Subsource

Some people are very intense.  They positively sprint up escalators, brush their teeth as if angrily removing graffiti from a wall, eat with a grim focus, hates tourists and cannot possibly tolerate delays of any kind.  This kind of person should listen to the fearsome rocktronica of Prodigy, Pendulum, Hadouken and, now, Subsource.  A quartet from just south of London, Subsource meld rap-style lyrics, curvy basslines, grisly cyber beats, a punk protest mentality and general pandemonium.  It might not work in Regent’s Park on a Sunday, but hear this in a warehouse party behind Waterloo station and you’re laughing.  Intensely.

Subsource explain their sound thus: “Fucked off with so-called live dance acts mincing behind laptops, and rock acts with no more substance than the product in their hair, we decided things had to change.”  They call it a combination of punk, dubstep, coldwave, electronica, hip-hop, drum’n’bass and metal.  I call it a great pulsating din.

There’s even a Subsource iPhone rave app, complete with flashing glow stick and lighter.  New song The Ides, on the video above, is from latest album Tales From The Doombox.

MySpace | Website | Buy
MP3: Subsource – Disarm  (kindly provided by the band)

Porcelain Raft

Sometimes rain and wind aren’t so bad: it’s fresh and thrilling to be out among the squall, and maybe they sorta reflect your mood anyway.  You can let your hairstyle get screwed up and wear some daggy trainers (or no shoes at all), because really what difference does it make?  When these moods strike, you’ll need a playlist, and how about London’s Porcelain Raft?  The project of one Mauro R., it involves rueful, out-of-focus electro songs: all vocal melancholia, fuzzy keyboard l0ops and gentle, throbbing guitar hooks.  Recommended for all the brooders out there.

Porcelain Raft’s two EPs are available to download via his website.  Neatly, it’s up to you how much you pay for the pleasure.  Check MySpace for some forthcoming London live dates.

MySpace | Website
MP3: Porcelain Raft – Gone Blind

Monday Music – 3 May 2010

Here’s my weekly collection of five songs that I’m currently loving, a one-off postponement of SOIWT’s London focus:

The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio
The National have long been one of those bands who earn critical acclaim and boast devout fans, yet never seem to translate that into mass popularity.  Perhaps new album, High Violet, their fifth, will change things.  First impressions suggest it’s more dynamic than previous records, especially based on Bloodbuzz Ohio, an intense, cacophonous song that’s over far too quickly, like a thrilling firework display.  Telling a story about bee kidnap and lost love in the vast American state they hail from, singer Matt Berninger is all burly elegance as chaos descends around him.

Sun Kil Moon – Carry Me Ohio
Listening to that song about Ohio reminded me of this track by Sun Kil Moon, led by Mark Kozelek, formerly of the Red House Painters.  It’s an equally tender Americana tale of life and love in the Buckeye State, but where The National’s effort was meaty, this one’s more softer and cast in tears rather than twine.  No tune makes me close my eyes quicker.  Kozelek’s beautiful voice, soaring and swooping like a eagle, tells of his inability to love either Ohio or a partner (it’s never made clear which); all the while, the most melodious guitars you ever heard play plaintively on, and on some more. 

Balkan Beat Box – Look Them Act
A chum of mine, Ben Serbutt, is a designer at the marvellous Songlines, a UK mag devoted to “world music”, that sickeningly imperialist term loosely denoting global sounds you won’t hear on Capital FM any time soon.  Songlines gives away free CDs each issue, offerings from artists profiled in the magazine, and Balkan Beat Box, led by ex-Gogol Bordello member Tamir Muskat, featured in the recent April/May edition that Ben kindly passed my way. Among Irish jigs and rum-soaked Latino rhythms this one stood out: it’s a melee of itinerant voices, 60s-style weirdsville funk and Middle Eastern gyspy mayhem.

As an aside, Ben also freelances, and recently came up with this very neat reworking of a certain Conservative poster.  Something tells me he won’t be voting Tory this Thursday.  Please note this does not reflect SOIWT’s political views (that Nick Clegg’s getting annoying, and fast) at all.

Cartridge – Black Roads
Danish band Cartridge are among the 180 bands participating in PEACE, a vast global music compilation encompassing unreleased numbers by artists from 50 countries.  Co-produced by Buffetlibre and Amnesty International Catalunya, the initiative can be downloaded after you make a donation to the latter, who aim to prevent Human Rights abuses around the world.  So it’s obviously worthy, but is it any good?  Judging by this – a sugary pop ballad stunningly gatecrashed by high-pitched whistles and intense electro - and the presence of Marc Almond, Patrick Wolf, Mogwai and more, almost certainly yes.

Club 8 – Western Hospitality
This week’s biggest buzz band are Sweden’s Club 8, or so The Sunday Times tells me.  This, the main song, is a honking, tonking number that begins with bouncy keys, throws in some soft female vocals and then descends, slowly and serenely, into a combination of choral swoon, easy and sweet as a glass bottle of Coca Cola on a summer’s day, and tropicalian guitars.  You really do know the happy season’s imminent when tunes like this materialise.  Bring it on.

Download MP3s via song titles