Red Bull Music Academy Radio | ChinaShop

Music Cornershop: Everyone Needs a Bosom

June 21, 2010 - 11:33 am

I remember Cornershop from high school. They had a huge hit way back when with “Brimful of Asha,” though I remember little else than the “everyone needs a bosom” line, repeated ad infinitum throughout the track to the point that it got mildly irritating. In case you liked it, we’ve got that song up now. But with their latest work being showcased on the Red Bull Music Academy, I’ve been clued a bit more into what I was missing: huge, lush layers of sound — almost Phil Spector-esque, middle eastern melodies on sitar that remind me of a more tolerable Ravi Shankar; then there’s the funk-guitar of Where they won me over was when they talked about working with Allen Ginsberg in the late 90s, to do some poetry reading with the boys. You can get a dosage of their illustrious past (and lengthy career) on Red Bull Music Academy Radio now.

Music The Charlatans are Anything But

by Shop Keeper

June 18, 2010 - 11:48 am

There’s reason for music critics to want to get to know UK-based group Charlatans, and that is mostly because they were unofficially part of the famous Manchester scene back in the 80s. The now-famous Steve Coogan movie 24 Hour Party People helped bring about a resurgence of early New Wave music initiated by the likes of Ian Curtis and Joy Division, and though groups like The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses got a lot of credit for solidifying the sound, The Charlatans shouldn’t be overlooked: they’re amazingly talented. Here’s a band that grouped elements of English alt-rock, progressive rock, and the poppier, more mainstream sound of UK bands like Squeeze and Split Ens with their own straightforward rock sound, and was ahead of their time in doing it. At times, Tim, Mark, and the band seems about to channel Gospel, then new wave, then they’re genre-jumping to the next sound already. There’s the pseudo-industrial vibe of “Weirdo”, and then there’s the poppy sound of “The Only One I Know”; if The Charlatans have stolen from anyone, they wisely selected from a lot of different sounds and bands, so many in fact that their sound becomes meshed into one bizarre and multi-headed monster that is all their own. Get a taste of the thievery on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

Music Young Marble Giants: Crushed by a Wall of Sound

by Shop Keeper

June 11, 2010 - 11:20 am

Like a lot of Kurt Cobain’s favorite bands, Cardiff’s Young Marble Giants got a about a fraction of a percentage the attention Nirvana got (Killing Joke anyone?). About time — they’ve been around quite a while, having evolved considerably since their early days as a covers band. Yes, a lot has happened since their self-titled debut in 1980. Overall the Giants sound like anthaemic music for plucky people as they go about their daily business, be it in a cubicle, or even toiling as a janitor in some school somewhere. Maybe grungy, whistle-while-you-work music? They’re sans percussion for the most part, a minimalist move purposefully intended to counter the all-encompassing presence of punk in the 1970s. Sometimes they sound like an old video game soundtrack, and one guy in the band has an accent exactly like Hugh Grant. There’s a bit of Blondie, Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, post-70′s glam, and even some House of the Rising Sun-era Animals organ thrown in for good measure. Toss in some seriously catchy funk-bass rhythms, and the soothing and wistful vocals of singer Alison Stratton as she pours over funny things she might have seen during the day. Get a listen of their punchy post-punk on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

Music ATOM TM: All That’s Elemental

by Shop Keeper

May 27, 2010 - 11:20 am

I can’t think of any other DJs with a moniker that synchronizes so perfectly with their own sound. Atom TM strips away all the fancy layers that make laptop and DJ music so complicated, and gives it to the listener in its purest element: a series of pulsing blips and beeps — what even sound like the signals that initiate the musical sounds — undercut by a steady bass rhythm to get movin’ to. Atom, whose real name is Uwe Schmidt, packs his music with everything from white noise static and what sound like those ‘error’ sounds you get when you hit that wrong button on your computer… which sounds like a mutant mainframe, something that could be a hybrid between an Atari 2600 and a modern day PC. He’s even started his own label, Rather Interesting, which highlights his sense of humor regarding his own work. Which is sort of like the modern day musical equivalent of dada art:it’s kind of strange, somewhat monotonous, and very German. (Hey, I’m part Kraut too — we can spot our own). He’s even done an entire album full of classic Kraftwerk remixes. You can get your fix of his minimalist handiwork on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

Music Zombie Disco Squad!!

by Shop Keeper

May 25, 2010 - 12:25 pm

There’s a pretty self-explanatory moniker for you, although “Zombie Disco Duo” might be a little more appropriate since there’s only two of them. In this case the brain-eating deadites in question are a couple boys who share a love for house music that will — what else?– eat your brain and make you walk aimlessly around the dance floor, much as a zombie would, nodding your undead head to the boys’ rhythms, or shaking your booty to those samples. With tracks like “Esperanto” and “Eurovision” Zombie Disco Squad provide some familiar brain-eating effects for everyone: You know that sound your vinyl/compact disc makes when it’s got scratches on it? That’s kinda what Zombie Disco Squad sounds like — only with an infectious series of post-disco, raver beats to it. And when you think you’ve tired of one kind, there’s always the dependable Mowgli, who has provided an array of remixes for you to check out. It should really come as no surprise that ZDS’ brain-eating brand of music is on the cutting edge of modern house, and a no-brainer that if you dig dance of this kind, you need to get a listen right now so you endure the same fate. Check it out on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

Music Jimmy Edgar

by Shop Keeper

May 25, 2010 - 10:19 am

One of a mirth of producers and DJs coming out of Detroit, Jimmy Edgar is another in a long line of beatmakers who blends elements of jazz, Chicago House, and electronic music of all kinds into one gigantic loop of rave music you just chill out and relax to. If you’re a fan of the Detroit scene, not only should you definitely pick this up, but what also makes Edgar all the more intriguing is the vibe to his music. It’s fairly monotonous, like a lot of DJ music of this sort, and might even conjure images and/or flashbakcs of nodding off on a couch in a club somewhere. Because sometimes you just need to do that. But it’s his vaguely relaxed, chilled-out vibe, that’s mixed with a sort of sporadic, static sort of noise — a white noise, hum and sampled bits of gangstas cursing. It’s this unique sort of multi-faceted influx of sounds which Edgar brings to the table which makes his music what it is. It must be doing something for him — he’s been on Warp Records for nearly a decade and shows no sign of letting up. He gets plus points for posing so suavely on the Red Bull Music Academy Radio home page with a mannequin (or is it a rendered mannequin) in the passenger seat.

Music Roots Manuva

by Shop Keeper

May 24, 2010 - 9:31 am

‘Spoken from the heart’ may be one of the best and truest ways to describe the music of Roots Manuva, whom Red Bull Music Academy Radio describes as having received his epiphany when, as a kid, he walked past a soundsystem in London’s Stockwell skateboard park. There must have been something electric and alive in the subwoofer that reached the lad and made him decide that music was going to be his life — but the cherry on top was when he heard Rakim, and basically the rest was history. If only all of us could have had our callings at such an early age. But all that aside, Roots (aka Rodney Smith) put a lot of hard work (and heartwork) into his artwork. One of the best things about Roots is his emphasis on certain phrases and words he messes and plays with. You kind of have to hear this to really appreciate it, but let’s just say that where many DJs pretty much repeat the same words over and over again when there seems to be little point, you’ll find that Roots utilizes the same effects and words and quotes over and over again to emphasize something to his crowd, whom, face it, aren’t always paying attention. Again, you’ll probably appreciate this more when you listen. Check out Red Bull Music Academy for more.

Music Salem’s Witchy Brew is Addictive Stuff

by Shop Keeper

May 19, 2010 - 11:07 am

On one particularly dark and stormy night, when I was around 21, I went walking up a little dirt road near my house and stumbled onto something that seemed a bit out of place in suburbia: a witch’s seance. Their candles flickering, droves of girls stood chanting a bunch of Wiccan stuff into the wind as it howled around them. The only thing that made it less gothic was that it took place in a community pool parking lot. But Salem would have been the perfect soundtrack to muffle their moronic chanting; its eerie electronica could be the audio equivalent of Rosemary’s Baby or The Amityville Horror any film noir-horror flick from the past half-century. That’s only for the first few minutes, until it gradually builds into a crescendo of early 80s synth-organ, distorted wails, and one big wall of screams — which for aficionados of the genre might conjure images of the George Romero and Stephen King schlock horror masterwork Creepshow. It’s not all stream-of-consciousness and soundtrack though; Salem’s happy to throw in a variety of different beats, mostly of the dance-able type. And you’ll barely even notice when a scary voice chants “RBMA Radio!” halfway through the commotion.

Music Caribou: Hunted by Manitoba

by Shop Keeper

May 18, 2010 - 10:38 am

You don’t need to be Lester Bangs to know that Caribou’s an altogether different kind of musical animal. The dude was raised on a steady diet of Yes and Rush, and the blood of progressive rock flows strongly within him. He’s shy about it, like most, calling it ‘overblown’ and hinting at its pretensions, but the mere fact that he keeps making the references means it’s embedded in his subconscious. After a while, he found himself experimenting with more modern dance and electronica, but one need only listen to his music to hear that there’s as much Rick Wakeman and Aphrodite’s Child (and even Simon and Garfunkel) as there is Daedelus and Four Tet. His bio’s almost as interesting: he was even served by a private investigator at one of his gigs, subpoena courtesy of none other than Dictators singer Richard “Handsome Dick” Manitoba, who felt his name was being stolen (Caribou’s stage name was at one time also that of the Canadian province). Caribou appropriately calls Dick a ‘moron’ (I’m inclined to agree since the latter had the balls to ‘reform’ the MC5 in 2003, even though he’d never even played with them). That being said, it helps to have an open mind when listening to Caribou. It’s the prog soundtrack to carnival funhouses and stretch mirrors and makes me feel like a kid again. Check out his story on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

Music Instra:Mental. Couldn’t Have Said it Better Myself

by Shop Keeper

April 30, 2010 - 12:24 pm

Eccentric? Yes. Offbeat? A bit. But the greatest thing about Instra:Mental is that they aim to please no one… except themselves. With these two boys from London, the focus is less on melody than it is on beats and rhythm, hurtling break-neck and no-holds-barred. And like so many music duos on this here ChinaShop, they’re good. And random and chaotic and truly “pioneers of the ‘robo ballad’ as described by Red Bull Music Academy Radio, and ‘best breakthrough producers’ by DJ Mag for their work behind the console as well. With an array of dubstep and fast-as-hell drum and bass skills/technology under their belt, being armed with a slew of the latest and greatest in DJ technology doesn’t hurt either: having built their studio (as well as their career) from the ground up, they’ve learned to make their music the way they want, without any middle man getting in the way. For any fan of electronic music, be it dance, techno, dubstep, beat street, get thee to RBMA Radio now for a peak at the unique sound of Instra:Mental. Believe the hype.