fatandconfused

Motoro Faam Reviewed ...(Boards of Canada, World's End Girlfriend etc)

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Motoro Faam - …and Water Cycles (Preco)
Motoro Faam are three highly talented twenty five year old musicians from Japan mixing classical and contemporary music with irregular beats and sampling. This is probably the most genuinely moving thing I’ve heard since Johann Johannsson’s IBM 1401 – A Users Manual and perhaps the most original and thought provoking thing since I was first wowed with Godspeeds intelligent outlook on modern music. It’s like Lucky Dragons should they ever decide to soundtrack a ballet recital, pianos roll and electronic glitches flicker like decaying static.
The sound will satisfy those partial to the sounds of Max Richter and the like, however this is one if not two steps ahead of their game and is one of the most exciting discoveries I’ve had the pleasure to stumble across lately, timeless yet undeniably original. …and Precipitation weaves and delights with bubbles of waters and waves, sandstorms and gentle pianos beneath stormy rainfall, it’s unlikely you will find anything quite so delightful this year.

Motoro Faam – …and Surface Runoff MP3

Motoro Faam – …and Condensation MP3

Motoro Faam – … and Evaporation MP3

Website

Preco Records

Myspace

Normans Records - We have another great Motoro Faam CD on the Preco label from Japan called 'And Water Cycles'. This is pretty lush sounding stuff. Gorgeous electronics and neo classical nubbins mixed together in a sexy love pot all ready to pour into your unsuspecting ears. There's a healthy dash of Ryuichi Sakamoto in there and maybe some more. It's quite experimental and there's an awful lot going on. The sound is very dense and full, but together it makes a really beautiful listen, what with all the lovely classical-ness being chucked into the electronic mix. Mingus thinks it sounds a bit like Takagi Masakatsu....highly recommended anyway!

Boards of Canada

Long term readers will need no introduction to the fact that i absolutley adore Boards of Canada, I stumbled over these videos on youtube, the excellent video for ROYGBIV, the song that turned me on to them (thanks to an NME compilation!!) and then a rather crazy but suprisingly good Audio/Video mashup/blend of David Hasselhoff's cover of "Blue Bayou" mixed with Boards of Canada's "An Eagle In Your Mind"...nice!!

And a couple of other videos i saw that summarise some of what i'm getting more and more into at the moment...beautiful stuff

at the close of every day - Hemelsblauw

World's End Girlfriend - We Are The Massacre

Reviewed

Cue – Wedding Song (Thirty Ghosts)

I only recently discovered quite how much decent post rock there was out there, everyone is familiar with the Godspeed’s the Explosions in the Sky, The 65 Days of Static, the Dirty Three’s and although I had long been ignorant perhaps Mono were not so deep in the underground as I imagined. Thanks to Jordan Voldz Silent Ballet and particularly their top 50 Instrumental albums of each year since 2005 I’ve unearthed a number of great bands not least the Ascent of Everest, Laura, The Pirate Ship Quintet and Souvenirs Young America, still what I’ve found is that all too many whilst undoubtedly being excellent have often followed the straight forward formula that Explosions in the Sky do so well. As I say, it’s not that its bad, it just lacks depth, much like with a “pop” band I get bored of seeing guitar, bass and drums, at the very least bring in a keyboard, so it is with post rock that the piano and violin can add that extra depth that allows the band to take on a new level, to dig deeper and express a dictionary full of new and unknown feelings. It’s refreshing to hear a band like Texas, Austin’s Cue, that are described rather nicely on last.fm as a four-piece progressive instrumental/chamber noise rock band. Although one of the things that draws me to post rock is the slightly doomy outlook most bands have, the darkness and apocalyptic direction most take, its again refreshing to hear such an upbeat instrumental band.
It comes as no surprise to discover that guitarist Colin Swietek is an occasional member of Graveface Records outfit the Octopus Project (perhaps best known for their collaboration with the also fantastic Black Moth Super Rainbow. Wedding Song for Living Things and Dead Things, YROKROLSUKKDN2002, Can You See My Skeleton? And Fleur de Lis stand out, though as whole this is a great upbeat album that could quite welcomely be my wedding song.

Cue - Forests of Pencil Pierced Children - MP3

Cue - Fleur De Lis - MP3

Myspace

Thirty Ghosts Records

Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - #3 (Labrador)

I was first drawn to the Surbaban Kids by their excellent name, I don’t know how many times I have been disappointed with this theory yet this time I was far from disappointed, their first EP bragging the instantly classic Rent a Wreck and Trumpets & Violins. This was followed with #2 boasting the instantly loveable Funeral Face as lead song and now #3 a classic collection of songs sung in the style of Jonathan Richman and generally accompanied with handclaps, drum machines, whistles, and ba-ba-ba’s, unsurprisingly as they to quote ”want turn all the dance floors into a burnings inferno of Ba-ba-ba”
The majority of the album is excellent but really peaks at track 9 with the trio, S_____y Weekend (take those silly shoes off and go back to summer camp/ and don’t ever come back/ you look like you live in a tent…), Rent a Wreck and Seems to be on my Mind (love seems to be on my mind/ seems to be all the time/ oh what a lovely way to spend your life/ not needing anything…I’m a young boy with a lot of things on my mind) which’ll all have you singing along before you finished hearing them for the first time. Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, not just kids with great names after all.

Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - Funeral Face MP3

Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - Rent a Wreck MP3

Myspace

Labrador Records

Hauschka – Room to Expand (FatCat)

There’s a rather strange little booklet that comes with this release, I’d looked through it previously only to conclude that it was just a book full of pictures of pieces of a piano, not that interesting really and no justice to what is really quite a beautiful little album, a joyous experiment in piano and electronics, anyhow on a more recent inspection there is a letter enclosed, a letter written out of desperation perhaps, the way sometimes you just need to put the thoughts in your head onto paper, the way sometimes no matter how much you fill your mind with other things, a certain girl may never truly leave your mind “its about me being ready to use all life has to offer to get you back like writing this letter which I’m going to launch into the air maybe from a bridge into traffic or leave it lying on a café table or put it in a bottle & throw out to sea in hope it somehow finds its way to you or starts a chain of events that brings you back to me…whatever it takes” the way sometimes that you will constantly run through events and conversations and wonder how if you had said something different perhaps things wouldn’t have turned out like they did. “I had no idea you thought these things were ugly and weird and you HAVE to know that me not saying anything about them was NOT because I didn’t care it was to do with my head being full of meteorites and dancing bears because I was/am so so in love with you…”

Still things happen and normally for a reason, at times whatever you say will be the wrong thing to say and its sometimes best to say nothing at all, such is the case with Hauschka, gorgeous piano laments much in the same vein as Adrian Klumpes and Eluvium, occasionally veering off into spy themes such as mid way through Chicago Morning & Belgrade as the trombones signal low and all serious, jazzy and slightly Tortoise like. Paddington captivates as it canters along in its plinky plonky fashion a sister track perhaps to Sweet Spring Come both full of spring and deep bass lines encouraging the listener to nod in time and think of sunnier days and new life. Zahnlucke also takes advantage of the extremes of the piano scale, deep bass notes are tap danced to by twinkling fingers of ice against a glass window.

At times its similar to Max Richter and the September Collective though not on quite a grand scale as particularly the former, beautiful all the same and well worth your attention.

www.fat-cat.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/hauschka

Blood on The Wall – Awesomer (FatCat)

When your shopping in Tesco, you know that if you want to really treat yourself, if you want to be satisfied by what you purchase in almost every commodity under the sun, you look for the Tesco finest sign. The Luxury range, the extra mile, the guarantee of quality. The same can be said of Fat Cat Records of Brighton, no matter what they release, whatever the genre whatever the band, they come up trumps so much so that I have resorted to purchasing simply by seeing the little cat logo in the corner of the record. Again with Blood on the Wall I’m not disappointed, it’s a bit rawer than the kind of thing I would usually go for but somehow I love it to bits and its fast becoming one of my favourite discoveries of recent times which is saying something considering I bought it without the support of reviews, simply on the merit of the label that released it.
I’d Like to Take You Out is Jesus and the Mary Chain for beginners yet you can forgive them cos they do it so well, Mary Susan is bordering on Grunge yet again its Grunge of the highest variety. I have argued for a long time that almost all genres are acceptable it just so happens that you only ever hear the average output of such genres, if you dig deep enough you will find something good or just let FatCat do the work. Hey, Hey carries the same anger that makes McClusky such an attractive band, hopelessly heavy and stupidly good. Can You Hear Me, Stoner Jam and Rite To Light also impress amongst a generally very fine album for them times you feel like a good old scream. I heart Blood on the Wall.

www.fat-cat.co.uk
www.myspace.com/bloodonthewall