Some reviewers have likened this EP to Soulwax, but I can’t imagine Magic Machines stooping to the level of remixing a crappy dance-punk band and pretending that’s part of the game. This is pure growling-synth Angeleno DIY electronic dance music, with no words or guitars to get in the way (though the press release says they sample “Led Zeplin,” I heard no such thing by any name). It’s an exciting, four-on-the-floor sound that reminds me of why as a Ramones/Misfits/Black Flag fanatic teen in the early 90s, I couldn’t help but turn my ear to the sounds of Alpha Team and Acen and wonder if I needed a glow stick—I almost expect to hear a “drop the bass” or “y’all ready for this!” right before each drop-out/drop-in. Track 2, “Call Me” is going to be the hit that will keep people dancing. With a great Metroid beat, melodic minor open keys, and even occasional Farfisa-sounding interludes, this instrumental is as close to beautiful as something akin to Halloween Swim Team’s oeuvre can be and has the same creepy, funky vibe you might have gotten if you heard Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” when it first came out. Like that flash-in-the-pan, there are some gloved-one grooves on this album, just like there is in the work of Daft Punk, who seem to be this sound’s major mentors. This is electronic music that never escaped its childhood, and really, who wants to grow up?

-Dan Collins

Here’s a list only focusing on the electronic side of sounds from this newest previous decade.  One strong caveat to avoid bad taste: I am exempting any sounds I had even the slightest part of, even if I think them to be strong contenders for this list.  Sorry Madvillian, Jogger, Long Lost, etc!

Vex’d – Degenerate
Shena Ringo – Kalk Samen Kurinohana
Mr. Oizo – Moustache (Half a Scissor)
Dizzee Rascal – Boy In Da Corner
Venetian Snares – The Chocolate Wheelchair Album
Busdriver – Temporary Forever
Bullion – Pet Sounds: In The Key Of Dee
Zomby – One Foot Ahead Of The Other
Chessie – Overnight
Quasimoto – The Further Adventures of Lord Quas

Thank you for the possibility to join in the fun!

-Daedelus

Listen: Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band – “Waiting for the D Train”

(from Between My Head and the Sky on Chimera Records)
 
Yoko Ono’s new album, Between My Head and the Sky, is better than any post-Beatles album by McCartney, Harrison or Starr.  Yeah, I said it.  While the former two were baby boomer marshmallows and the latter was a novelty act, Ono has pushed the boundaries of dance music for three decades running.  And now she’s put out one of the best electronic albums of the year, with music sweatier than fucking in a steam room and lyrics loonier than a three-year-old on a sugar high, like walking through Skid Row and hearing a homeless person mutter something absolutely brilliant that you’d never been able to articulate before.

Between My Head and the Sky balances Ono’s out-there poetry and animal cries with solid grooves, provided by a Plastic Ono Band line-up that includes her son Sean, Cibo Matto’s Yuka Honda, and Cornelius, among others.  It’s the perfect soundtrack for a medicinal marijuana cookie party or for pissing off the squares next door. The songs flow from ultra-funky (“Waiting for the D Train”) to soft new age ballad (“Memory of Footsteps”) to full tilt rock-and-roll orgasm (“Calling”), while always sounding uniquely Yoko.  She still has those annoyingly infectious Ono vocal effects, the ones that sound like she’s using a plug-in vibrator in the bathtub.

In fact, Between My Head and the Sky almost sounds like a big-budget Manimal release. It has repetitions like Hecuba, world beats like Rainbow Arabia, and vocals like, well, like Yoko Ono.  It’s almost impossible to compare this album to anything but other Yoko Ono albums, because 99% of the bands out there still don’t have the balls or the chops to put out this sort of music, dance music where literal dolphin, chimpanzee, and elephant conversations are reinvented as funk.  I highly doubt you’ll hear a more captivating and original release this year.

-Scott Schultz

M83 “Kim & Jessie”

Can a twenty-minute phone card reach all the way to France? Rebecca Balin finds out as she interviews Anthony Gonzalez, better known as M83.

Do you believe in love at first sight?
In what?
Love at first sight. Do you believe in it?
What? What does that mean?
What would be the French-to-English translation? Love at first sight?
Oh! Yeah, I do. I can fall in love easily because I travel a lot and I meet a lot of pretty girls. I can be crazy in love very quickly.
What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done for love?
I missed a lot of very good soccer games because I was in love and now I regret it.
People compare your music to something out of a John Hughes movie. Do you think he knows who you are yet?
I don’t think so. I’d like to meet him. Even though I don’t know what I would talk to him about because I’m very shy and I think I’d be speechless in front of him. He’s a very big influence for me. Especially on the new album. He’s one of my favorite directors.
What was your high school experience like?
I only keep good memories of my teenage years. It was a really good experience for me and being the age. It was very fun and definitely a good experience for me. I would spend my weekends with a good group of close friends and we use to party on Saturday nights. We had a band. Oh, and a lot of skateboarding. It’s been one of the best periods of my life so far.
What was your band in high school called?
The name of my band was called My Violent Wish. It was rock.
What’s your musical guilty pleasure?
Heavy metal! Mainly Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. I really started to discover music and guitar playing through their music. I still listen to that kind of music while I’m driving. I like it.
What’s your writing process like?
My writing process is not really interesting. I’m a very bad musician so I always compose my music and it’s always the same process actually. I always stop to find the melody; I always work with my keyboards. I never compose music on computers. I only use keyboards and guitars to compose my songs. The main part for me is to find a good melody and after that I can add different kinds of tracks and go from there. I don’t know much about music so I’m just trying to do my best to be as original as possible.
You mentioned you don’t use computer software to make your music. Is there something dislike about using it?
I never use it because I like using my keyboards. Recently I bought some good software and I’m getting used to it and I’m trying to work on it now because I think a good thing with music is to find different ways to make it. So I’m trying to work differently for the next album because I’d like to bring something different each time. So for the next album I’m going to use software. But from this point I’ve never used any on my albums. So it’s a new thing coming and I’m learning how to use it properly. I’m always trying a different kind of writing process. I’m always doing the same kind of writing process because I’m not very good at music.
That’s the second time you’ve said that. I think you’re pretty good at creating music.
I think I’m good at writing melodies. Although I can play a lot of instruments, I’m really bad at playing them. But that’s alright. I can live with that.
How many musicians played on Saturdays = Youth with you?
I composed the music alone and for the recording process I mainly worked with two producers and a singer and that’s pretty much it. It’s not a lot of people actually. I don’t usually work with too many people.
Do you find being interviewed uncomfortable since you said you were shy?
I’m shy but it’s not difficult for me to talk to people. I’m getting better I think. I think that doing interviews helps me be more confident with myself, and I’m always meeting new people touring and playing live. So each time I play in a different city, I’m meeting different people. I really love California. It looks like my city in the south of France. It’s sunny and there are a lot of palm trees. I like the atmosphere. I like Los Angeles a lot, but I like plenty of places in America. For me it’s like a dream to go and tour America because since I was a kid all the movies I watched were from America. It’s like the American dream, and being on the road there is amazing to me—for a French dude.

M83 WITH THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN, CARIBOU, GANG OF FOUR AND MANY MORE AT THE DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL ON SUN., JULY 20, AT THE GIBSON AMPHITHEATRE, 100 UNIVERSAL CITY PLAZA, UNIVERSAL CITY. 1 PM / $37.50 / ALL AGES. DOWNLOADFESTIVAL.COM. M83’S SATURDAYS = YOUTH IS OUT NOW ON MUTE. VISIT M83 AT ILOVEM83.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/M83.

Hard Place
Get Your Hopes Up CD
World Famous in SF

Hard Place are consistently compared with Devo (the wackiness), Sparks (the punk-style humor) and Queen (the sexy awesome total rock ‘n’ roll vocalists). But musically Hard Place is closer to the likes of Glass Candy, Peaches—if Peaches went arena rock—and even touches of Swedish art rock act the Knife. (With a sharper edge, if you will.) The title track of this first EP starts like the smoke-filled stage entrance of a gorgeous dual-gendered hair metal band with Huizenga’s lustrous voice complimenting Cristy’s rather precise guitar shredding. The rest of the album is electronic rock with great lyrics (“A pearl necklace is better than a diamond ring!”) all delivered with humor, genuine talent and skill. This is the kind of album you put on full blast in the car on your way to the dance club when you’re ready for an auto danse party. “The Photographer” is a bit of a Kraftwerk throwback with full-tilt Top 40 catchiness and “Better in Leather” is like an updated “Sex Dwarf.” Hard Place’s first album might not yet be as epically enduring as their influences, but right now they sure as hell are a fun band to listen to and watch.

— Chesney Higgins

Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay are probably the coolest Frenchmen on the planet, blowing past Daft Punk (at least temporarily) on the back of “We Are Your Friends.” Justice is amiable, too, never too cocky and always prepared to give the kids what they want (videos full of pranks, it turns out). So what to expect at the show? A giant cross with two leather jacket- and skinny jeans-wearing guys who really enjoy what they do, far from content to keep the same beat and instead mix together everything from their Daft Punk forefathers to 808 State’s “James Brown is Dead.” There’ll probably be some punk thrown into the mix, too. Whatever they’re playing, just be prepared to dance you ass off: a no-holds-barred party-time of techno-disco-electronic fun. Bring your glow sticks.

— Rita Nadhazy

JUSTICE WITH DIPLO AT THE MAYAN, 1038 S. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES. 8 PM / $30. CLUBMAYAN.COM.