Danna’s friend, Um is that Pixie? I don’t even know.
The Summer has been a non-starter here in Scotland. It hit me pretty hard the other day when my vitamin D deficient face looked out the window for another overcast day in the lab. But it’s kinda beautiful in its own way and it adds extra meaning to songs that can normally coast over you. Me & Fine Art made three tapes this month – one for Dazed, one for Nalden and this one here was just sorta labour of love with some really weird shit ( verging from new Hudson Mo to modern classical, fusion, 90s rnb & soul ) to bring some balance and new meaning to a Summer of dreich ( Scottish for shitty weather ).
oh hell no – no track listing this time.
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Joe Corrales, Jr. aka Yppah (pronounced “Yippah”) is back. The young Mexican-American from Texas debuted on Ninja Tune in 2006 with his album, “You Are Beautiful At all Times,” and now releases his sophomore effort, “They Know What Ghost Know.”
Fashioning a rockier sound than last time out, the album draws on a cultural heritage that took in My Bloody Valentine alongside hip hop and which is heavily influenced by various forms of electronic music, psychedelic soul and rock.
Opening track “Son Saves The Rest” is wall-of-noise guitar pummeller. “Gumball Machine Weekend” sounds like southern-fried Go! Team with more soul. “Playing With Fireworks” somehow reminds you of the way you felt stuck between childhood and the adult world, not a million miles from instrumental tracks from the Phantom Band. “Shutter Speed” is nostalgia psyched into a memorable tune. Title track “They Know What Ghost Know” is West Coast rock reimagined as trance-rite, a spooky, echo-heavy drum-roll-filled set of repetitions and overlaps that builds into a tune which DJ Shadow in his heyday might have dreamed of making. “Sun Flower Sun Kissed” takes the doomy grey skies of MBV and gives them a Texan make-over. “Bobbie Joe Wilson” channels the Dust Brothers and proves Yppah hasn’t lost his love of hip hop. Corrales build moods through a combination of melody, rhythm and sonics and if those moods are mainly melancholy, they’re also ecstatic.
After a series of shows last year from SXSW to Japan, there’s a real feeling that Joe Corrales is ready to step up into the big league. The album has that feel to it – that it has been made under huge skies, that it’s possible to make music which is epic and intimate all at once. It’s beguiling and beautiful and makes you a little giddy, too. Find out what Ghost know.
Kanye West recently partnered with Mr. Hudson, but as you can see his sound is pretty interesting and he’s talented. Kind of makes us think of Kanye’s 808’s and Heartbreak meets Coldplay. The new record from Mr. Hudson, Straight No Chaser, is forthcoming in 2009.
The instrumentals in this video remind us a lot of this 1995 Autechre track, “Second Bad Vilbel,” pitched up and edited:
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Pleix is a group of Paris based interactive artists (see another video from them in our Kid606 post). They produce and share ideas and films using 3D graphics and film in general combined with some great electronic music. Check out these creative videos. “Birds” features music by Vitalic, and lots of flying small dogs, and neon! “Itsu” is a music video for a song by the Warp Records artists Plaid.
M83’s Anthony Gonzalez talks about how being a teenager and 80’s movies influence his music on the record Saturdays=Youth.
“Graveyard Girl:”
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“You Appearing:”
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“Couleurs:”
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“We Own The Sky:”
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Danna’s friend, Um is that Pixie? I don’t even know.
