M M & M’s 100 from the noughties – 2005

Perhaps it’s an indication of how the internet was breaking down national barriers and making it easier to hear stuff from all over the globe, or perhaps it’s just happenstance, but my ten for 2005 includes artists from the US, Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Sweden and the UK.

BOOKS – Lost and Safe (Tomlab)
Some found the addition of vocals to the (so far) most recent Books album distracting, but I thought it added an extra dimension to the New York duo’s playful electronic folk.

DIRTY THREE – Cinder (Bella Union)
A great sprawling 19 track collection from the trio saw them exploring many areas that had lain untouched before, including two tunes with guest singers Cat Power and Sally Timms. The power remains undimmed. It always seems like messrs. White, Turner and Ellis are all playing in their own bubbles, and yet the results never seem awkward or dissonant.

KRAFTWERK – Minimum-Maximum (EMI)
With a group as precise as Kraftwerk, you’d have thought a live album would be a bit pointless. But Minimum-Maximum shows off gleamingly retooled, and in some cases completely remodelled, takes on the classics, as well as punchier versions of the Tour de France Soundtracks material. If you just wanted one Kraftwerk album (and I don’t know why you would), I’d say that this was almost a perfect primer.

MONO / WORLD’S END GIRLFRIEND – Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain (Human Highway)
“Full of sound and fury; signifying nothing”. That quote from Macbeth would sum up the opinions of Mono’s critics, and I do have some sympathy. The thing is, the sound and fury is just so damn gorgeous and exciting! Katsuhiko Maeda’s contribution to the band added a new neo-classical element to the sound – one which they would push even further.

MURCOF – Remembranza (Leaf)
Album number three from the Mexican genius, and the brew of dark beats and classical samples was as heady and intoxicating as ever.

NATIONAL – Alligator (Beggars Banquet)
The National’s breakout album. Simply a collection of brilliant, uplifting songs dominated by Matt Berninger’s desperate baritone. It climaxes with “Mr November”, one of the most cathartic songs I’ve ever heard.

BJ NILSEN – Fade to White (Touch)
Props to Scott at Mapsadaisical whose glowing testimony led me to check out Benny Nilsen’s music. “Fade to White” is essentially an ambient drone collection, but the somnambulant drift is punctured by moments of terrific sonic violence.

PORT-ROYAL – Flares (Resonant)
This came out of nowhere. A collection of instrumental rock and electronic atmospheres that verges between heady post-rave to serene ambience and holds the interest throughout. It’s still an album I play fairly frequently, and can pick up new nuances every time.

SHINING – In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster (Rune Grammofon)
Try sticking this in a pigeonhole. Avant-prog-jazz-metal? There’s nothing Shining like more than twisting your expectations into knots. Oh, and battering you over the head with a sound like a runaway train. Not that they don’t do subtlety too. Genuinely exciting music.

VEX’D – Degenerate (Planet Mu)
Disc one is the album proper, disc two a collection of singles, but it works perfectly well as a whole. Dark, creaking monstrous dubstep with skeleton rattling bass frequencies. The balance of the rhythms seems so precarious, like the whoosh you get in your head when you stand up too quickly.

Cult Albums: #7 VEX’D – Degenerate (2005)

My first encounter with dubstep was hearing this album back in the late summer of 2005. I’d been an enthusiastic drum and bass fan back in the mid to late nineties, especially the more rhythmically complex and bass heavy stuff such as Photek, Source Direct, Tech Itch, Dom and Roland etc. But as the rhythms got simpler, the music got repetitive. Jonny L’s “Piper” is a minimalist classic, but the problem is, in no time every record seemed to be using that simplistic two-step beat to the point of tedium. The much heralded d’n'b revival at the turn of the decade with the likes of Kosheen and Uncut, was just two-step rhythms with pop tunes bolted on. It wasn’t anything new or exciting. I didn’t fall out of love with the music, just failed to find anything that compared to the “old school” stuff. I still listen to a few of the best albums quite regularly (those acts I mentioned, plus early Omni Trio and E-Z Rollers, Krust, Bukem, PFM, Foul Play etc).

I never really got garage, and I don’t think I ever really understood what grime was. And dubstep was just another term that didn’t have any meaning to me. I liked Mike Paradinas, though, and liked some of the other stuff on Planet Mu which is how I came by a copy of Degenerate, a sprawling double CD – one half new material, and the other a collection of previously issued twelves.

First listen was a real ‘what-the-fuck?’ experience. The rhythms were colossal, but the tempos seemed stilted, and somehow teetering on the edge of collapse, like a runner whose legs are struggling to keep up with their body. The bass tones boomed on grumbled, but apart from that there was very little melodic colour. This was bare bones music, stripped down to the bare essentials. I didn’t really get it, but I was intrigued enough not to chuck it on to the Ebay pile, but give it another bash. And in time it clicked, this strangely tempoed, claustrophobic, slightly forbidding music. I grew very fond of Degenerate, and it was largely because of it that I got into Burial, Boxcutter, Kode9 and others. Even now there’s something primal and strange about the album that I don’t really hear in other dubstep. Kinda like the Charley Patton to other acts’ Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.

It’s been three years. Hopefully a follow-up shouldn’t be too far away. The track with Warrior Queen on the most recent Planet Mu compilation seems to indicate a move into the same sort of territory as Kevin Martin’s Bug project.

Thunder

Tracks
1-01 Pop Pop V.I.P. 6:55
1-02 Thunder 6:36
1-03 Angels 6:34
1-04 Corridor 6:24
1-05 Cold 3:32
1-06 Venus 5:38
1-07 Gunman 6:08
1-08 Crusher Dub 3:09
1-09 Fire 6:27
1-10 Destruction 0:58
1-11 Lion V.I.P. 5:59
1-12 Slime 4:51
2-01 Canyon 6:03
2-02 Pop Pop 6:00
2-03 Ghost 5:55
2-04 Lion 7:05
2-05 Smart Bomb 5:46
2-06 End Of Line 6:25

Originally issued as Planet Mu ZIQ115CD in July 2005.