focused music news for week 37 : September 11th to 17th 2011

September 13 – This week is all about cult followings. First up is the electropop/synthpop/shoegazing band from Liverpool, Ladytron. With their fifth studio album Gravity the Seducer pushing the their sound that so many bands have tried to imitate. Ladytron is a name that is as common as pie and with plenty of die-hard fans supporting Ladytron this album is bound to make waves across the music scene.

September 13 – Next up we go a tad bit darker, but the cult following is just as rabid, God Module releases their new album Séance this week. I was shocked by how many of my friends are obsessed with them as I wouldn’t peg most of them for even liking the band. The new album Séance tones down the aggrotech allowing an identity to be formed, this separates the album from the countless other bands in the genre.  Yet, this album still has the God Module spooky sound that I think is what draws in all the hoards. Listen to a track from the new album on YouTube!

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September 13th to October 9th – Cut Copy is on tour and starting in September they pick up Washed Out and Midnight Magic. Be sure to check out our April/May 2011 Issue for a review of Cut Copy’s new album Zonoscope on Modular Fontana and the August/September 2011 Issue a review of Washed Out’s new album Within and Without on Sub Pop.

Note: there are other dates before and after this selection but they don’t include Washed Out and Midnight Magic.

09-13 – Montclair, NJ – Wellmont Theatre
09-14 – Portland, ME – The State Theater
09-15 – Buffalo, NY – Town Ballroom
09-17 – Austin, TX – Austin City Limits
09-19 – Indianapolis, IN – The Vogue
09-22 – Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall
09-23 – Urbana, IL – The Canopy Club, Pygmalion Music Festival
09-24 – Cincinatti, OH – Midpoint Music Festival
09-26 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
09-27 – Chapel Hill, NC – Cat’s Cradle
09-28 – Athens, GA – Georgia Theater
09-30 – Miami, FL – Grand Central
10-01 – Orlando, FL – Firestone Live
10-03 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom
10-04 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theater
10-07 – Vancouver B.C. – The Vogue
10-09 – Portland, OR – Wonder

- Mike

Jack Dangers has been making music for over twenty years.  His pioneering work with Meat Beat Manifesto continues to inspire and fascinate.  With the new album Answers Come In Dreams released in October 2010, Mr. Dangers shows no signs of slowing down.  The album is a dark excursion into dubstep, electro, and ambience.  I caught up with Jack Dangers to ask him about his work and his enthusiasm for electronic music history.

interview by Mike Parker

There has been a transformation in the sound of Jack Dangers and Meat Beat Manifesto. This process can be traced over the years. Recently, you acquired a Synthi 100, which is a rare and vintage synthesizer from the early 1970s.  Can you share with us your thoughts on the role of the Synthi 100 Synthesizer in this transformation?

JD : I’m looking at it now! Well, something this big coming into the studio is going to make its presence known and demand attention.  [writer’s note : The Synthi 100 is a massive instrument.  You can see a picture of one HERE]  It can be so many different things.  A synthesizer with 7200 control points available at your disposal makes it difficult for me to know where to start, really.  I’m still learning how to use it.  I think I always will be.  It’s so vast, what you can do with it.  Even if someone came up with a digital version of it, a software version, you wouldn’t be able to fathom what to do with it without being able to stand in front of the thing and start throwing pins in the patchbay grids to route the signals.  The people who designed it bordered on the eccentric.  It’s quite unlike anything I’ve ever used.  I’ve got a bunch of different modular synthesizers and they’re all pretty easy to grasp, but this one I am still learning.

When did you become comfortable with the Synthi 100?

JD : Probably after about three months of just playing with it.

When did your first recordings with it appear?

JD : I purchased it back in the late 90’s from the University of Adelaide in Australia.  I think there were only about 27 of them ever made.  Afterwards, I sent it away for almost a year for repairs and modifications.  My first recordings with it appeared in 2002 [on the album RUOK?].

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