Art Vs Science!

The year was 2007, and Dan McNamee had gone to see a Daft Punk concert in Sydney. Inspired by the techno spectacle (as well as anybody should!), he rang up two old high school mates, Jim Finn and Dan Williams, and proposed that they form a band. Art Vs Science was born, and the rest, as they say, is history. And I'm really, really impressed by what they've turned out so far.

There are many pleasant surprises that have engaged me during my stay here in Melbourne (if one is interested, then visit my Oz-ward Bound blog to read about my adventures trying to gain Australian citizenship). Victorian architecture,  flocks of parrots, the colourful flora and fauna, the laid-back personality of the local population, and -- yes -- the nearly obscene wealth of fantastic electronic acts that have been formed here. From the Presets, to Severed Heads, to Cut Copy and Midnight Juggernauts, to Pnau and Empire of the Sun, to Grafton Primary and Infusion, and to Art Vs Science and Sean Quinn and many, many more, Australia has produced some of the more original and eclectic electronic soundtracks to grace my playlist in many a moon.

So, back to Art Vs Science. They formed in early 2008, and have so far released two EPs: 2009's Art Vs Science and 2010's Magic Fountain. Their first full-length (title TBA) will be released in February of 2011, and they've also covered Split Enz's "I See Red" for the new compilation record He Will Have His Way, a compendium of Tim and Neil Finn covers. They've also recorded a minute-and-a-half little ditty about bad breath for the Australian kid's science TV show Sleek Geeks (think about rhyming "halitosis" with "diagnosis"), and are currently on tour with Infusion and Sean Quinn (they hit St Kilda on the 10th of December at the venerable Prince Bandroom -- you should totally go)!

An enthusiastic and bombastic stew of experimental synths, disco-punk, and techno, Art Vs Science's music is fantastically catchy, a frenzied hodgepodge of forward-thinking boom 'n' bass 'n' noise. Utilizing guitar and bass and live drums, their work has something for everybody, including those music snobs who tend to steer clear of bands that "just noodle at keyboards and sequencers." But holy shit, there's a lot of fun to be had here. "Parlez-vous Français?" will not only get your ass moving on the dancefloor, but will also make you smile -- there's a lot of quirky humour on display. "Take Me To Your Leader" delves deep into Empire of the Sun territory -- it reminds me quite a bit of Mr Steele's "Swordfish Hotkiss Night." "Magic Fountain" maintains a serious Daft Punk sensibility throughout its hardcore bangin', and -- if you're listening to their Magic Fountain EP -- there's even a live cover version (recorded at Splendour in the Grass) of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince's "Boom! Shake the Room" that's just ... fucking special.

OK, I've talked enough. Here's some music for y'all, my favourite readers in the whole wide world.

art vs science

"parlez-vous français?"

art vs science ep

art vs science

"magic fountain"

magic fountain ep

Live On DVD! Depeche Mode.

Hey kids! Look what's out now at your favourite music/movie purveyor! It's the new Depeche Mode live DVD - "Tour of the Universe : Barcelona 20/21.11.09." I can't wait to get it - my girlfriend and I went and saw the show at the O2 Arena in London this last 15th of December, and it was bloody fantastic. Everything worked - the lights were engaging and colourful, the stage setup was fascinating, the video projections were nothing short of awe-inspiring, and David and Martin's voices were at their peak. I can totally say, without fear of self-contradiction, that this concert film is going to fucking rock. Get it, get it, get it.


Here is Depeche Mode performing "Personal Jesus" from that very same concert. Jesus (haha), can I say it rocks? Yes it does. It rocks. Hard. And then some.

Gig Review: Editors.

E D I T O R S

WARFIELD THEATRE

SAN FRANCISCO

8 FEBRUARY 2010

When Editors released their most recent album In This Light And On This Evening (October 2009), some of their fans seemed to become mildly disgruntled at the musical direction the Birmingham, UK quartet was drifting towards. After all, after two very successful records - their 2005 debut The Back Room and 2007's An End Has A Start - Tom Smith and Company decided to bring legendary producer Flood into the mix (haha, yeah, pun kind of intended) and veer into the realm of bands such as Depeche Mode, New Order, and Erasure. So, yeah, some fans were, like I said, mildly disgruntled about the whole lay of the land. I am not one of those fans.

Now, I have a theory I’ve been working on as to the general theme of the Editors' songs. I might be completely off-base (and off my rocker as well), but try to stick with me here: Everybody (I think, though I hate to make generalizations) knows the Serenity Prayer, don't they? (It's a staple philosophy behind AA. Alongside burnt coffee, chain-smoked cigarettes, and stale biscuits) "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change," it goes, "courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference." So I've been listening to Editors for quite some time, and I think I've arrived at the conclusion that the narrators of their songs are often held in the psychological grasp of the basic crux behind the Serenity dilemma. For within their songs you will find stories of men who, confronted with the stark realities of Love, either A) question whether or not they're good enough for it; B) see themselves as a some kind of a "savior"; C) realize how much work goes into making a relationship work; D) worry that they're giving too much of themselves to their significant other; or E) wax poetic on the fragility of love and people in general.

Please do not ask me to go further into this comparison. I highly recommend listening to the music and lyrics of the Editors, and sending me an email regarding your thoughts. Chatting with my girlfriend earlier today, she told me: "Well, that's one way to look at it!" Let me know what you think.

But I digress. Let me tell you about the show!

The In This Light And On This Evening Tour dropped down in San Francisco Monday night at the stately and beautiful Warfield Theatre. Consisting of Tom Smith (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, and piano), Edward Lay (drums and percussion), Russell Leetch (bass guitar), and Chris Urbanowicz (lead guitar and synthesizers), Editors hit the stage with a ninety-minute set that featured tracks from all three of their albums, and had the energy and forthwith to make them shine.

Here are some highlights. First of all, I’d like to state that their music is as tightly-wound on stage as it is on their records. There’s an intense efficiency at play here, and I’m happy to report that it was on full, glorious display during their show. Watching them play older songs with newer numbers, I was constantly reminded of how much of a team they are. Everything, and every sound, just comes together like they were born to be, man.

Take “Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool,” off the new album, for instance. Intense and vaguely horrific, it’s a prime example of the new direction Editors are taking in their song-writing. Featuring squelching synths that buzz about like nasty little insects layered over a deep and roiling drumbeat (which is appropriate, I think, for a song that mentions in its lyrics, “chewing with an open mouth, raw meat, your blood drool attracts the flies …”), Tom Smith’s rich baritone seems to have been perfectly designed for conveying the confused sense of loss that permeate the soul of the track. Even hearing him say the word “fuck” (“I don’t want to be left out – or get fucked”) seems somewhat out of time and place, and frankly I feel that that limited usage of profanity gives the single uttering of it a certain power that the likes of 50 Cent, Jay-Z, or Ice Cube couldn’t achieve in a fucking paragraph, let alone an effing LP, yo. Following the logic of the “Serenity Prayer” I was referring to earlier, I’d say this particular narrator was one who did not possess the serenity to accept what cannot be changed. “I give a little to you, I give a little to him, I give a little to her!” Smith chants, and you can sense his frustration at how little he gets back.

I sometimes found myself wondering if Tom Smith has a bone in his body. Watching him writhe and flail about on the sparsely decorated stage (actually, unlike a lot of shows I’ve seen recently, there wasn’t a single projection, movie, or even a curtain with the bands’ name on it behind the goings-on), I kept subconsciously waiting for him to run into something, slam into Leetch or Lay, or just trip over his feet and fall down on the dusty wood of the Warfield’s platform!

The first single off of In This Light And On This Evening, “Papillon,” surged forth like a fantastical marriage of Doctor Who and New Order. When Smith bellows, “IT KICKS LIKE A SLEEP TWITCH!” you could feel the force resonate in your stomach. “Munich,” off their first album, was full of cool little surprises, including (to my delight) a hell of an extended ending, something I really find endearing about the live experience in general. And "Bones" was just fucking majestic in its rocking power. "YOU'LL SPEAK WHEN YOU'RE SPOKEN TO," Smith intoned over and over again, as the music brought the freaking house down!

Now, there were a couple of moments that seemed a little, well, dull. "Lights" was a rather milquetoast moment, coming across like a boring Coldplay throwaway, and "You Don't Know Love" seemed to be a little weak and rote - a bit like filler and not much else. But these, dear readers, are just minor quibbles in the grand scheme of things, and Editors have officially reminded me of how powerful and grand their music can be - especially in a live setting. Their new musical direction, and how they've come to marry driving indie pop with a delicious electronic sensibility, has certainly not "mildly disgruntled" me. My hat's off to them, and I can't wait to see where their new musical road takes them (and their loyal fans). Cheers, gentlemen. I give your show a ...

B+

Setlist

In This Light and On This Evening

Lights

An End Has A Start

You Don’t Know Love

Bones

The Boxer

The Big Exit

Blood

Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool

The Racing Rats

Walk The Fleet Road

Like Treasure

Bullets

Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors

Bricks and Mortar

ENCORE

Munich

Papillon

Fingers In The Factories

And here, for your listening pleasure, I'd like to play for you a song. From In This Light And On This Evening, here's Tom Smith and company with their new single, "Papillon." Enjoy, and have a lovely day, friends!

Review: Bolshevik Disco.

As this blog begins to grow and find itself, I find myself thinking more and more about music, and using this space to put forward and review interesting bands and albums. The blog title, by the way, refers to where I keep my favorite concert T-shirts, in case you were curious; so without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to an album I recently found in the Electronic section of Rough Trade Records in London - The Polyamorous Affair's Bolshevik Disco.

The introduction track, "The Interrogation," starts thing off with, quite literally, a bang, as the listener is barraged with a sampling of warfare with a militaristic drumbeat and vaguely menacing gunshots with a static staccato of fuzzy voices in the background while a slowly building crescendo of synthesizers begins to blanket everything, enveloping the track with a purveying sense of tension. It's a bit like one of those WWII propaganda films fed through a filter of European electronic je ne sais quoi. It's a fine intro, and the album itself moves forward effortlessly, like a disco shark through the turquoise waters of a pastoral sea. My imagination is piqued, and Bolshevik Disco takes off running with it.

The Polyamorous Affair were founded in 2008 by Eddie Chacon and Sissy Sainte-Marie. Based out of Los Angeles, they self-released their eponymous debut to critical acclaim (Perez Hilton was an earlier admirer) and were then signed up by Manimal Vinyl (who also have under their umbrella the amazing Bat For Lashes). Bolshevik Disco is their second release.

Here are some of my thoughts of this album.

First off, I'd like to take a moment to enthusiastically put forward my choice for stand-out track "You Are." Consisting entirely of a delightful back-and-forth vocal exchange between Chacon and Sainte-Marie, this song features a series of fun and whimsical plays on rhymes; it's infectious and hypnotic track, to say the least. Sample lyric:

"You are my dark side of the moon,

A room without a view,

A song that ends too soon,

A helium balloon ..."

I can easily picture "You Are" as spoken vows at an intergalactic space-age wedding. Very cool.

Their cover of Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love" evokes a melancholic ennui that is furthered delicately by Sainte-Marie's breathy vocals shimmering over a wobbly rhythm of synthesizers and a steady percussion, stained with a distant current of gentle guitars. It makes an impression of how one must feel loneliness in the vacuum of space, staring at the stars as they whir past in a frenzy.

Flexing their rave muscles on "Eastern," the sound conjures up fond memories of New Order when they camped out in Ibiza for the recording of their dance masterpiece Technique.

"White Hot Magic" takes me back to the 80's heyday of synth-pop, on a trail that was blazed in Europe by such acts as Cetu Javu and Camouflage. Very danceable, and mesmerizing.

My only complaint (and it is but a minor quibble to say the least) is that the album itself is quite short, clocking in at just over thirty minutes long. Most of the ten tracks on display here fall into the two-to-three minute range, and I feel they could have let loose just a bit more often, resulting in meandering soundscapes suitable for losing oneself in.

That being said, I quite look forward to hearing more from this spacey and quite interesting electronic duo in the future!

Oops, looks like "In Love" was cancelled by YouTube. Here, from Bolshevik Disco is the awesome and sweet "You Are".