Notes From The Front

Franz Ferdinand, "Do You Want To" (Metronomy remix) - I really, really, really wish Metronomy's LP, Pip Paine (Pay Back The £5000 You Owe), had more vocals on it - I've given it like five chances to knock me out so far but it just don't seem like that dog has any plans to hunt. Not that it's a bad album, mind you - one could probably characterize it as Playgroup-gone-chillout if one were so inclined - but the facts are simply that I got acquainted to picking out the charms of Metronomy's rather distinctively laid-back electro sound with at least some semblance of human presence right there in the mix, and in the absence of that presence it just kinda unavoidably feels like homework. Hell, by the time vocals do show up on Pip Paine (on "Trick or Treatz") I have a hard time hearing it as anything other than a new blase instrument, and when we're talking about my enjoyment of a record I tend not to give much of a fuck about artists' original intent (as you may have noticed by now).

Still, their remix work continues to be impeccable - I'm not sure exactly how much I like this mix of "Do You Want To", but needing to grow into an appreciation for their remixes isn't exactly new to me (hell, it took me up until a week or so ago to realize that their remix for Temposhark is probably my favorite thing they've ever done). I'm particularly appreciative of the way this mix builds in t.i.n.y.l.i.t.t.l.e.i.n.c.r.e.m.e.n.t.s - my first time through it, I actually sat upright when they bring the walls crashing down for the song's climax. Part of me suspects that a lot of the credit for their accomplished approach has to do with the source material being such primo fodder for up-ripping and again-starting (seriously, it can't be a coincindence that every remix of "Do You Want To" buries the original in the core of the earth), but I dunno - above and beyond anything else, this remix made me hope to see the day when Metronomy pull a Matthew Herbert and drag some British pop chanteuse of little/no contemporary consequence into the best album of her career. Hell, there were - what - eleven thousand Spice Girls, weren't there? Surely one of them must be doing something other than not eating, right? (The Metronomy mix of "Do You Want To" is currently only available on promo, but in the meantime you might like the Max Tundra remix of the same song - click here to visit Boomkat for samples and purchasing options. Or click here to check out samples from Pip Paine (Pay Back The £5000 You Owe) over at Amazon.co.uk, and buy it if you like it - never assume my taste is the gospel truth, y'all)

Brian Eno & Laraaji, "The Dance (Part 1)" - My new job's had me working out of my apartment this whole week, so I've spent a lot of time getting reacquainted with Brian Eno's magnificent Ambient series, a long-overdue task if ever there was one. I've been particularly satisfied by Ambient 3: Day of Radience, his collaboration with failed-standup-comedian-turned-zither-hustler Laraaji (how's that for a career trajectory). Well, "collaboration" may be a bit of a stretch; aside from possibly sweetening the sound of Laraaji's instrument, Eno's involvement apparently ended the moment the decks started picking up a signal, not that he ever tried to extricate himself from the distribution of credit (seriously, does that album artwork look a little familiar?). Still, whoever actually deserves the credit for this album deserves it by the truckload; Laraaji's skillful picking creates such a vibrant field of background noise that it's still virtually impossible for me to separate this from the other, actually-Eno-fied works of the Ambient series. Of course, without Eno's actual involvement, we'll never see it remastered to the standards of the recent Eno reissues, but oh well - it sounds good enough to make a lot of work fly by in the morning, which is nearly all you can really ask of music like this. (Click here to buy Ambient 3: Day of Radience from Amazon.co.uk)

Gentle Touch, "Smedby" - This was one of roughly four billion tracks I downloaded through Hits In The Car recently - ordinarily, I try to keep from posting tracks available elsewhere, but given that part of Stytzer's M.O. is to only host what he finds elsewhere (i.e. its availability is out of his control), I had to do something just to ward off the possibility that this song might not be available someday (or, rather, in the couple of weeks I'll be hosting it). It genuinely is quite a little track - you could have told me that Gentle Touch were just passing off some tragically-overlooked single from a long out-of-print 80s teen-movie soundtrack as their own creation and I'd have been none the wiser in the best sense possible. Of course, to be fair, I tend to be a sucker for tracks like this sui generis - I mean, big crashing drums? Dispassionate (yet slightly morose) vocals? Nakedly synthetic, er, synths? And you were wondering if this might be right down the street of a guy who calls Richard X's Back to Mine one of his very favorite discs of the decade? Yes please. (Click here to buy the Gentle Touch EP directly from Songs I Wish I Had Written, and don't forget to visit the band's site for another free downloadable track)

ELSEWHERE

- HITLER CATS