nialler9Irish-based MP3 blog - Indie, Electronica, Hip-Hop - A Chronicle of Musical Delights

Image from Shellshock Rock designed to blind you for the weekend.

Darklight is on right now folks as well as all the many highlights, pay particular attention to the events curated by Underground detailed here. Alongside the showing of rare music documentaries Last Night of The Funnel, The Stars Are Underground and Shellshock Rock, Underground are running an exhibition in the basement of Road on Fade street focusing on the changes of independent music over the last 15 years. Get down to the launch at 6.30pm for a STREET PARTY in Fade St with music from Mici Durnin (Maximum Joy) & David Beattie.

Also, MP3Hugger has tired of promoting unsigned artists and seeing them get no just monetary rewards so he decided to curate an indie compilation called Indiecater. The idea was “to gather 10 unreleased tracks from artists that weren’t getting the exposure their talent deserved“. The artists in question include Storkboy Choons, Michael Knight, Slushco and Cymbals Eat Guitars. Income from the sale of the album will go directly back to the artists involved. You can buy it here.

In an effort to shine a light on the unknown artists and songs that pass through the mailbox of a music blogger, this hopefully regular series will pick the MP3s most deserved of attention from nialler9 readers. Hey.. that’s you guys!

Vivian Girls - Tell The World
Looks like my plans to feature unknown artists exclusively has been scuppered already. The reason: 95% of the music I get sent is utter shite. There I said it. Most of it comes from across the Atlantic and usually it’s some twee band from Atlanta or Seattle and the press release uses the word “songwriting” as if it’s some futuristic concept. It all sounds the same. Soft indie rock trying to sound like Interpol or Sufjan or whatever’s cool right now. I still try to listen to everything I get sent, otherwise I would miss a gem. Like the Vivian Girls. Mr Carroll already mentioned them this morning but no loss. They are 3 girls from Brooklyn who play crackling lo-fi rock straight out of an early ’90s songbook. Don’t hold that against them though. [Myspace]

Dry County & Messiah J and the Expert - Stop/Proceed/ Abandon
A mashup of Dry County’s ‘Attention’ and Messiah J and the Expert’s ‘Abandon Ship’ by the Expert himself. A lot of talk going around about Dry County right now. It’s been cleared up on their MySpace today. Long story short - the band is not finished. The name will be dropped and they are going to record a new album and return with a new name. For now, enjoy this tune and catch Dry County’s last show as Dry County in Dublin tonight in Whelans. Also, MJEX have a blog now too.

The Bug - Poison Dark (Skream Remix)
Regular readers will know how much I like The Bug’s work. his new album London Zoo is banging and here’s a remix by Skream of the standout track ‘Poison Dart’ which I mentioned back in December last year. It features the rasp of Warrior Queen.
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There’s been so much great music to digest lately and June’s podcast is the perfect format to showcase it all. The new BSS side-project/album, King Khan’s dastardly garage stomps (That’s him above), White Denim’s schizo dirty rock ‘n’ roll, a dollop of quality electronica, deep dancehall and dubstep from London, Irish alt-rock, indie and much more. Thanks to Aoife for the presenting. On with show sixteen! Download away.

nialler9 Podcast #16 - June 2008 (MP3)

Podcast #16 -Tracklisting

1. Broken Social Scene presents Brendan Canning - Hit The Wall [Something for All Of Us]
2. King Khan & The Shrines - Took My Lady Out to Dinner [The Supreme Genius of...]
3. White Denim - Sitting [Workout Holiday]
4. Sally Shapiro - He Keeps Me Alive (Cadence Weapon remix) [Remix Romance Vol. 1]
5. The Bug - Angry [London Zoo]
6. Daedelus - Drummery Jam [Love to Make Music To]
7. Ratatat - Miranda [LP3]
8. Errors - Salut France! [It's Not Something But It Is Like Whatever]
9. Hooray for Humans - Already Sleeping [Limited 7"]
10. Port O’ Brien - I Woke Up Today [All We Could Do is Sing]
11. Grand Pocket Orchestra - Little Messy [RCRD LBL download]
12. Boxes - Animal [Animal]
13. Deastro - Open Up Ye Dark Gates! [Keepers]

Download the Podcast via iTunes
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This is the album that DJ Shadow should have made after The Private Press. It’s a throwaway comment sure but it helps go some way to explaining just what Alfred Darlington aka Daedelus has accomplished with, what looks like his tenth major release. The producer has finally made good on his long-evident promise with one of the best releases of the year. An electronica album at its core, Daedelus channels hip-hop, R&B rhythms and dubstep basslines to superb effect. The result is 15 tracks of polychromatic genius which bears plenty of repeated listens (which was the major problem with his previous releases). There are audio detours aplenty with some great use of archaic samples. The album is so good I had problems picking out which songs would accurately represent the work.

I choose ‘Touchtone’ as it features Paperboy and Taz on rap duties while simultaneously representing the dubstep influence. ‘Hrs:Mins:Secs’ (which was released as a free download so you may have heard it) qualifies my DJ Shadow comparison as it parallels the instrumental workouts that Shadow was and is so prone to making. It stands up on its own however. The excellent ‘Fairweather Friends’ from last year’s EP is below in video format as is the new single ‘Make It So’.

Buy this album - Daedelus - Love to Make Music To. You should also check out Live at Low End Theory mix from earlier in the year.

Daedelus will be playing this year’s Mantua festival.

Daedelus - Touchtone

Daedelus - Hrs: Mins: Secs

Videos after the jump.
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My favourite pub at the moment is The Bernard Shaw in Portobello. It’s been run by Bodytonic since October 2006. Despite hearing it was due to close in early 2008, it has stayed open and doesn’t seem to be closing anytime soon. The pub has an emphasis on art, music and multimedia with art exhibitions, movie screenings, regular DJ sets, carboot sales and live bands.

Saturday saw one of those events entitled “It’s Happening” take place. It ran from 4pm til about 10pm firstly taking in some electronic performances inside the bar which I missed. I did however manage to catch the closing band who played outside in the smoking area. The plan was for the band which included clarinet, bass, trumpet, keyboard, glockenspiel to play covers of cheesy ’90s songs. So think ‘Rhythm of the Night’ , ‘Groove is in the Heart’, ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ and loads of others. It was mental. The smoking area turned into a house party for two hours with people dancing on the pool table, up on table and chairs, sitting on people’s shoulders, lollipops, pass the parcel and a singalong led by the band’s singer and cheerleader, Jane. It was great, so much fun. The reason I bring it up is because it’s happening THIS THURSDAY again in the venue so pop down. Here’s a taste of what to expect - ‘Mr. Vain’:

More info here.

Let’s get this straight. James Pants is a nerd and his music is odd. He’s like a guy you meet in the pub who says odd things but ends up being a good mate down the line. Signed to Stone Throw, after becoming an intern there and convincing Peanut Butter Wolf of his skills, Pants released his album Welcome this month to divisive opinions.

Pitchfork’s Nate Patrin hit the nail on the head when he said in his 5.0 review of the album - “Chances are that this album will alienate the shit out of you quite a bit before you start catching on to its fucked-up charm, and you might even give up before you get to that point. ”

I urge you not to give up on Welcome. It’s a weird mix of vintage synths, hip-hop rhythms, R&B crooning, P-Funk breaks and out-there electronica. It’s certainly interesting. To take the pants analogy further, at least he’s not a pair of skidded brown Y-fronts. Rather he’s a slightly embarassingly patterned, loose-fitting pair of breathe easy boxers. Sample Mr Pants below.

James Pants - We’re Through

James Pants - Crystal Lite

James Pants - My Tree

James Pants on MySpace.

[Buy Welcome from Amazon]

Choose your price. Feed the Animals.

Let me know what you think in the comments, I’m still downloading it.

Hard luck to the Swedes last night but the Russians were flippin’ awesome. I wouldn’t normally get involved in international football squabbles but Sweden had it coming. Why?

For this monstrosity. It’s been 14 long, long years since ‘Cotton Eye Joe‘ became an international novelty hit. Since then the Swedes have given us The Cardigans, Robyn, José Gonzalez, The Knife and now Lykke Li. But they have been hiding a dark secret. Sweden, please tell me why you’ve been keeping the Rednex around on a retainer since then, piling up chart hits for fourteen years? Can you explain why you let them record THIS, ‘Football is Our Religion’, the unofficial Euro 2008 song? “Real geniuses on the grass” indeed…

Sample lyric - “The players are so cool / Get on the field / And play wonderful“.

I laugh now but if Ireland had qualified would it be any worse?
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In an effort to shine a light on the unknown artists and songs that pass through the mailbox of a music blogger, this hopefully regular series will pick the MP3s most deserved of attention from nialler9 readers. Hey.. that’s you guys!

I Scream Ice Cream - Trust Tissue
I hate it when people combine the word electro and rock together. Instantly, I get images of fashionable rockers playing with Korgs, heavily distorted guitars, wailing and painfully shit music. Kinda like Queen Kong that one time I saw them. But “electro-rock” is what this is and this Copenhagen band do it rather well. No distortion included. [Myspace]

Anti Atlas - Spring
Apparently, Radiohead’s ex-manager Chris Hufford was involved. So was our Gemma (see?). But not on this track. This track’s vocal is supplied by yer wan from Asobi Seksu and it’s a rather nice ambient song which sounds like it’s borrowing a guitar line from Animal Collective. [Myspace]

My Brightest Diamond - The Diamond
Shara Worden’s latest album A Thousand Shark’s Teeth is out this week and this is a sample from it. Heavy and cinematic with elegiac harps and strings rising below her lounging, restrained cabaret voice. (That’s her above with a puppeteer from URB magazine) [Myspace]

Lil Wayne - A Mili (Dubbel Dutch remix)
A dubby, techy remix of Lil Wayne. Speaking of Wayne, what’s the big appeal of his albums? I like his collabs but Carter III on first listen has some piss-poor music*. If ya can’t get that right….. [Myspace]

Bullion - Rude Effort
From Acton, London, Bullion was the dude who did that Pet Sounds/J Dilla mix album a while back. This tune is from his 7″ and sounds a little like Eliot Lipp. [Myspace]

Drop the Lime - I Love NY
Let’s face it. Drop the Lime’s tunes all sound the same after a while. A sample here - distorted and messed with. Beats at at least 130bpm. And loads of rumbling bass. It’s suitable for a party, just not for visiting your granny on the weekend. [Myspace]

The Notwist - Sleep (Odd Nosdam Remix)
An album track from The Devil, You + Me is given the remix treatment here by Anticon dude Odd Nosdam. [Myspace]

Lionhead - The Nigerian Police Force
Bigga Bush used to be Rockers Hi-Fi and now runs the Lionhead Records label which specialises in funk, afrobeat and dub vinyl releases. If you dig the recent Nigeria Special compilations, you’ll dig this. [Lionhead site]

* This may not be true. As a music blogger, I reserve my right to change my fucking mind anytime I want, thank you very much.

First listen to the Esau Mwamwaya and Ezra (Vampire Weekend) collaboration ‘Warm Heart of Africa’ due to appear on Esau’s forthcoming album.

In a perfect world, this would be number one.

As the Future Days draws to a close, I wonder how successful it was for the promoters? Last night’s Vicar Street show was far from full and people told me there was free tickets being handed out left, right and centre. In fact I have 5 free tickets left for Metronomy tonight if anyone lives near D6W…

In the end, the double header of Dan Deacon and Jape relegated the crowd attendance to a distant memory. It was my third time seeing Dan and I wondered how he would cope with such a large venue. There was no need to worry as the opening Deacon-led warm-up got everybody hyped for what was to follow. The atmosphere became something more closely associated with playground antics than a concert as Dan commanded us to run circles around the venue in a swirling whirlpool of giddy bodies, human-created tunnels which spilled outside the venue and into the halls and back again. Dan played some new songs from his forthcoming album Bromst and sported a pretty impressive Jar Jar Binks t-shirt.

Jape was worried about having to follow such a display of euphoria but in his own way, he succeeded in getting the crowd going with the quality of his tunes rather than theatrics. His just released Ritual album went into number 15 in the Irish charts last week, a nice achievement for one of the soundest blokes and talented musician Ireland has to offer. The new album made up the bulk of the set with the exception of ‘Floating’. ‘I was a Man’ was superb as was ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ and the finale of ‘Phil Lynott’ had people singing along to the “Look at the fucking Moon” line. Richie even went for a crowd surf. Great stuff. Regarding the rest of the acts on the night: I missed High Places, was unperturbed by White Williams and sporadically interested in Deerhunter. I found a 52mm Canon Lens cap if anyone is missing one. We went to McGruders for Red Rum afterwards and got our collective faces melted by Kid 606 and lasers. Good times.

Una has more.

Seriously dudes, you look effin stupid.

So there I was in my internet chair thinking about why I haven’t heard any decent remixes lately. Then, these two Mystery Jets remixes popped out of the internet tube and into my ears and I felt good again. Huzzah!

The first is by Duke Dumont and is a positively epic 8 minute tune that sounds like Nathan Fake tinkering with in Royksopp’s studio while living on a diet of Apparat. Dumont plays McGruders on June 21st.

The second is a remix of the band’s song ‘Hideaway’ with Erol Alkan by Switch edited by Diplo and is already massive in some DJing circles.

Whatever way you vote today, vote YES for these Mystery Jets remixes!

Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down (Duke Dumont remix)

Mystery Jets - Hideaway (Switch remix edited by Diplo)