Absorbing the earnestly-nervous urgency of Thom Yorke’s rhythms, Modeselektor dial in a perfect collaboration on “Shipwreck,” a highlight from their latest full-length. Tony T. Datis directs the music video adaptation into a dark narrative. Wandering children set the scene, but keep watching as the cadence of the video begins to gather momentum; Datis finds his way into the phrasing of the music and the story becomes gripping as it moves on.

Thom Yorke, meanwhile, has quietly become a voice beyond his band or even his solo work, effortlessly stepping into extraordinary electronic collaborations in recent years.

And Modeselektor, for their part, have I think a real triumph with Monkeytown. I caught the duo in an intimate setting in Berlin, and was struck as always by their compulsive, sometimes whimsical invention – it comes across in their music, in the gleeful rapport they share together. That’s a fancy way of saying these boys enjoy messing around with music. (They also enjoy, in the show I saw, ripping apart the walls, fiddling with strobe lights, and spraying champagne on people. But that doesn’t stop them from operating their machines beautifully.) The album deserves a track-by-track review – I welcome guest contributions in case I don’t get to it – but in one terrific collaboration after another, Gernot and Sebastian craft perfect, dance-inspiring songs. The PR says something about how they still “assault the dance floor” with songs with “structure” but that doesn’t sound nearly as good as it feels.

Have a listen and let us know if you can put it better. With Busdriver, you get a much … less dark … sound than the one above, with some of the signature humor Modeselektor manages to make eminently danceable. On SoundCloud:

Modeselektor feat. Busdriver “Pretentious Friends” (MONKEYTOWN) OUT SEP 30 by Modeselektor

“Shipwreck” EP release, with HD video, is out on November 4.
Shipwreck @ Monkeytown Records

For everything else:
http://www.modeselektor.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Modeselektor/104116429625888?ref=ts
http://twitter.com/#!/modeselektor
http://www.myspace.com/mdslktr
http://monkeytownrecords.de/

I have no doubt that Cosmogramma, the album Flying Lotus describes as a “space opera,” will be one of the albums of 2010. Actually, I don’t even care if anyone agrees, because I know I’ll thoroughly enjoy it. The only bad news is that you’ll have to wait until May to get the release, coming out on Warp Records.

I happened to hang out with Flying Lotus the day he wrapped the record up (after I nearly succumbed to the horrors of LA traffic), so I got to hear the rough-cut. Taking off any music critic hat or anything along those lines, I just fell in love with it; my jaw was dropped. (Thanks, Steve – I wasn’t just pretending or trying to be nice!) I wanted to take it with me and keep listening all night, so yes, I look forward to even a watermarked advance, let alone my proper, DRM-free CD final. It’s incredibly lush, indeed operatic in its collisions of textures, and filled with guest work by the likes of Ravi Coltrane, Thundercat, Erykah Badu, and Laura Darlington. (You may know Laura’s husband, Daedalus; Laura has done a number of collaborations with him and with FlyLo in the past.) The cut with Thom Yorke on guest vocals was immediately a favorite of mine, and the combination of work by harpist Rebekah Raff and string arranger Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (of Outkast) make for an exquisitely beautiful journey. It absolutely fits his musical personality, but it also sounds very different from his previous work.

The results have a richness, a depth to them I think many will find irresistible. Like a great bandleader, Flying Lotus has pulled the best out of his collaborators into his musical world.

Steve Ellison (Flying Lotus) is a really humble, easy-going guy, and I think sometimes that shows in music. Some of that generous personality really comes across.

Anyway, I want to hear the mastered version and spend some proper time with the album and talk to FlyLo about it, and give y’all the coverage you and this record deserve. In the meantime, to whet your appetite, here’s the track listing and the gorgeous new artist shot and album cover.

Cosmogramma Tracklist:

01. Clock Catcher
02. Pickled!
03. Nose Art
04. Intro//A Cosmic Drama
05. Zodiac Shit
06. Computer Face//Pure Being
07. ..And The World Laughs With You ft. Thom Yorke
08. Arkestry
09. Mmmhmm ft.Thundercat
10. Do The Astral Plane
11. Satelllliiiiiteee
12. German Haircut
13. Recoiled
14. Dance Of The Pseudo Nymph
15. Drips//Auntie’s Harp
16. Table Tennis ft. Laura Darlington
17. Galaxy In Janaki

Via Monome virtuoso Matthew Davidson (aka Stretta, the man who has built a lot of the patches that give the Monome its unique personality), here’s a video that really demonstrates how the Monome turns a set of buttons into a way of arranging and performing music. Adam, aka makingthenoise, covers Tom Yorke’s “The Eraser” using a Monome 40h, Ableton Live, and the SevenUp Live software setup.

(You may remember makingthenoise from the East Coast Monome Jam, a Princeton convergence of Monomes and the musicians who love them.)

The killer ingredient here is Adam’s SevenUpLive, a Java application that combines 8 different Monome apps in one and integrates more tightly with Ableton Live.

SevenUpLive

On the software page, you’ll find a full file pack to recreate The Eraser as in the video.

It’s AES this week in California; I won’t be there, because I have a family engagement. But what I find interesting is that this homespun way of controlling music is very different from the typical studio/mixer paradigm you’re likely to see at a trade show. It may be a better model of the actual music.

Monome on CDM