The Earth Is A Man Guest Mix

The Earth Is A Man Guest Mix by Proper Songs on Mixcloud

Chicago based The Earth Is A Man have put together this excellent selection of post-rock, kraut-rock and who-knows-what-rock for Proper Songs.

1. Delicate Steve - Sugar Splash
2. Japandi - Dawn of the Dad
3. Brian Eno - The Big Ship
4. Yasunori Mitsuda - Theme from Chrono Trigger
5. Mark McGuire - Brain Storm (for Erin)
6. Scale the Summit - The Great Plains
7. NEU! - Neuschnee
8. Battles - Futura
9. Earth - Miami Mourning Coming Down
10. Mirror - O&L
11. Liturgy - Untitled 3
12. Tortoise - Glass Museum
13. Nobuo Uematsu - Still More Fighting
14. CAVE - High, I Am
15. Steve Reich - Electric Counterpoint III (Fast)

Hess Is More

This all-kinds-of-excellent footage of Hess Is More's live outfit keeps making me return to his new single 'Creation Keeps the Devil Away', but I'm not sold yet. Do you prefer drum-circle-kraut-jazzercise or glacial-disco-pop?

Hess Is More 'Creation Keeps The Devil Away'

More at nublu.net.

Tape : Hotels

Swedish trio Tape released their new album 'Revelationes' last week. The contemplative riffs of 'Hotel' provides a lush introduction to their sound.

MP3:
Tape 'Hotels'

More at hapna.com.

Walls : Gaberdine (Radiant Dragon Remix)

Proper Songs regular Radiant Dragon has remixed duo Walls on their new 'Gaberdine' EP, to be released on Kompact.

MP3:
Walls 'Gaberdine' (Radiant Dragon Remix)

A suitably trippy video has also been produced by Yearning Kru.



More at kompakt.fm.

Stereolab : Sun Demon

New Stereolab track from their forthcoming 12th album 'Not Music'.

MP3:
'Sun Demon'

More at stereolab.co.uk.

Sonoi : Sonoi

Sonoi is an experimental rock trio from Chicago, whose self titled debut album is out this week. Check out the opening three tracks including the brilliant stop motion video for 'Red Ants'.

MP3:
Sonoi 'Clouds'
Sonoi 'Sherryfall'



More at sonoimusic.com.

Team Ghost : Colors In Time

Team Ghost are ex-M83 founder Nicolas Fromageau, multi-instrumentalist Christophe Guérin and producer/manager Jean-Philippe Talaga. Their inevitably M83 influenced sound takes electronically infused 21st century shoegaze and dirties it with Krautrock and punk sleaze. A EP 'You Never Did Anything Wrong To Me' will be available on limited-edition black and white vinyl 10-inch on 26th April. Here's the first track 'Colours In Time' alongside their remix of label mates Yeti Lane.

Team Ghost 'Colours In Time'
Yeti Lane 'Twice' (Team Ghost Remix)

More at soniccathedral.co.uk.

Primary 1 : The Blues Feat. Nina Persson

Primary 1 follows his last 7" 'Foaming' with this excellent duet with Nina Persson of The Cardigans/A Camp, again released on limited vinyl. An album is planned in the Autumn on Atlantic.

MP3:
Primary 1 'The Blues' Feat Nina Persson

Proper Songs 2009

The other night I started compiling a '2009 round up' playlist...which turned into this mammoth four hour, 60 track mix. Its by no means a definitive list or a best of 2009 (and I'm sure there are some glaring omissions) but its meant as a poke around the output of some of my favourite bands and artists this year.

Part One MP3
Here We Go Magic ‘Fangela’
Django Django ‘Storm’
The Dirty Projectors ‘Two Doves'
Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard ‘Broken Broken Broken Heart’
Yo La Tengo ‘Nothing To Hide’
Best Coast ‘When I'm With You’
The Horrors ‘Who Can Say’
Neon Indian ‘Should Have Taken Acid With You’
Toro y Moi ‘Timed Pleasure’
Washed Out ‘Feel It All Around’
The Very Best ‘Julia’
Animal Collective ‘Bluish’
Hong Kong In The 60s ‘Footsteps’
Atlas Sound ‘Quick Canal’ (w/Laetitia Sadier)
The xx ‘Basic Space’
Fontän ‘Nightrider'
Bibio ‘Haikuesque (When She Laughs)’
Taken By Trees ‘Anna’
Cortney Tidwell ‘Son & Moon’
2562 ‘Unbalance’
Martyn ‘Yet’
Architeq ‘Birds Of Dub’
Florence and The Machine ‘You've Got the Love’ (The xx Remix)
Teengirl Fantasy ‘Hollywood Hils’
Memory Tapes ‘Pink Stones’
The Emperor Machine ‘Snatch Shot’
The Juan MacLean ‘The Station’
CFCF ‘Crystal Mines’
Dorian Concept ‘The Fucking Formula’

Part Two MP3
Bronnt Industries Kapital ‘Streets Of Fury’
Subway ‘Harmonia’
Broadcast & The Focus Group ‘Libra, The Mirror's Minor Self’
Volcano Choir ‘Island, IS’
Tune-Yards ‘Hatari’
Yppah ‘Gumball Machine Weekend’
Beak> ‘Ears Have Ears’
Summer Camp ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’
Banjo Or Freakout ‘Mr No’
Deerhunter ‘Game of Diamonds’
Camera Obscura ‘French Navy’
Freshard ‘Who The World Belongs To’
Iron & Wine ‘Love Vigilantes’
Will Stratton ‘Who Will’
Grizzly Bear ‘Two Weeks’
Special Benny ‘Air Filter’
Darwin Deez ‘Constellations’
Phoenix ‘1901’
Bon Iver ‘Brackett, W9’
Fink ‘Sort Of Revolution’
The Low Anthem ‘Charlie Darwin’
The Long Lost ‘Woebegone’
J. Tillman ‘Crosswinds’
Blacklands ‘Listen to Me In Your Heart’
Alela Diane ‘To Be Still’
Andrew Bird ‘Tenuousness’
Papercuts ‘Dead Love’
Lotus Plaza ‘Whiteout’
Illa J ‘Sounds Like Love’ (Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson's In Space Remix)
Peter Broderick & Machinefabriek ‘Homecoming’
Ólafur Arnalds ‘Raein’

Part One


Part Two


Part Three


Part Four


Part Five


Part Six

Dante : Q&A

Proper Songs chats with Australian artist Dante, discovered via No Pain In Pop.

PS: Tell everyone a bit about yourself and what you're up to.
Well, at the moment I'm living in the Adelaide hills working on finishing up an ep that's been in the works for a while now. I'm also a Compositor/Animator, currently working on a music video for one of the songs off the new ep. I've been in a band BrotherSister for the last few years but I'm starting to focus more now on solo stuff.

PS: As photos on your Myspace show, you have a passion for real instruments and vintage equipment. How does this influence your creative process and sound?
Yeah, I try and get my hands on as much nice old gear as i can, new gear as well, I think even with software having something unfamiliar to play around with always helps when writing new material.

PS: Your music has a distinctly cinematic quality to it, which film would you like to soundtrack and why?
Hmm, not sure about that one, I love the Dancer In The Dark soundtrack, I don't think I'd be wanting to do a musical though, maybe redo something like Storm Boy, that'd be fun!

PS: As we're approaching the end of the year, what's been your highlight and what are you looking forward to in 2010?
Highlight would probably be playing at a big festival here 'Parklife' with my other band, that was a lot of fun, got to watch a heap of great bands side of stage. Looking forward to finally getting my next ep out and to start working on new stuff!

PS: Give us a top 5 of something.
Hot weekend essentials!
1. Waterhole
2. Coffee/beer
3. Skateboard/fishing rod
4. Fruit
5. Scooter

MP3s:
Reb ib
Denwens

Fool's Gold : Surprise Hotel

Los Angeles collective Fool's Gold weave together African highlife, Krautrock and 80s dance. Sound amazing? Well yes they are. IAMSOUND release 'Surprise Hotel' with an album to follow next year (or now in USA) - but grab an early copy from Pure Groove at the link below. Here are a trio of remixes from international bright young things Phaseone, Micachu and Memory Tapes and the video for the original, which looks like it was jolly fun to make.

Download 'Surprise Hotel' (Phaseone Remix)
Download 'Surprise Hotel' (Micachu Remix)
Download 'Nadine' (Weird Tapes Remix)



Pre-order the 7" and album from Pure Groove.

Fontän : Winterhwila

From the ever reliable Information label comes the debut album by Fontän, Swedish producers Jesper Jarold and Johan Melin. Recorded in part in Jesper's grandmother's garden shed on broken - then mended - musical equipment, the LP catches the mood of the setting summer sun with pure Balearic vibes, dub-disco and psychedelic Kraut rock. Layered textures of synths and cosmic guitars create otherworldly soundscapes with a strong 80s influence, while keeping a tight reign on the Knopflerisms. The vocal tracks stand up strong, such as 2008 single 'Early Morning' and 'The Bridge' - the illegitimate son of David Bowie's 'Ashes To Ashes'. As should be expected from label mates to the excellent Studio, this is beautiful, timeless music.

Download 'Early Morning'.

Buy at Boomkat.

The Second Release On Proper Songs Is By Special Benny

Available on digital in November, 'Air Filter' is the first track from Special Benny's exceptional debut album 'Toys' out in Spring '010.



propersongs.net/label

Yeti Lane : Lonesome George

New Sonic Cathedral signings Yeti Lane have a 7" out in October called 'Lonesome George', incredibly named after the last surviving Pinta Island tortoise. Its reminisent of the first The Whitest Boy Alive album, mixed with early 90s US slacker indie and a touch of always fashionable kraut rock. Having made up three-quarters of Cyann & Ben, their self titled album bodes well for fans of freaky space rock and good pop tunes alike.

Download 'Think It's Done'.



Order from Sonic Cathedral shop.

Subway : Subway II

Post-disco/cosmic-kraut/electro-psyche are all stupid tags to sum up Subway's second album 'Subway II' but its hard to not throw a plethora of micro-genres at it. There is a healthy nod to groups such as Harmonia (they've even named a track after them) and Neu while also drawing on Detroit techno and European disco pioneers. At times it recalls Spiritualized's experiments in repetition, others DFA-esc dancefloor 12"s - and the rest of the time twiddling blissfully in between.

Fact Magazine have got a rather splendid mix by Subway to download.

Buy at Soul Jazz.

Radiant Dragon : Q&A

Radiant Dragon's EP has been on heavy rotation on the Proper Songs hi-fi for a few weeks, so it was about time his self described "Chinese-kraut electro spacerock" was unleashed on the blog.

PS. Tell us a bit about yourself and what you're up to.

Radiant Dragon is my first project and I'm trying to make music about journeys and travelogues evoking places I've been or dream about going to. I was born in Germany to Malaysian-Chinese parents, raised overseas and am based in London now - I suppose a lot of my songs stem from being an outsider and trying to connect with people, cultures and places I feel a need to be with. It's pretty cathartic when music becomes this alternate world where boundaries that keep people apart don't exist.

PS. What was the inspiration to start Radiant Dragon?

For years I thought way too much about conflicting ideas for music that I wanted to create, whether it should be deliberately abrasive textures and rhythms or story-driven electronic folk songs. Another experience I kept going back to was of listening to music on the plane - where the air pressure and speed means you hear this constant background hum as an ambient layer to what you're listening to. I always hear this in-between atmosphere from my favourite music - an underlying strangeness which gets stronger the more you listen. It's something more elusive and subtle than catchy melodies and harmonies, the right production or loud-quiet dynamics, although those all can play a part.

Luckily last summer I met an amazing girl and felt I had nothing to lose by starting something - so I went to America to visit her, took my recording gear with me and spent a while trying to construct a wall of sound out of my suitcase. That didn't exactly work out as planned, but I did end up with about ten demos that I took back to London and developed further.

PS. What are your plans for the rest of '09?

Working a lot on the live show and trying to make it a big contrast to the recorded songs - it took a while to get some critical distance and realize some things just work much better recorded than live. It's amazing to have even just half an hour of an audience's ear-time so the flow of a set is just as important as the songs within it. It's tempting to just play along with a laptop but it's much more exciting to have the freedom to improvise with sounds and structures. I've just started playing shows with my best friend Joe on drums and samples, and that's about a thousand times more exciting than following a backing track.

Meanwhile I'm trying to write better music that works out some of my ideas more fully, and releases-wise I'm trying to put out my first EP myself, produce a few tracks with Late of the Pier/Zarcorp, do some remixes and hopefully another EP!

PS. Give us a top 5 of something.

Five Songs with 'Year' that make you think of years that just passed.
1. Fennesz - A Year in a Minute
2. David Bowie - Five Years
3. Autechre - Acroyear 2
4. Sufjan Stevens - Year of the Monkey
5. Bjork - 5 Years

Download 'Cloud Seeding'. 'Oysters' is in this months podcast.

Bronnt Industries Kapital : Hard For Justice

Guy Bartell aka Bronnt Industries Kapital's third album, and first for Get Physical, mangles krautrock and electronics with studies of timeless 80s soundtracks from John Carpenter movies. A range of cinematic moods are conveyed from exploring a balance of electro and acoustic sounds, rhythms and subtle sonic textures. Helped out on three tracks by Gravenhurst's Nick Talbot, this is an instantly listenable album that provides uncommon depth and longevity.

Buy at Boomkat from 6th April.

Bomb The Bass : Future Chaos

Its been a fair old time since Bomb The Bass had an album out, 15 years in fact, and even longer since their biggest track 'Beat Dis' topped the charts in 1987. Tim Simenon's ever evolving outfit has come a long way since then with the newest incarnation moving towards minimal electronics and Krafwerk inspired beats. In stripping the production back to the bear bones an unusual amount of space has been opened up, bearing more in relation to dubstep and techno than Bomb The Bass' previous major influence, hip hop. It can sound a little disconcerting at first but repeat listening reveals intricately constructed songs pushed forward by a desire to adopt modern styles into a long running project. It more than often comes off, especially on the the dazzling Fujiya & Miyagi colab 'Butterfingers'. Simenon's always been one to rope in some outside talent; Justin Warfield, Sinéad O'Connor, Jah Wobble, Will Self, Benjamin Zephaniah and Minnie Driver (yes, that one) have popped up in the past. Mark Lanegan and Jon Spencer also feature alongside Paul Conboy, who provides the bulk of the vocal work. A fine return and quite unexpected.



Bomb The Bass - So Special : Free MP3 @ RCRDLBL
Buy @ Amazon