Tuesday 6 August 2013

Singles of the Week: Oneohtrix Point Never, Disappears, Factory Floor, Omar Souleyman



This section has been expanded. Now I will cover a few tracks instead of just one each week.

Oneohtrix Point Never - "Problem Areas"
The new Oneohtrix Point Never album, R Plus Seven, will be released on the 30th September and will be the prolific producer's first for Warp Records. "Problem Areas" shows the unique spliced up samples of the last Oneohtrix album Replica being taken even further; the natural harmonics of double bass, piano and church organ being rearranged in increasingly unnatural ways, amongst other indescribable synthesizer creations. It's a masterful three minutes of music, with an almost Autechre-level of stylised, adrift navel gazing. Visit pointnever.com for something extra special.



Disappears - "Ultra"
Disappears are a group on kranky that are set to release their fourth album Era later this month. They're giving away "Ultra" in advance: a brilliant slab of skeletal post-punk that almost spans ten minutes. This combination of sturdy motorik rhythm and pounding dub bass is hardly anything new but sometimes it takes a reminder like "Ultra" to appreciate these minimal, simple sounds. It's crowned with a vocalist that suggests two of my favourite singers, Michael Gira and Angus Andrew caught up in a The Fly-style genetic synthesis.



Factory Floor - "Turn It Up"
I'm probably looking forward to the long-delayed Factory Floor album more than any other at the moment, and "Turn It Up" offers plenty of evidence as to why. It's one of, if not the shortest track credited to the group, and offers something not heard from them before. It's almost all drums and drum machines (the Roland TS-808 is clearly one of them) and were it not for Nik Colk Void's sickeningly mangled vocals might have taken longer to get used to, but if you expected anything less from Factory Floor by this stage you've clearly not been paying close attention.



Omar Souleyman - "Wenu Wenu"
Omar Souleyman is the closest figure that Syrian dabke has to being a household name in this country, and that's set to be even more so now that Kieran Hebden, a.k.a. Four Tet has lent his many talents into the production of Souleyman's debut studio album Wenu Wenu. The title track bears all the hallmarks of the style: a constant 4/4 beat with a hip hop toughness, underneath ultra-colourful keyboards kicking around Middle Eastern scales like nobody's business. It's like a street party in a pair of headphones (and sunglasses).

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