Saturday, March 21, 2009

Paper Bag Records strikes again.

We've been hearing Mike Silver's remixes under the name CFCF for a while now, and one original track, Crystal Mines, showed up on the last Paper Bag Records Sampler. Now in 2009 comes his debut EP, Panesian Nights, which is one of the most solid instrumental electroclash records I have ever heard.

Crystal Mines had been the stand-out track for me on that sampler which I had picked up either at a Laura Barrett show or a Woodhands show (I forget which it was to be entirely honest) and the whole record lives up to expectations I'd put forward.

Throughout Mike falls on to the Atari-like sounds that might remind you of Crystal Castles (who he, of course, has remixed) but with more depth than Alice & Ethan, by which I mean it is not exclusively the 8-bit synth. Don't get me wrong, I love Crystal Castles, but the way Mike has expanded his available sounds here while staying true to the genre really makes for enjoyable listening. It's always good to know that someone with such incredible remixing talent also has this creative talent of his own--taking the work of others and making it, in most cases, better, as well as creating his own works of beauty.

The album is available on iTunes for the very reasonable price of $4.99. I suggest you make the investment.

CFCF - Sogni Rossi

CFCF - Colour Dreams

Rating: 9/10
Released: 20 January 2009

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Crystal Castles are not exclusively 8-bit. I'd say they're 10% 8-bit. Some of their best songs have NO 8-bit (Magic Spells, Tell Me What To Swallow, Death Remix).