Really spot-on feature with the creator of my favorite album of the year in this month's Wire. Ever-reclusive Burial opens up deep, talking about his working methods and how he's never been to a rave. He's got a lot of love for M. R. James ghost stories, jungle, garage, 2-step, secret doorways, and the motion tracker sound from Alien. Also those bizarre snares and clickety-clackety percussive sounds he uses? Straight up sampled off the telly from Playstation games.



Some good bits:

"I don’t really go on the internet, it’s like a ouija board, it’s like letting someone into your head, behind your eyes. It lets randoms in."

"I’ve never been to a festival. Never been to a rave in a field. Never been to a big warehouse, never been to an illegal party, just clubs and playing tunes indoors or whatever. I heard about it, dreamed about it.... It was like when you first saw Terminator or Alien when you're only little. I’d get a rush from it, I was hearing this other world..."

For more read the complete unedited transcript of the interview.

Also the new Burial remix of Bloc Party is floating around. It sounds like you could drop it right in the middle of Untrue without feeling out of place.

Bloc Party - Where Is Home? (Burial Remix)

I've been invited to join in on the festivities going off over at ridemypwny, a new mp-free minded group blog dedicating to keeping it brief & irreverent, started by some friends in the East Bay. I'm kicking things off with a curio I found on vinyl fairly recently...




Brooklyn Boyz Choir - Say Rayo! Brooklyn (Barbarino's House Mix)

As a Halloween treat here is a 2005 mix from Quiet Village entitled "Fragments Of Fear". A splendidly spooked-out collection of old horror movie soundtracks weaved together with gothy rock and atmospheric disco. Better than your old spooky sounds mixes to scare the trick-or-treaters....


















Tracklisting is as follows:

01. Intro
02. Goblin - Zombie
03. SSQ - Trash's Theme
04. Aphrodite's Child - Capture Of The Beast
05. Charles Manson - It's Coming Down Fast
06. John Carpenter - Reel 9
07. Susan Jacks - There's No Blood In Bone
08. Roger Webb Orchestra - Hammer House Of Horror
09. Pino Donaggio - Dead End
10. Fred Myrow - Mineshaft Chase
11. Ralph Lundstein - Horrorscope
12. Donald Rubenstein - Train Attack
13. Hot Blood - Soul Dracula
14. Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaper
15. Les Baxter - Necronomicon
16. Christopher Komeda - What Have You Done To Its Eye
17. Paul Ferris - Witchfinder General
18. Chico Hamilton - Repulsion
19. Jack Nitzsche - Iraq
20. Paul Giovanni And Magnet - Corn Riggs
21. John Cacavas - Satanic Rites Of Dracula
22. Anne Clark - Our Darkness
23. Goblin - Tenebre
24. Ennio Morricone - Humanity Pt. 3
25. John Carpenter - Main Theme From Halloween

Fragments Of Fear - Mixed With Blood By Quiet Village

According to their myspace blog volume 2 is on the way!

You should also check out Pilooski's recent "the scary mix" from alain finkielkrautrock. Chock full of psycho-sexual samples, narcotics references and the usual twisted boogie you'd expect from the D*I*R*T*Y blog.

Deep Shizzle

The Mole - Border Times

Monday Movie [Parte 5]

Dudes (1987)/ dir. Penelope Spheeris

"Real life is NOT California. Real life is a shit sandwich... and everyday you gotta take another bite."

Penelope Spheeris (best known for her rockumentary series The Decline Of Western Civilization, and Wayne's World) directs this teen revenge flick where a trio of rockers (John Cryer, Daniel Roebuck, & Flea) decide to ditch their city gutter punk life and head out to California. After encountering some killer biker trash their plans get diverted. Cryer has an American Indian spiritual awakening and Roebuck learns to shoot guns from a wild west babe. Aimless teens become empowered and revenge ensues.

Flea gets offed in the first fifteen minutes which is lamentable and the plot gets so crazy garbled at the end, but this just makes it all the better to drink PBR tall boys to.

Although they've probably got enough online hype working for them without pulling mine own head out of mine own arse to rave about them again, it would be difficult to overstate the new Chromatics album. Among the standout tracks on Night Drive is a cover of one the best songs ever, Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill". While it would impossible to outdo the vocal histrionics of the original, Chromatics make good by doing what they do to everything, smoothing things down to a somnambulist tempo and add the loving touch of italo disco. This signature style owes much to the hand of Johnny Jewel (in-house producer for Mike Simonetti's Italians Do It Better label and white deep v wearer). This aesthetic seems to be winning many converts recently: making inroads to the traditional indie community with the recent label comp After Dark, while also getting charted by many notable house & disco DJs. Chromatics' "In The City" even found it's way onto Dixon's outstanding Body Language Vol.4 mix from earlier this year.




Tonight, if I had a car, I would be taking my own dreamy disco night drive along to this...


Chromatics - Running Up That Hill

all neon like

New Kanye album's been leaked for a bit, feelin' major this exchange from "Everything I Am":

"Ok fair enough, the streets is flaring up
'cause they want gun talk
or I don't wear enough...
baggy clothes, reeboks, or adi-dos,
can I add that he do spazz out at his shows?

Say goodbye to the N-double-A-C-P award
goodbye to the In-dia-Ar-ie award,
they'd rather give me the ni-nigger please award
but I just take the "I got a lot of cheese" award."

Oh and the Weezy appearance is typically breathless, belligerent and greatly appreciated. He spits "Suck my bat bitch" at the end of a track called "Barry Bonds".

But the best moment from the album is this ravey synths and soulful strings number, that along with the Daft Punk -infused "Stronger", sounds something like mainstreams hip-hop's response to nu-rave, the reemergence of 80's style in street fashion, and those damn ubiquitous neon sunglasses...

Kanye West - Flashing Lights (ft. Dwele)

crank dat supermayer

... in which two globetrotting, taste maker deejay extraordinaires play sad, lonely boys disguised as superheros.

SuperMayer - The Lonesome King

The debut album from Kompakt label boss Michael Mayer & Superpitcher is really great fun & poppy (don't call it emo-) techno for the most part, but also flirts with quirky dance-rock and the ultrastylized type of Kompakt-trademarked trendy trance. As with most releases from these two, it's the attention to detail and nuance in texture that sets them apart. Every sound is highly coiffured and deliciously catchy.

In related news, Superpitcher is set to spin again in San Francisco on October 19th at Fat City. (Tix from Blasthaus available here.) You'll want to check it out 'cause his last appearance in town was a corker for sure. While Miss Kittin jumped around downstairs at Mezzanine to a packed house, Superpitcher did his thing for a dedicated 50 or so patrons in the damn-near-hidden upstairs lounge. While I never remember specific transitions or songs from DJ sets, the end of this one was just mind blowing enough to recall. "Return of the Zombie Bikers" (which was still new enough to really freak people out) gave way to that huge rockin' bassline from the DFA remix of "Dare", transitioning into the Mayer remix of "Happiness" during the vibed-out soundwash part. He then ended the set with some lovely AOR-type cheese that I don't recall, probably Todd Rundgren considering his stated affection for the pop maverick. Fucking hell is right.

Monday Movie [Parte 4]

Derby (1971) / dir. Robert Kaylor

A cinema verité journey inside the once-professional, now-underground pseudo-sport that refuse to die: roller derby. The filmmakers follow young factory worker Mike Snell who dreams of making it big on the circuit. We get a few extra-long shots of his predictably dull home life (in Dayton, Ohio, natch) that, when juxtaposed with the derby, make its violent spectacle just about the most exciting thing ever. Boredom at home culminates in carousing and womanizing, forcing his wife into a catty exchange with some neighborhood mistresses. Taking a small break from Snell's tedium, Kaylor intercuts to aging warhorse Charlie O' Connell, captain of the San Francisco Bay City Bombers.

While Derby never stops to explain to intricacies of the game, we are instead offered a barrage of up close & grainy on-the-track action footage which more than compensates. The simple pleasures of watching grown men in tights & leather calf-highs flailing all over the circle track, the notorious double take-downs (which is the roller derby equivalent of a home run & a touchdown making sweet love), and a few dropkicks to the head will suffice. When brawls ensue small children and grandmas in knitted sweaters applaud and women with beehives hug their husbands in admiration. The America on display here is mundane and brutal in equal measures. The film ends in uncertainty, with Snell hopping on his motorcycle, bound for Oakland and the training he hopes will propel him to the Bay City Bombers someday. Well worth tracking this down on VHS.

not talking today

Will Saul & Lee Jones - Hug The Scary (Partial Arts Remake)

Lee Douglas - Ravm

Black Devil Disco Club - On Just Foot (Slide Inside Version With Prins Thomas)

Monday Movie [Parte 3]

Mr. T's Be Somebody... Or Be Somebody's Fool! (1984)/ dir. Jeff Margolis

Absoludricrous pleasures emanating from this home video only release. Part motivational seminar for children, part music video, 100% "First Name Mister, Middel Name Period, Last Name Tee" action. T preaches empowerment through some unholy combination of rap, breakdancing and honoring thy mother. The fashion of the earnest youngsters is something to behold. My housemate swears Fergie is one of them, an IMDb just confirmed this. Time to break out the Kids Incorporated reords.




Someone made an awesome YTMND that plays the theme song...
http://BESOMEBODY.ytmnd.com/

Of all the genre-defying tracks on M.I.A's new Kala (finally leaked, but out proper August 21), this is perhaps the weirdest. Over a trebly grime style beat and mournful "Blue Monday" chords, she busts out a verse from Frank Black's book, asking the eternal question "Where is my mind?". I might have time to sit around and think about it myself, but our favorite Sri Lankan has been cited all over San Francisco recently and she's looking for a husband. Here I come cutie, grrrrrrrr.

M.I.A. - $20

Roundup of some newish tracks I've been feeling, and an older one that I've recently come back to be able to hear again... an incredibly dense, super-busy remix of techno artist Marc Ashken from the ever-prolific dubstep king Ollie Jones that was included on his BBC Essential Mix awhile back... a taste of the kind of bizarre electro that Pilooski makes when not producing ace edits for D*I*R*T*Y.... Claude VonStroke's take on the latest Get Physical release... and past evidence of the brilliance of Joakim Bouaziz.

Marc Ashken - Size 3 (Skream Remix)

Pilooski - Cheikir

Samim - Heater (Claude VonStroke Remix)

Max Berlin - Elle Et Moi (Joakim Remix)

Light Keeps Me Company

Ingmar Bergman, 1918-2007

If you haven't yet, now is the time to pay homage. Watch them all. Persona, Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, Hour Of the Wolf, The Virgin Spring and everything else this true film hero has made. I am falling asleep tonight to The Magician.

Promising things from Pitchfork: a new mix section with song-by-song roundup/ interview kicked off by none other than JD Twitch. Check it here.