Review: Cuthead, real name Robert Arnold, hails originally from Moldova but has been based for many years in Dresden, Germany. His musical output has ranged from hip-hop and breaks to disco, house and techno, but this release, the second of our installments that will eventually make up the 'Detour' album, finds him firmly in house mode. While its four tracks are all definitely rooted in deep house, though, they nevertheless also manage to embrace influences from disco, jazz-funk, sci-fi themes and dub - all of which add up to an EP that represents a very worthwhile use of 15 minutes of your life.
Review: Given the title, and artwork that pays homage to the 'House Sound of Chicago' comps, you'd be forgiven for expecting this to be an album full of slavish recreations of late 80s acid house - but you'd be wrong. That's not to say there aren't plenty of 808/909 beats and squelchin' 303s contained herein, because there are - in places. But 'Jack-Ish' has far more to offer than simple pastiche, because there are also nods to the rave era (check the vox on 'Monster Munch'), to the speed garage days (Theo Walbeck's opener even biting Jodeci's 'Freak 'N' You', the MK mix of which helped birth the style), to Chicago's Cajual/Relief-led 'second wave' (Cuthead's 'Fuck That Shit') and more. This is a love letter, in other words, not to a brief moment 35 years ago, but to house music more generally in all its wild, wonderful jacking glory. And you need it in your life.
Review: Dresden label Uncanny Valley's big name supporters include the likes of Jimpster, Steve Bug, Scuba and Ripperton, which gives you an idea of the kind of leftfield-leaning deep house and techno to expect from this 10th birthday compilation. Big names may be in short supply but quality certainly isn't, with the album's 18 full-length tracks ranging from RJ's floaty, dreamy opener 'Nie' to the acid throb of Iron Curtis's 'Ensuite', and from the jazzy bruk beat-isms of Lake People's 'Roaming The Streets' to the psychedelic small hours deepness of Charlotte Bendiks' 'Pasco', with a DJ mix from Conrad Kaden tying the whole collection together nicely.
Review: To celebrate notching up 50 releases, Uncanny Valley offered up a septet of colour-coded EPs featuring never-heard-before cuts from its growing roster of artists. With that campaign finished, they've now collected together all of those tracks on one suitably epic compilation, All Colors Are Beautiful. It's a pleasingly positive, life-affirming and kaleidoscopic collection all told, with the likes of Lauer, Jules Etienne, Johannes Albert, Cuthead and Basic Soul Unit taking it in turns to deliver cheery, synth-heavy cuts that variously join the dots between deep house, nu-disco, synth-pop, proto-house, jacking acid, crunchy electro, Motor City techno, ghetto-tech and glassy-eyed late-night sleaze. The results are uniformly excellent, making this one of the most essential compilations of 2020.
Review: As you'd expect, the sixth colour-coded EP in Uncanny Valley's 50th release series boasts an impressive line-up of artists, all of whom have pulled out the stops to make their contribution count. For proof, check the rushing, riff-sporting, rave-era revivalism of Cuthead's acid-flecked opener, "Party Chords", the warm and woozy, Rhodes-laden head-nodding beats of Dererstuben's "Iwesu Yewisu", and the wild organ riffs and chunky grooves of Pantera Krause's bustling house jam "The Naked Now". Or, for that matter, the sample-laden, jazz-tinged deep house roll of Daniela La Cruz's "When You Go All In And Wait", and the body-popping Balearic nu-disco warmth of Massimiliano Pagliano's luscious "Sunset Funk". As the old clich? goes, this is genuinely all killer, no filler.
Review: Uncanny Valley ends the year with a 13-track retrospective that sums up why it is such an idiosyncratic label. 13 Tracks moves in style from the bizarre acid beats of "Macho Man" by Mr Incognito and Amrint Keen's vaguely epic electro track "Believe" into more dance floor friendly tracks. These include the moody, atmospheric techno of Qnete's "Alone Together" and Chino's acid-heavy "Kolaps". In between these ends of the spectrum there are once-heard, never forgotten moments such as the vocal electro of Credit 00's amazing "Hammer Jack Voices Wall" and Serial Error's tribal house meets new beat track "Drum Abuse (Vocal)" - which both underline again what an idiosyncratic label that Uncanny Valley is.
Review: Uncanny Valley's split, multi-artist EPs are usually amongst their strongest releases, and Give N Take is no exception. Put together by Cuthead, it features tracks from three of his favourite producers, plus two of his own. Max Graef kicks things off with the sleepy deep house jazz of "Tittenkuschler", while Parisian S3A impresses with the rising disco samples, sturdy grooves and minor key flourishes of "Theuz Hamtaak". Moony Me's contribution, the flashing Chicago bass, woozy chords and choppy disco samples of "Magergarten", is also rather good. As for Cuthead's contributions, they're predictably strong, with the samba-goes-boompty shuffle of "Braziliance" just edging out the deep-off-kilter downtempo MPC jam "Oef Oef" in the "best track" stakes.
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