it’s impossible not to mention nature when discussing christian löffler.
teshno
'in germany, they can't say 'techno,' they say 'teshno'' ~ seth troxler [march 2008]
aspen ~ christian löffler’s on ki records
luke solomon ~ ultrasound on fullbarr
impressive young label fullbarr has managed to pull off a masterstroke here. not only has it managed to coerce a rare new single out of classic records boss luke solomon, but so too has the bradford imprint secured some high profile remixes in the form of micro-house man losoul and perlon associate kalabrese. what’s more, the nonstandard house results are as pleasing in your ear as they sound on paper…
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
label profile ~ nrk music
this year nick harris’ nrk music turns 15. in that time the bristol bastion of house quality has notched up over 100 releases of which they can be proud. rather than following any particular trends, the label has been steered by harris from its bristol bass through the nether regions of 4/4 with names like kerri chandler, peace division, steve bug, dave clarke, global communication, seth troxler, kris wadsworth and ed davenport all either appearing on, or mixing it up for, the imprint in the last decade and a half.
teshcast m ~ kornél kovács
when i first heard ‘baby step‘ i was mesmerised. something about its trancey, hypnotic whimsy really got under my skin. when i found out the man who’d made it was a part – or in fact founding member – of studio barnhus, things made more sense.
cottam ~ deep deep down on aus
a few things define cottam’s music in my mind. one is the lethargic tempo (which he always makes work), another is the great sampling and the third is how things are tantalisingly drawn out over such long periods of time.
achterbahn d’amour ~ trance me up (i wanna go higher) on absurd
acid test 05, ‘trance me up (i wanna go higher)’ comes from achterbahn d’amour — the german duo of well-known iron curtis and his lesser spotted pal edit piafra. confusingly, despite the titles, it’s neither acid nor trance, but instead solid, raw, organic and classicist house music.
interview ~ mike huckaby
if you watched ra’s real scenes: detroit, providing you aren’t dead inside, you will have been roused by the youthville section of the film. it showed mike huckaby teaching various kids various music making skills in his hometown of detroit.