Sal P slips in and out of madness

Photos/Text by Andrew Parks

James Murphy is usually a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, but self-titled’s never seen the LCD Soundsystem frontman/DFA don smile quite like he did throughout Liquid Liquid’s special Santos Party House set last night. Perched over Santos’ mixing desk with a hint of delirium in his eyes, Murphy looked like an overgrown kid who just got the keys to his parents’ car. Or in this case, the knobs and sliders that control the subtleties in such Lower East Side classics as “Optimo,” “Bell Head,” and the song that made “White Lines” an instant anti-coke anthem, “Cavern.”

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Fischerspooner makes us actually miss ‘Emerge’ … a lot

“The melodic one,” eh? Who do you think you’re kidding, Kitsuné? This is a Maison compilation, after all, and doesn’t Maison mean serrated synths and tweeter-blowing bass lines in English?

Apparently not. Well, not in most cases this time around. While d.i.m. flips Fischerpooner’s “Danse en France” into Boys Noize-approved electro—a sound that chips away at the pristine pop sheen of the group’s past singles—and Heartsrevolution’s  Leyla Safai howls like a hardcore punk princess atop the shimmering keys of “Ultraviolence,” most of this Maison mix could classify as electronic emo music.

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By Aaron Richter

As we all know by now, new releases hit record-store shelves and digital-download services each Tuesday. That’s why self-titled presents the following every week: a new release you’d be stupid not to own (Buy It), one worth checking out if you’re the curious type (Burn It) and something you might have heard about but probably should avoid (Skip It). Simple, ain’t it? Read more

New Order with Tony Wilson and Rob Gretton.

By Aaron Richter

It used to be that Substance was the one essential entry point for anyone looking to learn about New Order. Now, such a necessary education is a bit pricier (and much more extensive) thanks to Rhino’s two-disc expanded reissues the five New Orders albums released on Factory Records. After the jump self-titled scrutinizes the new editions of Movement, Power, Corruption & Lies, Low-Life, Brotherhood and Technique. 

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[Photo by Grace deVille]

By Aaron Richter

As we all know by now, new releases hit record-store shelves and digital-download services each Tuesday. That’s why self-titled presents the following every week: a new release you’d be stupid not to own (Buy It), one worth checking out if you’re the curious type (Burn It) and something you might have heard about but probably should avoid (Skip It). Simple, ain’t it? Read more

A cross-continental collaboration between a Berlin-based BBC employee (vocalist Nadja Korinth) and one deadly serious New Yorker (multi-instrumentalist/singer Ryan Schaefer), Palms eludes any easy reference points on their impossible-to-pin-down debut. Which is exactly why we fell for its 32 tidy minutes—presented by Nicolas Vernhes’ freshly-minted Rare Book Room imprint—in the first place. Quite awkwardly, mind you. Here’s the thing: Palms’ lyrical obsession with darkness and light is matched up with some rather unsettling music, bewildering but beautiful stuff that toes the line between being compulsively listenable and downright off-putting.

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[Photo by Sarah Cass]

By Aaron Richter

As we all know by now, new releases hit record-store shelves and digital-download services each Tuesday. That’s why self-titled presents the following every week: a new release you’d be stupid not to own (Buy It), one worth checking out if you’re the curious type (Burn It) and something you might have heard about but probably should avoid (Skip It). Simple, ain’t it?
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As is often the case with Southern Lord’s limited LP releases, Dømkirke’s vinyl-only pressing is so meticulously designed/packaged that it’s essentially an art piece masquerading as two 180-gram slabs of music. Doubly so since it involves Sunn O))), the New York Times-approved duo that churns out confusing—some would even say infuriating—drone/doom compositions you don’t listen to so much as lose yourself in.

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Um, isn’t it a school night?

Text/Photos by Andrew Parks

While it’s easy to accuse Justice of pandering to the lowest common lunkhead denominator (another bro-down set of serrated synth lines, climaxing in “We Are Your Friends” and “D.A.N.C.E.”? really?), such joyless cynicism—something we’ve been guilty of in the past, admittedly—completely misses the point.

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[Photo: Mike White/DeadlyDesigns.com]

By Aaron Richter

As we all know by now, new releases hit record-store shelves and digital-download services each Tuesday. That’s why self-titled presents the following every week: a new release you’d be stupid not to own (Buy It), one worth checking out if you’re the curious type (Burn It) and something you might have heard about but probably should avoid (Skip It). Simple, ain’t it? Read more