I am becoming slowly obsessed with the We Love album on Bpitch Control

I go into one at least once a week

it also sells comic books. and vinyl toys

yeah I am a dinosaur and like buying music at CD stores whenever possible

Same here to an extent, nowhere in town had it at the weekend - it's under £9 on Play though so I'll order it from there.

http://www.7digital.com/artists/we-love/we-love/

£7 on 7digital for 320K .mp3s.

I'd buy the CD but I have no space in my life at all....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/fr9p

well this is kind of a bitchy review

also "No Plane No Train" is fucking awesome

that reads like an old school "all techno music is SOULLESS and REPETITIVE and not as good as INDIE LIKE STEREOLAB" rock crit take on it!

that's ellen herself guesting on the "no train no plane" vox right?

this album is so rad, that review is terrible. hate this - 'no edgier than something yer average Soho-based graphic designer might enjoy given control of the iPod'

The whole review basically reads as "I really liked this, but I hate music like this, so I need to talk a bunch of shit to keep people from noticing that I really liked it"

^yes

Starting a review with "Say what you like about The xx ("Cheer up miseryguts, it might never happen!" is my preferred suggestion)" means I will read no further.

Hey cheer up the XX, every cloud has a silver lining! Worse things happen at sea!

http://www.ibiza-voice.com/story/news/2571

At least this review is concrete about why it's saying negative things about the album, even if I think those negatives are positives.

both of these reviews are so damn terrible.

there is still the nauseating feeling that the concept being sold is "Buy the right clothes (ours), the right music (again, ours), do the right drugs (coming soon), have the right haircut (Allien's) and everything will be okay." This ploy, of course, is just a bill of goods that fizzled out in a poof of men's hairspray and mascara circa 1987; a set-up for mindless drones to consume more garbage for the mind.

^ wtf is dude even talking about?

i listened twice. it was good, but not overwhelming. nice texture, but not many hooks iirc.

James McMahon is basically the worst music writer in Britain so whatever really.

the other review is appallingly written, haven't seen writing that amateur since my days editing the student mag. then again i'd never heard of "ibiza voice" before today so

i've read the first paragraph three times now, wtf??

but you know, i gotta say, i'm glad i heard this before seeing any of the pics of them!

lol @ the weird self-hatred and status anxiety in that bbc review. relax bro no1 cares how cool u r.

put this on last nite - thought it sounded a little empty but i still liked it a lot.

Say what you like about The xx ("Cheer up miseryguts, it might never happen!" is my preferred suggestion), but in dressing old Morcheeba songs up in the neighborhood Goth’s hand-me-downs, they’ve done a sterling job in repopularising the sort of adult-orientated easy listening the lawyers in This Life used to have sex on the sofa to circa 1996.

one-sentence word count: 58.

wow. also: awkwardly worded.

ooh, did the lawyer disses touch a nerve there?

halfway through, this is really great

that's ellen herself guesting on the "no train no plane" vox right?

It's the next step in her "no wars no cars" ban everything project.

I think that's Ellen Allien on a fair few of the tracks?

definitely sounds like it

This album is dope as HELL

I knew.

All of the commentary re: the album's growth as it goes along is OTM; somewhere around "Underwater" it just takes off from being a really enjoyable listen into a full-on body rush of awesome.

I absolutely love this album, but I would. It combines a lot of elements I really love in a beautifully skilful way. German precision techno? check! Italo arpeggios? check! Woozy boy/girl vocals? check! Hints of smooshy dreampop guitar? check! And yet instead of just sounding like a mush of contemporary namechecking influences (like I think (?) those terrible reviews are implying) it does manage to somehow carve out a soundspace which is both unique and compelling enough to keep resurfacing on my iPod again and again.

Those reviews, though are just o_0 missing the point. Though maybe that is kind of the point, that "Hey, if you hate The Knife, you will loathe this!" And the XX... hrm. See, I definitely heard the XX in this, but more in the atmospherics than the actual sound and textures. To me, it was more like "this is the album that the XX would sound like, if the XX actually *sounded* like their stated dance/electronic/urban influences..." But not really. (Or maybe. Because XX remixes sometimes sound sort of similar, texturally, to this.)

But. Those reviews are still ridiculous. I'm always suspicious of those kind of "lifestyle reviews" (especially from people who ostensibly appear to be the "I'm so indie I HATE lifestyle journalism and LIFESTYLES in general because indie is SOOOO not a lifestyle, nope!" school.) which draw conclusions about the Type Of People they think listen to this stuff. (Even though, sure, I'm sometimes guilty of this myself) Because it says far far more about the insecurities of the writer than any actual (or perceived) audience of the music.

I guess it's good that I got to hear the music initially without the packaging, because so much of the ire of those reviewers is about the image and the packaging and the "OMG, these musicians are STYLISH and EUROPEAN and offend my masculinity with their effeminate HAIR MASCARA" (like, yeah, sure, you will accept totally non-threatening masculine techno like Kompakt but anything on Bpitch is, like, soooo girly you might turn into an actual woman if it touches your earbuds?) No that the packaging would have bothered me in the slightest, but still. This record came out of nowhere for me, except the recommendation of some people I trust and it hit just the spots they said it would.

It's counterproductive, the way the old saw levelled against much electronic music (been there myself once upon a time) is "OMG it's so faceless and anonymous!" but the moment anyone puts a face on it, some people freak out at that face's being designed, because that means it’s somehow contrived. Sometimes it's almost like the complaint is "but electronic music is so mass produced and generic, it's like Ikea" - which is a valid criticism of *some* of it, but it ignores the fact that there are swathes of it that are actually more like Conran or Marimekko or Bauhaus-ian Breuer chairs (sorry, I'm losing my metaphor here because my knowledge of Minimalist design is not very good - there are cheap, mass produced versions of any design aesthetic, but that does not invalidate the well crafted, well designed examples of the aesthetic. (Even if your personal favoured aesthetic is the deliberately rough-hewn "look, this highly designed object is AUTHENTICLY rustic and thusly not designed at all, ever" this is still a design choice.))

I have definitely lost the point now because I've talked about the reviews twice as long as the music. Still, I like this album a lot. Some of the female vocals are Ellen Allien, some are not. I like that it's not always easy to tell. I like that it's a slow burner, the subtlety is part of the appeal.

Kompakt is a MUCH girlier record label than Bpitch, regardless of the artists on it. Most of Kompakt is totally comfortable with being soppy, girly, gay, whatever. A lot of Bpitch Control records (Orchestra of Bubbles and a couple of others excepted) are going for the cold, dark, warehouse vibe.

I know! I just thought it was weird that one of the reviews (the one that got most deeply into the "ew, this is so... poof of men's hairspray and mascara") would then go and pick Kompakt as an example of a non-girly non-artifice techno label.

But I do admit that I seriously did not really get the point of the review.

Is it my imagination or is the guitar solo on "Underwater" straight off One Hundred Years by the Cure?

That's the kind of "wait, waht?" touch I really appreciate about this album.

Haha you weren't the only one thinking there was a lot of Cure guitar on here, believe me.

Finally got this today and, yeah, it's great. Lots of sonic detail, which I like. That BBC review is absolutely terrible but it's by James McMahon so it stands to reason.

I bet this would make great WipeoutHD music

And some new video fun:

http://www.youtube.com/bpitchcontroltv#p/u/0/SlOaOxRedHg

i really dont get how/why perpetua is a music critic

Ugh, he's such a terrible writer.

It should be noted that a significant part of We Love's project involves fashion, and performances in which the two dress up in futuristic costumes. Of course, this aspect of their art is totally lost on record. Without having witnessed one of these performances, it's hard to say whether or not this adds anything to the music. However, just looking at photographs of the costumes, it's obvious that they are doing something sort of interesting. The suits have a familiar style derived from sci-fi movies and comic books, but intriguingly, everything you would expect to appear hard and rigid looks soft and flowing. Patterns appear where you would expect blank space. Cozy, pajama-esque fabric is contrasted with what appears to be pleather or latex. In some ways, their approach to visual presentation is the opposite of their approach to music. Whereas they go against convention in their costumes, their songs tend to be fairly generic electronic music, pretty much exactly what you would expect from something put out by Bpitch Control. They certainly have the skill to rise above unchallenging aural wallpaper; they do it at least four times on this record. It's just too bad they couldn't have been more consistent on this album.

It's an entire paragraph of complete waffle. What's unconventional about electronic acts wearing robot suits again?

Perpetua certainly has the skill to rise above unchallenging verbal wallpaper; he's done it at least four times in his life. It's just too bad he zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

He honestly writes like an A-Level student, in a rush, who doesn't quite understand what he's writing about.

it's obvious that they are doing something sort of interesting.

They an use that on the ads. Glittering prose.

got this album a few days ago and hasn't been out of my headphones since

Leaving aside Perpetua, just want to say that I absolutely fuxx with this album.

It's a better headphones album than for the speakers. I wasn't feeling it for the first few listens then I gave it some time on headphones.

you could do a good playlist mixing this with Dust so it slowly gets more and more clubby.

however there is a slight Fischerspooner vibe that I'm still not sure about.

haha i feel that way about pretty much everything on bpitch control; it's good, though, in a way, to have a little something like that nagging at you

that perpetua review is barely literate

"a-level student in a rush" is a perfect description of it

tried this a few times before, but it finally clicked for me walking to work this morning. think it was the combination of the swooning dream pop side of "don't cry" and the crisp autumn air

This album isn't a convention-shattering avant-garde tour de force, it is the distillation of a specific aesthetic into its purest form. That excerpt (besides being about the portion of this I find LEAST interesting) seems to point towards Perpetua approaching this album in exactly the wrong way.

Basically I think this sounds like a warm, inviting Knife album, something I didn't even realize I wanted until I played this.

DJP para 2 OTM. Finally got round to hearing this, instant LOVE. Gorgeous spacey/bassy intricacy, which totally hits my spot.

something I didn't even realize I wanted until I played this.

totally. perfect for long journeys in the weather right now (in uk at least)

yeah this sounds so great on yr headphones while walking round in the cold

That excerpt (besides being about the portion of this I find LEAST interesting) seems to point towards Perpetua approaching this album in exactly the wrong way.

what i think is funny is that i do find the album unexpectedly soft and pretty, sonically.

its really grown on me since i 1st heard it, gotten a lot richer and complex

this album is wonderful.

this is really good, especially 'hide me'

There is a new EP that I haven't got around to listening yet sadly

this is fantastic

based purely upon some sketchy memories of this thread i picked up the cd today (£3 special in Rise which used to be a Fopp).
once this heatwave is over, i can see this being a major playlister.
hits all the right spots for me ..

It's a real autumn-winter album, I could well find myself digging it out a lot in the next few months.

^yeah, played it at new year's eve when i had some friends over and more than one asked what it was
didn't know about the new ep - thanks for the heads up!

New single! Out in a few days!

http://soundcloud.com/bpitch-control/sets/we-love-end-of-the-night

don't forget about these guys, they are awesome

(yes I threw a bunch of tracks into iTunes "Play Next" queue and am bumping threads as they come up, don't hate)

i never new about the 2011 EP! YAY YAY YAY. I love surprises like this.

Playing this now for the first time in maybe five years. Still sounds amazing on headphones. Whatever happened to them?

one of the dudes put out a couple of 12"s

https://www.discogs.com/artist/2040961-Giorgia-Angiuli

not a dude, oops :/

I play No Train No Plane a LOT still