What Light?

James Dean, the good Samaritans that they are, have allowed No 'Round The Corner to post another exclusive track from their James Dean CD-R release. Scroll back a few posts for an updated link for 'In The Hospital'. CHEKKIT!

At the (Radio) Dept. of Missing Songs

In late breaking news, I will be taking my Noise Annoys radio show to the airwaves this Thursday 27th from 8.30pm. The show will air on 97.9FM in Newcastle as part of the wonderful This Is Not Art festival. If you're out of town you can stream it from TiN radio.

Worth tuning in for - hopefully!

Like a child's broken toy!

I count myself fortunate to have been amongst the all too few to have seen and appreciated the post-hardcore stylings of Newcastle’s The Let-Go!. The band sadly broke up earlier this year, just as they were approaching some semblance of notoriety. A limited edition cassette and as yet released EP may be the only remnants of a brief but blistering existence, yet it is the blurry memories of a slew of late-night gigs that I will cherish mostly.

Fast-forward six months, and three-fifths of The Let-Go are now James Dean. With a new drummer and an altogether stronger sense of unity, the band has honed a more refined sound; still confronting, but with the onus on atmospherics and dynamics rather than the all-out aural attack of previous work. Only a few shows into being James Dean are already proving a caustic célèbre on the local DIY scene.

The first fruit of this new legacy is out now. The James Dean CD-R comes packaged in a delightful handmade cardboard sleeve, limited to 100, and the music contained is just as roughly hewn.

I had the pleasure of sitting in on the band as they recorded the five tracks in the studio a couple of months ago. I was also there on the night of their first show when they received a copy of the first mix, only to come away disappointed and somewhat disenchanted with their recording experience. So on to the drummer Travis' house (affectionately known as Tighes Hill Bakery) they went – where I was inexplicably absent! In one night the band came away with a self-produced product infinitely more satisfying than the one they had spent several hundreds dollars on. The results are spectacular.

With a 7-inch to follow soon, as well as a show with Italy’s hardcore heavyweights La Quiete and a slot at Brisbane’s No Culture Festival, James Dean look likely to forge a reputation as rebels with a very good cause.

James Dean - In The Hospital (mp3)
James Dean - Turn This Iron Handle (mp3)

James Dean @ MySpace

Money, it's a gas.

Today I felt a little frivolous and treated myself to a SpeckTone Retro iPod Speaker System (see below). Now, apart from its stylish veneer, it also sounds pretty good – but not too good, if you know what I mean. This guy knows ; it isn’t going to replace my conventional stereo anytime soon. It’s a little bit weak, a little too quick to distort.


That said, the Specktone certainly beats the old pair of speakers I’ve used for my computer for years. And in addition to an iPod dock – which charges and plays at the same time – the product also has an auxiliary input so I can plug in my computer.

It’s strange how the mediums in which we listen to music impact on our experiences. In the Apple store I tested the SpeckTone with three different songs – attempting to cover my musical spectrum. These were M.I.A.’s ‘Bamboo Banga’, The Notwist’s ‘One Step Inside Doesn’t Mean You’ll Understand’ and Spoon’s ‘The Ghost of You Lingers’, however, I realised afterwards that I should have tried something heavier as that’s where it struggles a bit. But I’m happy. The friendly storeperson was happy. The best thing was he recognised the music I was playing…and there began the start of a beautiful relationship (one I paid heavily for!). Music, bringing people together.

OK, the real best thing is that now my girl and I can now cook in the kitchen to our favourite tunes. It’s hard getting a good sound through thick brick walls, so that’s where the new purchase comes in. Now we’re cookin’ with gas!

Double Yr Panda

Hear, hear. As if last week's Panda Bear love-in wasn't enough, I thought I'd direct your eyes to an article I found rather interesting. A few weeks ago, The Guardian in the UK asked Noah Lennox what his favourite piece of technology is, and the answer? Read here or simply read on...

What's your favourite piece of technology?
The Boss SP-303 Sampler.

Is it good for your art?
Most definitely. I had to rethink ways of songwriting because of it - in a good way.

When was the last time you used it, and what for?
I used it - actually two of them - in Vienna two nights ago to play some music with Dave and Brian from the band.

What additional features would you add if you could?
First off, I'd make them way tougher and more heavily built. I'd also want to upgrade some of the inboard effects a little and I'd improve the time-stretch quality for sure.

Do you think it will be obsolete in 10 years time?
I think it's obsolete already. Boss has a new version out, the SP-404, and the 303s use an already obsolete card technology called SmartMedia.

What one tip would you give to non users?
I'd say give the 303 a try if you're looking for a cheap machine that can do a lot with just a little.

Do you consider yourself to be a luddite or a nerd?
Well, I don't know what a luddite is so I'll go with nerd.

What's the most expensive piece of technology you've ever owned?
My iMac 65 cost me about €1,500. I'm not too big on mega expensive or fancy things, really.

Mac or PC?
Mac, but mostly because I'm used to it. I'd get a PC no problem. To be honest, I'm really, really excited about the fact that the next Mac OS will run Windows at native speed.

What song is at the top of your iPod's Top 25 Most Played?
I don't know for sure because I don't have it with me but I'm positive Amazing by George Michael, Tessio by Luomo (the Vocalcity version) and Il Grande Silenzio By Ennio Morricone are way up there somewhere.

What piece of technology would you most like to own?
I'd really like one of those top-of-the-line, classy coffee-makers because really good coffee is totally worth it for me.

So it seems fair to say that at the heart of the most innovative album of this year laid "obselete" technology. O how fast the world spins!

Pandas in the Wild

Animal Collective 'jamming'

Lately I’ve been listening with great intent to the new Animal Collective album, Strawberry Jam. Not only are they one of my favourite bands but they are also one of the most intriguing acts around today. There’s a tribe-like charm to the band, only strengthened by the knowledge that Panda Bear, Avey Tare, the Geologist, and Deakin have been friends since childhood. This sense of togetherness endears their musical meanderings, no matter how far off the beaten path they tread.

Strawberry Jam, which is only now seeing official release after months of Internet leakage, certainly takes the Collective in brave new directions; in some aspects it is their most conventional effort and yet it could also be classed amongst their most abrasive works. Unlike the band’s two most recent albums, Feels and Sung Tongs, it relies more on ramshackle electronics than abstract folk-interpretations. Among the other most noticeable developments are clearer, more discernable vocals from Avey (aka Dave Portner) and Panda (Noah Lennox), which results in fewer sweeping soundscapes, as instruments are crowded out by a more traditional fronting of voice.

Person Pitch

For me, it makes more sense to consider Strawberry Jam as some sort of progression from Panda Bear’s stunning solo record of earlier this year, Person Pitch - although Avey Tare, as main songwriter, may disagree. One of my favourite albums of 2007, it is a true backward-borrowing, forward-looking masterpiece. It seems many people share my love for it. Befitting the sound-file era it has arrived into, the album was not so much played out but meticulously assembled from disparate digital media. Lennox innately transferred his passion for modern DJ culture into something timeless, culminating in a sound not quite electronic and not quite analogue. It’s been described as a 21st Century Beach Boys album, and the back-story is almost as intriguing as any of Brian Wilson’s escapades. As Lennox asserts, it began with the trawling of the Internet for sound samples:

They’re all off the Internet. Almost all of them, something like 95% I just got from free sound FX sites and things like that. I’m kind of psyched about it being this real digital, internet age sort of album. And at first, I was like, ‘I’m definitely not going to release this on vinyl’. But now lots of people have been asking about it’s vinyl release so we probably will.

(taken from Rosequartz blog)

I can’t help but take inspiration from Person Pitch. The Internet is such a valuable resource for music-making, yet I still find amongst a large proportion of musicians an aversion to computer-generated pieces – as if it flies in the face of rock ‘n’ roll tradition or something. Noah Lennox, however, has shown in his work with Animal Collective that he’s not just some hunched laptop chancer – a stealer of ideas, some would have you – but a truly innocative artist.

Noah Lennox/Panda Bear

Have a listen to a few tracks:

Animal Collective - 'Peacebone'
Panda Bear - 'Comfy in Nautica' (legal mp3s courtesy of Insound)
Panda Bear - 'Bros (edit)' (courtesy of Pitchfork - note: you need to hear the full 11+ minute version)

[Panda Bear's Person Pitch is out now on Paw Tracks/Mistletone]

[Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam is out 17/09/07 on Domino/EMI]

Digital Handshake

A long held hate of mine – and let’s not even touch on my disregard for the term “pet hate” (one so skilfully avoided in this piece!) – is bad headphone etiquette. It’s everywhere. And getting worse.

Nothing pains me more than to have to unnecessarily raise my voice in order to penetrate the pounding din of another’s “private world”, or to witness a family on a Sunday outing having to drag along their disaffected “pride and joy”, who has not only lack of kind words for his parents, but no words at all, just a head full of “crazy rap music”.

When I plug in, plainly said, I’m considerate of others. That’s not to say music doesn’t override my social interaction but it certainly doesn’t make me unapproachable. A recent chance encounter with an acquaintance of mine furthered my thoughts on the matter of headphone etiquette:

Scene: Markettown, Newcastle

[Eye contact is immediately assumed]

Me: “How goes it?”

[We shake hands, unplugging headphones as we begin to converse]

Unnamed acquaintance: “All good, all good.”

[We both discreetly place our Mp3 players on pause, maintaining proper discourse]

Me: “What are y’up to, ol’ son?”

U.A.: “Just doin’ some shopping, and uh,” pausing for David Brent-like effect and nodding to his pocket, “listening to some Klaxons… You?”

Me: “Yeah, same – except,” pausing to add an air of superiority, “I’m listening to Art Brut.”

U.A.: “Never heard of ‘em.”

Me: “Well, you should.”

[We stare at each other for a moment, before coming to an unspoken agreement that headphones are to be returned to ears]

U.A.: “OK, see you later man.”

Me: “Yeah, take care.”

[Each pressing play, the conversation is officially terminated]

As you can see, correct procedure was taken in considering each other. Curiously, however, topic never strayed from the music playing on our devices, but who/what can I blame for that? Um, television?

Pull up the people, pull up the poor

I just want to add something in regards to my M.I.A. blog entry below. This forum thread should hopefully clarify a few of the points I've made. I don't know, some of it is still a bit shady - and can we have an interpretor for Diplo? Please?

Tha man, who in other news has done a kickin' mix for Pitchfork, does make a few good (intelligible) points:

• 'Mango Pickle Down River' was only meant to be a mixtape cut from the beginning.
• M.I.A. obviously never went to work with anyone in Australia.
• It was record label Interscope's idea to put the track on the album. "i wasnt into it.. they really like to play up the ethno world poor diaspora bit on this release..."
• The "real crook" in this whole situation might be another super-producer, Timbaland, "cause after down river with a rap had been in the cut as a demo last year.. snoops [dogg's) album had a track that was exactly like it.. beat box and didigeridoo. someone in australia pointed it out to me.."
• M.I.A. never had bad intentions for the project. The royalty splits on the track are apparently 85/15 in Morganics' favour. And finally...
  
• "m.i.a. says dumb stuff in public sometimes tho, gotta love her!"

The track as it appears on Kala:


And the Wilcannia Mob original:


The Internet brings a whole new meaning to the term "collaboration".

“I put people on the map who have never seen a map” – M.I.A. ’20 Dollars’

Sri Lankan-born rapper Maya Arulpragasam, or simply M.I.A., is castigated by some for her eclectic approach to music, which embodies the odd dichotomy of political/fashion statement, but generally it’s A-OK with me. With the recent release of her second album Kala, M.I.A. has continued to ooze Third World appeal while aggressively – albeit sometimes vaguely – addressing issues of racism and inequality. And she can speak, being the daughter of a Tamil activist-turned militant!

It’s all very post-colonial – taking in grime, hip-hop, dance-hall, baile funk, and bad Bollywood to name but a few genres – and, unsurprisingly, polarising. Kala was apparently borne from a world-trip, from which M.I.A. and producer Switch (and a few more names, admittedly) were basically able to appropriate the much-maligned ‘World Music’ label into something rather cool. One track on the album called ‘Mango Pickle Down River’ will resonate particularly with Australian listeners. Didgeridoos? Check. Cute anecdotal rapping from Aboriginal kids? Check. Crackly Keith from Wilcannia Street? No, it couldn’t be?!

But, yes. ‘Mango Pickle Down River’ is in fact a reworking of the Wilcannia Mob’s JJJ-loved ‘Down River’ of a few years ago. And by reworking I mean it’s basically the same song, as originally produced by Aussie Morganics, with some non-sensical M.I.A. vocals thrown into the mix. It’s all rather strange.

Now, as far as I know Morganics passed the track on to M.I.A. and her people (most likely mega-producer Diplo, who had a big hand in her previous album Arular and is involved with the Heaps Decent initiative to assist indigenous and underprivileged Australian musicians). I’m not one to point the finger but, reading overseas reviews, it doesn’t seem as though Morganics and the Wilcannia Mob (a number of whom are now behind bars, I’m told) have been appropriately credited. I could be off the mark but for an artist who has enjoyed serious exposure through affiliation with Third World struggle, it would be shameful if any exploitation has occurred. M.I.A. has had this to say in the past:

“It’s really weird when I did the Big Day Out Tour, in January (2006), we ended up meeting some aboriginal kids in Adelaide, so we took them to my show…and we made them watch The Stooges. I hung out with them all-day long. To me, there’s something about them that reminded me of Sri Lankan people…it was the first time I realised how difficult it is for Aboriginal people in Australia. Even to get them into the Big Day Out after party, me and my brother practically had to get into a fight with people to get them in…just the amount of segregation between black and white Australia is really crazy. I met this guy called Morganics, who’s this white guy (hip-hop producer) who’s a social worker, and he originally made that track as a social work project that he set up in the bushes with these kids who come from a really hard part of Australia. I think two of boys are in now in a juvenile detention centre. It’s really difficult for certain groups in Australia…because I got to see them first hand, this sounded like the most perfect thing I’d ever heard and I really wanted to put it on the map.”
[From Fact Magazine]

Now, hip-hop is all about appropriation – just witness Kanye West’s decrepit take on Daft Punk’s ‘Harder Better Faster Stronger’ – but it’s different when the subject material is unknown and, quite frankly, there for the taking. Just to clarify, I don’t think M.I.A. would blindly rip-off artists in such a way. I am, however, amazed that of all the international reviews I have read of Kala that none have acknowledged the fact that the song already existed.

It’s all very post-modern to me. In a way it seems as though time and space has shrunk, and what we have now is some sort of global meta-culture. Perhaps M.I.A. is a symbol of these changes. The very next song on Kala quotes the Pixies and samples New Order, so she definitely knows where her bread is buttered (indie-nerds like me FYI!)

Well, she’s touring again soon and I’ll be attending – I wonder if there’s any chance of an onstage reunion?

[M.I.A.'s Kala is out now on XL/Remote Control]

Nice Guys Finish Last.fm

As previously stated on this 'ere blog; the Internet, through advances in compression, data storage, and transmission technologies, has granted me independence in my pursuit of music. Excluding live concerts, no medium since the heady days of listening to JJJ on the way to high school has been able impart such a sense of shared listening experience. The choice back then was whether to tune into a certain station or change; most of the choice was abdicated, as Duncan and Fox (April 2005) state, to the programmer. It didn’t worry me so much back then, but therein lays the reason that I don’t listen to radio anymore.

For me, listening autonomy is the key. But it’s not the safety of my own collection that I crave but the danger of exploring new music. I’ve recently come to the conclusion that reading blogs and reviews can only get so far – and that, well, listening is the key to discovering music! Deep!

So lately I’ve been using the wonders of the interweb for purposes of good and not evil. Despite years of me dismissing it as a throwaway gimmick, I must say I’ve finally come around to Last.fm. It’s mainly the “similar artists” radio function that has sucked me in: it’s like radio that, more often than not, I thoroughly enjoy. I’m only a few weeks into my latest obsession and already I have upgraded the likes of Pere Ubu and Jim O’Rourke from my “yeah, interesting” list to my long, long, long “must-hear” list.

Oh, and I’ve added a little Last.fm sidebar to my page. Keep up-to-date with my musical life!

[Ref: Computer–aided music distribution: The future of selection, retrieval and transmission by Nancy Bogucki Duncan and Mark A. Fox First Monday, volume 10, number 4 (April 2005)]