It’s that time again, 2010′s First Quarter Report is here.
A companion to our Tracks of the Month pieces, the Quarter Reports are where we list the 20 albums (or in some cases, substantial EPs) that we’ve been feeling most in the FACT office over the last three months. The Second and Third Quarter Reports happen later in the year; there is no Fourth, as December is album of the year time. There you have it, now tuck in.
01: THE ADVISORY CIRCLE
MIND HOW YOU GO (REVISED EDITION)
(GHOST BOX)
The Advisory Circle is the alter ego of “composer, producer, mastering engineer, vinyl archivist and ornithologist” Jon Brooks, an artist inspired by the world of TV public information films. Here Ghost Box issued his 2005 Mind How You Go EP on vinyl for the first time, complete with four new tracks.
02: BURN ONE & STARLITO
RENAISSANCE GANGSTER
(MIXTAPE)
“Burn One emerges from Renaissance Gangster the king of silk samples and quartz percussion-led, throwback-to-the-future beats, while Starlito is crowned an all-star of drawl and an MVP of blunt-laden wordplay; no one else can casually slip in and out of timing like him but still stay on point. With their powers combined, they push a narrow-minded state of rap through a tiny hole, and burst out of the other side dripping with fresh colours.” Review here
03: CARLOS GIFFONI
SEVERANCE
(HOSPITAL PRODUCTIONS)
What with all the attention surrounding his house-indebted No Fun Acid project, you could be forgiven for overlooking Carlos Giffoni’s most recent album under his own name, Severance. Released in January on Hospital Productions, Severance is a work of riveting, austere electronic minimalism that’s definitely not for the faint-hearted, recalling as it does the ominous sound designs of 80s soundtrack supremos Abigail Mead, Howard Shore and – tangentially – John Carpenter. Curiously beautiful field recordings of a construction site near Giffoni’s home are interspersed with loping modular sequences that sound as if they were tapped from Martyn Ware’s nightmares. Seductive and threatening in equal measure, this record is like a holiday in Videodrome.
04: DOPPLEREFFEKT
GESAMTKUNSTWERK
(CLONE CLASSIC CUTS)
Though grown out of the same Detroit electro DNA as Drexciya, the Europhile Dopplereffekt has a colder, harsher and more obviously synthetic sound, largely indebted to Kraftwerk and the minimal wave boom of the 1980s. Gesamtkunstwerk is aesthetically preoccupied with systems of control, from totalitarian government and technology to pornography and selective breeding – as the cover art and track titles like ‘Cellular Phone’ (an eternal dancefloor killer), ‘Pornoactress’ and ‘Sterilization’ make abundantly clear. Musically and conceptually the LP was a key influence on the electroclash movement, and has had a lasting impact on electronic music production in general. After being out of print for some years, Clone’s top-notch re-issue is available again.
05: FOUR TET
THERE IS LOVE IN YOU
(DOMINO)
“It’s easy to make fun of Four Tet. His music sometimes seems a little too sincere, and it can be toe-curlingly sentimental, but then many of us can be too. There is Love in You is a gem of an album which deserves to be treasured, as indeed does its creator.” Full review
06: HOT CHIP
ONE LIFE STAND
(EMI / VINYL FACTORY)
“Ultimately, you most likely will have decided long ago whether you like Hot Chip or not. If you don’t, you should still give (album track) ‘I Feel Better’ a go, just to check. But if, like me, you do, then this is pretty close to the Platonic ideal of a Hot Chip album.” Full review
07: I-F
FUCKING CONSUMER
(DISKO B)
Another re-press, this time of I-f’s unassailably brilliant 1998 album Fucking Consumer. This really is a timeless record, drawing inspiration from horror soundtracks, Drexciyan electro, British synth-pop and Miami bass long, long before it became bog-standard for people to do so. As well as featuring the none-more-anthemic ‘Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass’, Consumer boasts the dancefloor-slaying instrumental version of ‘Playstation No.1′, the toxically funky (and appropriately named) ‘I Do Because I Couldn’t Care Less’ and the brooding, Carpenter-repping ‘Assault on Radical Radio’. Fucking Consumer = fucking classic.
08: JAMES FERRARO
LAST AMERICAN HERO
(OLDE ENGLISH SPELLING BEE)
Last American Hero is a blast of profound psychedelia, led by scratchy guitar-work which is at times unbearably resonant – Ferraro claims never to use samples, so full marks for the strung-out, bluesy playing on display here. Then there are the phased, saturated synths that perhaps inevitably recall Michael Mann and William Friedkin movies, one of those stirring scores by Tangerine Dream or Michel Rubini or whoever. A magnificent record, perhaps the crowning achievement of the so-called hypnagogic pop movement, and admirable in its willingness to engage with the banal, liminal ugliness of consumer life. Full review
09: JAMES PANTS
SEVEN SEALS
(STONES THROW)
Seven Seals – actually released to surprisingly little fanfare in December 2009 – was apparently conceived while James Pants was “in the mood to start a cult”, having immersed himself in occult mysticism and the Book of Revelations. This magick schtick is undoubtedly tongue-in-cheek, but still there’s a near-religious sense of purpose to Seven Seals, a ritualistic intensity. Unlike much of his previous output, it feels like a serious and future-proof work, and, unlike so many records with aspirations to psychedelia, it’s entirely free of waffle. If, like us, you’ve been worried that ambitious, off-kilter pop music has had all the life Pitchforked out of it, get yourself a copy of this. Full review
10: MONOLAKE
SILENCE
(IMBALANCE COMPUTER MUSIC)
“If Jeff Mills’ celebrated rescoring of Metropolis provided an appropriately dystopian counterpoint to Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece, then this record would elevate John Carpenter’s The Thing to a whole new level of Antarctic freakiness. Silence is a long, foreboding and enormously entertaining work of art.” Full review
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