A Collaboration Like No Other From Down Under (Flume and Chet Faker)

Good evening one and all,

The Ball and Biscuit is almost 1! A little look back at my archive tells me that on Saturday December 1st 2012 I first posted 'Forced Introductions... and The Crookes' and that my first proper line after an initial 'Good days my friends' in German was the unbelievably corny 'I'm a 21 year old history student studying in the greatest city in the world i.e. Sheffield'. I then went on to blab about Sheffield for what seemed like an eternity, mentioned the Arctic Monkeys about a hundred times and finally ended up settling into my groove with The Crookes who I still listen to all the time and am happy to report to anyone who cares are still going strong and currently recording their second album. It's always slightly cringey to look back at past writings but also very strange for me to think that's it's been an entire year since I first set out on this little endeavour, much can change in the space of 365 days.

First mini-report of the day is probably the funniest video of the year linked at the bottom of the page. Everyone's been raving about it so I won't go in to too much detail but Seth Rogen and James Franco have mimicked Kanye West's bizarre and frankly pretty terrible video for his new single 'Bound 2' with Franco playing Kanye and Rogen cast in a dream role as Kim Kardashian. The greatest thing about it is that rather than doing the standard youtube spoof of which there are ten-a-plenty, they've simply imitated West and Kardashian's exact moves during the video to amazing comic effect. It's rare that I show such obvious admiration for two people as much in the public eye as Seth Rogen and James Franco but those two are just too funny for words. What I admire even more about them is their quite obvious lack of celebrity ego (Rogen more than Franco I would say in this case). They've both been around for quite a while now and getting on a bit in years but the personalities emanating from their more recent films communicate to us that they are still simply guys who like to get high all day, have a laugh and have happened to come across the perfect medium for their talents where they can still get high all day and have a laugh. 'Bound 3' as it's now become known can join many a 'top viral videos' of the year list for 2013.

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Collaborations come in all shapes and sizes and the one I want to discuss today is a duo that I would never have thought to put together but one which has in my opinion emerged with one of the most cutting edge EPs of the year.

For those unfamiliar with the two artists in question, here's a cheeky little rundown. Flume aka Harley Streten is a Sydney born electronic producer and DJ who hit the world dance stage with his self-titled debut around about a year ago. Flume, the LP, was the crowning glory of debuts, one which immediately popularised Streten in America and showcased his multi-talented ability to span genres while still breaking boundaries with a favoured electro-sound. With guest appearances on his tracks ranging from Aussie rapper T-shirt to the sweet tones of Jezzabel Doran and slightly closer to home the lovely London-born George Maple, it sold well and made him a success and he's been touring and spreading the word on his music ever since.

One other feature artist on that particular LP was none other than fellow Aussie Chet Faker (full name Nicholas Murphy, you can see why he might want to stick with Chet). This particular track was called 'Left Alone' and found the pairing of Chet's sharp vocal tones with the floaty beats pioneered by Flume was a bit of a match made in heaven. The Faker himself had entered the stage with his debut EP Thinking In Textures released that previous March, a demandingly and soulfully underrated piece which included his fantastic cover of Blackstreet's 'No Diggity'. It's a great track but he's no one-trick pony and even though the cover made it to a Super Bowl advert for Becks and left him far more in the mainstream eye, the rest of his music shows variation you wouldn't have initially thought possible.

Both being based in Australia the two have obviously been in cahoots for a while and slyly released their new EP Lockjaw in the UK last Monday. There are only three tracks but each are deserving of a mention in their own right. 'Drop The Game' is a perusing opener, the intro setting a vibrant but crooning mood perfected by Faker on Thinking on Textures but within thirty seconds we've had a drop and aaaaaah man it's good, Flume's productive influence reaping rewards and combining with Faker's soprano 'woo-woo-woos' as the tune reaches climax. Faker bemoans in the lyrics, 'I've been feeling old, I've been feeling co-o-o-o-o-old' and yet judging by this vocal performance there's a certain irony embedded in that line.

Next up is 'What About Us', a track which seems to reverse what happened in 'Drop The Game' with the opening belonging to Flume then sliding effortlessly in a far more Chet-dominated direction as the saxophones and trumpets which have become such a feature of his own music are brought to the front-line, the results being intriguing. Faker did contribute to some of the production as well as the vocals unlike with 'Left Alone' and that contribution is far more noticeable on 'What About Us' than the other two. The EP ends with a healthy bang, 'This Song Is Not About A Girl' is undertoned by a cracking drum beat, coupled with a spacey bass-line and arguably Faker's strongest vocals in quite the while as he traverses between monotone and traditional at the drop of the hat. The final minute is worth waiting for the entire EP just to listen to as Flume drops an epic beat for the second time and Faker almost lets out a scream of orgasmic musical pleasure as the two come together in what they do best (slightly disturbing image I know so take it totally at face value).

It's well well worth a listen and as I said one of the more innovative pieces of music of the past year or so, hopefully an album is on the way.

Here they both are, Flume looking a little bit like he could make it onto the Aussie cast list for their version of the Inbetweeners and Chet Faker with the most epic ginger beard of all time. All hail...

Until next time, Cheers to everyone for reading and all supportive and sometimes constructive comments they've given me about this blog over the past year, every single one has made me all the more chuffed. Below is the sound cloud rip of Lockjaw although it can be gotten for just £2.50 off iTunes if you're that way inclined. I've also popped 'Bound 3' at the top and also included 'Left Alone'. Listen on dear people.

Max

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Back On The 'Tet Offensive'

Afternoon all,

Sitting in my room with a handy day off work for reasons I can't be bothered to go into, I feel I've been given the perfect opportunity to write about an album I've been enjoying for some time now. I'm watching the wind rage outside and am sadly transported to the Island of the Phillipines where thousands of corpses lie awash the streets and many more thousands face the reality of a short-term future at the very least without a home. Aid is now arriving in droves, especially it has to be said from the US who are said to be providing support on an 'unprecedented scale'. But with a current confirmed death toll of 2300 and the grave admittance from the UN that more than 11 million people will be affected by this typhoon, the affects aren't going to be felt for weeks; they will be felt for years. Horrifically depressing stuff to think about but it's definitely at times like this where our lives can be placed into perspective by events in the world thousands of miles away. The Phillipines has always been a country in jeopardy, battling with democracy ever since World War Two as varying dictators have attempted to take hold since its independence and it has equally experienced natural disasters, not to the scale of this one but fearful nonetheless. Now the mass rebuilding operation can slowly begin, and with as much help from the west as humanly possible I hope it can be as successful as an operation of this size could possibly be.

This week I've been listening pretty much non-stop to Four Tet's new LP Beautiful Rewind. It had been only a while since we'd heard a peep out of Kieran Hebden a la Four Tet but enough of a while to lead to the slight beginnings of a genuine frustration at the lack of a current release from one of Britain's most influential dance producers of the recent decade. 2012's Pink was mostly a collection of previously released 12-inches with a couple unreleased but listened as a whole it was a masterpiece and one which I enjoyed for some while, far more experimental than some of his previous work but with a beautifully metronomic feel to it which lend itself very well to the type of background music you could have playing while say revising for an exam or having a kip. Beautiful Rewind was released back in mid-October (I'm a tad late on the uptake but wanted to get a good listen in first) with virtually no hype attached to it. It was simply announced by one tweet stating there would be 'no pre-order, no youtube trailers, no itunes stream, no spotify, no amazon deal, no charts, no bit coin deal, no last minute rick rubin'. This hasn't in any way prevented from either selling badly or gaining highly favourable reviews. 

The album itself moves away from Pink's sleepy metronome and draws in part upon Hebden's DJ work (a residency at East London's Plastic People) mainly in the UK garage and grime scenes but with some  traditional floaty two-step infused for good measure. This is noticeable more than anything on the most publicised of the tracks, 'Parallel Jalebi'. This tune opens with and is suffused throughout by a speedy garage beat which lends it pace but it is overtoned with a certain female vocal 'airy-fairyness', breathing life into it and making it a personal highlight. As with the majority of tracks off of Rewind, we are greeted with an approximate 30-second mini-pause in the middle, before Hebden throws a new surprise at us or simply continues where he has left off. Opener 'Gong' follows a similar formula but is far more influenced by the Middle-Eastern and African beats which Four Tet so loves and has been so noticeable on his previous works. This tune is far sharper, the vocals are all-male and are more reflective of an MC rather than a singer. They are used to good effect on many of the other tracks and help to back up my main point about the album which is Hebden's keen ambition to demonstrate to his listener just how much he is enjoying his DJ-ing at the moment. 'Kool FM', a shout-out to one of his most-loved London radio stations, begins in a similar vein to 'Parallel Jalebi' but is turned on its head in the traditional mid-pause by a yelp of 'Hey-hey-hey' which appears totally disconnected to the track and transports us to the underground. It is fascinating to listen to and is something we haven't heard much of from the Tet before. 

'Buchla' follows and shares a similarity with 'Kool FM' in the sharpness of its over-dubbed MC track, while being slightly too grimy for my tastes it certainly isn't bad and with the right atmosphere would be an absolute banger. Nearing the end of the LP, Hebden veers off course into a totally different direction and treats us to album closers 'Unicorn' and 'Your Body Feels'. 'Unicorn''s intro sounds strangely like the soundtrack of an old Nintendo adventure game but is quickly hurried along with more foreign drumming and a sweet under-layered bass line, it is another undoubted highlight of mine. 'Your Body Feels' closes the LP in a style which Hebden has imbued into his more recent work, this time he involves trumpets and saxophones along with a constant eerie clap and more of the tried and tested repetitive female vocal outlay which works a treat. 

Overall this is an album of heavy multi-layering - spanning different genres, influences, sounds and possibly most importantly professions (think Hebden as performing DJ compared with Hebden as bedroom sound producer). It is one of the year's most intuitive releases and one which should be heard by all, more surely to come from Four Tet in the not-too-distant future. Here he is in one of those roles:

I hope everyone enjoyed and apologies for the wrist-cuttingly painful thought of the day placed serenely at the top of this page, don't know what I was thinking! Also check out the beautiful Disney-esque video for 'Parallel Jalebi' below, I only discovered it today and it's a goodun (got a live version of 'Kool FM' as well, think it showcases it in its best light even if the camera is a tad on the shaky side and the people in the background won't shut the fuck up).

Enjoy the day people,

Max

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