RhoDeo 1306 Beats

Hello, the beats go on....so as had two weeks all about The Black Dog it stands to reason to direct some attention to the other part of the Productions, Plaid and have two postings here aswell. I was listening to the new Cave and The Bad Seeds album, Push The Sky Away, and I was impressed. Subsequently i played the winner in the Golden Globes alternative , Gotye and i was dissapointed, considering their 2 previous independant efforts, here was a corporate anthemic sound geared at the Snowpatrol niche, it should have been Jack Whites Blunderbuss price but they had him promoted away to mainstream. Anyway i can advise the first two albums by Gotye - Boardface (04) and Like Drawing Blood (06). Back to the beats


They have'nt gained a mainstream following. Their music, however, has not failed to garner positive reviews, on average. While IDM, and techno in general, they have experienced a fair amount of popularity at times, they have worked largely within the confines of the low mainstream appeal of their style .. .... NJoy

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Although Plaid preexisted the association, the duo's Ed Handley and Andy Turner spent most of their early recording years with Ken Downie as the dancefloor-confounding Black Dog Productions. Meshing well with Downie's vision of heavily hybridized post-techno and obscurantist thematics, the pair brought several nascent Plaid tracks to the Black Dog table on the group's debut, Bytes, a collection of tracks recorded by various iterations of the three members. The group recorded several albums and EPs throughout the early and mid-'90s, helping to forge a style of dance music one step removed from the 12" considerations of the average faceless techno act; Handley and Turner's mutual love for early hip-hop contributed BDP's more bawdy, street-level grit.

The pair split from Downie in 1995, and began rechanneling their efforts full-time with an EP on the neo-electro Clear label before signing to Warp. (The pair also recorded an album with European techno figure Mark Broom under the pseudonym Repeat, two tracks of which also made it onto the South of Market EP, released on Jonah Sharp's similarly located Reflective imprint.) Both of Plaid's first two full-lengths, 1998's Not for Threes and the following year's Rest Proof Clockwork, were issued in the U.S. through Nothing. Once Warp set up a home on American shores, however, Plaid made the natural switch with the long-awaited collection Trainer, a retrospective including much of their early, pre-BDP work. The proper third album, Double Figure, followed in spring 2001,

Aside from their own material, Plaid have done extensive remix work for many other artists, including Red Snapper, Björk, Goldfrapp, and The Irresistible Force,  the handy Plaid remix collection Parts in the Post was issued in 2003 by Peacefrog. The end of the year brought the duo's fourth proper LP, Spokes. Plaid were quiet on the recording front for several years,  Plaid collaborated with video artist Bob Jaroc for their live performances and on the 5.1 audio/visual project entitled Greedy Baby. The project was completed on 20 July 2005, and was first shown at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the South Bank Centre, and subsequently at the BFI Imax cinema in Waterloo, London. Greedy Baby was released on DVD from Warp Records on 26 June 2006.

Furthermore in 2006, Plaid composed and performed the original score to Michael Arias' anime film Tekkonkinkreet, and then went on to rejoin Arias for his second feature, Heaven's Door, as well as two of his subsequent short films. In 2011, they returned with Scintilli released on Warp, where their orientation on filmscores is still felt.  .

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After negotations broke down between former Black Doggers Ken Downie, Ed Handley, and Andy Turner, what was projected to be a three-disc set with nearly all the existing Black Dog Productions rarities became instead a two-disc set of Handley/Turner productions recorded during the first half of the '90s. Trainer is still a near-essential document of early British techno, including a raft of rarely heard classics like "Scoobs in Columbia," "Norte Route," and "Angry Dolphin," plus the entirety of their ultra-rare Mbuki Mvuki mini-LP. The Handley/Turner production aesthetic balanced sublime, Detroit-inspired synth with hyper-kinetic drum programs and breakbeat madness years before England's love affair with jungle. Grabbing tracks from far-flung but like-minded labels like ART, Planet E, A13, and Clear, Trainer includes over two hours of warped acid house from a B-boy perspective -- it's hardly a coincidence that Black Dog Productions shared initials with South Bronx's finest. Some solo efforts here too Andy Turner = Atypic and Tura, Ed Handley = Bilal.

Plaid - Trainer 1 ( flac 446mb)

01 Uneasy Listening 5:37
02 Anything 5:01
03 Slice Of Cheese 6:00
04 Link 6:04
05 Perplex 4:05
06 Summit 4:38
07 Bouncing Checks 5:29
08 Yak 5:51
09 Scoobs In Columbia 5:34
10 Chirpy 4:47
11 Atypic - Prig 4:52
12 Balil - Eshish 4:42
13 Atypic - Blah 4:47
14 Balil - Norte Route 5:15

Plaid - Trainer 1 (ogg 167mb)

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Plaid - Trainer 2 ( flac 462mb)

01 Fly Wings 4:06
02 Balil - Whirling Of Spirits 5:55
03 Balil - Choke And Fly 5:51
04 Balil - Small Energies 6:09
05 Atypic - Jolly 6:07
06 Tura - Letter 5:20
07 Tura - Soft Key 5:18
08 Tura - Reishi 9:01
09 Balil - Uland 4:09
10 Tan Sau 6:07
11 Android 7:00
12 Angry Dolphin 8:13

Plaid - Trainer 2 (ogg 173mb)

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In 2003, Plaid released Spokes amid the self-started hoopla of a return to the classic sound of pre-BDP-breakup classics like Mbuki Mvuki and "Scoobs in Columbia." Fans anxious to hear tracks minus the steel drums and overworked melodies won't be completely satisfied with Spokes; nearly all of this territory has already been plotted with more detail and flair on Handley and Turner's first three records. That said, it's a simple matter of deciding which of these retreads have traction anyway and which are so thread-bare they're in danger of dissolving completely. On the plus side, listeners will be able to rely on "Upona" and "Zeal," particularly excellent examples of the ghostly electro that first launched the pair back in 1995.

Plaid - Spokes (UK Version) ( flac 375mb)

01 Even Spring 5:24
02 Crumax Rins 6:00
03 Upona 5:07
04 Zeal 6:01
05 Cedar City 5:47
06 B Born Droid 5:31
07 Marry 6:47
08 Get What You Gave 5:16
09 Buns 6:40
10 Quick Emix 6:10

Plaid - Spokes (UK Version) (ogg 156mb)

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To the official soundtrack for Tekkon Kinkreet (which is actually a pun on “Tekkin Concrete”, the Japanese term for reinforced concrete). The score is a collection of well rounded and extremely intelligent tracks that tell a complete story of their own, combining ambient, electronic, and even pop-rock elements that are beyond any dimension of measurable classification. It is a lavishly warm album, wrapped with diverse instrumentation, like vibraphone, strings, bass, acoustic drums and jazzy riffs, all driving forward the cinematic perception of a fantastic world existing in a world of animated film. There is just way too much in this latest Plaid release to be put into words, so I’ll reserve to quoting Michael Arias from the liner notes:

[...] the music should have an analog, old-world feel, to compliment the nostalgic ambiance of the Treasure Town we see in the opening scenes. As we move into the second act, [...] old world analog will give way to newer, alien, synthetic forms: minimalist breakbeats and dissonant post-techno sounds. [...] This music will echo fragments heard over White’s dreams of ocean paradise and apple trees.

Plaid - Tekkonkinkreet Remix (flac 455mb)

01 Intro - My Kung Fu Remix By Derrick May 12:26
02 Ratsback2 - Saitone Remix 4:48
03 City - Valou Remix 8:10
04 Dawn & Dusk Chase - Go Home Productions Remix 5:17
05 Ratsback 2 (Drumcomputer Nerd Remix) Remixed By Atom 4:49
06 Thai Boxing - Qp Remix 3:19
07 Bar Kimura - Vex'd Remix 4:58
08 Snakes Lair - 8-bit Remix 2:50
09 Ratsback - Prefuse 73 Remix 6:47
10 Dragon Chase - Mathew Jonson's System 100m Mix 8:20
11 Kiddie Castle - Para One Remix 4:14
12 White's Dream (Shinichi Osawa Remix) 6:18

Plaid - Tekkonkinkreet Remix (ogg 172mb)

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Previously, last week and 04/12/08 re-rip

Plaid - Double Figure (01 * 174mb)
Plaid Remixes - Parts In The Post I (03 * 145mb)
Plaid Remixes - Parts In The Post II (03 * 137mb)

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