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Pictures from some recent gigs we've hosted:

29 March 2013 - Brixton, London

Viv Albertine, VuVuVultures, Left Leg, Mickey Gloss, Big Wave, No Cars, Arthur Gunn, Simon Love (Pictures)

8 March 2013 - Lexington, London

R.Ring, Golden Grrrls, Slushy Guts and Equinox (Pictures)

On Our iPod

Deerhunter - Monomania (album)

Cosines - Hey Sailor Boy (7")

Proto Idiot - You're Wrong (album)

Goat - Stonegoat (7")

Kid Congo and the Pink Monkeybirds - Haunted Head (album)

The Fuzz - Air 7"

Mikal Cronin - MC II (album)

Mark Mulcahy - Dear Mark Mulcahy, I Love You(album)

Veronica Falls - Waiting For Something To Happen 7"

Various Artists - Polly Wally: Gritty, Buttshakin' Rhythm 'n Soul (album)

The Epstein - Murmurations (album)

Lightning Bolt - Oblivion Hunter

Robyn Hitchcock - There Goes The Ice (2x 12")

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Album Review

Karl Bartos
Off The Record Bureau B

Article written by Michael H - Mar 3, 2013

Karl Bartos is a former member of Kraftwerk and ‘Off the Record’ is a “re-contextualised” collection of some of the solo music he conceived during his time in the band.

Fans of synth-pop and electronica will find much to interest them here. ‘International Velvet’ is a languid machine-lullaby full of woodwind effects and in no hurry to go anywhere in particular; it’s weirdly affecting given the slightly alienating digital gloss. ‘Vox Humana’ has mutating rhythms and dubbed out radioactive wobble. Short instrumental ‘The Binary Code’ is full of rolling wire-frame Atari hills. ‘Musica Ex Machina’ is a crunchy electro banger, with a looped robot owl refrain and stretched out radiophonic final act. One of the best songs ‘The Tuning of the World’ is a beautiful ballad of dissatisfaction, the protagonist eventually finding solace in song: “I’m on top of the world; I’ve got the music in me.”

‘Off the Record’ is, perhaps, a bit sugary in places but for the most part Bartos shows a great talent for ear hooking melodies and has an engaging unabashed directness in his arrangements. Bartos has brought the best bits of Kraftwerk with him: blue sky synths, pounding minimalist proto-techno rhythms, steam piston beats; and has crafted an album of sophisticated tech pop songs and pulsing high energy dance numbers.

Links:
www.karlbartos.com/
www.bureau-b.com/