Florian Meindl

I've been dabbling in a bit of minimal/tech/house sort of stuff lately, and in my search for tracks with a funky, chilled-out feel, Florian Meindl is one guy that has stood out.

Hailing from Austria, this DJ, producer and sound designer has studied at the London College of Music. His productions have a depth of detail and intricacy which characterises, for me, quality tech house.

His track 'Flashmob' - posted in Erol Alkan's Beatport chart in November last year - has the sort of bassline I could listen to all day.

I've been so overwhelmed by the amount of throwaway electro there is these days that stumbling upon this guy was like a godsend. There's definitely not enough of this sort of stuff going around Sydney clubs at the moment.


Florian Meindl - Flashmob (original mix)


Florian Meindl - Worms

Congratulations?

Psych-pop-rock luminaries MGMT have finally released Congratulations, the follow-up album to their massive 2007 success Oracular Spectacular, available as a free steam here.

The first thing that stands out for me about this album is...

Well, to be honest, I don't think anything stands out. Certainly not in the way that most of the songs on Oracular Spectacular did. Gone are the catchy synth lines and vocals melodies that we saw from radio hits 'Time to Pretend' and 'Kids'. Gone is the energy that made the more psych-rock tracks like 'Weekend Wars' and 'Pieces of What' immediately ear-grabbing. Instead, the album meanders at a steady pace with a succession of decent, but unspectacular, 60's sounding psych-rock numbers.

I guess it could be argued that Congratulations does flow better as an album than it's predecessor, which is something the Brooklyn duo set out to achieve. But, if their aim was to get people to "hear the whole album as an album", then I think they've failed miserably. I've tried to listen to it for a sustained period and I can't do it. It's just too boring.

Where Congratulations does succeed is being an album true to MGMT's current mindset. Not many bands go from obscurity to super-stardom the way they did, and they've mentioned in many interviews how uncomfortable they were with their new-found fame. They should be applauded for being brave enough to make such a huge change in their music, but that doesn't change the fact that the bulk of their audience is going to dismiss this album as a flop.

GTRONIC at Oxford Art Factory

On Saturday night the kids at Trashbags treated us with the return of Belgium's electro maestro GTRONIC.

There's no denying that this guy's music is perfectly suited for Sydney's underground electro scene at the moment, and he certainly whipped the crowd into a frenzy early on with some huge tracks.

Obviously enjoying himself, he sent the crowd even wilder by leaving the decks and crowd surfing on an inflatable boat.



As I said, it was a bit of a frenzy.

Inevitably though, the energy in the room died down. A two hour set was definitely too long and by the time he dropped his much hyped remix of Warp 1.9 the crowd could barely summon a cheer.

Here are some standout tracks from the set:


The Bloody Beetroots Ft. Steve Aoki - Warp 1.9 (GTRONIC BadAss Remix)

Jennifer Delano - Amsterdam (Riptide Remix)

Beni - Maximus (Harvard Bass Remix)

From Monuments to Masses - Beyond God & Elvis (Felix Cartal Remix)

Enjoy.

I like it when the bass drops

Here's a couple of bass-heavy tracks which I'm liking at the moment.


Lex Da Funk & Mixin Marc - Get Down (original mix)
Very clean, very heavy.

Les Gillettes - Pompeii (Obi Blanche remix)
Heard Erol Alkan drop this one on NYE in a club in Edinburgh - amazing beat at 2.35ish

To start this thing off...

At the moment I'm thinking this blog will be exclusively about music - probably not just dance/electronic stuff, but whatever I'm enjoying at the time of writing.