SECURE SHOPPING
Iconic Berlin imprint Get Physical will release an 8th anniversary compilation in October, featuring 19 tracks mixed by label stalwart Thomas Schumacher.
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The clamour and hype surrounding Tensnake’s remix of Azari & III’s “Reckless With Your Love” has surpassed the inner disco circle and spread as far and wide as Pitchfork and The Metro. That comes as no real surprise as both the remixer and remixee are certainly Premier League material. The liberal usage of C & C Music Factory splits audiences once the signature piano stabs are dropped in, but this remix alone is likely to secure Permanent Vacation one of their best selling 12 inches to date.
But yet, it’s not even the best remix on this record: that honour falls to Midnight Magic, who have already won many a heart via their debut single “Beam Me Up”. Employing a similar sound to that track, Midnight Magic’s remix has a vintage disco bump that submerged in cavernous echo, with the soaring string and horn arrangements laced over the chorus a true delight. Tuff City Kids aka Gerd Jansen and Phillip Lauer (Arto Mwambe/Brontosaurus) dispel with the vocal refrain and opt for some prime Muzic Box jack which brilliantly teases out an acid tinged variant on the original’s distinctive synth melody. The less than prolific German duo of Good Guy Mikesh & Filburt return from the wilderness with a brilliant burning deep house rework which rounds off a superlative remix package.
Tony Poland
LA beatsmith Flying Lotus will follow up his acclaimed 2010 album Cosmogramma with a seven-track EP, titled Patter + Grid World, to be released next month on Warp Records.
Wolf + Lamb don Gadi Mizrahi will bring his unique brand of decadent deep house to a sweaty East London basement this Saturday, courtesy of Love Fever.
It’s hard to believe Keith Worthy is still a relative newcomer to the production game – his first release dropped in 2005 and he started his own Aesthetic Audio imprint a year later – simply because his sound is dripping with the soul, polish and deepness of a Motor City veteran. Indeed Worthy is continuing Detroit’s proud tradition of emotive house music, but also pursuing his own unique musical path, and we were delighted to touch base with him to talk about what’s in his record bag this month…
The Faze Action boys are back again with another killer disco podcast, featuring the likes of Prins Thomas, Jacques Renault, Diskjokke and Rudy’s Midnight Machine.
Crosstown Rebels head honcho Damian Lazarus has compiled the 54th instalment of the fabric mix series.
Good news for house lovers of the deep variety: production buddies Mike Monday and Will Saul (both pictured looking silly above) have teamed up for a new EP on the latter’s Aus Music imprint.
In yet another intriguing artist/label matchup, Chilean minimal techno don Ricardo Villalobos will release material on New York disco imprint DFA this month, FACT magazine has reported.
The Juno Download minimal podcast hits middle age in style this week, celebrating its 40th with the likes of Jerome Sydenham, Nina Kraviz, Fluxion, Slam and even a bit of seminal Basic Channel.
Warp Records have announced details of a new EP from hotly tipped Glaswegian producer Rustie, with the five track Sunburst EP set for release on October 4.
Belgian imprint We Play House will release the debut album from San Soda next month, titled Immers & Daarentegen.
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Soon to release their debut album, She Was Coloured In, on Planet Mu, Irish duo John Kowalski and Rian Trench aka Solar Bears let fly with this excellent teaser. A rich combination of post-rock songwriting, pre-dance sounds and a healthy respect for pop’s more oddball and maverick producers goes into their songs, as well as a keen awareness of soundtracks, which seem to be their greatest influence judging from this EP.
“Trans Waterfall” is the opener and has the feel of a cosmic live band, in the vein of Prins Thomas’ recent output, with bass and live drums holding the rhythm down while feedback and synths unite to form a spacey melody. Just as it breaks down into a lush, reverbed acoustic guitar break toward the end, “Photo Negative Living” brings them back and puts them centre stage. Multi-tracked and sounding similar in tone to Steve Reich’s “Electric Counterpoint”, the Bears take an overused instrument and make it sound full of life again. It really is very wonderful stuff indeed.
The short and beatless “Inner Sunshine” drifts in, reminding heavily of Boards of Canada’s use of fleeting but heart-wrenching moments on “Music Has The Right To Children”, while “Kill On” unleashes a post-rock darkside as electric guitars come crashing on after a gentle start. This is highly impressive, highly unique stuff, and with excellent mixes by Letherette and Lone also included, this is an EP that could start a real love affair with this band. Roll on the album in a few weeks time.
Oliver Keens
Michael Mayer is a founding member of Kompakt Recordings, the Cologne imprint borne out of Delirium, the record emporium he was involved with alongside fellow Kompakt founders Jurgen Paape and the brothers Voigt. Since establishing the brand in 1998, they have forged a signature “Cologne Sound”. 2010 has been one of Kompakt’s strongest years, with the third instalment of Mayer’s Immer mix released alongside impressive albums from Walls and Thomas Fehlmann, with an 11th edition of the Kompakt Total series due later this month. Ahead of Michael’s appearance at Eastern Electric’s August party we got him on the phone to discuss the important things in life…
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Adam Jackson, known in dubstep circles as Kidkut, makes his long-awaited debut on Appleblim’s acclaimed Apple Pips imprint. The owner of Bristol-based label Immerse Recordings (which released early Benga as well as some more experimental stuff from TRG and Sigha) and erstwhile companion of the West Country dubstep massive, Kidkut has come up with a couple of excellent tracks, which would not be amiss in an aficionado’s record collection alongside the likes of Appleblim, Peverelist, Joe, and perhaps even Guido.
Now before we begin, yes, “ILove04” sounds like it could be the kind of thing you get emblazoned on a t-shirt, or an article you might read in Mixmag, but no, it goes much deeper than that. A tourist from dubstep’s past would no doubt go all misty eyed at the memory of 2004, but Kidkut ironically harks back to a previous time with sampled snippets, a brisk clip-clop rhythm and jolting chiming instrumental stabs. Gently shuffling, with soaring synthetics in the background, the occasional womp of sub bass is a reminder that this is no byproduct of the Joy Orbison generation, but a bonafide riddim from someone who’s been big in the game since its inception in the early noughties. Flipping over for “Lilt”, Kidkut tunes into a more melodic vibe, with a skipping breakbeat tempo, thudding breaks and an exotic medley of FX. Chirrups, bleeps, tribal patterns, quirky blimps and whinnying whistles punctuate the soundscape, making for a deliciously fragrant cut all round. Lovely.
Belinda Rowse
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Following a summer when Ritchie Hawtin has wowed festival audiences from Barcelona to Detroit with his newly revisited Plastikman project, Minus release this Kompilation. A Greatest Hits by any other name, it rounds up 8 of Hawtin’s personal favourite Plastikman productions. Kompilation is a chronological document too, commencing with the acid thump of “Plasticine” taken from 1993’s Sheet One and ending on the menacing abrasive throb of 2004s “Ask Yourself”. Sandwiched between you get the seminal machine drum funk of “Spastik” interspersed with the nocturnal insect stomp of “Kricket” and the escalating acid jack of “Marbles”. This release serves as a superb starting point for new converts who might have seen the Plastikman show at Sonar or Time Warp; it’s also handy for the Hawtin obsessives to see how their own Plastikman mp3 playlists compare to the master. In fact it’s more than enough to forgive him for THAT cube.
Tony Poland
On the eve of the release of Live & On Acid, a double CD compilation from New York techno producer Abe Duque, we are quite pleased to present this exclusive mix from Duque for your aural delight.
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The selection process for the Live At Robert Johnson mix series has been flawless so far – with the renowned venue in Offenbach, Germany enlisting Prins Thomas to mix up some delectable disco, Roman ‘Alter Ego’ Flugel to present his uniquely bleepy new school techno vision and Parisian Chloe to select refined house cuts on the inaugural volume. The choice of Arto Mwambe for the sixth volume seems a perfect fit; Christian Beisswenger and Phillip Lauer have made some serious remixes in recent times which have keenly blurred the lines between house and disco. It’s worth mentioning their Friendly Fires remix which in retrospect is much more impressive than Aeroplane’s ubiquitous effort.
Those with good hearing cannot fail to be impressed by the clutch of Arto Mwambe releases on their own Brontosaurus imprint either. The Frankfurt duo provide one of the best mixes in the series to date, eschewing the chance to show off their record collections in favour of staying true to the album title and recording a one hour live set of existing and unreleased Arto Mwambe tracks. The distinctive clap of the Roland drum beating out over hypnotic chords on the intro track “M.T.A.I.” sets the mood for what follows – vintage house sounds that veer between classic 90s percussion, deep melodies that draw you in, warm basslines that sit in your cranium and rhythms that set you off. What strikes you as the last kicks of closing track “BTWO” sound out is how well the eleven tracks flow, the mixing is perfectly judged and you are left with nothing but a craving to witness them repeat it in a club setting. Mission accomplished then.
Tony Poland
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Concentrating on the beats for this collection, Sonar Kollektiv have compiled a mouth-watering selection of instrumentals from their incredible stable of producers. With a selection of old and new, there’s as much here for the budding remixer as there is for fans of the German label’s inspired nu-jazz sound.
DJ Ghe’s “SchellePubaBeat” is a great choice to kick things off – flipping between different beats and samples like the instrumental of a hip-hop posse record, such as Mud Fam’s “Camden Wildlife” or Ultramagnetic MC’s “Chorus Line”. More conventional is the instrumental radio edit of Micatone’s “D-D-D-D-Dance” which shows the five-piece showing off their boogie funk styles over a midtempo beat that Quincy Jones would have been proud of during the “Thriller” sessions.
A real highlight is Jazzanova’s instrumental of their remix of 80’s soulsters Status IV’s “You Ain’t Really Down”. A tune that’s recently been remixed every which way after the acapella surfaced on the internet, Jazzanova really nail it and the instrumental shows why. A perfectly mixed set of toms, snaps, triangle and distant cymbals, this really is a drum track to get hold of if you’re into remixes – few producers make drums sound quite as good as this. Stee Downes’s “Obviously” on the other hand is a gentle and languid tune that doesn’t suffer at all from being shorn of it’ vocals – the tropicalia-inspired acoustic guitars and retro synths pluck out enough of a melody to keep you hooked.
Seiji’s instrumental remix of Reunion’s “Strange Attention” is perhaps the most vibrant beat on the collection – a nu-jazz/broken beat beauty that keeps the snares clattering and the bass thick, it’s ripe for some vocal addition. But you have to hand it to Jazzanova, who also include a beat-only version of their classic cut & paste track “LOVE”. Only using about two bars of each sample, the funk breaks fly by in quick succession and leave you slack-jawed at just how well they’re made to fit together. This album will certainly get plenty of intense listens, from fans and producers alike.
Oliver Keens
UK indie trio Friendly Fires will mix the next Suck My Deck compilation for the Bugged Out crew.
