Blog: Box Musique

Me, Oldsy and the artist formerly known as V-Money went to see Drive yesterday and apart from being a seriously badass film, it also possessed a transcendent soundtrack. College's 'Real Human Being' featuring Electric Youth and Kavinsky's 'Nightcall' featuring Lovefoxxx were the stand out moments and, having had them on loop today, it's hard to deny their infectious yet strangely brooding appeal. I've already adopted them as part of my own personal soundtrack and I'm looking on the internet for some leather driving gloves and a silver jacket with a scorpion on the back [...]

A few days ago Brooklyn's Sepalcure released 'Deep City Insects' for free download and they've now announced the first single off their forthcoming self-titled album. Entitled 'Pencil Pimp', I'm not sure if it's conceptually driven by stationary sexploitation but I do know that it drops November 7 on Hotflush with a b-side of 'I'm Alright'. Unfortunately there are no previews of the tune knocking about, so I've included 'Deep City Insects' below instead. It's rather enchanting. Pre-order Sepalcure at Juno.

Slated for a November 7 release on Cosmic Bridge, Kromestar's Parallel Sounds EP is sounding pretty damn good. All 4 tunes have a little bit of an '80s twang but, paradoxically, also sound a bit futuristic. Imagine an astronaut with a mullet and you're halfway there. Check out the preview below and envision yourself floating through space wearing a denim jacket with the sleeves cut off. Buy Kromestar tunes at Juno.

Not really sure if that header there is working for me right now. Got some sort of lonely Jesus looking down on my post, judging my every move. God, just leave me alone! So Apparat has turned in a sterling mix for Groove magazine, probably to semi-promote his new album The Devil's Walk . But if he's only going to 'semi-promote' his latest long player and not fully commit to blatant promotional whoring then I'm afraid I can't justify banging on about the mix and/or the album. Everyone's a winner. Tracklist after the [...]

Currently gearing up to embark on their Finest Hour album tour, which begins on October 3 in Manchester, Submotion Orchestra have just released the new video for their latest single 'Always'. As laid-back as a Cuban dog, this delivers more of the beautiful, halcyon vibes you've grown accustomed to hearing from the Leeds collective. Metro recently dubbed their album "an object of desire", which is pretty cool because that's how they describe me... Buy Finest Hour or just 'Always' at Juno. Tickets are [...]

First Dynamo and now Lunar C? After all these years of just being a city somewhere near Leeds, Bradford suddenly seems to be churning out some interesting talent. I admit that's probably a ridiculously ignorant statement and I bet if I looked Bradford up on Wikipedia, the 'Notable People' section would probably list Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and God...but I haven't checked yet. Don't take it as a slight Bradford heads, it was only my way of introducing a post, something I haven't done for a while and clearly need to refine. I know Bradford's a decent place and the [...]

This will have to be quick because while this screen is destroying my retinas I have a feeling the wireless or the battery or whatever is destroying my dangly love parts. Yes ladies I'm single. Stip's Anytime Will Do EP has finally surfaced on Clown and Sunset and is available in a wide variety of formats (2, links below). Stand out track right now has to be 'Gravels (I and II)', some real skitso urban choir over fogged out beats leading you blind through the trees. Obviously you can listen to the whole thing [...]

You could easily be forgiven for thinking that Oldsy and I are no longer alive and that Box Musique will soon lie abandoned like a dusty old house full of dirty mattresses and cryptic graffiti. This is not, however, the case and our recent inactivity is largely due to work commitments which, for me at least, have been taking up so much time that I can barely open my eyes at night nevermind construct a coherent passage of the written word. This situation should soon change and hopefully I'll be back on the bloggle "grind" in a week or two, [...]

This is an article. It is about a song. The song in question is a remix. The remixee is Hyetal. The remixer is Fantastic Mr Fox. This Fantastic Mr Fox fellow is particularly awesome. Ok, I'll start writing normally now, it's just that I haven't got much time. I have to keep this bus above 55mph otherwise it's going to explode or something. I just figured that if I was going to get blown to Stacey Solomon's face and back, I'd better update the blog first. Anyway, this is a remix of Hyetal's Phoenix' which appeared on the [...]

Sometimes it seems like my mind inhabits an apathetic space unto itself. As I stroll the wide avenues contemplating the colour of the wind in another galaxy, there are people out there actually doing amazing things and contributing to society (I'm serious). Bop is one of these people and his sophmore album, The Amazing Adventures of One Curious Pixel , dropped on Med School last week. I, however, only heard about it today, but I'm bloody glad I finally did. Although I am yet to peruse the album in its entirety, the 20 minute preview below showcases [...]

This one comes via Post-Dubstep and is not particularly new but I haven't posted for a while - regular updates will resume in a few days - and I love the use of the Bon Iver sample, so I deemed it worthy of a mention. Understated and exquisite it is gives me a sense of melancholic calm, which is good because five minutes ago I just lost some money on poker and felt like biting off my own hands off and headbutting my dog...or I would have, if I had a dog. Someone hypothetically call the RSPCA. [...]

Phaeleh's label Urban Scrumping has been fruitless (look ma, a joke) for a fair while now but last week saw the release of Scrumping Volume 1 , a 10 track compilation featuring tunes from J-One, Sclist, Gyu, Apathesis and Phaeleh himself. A soulful, deep and bassy affair, it offers grandiose and mellow atmosphere with a vein of low-end spirit pulsing throughout. Spanning the likes of Gyu's reverb-heavy spaces, Phaeleh's lounging energy and Sclist's garage vibes, it manages to keep you on your toes without crossing the line into hectic territory. If I were to choose a favourite, the honour [...]

We heard sneak peeks of it on Gilles Peterson's BBC Radio 1 show a couple of weeks back. Now it's here in that lovely, easy-to-use mp3 format. 'For Love I Come' comes straight from the long-awaited Thundercat LP Golden Age of Apocalypse , due out sometime soon I guess. Flying Lotus (who produced the album) has been feeding the hype-fire like a real pro on his Twitter . From the sounds of this track though, it's all going to pay off... for everyone involved. Those guys will hopefully earn some tasty bones while we [...]

Nicolas Jaar's Clown & Sunset has announced the adoption of 19-year-old Montreal native Valentin Stip into its family. His Anytime Will Do EP will be out May 31 and will hopefully carry on the C&S tradition of not giving a shit and chilling the fuck out. Talking of traditions, the label recently posted a sort of retrospective collection on SoundCloud, featured below. 18 tracks of minimal genius for those of us who believe being horizontal beats being vertical pretty much every time. Valentin Stip on SoundCloud + Lola [...]

• Clown and Sunset - CLOWN ∆ SUNSET HISTORY

The last Soup Kitchen was bigger than your strange Uncle's ego after a successful 6-week stint on Countdown which, if you're wondering, is actually a pretty decent achievement. Thankfully, you'll be able to get out of the house and away from his endless "Susie Dent said" stories and patchy beard on May 20 as the next instalment in the soupy saga brings Breach, Ben UFO, Blawan, Cooly G and T. Williams to this humble city we call Sheffield. Such an eminent line-up demands your enthusiastic attendance and if you fail to show up, lightning will strike you on the [...]

In all fairness the title of this post probably lead you to believe that I was going to be talking straight music. So when it turns out that Shaun Bloodworth is actually a photographer and 'Underground' is an exhibition of his work if you are indeed slightly taken aback I apologise. Got to keep you on your toes. We went along to the opening party last night and were treated to free beer, DJ sets from Mary Anne Hobbs and Grievous Angel and, above all, excellent photography. Shaun has been documenting the electronic bass [...]

It's about time I posted this up. Do you ever feel like there's something missing in your life, something reminiscent of house music that celebrates its heady past while at the same time meditating selfishly in that wistful modern way that we all know and love? If not, take your delusional sense of contempt elsewhere. If so, then go back to The Drawing Board (genius wordplay such as this is what they pay me for). After their huge single 'Without You', that indeed topped RA's list of the top 50 tracks of 2010 , Art [...]

• Crosstown Rebels - CRMCD014 01 Much Too Much
• Crosstown Rebels - CRMCD014 07 Vampire NightClub (Album Version)

March saw Kahn's first release on Punch Drunk and, characteristically for the seminal Bristol label, it was breathtaking. I reckon it might have even been better than one of the latest acts on Britain's Got Talent and they're like pretty good aren't they? I thought the woman singing opera with her dog was amazing...or maybe, maybe I tried to kill myself halfway through. Anyway, the pistol from Bristol - as I shall call him, just this once - has compiled a mix for the folks over at Sonic Router and it's a great listen. Progressing from chilled out [...]

All this sunny weather and an endless torrent of work has left updates a little scarce over the past few weeks, but I'm sure you can forgive me because you're probably out there enjoying life, drinking mojitos and carelessly frolicking in meadows. Even if you're not...well, maybe you should read a good book and chill out instead of crying and banging your head against the keyboard like a fleshy, irate hammer. My tardiness and your emotional problems aside, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto have once again teamed up to release their fifth and possibly final collaborative album, a fact that [...]

Reliability of the narrator? I don't know what Stimming was up to, musically or otherwise, before Liquorice . Just putting it out there because, as that old white guy with all the fried chicken says, honesty is the best policy. And in all honesty, is the past really relevant when the present is so exciting? The 'present' here being the specific experience of listening to Liquorice , not the general experience of any of our trivial existences. Apparently, this LP wanders off in a completely new and different direction, away from any of his previously known [...]