The Psychotechnic League and The Modernist Disco - We Do Not Have a Dinosaur (Various Artists)

(self-released, 2011)

This eclectic electronic compilation sets out to showcase the best electronic music Oxford has to offer. This means that we are treated to some seriously scary schizo noise from the likes of Cez (who start the collection in blistering fashion with a rock-infused, hard house nightmare) and live favourites Coloureds who end the album in a similar fashion. In between these bookmarks we get a veritable patchwork of different styles which span several genres. Some highlights include Death of Hi Fi, whose usually hip-hop heavy brew is put through an industrial filter making them sound something akin to the Prodigy. It’s The Grudle Bay Riots who prove to be the real revelation of the collection with their simple and elegant blend of Air and Radiohead. We have mixed feelings about the vocals on SIKOЯSKI’s contribution but we get the feeling that they are an intentional part of the song’s campy, industrial charm. There are no doubt some talented artists who have been omitted from the tracklisting but overall this is a great showcase of local talent and all for a good cause – all proceeds from the album sales will go to the Red Cross Japanese Tsunami appeal. A most worthy buy.

(originally published in Oxfordshire Music Scene, issue 14)

http://www.oxfordmusicscene.co.uk/images/oms_issue14.pdf

Death of Hi-Fi - Cold

(free download, 2011)

“Some instrumental tracks inspired by an 80′s childhood spent living in fear of Global thermonuclear war.”

The Cold War, and in particular its implicit threat of nuclear apocalypse , had a profound effect on Western society; nowhere was this more apparent than in American culture. Perhaps this is why so much of the music and samples on ‘Cold’, Death of Hi-Fi’s Cold War inspired-album are taken from American music and film. Snippets of propaganda films weave in and out of these hip hop beats which clearly take their influences from American producers, ranging from Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad to El-P.

Opening track ‘redashalpha’ appears to be something of a tribute to the house music of the early nineties. The combination of house synths and various samples featuring the word ‘bomb’ gives the song a momentum which is creepily offset by the inclusion of the chirpy opening song from the animated propaganda film ‘Duck and Cover’ – a film which instilled in a generation of American children a fear of the Soviet Union and the belief that the best defence from a nuke was to duck under the table.

‘Purple Skies’ brings the hip hop influence more clearly to the forefront and sounds pleasingly similar to DJ Shadow; the combination of ethereal keyboards and a wailing guitar solo recall some of the highlights of Entroducing, easily making this the cinematic highlight of the collection. “’79′, a short instrumental piece, again continues the strong hip hop feel and, despite its brevity, is just begging for an MC to jump on it. ‘We’re still here’ is another highlight – spooky, atmospheric, perfectly in keeping with the album’s paranoid tone.

The second half of the album is slightly more fuzzy and haphazard. ‘The Fool who would be King’ begins promisingly with a strong beat, but falls just short in its attempt to create a bleak post-apocalyptic epic, taking the keyboard arpeggios a step too far into aimless noodling. Penultimate song ‘Scorched earth’ has a wonderfully woozy quality to it which escalates as layers of delay crest over one another like creeping fogs of nuclear radiation; it sounds like one of El-P’s calmer moments. Album closer ‘Meathook Reality’ meanwhile is an amateurish take on the late J Dilla’s more electronic beats and feels like an afterthought.

You could take out all of the samples which blatantly refer to the Cold War and nuclear fallout and still have a mostly serviceable collection of hip hop instrumentals here, which is either a testament to the quality of the music or evidence of the band failing in their attempt to create music which evokes the feeling of growing up in fear of the atomic bomb. The music here is more dynamic than most static hip hop beats but not quite dynamic enough to stand alone. If Death of Hi-Fi could find an MC to speak for them then we’d really be talking.

[Originally published on Musicinoxford.co.uk, 10/02/11]

http://www.musicinoxford.co.uk/2011/02/10/death-of-hi-fi-cold/