Album Review: RP Boo - Legacy

"Sounds, that's what the speakers are for."

New sounds are hard to come by these days. This may be no bad thing, but to find something removed from the quotidian it's usually easier to relocate your search to another time or another place. The Chicago juke scene, which evolved out of house music around the same time Detroit house was calcifying into techno, is one such pocket of valuable innovation that seems to have captured the imaginations of like-minded UK producers and labels. Addison Groove's "Footcrab" came out a few years ago now, but more recently Kode9 of Hyperdub released a new EP from footwork mainstay DJ Rashad (as well as giving it a go himself), and Mike Paradinas has also been getting in on giving veterans of the scene their share of the spotlight by releasing old and new material on his Planet Mu label, most notably a new Traxman album Da Mind Of Traxman, and now RP Boo, arguably the originator of the style, finally gets his just reward with his debut LP Legacy.

FACT mix 384 - RP Boo (May '13)

RP Boo, real name Kavain Space, has never let a sense of the new and uninhabited cast his music away from any form of tradition. An initial listen of the aptly-titled Legacy, compiled from material worked on over the last decade, strikes the listener with a plethora of recognisable samples layered over each other in jarring, unpredictable ways; from classic Timbaland productions to Full Metal Jacket interjections to kaiju movie soundtracks (Space was the original producer for the famous "Godzilla" track). Some of the catchiest and most fitting vocal snippets come from Space himself, a habit which began from the frustration of having no other vocalists to work with. These elements may suggest Legacy to be an uneven, cacophonous listen, but in fact they lend themselves well to the album's character, which is often funny or playful. Its flow is surprisingly steady and uniform, owing mainly to footwork's constant 140BPM tempo but also the clear strength of the material here. Not one track rests on the sixteenth-note placement of hi-hats but instead a variety of ever-shifting drum patterns are offered; the soulful swing of "What'cha-Gonna Du" and mechanical stomp of "Robotbutizm" being two outlying examples.

Listening to Legacy, stuck somewhere between a conventional album and a "greatest hits" compilation of RP Boo's celebrated productions, makes me wonder how a form of music initially developed as a pure club experience, and later reappropriated for Chicago's local extreme dance competitions, has lent itself quite so wonderfully simply into the album format for the commercial market for the small country across the Atlantic, especially when it had no sights on ever leaving its niche scene. Of course the internet has played a huge part in diminishing the size of the globe, and seeing the juke/footwork sound from the north of the USA coming into fashion at the same time as trap-flavoured hip hop from the south (admittedly on a much smaller scale), I wouldn't be surprised if new producers took inspiration from these sounds. Perhaps this is the other role of Legacy: although it could be heard as signalling an ending to footwork's sheltered position and anonymity, it could also be a beginning.



Click to order RP Boo - Legacy on Planet Mu

Single of the Week: Lone - "Airglow Fires"

This last week has given us an unexpected burst of sunshine. It seems to have gone away now unfortunately, but for many it was enough to remind us that summer is quickly approaching. As ever it's probably best to jump on a plane if it's consistently good weather you're after, but wherever you go the new Lone single ought to make anyone feel reinvigorated. "Airglow Fires" is quintessential Lone, matching the kaleidoscopic, synthetic flavours worked to perfection on last year's Galaxy Garden LP with the wonkier stylings of his earlier hip hop-inspired singles. The producer has previously announced his debt to Madlib and Boards of Canada as his main influences, and perhaps for the first time both of their respective styles come together in Lone's music in equal measures. It's both an armchair and a dancefloor tour de force. For those on the lookout for that ubiquitous "summer anthem", you may need to look no further.

The "Airglow Fires" / "Begin To Begin" single will be available digitally from 14th July.

Single of the Week: Holden - "Renata" / Daphni Remix

I included the first single from James Holden's forthcoming album The Inheritors, "Gone Feral", on this month's edition of the ever-popular Culture Shock, so I suggest you go there if you missed that. This new one, "Renata" is instantly warmer than its predecessor, with its resonant bass tones playing underneath chippy arpeggiators and Holden's signature knocking percussion. It's a slow but sure builder, not unlike Jon Hopkins' recent "Open Eye Signal" (same place), reaching a satisfying plateau about half way through before playing around with jazz rhythm patterns before closing.
Daphni's remix is, for my money, an improvement on Holden's mix. Dan Snaith's approach is usually fun and here he isolates a five-note motif, giving it a similar jazzy percussive treatment but this time with more of a swing, helped along with some chopped up R&B vocal snippets (almost positively Aaliyah, but I don't have time to check, you know the one). This version is more careful to reach its crescendo but is no less effective. I like the way that once the track has appeared to finish, it restarts not once, nor twice, but thrice; paring it back to a progressively 2-step/garage feel each time.
Holden's new album The Inheritors is out on the 17th June on Border Community. The "Renata" single, backed with remixes by Daphni and Steve Moore, is out a week earlier on 10th June.

Single of the Week: Rainer Veil - Struck EP

In Rainer Veil, Manchester's Modern Love label has found a duo similar in sound to their big gun Andy Stott, whose Luxury Problems album found great success for all involved at the end of last year. It's still early days for Liam Morley and Dan Valentine - Struck is their first release together - but there seems to be a lot more going for them in the EP's 25 minute stretch than simple copycatism or capitalisation. Amongst its influences sit the cerebral tropics of Clams Casino's Rainforest EP, especially on the busy jungle (no pun intended) of the title track and the 2-step stretch "Wade In". Elsewhere "Slow Beaming" revels in soft, forceful bass and heavenly vocal samples. The seven minutes of "Bala" are perhaps the most Stott-like and seem to repeat ideas put to better use elsewhere on the EP, such as "Yield", but overall Struck is a very impressive debut for Rainer Veil and maintains a consistent hazy atmosphere against the grain of the heterogeneous nature of their ideas.




Rainer Veil - Wade In from Rainer Veil on Vimeo.

Single of the Week: Golden Teacher - "Dante And Pilgrim"

Golden Teacher are a collaboration between disparate Glasgow groups Ultimate Thrush and Silk Cut, and "Dante And Pilgrim" is everything you'd want a dance track from a group named after a mushroom to sound like. A touched-up live recording that smacks of Arthur Russell, low slung with a bubbly throbbing reminiscent of Matthew Dear's Audion work; the track's most obvious benefit is its manic French vocals. Imagine if Jacques Brel had fronted Einstürzende Neubauten and took a turn for Moroder italo-pop. That's the kind of unique track we're dealing with here.

Single of the Week: Disclosure - "Latch" (feat. Sam Smith)

I'm the kind of listener who if questioned would say that the best thing Disclosure have done until now is their superb remix of Jessie Ware's "Running", a track that comes dangerously close to beating everything on her recently released debut album Devotion as well. Everything the duo have tried since seems to be overshadowed by it, however "Latch", the first single from their upcoming 2013 debut album suggests this may not be te case for much longer. The next-to-unknown Sam Smith is Disclosure's singer of choice this time around, who sings with consistent fire and intensity, reaching a huge crescendo at the chorus. This chorus is also where Disclosure deploy their signature "skipped beat", showing of their drum programming mastery and knowledge of the club environment. Overall "Latch" proves to be their best standalone single yet.

Les Sins - "Fetch" and "Taken"

Les Sins (better known for his work under Toro Y Moi) has a new single on the JIAOLONG label run by Daphni (better known for his work under Caribou, ugh), set for a "late [A]ugust" release. Luckily it caught my ear. Both sides below:

Stream Matthew Dear - Beams

It's time to hear what the album that features previous Single of the Week "Her Fantasy" sounds like. Matthew Dear's latest, Beams (artwork above), is released next Monday on Ghostly. Until then, stream below:

Teengirl Fantasy - "EFX" (feat. Kelela)

The next single from Teengirl Fantasy, following "End", from their new album Tracer. This one has an R&B flavour to it, not only due to guest vocalist Kelela.

Free download: Matthew Dear - "Her Fantasy"

"Her Fantasy", the latest Matthew Dear single set to appear on his new full-length album Beams made on-Tenori-on's Single of the Week a while ago. Now it's available for free download for one week only courtesy of Insound. You can read the feature here, or watch the music video below:

Lone - "Lenticular Cloud"

Here's a beautiful bonus track to Lone's fantastic new allbum Galaxy Garden (which was one of my 2012 Recommended Albums), "Lenticular Cloud":

Teengirl Fantasy - "End"

Teengirl Fantasy have made R&S their new home, and along with the "Motif" single they've released through them they plan to do the same for teir second album Tracer. Here's the first track from that album proper, out on the 21st August, called "End":



Track all the info up to the release of Tracer on the Upcoming Releases page.

Music Video: Matthew Dear - "Her Fantasy"

Read my Single of the Week feature for this very song here.

Hot Chip - In Our Heads added to 2012 Recommended Albums

Hot Chip have never won the Mercury Music Prize (they were nominated in 2006 for The Warning but lost out to Arctic Monkeys), which in hindsight seems a little harsh. The London five-piece have released if not a stellar at least a curiously great album every two years for the last decade, and are responsible for a healthy number of classic singles including "Ready for the Floor" and "Over and Over". As a result Hot Chip have rightfully earned a reputation for being one of the most dependable bands our fair isle has produced in recent memory. Their latest, In Our Heads, only cements that reputation further, and hopefully brings that award closer to their grasp than ever.

For fans of the band's previous album One Life Stand, this new record should feel both comfortable and welcome. Like many groups at this stage of their career, Hot Chip are experts of refinement rather than the unsteady experimentalists they were once considered by many to be. "Night and Day", the lead single may feel a tad crude and hollow (especially compared to the magnificent sheen of "Flutes", the first track to be previewed off the album), but is still as catchy as any other Hot Chip single (i.e. very), and is bound to age just as well as any of the others. Besides it's also probably the weakest show here, and it's still great. In Our Heads boasts two early praise-worthy pop tracks in particular that dispel any anxieties; both were debuted on Later... With Jools Holland a few weeks prior to the release date. "How Do You Do?" and "Don't Deny Your Heart" spring off opener "Motion Sickness" with gusto, thrusting vocal hooks in layers above the band's retro-obsessed melodies.

The principal songwriting duo of Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard are working together better than ever; their influences showing more strongly and distinct, and really giving the album character. Be it Taylor's love of R&B, funk and disco that have always shown through his angelic vocal style and melodies, or Goddard's adept knowledge of Detroit and Chicago house that he recently explored in the 2 Bears, In Our Heads is just as diverse and exciting as previous albums, but time invested in seperate projects appears to have helped the blending of thse influences together for this record tremendously. Hot Chip can no longer be written of as kitchy imitators or bastardizers of these genres (unfair accusations as they may be), which brings a wonderful fresh air to the record.

The best In Our Heads has to offer is reserved for the latter half of the album. The aforementioned "Flutes" begins a final five-song run that sound as assured as Hot Chip have ever made. Alexis Taylor leads "Ends Of The Earth" higher and higher as his voice lifts one of many euphoric choruses off the dancefloor and into the stratosphere. The track that follows, "Let Me Be Him" strikes a contrast with a quieter rare vocal lead by Joe Goddard, yet builds over seven minutes whilst still feeling as exhilerating as anything here right from the beginning. It's another clear favourite from many.

In Our Heads carries one theme and feeling throughout, the feeling of summer, and more than any other record this year carries off the heady excitement right from first listen. Caution is advised however to those who prefer their Hot Chip records quirkier or funnier; there has been a deliberate and expected shift away from the "kitchen sink" pop wizardry of earlier albums, so much so that even One Life Stand looks a little too silly. Instead In Our Heads shows Hot Chip at their most focused, proving that they can make an album entirely out of the little moments of brilliance they've brought to their output so far.

In Our Heads is out now on Domino Records, and is still strreaming at the Guardian.

Single of the Week: Matthew Dear - "Her Fantasy"

Matthew Dear makes a really deep and murky blend of house music, but his latest single also has a lot of colour and vivacity to it. With the amount of strange, bouncy vintage synths and weirdly sampled backing vocals, "Her Fantasy" coerces both the mind and the body right from the beginning. Dear's signature baritone vocals are also present, adding to the quirkiness of the track with lyrics about "receiving a damaging shock to [his] brain", which is how listeners undoubtedly react when the shoegazey rush reaches its climax. Matthew Dear's music has always had a playful edge to it, but this single and "Headcage" (both of which will appear on Dear's upcoming new record Beams) seem to take a closer step in that direction, but not too far from the darkness of his 2010 opus Black City.

The Video World of Kindness

"World, You Need A Change Of Mind" Teaser Video
 

Kindness, aka Adam Bainbridge, makes often sultry but usually fun house music that wears its maker's influences on his sleeve: Arthur Russell, Prince, and overseas contemporaries such as Ariel Pink and Toro Y Moi. His debut album, produced in association with Philipe Zdar of Cassius (who has also worked with the likes of Phoenix and the Rapture) is entitled World, You Need A Change Of Mind and was released back in March. I've been listening to it quite a lot recently, and forgive me if I haven't made up my mind about it completely yet, but it is addictive stuff. A whole new level of appeal comes from it's associated music videos, which play out more like extended pastiches most of the time. They seem to exist more for themselves than they help the listener with a visual accompniment to songs from the album, but there clearly is a lot of love there. Bainbridge is a real personality with a strand of British humour that in addition to the music has earned him a dedicated following. Tounge-in-cheek is not the word.

"Cyan" - (dir. Adam Bainbridge)



This first video was posted on YouTube a while back (October 2011) and is easily the simplest we've seen from Kindness. It's just Bainbridge walking around New York, and occasionally in front of a cyan-coloured screen (get it?). It's pretty well filmed though, some especially nice dark shots towards the end, and the bouncy feel of the song makes it feel adventurous.

"Gee Up" (dir. Adam Bainbridge)



Here things start to get weird. "Gee Up" really shows off Bainbridge's oddball personality. The song itself is under two minutes long, so the rest of the video is filled out by a series of unconnected on-set jokes. an angry, unimpressed French director looks on as Bainbridge inspects his bandmate's legs (notice, a completely different band to that playing the song). And we never do find out what the band spends all their money on.

"House" (dir. Dan Brereton)
 


You'd be forgiven for not even calling this one a real music video, as the song barely features at all. Bainbridge begins with a faithful reinterpretation of Leonard Bernstein's 1967 CBS documentary Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution (here in full if you have the time), but then teaches a kid how to play the drum machine parts of the song, before they both end up dancing vigorously. How Bainbridge maintains a straight face here is beyond me, some excellent ad-libbing going on.

Thoughts on World, You Need A Change Of Mind
Like I said, still not completely sure. For every compelling moment there is at least another average one. The strongest moments are the three songs featured in the videos, and "That's Alright", a huge, progressive disco number that comes out of nowhere. Two of the songs are covers and are found early on in the album: the Replacements' "Swingin Party" and "Anyone Can Fall In Love" by Anita Dobson are pretty unique and bold choices, but are executed mostly well once you can get past the idea you're listening to the Eastenders theme. The remaining tracks aren't bad but are mostly forgettable, and this is after hearing them several times. If I keep listening to this album I might eventually put it on the 2012 Recommended Albums list, but my scepticsm is keeping me at bay for now.