Episode 4

Okay sticking to the same format of last week... HERE WE GO!

Most Hyped Blog Of The Week

After some initial confusion with a music blogging platform called MOG which turned out to be a bit of a walled garden, I cut the crap and went straight for Get Weird Turn Pro, a predominantly electronic music blog from a chappy based in Manchester [la la la].

The track that caught by eye went a long with some NME bashing which is all good in my opinion. Bloc Party - Flux (JFK Remix) is really starting to grow on me, I was initially sceptical of the much flouting squeaking and bleeping, but what really carries this tune off are the rythmic keys that pace it from start to end.

Front Page Choice Cut

Again a wide range of tracks to choose from. Some notable runners included the Punks Jump Up remix of Robyn's With Every Heartbeat at Versus; The More Your Know feature at Butter Team in much the same vain as Pirates of the Bargain Bin last week, this week focusing on Deborah's; an awesome selection of 80s hip hop and electro at bounce/oz; and Snow Queen by Oh Astro at Keepin It Right Radio.

However, in start contrast to the predominately electronic flavour of this weeks show my Frontpage Choice Cut this week is Alberta Cross - Hard Breaks which I found at The Leather Canary. An East London duo who are about to bury themselves in a Welsh country cottage somewhere to record some new material. Make sure you check out their myspace.

New M3 Mix CD!

Whooot! After almost a year of almost killing himself Derek Davies hits back with M3 Volume 16.

"Comprised predominantly of slammin’ rock and electro tracks that are ideal for driving at absurd speeds on dark highways, M3 Volume 16 is undeniably the hotness."

Dezza

The track I played to celebrate Volume 16's release was the Numan-esque Bathroom Gurgle by local Castle Donnington boys Late Of The Pier. Myspace.

A Band I Saw Last Week

Cut Off Your Hands - Lovely Chaps

Last Sunday I saw Foals + Cut Off Your Hands + Eskimo Hoax at The Charlotte in Leicester. All the Skins kids were out, it was a fantastic contrast to the poor turnout in Derby for Sons and Daughters the previous week. In fact it got very rowdy indeed.


The stars of the show had to be Cut Off Your Hands, despite only playing six or seven songs because a very ill lead singer, they truly did get the place going after a somewhat docile Eskimo Hoax. So to celebrate their performance I played for you Cut Off Your Hands - Still Fond, a track which I think is a cross somewhere between The Maccabees and The Wombats - surely a winner there then.

They opened with Still Fond as you can see in my lovely video below...



Most Hyped Artist of the Week

Daft Punk @ Rockness 2007

With their Alive 2007 live album due for release next week in the US everyone is suitably going Daft Punk crazy, which is probably why they've topped the most hyped search and most hyped artist on the Hype Machine this week. Here is what a few bloggers have had to say...

"This CD makes you really appreciate why Daft Punk is so amazing... I like it when theres a tiny beat mismatch here and there just to let me know the artists is actually doing it. Its definitely a CD I would recommend picking up just because of the fact that they are incredible to listen to, their sets may be calculated but they are amazing."

Hot Biscuits

And on some blogs its kick started ye olde 'sampling' debate. Crib artists or genius?

"Of all the reviewers discussing the new Daft Punk samples collection (not released by DP), Pitchfork was the kindest. "If Discovered: A Collection of Daft Funk Samples proves anything, it isn't that Daft Punk are surreptitious thieves - it's that they're transformative reinterpreters, and in more than a few cases, flat-out miracle workers." Agreed. But one of our least favorite tracks (Robot Rock) pales in comparison to Breakwater's Release the Beast (below) in terms of general party starting merit."

Butter Team

The best blog post I have found which gives you an idea of Daft Punk's sampling tendencies is a Sample Wednesday from Palms Out Sounds

"As you hear these tracks you'll either decide Daft Punk isn't as genius as you thought they were or that they're twice as amazing."

Palms Out Sounds

I'll let you decide for yourselves with a mammoth 10 minute treat of Prime Time of Your Life / Brainwasher /Rollin ‘and Scratchin’ / Alive.

I hope you've enjoyed this weeks show, don't forget to leave a comment about what you think of it, or if you have any blogs or tracks that you think should be featured on next weeks show!

Ta ra.

Episode 3

The Hype Machine as I found it this morning

Well, its all gone a bit feature mad this week on Anablogue, so in order of appearance the cast was...

Front Page Choice Cut

The idea behind this was as soon as I landed on the Hype Machine to start my research I had to play choose one of the tracks on the front page. It was a pretty difficult decision, its amazing the breadth and quality of tracks that can turn up in the first ten blog posts.

Of note was Hisato Higuch - Grow a fuzzy electro guitar based Japanese number I found at myjukebox, The Brit Box: Nonexistent Disc 6, a collection of indie classics from 1985-2000 at Sound Bites, and the novel feature of a selection of tunes in a Sesame Street style word of the day at Pirates of the Bargain Bin [this weeks word of the day: 'Protest'].

However, the best track I found was King of Prussia's 'Misadventures of the Campaign Kids' posted by John Laird of Side One: Track One. You can find out more about their new album Save The Scene at www.myspace.com/wearekingofprussia.

A Band I've Seen Recently

Hardly the most inspiring name for a feature, but for the music it turns up a worthy one nevertheless.

Be warned, attractive bassists can distract from the correct sized purchase of tour t-shirts

I saw Sons and Daughters at The Clubroom, Derby, a rather miserable turn out by the audience but an incredible performance by Sons and Daughters themselves. If you do go and see them keep an eye out for their Johnny Cash and The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog mash up, its much better live than my reconstruction.

I found Guilt Complex by Sons and Daughters at Flux Blog and it is due to be released on Monday 29th November with an exclusive B-Side cover of Adamski's Killer. Find out more about their forthcoming album and the rest of their tour at www.myspace.com/sonsanddaughters.

Most Hyped Artist of the Week

This week's most hyped artist on the Hype Machine is Burial, and I played his track Ghost Hardware. Check out all the hype. Here is a slection:

"An apocalyptic adventure far beyond whatever can be called conventional about dubstep"

(Music is my) Occupation

"The music is the perfect soundtrack for the cold winter days ahead; a distant and alien sounding collection of R&B vocal samples, emaciated beats and keyboards, and scratchy blips and bleeps"

Pop Head Wound

"Burial certainly sticks close to his dubstep roots with dark moods, sparse rhythms, and emphasis on bass but its his ability to blend in much more subtle sounds that makes this a unique record"

Analog Giant

"Although I'm certainly not hip enough to discuss the meaning of British "Grime," "2-Step," "Garage," or "Dubstep," as I have variously heard this music described, I can describe the sound as something like a Ghost In The Machine. With skittering electronic beats, ghostly keyboard washes, and soul vocal samples manipulated near the point of torture, Burial's Untrue sounds like some kind of aural missive from the next world, crackling and popping in the rain. This music is both haunted and haunting."

That Truncheon Thing

Find out more about Burial from The Guardian Arts website.

A Band I'm Going To See

Playing at The Charlotte in Leicester this Sunday with Cut Off Your Hands in support is Foals. The track I played, Hummer, has been doing the blogosphere circuit for a while now, and first blipped on my radar when it appeared on Derek Davies GWFAS M3 compilation series. You may also recognise this track from Channel 4 teenage drama Skins and the Skins Secret Party special episode.

Their myspace describes themselves as "Oxford Step", Speeding Up To Stop describes them as "Math Rock Afro-Beat", and the band describe themselves in a South Scene interview as "Autistic-Pop". Comment on this blog to let me know what you think.

Most Hyped Blog of the Week

As the screen shot above shows, this weeks most hyped blog is The Music Slut. There was an excellent selection of material to choose from including Calvin Harris remix, youtube interview with Justice, Foals remix and Jules Holland videos, and a cover of Monkey Man by Amy Winehouse.

However their best offering of the past few days has to be Nobody's Lover by Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings found here.


If you've enjoyed the podcast, or have any suggestions for tracks and blogs that should be featured in the next episode of Anablogue then leave a comment at the end of this post!

Thanks for listening!

Episode 2

Episode two is proof that I can be consistent, but it being Wednesday, not proof that I can be on time. Anyhow, bands featured in this weeks podcast include:

• The Whip
• CSS
• The Wombats
• Jason Tyler, and
• High Contrast

From blogs

• Turn The Page
• Red Threat
• Missing Toof
• Said The Gramaphone, and
• Good Weather For Airstrikes

First up this week I featured, or at least teased you with a few samples of songs by The Whip but instead played you their remix of Anyway You Choose To Give It by The Black Ghosts. It wasn't to spite you, its just dead good. Tracks courtesy of Red Threat and Get Weird Turn Pro.

Next up it was the turn of the heavy weight blog Said The Gramaphone where we all got confused about whether we were listening to The Knife, Grizzly Bear or CSS. However I can assure it was CSS covering Grizzly Bear's 'Knife'. That didn't help things did it...

At half time I moved away from the electronica and cuddled up to that cute scouse trio The Wombats and their track School Uniforms. Derek Davies of Good Weather For Airstrikes serving up the honours this time with a review of their debut album.

A return to the neon delights of Missing Toof turned up trumps with some EDM [dance music to you and me, more specifically electro]. Jason Tyler and his track Cause And Effect a self confessed oversight by the Missing Toof boys and girls. Nevertheless they made up for it by sharing a number of myspace rips, ah bless.

Finally the show ended with a return to the much neglected genre of drum and bass, and who better to rekindle our skanking dancing like no ones watching head bobbing antics than Welsh wonder High Contrast and his track Eternal Optimist from his latest album. Well spotted Turn The Page!

If you've enjoyed this podcast or have any views or opinions on the tracks played then don't forget to comment!

Cheers,
Andy

Its Back!

Well apologies for not getting Anablogue back as soon as I'd have wanted, there was an initial delay getting the kit in and then when I tried recording yesterday I just wasn't in the right frame of mind.

So lets get the show on the road...

You'll notice a few things have changed here at Anablogue HQ and elsewhere in the music blogging world. First off the Hype Machine has had a major face lift. There have been mixed reactions with most of the negative comments being directed at the change in flash player. The flash player, for the less techy amongst us, was the little pop up in your browser mp3 player which for many people was a great radio replacement. The new player is a bit more aesthetic but lacks the ability to see whats coming up in the playlist.

The Hype Machine has gone social and has introduced the option to sign up and be a user. That includes nice things like Twitter integration and the ability to add certain tracks and blogs to your favourites - thats very handy as an aggregator so you don't have to keep checking the same blogs over and over again.

You can of course sign up yourselves and even add Anablogue as a friend. Just visit http://hypem.com/anablogue. There you will be able to find RSS feeds for my favourited blogs and favourited tracks [I don't thing favourited is a word is it?]. These feeds are handy for keeping up to date with what gets played on the show and they're in the feed list on the right hand side. NB they don't seem to open well in your browser but work fine in an RSS reader.

So first up was Jape - Floating which I sort of found at discobelle.net via the Prins Thomas Diskomiks and Alex Metric Remix, the former of which makes heavy use of the very much All Rights Reversed by the Chemical Brothers-esque vocal. It also happened to be that I saw this guy at the Liars Club as part of Nottingham's Stealth vs. Rescue Rooms. The live performance is very different from the recorded stuff, a lot more bashing of samplers. I was very impressed.

http://www.myspace.com/richiejape

A nod to Nialler9 who featured Jape on his award winning blog [he has a podcast too!] and pointed me in the direction of the fantastic video for floating and the rendition The Raconteurs performed at some festival somewhere [excuse my ignorance].

JAPE Floating by DADDY and M&E
Uploaded by MatthewANDemelie

Next up I returned to good old headphonesex who was raving about the recent Soulwax/2 Many DJs release, but moaning about the recent closure and raid of oink.cd [no fear boink.cd is on the horizon, its going to be hosting by the impregnable swedish boys and girls at piratebay.org]. I played Arthur Argent - Hold Your Head Up (Soulwhacked Remix) which I'd say was one of the album's lesser well known remixes.

http://www.soulwax.com/ [Warning this is a scary site for your browser]

No return of Anablogue would be complete without a good dose of Good Weather For Airstrikes. Derek was this week reviewing CMJ in New York, a sort of SXSW for the east coast as far as I can gather, but in doing so decided he doesn't really like reviewing live gigs. Nonetheless he did deliver a slice of Cut Off Your Hands - Closed Eyes, a New Zealand band who have been in the UK recently and featured on Anablogue's last Fuse FM broadcast.

http://www.myspace.com/cutoffyourhands

Plastic Operator - Peppermint was my favourite track from fluokid's posts of late. An international duo of sound engineers who met at Westminster Uni here in the UK, their Postal Service influence is definitely apparent.

http://www.plasticoperator.com/


I closed the show with a sample off of Daft Punk's new live album Alive. For some reason I want to say it was recorded at the O2 Wireless festival this summer, but don't take my word for it. It seems Daft Punk are harnessing the power of blogs, social media and the web to promote the new album by releasing a widget where you can sample tracks, watch videos and see photos of the Frenchmen themselves. I'd better feature it here then...

Anablogue 2.0

Anablogue is returning in an all new podcast only form.

Subscribe to the new Anablogue podcast feed in iTunes by following this link or by using the previous guide which has been updated here.

Meanwhile you can still follow the Anablogue mutterings in a written format at this blog or by subscribing to http://feeds.feedburner.com/anablogueblog in your feed reader of choice!

Bl-ouse

It appears Harry and I are guilty as charged. We're just another bunch of DJs who know knack all about music but instead follow the trend setting bloggers and their brand of blog house. Or as I'd rather call it: blouse.

More on Wikipedia.

Harry's Final Week (Ridiculously Belated)

Firstly apologies for my extended absence, a combination of last-week-of-broadcast madness, essay hell on a whole new level and having the new Arcade Fire record on repeat. But here we are, the final Anablogue listings of the broadcast...

I began on the desk which was novel, before guiding you all through the more guitar-based elements of the blogging world. First track was WinterKids - All The Money, an instant indie-disco classic...although I still don't know where Peaslake is. This was from Hotly Tipped for 2007 (Part One) on the the one-and-only Good Weather For Airstrikes which passed me by first time round as it was hidden among the more obvious tips of Lily Allen and Klaxons. Album Memoirs is out 09/04/07 on Little House records.

Next up was a return to Noise For Toaster who were going mad for the new Field Music record Tones Of Town. I played Give It Lose It Take It, the album opener which is fairly indicative of where they're coming from; kinda edgy, soaring harmonies and a healthy dose of synth. Definitely worth a look.

My first section was concluded with Sharks by Bear Colony, not as morbid as I may have implied but then again not as good either. Perfect Postal Service-y verses but let down by the chorus which (in the words of grandparent everywhere) is just noise. Sounded better in my room than over the airwaves, honest. Find it at All Things Go.

On my return I finally got round to playing I Was A Cub Scout - Pink Squares, found at Nothing But Green Lights, the excellent UK-music-only blog. They make a whole lot of restrained noise for a two piece (contradiction in terms deliberate), but the marriage of electronic and emotional really works for me on this and is certainly pretty good for a 2-piece boyband. Could well do big things this year so keep an eye out.

Next up was Maps-Sparks In The Snow, which has rarely been off my mp3 player since I found it 3 weeks ago. Beautiful organ and vocals which could disappear in a strong gust of wind. English Sigur Ros is perhaps a bit misleading, but it's atmospheric and will gently worm its way into your brain. I found it at Good Weather For Airstrikes, and am looking for more Maps as we speak. Incidentally, if you like this then also check out Breaker by Low which has a similar fee: have a look on The Hype Machine.

I bit the bullet and played Brianstorm, the new single by Arctic Monkeys to see what people thought of it more than anything else, so thank you to those who let us know your thoughts. I stand by my opinion that this is really strong comeback, a bit louder and a bit less reliant on witticisms, instead concentrating on making the biggest impression as possible on the unbelievers. I won't tell you where I found this version because there are far better available; again, get yourself to The Hype Machine or even better buy it when it emerges in the shops on April 16th.

I then played you One of Two by Sky Larkin, who supported Anablogue-favourites Los Campesinos the previous night in Manchester Late Rooms. I played Somersault when Rich from High Voltage was in when I really should have played this: it's like a kick in the stomach followed by an order to dance or be thrown out onto the street. Perfect vocals over a circular-saw guitar line. Essential listening from Good Weather For Airstrikes.

The much-coveted final track of the broadcast was filled by Midlake with their track Roscoe. It could be Radiohead which is praise indeed. I stumbled upon an Erol Alkan remix of this on Gorilla vs Bear which I really didn't rate, but it did encourage me to find the original and very glad I was too.

So there we have it, a wrap-up of the swift four week stint that was Anablogue. Thanks to everyone who listened and got involved, to Rich for coming in and of course to Andy for getting me involved on the Anablogue project. But who knows....you may not have heard the last of us yet...

Harry x