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Listed: Alog + Sixtoo
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Dusted Features

Every Friday, Dusted Magazine publishes a series of music-related lists determined by our favorite artists. This week: Norwegian sample scientists Alog and Montreal hip hop artist Sixtoo.

Listed: Alog + Sixtoo


Alog

The twisted sounds of Alog have been duly heralded as some of the best that Norway has to offer. The duo, Dag-Are Haugan and Espen Sommer Eide, concocted their first 10” in 1998, before signing with Rune Grammofon for 1999’s Red Shift Swing, a manipulated mixture of field recordings and tangible instruments that drew from post-rock, jazz and minimalism. Two years later, Alog assembled taped improvisation and pasted together Duck Rabbit to great acclaim. Espen Sommer Eide also records as Phonophani, whose self-titled debut album saw release on Biosphere’s Biophon label.

Dag-Are Haugan:

  • Dat Politics – Tracto Flirt (Tigerbeat6) – French with rotten old PC`s, sweatmarks and cigarette-butts in their mouths pump up vital digital music. We love them.

  • My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (Sire) – Pure pop sensibility. I (Dag-Are) bought this record on vinyl when it came out in 1990. At the time I was living together with a few of my friends, among them the drummer of my pop-group Kant. When I played it for him, he actually thought that the hole in the middle of the record was punched out unevenly, because (according to him) it sounded so weird. I heard a masterpiece and I understood that to play it for him was pearls before swine. Naturally I had to fire him from the group.

  • Labradford – Prazision (Kranky) – A very important record for me. A fragile and wonderful double-LP. Desert melancolica.

  • Fennesz – Endless summer (Mego) – A romantic lovestory between the guitar and the chip.

  • Nuno Canavarro – Plux Quba (Ama Romanta) – Magnetic-tape analog electronic music, put out in 1988 in Portugal. Non-academic playful avant-garde. Ridiculously far ahead of its time.

    Espen Sommer Eide:

  • Gastr del sol – Upgrade & Afterlife (Drag City) – This record is the almost perfect marriage between electronic and acoustic music. The opening track´s sudden shift from electroacoustic minimalism to Morricone-like horns and cowboys is sure to give you shivers down your spine.

  • Dead Can Dance – Within the Realm of a Dying Sun (4AD) – Is this the most romantic music ever made? I don´t know – all I know is that a large part of my youth was spent listening far too much to this kind of music. Probably making my every brain cell vibrate in tune to these melancholy keys whether I like it or not. I will never play this record again.

  • Oval – ovalprocess (Thrill Jockey) – Markus is a strange man living among his Playstaitions and X-Boxes in Berlin, occasionally making music that is so far ahead of everything else, but that yet seems strangely familiar as if it contained a concentrate of all man-made music on this planet so far.

  • Asa-chang & Junray – Jun Ray Song Chang (The Leaf Label) – This record suddenly appeared from nowhere and made me believe that it still is possible to make something that really stands out as new.

  • Aaliyah / Timbaland – “Try Again” – Even though Timbaland is beginning to spread his talents out thin now-a-days, this track still must be one of the most groovy and innovative produced tunes ever to become a commercial hit.

    Sixtoo

    Sixtoo is perhaps the best hip hop producer/emcee you've never heard of. "It all starts and ends with a culture bigger than me and speaks for me more than I could ever speak for it," he says of the art that has shaped his life, and there's no denying it. Having been inspired by hip hop's golden era of Lakim Shabazz, Public Enemy and KMD, Sixtoo worked from the ground up, releasing a handful of tapes, teaming up with fellow vinyl archeologist Buck 65 to form the Sebutones, and now just beginning to realize his full potential. He released an instrumental project last year called Duration which saw an unparalleled level of texture and fluidity in hip hop production, and with a new full length set to drop on Vertical Form, as well as future projects with Mush and Ninja Tune, Sixtoo has a firm grasp on what has inspired him for so long. Sixtoo's new LP, Antagonist Survival Kit will be available worldwide on April 9th.

    1. Faust – The Faust Tapes (ReR) – Released in 1973 on Virgin as a series of outtakes (or something along those lines, I'm no historian...sheet!) this record contains the blueprint for all my favorite rock and hip hop stuff. Saturated bass and drums, clear highs and awesome orchestration of minimalist composition. Fucking dope. dope dope dope!

    2. L'experience 9 – Freak Out Total (Revolution) – Someone one told me that this is in fact a Canadian pressing of the Maledictus Sound s/t LP. It doesn't matter whether or not this is the case. Hot ass French psych-pop with really heavy drums and basslines though the (incredibly bizarre) landscape. Also worth checking out is the Revolution pressing of Reels Psychedelic in the same series. Bizarre violin/drums rocky French folky thing. Whoo!

    3. P16.D4 – Kuhe in 1/2 trauer (Odd Size) – Crazy German artrock record from 1984, one part music actuelle, one part pure death machine. I would like it if anyone could forward me the rest of the Selektion catalog.

    4. Les McCann – Layers (Atlantic) – One of the harder records to find in his early-70s Atlantic catalog, this one has become a well sought after blueprint for heavy hip hop production.

    5. V/A - New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media (Arch) – This record is what appears to be a late-70s library record edited and produced by Charles Amirkhanian. This is not a beat diggers record, but a collection of incredibly produced electronic pieces from the end of the glory days.

    6. DJ Signify – Sleep No More (Lex) – This record could only come from Staten Island with a clear view of the twin towers post 9-11. Guest vocals by my homies Sage Francis and Buck65 makes it an instant classic in the "deth kult/artbeatcumkrautrock" genre. Not out yet.

    7. Jel vs 2-Mex – DIYPartisan 10" (Memo) – The "all time champ of the SP1200" award stays in the nimble hands of the Themselves family. This time teamed up with one of the three reasons that I still love LA, 2Mex. eff what you heard, this is fresh off the meatrack.

    8. RJD2 – Here's What’s Left 12" (Def Jux) – Shit man, do we need a tag for this? Maybe we should all just take a breather and remove RJ’s penis from our lips. I haven't stopped playing this for three weeks straight. Nuff said.

    9. Super Numeri – Great Aviaries (Ninja Tune) – While almost everyone I ask pegs this as a Miles Davis meets King Crimson in a sleep deprived cloud, I for some reason cannot get it out of my box. Well worth the price of admission. Maybe it’s the seasonal shift, or perhaps it’s just an amazing record.

    10. Sixtoo – Antagonist Survival Kit (Vertical Form) – You couldn’t expect me to work on a record for the last nine months and expect it not to stay in my head for another three? 6 vocal portraits of people, one 20-minute suicide via sampler/drum machine.

    By Dusted Magazine

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