chiiiday frat

ah! it's finally arrived - been quite hectic with people staying over the past few weekends, so i'm looking forward to two exceptionally long lie-ins in bed!

I'm prob gonna write off most of the weekend reading "The Atrocity Archives" by Charles Stross, as thats what has happened with the past three of his novels i've read. MartinD, from my work, turned me on to Halting State, a crazed near-future sci-fi novel set about 10-15 years in the future, about a security breach in an online world which has very real offline implications. Really good and addictive stuff - then Martin lent me a few others of Charles Stross - Glass House and Accelerando - both of which completely blew me away, with much more elaborate and completely believeable tech set in a post-singularity world.
"The Atrocity Archives" is his first novel i believe, about the meeting point between mathematics and alternative universes, with a firm tongue in cheek humour. I only started it this morning, but i believe one phrase from the book may sum up the contents - "the Turning-Lovecraft theorem".
His style seems quite heavily influenced by one of other favorite authors, Neal Stephenson, who is acknowledged in the opening credits, but Charles Stross very much has a voice and style of his own.

I got quite a lot of new music this week which should see me through the weekend too:

Grievous Angel - Belief Is The Enemy
Received my copy of this yesterday - its a double CD with full versions of the album on disc one and a mixed second CD using dubs of the tracks. Had it on quite a bit yesterday, and its really fucking good. Its dubstep kinda, but just feels more for some reason. The sound palette makes me think more drum 'n' bass, bringing to mind Remarc for some reason. That prob gives the total wrong impression about the album if you haven't heard it - the tempo is way slower than d'n'b, but has more energy than yer average half-step, utilising quite a lot of break-beats and rolling basslines. It just seems really original - taking a bunch of influences from dubstep, d'n'b, bassline and ragga techno, and outputting just a really good electronic album.

Voltaic - Abyss EP 12"
Rustie's electro project alongside Martin Patton. I don't know enough about the history of this project to write any background on it, and as i only received it this morning can't comment on the music yet - its two tracks written by Rustie and one from Martin, and also meant to be their last under the Voltaic name. Their last EP, Oxidize was excellent, and from all reviews this one should be pretty ace.

SND - 4, 5, 6
Mat/Fisk turned me on to this the other day, and I'm well impressed. I expected a sort clicks and cuts glitchy record, and it does start off that way, bring to mind Oval's 'Do While' on the opening track, but soon getting into some very off-kilter rhythmic craziness. I was surprised by how berlin-techno like it sounds, and easily going to appeal to fans of the Berlin/Bristol axis style of dubstep, tho not perhaps to the dancefloor as such. Some of it sounds familiar from their recent support slot on the Autechre 'Quaristice' tour, which all sounded excellent at the time but it's good to be able to delve in for repeated listen on headphones.

aiight - laterzzzzzzzzzzz

Labels: books, charles stross, grievous angel, reviews, rustie, SND, voltaic, weekend

Thursday, March 6, 2008

plague of flying lotus

One of the current producers I've been really enjoying is Flying Lotus. Some of the older material can be a bit tame, sorta jazzy hip hop, but still retains that Dabrye style rhythmic chunkyness. The newer productions seem to have way more edge - last years Warp release, the 'Reset EP' was excellent, and the recent remix he did of Dabrye's Game Over.

This morning i was reading Poisonous Paragraphs and found a link to another project Flying Lotus has called Dolly, with a Turkish vocalist named Ahu. Their myspace is at http://www.myspace.com/ahudolly. I wasn't super impressed though, vocals and production are lush, but just sounds too close to mid-ninties trip hop. However i clicked on over to Flying Lotus' own myspace page, and found quite a few new and unreleased tracks up there. You can download a remix of Mr Oizo's "Stunt" which is excellent, plus there is another one i hadn't heard called "Momma Dingo" which sounds so like a Rustie track, it's ace!

I think i heard this on the Mary Anne Hobbs show, but i seem to remember hearing a story about when Flying Lotus was over here in the UK last year, and about him first hearing dubstep and being blown away by it. The potential of this sounds amazing, just taking some of that darker element into his own hip hop productions. mm!

Labels: downloads, flying lotus, rustie

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Redshape and Rustie

No, not on the same bill, which would be astoundingly good, but two totally unrelated mixes i've been listening to!

I'm planning to head up to Glasgow next month to see Redshape play at Numbers alongside The Village Orchestra which should be ace. I've been really excited about Redshape for a few months now, and been tracking down as much as i can from him. His own site at http://www.shapedworld.com/ doesn't have much info, just his discography. Hiding in the listings there you'll find a link to download "Redshape Live At ADE 2006". Its pretty excellent.

I was checking Rustie's myspace this morning again, and hadn't noticed before a link to http://www.thisisluckyme.com, a loose collective of scottish DJs and producers. They have a download section there which includes a mix from Rustie which is well worth downloading, full of well chunky hip hop.
Theres also a pretty interesting Rustie interview over at http://lazeruspit.blogspot.com/2008/01/rustie-interview.html. Curiously I think he looks quite like Kit Clayton in that image!

Labels: dj, downloads, mix, mixtapes, redshape, rustie