Another brick in the wall of releases briskly raised by Fernando Daxta, one of the freshest and soaky face of the new electronic techno scene, for its own label Sirius Pandi. Even if clearly influenced by the German tech-house scene as well as by some minimalistic branches of the English breakbeat one, he gained a certain respect not only for the support of renowned djs and producer such as Josh Wink and Alexi Delano, but also for its capability in inserting some slices of its personal historical roots in each trach (born in Spain, he lived for a lot of years in South America before moving to Belgium), he’s decided to print a track, Drunvalo’s Drums, he’d already tested on the occasion of some live sets - Finca in Stuttgart (Germany), Electrosonic Festival in Burgos (Spain)or Spartacus in Aix-en-provence (France) – which gained an enthusiastic reaction by hotheaded audiences -. There are two versions of the mentioned track: the first one, The Age of Consciousness mix, looks like a mantra with entrancing "mute" tribal drums texturing an hypnotic web on paddy synths and bumpy plastic bass hits which has been "eroticized" by possessed vocal wailings by the Colombian singer Natalia Davila during a session in Mexico City, the latter is a treatment proposed by Mr.Statik with rave-y and liquid fills on the percussive parts combined with some crescendo and cuts frequently used by skilled djs dealing with minimal electronic techno stompers in order to add exquisite fripperies to a track. Even if more anchored to classical minimalistic hooks (a tremolo on a synth-pad and a perfect shaping on bass sounds together with malicious bubbly vocal samples), you’ll also enjoy (and dance) Quien Anda Ahi on B2, a track which seems to be a transmission grabbed from eleventh dimension!

A lot of neo-folk lovers already joined the sputtering pyre lighted by singer and songwriter Jerome Reuter, whose experience in different local bands in Luxembourg has blossomed in Rome, his solo-project later propelled by his friend Patrick Damiani, a skilled sound engineer, and they’ll surely appreciate the new creative breeze blowed by Nikos Mavridis, whose violin and strings are almost like new embers going to become perfumed ashes in their brazier. His hallmark could be easily heard in this nice 4-track EP, entitled L’Assassin (the fastest in buying it will also gain a special t-shirt designed for this issue): the stylistic formula Jerome named Chanson Noir – maybe referring to the hybridization of the classical American folk song scheme with elements taken from the French Chanson and that lovely dark-tinged lyricism, which induced some reviewers to propose the linkage between Reuter’s stainless and distraught vocal interpretations and some legendary crooners such as Nick Cave or his ability in storytelling to the one by Leonard Cohen – appears to have been slightly improved by Nikos’ windy strings.

Therefore Rome’s sound seems to be less skeletal than before and even more organic and so evocative to sound almost like a soundtrack of an imaginary movie (an hook partially expressed in wonderful tracks of their recent Flowers From Exile, such as We who fell in love with the sea or the powerful narrative wit of To Die Among Strangers) and the intent to readapt and renew it to the present time seems to be intentional even from some wordy bodies of evidence (if you already know their past work you’ll easily notice that a lyrical apex of the moving song Der Erscheinungen Flucht says "This is a warning, we fall, as stock markets fall, in stone gardens" instead of the previous "This is a warning, we fall, as servants fall, in stone gardens", maybe just to be coherent with the concept of the song whose title means "The flux of phenomena"... ). We could even say they’ve tried to highlight their sentimental veins and you’ll agree with this brief analysis especially if you carefully listen to and attempt a comparison between the original tracks and the revisited ones (the above-mentioned Der Erscheinungen Flucht and the shimmering Der Brandtaucher are taken from their album Masse Mensch Material). Even the less stagy track of this exquisite Ep, One Flesh, features that strong grip potentially driving your tears in you sweetest and deepest naps for its flowing poetry. A more orchestrated and less martial sound which enrich expectations for Rome’s forthcoming issues.

Warning, nasty music’s aficionados! An over-excited Zebra Baby has escaped from its forced New York shutting up in order to crop all the grass of your musical kitchen garden; this mischievous pet has been conceived by a fiery musical liaison between Ali Ramos (what a wonderful name for a dj and producer coming from the criminal-junkied up Oakland, one of the most nice city in California and even of the city in the world having no south quarter laying on the lovely Lake Merritt) and the cheeky singer Char Johnson, whose sexy vocal skills have been spread in the electro-discoid glittering planet by the famous dance-hitter Hustler by the renowned electronic dance act Simian Mobile’s Disco, whose romantic set was Char’s apartments on Washington Heights. Much to my annoyance, you’re going to make a mistake if you’ll consider this project just another collection of eggy rumble-like buzzing noises and bleepy sounds or just a musical yawn pong, as Zebra Baby’s neighs are blended with breaks inherited from the tradition of the contemporary electronic hip-hop and some nice sound samples all over the play-plot; this Ep issued by the German independent label ITD includes three nice tracks showing ZB sound: the nasty +1 features licentious whinnies (warning: explicit recommendations for cuties denying the existence of sun&moon shines), a phat jumped brass &bass pattern, bizarre inserts of oriental choruses and a bewildering gamelan-ish xylophone, while the next (healthily provocative) track, Jumbo, has a more classical rhythmical riding nicely textured with laser-like sounds and a slight of vintage on heavy bass dubby lines. Propelled by a slice of offensive wantonness as usual, W.A.R. is surely the track I prefer for that abstract sense of balance between a certain vintage taste combined with some trigger-happy dj’s artillery on beat pattern, whose wicked make-up by Chris De Luca (one leg of Funkstorung) could stand as a body of evidence of the appeal of ZB sound with mixer’s possible divertssment! The Ep also includes a booty-breakin remix of +1 by the Bavarian Schlachthof Bronx (Man Recordings), pulverizing the original version and ideally checking pulsations of the pet with a funny trickery game on nice chirpy pulses, but don’t miss the more obscure dubstep-like Booty D’s remix of Jumbo (just on digital download version of the EP) as well as the bizarre way of performance Zebra baby’s going to set inspired by their nippo-Swiss friends Tim & Puma Mimi, based on the funny usage of Skype’s technology (a dj performs on "real" stage, while the singer performs through the wire by using Skype’s videochat!), you could enjoy on Zebra Baby’s myspace! What a wonderful world!

If you were thinking about a collective project between Puffy Ami Yjmi, Ayumi Hamasaki, Do As Infinity and Day After Tomorrow joined together by an undetermined humanitarian spirit after reading the name of this amazing project, youâ??re making a terrible mistake as these Japanese Popstars are neither almond-eyed (but English-speaking... more or less like the real J-pops!) nor MTV-obsessively-broadcasted, but these Irish (coming from the rainy Derry) folks have already won a certain fame and recognition among electronic house djs and disco buffs and well even if theyâ??ve nothing to share with Puffy AmiYumi, their obsession for madcap and madding 8-to-16-bitted sounds whose treatment and retreatment could be counted among ordinary household chores should be another common trait to young Japanese lifestyle! Hotpress introduced them as a sort of unexplainable mass phenomenon ("Never has an Irish Dance Act created so much hysteria from press and industry alike!"), but surely this nice lads, signed by the same label, Gung-Ho Recordings, which recently launched some creamy releases by Gus Gus and Zoo Brasil, has showed that that (al)chemical way of treating beats, bleeps and grooves invented by people such as Chemical Brothers or Orbital is miraculously effective against usual discrepancies between critics and audience as well as against motor function laziness indeed!


Youâ??ll probably argue that titles such as Face Melt could be just an ultra-concrete way for depicting the effect of distorted brass sounds (or alternatively the reaction of a cowardly patient suffering from an annoying tooth-ache after perceiving the noise of a dental drill getting closer and closer... ) craving into an infectious electro-house. And maybe youâ??ll criticize the abuse of such a gummy bumpy beats (such as those bone breakin in Total Distorted Mayhem or Dr.Frenchy Bernard... whoâ??s that boy? Hopeâ??s not the wrestler!!!), 8bit tips & tricks and Nintendo-maniac pulses (Delboys Revenge), joystickâ??s maneuvered art (itâ??s just their 11th great "tune" Fisb if you believe your neighbor is dropping a bomb through a modified and potentially lethal version of its Atari!!), acid overtones, (The Madness, B.C.T.T.) , clappy lushing (Rise Of Ulysses), that trashy but hilarious make-up featuring some silly house tunes (..or should it be just a J-pop mirroring? ... have a listen to the hilarious the vocal edit of the finalizer of We Just Are... Iâ??d like to comment some tracks with a smiley, but, well, itâ??s not so professional!), but you couldnâ??t say theyâ??ve not studied the lesson on "how to make a danceable groove" especially when some tracks will literally cause movements in the same way youâ??ll be move if remote-controlled throughout a voodoo-doll featuring your face and youâ??ll easily explain such an hysteric reaction, which let The Japanese Popstars corner in a plenty of awards and nominations in Ireland and in UK! Sometimes I had the impression that the tracks on the first disc are just genetically modifications of the ones included Exclusive Bonus Mix (Eat This!, Sky Channel Flicker and Rebirth-ey clappy whispering TJP mix of Rob Hawk & Mysoulâ??s "So Shockin" should not be missed... really amazing stuff!!!) , but itâ??s easy to realize that this collection of head-bangers (a well-stuffed arsenal which is going to be more dangerous than a North Korean long-ray nuclear nuke in the bag of a dj!) has a real destructive power

. ... but, no shit Sherlock, folks, believe me!!! Their sound is so emphatic youâ??ll easily decide you donâ??t have to loose you time in learned disquisitions in order to dance !!!

The words by one of the pioneer of digital arts Hollis Frampton introducing this intriguing release enriching the ex-PGR member as well as the founder of the forerunning Silent Records and renowned sound sculptor Kim Cascone �s repertoire of field recording based CDs (among which we advise to have a listen/look to the visionary Astrum Argentum on Anechoic Media according to which the theorem of the inspirational and influential flim-maker Stan Brakhage could state that "for any finite series of shots (�filmâ??) whatsoever there exist in real time a rational narrative, such that every term in the series, together with its position, duration, partition and reference shall be perfectly and entirely accounted for" sounds quite eloquent in order to let you understand this particular form of "sound" art, especially if supplied by the author of technically innovative shorts such as the "surgical-optical" Pittsburg Trilogy or the Faustfilm series. As suggested by the Blake-like visionary alternated to a "concrete" approach spoken words interwoven with the first ambience recordings (cracklings, box-spring noises, steps, creaking doors, the mechanical background of a car engine and obviously the rain agglomerated on a base made up of ultra-low frequencies), Kim should therefore light a cigarette, sit in a dark room and listen "to the distant folds of static, a soundtrack to the shadow play of rain-streaked window panes" and the sonic journey begins after the cheeky and suggestive narration introducing to what could be considered a maquillage of modern antiques of radio art!

We didn't casually mention Astrum Argentum as it is maybe the record sharing a lot of similarities with Anti-Musical Celestial Forces in spite of its visionary and evokative power: both of them are a collection of field recordings (or itâ??s better to say a montage of field recordings, both of them have been gathered while touring in Europe, both of them shares a certain sense of disorientation and a sort of attempt of turning sounds into a sort of compass or preferably as hidden traces of a place in order to give word to the not-listenable and the unpredictable as well, then joined together in a sort of personal patchwork by the author/listener conciliating the imaginative production of the "user" of this record â?“ a sort of blind movie whose film-maker is the listener as well -, just like in a Brakhageâ??s movie.

Having inherited a significant experience in the music-scoring (having worked as music assistant with David Lynch for his series Wild At Heart and Twin Peaks), Kim Cascone perfectly knows how to give the cur for this kind of mental makes just using some fragments, sometimes grabbed throughout a radio receiver developed by Nasa, interferences then issued by Störung, the esteemed multidisciplinary platform superbly run by Alex Gamze aka Asferico, that are going to insufflate listenersâ?? minds by a kaleidoscope of goads, static radio noises and obscure bugging. Highly recommended!