Pictures Music At Juno Download

Review: Break beats and house music have become compatible again thanks to the rise of bass/funky, but the sound on Moonlight refers back to an older fusion of these sounds. The title track with its breathy vocal intoning 'dance, dance' and spiralling acid line over splintered breaks, sounds more like classic late 90s tech-house than anything contemporary. The dub version of Moonlight and All Night are also inspired by this period, but their chugging grooves, deep chords and spaced out vocals sit more at the house end of the tech-breaks sound and are reminiscent of Mr C or Terry Francis prodcutions from that time. The stand out track however is "Lucid", which sees Champs cut up a ghetto house vocal over an ebm-style bass for a lunging, menacing track that's impossible to categorise. Recommended.

Review: Dauwd caused a bit of a stir earlier this year with a free digital EP released through Pictures Music, and now he gets his first release proper with What's There. The title track is characterised by its melodic approach to bass music, with elastic synths and water droplet sonics accented with minimal, clicky percussion. It's a deceptive track which unfolds itself gradually, hitting you between the eyes with its emotional climax. The other tracks don't disappoint either, with "Acireams" utilising a straighter 4/4 beat with a palette of warm synth textures and clipped samples. Perhaps the real gem is "Ikopol", with its golden tones and bright bell percussion in combination with its rich bass and house untertones is perhaps exactly what you'd imagine a collaboration between Four Tet and Martyn to sound like. An incredible debut from what looks set to be one to watch in 2012.

Review: London imprint Pictures Music has swiftly aligned itself with the ever growing wave of talented young things making genre spanning music from machines - impressing with releases from Dark Sky and the perma fringed Seams. They reach out to Glasgow for their latest release, with 19 year old Koreless - currently being feted by the Young Turks and Hessle Audio stables - matching the labels previous output in terms of quality. Whislt there's been an overabundance of music revolving around steppy breaks, emotive melodies and almost orgasmic female vocals - the Hyph Mngo Formula if you will - "4D" impresses via the simplicity in production, eschewing layers of emotive musicality for a basic fairytale chord wrapped in snapping percussion, insistent bass and that all important vocal refrain. B Side excursion "MTI" is perhaps the stronger track, fuzzed out textures bubbling amidst the plughole drip of bass textures and subtle rhythms. It's hard to pin a musical style on the two tracks here, which is what makes so much music these days so exciting.

Review: Pictures Music continue their ascent as one of the most interesting new labels out there with this much awaited new release from Pokemon freak Seams. The young UK producer made a splash last year as one of a wave of new artists dabbling in a sort of second wave IDM movement, with the nerdish connotations of the 90s class shorn and replaced by the fact it's cool everyone spends their life in front of a Macbook. Whereas his first release Tourist was formed out of field recordings whilst in Berlin, Focus Energy sees Seams indulge in something altogether more sweat inducing. Borne out of a desire to get gig attendees to dance as opposed to merely nod heads, the two tracks here achieve that with aplomb! Both "Focus Energy" and "Motive Order" use the same ingredients but veer in thrillingly disparate directions, with the former a stripped down array of vocal stabs and deft percussion which is given plenty of upward momentum by the insistent melodic builds. In contrast "Motive Order" delights with chaotic urgency, exploding into the sort of thrilling sounds you'd expect on Border Community. Little wonder James Holden is a fan then.