being a dance music fan is an inherently fickle pursuit, your favourite artist this month likely won’t be for long. it can be your tastes that change, or their style that matures, but often the convergence of the two happens for only a brief period apart from in the most extreme cases of prolonged excellence… think omar s, andy weatherall etc.
teshno
'in germany, they can't say 'techno,' they say 'teshno'' ~ seth troxler [march 2008]
october/borai ~ level abstain on never learnt
aardvarck ~ indo ep on skudge presents
as well as forever expanding their own brutish back catalogue of loopy analogue techno, skudge continue to showcase the wares of their favourite other producers.
savas pascalidis & joel alter ~ white lotus on sweatshop
pillow talk ~ soul edits on wolf & lamb black
we all know that vocals have come back in a big way in the last year or so. some are better than others, but san fran trio pillow talk are firmly in the former camp thanks to some delightful efforts for life & death, visionquest and wolf & lamb.
tomska ~ mental raw ep on vibes & pepper
here comes another pretty new, vinyl only label with a great name, vibes & pepper, straight outta paris.
october ~ string theory on simple
i really don’t think anyone will deride will saul for this volte-face regarding his other, housier label, simple.
jason grove ~ 313.4.ever on skylax
following on from lost cuts 1 & 2 (two eps of tracks made initially on tape in ’91 and ‘92 respectively) french label skylax now release a full length from the mysterious jason grove.
nyra – uno 10 on elastic dreams
elastic dreams has made an excellent start with two eps from mysterious boss a sagittarian.
special request ~ lolita / alone on special request
despite quickly becoming a close planet e associate in the last year or so, still leeds based paul woolford has also flirted with ‘bass music’ ever more openly.
crackazat ~ explanation ep on astro.dynamics
you can tell that crackazat is a student and teacher of jazz, acoustics and electronics. his music glistens and gleans but, though dense, is never over stuffed.
aspen ~ christian löffler’s on ki records
it’s impossible not to mention nature when discussing christian löffler.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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…
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…
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.