I’m having a bit of a Euro special this week on The Daily Growl. I spend most of my time writing about British or American artists, so it’s only good and proper that I cast my eye across the channel from time to time to check out some decent stuff from our continental cousins.
First up, from Germany we have MIT, who were the creators of Good Book, the LCD Soundsytem-alike tune which one of my favourite tracks of last year. I was initially surprised to see that Good Book wasn’t on MIT's debut album Coda, but after listening to the album, leaving it off seems an appropriate choice, because despite missing a top tune, it probably results in Coda being a more cohesive whole.
Although the press release flags up the influences of fellow-countrymen Neu! and Kraftwerk as reference points (and they are there), to my ears the album has been equally shaped by their nation’s love for techno and all sorts of 4/4 beats. It’s an album that is much more electronic than might be the case if it was three British teenagers making the music. Over here, this sort of thing would be heavily sprinkled with lashings of angular guitar and associated skinny jeans ‘n’ haircut posturing, but this album sounds and feels like it’s been lovingly created in bedrooms by proper techno-nerds, without the need to resort to rock antics. There’s a good dose of yelled vocals for sure (in German of course), but when the music’s this good, they often seem a bit superfluous.
If you want a soundbyte, you could say that this could be what LCD Soundsystem might sound if they had been informed by European techno more than New York disco. But then again, soundbytes are rubbish. Coda’s a good album and I’d encourage you to give it a good listen, turn the volume up and see how long you can keep your feet still.
Download: MIT - Park
Download: MIT - Coda
The album is released on Half Machine Records on 17 March. Pre-order from Rough Trade.
First up, from Germany we have MIT, who were the creators of Good Book, the LCD Soundsytem-alike tune which one of my favourite tracks of last year. I was initially surprised to see that Good Book wasn’t on MIT's debut album Coda, but after listening to the album, leaving it off seems an appropriate choice, because despite missing a top tune, it probably results in Coda being a more cohesive whole.
Although the press release flags up the influences of fellow-countrymen Neu! and Kraftwerk as reference points (and they are there), to my ears the album has been equally shaped by their nation’s love for techno and all sorts of 4/4 beats. It’s an album that is much more electronic than might be the case if it was three British teenagers making the music. Over here, this sort of thing would be heavily sprinkled with lashings of angular guitar and associated skinny jeans ‘n’ haircut posturing, but this album sounds and feels like it’s been lovingly created in bedrooms by proper techno-nerds, without the need to resort to rock antics. There’s a good dose of yelled vocals for sure (in German of course), but when the music’s this good, they often seem a bit superfluous.If you want a soundbyte, you could say that this could be what LCD Soundsystem might sound if they had been informed by European techno more than New York disco. But then again, soundbytes are rubbish. Coda’s a good album and I’d encourage you to give it a good listen, turn the volume up and see how long you can keep your feet still.
Download: MIT - Park
Download: MIT - Coda
The album is released on Half Machine Records on 17 March. Pre-order from Rough Trade.
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