Jonas & Francois, best known for last year’s stunning “D.A.N.C.E.” video, among others, lend their animation skills to bass heavy French electro-funk outfit Flairs. Handmade, using 3,000 sheets of paper, a simple printer-computer and scanner trio, and seven black ink pencils, the beautiful black and white video for Flairs’ “Better Than Prince” suits the track “like the best wedding possible.” Watch out A-ha, er, um, and you too Prince.
Syclops lends itself as a bit of a mystery. Little is known of the “Finnish trio” featuring Sven Kortehisto, Hanna Sarkari, and Jukka Kantonen since they don’t tour, do interviews, take press photos, or reveal much information about themselves. The “band” does however play live shows, but only for themselves, not audiences. “They” want the listener to experience their music and enjoy it unencumbered by other things like biographical information, stories, and the like. The fact of the matter is, the ambiguous Finnish trio is actually a front for the one man project of interview-shy, leftfield producer Maurice Fulton (Mu, Kathy Diamond). Why hide behind an obscure trio? I’m not really sure, but one thing I do know is that after a handful of singles including this year’s brilliant “Where’s Jason’s K?,” Fulton will be dropping his debut full-length as Syclops I’ve Got My Eye On You on DFA in June.
I’ve Got My Eye On You expands on the dark electro disco of the January 2008 Syclops single “Where’s Jason’s K?”/”Monkeypuss” (DFA) with more left of center madness. The Sheffield, UK producer’s main success under the Syclops alter-ego is that he manages to take his twisted view of disco, soul, funk and electro and turn them into solid catchy tracks. “Where’s Jason’s K?” follows an addictive hammering bassline over minimal beats for most of the track’s length. Fulton adds a cowbell here and there before the song reaches a pinnacle at its midpoint with organ freakouts and other bizarre shit. The B-side of the single, “Monkeypuss” is a acid house infused affair, harsh and bassy, primed for the dirty dancefloor.
With the brilliant Hercules & Love Affair album already under their belts this year, DFA looks to do it again with I’ve Got My Eye On You on June 10th. Previous single “K” will appear on the album along with the other tracks listed below.
I’ve Got My Eye On You Track Listing:
1. “NR17”
2. “The Fly”
3. “Naoka’s F”
4. “5 Out”
5. “Nelson’s Back”
6. “Where’s Jason’s K?”
7. “The E Ticket”
8. “Mom, The Video Broke”
9. “I’ve Got My Eye On You”
10. “A Lovely Sunday”
I wasn’t alive in the 1970s, but I have a very vivid image burned into my memory on what they were like from old family photographs, film, televison, magazines, and other imagery. Some things that immediately pop into my mind when I think of America in the 70s are big cars, crotch riding bell-bottoms, polyester, leisure suits, badass moustaches, curly hair, sideburns, tacky carpets, tinted glasses, maximum amounts of chest hair, uninspired architecture that we’re still living with today, and for some reason the color orange. Not really sure where orange fits into the whole story, but for some reason, it’s there. Oh, and what was the deal with putting brick in the interiors of homes? I’m not talking about exposed brick, but brick built on low rise walls behind couches and shit like that. Weird.
Anyway, I mention these manufactured “memories” because flashes of what I described in the previous paragraph rushed into my head on first listening to the debut full length, Silent Movie, from Quiet Village. When the 70s jive groove kicked in on the beginning of “Circus of Horror” all I could picture was a moustached Matthew McConaughey crusing around in his Corvette in Dazed and Confused. Quiet Village’s sound, however, isn’t as simple as that. The old school funk edge gives way to dreamy and drugged-out disco, while the groove continues to kick in the background. Images of muscle cars and moustaches soon fade and the listener is cast into a spooky, swirling, and exotic haze.
Silent Movie begins peacefully with the sounds of waves churning onto the shore, samples of chirping birds, and beautiful relaxing symphonic compositions on “Victoria’s Secret.” As a whole, the album proves to be difficult to pin down, as it explores a variety of styles where samples and original sounds blend seamlessly. This could be due to Quiet Village members Matt Edwards (aka Radio Slave) and Joel Martin having a wide range of influences. Edwards is better known for his techno hits, while Martin is an ex-film editor and music fanatic.
The aptly titled “Pacific Rhythm” brings together slight elements of reggae and surf tunes rooted in freaky funk and topped with symphonic strings and sexy female vocals. It’s one of the only songs on the 12-track LP that contains vocals. The elegantly composed “Utopia” features beautiful finger-plucked melodies, percussion sections that sound like drops of water hitting an echoey cavern floor and effervescent keys.
Edwards truely shows his diversity on Silent Movie, revealing his softer side as most of the album washes away the stresses of the listener, that is, until you pop off your headphones and are thrust back into reality. Highly reccommended for kicking back as the warmer summer months creep up on us.
Silent Movie is out on May 13th via !K7 Records, preview some of the album and order it on their micro-site here.
I have a little sticky note next to my desk that says “talk less, listen more” as a way to remind me to keep my mouth shut and listen to what people have to say. Over the years I’ve found that I was one of those people that just cut into a conversation and start talking about whatever I wanted to, never letting the other person speak their mind. I started catching myself doing this within the last year or so and thought that it must be really fucking annoying to be on the other end of the conversation.
I still interrupt from time to time, but usually catch myself and apologize. By allowing others to talk and actually listening I have learned a lot about other people and discovered many great new things. Just today, at a used book store, I listened to an older guy ramble on and on about Fitzgerald and Norman Mailer soaking up as much information as I could and NOT interrupting.
Some of the things I’ve written about on here have come from these sorts of discussions. Take Pieces of Peace for example. The Chicago funk-soul outfit came recommended from a friend who explained that their debut LP (originally recorded in the early 1970s) was shelved after the band broke up and is finally going to be released on September 25th after 30+ years of gathering dust.
Pieces of Peace were somewhat of a soul super-group that had their beginnings as the Constellations in the early 1960s and ran in the same crowd as Carl Davis, Chi-Lites, Barbara Acklin, and later (as Pieces of Peace) the Pharoahs. Referred to as the most important group in Chicago in their prime, Pieces of Peace had a various lineup changes throughout the 60s, finally settling on a roster consisting of Bernard Reed (bass and vocals), John Bishop (guitar and vocals), Joel Brandon (flute), Jerry Wilson (sax), King Johnson (lead vocals), Michael Davis (horn), Ben Wright (organ and piano), and Fred Crutchfield (a high-school prodigy drummer), along with members of the Pharaohs.
The band recorded only one album, which was shelved after the group split up while in Singapore during a 6-month Southeast Asia tour. Following the tour, the record was vaulted indefinitely until recently when music researchers Dante Carfagna and Rob Sevier, along with DJ Shadow, procured the original Pieces of Peace tape. The self-titled LP will finally see its release on Quannum Projects/Cali-Tex tomorrow. I read somewhere that Pieces of Peace features one of the last recordings featuring the Pharaohs (Derf Recklaw, Aaron Dodd, and Willie Woods).
The tracklisting includes: 01 Cease Fire / 02 Pollution / 03 Flunky for Your Love / 04 I Still Care / 05 Peace and Blessings / 06 Yesterday’s Visions / 07 Pollution / 08 Yesterday’s Visions (Alternate)
Check out “I Still Care” below, which features Wright on lead vocals.
