#musicmonday : Lana Del Rey, Azealia Banks and JG Thirlwell

I’m not much of a fan of Ms Del Rey, but this is fantastic! It’s the Smims & Belle Extended Remix of Blue Jeans, and it’s about a thousand times less insipid. The fierce four-to-the-floor beat and hard-n-heavy bassline is EBM-ish, like old Front 242. Azealia’s rap really works well, as I thought it would. 

Pop vs Rock

Written for Collapse Board

Before they switched off Pandora in the UK, I found its deliberately anti-genre stance interesting because it would place frivolous ‘pop’ songs next to ‘credible’ artists. It’s probably stretching it to call any of these ‘rock’, but they’re of the type admired by people who don’t generally buy records by Beyonce, etc.

Stripped of the genre tag, note for note, there’s really not much difference between the songs. Wallace Wylie pointed out what’s wrong with the package of pop. If you take that away, you’ve got some great music that the middle-aged chin-strokers would probably like if they just started thinking of it as music. For example: 

Still Crazy

Not a huge amount to say about this one, other than that it’s a nice film. Inoffensive and pleasant. It will make you smile for most of it and chuckle in places. 

The Man 2.0 – Why technology’s brave new world is more evil than the last

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It has never been easier to find music (even if most of it is awful), and you can buy an album with one click of a mouse. Proponents of our download culture will tell you that life has never been better – information wants to be free, after all – but as I’ve said many times before on this site, the problem with the Wild West of the web is that cowboy movies tend to end up with everyone dead.

Until a few months ago, I believed that it was a matter of consumers versus musicians, and that it was just a matter of educating people that illegally sharing files is wrong and nagging people to pay for the content that they use. I now see I was misinformed. 

Addison Groove – Savage Henry

I’m too tired to blog today, so I’ll link you to the review I’m currently reading and the track I’m currently listening to. Apparently the album is patchy, but I like this.

Footwork’s use of tensely static structures and extreme repetition – the motional rigidity of it all – works in its favour. They lend it a fascinating air of strangeness, which quickly becomes an exhilarating type of derangement when combined with its speed and the overwhelming blizzard of production micro-detail.

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Music reviewed in Youtube clips: Madonna – MDNA

You can read my text review over at Collapse Board, but if all that reading makes your eyes go screwy, I can sum it up in some easy clips. 

First impressions: Breton – Other People’s Problems

I’m going to have to hear this a fair few times before I can really pin it down, but while it’s not a perfect album, it’s pretty remarkable nonetheless. I couldn’t even say what genre it is. Indie? Dance? OK, you know how people were going on about MGMT a year or two ago? I always thought they had a great sound but lousy songs – they just didn’t have much of a sense of structure which meant those delicious hooks got lost in the execution. This suffers no such fate. Interference is one of the most absurdly infectious songs I’ve heard in ages, and I’ve been hearing a lot of catchy songs lately. 

#musicmonday : Graham Coxon – The Truth

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that this sounds like NIN, but it has a sort of fuzzy dirginess to its bleak rhythms that has caused others to make the comparison. From new album a + e, this demonstrates that Coxon must have been the driving force behind Blur’s self-titled fifth album, but this is way more immediate and arresting. More what he must have had in mind. 

Play as My Little Pony in Skyrim

Geeks Are Sexy reported on a new mod for Skyrim that allows you to play as Pinkie Pie. I don’t even know where to begin.

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Download Horse Armor accessories here.

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The Undateables

One look at The Undateables and it would be easy to assume that it’s a lurid freakshow designed to exploit and ridicule its vulnerable protagonists. The very idea is offensive, but The Undateables is compelling viewing nonetheless. Maybe it’s because it’s sympathetic and the people it features so very likeable – such as 23 year-old comic Luke, who has Tourette’s, who would have no trouble getting a girl if he didn’t shout obscenities.