October 2008
Thanks to Electrorash for bringing this to my attention. The E.L.F. - Rave Cave |
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Lead singer, Mike Doughty, was a doorman at the original Knitting Factory, an NY venue of mythical proportions. Soul Coughing played most of their early shows there. They released seriously three fine albums and contributed to several soundtracks before splitting in 2000. Soul Coughing - The Bug Soul Coughing - Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago Soul Coughing - Buddha Rhubarb Butter |
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Bluejuice are an awesome Aussie hip-hop / funk / electro-pop / rock quintet from Sydney who have been pushed by Triple J since Jay and the Doctor took a liking to them a few years ago. They were on Like a Version a couple of weeks ago and performed a stunning rendition of Bobby Brown's classic Every Little Step along with what appears to be a new track called Ain't Telling the Truth. Both of these tracks come with my HIGHEST recommendation. You can also download The E.L.F's (ex-Gerling frontman Darren Cross) remix of Vitriol on their website. Bluejuice - Ain't Telling the Truth |
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Q: Why aren't The Pointer Sisters cool? A: They are!
Here's three very cool electro-synth-pop tunes from their 1983 album, Break Out. You will like it, you may deny it but you WILL like it. Sounds like The Presets. The Pointer Sisters - Dance Electric The Pointer Sisters - Automatic The Pointer Sisters - I'm So Excited |
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I've only been producing music seriously for 6 months or so and I am currently exploring the jungle of freeware and shareware VSTs available on the internet. For the uninitiated, Virtual Studio Technology (VST) was developed by German company, Steinberg, as an interface between their Cubase digital audio workstation software (DAW) and effects plugins created by third-party software companies. The interface was later upgraded to support virtual instrument plugins (VSTi). In the 10+ years that that VST has existed, many, many thousands of free and shareware (and many strictly commercial ones of course) VSTs have popped up on the internet. There are shitloads of them and it's a little bit difficult figuring out which ones are worth downloading and trying out. One site that makes things easier is KVR audio, which maintains a database of information about lots of VSTs.
Now, I'm one of those weirdos that use Linux. If you've never heard of Linux, then you've probably never heard of open source software either. You're probably using it now... (Any Firefox users?). I've used open source software (OSS) almost exclusively for about 6 years now and having recently reverted (kicking & screaming) to Windoze on one machine to get stuck into production, I've found myself disgusted by the disorganisation in the VST world. There are 10 billion VSTs out there that all do the same thing, and most of them want you to cough up decent cash for something that was created by just one person or a small group of people. In the open source world, technology gets condensed, like when you make a stew or something and you chuck in heaps of wine and stock and other crap and boil it, lower the heat and 'reduce' the mixture. Same thing happens with open source software, if 10 billion OSS developers write 10 billion OSS VSTs, eventually some projects will grow larger and start to incorporate some of the other VSTs. Developers will leave the smaller projects and join the bigger ones, which in time 'reduces' the pool of 10 billion good to average VSTs down to a couple of hundred brilliant VSTs with loads of development hours behind it and very few bugs compared to the most expensive commercial software. So anyway... There are 50 VST projects on sourceforge.net but ultimately OSS doesn't seem to have taken off just yet in the VST world and I'm wondering why. Speak up VST developers of the world, why aren't there more open source VSTs around? Rage Against the Machine - Freedom (1992) Lou Reed - I'm So Free (1972) Nina Simone - I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free (1967) |
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Empire of the Sun's debut album, Walking on a Dream, has materialised and it's a damn good listen. But maybe I (and perhaps EMI) built it up a bit too much because it didn't completely blow me away like I expected it too. It is however blowing me away in slow-motion, like that holocaust scene at the start of Terminator 2. Empire of the Sun - Delta Bay It's very mellow, as you would expect from a Luke Steele project. That said, there is enough bouncy Pnau-ish tunes to get you hooked before the sweet Sleepy Jackson melodies shine through. I highly recommend purchasing this album. JB HI-FI is giving away numbered prints of the promo pic (the one to the right) with each $20 purchase of the album. Nations by the River - Boy Another act that I've just discovered is Nations by the River which was a collaboration between Luke Steele, Gelbison and Ohad Rein (A.K.A. Old Man River). I don't know how these things pass me by. I haven't been listening to Triple J enough maybe? Seems quite good, a bit country-fied with some top-notch harmonies. They released an LP, Holes in the Valley back in 2004. Also check out Old Man River's aptly-titled, La. This lovely little ditty came out of a series of musical therapy sessions that Ohad Rein hosted. It's über-catchy, a wee bit dumb and heaps 'o' fun. Old Man River - La |
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Miami Horror has done heaps of wicked remixes, many of them are remixes of fellow Australian artists, which kicks arse. The I Can Cook remix is one of his best, IMHO. You must also check out Grafton Primary's new album Eon, which just came out a few weeks ago. Download Download Download |
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The title track from Bad Education is backed by a seriously banging tune supplied by Sydney's Bag Raiders (who I need to check out). Excellent track, I wanna hear more Aussie hip-hop with killer, electro sounds. Download |
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