Review: Ivy Lab provides Critical Music with its first physical release of 2014 with a four-track EP. To begin with there's the piano-ambient introduction of "Missing Persons", which in a way sounds like a highly sped-up Burial track combined with Frank Carter III's vocals full of a similar sounding soul heard in Storm Queen's crossover hit "Look Right Through". The drums remain super-quick on "Live On Your Smile" alongside warbled computer bleeps and melancholic female vocals, while "Sunday Crunk" is a hip hop-inspired, MPC-styled slow jam that may well take its inspirations from southern rap. Lastly on this deluxe package, Project: Mooncircle and 2nd Drop artist Deft touches-up Ivy Lab & Emperor's "Pepper" for something verging on heavy dubstep mixed with some growling, Fis-like effects
Review: Yorkshire's darkest D&B talent Emperor steps up with yet another forthright slab or triple-track grit. "Passed Up" has a bass presence that's near-overwhelming thanks its bulbous drone that refuses to quit. "SMPL" strips things back and looks more towards the late 90s Ed Rush & Optical style techstyle - loopy with real mechanical bite, it's a surgical shamanistic heads down affair. Finally "Mind Games"; a ruthless bass ripper that's almost jump up in its attitude, you can't help but think of Ram Trilogy at their finest when this pops off. With potential to unite all sub genres and sides of the D&B dance, Emperor has well and truly smashed it here.
Review: Not seen since his debut album Machines was released on Critical in late 2012, St Petersburg's best drum and bass exponent Enei resurfaces in double plated fashion with the Liberation EP. Despite the absence, Aleksei Egorchenkov is on fine form for Critical here, experimenting with new tempos and new collaborators without any hint of sacrificing his skills for raw, next level drum and bass. Fellow Critical producer Emperor, Mancunian vocalist and producer Chimpo and singer songwriter Sam Wills feature across the two slabs of wax, with the tempo shifting "Headtop" featuring Chimpo a standout track.
Review: Two of the most rated men in D&B's next generation league, Emperor and Mefjus collaborations are always worth your time. Neither happy to conform to the rules established by peers, both relish in ending tracks with wry skits, both seriously on point with everything they've done in the last few years, naturally this follow up to their collaborative debut "Hello World" is just as firesome. All loaded with heavily sprung bass funk and oddball noises and designs that come in from nowhere, both originals are as original and distinctive as you'd want them to be. Comes complete with two long awaited versions; Emperor gullying the dickens out of "Dissuade" and Mefjus taking a hammer to "SMPL", rebuilding it in his own twisted way. Gloriously dark.
Review: Halifax heavyweight Emperor finally unleashes the long-awaited beast that is his debut album and it's 50 shades of awesome. Rather than dish out a collection of the dark, tearing bangers he's become known for, he's licked up an all-armed hurricane of sounds and ideas; from the pixelated lift-off of "I Was" to the sweaty Upbeats drums of "Shapeshift" to the big breezy vocal drama of "Dispositions" and the rolling soul of "Thunder", this is a whole new creative level from Emperor as he plays by rules we've never heard him play by before. A proper album.
Review: Critical premier neurofunk connoisseur - Emperor - is back on the imprint with one of his most audacious, ferocious and diverse offerings to date. It's hasn't been too long since his Bloodsport EP last year, and Mantmast features once more on the title tune - 'Boxcutter'. His vocal talent is equally menacing this time around, laid out on 'Boxcutter' with a precision befitting the instrumental's sharp, biting quality. 'Sosig Thing' is probably the most downright dirty of the bunch, with thunderous atmospherics and a punishing, pulsating back end that ricochets about the range. Emperor shows he can make minimal with the best of them on 'Silenced', which makes up for its overt devastation with subtle sub bass wobbles and energetic fluidity. Another stellar release from the Critical camp.
Review: He's back! It feels like an eternity since his "Shadow" EP but now we know what Conor's been up to - he's been getting into cage fighting and "Bloodsport" is his gritty, steppy ode to the gentleman's game. Elsewhere he grows sharp "Claws" with a twisted, glitched out jumpy riff bender, he debunks logic and maths with the beautiful, pensive and delicate soul of "Half Makes Whole" and he takes us out over choppy sense-blurring seas with the white knuckle paranoia jam "Navigante". Bloody marvellous.
Review: As the dust continues to settle from Emperor's deeply personal debut album Dispositions, along come four unique versions that add whole new narratives to his tracks: long-time friend and all-round legend Phace flips "Haste" with a whole new dynamic of funk that's almost jump-up in its nature and attitude. Ivy Lab lay down serious halftime heat with the brilliantly slouching, lolloping g-style twist of "Jounce" while Klax switch up "Made Of Light" with different, more dramatic style of halftime. Finally we hit the most interesting curveball of all - a touching, unplugged take on the evocative "Made Of Light" where SOLAH's vocals tremble with even more poignancy against the piano. Emotional.
Review: Under the Emperor Machine alias, Andrew Meecham (he of Chicken Lips/Bizarre Inc fame) can do no wrong. It's been a wee while since his last single under the alias, but this return to action - which also marks his debut on Leng Records - is little less than stunning. Featuring the stylish, echo-laden vocals of Severine Mouletin, the EP-opening 'Extended Vocal' mix offers a perfect balance between sleazy, sparse, leftfield '80s synth-pop and the mind-altering, dubbed-out electronic disco that's long been one of Meecham's calling cards. He moves further in the latter direction on the superb 'Erotique Dub', doffing a cap to all those killer Chicken Lips dubs he co-produced along the way. Throw in instrumental takes of both mixes and a radio-friendly 'Vocal Edit' and you have a genuinely essential EP.
Review: For those with a passion for wonky analogue disco and left-of-centre house, Ewan Pearson remixing the Emperor Machine is a very enticing proposition. Predictably, Pearson doesn't disappoint, laying down a series of extra special mixes. His two "Skronk" versions - so called, we suspect, as their combination of parping, discordant saxophone, undulating analogue rhythms and post-punk New York attitude doffs a cap to Konk - are particularly good, with the vocal-less Skronk Dub standing out. Elsewhere, the tougher and wonkier Dubstrumental is also excellent, while the Skronk Disco Mix, complete with acid-flecked intro, shouldn't be ignored. Top stuff all round.
Review: After a few 12" shapes entrees last year, Southern Fried introduce the main courser that is Like A Machine, the latest long player from Andy Meecham's The Emperor Machine project. A mainstay of J Saul Kane's seminal DC Recordings label, it's nice to see Meecham's been granted the opportunity to continue The Emperor Machine's ongoing hardware experiments unfettered by Southern Fried with Like A Machine twelve tracks deep with wondrous synth-fuelled, funky cosmic electroid disco. Once again it's Meecham's production range that shines through on this fourth LP as The Emperor Machine with the moments that explore loose limbed punk funk such as "The Point" and "Voices" particularly rewarding.
Review: Long before nu disco, edits and hipster beards became trendy, there was The Emperor Machine. Andy Meecham's studio project yielded a series of albums and EPs worth of oddball electronic disco, first on J Saul Kane's DC and then Southern Fried. After a short break, Meecham is back and never sounded so relevant. "2500 Edit" is a stuttering, atonal groove, while "System 700 Jam" sees him up the ante with a bleep-heavy, jacking groove. Label owner Prins Thomas delivers a more streamlined take on "2500" with a rolling, percussive take, before Meecham descends back into weirdness with the lo-fi, discordant "System 100 Jam".
Review: Analogue synth fetishist Andrew Meecham is back in action, delivering another EP full of wayward electronic treats under the now familiar Emperor Machine alias. Like its predecessor, release back in December 2016, 2500 Volume 2 is full of off-kilter treats that sound like the product of late night hardware jams. Check, for example, the fizzing, intergalactic electronics, bass-heavy thrust and acid-flecked drive of intense opener "U.M.O" and the John Carpenter-goes-to-Croatia synth-scape "Back to Bali". Arguably best of all, though, is the feverish late night workout "Africa V2", in which drum machine poly-rhythms are peppered with mind-bending noises and foreboding modular motifs. Wolf Muller's remix of that track, which blends Meecham's wild electronics with the German producer's own organic drums, is arguably even better.
Review: This is something of a coup for Nein Records. They've persuaded Andrew Meecham to bring his Emperor Machine project to the label for a one-off EP, following years of inspired releases on D.C Recordings and Southern Fried. Predictably, the former Bizarre Inc and Chicken Lips man rises to the occasion. He begins with the wonky, A Love From Outer Space style slo-mo chug of "Love Lick", where pitched-down Moroder style arpeggios and vintage synthesizer melodies rub shoulders with raw electronics and dreamy pads over the course of 11 mesmerizing minutes. There's more analogue sweetness to be found on the similarly epic - if more obviously up-tempo - "Sisco Seeker", whose drum machine beats, bold chords and attack-on-the-senses electronics are just that little bit more robust. Impressive stuff, all told.
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