Invisible Superstars
24 02 2008
One would presume that this name was in direct reference to the fact that this compilation is made up of tracks created by amazing artists that many people will simply never have heard of before. Minus Controller 7 (of recent “Get Ready For The Young Folks” 7″ fame) I honestly had never heard of anyone featured on this release before.
The Secret Life Of Sound presents Invisible Superstars Volume 001. The Secret Life Of Sound is a record label owned by Rob Seeman and he enlisted the help of Controller 7 to create a sort of beat tape/sonic experiment featuring a host of their favourite electronic beat producers, all to be released; digitally, on 1000 pieces of limited vinyl and also 300 pieces of extremely limited GOLD vinyl. They wanted to create a unique record that could give the listener an insight into a world of diverse analog samples generated through non-traditional means of music composition and instrumentation. I have the said sought after gold vinyl, and I can tell you right now that it is something special indeed.
For starters, here is the tracklisting:
1. Miles Tilman - Chicken Salad Beats
2. Scott Matelic - Thoughtless
3. Controller 7 - Consumer
4. Tenshun - Mindfuck
5. Zombie Mountain - Heretic
6. Meatsock - Another Place
7. Mormon Freegan - Seeing n=0
8. Corsic - Romoxy
9. Buddy Peace - Slow Gang Funeral
10. PNS - Storm
11. Skoweyajeed - Papal Brakedance At 23.33
12. Thomas Dimuzio - Tire Damage
As soon as I heard the opening bar of Miles Tilman’s Chicken Salad Beats I knew this LP was gonna be good. Really gritty bass driven electronic beats - proper head nod stuff, whilst not being too overwhelming or overbearing. Like an up-to-date continuation of some of the early Coldcut material. Exquisite production and layering, this one would go down just as well in the car as the club. Next up is Thoughtless by Scott Matelic, no word of a lie, my favourite track right now, just incredible. So understated, yet so pure. Check it for yourself…
Scott Matelic - Thoughtless
>> download track / YSI
>> buy Invisible Superstars Vol. 1 @ TSLOS
This download link will expire on 2nd March.
The third track is a guitar driven heavy beat track by Controller 7, flexing that musical muscle and opening further the wide array of sounds Controller 7 can produce. Following that is a cinematic Wu-Tang’esque piece by Tenshun that breaks down into a real moody piece indeed. Many purists will want to seek out further Tenshun work after hearing this one!
Heretic brings us a more downtempo, yet trippy track. Enriched with details but light enough to just chill to. Keeping it relatively chilled, but switching the tempo up, Meatsock presents an almost drum ‘n’ bass tune with big props to Boards Of Canada and other such contemporaries. Mormon Freegan then flips the whole thing on its head and gives it some mash-up styles, somewhere between sci-fi soundtrack and gameshow in a steady beat style. Romoxy then brings everything back into line with a beautifully paced hip-hop beat laced with ethereal keys and brass. Just lie back and immerse yourself in this one.
The last quarter of the LP is a little more off the beaten track and commences with Buddy Peace’s Slow Gang Funeral - an eclectic blend of jazz-hop beats, vocal samples and electronic bleeps. It has a great rhythm to it and in ways reminds me of some of the more courageous Skalpel efforts. Following on is PNS with Storm, a downtempo head nodder for the head nodders. Often it can be the most simple sounding tracks that are the hardest to perfect - to create something so open can take great levels of detail and technique, well this PNS track hits the nail on the head, music for musicians or productions for producers?!
Skoweyajeed provides the penultimate track, an out there soundscape that Four Tet would be proud of. The final track is by Thomas Dimuzio and if nothing else just goes to show what can be achieved with sound. Thomas is a “sound designer” and will sample anything to create a desired sound. It’s hard to label exactly what he does, but it is bloody interesting.
I have to doff my cap to The Secret Life Of Sound, as with this release they have really gone out of their way to share with us such incredible talents that seem to have been overlooked previously. It has been good to see Controller 7 records being raved about of late and perhaps now some of the other artists on Invisible Superstars Volume 1 will also achieve some further recognition, they definitely deserve it. If you can, definitely try and cop a copy of that gold vinyl… if you still can!
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Categories : Links, New Discovery, New Release, Review
Before I get into listing talented artists and their respective wares, just wanted to give a shout-out to Ohmega Watts and DJ Manwell. I met those two the other week in Brisbane and they are two sound fellas. Spent a fair amount of time talking to Ohmega Watts before his performance. Couldn’t have met a more humble and approachable guy. I asked him if we were likely to see any more Lightheaded material any time soon and he told me that they owe 
Cookin’ On 3 Burners - Feel Good Inc.
The Dynamics - Miss You
Little Dragon - Twice
The Sweet Vandals - Beautiful
Speeka - Rag Doll
Patrick Watson - Luscious Life
The Heliocentrics - Distant Star
Ohmega Watts - Eyes and Ears
Me&You - Space Lizards
Y Society - How Many Of Us?
With each musical genre come sub-genres and then mutations between genres and sub-genres, almost to the point now where it is becoming hard to classify certain music as one thing or another - sure it is shitty if you work in a record store, but generally speaking I love it. There are casualties along the way, but such trials must be taken and errors must be made to unearth something a bit special. Sometimes it is the subtle approaches towards a genre that can surprise and pay-off the most. Recently it was one such approach that came as the most pleasant surprise. I’ll cut to the chase: it was the new release by Lotus Tribe, the ‘S.E.L.F.’ project: The Art & War of Misanthropic Philanthropy. These guys are from San Antonio and decided it was time to shake up the hip-hop scene in Texas, and that they did. The rhymes are smooth, melodic and intelligent. The beats are strong, well produced and addictive. All the elements are on display to full effect, in a similar vein to Jedi Mind Tricks and Immortal Technique, only in a more laid back manner, these dudes really hit that fresh spot. Remember to check the 
Lotus Tribe - El Fin
Flying Lotus - Its A Secret
Mojib - VS UNKLE
Via mailing lists, RSS news feeds, and word of mouth, I find out bout new 7″ records dropping half a dozen times a week. Sometimes I’ll know the artist or label and therefore know it needs checking out, or other times it just sounds cool or looks interesting and I am inticed to delve deeper. A recent excavation unearthed a gem hailing from Finland: Traveller Records. The relevant communication links were opened and before I knew it Masa (aka Ionik) from Traveller Records had sent me a couple of 7″ records. The needle dropped and so did my jaw, “this is the shit!”. Two hot hip-hop joints that have been lauded by the likes of Jon Kennedy, the boys at Fat Beats Records, and the good man Quantic. I grabbed a few words from Masa for this, the latest, 6 Questions…
Sun Rise Above - Free Your Mind
Do you ever wonder what might happen if there was a musical amalgamation of Spank Rock and 2 Live Crew? Well do yourself a favour and stop wondering… Plastic Little have landed. This Philadelphian five piece have actually been around since the Summer of 2001, a period of time sadly remembered for less musical reasons, however, PackOfRats, Squid, No Body’s Child, Jon Thousand and DJ Si Young are about to hit your radar big style.
Plastic Little - Crambodia (Pink Skull Remix)
I’m back with another edition of 6 Questions. This time I have Bless 1, an emcee (and producer) from Chicago. First time I heard Bless 1 I was instantly impressed with his flow. He raps intelligent, smooth, soulful, and catchy rhymes. I was also surprised to see how little exposure he seemed to have so far, criminal! So, on the cusp of his debut album release Starving Artist, I have the answers straight from the man himself…
Bless 1 - Starving Artist
Today I bring you the first edition of a new feature, 6 Questions. This feature has been in the making for a long time, but now it is finally here. 6 Questions is six set, and vague, questions that I fire off towards artists, DJs, promoters, whoever, so that they can explain in their own words exactly why I dig them. 99% of the time it is my word that you take as gospel on recommendations through this site, but this time the info comes straight from the horses mouth. Six questions, always the same six questions, but answered in any way the questioned feels like answering.
Adventure Time - We All Agree It’s Grand
David Andrew Strackany is Paleo, a lo-fi indie folk musician on a mission. He has been performing on the road since Easter of this year and wont stop till Easter next year. But what makes this year long tour so special is the challenge Paleo has set himself; to record a new song every single day of the tour. The project is known as the Song Diary and will result in 365 songs being written, arranged, recorded, and then posted on the internet in 365 days. So far 185 songs have been created and they are all available on the 
Paleo - The Beach Ball of Ages
This is two fellas playing the freshest sounding hip-hop to come out of London in a while. G creates tight beats with sharp samples and Jones is lyrically blessed. Although the beats you are hearing are definitely hip-hop and the flow you are hearing is definitely from a London emcee, The Mighty Avatar actually sound like no UK hip-hop you’ve heard before - simply it is the angle the guys have taken with their music and the genre, making sure it is their own sound. Four tracks to check out on their page, I was particularly feeling Around My Hands and the fantastic Little Man.
Some electro pop from Toulouse, France comes to your ears in the form of echo. This is pretty calm stuff, in a certain sense, but will definitely play more towards fans of electro sounds. I happen to be a fan of electro sounds and this music therefore sounds fantastic! All four tracks on echo’s page are brilliant and each sounds different - it is echo’s ability to create compositions with such intricate layers and build ups that really does it for me. Check out desert for something a bit more laid back and carol for something a bit more hectic.
Mr. Carter plays out his own brand of folk rock from sunny London. His voice has a hint of Damon Albarn about it and his music is clearly rich with influences, but like most great artists, Dave turns it all into something quite unique and personal. Check out Space Boy for a soothing and melodic experience and Amy for your melancholy fix. Another great thing about Dave’s tracks is the fine array of instruments that make up the music. He has some violin, cello, keyboards, guitar, accordian, drums, trumpet, harp, and bass in there - and probably even someone playing the spoons too!
This is a really interesting notion, a chap named Clarence is mainly a beatboxer and seeks to collaborate via MySpace with anyone from any genre, just so long as he thinks they are cool and would sound good working with him. For many hip-hop heads, this is exactly why they use MySpace, but Clarence (or Dub) actually shows no prejudice towards genres and likes to give anything a go. Tracks like Red and A Mug’s Game emphasise heavily on guitar, but it works really well. Quite a fresh sound going on, give it a go, you’ll probably like it!
This trio from South Carolina really know how to bang out the atmospheric indie rock. Think along the lines of Explosions In The Sky, those long build ups and drawn out moments, all created with guitar and percussion. Sometimes chaotic, sometimes calm, but always beautiful - all three tracks on their MySpace page have something slightly different to offer, and it truly is fantastic stuff. If you are really feeling it, they have an EP out now - get it listened to!
Choo, choo! All aboard the Trans-Siberian Express, with your host Tim Pare. “Who’s Tim Pare?”, well he’s an acoustic extraordinaire! Tim Pare is from Sheffield, England, but Sheffield is where it both ended and started - in 2004 Tim said good-bye to his life in England’s north and moved to China to teach. It was a year or so later that Tim found himself on the Trans-Siberian Express train in Russia, accompanied by 30 soldiers and 30 sailors, all returning from two years away. These fellas turned out to be a bit on the aggressive side and Tim felt sure something was gonna turn a bit nasty - however, Tim used his initiative and swapped a bottle of vodka for a battered old guitar with one of the guys and began to play. This turned out to be a master stroke in more than one sense.
Tim Pare - You’ve Got Your Work Cut Out
This German trio create what I guess you would describe as electro acoustic music, or acoustic electronica, depends which way you wanna look at it! Vocally they are like a less whiny version of TV on The Radio, and musically they create quite downtempo tracks with a large emphasis on leftfield beats and acoustic guitar. All four of the tracks on their page are very strong, and I particularly liked LETTERS and PEARLS. You need to hear this for yourself.
As his MySpace page says, Chini is a keyboard player / producer / DJ. He centres himself around the hip-hop, jazz, and breakbeat sounds, and the results are fantastic. Check tracks like boom boom and Break Fluid to see what Chini is all about. I really like Chini’s jazzy angle on cut-up style tracks, so funky and such energy - all you folks in the Manchester area can see him play out live quite regularly, check his page for more details.
16pac are a French duo consisting of Emma Delaval and Francois Puech - they were born out of similar influences, namely Bjork and Portishead - now they create their own brand of electro folk music, with Emma on the vocals and Francois on production. I also believe a chap called Vincent is involved somewhere, but it’s hard to work out from their page. The music is an intricate blend of the organic with a pinch of electro and Emma’s vocals are as soothing as they are soulful. All four tracks on their page are great and Ghost World grabbed my attention for sure.
With influences spanning from Lior to Damien Rice to Ben Harper, you’ll be pleased to know that this Sydney quintet have the minerals to back it all up. As you will hear on tracks like A Better Day, one thing this group has is a multitude of sounds. The use of violin and cello is a welcome surprise in these over-saturated days of indie rock, the use of the classical instruments is very much underrated and Saving Grace have shown that effort clearly pays off.
Mowgli is an emcee from London, a place home to a lot of good hip-hop, but also a lot of bad stuff, many wack emcees come and go, but Mowgli has the master flow. At the moment a chap named Chris Fader produces the beats and Mowgli does his thing over the top, but as you can hear through the two tracks on Mowgli’s page - back to the bricks and silent riots - this dude is here to stay. UK emcees listen up, this is how it is done.
These guys were actually a tip to myself from a kind chap called Ed from 
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Cinematic offerings from Belgium come in the form of aMute, a project headed up by Jérôme Deuson. He’s got atmosphere, guitars, haunting vocals, tension, some bass, some keys, all in a rather experimental downtempo package - have I built some sort of a picture? Complete the picture by listening to the four tracks on the aMute page. It’s almost like the most calm aspects of Explosions In The Sky have been taken and then worked on extensively to give us this chilled experimental rock - really needs to be heard first hand.
Bust out your ukulele and strum along to the softly, softly, music of Michael Jermyn. There’s something strangely addictive about Michael’s tracks, but being the ever needy imperfect human that I am, I just have to feed my addictions, so now I’m the pusher man and I’m pushing Michael towards you. Essentially this is folk music of sorts, although it’s held in a quiet niché corner of folk, but open minded individuals will enjoy, and the rest of you might surprise yourselves. Check out Make Believe for a more upbeat example of Michael’s work.
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