Download Keep Watch Vol. XIX: Night Slugs (Click Here)

Can you believe it? We’re at our twentieth Keep Watch Mix…. Wow! We’ve kept you guys entertained and in tune with a wide and wonderful world of electro/dance for the past two years now with what’s become not only our signature dance series, but something dance fans look forward to every 30 to 45 days. We’re incredibly proud of that.

So join us won’t you? Lets Take this hour-long journey through space on a b2b (back to back) live session recorded at the Rinse FM studios, courtesy of the London duo o the tips of everyone’s tongues, Night Slugs. Slip inside their world,  where you’ll be served and intoxicating cocktail made up of Tech-House, Tropical House, Grime and big bad bass lines sure to get your body moving.

This is a very special 20th edition made by the Slugs to celebrate the release of our Fall 2010 collection and features a selection of the duo’s latest tracks, remixes and of course choice cuts from their own Night Slugs record label. This is one mix you’ll have on repeat for days, trust me!

The Night Slugs (who are Bok Bok and L-Vis 1990)  first came into existence in early 2008 when, inspired by a variety of experimental club music from around the globe, the duo linked up to start a club night dedicated to a brand new hybrid sound. This new aesthetic fused international gutter house styles with London’s unique soundsystem heritage. The emphasis was on innovation, breaking new producers, debuting fresh tracks, uncompromising bass weight, and above all a functionalist dancefloor-friendly vibe.

The Night Slugs party quickly gained a reputation for being amongst the freshest in London. Two years down the line, Night Slugs is an unstoppable brand. Their club parties are a London staple, a cornerstone of the UK’s bass mutation scene. Bok Bok and L-Vis’ record label of the same name is several releases into a series of groundbreaking EPs, showcasing fresh new sounds from the collective that has crystalised around the duo.

The Slugs’ own productions – international club anthems like “United Groove”, “Ripe Banana”, “Compass” and “Citizens” – have appears on a variety of boutique labels such as Mad Decent, Numbers and Sound Pellegrino.

2010 sees the duo join London’s leading underground music station Rinse FM. With an unparalleled pirate radio vintage of 15 years, Rinse is a bastion of the UK scene’s unique tendency towards self-reinvention, an ethos that deeply resonates with Night Slugs’ own drive for innovation; catch the duo on Rinse every other monday, 1-3pm GMT showcasing the freshest riddims about.

Magic Kids - Memphis (2010) [True Panther] // Grade: B -

Memphis natives Magic Kids have released their appropriately names debut LP Memphis. This is a band that’s manifesto is to spread happiness to the world, tread on the side of love not evil, and that bad music is the stuff which makes you sad. Their name is inspired by the early 90s movie poster of “Magic Kid” (with clouds, Christmas tree, kid in karate split, clown, red convertible and featuring tag line “dreams are just wishes…coming true”) but is a flick the band has never seen. They don’t want to ruin the illusion of the so terrible it’s awesome poster and who can blame them. The movie is probably crap. The members of Magic Kids seem to be genuinely happy people, which is a refreshing change from the blank emotions of some hipster bands floating around. They even have slumber parties after every show. No wonder Magic Kids creates music that is so spunky and upbeat. It’s so sugary sweet it almost gives you a toothache.

Memphis is an album full of modern day pop oldies with a twee edge. They do a superb job of mixing the sunny disposition of early 60s pop but instead of basing songs around simplistic repeating melodies they take it to grand places. A mixture of instruments are used (horns, strings, oboes, synths, drums, guitars) to create these epic crescendoing instrumentals that are cause for celebration as the joyful lyrics like “you were always on my mind and you stayed in my pocket all the time”, “there’s no candy sweeter than my baby”, and “it’s so good to be with you” are chirpily belted out (with exuberant back up vocals to boot). The previously released single “Hey Boy” apparently took seven months to record and definitely is a phenomenal track, but then the LP took only two months.

Regardless of the short time frame, Magic Kids have created grandiose pop tracks that you just can’t sit still during (especially track “Superball”). I hate to say they’ve reinvented old fashioned pop for a modern era (because I’m sure they’re not the only band out there making great pop music) but with tracks “Good To Be”, “Cry With Me Baby”, and “Candy” you can hear the doo wop influences intertwined in their extravagant, superbly produced instrumentals. The layers are just as complex as some ethereal shoegaze stuff that the ear has a lot to listen to and doesn’t just get soaked in sugar. They break up the pure sunshine tracks with “Skateland” (featuring more rock heavy guitars), and reflective yearning slower tracks “Hideout” and “Summer”.

Memphis is a perfect album to bring anyone out of the summer’s over funk and perk spirits up for the changing season. Magic Kids are touring throughout the fall and I’m sure they put on an awesome show, so check them out if you get the chance!

Das Racist are getting down with Mad Decent on September 14th for a brand new mix called Sit Down, Man. The new mix will feature production from Boi-1da, Scoop Deville, Diplo, Dame Grease, El-P and more! Check out the above teaser clip by Nicolas Heller and get fuckin’ excited bro!

Speaking of Das Racist and mixes have you downloaded Shut Up, Dude yet? No!?!? Ar eyou out of your mind? Shit’s one of the tightest Hip Hop Releases of 2010, no joke!

Bastard Priest - Under the Hammer of Destruction (2010) [Pulverised] // Grade: A

About fucking time. I like my death metal like I like my meatballs. Ground flesh, blood and with a kick. I want to feel blood running down my cheek when I bite into my death metal. Göteborg can kiss my meatball-laden ass. Stockholms län’s modern death revival is mincing up some fucking brutal death metal akin to Possessed and Death’s early work. If you fiend for the best, do not miss Bastard Priest’s new album Under the Hammer of Destruction. These dudes have come a long way from the gritty and compressed sound of their 2008 demo, Merciless Insane Death. Expect old school breaks, decrepit vocals and lighting-beckoning riffs.

I swear to God, “Blasphemy from Hell” and “Visions of Doom” alone will sell you on this album. Super simple and yet highly-effective deliverance of death metal. Seriously, it’s not that hard to put a good album together. The formula is simple. Blast beats, reverb in the vocals, riffs and deep breaks. Then all you need are some easily-repeated lyrics. Take “Evil Pain” for example. I don’t think Matt Mendoza even mutters anything besides “Evil Pain” for the entire three minutes. That doesn’t mean Under the Hammer of Destruction is predictable though. Akin to their influences like, Repulsion and Autopsy, Bastard Priest knows how to mix it up just enough to keep the listener engaged. With eleven tracks and 35 minutes to do so, Bastard Priest keeps you in tune.

In what I think is the best song on the album, “Power of Death” screams an homage to Chuck Schuldiner’s greatest work. Just listen to it and tell me you’re not fighting the urge to drum on your desk. Many hits follow, including “Chuck”, “Merciless Insane Death” and “En Hälsning från Helvetet”, a Bombanfall cover. How epic is that track? Damn. Under the Hammer of Destruction might be one of the better death metal albums of 2011. For a while, the Germans have been ruling the world and now, maybe it’s time for a Stockholms län revival. If I could open a death metal meatball bar at some point in my life, I’d get Bastard Priest to play the opening party!

ECW legend, Axl Rotten once said “All wrestlers wanna be rock stars, and all rock stars wanna be wrestlers.” I think that’s a fair assessment which brings us to the topic of my post on drawing some similarities between professional wrestling and Pop music.

In a very personal sense, 2010 has been a wonderful year for music. When I’m not slaving away at a 9-5 or burning the midnight oil as a freelance music journalist, I’m a pro wrestling manager. I’ve done this for nearly a decade, which means that I really love it, and also given that I’m writing this and not on national television, will be content to spend a career working elementary schools, carnivals, VFW halls and festivals for small paydays and the fleeting glory of D-List celebrity. This also means that I have spent many hours studying and observing this fantastic carny business, and much of the way that I understand the world is colored by understanding why people like Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Goldberg, “Superstar” Billy Graham, Ric Flair and “Macho Man” Randy Savage were superstars and are eternally part of the pop cultural lexicon, why other stars are close, and why many will get close, or never get there at all.

Many in the blogosphere and beyond appear especially shocked, angsty and appalled by the latest stream of pop idols, especially in their over-gimmicked, pre-packaged nature as the recording industry attempts to combat low record sales with a new phalanx of hitmakers who mirror proven concepts in music and society. Given that this is true, there are many lessons and parallels now that can now be drawn from the world of pro wrestling to pop music. Much of why 2010 has been so successful and entertaining to me can be understood by pulling back the curtain a tiny bit to pro wrestling, and giving you, the reader certain tenets of our industry that have yet again been applied to pop domination.

—–

1. Pro Wrestling is 90% Presentation and 10% Ability

In the early 1970′s professional wrestling was a business that was doing well, but not doing the tremendous box office numbers of the “WWF Attitude Era” of the late 1990s. However, literally based on physique and look alone, “Superstar” Billy Graham changed everything. Billy Graham was a supremely tanned, bleach blonde  who wore tie dye and rose colored shades at all times, and cut promos for his upcoming matches by using a palaver culled largely from Muhammad Ali, Gorgeous George, pimps and street corner hustlers.

There was nothing original at all about him, except this was the first time pro wrestling had ever seen it used as a drawing tool. Graham’s success was also based off of a physique enhanced by anabolic steroids which, of course, in the 1970s, society didn’t realize the inherent problems in this, but man, did he look great.

Ke$ha: All sizzle, no steak. But you can’t turn your eyes away.

At no point have I spoken a word about his matches. They were presentable, but not technical masterpieces of great agility and skill. However, based on his presence, presentation and ability to cause a stir, he got you in the door, and was a solid draw and money earner for the WWF, AWA and other major territories in the 1970s.

—–

2. If You Must Have a Gimmick, Make it Believable, Believe In It, and the People Will Believe In You

Terry Bollea is one of the greatest liars of my lifetime. This man, in the guise of Hulk Hogan told me that if I merely trained, said my prayers and took my vitamins, I could bodyslam Andre the Giant, ward off terrorism, racism, sexism, communism, imperialism, elitism and yes, the Canadian Earthquake and Akeem the African Dream, whatever they represented (fear of 400 pound men squashing democracy and the American way with splashes? I’m still not sure about that one…).

Of course, outside the ring, we learned that prayers, training and vitamins were really a code name for water based steroid Winstrol, and that eventually, you have to become evil and become an angry street thug, spray paint tags on people and championship belts, and embrace gang culture. But that’s besides the point.

If you look the part, play the role and mirror something society desperately needs to believe in, people will absolutely follow.

We’re all waiting for this kid to get a heroin or coke addiction. Admit it. Then we can all admit our love for him, right?

—–

3. Wrestling Is Cyclical

What was old is always new again. Hulk Hogan, meet John Cena. Hogan waved a flag, Cena salutes the people. Both blonde, square jawed, barrel chested and presented as the All-American ideal. The Rock, meet The Miz. The Rock, a cool, charismatic customer and movie star with mega hip appeal and a unique blend of style and culture.

The Miz is Mike Mizanin from MTV’s Real World  and Road Rules, presented as a cool, charismatic customer with mega hip appeal and a unique blend of style and culture. Goldberg, a tattooed brooder, Steve Austin, an anti-hero. Today, there’s Randy Orton, tattooed, brooding anti-hero. Cyclical.

I don’t know about all of you, but would they not make the greatest Tag Team pair of all time?

Wrestlers always want to be rock stars, and rock stars always want to be wrestlers. Sometimes if we look at a bodyslam and a catchphrase as more than just a bodyslam and a catchphrase, the world can make so much more sense.

Nite Jewel - Am I Real EP (2010) [Gloriette] // Grade: A-

Listening to Nite Jewel feels like being caught up in a pillow fight. The bedroom lights are dimmed as fluffy smacks catch you off-guard, tangling your hair over your eyes and obscuring your view. The scene unfolds slowly, the air above calm in waiting for your next move.

From full-length Good Evening, Nite Jewel emerged in paleness, offering tranquil dance melodies shifting under a bedroom disco ball. The act’s recently released Am I Real? EP finds Nite Jewel gripped to the same ideals, but projecting their sounds with a newfound boldness. The former grit and buzz of their production has vanished, replaced by smooth, slow-burning synth funk. Ramona Gonzales’s warbles and quiet wails remain built on repetition and ambiance, though this time we hear a greater attention to tunefulness and a smattering of straightforward vocal melody lines.

Nite Jewel work well (perhaps, better) in the space of an EP. Six songs forces them to put their most focused selections forward, and we’re left with one solid track after another. The ordering of the tracks seem tirelessly considered, beginning with the atmospheric “Another Horizon” in which Gonzales’s voice simultaneously provides both the upfront and backing vocal sounds. Her voice comes forth like a wounded bird; delicate, tentative, calling out with immediacy. “We Want Our Things” takes a step away from the disco beat lines, picking up the sounds of synthpop before transitioning into a glittery, grinding interlude. Over moments of clear vocal melody, a more structured Nite Jewel begins to come into view, setting the stage on which spectacular closer and title track “Am I Real?” plays out as a fully developed composition of smooth jazz tones supporting a powerhouse display of vocals from Gonzales that leave the impression of capable lyricism and sublime mood-setting.

Am I Real? is a testament to the idea of hearing a band in their early days, and that unshakable feeling of excitement in your gut, knowing that yeah right now they’re rough around the edges, but there’s something really special here and down the line they are going to shine. Congratulations Nite Jewel, you’ve made the leap from interesting, to shining.

Soft Metals - The Cold World Melts EP (2010) [Captured Tracks] // Grade: B+

Soft Metals have garnered quite a bit of hype and love from the internet recently, even here, on this very blog. Now with their first official release, the debut EP The Cold War Melts sees the duo try to live up to that blog pressure with five tracks that run through a dark club land of Italo disco and cold wave to brooding late night dance floors and housey synth fueled nostalgia for a night out at club that never really existed.

The Cold War Melts starts with the brilliant “Love or Music”, a track full of grooving drum machine claps and slow achingly retro synths stances, when the vocal hits it’s drenched in all that echo and reverb you’d expect from an Italo disco track from ’83 but it’s got a surprising dynamism that stops it from being too spacey and brings the pop element in with a vengeance, properly nice. To go from there would take something impressive and track two manages it with the EPs title track which bursts into life with dark and throbbing synths that beat out a rhythm that the Predator would stalk you to, it’s a great dance floor tune all acid squelches, posing in the dark, lasers painting lines though smoke and after work execs chatting on phones the size of bricks.

By the third track the late night, trip out on the dance floor vibe is firmly established and you can settle into the pop hooks and epic female vocals drifting serenely over everything. Then we hit up what I find most annoying on albums (and especially EPs), the instrumental track. And sure it’s nice enough and would maybe be fine on a release with more songs but I just can’t help feel instrumentals are included as filler, especially when the rest of the songs have such a pop sensibility about them. The final track “Another Goodbye” brings things back with a glacial New Order via Patrick Cowley feel, slow and seductive with vocals like a valium dosed 1983 Madonna.

This is the sort of release that can be enjoyed via headphones on a rain soaked day as much as on the dance floor of a smoke filled club. The EP’s heavy Italo sound will I’m sure draw obvious comparisons to Johnny Jewel’s recent work. But what sets this apart from Glass Candy, Chromatics and Desire is that Jewel has never worked with a vocalist as confidant as Patricia Furpurse nor released 5 tracks quite as dancefloor ready as these.

Fans familiar with Soft Metals will have no doubt heard these five tracks via their soundcloud and Myspace page for quite some time now but they’re a band that’s very much deserving a wider audience and an official vinyl release. So while I enjoyed this EP quite a bit, I’m at the point where I’m dying to hear newer material my ears haven’t yet fully devoured. But for the rest of you who will undoubtedly first be introduced to Soft Metals via this EP you’ll find a dark, imposing and even epic release that once over will have you where I’m already at… eagerly awaiting what’s next.

Metallica – The Black Album (1991)

Vs.

Queens of the Stone Age – Songs For the Deaf (2002)

The Game is simple… if only one could exist which would it be? What’s more important… personal relevance, cultural significance, or simply being the better album all other things aside? Choice is yours…

RxRy - VAEIOUWLS (2010) [Self-Released] // Grade: B+

These 12 songs, all named as vowel variations (“AIUIA” or “EUIEE”), mark the bedroom arranger RxRy’s most focused and inclusive effort yet. Whereas the curative eight-song debut took just six days from start to finish, the 40-minute VAEIOUWLS took closer to two months to complete and upon first listen, you’re given a layered invitation into lurking the space just below the water’s surface and only faintly hearing the noises above you.

It was originally thought that the player behind the RxRy tag was Panda Bear’s Noah Lennox and that the debut, self-titled batch of 8 songs were “unreleased joints” from the Animal Collective member’s Tomboy sessions. Fending off the case of mistaken identity, rumors were discredited after RxRy posted an image on their MySpace page, saying simply that he/she/it was “not Noah.” The sonic similarities are largely a stretch as the music on both VAEIOUWLS and RxRy remain planted in the realm of murmuring electronic ambience and many steps away from the Wilson-soaked, hazy harmonic luminosity of Lennox.

VAEIOUWLS is a pervasively discrete collection of digitized pulsations swabbed over barely-there washes, buzzing ambiance and soothing landscape (and genre) nods. It’s easy to tick off immediate similarities to the likes of Aphex Twin, Eluvium, Loscil or Nathan Fake while placing the songs under the overused mark of IDM alongside lesser parts of Dub, Dark Ambient and House flourishes.

RxRy’s debut was made while its creator was ill. Starting in December of last year, the  sonic space spawned as an in-the-moment restorative measure— “Rx” is the prescription and “Ry” represents rays extending outward— and soon became a cure for routine. The musician describes daily life: “Wake up, drive to school, float aimlessly, drive home, get lost in sounds, repeat” like a perfect subtitle for the creation. Getting lost in VAEIOUWLS’ runtime is of effortless appeal.

What you’ll notice is just how much RxRy’s sophomore release skims the fat from other contemporary background maestros; this is a record that’s deep, though concise, and glowingly ear-to-ear agile. Starting with waving synths and building percussive clunks, VAEIOUWLS’ opener, “AIUIA” is over before you have a real chance to fall anywhere near it’s bottom. “UUAII” is spiced with orchestral weight and a low-toned bass hum, though it plays more like a refrain of sorts, checking to see if it’s listener is still there.

Starting to pick up pace, VAEIOUWLS’ legs are well and stretched by the time “EIIOA” hits and we move through jumping bass prods that bolster an almost electro lead before the album’s opus “AAIEI” blows in with multi-layered sophistication.

The person behind RxRy represents a growing number of boutique artists that exist solely on bandwidth buzz and viral value. RxRy says on their blog, “I want people to have free music, unrestrained and broadly available to every person who can download it,” They support the ubiquitous goal by continuing to offer music like VEAIOUWLS, at no cost. Though they “would love” to release physical formats, all RxRy releases— 2 LPs and EPs as well as a few singles— have all been free, direct Mediafire links. VEAIOUWLS is well worth a listen- so snag a copy down below.

Download RxRy’s VAEIOUWLS for FREE! (Click Here)

Hipster Youth - Teenage Elders (2010) [Self-Released] // Grade: B-

Love or loathe Crystal Castles, their use of chiptune samples sort of repositioned the genre, illustrating how 8-bit beats could sound as one element of a larger, hi-fidelity composition. But as good as those samples sound within their work, severing them from the context in which they’re generally created loses much of the specialness of the sound. 19-year-old Aidan Wall (who also releases music as Porn on Vinyl) produces gritty, off-kilter 8-bit bedroom dance under the name Hipster Youth on album Teenage Elders.

With track titles bearing names like “Pop Song For Those With Short Attention Spans”, “I Lost My Corpse Paint” and “Super Fun Hipster Suicide Party”, Wall  brings a observational humor to his tracks. They feel lighthearted, approachable but also carry with them a measure of loner self-doubt. Aidan Wall is that kid with the messy hair in the back of class inking out a graphic novel when he should be taking notes. Teenage Elders embodies that notion of creative escape from the mundaneness of reality, and for anyone who’s ever built a world within their own head and decided to live there awhile, Wall is easily identifiable as a kindred spirit.

As a whole, the album possesses little continuity. Some tracks are barely over a minute (“Interlude [Yes, I did drink too much. I must get out of here]“, “Things I Should Say”) while “I Lost My Corpse Paint” clocks in at nearly nine. Stylistically, Wall leaps between sounds which does nothing to help the album’s flow, but establishes an environment of wild unpredictability that is energizing. “Pop Song For Those With Short Attention Spans” pairs far-off, light typewriter-sounding beats with woozy vocals then jars you out of dreaming and into “Little Lost Bear” which sounds like an synth organ-led final boss showdown. “Myself Or Something” emulates gritty reverb with digital static while both “Super Fun Hipster Suicide Party” and “Things I Should Say” kick up the pace offering speaker-blown 8-bit dance parties to the mix.

The sound quality overall is amateur at best. The collection of tracks don’t transition well, with volume level discrepancies that are often jarring jumps. But neither polish nor high production values are the point. Teenage Elders is exciting. You are never sure what will fly into your ears next, but you can count on it being highly creative, and, fun.

You can download Teenage Elders for FREE at Hipster Youth’s Bandcamp or by using the player below.