Komputer Music the blog has published its last post. We are consolidating our efforts into our parent site Doubtful Sounds which is a multi genre blog showcasing the best in indie, electronica, americana, metal and beyond. You’ll see all the same reviews, interviews and recommendations over there so please follow us.
Komputer Music the Facebook Page will continue and we’ll be keeping that updated regularly with regards to the latest releases and sounds.
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Shed (Rene Pawlowitz) has announced that his new full length album The Killer will be released on July 27th via 50 Weapons. It follows his previous records Shedding The Past and the excellent The Traveller and is his first for Modeselektor’s newish label.
Tracklist
01. STP3/The Killer
02. Silent Witness
03. I Come By Night
04. Gas Up
05. Day After
06. Phototype
07. The Praetorian (Album Mix)
08. Ride On
09. You Got the Look
10. V10MF!/The Filler
11. Follow The Leader
written by Chris Familton
As electronic genres form and then just as quickly mutate (for better or worse) or fall by the wayside it is refreshing to discover an act who seems to inhabit their own niche, combining familiar sounds to produce fresh and unique music. Django Django have made a connection between pop, electronica, krautrock and glam rock, weaving it all together in one seamless, never-ending mix of upbeat rhythms and sing- song lyrics with impressive results.
The best track is the infectious bounce of Default that incorporates a mutant riff that sounds like Josh Homme jamming with Fatboy Slim. The vocal style of Vinny Neff is a constant robotic stream of rhymes and pop art mantras that sits between the English nursery rhyme naivety of Sid Barrett and futuristic blues and gospel proselytizing. Everything, including his vocals, revolves around the rhythm of the songs which gives them such a tight driving sound. The other strength Django Django bring to the party is simplicity. There are few slow builds or massive bass drops with most tracks possessing a linear feel of forward movement, much like Kraftwerk did decades earlier. The repetition of the band’s name is replicated in their music with stuttering notes multiplying the effect of a musical point being hammered. On Zumm Zumm it borders on annoying levels but somehow manages to know exactly when to relieve the listener’s nerve endings and shift gears. Wor is the best example of Django Django drafting in styles that on paper would look like a bad move. That track’s Link Wray guitar rumble and a dose of The Black Keys on Life’s A Beach are typical of the way they appropriate the sounds of rockabilly, blues and glam rock to add humanistic angles to their psychedelic electronic pop.
This is a playful, adrenalin stirring modern pop record that, by virtue of its individuality, stands head and shoulders above most of the weekly deluge of new music.
this review was first published in Drum Media
written by Chris Familton
VCMG are Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) and Vince Clarke (Erasure, Yazoo, Depeche Mode) who are working together again more than thirty years after Clarke left Depeche Mode as the band began their ascent into the electronic pop spotlight. Both are synth obsessives with shared beginnings so it seemed like the perfect project for the duo to work on outside of their day jobs. Truly the result of man via machine, they only worked via file sharing and email and didn’t meet up in person until the album was completed.
Ssss carries the hallmarks of Gore and Clarke’s best known work in that it harnesses Clarke’s finely tuned pop nous and marries it with the darker and melancholically mechanistic tendencies of Gore and for the most part it works a treat. Shorn of any focus on lead singers, choruses and a visual aesthetic the music is given a blank canvas to state its case. The first single is a great indicator of what the rest of the record has to offer. Spock possesses a solid four to the floor beat and retrograde synth stabs that build a slightly ominous mood and tension before dancing melodies lead into an even more propulsive bleep and squelch heavy section that recalls the best of Underworld. It is that balance between light and dark, hyper-melodies and clinical cyborg beats that makes the album succeed.
Windup Robot is as playful as its title suggests, veering close to Chemical Brothers territory while second single Single Blip ever so slightly casts a cheeky glance back to Just Can’t Get Enough before it goes interstellar with trance chords blasts and descending synth drops. For the most part the rhythms VCMG employ are solid and precise, aimed squarely at the dance-floor leaving the often complex melodic interplay above to impress the most. VCMG have taken the opportunity to indulge in their synth collections and give the listener a history lesson in digital dance music firmly within the context of now or perhaps even the future.
this review was first published in The Drum Media
Sydney’s Oliver Tank had an amazing 2011 with a ton of people cottoning onto his soulful IDM style and winning a trip to perform in Iceland. He has gathered a bunch of friends (including Geoffrey O’Connor, Sleepyhands, Baske) and contemporaries to remix his track Dreams and you can download them from free over at the Yes Please Bandcamp page…
Dubstep/IDM producer and Hotflush label owner Scuba (Paul Rose) is set to release his third full length n February 27th. Personality is the follow up to the critically lauded Triangulation which came at the time dubstep started fracturing into the multiple strains we have today.
The Hope will be released as a separate single before the album’s release, backed with a non-album track called Flash Addict.
Tracklist:
1. Ignition Key
2. Underbelly
3. The Hope
4. Dsy Chn
5. July
6. Action
7.Cognitive Dissonance
8. Gekko
9. NE1BUTU
10. Tulips
11. If U Want
written by Chris Familton
Plaid have been one of the survivors of the electronic music scene with their time as founders of The Black Dog in the late 80s and as one of the cornerstones of the burgeoning IDM sound coming out of the UK in the early 90s. Now they have released their ninth full length album (including a couple of soundtracks) and it finds them in fine health, still forging their own unique digital path.
The most noticeable aspect of Scintilli is the sound of the album. It possesses a real clarity and lightness across all thirteen tracks that gives it a scientific, perfectionist quality. The percussion is sharp and economical, the rhythms defined and taut and melodies are extracted from dancing, effervescent collections of notes rather than dark ominous drones that seem to be the ‘go to’ sound for many current producers in the IDM and bass music world at the moment. The closest they get to that is the malevolent crunch of Eye Robot. There are few flirtations with current trends like dubstep though there is the occasional nod on tracks like the propulsive Upgrade and Somnl with its bass wobble. The influence of acts like fellow Warp alumni Flying Lotus and Squarepusher emerges on the hyper, cut-up bleepfest of Talk To Us and African Woods is but one track that displays a strong connection to the electro chatter of people like Dave Clarke.
Diversity while retaining their own identity is what makes Scintilli such a fascinating listen as a full-length album. They tease and stretch their sound into different places but they do so with caution rather than abandon. There is weight to the suggestion that they are too clinical in their delivery but the intricate and detailed programming at work here justifies the microscopic attention given to all dimensions of this record. Headphones recommended.
this review was first published in The Drum Media
