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Following a brace of zeitgeist-surfing Fabriclive mixes from Pearson Sound and Jackmaster, it was today confirmed that drum and bass pioneer Goldie will curate the 58th edition of the venerable mix series.
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It’s hard not to see Passed Me By as an artistic leap forward for British producer Andy Stott. His obsessively refined style of moody dub techno has been bolstered by the use of vocal snippets and raw, crackling atmospherics – the culmination of a gradual move away from his earlier productions which purveyed sparse, icy and clinical moods. This is visually represented by the magnificent artwork that adorns this release, with both sides of the double 12″ fronted by a frankly scary looking tribesman bearing impressive battle scars.
Strictly a double EP rather than an album, Passed Me By opens with the subversive paranoia of “Signature”- a short, unsettling introductory piece that channels the kind of malevolent forces employed by Modern Love label partners Demdike Stare. This leads to the brilliant “New Ground”, which utilises a drowned-out vocal sample that immediately brings to mind the work of Actress (most notably tracks like “Lost”), which is buried deep beneath dense loops. When the barest of kick drums enters the equation after a minute and a half, the result is utterly thrilling.
The grumbling dub of “North To South” – which sounds like an approaching electrical storm, shuddering and groaning with metallic chords and tribal percussion – contrasts neatly with “Intermittent”, in which rasping drum hits form the rhythmic pulse, allowing another deftly tweaked vocal snippet to float over the top. It’s this track more than any other that sees Stott tap into the post-dubstep aesthetic, with the almost playful use of synths resulting in probably the most accessible moment on the release.
The second 12” takes on an even darker hue, with the raw, almost Shackleton-esque drum hits of “Dark Details” sprawled across the entire A-Side, evoking images the EP’s artwork. The terrifying drone of “Execution” is perhaps best heard at a vibrational level – ideally via the medium of some pretty expensive speakers – with the bubbling layers of sub bass capable shaking you to the bone; it’s hypnotic, tribal and entirely visceral, the perfect soundtrack to a shamanistic ritual in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Amazon. The crackling, ghostly atmospherics of the title track round off the release with a scorching, barely penetrable soundscape.
Aaron Coultate
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Given that he hasn’t released an album in more than a decade, it must have been tempting for Anthony Child to follow the example set by some of his peers and just keep DJing all over the world. Thankfully, the Birmingham-based producer chose not to take the easy option and Breaking The Frame shows that the creative fire that fuelled Force & Form, Patience and Balance still burns brightly. It’s the second time he’s released an album on his own Dynamic Tension label, following 2000’s Body Request, and his seventh overall, although there have been a glut of singles in that time as well as last year’s excellent Fabric mix.
Like his previous long players, a good part of Breaking The Frame is devoted to abstract sounds and textures. This is no concession towards current trends, but rather glimpses of the elixir, the sonic glue that binds the rest of his music. So while “Dark Matter” and “We Are Already Here” emit pontilist hisses and droning, atonal frequencies respectively, they do not exist in a vacuum. The same strength through repetition applies on the jangling loops on “Presence”, which, by Child’s standards is relatively mellow, a cacophony of lithe, acoustic humming unfolding over slow motion, gloopy beats.
Likewise on “Remover Of Darkness”, eerie organs appear to hover in a loop until their gradual descent into gamelan-like repetition. “Power Of Doubt” pushes this ethereal sensibility onto the dancefloor thanks to snappy broken beats, and, even when he veers into more conventional, straighter 4/4s, as he does on “Those Who Do Not”, the galloping beats are accompanied by spacey filters and eerie sound tapestries. The most incendiary moment comes halfway through, with the relentless, pummelling slab of techno otherwise known as “Radiance”. Breaking The Frame is on a par with Surgeon’s very best work, in some ways the logical progression of Force & Form – and its title neatly sums up this work and pretty much everything else he turns his hand to.
Richard Brophy
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Tributes have begun flooding in for hugely influential poet, author and musician Gil Scott-Heron, who died on Friday, aged 62.
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A busy week here in Juno land was soundtracked by a wonderfully exotic podcast from NYC duo Invisible Conga People.
To celebrate a decade of serving the electronic music world with news, reviews and that podcast series Resident Advisor recently unveiled a series of ten parties spread across the world. Readers of Juno Plus are in with a chance to attend the opening event in London.
San Francisco-based label Public Release will continue its excellent picture disc series with a four track EP from 40 Thieves.
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Two of the main issues techno artists face are a sense of disconnection and an inability to express themselves outside the confines of a club setting. On its first compilation, Peter Van Hoesen’s Time 2 Express label manages to overcome both of these obstacles. Indeed, while social media has brought people closer together and, on a superficial level, made artists with common interests closer, the reality is that new technology has exacerbated techno’s disconnect. After all, if everyone is talking to everyone else online all the time, who is left to make or share music on a local or personal level? Return To The Center overcomes this problem by collecting music from producers the amiable Belgian has come into contact with during his gigs around the world, through his own friendships and associations with producers on other like-minded labels.
The result is that the album offers a shared experience and a community feeling, in as much as these are possible nowadays. Van Hoesen has also programmed Return To The Center immaculately, and this overcomes the second, existential crisis for techno artists, namely being able to translate their work to an album format. Peter’s Object project bookends the release, providing the warm ambient alternative to the glitchy complexities of Blue Box’s “Temporary” and the menacing bass of Sendai’s “North East”, and a prelude to the deep, dubby techno of Tr nch & IORI’s “Barreleye”. The same sense of depth is audible in Van Hoesen’s collaborations with Donato Dozzy - although “Elektra” is more pounding than “Dock” – and the chugging, bleep-heavy Lucy reshape of Van Hoesen’s “Defense Against The Self”. SP-X’s “Extract” is a brilliantly malevolent concoction of raw filters, relentlessly driving hats and evil industrial noises, and along with the growling dub of Van Hoesen’s “Hope In Honnesterror” provides the end to the first Time 2 Express chapter and in the process, breaks two of the biggest barriers facing techno.
Richard Brophy
Jackmaster’s all-time favourite Underground Resistance records
by Juno Plus on 26.05.2011 at 16:32pm
By now you should have heard Jackmaster’s entry into the Fabriclive hall of fame. Released this month, the Numbers don compiled a frenetic, breathless selection that touched on everything from classic electro-funk and UK garage to ragging acid, boompty bass, original hardcore and obscure New York deep house. One of a small handful of modern day DJs to earn their reputation as an actual DJ, not a producer – this is a point raised in just about every article written about him, and rightly so – his Fabriclive 57 mix is a sweat-drenched affair that boasts 29 tracks in just 70 minutes. Described by Juno Plus writer Matt Anniss as a “a joyous, party-centric romp”, it fully showcased Jackmaster’s DJing panache.
You may have also noticed the spine-tingling presence of Davina’s Mad Mike-produced deep house/garage anthem “Don’t You Want It”, which was first released on Underground Resistance sub-label Happy Records back in ‘92. It served as a timely reminder of the Glaswegian’s not-so-secret love for the seminal Detroit label/collective first launched by two young chancers named Jeff Mills and Mad Mike Banks in the late 80s (Rob Hood was to join shortly later). We thought it timely then to call on Jackmaster – real name Jack Revill – to pick out his all-time favourite Underground Resistance records – and we think you’ll agree he’s plucked out some gems from the label’s peerless back catalogue.
In what promises to be one of the most intriguing remix packages of 2011, French house legend Pépé Bradock has served up three versions of a single from Nicolas Jaar’s debut album.
New York duo Invisible Conga People celebrate their return to the production fold with a mix that incorporates a heady selection of late night electronica, early industrial and breezy ambience.
Caribou and Hunee have remixed legendary Chicago house duo Virgo Four, with an EP due out on Rush Hour next month.
Juno Plus favourite Onra has launched his own label, with the first release coming from French beatsmith Häzel.
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Gold Panda returns with the third EP taken from his 2010 album Lucky Shiner. Blending house, minimal techno, IDM, downtempo and more, the Essex lad released a slew of singles on Various, Make Mine, Puregroove and his own Notown imprint before making his mark with the aforementioned eleven track long player on Ghostly International and Notown. Now, returning to the central track of the album “Marriage”, Gold Panda brings in Star Slinger, Halls, Baths and Forest Swords for four unique remixes.
The original “Marriage” blends beautiful instrumentals, softly chiming chords, dripping SFX and crackling atmospherics with gentle, pumping beats and pulsating bass. It’s got a gorgeous, sepia-toned quality to it – hazy and hypnotic and deeply compelling, almost Sepalcure like at times, with a multitude of moods rolled into one. Layers build, textures toy with each other and you can feel yourself getting more and more intrigued by Gold Panda’s richly textured style.
Baths remix takes us on an existential journey with glitchy, pattering beats and pared down somnambulance oozing out of every pore. Star Slinger then ups the nostalgia factor with the distant sound of laughter and bells chiming, adding in a lustrous Joy O style synth haze alongside clearly enunciated beats and a discernable dancefloor punch. The Forest Swords 1am Hotel Room Redraw is the most bizarrely brilliant of the lot, pairing a discordant choral passage with searing guitar melody and ambient synths. Finally, the Halls remix brings us back, full circle, with a more gentle interpretation of the original, all soothing and sultry, rounding off the EP with a sweeping artistic flourish.
Belinda Rowse
Secretsundaze, one of London’s most admired clubbing institutions, will celebrate a decade in the business with a double CD compilation.
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Linkwood returns with his first solo endeavour since 2009’s System long player, serving up what is surely his most incendiary release to date with the A-Side offering on this 12″ for Prime Numbers. Last year saw remixes for Australian producer Tornado Wallace, plus a superb codeine-inspired refix of Appleblim and Al Tourette’s “Mr Swishy”, but no original material, and thus From The Vaults Pt 1 marks a welcome return to the fold.
Alongside House Of Traps and Fudge Fingas, the Edinburgh based producer is an integral part of the close knit Firecracker family, which pushes an eclectic sound that touches on everything from deep house and techno to disco, funk and soul. Although inexorably linked to Firecracker, Linkwood has developed close ties with Manchester-based Prime Numbers – indeed the aforementioned System was released on Trus’me’s imprint, and he’s also contributed to a couple of PN compilations in the past. Fudge Fingas also released his album with the label earlier this year, thus allowing Firecracker to remain an exclusive outpost for those extra special 10″s that come by every so often.
The first part in the new From The Vaults series, this EP contains tracks that were made between the years 1997 and 2011. “Dirty Love” calls shotgun, bossing the A Side with the sort of rough around the edges house flex that demands movement of your feet; it’s bleepy warehouse filth, filled with one joyous piano breakdown after another. Alien noises flutter around the searing burn as a multiplicity of rhythmic shifts elevate the track into something truly devastating.
From the euphoric heights of the A Side, the flip transposes you to the murky depths of house music potential with two untitled jams channelling Larry Heard. “Two” is all meandering drums, gently floating synths and pleasing keys. “Three”, meanwhile, unfurls into something quite bewitching as immaculately produced strings and a deep bassline combine to hypnotic effect. More please Mr Linkwood.
Aaron Coultate
New York punk-funk outfit The Rapture today announced details of their third studio album, set for release on James Murphy’s DFA imprint in September [via Pitchfork].
Having launched in fine style with the future boogie sounds of London duo Royalty, Five Easy Pieces serve further reason to pay them close attention with the news that their second release comes courtesy of Call Super aka Matt Waites and JR Seaton.
The anticipation for the next in the series of Blondes twelve inches for RVNG INTL just increased a degree or two with the release of an accompanying video for “Pleasure” from Berkeley residing conceptual visual artist Farley Gwazda.
Mute Records is one of the most successful independent British labels still in operation, having been formed in 1978 and still going strong today. As such, their discography is broad, and not an easy one to find a way into for the uninitiated. The last 10 years have seen them release high profile records from Moby and Goldfrapp, as well as less accessible, but still equally as significant albums from Grinderman and Liars, but it’s easy to forget that their beginnings were rooted in the industrial sounds of the early 80s. Label founder Daniel Miller originally formed Mute to put out his first single as The Normal, and subsequent years saw him release similarly dark electronic music by Fad Gadget, D.A.F. and Depeche Mode. It was at this time that Mute’s initial musical aesthetic was formed, one that married the fury of punk rock with the electronic elements of the burgeoning synth pop movement.
