NEW VIDEO: 'SECRET LANGUAGE' - ETERNAL SUMMERS

Here the brand new video for the track 'Secret Language' which is from Eternal Summers' 'Seasons' E.P. due out on Meal Deal on 22nd February 2010.

You can pre-order the E.P. here.

MEAL DEAL: TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2009

10. 'Primary Colours' - The Horrors

‘Primary Colours’ is by no means the records that anyone could have expected The Horrors to make, not one note on their debut ‘Strange House’, suggested this could happen. This is the sound of a band pouring molten lava over their record collections, and letting it fuse back together as a truly unique, glowing whole.



09. 'Love Comes Close' - Cold Cave

Some interesting things I’ve heard about Cold Cave this year:

1) Main dude Wesley Eisold not only used to be in Some Girls, and Give Up the Ghost, but more interestingly only has one hand.
2) He also has four houses and is a multi-millionaire as a result of suing Pete Wentz.
3) A friend of mine saw them live and described them as, “a bunch of goths in cagoules”.

I don’t care what percentage of these facts are true, because they all heightened my enjoyment of ‘Love Comes Close’ considerably this year.

08. 'Deeper Than Rap' - Rick Ross

As far as I can make out, this is a concept album about being rich and being very pleased about it.

07. 'Childish Prodigy' - Kurt Vile

Whilst focus seemed to fall on the high-volume of Kurt Vile’s output, more interesting was the quality and subtle radicalism of his music. ‘Childish Prodigy’, although bearing all the hallmarks of being tossed-off in a couple of days where he wasn’t drinking Buds and smoking packs of Lucky Strikes on his front-porch, is a total home-run, shaving the worthiness and conservatism from Classic American Rock and revealing the howling hurt beneath the demin.

06. 'Monoliths & Dimensions' - Sunn 0)))

Sunn 0))) could go on making the same record for the rest of eternity, and everyone would quite rightly shower them in adulation, whilst excitedly talking about their “intense” live shows. I’d never accuse them of coasting, but ‘Monoliths & Dimensions’, is an unexpected, mammoth step into new realms for Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson. This is a truly, (as the title suggests) monumental, record, adorned with choirs, strings, woodwind and organs, which perhaps for the first time in this band’s career, allow a crack of light to enter into their impenatrable black space.



05. 'Merriweather Post Pavillion' - Animal Collective

It’s likely that you have overplayed this record and are just as sick of hearing about it as I am, but nonetheless…

04. 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt.II' - Raekwon

Seeing as he’s no stranger to stealing from American-Italian culture, I don’t feel too bad lazily comparing Raekwon to Rocky. After being universally recognized as the heavyweight champion, with the release of his classic ‘Only Built 4 Cuban Linx’ in 1995, Raekwon took his eye off the prize, became fat(ter), complacent, and after a couple of very mediocre LPs, nearly coasted his way back into obscurity over the following decade and a half. Long mythologized for years, ‘Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt.II’ emerged in 2009 as a towering creative success; more than worthy of the ‘Cuban Linx’ tag and packed with the type of hard-boiled crime sagas and expansive, dusty, emotive soul beats that made every single one of those first wave of Wu solo albums so essential back in the early 90’s. I couldn’t really be bothered following that Rocky metaphor through there, but you probably know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever wasted 90 minutes of your life watching ‘Rocky Balboa’ hungover like I have.

03. 'xx' - The XX

Most people reading this, are going to be at least partially familiar with this record, so little more needs to be said about its aesthetics. What can’t be reiterated enough, however, is the quality, depth and emotional depth of this set of songs. Truly moving, stark and beautiful, whilst one of the best displays of straightforward songwriting in recent memory, ‘xx’ is truly a landmark debut.



02. 'The Floodlight Collective' - Lotus Plaza

Whilst Atlas Sound’s ‘Logos’ garnered all the attention, Deerhunter’s Locket Pundt, quietly released this stunning collection of sunny, reverb-drenched, songs under his Lotus Plaza moniker. Where it’s impossible to detach Cox’s music from his cerebral cortex, Pundt’s delicate set of songs, packed a emotive punch by virtue of their subtlety and lack of ego. It’s no easy feat outshining Bradford Cox, but on ‘The Floodlight Collective’, Locket Pundt manages exactly that.



01. 'Alphabet 1968' - Black to Comm

With ‘Alphabet 1968’, Marc Richter crafted the most sonically interesting record of the year, but also its best. Architecturally, this is a record that truly exists in three dimensions, with found-sound and ambience bristling through the stereo field, adding layers of poignancy to the aching folds of melodies beneath its surface. A record that subtly became my favourite of the year over the recent months, and one which I’m still looking forward to learning more about.

AN EVENING W/ ANIMAL COLLECTIVE & MEAL DEAL

ETERNAL SUMMERS

Originally hailing from DC, but now residing in the mountainous areas of VA, Nicole Yun started recording these “simple and pretty songs” along with her good friend Gary as a contrast to her other “more electronic and intense band” Mommies. Now, Eternal Summers are making some seriously sweet sounds inspired by the likes of Stereolab, Spoon and David Bowie and coming off sounding like a more heartfelt, more stripped-down Giant Drag, or even those early awesome Throwing Muses records.

Here’s an exclusive track from their self-titled E.P. due to drop on 14th January:

Download: ’Able To’ – Eternal Summers

FERRY, YOU'RE THE BEST.

NEW LILLICA LIBERTINE!!!

Our boy Lillica Libertine is really tearing it up right now. Along with being booked for Glastonbury, doing a prime-time Radio One session and being everywhere from NME to Mixmag, he has time to make really amazing tracks which single-handedly introduce slap-bass into the world of weirdly complex electro music.

Download:

'Love Affair' - Lillica Libertine

THA CARTER III

YES! Look what just landed in my hands.

Thanks to Lil Wayne for sending me a copy in recognition of the fact that I liked him before any other white person in the UK .

P.S. I've only listened to it once, but it's not as good as 'Tha Carter' or 'Tha Carter II'.

BODEANS

Seriously, one of the main reason we started this label was because of Bodeans. If you've never fucked with Bodeans before, seriously you should. With sushi eating dickwads overtaking the city, it's pretty refreshing to see a chain of restaurants who are proud to stick up two-fingers to the government's continual efforts to convince us that alcohol and obesity are bad for us by sticking a picture of a fat dude pounding a bottle of Bud on their website.

Trust me, I've eaten at some of the most badass diners in the whole of New York and Bodeans is up there. However, here's a tip: never sit downstairs. Only arseholes sit downstairs; the type of arsehole who would probably order a tuna steak with roasted vegetables from a rib joint.

See, here's a picture of upstairs. It's full of salt-of-the-earth kind of people, who probably like listening to The Hold Steady and eating burgers.

Now contrast this with the picture of downstairs. Look, it's full of the type of people who like ambient lighting and being an arsehole:

P.S. I once went to Bodeans on my own; had a Boston Butt, a Coke and watched the world go by from my uncomfortable window seat. At my last reckoning, that's pretty much the most manly I have ever felt.

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS VINYL IN PITCHFORK (THE SAGA CONTINUES)

It's the summer of sequels (hello, 'The Dark Knight', 'The Incredible Hulk', 'Tha Carter III'...and hell, hopefully 'Cuban Linx 2',) so Pitchfork decided to get in on the act and run the second installment of the incredible interesting story involving Meal Deal, a record pressing plant and the volume of A Place to Bury Strangers' music. You can read about it here.

P.S. If you came here by clicking the link in Pitchfork's article, then maybe don't click the link on this page otherwise you'll be doing an Aaliyah and going back n' forth all day.

A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

A Grave With No Name is a solo project that I've been working on for a few years now and is the product of me recording music in my bedroom with a variety of shitty drum machines and dusty guitars. At first I only uploaded the tracks to the A Grave With No Name My Space so that I'd stop adding parts to them as I'd been working on some of them intermittently for the best part of a year.

I'm in the process of recording some more music now, so it'll surface in some form or another soon.

peace

alax

Download:

'Open Water' - A Grave With No Name

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS RECORDS SELL OUT!

The yellow limited edition A Place to Bury Strangers 12" has now SOLD OUT via mail order.

You might be able to pick up a copy by going into one of the Rough Trade shops or somewhere similar.

The 10" of 'To Fix the Gash in Your Head' by A Place to Bury Strangers is now in! Orders will be posted out this week and they will be in the shops from Monday.

We've taken shitloads of pre-orders of these, so get one from here before they sell out as well.

A1 BASSLINE MIX

After a few months of trying to keep his identity under-wraps A1 Bassline has stepped-out of the shadows and fessed-up to being Christian Shank aka one half of screamo/toystep/electro duo Partyshank.

Anyway, everyone knew that for ages. The cool news is that we're pretty fucking stoked to be releasing A1 Bassline's 'Girl Thing' E.P. next month on Meal Deal, but in the meantime, here's a mix he did featuring some exclusives of his own interspersed between the likes of DJ Q, D'Explicit, Detboi and Chris Brown, before rather cooly ending with The Jesus and Mary Chain's 'Just Like Honey'.

You can download it from: here.





01 - A1 BASSLINE VS CHRISTIAN SHANK - JOURNEY
02 - CHRISTIAN SHANK - PLAY AROUND (A1 BASSLINE EDIT)
03 - ZINC - 138 TREK
04 - A1 BASSLINE - FASTERS BETTER, HARDERS BETTER DUB
05 - T2 - WHY
06 - WIDEBOYS - SEXUAL SEDUCTION (BASSLINE MIX)
07 - A1 BASSLINE - GIRL THING
08 - NASTI BOI - BANGORZ
09 - THE COUNT AND SINDEN - BEEPER (FAKE BLOD REMIX)
10 - FAIRY FAGGOTS - SAMO TI (A1 BASSLINE SWITCH REMIX)
11 - WIDEBOYS - WHAT YOUR THINKING (FT SARAH SAVILLE-UP NORTH DUTTY MIX
12 - CANDANCE WEAPON - HOUSE MUSIC (A1 BASSLINE REMIX)
13 - DEXSPLICIT - OVER YOU
14 - DUKE DUMONT - WHEN I HEAR MUSIC
15 - DAMAGED GOODS - YO RIGHTEOUS (A1 BASSLINE BIG MIX)
16 - DJ Q - SHOTTAZ
17 - A1 BASSLINE - BIG DIPPA DUB FLEX
18 - CHEMICAL BROTHERS - BOOT IT AGAIN (MOWGLI MIX)
19 - DETBOI - GUNSHOT
20 - A1 BASSLINE - ITS ALOT
21 - CHRIS BROWN FT. T PAIN - KISS KISS (DEXPLICIT REMIX)
22 - A1 BASSLINE - SOMEBODY
23 - JESUS AND MARY CHAIN - JUST LIKE HONEY

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS REMIXES 12"

Just in! 100 yellow hand-numbered A Place to Bury Strangers remixes 12"s.


We've sold over half of these in half an hour, so if you want one, order from the Meal Deal My Space now!!!!!

If you don't have Paypal and want one then email us at:

info@mealdealrecords.com

TRACKLISTING:

A1. Ocean (The Clapp remix)
A2. To Fix the Gash in Your Head (Lillica Libertine remix)

We're also throwing a CD copy of all the original tracks included on the 10" vinyl version.

A1. To Fix the Gash in Your Head (original)
A2. Ocean (original)

B1. Ocean (The Clapp remix)
B2. To Fix the Gash in Your Head (Lillica Libertine remix)

"Let them play one more song. This band is sick!" - NYC policeman before shutting down their gig.


P.S. The 10" is released Monday, we're shipping orders this week.

FERRY GOUW

Not only is Ferry Gouw in our favourite band Semifinalists, but he's also a wicked video director (check out this one he did for his good buddy Dev Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion) and the hottest illustrator around right now. Jealousy would usually lead me to hate him if he didn't happen to be one of the nicest people I've ever met.

Ferry has also designed all the Meal Deal front covers and t-shirts for us, but asides from this, he's also done work for people like Mystery Jets and flyers for his friends' club-nights like White Heat.

Check out more of his work over at his website which unsurpsingly is awesome.

P.S. If you don't buy the new Semifinalists album due out on 16th June, you are a doofus and no friend of anyone's.