You Will Not Be Spared From Thinking: Stroszek's Manufacturing Consent EP

I first fell in love with The Clash, which led to a passion for political, intelligent lyrics, and eventually to bands like the Manic Street Preachers, Gang of Four and McCarthy. Then I fell for Joy Division, which led to an intense admiration for lyrics and music that documented a fraught inner life and the turmoil and starkness of reality in a minimalist monochrome never heard before. The Clash tore down what music was the first time with punk. And Joy Division did it again with post-punk. Now the Glasgow-based band Stroszek, having fused the power of both bands into an ambitious, inspiring art and aesthetic, have a chance to bring music to its knees once more. It's been well over a year since Stroszek released their first EP aptly entitled Demonstration, an unapologetically political piece with funereal undercurrents pulsing beneath all four tracks (for more information about Demonstration, see my earlier post about it). This month sees the release of their second EP entitled Manufacturing Consent, a nod to Chomsky and Herman's seminal work on propaganda and the not-so-free press in "democratic" nations.

Featuring photography from Miron Zownir, an artist who has managed to expose the beauty in nihilism and deviance and to champion those on the periphery of society, this self-produced EP is more about personal politics and inner struggles against a world deafened by entertainment and simulacra. These tracks also reveal a keener desperation and energy than those on Demonstration; this time round it's a bit like Stroszek have turned into Nietzsche's madman, frenzied with knowledge they need to communicate to people who have never realized nor cared that their lives are governed by rhetorical forces. Stroszek simply know and feel too much and it's burning up inside of them. I'm glad that the four tracks on Manufacturing Consent finally made it to a proper release - these songs have been a fixture of Stroszek's live sets for quite some time (I, myself, witnessed Burning Libraries and Dancing on the Motorway firsthand over a year ago). They break down those borders between passion and reason that make us stubbornly human - their music makes you feel the thought behind the lyrics, words become palpable on a level beyond language.

The EP opens with the aforementioned Burning Libraries, a song built on a brilliant metaphor for destroying your own history and purging memories. It is Stroszek's most frenetic song with its unrelenting drums, disorienting reverb and tiny twitches of electronic clicks, and it truly feels like you're in an inferno of information overload before a collapse into feedback. The reprieve comes with the gentle, spine-tingling line "We'll be hand in hand/Ruining ourselves with fear," a lucid, yet no more comforting, moment amongst the anxiety and chaos. Burning Libraries is followed by live favourite Dancing on the Motorway, which features a viral bass line that grooves beneath the sonic bliss of guitar and relatively militant vocals: "Will you argue that it's fascist/If I want to kill the fascists?/I don't want your cold shoulder/I want you on the hard shoulder...Oh, whose side are you on?!/Are there any more souls to save?/While we are all just dancing on the motorway." This juxtaposition of danceability with accusatory, intelligent lyrics emphasizes the disconnect that you feel when you step outside of the masses and view them amusing themselves to death. Richey J. Robertson's straining, breathless vocals try to overcome the catchy oblivion of the beat in this Huxleyean generation, grasping for any of those he can pull to safety even as they sway to his own song. Knowing that the headlights are coming as a fatal dose of enlightenment arrives too late.

The sound of torrential rain signals the transition to This Town Revisited, which springs to life with cascades of Cocteau Twinsesque synths and another fantastic bass line. This song beautifully encapsulates the expression "you can never go home again" as the narrator comes to terms with the reality of his/her past against a backdrop gorgeously reminiscent of The Cure's A Forest. The song concludes with the plaintive line "Potential is never good enough/In this town, revisited." The final song on the track listing is the truly epic Sound the Last Post, one of the most poignant songs I've ever heard about war. The haunting guitar soars and chimes over the solemn bass, working once again in perfect tandem as the song marches through a forsaken sonic landscape of withered poppies as red as the carpet Agamemnon follows homeward. Referencing the Last Post Ceremony at Menin Gate in Ypres and the chief of police, Pierre Vandenbraambussche, who spearheaded the daily ceremony, this song scatters the noble image of soliders and the patriotism of fighting for your country like ashes to the wind. The second verse, which declares "Falling for your soil is NOT the question/But whether, for this dirt/You could ever kill someone" also reminds me of the quote from Bertrand Russell which stated, "Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country." It ends with lines from the film adaptation of Orwell's 1984 to drive home the point that we are still living in a world framed by propaganda and by terms cock-eyed and loaded and poised to subdue us all. There is also a hidden track attached to the end of Sound the Last Post called A Vision of the Future. I won't lie; I'm not a fan of hidden tracks because there never seems to be a point to having them. I will forgive this one, though, because with its use of more of the script from 1984, it definitely coalesces with the track it is following; however, it reveals a sharper electronic feel rather than the atmospheric electronics of Stroszek's established sound. In effect, Stroszek intrigue me until the very last second of this EP.

Manufacturing Consent is already available for download from several places - you can access those links when you go to Stroszek's MySpace. The physical copies of the EP will release soon as well. You can also download two previously unreleased tracks (Sleepwalkers and Maybe Find a Stranger) in their live versions at Threads of Sound. I fervently hope that a full-length album and new material will be forthcoming. We all need a thought-provoking, stylistically-challenging band like this. I think it's rather criminal that Stroszek doesn't have a higher profile when bands like Glasvegas get accolades for hackneyed stabs at played-out, comfortable themes and styles. I reckon that Stroszek are yet another one of those bands out of their time precisely because they see their time all too clearly. And those bands will always matter.

Stroszek's Web site: http://www.stroszek.co.uk/

Dancing on the Motorway - Stroszek

This Town Revisited - Stroszek

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #46

Here's the last weekly mix of the year - not including the next three Sundays' weekly mix round-ups of course. It's also the fifth and last collection of cover versions for 2008. It's hard to believe this is number 46 already.

Without really thinking, this compilation turned out to lean about 50% into the post-punk/new wave direction (I guess that the odds are that it would with my type of music collection). Several of the artists covered and doing the covering in this mix are post-punk/new wave with exceptions like Dragonette's version of ZZ Top's Sharp Dressed Man, Bjork's version of the Bond tune You Only Live Twice, Chromatics' version of Bruce Springsteen's I'm On Fire, and Kate Bush's version of Elton John's Rocket Man. This one's called Something Borrowed. Check back here next Sunday for the first part of the Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love Year-End Round-Up (it's lucky I don't have to create a banner for that).

My Sharona - Polysics (Original: The Knack)

Heart of Glass - The Associates (Original: Blondie)

Sharp Dressed Man - Dragonette (Original: ZZ Top)

I'm On Fire - Chromatics (Original: Bruce Springsteen)

It's Oh So Quiet - No Age (Original: Bjork)

No Love Lost - LCD Soundsystem (Original: Joy Division)

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) - Magazine (Original: Sly & the Family Stone)

Call Me - The Dandy Warhols (Original: Blondie)

People Are Strange - Echo & the Bunnymen (Original: The Doors)

John, I'm Only Dancing - The Chameleons (Original: David Bowie)

Heaven - Voxtrot (Original: Talking Heads)

I Think We're Alone Now - Lene Lovich (Original: Tommy James and the Shondells)

Wouldn't It Be Good - Soulwax (Original: Nik Kershaw)

Third Uncle - Bauhaus (Original: Brian Eno)

Paint It Black - Marc Almond (Original: The Rolling Stones)

You Only Live Twice - Bjork (Original: Nancy Sinatra)

Faith - The Boy Least Likely To (Original: George Michael)

Think I'll Run Away - Euros Childs (Original: The Turtles)

The One I Love - Sufjan Stevens (Original: REM)

Rocket Man - Kate Bush (Original: Elton John)

If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next - David Usher (Original: Manic Street Preachers)

My Top 40 Albums of 2008: Numbers 32 Through 25

Okay, here's the second installment of my Top 40 Albums of 2008. Before we dive into the countdown, I'll jiggle your memory over some of this year's releases in March and April. March came in like a lion with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, Billy Bragg's Mr. Love and Justice, The Boxing Lesson's Wild Streaks & Windy Days, The Young Knives' Superabundance, Supergrass's Diamond Hoo Ha Man and Hercules & Love Affair's debut self-titled album. March seemed to go out like a lion as well with releases from Crystal Castles, Fuck Buttons, We Are Scientists, These New Puritans, Neon Neon, The Kills, The Dodos, Devotchka and The Raconteurs. This was also the month we saw the release of Elbow's Mercury Prize-winning The Seldom Seen Kid and the hugely overrated Foals' Antidotes (what happened to that math rock fad anyway?).

April saw the return of some heavy hitters like REM and Portishead in addition to sophomore albums from Frightened Rabbit, Jim Noir, Cut Copy, The Kooks (why in the name of all that is pure and sacred?) and The Long Blondes ("Couples" being one of my bigger disappointments this year). There were also releases from Clinic, Tindersticks, Polysics, Tokyo Police Club, The Indelicates, M83, The Black Keys, and Moscow Olympics. Lastly, there was also the release of a double disc from Apparat full of remixes by and of the German artist.

And so we forge ahead to the list...

32. Seventh Tree - Goldfrapp

This album was one of the surprises of the year when it released in February. Gone were the sleazy glam beats; instead, a gentle, vulnerable psychedelic-folk stood in their place. Perhaps it was a bit of a return to Felt Mountain, and it could seem like a regressive trajectory when most artists have started with psychedelic-folk before leaping headlong into glam, but it is a refreshing rebirth. With Alison Goldfrapp's soaring, spine-tingling vocals and a warm, sensual beauty to the music, Seventh Tree still retains the ambient side of electro. Seventh Tree feels like climbing into an old, dusty wardrobe and finding yourself in a pastoral world full of speaking beasts and dryads or like slipping through the shivering surface of a looking-glass and revelling in a flower garden that can converse with you. It is innocent and frothy, yet it commands like a gypsy circus come to steal you away.

Clowns - Goldfrapp

A&E - Goldfrapp

31. Die Off Songbird - Maps of Norway

This is the Minneapolis band's sophomore album and it is an incredibly efferevescent piece of post-punk, full of propulsive guitars and singer Rebecca Leigh's dynamic vocals awash in a disorienting reverb. Leigh wavers from Debbie Harry to Elizabeth Fraser against an insistent moody background of driven rhythm and glacial accents. Often, Leigh's vocals are exotically incomprehensible, but the cadences and tone make you not want to bog yourself down in lyrical detail. There is a patience to this album, a willingness to submit to a brilliant few bars and repeat them until they build into a monumental payoff of magic spell-like proportions.

Cage the Lions - Maps of Norway

The Runout - Maps of Norway

30. Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair

I was a little perplexed to hear that Antony Hegarty from Antony and the Johnsons would be helping to front a disco band. Then when I heard the result, I was sold. In fact, Blind should be one of the top singles of the year. Hegarty's warbliness, which usually puts me off, transforms into a sorrowful soulfulness that works perfectly with the disco-influenced electronics. The combination of the other two vocalists, Kim Ann Foxman and Nomi, adds a breathier, funkier counterpoint to Hegarty. To me, this album is more about loss than celebration; at the same time, it pulses with a streetwise will to survive and to move on to a retro bassline. Hercules & Love Affair will definitely enter the mythology and pantheon of electronic music.

Time Will - Hercules & Love Affair

Athene - Hercules & Love Affair

29. The Devil, You + Me - The Notwist

It has taken this German band six years to follow up their indie hit Neon Golden, and it was worth the wait. It still has the moody shoegaze atmosphere to it that Neon Golden had, but it has shed the warm quirks for a metallic spinning. The record reminds me of a swiftly tilting planet, a balletic behemoth singing to itself as it makes its way through the vacuum of space. The lyrics seem more haunted and dwell more on the fallibility of people. The wobbly dissonance of songs like Where in This World projects an image of hurtling through frozen space and drifting through the grinding friction caused by the music of the spheres.

Gloomy Planets - The Notwist

Gravity - The Notwist

28. The Jade Motel - Zeigeist

Despite the fact Zeigeist has been rumoured to be connected to fellow Swedish electronic act The Knife, this album seemed to come out of nowhere for me, and it smacked me in the face. Pretty hard. It is just one of those perfect electro albums that mixes caustic, but sexy vocals with hard-hitting beats and buzzy synths. The unhinged performance of tracks like Tar Heart runs up and down your body like fizzy electricity, and tracks like Bunny make you feel like you're trying to keep your balance in a funhouse. There's a hint of violence and insanity about this record - something JG Ballard about it - and it makes you want to spend the night.

Tar Heart - Zeigeist

Wrecked Metal - Zeigeist

27. The Stand-Ins - Okkervil River

I hadn't really gotten into Okkervil River until this year, but I'm so thankful that I have. They aren't just straight-ahead folk - there's an unexpected wit and propensity for expansive pop-rock sensibilities. Their latest album is just as amazing with its variety of bitter ballads and humourous upbeat tracks. The itchy impatience of Lost Coastlines is a fantastic piece of storytelling, depicting the mental state of someone unsure of the future. Its music canters about in unpredictable, yet familiar, ways as vocals switch back and forth. And songs like Singer Songwriter are worthy of Morrissey or Luke Haines in their articulate barbs: "You come from wealth/Yeah, you got wealth/What a bitch, they didn't give you much else/I heard cuts by The Kinks on your speakers/I saw Poe and Artaud on your shelves/While The Last Laugh's first scene on your flat panel screen/Lit Chanel that you've wrapped around yourself/You've got outsider art by an artist you arguably kidnapped to pin on the wall/Your designers have slyly directed the eye down pink lines here and your well lit pawn." It speaks for itself really.

Lost Coastlines - Okkervil River

Singer Songwriter - Okkervil River

26. Evolutionary Sunset Call - stanleylucasrevolution

I was thrown off guard by this truly independent album from California-based Sean Robertson's enigmatic project stanleylucasrevolution. It manages to compress self-loathing, self-belief, courage and fear into an uncomprising, truly experimental album. It's difficult to pin down the style as Evolutionary Sunset Call blends elements from country, spaghetti western, electro, trip hop, glam rock and psychedelia while adding vocal samples. Expertly stitched together with musical interludes, it tells the story of living in the shadows, but longing for change and a way out without succumbing to the safety of sliding back in. It's a bit like witnessing someone come to terms with him/herself after several bouts with the broken mirror.

Insatiable - stanleylucasrevolution

Sacred Sons - stanleylucasrevolution

25. Oracular Spectacular - MGMT

I tried to ignore MGMT for a very long time - the hipster hype behind them was overwhelming (already beginning last year), which always sets off warning bells for me. After an inadvertent listen to Time to Pretend, I had to admit they had one good song. Then after a begrudging listen to Electric Feel, I had to acknowledge they had two really good songs. Then after a more open listen to Kids, I came to see that they had three great songs. Finally, later this year, I realized they had a rather splendid album. There's something both wide-eyed technicolour dreamer and prococious glam slut about Oracular Spectacular. At the same time, it struts along with a self-assured funky falsetto and a hippie LSD sway. It's an album that the youth of 2008 will look back at and remember with fondness.

The Youth - MGMT

Kids - MGMT

The honourable mention for this post is Midnight Boom by The Kills. It's a punchy, raw album with short blasts of bolshy, fuzzed-out songs and minimalist ticking tracks. While Alison Mosshart's vocals range from tough to breathless, the yelps on one of the best songs of Midnight Boom, Tape Song, are interestingly reminiscent of Tegan and Sara. With this record, The Kills are everything The Ting Tings wish they could be.

What New York Used to Be - The Kills

Stay tuned for next Friday's rundown of numbers 24 through 17. And thank you for all of your comments thus far.

"If you don't know what's happening, just ask the person next to you": The Clash's Live at Shea Stadium

There are times when I actually forget how much The Clash means to me. They were the first band to show me that music could be intelligent and political, but that it could also be worth rocking out to, too. I finally managed to buy a copy of Live at Shea Stadium, albeit two months after its release, and it caused all those feelings bound up in The Clash to come flooding back to me, nearly making me cry. I suddenly felt younger and more idealistic again; I felt that I could fight with The Clash resonating in the pit of my stomach again. Their gig opening for The Who at Shea Stadium in 1982 is often regarded as their peak before their dissolution (though small cracks were beginning to show with the replacement of Topper Headon with Terry Chimes). There's no doubt that this performance sees The Clash at the top of their game, but I often think that it also signified an irreconcilable paradox for the band, especially Joe Strummer. For a band who wanted to remain accessible to every person, this kind of blown-out success was difficult to navigate. Resplendent in the military attire to inspire a thousand bands, The Clash truly became the people's army, but this army was hardly a rebellious secret anymore. It's the classic case of needing fame to get a message across, but once fame is achieved and you're preaching it from hundreds of metres away from the very people you want to feel close to, the message can no longer be the same as it once was. A testament to The Clash's strong principles, the band still allowed fans backstage at Shea Stadium to talk to them despite the presence of famous fans like Andy Warhol and David Bowie.

This live recording is also evidence of why The Clash worked so well - their set isn't pretentious or obscure, but nor is it lightweight. They chose songs from across their five albums, but rather than just playing their well-known successes in America, they also played songs like Career Opportunities and English Civil War. The gig kicks off with a storming rendition of London Calling before Mick Jones takes the mic for Police On My Back and Paul Simonon takes it for The Guns of Brixton - these three opening songs come to represent the band in microcosm, displaying the variety of talent and strong individuals within The Clash and how they worked together to create something so incredible. Then in typical fashion, Joe Strummer tells the crowd, "If you don't know what's going on, just ask the person next to you," before launching into Tommy Gun. What comes next is a fantastic self-contained section of the show: Armagideon Time bracketed by The Magnificent Seven. It is the closest to noodling that The Clash ever does, but it isn't pompous or boring - it burns with the same energy that the rest of the gig does, and it is possibly my favourite part of the whole album. Not to mention their self-awareness in the lyrics of The Magnificent Seven of how long it goes on, which Strummer riffs off of during this performance.

Then they play Rock the Casbah, but in a refreshingly different way. Amidst the howls from Strummer, Mick Jones blows through Train in Vain, smoothly trading off with Strummer again for the punk classic Career Opportunities. This is followed by more from London Calling: Spanish Bombs and Clampdown, the latter with Strummer snarling and spitting at his best, threatening to "tear up the sound system." After telling the audience to bring their granddaddies out to sing English Civil War, they create a blistering performance that takes the traditional American Civil War song into 20th century relevance and makes a profound connection on American soil. The crowd then screams in recognition for the opening bars of Should I Stay Or Should I Go, which seems to run at hyperspeed. The set crashes to its finale with I Fought the Law - I defy any band to be able to close a show so effectively and so brilliantly with a cover song. It demonstrates how totally The Clash came to own the songs they covered. At one point earlier in the gig, Strummer tells the crowd to dance because it will be easier to avoid the rain that way, but I dare you not to dance through the entire record.

If you don't already have this album, you should. If only to hear Joe Strummer's interjections and banter with the audience or Mick Jones's unbelievable guitar work or Paul Simonon's distinctive bass rhythms. It is the document of a band screaming their way to the finish, desperately trying to leap that security gap without destroying themselves in the process.

Rock the Casbah - The Clash (Live at Shea Stadium)

I Fought the Law - The Clash (Live at Shea Stadium)

Politely Ornate: The Melting Ice Caps

Luxembourg was an English indie band that lasted from 2001 to early this year, and I wish I had been aware of them before their split. They had the melodrama and vocal warble of Roxy Music paired with witty lyrics worthy of Jarvis Cocker, but after only officially releasing one album and before the second album was completely finished, they disbanded. However, lead singer David Shah went on to create a solo project called The Melting Ice Caps, an equally offbeat, but achingly genuine affair with an operatic, literate flair akin to The Divine Comedy. Thus far, The Melting Ice Caps have released two official singles: the double A-side for Hard to Get and Don't Say a Word, and Selfish Bachelor with its B-side How to Appear Well-Adjusted. In addition to these, two tracks, namely I Wanted to Be Your Boyfriend and If I Should Ever Lose, are also up to stream from the MySpace page. There's something theatrical and gentlemanly about these songs - despite their electropop flourishes, it's as though they would sound perfect from a phonograph that sits on a table by an art deco wrought iron balcony that overlooks a verdant park full of people on pennyfarthings. These songs are quietly stylish. These songs are politely ornate.

Hard to Get is a wonderful bitter ballad that bears throat-catching similarities to Soft Cell's Say Hello, Wave Goodbye. Don't Say a Word is a beautifully verbose plea for a lover's reciprocation, utilizing some of the most evocative words in the English language in the process. Selfish Bachelor begins with listing all the things the narrator doesn't have, a list which seems to imprison him more than all the freedom he purportedly has. Its music is melancholy but passionately romantic, fitting seamlessly with the brilliant line "I do know love like I know being alone." How to Appear Well-Adjusted is a plonking, knocking vaudeville track that recalls the wry humour found in several Luxembourg tracks, including advice like "Gentlemen should keep their stubble short/And so should ladies." Shah muses over how one can show oneself as "normal" and uses a list of what at first seems like an archaic etiquette manual; then he mentions the 21st century faux-pas of posting an angry blog or sending an email without thinking, which feels both delightfully familiar and anachronistic. I Wanted to Be Your Boyfriend is the most synthpoppy of all the songs so far, but it lacks the pumping beat that would push it into dancefloor territory; instead, this song floats along like a spring breeze. In contrast, If I Should Ever Lose is a violin-based track with Shah's vocals at their most mournful, demonstrating that Shah has several facets yet to explore to their fullest.

I eagerly await further material and hopefully a full album in the near future. The narrators of these songs are lovelorn, but though they may be as doomed and fragile as ice floes in warm seas, they will take out clean handkerchiefs and ask for your pardon over the mess.

The Melting Ice Caps MySpace: www.myspace.com/themeltingicecaps

How to Appear Well-Adjusted - The Melting Ice Caps

Hard to Get - The Melting Ice Caps

We Only Stayed Together For the Kids - Luxembourg

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #45

I really don't enjoy Christmas and haven't done for about fifteen years. It's pretty much one long capitalistic wank, and considering I only usually buy gifts for my immediate family, I avoid the whole shopping mall extravaganza as much as possible. Sure, there's all that supposed "Christmas spirit" about, making people do and think things they don't for the rest of the entire year. And there's that fantastic family time where you are forced to hang out with relatives who don't really know you at all and don't care to, and who inevitably have nothing to talk about. The only part of Christmas I tend to enjoy is watching the original How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but without fail, I miss it on TV every year, which only serves to make me more grumpy. I should just get a proper copy of it and be done with the whole thing. (My family has also created a Christmas tradition of searching for our copy of the Claymation Christmas special with the California Raisins, camels in sneakers and bells with faces - we swear we taped a copy, but we have never found it. Again we should just get a new copy, but no one can be bothered.)

One of the most abysmal things about Christmas, though (aside from fruitcake) is the music on offer. When I worked retail for five years, I heard the same loop of Christmas songs for two months out of each year until I wanted to stab my eyes out with candlesticks. The particularly horrendous one that still makes me twitch to this very day is that Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime song from Paul McCartney. It's difficult to find decent Christmas music - I generally grin and bear the traditional family Christmas music like Boney M and Mannheim Steamroller (we usually only play it during our four-Sundays-before-Christmas-German-advent tradition when we light another candle on the wreath each Sunday evening leading up to Christmas). The only Christmas music I have ever purchased is Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and Sufjan Stevens' four-disc set. However, over the years, I've built up a small collection of songs that I find bearable and I've assembled a chunk of them here for the weekly mix. So, when you have to do Christmassy tasks of any sort (wrapping gifts, decorating the tree, baking cookies, running people over in the parking lot), you can have something to listen to. There will be no Band Aid, no Elvis, no Frank Sinatra, and definitely no *twitch* Paul McCartney.

As with my Halloween mix, I've only provided links to every second track, but the full mix is available to download at the very bottom. The mix kicks off with a little rock, including the brilliantly satirical Christmas Number One from last year done by the geniuses of Black Box Recorder and Art Brut. Then there's a little bit of electronic with The Knife and Dandy Warhols before you eventually hit some retro Spectorish songs by The Raveonettes, The Long Blondes, The Hives and Cyndi Lauper, and of course The Ronettes themselves. I've included Stars' cover of The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl classic because I had already used the original Fairytale of New York for a duet mix earlier this year - don't fear, the Stars version is pretty great. Then it goes rather gentle into the good night with Kate Bush, Goldfrapp, Mogwai, Momus, Okkervil River and that duet with David Bowie and Bing Crosby, which must be included - despite its awkward bit of cringe-inducing dialogue - because I love David Bowie. It all finishes up with Kermit the Frog because I love Muppets as much as David Bowie (which explains why my favourite film is Labyrinth). Also, as an exercise in craziness and kicks, I would suggest you take a look at the Last Christmas Web site, where all known covers of George Michael's contemporary classic are gathered. I stumbled across it last year when I started realizing just how many covers of that song I had come across - apparently someone else had already beaten me to the wondering and took that one extra step toward OCD. For this mix you'll get the Manics version from an appearance on TFI Friday (much better than the strange Christmas Ghost song they came up with last year). So, this mix is called Better Than Fruitcake. Bah, humbug!

Christmas Number One - The Black Arts

Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight) - The Ramones

Father Christmas - The Kinks

We Three Kings - Reverend Horton Heat

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Bright Eyes

Little Drummer Boy - The Dandy Warhols

Christmas Reindeer - The Knife

Can You Hear What I Hear? - Bodies of Water

Frosty the Snowman - Cocteau Twins

Christmas Fire - The Deer Tracks

She Came Home For Christmas - Mew

Put the Lights on the Tree - Sufjan Stevens

Child's Christmas in Wales - John Cale

Fairytale of New York - Stars

The Christmas Song - The Raveonettes

Christmas is Cancelled - The Long Blondes

A Christmas Duel - The Hives and Cyndi Lauper

White Christmas - The Pipettes

Sleigh Ride - The Ronettes

Baby, It's Cold Outside - Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews

It's Christmas Time - Yo La Tengo

Carol of the Bells - The Polyphonic Spree

December Will Be Magic Again - Kate Bush

Winter Wonderland - Goldfrapp

Christmas and Train Trips and Things - Trembling Blue Stars

It's Xmas So We'll Stop - Frightened Rabbit

Merry Christmas (I Love You) - Hawksley Workman

Listening to Otis Redding At Home During Christmas - Okkervil River

Last Christmas - Manic Street Preachers

Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby and David Bowie

Christmas Song - Mogwai

Christmas on Earth - Momus

The Christmas Wish - Kermit the Frog


Weekly Mix #45 (Megaupload)

My Top 40 Albums of 2008: Numbers 40 Through 33

As promised, here's the first installment of my top albums of 2008. At the very beginning, I wanted to do a top 20; then it became a top 25; soon after, I made it a 35; eventually, it ended up as a top 40. Of course it now means that every Friday til the end of the year will feature a rather odd yet even eight albums. I will admit that I was still listening and arranging today. The inherent disclaimer in all this is that this list is of my top albums, in other words my favourites. That means that I didn't listen to every major release this year, let alone every release (even music nerds need some silence once and awhile), so I may either be missing out on some potential top albums or I may just be disinclined toward them in the first place - feel free to let me know what your personal favourites of the year were.

Before I dive into the countdown, I'm going to remind you a little bit about what was released in the first two months of 2008. (I was originally going to go a la The Big Fat Quiz of the Year and review the music events of every few months of the year, but I realized that I'm no match for such an activity, especially when I have difficulty remembering what I ate yesterday.) The year kicked off with releases by British Sea Power, The Magnetic Fields, Cat Power, Lightspeed Champion, Sons & Daughters, Beangrowers, the soundtrack for the hipster film phenomenon Juno, and the infinitely bloggable Vampire Weekend, a band that still leaves me completely cold despite the year seemingly belonging to them. As much as their pretentious, arty lyrics and Afro influences should draw me in, they end up sounding like a watery Paul Simon to me. February brought Hot Chip's highly anticipated third album and Goldfrapp's unexpected pastoral turn along with releases from Robots in Disguise, Dirtbombs, The Mountain Goats, The Raveonettes and another Amy Winehouse substitute, Adele. There were also debut LPs by Antarctica Takes All!, Los Campesinos! and the less exclamatory School of Language. Justin Vernon's first album as Bon Iver also made its official release in February.

On to the countdown:

40. The Penguin League - Anarctica Takes All!

As mentioned in the intro, The Penguin League released early in 2008, though it had been previously self-released by the Santa Cruz band. From the first burst of energy coming off the opening track I'm No Lover (featuring the great line "I'm not a lover, but a fighter"), the album cartwheels over itself like an even more puppyish Sufjan Stevens. Using glockenspiels, accordion, violin, harmonica and brass, the record is an eclectic mixture of folk, twee, and shambolic pop. Despite its rather frozen motif, its heart is warm enough to melt any ice shelf.

Flightless Birds - Antarctica Takes All!

Antarctica - Antarctica Takes All!

39. This Gift - Sons & Daughters

On their third album, the Glaswegian quartet turned to Bernard Butler for their production. The result is a blistering, whirling dervish of an album that takes the slightly dark folky bits evident on their excellent debut Love the Cup and transforms them into buzzsaw riffs and big choruses while the darkness continues to bubble beneath the surface like tar. Adele Bethel and Scott Paterson's vocals play off each other and blend in haunting combinations while the pace never slackens. I was fortunate to see them live early this year and it was an absolutely raucous show that largely showcased this record.

This Gift - Sons & Daughters

Iodine - Sons & Daughters

38. Apocalypso - The Presets

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of the Modular record label - rarely is there an artist on their roster that I'm not excited about. Having said that, I didn't pay quite as close attention to the Australian electro act The Presets as I did to many of their peers. It took their second album to really grab and shake my attention like ripe fruit from my skull. There's a hard edge to their synthpop sensibilities, closer to labelmate MSTRKRFT than Cut Copy or Van She, and there are definitely viral melodies along with the relentless beats. The deep, often overwrought vocals can be both soulful and theatrical while the music leaps from grimy depths to soaring heights of melodrama.

This Boy's in Love - The Presets

Talk Like That - The Presets

37. Sea From Shore - School of Language

Also mentioned in the intro, this is the Sunderland group's first album, but not exactly. School of Language was born as a side project of the band Field Music, which is composed of David and Peter Brewis and Andrew Moore, a group that had already released two albums of their own. It is also fitting that two of the tracks (Disappointment '99 and Extended Holiday) feature members of The Futureheads not only because one of the Brewis brothers used to play drums for The Futureheads, but also because I detect a similar off-kilter jittery quality in some parts of the record, including the chorus of vowel recitation permeating the Rockist quartet, a group of four songs that bracket the album. Sea From Shore also shares the wry wit and wacky rhythms that seem inherent in bands from the Northeast while adding smoother melodic surfaces and laidback grooves.

Disappointment '99 - School of Language

This Is No Fun - School of Language

36. The Colour of Snow - Polarkreis 18

This album is the fourth from these five friends from Dresden. It shares a similar dramatic, but atmospheric quality to Mew, and electronic elements are fused with gossamer vocals, creating a blinding panorama of translucence and light. There's also a widescreen epic feel to the tracks on this record, ranging from a boundless energy akin to a child on a snow day to melancholic swathes of sound like wind-sculpted drifts. Listening to this record is a bit like staring through the spidery patterns of frost on windowpanes - with one breath it could shift like a kaleidoscope.

Allein Allein - Polarkreis 18

River Loves the Ocean - Polarkreis 18

35. L'anthologie des 3 perchoirs - Duchess Says

I wrote a review of this album way back around the time of its release and I stand by my opinion of this Montreal band. This record is the perfect blend of violent electro and punk that screams through every bone in your body like electric shock therapy. Daisy Chainsaw-like banshee howls punch and pummel their way through distorted beats and ominous synths. It's like a roller derby on a rink of broken glass.

Tenen non neu- Duchess Says

Rabies (Baby's Got The) - Duchess Says

34. Everything That Happens Will Happen Today - David Byrne and Brian Eno

It was the duo that many music fans wished would team back up again. David Byrne and Brian Eno hadn't worked together since their classic 1981 album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, a mixture of tribal rhythms and experimental electronics. This time Byrne and Eno tackle gospel and create an uplifting journey, shimmering with reverb and redemption. Byrne's vocals are bold and warm as burnished brass and the lyrics are optimistic yet ambivalent and witty enough for the cynical age we live in. At the same time, Eno's characteristic experimental flourishes are still present. Tentative tendrils of hope poke through this record despite a mundane reality the colour of gunmetal and concrete. This album is the equivalent of a baptismal font for a human race that has just gone on too long.

Home - David Byrne and Brian Eno

Everything That Happens - David Byrne and Brian Eno

33. For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver

This particular album is bound to be on many a year-end list. It has been critically acclaimed everywhere you look. Justin Vernon famously wrote this record while spending three months in a remote cabin in Wisconsin. For Emma, Forever Ago is a document of catharsis and healing, and it emanates a profound solitude and gentle desperation. Sung in a raspy falsetto over acoustic guitar, there is an undeniable intimacy and rawness to these songs as though Vernon was slowly chipping away at his pain-clad heart with weary, calloused hands. In the process, he created a universal spark that has now been nourished by thousands of people worldwide, making it a toasty bon hiver indeed.

Skinny Love - Bon Iver

re: Stacks - Bon Iver

For each part of this countdown series, I will also include one album that almost made my list. The honourable mention for this installment is Hot Chip's Made in the Dark. Hot Chip's third album was a colourful patchwork of styles, ranging from dancefloor anthems to vulnerable ballads. Notably, Ready For the Floor, with its goofy music video, was an enormous hit that I keep coming back to.

Shake a Fist - Hot Chip

Numbers 32 through 25 will be coming at you next Friday. And this Sunday is the dreaded CTRNR Christmas Mix.

It's the Comedy and Death of the Senses: IAMX Live in Warsaw

I just received my IAMX Live in Warsaw album this morning in the post. Officially released on November 14, this recording of IAMX for the Polish radio station Trojka is an incredible reminder of how truly incendiary they are live. It features nearly an identical set to the ones I witnessed last year with an absence of Nightlife, but the presence of the stunning Mercy (which was played for the encore of some shows on that 2007 tour, but not for the ones I attended) and Missile. Mastered by Chris Corner himself, this live recording is a brilliant taste of what makes IAMX an unparalleled behemoth on stage.

The show begins with the genius title track of The Alternative - its extended intro hammers away and whips the audience into an anticipatory froth. The cataclysm continues with Bring Me Back a Dog and The Negative Sex, both of which are bigger and more vicious than most live rock songs I've ever experienced. The show then slows down slightly to the swaying hypnosis of President, the ethereal pulse of Mercy, and the undulating depravity of Lulled By Numbers. Next come Kiss and Swallow and Spit It Out, two of IAMX's previously released singles and hugely powerful anthems. Before Spit It Out, Corner plays his seductive game with the crowd as he continues to say, "This is our last song," and the audience keeps screaming "No." Then just as the music strikes up, like a benevolent master, he says, "Well, we'll see." Spit It Out in all its bombastic glory, beautifully rearranged slightly for the live show, is the last song for the show proper. However, after chants of "IAMX," Corner and the band return for the encore.

As in the shows I saw, the unholy, esoteric cabaret of Song of Imaginary Beings kicks it off. Its accordion and plinking keys introduction drips with the beguiling bewitchment to come. Then, the opening bars of Missile elicit a roar of recognition from the crowd and the delicate, vulnerable song moves along to the climax when Corner gives the vocals over to the audience. Almost immediately after Missile concludes, the dark beats come back to another one of my favourite songs from Kiss + Swallow, Your Joy is My Low. It is one last battlecry for the beautiful people in IAMX's kingdom of the wretched.

Outside of Poland, you can only order the album through the Nineteen95 shop. I'm still waiting, as other fans probably are, for a live DVD to be officially created and released to document the intoxicating image that goes with the music. I'm still rattled by the energy that the IAMX band and Chris Corner's intense persona have managed to project through my speakers. I'll happily write an elegy to my senses tomorrow.

The Alternative - IAMX (Live in Warsaw)

Mercy - IAMX (Live in Warsaw)

"I bet that you look good on the dancefloor...but nowhere else": Mikrofisch's Masters of the Universe

Though Masters of the Universe by Mikrofisch released last year, I only just discovered it. I actually only just discovered Mikrofisch, so that could be part of the problem. Apparently, Mikrofisch began in 2001 when Mawe N. Klave and Silvi Wersi met in Cologne. Though they intended to cover The Smiths, they ended up producing original material, and a year later, they released their debut album Gleichstrom/Wechselstrom. After Wersi moved to London, the duo ended up recording Masters of the Universe over a three-year period, and the product is a magnificent anti-hipster shot in the arm. With lyrics like these, making countless music and pop culture references and observations about the trappings of being twenty-something in the 21st century, I'm surprised Klave and Wersi's tongues haven't come clean out the other side of their cheeks.

The album begins with Alien Monsters, a hilarious send-up of alien attack films complete with deadpan vocal delivery and rot-your-teeth twee background. Let's Kiss and Listen to Bis starts with a Peter Hook-like bassline and then '80s synthesizers kick in to augment a sweetness worthy of the twee mentioned. The narrators stalwartly refuse to make love to DFA; instead they want to regress into the '90s of their adolescence, including the Glaswegian pop-punksters. The '80s influence continues as arcade video game aesthetics, drum machines and vocoders cover the track Bad Hair Days with a retro veneer. Shifting into a more down-tempo feel, I Never Get Much Sleep on Weekdays emulates the catatonic state of the fatigued, apathetic twenty-somethings they sing about. The sarcasm and ennui drips off the chorus: "We're the twenty-somethings/We're the part-time punks/We got our records from Ebay and our clothes from H&M/Don't look back in anger/Today will okay/Tomorrow will be much like yesterday." The following track, Morrissey, Jeff Mangus, Stephin Merritt, John Darnielle, is a brilliant existential anthem for indie moper-loners everywhere.

Not only lonely indie songwriters get mentioned. Referencing the '60s model and muse of fashion designer Rudi Gernreich, Peggy Moffitt Look-alikes pops about like a soft drink or a fun fair as it satirizes those hipster girls who come to gigs dressed like thrift store mods. Then, whizzing into life and making a personificative address to the theremin, Drum Machines Will Save Mankind uses fuzzy, lo-fi synths and drum machines to revivify the twee genre - it's a bit like if someone decided to use Darling Buds songs in an Atari game. Then disco is given an 80s 8-bit makeover in Disco Fantasy as Klave and Wersi's vocals drift dreamily over top. They even use the galactic leitmotif that often comes with disco and funk music. The album then shifts into pure power-pop bliss with We Love You, a cutesy song ostensibly sung from the perspective of crazy fans, but which adds a brilliant twist to the narrative. It features a screamy chorus akin to Robots in Disguise or Chicks on Speed.

This is followed by one of my favourite tracks on the album, The Kids Are All Shite, which namechecks Brit indie rock mediocrity in monotone vocal delivery against an intense bassline. It lampoons the MySpace generation perfectly, including their propensity to follow "indie" trends slavishly and to idolize NME bands whose music plays in supermarkets "before the sell-out's even started" and who "all look like Johnny Ramone." One of the best lines is "I bet that you look good on the dancefloor, but nowhere else." The chorus also reminds me melodically of Depeche Mode's New Life. The record takes a slower turn with See You Next Tuesday, a delightful, electro anti-ballad with interplay between male and female vocals. The tempo comes back up for Evil Customer, a perfect track for anyone who's felt stifled by their city or town or chained to a crap retail job - they create a perfect contrast between the pleasant sing-song of a polite front and the deteriorating mental state of the narrator that descends into Tourette's-like hysteria by the end. Just as astute as Evil Customer, (No One Listens To You When You've Got) Flat Hair is one of the better songs I've ever heard about the mind-sickening "reality" of reality TV; the verses are delivered with a cool detachment like that of Black Box Recorder's Sarah Nixey. The record concludes with Focus On It, the harshest song on the album with its dirty, crunchy beats and its play on and with hypnotic trance and house genres.

With the generous use of drum machines and minimal synth sounds, there's something lo-fi and homemade about the record; indeed, it was recorded in various bedrooms and living rooms. At the same time, it is the perfect aural document of the love-hate no-win situation of being an indie music lover in the noughties. Mikrofisch intelligently deconstruct the world they live in while paying unironic tribute to the music they love. You can download the entire album for free here with the band's blessing. This album is a bit like finding a He-Man action figure inside a Kinder egg: a nostalgic but nerdy cool surprise inside a sweet, waxy chocolate shell. The perfect gift for a generation who know too much to care very much.

Let's Kiss and Listen to Bis - Mikrofisch

The Kids Are All Shite - Mikrofisch

Evil Customer - Mikrofisch

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #44

As promised, this week's mix is of songs from 2008. There are hundreds and hundreds of songs I could have picked for this compilation, but I was also trying to keep track of the songs I want to include throughout my countdown of top 2008 albums beginning this Friday (like the music addict that I am, I ended up expanding my list to a top 35 albums rather than a top 25). So, if you don't see particular tracks here, there's a high probability they will show up at a later date. My brain is becoming a little overtaxed as I compile the list of this year's releases, major labels and not-so-major labels, and I still have a fair bit of work listening and deliberating. It's gotten to the point where I've assumed albums released in January were actually from last year. I've become a bit like the Stasi of music.

Having dispensed with that preamble, I will move on to the mix itself. I tried to take into account some singles that I couldn't shake from my head, including the raspy, yelpy perfection of Kings of Leon's Sex On Fire, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' rather excalamatory Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, and Supergrass's White Stripesesque Diamond Hoo Ha Man. A few of the songs on this mix are from some of my top albums of the year, but you'll have to wait to find out which ones they may be (not to mention they could always change anyway). For the most part, I kept to songs from more major artists (of course in my blog bubble world, I start to lose perspective and many of the artists I think are wildly popular and too obvious are apparently...not, and I'm left looking rather ovine). Consider this mix to be a mere appetizer in an eight-course meal and a small reminder of some of the songs released in 2008. This mix is called Mini Quiche.

Girls & Boys - The Subways

Up All Night - The Young Knives

The Beginning of the Twist - The Futureheads

Diamond Hoo Ha Man - Supergrass

Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Sex on Fire - Kings of Leon

Being Here - The Stills

Paris - Friendly Fires

Kids - MGMT

Paris is Burning - Ladyhawke

You Cross My Path - The Charlatans

Paper Planes - M.I.A.

Olive Eyes - frYars

Little Bit - Lykke Li

Caravan Girl - Goldfrapp

Rockist Part 4 - School of Language

An Eluardian Instance - Of Montreal

Galaxy of the Lost - Lightspeed Champion

Chemtrails - Beck

Shiller - Ratatat

Death Take Your Fiddle - Spiritualized

Magic Doors - Portishead

Brain Tattoos and Doublethink: The Japanese Popstars and Jon Ryman

This post is another double feature to showcase two different electronic records that I'm excited about right now. The first is the debut album from Northern Irish trio The Japanese Popstars (We Just Are due to release in North America in January 2009) and the second is the fifth album from Jon Ryman (Nineteen Eighty-Four which just released this year). The former has gritty, dirty beats akin to Justice, Boys Noize and MSTRKRFT while the latter emulates smoother synthpop similar to The Human League, Depeche Mode and New Order.

Consisting of Declan McLaughlin, Gary Curran and Gareth Donoghue, The Japanese Popstars are exactly what I want to hear on the dancefloor. We Just Are begins aptly with We Just Are (Intro) - a confident declaration that pulses with metallic starbursts around the simple vocal sample. From here, you are taken into a world of fantastically brash and hypnotic electro, where you are under their purview and held in compliance with your will. The first track proper, Sample Whore, built around samples of "ohs" and "ahs," is a perfect blend of the lusty and clinical while Face Melter does just what it says on the tin (I'm still trying to mop up the remainder of my face from the floor). Then Delboys Revenge kicks in with a jackhammer insistence, but a needle-like precision soon backed by lasers that slice through your cranium.

As a refreshing reversal to the assault of Delboys Revenge, B.C.T.T. provides a gentler, poppier side with breathier rhythms and the heart rate comes down for awhile as the delicacy of the track washes over you like cool antiseptic. Dr. Frenchy Bernard continues the gentler arc with springy synths and old-school bleeps, creating a mini electro symphony. Anthepic (We Have Taken Over) begins to bring back harsher, dirtier beats, smudging up the otherwise pristine technicality of the track, and by the point the wispy vocals that declare "Just like you asked us to, we have taken over you" increase into a hynotic maelstrom, you realize that they have indeed taken over. Rising slowly from beneath the previous track, The Smile wends its way insidiously and surreptitiously into the folds of your grey matter.

However, it only serves as an introduction to the epic Rise of Ulysses, a whizzing, buzzsaw return to the grimier earlier tracks of the album. With its demonic chant of "rise!" at various points, it injects a darker pigment into the heart of the record. With rapid metallic beats and clipped cymbals, Total Distorted Mayhem, like Face Melter, is rather self-explanatory. A barely detectable "Come in, just jump in" pulses between rhythms like a shadow of an Id. The next track, F19b (Droppin' Bombs), definitely sounds like bombs dropping in a constant loop, ultimately merging to sound like a siren against gritty, hollow beats. Like most of the tracks on this record, it puts you into a rather pleasurable trance. To tie the album up in a consistent circuit, it ends with We Just Are (Finalizer), once again deliberately declaring their existence. It builds from a low hum into scales of fuzzy tonalities before bursting rather unexpectedly into sunny, jubilant melodies, like pure endorphin being shot into your veins. The Japanese Popstars have also just released a free download of an unreleased track called Electronic Poet, which is equally as brilliant as the album and which I've made available below. If I opened my skull right now, I have a feeling The Japanese Popstars would be tattooed all over the surface of my cerebrum.

Unlike The Japanese Popstars, Jon Ryman's music is on the softer, synthier side of electronic music. I was actually made aware of the Brighton-based artist several months ago via MySpace, but I didn't take a proper listen until now. Ryman has been creating music since the '80s (including under the name Interloper) and has also worked on music for television. This particular album - Ryman's fifth studio album - is loosely based on George Orwell's 1984, the book that has spawned many a song and record. However, rather than seem clichéd, this record breathes new life into the seminal story, especially with its classic analogue feel. Somehow it is hugely fitting that an old novel set in the future, which is now the increasingly distant past, is set to new music in a style that was considered futuristic decades ago. Ryman also pushes Orwell's ideas into the 21st century, demonstrating how visionary Orwell was in predicting that everyone would eventually experience information overload to the point of apathy, a world where everything is propaganda and everything is under surveillance.

The album begins with an introductory message delivered by a voice from a retro computer that promises to play a happy song for you. The first track proper is New Corporate Mass, which ticks away like a hollow machine before pulsing with sparkly waves of synth and a rather robotic Latin hymn sung by a vocoderized human in a world in which the new religion is controlled by the corporations via the government. The album then shifts into Humanized, one of the catchiest tracks on the album. It slinks along to a cabaret feel and features one of my favourite lyrics: "a paper tiger in a cage." Overexposure places the Big Brother-induced paranoia against a relatively deadpan vocal and a backdrop of some of the best New Wave synthpop I've heard lately. Its sentiments display the ever-present (and ever-realistic) problem of minds being inundated with unwinnable wars and loaded terms that mean nothing to keep them from thinking critically. Breaking through this noise, Julia, an ode to the protagonist, Winston's, love interest in the novel, is full of crystalline synthesizers, reflecting a New Wave dancefloor beneath a discoball made of ice and circuitboard. The narrator of the song, who we can assume is Winston, appears to be experiencing a reawakening, shaking off apathy for a moment and attempting deeper thoughts, including rather profound ones like "maybe I'm just circumstance, nothing more." The next track, Autocue, flows along to a beat reminiscent of Tears For Fears' Everybody Wants to Rule the World as what sounds like telephone rings tinkle in the background. It becomes the perfect atmosphere for lyrics telling how the monolithic corporation assumes its own impersonal, singular soul, acting as an individual driven by greed and drained of humanity while running on automatic pilot. Autocue drifts seamlessly into Stars Fall, which returns to vocoder and beautiful, soaring melody.

Breaking this dreamlike mood, Rhythm Machine begins with the same computerized voice from the intro asking you to enter an access code. The song then moves into clinical vocals paired with razor-sharp precise rhythm worthy of Kraftwerk, contrasting with the free-flow of the movement in Julia - this is what dance music is when computers create it on their own. Oneohone, which is named for the dreaded Room 101 of the novel, begins with echoey snatches of voices and random sounds before ominous synths slip in to create an air of nightmare and imprisonment. Beginning with whizzes and static, Omnipresent continues the dark, horrific feel of Oneohone, setting a scene in which fear is palpable. Nowhere Left To Run follows with a rather restrained rhythm framed by further whizzes as a rather resigned vocal sings the song's title over and over. The record concludes with Acid Music, a bouncy, scrambled track that sounds like both a mental collapse and a system failure, poignantly demonstrating our propensity for treating machines like humans and humans like machines: machines get viruses while humans break down. Nineteen Eighty-Four is retro, but never cheesy, which is quite an achievement, and I hope Ryman gets more of the attention he deserves for this record.

Currently, you can order We Just Are from Amazon UK and you can purchase Nineteen Eighty-Four at CD Baby. Oddly enough, both albums, though very different, reinforce some similar notions of technology and humans and how we are both just made of information, whether DNA or binary code.

Face Melter - The Japanese Popstars

Electronic Poet - The Japanese Popstars

Humanized - Jon Ryman

Julia - Jon Ryman