broken noses from broken moses

FAKER - ADDICTED ROMANTIC

Addicted Romantic is certainly not my favourite album, not from my favourite genre, not with my favourite style. In fact, I can sort of pin down a popularistic by seeing this genre, post-punk or pop-punk or whatever you want to call it, frequenting their iPod. Infact bands like Fall Out Boy, Blink 182 and Panic! At The Disco give me the absolute shits. But I must give credit to Faker for bringing integritty to a genre which has basically been made to make money. Faker's lyrics are honest and intimate, poetic without being too soppy, and have genuine meaning rather than clichéd situations attatched for the teenage sympathy vote. The vocals are both rough and strangely exquisite, unlike many post-punk singers who all seem to follow the sounds of Green Day and other pop rock classics.

Apart from the relatively optimistic single Hurricane which I'm sure I had heard many times on the radio prior to hearing the complete album, other songs seem to hold a darker tone, both sarcastic and angsty. The laid-back party tale of Kids on Overload, with it's repetitive catchy rythm slowing down to the chorus and once again up to the high-point of the song, proves just how well Faker has achieved to interpret popular punk into an Arctic Monkeys feel bash-the-drums ballad. The wonderfully frank chorus of Fucking the Exhibits, it's urgent, rapid nature, and it's guitar strums deserves a mention.

The other thing about this album is it's great album art which really seems to suit. Faker have made their way into punk, kicked their arms around and left with a bloodied face. But they have certainly won the fight, creating an album which is both stylized and grungy at the same time.

Favourite Song: Teenage Werewolf

Favourite Line: "...and I'll be fucking the exhibits, because they're in front of me..."

sown-up butterfly wings make for a nice dress

BLACK DICE - CREATURE COMFORTS

Their album art makes me feel horny. They sound orgasmic in my new headphones. They are Black Dice. Having only recently acquired two of their CD's, but constantly having noticed them as an artist that kept popping up in the bios of all my favourites, this album has not disappointed in the slightest. Their beats, although abstract and at times slightly manic, are wonderful to zone-out on, create to, and even dance to. Their drum lines are fresh and interesting to listen to, grindingly contrasted with the blurred samplings of stringed instruments and synths (I think!?) creating what is sometimes serene and at other times plain scary.

Creature Comforts is an example of the very peak of electronic music today. No longer referring back to straight rhythms and recurring bass lines. Genres like house, club and electro have been contorted extensively, experimented with and mutilated. Creating music which basses itself upon the philosophy of traditional electronic music, giving performers the space to create like it would never have been possible under the constricts of any genre. It seems that bands are more often than not beggining to be slotted under the odd-fitting label of 'alternative'. As every day goes past, I continue to wonder what is alternative music...

I had a thought the other day that music at it's best is when you stop listening to the music, and start listening. This is one example. Listen to the fifteen minute soundscape of Skeleton, it's swaying beats being flung past your ears. Stop, and just take it all in, let your head rock and your arms flap. That is music.

Favourite Song: Treetops

the carnivale just got a delivery of tribal masks

MOS DEF - THE ECSTATIC

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm insane. But did Mos Def just leap through my head, take every beloved chunk of hip hop and work it into The Ecstatic (which I am clearly ecstatic about)? In my first squizz of this album, my instantaneous thoughts were 'I can't understand a word this guy says.' And then a very cool sample of some politician made a speech about wanting change. Actually, I think Mos was speaking some different language, heh. The guitar line comes in, and the amazing chaotic nature of this album marches down through my ear canals. The many layers of sound ring through my house, and my head is inclined to nod.

This album is exactly how I like my hip-hop served: contemporary, without any 'hardcore beats' or 'motherfucking bitches and hoes', or at least when Mos does it there's a xyliophone in the background. Having never really listened to Mos Def (well, except when he cameos a few times in Kanye West's music, hilariously in the song Drunk and Hot Girls), I'm surprised I haven't noticed him before. His sampling is sublime, and he has a distinct flavour to his style that can't really be compared to much else. For instance, the chorus for the song Priority is both funky and appropriate for the time. Another song to mention is The Embassy, in particular its introduction, which sent shivers up my spine.

Many of those who are not fans of rap claim that these men are not smart. Mos Def, and other popular rappers like Eminem, Jay Z and Kanye West, are the closest society has to a fresh poetry movement of the last thirty years; these are some of the smartest men who walk the earth. And amongst all this, Mos Def is a Muslim man and it is wonderful to see two conflicting cultures mingle, the result is shown in this album.

Favourite Song: Roses

Favourite Line: "...I'm down with the cool like Mussilini in Italy..."

Oh, and I was so close to forgetting to tell you about my other favourite song. Worker's Comp. has to be one of my favourite hip hop songs ever. The idea of mixing love and economy is ice-age awesome.