Catching The Waves

Death By Bureaucracy

Memo to world: please invent a cure for manflu and computer problems in one easily gulped pill. Thank you.

Until such ailments are cured (probably around the time we all get our free jet-packs), the only thing that will get me out of the sanitarium and back on the net is good free music. Yes, you've guessed it. By the power of Greyskull the internet, I give you the following, available in liquid, capsule and mp3: Folk Hero by No More Music Komite, available from all good chemists and Miga, the highly competent netlabel from Granada. One of CTW's unwritten rules is not to review albums from the same netlabel in successive posts, but I've got a cold ib by dose, so I don't care. Besides, Folk Hero is delightful. Unlike folk music. Heh. Joke. Joke.

The first of the four tracks, Big Bag, begins with a synth riff that has a nursery rhyme quality to it. It's soon joined by a double bass, guitar and some of the most delicate sampling you'll hear this side of an Olympics drug test. Brief snatches of female vocal and what sounds like a barber shop quartet or old-time spiritual flit in and out of a soufflé-light drum loop and make me grateful for the internet's curative qualities. Following this is Elles, which could be described as prime acoustic electronica due to its crunchy snare, its summery guitar accompaniment, and a lovely twisted, choppy synth phrase that drops in now and again, all encased in a gentle, glitchy hip-hop rhythm.

The palette of bells/xylophones, banjo, accordion(?) and dreamy vocals in Kinki & Bike might fool listeners into enjoying a brief fling with the sounds described and then move cheerfully on, pausing only to straighten their clothes. Those with decent speakers will know it's all about the humming deep bass that breathes slowly in and out, providing aural momentum and the hint of a shotgun-wielding, straw-chewing father.

After an aggressive, slowed-down, backwards intro, At Your Convenience II morphs into something funkier, its laid-back trumpets encouraging the drums to get it on until the track eventually climaxes with muscular breakbeat. Quite a journey from the start of Big Bag.

No More Music Komite's release, despite being crammed with numerous samples, glitches and sundry noises, feels spacious and relaxed. The subtle panning and chorus(ing) allows the ear to take in a lot without suffering from sensory overload. Folk Hero wears a short-sleeved T-shirt and trendy sunglasses, and snacks on olives and chorizo. So it's definitely not folk music. Joke. Joke. Wooh. Tough crowd.

The group's name is officially "No More -music komite-" but I couldn't be bothered to type it properly. Sorry. Besides, they're only a talented collection of Spanish music and video artists, and it's not as if the Spanish ever get together as a team and do anything of merit...

No More Music Komite - Folk Hero (link to zipped album and individual mp3s)

Miga netlabel

Unregulated Nuclear Power Can Be A Good Thing

 

CTW tends to stay away from that big yellow thing in the sky unless it comes in the form of a five-track minimal EP. As luck would have it, Bertech's The Sun, released on Spanish audio/video netlabel Miga, is just that thing. What are the odds?

The EP starts with the title track. The introductory bars to any dance track always fill me with fear - is this going to be yet another tired, uninspired, four-to-the-floor, will-this-ever-end dance track, bereft of interest, groove and personality? Fear not. The Sun rises to the occasion. Heh. The track's simple drum track is augmented by a plethora of beeps, tinkles, pops and other sundry noises resulting in something that is booty friendly yet titillating to the ear.

The flecks and tics of Blocked create a metronomic soundscape that should be as boring as basketball, but Bertech keeps rearranging his minimalist elements in such a way that the track remains upbeat and enticing. Like the other four tracks, it feels detailed, textured and craftsman-like. Cemento Negro somehow manages to be an attractive listen despite consisting mainly of a hectic bass and kick drum combo, a hi-hat, and reverberating thumps and sweeps. It's a relentless, highly competent track whose compact sound will keep exhausted dancers shuffling around the floor even though they know the last bus home is due any minute.

Bon Voyage is a roller. An understated, bubbling bass keeps things moving while acidic synths and filter sweeps par-tay. Lastly, arpeggiated synths, a tight beat and a bass as sturdy and reliable as a company car mean that Crema Caliente epitomises the whole EP.

Listening to Bertech's breakdowns is like sucking on a lemon sherbet; the more you do it, the sweeter it gets. He ramps up the white noise and then returns a stripped-down, pristine beat to the dance floor so smoothly and funkily that it doesn't get tiresome. If this very professional album was a doorman, it would be well-dressed, polite, friendly and ex-special forces.

Bertech - The Sun (link to individual mp3s and zipped album)

Bertech on MySpace

Miga audio/video netlabel (Lengua española y inglés. Gracias!)

Let's Do The Time Warp Again

Netmusic enthusiasts are rushing to hear French musician Degiheugi's latest release, Only After The Show, because they've already heard the subject of today's egregiously late recommendation of an album that was released a whole three years ago. (Yep, Catching The Waves might as well be called Behind The Times.) Anyway, though Degiheugi's current work is fine and upstanding, it's his 2005 opus, Aquilon, that gets CTW shaking its finely toned and not-at-all-sagging booty.

Aquilon is a pretty seamless whole; tracks bleed into each other in a manner reminiscent of a concept album. No, don't run away. You'd be missing out. It's chock-full of samples, though I've no idea what is entirely original, what's been chopped up or what's been lifted wholesale. The album is ostensibly an instrumental hiphop workout but it's actually a finely detailed piece of experimental electronica. It's like buying a second-hand car from a back-street garage, only to find that you've acquired Herbie.

First off is Comme un enfant sans mère, which starts off with a crushing drum beat, calls in some dubby elements and then quotes from Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child, a well-known Negro spiritual. (Please note that I use the word "Negro" in its historical context only. Don't hit me.) It's a head-nodder.

The second track, Intro: Aquilon, (yes, intros should come at the start - don't blame me) makes good use of doom-laden strings, ambient drones and record scratches to place the listener in a comfortable armchair and a glass of something special, warm with the knowledge that a good album is underway.

There's some witty sampling in Un jour de printemps, featuring a sample from Greenfields by The Brothers Four. Degiheugi raises the pitch of "Once there were green fields..." so that it sounds like the Munchkin Massed Choir, slots it into a trip-hop rhythm, and then cuts it to just the first syllable, punning on the basic funk rule of emphasising the "one", the first beat of four. He also throws in some Spanish guitar, some gently mewling trumpets, and all of a sudden a track that could have been irritating becomes delightful, getting deeper and more reflective as it progresses, notwithstanding, and here my cup doth overflow, a breakbeat workout near the end.

My Rickety Piano is like something Michael Nyman or John Adams might have pounded out on their Steinways late one night in a who-can-use-fewer-notes contest. (A Steinway is not a euphemism. Get your minds out of the gutter.) A two-note piano riff gets chopped up and sampled until it sounds, well, rickety. It's a confident piece of music.

Mild-mannered hiphop is a feature of Ami, tu veux devenir poete until it rips its suit off to reveal a Superman drum 'n' bass costume, turning an atmospheric piece of maudlin Franco-jazz into something more invigorating.

My baby don't cares the shows [sic] introduces Nina Simone to glitchy beats and a thudding distorted bass. I'm not sure if this track is entirely successful. It's followed by Soldier In The Sky, an unusual mix of dub and electro with contributions from Virus and DJ Oscan.

Hot Girl (trip hop with naughty female noises), Entr'track 1 (lo-fi pop) and Plus de Souvenir are each just over a minute long, cleansing the listener's aural palate before serving meatier fare. Plus de souvenir is a dusty jazz loop with a trip-hop beat. CTW is defenceless against that sort of thing.

Baby Boom is helpfully self-descriptive, as you'll discover on hearing a baby gurgle delightedly through a breakbeat romp. For Organe au Gramme, Degiheugi produces a laid-back electronica piece reminiscent of Moby's Play. A thumbs up, in case you're wondering.

The album ends with Le Pince Oreilles, which is over ten minutes long. Hey, it's a netlabel release; no kow-towing to corporate record companies here. If Degiheugi wants to slap a Pink Floyd-ish cinematic/prog rock/trance/trip-hop epic on the end of the album, good for him. If you've bought into Degiheugi's ethos by now, you'll be a little annoyed that it's so short; it might even be the best thing on the album.

Aquilon is available from the mellifluously named Electrobel label and Degiheugi's own site, where you can also pick up the previously mentioned Only After The Show. If you're hungry for music, visit both sites, have a rummage, download Degiheugi's stuff and then leave a donation at your preferred site. Or both of them. Or neither, if you must.

I'm so reasonable. Sickening, isn't it?

Aquilon on Electrobel netlabel (Zipped album only. Sorry.)

Degiheugi's home page

Degiheugi's MySpace

Electrobel netlabel

 

It's got a wonderful defence mechanism...

Listening to minimalism always makes me feel as though something weird is happening. It's music, but not as I know it. Tom Ellis's Switched Off EP, just released by Berlin netlabel Pentagonik, is strange. Different. Alien. It's like hearing a Martian watchmaker count sheep in his sleep.

The opener, Switched Off, is switched on from the very start, abruptly dropping the listener into a soundscape that could only be minimal: hardly any melodic content, precious little development, and an all-pervading rhythm made up of dry, short sounds. Snippets of piano flirt with spoken vocals and thus lend a jazzy, naturalistic feel to what would otherwise be a robotic listen.

Slim is reminiscent of what little Richie Hawtin I've heard. The beat is easy to dance to, but it's the barely noticeable synths and ticks and taps that give it that unmistakeably "minimal" flavour. The slurred, whispered vocals make it an intriguing listen.

Sixty One Be has a guitar-ish riff that tries to break through the super-detailed beat but fails, becoming a rhythmic element instead of a melodic one. Again, it's only after a while that you start to notice the subby, bubbling bass, so subtly is it wrought. Unlike that last sentence.

Beginners is minimal with an ambient slant; the dancefloor rhythm is still there, but background hisses and crackles and ghostly vocals lend the track a more human air than the rest of the EP, until the final minute ends in a sparse 4/4 beat, ideal for any DJ who wants to throw it into a mix.

I'm sure the whole EP will see the light of day gloom of night at minimal clubs everywhere. The precision and attention to detail is deeply impressive; more than that, Tom Ellis's exploration of jazzy, funking minimalism is a chunk of fun. And if you think that's difficult to say, remember that he comes from Wales, the land of vowels and phlegm. (He's also a co-founder of Trimsound netlabel, so is obviously an all-round good egg.)

Repeated listens will reveal more and more detail in these tracks, not least because their bit rate is an exemplary 320 kbps, but unfortunately this means that the mp3s are large. Pentagonik have thoughtfully provided the option to download individual tracks so those without broadband can still hear the music. It might be an idea for Pentagonik to offer the option of choosing a lower bit rate so that minimal aficionados on dial-up get to hear Switched Off before nature ensures their heads will no longer need shaving. Failing that, visitors to the label's very snazzy website can pretend to be a DJ on its ultra-cool home page. Now you're curious...

Tom Ellis - Switched Off EP (link to individual mp3s and zipped album)

Tom Ellis on MySpace

Pentagonik netlabel

Hit It Again, Sam

You know how sometimes you're walking along the street and you suddenly become Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, pondering how to merge jazz, hiphop, the Middle East and 20th century music into a pleasing, full-bodied cup of coffee? You get that too? See, I knew it wasn't just me. Tell me if this sounds familiar:

You're strolling down the shadowy alleys of a souk when a gold-toothed chap stands in your way and tries to interest you in a double bass, some reverberating middle-easterny woodwind, a cheeky saxophone and his shop's finest hand-made dusty beat. You agree to his offer, providing he throws in a completely new riff right at the end of the track. You shake hands and walk off with La Mousse des Femmes.

Life is good. Looking up at the roofline, you Applaudir Les Oiseaux and the backing they give to the chime-laden drum beat that serenades you along the streets. However, one whiff of the uncompromising, rather monotonous next rhythm and you hurry past the hunched figure who offers to show you Sous Les Cotes. Brrr. Salvation awaits as you pop into a cool, calm bar, and listen to Eol et Leo tinkle the ivories, crush some drums and waft soothing strings over the clientele.

How much more of this do you need?

All too soon, the song is over and you must face the sultry streets once more. Ah, Etre Un Papillon, you think, and float away on a jazz piano and drum loop...

There, see, I knew you'd understand. Either we're crazed or we've been listening to Impressions, a five-track sampler EP by ThoTho, available from...

*busts a move*

...Dusted Wax Kingdom netlabel, Bulgarian purveyor of lo-fi, crackly, dusty hiphop to the gentry, and the rest of the world if it asks nicely. ThoTho, a lover of Stravinsky and DJ Krush (that's the kind of talk that CTW likes to hear) comes from Dijon (goodness, the French are so funky nowadays) and has released Impressions in the hope that it will encourage you out there to buy the full album. If you do, you'll find an iTunes link at ThoTho's MySpace. Failing that, send a donation to the very huggable and kissable Dusted Wax Kingdom, where you'll find a few pearls of lo-fi hiphop and triphop.

If you download ThoTho's EP, not only will you have a few head-nodders on your hard drive, you'll also be able to peruse the Lovecraftian album cover in all its sepulchral glory. Why not make a poster out of it and scare yourself silly?

ThoTho - Impressions EP (link to individual mp3s and zipped album)

ThoTho's MySpace

Dusted Wax Kingdom

P.S. Marvin of the marvellous Free Albums Galore took my little jest about his site's acronym in good heart. Phew.

By the way, the French weren't always quite so funky...

Grand Theft Auto 5: Ambient City

I first heard Choc's work at the music production website KVR, where his Mimesis Algorithm knocked the dregs from my clay pipe. It's a click 'n' cut track, full of atmospheric glitches, with a sparse but effective piano and cello accompaniment. The clincher is the bridge, which is the sound of a modem firing up; in the context of the track, it's perfect. If you have a friend who likes classical music but isn't too keen on contemporary stuff, or vice versa, point them to Mimesis Algorithm. I don't think it's available for downloading at present, but you can still hear it at Choc's MySpace.

All of which leads me to Choc's highly downloadable four-track EP, Solstice Urbain, available at Jamendo. But first, a haiku:

8000 albums

All free, no hidden charges

Jamendo calls you

Learn to say this in one breath and repeat it to friends and acquaintances. Your procreation will soar as people discover how cool you are. Back to the review:

Choc is a Frenchman who works in signal processing, statistics and telecommunication, making him eminently suited, I would have thought, to produce ambient electronica. To quote the man himself: "Solstice Urbain is a collection of four songs composed in 2004-5 which reflect the universe of a fictive city." The album could be classified as "industrial ambient minimal" because intimate clanks (oxymoronic, I concede) and rhythmic thumps and thuds abound. Now, I could easily kick a dustbin downstairs and claim to be an ambient artist; the only difference between Choc and me is that he's composed addictive music whereas my effort would still sound like a dustbin being kicked down a staircase. I don't know how he manages to convey emotion through abstract sounds, but I'm happy to listen in dumb admiration.

First off, Choc gently prises your ears open with Resurrection industrielle. Imagine listening to the world's biggest glass harp being played inside a Tibetan monastery's boiler room and you'll get the idea.

Introspection digitale introduces a pulsing bass and a flapping (yes, really) kick drum with feisty interruptions from what sounds like a short-circuiting fusebox. Most high frequency sounds are filtered out, giving the music a muffled feel befitting the track's title. It ends with a heartbeat, Pink Floyd fans.

The third track, Chaos Indus-nat, finds us among leaking pipes, their echoing drips slowly increasing in frequency until we stumble upon a hard-working computer terminal. It's like exploring a sewage system, but in a good way. I release that last sentence under a Creative Commons licence. Do with it what you will.

Misanthropie Numérique follows a classic electronica recipe: glitchy drums, smooth synths and a bit-crushed ending. Like the rest of the EP, I'm sure it contains a subliminal "keep listening" message.

It's perfectly possible to listen to this album while cruising the streets of GTA 4's New York. But I warn you, you might have to pull over, switch the engine off and recline your seat. Let others investigate the city; you're busy exploring sound. And, although it's optional, you can always put something in Choc's parking meter. It might prompt him to correct the typo on his album cover. ;-)

Choc - Solstice Urbain (link to individual mp3s and zipped album)

Choc's MySpace

Campanologists Rejoice

My last review raved about an album that hit the net in, um, 2003, so as compensation here's something that's just appeared, mewling and puking, in the maternity ward. Foolk has released an EP with five remixes of Bells, a track from his new album Red Pills For Daddy, soon to be released on the Deadred label. CTW isn't the type of website that reviews all the latest netlabel releases (I'm too lazy discerning for that), but Foolk's Bells Remixes EP is definitely worth a listen. You can hear the original track at Foolk's MySpace. So, from the top:

1. Bells (Abuse/Rain & Hail Mix) - a rolling bassline and breakbeatish drums greet gently descending synths and blend with a bit of chopped guitar. We're off to a good start.

2. Bells (Karaoke Tundra & Peto Tazok Remix) - I'm guaranteed to love anything with the words Karaoke and Tundra in it, as I've said before. But curse my monolingual ways - all I can make out are those two words in the characteristically mad-as-a-hatter chopped vocal. Did Mr Tazok have to place KT in a straitjacket in order to finish the track, I wonder?

3. Bells (Millex/Latin Lover Remix)  - Here your ears get the old "kick/snare/kick/snare/here come the trancy synths" treatment. Enjoyable, but it fades out just as it gets going.

4. Bells (Milos 120 Remix) -  Hmm, let's see. *takes a swig* Ooh, glitchy, moody. No, wait, *sluices around teeth* here's a kick and a snare and *makes disgusting sucking noise* I'm getting some some bit-crushing and a taste of elderberry. Hey, it's minimal! *refuses to spit out* What's more, the tiny little pops and clicks create a melodic soundscape. *swallows mouthful and looks for more* Minimal fans might have heard it all before, but I found this remix to be an absolute treat. It feels futuristic. Excellent production, too. *hic*

5. Bells (Ear Drum Kru/Ring The Bell Remix) - Steel drums, a screaming James Brown - from Think (About It)? - and a sampled, silly vocal. What's not to like? It's a jolly dance-pop track that leaves me reflecting that the whole EP has put a smile on my face.

All of these remixes approach the one track differently, thus avoiding the curse of the "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" remix that makes you wonder why the remix was attempted in the first place. This is a fun, free EP that has piqued my interest in Foolk's forthcoming record. I hope it does the same for you.

Foolk - Bells Remixes EP (zipped album)

Deadred label

Foolk's website

Foolk on MySpace

Eyedrops and cigarettes and absinthe are all a Tribble needs

It's the internet - you have to expect Star Trek jokes.

I dread to think how many man-hours BitBasic put into making the eighteen minutes of music that constitutes Grating Rainbows, but I'm glad they did: it shows.

The first track, Soap, is schizophrenic. Its first minute is soothing trip-hop; the second is jumpy, glitchy funk. It's followed by Left Here, a 60-second jazz-funk workout with lots of stretched vocal glitches and a chiptune-ish quality to the hip-hop beat, if that makes sense.

Emaze is more "traditional" breakbeat and drum 'n' bass with skittering beats, a hoovering bass, a seductive female vocal (no lyrics, just "aaahs") and mellow synths jazzing away quite happily.

Next up is Shroom. Yes, you're right: it's fungus-inspired hallucinogenic drum and bass that starts off tunefully and then descends into frenzied smash-cuts and edits.

Amen Break Steals The Show begins with a slow rock beat and a jittery sampled guitar but the pressure tells; eventually it has to give the world's most famous drum break a good seeing-to, but does so between juicy organ chords, which leavens the mangling and gives the drums something to bounce off.

Any track that can use creaking doors as an instrument gets my vote. Grating Rainbows, the funky and melodic title track, does all this and more before unearthing a wonderful organ riff that struts all over the accompanying glitches then departs the scene to allow breakbeat mayhem to commence.

Watch Less TV is good advice and is also the seventh track here. It's stuffed with countless cheesy audio snippets from British television that may or may not tell the story of a torrid affair. (These things lend themselves to adding your own narrative.) Is there anything more bathetic than snooker commentary? "Enter the king of the nineties" is my phrase of the week.

The album ends with Rest, which I am forced to call experimental electronica because it jumps from one style to another - breakbeat, nu-jazz, hip-hop, glitch, etc. - before settling for chill-out. A slowed-down and stretched vocal bids us goodbye and says "take care". Health and Safety would approve.

Perhaps the mix is slightly muddy here and there, but that may just be my cheap headphones and personal preferences. The sheer weight of effects, synths, samples, and the plethora of editing and arranging on Grating Rainbows is certainly impressive, but better still is the fact that the album is an enjoyable listen. Once the ear gets used to the melee of jump cuts and glitches, Grating Rainbows becomes a lot of fun.

BitBasic - Grating Rainbows (link to zipped album and individual mp3s)

BitBasic's website

BitBasic on MySpace

Monotonik netlabel

"Yes, of course I've got my trousers on...oh, damn."

Just when CTW's musical palate was getting a bit furry, along comes the musical equivalent of a wine-tasting session: DVA's Ringtones for Mobile uPhones released on Surreal Madrid netlabel. There are no two-hour ambient drones here - the longest track is a minute long; the shortest, eight seconds. The "songs" range from fruity reds to the driest of whites, and I swallowed them all.

DVA are a boy/girl duo from Hradec Králové in the Czech Republic, who combine electronica (beatbox, loops) with traditional acoustic instruments (saxophone, clarinet, cello, guitar, accordion) and, er, doll. That's what it says on their website. Vocal duties are shared, though the female vocals make my tummy feel funny; ah, the Czech Republic, land of luscious lager and exquisite cheekbones. The country's also renowned for its theatrical and folk music tradition, and DVA (Czech for "two") spring directly from that; they got together during a radio recording of an Isaac Asimov play and have recorded a soundtrack for the classic film, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, and are deeply involved in making soundtracks for theatre performances. They are influenced by the circus, cabaret, beatboxes, the tango, electro-acoustic music, acoustic-electro music and "non-existent languages". Again, that's what it says on their website.

Instead of describing the various ringtones, I'm going to list the main elements of a few of my favourites - Nova Zprava: Cold War clarinets, Tyrolia Ring: yodelling, Alpen Ring: cow bells, Scifiring: jolly saxophone, Harmo Ring: low-fi accordion, Elektroring: glitches, Ping Ring: lots of drugs, Cirkusring: woodwind, Press Ring: typewriter. The last track, Trampring, sounds like a crazy campfire singalong - quirky humour is an essential element of this album.

Now, instead of forcing your phone to pump out the latest aural burp from the latest corporation, why not sluice your mobile phone's taste buds with an ambient ringtone, a dusty accordion ditty, or a glitchy, reverberating slice of out-there electronica? It's a very good sign that most of the tracks feel too short. DVA aren't afraid to experiment - you won't be able to guess what the next track will sound like. Music needs more people like them.

Train users of the world unite - you have nothing to lose but the disinterest of your fellow commuters.

DVA - Ringtones for Mobile uPhones (link to zipped album - it's a small download for dial-up users)

DVA's website

DVA on MySpace

Surreal Madrid netlabel

One and-a Two and-a Three and-a Seventeen

If you need something that will shorten the journey to work/school/college, and last just long enough for you to get dressed up for a night out or dance long enough to decide that you'd now quite like to sit down and sip a cold drink, here's something for you. It's hard to describe. It's something...something like...er...let me think...

It's Something Like Jazz by Foolk (formerly Foolcut), a Slovakian jazzy/glitchy wizard capable of dismantling a jazz tune and reassembling it into a chopped-up workout with hip-hop overtones. Listening to this three-track ep, you'll find yourself nodding your head and smiling, thus freaking out all your fellow commuters with the fear that you might be concealing some C4 explosive in your delighted mp3 player. Hey, at least one person on the dawn train to work will be happy. Progress, non?

By the way, the image at the start of today's article is the result of not having an album cover to post, and of taking the only suitable image on Foolk's website and enlarging it until it looks all pixelly and suddenly finding out that there actually were other images and eventually replacing my shoddy replica of Foolk's logo with a moody photo of the man himself and - ta-dah! - the pristine logo itself. As regular readers know, CTW is allergic to jpegs and electronic images in general. Sigh. My apologies to Foolk and Slovakians everywhere (for future reference only, because I have now redeemed the situation with the above photo. You never know when you might need a Slovakian get-out-out-of-jail-free card.) and the general public. And I love that buzzsaw/halo thing.

Still with me?

The title track is two minutes of saxophonic chopped-up jazz that bounces off a busy double bass, an organ and a piano. The drums are jazzy, edging towards funk and breakbeat. The whole tune has a terrific stop-start feel to it, which continues until the whole things slurs to a halt and you wonder how two minutes went by so quickly.

Glue Me features more double bass, funky drums, a staccato organ riff and a one-word lyric. It's strange how enjoyable it is to hear someone say "alright" between riffs and drum breaks. Foolk brandishes his electronica credentials mid-song by dropping a looped trumpet riff that pans from side to side and pitches up and down like a mad thing. Delicioso.

Push The Square pushes all the right buttons. It sounds as though a DJ invented a time machine and gatecrashed a 1950s trad jazz band's evening session at a club. The usual culprits appear - piano, double bass and wacky trumpet - but they get their groove on.

Foolk's style is subtle - his music is sort-of jazz, but with funky drums and a lovely chopped, jerky feel to it, with extraneous noises, a little light bit-crushing and mangled pitch and tempi to satisfy those of us who live in the early twenty-first century. The good news is that there are three other three-track albums on his website and they're all free to download. While you're there, follow the links and contemplate buying some of his stuff and/or going to one of his gigs. You'd be a foolk not to.

Oh, come on. I've been dying to say that.

Foolk - Something Like Jazz EP (link to individual mp3s at archive.org)

Foolk

Foolk on MySpace