Monday 29 February 2016
Saturday 27 February 2016
Competition! - #hiapopDip
So here's the deal.
We have over 80 cds up for grabs. Most of them promo's. A mix between singles, EPs and albums.
You buy a 'ticket' for just £1 via PayPal to hiapopblog@gmail.com
Next weekend, a name will be picked at random and the collection will be on its way to a lucky winner.
If we don't receive enough sales to cover postage to a UK destination then your £1 will be returned.
Can't say fairer than that, eh?
Friday 26 February 2016
Wednesday 24 February 2016
Review - The Pop Group – For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?
The Pop Group – For How Much Longer
Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? (Freaks R Us)
CD / DL
19 February 2016
9 / 10
English post-punk band re-release their second
album. Louder Than War’s Paul
Scott-Bates reviews.
Whether you are aware of The Pop Group or not,
it cannot be denied the influence that they undoubtedly had on British punk and
street culture. Mark Stewart and his
band of not-so merry men have seen fit to crowdfund the re-release of their pivotal
album For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? on cd for the first time. We salute you.
The album is a classic make no mistake. Call it avant garde, call it post-punk,
thirty-five years after its original release it is still as relevant and angry
as it was then. Often put into the
bracket of punk it really isn’t, being more akin to the sound of Ian Dury and
his jazz induced punk-pop - The Pop Group present their version in an anti-pop
fashion.
Built on screeching saxophones, frenetic bass
lines and Stewarts irreverent screaming, the overall sound is often off-key. Indeed, the lack of uniformity and conformity
adds to the charm of the songs and the manic nature is a humbling refreshment.
Album opener, Forces
Of Oppression is near anthemic as it announces the arrival of the nine tracks
with gusto and the now trademark shout of Stewart is given a severe
airing. Feed The Hungry is near hypnotic
and Blind Faith cascades with noise and near hostility.
One Out Of Many featuring The Last Poets is
replaced by the bands second single We Are All Prostitutes for the first time,
a song as famous for its political commentary as it is for its imagery of
Maggie Thatcher waving a two-fingered salute.
Nick Cave stated that “It had everything
that I thought rock and roll should have. It was violent, paranoid music for a
violent, paranoid time", and a young punk in the BBC series Ashes
To Ashes was seen sporting a t-shirt with the song title emblazoned over his chest.
Even reggae gets a
tickle with the brilliant There Are No Spectators as it fades away into a glorious
reverb towards the end before Communicate provides what can only be described
as improvised jazz-punk.
Closing with the
dark humour of Rob A Bank as it parodies the original theme from Robin Hood you
can’t help but feel that you have just invested thirty-seven minutes of your
life into something completely marvellous.
Links
Freaks R Us
The Pop Group Website
The Pop Group on Twitter
The Pop Group on Facebook
The Pop Group on hiapop Blog
Mark Stewart
Ian Dury
Published on Louder Than War 17/02/16 - here
Review - Matmos – Ultimate Care II
Matmos – Ultimate Care II (Thrill Jockey Records)
LP / CD
19 February 2016
8.5 / 10
Experimental electronic duo release their new album.
If listening to the sound of a washing machine cycle for thirty-eight
minutes isn’t your thing, then maybe you don’ t have the imagination and
curiosity to listen to the new Matmos album.
From the basement of their Baltimore home, Messrs Drew Daniel and M.C.
Schmidt have shown their true creativity by taking the sounds made by a
Whirlpool Ultimate Care II washing machine and creating a truly mind-blowing
album.
If you’ve ever stood next to an electrical appliance, found yourself
mesmerised by its sound and discovered that you are actually tapping a finger or
shuffling a foot to its noises then you’ll completely understand where Matmos
have borne their ideas. Beginning with the
trickle of running water into the machine drum and slowly building up to repetitive
cacophony of noises the album is a refreshing delight.
No strangers to the unconventional, Daniel and Schmidt and have in their
twenty-year existence played ‘music’ on the uterus and reproductive tract of a
cow, a collection of conch shells belonging to John Cage and canisters of helium.
With guest appearances from members of Horse Lords, Half Japanese and
Needle Gun popping along to help with the laundry and then proceeding to bang
the machine like a drum or process sounds via samplers. Spin cycle hums, rinse cycle splashes and any
number of clunks and clanks are joined by manufactured blips and bleeps to make
it all sound extremely palatable.
Sometimes sounding like drone, sometimes like krautrock, there are even movements
that could have come straight from a traditional Malian background. Segments which can be mistaken as horns,
drums and xylophones are actually samples from the sound of the machine which have
been manipulated and re-fed into the mix.
Some would argue that Ultimate Care II isn’t music, and some would be
wrong. What it is is a joining of two
very imaginative minds into one very entertaining end result and whilst the concept
of it will have its detractors, there will be an equal amount who find it absolutely
compelling listening.
Links
Thrill Jockey Records
Matmos website
Drew Daniel on Twitter
M.C. Schmidt on Twitter
Matmos on Facebook
Matmos on hiapop Blog
Published on Louder Than War 16/02/16 - here
News - Deux Furieuses Announce Debut Album And Stream New Track
The words ‘deux furieuses’ translate as ‘two furious’, female gender signified
by the French spelling. Their fans in Russia fondly call them The Furies. ‘deux
furieuses’ is an apt name for the impassioned duo (Ros Cairney - guitar and
vocals, Vas Antoniadou - drums and vocals) whose music is fuelled by 21 Century
hypocrisy, pro-democracy uprisings, fundamentalism and extremism, the denial of
freedom of expression and rights for women. Their songs pull apart social
injustice and cry out for change.
deux
furieuses’ debut album Tracks of Wire draws inspiration from a
wide range of artists who use their talents to explore and think: Hofesh
Shechter’s thunderous dance/music performance ‘Political Mother’ about indoctrination,
DV8’s uncomfortable, questioning physical theatre piece ‘Can We Talk About
This?’ about multiculturalism, Aayan Hirsi Ali’s books on Islam and
reformation, Yael Farber’s ‘fearless’ rape play ‘Nirbhaya’, PJ Harvey’s ‘Let
England Shake’, Savages ‘Silence Yourself’. The duo’s
riotous black-and-white hooded press shots a nod to the
Parisian female activists of 1968, the original Sisters Of Perpetual
Resistance.
Produced
by Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey’s drummer and arranger), Tracks
of Wire has moments of Harvey-esque raw exuberance. There’s the obvious riot
girl influence, where seemingly rebellious abandonment meets an unstoppable
desire to deliver a serious message. But whilst punk’s angry, visceral backbone is omnipresent, the
songs are fleshed out with post-punk’s intelligence and articulation.
It’s an album that is undoubtedly hard-hitting, but one with a positive,
proactive message of fighting for change, wrapped in songs delivered in darker
shades and rawer soundscapes.
Formed
in 2013, the band have released three tracks: Can We Talk About This?(2014), The Party of Shaitaan(2015)
and Are We Sexy Enough?(2015) which collectively picked up coverage on Louder
Than War, The Girls Are, Artrocker whilst at radio, John Kennedy [Radio X] has twice
featured the duo as his Xposure Big One, more recently hailing them ‘Ones to
Watch for 2016’ and asking them to play his club The Remedy; Tom Robinson
selected them for his BBC Introducing Playlist in 2015 and Bella Union’s boss
Simon Raymonde praised them on his Amazing Radio show.
Tuesday 23 February 2016
Monday 22 February 2016
Watch! - My Cruel Goro - Lost E
Listen! - Ennio the Little Brother - Cacophony
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Listen! - Karo - Wolfbaby
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