|
200105
08:31
it was only a matter of time before the
record industry decided to get serious about copyright
infringement on mp3 blogs. i believe - and hopefully you do
too - that mp3 blogs provide a gateway to music for their
readers. by downloading 1-2 tracks from an artist from an mp3
blog, you're encouraged to find out more and perhaps buy an
album. if the volume of email i receive from independent
labels and bands is any indication, then this would appear to
be a service in everyone's favour. 'not so' says the
international federation of the phonographic industry (IFPI)
who this week forced the server closure of mp3 blog moistworks. head over to the site to read
the letter and click on the comments section for an
interesting range of feedback from readers.
it's worth
noting that there a couple of varying schools of thought about
posting tracks on mp3 blogs. some group emails between
mp3bloggers flew around this week and we definitely fall into
three distinct camps. (1) legal mp3s - tracks taken from
legitimate sources, i.e. the artist / label has made an mp3
available on their own servers. this is how fat planet works.
(2) permission based - blogs post tracks on their own servers,
but have asked permission from the artist / label to do so.
(3) no permission - blogs post tracks on their own servers,
without permission. version (3) is where moistworks sat and is
probably the territory that the IFPI will prowl, picking off
unsuspecting blogs as they go.
i'll say here and now
that i support moistworks and all blogs falling into the last
category, irrespective of its legality. i wouldn't be
publishing fat planet or have heard a large % of my music
collection if it wasn't for those blogs. it's about music
education, not piracy - and the two are so far removed from
each other as to be laughable. i don't concurr with the idea
that by posting 1-2 tracks on an mp3 blog that an artist loses
out - these tracks are 'feeders' to buying albums, in the same
way that the music industry has marketed singles for years. we
know that singles don't make money for an artist, so why worry
about an mp3 blog that fulfills the same function? i liken mp3
blogs to radio / television - it's all about promotion. and in
this case free, positive promotion - and the IFPI wants to
close it down... hopefully one day this will all seem
ridiculous, today it seems incredibly harmful and
short-sighted.
a final note on streaming - the industry
might say 'stream or be damned'. sure, we can stream songs
rather than download, but the quality is generally poor, i
can't listen to it through anything other than PC speakers
and, if you're on a 56K modem, buffering gets to be a bitch.
no, i like my music on mp3 - burn it to CD, listen on the iPod
etc. the more opportunities i have for listening to the track
away from the computer, the more i'm likely to fall in love
with it and buy an album.
enough of that, here's the
music (from legitmate sources, natch ...)
ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION
[ENGLAND]
19 rebellions mp3
another
track from the 'enemy of the enemy' album. found a remix of
this tune when i was getting deep and dirty insider the uk
iTunes store last weekend - in fact, there's a whole 'enemy of
the enemy' remix album on there, including two smart mixes of
'la haine' by dark dancehall / breakcore artist the
bug. i've now fully converted my brain to the glory
of the iTunes store (another knock on effect of mp3
downloading over the years...), so much so that i've put
together a fat planet iMix, a compilation that you can
download via the iTunes store. if you like the blog and you
want to give something back to the artists in $$$, then this
is one way to do it. click here
for more fat planet iMix info.
LUNZ
[GERMANY]
wobbly flu twilight mp3
if
you liked half cousin in the recent post,
then you might get into this too - taken from the same label,
groenland, same vested
interest as before. lunz are hans-joachim roedelius and tim
story. roedelius is formerly from the band
cluster and story is a grammy nominee for his
work on 'the legend of sleepy hollow'. i can't confess to
knowing much about cluster, but the groenland
site has them cited by the chicago tribune as "one of the
best-kept secrets of 20th century music". roedelius has also
collaborated with luminaries such as brian
eno, holger czukay from can and the
guys from neu! but expect none of that sound
from this mp3 - quite the opposite. this is sparse, piano
duets of incredible beauty, taken from their self-titled debut
album. it's getting further attention thanks to a 2nd release,
a remix project called 'lunz interpretations'. and this isn't
some ham-fisted exploitation venture - the remixes take the
originals and craft almost entirely new tracks around them. on
remix duties are alias,
faultline, elbow,
adem, ulrich schnauss,
icarus, munk and more.
there's some streaming samples on the 'radio shack' over at groenland and you should
go their shop while you're there and just buy the damn
thing.
BALUN [PUERTO
RICO]
the glass bicycle mp3
see
entry dated 221104 for more info on this
electronica three-piece from puerto
rico.
EZ3KIEL
[FRANCE]
versus mp3
been
playing a few tracks on the show recently from the french jarring
effects label, from which ez3kiel comes.
the label sampler is a mixture of broken beat, dub and skewed
hip hop. plenty of mp3s to download from the label site. the
band also have a very industrial and smart looking flash
site to have a browse around.
DJ
SPOOKY [US: NEW YORK]
rebirth of a nation
- movement one (rough cut) mp3
spooky
brings his 'rebirth of a nation' show to sydney next week for
the festival and it's safe to say that i'm getting excited by
it. all indications are good (including this rough cut mp3).
spooky has taken as his source material d.w. griffith's 'birth
of a nation' silent film, widely regarded as the first racist
movie and responsible for sparking a resurgence of the kkk.
spooky has re-appropriated the film to bring
a different message, remixing the soundtrack with his own
original material and representing a new edit of the film
across three screens. spooky (aka paul d.
miller) has a great deal to say on the subject and you can
find it all in the articles section of djspooky.com.
--
120105 21:27
it's hard getting back into the groove after
new year, especially when sydney has just exploded with
touring bands, festivals, film events and so much more.
january in sydney is when most of the year's major cultural
events happen, both high brow and low brow. last week i caught
the wonderful philip glass and his orchestra
playing a live simultaneous score to the classic
'koyanasqatsi', plus the opening international program in the
flickerfest short film festival. this weekend, i'm looking
forward to the tom waits / william
s.burroughs / robert wilson theatre
collaboration 'the black rider', the sydney premiere of
the ramones documentary, plus i'm dj-ing as
support for sydney's excellent decoder ring. and then there's
next week...
this week's fat planet playlist
is now
online and here's some mp3s from featured artists:
CARLOS LIBEDINSKY
[ARGENTINA]
piano secucencia mp3
some
tango electronica for you (by way of introduction to two latin
influenced tracks on today's blog). there appears to be a
growing body of artists working in electronica in argentina -
acida, el cholo,
index, alex krygier, but it
would seem that carlos libendinsky is at the
forefront of this movement thanks to his recent release
'narcotango'. described as a collection of music for the
moment at a tango club where exhaustion gives way to
experimentation, where tradition fades and improvisation takes
over. libendinsky talks about this being the 'narcotic power
of the tango'. you can find more information and short audio
extracts at carloslibedinsky.com.
NOVALIMA
[PERU]
sunday canon mp3
one of the best (in many cases only) way to find new music
from some regions is the glorious compilation CD. don't be
fooled by dumb titles (e.g. 'bellydance extravaganza!') or
garish covers of latin women in bikinis - behind many a facade
can lie some excellent music. the 'essential beats / flavas'
series has been consistently excellent - three volumes of
contemporary asian beats, one brazilian and two latin.
novalima are a peruvian band that i found
through the compilation 'essential
latin flavas dos' with their track 'ritmos negros'. they
are a four-piece 'collective', scattered around the world in
bacelona, hong kong, london and lima. that's what i call a
real international collaboration. they describe their music as
"heavily driven by afro-peruvian and latin percussions,
blended with downtempo, dub, broken and house beats". [site]
CALAMALKA
[CANADA]
hear the most mp3
vancouver
based musician michael campitelli surfaces here with an
outstanding collection of electronic dub on his newly released
for the plug research label 'shredder's dub'. i do enjoy a
healthy dose of old school dub now and again - but i've also
been impressed with the newer schools too, such as france's jarring effects label, and the material on
~scape
(such as deadbeat). calamalka's album also
touches on the crossover region between dub and downtempo hip
hop, and is a great addition to the plug stable. check out
plug's epitonic page for downloads from
daedelus, dntel and
john tejada.
JENS
LEKMAN [SWEDEN]
at the department of
forgotten songs mp3
i
featured this guy back in october, but you can't keep a good
blackly comedic singer / songwriter down. this track is culled
from a large collection of rare and unreleased songs over at
secretlycanadian.com - as it also doubles
for the section name on the site, it seemed like an apt mp3 to
pick. i also dig this mp3 as it kicks off with a mournfully
eerie instrumental segment that plays for half the
track.
--
050105 09:05
happy
new year to y'all. the start of a year is always a
good time to blow out the cobwebs, tear down the walls, kick
out the jams (or the chairs) - hope you can find some space to
do at least one of those things this week...
playlist
from the inaugural 2005 show is here,
download music from some featured artists right about now
>>>
ANCIENT MITH [US:
COLORADO]
bloody flags (remix feat. demune &
the mole) mp3
kicking
off 2005 with a whole roster of artists to get your bandwidth
crackling over at motionrecordings.com. i was lead there by
the excellent album from mattr and friends
called 'consequence of thoughts'. mattr is a
producer from switzerland who roped in most of the motion
recordings crew on this release for MC duties. this is hip hop
from the darkest realm, with mattr pumping
out some delicious broken quasi-industrial electronic beats.
material from mattr doesn't come easy online,
so i've selected a track from one of the 'friends', namely
denver-based ancient mith. there's heaps more
material to get your hands on, like hawaiin producers
demune and hairdresser mike.
motion have also launched a remix comp and have provided what seems to
be an entire back-catalogue's worth of acapellas to throw into
your own mix.
PETER, BJORN & JOHN
[SWEDEN]
teen love mp3
played a peter bjorn and
john track on the show from the excellent 'it's a
trap readers companion volume one' [site]
put together by the scandanavian blog run by
avi roig. (if you've yet to visit, this is one of the most
comprehensive english sites covering scandanavian music in all
flavours). this track from the band is a cover of a track by
fellow swedes the concretes, whose single 'you can't hurry
love' was one of the shining moments of pop greatness in 2004.
even without the concretes' signature female lead and
spector-esque production, their songwriting still shines
through on this track. you can find this on peter bjorn and
john's new album 'falling out' [buy here].
HALF COUSIN
[SCOTLAND]
country cassette mp3
i
have to reveal a vested interest on this - my wife and i
produced the web site for half cousin's
record label gronland records last year (which, happily,
was nominated for 'best label site' in the 2004 online music
awards - plug, plug...). bias aside, half
cousin's debut album 'the function room' slipped
under most radars outside the uk on its release last august,
although it landed a very respectable 8.1 on pitchfork. half cousin hail
from the outermost area from scotland - from orkney, an island
which is reached by a long and bumpy ferry ride from the
northern-most tip of the country. orkney is a relatively bleak
place, although the sense of nordic history is overpowering -
burial chambers and other viking remanants lay scattered
across the island. i can't think of a more perfect location to
sit down and put together a collection of rich contemporary
folk songs, married with angular electronic production.
scotland's other famous electronic export boards of
canada chose pastoral farmland as their geographic
inspiration - take that notion and imagine something darker,
yet no less beautiful. [buy here]. more info on their better propaganda
page.
UNCUT
[CANADA]
understanding the new violence mp3
last
year saw the disco-punk, post-punk, new wave ('tell me wot you
call it'...) template being rolled out across a great many
bands, often to alarmingly tedious effect. thankfully, one of
the champions of the sound, lcd soundystem, have recorded an
album that puts them at the top of the tree where they belong
- due for release later this month. uncut, a four-piece from
toronto, have also been referenced in the same arena, but
fortunately - on the evidence of this mp3 - they've a lot more
to offer. the signature bass-heavy 4-4 is there, but rather
than opt for a stripped-back affair (ala lcd), they've layered
this with clipped chords, riffs, fuzz and more. seems to be a
natural evolution for the new wave sound - perhaps 2005 will
be a breakout year for these guys? more info on their
site and check out their label, paperbag
records, too.
--
201204
08:13
yesterday was the last fat planet radio
show for 2004, so i rounded off the year playing back some of
my favourite tunes from the last 12 months [check out the
playlist here].
links to some of the tracks are safely tucked away in the blog
archive for you to revisit (hit the archive button at the foot
of this page and keep heading back through time for some
choice tunes) - so for today's mp3 smorgasbord, i'm rounding
up some of the links that have been sitting brodding, quietly
at the back, and have yet to make it onto the blog. before
that though, a heads up to irmin schmidt from
can who i interviewed on today's
show...
CAN [GERMANY]
oh
yeah (from 'tago mago') mp3
pinch (from 'ege
bamyasi') mp3
when
introducing the irmin schmidt interview
today, i went so far as to say that anyone making music other
than traditional blues rock owes some kind of debt to
can. the band formed in the 1968 from the
nucleus of irmin schmidt and holger
czukay, both of whom studied under the man who some
regard as the grandfather of electronica, karlheinz
stockhausen [more on stockhausen here]. after a visit to new york and being
in the presence of a live performance of the velvet
underground, the idea for can was
formed. the band were incredibly prolific - not including
compilations, there were 13 albums (11 of which fell in a 10
year period) and the first four have just been re-issued
through mute
records. it's true to say that genres such as post-rock
would not be what they are today without can.
their mastery of multiple forms of music, from rock to jazz to
classical, may well be something that's expected of many
musicians today, but back in the late 60s, it was almost a
sacrilege. links worth visting: official can
site - spoon records, holger
czukay's personal history of can and
mixmaster morris on can. a transcript from today's interview
may well be posted soon.
AIRBORN AUDIO
[US: NEW YORK]
bright lights mp3
formerly
of anti-pop consortium (from whence
beans also sprang), airborn
audio is hip hop artists high priest
and m. sayyid. their debut album 'good
fortune' has been gestating for a couple of years and, given
the added pressure of beans' remarkable
'shock city maverick' album, expectation is justifyably high.
check out the mindzero site to download another track from
the album (wma format).
 MING
[BELGIUM]
sentir et analyser (barbara morgenstern
rmx) mp3
fredrique
vs superpitcher mp3
following in the wake of the excellent styorfoam album,
some more great music from belgium for you, albeit remixed by
some of the smartest talent in germany today.
ming (pic.left) are a m/f duo frÈdÈrique
franke and nicolas deschuytenee, perpetuating the ever-growing
canon of middle european electronic pop. their recent album
'intÈrieur/extÈrieur' was given over to a squad of artists,
whose own label loyalties read like a whos-who of the cutting
edge of european music - diskoB, kompakt, monika, playhouse,
kitty-yo to name but a few. the 2nd mp3 is described by ming's
label as " is one of many mixed and vocally reworked tracks by
frederique, put on her overdubbed dj set". make of that what
you will. more info at doxa records.
BOOM
BIP [US: OHIO]
the matter (of our
discussion) (feat. nina nastasia) goto:scissorkick
the
move goto:better propaganda
taken from his
forthcoming album 'blue eyed in the red room', there's two new
boom bip tracks now available at the above
sites. he's been getting a great deal of press in 2004, mostly
off the back of his remix collection 'corymb' which saw
artists such as boards of canada,
clouddead, lali puna and
four tet getting on board to mix tracks from
the 'seed to sun' album. according to his label, lex records,
the new ten-track album is due to drop in a matter of weeks
(february '05) and features no samples and very few vocals.
scissorkick has posted one of the only two vocal tracks,
featuring nina nastasia (the other will
feature gruff from super furry animals) and
you can download a 2nd track from the good folks at better
propaganda.
TIEFSCHWARZ
[GERMANY]
acid soul mp3
something
a little more four-to-the-floor for you now - if you haven't
come across any of the extensive tiefschwarz
remix catalogue, you might have been hiding under the wrong
rock lately. the three-piece have recently put together a 2
disc set 'misch masch' - the first cd featuring a mix set from
the trio, the second is a compilation of their remix work with
artists such as phonique,
lopazz, dj hell,
mocky and truby trio all
being represented. the above track is taken from their
self-titled 2002 album.
COPPE
[JAPAN]
i lick my brain in silence mp3
edit
i can't find any full-length mp3s for this artist,
but i did want to nonetheless draw your attention to
coppe - a female japanese solo artist whose
voice is compared here on the milk factory to beth
gibbons, bjork and billie
holliday. she's worked with pre-eminent electronc
artists such as russian dj vadim,
plaid and the orb. you can
find heaps of edited mp3s at her web
site - any pointers to full-length legal downloads
appreciated!
AUTECHRE
[ENGLAND]
while you're out and about on the galactic
interweb today, also check out xltronic's
2003 autechre remix competition - 180 (count 'em) remixes
of autechre tracks as part of their remix competition. if you
don't have the time to trawl through around 15 hours of
remixes (why not?), autechre's personal favourites were
'amnesie drane2 (remix)' mp3
and 'naftwa4 (handled by goodhands team)' [mp3].
also have a listen to this odd bootleg
from mindovermidi.no
- autechre vs david sylvian.
finally,
heads up to emptyfree - a blog with a refreshingly
eclectic selection, not for the faint-hearted. recent posts
include rarely published links for polish and french hip-hop,
plus articles on laibach, pan
sonic, boyd rice and
shitmat. also click over to radio free polygon for more electronic
downloads - check out posts from calamalka,
venetian snares, iso brown
and the rip-off artist. go get yer lobes
rattled.
and with that, the fat planet radio show bows
out for 2004. there might be an occasional update during the
xmas break if i'm feeling productive, otherwise we'll back on
3rd january 2005. have a freaking good holiday.
so it
goes.
--
131204
09:00
monday morning (yawn) ... up with the
worm-catchers to bring you some mp3s from yesterday's
show. next sunday, if you're a sydney-sider, then get
close to yr li'l radio box as i'll be ending the year with a
special treat - fat planet meets
IRMIN SCHMIDT, founding member of the
legendary german krautrock pioneers CAN. tune
in from 3pm on sunday 19th for this rare interview and tracks
from newly re-issued CAN albums.
KONONO
NO.1 [CONGO]
ditshe tshiekutala
mp3
on
the fat planet radio show, i try to play as much contemporary
african music that i can get my hands on, without straying too
far down the path of traditional world music. hence the recent
posts on senegalese hip hop. however, electronic music from
africa is practically non-existent - understandable given the
reliance of electronic music on PCs and suchlike. so, it's
great to see belgian label crammed discs giving us what they're billed
as 'congotronics'. konono no.1 (who've been around for 25
years apparently) use an electro version of the thumb piano,
wired to an almighty soundystem and marry it with all manner
of pots'n'pans metallic percussion. as you can imagine, the
results are breathtaking. you really have to see the
photographs over at crammed to get an indication of how
rare this project is. crammed have promised us not only a full
studio album from konono no.1, but also a compilation entitled
'buzz n rumble' featuring five similar acts (due early 2005).
when searching for the some konono no.1 files, the above mp3
duly turned up on the excellent mp3blog 'the
suburbs are killing us' and is taken from a live album
entitled 'lubuaku'. more info on this release can be found
over at subterranean distribution.
DJ
RUPTURE [SPAIN]
lonesome
(feat.lily) mp3
i
can't seem to leave this guy alone, but when you've got an
artist of such high quality around, what are you gonna do?
today i played the track 'little more oil' from dj
rupture's new album, 'special gunpowde'r. the track
is a collaboration with old skool dancehall artist
sister nancy. there's not a great deal of
info on nancy around on the web, but you can find some
introductory bio info here.
the above mp3 is taken from rupture's better propaganda page, where you'll also
find a 2nd mp3 from the new album. (i'm listing rupture as
coming from spain, and although he's a resident of barcelona,
he's actually from the u.s.. so now you
know.)
MAGNETA LANE
[CANADA]
the constant lover mp3
a
three-piece girl band from canada who are probably sick to
death of finding people refer to them in the same breath as
the strokes. of course, i wouldn't dare do
such a thing. thanks to leila from paper bag records in
toronto for getting in touch and pointing fat planet in the
direction of lexi, french and nadia. this is a killer track, a
great slice of alt.pop that has been ringing around inside my
skull for the last few days - fast, to the point and smacking
you in the nose with a fistful of attitude. all the great
attributes of rock'n'roll, surely? check out paper bag
records for a diverse roster rammed with quality
tunes.
PITCH BLACK [NEW
ZEALAND]
lost in translation mp3
this
NZ duo have a new album out called 'ape to angel' and i played
the track 'freefall' today. they've been playing together for
nearly eight years and 'ape to angel' is their third
full-length. i found a website that described them as 'the
hexstatic of new zealand' - and the sounds
definitely fall into the long embrace of the ninja
tune style zone. it's a smart blend of warm,
dub-infused electronica - which would undoubtedly translate
incredibly well to the live arena and festival circuit where
pitch black spend a great deal of their time. check out the
band's web site for a further batch of free mp3
downloads.
SITJN
[BELGIUM]
ochtendbericht mp3
stijn
would appear to be the one-man powerhouse behind the mijn
label - have a look at the site at mijnlabel.com. the track played today
'wrong' has stijn coming off like tiga in a
three-in-the-bed romp with metro area. alas,
there's no such similar mp3s on the mijn site, merely some
soundtrack mp3s from stijn's work on a project called 'nine to
five' - and the tunes are simple, looped minimal electronica,
pleasant enough but i'm feeling the ground swell beneath my
feet. you might have more joy over at this mini site for stijn 'euphoria' album,
where you can stream all the tracks from the album (including
'wrong').
--
071204 08:32
mp3s from
artists (or their associates...) who featured on this week's
show >>
SHANK
[GERMANY]
oust mp3
my
guest today was germany's burnt friedman - an
artist whose experiments in genres range from dub, jazz and
latin to techno, ambient and more. two of his projects stand
out - burnt friedman and the nu dub players
and his collaboration with uwe schmidt (aka
atom heart / senor coconut) on
flanger, released through ninja tune.
unfortunatly for burnt and myself, and all the show's
listeners, we had a classic culture clash - neither of us
seemed to really understand each other (glaswegian meets
reticent german), so the interview wasn't exactly full of
fireworks. that aside, burnt's selection of tracks was
impressive and allowed the music to speak for itself (as there
wasn't any other choice...). my search for free'n'legal burn
downloads wasn't very fruitful, but i've included a track here
from shank, a team of six imporvisers from
berlin, which opens the compilation 'difficult easy listening'
on burnt's label nonplace.
SINGAPORE
SLING [ICELAND]
life is killing my rock n
roll mp3
a
new album from this band, who featured earlier this year on
fat planet. this time around, their trademark 'fuzz rock'
sound has been more perfectly honed, coming up with dark,
brittle guitar pop, the like of which has been rarely spotted
since the jesus and mary chain. finland's
dead combo had a crack at it recently, but
singapore sling play down any electronic
influence and instead head for straight-up rock n roll purity!
you can find a whole heap of influences in here, and - yes -
singapore sling don't win points for
innovation, but you're better off letting that slide and just
getting off on the joy of it all.
MISS KITTIN
& THE HACKER [FRANCE]
1982 mp3
the
hacker has a new album out, distributed through play it again sam, and its his
first solo album since the runaway success of his
collaboration with miss kittin, 'the first
album'. the new release, 'reves mechanique' ditches the 'pop'
and heads straight for 'electro', although his old
collaborator pops up on the track 'masterplan' which i played
on this week's show. the above mp3 is a classic example of
clean, lean electropop from their 2001 album on international
deejay gigolos. hear samples from 'reves mechanique' here.
COBRA KILLER
[GERMANY]
let's have a problem mp3
a
return visit for this mp3 - the female german duo are gracing
sydney with their presence next weekend, so in honour of that
smart decision, here's another crack at their track (produced
by mr t.raumschmiere) on monika if you missed it the first
time.
--
061204
09:39
yesterday's playlist is now online here -
mp3s from the show coming soon. thanks to my guest,
burnt freidman - more on 'burnt' and his
label at nonplace.de.
--
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