Album Review: Monkeytown

With Monkeytown, Berlin-based electronic maestros Modeselektor have released their best album to date. Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary’s tastes are beyond eclectic. In an interview, the pair labeled Modeselektor as “happy metal, hard rap, country-ambient, Russian crunk” and stressed, “We don’t like it if people tag us as being a certain style or school or scene or whatever. We don’t really care about all that.” The duo certainly do not limit themselves to genre on Monkeytown.

After numerous listens, “Pretentious Friends” may just be the track of the year for me. Among the guests on Monkeytown, LA-based emccee Busdriver is the standout. His humor and fluctuating speed of delivery align perfectly with Modeselektor’s frantic beats on the only hip hop-infused track on the record. The mid-song phone call “was fabulous!”

Modeselektor “Pretentious Friends” feat. Busdriver (MONKEYTOWN015) OUT SEP 30 by Modeselektor

Much of the press around the album centered on Thom Yorke appearing on two of the tracks. Yorke is a huge fan of the band, and Modeselektor has supported Radiohead on tours overseas. Yorke has expressed that the band is one of his inspirations for getting so deep into electronic styles with recent Radiohead and solo releases. On Monkeytown, both Yorke appearances are stellar. His vocals are looped throughout much of “Shipwreck,” fitting nicely with the off-beat drum and bass. Yorke delivers three brilliant, high-pitched verses in the track using an original vocal delivery. It’s like nothing I’ve heard from him before. The second Yorke track, “This,” features more looped segments of different vocal pieces. There are no standard verses, but the use of these vocal fragments play nicely off Modeselektor’s intensely layered composition.

Album standouts include “Grillwalker,” and “Green Light Go.” The latter may be the most straightforward track on the record in terms of traditional song structure, and features Australia-based experimental rockers PVT. “Berlin” may be the most single-friendly and chartable track on Monkeytown, featuring a catchy R&B hook and guest appearance by Romanian-German singer, Miss Platinum. The slowly building “Blue Chords” and the subdued “War Cry” serve as beautiful bookends to a near-perfect album. I’m not sure how Monkeytown will be topped as my favorite album of 2011. I haven’t been this excited about an electronic album since LCD Soundsystem’s This Is Happening. This one deserves to be part of your vinyl collection. It’s 56 minutes of aural bliss.

Listen to excerpts from the album below or stream the entire thing on the album player on the right side of the page [via Spin]

Listen to 45 Seconds of Each Track From Modeselektor’s Monkeytown

Berlin techno duo Modeselektor have decided to share with the world 45 second snippets of all of the tracks off their forthcoming album, Monkeytown. This new album, out September 27 on Monkeytown Records, is their third album and was produced in one session over the course of ten weeks. Flowing freely between styles and tempos, Monkeytown experiments with the edges and extremes, exploring fresh sonic territory from a solid base of beats located deep within the groove. With massive drums, minced vocals and a mastery of mounting tension, Modeselektor creates a new animal out of dance music, a mutating chimera with body parts of left-field hip hop, soulful R&B, punk rap and playful surprises. Contributing to the album is an exciting palette of guest vocalists and musicians, including Thom Yorke, Busdriver, PVT, Anti Pop Consortium, Miss Platnum, Sascha Ring (aka Apparat), Pillow Talk, Gordon Boerger, Siriusmo and Otto von Schirach [via Pitch Perfect PR].

Monkeytown track listing:
01. Blue Clouds – Modeselektor
02. Pretentious Friends – Modeselektor feat. Busdriver (emergency call by Pillow Talk)
03. Shipwreck – Modeselektor & Thom Yorke
04. Evil Twin – Modeselektor (vocals by Otto von Schirach)
05. German Clap – Modeselektor
06. Berlin – Modeselektor feat. Miss Platnum
07. Grillwalker – Modeselektor
08. Green Light Go – Modeselektor & PVT (drums by Gordon Boerger, additional synth by Siriusmo)
09. Humanized – Modeselektor feat. Anti Pop Consortium
10. This – Modeselektor & Thom Yorke
11. War Cry – Modeselektor (guitar by Sascha Ring)

Atoms For Peace @ Roseland Ballroom

We’ve been waiting four long years for Thom Yorke to take his electronic-heavy Radiohead side project and catalog stand-out on the road. That wait ended last night as Thom and company (including Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and bassist Flea) invaded New York’s Roseland Ballroom for the first of a two-night stint. The band called themselves Atoms For Peace, which is also the name of a track on Thom’s lone solo EP, 2006′s The Eraser. Written mostly on a laptop using samples, many from unreleased Radiohead tracks, we were curious to hear how the band would translate the electronic vibe of songs played from The Eraser for the live environment. With two percussionists, Godrich on electronics, Flea freaking out on bass, and Thom switching between piano and guitar, the live incarnation was stunningly similar.

The band started in grand fashion with a slow building version of The Eraser’s title track and continued to play the LP in its entirety! After the nine song set, the band walked off the stage, returning shortly for what turned out to be a seven song encore. Yorke started the encore alone on stage and played two new Radiohead songs and Kid A standout “Everything In Its Right Place.” The rest of the band joined Yorke for the last four songs, which included Radiohead b-side “Paperbag Writer” and more new, unreleased tracks. Yorke and company absolutely blew the doors of off Roseland last night. The only complaint I have was the atrocious sound, which was flat-out embarrassing during Flying Lotus’ cracking and popping opening set. The sound crew seemed to have things slightly more in order for Atoms For Peace, but audiophiles may have been wincing at times throughout the show.

Setlist:
01. The Eraser
02. Analyse
03. The Clock
04. Black Swan
05. Skip Divided
06. Atoms For Peace
07. And It Rained All Night
08. Harrowdown Hill
09. Cymbal Rush

Encore 1
(thom solo)
10. Chris Hodge/Let Me Take Control (NEW SONG)
11. The Daily Mail
12. Everything In Its Right Place

(full band)
13. Paperbag Writer
14. Judge, Jury & Executioner
15. Hollow Earth
16. Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses

Fishpork’s 100 Favorite Tracks of the 2000s

This is an attempt at the impossible. Here are our 100 favorite songs of the past decade (featuring multiple tracks from Animal Collective, The Knife, Radiohead, and Elliott Smith). Our top two choices are more like 1a and 1b. Be patient, as the page needs to load the embedded songs.

1. Panda Bear – “Bros” (2007)

2. The Knife – “We Share Our Mother’s Health” (2006)

3. Animal Collective – “For Reverend Green” (2007)

4. Grizzly Bear – “While You Wait For The Others” (2009)

5. The Knife – “Heartbeats” (2003)

6. Grizzly Bear – “The Knife” (2005)

7. LCD Soundsystem – “Someone Great” (2007)

8. TV on the Radio – “Staring at the Sun” (2003)

9. Crystal Castles – “Crimewave” (2008)

10. Beirut – “Ciloqut” (2007)

11. Thom Yorke – “Harrowdown Hill

12. Animal Collective – “Derek” (2007)

13. Nine Inch Nails – “Me, I’m Not” (2007)

14. Beck – “Lonesome Tears” (2002)

15. At The Drive-in – “One Armed Scissor” (2004)

16. Animal Collective – “Grass” (2005)

17. Deerhunter – “Nothing Ever Happened” (2008)

18. Atlas Sound – “Recent Bedroom” (2008)

19. Panda Bear – “Comfy in Nautica” (2007)

20. System of a Down – “Chop Suey” (2001)

21. Animal Collective – “Peacebone” (2007)

22. Battles – “Atlas” (2007)

23. Error – “Jack the Ripper” (2004)

24. Enon – “Pleasure and the Privilege”

25. Elliott Smith – “Son of Sam” (2000)

26. Animal Collective – “Did You See the Words” (2005)

27. The Knife – “Marble House” (2006)

28. LCD Soundsystem – “All My Friends” (2007)

29. Thom Yorke – “Analyse” (2006)

30. The Flaming Lips – “Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell” (2002)

31. Girl Talk – “Smash Your Head” (2006)
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32. A Perfect Circle – “Judith” (2000)

33. Radiohead – “Idioteque” (2000)

34. Tapes N’ Tapes – “Manitoba” (2006)

35. TV On The Radio – “I Was A Lover” (2006)

36. Radiohead – “Reckoner” (2007)

37. Fever Ray – “Coconut” (2009)

38. Animal Collective – “My Girls” (2009)

39. Built to Spill – “Things Fall Apart” (2009)

40. Wilco – “I’m Trying to Break Your Heart” (2002)

41. Modest Mouse – “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes” (2000)

42. Animal Collective – “Leaf House” (2004)

43. Modeselektor – “Happy Birthday” (2007)

44. Arcade Fire – “Wake Up” (2004)

45. Autolux – “Blanket” (2004)

46. MGMT – “Time to Pretend” (2007)

47.  Built to Spill – “Conventional Wisdom” (2006)

48. Wilco – “Side With the Seeds” (2007)

49. Elliott Smith – “Happiness/The Gondola Man” (2000)

50. Avey Tare – “I’m Your Eagle Kisser” (2007)

51. Department of Eagles – “Waves of Rye” (2008)

52. Animal Collective – “Summertime Clothes” (2009)

53. Radiohead – “2+2 = 5″ (2003)

54. Dredg – “Sang Real” (2005)

55. While Lies – “Farewell to the Fairground” (2009)

56. Grizzly Bear – “Ready, Able” (2009)

57. Matisyahu – “King Without a Crown” (2005)

58. Modest Mouse – “Paper Thin Walls” (2000)

59. Dillinger Escape Plan – “When Good Dogs Do Bad Things” (2002)

60. Elliott Smith – “Twilight” (2004)

61. Deerhunter – “Flourescent Grey” (2007)

62. Holy Fuck – “Lovely Allen” (2007)

63. LCD Soundsystem – “Never As Tired As When I’m Waking Up” (2006)

64. The Notwist – “Boneless (Panda Bear Remix)” (2008)

65. Liars – “Nothing Is Ever Lost or Can Be Lost My Science Friend” (2004)

66. The Mars Volta – “Inertiatic E.S.P.” (2003)

67. The Notwist – “Solitaire” (2002)

68. Of Montreal – “The Past is a Grotesque Animal” (2007)

69. Queens of the Stone Age – “Tangled Up in Plaid” (2005)

70. Radiohead – “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” (2007)

71. Saul Williams – “Raised To Be Lowered” (2007)

72. Autolux – “Great Days for the Passenger Element” (2004)

73. Sigur Ros – “Untitled 8″ (2002)

74. Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs – “Maps” (2003)

75. Portishead – “Threads” (2008)

76. Sufjan Stevens – “Chicago” (2005)

77. Ugly Casanova – “Things I Don’t Remember” (2002)

78. Animal Collective – “Brothersport” (2009)

79. Radiohead – “Pyramid Song” (2001)

80. Nine Inch Nails – “Only” (2005)

81. El-P – “Flyentology” (2007)

82. Queens of the Stone Age – “No One Knows” (2002)

83. Ghostface Killah – “Shakey Dog” (2006)

84. Modest Mouse – “Missed the Boat” (2007)

85. UNKLE – “Persons and Machinery” (2007)

86. Amon Tobin – “Verbal” (2002)

87. The White Stripes – “Denial Twist” (2005)
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88. Tomahawk – “Captain Midnight” (2003)

89. Modest Mouse – “Bukowski” (2004)

90. Sigur Ros – “Hoppipolia” (2005)

92. Fuck Buttons – “Sweet Love For Planet Earth” (2008)

93. Bon Iver – “Skinny Love” (2008)

94. Built to Spill – “In Your Mind” (2001)

95. The White Stripes – “Icky Thump” (2007)

96. Does It Offend You, Yeah? – “We Are Rockstars” (2008)

97. Dub Trio – “Not Alone” (2006)

98. Modest Mouse – “The World At Large”

99. The Walkmen – “In the New Year” (2008)

100. Nine Inch Nails – “The Great Destroyer (Modwheelmood Remix)” (2007)

Fishpork’s Favorite Albums of the 2000s

Compiling a list of your favorite albums for an entire decade is quite the challenge, especially when that decade was as strong as the 2000s were. Six of our favorites come from two bands (Animal Collective and Radiohead), and two were from this past year (Veckatimest and Merriweather Post Pavilion). This list is by no means a definitive statement of the best music from last decade. Instead, these are our favorite albums that were on heavy rotation in our iPods and scrobbled endlessly on Last.FM.

1. Strawberry Jam (2007) – Animal Collective

2. Silent Shout (2006) – The Knife

3. The Moon and Antarctica (2000) -  Modest Mouse

4. Kid A (2000) – Radiohead

5. Figure 8 (2000) – Elliott Smith

6. Veckatimest (2009) – Grizzly Bear

7. De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003) – The Mars Volta

8. Future Perfect (2004) – Autolux

9. The Eraser (2006) – Thom Yorke

10. Person Pitch (2007) – Panda Bear

11. Return to Cookie Mountain (2006) – TV on the Radio

12. Sea Change (2002) – Beck

13. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002) – Wilco

14. High Society (2002) – Enon

15. The Loon (2006) – Tapes N’ Tapes

16. Microcastle (2008) – Deerhunter

17. Feels (2005) – Animal Collective

18. Sound of Silver (2007) – LCD Soundsystem

19. In Rainbows (2007) – Radiohead

20. Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009) – Animal Collective

Radiohead Release New Digital Single

Radiohead released a new track called “Harry Patch (In Memory Of) today via their deadairspace website . The song was inspired by an  interview with Harry Patch from a few years back that had a profound effect on Yorke.  Harry Patch died at the age of 111 and was the last remaining UK veteran of WWI. They recorded the song  just a few weeks before his death.  It is available for download for £1 (around $1.70), with all proceeds going to a UK veterans’ charity.  It can also be streamed via the BBC.

 

 

Here’s the full post from Thom:

Recently the last remaining UK veteran of the 1st world war Harry Patch died at the age of 111.
I had heard a very emotional interview with him a few years ago on the Today program on Radio4.
The way he talked about war had a profound effect on me.
It became the inspiration for a song that we happened to record a few weeks before his death.
It was done live in an abbey. The strings were arranged by Jonny.
I very much hope the song does justice to his memory as the last survivor.

It would be very easy for our generation to forget the true horror of war, without the likes of Harry to remind us.
I hope we do not forget.

As Harry himself said
“Irrespective of the uniforms we wore, we were all victims”.

To peace and understanding.

Thom

July’s Fresh Pork Cuts

Mark’s

• The Mars Volta – “With Twilight As My Guide”
• Middle Class Rut – “I Don’t Really Know”
• Thom Yorke – “All For The Best (Marc Mulcahy cover)”
• Modest Mouse – “History Sticks To Your Feet”
• Moderat – “Rusty Nails”

Peter’s

• Circulatory System – Solid Forms Dissolving
• Neon Indian – Terminally Chill
• Dirty Projectors – Useful Chamber
• Kurt Vile  – Overnite Religion
• Phaseone – Tower Grove Joint

MP3: “New Error” by Moderat

Modeselektor (aka Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary) and Apparat (aka Sascha Ring), two of Germany’s most acclaimed electronic acts, have joined up to release their upcoming collaborative record, Moderat (out May 12th on Bpitch Control). Modeselektor and Apparat first worked together as Moderat on an EP for BPitch Control in 2002. Amongst a slew of remixes for the likes of Thom Yorke and Björk, Modeselektor also went on to tour with Radiohead across Japan in 2008.

Download “New Error” here or stream it below:

Radiohead @ All Points West Festival

First things first! I am officially retiring from attending music festivals. The idea is nice, but the experience is more lame than a beer convention serving Red Dog. All Points West was no exception. Let’s start with the lineup. I pride myself on being able to find the best unknown artists, but who are these bands? Where is Tapes N Tapes? Where is Saul Williams? Compared to the impressive lineups of Lollapalooza, Virgin Music Festival and even the Pitchfork Music Festival, the lineup left me shaking my head in disappointment. Add to that the $90 price tag to get in. On a day where two of my favorite bands (Radiohead & Animal Collective) were playing on the same stage, the price didn’t bother me so much.

Three stages were set up as well as can be expected, and the sound from each was actually very impressive for a large outdoor venue. Anyone wanting to drink needed to get their ID checked on a 45-minute line and then wait on another 20-minute line to access the “over 21″ area. Then, you had to wait another 20-minutes on the actual line for drinks. I’m sure someone could have come up with a better way to handle this. I do have to admit giving everyone five tags on the bracelet kept the obnoxious drunks to a minimum, even though some people were spotted scalping wristbands.

Radiohead hit the stage on time, as most of the acts did during the day, to play their second headlining night at about 8:30PM on Saturday. The crowd went absolutely crazy, as did I, in anticipation for what promised to be a great set. Being too far away from the stage and despising large venues like this, I had my doubts about how much energy the band would find to play and how the audio would sound. My concerns were immediately silenced when Reckoner began to play. The sound was amazingly clear, crisp and loud. No instruments were drowned out, as the band was mixed to perfection. Hats off to the sound crew for making Radiohead sound like they were playing the Music Box in Atlantic City!

I was interested to see what kind of setlist they were going to play, considering this was my fifth Radiohead show since 2000. An a show two years ago, I was privileged to get a sneak peak of most of the tracks off their critically acclaimed In Rainbows album at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia. Remembering how amazing that most recent show was and enjoying the new release immensely gave me hope that the setlist would dig both near and far into their impressive catalog. They absolutely did not disappoint. They immediately broke into the new album’s opening (and most danceable) track 15 Step. At that point, you could see an ocean of fans moving to the hypnotic beats of one of the strongest tracks on the record. Next, they played favorites from 2000′s Kid A. Moving back to songs from In Rainbows and then back again to tracks from 1997′s OK Computer and 2004′s Hail to the Thief, the mix of old and new was a music fan’s dream.

The set was longer than anyone could wish for (about 2 hours). After pleasing thousands with 17 remarkable songs, the band left the stage only to be urged immediately back on by the night’s first encore. During these five songs, the band treated the crowd to a jaw-dropping version of Airbag (my personal favorite), the opening track from OK Computer.  Lead singer, Thom Yorke announced the song was for Kings of Leon, the band that preceded them. The band once again left the stage but was brought back for one final three-song encore. The last encore was highlighted by crowd-favorite Idioteque, which ended the night with no complaints whatsoever. The long, two-mile trek to the train station was eased by the ethereal sounds of what many consider the best band on the planet.

www.myspace.com/radiohead