butane ~ endless forms [crosstown rebels] lp review


review for resident advisor


butane’s endless forms comes amidst times when many strains of music continue to lean toward the house template; continue to burrow into the deep. no longer a resurgence, now rather de facto, this modus operandi is on the verge of becoming stale unless someone can re-interpret them with fresh perspective. says butane; ‘i get bored with the same places, the same tastes, the same sounds. my music evolves with me.’ couple that with the inspiration he takes from darwin, and butane’s obsession with change should set him in good stead to set off down an unspoiled path, hopefully to emerge somewhere different – somewhere interesting – at the other side. and that’s what endless forms is – an investigation; a journey into the unknown.
and he’s good to his word. not only does endless forms evolve on a track to track basis, but on a more granular level as well: each tune twists and turns, ultimately sounding far displaced from its beginning. sometimes the mutations are explicit, sometimes more subtle – either way, you can’t help but get drawn in. each track intimidates and, whether through nonstop grinding grooves or building, frenetic ticks – all have mischievous and dark undercurrents which take a little working out, a little getting used to. this well proportioned effect/reward imbalance makes for more involved listening than your average release: and it’s sure true that the more you put in, the more you get out.

as an album from beginning to end, endless forms is not one which makes for the best rounded listening experience in the way that, for example, burial’s work does. here, somehow, the disparate parts are better than the haphazard sum. but that’s not fatal (neither was it on exercise one’s latest album) because with invention throughout, and the fact that endless forms twitches previously dormant synapses, you’re still likely to come back to it from amongst the laissez-faire and largely unchallenging alternatives.

there are warped, pulsing sounds from bass music; loopy glitch of the sort reboot might enjoy, and unashamedly brash, bolshie and swaggering tech house, all twisted with butane’s take into something which almost breathes in its bristling effervescence and resistance to settle. pushing on like this, searching out new atmospheres and soundscapes, it’s as if butane is playing – just seeing what he can do. as his inspiration darwin would have it – it’s the process of natural selection: butane has come up with a more successful means to the enjoyable end than most, and so will prosper.

published on July 10, 2009 11:06 pm.
filed under: Uncategorized

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interview ~ al tourettes


so i first got wind of al tourettes alongside appleblim on aus. together the pair mined a nice bass/house vein and that was that. then came al’s swan sketch ep on base logic

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published on February 7, 2012 5:44 pm.
filed under: al tourettes, interview, sneaker social club, techno

achterbahn d’amour ~ frank music 03 on frank music


achterbahn d’amour (iron curtis and recent teshcaster, edit piafra remember) are coming along nicely. the follow up to their debut on acid test comes on berlin based frank music and is ingrained with all the same classic, timeless hallmarks as their last outing.

read the rest of achterbahn d’amour ~ frank (…)

published on January 26, 2012 5:50 pm.
filed under: house, review

teshcast p ~ samoyed


when i reviewed samoyed‘s spit ep on astro:dynamics for ra, the first draft got sent back from the editor with a note that it ‘needed more context.’ i was aware of that already, but was unsure how to best describe it.

read the rest of teshcast p ~ samoyed (…)

published on January 25, 2012 12:11 pm.
filed under: astro: dynamics, interview, samoyed, teshcast

lilith ~ master codes on memoria


dutch label memoria has recently expanded itself into an agency and management group having continued to grow in recent times. for their next release they turn to label manager and house and techno producer lilith, whilst also recruiting andrew grant on remix duty.

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published on January 24, 2012 1:12 pm.
filed under: deep house, review, techno

interview ~ lawrence


once again last year, lawrence’s dial imprint owned. not only did it release the full length excellence of roman flugel’s fatty folders, but so too did it offer up more oddness from pigon aka efdemin, whilst sub-label laid (see what they did there?) released possibly the best deep house compilation not to make it onto my year end countdown.

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published on January 20, 2012 3:28 pm.
filed under: deep house, dial records, house, interview

mrsk ~ twirl on skudge present


following on from stephen brown’s opener, the skudge present label continues with an effort from swedish producer mrsk. you may recognise the name from (amongst other places) last year’s secretsundaze comp which featured his remix of anthony shakir’s “travellers”.

read the rest of mrsk ~ twirl on (…)

published on January 20, 2012 2:31 pm.
filed under: review, skudge, techno

sei a ~ flux on turbo


i was gunna open this review with something like ‘sei a here continues his sonic re-invention blah blah’ but then i realised the now london based dude’s never really settled on any one style long enough for him to re-invent it.

read the rest of sei a ~ flux (…)

published on January 18, 2012 3:10 pm.
filed under: martyn, review, sei a, techno

interview ~ hazylujah


too many ghosts is the first ever ep from italy’s hazylujah and it’s stunning. not only stunning for its maturity, completeness and originality, but also because it is the first thing ever committed to vinyl by the young talent (it’s on delsin, too, and we all know they don’t fuck about when it comes to taking people into their revered musical fam).

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published on January 17, 2012 1:15 pm.
filed under: delsin, house, interview, techno

teshcast o ~ edit piafra

if you know your shit then you will know acheterbahn d’amour: it is the german duo consisting of iron curtis and emerging producer edit piafra who have crafted plenty of raw, wired-up analogue house and acid for both frank music and absurd’s acid test series. the duo have another ep of similarly classic sounding, firm house that’s both deep and purposeful due out on frank soon, and so i jumped at the chance of hearing where edit’s tastes lie when it comes to other people’s music.

read the rest of teshcast o ~ edit (…)

published on January 13, 2012 1:52 pm.
filed under: edit piafra, frank music, house, interview, podcast, teshcast

the brick remixes ~ dj qu / kassem mosse on all inn records


romanian label all inn recently took the decision to “go boutique” by becoming a vinyl only label that presses but a few hundred copies of each release. truth is, this one will likely sell out before it’s even on sale given the names involved, but those who do buy on sight rather than sound will not be disappointed.

read the rest of the brick remixes ~ (…)

published on December 14, 2011 9:17 am.
filed under: deep house, dj qu, house, kassem mosse, review, techno

nina kraviz to release debut album


matt ‘radio slave’ edwards has announced he’s to release nina kraviz’s eponymously entitled debut lp on his own rekids imprint on 27th february 2012. i’m lucky enough to have heard it already, and can tell you it’s a thing of beauty…

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published on December 7, 2011 12:58 pm.
filed under: news, nina kraviz

albums of the year ~ 2011

ok, here comes a list of my thirty favourite long players (including one re-issue and following my top 10 compilations) of 2011. like last year, i’m not that sure of the order beyond the first few, but these are the records which i’m still listening to, still enjoying and – in many cases – still astounded by. the only other thing to note is the lack of many bass/dubstep albums. efforts from kuedo, sepulcre and machine drum will all top many polls elsewhere on the web, i’m sure, but i just never quite sit comfortably when they are playing. necessarily then, in case you wondered, i’ve overlooked them. but it ain’t like i was short on choice…

 

 

read the rest of albums of the year (…)

published on December 6, 2011 2:40 pm.
filed under: 2562, acid, chicago house, cosmin trg, deep house, delsin, deniz kurtel, detroit, dial records, dub techno, electronic albums of the year, house, martyn, omar s, ostgut ton, review, rick wilhite, robag whrume, roman flugel, smallville, steffi, techno, zomby

interview ~ argy


here comes the dj mag feature i did on argy based around his latest long player, fundamentals, on jerome sydenham’s ibadan records.

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published on December 5, 2011 12:09 pm.
filed under: house, interview, techno

compilations of the year ~ 2011

i included compilations in my top 20 albums list last year. that was lazy. given that it’s been a vintage year for the (ever dying, apparently) things, i thought i’d do a separate list this year. first couple are firm favourites and after that it’s pretty hard to decide.

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published on December 2, 2011 11:36 am.
filed under: deep house, fabric, garage, giles smith, house, james priestley, nrk, nrk records, ostgut ton, soul clap, techno, wolf + lamb

interview ~ taimur agha


if you’ve been to new york to party, there’s a good chance taimur agha had some role to play in it. aside from being an esteemed dj in his own right, agha is also responsible for the brilliant blk|market mermbership parties held in the city, as well as bi-monthly radio show, the bandwagon and is also the house techno music buyer at halcyon record shop. it’s almost as if he’s single-handedly on a mission to bring good music and great parties the city we, in the rest of the world, so often hear is lacking in that department.

read the rest of interview ~ taimur agha (…)

published on December 1, 2011 1:33 pm.
filed under: deep house, house, interview, techno

heart the art volume 2

i did a first volume of this a while ago and it seemed to go down quite well. as such and since then i’ve been making a note of some favourite record sleeves with a view to doing it again. i kind of figured the words last time were pointless, so instead i’ve wasted an afternoon making a collage and will include only a few notes. i’ve enjoyed all these albums and eps in recent months (bar hamburg elektronish vol. 01 which i haven’t yet listened to but still love the pop-up cover) for different reasons. similarly, the art which adorns the music has gotten me in different ways…

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published on November 30, 2011 2:02 pm.
filed under: deep house, heart the art, house, review, techno

zomby ~ nothing on 4ad


on nothing, the mysterious zomby touches on some of the same occult digital eeriness that characterised his excellent recent full length dedication. interspersing those brittle, haunting garage sounds here, though, are some straight up breakbeats from a dusty old rave vault which all in all make for a seven track ep almost as compelling as the aforementioned full length itself.

read the rest of zomby ~ nothing on (…)

published on November 29, 2011 11:39 am.
filed under: garage, review, zomby

interview ~ sei a

glaswegian sei-a (pronounced “say a”, obviously) is an interesting one. he’s not someone who has ever been fully chewed up by the hype machine despite already having two solid lps to his name on french outlet missive music and tiga’s thriving turbo.

read the rest of interview ~ sei a (…)

published on November 24, 2011 12:48 pm.
filed under: house, interview, sei a, techno

teshcast n ~ life’s track


after hearing their excellent eps on italian label bosconi, i was instantly enamoured by italian duo life’s track. as i said in my review of that ep for ra, they are like an italian skudge… a pair of mysterious analogue freaks making proper house music. it’s house music with depth and real narrative.. listen to any of their tracks (a couple of which are included on teshcast n) and you’ll instantly be transported to a place somewhere else. retro-tinged but future-facing, it’s some of the nicest, purest house i’ve heard in ages.

read the rest of teshcast n ~ life’s (…)

published on November 23, 2011 11:34 am.
filed under: deep house, house, interview, podcast, teshcast

gerry read ~ all by myself/what a mess on fourth wave


completing a hat-trick of hurried sounding house eps on fourth wave, gerry read confirms what you suspected from his first two releases on the label: the man got skills.

read the rest of gerry read ~ all (…)

published on November 17, 2011 1:39 pm.
filed under: deep house, fourth wave, gerry read, house, review