It took a fair deal of acclimatisation to the sheer weirdness of the sound of this album for me to get to the point where I could say to like it. Before that I think a sort of bewildered fascination best sums up my relationship with On All Y’All.

It is an amazing combination of hip hop and samples, and reminds me just a little of the Avalanches, except possibly even more lurching and uneven. I feel bad posting a couple of mp3s too, because the album functions as a whole, not as bits, but I still think you should hear some of it. It can be downright epileptic in the way it ducks and dives all over the places, builds up, lurches to a stop, reverses, changes direction again and generally keeps the ground under your feet moving so constantly that there’s rarely a moment to pause and draw breath.

Given this is a long way from being a style of music I understand and can therefore comment on with any semblance of understanding I feel a bit adrift writing this. This is compelling in a fascinating way, but there are still plenty of moments where I really, really am not getting it. Nevertheless, I can’t just put it on and ignore it either. It reminds me in some ways of those crazy, experimental guitar album that mix some surprisingly good riffs into minutes and minutes of barely structured white noise and feedback. There is something really bloody good in there, but it can be some challenge trying to tease it out.

Jib Kidder – Great Thieves
Jib Kidder – Aga Aga (Hiromichi Mix)

MySpace | More mp3s | Buy from eMusic

The Fightcast?  Yes, the fucking Fightcast.  Why?  Well because mp3 bloggers have been taking it in the arse with some force over the last week.  Posts are being deleted left right and centre, so presumably the major labels have decided to declare all-out war on blogs.  This is because they are scabby old unwashed cheesy penises.  This is not slander, I can prove it with charts and graphs.

Ultimately this is about corporate control of culture.  I don’t want to sound like a ranting conspiracy theorist, but put simply, this is how it works:  people pay for things they feel passionate about.  People feel passionate about art, the creation thereof and the participation therein.  Consequently any company vaguely engaged in cultural endeavours desperately wants to own the loyalty and devotion of as many people as possible, and anyone participating in this arena is a threat.  Grassroots art has more emotional resonance with people, people are more loyal to and more devoted to it and it is more personal.  Due to social networks of all sorts – blogs, networking sites, even something as simple as email -  it is an ever bigger and less controllable threat.

They want blogs to exist inasmuch as we provide free market research and free A&R, but if we think we have any influence, any rights, or indeed any genuine loyalty, they wish us dead.  Fuck them, fuck their little games and fuck the horse they rode in on.  If they don’t want to play with normal people then let them withdraw.  Let them take REM and U2 and fuck off.  I would rather form a massive great list of small independent record labels that do want to play nicely and only ever cover them and unsigned bands, and let the big boys compete with the X-Factor, if they think they can.  Fuck them, let them drown in their own greed.

Toadcast #43 – The Fightcast

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01. The Love Language – Lalita (02.20)
02. Honey Claws – Shout Out (07.14)
03. Findo Gask – One Eight Zero (10.56)
04. The Avett Brothers – Murder in the City (23.25)
05. Yusuf Azak – Ursa Major (28.02)
06. Miracle Fortress – Have You Seen in Your Dreams (30.53)
07. How To Swim – From Here to Dundee/Eternity (33.55)
08. Jib Kidder – Flip Flap (45.09)
09. Situationists – Onwards & Upwards (46.17)
10. Yusuf Azak – 19.19 (53.45)
11. The Avett Brothers – The Greatest Sum (Acoustic) (62.02)