Everywhere Else, 23rd March 2011
Simon Reynolds on ‘Hypnagogic pop’ and the landscape of Southern California “The scrambling of pop time is a culture-wide phenomenon in the West, but it feels unusually strong in LA, where pop radio is dominated by old music: classic rock, New Wave and eclectic stations like Jack fm that mimic a 40-something’s iPod Shuffle. Flicking between stations, there’s a visual analogue to what you hear in the endless interplay of different eras of commercial signage and shop-front décor. In no other city have I had such an overwhelming sense of the erosion of a cultural timecode, that pulse that once synchronized the sectors of the contemporary scene (fashion, design, music, etc.) and constructed a sense of epoch.” – frieze.com
Pet Shop Boys/The Most Incredible Thing – review “It may have been Tchaikovsky who inspired Pet Shop Boys to attempt their first ballet score, but the music they’ve written for The Most Incredible Thing is not even a distant relation to The Nutcracker or Swan Lake.” – guardian.co.uk
Dark Side Of The Tune: The Abstract Techno Resurgence “It builds on the clicks’n’cuts and found sound/field recordings approaches of early noughties releases on labels like Mille Plateaux and by artists like Akufen and Pole and, going further back into techno’s past, appears to have inherited some of the devil may care inventiveness that fuelled early abstract releases by noiseniks like Vogel, Landstrumm and Tobias Schmidt. This time, it also references 80s industrial, freeform jazz and Krautrock.” – junodownload.com
Yoko Ono On Lennon, Love, Feminism and Japan “I think the responsibility is mainly for yourself, in a way, because what is happening in Japan is directly affecting the whole world. We have to learn from it. The financial situation is going to go bonkers, like a roller coaster. Oh well, right. It’s going to be a different scene I’m sure. We really have to watch ourselves. At the same time, it’s very important you help the healing of Japan because that’s going to directly affect you.” – interviewmagazine.com
Pitchfork March Grime/Dubstep Column “There seem to be threads that run through electronic Finnish music— from Teeth to Clouds to Vladislav Delay. Much of it tends toward cold synths and slightly detached, isolationist tones. If you ask Teeth about his inspirations, he’ll point you to “West Coast underground Project Blowed/ Good Life Café-style hip-hop,” Warp-style electronica experimentations, and dubbier Berlin techno, before finding its logical conclusion in dubstep.” – pitchfork.com
