reminds of stuff like Helium and old school That Dog.

I actually kinda like the new Strokes. But, that may be due at least in part to my having very low expectations for it and also never really seeing them as some king hell rock god kinda group anyway. So, I don't feel betrayed that they're all synthy and shit now.

Yeah, they're all over the place here, but I think I will come to like this. I haven't turned it off...

There's a part in the middle album where it sounds like they're trying to re-soundtrack The Breakfast Club.

I think it's kind of obvious when you read that Julian wasn't in the room for most of the sessions, and mailed in his vocals (pretty much literally).

Contrast that with the first album where to catch their overall live sound, they recorded it all in one room...

The album cover pretty much looks like a still from The Poochie Video game, which makes me think this might have been put out to fulfill a contract.

Album Review
Cartagena! Curro Fuentes & The Big Band Cumbia And Descarga Sound Of Colombia 1962-1972
Various Artists
Cartagena! Curro Fuentes & The Big Band Cumbia And Descarga Sound Of Colombia 1962-1972
[Soundway; 2011]

Discos Fuentes is Colombia's pre-eminent homegrown record label. When Antonio Fuentes established the label in Cartagena in 1934, he also established the Colombian recording industry, and over the course of the rest of his life built Fuentes into a powerhouse-- it's still an independent company today, releasing records at a prodigious clip. Fuentes died in 1985, but his legacy rings through Colombian music of nearly every stripe today. It was Fuentes who produced the first cumbia, fandango, and porro records in Colombia, Fuentes that oversaw the collision of African, Caribbean, and Colombian styles that gave rise to champeta and some of the country's other distinctive musical exports, and Fuentes that provided a home to dozens of the nation's most important musicians. Today, the founder's grandchildren run the label, hosting a massive collection of ringtones, desktop wallpapers, mp3s and CDs on their website.

So building an understanding of Colombian popular music necessarily requires building an understanding of Discos Fuentes, the same way building an understanding of the American pop charts in the 1960s would require learning about Motown. The UK-based Soundway label has been to Colombia for two prior compilations, Palenque Palenque, and Colombia!, the latter of which provided a sort of panorama of sounds released on Discos Fuentes in the 60s and early 70s. On Cartagena!, Soundway founder Miles Cleret collaborates with principle compiler Roberto Gyemant and Quantic's Will Holland (who lives in Colombia) to paint a vivid picture of the hot cumbia music stewarded into record by Curro Fuentes, the youngest brother of the original Fuentes family that founded the label. Curro Fuentes produced most of these tracks, and even plays on many of them.

This music bears a heavy jazz influence, and in particular a strong affinity with the big Cuban bands of the immediate pre-Castro era. Cartagena is one of Colombia's gateways to the Caribbean, so the sounds of merengue, plena, and embryonic salsa all made their way there as the bands on this set developed their sounds. Group musicality is emphasized across the compilation, though there are plenty of great, compact solos, such as the supple, trad jazz-informed clarinet lead on Lucho Bermudez's "Fiesta de Negritos"-- Bermudez was one of Colombia's first bandleaders to heavily absorb the influence of North American jazz in the 1940s, and though his style wouldn't be out of place alongside Artie Shaw, it works well with the chunky 60s cumbia sound.

In fact, listening to the whole compilation all the way through reveals a general tension between the old and what was then new-- they vacillate between using electric and standup bass, accordion, and organ, and electric guitars make a few understated appearances, too. One concession to modernity that's universally avoided is the drum kit. The beats are driven by percussion sections that are a lot of fun to listen to-- checking all the different ways the washboard-like güiro can lock in with congas, timbales, and claves to push a song along provides several enjoyable listens alone. On some tracks, the güiro's role is filled instead by hi-hat on the upbeat, which gives the songs that feature the sound, such as Orlando Fortich's "Yolanda", a funkier feel, though none of these tracks strive for anything like what we'd think of as a true funk beat.

That's actually one of the refreshing things about the compilation-- labels focused on 20th century tropical pop music seem to have become much more comfortable in recent years with straying from the Western funk-inspired sounds that originally sparked so much interest in the music of the middle latitudes. 1960s Colombian cumbia has its own effusive charm, and I like that we're getting to hear more of that. Discovering music from outside your own culture is a gradual process of letting go of what's comfortable and accepting different attitudes toward what music should aim for, and a set like this is a great next step for a listener who's ready to move past the old focus on funk and get into a different kind of groove.

— Joe Tangari, March 9, 2011, Pitchfork

Incredibly dope 2nd album from Faltydl.



When Falty DL released ‘Love Is A Liability’, his 2009 debut LP on Planet Mu, it was notionally tied to dubstep, despite not having that obvious a connection to the sound at the time. A combination of irregular but still funky drums, deep bass, and light musical surfaces, it stood out and was recognised for it’s distinctiveness - this was a native New Yorker interpreting his love of British dance music from a unique angle. After spending 2010 honing his craft, working on singles for several labels, and remixes for the likes of The XX, Mount Kimbie and Anthony Shakir, Falty DL, born Drew Lustman, pulls his skills and experience together for this stunning new LP. Falty DL’s soundworld has evolved in giant steps on ‘You Stand Uncertain’; from the very beginning the listener is plunged into his new focus on layered dusty atmospheres. Opener ‘Gospel Of Opal’ is also his first work with a vocalist, in this case Anneka. Although at times it’s anchored in the familiar basslines and rhythm science of UK dance, as heard in his previous material, on this album it’s clear that Drew has also been soaking up some of his native city’s musical past such as disco, house and hip hop. With this in mind the album moves at different tempos - the ghosts of dance music past are evoked but never allowed to take over, giving the whole album a decayed, dreamy abstraction that allows for comparisons with the current crop of ‘chillwave’ producers, were it not for the tight drums and basslines. Check the way ‘The Pacifist’ passes between passages of melody and waves of synth over distorted breaks, or ‘Open Space’s use of slowed down rave euphoria and double speed 808 drums. The crisp 2-step of ‘Brazil’, the first of two songs featuring UK-based singer Lily MacKenzie, sweetens the atmosphere, followed by ‘Eight Eighteen Ten’, which builds watery melodies over chopped up breaks. The album gets slower still with the steamy, bittersweet melodies of ‘It’s All Good’, then the spaced-out title track ‘You Stand Uncertain’ marks a mid-point and a breathing space, before the album gears up with the ravey synths and jungle percussion of ‘Lucky Luciano’ (recalling ‘Pacific State’s ignition of rooms like The Hacienda and The Wag in the summer of ’89), the slow burning stripped down house of ‘Voyager’, and on into the duo of abstract 2-step tracks ‘Tell Them Stories’ and ‘Play With My Heart’, before the tempo drops for the fianl track ‘Waited Patiently’ (again featuring Lily MacKenzie), which combines chopped vocals with jazzy piano keys and a punchy technoid melody.

http://www.filesonic.com/file/226367212/

Cornershop – Cornershop & The Double ‘O’ Groove Of

I could not make it through this album.

On March 15, Yep Roc will reissue Nick Lowe’s landmark second solo album ‘Labour of Lust’ on CD, LP, and for the first time, digitally. Originally released in 1979, and out of print for nearly two decades, the album has been remastered to its original glory and now includes both the UK-only track “Endless Grey Ribbon” and the US-only track “American Squirm,” along with the bonus B-Side “Basing Street.” The reissue also comes with a 12-page booklet complete with artwork by revolutionary graphic artist Barney Bubbles, and essays by noted music journalist Will Birch and reissue producer (and former Lowe A&R man) Greg Geller.

Hailed by Trouser Press as “a brilliant piss-taker that pairs sprightly pop and savage lyrical wit,” ‘Labour of Lust’ also contains Nick Lowe’s biggest hit to date, the album opener “Cruel To Be Kind.” The song climbed the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching #12 in the US.

The Yep Roc reissue also upgrades the album’s original sleeve notes, properly crediting the special guests–Elvis Costello (vocals on “American Squirm”), Huey Lewis (harmonica on “Born Fighter”), Pete Thomas of The Attractions (drums on “American Squirm”), and Bob Andrews of The Rumour/Brinsley Schwarz (Oberheim synthesizer on “Endless Grey Ribbon”)–who performed alongside the other members of Lowe’s band Rockpile (guitarist/vocalist Dave Edmunds, guitarist Billy Bremner, and drummer Terry Williams).

The ‘Labour of Lust’ release follows Yep Roc’s 2008 reissue of Nick Lowe’s first solo album ‘Jesus of Cool,’ which Pitchfork called “a timeless and bulls**t-free masterpiece” in a 9.3-rated review.

Yeah, it's Cornershop doing what they do best, which is shoot themselves in the foot just when they attain some small commercial momentum.

what do you guys think of yuck?

Two thumbs up on the Yuck. A couple of the tracks were so-so but the rest rocked.