Let’s get this established from the off: This is bloody great. Any album that kicks-off with a tune that causes its reviewer to emit a camp ‘ooooh’ like a startled hairdresser is definitely off to a winner. ‘Lightwerk’ sets the tone of Lost Idol’s second long-player ‘Brave The Elements’ quite magnificently and serves as a confident statement of intent for what follows. Brimming with ideas and atmosphere, the latest release by James Dean on Cookshop Records is as sharply executed as many of the finer releases on Warp or Ninja and one hopes it’ll gain enough listeners to reflect this. The opener aside, highlights include the single ‘A Sorrowful Thing’ and the beautiful ‘Peace For Joseph’, a fatherly tribute to the most recent addition to the Cookshop family. Reflecting Dean’s love for Electronica, Ambient, Krautrock and Cinematic soundscapes, ‘Brave The Elements’ comfortably melds genres into what is often a rarity nowadays; a very pleasurable album experience from start to finish.
Download Album from Bandcamp
Filed under: Reviews - Albums by Blackbeltjonez
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By now you’ve probably heard that the founder of the legendary Gangstarr suffered a heart attack last week. The good news is that after surgery on Monday he’s back on the mend. At this stage little other news is available other than an unnamed source being quoted as saying “Guru is alive and recovering from his surgery. Doctors are expecting a full recovery luckily.” However, the internet being what it is there’s plenty of misinformation doing the rounds, with MTV.com flying the flag of poor research at full mast, attributing quotes to people who may have said bugger all on the issue. Good work guys. Maybe have your work experience bods stick to bagel-fetching in future…
Most recently Guru has been working with producer Solar and Beatmag were fortunate enough to catch up with the duo last year. However for fans of his earlier work with Gangstarr, a tidy ‘Get Well Soon’ mix by DJ Wonder has been doing the rounds and will serve as a reminder as to why the man is held in such high regard by so many of us.
Download – DJ Wonder – Get Well Soon (The Guru Respect Mix)
Filed under: News by Blackbeltjonez
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Yordan Orchestra
Psych Introduxeon: Bringing Ingredients Together (Megatier Productions)
So. Beatmag has been away for a half a year and now we return looking very different but let’s not fuss, eh, let’s just review an album of bizarre psychedelica, instead, to get our hand back in. ‘Psych Introduxeon’ arrived at Beatmag Mansions with no info but a snapshot of a sallow pallid dude with sunken stoned eyes. This, we must presume, is Jack Aleister, leader of Yordan Orchestra, a latterday prog-psychedelic outfit from Holland whose concerts are sprawling happenings, heavy with the whiff of a druggier bygone age. Taking their cue from the Polyphonic Spree, who they’ve supported in concert, Yordan Orchestra hurl a mass of instruments into their melodramatic head music. The album has traditional rock leanings, but then the brass and cellos join in for a streak of howling ballads redolent of both Arthur Lee’s Love (for their musical ambition) and early Robyn Hitchcock (for their wilful but tuneful oddness). Like a baroque, burlesque and grungier version of early ’70s Pink Floyd, Yordan Orchestra wear their lysergic attitude loudly – announcing they have “mushrooms to try” on ‘Faced You In A Neon Light’ – but retain a core of approachable, melodic musical experimentalism that certain media-celebrated British bands would do well to emulate.
Thomas H Green
Filed under: Reviews - Albums by Thomas H Green
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July 2009
Beatmag webmaster, boozehound & questionable disc-jockey, Tim Gomersall, takes us through a night playing alongside the big boys (and girls) in London town…
Firstly, a confession. By the end of this gig I was rather plastered. In fact, I was so inebriated that the fact that i actually saw the last band only came back to me a few days later. Anyhow, I will try my best to fill in the blanks, and provide a balanced review of the night. And if there are any glaring holes in my memory, then I will fill them up with sparkles of imagination. (more…)
Filed under: Reviews - Live by Flexmaster Nylon
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July 2009
50 Cent: Blood On The Sand (Xbox 360, PS3)
Nah, I don’t give a FUCK, if this game be old as dirt! I couldn’t just let my nigga Fiddy drop some new game knowledge without spittin’ ‘bout that shit, yo! My nigga done it again, yo! He’s a prophet and an ambassador for the world, and shit…. (more…)
Filed under: Reviews - Games by Flexmaster Nylon
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Chrome – Red Exposure
The freshest forgotten albums of yesteryear. Not the usual fawned over suspects but albums that ‘net-trawlers and second hand record shop aficionados may come across and should snap up now.
Neil Gardner Recommends:
Chrome
Red Exposure
(Beggars Banquet) 1980
“I am anti-fade and I can’t go away” Chrome -’Eyes On Mars’ (more…)
Filed under: Great Lost Albums by Flexmaster Nylon
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July 2009
Jack Penate
Everything Is New (XL)
Yes, in an event as unlikely as Phil Collins cutting a dubstep album with The Bug, Jack Penate is Beatmag’s Album Of The Issue. (more…)
Filed under: Reviews - Albums by Flexmaster Nylon
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July 2009
SINGLE OF THE ISSUE
The Brownies
Cougar (NROne) (more…)
Filed under: Reviews - Singles by Flexmaster Nylon
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Label Feature
Each month, Beatmag’s vinyl fetishist Blackbeltjonez throws badgering queries in the direction of labels in the hope of gaining a positive response (and maybe some promos). Germany’s Jazz and Milk has been somewhat of a revelation in terms of its no-nonsense attitude to releasing what can only be described as, an astoundingly consistent selection of crispy beats, and chunky breaks that will do wonders for fans of the good stuff. Think Mr Scruff, DJ Shadow, Tru Thoughts and Ninja Tune (before it went a bit too weird). Answering the questions this time round is label-owner, artist, DJ and allroundniceguy; Dusty. (more…)
Filed under: Label Features by Flexmaster Nylon
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FILM Q&A with Robert Watts, a production maestro on the original ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ films.
By Adam Locks
Born in 1938, Robert Watts is one of the most respected and successful British producers in the film industry. Although his name is most well known for his association with the first three ‘Star Wars’ films and first three Indiana Jones movies, he has been involved with many other high profile projects. As the saying goes, ‘A picture speaks a thousand words’, and so does Robert’s CV: it’s an astonishing list that shows him having worked with many of the most significant players in the history of British and American cinema. He’s worked with the likes of Roman Polanski, and Stanley Kubrick, through to being the Production Supervisor on ‘Star Wars’ (George Lucas, 1977) the list really is endless. In a room full of movie props Adam Locks meets a man whose films have been the largest cinematic influence on millions of children from the 1970s and 1980s. (more…)
Filed under: Interviews by Flexmaster Nylon
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