Fat Roland's wonderful Warp Records word search

You look bored. Your face sags with weariness, like old underpants draped over a dachshund. Fat Roland to the rescue! Entertain yourself with my Warp Records word search.

See if you can find all 30 of the Warp Records artists, past and present, hidden in this grid. Just to make it harder, the words can go in any direction.

Some are Warp names familiar to any techno-head. Some may have had only one release and just get a brief mention on the Wikipedia page about Warp Records, from whence I lazily snaffled my information.

Warp Records word search: the difficult version (grid only)

I have two versions. At the end of this blog post is a grid without the 30 artist names included for reference. This is for advanced word searchers only, and should only be attempted by people with good eyes, an iron will and a pair of crampons.

The version below is low-resolution. If you want a larger version of this grid, click here to download (353kb PNG file).

Warp Records word search: the easier version (grid with accompanying words)

There is also an easier version: same grid, but with the 30 artist names printed beneath. This is for simple-minded word searchers who need spoon-feeding like little babies. I count myself in this category.

I won't print this easier version here, because it will annoy the advanced word searchers. To see the easier version of this grid with the 30 artist names included, click here to download a decent quality version (300kb PNG file) or click here download a lower resolution version (131kb JPEG file).

Or, and praise the Lord for all this amazing word search admin, check the comments on this blog post, where I've also listed the 30 names.

Your face looks interested now. You're drooling. There's a glint in your eye. My work here is done. Happy searching-for-words.

All Warp Records stock destroyed in Sony / PIAS fire

I had been chiselling out a blog post about the Sony DADC warehouse fire that claimed the stock of scores of independent record labels in the UK, including Warp Records.

Today, Warp issued a statement on how the fire, caused by the London riots, had affected them. It was not good news.

"All of Warp's UK stock appears to have been lost in the fire," say Warp.

Read that again. Horrible.

"The Sony DADC warehouse also acted as our international distribution hub and so this has affected our ability to supply our overseas partners."

They go on to state that forthcoming released by Grizzly Bear offshoot CANT (as obtuse a name as !!!), uber knob-twonk Rustie and techno veterans Plaid will go ahead, but that funtime high-cymballed beat combo Battles may have to cope with a digital-only version of their next single My Machines.

Label Love is a campaign to raise cash for the many labels affected by the blaze. There is one event already scheduled, and I hope Manchester can organise something similar. PIAS, who sub-contract the warehouse, have also teamed up with the Association of Independent Music to support those affected.

But the worry is not just financial.

"The biggest challenge for us," continues the statement, "is replacing Warp's extensive back catalogue spanning the last 21 years. We will replace as much of this as we can by creating new stock and replenishing where possible with stock from outside the UK. Unfortunately some releases may never be available physically again."

"We will be closely supporting PIAS in their efforts to get the independent music community up and running as quickly as they can."

There's not much else to say. My planned blog post, full of theoretical blatherings about the wider affect of the fire and the riots, has been thrown into the bin. All that remains is a deep sadness for Warp Records and the effect of this incident on the legacy that has fed this blog for years.

Not just Warp, either, of course. A full list of labels follows in small print.

All that, before we even get to the human tragedy of the stupid, stupid riots. What a sad few days.

-----

[PIAS] Recordings, [PIAS] Recordings Belgium, 4AD, A Camp, Absynthe Minded, Accidental, AEI Music, Air Recordings, ALC Music, Alsation, Ambush Reality, Ancient & Modern, Angular Recording Corporation, Arcady Records, Ark Recordings, Asthmatic Kitty Records, Atlantic Jaxx Recordings, Bad Magic, Balling The Jack, Banquet Records, Battered Ornaments Records, Beggars Banquet, Best Before, Big Brother, Big Dada, Bird Records, Blackmaps, Bloody Chamber, Blowout Music, Blue Chopsticks, Border Community, Borstal Beats, Boysnoize Records, BPM, Brainfeeder, Brassland, Bright Star Recordings, Brille, Broken Sound Music, Bronzerat, Brothers and Sisters, Brownswood Recordings, Buzzin’ Fly, Cache Cache, Cadenza Records, Celluloid Records, Chalkmark / IE, Chemikal Underground Records, Cocoon, Control Tower, Counter Records, Dance To The Radio, Dead Oceans, Deceptive, Defenders, Ent UK, DESOLAT, Dessous, Different, Dirtee Stank, Divine Comedy Records, Domino Records, Double Six Records, Drag City, Dreambrother, Drive Thru Records, Drowned In Sound, Dummy Records, Duophonic, Eat Sleep Records, Fabric Worldwide, Fake Diamonds, FantasyTrashcan, Fatcat Records, Fence, Feraltone, Finders Keepers Records, Flock Music, Flying Circus, Freerange Records, Friends Vs Records, Full Pupp, Full Time Hobby, Gang Of Four Recordings, Geographic, Ghost Ship, Glaze Recordings, Groenland Records, G-Unit, Hardly Art, Hassle Records, Helpless, Hem Hem Records, HFN Music, Immune, Independiente, Infant, Infectious, Jagjaguwar, Kartel, Kitchenware, Kitsune, KMS Records / Fabric, Laughing Stock, Lex Records, Lipservice, Little Sister Recordings, LO-MAX Records, Loose Music, Lovepump United, Low Life Records, Lucky Number Music, Lucky Seven Records, Mantra, Matador, Memphis Industries, Merok, Metric Music International, Metroline Limited, Model Citizen, Moikai, Motion Audio, MyMajorLabel Ltd, Nation, Ninja Tune, No Quarter, NovaMute, Nusic Sounds, One Four Seven Records Ltd, One Little Indian, Organs, Outcaste, OVNI, P.I.L., Peartree, Records, PeMa, People In The Sky, People Tree, Pirates Blend Records Inc, Planet Function, Play It Again Sam, Playlouder, Poker Flat, Polyvinyl, Records, Poseidon Records, Post Present, Pschent, Raw Canvas, Red Cord Records, REK’D, Rekids, Rekords Rekords, Renaissance, Reveal Records, Riverman Records, Rock Action Records, Roots Records, Rough Trade Records, Rubyworks, Sea Note, Search and Destroy, Secretly Canadian, Setanta, Shape, SideOneDummy Records, Silva Screen, Slam Dunk Records, Smekkleysa, Soma, Sonic Cathedral, Soul Jazz Records, South Paw, Southern Fried Records, Stereo Bang Media, Stolen Recordings, Stranger Records, Streamline, Sub Pop, Suicide Squeeze, Sunday Best, Thrill Jockey, Tirk, Too Pure, Torque Records, Touch & Go Records, Transmission Recordings, Tri Tone, Trouble Records, True Panther, Try Harder, Turnstile, Twisted Nerve Recordings, Universal Sound, Victory Records, Wagram, Wall of Sound, Warp, Watergate, We Love You, Wiiija, Willkommen Records Ltd, Wonderfulsound, XL, Xtra Mile Recordings, Yaala Yaala, Young Turks

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Brian Eno will release his new album on Warp Records

So it's true. Brian Eno, king of the ambient and soundtrackist for many-an-airport, is to release a new album on Warp Records.

I reported this here on Friday, but I can't help feeling it seemed a little too good to be true. Warp's debt - particularly Aphex Twin's - to Eno seemed a little too obvious. It would be like The Wanted teaming up with the Backstreet Boys. Or Flo Rida doing a duet with the back end of a sheep.

If you want to be kept up-to-date with the new album's development, click here to go to Eno's website.

Meanwhile, my other bit of speculation came true - Magnetic Man did indeed score a top ten hit at the weekend. Maybe it's not such a compliment to be in this week's chart: as twitterer Tom Ewing pointed out, "the new UK number one is called All Time Low. Not even close lads, though for a first go it's a decent stab."

At least the Wanted have got to the top spot as a result of their singing talents and not in any way because of their... oh. I see.

(Picture: South Bank Centre)

Chosen Words: W is for Warp (Obviously)

Fat Roland's A-Z guide to the most important words or phrases in electronica and their associated "facts"

Warp Records is a record label more renowned than any other in the field of electronic music.

Its cold techno quickly found an audience when Tricky Disco and LFO scored chart hits. At the same time, dance music was going through a renaissance with Snap, Adamski and Timmy Mallett shifting major units.

Artificial Intelligence, Surfing On Sine Waves and Bytes were key albums in those days. Many people expected more computer-related album titles, like PC World Are Shite, What's The Point Of NumLock and My Screen Has Turned Sideways Can You Help Me Wikianswers.

Warp used to be based in Sheffield back in the Victorian days, but moved to London when the bleeps from the music kept getting tangled in the chimney smoke. What they should have realised was chimneys are an ideal shape for the extensive storage of vinyl records.

Warp is an 'backronym', which means 'Warp' later became an acronym for any one of the following phrases: We Are Reasonable People, We Are Rubbish Philatelists and Westlife Abducted Ronan's Pet.

While the electronic sound was taken up by labels such as Rephlex and Planet Mu, Warp itself recently discovered the guitar. Recalling the colour of its early record sleeves, the label is now going through a pretty impressive purple patch: check its latest releases here.

For more Chosen Words, click the tag at the bottom of this post.

Here's the skinny (dip) on Warp's Babe Rainbow and Flying Lotus

And now, some news from the Warp label.

Two of these facts are absolute hogwash and were written whilst I was high on methane. Three of these facts are 100% genuine leather newsbites about Warp Records and their artists.

Babe Rainbow

Babe Rainbow (pictured) is the newest act to sign to the label. He is a Canadian experimentalist sitting somewhere amid Req, Burial and anything ending in 'step'. This has been covered a-plenty by other websites, so I'll post more when his debut Shaved EP hits in February. Listen to loads of Babe stuff on Tumblr.

Achy breaky heart

Last week, Warp Records founder Steve Beckett announced to an astonished media that he was, in fact, Miley Cyrus. Tongues began wagging on the set of the 3D kid's film Bolt, where "Miley" would spend hours listening to mp3 demos from wannabe Squarepushers. Billy Ray Cyrus' first dubstep EP will be out on Warp in the spring.

Flying Lotus

I mentioned the release of Flying Lotus' DJ kicks CD in my 2010 preview, but I can add to that the release of a fully-formed FlyLo studio album too. Cosmogramma will be out on April 20th on Warp. He is quickly becoming the godfather of modern beat production, and all ears will be tuned in. There's even a Massive Attack remix on the way, according to this interview in Pitchfork. I know this is exciting, because on my notes for this blog post, I have scrawled "OH YEAH".

Warp Records for Dummies

This Dummy Guide to Warp Records is wonderful, and a definite must-read for Warp noobs and vets alike. I wish I had written it: Rob Gordon throwing the phone is classic rock 'n' roll angst. It finishes with a list of essential Warp albums, so if you're looking to fill up your virtual music shelves, here's where to start.

Skinny dipping

Warp Records is relocating to the house next door to me. They've decided London didn't really work out, so they've bought a modern semi-detached bungalow complete with swimming pool. I am allowed to skinny dip any time I want, and they have promised to furnish my villa with all-new furniture made with off-cuts from vinyl records. I hope the grooves don't chafe.

Suspended puppies: an absolutely genuine review of Warp20 Sheffield

What kind of skrunk-flapped piffoon would profess to run a blog on electronica then not bother to go to the most important electronica night in the history of the bleepiverse?

At the weekend, Warp Records celebrated its 20th anniversary with an absolute doozer of night. Warp20 Sheffield (logo pictured) featured smash-n-bassmaster Squarepusher and a hatful of classic Warp artists.

Because I couldn't go (and my diary clash really was unavoidable, like trying to walk past a pedestrian who's swallowed a house), I'm going to have to make up a fictitious review. Here goes...

Harmonic 313 came on before anyone had arrived; he was only playing to one man and an ill horse. To be honest, this took the pizzazz out of his set, and all he did was whip his keyboards with a wet towel. A disappointment all round.

Hudson Mohawke didn't begin his set because Kanye West stormed on stage and told everyone how he loved Beyonce. HudMo was later spotted crying in the corner sobbing his way through the lyrics of Single Ladies. Instead, Nightmares On Wax filled in with a unique set of tracks alternating between bland soundtrack chill-out and gabba nosebleed techno.

It is difficult to describe Squarepusher's set without using the following words:

- slap;
- krunk;
- Ogden Nash;
- visible beard growth;
- suspended puppies;
- Middle East peace process;
- Celine.

Then came Clark, who took his cue from old Top Of The Pops and performed all his song titles literally. So Totems Flare had him setting fire to things dressed as a Native American and he wore a bear suit for Ted. He went too far with that operation he did on an audience member during Empty The Bones Of You, but at least it was different.

After Andrew Weatherall's DJ set, which was mainly him shouting "does anyone remember me, I used to be important", it was time for Forgemasters.

Everyone who knows about the history of Warp Records will know about Forgemasters. They invented music back in the caves of 70,000 BC and if their music ever stops being played, the Earth will die.

So it was a delightful surprise when they closed Sheffield's Warp20 with a gushing rendition of Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Everyone simpered; it was lovely.

Shame it was spoilt by Clark who, now horrifically drunk, stumbled onto the stage as Tinman and crashed sideways into their keyboards. That really upset Hudson Mohawke, who forgot the lyrics to Independent Women. Bastard.

Warp Are Releasing Perfection

 

Warp
Are
Releasing
Perfection:

Warp 20
Archives
Remarkable
Pieces Of Music.

What you get:
Artwork: a complete catalogue;
Recreated Warp classics;
Popular Warp top 10s;

Warp exclusives;
An hour-long opus;
Rhythm loops;
Proper vinyl as well as CDs.

When?
Actually
Ready to
Pre-order now.

Why?
Advance buying gets £15
Reduction in
Price.

Wonderful
Asset,
Regardless of
Price.

Whet your
Appetite?
Rob Mitchell would be
Proud.

Weak
Acrostics =
Rubbish
Posting

Ticket giveaway for Sonar 2009

I wonder if any fellow Mancunians fancy a trip to Barcelona right now? No?

The Sonar Festival is giving away a brace of tickets to their celebration of future music and art on June 8th to 10th this year. That's in about two weeks time.

To win the tickets, all you need to do is pick your top five Warp Records releases and email the list to info at bleep dot com.

Or you can pop your faves on the wall of Bleep's Facebook group. I've just joined that group, so I may see you there.

Someone had to tell me about Manchester United versus Barcelona. As a Mancunian, that's pretty shameful, but football's so off my radar, it's ridiculous. The only footie thing I like is Pop Will Eat Itself's Touched By The Hand Of Cicciolina.

2paW0r: Answers

Time for the answers to my Warp Records anagram challenge. If you want to have a go, don't spoil it by reading the answers here... jump straight to the quiz and see how many you can get.

Here goes:

1 - Not tiresome seduction (5) was the early Squarepusher album Music Is Rotted One Note.

2 - Hurray! Knobbed! (2) was Donkey Rhubarb, the EP by Aphex Twin.

3 - A bawdy convoy (2) was the Boards Of Canada track Dayvan Cowboy.

4 - Enchant a dull head (2) was Haunted Dancefloor, the Sabres Of Paradise classic.

5 - Shams (1) is the Jackson And His Computer Band album Smash.

6 - Non-established chalk (5) is the Gravenhurst mini-album Black Holes In The Sand.

7 - Sells an ego (2) is the Flying Lotus album Los Angeles.

8 - If sequencer (1) is Frequencies, the LFO album.

9 - Damndest, elite nightshade! (5) is The Ends Against The Middle, the Warp debut by Anti Pop Consortium.


10 - The gormless kid (2) is Smokers Delight, the notable album by Nightmares On Wax.

11 - Is cocky dirt (2) is Tricky Disco, an early classic.

12 - No (1) is On, the single by Aphex Twin. Tough one, that.

13 - Shock OK bet (1) is the Req album Sketchbook.

14 - Charmed tory (4) is, bizarrely, the Squarepusher single My Red Hot Car.

15 - Flaky old ponce (2) is Polyfolk Dance, the EP by Hudson Mohawke.

16 - Hence examined chews huge, inclement nail (5) is the Harmonic 313 album When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence.

17 - Wiser, roughened toxin (3) is One Word Extinguisher, the second album from Prefuse 73.

18 - Daring grunt, no? (2) is the Clark album Turning Dragon.

19 - As critique (1) is Quaristice, the recent album by Autechre.

20 - OK ancient warmth (4), finally, is seminal Forgemasters single Track With No Name.

The Guardian puts a clonk on it

If you're quick, you can still get the Guardian's tribute to Warp Records, cut it out with your mam's sewing scissors, and plaster it on your wall like a great big fanboy.

'Bleep Of Faith' is a neat little feature looking back on 20 years of the electronic music label.

It contains all the obvious gems of Warp mythology, listed here for your easy digestment, plus one or two lovely stories. I especially like the image of LFO fighting on stage like they were some kind of Kraftwerkian Gallagher brothers.

- Warp Records was conceived in a bedroom. Arf!;

- modern electronica was born with the release of the Artificial Intelligence album;

- the first release (Track With No Name) was flogged from the back of a car;

- they fooled Pete Tongue into thinking the future of music was something called "clonk";

- they happen to make some pretty bloody good films (the best of which is This Is England)

- LFO used to fight on stage. Like Brian Jonestown Massacre;

- the label was started with a £40 Enterprise Allowance grant;

- Richard David James, a.k.a. Aphex Twin, is something of a 'maverick'. You'd never guess;

- signing the likes of Maximo Park had purists spluttering into their chai tea;

- the early releases apparently sounded exactly like Sheffield, which makes Warp totally different from Pulp, who also sounded exactly like Sheffield... who were, incidentally, totally different from the Human League, who also .... you get the idea.

2paW0r: The Warp Records anagram challenge

Here are 20 releases on Warp Records, all shaken up in a moment of anagram frenzy.

None of them are too obscure, although I reckon a lot of it is difficult (like the music!) and you pretty much need to be "into" your Warp to get them.

They include singles and albums by a variety of artists including Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Boards Of Canada and more. The numbers in brackets after each anagram indicate the number of words in the answer. Any punctuation you see isn't part of the anagram.

This is in celebration of pants-burstingly exciting Warp20 vote, some details of which can be found on the sidebar of this here website.

For example, for:
- No boring rape? Fine! (3)
the answer would be 'For Beginner Piano', the album by Plone (pictured).

Happy anagramming, and remember, it includes singles too. Pop your guesses in the comments (which should open in a separate window) and I'll 'fess up the answers in a few days. (Edit: Answers here.)

1 - Not tiresome seduction (5)

2 - Hurray! Knobbed! (2)

3 - A bawdy convoy (2)

4 - Enchant a dull head (2)

5 - Shams (1)

6 - Non-established chalk (5)

7 - Sells an ego (2)

8 - If sequencer (1)

9 - Damndest, elite nightshade! (5)

10 - The gormless kid (2)

11 - Is cocky dirt (2)

12 - No (1)

13 - Shock OK bet (1)

14 - Charmed tory (4)

15 - Flaky old ponce (2)

16 - Hence examined chews huge, inclement nail (5)

17 - Wiser, roughened toxin (3)

18 - Daring grunt, no? (2)

19 - As critique (1)

20 - OK ancient warmth (4)

(Answers here.)

My Warp top ten: it's not all Warp and there aren't ten of them

As most electronica-headz know by now, Warp Records (famous website navigation pictured above) are asking for your favourite top ten tracks to go towards a bespoke album release later this year.

You can keep abreast of the voting further down this page on the right. No, a bit further down. No, the other right, yes, you got it.

Here is a list of my personal choices, which tragically exclude the likes of Leila Arab, Req and Richard H Kirk, whose albums I rate but I couldn't pinpoint individual "choons".

There is a slight failing in my top ten Warp list. There aren't ten, and not all of it was released on Warp. So it's as useful as fibreglass facewash.

What tracks would you choose? Why not leave a comment below? Comments cost £1.50 a minute, mobiles may vary, and not all comments will be read but you may still be charged.

- Aphex Twin - Ageispolis (I think I actually made love to my speakers the first time I heard the supersonic bass)

- Autechre - Arch Carrier (it's criminal to boil Ae down to single tracks, but this one has the nod)

- Battles - Ddiamondd (just sums up Battles' intensity and obstinate refusal to make any sense whatsoever)

- Boards Of Canada - In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country (just plain spooky)

- Clark - Ted (one of several Clark tracks I could pick, but I chose this for the sheer head-noddingness)

- Higher Intelligence Agency - Ketamine Entity (one of the first electronica tracks I was obsessed with)

- Hudson Mohawke - ZooO00oO0m (I still get excited about all those little Os)

- Jamie Lidell - A Little Bit More (Luke Vibert remix) (give a soul singer a laptop and you get this)

- LFO - LFO (at last, a techno track with easy-to-remember lyrics!)

- Link - Arcadian (an absolute all-time stonking ambient dub classic of the highest order)

- Luke Vibert - I Love Acid (yes, it's a crowd pleaser, but it's Vibert at his most Viberty)

- Nightmares On Wax - Les Nuits (commercial trip hop that I'm inexplicably fond of)

- Plaid - Get What You Gave (steel band electronica - nuff said)

- Polygon Window - If It Really Is Me (released in 1826 or something, this is epic Aphex Twin)

- Rustie - ZigZag (I could have chosen a few Rustie tracks, but this one hit me between the eyeballs)

- Sabres Of Paradise - Theme (I bought this purely because of the graffiti-style cover artwork)

- Squarepusher - Red Hot Car (the only singalonga-Squarepusher track until 2008's A Real Woman)

Monthly mop-up: simmering Super Furries, dribbling confusion and net-loafing twazmuppets

Play with this cute flash synthesiser. Go on, have a play. Finished? Right then, stop faffing about and read my monthly mop-up for March.

What did I miss in March?

Probably quite a lot.  I should have mentioned Seeland, who are the blessed offspring of Broadcast (website graphic pictured) and Plone, and were tipped for great things in the second part of my 2009 preview back in January. Their music is bright, simple and gently experimental, like a simmering Super Furry Animals. Their debut album Tomorrow Today sounds like the 60s, the 70s and the 80s all at once.

I also ignored the Mark Pritchard single ? / The Hologram. It's his first release on brand spanking fresh Ho Hum label, and it's had some backing from Mary Ann Hobbs. ? is a dark drone that seems to momentarily peer at you from around the corner. The Hologram is a stolid slice of trip-hop that doesn't quite catch the spirituality of ?.

I also need to give you the latest goss on Luke Vibert.  The playground rave mentalist has stopped bathing in acid, and instead has lit up a massive doobie with some hip-hop inspired tracks - but that's for another post.

Can you recommend me some video action?

Yes. The massive, garguantuan, behemoth video superstar of March 2009 lived up to the hype. We've had mash-up vids before, but none has been as nose-breakingly effective as a collection of songs called Thru-You

Jerusalem-born Kutiman grabbed entirely unrelated snatches of other people's YouTube videos, cut them up, stretched them, sliced them, diced them and made love to them. The result is a collection of brilliant tracks that are so unlike their original source material, it renders all copyright arguments into a dribbling confusion. Watch the videos here.

And there was me thinking Radiohead on Mario Paint Composer would be the bestest video I saw this month.

Can I have an animal-themed link, please Mr Roland?

Grizzly Bear's impassioned plea, mentioned in my blog piece from a couple of weeks ago, reminded me of an interview the band did with Pitchfork last month in which Ed explained a shock Animal Collective leak and offered his thoughts on the death of the record buyer.  Read the short interview here. Album Veckatimest is out in two months.

What is a twazmuppet?

Tim Footman is a twazmuppet. Comment Is Free writer and Radiohead biographer Mr Footman had asked his Twitter friends to remind him to get on with some work and stop dabbling with social networking. It seemed like a sensible thing to do. So a few hours later, I messaged him:

"Get some shitting work done, you net-loafing twazmuppet."

'Twazmuppet' was a word I invented in my head months ago, but never had chance to use. So I yelled it at a poor defenceless author. Read Tim's reaction on his excellent blog here.

Tim Footman is anything but a twazmuppet. At least, I think he isn't. Can someone ring the OED to see if they've decided on a definition yet?

What's your favourite Warp track?

This is a question Warp Records are asking you, the general public. Go to their Warp 20 voting site and help celebrate the 20th birthday of the best record label of all time.

Warp Records does not taste of desks, claim experts

Richard "n" Judy, Boddingtons and Warp Records all quit the north for the big bright lights of, er, somewhere down south.

Nobody watches Richard and Judy anymore.  Boddingtons now tastes of desks.  But it worked in Warp Records' favour, because by moving within spitting distance of Hampstead Heath, it brought them closer to the NEWS.

Yes, that's right.  The NEWS.  It may have escaped your attention-deficit, but legendary techno label Warp Records isn't all about music.  Toward the back end of last year, they released the whole back catalogue of the legendary radio programme On The Hour.  On two glorious deluxe CD packages.

For those unaware of this classic parody series, the audio-only YouTubeness I embedded above gives you a taste of Chris Morris' paeon to rolling news, before rolling news was invented.

There are more rich pickings at the On The Hour media/events interface here.

And another thing.  If you thought radio was too sedate for you, have a listen to the Prodigy filling in for Zane Lowe on Radio 1.  You should be able to still listen to the show if you're quick, although the link was naffed up when I tried.  It should be a big year for the Proj, as I mentioned in my review of 2009 electronica releases.

mpSunday: Clark's Ted

Every few Sundays, I'll pop an mp3 onto the site which you can download and listen to until you sick up noise from the very depths of your ear drums.

The series, which may or may not last, will be called mpSunday. Every time I post a new mp3 for mpSunday, I'll delete the previous mp3.

So get 'em while they're hot.

The first track is Clark's Ted. He's signed to Warp, his first name is Chris, he's from St Albans and he played Futuresonic last night. Ted seems kind of upbeat, almost dance-floor friendly, but it's just.. a little squinted.

PING! This mp3 is no longer available. See here for the latest mpSunday.

In Southport and not quivering under the duvet hiding from Franco frolickers

Luke Williams usually quivers under the duvet pretending he's Quinoline Yellow, a melodic electronic artist attached to the seminal Skam label and now to his own Uchelfa. (Dol-Goy Assist album pictured.)

But now he's under the bed with the bogeyman pretending he is someone else. Now, he answers to Tatamax, and he's just blurted out a superb album of cut-up sounds and dream noises.

It's called Wells Sentry and it's his debut album as Tatamax. Some will label it 'musique concrete'. This is where lost souls frolick through the long grass with a mini-disc recorder, a microphone and several large Francophile pretenses.

It is indeed a disc full of detailed found-sounds; there's a great snooker ball clack which bounces around the inexplicably-christened 54434D iadem.

But with the exception of the Venetian Snares-lite Kill Switches Demo, this is a haunted house of wafting dynamics and cheap plastic sonics that will keep you entertained long after the ambience has tip-toed back to spook your nightmares.

While you're in HMV confusing them with your request for this particular piece of digital tomfoolery, why not ask for Emissions: From The Archive?

This is a compilation of early Two Lone Swordsmen tracks. When I say early, I mean it's way before they started sounding like PiL. The 'Emissions' bit refers to the label they ran before they were scooped up by Warp Records.

It could be very standard upbeat mid-90s lounge dance, if it wasn't infused with late-night-smoky-clubness. Expect your clothes to smell in the morning.

And remember - this is from the same production brain that brought you Sabres Of Paradise extra-orgasmically-gorgeous Smokebelch.

Finally, I would type about Matthew Herbert's new offering Score, which is a big pile of music he's written for films, musicals, ballets, jazz clubs and scouting jamborees. I lied about the last two.

But I don't like it much. Instead let me spend the last few lines of this internetular missive telling you I am writing this from an internet cafe in Southport (time used 46min, balance £2) inbetwixt running a bookshop for a chorus of Salvation Army people.

I bet Aphex Twin's never done such a thing. Run a bookshop for the Salvation Army, that is. I'm sure he's been in an internet cafe. I don't know. You'd better ask him. Don't ask me--

--damn, that's £2.50.

Dizzeee Raaaaarskuw, Dump Valve and (intelligent) dance music

I don't often link to other corners of the internet. Apart from Youtube, but that hardly counts as a 'corner'. I guess if something's good, you'll eventually find it and there are lots of sites out there that do that kind of thing anyway.

But I couldn't help linking to this review of the Dump Valve label. It's one of those articles that strays into Really Interesting Territory (TM).

Writer Anthony F Wilson (that's an F not an H) posits the theory that there isn't much to separate Warp Records' techno revolution with the latest revolution in British music known as grime. I love saying "Dizzeee Raaaaarskuw", so grime gets my vote anyday.

He's also made me a little blushy about using the phrase "IDM" so liberally; I think he makes a valid point. Or is that just my m*ddle-cl*ss angst? Read the article here.

Reviews: Gruff Rhys, TTC & Mira Calix

Artist: Gruff Rhys
Title: Candylion (album)
Label: Rough Trade
[site] [listen]
Despite them losing their rocky edge as they aged, I always thought Super Furry Animals were the dragon's balls. Here's yon lead singer waxing lyrical about, well, anything that spools from his astonishing imagination - everything from Smokey Robinson to celtic laments. I'll buy this, but I'll pine for them old Fuzzy Logic days.


Artist: TTC
Title: 3615 (album)
Label: Big Dada
[site][listen]
Disco and euro pop aren't the first words in the dictionary of French hip hop, but maybe TTC are out to re-write the rule book with this crazy, strange, deeply interesting album. MC Solaar it is not. More probably, they have taken a page from the bible of Warp acts like Beans and Antipop Consortium, with some nostalgic electro pop woven down the spine. (Yes, Fat Roland's been reading books and that.)


Artist: Mira Calix
Title: Eyes Set Against The Sun (album)
Label: Warp
[site][listen]
If you touch a butterfly, it turns to stone. Mira Calix's third long player flutters with your feelings; it tiptoes a meandering path leaving its listeners mesmerised and giddy with its beauty. It's also damn strange, but field recordings and fuzzy beats only add to the charm. This is too delicate for some: handle with care. I lied about the butterfly, by the way.

Six

Oh go on then, have a musical review of the year. Rather than drown you with a flood of recommendations from 2006, here is a simple six-fold selection to ensure salivation through sonic satisfaction.

For the first time, I have included 30-second sample mp3s for you to listen to. Just click on the link and your Quicktime player will summon up the fairies that make music happen on your screen. The mp3s will only be up for two weeks, mind.

(Artists that I considered but didn't include in my top six: Isan, Battles, Dabrye, Susumu Yokota, Monolake, Hot Chip, 000, Boxcutter, Wagon Christ, Biosphere and Quinoline Yellow.)

Artist: Squarepusher
Title: Hello Everything (album)
Label: Warp
[site] [mp3 no longer available]
Those who prefer Squarepusher's harder drill 'n' bass fare should stay away. Otherwise, this is a playful pot pourri of some of 'Pusher's biggest weapons: junglism, ambience, jazz, stupid synths and frenetic bass guitar mayhem. And it's ever so melodic, which means this is a good album for those tentative souls yet to foray into the strange world of Tom Jenkinson.


Artist: Luke Abbott
Title: b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b (track)
Label: Output
[site] [mp3 no longer available]
Now come on, this is just silly. The reviews call this an "8bit adventure", which basically means there is zip all quality to this repetitive bit of nonsense. This was also one of the few moments of absolute genius in 2006. Luke manipulates the circuits of electronic toys and produces the kind of results only found between the matrix and the real world. B,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,brilliant.


Artist: Nathan Fake
Title:Drowning In A Sea Of Love (album)
Label: Border Community
[site] [mp3 no longer available]
As you would expect with a "sea of love", listening to this album is like being hugged by a hundred marshmallows while having your feet massaged by clouds. Electronica / IDM has not been this warm and inviting since The Orb's last party in hell. Jump in, take your socks off, and absorb yourself in what I hope will be considered an masterpiece by the time I'm selling drugs to my grandchildren.


Artist: FM3
Title: Buddha Machine (album?)
Label: FM3
[site]
FM3 are a Chinese experimental music duo who decided to spurn the usual format of CD or mp3 or whatever, and instead released their new album in its own dedicated piece of hardware. The Buddha Machine is a small plastic box with a speaker that emits nine short drones that you toggle between using a switch on the side. And that's it. And it's one of the best things I have ever bought.


Artist: Clark
Title: Boddy Riddle (album)
Label: Warp
[site] [mp3 no longer available]
Clark, who used to be known as Chris Clark but had his Chris stolen by hoodies, is an electronic artist, but his music encompasses post-rock, musique concrete and the dishwasher to boot. I don't know whether to file this under disco, ambient, krautrock or space music. Alls I do knows is this is Clark's most complete album to date and it will happily stick out of your CD racks like a native American on a psychiatric ward.


Artist: Boards Of Canada
Title: Dayvan Cowboy (track)
Label: Warp
[site]
Forgive me for including a third Warp artist in my top six, but I can't ignore the monster that is BoC. Dayvan Cowboy spilled forth from their Trans Canada Highway EP and, well, see it for yourself... with THE MAGIC OF VIDEO. With this ends my blogging year. See you on the odd side.

Will the David Attenborough of electronic music please step forward?

I'm not exactly what you call a man's man, although I fall effortlessly into realms of life traditionally spurned by most no-tails, such as Formula One, modern computer video games and long conversations about early Warp catalogue numbers.

I get as annoyed at male chauvanist pigs as I do at wimmin's libbers who spout things like "typical man!" and "You think that hurts? You should try childbirth." Sexism is from the same root as racism, so if you want to be my friend, keep your petty prejudice to yourself, lest I sulk quietly for three days before developing man 'flu*.

>Women in the field

This blog is meant to be about electronica / IDM music, which is male dominated like most areas of popular music. There are women in the field, such as Goldfrapp, Bjork, a bit of Mum and a smidgeon of Telefon Tel Aviv, but they are mostly standing on the touchlines watching the main action. See? That was a sporting analogy, which is so manly*.

In the spirit of political correctness gone mad, I would like to declare January 2007 as the month that Mira Calix will make it big. She is a glitch artist who dillies with found sound, and dallies with orchestral experimentation.

>Flowers

Her new album will be called Eyes Set Against The Sun, and it features samples taken from her garden. Audio samples, that is; she isn't flower pressing, even though that is very womanly*.

Australia's In The Mix magazine describes her as the David Attenborough of electronic music, and a particular quote from their interview with her (read it here) gives me hope that electronica artists' obsession with audio trivialities is not just a male fascination.

>Amazing creak

Here's what she says: “There’s a tree near where I live that has this amazing creak all of its own, and every little twig you hear sounds different if you bash it or step on it or rub against it, and because they are different types of wood they all make different types of sounds...

"I made a [musical] piece out of snow melting but it ends up sounding like water running because it obviously turns into water when it melts. Because it was all melting at different speeds and times, though, it sounds bizarre – maybe, to people, it could sound like I just turned the shower on! I enjoyed it, but in the end I got too cold and had to leave my recorder outside and keep popping back. I have no idea why I find it fun, but I do.”

>Fixations

Her childlike fixations sum up my thought processes about most things most of the time, although I'm not sure if that makes me a man's man, a woman's woman or just a Roland's Roland.

*irony in action