Audiopleasures: Let's Dance, Pluxus, Wire, Lali Puna, Burning Star Core, Suicide, Mikosa, Mari Inukai, Synchronator, Camera Lucida, Dour Festival

" Solid State " - Kompakt - 2008
Electronic / IDM / Indie

Canny Swedes Pluxus have quietly been plying their highly accomplished, woozy, electronic take on guitar based pop for over twelve years to relative indifference. However, their excellent 2006 effort Solid State’s reissue by minimal techno powerhouse Kompakt may finally start slowly pulling fingers from arseholes and getting people to start paying attention. Seriously, Solid State makes Hot Chip’s flatulently disappointing Made In The Dark sound like the Eastenders theme tune next to a lavishly crafted Popol Vuh score.

The record’s greatest strength lies in its ability to successfully weave and craft its myriad reference points into an exciting and wholly idiosyncratic whole. Far from sounding like a chucked-together attempt at a fourth record Solid State reeks of considered craft and carefully wrought edifice. Its overall sense of creative unity is not far from the gooey, happy feeling that hearing the dying seconds of a completely listened to Autechre album evoke. James Knight - Drowned in Sound

Mp3 | Pluxus - Bootstrap
Mp3 | Pluxus - Forth

" Object 47 " - Pink Flag - 2008
Post - Punk / Alternative

Wire is proud to announce that it has completed work on its 11th studio album, continuing the momentum that began with the band's 2006 reactivation and Read & Burn 03. Dubbed 'Object 47' - 47 representing its position as the 47th release in the Wire discography - the album finds Wire utilising the core writing partnership responsible for Pink Flag, Colin Newman and Graham Lewis. The latest release is described by the band as having "tunes with zoom", and this is best illustrated by the melodic and textural development already suggested by elements of last year's Read & Burn 03. Brainwashed

Mp3 | Wire - Circumspect
Mp3 | Wire - One of us

" I Thought I Was Over That " - Morr - 2005
Rare, Remixed and B-sides / Electronic / Indie

Lali Puna - "I thought I was over that" is the playful offspring of a band finally confident enough to re-visit their most daring, misfitting, individually conceived moments to date. it's also an opportunity to look at those artists who have inspired them in one way or another over the years, pressing them to develop through remixes, collaborations and cover versions where their ideas blossomed from raw material provided by other artists - and vice versa. the list of luminaries is impressive.

These songs shy away from tales of girly broken hearts and bubblegum storyboards, instead exposing a world-weariness - an "ageing out of time" that's often at odds with the adrenaline the band ignite musically. Its on the experimentations, collaborations, deviations and remixes found on this album, however, that this mood is offset against its most startling backdrop - allowing the band to get lost in different sounds, ideas and interventions...and still find their way home.Boomkat

Mp3 | Lali Puna - Micronomic [ Boom Bip mix ]
Mp3 | Lali Luna - Nin-Com-Pop [ Two Lone Swordsmen mix ]

Watch | Lali Puna & Bomb The Bass - Clear Cut

" Challenger " - Hospital Productions - 2008
Drone / Noise / Post-Rock / Electronic / Experimental

"Burning Star Core began in 1993 in Cincinnati, OH where it currently resides with primary member C. Spencer Yeh. It is considered a project and not a pseudonym. While the Burning Star Core project has included much wider ensembles, Challenger is a direct solo composition of C. Spencer Yeh. This recording is perhaps Yeh's most revealing, unguarded work. Challenger is a composed work, not an improvisation, with each piece revolving around a central melodic theme, featuring field recordings, which serve as an audio diary. The sounds range from pure tonal mood to huge electronic crescendos. But what's most remarkable is the use of space, where parts come in then drop out to build up the emotion. When the piano sound crashes in 'Mysteries of the Organ,' it reflects a frustration with paradise, a rejection of perfection, a jolt of inexplicable throes of life. In contrast is the quiet, haunting 'Hopelessly Devoted,' which sounds like a love letter written to outer space. These make for an album that is both dynamic yet consistent as a full statement." Force de xposure

Mp3 | Burning Star Core - Beauty Hunter
Mp3 | Burning Star Core - Challenger

" Suicide " - The Grey Area - 1977
re-released - Mute - 2002
Post - Punk / New Wave

This remarkable debut album, released a full seven years after the group had formed, was still way ahead of its time back in 1978. Suicide--Alan Vega on vocals and Martin Rev on keyboards and drum machine--are one of the most original acts in the history of popular music. They're often called the first synthpop act; synth-punk is closer to the truth--their music was far more edgy and menacing than that of any of their followers, with the notable exception of Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, et al. Suicide drew on the right protopunk influence (Nuggets-type stuff, Velvets, Stooges) and came out of the same Mercer Arts scene that bred the New York Dolls. Their guitar-bass-and-"real"-drummer-deprived setup outraged audiences; on the superb bonus disc you can hear a European crowd rioting in the background while their apocalyptic nursery rhymes sound away. Tough guy Vega croons like an evil Elvis bred on garage rock and performance art; the stoic Rev lays churning, repetitive, and oddly melodic lines down on his beat-up Farfisa, and the ancient drum machine--it actually sounds steam-driven--propels the music toward a ratty, Blade Runner future. "Dream Baby Dream," "Che," "Ghost Rider"--these eerie, sturdy, steam-punk anthems rank among the most visionary, melodic experiments the rock realm has yet produced. This reissue is bright and clear-sounding, and with the full disc of live performances (a 1977 CBGB's soundboard tape plus the legendary "23 Minutes Over Brussels" performance) this is an essential purchase. Mike McGonigal -Amazon

Mp3 | Suicide - Che
Mp3 | Suicide - Girl

Mikosa Foundation was founded in Amsterdam in 2005 by an international executive board. Based on our manifesto, we want to spread artists' works, being a the firment for a box of contemporary art, bringing different styles and visual images together, ranging works from graffiti writers to internet designer and from street artists to video artists. All of those people have got one basic thing in common: their black book. This is usually filled up with first handmade ideas and developments, unfinished artworks, rough sketches, the idea we transferred to our first long-term project, called Mikosa Magazine.

Mari Inukai was born in Nagoya, Japan. In 1995, Mari came to the US to pursue her studies in art. She first attended Santa Monica Community College (Mentor program), then Associates in Art, Sherman Oaks, CA and finally California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA, where she recieved her BFA in Character Animation in 2004. Her professional works include CartoonNetwork, Burbank, Nickelodeon, New York, Nylon Motion Inc., LA, Oishii Productions, LA, and NGTV, LA. Her short animated film, Blue and Orange, has been an official selection at numerous national and international film festivalss including the Sundance Film Festival 2003, and was the Japanese Grand Prix winner at the Short Shorts Film Festival EXPO 2005. Besides her animation works, Mari regularly exhibits her paintings and drawings, designs clothes, ceramic toy figurines, and other fun products. She lives in Los Angeles with her daughter, Sena.

"The video Synchronator demonstrates the audio modulations of a video signal, which were produced by means of an audio mixer. This work of Bas van Koolwijk and Gert-Jan Prins falls in the category of medium-specific media art. It is reminiscent of the early days of video art, when artists experimented with image and sound. Synchronator came into existence during a residency at Impakt (Utrecht, the Netherlands) in June 2006, and marked the starting point of their cooperation.
Bas van Koolwijk concentrates mainly on digital experiments, while Gert-Jan Prins mostly works with analogue techniques. They both carry out research into the relationship between sound and image, as well as the limits of what is audible and visible."

Watch | Synchronator
Watch | Synchronator Live

Portable Palace - Camera Lucida
Sonoluminescence is an ultrasound within a liquid that cuases micro-bubbles of gas to implode at which point they become as hot as the Sum and emit light in the shape of sound waves

Watch | Camera Lucida

Dour Festival 17 - 19 July Belgium

Tortoise - Efterklang - Neon Neon - Coming Soon - French Cowboy - Shearwater - Dig Up Elvis - Hollywood Porn Stars - Jakob Maersk - Principles of Geometry - Pop Levi - Raxinasky - Saint André - Nestor! - Syd Matters - Two Star Hotel - The Moonshine Playboys - The Chargers - UFO goes UFA - V.O.

Hatebreed - Arkangel - Backfire! - Do Or Die - Kruger - Set The Tone - Lofofora - My Mortality - The Bones - Planey - Spoiler NYC - Ultraphallus

Collie Buddz - Midnite - The Toasters - The Caroloregians - La Kinky Beat - Iration Steppas meets Improvisators Dub - Vibronics + Parvez (Dub Factory) + Echo Ranks + Jah Marnyah + Madu Messenger - Ashanti 3000 - X Makeena

Sinik - Flying Lotus - Black Moon - Beans - Beat Community feat. Hud Mo, Dorian Concept, Infinitskills, SirOJ - Akro with live band - Depotax - Hocus Pocus - Psykick Lyrikah - Lefto dj set - Louis Logic & BluePrint & JJ Brown & P.Dateh - Typhoon

Mr Scruff - The Herbaliser live - Dj Orgasmic - Matt Walsh - Moonbootica - High Contrast & MC Wrec - Murdock - Milanese feat. Ben Sharpa live - Mu-Ziq dj set aka Mike Paradinas - Otto Von Schirach live - Droon - X&TRICK - Ceephax Acid Crew live - Bochum Welt live - Digikid.84 live - diskJokke - Hugo Freegow - Dj Mendi - Mizol-K - D'Giuliann - Jay Mayhem - Grimelock - Shameboy - Slagsmålsklubben - South Central live - Surfing Leons - Yuksek - Waxdolls

Sunday 22 June 2008

Let's Dance, Pluxus, Wire, Lali Puna, Burning Star Core, Suicide, Mikosa, Mari Inukai, Synchronator, Camera Lucida, Dour Festival