Let’s nerd! Todd Terje interviews James Murphy

October 25, 2011Comments Off

Check out Todd Terje’s new blog Let’s Nerd where he interviews James Murphy about gear and… stuff. Check it out here.

Village Voice about Razika

October 25, 2011Comments Off

Check out this great live review in Village Voice.

Friday night at Cameo Gallery, the Norwegian band Razika played its inaugural American show. Its members have yet to turn 21, though the music the quartet specializes in is straight out of 1981′s seven-inch singles bins. Their feather-light guitars, simple harmonies, and ska-tinged beats recall heroes of early twee like Orange Juice and Dolly Mixture; the single “Vondt i hjertet” is bittersweet and bubbly, its Norwegian title translating to “pain in heart.” They were absolutely charming during their brief set, splitting their lyrics between their home tongue and English and discussing how excited they were to be in the States. During one bit of between-song banter, frontwoman Marie Amdam excitedly recounted how, while snatching up fashions at Topshop, a song of theirs had come on over the in-store radio. Razika formed when their members were 14. Their discography right now consists of an album (Program 91, out on the Norwegian label Smalltown Supersound) and a couple of EPs. That they’d already graduated to in-store-play status for a multinational fast-fashion chain shows just how fast the hype cycle can be these days—a band can soundtrack a shopping experience for people in countries its members have never set foot in. Even in an era where making money as an artist can be a dicey proposition—thanks to factors both endemic to the music industry (the decline of the record industry, the massive amount of competition for attention spans), and the world at large (the global economic meltdown, etc.)—the currency of coolness still holds quite a bit of cachet. Razika’s single New York–area show happened before the CMJ crush, which was a pretty savvy move. Cameo Gallery was pretty packed, and it might not have been had there been dozens of showcases competing against it. (No offense intended. The show was certainly one of the more glee-inducing I’ve attended in recent weeks.) But the rush to be the evanescent success of CMJ (or its warmer springtime companion, South By Southwest) still exists, and the competition is ever fiercer. One wonders what the Florida act Black Kids, which went from having its ramshackle demo bestowed with Pitchfork’s Best New Music tag to becoming the buzzband of CMJ 2007 to becoming a whipping boy for all that was wrong with the hype cycle of four years ago, would have to say about all this. (They were even renounced by the outlet that crowned them: Their debut album was panned via a 3.7, a sad emoticon, and two bummed-out-looking pugs.) Last week, their breakthrough single “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You” served as a key plot point on the grating “adventures in still-ungentrified Williamsburg” sitcom 2 Broke Girls. The episode’s airing so close to the CMJ opening bell seemed to close the book on that band’s fractured fairy tale, and maybe serve as a glimpse into the future for whatever artist closes out this week as its “winner.”

Razika on Supermusic

October 25, 2011Comments Off

We´re happy to announce thatr Razika is now part of the Smalltown Supermusic family. Their great album is out now to great critical acclaim on Smalltown Supersound.

Todd Terje live mix from Evening Standard, Toronto

October 24, 2011Comments Off

Here is another one of those wonderful Todd Terje live mixes. This time from Evening Standard, Toronto – 16-07-2011. You can listen to the whole mix here. And somewhere in this mix you can also hear a track from the upcoming Todd Terje 12″…

Todd Terje remixes Bryan Ferry. Win 12″ on Fact

October 18, 2011Comments Off

From Fact Magazine:
On October 17, The Vinyl Factory will follow its recent Massive Attack vs. Burial release with a limited 12″ of Bryan Ferry remixes.

The Ferry material in question is ‘Alphaville’ and ‘My Oh My’, a pair of tracks from his last album Olympia. The first has been remixed by Norweigian disco king Todd Terje, while the latter has been given the Quiet Village treatment by Joel Martin. Both are essential, and come housed in a bespoke super-glossy sleeve featuring treated Kate Moss cover artwork exlusive to this edition and taken as part of the shoot for Olympia‘s original artwork.

This 12″ is limited to 500 copies worldwide, but we’ve got two to give away. Email us at competitions@thevinylfactory.com with the subject line ‘Olympia remixes’ and you’ll be in the draw.

Kieran Hebden/Steve Reid/Mats Gustafsson – Live At The South Bank

October 17, 2011Comments Off

Released the 14th of November on 2XCD, 2XLP and download

“I had as much fun playing that night as I’ve ever had playing music.” – Kieran Hebden

“What’s happening here is a special relationship, like Miles and Coltrane, or Dizzy and Bird.” – Steve Reid

So spoke Steve Reid, veteran jazz drummer and percussionist, of the remarkable musical relationship he forged in the final years of his life with Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), the British electronic musician/producer young enough to be his grandson. Even up to his death aged 66, in 2010, Reid continued to push himself outside his comfort zone in his duo with Kieran, which began in 2005 and led to four albums on the Domino label.

Now, courtesy of Norwegian label Smalltown Superjazzz, comes the fifth and final instalment of the pair’s momentous synergy. The music on this double CD was recorded in concert on 20 June 2009 in the foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall at London’s Southbank Centre, as part of the Meltdown Festival curated by free jazz legend Ornette Coleman. For this marathon workout, Reid and Hebden were joined by Swedish power saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, whose fiery blowing style had inspired Kieran to seek out a drummer like Steve to work with in the first place.

Says Kieran: “It was watching Mats at the Oslo Jazz Festival that gave me the idea to look for a drummer to do a duo with, so having him play with me and Steve meant a lot to me. Steve’s playing was so heavy and powerful that night and Mats got right into our thing with no problem at all even though it was the first time we played together.”

Clustered tight on the stage, the trio whipped up a tempestuous performance – Mats wearing a white T-shirt boldly declaring, “FREE THE JAZZ”; Kieran with a table-load of laptops, electronics and effects units; Steve hunched over a stripped-down kit. “Morning Prayer”, the incredibly tense build up from Steve and Kieran, was so entrancing, Mats even forgot to play for the first 20 minutes. This is so far beyond jazz that the term becomes useless: instead, it’s a liberating, occasionally anarchic group sound that evolves as organically as a frank, spirited conversation. Occasionally the rhythm breaks down, goes crazy, changes shape. Other times, like the Krautrock groove of “Untitled”, it locks into a machine momentum that threatens to steamroller everything in its path. That’s improvisation. That’s why they call it free.

—

Born in 1944, STEVE REID worked as a teenage drummer as part of the Apollo Theatre house band in New York, which saw him backing some of the US’s big Motown stars including James Brown and Martha Reeves And The Vandellas. After serving a two year prison sentence for refusing to fight in Vietnam, he worked as a session musician, appearing on recordings by a who’s who of black soul, jazz and R&B players including Dionne Warwick, Sun Ra, Horace Silver, Frank Lowe, Charles Tyler, Arthur Blythe and Freddie Hubbard. His own group, Legendary Master Brotherhood, formed in 1974, released the electric space-jazz trilogy Raw, Nova and Rhythmatism between 1974–76. In 1986 he drummed on Miles Davis’s jazz-funk album Tutu. He could move with ease between rhythmic grooves and the abstractions of freedom.
His first collaboration with Kieran Hebden came in spring 2005, when the duo played two improvised concerts in Paris and London. While living in Switzerland for several years in his later life, he released occasional records with various groups before recording Spirit Walk (featuring Four Tet) for the UK Soul Jazz label. 2006 saw the release of the studio collaborations Live At The Exchange Session Volumes 1 and 2 (Domino), all taped on a single day in London. The duo issued two more collaborative albums for the label, the last being NYC (2008). He died of throat cancer in New York on 13 April 2010.

Steve: “We want love and happiness to change people’s minds. This is like a mental health programme.”

KIERAN HEBDEN was born in South West London in 1977. He first came to prominence in the post-rock band Fridge (since 1997), then struck out in his Four Tet guise, under which he has released numerous albums, mixtapes, singles and remixes – the latest is There Is Love In You (Domino 2010). In addition he has worked with the likes of Burial and Thom Yorke, supported Radiohead on 2003 tour. He recently produced an album by US ‘freak folk’ collective Sunburned Hand Of The Man.

Kieran: “Steve is the greatest musician I have ever encountered… Not only was he the best player I’ve worked with but he was into music like no one else I know… Knowing someone be that into it was truly inspiring.”

Born in 1964, MATS GUSTAFSSON’s vein-popping, no-compromise blowouts have been heard in all kinds of contexts, from appearances with Sonic Youth, Jim O’Rourke, Boredoms’ Yoshimi P-We, improvising legends Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Peter Brötzmann and Ken Vandermark, to his own power outfits Gush and The Thing. He has also worked extensively in many media, including dance, painting, theatre and poetry.

Mats: “To work with Steve was really and truly great. He was from another time… and his sense of timing was unique. To be part of an ensemble with Steve and Kieran was just fantastic. Really inspiring. I guess they found and created their own tradition.
“I remember very clearly sitting and waiting on stage when the music had started. The only thing decided before the concert was, ‘wait a bit for the duo to start off something and start to play whenever it feels right’. I was so much into the music that I forgot to start. I don’t know how long time passed, but I think it took almost 20 minutes before I entered. I enjoyed the minutes waiting tremendously – and I LOVED that hour playing together!
“His touch was totally unique. Old school… old Reid school…. the timing is just behind the beat, the way I hear it, and it swings like MAAAAD! I know it sounds like a cliché, but when the trio took off, my sense of minutes, seconds and hours totally disappeared… things just took off. To be part of such a body of creativity is a privilege. It’s all about the sharing. Steve and Kieran shared. A huge bunch. Listening back to the recording makes me just smile. A HUGE bunch!”

Live at the South Bank stands as a memorial to a thrilling and productive partnership sadly cut off in its prime. As Kieran says: “I think me and Steve saw that show as a starting point for working with some other musicians… But then he fell ill and it ended up being one of our last shows. I’m so glad it was recorded and this album is coming out to document it.”

Nisennenmondai on US tour with Battles

October 17, 2011Comments Off

Nisennenmondai will open for Battles on their US tour, here are the live dates:

Oct 17@Mayan Theatre,Los Angeles
Oct 18@The Venue,Phoenix
Oct 20@Fitzgerald’s,Houston
Oct 21@Emos,Austin
Oct 22@Granada Theater,Dallas
Oct 24@Exit In,Nashville
Oct 25@Workplay,Birmingham
Oct 26@Crowbar,Tampa
Oct 27@Grand Central,Miami
Oct 28@Masquerade,Atlanta
Oct 30@9:30Club,Washington DC
Oct 31@Theater of Living Arts,Philadelphia
Nov 1@Webster Hall,New York

Mungolian Jetset album out this week + great Mixmag review

October 12, 2011Comments Off

Mungolian Jetset’s weird and wonderful Schlungs is out this week on CD, stream, download. The LP will be ready in 4 weeks time, double and DJ friendly.

Check out this great review in Mixmag here:

Pivotal players in the Norwegian music scene, this Oslo outfit deliver their highly anticipated ‘Schlungs’ album on Smalltown. And, as with everything done by Mungs (brainchild of Pål Nyhus and Knut Petter Sævik), it’s out there but accessible with a touch of genius about it. Recent hit ‘Moon Jocks n Prog Rocks’ is present and correct, ‘Bella Lanay’ is an infectious piece of happy disco-pop, ‘We Are The Shining’ an intergalactic piece of vocal, cosmic excellence, and the epic ‘Smoke n Mirrors’ is like three songs in one. Get jetsetting out and buy this now.
Craig Torrance

File under Psychedelic dance-pop
Download ‘Moon Jocks n Prog Rocks’, ‘Bella Lanay’, ‘We Are The Shining’, ‘Smoke n Mirrors’
Like this? Try Ost & Kjex ‘Cajun Lunch’ (Diynamic)

Young Galaxy European tour starts this week

October 12, 2011Comments Off

Montreal art-rock outfit Young Galaxy will kick off an exciting second run of tour dates across the globe this September in celebration of their highly successful album Shapeshifting which was released earlier this year on Smalltown Supersound.

October 13 – Reykavik IS – Iceland Airwaves
October 15 – Stockholm SE – Strand
October 19 – Oslo NO – Mono
October 20 – Göteborg SE – Pustervik
October 21 – Malmo SE – Debaser
October 22 – Hamburg DE – Indra Club
October 23 – Berlin DE – Comet Club
October 25 – Cologne DE – Elektroküche
October 26 – Amsterdam BE – Paradiso
October 27 – Paris FR – Flèche D’or
October 28 – Lille FR – Ground Zero Festival
October 30 – Manchester UK – The Deaf Institute
November 2 – London UK – The Lexington