It’s that time again. This month’s free Cross Section download album is upon us.
It’s not just free either. It’s about as relevant as you can get if you are reading these words.
These are the sounds and rhythms that inspired us to dance, discuss, write, draw, photograph and non-stop chatter about all the artists in the April issue of Clash Magazine.
Download this album now to listen to the issue: absorb its highlights and dance with these words.
/* Change the text in text for the link title */
global $user;
$link = ‘http://media.clashmusic.com/music/cross-section/Clash-Cross-Section-Album-May-2010.zip’;
$text = ‘Click here to Download the Cross Section Album’;
if($user->uid != 0){
print l($text, $link);
}
else{
print l (‘You Must be a registered user to download this album – Click to login or join’, ‘user/register’);
}
?>
–
1. Sparrow And The Workshop ‘Giant’ (Distiller Records)
2009 was the year of the Tiger Band. 2010 is shaping up to be the year of the Abstract Bird Band with SatWs flying high above the rest. We doubt they’ll hit the heady heights of fourteen Abstract Bird Bands (like our Tiger friends) but we know it’s gonna be hard for all these bird groups to soar as quickly as Sparrow And The Workshop, such is the purity of their folk manna coursing through their blood. Tender, considered and steeped in understatement these Scots know how to be great.
2. Avi Buffalo ‘What’s In It For?’ (Sub Pop)
If you are born Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg then you are gonna be famous. Welcome to the future. This painfully talented chap has been working towards assaulting our record collections since he picked up a guitar aged twelve. Now he’s signed to the epically influential Sub Pop Records and he already feels famous. ‘What’s In It For?’ is a wistful wander through chiming indie. It’s got a reflective quality that defies weather and mood. He’s a voice for our future. Get involved now.
3. Dr. Dog ‘Stranger’ (ANTI-)
Spiralling stories and tall tales, Dr. Dog wander the highroads of musical narratives looking for places to lay their hat, recall a story and sweep us with melodic arms onwards down a road called Life to a place called Love. Forgive me, soppy shit. But Dr. Dog have this effect. Misty eyed driving folk. With brilliant piano parts. Dr. Dog are perhaps one of the most understated acts around but we urge you to come for a walk with them. You’ll never turn back.
4. Goldheart Assembly ‘Remainder’ (Fierce Panda)
Swooning guitars and sun-kissed vocal harmonies cite Goldheart Assembly as some kind of lost ’60s troupe who conga’d out the fire exit never to be seen again. In fact they are the freshest throwbacks we’ve heard. Lazily dubbed Britain’s answer to Fleet Foxes they may just be the greatest revivalist band you’ve never heard. Bear with them. They have designs on your heart and expect to hang around.
5. High Places ‘On Giving Up’ (Thrill Jockey)
Twisted and eerie pop noir from this pair of experimental adventurers. Single handedly claiming the whole notion of lo-fi as their own sound, High Places don’t so much play and they float. Sounding like some fictional soundtrack to a Gothic cartoon yet to be made, there’s no one quite like these cats to pad about your iPod being the most seductive misfits. Rar like RAR.
6. Thomas Fehlmann ‘Permanent Touch’ (Kompakt)
Legend, gentleman and artisan of bass – Thomas Fehlmann was making people dance in their heads before most of you had even seen a car, let alone been able to spell Mitsubishi. His recent work – ‘Gute Luft’ – was a soundtrack to the perpetual pulse of Berlin’s nightlife, his playground and most loved city. ‘Gute Luft’ is an album brimming with subtle and complex dubbed up techno awash with cerebral ebbs and dancefloor flows.
7. Flying Lotus ‘Computer Face // Pure Being’ (Warp Records)
Wanna munch on convention? Pull up a chair. FlyLo has gone up several levels between first and second albums and we challenge you to bring us more visionary music released in the month of April. If you like sophisticated beats that defy expectations and convention, if you crave new rhythms or if you require dazzlingly sharp ideas about where hip-hop should be going then pull up a chair and plug in your head. Woooft.
8. Plan B ‘She Said (16bit remix)’ (Atlantic Records)
Ben Drew certainly knows how to spin on a six-pence piece, going from brooding acoustic hip-hop visionary to moody soul boy via prime time TV acclaim. Here we touch base back with his urban roots as 16bit remixes Ben’s narrative, which recounts trouble and strife borne through the courts, whilst adding some skull rattling half-step bass that sounds more like molten steel than sound. We can’t wait to find out what Plan C is.
9. Grovesnor ‘Taxi From The Airport’ (Greco Roman)
When not druming with Hot Chip, Rob Smoughton is spinning round his bedroom in flurry of ’80s induced delirium. Fond of crisp vocal and some analogue dreaming, Grovesnor is a throwback who’s dancing into the future. With his music he’s painting a picture burnt deep onto our minds of neon signs through the rain, a euphoric montage of cinematic closure, and the love of moving hearts in any direction.
10. Dum Dum Girls ‘Jail La La’ (Sub Pop)
Splice references to The Vaselines and Iggy Pop’s ‘Dum Dum Boys’ with one incredibly driven pop starlet called Dee Dee and you have Dum Dum Girls. Heralded as CMJ’s most promising band, this bunch of players are ripping a hole in the side of grungey pop and inviting themselves in. Reminiscent of pop troubadours Saint Etienne, there’s an acerbic edge that will launch them further than the confines of the charts and into world where people actually live their lives.
11. Blood Red Shoes ‘Colours Fade’ (V2)
Two people. Lots of noise. You can’t beat a duo who rock out harder than most. Look at White Stripes and DFA 1979 – two other acts whose live show kicks seven shades of shite from most bands’ stage shows whilst being WAY less in numbers. Blood Red Shoes coast this category, here in proof their murky riffing and pounding drums leave little room for anything else. Steven and Laura are mongers of addictive noise.
/* Change the text in text for the link title */
global $user;
$link = ‘http://media.clashmusic.com/music/cross-section/Clash-Cross-Section-Album-May-2010.zip’;
$text = ‘Click here to Download the Cross Section Album’;
if($user->uid != 0){
print l($text, $link);
}
else{
print l (‘You Must be a registered user to download this album – Click to login or join’, ‘user/register’);
}
?>
–
