This is certainly trippy, quite a road trip through a disparate sonic landscape.  A wonderful combination of synths, electronic drums and some yummy industrial metal textures, and then there is the torrent of guitar sounds that just dump on you near the end, absolutely glorious.

The rest of the album is just as interesting and varied. There are psuedo soundtrack bits that remind me of some of the things that “The Morrighan” are doing.

The Morrighan are great, no two ways about it. I stumbled across them last year and was totally blown away by the energy this band develops. But, lets start this review somewhere back in our childhoods…

Remember the buzz you got at Christmas when you discovered the biggest package under the chrissie tree had your name on it and even better,when you opened it up, it turned out to be just what you wanted? Well that’s the feeling I got when opened the parcel the band sent me and I loaded up the Morrighan’s CD into the MP3 player.

The Morrighan’s music is truly yummy stuff. Take a riotous mix of electro, classical, techno-rock and trance. Dirty it up a bit. Shoe-horn in some samples from some of my favourite movies like Contact , Star Trek and some bits from assorted TV doco’s. Jam it all together and somehow it all just works. It also doesn’t hurt that Jon-X’s vocals occasionally remind me of early Genesis era Peter Gabriel in places.

And that’s just the first track Wilderness. There are still another six tracks to go. Lets have a quick look at a few more…

“Back In The Game” is up next, a track with a slower tempo that gives space for Cecily Fay’s vocal to develop, great production with the layers and layers of vocals and guitars. Works for me.

“Money Magic” is a track that seems forced and slightly out of place, this is probably the least successful track on the album. Cicely’s vocals lack engagment. The production is good but it doesn’t work for me. Your mileage may vary.

“Inferno” on the other hand is a wonderful atmospheric trip through sonic landscape. You can hear the dry heat, it would make a great sound track for a Spanish road movie. This track is a killer, the vocals intrigue  and draw you in to the song, the drums and guitars evoke a slight hint of a Moorish sound, it works so well and I fully expect to hear it on CSI one day. Inferno has taken up permanent residence on the MP3 player.

Inferno

Radio Friendly? I hear you ask. Hell no. The shortest track on this album is six and half minutes long. The length of these tracks let the songs unfold and gives the band time to play with their ideas and develop them. There is light and shade here, the production and arrangements have managed to preserve a sense of dynamics and the ideas presented I find are genuinely interesting. Basically all the stuff radio programmers hate.

This album seems to move in many directions at once. It successfully explores the dichotomy between electronic and more natural textures, between Cicely’s and Jon’s vocals and say the V Drums that Rita plays. In many ways it’s as primitive as it is futuristic. It has an exuberance that isn’t found in a lot of more commercial music these days and while these seemingly divergent themes might sound like some post-modern musical meltdown, it’s clear that this is the sound of a band growing into its own voice.

Every time I watch this band’s live videos I am reminded that music is an event; a social experience that should be shared rather than, (as Jeff Tweedy from Wilco pointed out “A piece of art is not a loaf of bread”) just  another commodity to be consumed. JON-X (singer/co-producer/writer) Cecily Fay (singer, co-writer/producer) and the rest of the band have turned out a fine piece of work in “One Hour On Earth”.

Highly Recommended.

Websites at www.morrighan.com and www.myspace.com/themorrighanband

My original review of “Wilderness” can be found at duggup.com.au/2007/10/16/the-morrighan/

Here is some hype I found…

Their groundbreaking music incorporates many contemporary sounds, from pulsing synths and crunching rock guitars to soaring solos which draw on the best of progressive rock whilst at the same time hounouring the rich Celtic music traditions – think Afro Celts meets Ozric Tentacles meets Capercaillie meets Yes!

Wild and way out, yet with the strongly defined tang of the Isles, this is what you need for a rave with class – howling pipes, screaming guitars, thundering bass, and an almighty good rhythm set up! Some sets written by the band, some traditional songs played at a new angle.

Here is a video that will give you some idea of why I am intrigued by the band, the is called “He Mandu” and no I have no idea what i means…

This is “Freedom Futre”, I just love the pipes…

Definitely check out the songs over at www.myspace.com/skilda, especially if you are a fan of AfroCelt or Capercaillie.

Good Stuff… recommended.

Anchorsong has been sitting in my too hard basket for a few months while I decided if I want to review the act or pass it on to my co-contributer. After a not very inspiring day at work I sat and had another listen to this act. I’ve decided that Anchorsong isn’t nearly as hard as I first thought.

Anchorsong is the brainshild of Masaaki Yoshida from Tokyo Japan. Anchormusic is a solo project and Massaaki uses an AKAI MPC2000XL and KORG Triton to create live dance music. After performing in Tokyo for a few years he has moved his act to London where he now performs.

Of his music, Masaaki says:

It’s a dance music inspired by Hip Hop, House, Techno, Electronica, and so on, but when he comes to perform on the stage, he doesn’t use any computer. He sticks to play “instruments” phisically like a rock band. Every song develops dramatically and sounds like almost “pop” music.

Watch the clip for “Devil’s Clap” to see how he works. No computers, just heaps of samples and loops. His music is actually quite refreshing and often has an energy that most electronica lacks – probably because Anchorsong performs live. Worthy of a listen.

Artist: Anchorsong
Website: www.anchorsong.com
Track Name: Devil’s Clap
Playback: flash video
Download?: No

I was watching a TV show called “Bones” and in the credits there was a music credit for the title music. A quick once around Google and I had found The Crystal Method’s sites.

The Crystal Method is an American electronic music duo consisting of Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland. Along with The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and a few other lesser-known acts, they were pioneers of the big beat electronic dance genre, and one of its few American proponents.

“Keep Hope Alive” is one of their pieces from the late Nineties and it’s BIG. Which is good because that was what attracted me to their music. There are lots of hard edged “big beat” percussion, synthesized basslines that just keeping pushing and a lot of ideas. The lead lines they use are incredibly edgy as well. Basically you may not like this but you wont be able to ignore it. It holds up quite well for a ten year old piece of music.

UPDATE: I just noticed that they have an album or two at Amie St

Anchorsong is the solo project by Masaaki Yoshida from Tokyo, Japan. He comes from Tokyo’s underground live music scene. Armed with an Akai MPC2000XL and a Korg Triton he builds up the songs layer by layer, right in front of the audience and the audience seem to find the process fascinating to watch and it sounds amazing.

It’s dance music with a pedigree that follows the Hip Hop, House, Techno, Electronica line, it’s not Rock music. But he plays live on stage, no computer. He actually hits his “instruments” physically, it’s not perfect and some of the chances he takes don’t always come off just like any other live band and but he is reacting to the music he creates as he creates it. I admire that.

He made his international reputation mainly through his uploads to YouTube. In this one he is performing with a string quartet…

Not everyone’s cup of tea but I found him interesting.

I honestly have no idea how I stumbled on this, but bloody hell this band could solve the energy crisis. I was totally floored when I discovered this was actually a band, not just some guy in his bedroom with a ton of toys (nothing wrong with being just some guy in his bedroom with a ton of toys but it rarely attains the intensity this band generates).

The Morrighan’s music does a shopping trip through genres at high speed, you can find electro, classical, techno/rock and trance, all mashed up and something really interesting comes out at the other end. Jon-X’s vocals remind me of early Genesis era Peter Gabriel in places.

Sadly the video I found first, which was distorted and the people shooting it are having a great old time has been removed and replaced with the more sanitised version below.

Wilderness is all about sound and texture, it’s an evocative journey through a landscape populated by firm beats, solid bass, an even more solid drummer and interesting vocals. Check out their website and have a listen to Paper Tigers 2007 and Cecily Fays vocals. You will be left wondering why we don’t hear more of this band.

Highly recommended.

“Tracking Treasure Down” is probably not indicative of Molly Bancroft’s usual work EXCEPT for the voice, I heard this on an internet radio station and just had to find out out who it was. I thought it was something from Imogen Heap/Frou Frou . How wrong could you be.

“Tracking Treasure Down” isa collaboration with DJs Gabriel and Dresden and is a great piece of pop, Her voice is wonderful, it leaves you with a feeling that there is so much more to come, a feeling of controlled power, just waiting to be let loose. Have a listen to “Get Closer” or ‘”, you can hear the feeling that she has put into the songs. And I should point out that these are better songs, a lot less production getting in the way .
I find myself liking her work a lot, I like the way she handles the guitar roles, I like the way she constructs a song and I especially like the way she takes chances… both with her collaborators and her music.

Not to be missed. You can score a copy of her album at CDBaby

Update: “Forgotten Angel” off her newish album Red Dirt Diaries has been getting played a lot ( actually a hell of a lot) on the MP3 player. You can check it out at Daemon Records.

The Devil’s Toxin comes from the album of the same name and is the latest creation of Ambient Teknology. This album drives at 100 miles an hour, and when it slow’s down it’s an exploration of the dark and mysterious places at the back of your mind.

I am seriously taken with the Devils Toxin title track and the wonderfully titled. “But Satan Rules The Universe” but the standout slow track has to be the textures and sounds of the downtempo track, “Atek 1st Movement”.

The band have a very slick but really really annoying Flash site that you cant link to (see Marks comment below). Fortunately they are on the ever reliable Magnatune site, magnatune.com/artists/atek

Ambient Teknology aka Mark P. has been recording uptempo underground electronic music for over six years and is influenced by such artists as Kraftwerk, Orbital, Gary Numan, and Sven Vath. Ambient Teknology fuses early synth from the 1970′s and 80′s with the dance driven drum and bass riffs of the late 90′s, resulting in a driving, upbeat sound full of ecclectic beats and the deliciously dark undertones of early new wave.

Born in Cornwall, England in 1966, Mark P. lived and grew through the UK punk and electronic scene and developed a sense of the true depth of sound synthesisers were meant to bring to music. Much of Ambient Teknology’s music, in fact, is based on ideas involving a departure from the old, and a dawn into the new, and Mark continually incorporates new ideas, techologies, and sounds into his music as electronica and techno continue to evolve.

Now their site is annoying but it has an offer you can’t really refuse. If you sign up there they will send you a CD for free. So listen to their latest album first at Magnatune and if it takes your fancy head over to the bands site and order yourself a free copy of one of their previous albums.

There was a request during the week for some trance music. Ever willing to help out I found Quantica, a Psychedelic Trance project based in Ibiza, Spain. Quantica came into existence when two neighbors, Eric Mokotoff and Martin Brooks, after months of hearing weird noises and twisted beats coming from the house next door, finally made contact and decided to make a track together.

“Out There” is the opening track on their album “Astrobiology” and it moves along quite nicely. The production is very good and they do have a love of their weird noises. The band have been performing live for some years now and the album shows it.

Its taken a some time to finally get our material sounding the way we want and actually get tracks properly finished. Partly due to other work obligations and partly in having to learn a lot about technical studio stuff. Now we to feel like our music style is starting to take shape, and we have a small but continuous list of upcoming live events to prepare for and that is keeping us inspired to make more time for what we really want to be doing, making killer choons:)

Our current material is most probably described as morning style trance with dashes of full on trance, sometimes a bit progressive and sometimes quite funky and groovy. We are now working on some new tracks which are a little darker and faster.

The new album is called Astrobiology and is available from the bands website at www.quantica.eu/ or you can listen to the album here courtesey of Jamendo.

I will diggup some more for next Sunday.