Fake Blood at the Twisted Pepper live review

Photo by Matthew Johnson

Bodytonic kicked off the grand opening weekend of their much-discussed new venue The Twisted Pepper in fabulous style by playing host to one of the most elusive producers and DJs around at the moment, Fake Blood. Attempts by yours truly to secure a tête-à-tête with this most mysterious of figures were fruitless; the man quite simply “doesn’t do interviews”.

This didn’t come as a surprise. Over the last eighteen months, Fake Blood has risen from obscurity to become one of the most talked-about remixers and producers on the electro scene without doing a single interview. The internet, and particularly the blogosphere, has worked itself into a flurry with theories abound as to who exactly the man behind the moniker is.

Why his face or identity matters so much is beyond anyone’s guess, though the more Fake Blood attempts to conceal his real persona the more the guessing intensifies. A simple browse across various blogs and forums reveals myriad of guesses: Diplo, Switch, Hervé, Sinden, Boy 8-Bit, Norman Cook and, bizarrely, Tiësto are among some of the speculations put forward by bloggers and dead-serious electro aficionados. A tongue-in-cheek blog even ran for a while.

Such rampant hype might lead to easy conclusions that Fake Blood is more style than substance, but his remixes have proven him to be an extremely adept and intelligent producer (perhaps the strongest argument that this is not a man who came out of nowhere and just started twiddling knobs and pressing buttons). His rhythmic preferences would definitely suggest a history somewhere in big beats; the drum loop in The Wiseguys’ 1998 hit Ooh La La is suspiciously similar to Fake Blood’s style. In fact, the theory that Fake Blood is, in fact, a DJ called Theo Keating, formerly of The Wiseguys and now of The Black Ghosts, is the strongest of the lot.

In each of Fake Blood’s remixes his name is uttered by the original artist, giving his works a tag or audio stamp; amazingly, this is done by cutting the original vocal part into tiny phonetic fragments (phragments?) and reslicing them to construct the words “fake blood”. This is careful, deliberate time in the studio; clearly he is spending a lot of time poring over his production, something backed up by the fact that his remix total from the last year-and-a-half has yet to hit the double digits. Yet even with this low output, he has successfully spread his gospel of “grindcore” far and wide.

With this kind of hype and anticipation, the atmosphere in The Twisted Pepper’s main room was already electric before Fake Blood had even stepped on stage. Dresses from an earlier NCAD exhibition were suspended from the ceiling at various positions, yet these additions could not distract the crowd as the man himself emerged and began dropping incredible bone-rattling tracks like pebbles in an extremely responsive pond.

This bone-rattling sensation wasn’t just thanks to the DJ. The Bodytonic guys are renowned for an incredible attention to detail, and doubtless they have spared no expense giving their newly-renovated jewel in the crown the most tinnitus-inducing audio configuration possible. Wobbly basslines pulsated and throbbed through the room, while Fake Blood’s extremely distinctive punchy bass drum, used in most of his remixes and definitely in his solo work, snapped through the room like a low-frequency whip.

Spoken/sung “fake blood”s were heard at least every thirty minutes; he incorporated most of his remixes into his two-and-a-half hour set, including the reworkings of Cheap and Cheerful by The Kills and Stuck on Repeat by Little Boots. There were also some remixes and re-edits that won’t be found on any blog or internet resource, including a version of Soulwax’s Teachers re-cut to say (surprise surprise) “Fake Blood is in the house” - unfortunately this results in the drums being sliced up as well, resulting in some messy rhythms and confused (but still extremely enthusiastic) dancing.

The last half-hour of his set saw the kind of incredible, potent, kinetically-charged atmosphere of mutual amazement and appreciation which is witnessed on the Dublin club scene once in a blue moon. Before you ask, there were very definitely no illegal substances flowing through my veins, nor was I under any significant alcohol-based influence. The tunes were simply that good. The robotic vocal lines from LFO’s Freak were combined with the manic snare attacks of Vitalic’s Valletta Fanfares, and thrown into a genre hot-pot that even saw Dr Dre make an appearance.

At 2.30 a.m. he finally played the track that many had been waiting for: his first solo effort, Mars, with its heavy, punchy drums and crunking bassline, though that organ sound definitely seems to be nicked from somewhere… *cough* 2 Unlimited’s Get Ready for This *cough*. This was followed by a track that’s still burning substantial holes in dancefloors everywhere - Soulwax’s remix of MGMT’s Kids. Suffice to say everyone present went completely insane, all the way till the song’s close. As the lights rose he dutifully played Blood Splashing (Fake Blood Theme), the B-side of his solo EP. Once again the room went nuts.

Upon retiring outside, a large majority of attendants found themselves covered in sweat, clothes firmly glued to selves, the product of a hectic set that had everyone dancing with little pause for over two hours. Crowds lingered, puffing on cigarettes and still beaming from ear to ear, knees still wobbling from the effect of being hit with so many crunchy basses and thumping drums. The verdict was unanimous. Who is Fake Blood? An incredible, incredible DJ, that’s who.

808s And Heartbreak review

Kanye West may not be the easiest artist in the world to endear yourself to, but you can’t deny that the man has talent. In his latest LP, Mr West has completely ditched rapping al-together, replacing it with beautiful melodies and AutoTune, a vocal-adjustment program that makes him sound like he’s channeling Cher.

The ‘808’ of the title is Roland’s TR-808 drum machine; a 1980s electro staple, and it comes to prominent effect in Kanye’s tribal rhythms on lead single Love Lockdown, and particularly the slow-but-powerful Say You Will.

The drum machine combined with lush analogue synths gives the entire album a warm, synth-pop feel, especially on tracks like Paranoid - without a doubt one of the strongest songs on the album, with an strong, incessant drum loop and gorgeous stabbing chords.

Certain die-hard fans will not be pleased with 808s and Heartbreak and Kanye’s radical change in direction. But for others, this will be a gladly-received slice of pop from one of the most talented producers around.

Reasons to Smile

What a week! 808s and Heartbreak is finally out! Unfortunately, I can’t say that I’ve yet had a listen, as I’m being a good boy and I’m waiting for my copy to arrive in the post. I haven’t done that since Hell Hath No Fury!

It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a fan of Kanye’s one-time tour DJ, former DMC champion A-Trak. He’s a great DJ, producer, and he’s pretty funny when he gets to typing stuff up and putting it on the internet. So, after contributing at length to blogs on Myspace, The Fader and Colette, he’s only gone and established his very own sole-purpose blog. Go have a look for some hilarious reads.

As well as the afore-mentioned 808s, I think everyone should check out this Fear and Loathing in Hunts Vegas mixtape. Diplo and Benzi have thrown together a bunch of half-speed tracks from the Alabama-based Paper Route Recordz collective - some originals, some remixes, but all completely bonkers. I’m talking reworkings of Born Slippy, Careless Whisper and A Change Is Gonna Come, to name but three. Bizarre. Essential. You can grab it for free or for under $5 at 192kbps, and anything over $5 gets you 320kbps and a few bonus tracks. It’s all worth it.

And on the freebie side of things, check out Simian Mobile Disco’s twisted Re-Edit of Deerhunter’s Octet over on Pitchfork. It’s better than a kick in the face.

No donks allowed

I haven’t blogged over here in a while, mainly because I feel very removed from any musical scene in the cold climes of Preston. Even though I have the internet at my fingertips, it’s hard to be inspired by anything right now. But I’ve come across some interesting stories across the all too barren wasteland that is the internet.

First of all, I read of a “rave” promoter from Houston, Texas who allegedly faked his own death. This blog post reports the death of a “Dustin” in July of this year, as does this thread on the local Houston Beats forum. Halfway down the page however, someone announces the man is still alive! Apparently he was seen walking down a busy street on a Thursday night - I think he could have done a better job if he’d waited a few more months. Anyway, one board member, Leanna, suggests he faked his own death because some thugs are after him, while D_Struct ponders the lack of information at the supposed time of death. Users of the TexasDNB forum are sceptical, but, according to Houston Beats, he is like a returning Messiah to the Teknosounds forum, another Texas-based site. I tried to investigate that much, but the forum in question was notoriously difficult to read.

On the whole, all I can say is that this is a bizarre situation, and will probably do nothing to help the reputation of “EDM” in the States. Either that or it’ll generate a lot of publicity for the rave scene, and get more people interested by virtue of the sheer ridiculousness of this story. I mean, who is this guy anyway?!

Moving on. I first heard the now infamous phrase “Put a donk on it!” some time in early Autumn, without fully understanding its significance, if I’m being honest. Then I noticed an article entitled “What the donk!” about the phenomenon of bad club music in Mixmag’s November issue. You know, Scooter, Cascada (who plays Killarney’s INEC in December), the series of Clubland albums… I thought nothing of it from atop my lofty seat above planet clubland - pah, what of this sub-par tripe! All of a sudden, I see this video pop up on nearly every forum I read! All over the past week. Without fail. Although I doubt they’re laying down slamming donks over on Teknosounds… Anyway. While this tune is emblematic of everything that I think is wrong with “clubland,” the internet is loving it! Hooray for irony! The Mighty Alboy over on Dilated Choonz calls it “moreish.” A huge shout-out has to go to Shock, who puts forward several tracks which could do with the aforementioned “donk.” Indeed.

Finally, I must end on a sad note. Following Saturday’s I Love Techno in Belgium, three Dutch girls have died in a car accident. Two sisters (aged 17 and 21) and their friend (also 17) were travelling home from the event when they crashed on the motorway The only news story I can find on the matter is in Dutch, but a quick online translation suggests that both driver and passengers fell asleep in the car. All that can be taken from this tragic incident is that it really pays to have some sleep after a heavy night like this. RIP etc.

So until next time, make mine Marvel and all that…

Analogue presents: Dublin Duck Dispensary, Percolator, Katie Kim

Dublin Duck Dispensary
“self-serving tosh… truly frightening stuff… self-conscious smartarse indie pop-rock from somebody trying hard to come on like a really mad bastard…” Jackie Hayden, Hotpress

Percolator
“Chestnutt’s slick indie-boy vocals are ably backed up by some of the sweetest low-slung instrumentation you’ll hear all 2008. ” MP3hugger, www.mp3hugger.com

Katie Kim
“…subtle, slow-burning magic.” Jim Carroll, The Irish Times

Au Revoir Simone: Reverse Migration

Au Revoir Simone
Reverse Migration
Our Secret Record Company

‘Reverse Migration’ is a track for track remix of Au Revoir Simone’s debut album- ‘The Bird of Music’. It’s always difficult to review a remix album without referring to the original. Like a teenager on holiday with their parents- should the remix stand awkwardly to one side and pretend that it has nothing to do with its begetter, or should it proudly flaunt its roots, and admire how much it’s grown?

Slow Club’s remix of ‘The Lucky One’ opens up the record. The track begins as a straightforward cover, and then descends into typical Slow Club kids-at-the-playground-eating-lots-of-sweets noisiness. ‘Sad Song’ is remixed twice- once by Pacific, and once by Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor. Both mixes add in a male vocal near the end, turning a solo song of heartache into a Danny/Sandy duet for Brooklynites, and in doing so, kind of miss the point of the original track.

The remixes that work the best are ones that focus on the essence of the originals. Keith Murray destroys ‘Don’t See the Sorrow’- without the regulating drum machine of the original track, and coupled with Murray’s busker schtick, it becomes earnest, instead of sincere. Alexis Taylor’s eight minute remix of ‘Sad Song is detached and clinical, rather than fragile and downbeat. However, Matt Harding’s masterful remix of ‘Night Majestic’ is a sparse, post-punk rendering of one of the poppiest tracks on the original album, while Mark- Anthony Tieuku creates a jerky, disjointed track from ‘The Way to There’- one that Roisín Murphy wouldn’t say no to. The Darkel mix of ‘I Couldn’t Sleep’ is smashing. A heavy synthy bassline coupled with glitchy production, it’s slinky and seductive- a stone thrown at a window, asking for a late-night conversation.

While ‘Reverse Migration’ is not a filler album, per se; it serves as a neat reflection on Au Revoir Simone’s strengths and weaknesses as songwriters. It’s a photograph’s negative- not quite the real thing, only a shadow of it, through which the original can be made out, almost.

Top Of The Pops To Return?

Stop whatever it is you’re doing (actually, hang on, don’t - just keep reading) because great news is just in. Rumour is circulating that the best TV programme in the history of the universe, Top Of The Pops, is to return to the BBC on a weekly basis during 2009. There has been a bit of a “kerfuffle” of late regarding the cancellation of the Top Of The Pops Christmas Special (which is so obviously the best thing about Christmas TV that I hardly need to go into details). Simon Cowell threatened to step in and take the show to ITV, but apparently BBC “bosses” are reconsidering their decision to CANCEL CHRISTMAS.

Now, according to “insiders” a proper return is on the cards, with miming and the charts and probably dancers and balloons and Radio 1 DJs and all of those things that made TOTP brilliant in the first place. There is an argument being made that the resurrection of Top Of The Pops would amount to a public service. Noel Gallagher - never one to talk out of his rear end of course (cough) - blames the recent growth in knife crime to the lack of pop on telly. While visiting Westminster, Lemar of all people told the UK’s Culture Secretary Andy Burnham that TOTP urgently needs to return. The cabinet minister agreed. This speaks volumes about the show really. Top Of The Pops was always very “establishment”. Rivals like Ready Steady Go, The Tube, Whistle Test and The Roxy set out to be raucous and “edgy” but all fell by the wayside after a few short years. There’s nothing more boundary pushing or shocking than rolling out a show which features Cliff, Paul Young, Kylie, Bananarama and Midge Ure, and then throwing Nirvana or The KLF or the Manic Street Preachers in balaclavas into the midst of it. That’s how to do “subversive”.

Pop fans like myself have been deprived of a fix of mainstream pop performance on telly for too long. And as we approach 2009 the charts are in rude health. Singles, or downloads, climb the charts over several weeks, just like they used to. Then big hits stick around for two or three months just like they used to. It’s great being a chart watcher these days, and that’s all TOTP needs to focus on - the UK Top 40. From now on, they’ll want to feature more forthcoming releases but otherwise it’s simple: stick to “the formula” (something TOTP stridently failed to do in its later years) and you can’t really go wrong.

To conclude my rather excited post, then: THIS MUST HAPPEN.

My favourite Top Of The Pops moment happened in 1987. After showing the video for George Michael and Aretha Franklin’s I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me), John Peel quipped: “Aretha Franklin, the ‘first lady of soul’ there - she could make any old rubbish sound good. And I think she just has…”

Built to Spill interview

Self-professed “fanboy” Darragh McCausland talks to Built To Spill main man Doug Martsch about their upcoming tour dates.

For their current series of European gigs, Built To Spill are playing all of their epic 1993 alt-rock classic Perfect From Now On in its entirety. The album is a true benchmark. Not only did it define their career, it married the questing, far out guitar sounds of Dinosaur Jr and Crazy Horse to a whimsical, melodic and lyrical sensibility redolent of contemporaries such as Pavement. It is a meandering, cosmic sprawl of an album that always chooses the scenic route; only one song clocks in below five minutes.

Ahead of their Irish date in Whelans, I get a rare opportunity to talk to their frontman and songwriter, the wonderfully bearded and angelically voiced Doug Martsch. Now is about the right place for my disclaimer. I am a drooling fanboy when it comes to Built To Spill. A sick, irrational, drooling fanboy idiot, like a ten-year-old McFly worshipper. Getting a chance to talk to someone like Doug is one of the reasons I started writing for Analogue in the first place. So when I pick up the phone to chat to him, I am experiencing a dose of dishwasher tummy, a mixture of raw nerves (what if he’s a grump?), excitement, and the obvious need to temper my sycophantic instincts. Thankfully, I manage to keep my inner teenage girl in check and ask Doug (who turns out to be very soft spoken and open) some sensible questions. Beginning with the current tour.

I ask him what it is like to return to the Perfect From Now On material in such an exhaustive way after what must presumably have been a long break from most of it? “Yeah”, he says a little wearily, “we started working on doing this a long while ago, and now I really don’t know what to make of it.” How come? “Well we’ve been doing that album for about two months now, and I don’t know. I mean it’s just a bunch of fucking music.” He sounds a little exasperated. Perhaps it is because with Built to Spill being a constantly evolving touring force, he now feels constrained by having to play this stuff in full every night. I ask him if there is anything he would change in those songs, now that he’s coming back to them, especially considering the bands reputation for tweaking things live? Or is the album like Ronseal and, like it says on its tin, perfect?

Doug tells me “You know when we first came back to the album we tried to play everything as close as possible because we had been playing some of the songs and they had changed over the years. We never try to stick closely to our records that way. So we did try to do that. But now, we’re sort of fucking around with it a bit. To some people it might sound changed. To others it might not.” I’d warrant that for fans of Built To Spill, a bit of tinkering with the source material will be forgiven. After all, the band thrives on a live reputation that sees them playing lengthy sets with beefed up versions of songs, which often sound even better live than on record. For my money, the definitive version of “Stop The Show” is on their live album, Live.

For a band that tends to look forward, two months is a long time to be spending in bed with so many old songs. Considering that they are reportedly putting together songs for a forthcoming release, I wonder if working with the old stuff will have a creative impact on their new material? Doug tentatively admits it might. “Maybe so”, he says. “The new album was going to be a bit more stripped down and coming back to Perfect From Now On has me thinking more in terms of adding layers and stuff. I think we were starting to do that anyway, but I think with the Perfect From Now On stuff at the fore, I’m a bit more excited about getting back to do that.” But first there is the question of the road.
Built To Spill seem to be always on the road. Like Bob Dylan, the last few years saw them on a seemingly never-ending tour that has criss-crossed North America and Canada with the odd jaunt across to Europe. You would imagine that Doug would enjoy touring. I ask him if, like in the Lee Marvin song, he was born under a wandering star? Funnily enough, he doesn’t like being on the road.
“No I’m not the travelling type at all”, he says. “I do like playing live and doing all of that. But if I didn’t have a reason to be out in the world, I wouldn’t be at all.”

In saying this, he does acknowledge that after so many years playing in the States, they want to bring live shows further afield. Ireland is a case in point. Doug says that “the tour was all set up but we didn’t have any shows in Ireland but we made sure with the booking agent that we get to play there and Scotland.” This meant the band adding ten days onto their tour in order to play for two dates. I secretly and deludedly fancy that this is because of the begging messages I personally left on their MySpace page to play here.

Another MySpace page that sees its fair share of begging messages belongs to The Halo Benders, Doug’s on-off project with K Records main man Calvin Johnston. Fans are always anxious to hear new material from this group, whose brilliantly odd songs have to be heard to be believed (much of their material sounds like two completely different songs being sung at once and, curiously, works brilliantly). He tells me that this project is still alive, if a little delayed.

“We got together a couple of years ago and wrote some songs. But then Built To Spill became so overwhelming and it just fucked with the schedule of everyone. One of the guys went to school full-time. But we have a batch of songs that everyone is pretty excited about, so maybe when Built To Spill have a break we’ll get back around to it,” he tells me, providing a bone for material-hungry Halo Benders nuts to chew over. He also laughs when I request “Virginia Reel Around the Fountain” as an encore in Whelans. “Maybe if you or someone else shouts it out loud enough, sure,” he says. Well, Mr Martsch, that better be true because I can shout pretty loud.

Something casual Built To Spill watchers may not know about Doug is his interest in Reggae music. One of the more recently recorded Built To Spill tracks, “They Got Away” has a distinctly reggae sound. He tells me he only got into reggae in his 30s, when “someone gave me a really nice Lee Perry compilation. From listening to that stuff for a couple of years that song grew out of a sort of a jam that we did.”

The song marks an interesting departure for the band and although Doug tells me “it’s just a one off”, it will be fascinating to see if any of Perry’s vibes rub off on the next record’s sound.
The song structures on previous Built to Spill records can be crudely divided into two different types, the eight minute round-the-solar system epic (“Goin’ Against Your Mind”) and the punchier, hookier short track (“Centre Of The Universe”). Doug says that he doesn’t deliberately plot a course toward either one of these poles. “The songs sort of tell me what they are doing themselves”, he laughs, sounding a bit Zen. “The song is there and it looks after itself. There are lot of songs where we have done everything we could to shorten them but they just won’t let us.”

This is a lovely insight. It’s nice to think that Built To Spill songs exist somewhere “Out There” and that Doug just plucks them from the ether. It certainly befits a catalogue of music which, for all its catchiness and big hooks, has at its heart a sort of cosmic unknown; an awestruck wonder at the universe around us. Such wonder is beautifully expressed in the first song the band will play in Dublin next week, “Randy Describes Eternity”, where phased, squalling guitars carry a beautiful vocal line which contains the best metaphor I’ve ever heard to describe infinity. Amidst all of this, Doug decides he’s going to be “perfect starting now.” With a bit of luck, it will be the perfect start to a perfect show.

Issue 7 out today

Issue 7 is out today. You can pick it up in the usual spots… Or read it on issuu.

Peek! An earful of Irish Underground now available on Vinyl

It took awhile but the Peek! compilation has finally arrived on 12″ Vinyl. It was pressed in the Czech Republic where apparently there’s a little bit of a waiting list due to the fact that’s it’s one of like two or three pressing plants in Europe. It’s now available for free in Road Records, Freebird Records, Beatfinder and City Discs. It should also be available in BPM in Waterford and Plug’d in Cork but not until later in the week.

Just a reminder you can also download it here.

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