cardboard adolescent

Now some of you might be saying, HOLD YOUR HORSES: I already saw this goddamn thread in some other forum. But fret not my dears, for the purpose of this thread is entirely different. That is, in the other thread I was merely gloating, but having recently converted to the Church of Marx, what I intend to do here is SHARE.

Actually, probably none of you were saying that. So allow me to move on. For those of you who are just joining us, The Wire is this really cool British magazine that covers music. A lot of music. Different kinds of music too, not just nifty rock n' roll but also electronica, jazz, and hip-hop and that umbrella genre... experimental. The only real characteristic that all the music in this magazine shares is that it's all... well, I don't want to say avant-garde because that's so damn pretentious. So instead I'll say it's all music made for people who are likely much more intelligent than you and are the only ones who can really enjoy it. But since you're all pseudo-intellectuals you can feel all cool and pretend you like it. That's what you want, isn't it?

Hopefully you skipped over all that. If you didn't please note that I was just wasting your time. But here's the real point. This magazine sends me compilations that are really cool so I figured I would upload them one by one and do a little track by track synopsis so you might by able to guess which songs you might like and then you could hypothetically so my theory goes listen to them and perhaps even enjoy them and then you would have been exposed to new music. Which is much better than being exposed to gamma radiation.

So here it is:

The Wire Tapper, Vol 9, Disc 2

And here is
SYNOPSIS
Please note that each little segment refers to a track and they're in order so if you can't follow you probably should go back to grade school.

The first track, by Max Tundra, is a wonderful piece of electronica/turntablism which blends from organic to synthetic and comes off as a slightly more syncopated DJ Shadow.

It's hard to believe that Track 2 is the work of Wire, as it sounds more like the hybrid noise-rock of The Ex. The kind of noise rock you might encounter at a rave.

The Ex, Sonic Youth, and ICP (not the clowns with down syndrome) come together to craft a piece of free improv, which, though enjoyable if you're feeling a bit pretentious, falls a bit short of what I would expect from two of my favorite bands. But damn, those suckas sure can noodle. Which is much better than wanking.

Oooh this Sigur Ros track is making my room vibrate. That alone would be enough to make me like this song, but its pure delicate beauty adds to its value tremendously.

Echoey guitar strumming. Moody, spacious, ambient, sure. Now we got a couple of guitars. Some interplay. Fahey, are you taking us somewhere or just fucking with us? Okay, if you get bored about halfway into this song you have my permission to give up on it because it doesn't go anywhere.

OOh, this one sounds echoey and pretty. OOh, voices. Creepy. Ping-ing-ing-ing-ing. Voices continue. Echoey creepy stuff turns into kickass strumming with weird vocals and eerie SFX. Me likey this song. Like the soundtrack for a country-western on acid.

So this is The Sea and Cake. Kinda David Grubbs-y. Not bad. Weird avant-pop with some neat stuff going on. Deserving of repeated listens? Not sure, I'll have to listen to it again.

Masha Qrella wants me to know something. Is it that this looping is really cool in a goofy fun kind of way? No, it's something about our past or something. She does have a pretty voice, in a very androgynous kind of way.

Dictaphone comes in crackling, popping, and frequencifying. They create a jazzy soundscape which is pretty sweet for, you know, jazz. Kinda loses focus about half-way through. Oh well.

Ooh this is nifty. Nice little electronica clappy beat, fuzzy distorted vocals: poppy goodness. So yeah this song made me twitch my butt kinda like that one Moby song (sshhh don't tell anybody) so I guess I'll give it a 16.

Ooh this song is like really chill Stereolab and it's all building and stuff I totally dig it.

Then wham bam thank you ma'am 43 RPM kicks in. And it's all like kick-ass electronica and then in jumps the free jazz like WHAPOW and you can guess where it goes from here. That's right... communism. The inevitable result of all socio-economic systems.

More jazz, cool.

El Wraith immediately promises to be everything hip-hop is supposed to be. And I'm not even sure if it is hip-hop yet. Maybe it's trip hop. It does sound a bit like Massive Attack. But where's the singing? Even without that it's still really sweet.

Some more electronica... I don't like the beat quite that much, but the piano is pretty cool.

Wow, I was so busy reviewing all the tracks that I now need to go back and actually enjoy them. Seriously though, I enjoyed all of them except for like, three of them.

IndiElectronica

my good friend and now housemate (we just moved to london) has been a reader of Wire for years. I've always borrowed them from him when i saw him but now getting through a couple dozen of them. They put out 7-8 cd's a year as well which we've been listenening to quite a bit. Some very good label samplers on there etc. Also neat stuff like bands from Japan etc.

Another very good mag I buy when I see it is 'Comes With A Smile'

I can load up any of the other Wire samplers if anyone is interested

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