WMC Miami? Meh.

Well, Miami happened, it's a global launchpad for the summer's big dance tunes. Yeah, exactly. There's better tunes to be found than those you'll hear coming out of some kids mobile on the bus come August, and there's a reassuring gap between them and the mainstream. In the hope of offering something interesting and a bit progressive in the face of dance music's rather tragic, slow-motion death scene, here's a mix of stuff that you might not otherwise hear. Glitchy bay-area hip hop, crispy bassline stuff and some dubstep pleasancy, optimistically rammed together. Most tunes were bought at Juno Download, with others coming from XLR8R's excellent MP3 section, and more from Curb Crawlers, an island of delights in the post-electro wasteland that is blogsville. Tracklist is below, obivously. Apparently some people like dancing aswell as chin stroking, so next week brings a mix from the gurnier side.

MP3 - High Horse Mix

/

Powell – Dimension X
Kelpe – Shipwreck Glue
Ooah – Stomp The Yard
Portishead – Machine Gun
Robert Logan – Grinder
Digital Filth – How It Is
Deadbeat – The Heckler
Justin Martin – The Fugitive
KiNK – Badman (The Bulgarian mix)
Secret Agent Gel – Booker
Sharps – Night Work
T + + - Allied
Ikonika – Please
Innerling – Intercom
Zomby – The Lie
Aaron Spectre – Music Is The Weapon
Modeselektor – Raveanthem (UPS edit)
King Tubby – Rock On Time Dub

...............................................................................

Holy Fuck- Feedback

Holy Fuck know what they want, and how to get it. Eeking steady, driving drones from a rotating cast of electronics, they are a band with tight collective understanding. Every track starts nowhere and ends everywhere, with constant, meticulous growth. Nothing is wasted and nothing goes too far; predictable the cacophonous endings may be but never disappointing. It's no mean feat turning fully live electronics, especially with a human rhythm section, into something danceable and rigid. Too often the shifts from regularity can grate and kill the momentum; no such problems here, their organic synth jams and tight pulses driving a dense symphony. The use of multiple keyboards and sound generators stayed within the bounds of practicality, without turning into a gimmick. Only the appearance of a melodica, for some reason an "Alt band" staple at the moment, begged to differ. A 16mm film score editing machine took centre stage, an analogue soundtrack tape being pulled through it to make haunting, slow wails or sharp, jerky warbles. This typified the performance- mastery of machinery, for sound not show. If you get a chance, take it- they'll tweek a right party out of you.

PS- Video link to follow when I can extract it from my hard-ball playing camera. Click the photos above to make 'em big.

Efterklang / Holy Fuck, live and local

Efterklang are back in Brighton, hurrah! Most of their fans probably caught them when they played a couple of months ago, but the gig was delayed and then cut a little short on the night I'm told. This time the promoters have a super-special late opening from Pressure Point this Thursday, so no-one has to go home until they've completely had their fill of powerful Danish wonderment. Tickets were still going (just) yesterday at Resident, pop on down. It's a tenner but heh, the loan has to go somewhere. Support is rather cheekily from Our Broken Garden, comprised of Efterklang band members. The latest album Parades (available here) is emphaticly beautiful. Compared to American beauty merchants like Explosions In The Sky et.al. they have the advantage of a Scandinavian sensibility- less washy, epic guitars, more lump-in-throat clarity. If that weren't enough, get your ears round this, check out more on their download page, buy their stripped-back earlier EPs and watch this live video. Oh, and you can buy tickets here if you're quick, 10 left at time of writing.

Mp3: Efterklang - Cutting Ice To Snow

PS- Efterklang means 'reverb' in Danish. Bet you'll never find a time to bring that up.

/

Also in town are Holy Fuck, next Monday at Digital. All round super-promoters Lout are the first to scoop them, hats off. They're Canadianly reticent (no vocals, in a good way) and tread a nice line between experimental and 'proper band'. It's hard to describe the elements that make up their sound without making them sound like an over-egged disaster-toy samples, drum machines, large chords- this is very unfair on them, and perhaps a reason the press were a little luke-warm. Trust though, buy it, you'll listen to it loads, end of. Tickets available here, live clip here, song below, shake it all about..

MP3: Holy Fuck - Lovely Allen

All for now. Show Pony as in, like, the printed magazine and everything, is coming out real soon. This space is already blushing cos you're watching it so much...

WXSW: Bristol's (gentle) return

Bristol's been in hiding for the last decade or so. The trip-hop and drum'n'bass' heyday is a distant memory. Massive Attack popped out an album since, toured it and slunk back into hiding before anyone's curiosity wore off; by the time we collectively went "oh, that's actually pretty weak" they were safely back in whatever bar it is they run now counting pennies. All hail, then, the return of Portishead.

Massive Attack were basically not relevant any more- their sound had no bearing in the musical world it dropped into, rather like the Prodigy's Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned. Portishead however have managed to carry on their signature atmospheres in a way that not only makes sense today, but actually pushes things forward. Single Machine Gun, downloadable below, sounds a bit like the mass-appropriating Various Production, in its references to paranoid dubstep sparsity, a natural progression of Portishead's THC infused night rattle. Most importantly though, they still have that unidentifiable knack for turning hollow, uncomfortable sounds into something far beyond the sum of its parts. The album, called Third, drops April 28th. I'm only posting this song for free cos I know you'll go out and buy the LP, yes..

MP3: Portishead - Machine Gun

///

Continuing the Bristol theme: another absentee from the SXSW feature was Fuck Buttons (pictured above), mainly because I'm a pussy. Anyone looking for something satisfying in a post-Battles time of high expectations and open minds though need look no further- where Foals went lite (and should never really have been compared anyway), the Fuck Buttons hold their deconstructive ground. They really are an album band, so take a wallow in this blissful drone snippet then go check out Street Horrrsing on ATP records.

MP3: Fuck Buttons - Sweet Love For Planet Earth

///

There's a swathe of artists just below the mainstream in Bristol, all sustained by the city's self sufficient gig circuit and refreshingly unambitious ethos. Multi-instrumentalist SJ Esau may be signed to internation label Anticon but Bristol remains his home, physically and musically. Show Pony asked him firstly, what's his opinion of Bristols insular nature, and is it a bad thing?

I’m not really sure. I certainly think that some of the bands / artists
from around here should be getting to more ears but I can’t really imagine
them (the ones I like anyway) getting too much attention from the NME etc.
I’m no expert on this sort of thing though. There are hundreds of bands
here and I’ve only heard a tiny percentage but some very enthusiastic
promoters and a bunch of excellent artists and bands keep things very
entertaining.

•If you had to pick a few, whose music are you enjoying from Bristol at the
moment?

Off the top of my head – Twocsinak, Safetyword, North Sea Navigator,
Knowledge Of Bugs, Lacuna, Bronnt Industries Kapital, You & The Atom Bomb,
Gravenhurst, Manyfingers, Matt Elliott, Team Brick. I haven’t been going to
many gigs recently so I guess I’ve got some catching up to do.

•Boomkat called your Anticon signing 'brave', which got me thinking- do you
ever picture who's going to be listening to your music? With a larger
audience for it, and being rather personal in nature, has this consciously changed how you approach making music.

It’s best for me not to think about it (though not always easy). It’s
probably quite an easy trap to fall into, to start trying to please the
people who are going to be buying the records but that’s just going to get
in the way in the end. To be honest, it’s something I’ve been struggling
with a bit because I’m recording the next pile of stuff at the moment and
sometimes I find myself thinking “Some people REALLY wont like this” but
fuck it, I’m just carrying on as I was before and some people liked that
stuff.

•If you had to write a song about your day so far, what would it's title be,
and what instrument would it be played on?

It would be called Procrastination Expert and it would be played on several
cups of tea.

There's loads of downloads on SJ's site here. The album Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse came out on Anticon last year. This track is a collaboration with lablemate-du-jour WHY?:

MP3: SJ Esau - Note

Lethal Brizzle may be stoned a lot of the time, but when things get done, they're pretty damn good. A Brighton feature is in the pipeline, so keep em peeled, and send us suggestions of local treats we might be missing.

Project Jenny, Project Jan (SXSW Reprise)

It was inevitable that someone would slip through the net when I put together that top ten, and embarrassingly it was this fine duo. Project Jenny, Project Jan are from, wait for it, Brooklyn, but blow their artsy boho contemporaries out the water. They recently played with neighbours Vampire Weekend, and put on a joyously loose live show, like Hot Chip with the rod extracted from their backside... The song below is painfully infectious, and you sound like a special case trying to sing along, but screw your dignity, it's worth it. Head to their site and listen to Train Track too, its even better. The album's out now (buy here), and keep an eye on their myspace in case they plan to enlighten our shores anytime soon. Go on now, get ridiculous..

MP3: Project Jenny, Project Jan - 320

Quick bit of news- Efterklang are back in town at the Pressure Point on April 4th, more to follow but get tickets quick!

SXSW gets a round up

You're probably aware of the Texan industry frenzy that is SXSW. Every year thousands queue in the street to miss their favourite bands, while down the street next year's biggest thing plays to three cowboys under a hail of plastic pint cups. Glad I saved myself the trouble of actually being there (ish).. Handily most of the line-up post a song on the website's time table to help people pick what gigs they go to, so I've scoured the entire line-up for things worth knowing. All of it, indiscriminately, in case a Mexican opener turned out to be The Big Find. That's a lot of watching loading bars creep across the screen, and a whole load of press releases. What did we learn?

• That every band has a friend with a 10mp camera and Photoshop, so every band photo can look as similar as possible- you know the look, super-smooth skin that's made to look a bit green (example above)

•Bands with shit names are nearly all shit (see above: The Dexateens)

• That nearly everyone in Brooklyn makes pretty good music. Seriously, something in the water.

•That the best bands don't write a press statement. Those that do, especially those listing "Bowie, Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem" as their influences, suck beyond belief.

•That those who can, beard. Those who can't, fringe. (as above. again. sorry Dexateens but you really are the purest of average).

88 promising acts became 30 became 16 and finally, my top 10 here. They're all here because they're interesting and stood out- there were bigger bands who you've probably heard of already, and smaller bands who might well be awesome if you like Norwegian metal, but these are the ones that fit the Show Pony's hard line on sheer goodness. Hit the links, there's YouTube footage from the festival wherever possible. Nuff talking, peruse these lot:

Dr. Dog - The Girl mp3
myspace // Youtube: Live at SXSW

Grand Ole Party - Look Out Young Son mp3
myspace // YouTube: Live at Fiesta Del Sol

High Places - Shared Islands mp3
myspace // YouTube: Live with projections by David Horvitz

Jay Reatard - Hammer I Miss You mp3
myspace // YouTube: Live at SXSW

Slaraffenland - Polaroids mp3
myspace // YouTube: Live at Roskilde (very good)

TheDeathSet - Negative Thinking mp3
myspace

The War Against Sleep - Blippity Bloop mp3
myspace

White Williams - Going Down mp3
myspace //YouTube: Live at SXSW

Woods - Be Still mp3

YACHT - See A Penny (Pick It Up) mp3
YouTube: Live at SXSW

So there we have it. Hopes you likes: next up, Miami WMC, and summer term preview fun.

Friday Friday

Quick notes on the fun ahead:

Radioactiveman at Concorde this Saturday. Coming out of fellow Lone Swordsman Andrew Weatherall's shadow, there should be plenty enough analog electro to go round. Also on Saturday, DatA plays water margin for a meagre fiver. Old vs new school electro then, if you're not still reeling from our party on Wednesday..

MP3: Snoop Dogg - Drop It Like It's Hot (DatA remix)

MGMT (pictured) reach our shores finally on Monday. Hotly tipped, and from the same Brooklyn stable as Yeasayer, the gruesome twosome is not to be missed. See if you believe the internet babble- try the taster too:

MP3: MGMT - Time To Pretend

Listings for the rest of the week on Monday.

Check the 'Pony facebook for photos from Wednesday's pack-out party btw, a right treat it was...

Show Pony Gymkhana!

It's all true. Show Pony are going live, with bands, DJs and prancy antics, this Wednesday night at Funky Buddha. Editorial lovelies are selling tickets in the foyer today/tomorrow/wednesday, get down fast cos it's not the biggest place in the world. The line-up keeps shifting for the better, check back here for updates. Suffice to say it'll be ridiculous to miss out: there's a pinata. Tickets are the usual £5 for two, £3 lonely folk.

Great Escape news

The annual weekend away for Londoners (presumably the reason for the name?) is actually looking pretty good this year. For those of us living around Brighton it's rarely seemed worth it, being held in venues that we visit anyway and with only a handful of decent headliners, resulting in huge queues for bands the majority of ticketholders wanted to see. This year though the line-up's better than ever, and spread across the board. Wombats, Joe Lean et. al and the Teenagers should soak up a lot of the crowds, leaving everyone else time to catch some of these highlights:

Black Mountain

Superlative rock sense from Secretly Canadian's reliable roster. January's second album moved them on from acute rock standards to more atmospheric, all engrossing waves of rock essence. Tongue out or tongue in cheek? No matter, make sure not to miss them. They'll be at ATP too, so watch out for some London gigs around that time. Enjoy Tyrants in the meantime:

MP3- Black Mountain//Tyrants

Dirty Projectors

Too many touch-stones to mention, and at times the all encompassing mush starts to grate but this is one of their finer moments. Should be a breath of fresh air live too, with not a Lyle+Scott jumper in sight! 

MP3- Dirty Projectors//No More

Ipso Facto

Tidy femme fourpiece from London. Don't let the fringes put you off, they're crisp as a well starched collar and having supported The Liars and Siouxsie Sioux, have the pedigree to prove it. Watch their video for Harmonise here:

Video-Ipso Facto//Harmonise

Iron and Wine; Tunng

Both semi-mainstream these days, and both still a big reason to part with some hard-earned. Tunng's third album, though fired off fast, went to prove folking around with new and old can have true longevity when done with such craft and excitement, something the Adem's of this world are now lacking. By contrast, trad-folk and proud, Iron and Wine are still making delectably morose songs, teetering between joy and despair with the composure of old masters. Watch some tour footage on PlayedLastNight for further proof. 

MP3-Iron and Wine//Peace Beneath The City 

Video Podcast-Tunng Videos and animated joy

Monobright

It's hard to know what to make of Monobright, most of their information being in Japanese- if I'm going to watch stompy danceable indie joyfaces though, this is exactly the form I want it in. A bit Dungen-y in the vocals, a bit Mustang Sally, a bit wrong.. check their video here, and follow the links to more. See you down the front, poloshirted, pogoing and utterly bemused.. 

Video-Monobright//Mikansei Raiotto

Soko

From the first bar you know you're in love, or at risk of changing teams.. The less than saccharine nature of the lyrics, impeccable delivery and casually off-kilter back track make you realise just how unattractive faux-Essex Kate Nashery really is. Who wants estuary bitching when you can be beaten down by a viper-tongued Parisian chanteuse? It's insipid, it's daft, and it's superb. 

MP3-Soko//I'll Kill Her

Yeasayer

What a way to finish. Awesomness oozes from this noisy rabble like jam from a donut. No matter how you're feeling they will make forget, forgive, and embrace your uncertain future. Not bad for a Brooklyn fourpiece, who can be caught at the ICA on March 6th for those too impatient to wait. Download this, then go buy the album. 

MP3- Yeasayer//Wintertime

So ends our personal highlights: check the full line-up here for more information, and buy your tickets in Resident, they deserve the support. If you're there, take photos, write things afterwards, and send them to us. Just, beautiful. 

Friday Premonitions

New feature! Friday seems a good day to give you a guide to the week/end ahead gig and other wise, so that's exactly what we'll do. Good'uns will then get reviewed and posted about the following Thursday. Most of the time. No-one's perfect.

Tonight is Kode9 + the Mystikz at Concorde2, Super Dubpressure stylings and all that goes with it. Wobble along to future bangers, then watch T4 with the subtitles on cos your ears have gone to mush. Competition is from Born Bad, Komedia's sweaty tribute to rock'n'roll from a time when that meant something. Equally good in opposite ways, and makes crystal castles seem the rather damp, forgettable option- no offence but don't put yourself down: unlike yesterday, you can do better.

Saturday's Kissy Sell Out (@Digital) vs. Adam Freeland + Evil9 at Concorde. Compare notes by listening to Kissy's podcast here, and checking out the Marine Parade label site's podcast here. I'll be doing the mailing list at Concorde, so giz a wave if you make it. Another hard choice and both over a tenner for mortals, so maybe it's another houseparty for most...

Next week sees Cazals at the Barfly on Monday, with support from Cut Off Your Hands (check their video for Still Fond here). Not everyone's cup of tea, but bound to be a lively knees-up at least. For a quieter evening, try the British Animation Awards tour in the Sallis Benney- it's on Sunday and Monday evening, and should be packed with goodness: for a sample, there's a clip of Best Student Film nominee Milk Teeth here, and Best Comedy nominee Cat Man Do here.

Tuesday sees Cut Copy at Digital. Last time they played the gig got moved at the last minute, an impressive convoy of fans trudging through town to Ocean Rooms to finally catch them around midnight. Slicker, bigger tour this time and a new album to plug (In Ghost Colours). You can download a shiny happy taster here:

Cut Copy : Lights and Music (Original Mix)

Or visit their site.

On Thursday you can pay £20 to see Mark Ronson at the Dome. God knows what that gets you- presumably he can't round up even half the vocalists off that last album which leaves you watching.. a DJ set? Lord help us.

Not the hottest week in the world, true, but check back tomorrow for the longer range forecast: there's plenty to get excited about in the coming weeks.