Love these Munch Munch images by James Swatton
MUNCH MUNCH *Release ‘Cyclorama / Of The Body’ 7” via Fear & Records 18th January 2010.
*Download available now from munchmunch.bandcamp.com
*Debut album released spring 2010.
The first fruits from the debut album by Bristol and London’s Munch Munch see the light in 2010. Punchy, infectious, immensely rich and varied, ‘Cyclorama’ and ‘Of the Body’ will be released on Fear and Records as a 7” on January 18th 2010. Both tracks are taken from the forthcoming debut Munch Munch longplayer due for release on Tomlab records later in the year.
Already feted by the likes of 20 Jazz Funk Greats and Wire mag, too many bands have been named checked as a Munch Munch’s influences, none of which have managed to capture their inventive and intoxicating sound.
Munch Munch are infamous for their exciting and unpredictable live set, and their frenzied instrument swapping. This new single presents a more focused and ambitious side of the band, while losing any of the energy. Recorded in Cellars and at their home sporadically during 2009, and co-produced by James Rutledge and the band, these tracks tangle sweet, sensual melodies into polyrhythmic explosions. It’s a glimpse into the dark side of today’s pop music.
Munch Munch’s core members are Richard Manber and Tom Carell, who write and record all their songs together. While attending a Deerhoof show in the early years they met friends Jack O’Connors and Sarah-Louise Renwick and enlisted them to form the live band. Since then the band have played with and toured the UK and Europe with the likes of Clues, Why?, Dirty Projectors, No Age, Late Of the Pier and Ponytail.
After a couple of self-released CDR and split 7” releases, munch munch released their own (now sold out) ‘Wedding’ EP on Tomlab, picking up rave reviews from Wire, Plan B, and Drowned in Sound.
www.fearandrecords.com
www.myspace.com/munchmunchmusic
www.munchmunch.bandcamp.com
[video]
Rich Hughes from The Lines Of Best Fit. One of our absolute favourite music sites right now and recently the runners up in the Record Of The Day Awards for best digital publication - which is justly deserved, for their friendly communications, high standards of editorial and lack of musical snobbery.
Top 5:
1. The XX - XX
2. Jim O’Rourke - The Visitor
3. Japandroids - Post-nothing
4. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
5. Do Make Say Think - Other Truths
My pick for next year: It’s a split decision between Joy Orbison and Frankie and the Heartstrings!
You can read more from Rich at thelineofbestfit.com and on his twitter
We’ve been asking all our favourite people we work with to tell us in 5 points what they’ve thought of the year. Some have opted for a more personal approach, others have kept it strictly musical. Here we have Mr Tony Poland of extraordinary music blog and cultural filter, DJ genius and all round word boffin, Slutty Fringe to kick things off:
1) 800 people turning up to Slutty Fringe @ Cargo on Jan 2nd
2) Getting fcked on Jagermeister and weed and dancing on stage to Drop The Lime at Club Nasti, Barcelona.
3) Dixon edit of Lykke Li
4) Mario Testino getting told to jog on
5) FINALLY working out the loop function on CDJs
Notes. We cannot condone Mr Polands use of ‘weed’ or indeed ‘alcohol’. Read more from Tony Poland at Sluttyfringe.com and or/and on his twitter
SEBASTIEN TELLIER ‘L’AMOUR ET LA VIOLENCE / FINGERS OF STEEL” EP | Released DECEMBER 14TH 2009 on Lucky Number
Sebastien Tellier, the unique voice of modern French electronic-edged pop, and the undisputed coolest man in music returns with the final single from his acclaimed album ‘Sexuality’. A split release showcasing outstanding re-workings of Tellier’s originals by two of today’s hottest and most talented artist/producers Floating Points and Penguin Prison.
23 yr old Sam Shepherd, aka Floating Points, a neuroscientist by day, continues to stretch sound in his unique post-dubstep modern classical style. Already acclaimed by cutting edge DJ’s from Radio 1,1Xtra and Rinse FM his recent releases via the Eglo, Planet Mu and R2 labels have all been essential purchases. For his, a quite breathtaking and beautiful, mix of ‘L’amour Et La Violence’ Floating Points fuses waves of analogue synths, simmering sub bass and Tellier’s intimate vocals for the ultimate textural cocktail of a dance music experience. It is very special indeed and adds further to the growing acclaim for his work.
In it’s original form, ‘L’Amour Et La Violence’, is perhaps the simplest song on the album, it’s solo piano only containing a smouldering splash of electronic augmentation, while Tellier’s voice is at its most honest and vulnerable; ‘Tell me what you think, about my life, about my childhood, I like love and violence too’. It has been widely described as Sebastien’s true follow up to his seminal release ‘La Ritournelle’. The video for the original has been shot and directed by Roman Coppola, ‘at home with Sebastien’, to set-off the album’s most sensitive mood-setting classic.
Native New Yorker Chris Glover, aka Penguin Prison, has recently delivered a sterling remix of Golden Silvers’ ‘True Romance’ and his sublimely effortless disco-fication of Marina & the Diamonds’ ‘I Am Not a Robot’, together with his own Penguin Prison material, is currently sustaining excitement in that frequently fickle world of A&R. Further reason why can be heard in his complete reworking of Tellier’s neo-romantic Kubrickian fantasy ‘Fingers Of Steel’. Assimilating a perfect brew of down-town funk hybrids his unique re-imagining features Penguin Prison himself on lead vocals, crooning a blue-eyed cover, whilst Tellier steps up solely to sing his own BV’s on the chorus. It’s a swirl of space-funk with added pop appeal, a Talking Heads-Tom Tom Club mélange of the highest funk factor.
All in all, we think you’d be hard pushed to point to a more impressive pair of remixes released throughout this year and that’s the beauty of Sebastien Tellier - on top of his game whether it’s his own work or other artist’s interpretations.
The EP will be available as a twelve inch vinyl and digital download on Monday 14th December.
‘SEXUALITY’ IS OUT NOW ON LUCKY NUMBER
‘One of the best artists in the world right now’ OMM
‘Aural Viagra’ MOJO
‘Achingly Romantic’ Q
‘Monsieur Tellier continues to pervert the very nature of pop music’ DAZED
www.myspace.com/sebastientellier
www.myspace.com/luckynumbermusic
Download a sample of the floating Points mix over at Fact Magazine
[video]
Some of the UK’s finest indie acts, including Sky Larkin, Slow Club, Los Campesinos!, James Yuill and Dananananakroyd have joined together to release a Christmas single in aid of the RSPCA.
Penned by Bright Light Bright Light’s Rod Thomas and BBC Radio 1 Wales presenter Jen Long – collectively known as HUNKS – the single also features members of Copy Haho, Sound Of Arrows, Airborne Toxic Event and The Venus Stare, not to mention Bright Light Bright Light himself. Out December 14 through Thomas’s own label Self Raising Records, HUNKS & Friends’ ‘The Magic Of Christmas’ is a tongue in cheek pop number that’s not afraid to assert that “Everything’s awesome at Christmas” with blithe cynicism. Buy it for the animal lover in your life.
[video]
Forest Fire ‘Survival’ Rough Trade top ten album of the year.
myspace.com/fuckforestfire // FF on Hype Machine
[video]
![Have a read through this interview / feature Make Mine man Manish did with Neu Magazine last week.
Make Mine is a record label inspired by a record store worker from High Wycombe. ‘we started a 7” label called Mustrard Records spurred on by a girl who worked in Scorpion Records’ says Manish Arora. She’d told them how easy it was and decided to give it a go. ‘Turns out it wasn’t easy enough for us to do it well. Mustard records managed three releases, two plays on Radio 1 and a one letter from John Peel’. The current label was born from the ashes of Mustard, 10 years later. ‘I guess Make Mine was born out of stubbornness, old dreams and an obsession with trying to spread the word on new artists regardless if anyone wants to listen’ he says.
Some things haven’t changed. Make Mine still releases 7”, mirroring the designs of countless other little labels. There are downloads too, so is it just a vanity thing? ‘maybe it is a fad’ they laugh. ‘I started buying 7” as they were cheap ana great way to sample new bands. I guess you don’t need them these days but I still feel ‘7” attract a more adventurous and inquisitive music fan. That’s my kind of fan’. But isn’t it a bit elitist? 15 year olds “getting into” independent music aren’t always going to have vinyl decks at hand. Doesn’t it keep the music in a handful of obsessives? ‘Well that’s [the inquisitive music fan] how I romanticise it anyway, it’s better than thinking there’s a bunch of indie elite buying them to sell for a profit on ebay. There’s also DIY aspect to 7’s that appealed to me and may do to others, for instance each Make Mine comes with a wrap around cover with a fold down corner hand folded by me or my wife. Hopefully people appreciate that kinda attention to detail.”
But Make Mine don’t always do it themselves. They collaborate with other labels, releasing artists that may have released other records elsewhere or go on to do so. In the past they’ve put out The Books, Dent May and everyone’s best friend, Gold Panda. The label doesn’t subscribe to any one style or sound but do they find it difficult not having their ‘own’ artists? “It’s never been a goal to own an artist or their recordings and have them soley associated with Make Mine” says Manish “What’s the point? I’m not trying to make money of the artist, there’s a billion other labels they can go to feel owned. I’d much rather work with, help or support another label than compete with them”.
Read the full interview here](http://1.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kt7d0s6uDg1qz98nvo1_500.jpg)
Have a read through this interview / feature Make Mine man Manish did with Neu Magazine last week.
Make Mine is a record label inspired by a record store worker from High Wycombe. ‘we started a 7” label called Mustrard Records spurred on by a girl who worked in Scorpion Records’ says Manish Arora. She’d told them how easy it was and decided to give it a go. ‘Turns out it wasn’t easy enough for us to do it well. Mustard records managed three releases, two plays on Radio 1 and a one letter from John Peel’. The current label was born from the ashes of Mustard, 10 years later. ‘I guess Make Mine was born out of stubbornness, old dreams and an obsession with trying to spread the word on new artists regardless if anyone wants to listen’ he says.
Some things haven’t changed. Make Mine still releases 7”, mirroring the designs of countless other little labels. There are downloads too, so is it just a vanity thing? ‘maybe it is a fad’ they laugh. ‘I started buying 7” as they were cheap ana great way to sample new bands. I guess you don’t need them these days but I still feel ‘7” attract a more adventurous and inquisitive music fan. That’s my kind of fan’. But isn’t it a bit elitist? 15 year olds “getting into” independent music aren’t always going to have vinyl decks at hand. Doesn’t it keep the music in a handful of obsessives? ‘Well that’s [the inquisitive music fan] how I romanticise it anyway, it’s better than thinking there’s a bunch of indie elite buying them to sell for a profit on ebay. There’s also DIY aspect to 7’s that appealed to me and may do to others, for instance each Make Mine comes with a wrap around cover with a fold down corner hand folded by me or my wife. Hopefully people appreciate that kinda attention to detail.”
But Make Mine don’t always do it themselves. They collaborate with other labels, releasing artists that may have released other records elsewhere or go on to do so. In the past they’ve put out The Books, Dent May and everyone’s best friend, Gold Panda. The label doesn’t subscribe to any one style or sound but do they find it difficult not having their ‘own’ artists? “It’s never been a goal to own an artist or their recordings and have them soley associated with Make Mine” says Manish “What’s the point? I’m not trying to make money of the artist, there’s a billion other labels they can go to feel owned. I’d much rather work with, help or support another label than compete with them”.
Read the full interview here
Alan Pownall at Puregroove clutching his 7” single last night.
[video]
[video]