the record, as mentioned previously, is called NOISEWORKS and features the following songs:

1. Noiseworks
2. Chasing Waterfalls
3. Guillotine
4. Vanderbilt
5. Silver Line
6. Pretend Tough
7. Minimums
8. Megasports ???
9. Heroic Jam
10. Dawson Mode

for those that follow these things, the record will be a joint release between Sensory Projects/Inertia and Heroics in april 2010. that’s quite s o o n.

there’s so much i can’t wait to tell you about but for now, refresh your memory by checking out these two previously released singles. both of these songs appear on the album in extended forms. the album version of “silver line” is almost twice as long as the one that is currently getting played on the radio. epic emotion. free downlow.

MP3: Faux Pas – Chasing Waterfalls

MP3: Faux Pas – Silver Line

today’s blog post will be about steve miller.

“WHO DAT?” you say?

(click play button for the answer…)

you love steve miller, and you don’t even know who he is. he made “fly like an eagle.” he made “jet airliner.” he made “rock’n me.” and, yes, he made “abracadabra”.

i’ve been on a bit of a steve miller trip over the last fortnight or so, culminating on the weekend when a friend and i DJed a steve miller tribute night, under the secret DJ names “J Milla and Ghostface Milla.” i suggested we call ourselves “DJs Flylike & Eagle” but was vetoed by my stupid friend.

ladies and gentlemen. steve miller. we’re going to “fly like an eagle” – through time. dig this evolution of a classic song. we’re gonna travel through FOUR DECADES OF FLY LIKE AN EAGLE. starting in the 60s. please note this is just a sample of the literally hundreds of songs that sample/ripoff/are inspired by steve miller band and “fly like an eagle.”

MP3: Steve Miller Band – My Dark Hour (1968)
the iconic guitar riff from “fly like an eagle” first appeared on a 1969 steve miller band record called “brave new world.” thats a good eight years before the song we all know and love was recorded and released. this song features paul mccartney on bass (credited as “Paul Ramon” – cheeky macca, bless you) and god damn if that isn’t him on vocals too. gotta be. this song is rock.

Video: Steve Miller Band – Fly Like an Eagle (1976)
flash forward eight years. here it is. i want to fly like an eagle! but unless you’re down with the “fly like an eagle” LP – steve miller band’s ninth (!) record – you won’t realise that this pop smash is actually preceded by a cosmic introduction that is required listening:

and then BAM:

Video: Dennis Parker – Like an Eagle (1979)
i’d like to think this was inspired by steve miller. probably not. but its fucking awesome. NEXT: ROBIN WILLIAMS. 10:00EDT.

MP3: Biz Markie – Nobody Beats the Biz (1987)
flash-forward another eight years. we’re in the 80s now. biz markie’s debut record goin’ off drops, and on it, this inspired “fly like an eagle”-sampling piece of self-aggrandisement.

MP3: The Neville Brothers – Fly Like an Eagle (1992)
lastly, we end up with the nevilles. it always ends with the nevilles. they released a cover on a 12″ that contained no less than 5 different dubs courtesy of masters at work. i have no idea which one this is, because i found it on the internet.

but its the best one. and probably the best cover of “fly like an eagle” i’ve heard. and i’ve heard a lot now.

listen:

i couldn’t find a video for that particular mix, but if you’re desperate to see the nevilles at their worst, here’s a music video for the original version, which stank like the dog’s bollocks. wait, actually… i’ve got no idea if this is the original. youtube dates it as 2004. but it looks and sounds like 1992. so confused. and what is a vevo anyway … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZhV2tqPH54

Video: Seal – Fly Like an Eagle (1996)
perhaps inspired by the neville brothers’ tepid re-imagining, we get rising superstar seal’s take on the classic. we are now a LONG LONG way from steve miller’s vision. this cover bears a mention for two reasons. one: its from the soundtrack to “space jam.” two: – no shit – seal starts jamming the lyrics from his hit ‘crazy’ into the proceedings towards the end. shameless, absolutely shameless. that is totally something that sting would do.

ok. thats “fly like an eagle.” there’s more steve miller where that came from. but are you ready for it?

i highly recommend, if you haven’t done so already, starting with part 1 (tracks 50 to 26) here.

25. Bibio – Lovers’ Carvings
i was really excited to hear bibio come out of his shell on his most recent album, but i thought it was a pretty schizophrenic record. when a friend told me that his new album was one part wistful pastoral folk and one part hi-fi wonky beat production, i assumed the results would be some kind of mash between the two. i had kinda hoped for something closer in spirit to the beguiling future-folk frankenstein’s monster that was his wax stag remix from last year, but instead ambivalence avenue sounds to me like two separate EPs put on shuffle. but i don’t mind, because “lovers’ carvings” is absolutely sublime.

24. The Emergency – Fantasy
melburnians do it better? there is a great remix of this track by italian dude bottin that is worth tracking down too. the whole emergency record is great.

23. Charles Spearin – Mrs. Morris
“happiness is love.”

22. Electric Egypt – The Invisible Spectrum (mp3)
picking one track from electric egypt’s mystical mixtape “impressions of the inexpressible invisible” is ridiculous. this is a hazy psychedelic trip best enjoyed from start to finish. get it here. last i heard, this dude was hanging in far north queensland – his myspace says “the remote tropics”.

21. Coati Mundi – No More Blues (mp3)
“no more blues, no more boo-hoo, from now on i’m gonna take my ink from the color pink..” big thanks to undomondo for tipping me to this one. new single from kid creole & the coconuts member coati mundi is pure sunshine and joy, and has a loopy logic to its arrangement that rewards repeated listening! i found this track just as summer was starting up, perfect timing.

20. Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks
stone cold classic. honourable mention to the song they did with michael mcdonald. that was golden.

19. Aoi – Played (mp3)
melbourne’s most intriguing beatmaker. download heaps of aoi stuff here.

18. Hudson Mohawke – Overnight
sounding strangely to my naive ears like its read from a page out of daedelus’ playbook – och, a translation into scottish maybe? – this is the most bombastic and gripping hudmo track i’ve heard yet. i really dug butter and its drippy glowy excesses, hollowed-out tricks and tacky trills, but “overnight” has something no track on butter has – balls.

17. Daniel Johnson – Goodbye Silhouette
you might not tracks from daniel johnson’s 2009 album (released by us avant-pop label moodgadget) on many lists, but his record “lazrus” is enthralling in its entirety. classy bedroom pop production, and not at all trendy.

16. Gold Panda – Police
this, on the other hand, is very trendy. but also very awesome. the whole gold panda miyamae EP is incredible.

15. Dance Area – AA 24 7
DO IT! few songs bore themselves so deeply into the core of my brain as did dance area’s nefarious stomper “aa 24 7.” ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS SEVEN SEVEN SEVEN SEVEN. imagine if someone could channel the forces of crazy frog for good instead of evil. the few times that i actually wandered near a dancefloor in 2009, like at the annual box hill hospital emergency medicine department ball – well, it was always this song that i wished deep in my heart would start playing. but instead, always with the black eyed fucking peas. oh yeah, and this track has an amazing film clip! max headroom meets 1990s winamp visualisation. DO IT!

14. Mobius Band – Say You Will (mp3)
kanye’s 808s and heartbreaks opener gets the lush, dramatic pop arrangement that it deserves. the track is tweaked into having a slightly sunnier disposition, but its still wistful. lets be honest, the whole 808s record, whilst amazing, was a massive downer – this cover is a lovely counterpoint to the bleakness of kanye’s opus. from mobius band’s astoundingly good covers EP released way back on valentines day – its free and still available here.

13. Matias Aguayo – Rollerskate (mp3)
ay ay ay was probably in my top 5 albums for the year – its hard to find a precedent for what matias aguayo has done on that record. suffice it to say, this song sounds like bobby mcferrin on acid, at a roller rink.

12. Kate Simko – God Particle
music to smash atoms to, indeed. this is the standout track from her soundtrack to the pbs documentary “the atom smashers.”

11. Basement Jaxx – Raindrops
jaxx doing what they do best – maxi melodic dance music that is, above all else, shameless. they are at their best when they are working without guile and working only to their own warped internal logic. their records, all of them, are very hit and miss. sometimes it seems their songs only work when it sounds like they are trying to please no one but themselves. the cringeworthy moments on their records generally, to my ears, are the ones where they are trying to ‘pitch’ to an audience rather than just indulge themselves. anyway. the 2009 jaxx record was patchy like all the rest – light years better than the last one, but not close to the almost-but-not-quite-consistently-great ‘kish kash’ – and raindrops is a stirring highlight. its a shame about the lame film clip, but it all just fits into the “crapulent/magnificent” jaxx duality by my way of seeing it. uh, the joker & ginz remix was awesome too.

10. Crystal Fighters – Xtatic Truth (Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs Remix)
revelatory – and more than a little rave-latory (see what i did there?) – remix of spanish hipster band crystal fighters from UK production duo totally enormous extinct dinosaurs. this remix makes good on the ecstasy that is promised but not quite delivered in the original. i like that this track ended up next to basement jaxx in my list because i think TEED embody that shameless feel-good maximalism that i associate with my favourite basement jaxx songs.

9. Bat For Lashes – Daniel (Cenzo Townshend Radio Edit)
i didn’t really even give the bat for lashes record a second listen but kept returning to the radio edit of ‘daniel’ all year. sure, maybe the differences are subtle and you’ll only hear them if you are into hearing that kind of thing, but i think cenzo townshend’s radio edit of this track is remarkably effective in turning what was a good song into a haunting pop classic. the edit is featured in the song’s official film clip too.

8. Giorgio Tuma – And Three Parasol Stars
italian singer-songwriter giorgio tuma channels both burt bacharach and the spirit of tropicalia. his 2009 album was my favourite dinner party record of the year – charming, quaint, warm, welcoming. it makes for easy listening, with all due respect. the melody on this track is so enchanting that it’ll be a couple of listens before you even notice the lovely (if beguiling) lyrics; this song has probably the catchiest couplet on his record, if not one of the catchiest couplets i heard all year, but buggered if i know exactly what its meant to mean: “Gleaming light on my fingertip / I design a ship with a see-through sail.” poetic and crystalline, those are my kind of lyrics. another tip of the hat to undomondo for this one.

7. Al Usher – Lullaby For Robert (Bulgari remix)
sure its a cliche, but each remix from bogdun irkuk (aka bulgari) is like mana from heaven. like a golden shower from god. this song will have you in its thrall within 30 seconds, i promise. press that play button down there, close your eyes, i’ll see you in nine minutes.

6. Major Lazer – Pon De Floor
this song that sounds for all intents and purposes like it was created in about 20 minutes. in conclusion i would like to add: major lazer.

5. Joy Orbison – Hyph Mngo
i didn’t get what the fuss was about initially, but eventually, like everyone else, this track got hold of me. simple, incredible.

4. Fever Ray – When I Grow Up (Version by D. Lissvik)
remember “nu-balearic”? studio member d lissvik followed up his great “7 trks & intermission” record with this remix, transforming the meditative original into a carefree jam, childhood play and innocence distilled into a pop song. this remix brims with hope, and celebrates the fanciful dreams only kids have – the supposed ‘darkness’ of fever ray all but completely excised.

3. Bullion – Time For Us All To Love
i completely overdosed on sunshine-psych beat king bullion at the start of the year, putting both his “young heartache” ep and his “pet sounds” mixtape on a rotation so high it was in the clouds. as a result i more or less ignored his material for the second half of 2009 – meaning that i can now return to it for the summer, which is just about perfect. it was hard to pick between this and “are you the one?” for this list, i love them equally – i went with this because it was the first one i heard.

2. Discovery – So Insane
probably my favourite album of the year was discovery’s self-titled. synthetic, effortlessly maxed-out pop that doesn’t hold back. and the tempo change in this song is just so perfect and utterly shameless. i really hope that everyone realises (including the band themselves) – this shit isn’t the side project, its the MAIN EVENT.

1. Beyonce – Sweet Dreams
technically sasha fierce came out in 2008, and indeed this track leaked on to the net more than 18 months ago, but hey, it wasn’t officially released as a single – the sixth from the album! – until june, and thats when it got its claws into me. i’m surprised there isn’t more straight up pop on my list this year but i guess i haven’t sought much of it out. this song is a remarkable feat of engineering, beyond beyonce’s typically thrilling vocal theatrics you’ve got the heaviest, weirdest pop production of the year. like timbaland of old, its not rocket science but it is at the same time utterly unique. and boy, the way that hi hat shuffle comes in during the chorus, playing off the that muscular kick drum pattern and completely transforming the song’s vibe, lifting the rhythm into the stratosphere, sublime! “somebody pinch me,” indeed! of course, it probably helps that, like every man (and most women) on the planet, i’d like to get into beyonce’s pants. honorable mention goes to shakira’s “she wolf”, weirdly, i felt this list couldn’t sustain them both, but now regret not squeezing it in somewhere.

shit list? great list? let me know by leaving a comment.

go make a cup of tea, settle in.
click play a few times.

when you’re done here, check out part 2 for tracks 25 through to 1.

50. Clark – Look Into The Heart Now
honorable mention to tim exile’s marvellously loopy family galaxy… i listened to the clark and tim exile records at about the same time of the year, they complement each other quite nicely. both of them very warp, typically technical and at times “showy” electronica, full of “i bet you don’t know how i did that” VST-bravado. each track has more ’special effects’ than a james cameron film. all in good fun.

49. Dorian Concept – Trilingual Dance Sexperience
paranoid radioactive hypercolor electrojazz that threatens to fall apart at any minute – file alongside zomby “strange fruit” and rustie “zig zag”.

48. The Very Best – Warm Heart Of Africa (Architecture In Helsinki Remix)
want a soulful vaudeville vamp? you got it. handclaps too, of course. gee i can’t wait for the new architecture record.

47. Suckafish P Jones – Caribbean Nightmare Agent (mp3)
globe-trotting voodoo riddim wizard suckafish p jones, originally from brisbane, released one of the strongest australian releases of the year, but you probably haven’t heard about it because it came out via spanish label disboot. its a free EP – download it here. its huuuge.

46. Marina & The Diamonds – I Am Not A Robot (Penguin Prison remix)
disco-pop production du jour on this remix from NY whiz penguin prison. the sounds on this track are so juicy and enticing – all those little cute synth and percussive guitar accoutrements, yum – that i didn’t realise until probably the twentieth listen how incredibly naff the lyrics are. indeed, as i quickly discovered after a quick search for ‘marina & the diamonds’, the original track is probably best left alone! but this penguin prison guy is a genius – his single a funny thing is particularly amazing – and i’m hanging out for his 2010 album.

45. Passion Pit & Wallpaper. – The Reeling (mp3)
i just couldn’t quite get behind the passion pit thing this year. i just didn’t buy it and i’m not really sure why, because it would seem like the kind of thing i would be into. something about it didn’t hit the spot for me. i loved that one drum fill in “the reeling” though. and even more than that, i loved wallpaper’s afrobeat revision of the track. a wonderful curio.

44. Joakim – Spiders
i’ve been waiting for the next joakim record ever since “monsters & silly songs” and i’m happy to report that its just as loopy, confused and inspired. while there may be no lonely hearts this time around, there’s plenty of tracks like ’spiders’ – psychedelised pop songs whose leisurely arrangements take many many listens to completely reveal their full splendour.

43. Yeasayer – Ambling Alp (Instrumental)
yeasayer’s production nous has come on strong, even stronger than their blindingly awesome debut record. shame you can’t hear any of it in the mix because of the slamming, distracting and ultimately very underwhelming pop vocal. so its a very good thing – and a huge relief – that they put an instrumental version out. only on the instrumental version can you get a true sense for how fascinating and detailed this track actually is. perhaps they’ll consider putting an instrumental version of their whole record out… or just dial the vox back a little?

42. Subway – Lowlife
“subway II” joins arp’s “in light” and kraftwerk’s “ralf und florian” as my three current favourite albums to get blank to.

41. Riton + Primary 1 – Who’s There? (Instrumental Mix)
i love basically everything riton touches. there’s a few different versions of this track floating around, all of them rewarding – similar to the yeasayer track (see above) i like the instrumental version the best because i can hear whats going on da mix betterer.

40. Mayer Hawthorne & The County – Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out
ultimately i was left a little underwhelmed by the mayer hawthorne LP, but it was always going to be hard to live up to this track. so instead of listening to his record i just put this track on repeat for 45 minutes and it does the trick. soul music.

39. Chancha Via Circuito – Prima
argentinian pedro canale (who also records under the alias universildo) released a chancha via circuito LP on zzk records that i very much enjoyed. this track, however, comes from a zzk compilation that also came out this year. i seem to only be dipping my toes into cumbia – thanks almost solely to the efforts/selections of lewis cancut over on the scatterblog – and i’m finding only some of it really sticks with me. its the tracks that i’ve come across via zzk that i find most engaging. when i first heard this song, i couldn’t get over how much it reminded me of jean michel-jarre’s zoolook (mp3) – the resemblence was so startling that i couldn’t resist mixing the two songs together in the emotions mixtape i made this year.

38. Wave Machines – The Greatest Escape We Ever Made
a remarkable indie pop song with an actually quite complex arrangement but you barely notice because there’s so much space in the mix that it feels like you can take a swim in it. i’m not sure why this band isn’t huge, they are english so its probably simply that they don’t have the right haircuts.

37. Fontan – Early Morning
this is what its like to listen to the fontan record.

36. Kharkov – Crustacean (mp3)
i am becoming of the opinion that young kharkov – aka melbourne’s john bartley – is a genius. he’s leaked out a bunch of different tracks and remixes this year over on his blog – including a frankly stunning remix of my track “silver line” which you can hear here – and he just dropped an amazing mix of organic minimal which can be heard here. there’s a full length coming out in 2010. this track comes from the second of three free compilations released this year by new weird australia showcasing unheard/obscure australian music. the NWA comps have definitely skewed heavily towards what ten years ago would have been called, uh, “leftfield music” – folktronica, “electronica”, glitch, ambient stuff – but even if that brand of electronic music is not your cup of tea you’ll still find something to love on each of their releases. while we’re talking NWA-featured artists, special mention to william gardiner, 48/4 and tom smith.

35. Junk Culture – West Coast
a great cut-up from illegal art dude junk culture. if you’re not sold on the first couple of minutes, hang in there for the second drop, its a vibe. trust me. for me this track works as a nice companion piece to that gold panda EP that came out this year.

34. Jimi Tenor and Tony Allen – Selfish Gene
anything that tony allen puts his hands near i try and keep track of, and his collaboration this year with slightly wiggy finnish jazz dude jimi tenor was spectacular.

33. Danimals – Christmas Worms Quest for Fresh Apples (mp3)
danimals is probably the most exciting thing i’ve heard emerge from this country in several years. don’t let the quirky vibe fool you – danimals is a rare talent indeed. there’s more going on in this song than in most careers, and the track barely reaches three minutes. complex melodic and harmonic ideas are let loose amongst really thoughtful arrangements, but its all done so effortlessly that you’ll never notice just how much is going on. and its all delivered with this kind of charming, fragile naivety that simply can’t be manufactured. and good god the boy can concoct (not to mention, deliver) some a-fucking-mazing harmonies. i’ve been watching danimals leak tracks out on myspace for what feels like years, but its just now that he’s starting to write the kind of pop songs that will deliver his music to big big audiences. deserving of all the hype you can throw at him and more.

32. Gui Boratto – Take My Breath Away
i spent much less time this year listening to this kind of music.

31. Super Melody – Nervous Energy (Thrown Back with The Luxury of Strings)
this luxurious slice of production music stepped right out of the studios of an old-school production music master – think janko nilovic, john barry, alain goraguer.. david axelrod maybe.. – and landed at the end of super melody’s debut EP. you’re going to love the super melody record.

30. Boy 8-Bit – Baltic Pine
i am such a sucker for this kind of thing.

29. Toecutter – Best Party Ever (Flight Facilities Remix)
i had the pleasure of seeing toecutter perform for the first time in newcastle earlier this year. it sounded nothing like this. i have no idea who flight facilities are, but i know who kool and the gang are.

28. Parallel Dance Ensemble – Weight Watchers
a friend turned me on to this gem towards the end of the year. new zealand mc coco solid teams up with copenhagen producer robin hannibal to turn in an EP of no wave disco that recalls the tom tom club and ESG. the only thing better than coco solid’s lazy raps on this track? hannibal’s incredible falsetto! what a heartbreaker. check out the end of the clip for cute dancing.

27. Miike Snow – Animal
an offbeat pop anthem written by the guys who wrote britney spears’ ‘toxic.’ so, yes, i was always going to love this. the whole miike snow record was great too. this is something darren hayes and i can definitely agree on.

26. Boris – Buzz In (Nosaj Thing Remix) (mp3)
something about the nosaj thing record didn’t quite click for me, but i really dug this remix of japanese psych-rock band boris.

onwards to tracks 25 to 1….

SILVER LINE is my brand new single.

download SILVER LINE for free below – or pick up a bunch of remixes on a special 5-track digital EP, available for only $5 at my mp3 store.

here’s what you get:
1. Faux Pas – Silver Line
2. Faux Pas – Silver Line (Kharkov remix)
3. Faux Pas – Silver Line (Kane Ikin remix)
4. Faux Pas – Silver Line (Loopsnake’s El-Aurian edit)
5. Faux Pas – Skwlver Line

listen in high quality here. downloads are available immediately in your choice of 320kbps mp3, FLAC, or other formats. only $5!

please email me if you have any questions.

MP3: Faux Pas – Silver Line

SILVER LINE contains samples and sounds taken from a track called “diving bell” by melbourne noir folk band The Orbweavers. i am heavily indebted to them for letting me take liberties with their sounds.

the single edit of SILVER LINE is three and a half minutes long, but the song will appear in its fully extended 6-minute running time on my new album, which is called NOISEWORKS and will be released in early 2010. the album will also feature a version of CHASING WATERFALLS as well as 7 previously unreleased “songs”.

a huge thankyou to all of the artists involved in the single, as well as franc tetaz (who mixed the single) and lachlan carrick (who mastered the bundle):

The Orbweavers: http://myspace.com/theorbweavers
Kharkov: http://kharkovweb.com
Solo Andata/Kane Ikin: http://myspace.com/soloandata
Loopsnake: http://myspace.com/loopsnake

only one click away from here, you can get it on a shiny disc for $18. after a relatively painless paypal transaction and a bit of a wait while it travels through the post, it’ll arrive at your home in an envelope i packed myself. but only two clicks away, you can have the whole thing right now, for free.

go on, do it. i promise i’m not looking.

i am in no way naive about file sharing. i love mp3 blogs and i love file sharing. i download heaps of music, and buy music rarely. and in countless conversations with friends, family, other artists, whoever, i’ve constantly maintained my opinion that i fully support file sharing, and that i would hope that my music is shared through each and every network. i do sell my music, but if you can find my music through other means and feel cool about doing so, so be it. i’m not making music to make money, i just want you to hear it. but even if i were in it for the cash, there are smarter ways to do it now than simply selling it. blah blah blah way of the future, new music economy, music wants to be free, and all of that.

so why does this mediafire link make me feel so dirty and… no, it couldn’t possibly be… maybe just a little… angry? perhaps thats too strong a word – we’re not in lily allen territory. but lets say “miffed.” i felt miffed. my initial reaction to the blog post was “hey, cool, someone likes my music enough to talk about it on their blog!” – my second reaction was when i hovered over the album image, saw the mediafire link, and realised that there it was, the whole thing just sitting there like a freshly baked, steaming apple pie thats been left on the windowsill. while old granny wanders to the front door to attend to the milkman’s visit, a devious freckle-faced delinquent sneaks around the corner of the house and nabs the pie right out from the open window, cackling with glee and running into the open fields to have his way with his stolen prize.

but wait, i thought i was cool with file sharing!

my heart sank when i read this:

I stumbled across a song by Faux Pas called “For The Trees” which I really liked, but could never find the album for. Years passed, I forgot about Faux Pas, but days ago, I came across it again, this time finding the full album.

an eager commenter asks: “this is amazing! have you got your “paws” on any other stuff by them?” our protagonist replies: “i’m not sure about their other stuff, I’ll scour the interwebs for it though! If I come up with anything, I’ll share!”

hmmm. i ain’t hard to find. i have a ridiculously OTT web presence – google “faux pas” and you’ll find this very website within the top few search results (and its been that way since way back 2006 when “for the trees” came out). so yeah, my heart sank a little when i realised that “could never find the album” meant “could not find it for free” and that “this time finding the full album” meant “this time i found it on soulseek, or bit torrent, or whatever.”

so. its not quite good enough to pay money for but worth waiting until a free download turns up somewhere? like – not worth going to the cinema for, may as well just wait until its on the telly? i think thats just my dented pride talking.

so what exactly is it about the mediafire link thats giving me the willies? confronted with the reality of whole-album sharing, am i uncovering a latent disgust for file sharing somewhere deep in my soul? well then, suppose i better delete those hundreds of albums i’ve downloaded over the years.

am i grieving my lost sales, sales of my CDs that never got to happen like little babies that didn’t make it to term? “file sharing” as a sort of grisly financial miscarriage, little bundles of cash that never got born… its definitely the sort of gross and unsettling analogy that would surely spice up some of those RIAA court cases. am i looking at this as “hooray, hopefully some people download my album and like it” or “oh no, there goes a few lost sales, gotta get my cash money, call my lawyer etc?” is there a little lily allen in me waiting to burst out?

perhaps this all actually has something to do with my own romantic notions of what it means to be a mp3 blogger, and what i feel mp3 blogs should or shouldn’t be about. when a blogger starts giving whole albums away, just zippin em up and out the door – it don’t sit well with me for some reason. some of the love is gone. i imagine my favourite bloggers to be like friends recommending me music – and good friends don’t dump whole albums onto your hard drive like, hey, check this out later, whenever. they sit you down, get you comfy and play you that one song thats going to get you excited. in my rainbow-colored fairy world, mp3 bloggers start you on a journey of discovery, they don’t just deposit you at the destination.

but no that ain’t right. this blogger’s heart is in the right place. and who is to say that by giving one of my albums away for free, he isn’t perhaps encouraging people to track down other releases and maybe even part with cash for them? its the same logic on a bigger scale.

no, i think its the ‘dented pride’ thing. being a tender-hearted and fickle human, i can generally trace “feelings of miffed-ness” back to some kind of ego bruising at the source. perhaps this is it, finally – seeing my album starkly presented on that blog, in full, in amongst countless other full albums being offered on that blog alone, in amongst countless other blogs all offering their own giant catalogues of mediafired and yousendit-ified albums, whole back catalogues zipped up in bit torrents, whole careers only one click away… a tiny glimmer of faux pas like a tiny speck of sand in a immeasurable galaxy of surreptitiously distributed pitchfork BNMs… it all just reminds me that although i’d like to think i’m a special flower, my album is simply one folder sitting on your hard drive amongst thousands of others, wedged somewhere in between the fauves and foreigner. and thats if i’m lucky.

ahhh, my Electric Light Orchestra Complete Discography torrent has finished downloading.

Soft Pink Truth – Big Booty Bitches Do You Party? (Soundslike SL07) 2003

Badly Fawked is a hip-hop group consisting of two swedish youngsters.

i think i have successfully been talked out of it – it being, the idea of releasing my album in 10 days time. you can get stuck into some of the reasoning behind the decision by trawling through everyone’s very thoughtful comments.

the basic gist is this: i’ve worked a long time on this record, and i’m going to enjoy showing it to people, so why not make that process last? some kind of analogy involving loads, and the blowing of them, and how perhaps i shouldn’t be blowing mine – which itself implies that the act of promoting a record in the most satisfactory way is something akin to a very prolonged lovemaking session between an artist and his/her audience – is obviously too low-brow for me to reproduce here on this sophisticated blog. but if this were a lesser blog i dare say it would be an apt analogy.

i’ll be releasing a single in a couple of weeks, possibly accompanied by a limited edition poster/t-shirt/coffee mug/haven’t decided yet. got an idea? let me know. the album will be february 2010, though i’d advise taking this with a dollop of salt as its not the first time i’ve announced a release date.

in the meantime, thanks to all the people who offered their advice. as a reward, they are all currently listening to a sneak preview of 4 tracks from the faux pas record. hidden at a secret location! i’ll give you a clue – its on the internet!

if you’re keen to hear, just drop me an email. no worries.

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for no particular reason that i know of, this blog was added to the hype machine this morning. to celebrate this, here are a couple of tracks i’m loving right now. if you’ve stumbled here via hypem… uh, welcome to the thing, good luck, you’ll get the hang of it. my posts aren’t always this long but they are ALWAYS this indulgent.

MP3: Dokaka – Creeping Death (Metallica cover)

dokaka is a japanese a capella artist who uses ‘mouth organ only’. i found out about him years back when he was recording wacky covers like this one, although to call them wacky is probably doing a disservice – this guy means serious business. he is not messing about. this is one intense, faithful cover of a metallica classic.

i was extremely excited to learn a couple of days ago that dokaka is back with a new LP of original material, released by sydney’s uber-weird dual plover record label (justice yeldham, naked on the vague, kevin blechdom etc). haven’t listened to it yet – i bought the download via paypal and just received the LP via yousendit this morning, from swerve himself! rad

MP3: Matias Agauyo – Rollerskate (radio edit)

dokaka was the first thing i thought of when i heard the new record from matias aguayo. its like if bobby mcferrin was a kompakt artist. its amazing, and this song is a stand-out.

MP3: Coati Mundi – No More Blues

my song for the summer! former kid creole & the coconuts sideman coati mundi steps into the spotlight for his first solo release in a while. it is fresh, fun and absolutely addictive. “no more blues, no more boo-hoo boo-hoo.” its five and a half minutes of breezy summer disco, incredible! my 19yo sister asked me to make her a summer mixtape – tempted to give her a cd-r with just this song on repeat for 80 minutes. thanks to undomondo for the tip.

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bonus beat – DOKAKA performs the theme from SUPER MARIO CASTLE – LIVE!

but first – here are two things i probably shouldn’t show you, but i’m too excited *not* to show you! and no, i’m not referring to my balls!

they are productions from the house de faux pas this week. i love them! works in progress. names have been changed to protect the innocent. streams only for the moment… both these tracks will be released in some shape or form next year – just like my album, right? ha ha ha ha!.. ha ha… oh. sadness.

Listen: Danish Grannies – Granny’s Danish (Faux Pas Monster Dub instrumental mix)

Listen: Lothar’s Singing Science – Space Opera (Faux Pas instrumental mix)

update: just so we’re clear – because its been pointed out to me that it is anything but clear – these aren’t tracks from the new faux pas album. they are 2 remixes i’m working on at the moment.. like i said, names changed to protect the innocent.

now, to get your opinion on something. press play on one of those above tracks, and then read on.

its occurred to me the last few days that its really only me thats delaying the release of my album. i mean, the music is finished. its ready to go. i’m just putting off releasing it because of a) some kind of conventional music biz wisdom about not doing anything in the lead-up to christmas, because, you know, important people are distracted and also b) some kind of conventional music biz wisdom about how a release should be co-ordinated so everything happens at once, digital & physical distribution coincide all at once with targeted promotion across all media platforms and all that toss. like thats the ‘right’ way to do it, right? Professional.

but i’ve got all the tools at my disposal to do it right now, if i wanted. i mean, i could upload and sell the mp3s on bandcamp – literally, i could get that shit uploading and it’d be ready to go by the morning. then tomorrow, i could go down to one of my friendly local cd manufacturers, put in an order for 500 CDs or so. i’ll get them back in about 10 days time, but in the meantime i can start selling them pre-order style via paypal, right here on this site. i can email people and tell them its out. no worries. send some free mp3s around for people to, fingers crossed, play on the radio or on their blogs. as for itunes & amazon – and selling it at the ‘real’ record stores, the ones that sell the shiny discs in the shelves – maybe i can figure that out later, next year.

its all kind of silly, you know? like, i have the record here, in a folder on my computer. its labelled “FAUX PAS – ALBUM 2009.” i could put it in a zipfile and rapidshare/mediafire/yousendit to you if you wanted. i’m only waiting because at some point i convinced myself that there was a ‘right’ way of releasing a record, which involves a lot of planning, and more waiting. like “you’ve waited this long, wait a little longer and do it right.” what does that even mean?

so… in what is probably only the latest in what i’m convinced is a growing list of incredibly poorly judged decisions – i’m thinking about putting my album out in 10 days time. i reckon i can pull it together. why wait?

i mean, you do want to hear it, right? hmmm. there may be a large flaw in my logic.

can someone please either talk me in to doing it, or talk me out of doing it? please leave your opinion in the comment box. thanks!

moodgadget (coincidentally celebrating their 5 year anniversary) was originally a spinoff from the ghostly international label, and is currently one of the most progressive and interesting young labels going around, both in terms of their sound and their approach to distributing music.

i’m crazy-proud to be welcomed into their gang. it feels very similar to last month, when i found out my track was going to be on a ministry of sound compilation. except this feels a lot less wrong.

Ghostly International Presents Moodgadget: The Nocturnal Suite

its a sprawling 38-track 2xCD compilation that covers a lot of ground and its a pretty inspiring thing to be a part of. its very much in the spirit of previous compilations put out by both moodgadget and ghostly – comps like idol tryouts, the synchronicity suite, and ghostly swim. a whole bunch of my favourite brand-new acts are on there too such as worst friends, d gookin, daniel johnson and mux mool.

the faux pas track featured on the comp is a special edit i’ve made of “rose’s lament,” released late last year on my free waterfalls ep (which you can still download here).

The Nocturnal Suite is eclectic, but even among its stylistic diversity (the liquid space-disco of Faux Pas’ “Rose’s Lament (Gadget Edit),” for instance, sits right next to Wild Yaks’ caveman-like “Crazy but Not Afraid,” which flanks 800Beloved’s Psychedelic Furs-esque anthem “Galaxies”), there’s a distinctly nighttime-y mood, folding acoustic guitars and sleepy vocals in with its distressed beats and synths. Daedelus’ remix of Praveen & Benoit’s “Chiaroscuro” clothes a distant clattering beat in ambient reverb swells and wisps of orchestral flutes; Bluejay’s “Blurry” wraps its bedroom electro-pop around a deliciously melancholy hook; City Center’s “Summer School” is an exercise in pastoral dream-beat, a psychedelic fog of a track that drifts like a late-afternoon beachside nap.

sounds good, right?

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updates and holiday snaps from my adventures in newcastle & queensland later…

in the meantime, i’m in the studio this week going through three years of faux pas demos, sorting the wheat from the chaff. so i’ve decided to make it a “twitter thing“, and we’ll see how it goes – for the next seven days, if you want to hear a never-heard-before completely unreleased faux pas demo, come find me on twitter and i’ll pick one at random to show you!

unfinished songs that for whatever reason Aren’t Good Enough! quality control thrown out the window, all this week on da faux pas blog.