analog scene
Analog Scene updates with fresh tracks and commentary on art and music throughout the work week. If you like what you hear send the artist some naked pix of yourself. Just make sure the nudes are tasteful, sexy, and original.Archive for February, 2008
music: a short lesson in electro
It’s been fun to watch the evolution of electro, hasn’t it? The word ‘electro’ started out as such an odd creature, no one was sure quite exactly what it meant. To some, electro meant anything with synthesizers (i.e. electro-rock). To others, electro meant the more avant garde side of dance music, with harder and heavier elements. In the end, it became neither. I feel a lynching coming on, but to me electro has become the ‘indie’ of electronic music – you’ll find the most obscure samples in it, you’ll hear the most innovative things the scene has to offer, and you’ll hear good music that your average candy kid or gamer won’t. And yes, that makes the whole genre seem quite pretentious to me; but why else would I like it so much?
That being said, when you go looking for electro; you’re reaching into a grab bag of genres. You never really know what you’re going to get. It’s fun when you get a few songs that you can group into their very own special category. Today’s episode is brought to you by pounding, driving and grinding beats mixed with soaring, easy to remember melodies! Shake your groove thangs all the way into the weekend with these tracks.
Stereoheroes- Moon Knight
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Vitalic- Poney Part 1
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-Robert
photo from flickr user, emily_chiavelli.
music: fuck buttons
A noise band with a noisy name, there’s a surprise! But srsly, Fuck Buttons make some pretty cool noises on their latest album, Street Horrrsing, and remind me of a fleshed out Drum’s Not Dead era Liars. They’ve been featured in Time Out Magazine, and like any band of their kind, have received their share of negative press. They are a duet from the United Kingdom.
“Ribs Out” isn’t a track to give your grandmother for her birthday, but if you feel like a nice grandkid, you could take her to see the Buttons on tour (sounds so cute when you call them the Buttons!) They’ll be cruising through North America this upcoming month, so look em up!
Fuck Buttons- Ribs Out
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-Ben
culture: nanibird
Stuff you can print out from the internet and make into über-cute stuff. This idea isn’t news but the folks at NaniBird are doing some awesome things with it. The creator, Josh McKibile hasn’t been living in Japan all his life and he says that he is constantly sayning “nani”. Nani in Japanese means what so Josh is all the time saying, “nani?, nani?” and he decided to make 100 paintings of birds running around saying “what?”. So he decided to get artists and designers to create printable NaniBirds that you can cut out and put together for free. Cute!
NaniBird
nanibird.com
In celebration of Josh McKibile’s über-cute “what”birds, I’ve decided to put together a little three song “what” mix for you while you make your own NaniBird.
Jamie Lidell- What’s the use?
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Parks & Recreation- What Was She Doing on the Shore that Night?
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The Radio Dept.- What Will Give?
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-Kyle
music: tenniscoats
Tenniscoats are from outside Tokyo and have just released their excellent seventh album, Tan-Tan Therapy. The album is a mix of their work over the last two years, owing much of its influence to the band Tape, who also play on the record. They’ve managed to utilize the sound of double bass, zither, and glockenspiel to thicken up their original sound.
Umbarepa! is so catchy that it’s already well into this month’s top ten most played on my end. I get a pretty rad Stereolab/Cibo Matto vibe from the track, and have found myself singing this in the shower for the last three mornings. Repa!
Tenniscoats- Umbarepa!
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-Ben
photo via flickr user, cylou.
music: the fashion
Ahh Europe! Denmark in particular. That’s where you’ll find ridiculously multi-talented artists such as Jakob Printzlau who happens to be a filmmaker, animator, editor, graphic designer, and lead man of The Fashion. The doods that also contribute to the awesome post-punk, electronically fuzzed party that The Fashion are, happen to be, guitarist Anders Find Axelsen and bassist Christian Lignell Bækholm, along with drummer Jakob Ankær Johansen.
Together these guy produce some incredibly amazing pop music and some of it, including the mp3 I’m sharing with you is often borderline hip hop influenced. Which is just awesome. While Jakob Printzlau can occasionally sound like a mall punk rocker, his songwriter and musician skills clearly make up for that downfall. I’m sharing with you two tracks, one is a song from their E.P. which has the awesome hip hop influences juxtaposed with the punk vocals and the other is a remix of Like Knives which totally sounds like a new and improved Faint track.
I’m super stoked to see what else The Fashion can crank out and if you want to see one of their shows as soon as possible then get your ass down to SXSW.
The Fashion- Solo Impala (Take the Money and Run)
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Tiger Baby VS The Fashion- TIGER BABY REMIX [Like Knives]
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- Kyle
photo via flickr user, jkonig.
music: mute with stupefaction
Mute with Stupefaction is the moniker for Benjamin Seretan, who just self released called They Came Around and Sold That To You. The album is a sixteen song collection that features a mess of vocal loops, overdriven guitar, and lyrics that cut right to the heart.
“The Falls” and “4th” are pretty good approximations of the stylistic extremes the album spans, and you can also download the whole thing here. The album has been called “an experimental mix of Brian Jonestown Massacre, Animal Collective, and maybe Pavement,” but I think you should just see for yourself.
Mute With Stupefaction- 4th
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Mute With Stupefaction- The Falls
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-Kyle
music and culture: downliners sekt
Everyone knows about all the Radiohead biznass that occurred in late 2007 with their whole digital distribution/pick your own price shit. Yeah I called it shit because personally I thought it was pretty lame of Thom Yorke and co. to be all about this absolutely kick ass idea to try and evolve the music industry’s economy and then release the album traditionally and take away the online distribution model they started off with. What the fuck happened? It was like Radiohead got stage fright or maybe that green just tasted too good. Let’s not even mention the album was entirely underwhelming.
Radiohead failed in my book. They had an awesome idea, ran with it, then dropped it, and covered up with greed. The music industry definitely doesn’t need greed, and it definitely doesn’t need Thom Yorke. It needs more artists like Downliners Sekt.
Two days before Valentine’s Day I received an email from Downliners Sekt with a link to their website. I was already smitten by their kind words in the email but when I arrived at their cyberhome, I was even more impressed. The website has incredible design, it’s a little dark and gritty but it’s sexy dark and gritty. What’s the point? Well first off these artists already have the presentation shit down solidly so all they need to do now is deliver the goods. Deliver the goods they do.
Creative Commons! Let’s talk about Creative Commons and what Downliners Sekt has to do with Creative Commons. First off Creative Commons is an alternative to Copyright and it’s growing steadily. Basically it gives people the right to copy and distribute work under the CC license with minimal restrictions. It’s a really incredible idea and I’m definitely for it. So what about Downliners Sekt and Creative Commons? Well all of Downliners Sekt’s music under a Creative Commons license! What does that mean?
Their digital music is free. That’s right, so you won’t even feel a pang of guilt when downloading their album. On second thought scratch that point, when is the last time you actually ever felt a pang of guilt for downloading an album illegally? Exactly. Well, at least download an album for free legally has to feel a little better. Downliners Sekt wants you to stick their album in your P2P share folder and distribute it on torrents. They want you to share the love and some wonderful love it is. Of course they have a PayPal button but that’s up to you! If you want to show some love then break out the credit card but they’re not forcing you to do anything.
Downliners Sekt make incredibly cool dark electronic beats that teeter on electropop and other genres around that area. Their albums are instrumental sanctuaries of sound and noise. I’ve been spinning their newest album, The Saltire Wave and I’ve been digging the shit out of it. Especially when I normally don’t find myself listening to darker music.
I absolutely champion everything that Downliners Sekt is doing. They’re saying “fuck you” to the music industry with style, flair, and content! So go on, click the following links below to download their newest album and visit their website.
Downliners Sekt- The Saltire Wave
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Downliners Sekt
http://downliners-sekt.com/
-Kyle
culture: mary and matt
Mary and Matt’ totally sound like an indie pop (See: Matt & Kim) band but it’s actually one of my new favorite websites. I’m sure Mary and Matt dig great music but their website mostly focuses on design, quirky finds, and quirky items for sale on their “general store” page. As of today some of the wacky stuff they have for sale includes ultra cute stencil cards (pictured above) that say “congratulations” and “happy birthday.”
Other awesome items include an old skateboard done up as a hangable chalk board; witty right? Witty and cute, Mary and Matt have this down. Their prices aren’t so bad either, especially when they actually sale Fruit Stripe gum for a dollar, shippin’ included. That’s a pretty strange item to have in a section with a 1978 Texas Instruments Little Professor calculator that they’re currently restocking but it somehow works. I’ve always wanted to have a cute little website like Mary and Matt with my girlfriend and this site is definitely an inspiration. I highly recommend not only checkin’ out the cool goods they have in their general store but also looking at their blog because you’ll most likely find some rare and beautiful images you’ve never seen before.
Mary & Matt
http://maryandmatt.net
-Kyle
music: grand archives
A lot of hullabaloo has been surfacing about the poppy folky goodness that call themselves Grand Archives. Mat Brooke has an excellent voice, a naturally good sound that beckons you to sing along with him, especially in the song, Swan Matches.
If you’re in the mood for some folk pop and generally just some new music than Grand Archives are just for you.
Grand Archives- Swan Matches
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- Kyle
photo from flickr user, moriza.
review on tiny mix tapes.
music: food
Food is a kickass breakbeat jazz duo that recently plopped out a new record called Molecular Gastronomy. Once a larger more acoustic outfit, Food is now a pared down duet that exhibits some seriously exciting sonorities that are much needed in the jazz realm.
“Spherification,” one of my favorites on the album, sounds like vintage Tortoise. All About Jazz calls {Molecular Gastronomy} an album built on”sound sculpting, space and deceptively simple melodies to build music that may not have conventional form, but is never without purpose.” Ride the next wave before your friends know what hit them and go buy this record.
Food- Spherification
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-Ben
