pWritten by Fantasma el Rey/p pHitting the streets with beats and grooves long thought lost in a seaport warehouse is The Brighton Port Authorityrsquo;s long-awaited CD release, I Think Wersquo;re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat. Better known as The BPA and recorded under the creative watch of Norman Cook in collaboration with many unique vocalists, these long-lost gems are finally revealed to the public. So join me and uncover just who and what are The BPA./p pThe story goes that in the 1970s a young Norman Cook recorded these tracks to tape with his mysterious jam band backing various lead vocalists in their portside studio. Rumors of the tapes and the band itself circulated for years until a box containing the tapes was finally found confirming their existence. With some work the tapes where cleaned up and put out on CD. /p pThen there is the real story of The BPA which is Cook, better known as Fat Boy Slim, put this thing together with the help and vocal assistance of a few of his talented friends. Together they managed to kick out some very danceable jams for the pop/electronica/indie/dance crowd to move and groove to. /p pThe twelve tracks on I Thinkhellip; move along at a quick pace, laying the beats down in a very enjoyable time of 43 minutes. The time is perfect for those of us that prefer our dance music fix not to last hours on end in marathon rave fashion. The track order is also laid out well. As any good DJ can, Cook has arranged the songs in an order that picks you up with solid up-tempo beats and rhythms while letting you chill and groove to the more mellow tunes. A truly good mix. /p pIggy Pop lends his peculiar vocals to the lsquo;60s soul stomp ldquo;Hersquo;s Frank (Slight Return),rdquo; which leads off the disc with heavy drums and bass supported by funky lead guitars and handclaps. Heading right into ldquo;Dirty Sheetsrdquo; with Pete York on vocals and slowing the pace down a bit, none of the beat is lost and distorted murky-sounding guitar work is added. From there itrsquo;s a seamless trip back to solid dance grooves with odd chord-bending guitar sounds and layered vocals by Connan Mockasin while blurred and blended horns twist behind./ppage 1 | 2 br

More so than movies or books, music can sometimes be seasonal. That's not to suggest that a given album can't be enjoyed off-season, but rather that there's a certain added pleasure to listening to it when the time is right. As suggested by the pumpkin-orange artwork that adorns the cover of shoegaze alt-rockers Asobi Seksu's sophomore full-length, 2006's Citrus, this is an album for the fall. Both the lyrical content of the set (that which can be made out, and is in English), as well as the dense and layered arrangements, exude a palpable haziness and melancholia. Yet, there's a warmth too — found in the bouncy, chiming textures of these monolithic rockers — which keeps things from seeming too cold and distant. Citrus is an album that's perfect for the autumnal months, when hot summer days awkwardly (and often abruptly) transition into frigid winter nights. Blustery hurricanes of low-end and distortion dominate the atmosphere, but not without a fight from lead singer Yuki Chikudate's quivering and ethereal voice, which occasionally breaks through the din, only to be swallowed whole by a colossal wall of sound once more. Take lead single "New Years," for example, which finds Yuki's fragile whisper riding atop a mountain of titanic distortion and trebling bass, eventually dispelling the noise long enough to croon the track's gorgeous bridge, only to be drown out moments later by an even greater sonic assault; it's an auditory struggle akin to the push-and-pull of the seasonal weather. But that's as hectic as it gets, which is important to point out, lest I undersell the tunefulness of this album. Cuts like "Lions And Tigers," which skimps on none of the band's requisite amounts of low-end, but tempers the intensity with Yuki's lullaby-sung verses and playful jingling during the subdued (at least by this band's standards) chorus. Of course, even this song eventually builds to a symphonic, eardrum-shattering climax, but that's more a testament to the restless nature of these sprawling compositions.page 1 | 2

The irony of Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective's eighth full-length, named after the ubiquitous outdoor stage in Columbia, Maryland, is that it's the band's least live-sounding album they've made thus far. It's this stylistically different approach to recording — there are more filters on the vocals here, the soundscapes much thicker and layered — that makes this collection of songs, most likely the best batch that the greatest contemporary band on the planet has yet put together, fall just short of classic status. Truthfully, though, only time will tell. Big words, I know. But any modern rock critic worth his salt will cop to being in awe of this band, even if not everything they've done thrills them. Pretty much everything does it for me though, excepting some very early, particularly indulgent live recordings, and a few tracks off odd LPs over the years. Also, both critics and hardcore fans alike (and there are many) have probably heard most of the cuts on Merriweather (all but the bouncy pop of "Blueish," which debuts on this album) either performed live at concerts, or at concerts on Youtube. That, coupled with interviews with the band stating that this is their "best album yet," and a particularly enthusiastic review from one of the music world's most reputable publications (Uncut), created an almost unbearable strain of hype preceding its release, that which almost any album would buckle under, and couldn't possibly live up to. It's to the great credit of this extraordinary band that they come damn close. The first sign of greatness reveals itself in the impeccable construction of Merriweather: The album kicks off with "In The Flowers," the most atmospheric track of the set and (next to later cut "No More Runnin'") the most subdued. At least until it suddenly erupts with buzzing synth stabs, before quieting down again for the lead-out, establishing a loud-quiet-loud aesthetic which will remain prevalent throughout. 'Flowers' finds one of the band's two principal vocalists, Avey Tare (real name Dave Portner), waxing euphorically in the name of love about "leaving [his] body for a night." It's a peculiar ballad, for sure, but one that displays a maturity (welcome or not) which contrasts Tare's gorgeously animalistic love song "Purple Bottle," off 2005s Feels. This sense of gravity and responsibility, a theme that subtly weaves itself into every song on the album, seems appropriate, as a lot has changed since 2005. For instance, one member, Panda Bear (real name Noah Lennox), has become a father, which adds a certain credibility to the powerful lead single (though the band would never call it that) "My Girls." Here, Tare and Panda Bear simply and earnestly proclaim, in unison, "I don't mean / to seem like I care about material things / like a social status / I just want / four walls and adobe slabs / for my girls." The sentiments are felt not only on a human level, but relatable in this time of economic instability, where one can find the most gratifying aspects of life in the love and nurturing of others. Not all the content here is heavy though; in fact much of it is abstract at best. Lazy, spell-binding Panda Bear cut "Daily Routine" drifts along on skittering break-beats and a vaguely hand-clap-sounding percussive rhythm. Then, halfway through, it slams on the breaks and endlessly repeats its dreamlike refrain, "just one sec more / in my bed," as if to savor that moment in the morning before starting the day. Or maybe coercing someone to stay with him for a while? The ambiguity only empowers the track, and even here we find traces of that nurturing paternal maturity in lyrics like "make sure my kid's got a jacket." Elsewhere, the most catchy track Tare has ever written, "Summertime Clothes," finds the band in a state of freewheeling bliss. "I want to walk around with you," Tare sings, later repeatedly chanting the track's makeshift bridge, "when the sun comes up we'll go out again." The act of being caught up in a moment, or a musical/lyrical stanza, is one of many binding thematic concerns here.page 1 | 2

When you are as used to the structure imposed on music by the demands of style and the market place, it leaves us woefully unprepared for listening to and appreciating the work of contemporary composers in the field of electronic music. Even those of us familiar with orchestral music or avant-garde jazz are ill-prepared for the demands of the genre. For even within the apparent anarchy of the wildest jazz there are still sounds which we can identify. No matter how far afield the music might drift from any rhythmic pattern we recognize, the fact that we can still distinguish the sound of a drum, or other instrument we know, gives us a comfort level that we can build from in order to obtain a level of comprehension when listening to the music. So when faced with the electronically produced sounds of the modern composition we become close to illiterate as our brains have no understanding of the language being used by the composer. For most of us, the harder we try and understand what a piece might be, the more we frustrate ourselves as we continue to try and impose what we know onto something alien. Like somebody learning to appreciate abstract art after years of only looking at realism and portraiture, we have to forget what we know and try and appreciate the experience on an emotional instead of a intellectual level. Take for example Turkish composer Erdem Helvacioglu's latest release, Wounded Breath, on Aucourant Records. At first listen the five compositions on the disc might sound to you like little more than a collection of electronic noises that have no meaning. Squeaks, squawks, and Gods know what other sounds issue forth from your speakers following no pattern that you can understand and not forming anything that you would even dream of calling a melody. The key to listening to this music is to try and get past your preconceived notions of what music is and then to go forward from there. Anyway, you'll soon find that there are recognizable patterns and rhythms in the music, it's just a matter of learning what to listen for. Now I don't mean to make it sound like it's work to listen to Helvacioglu, because although it does require more of a commitment than listening to your average pop tune, that doesn't mean it's hard work. Unfortunately for many of us the act of listening has become a passive activity and we have forgotten how it can also make us active participants in the music being played.page 1 | 2 | 3

Written by Sombra Blanca If your rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, like mine, can only be lived vicariously, the Justice documentary A Cross the Universe packs in a few years’ worth. Despite the fact the documentary’s subjects, Frenchmen Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, don’t play rock ‘n’ roll at all, at least not in the traditional sense. Whether their brand of banging electronic house music is “the new rock ‘n’ roll,” as one fan proclaims, I’ll defer to others. But A Cross the Universe, a summary of their three-week North American tour in early 2008, reveals enough antics to rival the legends of any hesher hero. At 64 minutes (shorter than the accompanying audio CD in the two-disc set), Filmmakers Romain Gavras and So-Me haven’t the time to delve into the duo’s history, why they make music, or any other biographical sketches. A little airport confusion, a stock shot of a plane in the air, and the film is off, fueled by the frenzied, over-the-top music from Justice’s first and only full album so far, Cross. (Not the word but the symbol, kind of like what Prince did). Naturally a documentary about touring is going to include some live footage of the shows, and the directors include plenty of it, or at least a generous amount of fan footage. Crowd surfing in every clip, crazy costumes among the concertgoers, hands in the air as if they didn’t care, and an almost painful amount of strobe lights. Seriously. I understand the intent is to match the “thump-thump-thump” of the beat, but how their uninspired lighting tech avoided seizures, I have no idea. The lighting is the main reason it’s a good thing A Cross the Universe isn’t a straight live show. If I had a gripe about the live footage, it would be that the close-up crowd shots dominated any clips of Augé and de Rosnay actually “playing” their instruments, even if it would horrify purists by showing a couple of CD players among other equipment. And especially because one of the gigs, the 2008 Coachella Festival, was purportedly their first performance with a live PA setup. It would’ve been nice to see trial-and-error (or success) footage from that show alone. Instead, the directors never let the film linger too long in any one moment, and constantly flip back and forth between on- and off-stage. The duo, their tour manager Bouchon, and other members of the entourage find themselves in a hotel room filled with pantily clad ladies one night, watching a marriage on another night, and peppered along the with way with arrests, celebrities, and bottles both emptied and broken on purpose.page 1 | 2 | 3

Almost every week without fail you can read somewhere about how the end of the CD is nigh. Digital downloads of MP3s are no longer the way of the future; they are now. All those cumbersome CD players are now being replaced by teeny little iPod clones that can hold hundreds, if not thousands, more songs than one 700MB CD-R ever could. At one time, the downloading of music from the Internet was the province of hackers and considered an illegal activity. Now every major record company is in on the act and new releases are routinely available to download from iTunes long before they come available in hard copy. Of course this saves them tons of money, as there's no longer the need to create physical packaging. If an item is being downloaded, what purpose is served by spending a small bundle on cover art or liner notes? Simply post the stuff to a web page once and be done with it. Well, maybe I'm old fashioned, but one of the things that I still miss most about LPs (long-playing records, for those folks under 30 who don't remember what came before CDs) is the great album art. CDs are such dinky little things that what you get is a postage stamp compared to the huge expanse of color that once covered LPs. Still, at least CDs offer something you can hold onto while listening to your music — some tangible proof that somebody, somewhere, went to some effort to produce it. It turns out that I'm not as alone or weird as I'd thought I was as the independent Norwegian label Rune Grammofon is proving with the release of Money Will Ruin Everything: The Second Edition on February 3. Gathered together on two discs, a poster, and an accompanying book, it's their second package celebrating the various performers signed to their label. The two CDs contain samples from assorted groups and individuals who they've recorded; and the book is chock full of interviews, articles, photos, album art, and other mementos related to the past five years of the label's history. To be honest, I'd never heard of the label until I received the press release from their North American distributor, Forced Exposure, and had no idea what kind of music they produced. What attracted me was the fact that this little label had the balls to produce this type of package when nearly everyone else is going in the opposite direction as quickly as possible. I had to know more about what this label produced that they would go to this much effort to celebrate their performers and who are the people responsible for making it happen.page 1 | 2 | 3

There's been a trend in recent years to sentimentalize nature and smooth out her rough edges to make her into something people can use as a relaxation tool. Walk into even drug stores these days and you're liable to find some sort of CD listening booth advertising titles offering you relief from stress through the soothing sounds of the natural world. You can buy anything from the sounds of a forest coming awake in the morning to the restful sounds of a gentle tide breaking on the beach. Those relaxation recordings have as little to do with the natural world as a sitcom has to do with the human world. Just like real people don't act anything like what we see on the television, nature isn't the collection of soothing sounds that they make her out to be. We only need to listen to the reality of the element, water, they make the most use of for these CDs to understand how far removed from reality they really are. Thankfully, there now exist people fascinated by the real sounds of nature who are willing to go to great lengths to capture them on tape and create recordings that remind us that this force can create a tsunami as easily as a gentle breeze on a summer's day. Norwegian sound artist Jana Winderen creates soundscapes from recordings that she has made with specially designed microphones of rivers in China, far beneath the surface of the North Sea, and crevices that run into the hearts of icebergs. Touch Music has now released her first full length solo CD, Heated, a record of a performance she gave in October 2008 in Tokyo. According to the credits on the disc the source material used for this show was gathered with various types of hydrophones and microphones in Greenland, Iceland, and Norway. Believe me when I tell you, listening to this disc is unlike anything you're likely to have experienced ever before. For those of you expecting to hear something along the lines of the delicate sounds of raindrops plopping onto leafs, you'll be sorely disappointed. This is a world of mysterious groans, squeaks, and loud unearthly growls, as Winderen's microphones pull sounds from depths beneath the ice pack in the frozen north. For twenty-six plus minutes she plays back sounds that are so alien to our ears that they could be from another planet. Of course when you think about it they are, for when was the last time you went for a walk either inside a glacier or in the depths of the North Sea? After, what is to a non Japanese speaking audience a meaningless introduction by Tetsuro Yasunaga, Winderen's recordings begin and we are immediately plunged into a world populated by noises that few of us could have ever imagined existed. The initial reaction is to try and find your bearings by searching for some sort of identifiable sound that you can hold onto - something we can use to get our bearings with. The trouble is that each time we might think something sounds familiar, the lapping of waves for instance, it changes and we are left floating without any idea of where we are or which way we are pointed.page 1 | 2

For the mere act of transporting us from shore to shore we can thank Carnival Cruise Lines. But for making this cruise a special cruise, about you and me and the music, and not just an ordinary cruise, we have to thank Simple Man Cruise. And for the money they’re laying down to charter this wonderful cruise, we have to thank Sixthman. This cruise turned out to be four days of nonstop music and sun and fun. I even told my editors I’d need a week to recuperate when I got back. They thought I was joking! Obviously these wankers have never been on one of the Simple Man Cruises. Billed as the Simple Man 2009 Cruise, it was hosted by Lynyrd Skynyrd. We were due to cast off at 1600 hours, and when we weighed anchor it was to the sound of music on the Lido Deck. But you could hear the music from anywhere on the ship, as long as you were outside. And who wants to be inside on a cruise? Four days of maximum sun is the sure cure for four months of snow up to your ass. Four days on a cruise should rate two weeks to recuperate. There are times when men and women in combat will go for three, sometimes four days without a break, without sleep. To think that your body is moving for that long with little or no rest is scary! Even without the combat. After the third day I had to be reminded to take it a little easier. And what was reminding me was my whole body: It was tired. Beyond tired. But don’t pity me. It’s like the old guy with a 25-year-old hottie, it took three undertakers to get the smile off his face. I’m gonna come right out and say it, people. This Lynyrd Skynyrd Simple Man Cruise was just phenomenal. Phenomenal that Simple Man Cruise arranged the perfect weather. Phenomenal that Simple Man lined up the perfect music Obviously, Lynyrd Skynyrd were the stars of the show, but lemme tell ya, straight up, they had to work to keep their star billing. The other acts were breathing down Skynyrd’s neck the entire time. “No prisoners!” was their war cry. Any band that slowed down the chase would have footprints up their back and down their front. Somebody asked me as we were leaving the Marshall Tucker performance, “Who’s your favorite on the cruise?” I told her, “Marshall Tucker!” The next day, as we were coincidentally at the Oakhurst performance, she asked the same question, and I replied, “Oakhurst!”page 1 | 2

Here are a batch of recent European releases. It must be noted, however that all of the albums covered in this article are in their native languages. Music does, however, cut across that divide. The fact that most of us can’t understand a word actually helps us focus on the musicianship. If I was clever enough, I would review the album in the language in which it is written, but anyone who knows me realises the ridiculousness of that comment. So here we are, reviews of European language releases covered by an Englishman who despite living in France can barely order a beer in his adopted country! Aguson – Aguson Sweden’s Aguson, who up until this point had been in various pop orientated bands, reinvented himself when he started to listen to the likes of Townes Van Zandt and John Prine. He instantly connected with the ‘honest expression’ he heard within the music and whilst remaining loyal to some of his pop roots began to inject some country into his songwriting. The result is this album and even though the likes of me can get frustrated from not being able to understand the words, an essential part of this style of music remains a pleasantly impressive listen. Aguson builds around acoustic styling and impressively catchy songwriting. This is most definitely the case with the opening track, “Fran Vinst Till Forlust”. I would like to know what it’s about, strangely it still has the power to draw you in. The country soaked “Tank Om Tvivlet Inte Fanns”, “Lagtryck Over Stan”, the lovely “Ingenting”, and “Vapenbroder” all show the direction he is heading. Whatever the language, well written country styled, acoustic music remains soulful, relevant, moving, and highly rewarding. You can almost fill in the lyrics yourself. Have a listen to the excellent Aguson on his website. Mathieu Boogaerts – I Love You Released in November, 2008, I Love You, is the eighth album in the career of one of France’s most popular contemporary singers. The style is best described as a combination of dub, light grunge, funk, electronica, with a huge push towards the pop market. Mathieu's voice is gentle, and smooth, with the tracks often being minimalistic in approach. Very European, very French. Tracks such as "Come To Me", and "All I Wanna Do" which despite their titles are mostly sung in French, and "Chaque Fois" seem to be good illustrations of where this album is at. page 1 | 2 | 3

In an era where mash-ups, remixes, and mixtapes are plentiful, it takes a lot to stand out from the crowd. Girl Talk (aka Gregg Gillis) certainly does so on his newest album Feed The Animals. Drawing from an unbelievably wide variety of songs and genres, Gillis has not only crafted a great party album but also one of the best albums released in 2008. For those who are unfamiliar with Girl Talk's work, his style of music involves combining elements from many different songs into something new. It would be easiest to describe it as a "mash-up" but it's really something quite unique. While most mash-ups are meant to be singular tracks, the songs on Feed The Animals are really meant to be listened together as a cohesive work. Each one flows easily into the next one, like a DJ mix. However, with over 300 songs sampled across the entire album, it's a lot more intricate than most mixes. Many dance/DJ artists sample obscure tracks or make familiar samples unrecognizable. Girl Talk does neither. If you have been a fan of popular music at any moment in the last 20-30 years, you will probably be able to recognize at least one or two of the songs sampled. All the samples used don't matter unless the music made with them is good and fortunately, Feed The Animals is very good. It's immensely entertaining from start to finish. The music is always changing and songs progress in unexpected ways. Some of the album's best moments come from successfully combining hip-hop tracks with ones from very different genres. "Set It Off" pairs Jay-Z's "Roc Boys (And The Winner Is)" with Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" which gives Hova's lyrics a darker tone than the original celebratory beat that surrounded them. One can't help but laugh at the combination of Eminem's raunchy "Shake That" with Yael Naim's sweet, Apple-approved "New Soul" in "No Pause." The hard-hitting drums of Lil Mama's "Lip Gloss" are replaced with the hard guitars of Metallica's "One" on "Like This" for a combination that works far better than it should. While the clever combinations of samples are what drives the album, it's the actual construction that makes it great. A lot of the samples used on Feed The Animals are small and are used to transition to the album's larger moments. The opening drums of "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins lead to the Busta Rhymes/Police combination on "What It's All About." A very short clip from OutKast's "Ms. Jackson" leads to the Vanilla Ice/Jackson 5/Rihanna/Queen sequence that ends "What It's All About." It's these smaller elements that keep things moving and help make everything else seem that much better. No matter what kind of music you like, Girl Talk's Feed The Animals will keep you moving. It makes unfamiliar genres palatable whether it's classic rock for a pop fan or heavy metal for a hip-hop fan. It's the perfect album for the music lover who is likely to have anything and everything on their MP3 player. It's detailed in its construction but still insanely fun to listen to. If you haven't heard it yet, it's worth checking out. Feed The Animals is available in a variety of formats from Illegal Art.