Playlist: 2011 Mid-Year Round Up

Playlist is a new (largely self-explanatory) feature, curated by members of Team FG. Simon has the pleasure of cutting the ribbon for our first Playlist - tracking his favourite albums of the year so far.

Words: Simon Opie

We’re half way through 2011 and with the Fete de la Musique here in Paris marking the equinox, it’s a great day to be out on the streets. If you’ve never tried it, by the way, it’s a cheap visit as you don’t need a hotel ‘cos it goes on all night – it got me thinking about the albums I’ve really enjoyed so far this year, and (being somewhat obsessive about lists) what my playlist featuring the best of the best of 2011 so far in less than 30 minutes, would look like.

Album Review: Battles - Gloss Drop

Battles - 'Gloss Drop' (UK Release: 7 June '11) // Words: Simon Opie

Battles’ 2007 release, 'Mirrored' was something of a sensation. The lead-off single 'Atlas' was an underground (and even mainstream) hit and the album uniquely broke through into dance from math rock. The follow up 'Gloss Drop' has taken four years to produce – a very unusual interval in these present times - and the quartet has become a trio with the departure of multi-instrumentalist Tyondai Braxton, son of a famously musical father.

Banjo Or Freakout

As promised in my latest podcast [link], here's a post about everyone's favourite Turin-meets-Londoner Banjo Or Freakout. I featured his ace track 'Mr No' in my March podcast, calling it "tabla infused dream pop". The good people over at No Pain In Pop appear to be releasing it on a 7" this July. Good call.

Banjo Or Freakout is the alias of Alessio Natalizia, from the mean streets of Italy's Turin and now living with his girlfriend in London. He seems to arisen from nowhere, having played only a handful of live shows and dripfeeding his tracks via his very own blog [link]. Saying that, Alessio managed to attract the attention of DFA records co-founder Jon Galkin earlier this year and has also been profiled at DrownedInSound.com. Luckily for me, he added me on MySpace a few weeks ago and I was instantly impressed.

Not only had Alessio been making engaging, progressive music but he had been kind enough to share the mp3s with anyone and everyone using a blog. This was my kind of artist. As for the tracks themselves, Alessio notes that they're not always the most accessible and he often goes down the ¡Forward, Russia! route of naming them after numbers. Except his are pretty much completely random numbers. I'm posting some of his more "poppy" stuff below as well as a couple of covers that he's done lately.



While 'Mr No' is a more uptempo song (at least musically), some of the Banjo Or Freakout material is dark and almost disturbing, like 'I Will Not Kill You Now'. I think the title pretty much gives that one away, although hearing Alessio's vocal at the very end has every hint of deranged psychopath to it. I'm sure he's lovely though.

Banjo Or Freakout - I Will Not Kill You Now [Yourfilehost download link]
Banjo Or Freakout - People And Their Belongings [Yourfilehost]
Banjo Or Freakout - Foundations (Kate Nash Cover) [Yourfilehost]
Banjo Or Freakout - Atlas (Battles Cover) [Yourfilehost]

Alessio has another couple of ace covers over (as well as all the above tracks and more) at his blog, which I suggest you check out at banjoorfreakout.blogspot.com and seeing as it's unlikely I'm going to post about this band anytime soon, here's Battles with a live version of 'Atlas'.

Battles - Atlas (BBC Electric Proms 2007 Live) [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace mirror]

I still don't really "get" Battles.