Chip off the old block

I really don’t know what to make of Hot Chip. When I first heard “And I Was a boy from School” I thought I had found my new electronic music gods (if gods can be quirky geeks). With 2008’s “Made in the dark” I was sure the band had ‘come of age’ and that such a strong album would open doors. I even heard ‘Ready for the floor’ played on mainstream, daytime radio; heady days.

“One Life Stand” was good, but didn’t move them on either artistically or commercially; it sounded less cohesive and left me feeling a tad disappointed. Alexis Taylor’s solo album stunk higher than a kipper left out in the sun and anything labelled “Hot Chip Remix” is best approached with caution (but never as bad as a Caribou remix admittedly).

Thus I feared their latest offering “In Our Heads” could signal Hot Chip’s slide down the league of mediocrity into the relegation slots Simian Mobile Disco are intent on inhabiting. But the opening track “Motion Sickness” soon dispels the fear that the album is a complete loss. Alexis’s reassuring vocal floats over a kind of electronic soul track that is both eclectic and mesmerising (they even manage to throw in some 303 style acid riffs). The house tinged “How Do You Do?” sounds like it has been beamed in from 1988 via a Mylo remix. There is a smattering of duff tracks whose inclusion makes me wonder if their presence is simply to offer a blinding contrast to wonderful songs such as “Flutes” and the truly sublime “Let Me Be Him”. So a mixed bag, but ultimately one worth investing both time and money into.

It seems Hot Chip albums will never be consistent, but the highs far out weigh the lows. It will just take their record companies longer to generate that retrospective “Best of” compilation.

I came across a cache of old photos (well CD's actually)

The sheer volume of music I own means that sometimes I forget what I have. This might sound a bit strange, but it also means when you dig out a dusty CD box you can find a hidden treasure.

Whilst digging through The Beatles back catalogue, I unearthed a CD that I remember buying (for the confusing sum of £12.79) from an MVC store (remember them?) back in the 1990’s. Beck’s “Odelay” was purchased because I liked “Devils Haircut” I think, or maybe I was confused and thought “Loser” was on it; I don’t remember. However, I do remember not taking a liking to the album much and after playing it once or twice it went into storage for 16 years.

I decided to rip “Odelay” onto my hard drive and check it out; I’m glad I did. Maybe I have fallen behind massively (yes, I know I have) but this album sounds really fresh and contemporary to me. The majority of the tracks are interesting in their arrangements but there is also a greater depth to the song writing than the sampled loops and random noises might suggest. Tracks such as “Jackass” and “Hotwax” are surprisingly catchy and stand up to repeated listening. “The New Pollution” “Devils Haircut” were obvious stand out tracks / singles which are complimented by the more experimental sounds of “Where it’s at” and “Derelict”. Unfortunately Beck shifts into a poor pastiche of The Beastie Boys on occasions (“Novocaine” especially), but when you consider the album is produced by The Dust Brothers its no surprise. On the whole I’m really glad I unearthed this CD and recommend you revisit it should you own it.

Simian Mobile Disco do it again

Never has the phrase "Throw the baby out with the dish water" been so aptly displayed than in the recent output of Simian Mobile Disco. 

OK I get the whole 'change of direction' mid career crisis their extensive DJ sets have brought about; but why forget the tunes? The first two albums we full of cutting edge electronica coupled with slightly more pop orientated vocal work that made for a varied and entertaining package. 

This new album 'Unpatterns' is another techno driven dirge that doesn't really go anywhere. Like last years 'Delicacies' offering, this new album lacks the innovation of Underworld and has none of the melody of The Chemical Brothers work. This album's focus is so tightly set on the dance floor that its entertainment value is somewhat limited. Don't get me wrong, I love listening to dance music in all kinds of environments, just not dull boring dance music.

CD Rot

A few weeks ago I wrote about the idea of buying music largely as mp3's rather than in any physical format. I am failing miserably in this endeavour as the ever growing pile of amazon packages my postman is delivering testify. 

 

Now, the idiocy of my expanding CD collection is no longer solely limited to lack of space. I have begun to encounter the first incidence of what I think is CD rot in my collection. On opening up an Eurythmics CD I must have bought sometime in the late 80's, I noticed it had a distinct brown/copper tinge that I do not remember it having. I can find no pictures of the actual CD of this release on the net and am slowly convinced it is succumbing to bronzing. The disc does have a tendency to produce read errors but is also scratched a little so I can't identify if the problem is the scratches or the presumed bronzing. 

Either way the CD is easily replaced and is not especially significant. However, if one day I open up the cupboard and find a few hundred CD's unreadable and brown, I am not going to be impressed. If these discs are bronzing because of a known manufacturing error should the record company not offer us recompense? Faulty workmanship of any other sort would demand redress.

Whilst a blown hard drive may wipe out my music collection, I can at least make multiple copies of my music to offer some sort of safety net. If my CD's rot and become unplayable I am stuffed. This digital collection idea makes increasing sense. Anyway must go. Postman is at the door with a package from amazon.

CD's - what are they good for?

About 5 years ago I threw away a wheelie bin full of CD’s. I had listened to them once and had no intention of listening to any of them again (you know “Eskimos and Egypt” “Spacehog” - shit like that). I needed to slim down my collection as I had moved house and didn’t have as much storage. It turned out to be a painless process and I have never thought “Oohhh where is that ‘Phil Collins Hits’ CD?” only to find it has been binned. I don’t regret anything – so why do I find it so hard to swap to digital music and let go of the rest my CD’s?

I keep a back up drive of my MP3’s as I’m worried that should my hard drive die, I will loose all of my music. Yet, I know I always have the back up of the CD’s. But each of the boxes in my spare room contains around 50 CD’s. There are 27 boxes - so that’s about 1350 CD’s (I have sold/thrown away/given away about as many in recent years too). That’s a lot of weight and storage space for a ‘back up for a back up’. It’s ridiculous.

Increasingly I am realising that the CD’s might be a 'back up' for a lot of my music, but there is an increasing amount  which I only own in digital download format. Sometimes this is because I have no choice and the music is only available as a download, sometimes it is out of choice, but I am becoming increasingly comfortable with the idea that music doesn’t have to come on a black or silver disc. I never play my CD’s or vinyl anymore and only use them as a source to rip. I play music from my phone via Bluetooth in my car and home; I use last.fm on my Xbox and play MP3’s constantly from my PC. Thus, it is totally illogical that I continue to buy music in physical formats.

I am trying hard to give up physical releases and weaning myself off by only buying digital downloads of artists who are new to me (such as Chairlift’s “Something” this week) and sticking to physical releases for artists I love and consider myself a collector of (Pet Shop Boys, Nine Inch Nails etc etc). I hope I can stay on the path to CD sobriety; my spare room is small enough as it is and I really don’t want to have to throw away that Sven Vath CD – oh no, hold on a minute……..

In time?

Until recently I always thought it was pretty easy to play in time with a sequencer. Since acquiring an electric guitar I have realised it is in fact, not that easy. Yet syncopation or just plain ‘playing out of time’ drives me mad.

Nowhere is the difficult nature of playing in time with a sequencer more painfully illustrated than on records made in the late 70’s. Take ‘Beat the clock’ by Sparks – you an almost hear the drummer cursing the producer (the inimitable Giorgio Moroder) as he frantically tries to keep up with the pulsating bass sequence. I always cringe at the timing on Gary Numan / Tubeway Army records such as “Me! I disconnect from you” and especially “We are so fragile” where the poor drummer stands no change until the guitar comes in to cover the millisecond variations in timing which sound so wrong.

 

Of course Mike Oldfield couldn’t stand things being out of time either and even went as far as re-recording “Tubular Bells” so that it was quantized. But would “Replicas” sound as good if it were re-recorded? Well “Tubular Bells 2003” would suggest some bits would sound better and others not.

Personally I would love it if the multi track was stuck in pro-tools and quantized. I can hear some people saying “Oh noooooooo, that’s takes away from its charm and naivety” or “It’s the only human element in an electronic recording and adds something”. Well no, sorry, it just spoils it. And whilst yes, I now appreciate that it’s hard to play along to a click track or sequencer, it doesn’t mean I want to listen to it.

Do I actually NEED you? Break and I'll know.....

It seem the true test of whether you actually need a piece of gear in your studio comes when it breaks down.

In 2003 I was in the market for some new gear; an analogue modelling synth to be precise. The object of my GAS was a Korg MS2000B. I seem to remember it was about £500, but something tells me it must have been more.

Anyway, during the journey to “Sound Control” I suddenly decided to take a different route and stop off at the second hand store. This was purely on a whim. Ever since I was young this shop has been an Aladdin’s cave of instruments and gear (albeit overpriced). What made me take a detour and go to the shop I have no idea to this day. But I’m glad I did.

My SuperNova II - dead

With the £500 cash in my pocket for the Korg I wandered into the smelly and cramped second hand shop to be greeted by a vision in blue. I’d never seen a Novation Supernova II keyboard before. The rack was almost obligatory in the early 90’s, especially if you recorded dance music, but the keyboards are much more scarce. The price of this rare and beautiful beast? You guessed it: £500.

The stats were heavily in favour of the Novation. The Korg had a small 44 key keyboard, a mere 4 voices and was monotimbral. The Novation had 61 keys, 24 voices and was 8 part multi-timbral. No contest.

Recently however, the Supernova has been ill. One of the master outputs decided to die and some of the LED’s no longer worked. Reluctantly, I took the Novation out of the studio and tried to carry on without it. This is the real test of whether you still actually NEED a piece of gear. Space is a real issue for me currently and every instrument has to justify the space it occupies.

The Supernova revitalised

I soon found I needed analogue type sounds and turned to the synths I had left. I have “classic” or “retro” soundboards in three of my ROMplers and whilst they provide some useful sounds, they just aren’t editable enough to be used as analogue modelling synths. The idea of getting my JP8080 or MS2000BR (yes I got one some years later) out of storage did not appeal as they are monotimbral and sonically just don’t cut the mustard. The Waldorf XTk is editable but just too noisy and mad for the subtle pads and glistening sounds of the Novation. VST is all well and good but somehow it just doesn’t appeal to me. Thus the Supernova went to the synth doctor at Sound Service, it was obviously needed.

At first, the diagnosis was of a terminal fault. Searching eBay led me to despair of owning a Supernova keyboard ever again, racks are 10 a penny but keyboards are not quite so abundant. With this in mind, the synth doctor went back and pulled the guts from the synth again.

It seems Novation do not make their circuit diagrams available to the public and diagnosing a fault on a board as complex as that in the Novation without one is very tricky. After many man hours, new chips and a lot of head scratching the synth began to live again. Now its back I am a little lighter in the wallet but relieved my bargain may provide loyal service for another 10 years.

So, if you are ever short of space or wondering if you need to replace a synth, remove it from your set up and try working without it for a few weeks. You’ll get your answer soon enough.