4Play: John Digweed, Morcheeba, Wavves, BT

Oct. 3, 2010

John Digweed - Structures - Essential Music
Digweed mixes himself into his latest three-disc collection edition,
right alongside plenty of equally accomplished dancefloor and
electronica talents like King Unique, Nick Muir, Dimitri Nakov, Luis
Junior, and Christian Smith, among others. Digweed’s skills at flow
and beat can’t be - well, beat - and the spins that he crafts linking
up these artists are both a great showcase for their music, and a
platform for Digweed’s own abilities. It’s difficult to pick a
highlight here as far as singles, but overall, this particular set is
marking standards for the DJ patterns of the future.


Morcheeba - Blood Like Lemonade - Pias
Morcheeba’s seventh studio album finds the band in their usual vein of
chilled-out, lounge-beat excellence - nothing drastically different or
experimental shows up here, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Mixed deftly and track-ordered equally well, the album opens with its
strongest tracks, “Crimson” with its mellow feel, “Even Though” with
its immediate pop hook, and the instrumental “Cut to the Chase” with
its trip-hop arrangement. A few of the songs are skippable - namely
the title track with its too-trendy vampire imagery - while the rest
are worthy of a rewind.



Wavves - King of the Beach - FP
As might be expected given the band’s name and the album’s title,
there are shades of The Beach Boys in this new set from the San Diego
band, as well as sprinklings of indie-rock bands like The Cribs and
The Shins. More produced than previous efforts, these surf-y songs
include the Shaun Cassidy-like “Mickey Mouse,” the short-hook appeal
of “Convertible Balloon,” and the ’80s-inflected “Baseball Cards”; the
lyrics sometimes directly oppose the peppy tunes with their repetitive
themes of isolation and “I’m a loser” complaints, but for the most
part it’s a catchy blend.



BT - These Hopeful Machines - Nettwerk
BT - aka Brian Transeau - brings a new level of pop to electronic
music, soaking his ambient-electro foundations in guitar, his landmark
stutter-edits (most likely crafted with the Breaktweaker software that
he developed), and plenty of vocal collaborations. Both danceable
tracks and even a few ballads are included here, from the album’s
first single, “Suddenly,” that features BT himself on vocals, to other
standout tracks “Emergency,” and “The Unbreakable”; the double album
also includes guest vocals from the always-busy Mr. Rob Dickinson.