Archive for November, 2011
Somewhat of an originator when it came to this loose, sample-heavy, slowed-down house groove (Gerry Read, Youandewan, Red Rack’em, etc), Falty DL returns on the mighty Ninja Tune and re-establishes his mastery of the art. While it’s not as frenzied as some of his album work, the music here is characterized by a constant motion [ READ MORE ]
Second release for the fledgling Inimeg sticks to the plan: futuristic melancholy label art paired with three tracks from Joey Anderson and an underground heavy-hitter cameo. On the first release, the special appearance was from DJ Qu, this time around it’s Jus Ed. And as in the last edition, the high quality is consistent throughout [ READ MORE ]
Gunnar Wendel’s KM guise is hitting while the iron’s hot, and shows no sign of running out of material soon. Here with his second EP for the detail-oriented and eclectic Nonplus imprint, he comes with a couple of skeletal electro tracks, a reverberant slow-house joint, and one straight up heroin house groover. Opening with the [ READ MORE ]
Hakim Murphy’s gear-oriented Machining Dreams imprint branched out from his original work with this interesting signing. The depth and drive of Franco Cangelli’s title track handily demonstrates the qualities that have seen him releasing arbiters of underground quality like Sushitech, and Seventh Sign in addition to his own Mowar imprint. On the flip side he [ READ MORE ]
Opening with a thoroughly fragmented rhythm, Pinch’s rework falls close to the blueprint of Shed’s rugged techno breakbeat. It’s a pummeling uptempo big-room approach with Shed’s piano stabs duelling a growling soundscape and kinetic breakbeat, a clear move away from Pinch’s lighter garage / dubstep “underwater dancehall” stylings on Tectonic. On the B side, Elemental [ READ MORE ]
Falling somewhere between John Tejada and Lawrence territory, this new 12″ should appeal to fans of either, as well as to followers of Endless Flight, Future Classic, and Best Works. Those happen to be the other imprints that have released records this year for the suddenly prolific Lithuanian duo. Kicking off the newly founded Best [ READ MORE ]
The always elegant presentation of Germany’s Ornaments label is paired with similarly elegant productions on this remix compilation of previously digital format-exclusives. Marko Furstenburg’s usual near-transparent studio technique is brought to bear first on D.Diggler’s Nitronome, the original bouncy deep tech-house released on the 2006 album Empulse. Furstenberg’s submerged interpretation integrates many of the original [ READ MORE ]
Theo Parrish should give me one of these $43 Ugly Edits t-shirts for writing about them on facebook. I wear a smedium, dude! “$43??!!!!” you ask? well, $42.99 + tax, really. Rahm gotta get his cut, too, joe! If it’s like anything else Theo does, it’s limited. And face it, you probably made enough to [ READ MORE ]
This is not a new release, but the recently reinvigorated Trelik label is still wandering its way to outlets around the world (including Gramaphone) so I thought this gem would be worth a late mention. Thomas Melchior and Peter Ford team up for another subliminal loopy session under the Soul Capsule guise. The original is [ READ MORE ]
Plaid are still off in their own exquisite world. They seem to have invented a personal language, and continue to develop its vocabulary through this latest, long-awaited full-length. In the half-decade since their last WARP releases they have provided feature film soundtracks for Heaven’s Door and Tekkonkinkreet and this may have helped to further develop [ READ MORE ]
Leaning Over Backwards is Tobias.’ debut album. Kind of. Since his recordings as part of Hypnobeat in the mid-80s, he’s worked with Atom Heart as Sieg Uber Die Sonne, released a solo album as Zoon in the mid-90s, done extensive work as Pink Elln both in collaboration with Atom TM and solo albums and singles [ READ MORE ]
Only the third artist to have an album released on Jamal Moss’ Mathematics imprint (not counting those under The Sun God‘s various aliases), John Heckle more than meets the high expectations involved. The album’s strength lies in its ability to jump from one style to another while remaining confident and commanding. On “The Charge,” “The [ READ MORE ]
Brendon Moeller, recording here under his more frequently techno-oriented Echologist alter-ego, releases the first album on his own Steadfast imprint. Subterranean is groundbreaking. It is immersive, experimental, textural journey. Through it, the artist has seemingly distilled his techno work to solely the atmospheric elements. This process is most transparent on tracks like “Slowburn (Filter Dub)” [ READ MORE ]
Marcellus Pittman of Three Chairs fame presents the Midwest Advocates EP Part One, hopefully in earnest because it certainly deserves a continuation. These are raw-as-nigiri drum machine workouts. The two cuts’ skeletal vision is to Detroit house what Jeff Mills‘ The Drummer series was to techno. They’re excellent tool tracks that manage to eke a [ READ MORE ]
So, oddly enough, I went to school with Dave Shettler. Well, to be more accurate my younger brothers were good friends with him and I knew him through them. We played in bands in the Detroit area at the same time and are Facebook friends. Needless to say, I was surprised when I looked at [ READ MORE ]
2011 has seen some nice releases on Hour House Is Your Rush and Noble Square from Chicago’s Ricardo Miranda, and his debut for the Stilove4music label continues that journey. The title track “102point7″ is built around a running, jagged sawtooth synth line and serious claps. The track grinds and jacks relentlessly on its sparse, overdriven [ READ MORE ]
Previously only available on 1993′s Lost Trax compilation, this is some amazing work by Larry Heard that should never have been “lost.” Built around a foundation of shuffling beats, excellently programmed toms, some jazzy keys and some amazing etheral synth melodies this one is a sure fire floor filler. I only wish the quality were [ READ MORE ]
This four track EP on Chicago’s Mindshift Records shines as an excellent example of an ideal marriage of house and techno concepts. The A side dives deep into some lush, dubby and reverb soaked sounds that immerse the listener yet doesn’t drown them. There’s plenty of tension in the tracks to drive a dancefloor as [ READ MORE ]
Levon Vincent’s increasingly infamous Novel Sounds imprint, an outlet devoted to his solo releases since 2008, drops another likely limited, stamped whitelabel edition to close out 2011. If you’ve been following his progress, this release will come as no surprise, but rather as a welcome addition to his steadily building catalog. (Well, steady save for [ READ MORE ]
Indie heavyweight Studio !K7′s latest signing, The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble, comes on strong in the recent tradition of Francesco Tristano and Christian Prommer (another !K7 alum.) This is a fully-realized, largely acoustic recording, which while taking some loose inspiration from the language of electronic music, doesn’t stay in loop-oriented territory for very long. The [ READ MORE ]