PREFUSE 73 - The End of Biters - International

Prefuse 73 was introduced to me by a university friend a few years back and since then I have really grown to like his cut and paste style often referred to as glitch-hop. Prefuse 73 is Scott Herren know for fusing 70's soul with the vintage hip-hop of the 80's. But Spain-based Herren has his fingers in a thousand different side projects as well such as Piano Overlord and Savath & Savalas. Herren's Cubana/Irish/Catalan roots help inform his musical style on his many different projects.

Using laptops, turn-tables, samplers and an assorted array sampling and manipulation equipment, Herren is able to create and fuse sounds that simply wouldn't be possible by conventional DJing. This has lead many people to joke about the idea of seeing Prefuse live, seeing some dude standing behind a laptop playing with his mouse. Having seen a few laptop DJ's in the past (tho never 73) I know that it can sometimes work. But Herren has a wide assortment of skills including some awesome beat-bouncing powers that lead me believe that it would be great show to watch live.


Directed by Aleix Pitarch, Prefuse's video for 'The End of Biters - International' was released off his 2003 album, 'One Word Extinguisher'. The track is, at one minute and 17 seconds, probably the tightest, shortest, hip-hop jam to come out in '03. Cymbals crash into pianos and snippets of a voice are tossed into the mix, coalescing into a vigorous challenge rap. The animated video skillfully deals with the songs rapidly changing atmosphere and breaks out the eventual deconstuctionist's happy ending.

THE LOCUST - Moth-Eaten Deer Head

There was a time a few years back when I was really into grindcore. The grindcore formula looks a little something like this. Scream in your loudest, trillest voice, play x instrument as fast as you can, and do it for thirty seconds, rinse and repeat. That's about it. Don't like this song, that's OK, it'll be over in 30 seconds. Oh, and don't forget to give all your songs funny titles. Now you too can make a grindcore band. Wasn't that simple?

Today's song is from San Diego's favorite grindcore band, The Locust, who have been assaulting their audiences for about ten years now. At concerts they wear charming hoods meant to look like Locusts or Mexican wrestlers, whichever floats your boat. They have played with Kid 606 which doesn't seem all that unreasonable considering the band already features a lot of wacky synthesizer acrobatics. They are also pretty good at coming up with names for their songs - take their 2003 hit, 'The Half-Eaten Sausage Would Like To See You In His Office' from the Plague Soundscapes album, as an example.

Today's video is called "Moth-Eaten Deer Head" which practically plods, clocking in at one minute and seventeen seconds. It is off their first full length (13 minute), self-titled album released in 1999. Even at 13 minutes, The Locust manages to find room for 20 tracks on the disc. I think the cover art on this disc is pretty amazing! There were two comments on the YouTube site regarding this video and I think it sums up the schools of thought on these guys nicely so here they are complete with spelling mistakes!

CaptainGaby says:
"I fucking love the Locust. Kick ass band. Thanks for putting thid up."

rkonbon says:
"how the fuck is this shit consiedered music.this is absolute garbage"


And if you'd like to scream along, here are the lyrics:

Damn it Jim, I'm not a magician.
And actually not even a doctor.
I'm not a fucking doctor.
A cuckoo clock never gives the right time.
We swim up stream for the cuckoo's dream.
It's no surprise just how low some will go.

Moth-eaten dear head! (x10)

BASSHUNTER - DotA

Uhhh... when you see entries like this I'm guessing you really have to question my taste in music. I'm not saying I like what I'm about to show you (tho I definitely do love it in some perverse way) but I feel more like showing you this than anything else I have found today. I have plans but I don't want this to become an exclusively J-music blog and every now and then I like to throw you a little curveball. This is the first ever Tuesday WTF.
Today's song is called DotA from 21 year-old Swedish musician and DJ (guy in his basement) Jonas Altberg more often known as Basshunter. DotA, for all you noobs is an acronym for 'Defense of the Ancients', which is a custom map for Warcraft III. Don't worry about me too much I had to look that one up... DotA from Basshunter's second eurodance CD entitled 'LOL <(^^,)>' which just proves how 1337 this dude really is. (That's an emoticon of Kirby, btw)

The song is about Basshunter and his friends, using the voice communication application Ventrilo while they are playing DotA. Apparently, their hot girlfriends are happy to sit on the floor in total darkness while the geekmoles play online games. Only later into the video we find Basshunter taking all the girlfriends out on the town, I guess it was his turn to entertain the girls while his buddies game the night away. Even then all he can do is sing about how much he loves his game. I'm not great with the ladies but I'm not that BAD either! Note towards the end of the video some guy is holding a sign that I swear says 'ASShunter' - not sure how I should take that. If you like gaming, cheese and Swedish club chicks you've come to the right place. I'm going to listen to this at least one more time.


If the YouTube version isn't hi-fi enough for you than check out this site dedicated to translating this gem into seemingly every language on earth.

SUIKA - Attack My Life Voyage My Life

This is my favorite Japanese Hip-Hop group. I saw them late one night on television when, for a brief time, there was a show that featured music from independent labels. I saw that show (couldn't tell you the name) three times before it was eaten by the J-pop monoliths. I'd complain but at least I was turned on to a couple of interesting acts such as the one that follows!

Suika, which means watermelon in Japanese, is the brainchild of Takatsuki (Shinjuku Spoken Words Slam) a rapper who was interested in hip hop jazz. He enlisted the help of the poetess Toto (Flow Words, World Apart Ltd.), hip hip artist ATOM (SSWS), the musician Yuko Takahashi (Gomes the Hitman) on percussion, and Kaztake Takeuchi (A Hundred Birds) on the elepian (electric piano), while Takatsu himself donned a double bass. The group is atypical both in concept and in it's sound.

The video, off their second album, Ripe Stripes, shows the group jamming in a bookshop which is sort of an interesting idea for a video. Even more interesting is the fact that that is actually how they DID record their album - their label Flying Books (or Fly n' Spin Records) is a small book store located in the district of Shibuya in Tokyo. It seems to have had a direct effect of the intimate quality of their sound. The voices of Takatsuki and ATOM resemble each other and complement perfectly. The sly softness of Toto's voice mixes well with the other lyrics. The music of the group is very fun and pleasant to the ear and gives the listener the impression of being at Flying Books attending a small concert between friends.

Suika's fourth (sorta) CD entitled 'Harvest for the Stripes' is a reworking of their favorite songs (and some new ones) in French, which is cool but I wish it were in English... heh, I understand French even LESS than I do Japanese.

HALFBY - Rodeo Machine/Screw the Plan

Possibly on my top ten vids of all time, today's video is Halfby's Rodeo Machine/Screw the Plan.

Halfby, whose real name is Takahiro Takahashi, is on his way to becoming Japan's biggest breakbeat giant. He recently left Second Royal records for the much bigger and presumably plushier arms of Toy's Factory. Initially, there seemed to be some concern by fans that moving from a minor to a major label might compromise the unique sound of his 'Green Hours' album, but this video puts those critics in their places!

'Rodeo Machine' is from the 'Green Hours' album, while 'Screw the Plan' is off Halfby's major label effort of the same name. Both songs have a unique sound, and true 'Rodeo Machine' is probably the wonkier, strangely cajun-infused track, but 'Screw the Plan' is a full-on party track that features UK's Olympic Lifts. What I like about Halfby is he sounds so western-influenced while not seeming deliberately intent on catering to western tastes. Especially on the latter track Fatboy Slim comparisons could be made but we all know Fatboy no longer makes REAL club tracks...

The computer animated video couldn't be more suited to the music and may go down as my most memorable video of all time. I saw it one time at Tower Records and two years later I still pined to see it again some day. The video was produced by the Tokyo-based pop design collective groovisions. (I still display my Brockman figures with pride!) It's amazing just how much expression can be conveyed in the uniform human templates marching on the screen and in my opinion these videos represent groovisions strongest work to date!

ARECEE - All We Have

I know you've all seen Arecee's great Future Country video! You know, the one featuring Denny (Blazin' Hazin') Blaze, Leslie Hall (of Leslie and the Ly's) and Cowboy Clark (aka. Arecee as a redneck disciple of George Bush). I sent a link of this video to my friends and got a great response! Nobody was quite sure how to take the whole experience. I had checked out the Blaze and Leslie in some detail before but I hadn't spend much time looking at the songs ultimate mastermind and so todays video is Arecee's 'All We Have'.

While always clever and often tongue and cheek, I'm pretty sure Arecee's the real deal. Having been in the blazin' Iowa scene for around 10 years, now living in Brooklyn, he has released five albums. Urban Smarts has a good interview with Arecee back in his early days that's worth a read-thru. The links above and the video below really tell the story better than I can, so without any further ado...

Click here for the mp3.

THE TASTE OF TEA - 茶の味 (Cha no Aji) - Yamayo

Ya-ya-yaaa, Yama yama yamaaa!

That's precisely what I heard one day playing in the background as I was looking at CD's in my then local Tower Records. I went to investigate and saw what is today's video. It was a promo DVD for Katsuhito Ishii's 2004 film, Taste of Tea (Cha no Aji). Up until this point, Ishii was know most for his violent Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl films and to western audiences he is the man responsible for the dark animation sequence in Quintin Tarantino's, Kill Bill Volume One.

Here is what Midnight Eye had to say about the movie:

"Here he is, back again with a feature film that is a radical change from the throwaway superficiality of his earlier work. The Taste of Tea is a rather delightful look at the eccentricities hiding just beneath the calm surface of ordinary life, touching, funny, imaginative and pleasantly low-key. Even if it is a bit long."

Ha, pleasantly low-key is right. I challenge you to watch this movie any time other than a Sunday afternoon. It's slow and it's quiet, it's like being stoned for 2.5 hours, but it's also poetic, pretty and poignant in all the right ways (wow, the 3 p's!). Having no luck trying to summarize the plot of the story, I'll say the movie is a slice of surreality that takes place with a family of animators in the countryside, north of Tokyo. The film stars Tadanobu Asano (husband of the coolest pop-star ever, Chara) who plays a record producer and is forced to help his father record the music in today's video.

Cha no Aji's wonderful soundtrack by Little Tempo, really compliments the mood of the movie. Their drowsy arrangements featuring steel drums is just what the doctor ordered. I had known of the band since they came out with Musical Brain Food in 2003 and had read that they were doing the soundtrack for a film. I can't confirm or deny that they had any involvement with the 'killer track' you're about to hear!

Ishii's 2005 film, The Funky Forest seems to be the conceptual, if not literal sequel to Cha no Aji. Back are the same crazy characters, spiced up with some strange looking creatures. Check Twitch for a review!

Yamato (Oh Mountain)

Moun-Moun-Moun! Mountain Mountain Mountain! (x6)

Mountain!
Mountain!
Mountain!

Moun-ta-in!

Oh, my mountain, Oh my mountain,
The Mountain is alive!
Oh, my mountain, Oh my mountain,
The Mountain is alive!
Oh, my mountain, Oh my mountain,
The Mountain is alive!
The Mountain is alive!
The Mountain is alive!

(you get the idea...)