SECURE SHOPPING
Om Unit, Nightwave, Krystal Klear and Doc Daneeka are among the 60 artists who have been accepted into the 2011 Red Bull Music Academy, due to take place in Madrid this October.
A mooted final UK appearance from Virgo Four is just one of many reasons to attend the Rush Hour showcase curated by arch London promoters We Fear Silence, which is set to take place early next month at Cable.
The three members of the Aniara gang – Alexander Berg, Nils Krogh and Fabian Bruhn – have created something special with their record label, party and production collective. They’ve caught the ears of some very respected artists who might have dismissed Sweden as belonging to the staid, manly sounds of Techno with a capital ‘T’. The austere yet psychedelic music of Genius of Time and Dorisburg combine an understanding of the past with a yearning for something new and space age. It’s for these reasons that we singled out the Gothenburg-based imprint to be the first in a new feature focusing on our favourite record labels. And while the guys can seem reserved or shy at first, a few drinks in, they can party with the best of them – just as Berlin-based Juno Plus scribe Pablo Roman-Alcalá found out. (Scroll down to the bottom of the article to hear a stream of the recent Genius Of Time set at Swiss club Dachstock.)
Read the rest of this entry »
|  |
Machinedrum aka Travis Stewart is the latest US producer to benefit from the recent surge of enthusiasm for all aspects of the bass continuum (see also Starkey and FaltyDL) and perhaps the most deserving, given the producer’s prodigious output since his emergence in the late 90s. Stewart has of course been here before, with arch US opinion makers Pitchfork deeming him the “standard to which the next wave of imitators aspires” when casting their gaze across Now You Know – his debut set under the alias Syndrone for the Merck imprint back in 2001.
Fast forward a decade and Stewart is on the cusp of releasing his latest album, Room(s) for the increasingly niche genre fervent Planet Mu imprint. This time around you feel that wider recognition will finally engulf Stewart, with the ears of music consumers generally more receptive to the sort of kaleidoscopic soundscapes melded to juke rhythms that peppers Room(s).
It’s a smart move from the always classy LuckyMe imprint to drop this excellent twelve of Machinedrum mind fucks ahead of the aforementioned long player. We’re tempted to class the four tracks here as edits but really they blast through all notions of that word into something completely different. If you’ve frequented Boiler Room either physically or via the wonderment of the www in recent times, or checked the Jackmaster Fabriclive mix then it’s likely you will have been blasted in the face by the genre defying dizziness of “Alarma”.
If neither of the above describe your life in recent times, then the track essentially applies a demented approach to all aspects of song structure and is perhaps the most refreshingly fun thing we’ve heard in a long time. Brilliantly dusty percussion that sounds ripped from a classic DJ Shadow track ripples to its own rhythmic direction throughout; whilst all manner of buzzing synths, crazed klaxon horns ride the bumping mid range bass. It all makes for one of those tracks you can just drop, stand back and bask in the chaos it causes.
“I’mabrat” provides an all too brief interlude into twinkling teen crunk attitude before Mr Stewart recommences the deranged brilliance with the tempo shifting click clack hyper action of “Loveking” – the source material will be familiar to anyone with a cursory knowledge of contemporary R&B. The thick waves of bass on this pretty much demands club play. Finally, and quite intriguingly, “YNY” sounds pretty much like Machinedrum succeeding at what Tiger & Woods do best, flexing some slinky boogie into a mainframe of abrasive sonics.
Tony Poland
Full details have emerged of the first release from the newly minted ManMakeMusic label, which sees Hotflush and Aus talent George FitzGerald at the helm.
|  |
Having emerged from behind the hand-stamped shroud of their Horizontal Ground imprint, AnD (also known as Manchester’s Andro and Dimit) have been issuing forth an unstoppable amount of heavyweight techno tackle this year, putting paid to their anonymous roots with forward thinking club damage of the highest order.
As some of their past output has suggested, the pair have a fondness for broken rhythms as much as dry 4/4 pounding, and on their latest offering for the ever reliable Project Squared imprint they expand on those hints. Lead track “Algorythmic Love” skips to life with the kind of swing that Shed favours, breaking their bass stabs across a bare bones beat. Without warning half way through, the door gets kicked open and some succulent chords chime through, adding another dimension to what was already an enjoyable tool.
“Brother From Another Mother” lets said chords take the lead from the off, as the percussion darts and parries around them for fear of intruding on their decaying notes. Less impacting than the first track, it’s still a masterful exercise in dubwise electronics. The Spartan approach on “Brother From Another Mother” is the complete antithesis of the rich detail of “Swing Me”, which uses all manner of clipped hits to create a hybrid funk blueprint the rest of the track can jettison from. The delay feedback gets turned up as the track wears on, drawing your ears and mind further into the melee. Tom Diccio serves up a functional house reworking that returns to the dubby space of the original but anchors it to a mellow groove. It’s thoroughly enjoyable, if not quite as daring as the original cuts.
Oli Warwick
| |
Hailing from Madison, Wisconsin, husband and wife duo Peaking Lights make sun-speckled dub pop psychedelia. The premise is simple: deep repetitive bass, catchy drum loops, extended grooves, and ethereal vocals that also work on repetition and cavernous echo. The result: a perfectly blissed-out long player for the summer months, one that will linger in your head long after the album’s played out.
Since the duo spent some time in California and record on the intriguing Not Not Fun label, an immediate comparison can be made to fellow labelmate Sun Araw, who operates in the same hypnotic manner, but while 936 leans heavily on dub influence for groove, it also pays homage to lo-fi psychedelic rock. Even though the tracks are deep and sludgy, they still manage to feel open and airy; the songs wander, joyfully going nowhere in particular for up eight minutes.
Take “Tiger Eyes (Laid Back)” for example. Aaron Coyes drops a simple drumbeat, anchors it with a deep bassline for riddim, and tosses in some light guitars, while Indra Dunis provides some haunting, trance-induced vocals and gentle bursts of keyboard. It’s a serene eight minute head-bobber, perfect for afternoon drives down scenic highways – where you’re sitting in shotgun and the windows are down and you’ve got your feet up on the dash, an arm out the window fighting the wind — and you’re smiling, looking over at your friend driving — he’s wearing a pair of old Ray Bans, and he’s playing the steering wheel like a drum, and honking the horn in time to the beat, while he points out useless historical landmarks along the side of the sun-drenched road as you zip by…
While not too far away compositionally from many dub techno artists like Rhythm & Sound or Deadbeat, Peaking Lights style diverges, because instead of going inward they go out – it’s still heady music, but as their name implies, they take the listener skywards, floating in a headspace above the clouds and the mountain peaks, a place where just enough light and warmth peeks through to make you smile. With 936, Peaking Lights creates groovy yet subtly romantic music that allows the listener to cheerfully zone out, whilst also playing with the notion of summer nostalgia, and the result is surprisingly radiant.
Matt Leslie
Professional hushed tones speaker Gilles Peterson will follow in the footsteps of Francois K, Jazzie B and Fabio & Grooverider by releasing his own 3xCD Masterpiece compilation via Ministry Of Sound.
With the News International phone hacking scandal seemingly never ending, it’s tempting to wonder if their nefarious endeavours have ever been replicated by the electronic music press.
| |
Over the past three years New Zealand based Recloose (aka Matthew Chicoine) has lived up to his moniker somewhat, with no new material coming from the producer since 2008. His productions have always flirted mainly around house and disco, as well as the warmer strands of hip-hop and techno, and this EP is no different, but there’s an ambition present which exceeds a lot of his previous material, bringing his style into line with Rush Hour’s younger artists whilst retaining his classic warmth.
Opener “Electric Sunshine” is a bright piece of mid-tempo disco, combining buttery analogue bass with patiently swelling synths. But it’s the halfway point that blows everything open, as snatches of sampled vocals, strings and horns suddenly play off against each other. The mood is one of chaos and soulful serenity all at once; it’s initially jarring, but these are the moments in the EP’s tracks that you find yourself anticipating on repeated listens. “Parquet”, for instance, begins with a clattering Todd Edwards style rhythm, and combines it with staccato vocal samples which create a similarly ecstatic yet confused mood. Rather than playing the samples out in linear fashion, as in the past, Chicoine’s cutting them up and rearranging them in a more contemporary manner in a way that doesn’t feel like a mere gimmick; on the contrary, it’s irresistible to listen to, much like the schizoid confusion of Cosmin TRG’s “See Other People”. But it’s the B-Side “Tecumseh” that really surprises, with a growling techno bassline and heavenly vocal sample that suddenly morph into a beautifully warm house track.
These tracks show Chicoine’s great mastery of structure; the tracks undulate slowly, subtly changing moods as they travel, unfurling from within to reveal hidden layers, whilst utilizing negative space, adding breathing room and further rhythmic complexity to his productions. If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that there’s no end of young house upstarts. But in Saturday Night Manifesto Recloose has returned to lay out his intentions and given us an EP that is as future leaning and intricate as any of these contenders. Let’s hope he doesn’t leave it another three years.
Scott Wilson
| |
Tobias Freund has been involved in the music-making process for longer than most contemporary producers, so it’s fitting that this long-awaited artist album acts as a history lesson of sorts. It is true that in the headlong rush to be new or innovative, that a real understanding of electronic music’s past is often sacrificed. Equally, whenever a groundswell of artists focus on or take inspiration on a specific sound, such as Chicago house or 90s techno, it is often the case that their vision is too narrow, their gaze too blinkered. Freund’s great strengths here are both his ability to relive the magic of some of the dustier archives and to look far, wide and long.
For every “Party Town”, with its insistent piano stabs and incessant vocal sample or monotone techno groove like “Skippy”, there is a counterweight, like the abstract, understated acid of album opener “Girts”, the organic, Eno-esque ambience of “The Key” or the eerie experimental shapes thrown on “Zero Tolerance”. Freund could have easily stopped there and taken the plaudits for a work of solid contrasts, but it’s on the second half of Leaning Over Backwards where he really impresses. “Observing the Hypocrites” is a wonderfully freeform jazz techno composition, somewhere between vintage Dave Angel and Cobblestone Jazz, while the approach that started on “Girts” and “Zero Tolerance” is furthered with the droning, abstract techno of “We Stick To The Plan”. But he has one final ace up his sleeve, and the mysterious, sub-fathomic Drexciyan electro of “No I Know” outdoes everything else that preceded it. Freund has bent over backwards to create this techno history lesson - it should be required listening for any aspiring producer.
Richard Brophy
Space Dimension Controller’s move into the world of record label ownership will commence with a four track EP from Italian future boogie producer Ad Bourke, due in the coming months.
| |
Sometimes records gather momentum completely of their own volition, without any kind of savvy PR campaign or well-oiled online hype. The first Objekt 12″ was one such release, carrying the seductive anonymity of a hand stamped white label and boasting two surefire techno-informed steppers.
Berlin-based TJ Hertz is the man behind the music, and there’s no denying the full-throttle propulsion of the German capital that creates such urgency on the A-Side of the new single. “CLK Recovery” warms up steadily with a mix-friendly intro that ticks away on a 4/4 beat, before a lovely Detroit jazz-lick fills the space between the beats. Alongside the rigid rhythmic devices, there’s also plenty of tasty sound design creating all manner of textures and moods, and then three minutes in the tension gets turned up to 11 and the noise falls away to an uptempo techno thump. Where the track moves into a league of its own is with the thunderous, off-beat snare hits, which vanish and reappear with maddening frequency. It’s not often you find such floor-ready bangers that also boast such dynamism in their construction.
“Unglued” is more broken from the off, as a stepping build up quickly gives way to the kind of rubbery synth malfunctions that characterised Untold’s output circa “Anaconda”. Once again things don’t stay still for long as a bumping groove gets settled into, moving through those different phases that make “CLK Recovery” so engaging, letting the various playful elements echo and distort in the mix. Another cheeky jazz refrain comes into play as the rest of the track melts away, only to maintain as another stomping beat rolls in underneath. It’s not hard to see why everyone has been going potty for these tracks; they smartly tick every box between functionality and creativity without treading on anyone else’s toes.
Oli Warwick
News arrives of Four Tet’s much anticipated entrance into the Fabriclive canon, with the 59th edition a heady 27 track selection which fully represents the obsessive musical nature of the highly respected producer and DJ.
R&S Records today announced details of their next release, the intriguingly named Tusk EP from newcomer Klaus.
London promoters Streets of Beige are gearing up for their first birthday celebrations in style, hosting the official launch for Machinedrum’s forthcoming album at East London venue Rhythm Factory later this month.
| |
Irish imprint All City, based out of a record shop located in Dublin’s Temple Bar, has blossomed in recent times thanks to the excellent Los Angeles split 10″ series and an artist roster that includes Onra, Mike Slott, Tessela, Martyn, and, now, New York beatsmith FaltyDL. Ostensibly these represent Falty’s two housiest cuts to date – hardly surprising considering the source material – yet they are rooted in a collage sampling style that betrays the producer’s reverence for vintage hip-hop.
A-Side missive “Make It Difficult” essentially serves as a reinvention of a late 90s house gem by Shena. The vocals and chords from that ‘97 version are appropriated and given the full Falty treatment – hi-hats that relentlessly slap you around the face from every which way, an excellent bassline that was lacking from the original and deliciously swung drums. There’s also the male vocal intoning the track’s title, which contrasts nicely with Shena’s dulcet tones. It sits somewhere in between Bakey USTL’s “A Tender Place” and Blawan’s “Getting Me Down”, with skilfully arranged samples doused in a producer’s idiosyncratic style – the result being a track that sounds warm and familiar yet very much of the now.
Flip over for “Jack Your Job”, with more frenetic drum programming and call and response vocal snippets making for a next level mutant house jam (this time Romanthony is the most obvious sample source to these ears). The main vocal imploring us to get “control over your job” is backed by a wailing female backing and a seemingly endless procession of deft sonic touches – handclaps, more idiosyncratic hi-hats, flute – all layered on top of each other in a manner that brings to mind classic hip-hop layered sampling (think Paul’s Boutique and 3 Feet High and Rising) being adopted to a house template with breezy aplomb.
Aaron Coultate
| |
Ex Pylon has remained one of the more mysterious figures within the realm of electronic music, with a trail of intrigue dating all the way back to the days gone by when Rupert Murdoch saw fit to splurge millions of pounds on MySpace. As is the way with the internet, a simple “hey guys check out my old Cornish buddy Ex Pylon” style blog post from Border Community poster boy Nathan Fake led to all manner of rumour and hearsay.
Fast forward several years, it seems a happy coincidence that as the aforementioned Antipodean tycoon waves goodbye to MySpace and any notion of profit (he surely has bigger things on his plate at the moment) Ex Pylon deems fit to finally release his debut EP. Arriving on the fledgling yet already impressive Studio Barnhus imprint run by messrs Boman, Kovacs and Petter, quite why it’s taken so long for Ex Pylon’s debut to arrive isn’t revealed and is likely to remain so.
Let’s just be grateful to the Studio Barnhus crew for finally allowing the music buying/stealing (delete where appropriate) public a chance to indulge in the rewarding vision of techno Ex Pylon dabbles in. The title track “Hammerfest” opens proceedings in fine fashion, sprawling across A Side towards the run out groove in a sonic fashion not dissimilar to the arrangements that made up The Field’s debut set for Kompakt a few years ago. Frosted synth lines compete with glitched out rhythms in shifting in and out of focus over stripped down drums, whilst the final ascent into the skies provides a potent end to a track which demands the needle be returned to the start.
“Hoverfly” is equal in the use of glitchy rhythms, though the mood switches from euphoria to apprehension as the track digs deep into your senses with a dizzying array of kaleidoscopic alien textures burrowing far beneath the pattering layers of drums. Just when you think those textures will disappear completely, they surface to the fore with optimum speed over a snapping kick drum. It’s a challenging but entirely engrossing listen. The final moments allow your senses to relax via the undulating beatless soundscapes of “Hupiter” – drawing on a multiplicity of soft melodic textures and cooing vocal samples with generally engrossing results.
Tony Poland
We have two pairs of tickets to give away for this Saturday’s No Fit State party hosted by Electric Minds and Mulletover, featuring former Juno Plus One to Watch Tornado Wallace, who will be bringing some Australian sunshine to Stoke Newington with his mix of deep house and disco.
| |
Zomby’s decision to release his first material since 2009 on the 4AD label is one that is likely to have surprised many. It’s hard to imagine the glorious throwback jungle revivalism of Where Were You In ’92 on the same label that in the 80s gave us the Cocteau Twins and Bauhaus, but within the first few seconds of the album’s opener, “Witch Hunt”, the connection becomes clear, as its skittering organic tones showcase an altogether more gothic sound, even if it is one in which the relative serenity is interrupted by gunshot samples.
The second track, “Natalia’s Song”, with its shuffling two-step rhythm, builds on this understated introduction, initially suggesting a Burial style change of tone, but this track is pretty much a one off in the context of the album. The Russian vocal sample gives the track a curiously folky quality which offers something refreshingly different from the standard pitched up R&B vocal template. However, by the time “Black Orchid” arrives, complete with shimmering purple toned arpeggio, Zomby’s more familiar synthetic sound makes a comeback, and any worries that he may have abandoned his roots are allayed. During this middle section of the album the influence of jungle and hardcore remains, albeit in a more spectral form, and the tracks here feel most like those on his 2009 mini-album One Foot In Front of the Other, consisting primarily of minimal 8-bit textures. There’s nothing particularly unexpected here, but the addition of more reverb which pushes these elements more to the background gives the impression that Zomby’s production style has matured significantly. These tracks flirt further with different genres; “Riding With Death” for example features an infectious Kwaito inspired bassline which fits the dark tone of the album in superb fashion.
The final section of the album comes as the biggest surprise, doing away with dance music forms almost entirely. Consisting of a few tracks that experiment with more organic instrumentation which are almost baroque in their execution, they bring the album to an unexpectedly sombre yet exhilarating conclusion, especially “Haunted”, which creates a classical piece with the rhythmic flow of a jungle track, and “Basquiat” with its grand piano sample and sober funereal mood.
The one criticism that can be leveled at the album is that many of the tracks feel like little more than sketches. However, the flow from one to another is so smooth, with tracks often leading into one another, means that this is rarely an issue, and despite some wildly different textures and styles being employed, none of the shifts are ever jarring. What was brilliant about Zomby’s early productions was what he achieved with such a limited palette of sounds; what makes Dedication so incredible is that Zomby has made such a huge stylistic jump by retaining essentially the same elements, and bringing such unusual new ones into the fold that complement his style perfectly. Whatever your preconceived notions of his sound, this album proves he should not be underestimated.
Scott Wilson
