"Feed me!"

I sometimes feel like the plant Audrey II in "Little Shop of Horrors". My hunger, my insatiable desire and hunger for more and more music, although not being totally sick as one could consider - I've managed over the years to build my collection upon radical clearances of unnecesary records - lies very much on constant information andf investigation. This means regular newsletters, magazines, books and serious time surfing the net. But still, there's always more and more to discover and enjoy. What a tremdous pleasure and expectation to know that a great song or album is just literally around the corner!

These days, as another deadline comes colser for my section Másàjazz in SERIE B I spend some time extra making sure I'm not missing a last minute jewel. But, boy, there's lots slipping through your fingers if you are not awake. And very often I realise, once the mag's edition is closed, I missed something truly amazing.. So I've decided that, every now and then, I'll feature a "miss" record over here. Either the album comes from a few months ago or a couple of years. There's so much music that stands the pass of time, easily overlooked, that I feel the urge to start doing this straight away. In the meantime: what is your suggestion? Which sonng or album did you recently miss or overlook?

Send your answers to microll@yahoo.com

And all my best regrds from blue sky sunny Madrid.

Ravel and Mussorgsky: classics plugged in

Finding an electronic release under the umbrella of Deutsche Grammophon is no news. Although they must have been among the last ones to open up their vaults to sampling and deconstructing in the hands of fashionable and marketable producers, they have always been supportive of avantgarde and experimental escapades. In that sense, the launch of a series called Deutsche Grammophon Recomposed is, once again, a wise combination of musical challenge with merchandising. A happy alliance as long as the result means intelligent music, such as the three volumes produced so far.

After the first volume, commissioned to the German producer Matthias Arfmann with an interesting shakedown of classic into dub, the series moved to the unpredictable territories of the amazing Jimi Tenor, to reach another dimension with the lastest volume, in the hands of the techno apostles Carl Craig and Moritz von Oswald. Their mission: an electronic deconstruction of the affinities between Maurice Ravel's Bolero and Mussorgsky's impressionism in Bilder einer Austellung. The project is presented as a continous suite of 65 minutes with a very annoying (call it minimal) beginning emulating the brass crescendo in Bolero that lasts for 15 minutes with not much happening. Once the percussive synths are incorporated and the brass loops fade out the mood lands the familar scene of ambient techno and clubbing smokes: they cue is precisely at 20 minutes from the start. The new crescendo is one made of uplifting laser beeps and ascending beats (a new bolero) to reach a third movement (just around half ot the trip) where floating electronic strings must refer to Mussorgsky. This leads to a dramatic interlude of terror cinema harmonies (think Sweeney Todd), to enter again clubland pulsating around minute 41. And so on. The end, like any standard thriller, must be discovered only by the interested audience. The remaining taste, after such oscillating and compulsive up and downs, is one similar to some of these hollywood made suspense flicks. Good entertaining, nice ideas, but maybe easy to forget.

The Last Drop

It's that time of the year. And I'm not talking about Christmas. I don't think there's anything valuable to add to the eternal controversy of I Love / I Hate Christmas. I was thinking about the revision of the year in terms of THE BEST RECORDS OF 2008. All major shops are doing it, and most magazines will do it. Thank God I write for a mag that fiercely avoids this game... but still, as a sociable human being who can´t avoid a good conversation even if the subject is crap, I'm already preparing myself for the question. "What was your favorite album of the year?". 

I always answer that the best is always the one I listened to the most: not so much the wise choice that it will impress my friends and readers. And if you look at some shops who are (yes?) sincere in their figures, we are going to have a few surprises and disappointments with those lists. 

2008 will show itself as one of the most conservative and mainstream years to remember. With the strong comeback of rock & roll poppie bands, revised and cloned soul, and xerox funk, there just a few artists who had the megabites to dare. Also, since no one is buying records anymore, the ones who touched the best seller status were mainly compilations. 

So it's the last drop for speculations: we shouldn't wait for any killing release in the upcoming 4 weeks. It's time to look at our acquisitions this year, our own playing ranks, and wonder: is this the best record of 2008?

Mr IG CULTURE: are you the best record of 2008?

lazy blog, new podcast

yes, I've been lazy... but busy listening to new music.

so I guess is very hard to resist droppin' a music podcast since one is consuming, playing and accumulating so much music anyway..

so, here's a weekend starter selection, a bit of here (this) there (that) and when (now!)

65 minutes of tracks, in raw mix (no mastering, sorry for the quality up and downs) but in true session...

hope you'll enjoy it...let me know

http://www.divshare.com/download/5813300-338