Archive for the chicago tag

Rayaline: Ashland

I met Marcos Raya years ago, when Kamar and I were djing at Uptown Lounge. All I remember is that he was there with Mr. Bobby, and some shots were consumed and a lot of geeking out about music was done, and we parted ways that evening with plans to do a Front 242 tribute at Neo, which Marcos and Bobby both did a fantastic job at several weeks later.

It was quite a long time later that I found out that Marcos actually made music. As Rayaline, he's on Kompute, one of Chicago's best electronic dance music labels. His output is as broad as his interests, with everything from electro bangers to thoughtful techno. He's supposed to put out an album soon, but I won't hold my breath; with all of his djing and vjing gigs, he's a busy guy. We're lucky to have him as a guest at Atomic this week, and I expect he'll be one of our best guest djs to date.

He sent me a couple of tracks, but I had to post "Ashland", as it reminds me just a wee bit of Yello. See you Thursday!

Kompute website

Olin: Head Over Heels

Very quietly working his way around Chicago's afterhours scene, Olin has been closing his sets with Tears For Fears' "Head Over Heels" for a while now. A few weeks ago, I told him that he should make some kind of remix of it, and was surprised to learn that it had already happened (not surprised that he'd done it, just surprised that I didn't know about it). Well, here it is, and even better, not so much a remix as an entirely new track. The minimal beats and barely-there samples of the original give the vocals a beautiful, ethereal feel they never had before.

Olin will have the honor of the first release on Forem, the newest imprint of Chicago label Dust Traxx. You can hear a preview of it here.

Olin on Soundcloud

Andy Bell: Call On Me (Hey Champ remix)

Fellow Chicagoans Hey Champ just put out this remix of Andy Bell's new single "Call On Me" and I quite like it. Keeping the disco elements and most of the lyrics intact, they give it a slick makeover that makes the track even more danceable.

Bell's new solo work has had it's fair share of problems, so it's exciting to see it finally released. Feeling the album sounded too much like Erasure, he at one point ditched producer Stephen Hague and all the songs they'd recorded, and started all over again with Gabriel Pascal. Given that both of them have a long history with synthpop artists and have produced Erasure before, I'm not quite sure I see the point, but then I haven't heard what Hague did to it, either. I'd argue that the end product does not even sound that different than Erasure, but I'm pretty sure that only Andy Bell thinks that's a bad thing.

Buy Bell's new album non stop on Amazon.com
Andy Bell official website
Hey Champ official website

Dave Tompkins: How To Wreck A Nice Beach

A few weeks ago or so, Ned Kirby of Stromkern posted this on my facebook wall, and...well, it's way too good not to share.

Music journalist Dave Tompkins wrote the book How To Wreck A Nice Beach as a history of the vocoder--you know, that thing that makes everything sound like robots. It's the first book to be released on Chicago's own Stop Smiling Books and, without reading it, I'm pretty sure it's going to be a synthesizer nerd must-have this year.

There's also a mix that accompanies the book. It is, obviously, completely full of vocoders, but it's also a rather weird and sometimes surprising journey through music and soundscapes that I can't even really do justice by attempting to describe. You'll just have to listen to it.

Download How To Wreck A Nice Mix from the How To Wreck A Nice Beach website, complete with what is the most detailed playlist I have ever seen in my life.

Stop Smiling Books website

Stop Smiling Storefront
1371 N. Mikwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL 60622
773-342-1124

A-ha: The Sun Always Shines On TV / Atomic May 13

When people think of A-ha, the first thing that usually comes to mind is "Take On Me", shortly followed by the thought "one hit wonders". Oh but how we forget the '80s... A-ha also won an MTV Music Video Award [back when that meant something] for "The Sun Always Shines On TV", a better song in my opinion and something of a follow up video, featuring that girl. What is wrong with her!? She's always shrinking away from Morten Harket like she's afraid of him. Yes, hot Scandinavian men in combat boots singing synthpop...totally frightening.

Twenty-five years later, A-ha is doing one last world tour before they call it quits [they've been putting out albums, good ones even, all this time]. They haven't been to Chicago since 1986, so chances are this is the only chance you have had or will have to see them. Tickets available here.

We'll be hosting the official afterparty that night, so come by and see us after the show--and bring your ticket stub to get in free. Guest DJing with us that evening will be DJ Nando, and I can't tell you how excited we are to be having him in the booth with us that night. Nando's career stretches as far as A-ha's, and he has a reputation in Chicago for throwing down some amazing new wave sets. We're honored to have him at Atomic for his first gig ever at Neo.

Give thanks for Nitzer Ebb!

Ok, so… it's a bit hypocritical for me to post this, I'll admit it. I mostly make fun of Nitzer Ebb; I have food related parody vocals for most of their songs. I hardly need to put much effort into it with stuff like this on their Wikipedia page: "Nitzer Ebb began when Bon Harris and David Gooday asked Douglas McCarthy to sing in their band. They shared an interest in witchcraft, talking to trees, and collecting runestones in Chelmsford and Little Baddow"

Talking to trees?

But I can't deny their influence, which is rampant everywhere from synthpop to Detroit techno and, of course, the industrial and EBM scenes that they had a hand in founding. Their style sounded very dated to me 10 years ago, but now the minimalism sounds fresh--all things come back again, of course.

I choose to post "Let Your Body Learn" from 1987's That Total Age release because to me, it relates well to new wave [and I'm sure the influence goes both ways]. I'm also including a new track from Neon Electronics vs The Hacker that I've been playing alongside various Nitzer Ebb tracks the last few weeks; it's a fantastic modern example of their continuing impact on electronic music and instantly got a warm reception on the dance floor.

We're thrilled to be giving away tickets to their upcoming concert on Thanksgiving night. Though lacking in trees, Nitzer Ebb put on a great live show, and I'm sure they won't disappoint. Opening for them is my absolute favorite local-Chicago-via-way-of-Detroit band Kill Memory Crash, and if you haven't seen them, get there early--you will be blown away. I've posted their song "Demento", also wearing a bit of Nitzer Ebb inspiration, from their 2004 album American Automatic. They have new stuff and it's amazing, but still unreleased so you'll have to listen to my radio show if you want to hear it.

See you on Thanksgiving night, and see you at the Nitzer Ebb show!

Amazon's Nitzer Ebb Store
Neon Electronics vs The Hacker
Kill Memory Crash on Amazon