Pop Premiership Week 7 RESULTS

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Here's what braisedbywolves had to say. First off, a quick reminder to get your tracks in for this week! I will be sending out individual reminders tomorrow hopefully. Revelations at about 3-3.30 probably.

Over to Braised:

"I didn't really get much "OMG OMG What is this?" off anything here, though I'd definitely be up for more of 1st to 4th place. I'm not sure that I really made the best intoduction, there was at least one glaring omission (noted below), and I can see where I should have put "but only if it's good" at the end of some of my enthusiasms (or rather been more specific about what was good in them). Anyway, points for you lot:

01. Q and not U - "Wonderful People": Plinky post-punk guitars, silly falsetto, normal voice actually not so great, reaches for 'funk' a bit too much. I'll be amazed if I haven't heard this band before. 10th Place - LOSE - katstevens dragged back into relegation fight.

02. NIOWT - "City": It's Rihanna! No, it's some eastern-european-sounding lady (it took me some time to realise that she's actually singing in English), 'spooky' piano motif, general rattling swarm of semi-d'n'b high snares and guitars, and occasional boshing. I really like the kitchen-sinkness of it, but on the bits where she really kicks it up a notch, the rest of the track doesn't entirely rise to the occasion. 2nd Place - WIN - bengraham's busy squad wraps up bold victory.

03. Jeff Mills - "Step To Enchantment": Buh? The one glaring omission from my description (which might have given the people who actually know me an advantage) was Stuff What Boshes, but this just doesn't really go anywhere, for three and a half minutes. It's like someone had decided to make a dance remix of a microhouse track. Get 1x breaks! 11th Place - LOSE - dubdobdee gets his team selection badly wrong.

04. The Butterflies Of Love - "Take Action": Alt-country stuff here (my own fault, I should have made a list of what I didn't like as well), not bad slide into harmonies on the chorus. 8th Place - LOSE - strange_powers slips to first defeat of the season.

05. Number One Cup - "The Monkey Song": This starts off sounding like someone's specifically seized on the Weakerthans ref, which would be awesome. Short, exciting, xylophone solo! Lyrics aren't going to be scrawled on anyone's schoolbag, mind. 4th Place - WIN - a scrappy win for jel_bugle

06. Band Of Susans - "Ice Age": Oh, lovely proper indie! I not entirely sure I like this stuff any more. But I do love it. The longest track by a mile, lots of room for the guitars to stretch out. Not that I approve of that sort of thing, no no no (yes). 5th Place - WIN - xyzzzz_ stays in touch with the leaders after dogged win.

07. Fannypack - "Keep It Up": Ah, syncopation. Lots of stuff thrown in because it makes the track sound better, crowd noise (which should definitely been one of my five), tough girl-rapping over it, and a great breakdown. alexmacpherson, I suspect. 1st Place - WIN - dominant inhibitorylinks goes clear at top of table.

08. Mellowdrone - "Fashionable Uninvited": Hmm, this is some of the modern non-trendy sweeping indie, isn't it? I'd almost guess Keane if it weren't for the guitar. Maybe Muse, maybe a half dozen other bands I can't think of. I still like it more than I should, though points off for "this lovely song". 7th Place - LOSE - four defeats on the bounce leave fugitivemotel fans muttering.

09. Fiona Apple - "Get Him Back": It's the cockney PJ Harvey! I'm not entirely immune to it, it reminds me of some Michelle Shocked that I love, but the backing kind of throws me. Also I have now decided to compare it to Lush's Ladykillers, which does it no favours. 9th Place - LOSE - alexmacpherson's season blighted by inconsistency.

10. Lake And Cormega ft Greg Nice - "Don't Start": Like clever lyrics + not allergic to the hiphop = must like clever diss records, right? Right! This might actually have placed a spot or two higher if it was shorter, not much of crucial interest after the two-minute mark. 3rd Place - WIN - zenith's title challenge picks up steam.

11. Nina And Frederick - "Listen to the Ocean": Quite nice ancient track of the kind that you only ever heard ripped apart for samples these days, a nice low-key ender. This is quite separate from anything that I'd generally enjoy, it would probably score lower if there was a bumper crop of stuff in my comfort zone. 6th Place - DRAW - precious point moves hauntedballroom off foot of table.

Comments

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

This is like the most techno techno track ever! What on earth do you think techno sounds like?

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Billy Nasty, Flux Trax, Prodigy, Underworld, Ken Ishii, Flux Trax 2, Smoke Belch, Energy Flash, basically stuff where the percussive elements don't stay the same for eternity three and a half minutes. Techno should never be boring - leave that to house :)

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

In fairness this isn't entirely true of this track (and it's obvious I'm not really counting the cymbalish stuff as percussive), there is a 14-second segment where the beat drops away ... then comes back again as before. Both the "heavyness" of the beat and it's almost permanent presence makes me process this as a house track, because that was always supposed to be the telling difference, the 4-4 thump thump versus attempts to mix it up.

My test = play the track, move the iTunes 'needle' around randomly, see if the track sounds more the same or more different.