The Studio - West Coast

from factmagazine:

Gothenburg-based duo Studio will release Yearbook 2, a compilation of their remixes, on June 16 through independent label Information.

The follow-up to 2007's glorious West Coast (one of both FACT and Rough Trade's top 10 albums of the year) consists of 7 reversions (they're more like epic Balearic dubs) that Rasmus Hagg and Dan Lissvik previously created for the likes of Kylie, Love Is All, A Mountain of One and all-girl trio Rubies.

Described by us, among others, as the missing link betweeen The Cure, Manuel Gottsching and LCD Soundsystem, produced by Martin Hannett, Studio had planned to release their second artist album this summer. However, the pair have scrapped tracks they were working on and are now planning to take a live band into the studio with them this autumn. The resulting LP is expected in early 2009.

For now, at least, there's Yearbook 2...

west coast >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> yearbook 2

live band!! goodbye drum machines at the very least, then

btw would anyone mind upping the chinatown version? any good?

not sure what to expect with a live band, tho -- don't want to be reactionary hater, but i'd rather not see them try to break into the indie scene, & they're hardly shying away from it judging from their choice in bands to remix

there's some videos on youtube of the studio palooza tour from last year. maybe this is a taste of things to come. light show~!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2k5nwddr7s

I would much rather see them with a live band than behind laptops to be honest. The thing that's so great about West Coast is how they've made something so carefully constructed, so precisely sculpted, feel so organic and loose. But I'm not sure that approach would translate to the stage - full band all the way for me.

how much of the stuff on the last album was live?

Ah right, you're talking about the second record. Not sure it would make a huge difference to the end product, except maybe the beats, presumably they can afford to hire session musicians this time around.

"not sure what to expect with a live band, tho -- don't want to be reactionary hater, but i'd rather not see them try to break into the indie scene, & they're hardly shying away from it judging from their choice in bands to remix"

Although interestingly their remixes are by and large less indie sounding than the album - or at least more obviously enamoured with disco and sans wailing vocals.

Otherwise I get where you're coming from. I guess it depends on how they do it. I'm hoping that live band doesn't = live studio performance, because what's clear from both the first album and the remixes is how much of the magic of their work comes from the editing and overdubbing process.

But I suspect what "live band" means is: a lot of recording of session musicians and then editing/overdubbing everything into one piece.

"their choice in bands to remix" = the bands that are offering them cash. It's not like they're phoning up Love is All and begging to remix them. That's not how it goes.

it's not a criticism, patrick! but they're pretty hot right now - yearbook 1 / west coast got into plenty year end lists, they're remixing kylie minogue, and they're balearic's ambassador to the ilx-crit world - so yeah, i think they do get some choice so far as who they want to remix

i'm interviewing studio this week. any ideas?

(this is for real and, yes, i've never done an interview before. eek!)

(actually i did interview my girlfriend for my blog haha)

ask them why the u.s. release is missing 2 cuts~~ >:(

yeah and why did they edit "self service"

Ask them why I didn't cross reference West Coast with Yearbook 1 before I bought both only to discover the latter's got all of the former.

The weather is finally right to give this album another spin.

Listened to it this morning, and felt very summery.

Pre-order Yearbook 2 from www.inf000.com now

Payment through PayPal with free shipping worldwide. The CD will be delivered to you within two weeks.

www.inf000.com

via the fb page

Their rework of AMO1's "Brown Piano" is quite good.

none of the Y2 tracks reach the heights of 'out there' or 'west coast' but this is still one of the best releases of the year.

Ha ha poortheatre that's like a capsule summary of my review!

you heard it here first, folks

it's a remix compilation

Actually I'd probably rate the "2 Hearts" remix about as high as "West Side" maybe. Hard to say.

But it sounds more like Studio than it sounds like Kylie or Love Is All. On first listen I thought I might prefer it to YB1, but I'll think about that for a while. It's possible that I just prefer other singing to their singing.

I'm probably reading too much into things, but on the sleeve different tracks are described as 'versions', 'remixes' and 'remakes' - does this mean they might have actually re-recorded the songs themselves rather than working with original tracks?

Actually I'd probably rate the "2 Hearts" remix about as high as "West Side" maybe.

this gets a "yup" from me.

just noticed this looks to be upcoming ...

The Little Ones - Morning Tide (Version by Studio)
Fontän - Early Morning (Version by Studio)

eagerly awaiting the fontan record

What do Fontan actually sound like?

You can hear one track on their myspace

http://www.myspace.com/fntn

Intersting comparison to 'Flow Motion' in Tim F's review. I should give that album a new "recontextualized balearic" spin

Weird - that band The Little Ones seem to know people in big time indie remix land. They're pretty standard indie guitar pop, a'la Death Cab, but their last single had Stereolab and Crystal Castles remixes on it. Now Studio. Huh.

tim,

is pitchfork really the most appropriate platform from which to complain about ILE?

???

The most widespread and painfully boring critical line on "nu-Balearic" music is that its primary function is to render previously intolerable music tolerable-to-hipsters, redeeming Elton John or Paul Simon via the canny addition of a disco beat and some dub echo. This take isn't wrong, exactly, but it's the kind of sociological analysis that makes you hate the world a little bit more after reading it, rather like earnest discussions of how to woo soccer moms for votes.

maybe it was unintentional

^^^ we talked about this on the balearic thread, i think ilm mostly agrees w/ tim

rather than being the targets of his ire

i was referring to: rather like earnest discussions of how to woo soccer moms for votes.

but maybe tim doesn't read rolling primary threads

haha got it

rather like earnest discussions of how to woo soccer moms for votes.

Yes, this is a fool's errand.

the gipsy kings comparison is funny. reminds me of when i was doing the music for a fashion show and suggested some studio tracks ... and was told they might be a little too "world". which i thought was hilarious knowing that they're from sweden and look like this

heh, i thought of the primaries thread on that line too.

I think I have read the primaries thread once or twice but to be honest I kinda made up that comparison on the spot.

I'm amazed that a mongrel would click on the primaries threads, let alone follow them closely!

I certainly didn't follow them closely...

i'm amazed that a mongrel knows what a soccer mom is! don't they have rugby moms down there?

Australian Football League moms or soccer moms (or rather "mums") where I am - rugby isn't very big in my state.

The "Balearic" moniker really confuses me. I mean - I have a track on that "Nu Balearica" cd that just came out (yo. I'm broke) but my shit sounds nothing like Gypsy Kings or has sun-kissed-beachy-guitar-jangle/congas/swoops-on-E. What is this "Balearica"?