a lot of rock concept albums; but with the addition of found dialogue and a wide variety of sampled source sounds, not to mention an above average balance of focus and abrstraction, Mr. Dibbs and Jel really push the shit over the edge. You get President Bush, Visa commercials, Frank Zappa, and Jello Biafra all in your ear over rough ass drums, making you check over your shoulder and under your bed for Big Brother. It's suitably dark, neck snappingly funky, unreasonably paranoid, and dead fucking accurate.

Predating the Illuminati centered "Outer perimeter," Dibbs and Jel did a couple tracks as Presage for the Breakin' Rules EP, a record of cuts aimed at breakdancers put together by Ohio's Illstyle Rockers b-boy crew. It has the same aesthetic of hard drum breaks and topical vocal samples as the LP, but isn't really as fleshed out or interesting.

For more of what made the full length so cool, you're better off checking out "Invitation to Hell," from the Future Primitave's Urban Revolutions comp and Dibbs' Random Vol. 3 (both of which are considerably easier to find, anyway). This one gets back in the "I sit alone in my 4 cornered room staring at candles" vein, meditating on the dark side of religion, and opens with a nice usage of Can's "vitamin C," which Maru featured last week.

I wouldn't mind running off at the mouth about Mr Dibbs and Jel's respective backgrounds and current activities, and all that business about underappreciation etc, but I'm new to the blog thing (the writing therof, at least), and probably shouldn't blow my load on the first post...