SECURE SHOPPING
Kassem ‘The Boss’ Mosse will make his debut on Joy Orbison’s Doldrums imprint with a remix of Braiden’s “The Alps”, due for release next week.
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Since discarding illicit disco re-edits in favour of original compositions, Roy Dank’s Wurst Music label has barely put a foot wrong. Echoing the revival in interest in New York for off-kilter house, Wurst has thrived by specialising in house music that appeals to the nu-disco generation (see Neurotic Drum Band’s “Robotic Hypnotic Adventure” and Nick Chacona’s “Slice Of Life”).
This new EP from veteran Brooklyn house producer Henry Maldonado (Strictly Rhythm, MAW Records, Speak, Tirk) is another great example of Wurst at its best. While distinctly different from Maldonado’s distinctly sweaty dancefloor outings of the past – both “Till It Hurts” and “Push 4 Love” are far poppier than you’d perhaps expect – they still retain a distinct New York air, which is half of the fun with Wurst.
With Craigslist-recruited singer Javi on vocals, “Till It Hurts” is a nagging underground house/disco singalong that doffs a cap to Funhouse-era Jellybean, Prelude style synth disco and even Wurst’s penchant for delay-laden piano riffage. There’s also a decent dub for those who prefer instrumentals.
“Push 4 Love” continues in this past/present vibe, utilising some excellent Freestyle percussion sounds, classic basement bass and even hookier vocals. The accompanying Son of Sound Dub is, if anything, even better – all Latin Rascals style edits, a stripped down groove and copious amounts of delay.
Matt Anniss
Amidst a swathe of rumours and hearsay regarding the future of the iconic Technics 1200 & 1210 turntables, parent company Panasonic yesterday confirmed that production of the equipment has ceased and the line discontinued.
Aphex Twin, Space Dimension Controller, Legowelt, Shackleton and Speedy J are among a host of new acts confirmed for the 2011 Bloc festival.
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The Retreat imprint overseen by Yanneck Salvo aka Quarion and Session Victim’s Hauke Freer continue to lay the emphasis on quality, enlisting Iron Curtis to programme only their seventh release in two years. The German certainly doesn’t disappoint delivering a resolutely fine deep house moment across the A Side in “Cover Me”.
Swathes of Chicago loving pads punctuate the first half of a track, driven by liquid drips of bass and hi-hats primped with crispness. It’s the glorious drop into silence that prefaces the arrival of highly pitched vocal thumping 808 kicks and crazed key stabs that acts as the most pleasant slap in the face you’ll receive in 2010. Whilst Retreat is onto a winner with the A Side alone, it’s the multiplicity of sounds explored on the B Side which transcend this release into the realm of ‘MUST HAVE’. Straying far from the deep house template, the title track “Stumbled Across” is delightfully schizophrenic attempt at beatdown, driven by a deliberately off key array of snares, hi-hats and claps. Synths and keys are laid down with a similar degree of stutter to dizzyingly brilliant effect.
Flipping the script further is the all too brief “Creeps” which displays a talent for head nodding MPC choppage to a backdrop of ethereal chord patterns. Curtis ends on the short but sweet “All My Friends” with the click clack of a mechanical 80 BPM half step stutter set to repeat over a wonked out moog line. An intriguing insight into where Iron Curtis might choose to go next.
Tony Poland
Dates for the 2011 edition of the Winter Music Conference industry shindig held in Miami have been announced with a switch to the week beginning March 8 – 12 – some two weeks earlier than expected – causing outrage amongst attendees.
Resident Advisor opens polls for 2010’s best live acts & DJs
by Juno Plus on 17.11.2010 at 11:14am
The Christmas lights are up in Oxford St, the weather is rubbish and it’s dark at 4pm: yep, must be time for the end-of-year polls.
The future of DJing has never been so uncertain: with the death knell sounding for the once mighty Technics turntables, the concept of digital DJing is now in the spotlight like never before. New forms of software are appearing all the time, offering ambitious and creative DJs opportunities to turn their sets into unique performances.
Some software allows the user to experience feel of vinyl without lugging hundreds of records from club to club; others allow for music to be manipulated on the fly: live remixing if you will. With so many options at your disposal, the Juno experts tried and tested all of the major options on the market before coming up with this shortlist of the five best DJ software packages available. Read on to discover our recommendations…
Read the rest of this entry »
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Veteran selector David Rodigan knows a thing or two about Jamaican music. After more than 30 years in the game, his passion for the small island’s proud sonic heritage is as strong today as it was back then, as anyone who has seen him DJ recently can testify. His sets are as informative as they are entertaining, and Rodigan’s ability to capture the audience through his stage presence and tune selection is awe inspiring. It’s no surprise then that he excels on the latest Fabriclive compilation.
Representing the full spectrum of Jamaican music from dub to dancehall, modern roots reggae to classics, Fabriclive 54 is just as likely to wow a newcomer as induce grins from a seasoned reggae lover. For anyone who isn’t aware of who Augustus Pablo or King Tubby are, the first track “King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown” will certainly have them scouring both artist’s back catalogues for more dubbed out treasures. Legendary Deejay Big Youth’s signature style on “Waterhouse Rock” is a welcome addition to the already worthy riddim. Sicilian born but now residing in Jamaica, superstar artist Alborosie’s “Kingston Town” is a huge track that more than deserves its place, as does Etana’s Rootsy “August Town”. Romain Virgo’s voicing of “Live My Life” on the “Boops” riddim will certainly please fans of this classic.
Also featuring on this compilation, Super Cat’s “Don Dada” is a prime example of his adept delivery and style, while other dancehall classics featured on the mix include Pinchers “Bandolero”, Tenor Saw’s “Ring The Alarm” and the Bermudian artist Collie Buddz’s “Come Around”. Dub highlights include the deep and stripped down King Tubby classic “Roots Of Dub” and Joe Gibbs & Errol T’s “He Prayed”. Featuring other influential artists from past and present such as Prince Alla, Chezidek, Mr Vegas, Konshens, Beres Hammond and Sly & Robbie, Rodigan has done a stupendous job in representing a cross section of three decade’s worth of Jamaican music, but would we really expect any less?
Ben Daly
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Eastern Europe is proving to be something of a deep house goldmine these days. The arrival of Anton Zap and Nina Kraviz on Jus-Ed’s Underground Quality imprint built an invisible bridge between Russia and Connecticut, whilst unheralded Estonian producer Bakey USTL will soon appear on Firecracker sub-label Unthank. That won’t be the first time the Linkwood-Fudge Fingas-House Of Traps axis of Scotch drinking/house music has peeked beyond the Iron Curtain, with Ukranian producer Vakula (aka Vakula Karpenko) popping up with the fifth instalment of the famed Firecracker 10” series back in June.
Here we see Karpenko return with an EP on Under The Shade sub-label 3rd Strike, which has already released some deep house fire in 2010 from Erdbeerschnitzel and Mark E. Opening gambit “Nema” – evidently named after the vocalist it features – starts with a nice rolling drumline interspersed by live bongos, which rest snugly beneath Nema’s beautiful if indecipherable vocal sweeps. It shares the A-Side with “Nerve”, which opens in a Moodymann- “MEANDNJB”-style flourish, dropping immediately into a rolling analogue crunch which works nicely with bleepy synth chops.
The flipside commences with the extended bongo solo intro of “All The Same”, before some club-friendly kick drums arrive, riding above murmurings of sub bass as chord stabs drift in with a vocal snatch uttering ‘New York’ to set the mood. “Hoopa Loopa” follows in a more understated tone, with soft chanting replacing the tropical percussion, while “Beat Ja” – definitely the cheeky hidden gem on this 12” – closes out with pitched down vocal gurgles and raw junkyard drums.
Aaron Coultate
afx seaside specials from afx seaside specials on Vimeo.
A new and unsurprisingly weird video of Aphex Twin has popped up, accompanied by a hint that the mysterious Richard D. James will be performing at next year’s Bloc festival (via Fact).
Justine & The Victorian Punks – Beautiful Dreamer review
by Juno Plus on 16.11.2010 at 11:44am
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Originally out on DFA as part of the New York label’s exhaustive, enlightening and really quite impressive Peter Gordon retrospective, the story behind the two Justine & The Victorian Punks tracks is intriguing enough to warrant a separate release. The project was initiated by iconic visual artist Collette, who requested Gordon and his Love of Life Orchestra compose two tracks to accompany her Beautiful Dreamer bedroom based art installation. There’s a sense of musical heritage that runs deep through both “Beautiful Dreamer” and “Still You”. The tracks were recorded at the legendary Electric Lady Studios in just one night and have engineering credits from Jay Burnett who would later play an instrumental part in the release of “Planet Rock”.
The end result of this ultimately short lived collaboration was two tracks of delightfully decadent disco rich in detail and melody. Collette’s doe eyed spoken word delivery on “Beautiful Dreamer” lends the track an ethereal quality that is augmented by the soft melodies and backing choruses that skip beneath. This is complemented by the far sultrier “Still You” that comes across as Gainsbourg decamped to Greenwich Village and seduced by the exotic temptations of The Loft.
With the track’s originally being released on Collette’s own label Collette Is Dead Co. Ltd, original pressings are naturally near impossible to track down, so kudos to DFA for reissuing this release replete with the original saucy sepia toned artwork. The fact that Collette subsequently branded the music as ‘disco punk’ provides an inexorable link to DFA, with the label most commonly referred to as just that in the early “Losing My Edge” days.
Tony Poland
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The fascinating (and, when you think about it, wholly appropriate) concept behind Ostgut Ton’s fifth anniversary compilation was conceived by British born, Berlin based artist Emika. In a recent interview she revealed that on a night out at the label’s affiliate club Panorama she noticed the “metal panels on the walls resonating and the motors from the lights making noise”. And so, at that moment, Fünf was born. Some discussions with Ostgut Ton label manager Nick Höppner followed, and soon after Berghain and Panorama Bar’s family of artists were given a host of field recordings taken from within the club after hours – be it humming fridges, creaking doors or unseen footsteps – and asked to make a track using these sounds as their sonic foundation. The results are stunning, with a disparate yet inexorably linked sonic tapestry that ranges from subtle soundscapes (Emika’s “Changing Room” and Marcel Dettmann’s beatless “Shelter”) to dubsteppish techno (Fiedel’s “Doors To Manual”), minimal house (Dinky’s “Twelve To Four”) and straight up bangers (Shed’s “Boom Room”); indeed the latter reminds us how good Rene Pawlowitz is at making no-nonsense, unadulterated club tackle.
Elsewhere, Marcel Fengler shows his underrated production prowess on the growling “Shiraz”, while Prosumer’s “Daybreak” has the stripped back, thumping appeal that suits the house-cum-techno sound of his Panorama Bar residency. Höppner conjures one of the more sonically rich efforts in “ISP”, with layered percussion offset by mechanical groans, while Steffi constructs a groove on “My Room” that makes for a funkier house jam than most producers can conjure with unlimited sounds at their disposal. Others outside the immediate Berghain/Panorama family also make stellar contributions, with material from Hardwax employee DJ Pete aka Substance, Cassy, Margaret Dygas, Ryan Elliott, SCB (aka Scuba) and the aforementioned Dinky. Elliott’s “Abatis” is another standout, suggesting the young producer is a worthy baton holder in the famed Detroit-Berlin axis. Considering the relative paucity of sounds available here (yes, they were given four gigabytes worth but there are only so many sounds a building can make), the results here are as rich and varied as you could possibly hope. Think of it as a little slice of Berghain/Panorama for you to call your own – picky bouncers not included.
Aaron Coultate
We’ve got a pair of free tickets for this Wednesday’s much anticipated show headlined by Jazzanova, which will see them play with a full band for the very first time.
Various – Worth The Weight (Bristol Dubstep Classics) review
by Juno Plus on 15.11.2010 at 14:41pm
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Once again affirming Bristol’s significant presence and enduring credibility in the ever-expanding global phenomena that is dubstep, this compilation marks another significant chapter in the genre’s narrative history. Brought to you on Peverelist’s Punch Drunk imprint, the album is split across two CDs and celebrates the past five years of music from the city. The first disc is predominantly made up of work from the older heads – Pinch, Peverelist, RSD, Headhunter, Gatekeeper, Komonazmuk, Forsaken and Appleblim – whereas the second disc marks the achievement of the new wave of artists – purple wow trio Joker, Gemmy and Guido, Wedge, Shadz, Hyetal as well as a couple of tracks from RSD’s other alias Smith & Mighty and HENCH founder Jakes.
The first disc kicks off with Pinch’s “Midnight Oil”, in which swathes of instrumentals weave around a dark, oleaginous bassline, setting the tone for the compilation before we move through such highlights as Gatekeeper’s creepy, sci-fi bleeping “Tense Past”, Appleblim’s “Vansan”, the delicate, dancing melody of Peverelist’s “Roll With The Punches” to the tribal utterances of ’06 Planet Mu hit “Qawwali” around the midway point. Headhunter’s “7th Curse” is a stand out from the second half as is Komanazmuk’s recent release on Apple Pips, “Bad Apple” and RSD’s superb “Pretty Bright Light”. Disc two sees the aforementioned RSD make another appearance, this time under the legendary Smith & Mighty moniker with “B Line Fi Blo” – a track which, originally released in ’02, was re-mastered and re-released on Punch Drunk’s sub label Unearthed earlier this year.
From here, we are taken on a tour of contemporary Bristol through the synth-heavy sounds of Joker’s “Holly Brook Park” and “Stuck In The System”, Guido’s gorgeous, jazz-infused “Mad Sax” and “Orchestral Lab” (both taken from his debut album Anidea, which was released on Punch Drunk in May). Jakes’ obnoxiously bruising bass heavy riddim “3KOut” rears its head, but it’s the glorious Rustie-style technicolour “Pixel Rainbow Sequence” from Hyetal which concludes the album with a final flourish. This essential album of 2010 brings together some of dubstep’s defining moments and it has most definitely been worth the weight.
Belinda Rowse
The nominees are in for the 2010 DJ Mag Best Of British awards, providing us with the perfect excuse to celebrate another 12 months of musical creativity, diversity and innovation on this humble island.
It takes something pretty special to please the grumpy house music purists at Juno Plus, and the arrival of Larry Heard aka Mr Fingers on British soil certainly ticks the requisite boxes.
Representing the Glaswegian branch of the Turbo Empire overseen by brothers Tiga and T Von P is Sei A, whose new album White Rainbow will be encouraging many a techno head to dip into their wallets.
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Listening to the debut album by US producer John Roberts, it’s hard to believe that he is still in his 20s. Usually, it’s the case that such accomplished, detailed works are the result of years spent locked away in the studio, but in this instance, Roberts seems to have arrived out of nowhere with a mature palette. It’s audible from the get-go on opening track “Lesser”, where the sound of a hissing record proves the introduction for plaintive piano keys and raw, dubby beats. A similar musical approach prevails on “Ever or Not”, where a classical piano dominates a gentle house groove and with “Pruned”, a wide-eyed composition populated by rich yet foreboding keys and haunting woodwind, underscored by snappy drums.
Roberts tells a fascinating story on the title track, where what sounds like a cello is combined with subtle keys for a gloriously seductive dancefloor burner. Just in case any listener is under the illusion that Roberts is a virtuoso who has suddenly stumbled upon house music, he drops the wigged out acid and clipped drums of “Porcelain”, while his ability to squeeze new sounds and shapes from the long-existing sound is audible on “Dedicated”. Set against the backdrop of lashing rain and rolling thunder, Roberts’ heavy drums rumble in to accompany the kind of melancholic organ solo that only a great like Portable is capable of. That his debut album receives those kinds of comparisons proves that John Roberts is onto something very special.
Richard Brophy
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Having hooked up with multi-instrumentalist Tad Wily, it sounds like Retrofit boss Jay Shepheard is trying to push deep house in a new direction. With so much of the contemporary music in this bracket either trying too hard to appropriate sounds from the timeless US style or, worse still, attempting to beef up the jaded drums of mnml, Shepheard and Wily’s rawer, more organic approach is welcome. “Parallel Perc” provides a hint of where the duo is headed, with a groovy, low-slung bassline and dubbed out drums hinting at dance music’s funk and disco heritage – connections that are reinforced thanks to the use of soaring, orchestral strings.
“Haselnuss” has a similar set of influences, although the duo put a greater emphasis on a funk guitar riff and melancholy synth hooks while “A Sopot Connection” also doffs its cap to the 70s, with its prowling, predatory bassline sounding like a lost porn movie soundtrack, were it not for the accompanying juxtaposition of cool, icy synths. Finally, “TEC 1″ also references the late 70s and early 80s, but rather than disco, focuses on the primal electro funk of Cameo to make its mark. Like the previous releases in this series, Retrofit #3 shows that with a little imagination and some good old-fashioned perspiration, house music can still sound exciting.
Richard Brophy
