One of Kunk’s favourite German producers, MMMatthias just sent us some tracks. One original and two remixes. His own track, Lies, is an awesome broken/sliced/chopped-up weird post-disco tune, following the Ed Bangerists like Justice and SebastiAn. Of course, Ed Banger is kinda under the radar now, not nearly as cool as it was 2 years ago but a comparison still can’t hurt and MMM’s track is from late 2007 anyway. Still sound fresh and new. Newer stuff includes a remix for a track on Boys Noize’s Power. Haven’t heard the original yet cause never was a big fan of BN but the remix is really surprising. It’s abstract spacey stuff. I mean, it’s not surprising because of MMM cause he can do things like this but wondering how is he able to transform the basically banging industrial electro of BN. As a result, it made me curious about Power. Third track is a remix of NightWaves which is on Binary’s LA Lights compilation that you can buy anywhere on the net now. Fascination is the weirdest of the 3 tracks I’m sharing now. It sounds even a bit tribal with the congas and the undecipherable vocals and has these strange otherworldy synth emerging from stellar dust. Actually, I could imagine this track for a Spore soundtrack. So all hail MMMatthias, he deserves it, this is truly unique and exciting production.

MMMatthias - Lies [mediafire] // [ysi]

Boys Noize - Heart Attack (MMMatthias edit) [mediafire] // [ysi]

NightWaves - Fascination (MMMatthias remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Btw. if any of you are interested in a good spot for tonight in Budapest, tonight is the night of the Room magazine’s release party @ Merlin. It’s an anniversary, we’re going to celebrate the 10th issue. Music-wise, DJs include Waxman, Zagar, Cécile Togni (FR), and our humble selves, Kunk. Flyer below.

(Getting back to blogging life.) Everyone is probably aware that one of the most hip ’seemingly child-movie’/art-bro stuff of the year is coming up. Where the Wild Things Are gathered massive anticipation and its indie-appeal has something to do with the soundtrack, I guess. The soundtrack is by Karen O and the Kids, in which the Kids have such names as Bradford Cox, Dean Fertita, Aaron Hemphill among others, so it’s a super-group. Wow. Without having seen the movie, I can say that the soundtrack is perfect for the world that the trailers projected. It’s surprising that it actually has good songs and it’s fun to listen to. Hard to achieve this while trying to sound like innocence, enchantment, dreamy, primordial, arty, etc. I’d say that they go back to some sorta roots, some country and folk but it has an experimental twist and it’s mixed with childish elements. The whole thing is very atmospheric and you can sense that you’re being pushed to immerse in a new mood. Karen O’s vocals are definetly highlights, she is just amazing…I mean this is quite different stuff than YYYs but she can even pretend to be a story-in-bed-mother an her voice delivers. This is not gonna be a traditional tale, let’s hope that Jonze’s movie is going to have the virtue of nice and, on the surface, simple story-telling and the alt, arty elements will blend in and just help with the magic.

Karen O and the Kids - Hideaway [mediafire] // [ysi]

We’ve been loving LA-noiseters, HEALTH since their early outputs, Triceratops (its’ brilliant remix by CFCF) and Crimewave (and of course, the rework by Crystal Castles). After their self-titled debut album and their DISCO remix record, 2009 will witness their sophomore record, Get Color. Continuing their experimental aesthetics and noisy, I’d also say paranoid-schizophrenic sound, Get Color is truly an experience to listen to. It’s not easy, I’m warning, because it needs a certain mood or brainwaves when you’re capable of climbing over pop cliches (and I have nothing against cliches, believe me). The whole atmosphere belongs to an imaginary music-psychiatry. The guitars are screaming and noising like metallurgic equipments (it’s not a surprise that they managed to play shows before Nine Inch Nails) and every effect and musical gear adds to the whole. Of course, it’s not so completely new, we know bands like Liars or Excepter for example. Still, it’s psychiatry stuff. Over the top neurosis, or ‘-ses’ about death (sorry for overdoing the clinical analogies) with song titles like Die Slow and Death +. I really like this latter one, the build-up is huge. Btw the vocals are great throughout: you can’t really understand any words, maybe sometimes there are only moans and ghost-whispers, and you can sense the alienation and distance between the other-worldly voice and your listening stance. Naturally, besides this sickness you can find weird dance rhythms (probably borrowed from some long forgotten tribal-era) and hallucinogenic-disco stuff. The album should come with an epilepsia warning but it’s awesome. Somehow their avantgarde-esque attitude results in something that feels distant but at very specific points it can get through to your soul. Official release date is September 8 on Lovepump United (pre-order here).

HEALTH - Death + [mediafire] // [ysi]

Under the Julian Plenti moniker, Interpol’s frontman, Paul Banks made a solo record, entitled Julian Plenti is… Skyscraper. The album is pretty amazing and will please Interpol’s fans as well as new ones who look for a more experimental, weirder indie pop record than Interpol’s post punk-ish stuff. I’m in love with Interpol and this record seems to grow on me too. The album will be out on 4t of August and on Matador (pre-order). What you will obviously recognize on the record is Banks’ ghastly voice and the melancholy it evokes. Of course, the influences range from Syd Barrett through Nick Drake, Lou Reed to maybe even Sufjan Stevens (but I’m not sure that Banks heard about him) on the singer-songwriter side. Along these lines and for the NYC underground this record is very interesting. The interesting soundscape that surrounds it (with pianos, strings, post-rock experiments and the dry guitars) and the brilliant lyrics strenghten the atmosphere of profound sadness and desperate attempts to break through the devilish circles of alienation and isolation. My favourite song, the first one, however, speaks from a different point of view: “I’ve had my frustrations about the things of daily life” - this is something peaceful and looking back at the turmoil. All in all, you can find many ambiogous and stimulating themes along the uniqueness of the music.

Julian Plenti - Only If You Run [mediafire] // [ysi]

“It’s getting closer / It’s right around the corner / Something is coming for me” - sings John Cogleton on the first song of The Paper Chase’s new album Someday This Could All Be Yours (Vol. 1). And once you decide to buy the album and listen to it, you’ll realize that this closening (is this an English word?) is not a pleasant event. In fact, it’s rather unsettling and terrifying. The Paper Chase has a fingerprint of really-really weird, creepy and experimental pop(ish) music. This is not only darkness, this manifests the darnkess under your bed that has creatures existing on a different plane of reality. I’ve been following them since 2004’s God Bless Your Black Heart and I have to say that they do much more than not-dissapoint. They bring the theatrical atmosphere, the dissonant keys and screaming guitar-noises and horror-strings and drums of death. Sometimes they shoot the whole music out into ambiguity with the melodic vocals and the sweet melancholic sounds. Actually this contrast is one thing I really like about them and it’s kinda the same contrast I liked in The Blood Brothers. Btw they both share that their themes of music are sick. Or they suggest it. Apocalypse, perversion, occult stuff like ghosts and devils and other symbolic entities, emptiness, inner darkness, dissolution of the body and the decay of the soul among others. Nihilistic accounts of love and anxiety, the catastrophe that mankind is headed for (exemplified in this latest concept album of natural disasters), the industrialization of relationships… Of course, it’s not all this serious stuff, they are well aware the over-masking of their style so sometimes you can grasp something of their black and grotesque humour. The song I’m sharing is titled I’m Going to Heaven. I think it’s kinda more accessible than the rest and it shows something of the attitude that there is a very faint light somewhere hidden under the graves, the organs, the blood and the masquarade that, in this particular song, takes the form of a twisted prayer. And please watch the video for my all-time favourite song by them, Said the Spider to the Fly. Summer smoothness, huh?

The Paper Chase - I’m Going to Heaven (The Forest Fire) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Here I go with another bitching post. I know these oppinions won’t appeal to many people out there but I kindly ask them not to read it and get upset, just download the songs they are fond of. Many of the records of 2009 are brilliant, there are some good ones, mediocres and there are really bad ones. This post is dedicated to this last category.

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

I hate this album very much. This is like if The Knife played world music. I’ve tried to listen to a couple of their previous albums and I didn’t succeed but it never annoyed me this much. Of course, the hype is part of it but there are some traits inherent in the music like the vocals and the super-irritating manner of singing, the various instruments combined in an awfully intellectual way, the whole ‘we are very NYC but deeply sensitive and indie and we don’t wanna be popular we just open up a bit’-attitude that kill me. And it’s not like I’m coming from an Ed Banger direction or something, I listen to music like this but this is just an amazing example how to gather together everything that can suck: R’n'B + Björk anyone? No thanks. Dirty Projectors might create an exciting new whatever but I for one don’t need to be excited this way. Why can’t they play some untraditional lo-fi rock music? Or something that feels real?

Dirty Projectors - Temecula Sunrise [mediafire] // [ysi]

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

Oh yeah, Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest is another instance of a band that gained an underground hero status via mediums like Pitchfork. I never liked them. However, I tried to listen to the album without prejudice and I didn’t succeed. I had to tell myself I was right from the beginning. I can’t like something that makes you overthink an otherwise simple folk-tradition. Folk, remember, nomen est omen. Now, Grizzly Bear is pop, ok, they have nice acoustic indie stuff, I bet the lyrics are moving and interesting, etc but one just can’t ignore all the mannerism that dominates the sound. It’s utterly powerless and therefore a failure. You can propose that this is art or art pop or whatever but still, something’s missing. Something is lost between the jingles, circus drums, ‘aaahhh-ahhhh’s and the struggle for being ‘proper’. There are much better way to engage in intellectual activities than this record but I’ll definetly mention it if I’m gonna write a 100 page book on the metaphysics and tragedy of folk pop.

Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks [mediafire] // [ysi]

Tiga - Ciao!

Every dance-freaks favourite Canadian gay-guy, Tiga, is back with Ciao! to light up the dancefloor, discoballs of 2k9. Utter failure. The album is full of heavy moments, sexyness, fashion-allusions (might be popular on the catwalks this year) and other meaningless glamorous projections. So empty and pointless. Despite that Soulwax polished it up a bit, it still feels outdated which is especially embarassing when it comes to this highlife-fashion-blabla atmosphere. Tiga’s electro is unable to compensate for this. There are no really banging tunes neither nice soft ones in the La Roux or Little Boots way. There are many annoying experimental noise-parts instead which might work on a dancefloor full of people on different kinds of drugs but nearly everything works there, doesn’t it? I’m not saying this album is the worst album ever but it’s definetly worse than Sexor and I’ll never listen to it at home and I seriously doubt that it’ll force any moves out of me in a club. Ps. very-very bad album title and Sex O’Clock? WTF?

Tiga - Luxury [mediafire] // [ysi]

Wavves - Wavvves

Back to the indie-division, Wavves is a relatively new band and one of the ‘hottest’ upcoming bands. On the other hand, the music again falls under the irritatingly over-thought label. I love noise, seriously, but this version that this 22-year old ‘genius’ developed makes me wanna jump out on the window. Ironic art and uncomprehensible music-structures, yeah. Great. What should I do with it? Study it for the rest of my life? Or stand in the crowd at a gig, perfectly still while watching how the process of artistic creation happens live? Btw about live, I felt myself totally justified when I read about the events of the Barcelona show. Sure, I know the explanation, he is too young for success, drugs and playing before thousands of people. Who cares? Wavves’ music is very slow-paced, so slow paced that I am…pardon…’so bored’ I could die. The suffering over-effected vocals and distorted guitars don’t add anything to the effect either, this is again an instance of powerless songcraft that tries to hard to be something special.

Wavves - So Bored [mediafire] // [ysi]

And don’t get me started on the new Placebo…

Thing is, I never really figured out where I stand when it comes to John Frusciante. You know, people usually don’t enjoy Red Hot Chili Peppers after a certain age without half-smilingly knowing that it basically sucks. Same thing with the drug addiction-recovery story, you just don’t value it too much after you’ve been through some pop music stuff. Now, there are things you kinda always have to admire: like around 8-9 maybe 10 full-lenght solo albums in addition to the RHCP career. My purpose for writing this is the latest album, The Empyrean. I wouldn’t care for 8-9 maybe 10 (sorry, didn’t bother to count it properly) albums after 15+ years of making music (didn’t bother again) if it didn’t move something in me. The Empyrean is an awesome record which is even more awesome considering the numbers above. All good except for the horrible 9-minute first song and the weird experimental parts. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of experimenting when someone has a talent for it. However, it seems to me that Frusciante just wants to escape from the meaningfulcore ’sad singer-songwriter’ label when he’s the best when he does it. I had the same feeling with Shadows Collide with People and Curtains. He says the new album is a psychedelic experience and I beg to differ: it’s more like a heart-to-heart, you know. At it’s best moments it reminds me of the Two Gallants’ melancholic songs. (I guess this sentece just crossed a lot of accepted ideas about the hierarchy of pop musical influences, history, etc.) Point is: in my very and utterly humbly opinion, this album is great because of the moments when Frusciante doesn’t struggle to demolish traditional song structure but when he embraces it and twists it to suit his honest singing-songwriting soul. Don’t forget to buy the album here!

John Frusciante - Song To The Siren [zshare] // [ysi]

Best Albums of 2008: 10-6

 10. Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping

Of Montreal’s Skeletal Lamping is the most delightful example of avantgard-pop creativity. Keeping indie relevant and showing off the cheerful side of pop-music art, Kevin Barnes, at least we hope, has many many more songs and albums to give birth to from the womb of his musical imagination. (Don’t worry, gonna drop the metaphor now.) I just love the pretended innocence, the half-smiling happiness and the naive atmosphere that surrounds the record and makes it one of the bests this year.

Of Montreal - An Eluardian Instance [zshare] // [ysi]

9. Bloc Party - Intimacy

This must come off as a strange choice but Bloc Party’s Intimacy just grew on me. First listen, I thought it sucks, second, I felt there’s something interesting, third, I wanted to hear it more times. Not an album of originality and not even the best indie-pop around but there’s something in the sensitivity and the intimacy (ooops…sorry) of the band’s attitude. I mean, there something touching in how they work with concepts related to relationships, love, loss, etcetc and sometimes it’s aggressive in heavy songs, sometimes it’s beautiful and dressed in weird electronic compositions and perfect lyrics.

Bloc Party - Biko [zshare] // [ysi]

8. Van She - V

2008 was unquestionably the year of Australian music. Many many artists from the brilliant Modular label emerged and made cool tracks and made the world listen to them. On of them is Van She who’s been around for a while but this proper debut is full of their best songs. Combining shoegazing and electronic sound, V breaks your heart and makes you wanna dance at the same time. Among the many cool electronic artists, Van She is one who can really create songs like a real band. The start of Memory Man is so huge, it’ll give you chills.

Van She - Memory Man [zshare] // [ysi]

7. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles

Canadian duo, Crystal Castles are the pioneers of a sick 8-bit gameboy-disco that rules the clubs nowadays. Alice Glass, the girl vocalist, I guess already has some distortion in herself so she fits nicely with the over-distorted screaming-singing and the post-punk pseudo-robotic stuff. The whole album is a lsd-induced nightmare-trip in cyberpunk clubs of the dystopian future where everyone is perverted, every family is dysfunctional and drugs are like food.

Crystal Castles - Reckless [zshare] // [ysi]

6. Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires

UK’s Friendly Fires made an amazing debut this year. Why is it better than the Foals’ album? - you could ask. My answer is: it’s more elegant, more diverse, more beautiful and more touching. I usually compare and pair up Friendly Fires with Foals but in this respect they are rather like Van She. Mixture of dance music and shoegaze, atmospheric electronica and indie. These guys make such a great and soulful sound that their place in the list is hardly questionable. The songs reach for the sky and the stars.

Friendly Fires - Jump in the Pool [zshare] // [ysi]

Hiya! Short explanation first. Kunk’s best albums of the year posts start now. Top 20 albums will be shared in 4 days and will be followed by the 40 best tracks+remixes on the last day. The list isn’t totally personal nor is an official list of our blog but balanced somewhere between it. It’s really hard to decide on the criteria of bestness: close to the heart, banging the dancefloor or both? Well, we don’t live in a perfect world. Nevertheless, I had to choose some things so I chose to mention some favourites in every aspect of the word. Take it as a list of artist that I thought deserved to be mentioned among the bests. Naturally, I had to leave out a lot of stuff.

Since I’m only capable of putting together a list from 20 to 1, I have to mention a few albums that are left out. During this great struggle, I felt like I have to regulate my chaotic music-listening habits. I could put together something like 40-21 but that’d be a pain in the ass. So I’m just gonna act like I was easy-going and casual and mention a couple of artists now. Many electronic stuff couldn’t make it to the top 20. Like The Presets. They made an awesome album, full of darkness and evil-evoking tribal-dance stuff, still, somehow it started to bore me. Or The Whip. Great singles and they are on the most loveable side of their genre. Their debut, unfortunately, isn’t that exciting after a couple listens. There’s Ladyhawke who is cute and bringing back the 80s as we like it but it seems it’s not enough for a superb album, only a great one. I’m not doing justice to Late of the Pier. Obviously, we really love them and nearly everything that came out from the guy is pure gold, only to listen to it for more than a couple songs in a row, it can’t keep up the energy. Hercules and Love Affair should’ve been on the list too, I don’t have a proper explanation for leaving them off, maybe personality disorders. Sebastien Tellier made one of the best ‘concept albums’ this year but it’s somehow too funny to give it a number and put it in a list. Or how do you put the playful electro-pop of Air France in a list? Also, The Black Ghosts album didn’t get in cause I realized it’s much better for a dancefloor than for listening at home but still, their debut is more than promising.

So as you can see, I left out a lot of stuff that we usually blog about or rule the HypeM charts. Of course, I had to rape my weirdo side too and leave some records out from the ‘weirder’ genres to make room for my pop-y choices. I really loved the No Age’s fresh dirty and experimental sound. Much like Times New Viking, they keep up the noise of the 90s and the spirit. Gang Gang Dance consistently keep up their accomplishments and reach for something interesting with every album. The Notwist’s melancholical charm is undeniable on The Devil, You + Me. Brooklyn’s Love as Laughter is very very close to my heart still and with every album. I don’t think I need to mention Stephen Malkmus and Real Emotional Trash to anyone with a little interest in US indie rock. And, staying in the US, this years Castanets album beautifully keeps your mind on the border of dream and nightmare sounds. Nine Inch Nails, one of the greatest stuff of all times, deserves a shout out too for the amazing The Slip. The Mae Shi and Forward, Russia! are somehow similar and somehow made great records on the experimental-shouting-screaming edge of indie music. The Young Knives are one of the bands who still have courage and balls to go on in the non-NME era, and Superabundance is worth a lot of listens.

Fleet Foxes are left out on a very determined purpose. That album is a theatrical piece of overhyped shit.

Best Albums of 2008: 20-16

20. The Teenagers - Reality Check

The severe criticism that hit the debut of The Teenagers is, of course, understandable. On the other hand, we think they made one of the funniest, wittiest and totally danceable weirdo/postmodern pop record of the year.

The Teenagers - Starlett Johansson [zshare] // [ysi]

19.  Does It Offend You, Yeah? - You Have Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into

Underrated once again, DIOYY is heavy, fierce and full of energy. I don’t know, I kinda like when someone makes serious fun of electronic music by ridiculing it with making a banging electro-rock album. Screams and chainsaw guitars are the most enjoyable part of this electronic post-punk explosion.

Does It Offend You, Yeah? -  With a Heavy Heart (I Regret to Inform You) [zshare] // [ysi]

18. Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire - Lost Wisdom

A beautiful folk-pop record with infinite sadness and the desperate impression of “everything will be allright”. Mount Eerie originates from the legendary Microphones, Julie Doiron is a Canadian singer-songwriter with a haunted voice and her guitarist Fred Squire. Lost Wisdom is deep in mourning for something none of us totally gets but the music is evoking it in the most adequate way.

Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire - Lost Wisdom [zshare] // [ysi]

17. Hot Chip - Made in the Dark

Hot Chip’s new album is better than the debut. Colourful and diverse, Made in the Dark set an awesome new direction for this band. Disco and melody, sometimes broken, sometimes smooth, perfect for clubbing. Slower songs are on the other hand create a great atmosphere and make the record enjoyable for a long time.

Hot Chip - Ready for the Floor [zshare] // [ysi]

16. The Sea and Cake - Car Alarm

Hailing from Chicago, The Sea and Cake are among the many post-rock bands of the 90s, like the legendary Tortoise. Their new one, Car Alarm is smooth indie-pop with underlying twists: experiments in rhythm, structure and noise. Surfing on the noisy guitars, vocals are like Thurston Moore and the whole record meant to be a river of sound that you could listen to all day long.

The Sea and Cake - Weekend [zshare] // [ysi]

Back tomorrow…

Sorry, I’m a little late with this one but I just got to it. I feel like I have to post it cause you know how much we’re in love with music that transcends conventional borders. This remix is sick. Ok, Deerhunter can be insane musically at some moments and I’m loving the neurotic psychedelia that dominates their sound. Of course, sometimes they are just these cute weirdo indie guys who’s been listening to too much Spiritualized and Velvet Underground. Certainly, their influences are awesome. On their 2008 album, Microcastle, which is my favourite so far, they pull everything off: lsd-d noise, haunting vocals, indie rock, sad singer-songwriter stuff, ghostly keyboards and gazing shoes. Even the folk hiding on the album sounds authentic. The record is great, and no, I’m not under the effect of Pitchfork. Bradford Cox, the vocalist and songwriter has an experimental post-rock + electro-ish project: Atlas Sound. And he’s a blogger, yay!! Still, it comes as a surprise that Simian Mobile Disco remixed a song from a previous album Cryptograms. Octet, as reworked by SMD, is very disturbing. Like a demon of mental illness in your head or dreaming that you are a schizophrenic serial killer. SMD managed to transfer some noise right into the listener’s brain. Dissonance is attractive here, on every level where SMD managed to spread it.

Deerhunter - Octet (Simian Mobile Disco rework) [zshare] // [ysi]