Posts Tagged ‘ downtempo ’
For those that are unfamiliar with Eddie Palmieri‘s work, here is an open invitation to the magnificence of his latest piece “Mi Congo Te Llama”, a 12 inch produced and mixed by Joaquin Joe Claussell on Fania, distributed by Sacred Rhythm Music. Born of parents from Ponce, Puerto Rico, Eddie was raised in the South [ READ MORE ]
The dark horse series “Vanguard Sound” has been establishing an aesthetic of gritty, almost militant house music. The sound here straddles the range of haunted acid, industrial electro, jack, and techno. Amir Alexander‘s imprint continues the trend with its third 12″. As usual for the series, the tracks are varied and strong. DJ Spider’s Tribal [ READ MORE ]
Fans of strange and beautiful house should be on the look-out as Atavisme has issued represses of French mastermind Pepe Bradock‘s Pistes Insolites series along with his Path Of Most Resistance 12″. While these aren’t as well-known as his earlier classic, Deep Burnt, they’re every bit as well-conceived, frequently delve into more idiosyncratic oddities, and are of [ READ MORE ]
Essential release from this Finnish producer. Finally, after several albums of material essentially available only to a European audience, he has a 12″ readily available for the stateside listeners. His music has the same ambiguous sheen and thoughtful attention to detail as the clever contemporary retro label art. It confidently straddles the divide of fully-fledged [ READ MORE ]
Prolific Chicago-based producer & multiple-label owner Hakim Murphy releases his latest full length on his own Machining Dreams imprint. “There is just yourself, thoughts, and phrases” he blurrily imparts in the album’s opening monologue, before launching into his characteristically stark yet warm dry beat craft. He has slowed things down for this collection, and tempo [ READ MORE ]
Jan Jelinek has finally re-emerged after a half-decade hiatus from his Farben project. His new releases on the Faitiche imprint stick to his ethos of rigorous sample mining and re-contextualization, but update his previously microhouse sound to the increasingly weird, slow-motion, and bass-oriented palette of recent years. This latest 12″, his second on the imprint, [ READ MORE ]
Canadian turntablist Kid Koala has extends his storytelling once more with a full book of original, hand-sketched artwork to accompany his hand-scratched vinyl manipulations. And true to the project, the music is subdued, introspective, and does really sound like it was composed as a concept soundtrack. The turntablism takes back seat to the sparse, moody [ READ MORE ]
This mini-album from dubstep, downtempo, singer-songwriter impressario James Blake expands on the vocal & acoustic-hybrid efforts he explored on an acclaimed self-titled full-length. For about half the album, he sticks to barely processed piano and vocals, his singing sometimes with shades of Antony Hegarty falsetto. Here and there he still adds electronic flourishes, as on the [ READ MORE ]
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 ]
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 ]
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 ]
Essential reissue from Theo Parrish here. In stark contrast to the showy influence of nostalgia on so much deep house being released in the past couple years, this double-pack 2004 reissue of his year 2000 sophomore album on Sound Signature sounds torn out of time and trend. Much of it ranges from slow-house to hip-hop [ READ MORE ]