Review: Installing a new set of artists into its roster is the Infine label with a remix EP of the Glassforms album that Bruce Brubaker & Max Cooper released last year. Headlined by the likes of Donato Dozzy and Laurel Halo, there's also a shorter edit of the album's epic halfway track "Two Pages", and additional to that there's the experimental noise version by Tehranian producer Tegh. Daniele Di Gregorio leads the way with Dozzy in a piano variation of "Two Pages" while Laurel Halo takes on the sustained chords and epic strings of the original album's closing track, "Opening". Get your more traditional version from the Glassforms edit.
Review: La Fraicheur is a resident DJ at Berlin club Wilde Renate and brings a suitably tripped out aesthetic to Prophecy. This is audible on the sped-up chatter and experimental tones of "Renegade" and also on the late night ambient of "Morgan La Nuit". It's no surprise that this sensibility also permeates La Fraicheur's dance floor moments. The moody bass and assured swagger of the club-primed "Tirana" and the irresistibly moody "Gone" both resound to an otherworldliness, while adding to the albums out-there sensibility are the stream of consciousness vocals that accompany the warbling acid of "The Movements" and "The New Is Not Born Yet".
Review: Hard-working experimental dubstep types Downliners Sekt are masters of the deep, woozy, claustrophobic groove. This third full length - their first for acclaimed French imprint Infine - is jam-packed with such moments of smoky goodness, all soft-focus rhythms, dubwise chords and long-drawn out pads. It's intoxicating, all right, and evokes hazy memories of sitting in smoke-filled rooms early in the morning, feeling strangely in tune with the bubbling, off-kilter rhythms seeping from the speakers. Highlights are pleasingly plentiful, from the jumpy dreaminess of "This American Life" and vintage Hyperdub deepness of "Eiger Dreams", to the cascading pianos and field recordings of "Junior High" and tough, dancefloor-focused "Once Mercurial".
Review: Istikaliya sees Aufgang rips up the arrangement rulebook. "Kyrie" sets the tone for the album, with a demure piano line veering unexpectedly into a slamming groove. A similar approach is audible on "Vertige", where hyperactive piano scale-playing suddenly lunges into tearing breakbeats that build dramatically. Most of the tracks on Istikaliya manage to strike a balance between these elements, but the most deranged has to be "Diego Maradonna". Like the unpredictable soccer genius that is named after, it swings unpredictably, from slinky, jazzy pianos into old school electro synth lines before ending up in tranced out climax, the finale to a weird and wonderful album.
Nico Gomez, Emilia Rey & John Barokskki - "Drops" - (4:50) 136 BPM
Review: A split single from French label Infine offers two sublime twists on contemporary bass house. Belgium's Nico Gomez plays it fascinatingly jazzy and subtle in a Nicolas Jaar style on "Drops" - a building vocal track that builds from echoey, double-bass textured beginnings into a galloping romp of ghostly drums. Speaking of ghostly, Janedge's "Ghostly Riding A Horse" uses soft synths and a pared down Balearic bass beat to quickly worm its hazy way into your head.
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