R.I.P. Stephen Samuel Gordon AKA The Spaceape

Unfortunately, many of you reading my blog may not be familiar with this name. However, his monolithic voice has appeared on many tracks from the London based Hyperdub label, a massively relevant voice in modern electronic music.

His spoken word appears on what I believe to be one of the most important releases of modern times, Burial's debut album in 2006. That eponymous track, like the rest of the album, does not age. It is timeless. It gets stuck in my head on a regular basis. This news is absolutely crushing. And just before the release of a new ep of his work with Kode9, just released this week.

This from Hyperdub's Facebook page:

We are devastated to announce that on Thursday 2nd October, Stephen Samuel Gordon aka The Spaceape, vocalist, poet and live performer, passed away peacefully after a 5 year struggle with a rare form of cancer. He leaves behind his wife Luciana and 6 year old daughter, Cleo. His first release was the 1st release on Hyperdub, 'Sine of the Dub' in 2004 with Kode9, with whom he also released 2 albums, Memories of the Future (2006) and Black Sun (2011). In 2012 he also self-released the Xorcism EP, appeared on the track 'Spaceape' on Burial's debut album in 2006, and also collaborated with The Bug, Martyn, Jerry Dammers, Redshape, Dub Gabriel, the Echologist and more. Last Monday he released his new EP with Kode9, 'Killing Season' including the video 'Devil is a Liar' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Dtc4Y4Xyjo which was filmed in July 2014. Our sincere condolences go out to his family and friends, and all who have been touched by his writings and performances. His Hyperdub family will always miss him.

Take a listen to this mind melting track. Eight years old and it still sounds like the future.




And this is the video from the upcoming release.

New Album Coming from One of My Favorite Artists on My Favorite Record Label.

As you may know, I have a Modern Love addiction. The Manchester label has been running my life for the past few years, and I've just come to accept it. Their somewhat commercially successful artist is Andy Stott. His last album, "Luxury Problems" was my favorite album of 2012.

The new album (Nov. 17) is to be a similar outing in aesthetic, but will include some vocal pop structure more traditional than on the last record. The press release states: “straddles analogue club music and vocal pop songs, somewhere between Ron Hardy, Prefab Sprout, Dome, Actress, Cocteau Twins and Arthur Russell.”

I'm enjoying the sample track. See what you think:

R.I.P. Charlie Haden

Where do I begin? I don't know. Maybe "The Shape of Jazz to Come"? How do you even talk about such an amazing person? What's there to say about someone who actually "shaped jazz to come"?

As I age, many of my icons are passing away, and even though he was 76, it still hurts. This is a monumental loss. Just take a look at his discography. Read it slowly, take it all in. It will make your head spin.

This is one of the most gigantic figures in the history of music. He will be greatly missed.

Young Echo - Nexus (Ramp, 2013)

This is another record I regret slipping past me in 2013. The Bristol collective Young Echo is comprised of several artists with stellar output in the past couple years. Vessel's 'Order of Noise' made my best of 2012, Zhou makes meditative drone, Khan is a respected dubstep producer and the other members, El Kid, Jabu, Neek, Manomars and Ishan Sound have managed to make names for themselves.

Its no coincidence that this album has the Wild Bunch scenario, given that these kids obvious work in that Tricky / Massive Attack tradition. The general aesthetic is the blunted downtempo of their metropolitan mentors. However, Young Echo is deconstructivist. The dancefloor is broken. Beats are fodder for cutups. The hip hop and bass are buried beneath drones, spoken work, ethereal female vocals and frequencies on par with a Raster Noton album. The ghosts of Nurse with Wound and Boyd Rice are here, remixing for some cerebral nonexistent club, a place where sci-fi 2-step co-mingles with dub and introspective pop.

Elements collide, float together, fall apart and fade away, but ultimately, and surprisingly, cohesion is victorious.

The Stranger - Watching Dead Empires in Decay (Modern Love, 2013)

James Leyland Kirby is, without question, one of my most listened to artists of the past few years. His work as The Caretaker is akin to the static background music of my mind. Whereas that work invokes the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel ballroom, with its chopped and screwed 78's, his new work as The Stranger has a different cinematic feel.

This is like the bleakest scenes from Eraserhead. This is what it would sound like if Raime and Demdike Stare were proles working in a  factory at night. The graveyard shift crew haggard and miserable, overworked and delirious. The ambience is their hallucinations, horrors fit for the dungeon they're in. The percussive elements are the proverbial whips to the back demanding the completion of this sixteen hour task. There is also a bit of Lustmord's "Metavoid" record, like plodding through a marsh knee deep in the muck, as in a nightmare when you have trouble walking. If you find beauty in masochistic doom and gloom, you'll love this one.