The Good The Bad and the Ugly #9

R$N's Joe Evans dishes the dirt on this week's overflowing promo inbox. This week: Daniel Avery, Fazer and Cobblestone Jazz get a bit of a hammering/cuddle.

The Good

Daniel Avery: Need Electric EP. Phantasy Records. 13 July

Trumpeted as one to watch by Mr Weatherall and having remixed everyone from The 2 Bears to Metronomy, Daniel Avery turns in a very nice four track EP. Standout for me is Taste which features a nice chugging, percussive arp under digitally distorted vox, weird beeps and woozy synth stabs. All four are worthwhile though, coming from an artist using vocals and machines in exciting new ways. Good.

The Bad

Fazer- Killer. I'm not saying what record label or release date, you're not buying it.

Killer, by the newly solo Fazer, is a quick run down of the problem with pop music in 2012. There is the trance breakdown, the horribly auto tuned sung vocal, the obligatory stuck on rap, the oompa-loompa gait of the beat at the chorus, the pseudo dubstep sounds that crop up here and there. This could be Black Eyed Peas. It could be Lady Gaga. It could be Justin Bieber. As it happens, it’s Fazer, and it’s absolute turd. I shouldn’t be covering it, I’m too old to care and nobody listens to me anyway, but someone’s got to say something about it other than ‘Oh Em Jee, this is peng’. Bad.

The Ugly

Cobblestone Jazz –  Fabric Promo Mix

Tyger Dhula, Mathew Jonson, and Danuel Tate make up the brilliant Cobblestone Jazz. They have put together an exclusive mix for Fabric ahead of playing room 1 on Saturday 7th July, a mix which aims to join the dots between soulful techno and modern jazz; and it’s a dreamboat. Everyone from Morgan Gesit, Kenny Larkin and Plaid gets a look in and the result is a tour de force of offbeat, emotional electronic music with a bump to it that would please even Theo Parrish. Beautifully Ugly.

By Joe Evans