mess and noise review

Mess and Noise gave my 3″ a positive review, which is nice.  It goes like this:

Cleptoclectics

Open Tuned Occidentals

7 Track, EP, (Hellosquare recordings 2009)

Part hip-hop beatmulching, part experimental electronica and part found-sound collage, Open Tuned Occidentals is the second release from Sydney-based artist Tom Smith (aka Cleptoclectics). This 3” CD-R is a more than worthy follow-up to his contribution to Feral Media’s Powwow series.

Seemingly coming from a similar sonic angle to Anticon alumni Odd Nosdam and Jel, Smith’s busted-up beats and cut/paste aesthetic have a distinctly old-school flavour while still retaining an edge of fierce experimentalism. As he recontextualises a wide array of source material – horns, koto, junk-shop percussion – a new musical landscape emerges, one simultaneously alien and familiar.

Each of the seven pieces here are distinctly rhythmic and infectiously melodic, interweaving fragments of jazz and pure pop within a 21st century boom-bap framework. Despite its avant-garde tendencies, Open Tuned Occidentals remains accessible throughout: the tumbledown drums and sampled woodwinds of ‘Move On’, the oriental vibe of ‘23 is Your Year’, the gently processed percussion of ‘Keys for Open Doors’.

These are the kind of jams that Macromantics or Catcall should be spouting rhymes over: catchy, but constantly on the go; forward-thinking, but respectful of its roots.

by Adam D Mills

http://www.messandnoise.com/releases/2000313

leaving records

This mix was put together by Matthew David for Mary Anne Hobbs’ show on BBC1. It’s the most interesting thing I’ve heard in a while.  I can only describe it as 17 mins of full frequency spectrum psychedelic rhythm textures.  Here.

Open Tuned Occidentals

I’ve been working on this 3″ for Shoeb Ahmad’s label; Hellosquare. After some deliberation, I’m excited to announce it’s finished and available for preorder here.

discontent

Stuart Buchanan has a new show on fbi, called disorient, and he’s been playing some tracks from Poignancy Beats Vol.2, which is nice of him. He’s also started a accompanying blog, called discontent, where my Underlapper remix is currently streaming. Stuart is a web guru of sorts, whose former projects include Fat Planet, which the Guardian named in it’s best music blog list in 2008.

Famicom – Hokkaido Homegrown

I don’t generally spruik things, but I’ve been listening to this so much that, given it’s free, I thought I should. This might be old news to some; but it’s a beat tape, with a Wu-Tang influence all over it. Though there’s not much soul, the beats lope and stagger to the point where they might fall over, and it’s so crunchy and static ridden it almost sounds like he’s used flash compression.

My only criticism is to point out the incongruence of Kung Fu samples packaged with a sort of Nippon fetish, when Kung Fu is very much Chinese… but then, debating the cultural authenticity of this beat tape is kind of silly.

Here.

local fidelity

Lee tran Lam, who’s the brains behind Fbi’s wonderful local fidelity programme, contacted me a while back about doing a Q and A, for the blog of the same name. So here are my answers.

Autumn Solace

I put a mix together a little while ago, and it’s now being hosted at not one but TWO awesome locations near you.

Here and here.

Synchronicity

This is the cover of a remix album; Revisions Revisions. By LA producer Nobody, out through Plug Research.

This is a linocut by David Bosun, a Torres Strait artist we represent (we being the gallery/artist agency I work for), titled, Lagau Mabaigua Malu Aidal.

I get a kick out of instances like this, when coincidences arise out of entirely disparate circumstances, or maybe someone owes someone some credit.

vibes and stuff

One Andrew Castillo contacted me today; he’s a Bronx resident, and founder of the Vibes and Stuff monthly podcast series. He was writing to say he’s featured one of my tracks on his latest mix, which can be streamed or downloaded here.

Andrew seems like a nice guy, who’s genuinely enthusiastic about the tunes, and I’m happy to give music away to people like that. I also like hearing music of mine in mixes, because it gives me an idea of how they’re hearing it, and how they’re contextualising it. Though it might seem a little conceited of me to say given the circumstances, it’s a great mix, and that’s not to mention the title – Electric Sheep. I watched Bladerunner a couple of weeks ago, and it blew me away all over again. I suppose I’m a sucker for future shock and doomed love, scored with swoony sax and dreamy synths.

I’ll be busily going through Andrew’s back catalogue me thinks.

Meanderthal Remix

A little while ago Greg Stone hit me up to do a remix of something from Underlapper’s most recent album, Red Spring. I agreed, chose Meanderthal, and went to work. They’ve recently put the result up on their myspace page. Head over if you haven’t already checked it out on my own page. I did the track live down in Melbourne last week for the first time, and a couple of people started clapping along to it, which was pretty cool – they don’t usually do that.