So at the moment I have a very strong feeling of inadequecy as a social creature. I'm wondering how it is that I continue to function in any sort of society. I believe that I am living proof that the theory of social Darwinism is wrong, simply because I should have died many times by now. So at a time like this, I need something a little different to cheer me up a bit. That's why today's post comes from Pierre Bastien. His last album was released on Aphex Twin's Rephlex Records label. Bastien is a French composer who creates little Mecano robots that play some of the instruments for him. Because of the way they are designed, they often have to play in a palindrome fashion, playing a sequence forward and then backward. This is the best song I've heard by him.

Pierre Bastien - L'Orchestra Thermodynamique

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I've been listening to the new Armand van Helden mix cd today. It comes out on May 4 and will be called New York: A Mix Odyssey. I'm amazed that this is actually Armand. There's a lot more punk influence in there than I would expect. Of course, it's all mixed in with retro house and electro tracks. There's also a track from the new Felix da Housecat album, Devin Dazzle and the Neon Fever. The song is called Cyberwhore (Watching Cars Go By) and if it's any indication of the rest of the album, Felix's best stuff is yet to come. I'll be seeing him perform live at Homelands outside of London this year. But onto your mp3 of the day.

Zero G Web actually beat me to this, but I thought I'd post it anyway. The latest Res DVD contains a track from the new Tortoise album, but because of a glitch (at least on my copy), the song repeats itself continuously. Fortunately, this is one of the best Tortoise tracks I've ever heard so I wasn't too bothered by this. Even better, Thrill Jockey has put the same track up as a free download. I don't know what it is about this track that I love so much, but here it is.

Tortoise - It's All Around You

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Björk week, The Organ Cries

An extra blog entry for Björk week. No mp3's today, sorry. Instead, here's a short movie clip called The Organ Cries. It's a sort of trailer for her next album. From what I've heard about this album, tentatively titled The Lake Experience, I think it may be her best and most experimental album ever. There's rumors floating around about her collaborating with Ensemble and listening to early avant garde artists like Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Björk - The Organ Cries

Björk week, part 5

Short update today. These were alternate versions of a few tracks off of Vespertine. Björk called these the odd duck versions. I think that Bogdan Raczynski collaborated with her on these tracks. Well, if you haven't heard them yet, it's something new while we wait for her next album.

Björk - Hearts & Bones

Björk - Undone

Björk - Odd Duck

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Björk week, part 4

Songs To Wear Pants To is a great web site. Here's how it works. People send e-mails describing songs they'd like to hear. They can include descriptions, lyrics, and/or styles. Then the webmaster chooses some of them and makes the songs. Give it a try, maybe he'll make your song too. As if it was planned out in advanced, someone recently suggest a song that fits in perfectly with Björk week. The description was simply "Be Björk." The result is ridiculous, but I'm linking to it because I think it would make Björk herself smile if she heard it. It's kinda short though, I'm also linking to a Vespertine b-side track.

Songs To Wear Pants To - I Am Björk

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Björk - Verandi

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Bjork week, part 3

Today's Björk related tracks come from 808 State. One of the founders of 808 State, Graham Massey, got a message one day from "an Icelandic singer," asking if he'd be interested in collaborating. Long story short, Massey became one of the major producer/collaborators on Post and Björk sang on a couple of 808 State songs. Their web site has a ton of free downloads, mostly demos, and a picture of Björk performing with them on the download page. According to the remarks, the Rough Mix of Q-Mart was done for Björk. Rather than say much else about these tracks, I picked out what I think are the best ones, from their early rough style of acid house that strongly influenced the likes of Aphex Twin to their more recent unique brand of electronica. If you like these, there are a lot more on their site.

808 State - Q-Mart (Rough Mix)

808 State - Acid Jam (Live at Manchester New Century Hall Rave)

808 State - Bartong Bridge

808 State - Yoyo (Long Organs)

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cold opening today: My discman used to beep at me when I changed tracks. Last night it stopped and it has been throwing me off all day. I keep expecting to hear that little beep. It's surprising how that can affect my whole day. Aaaaaaaaaanyway....

Björk week, part 2

I first heard Dokaka about the time I decided to start this blog. He's a Japanese drummer who used to hum along to music as a kid, except that he was actually really good at it. So now that he's older, someone suggested recording him. He's done cover versions of everyone from Miles Davis to Nirvana with every instrument done by his own voice. It's actually something to hear. Word about Dokaka eventually got to Björk who asked him to collaborate on her next album. I'm not a big metal fan, I'm particularly impressed by these covers, so here are Slayer's "Angel of Death" and Iron Maiden's "The Trooper." There are more tracks available on dokaka.com.

Dokaka - Angel of Death

Dokaka - The Trooper

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Matmos update

A little about how this blog works. I don't have my own my hosting for mp3's, so I've just been borrowing links from other sites with mp3's on them. The nice thing about this is that it's nice and legal because I'm only taking links from record labels and other sites that want their artists heard and also because I figure it gives people who want to look for more stuff on their own a chance to do that by going to the site I linked from. But it seems like Matador Records has a way to stop me from doing this (I'm new at this whole thing), so if those Matmos links didn't work for you, try downloading them from the source at the Matador Records download page. Sorry for the bother.

Björk week, part 1

I really just started this blog a few days ago, but I thought I should do a theme week. And I choose Björk because I think she's amazing and because there's just too much Björk related goodness out there (like all the producers she's worked with for me not to try to search around and link to here. So I decided to start off with some tracks by Matmos. They're a strange lot and make their music out of unusual samples (wet latex, mouse cages, whoopee cushions, etc) and microbeats. They were responsible for the Rhythmic Phoentics Mix of Björk's Alarm Call single. They also contributed a lot to the recording of Vespertine and became part of her live band. These two tracks are from the albums A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure and The Civil War. Most of the samples on Lipostudio (and so on...) were recorded live during a liposuction surgery in California.

Matmos - Lipostudio (and so on...)

Matmos - The Struggle Against Unreality Begins

Indietronica!

Four Tet's next single will be "My Angel Rocks Back and Forth" from the album, Rounds. The nice people at Domino Records were nice enough to let us hear the Icarus remix for free. Icarus is a new glitch hop/drum n bass artist on Trevor Jackson's Output label. It's an interesting remix, fans of Four Tet's newer stuff. But for those of you who aren't that familar with Kieran Hebden's work as Four Tet, I've also included a link to one of his earlier tracks.

Four Tet - My Angel Rocks Back And Forth (Four Teas On English Time - Icarus Remix)

Four Tet - No More Mosquitoes

Cha Cha Cha

Señor Coconut - Showroom Dummies

From Señor Coconut's debut album El Baile Alemán, a collection of Spanish-style Kraftwerk covers. I understand that Señor Coconut is "no fan of democracy." Coming from a electro-Latino artist from Germany, I'm not really sure what that means.