arkist & kidkut – one year later on hot flush

as revealed in teshcast f’s accompanying interview, here comes a debut hot flush release from immerse boss kidkut and burgeoning apple pips producer arkist. why scuba beckoned them is obvious – the bristol pair’s deep, sleek and clean bass concoctions are fine bedfellows for his own polished productions.

opener ‘one year later’ is a spacious and distant affair; the forlorn soundtrack to a night’s end. pinned around thick, fuzzy minor chords and disheartened (though not lacklustre) beats, it speaks of a love lost, but one reflected upon with fondness rather than fury. a sense of optimism comes late on from the processed melodies which ripple off into the middle distance before the whole thing melts to nothing like the end of a dream… a blissful bassy beauty.

read the rest of arkist & kidkut – (…)

published on July 18, 2011 10:17 am.
filed under: arkist, dubstep, hotflush, kidkut, review

s-max & spatial ~ corti / ms rosen dub on schmorgasboard

after the most excellent inaugural offerings last time round, brizzle label smorgasboard is already serving up its second platter. this time from lesser spotted names s-max and spatial, the four tracks they cook up come from just as unpredictable a place as did october and appleblim’s, this time fusing taught bass energy with house warmth and techno futurism.  no, seriously, these are some (beautifully) mongrel morsels.

read the rest of s-max & spatial ~ (…)

published on July 15, 2011 12:17 pm.
filed under: dub, house, review, schmorgasbord

teshcast g ~ the editor

teshno is two this month and i wanted to do something special to celebrate. ‘what better than to do my own mix’ i thought. that was about four months ago. i’ve never done such a thing ever before but, in various stages over the last weeks, i have faded, slammed, disharmoniously mixed and fluked together a collection of tracks which didn’t clash too horribly. that said, they all convey the sort of vibes i like in my music… emotion, looseness, warmth, texture. hell, some might even make you want to tap your foot.

read the rest of teshcast g ~ the (…)

published on July 13, 2011 5:24 pm.
filed under: ambient, deep house, hip-hop, podcast, teshcast

martyn ~ viper / masks on brainfeeder

the artistic merits of martyn’s work have never really been up for debate. instead, it’s simply been a case of – do you feel it? if you don’t, it’s certainly not for the dutchman’s lack of trying… early on his focus was toughened d&b, then came a sleek (and only loosely defined) dubstep stage before it was a good old four to the floor pulse that underpinned all his records for the likes of aus music, ostgut ton and all city. now, though – and as you should expect – he’s moved on again, this time to fly lo’s brainfeeder who will release the full length from which these singles are taken later this year. but rather than kowtow to that label’s leftfield hip-hop aesthetic, it’s techno and electro which seem greater preoccupations for the 3024 boss.

read the rest of martyn ~ viper / (…)

published on July 8, 2011 5:56 pm.
filed under: brainfeeder, electro, martyn, review, techno

cosmin trg preps debut album, simulat

i’m not normally one to do this, but given i wrote it and am a huge fan, here comes the pr about cosmin’s forthcoming album… it’s a beauty (the lp not the pr).

restless romanian producer cosmin trg is set to release his debut artist album, simulat, on august 26th 2011 courtesy of modeselektor’s boutique imprint, fifty weapons.

it’s his constant innovation since breaking through in 2007 which has earned cosmin a deserving reputation with the electronic elite. in that time, the now berlin based dj, producer and live performer has amassed an enviable discography which traverses a number of ghostly styles, moods and tempos. coming on an appropriately diverse array of labels including hessle audio, rush hour and hemlock, as well as bpitch, tempa and fifty weapons, it has marked out the romanian as a distinguished producer with a discernable voice all his own.

it should come as no surprise, then, that the debut cosmin trg album is as considered as it is. sure, there are tracks which will work both on and off the dancefloor, but it’s the way they’re threaded together and make for one cohesive and coherent statement overall that stands them apart. made up of 12 new tracks, each has been exclusively produced for the album whilst cd-only track ‘fizic’ is to be the lead single, due for release in mid june.

opening on a typically solid but simultaneously surfing groove (which sits, as ever, somewhere outside genre boundaries as we know them) things are alluringly urgent and typically textured from the off. taking appropriate detours into deeper pockets; areas of warm analogue ambiance and abstract alien sounds, there are traces of everything that has gotten cosmin to this point so far, all re-visioned with an ever shifting focus. to call the album so-and-so house or some sort of techno doesn’t do it any sort of justice. quite simply, it’s an all new language…

once again confirming cosmin to be a producer in constant experimental flux, simulat speaks loudly of an essential talent.

01 amor y otros 05:30
02 ritmat 05:08
03 infinite helsinki 03:06
04 want you to be 05:22
05 interstellar inflight entertainment 01:47
06 fizic (cd only) 05:39
07 star motel 02:58
08 less of me, more of you 03:50
09 osu xen 04:11
10 lillasyster 03:13
11 samiska 01:25
12 form over function 04:37

published on June 23, 2011 8:28 am.
filed under: cosmin trg, house, techno

teshcast f ~ kidkut: westernunion

whenever i write about immerse i point out it’s an under appreciated label. now having heard this, a very substantial mix of varied, tasteful house, i reckon it’s fair to say the boss of said label may well be under-appreciated, too. as well as steering his bristol-based mutant-bass label through some beautifully individual breakbeat and dubstep offerings alive with static and crackle (from the likes of sigha, (cosmin) trg and kontext) his own productions have been high on inventiveness to the point where scuba has snapped a pair up for his hot flush imprint, due for release late this year.

read the rest of teshcast f ~ kidkut: (…)

published on June 18, 2011 2:58 pm.
filed under: house, immerse, interview, kidkut, podcast, teshcast

george fitzgerald ~ silhouette ep on aus

for me, aus is a hugely admirable label – not only is its quality threshold intimidatingly high, but it is a label without any stylistic prejudices.  what’s more, the measured number of releases means we’re offered just enough to fall in love, but not too much to get bored, and you can always count on the fact that any remixes will be worthy of their place on the release, instead of being cupped-hand inclusions that beg for any last scraps of your attention.

published on June 15, 2011 5:22 pm.
filed under: aus, dubstep, george fitzgerald, house, john roberts, review

trickski ~ interview

if you like slow, organic, deep, oft dark and variously vocal house music, trickski‘s considered debut on suol is the one for you (out 17/06). the culmination of over a decade of music making, it’s an introverted album that bares its slowly bleeding heart on its sleeve. pulling this way and that so suggestively, it passes through a lifetime’s emotions over the course of 17 tracks, some of which are short segues, others more languid and drawn out grooves, but each relates to the other and oils the overall ride with style.

read the rest of trickski ~ interview (…)

published on June 14, 2011 1:49 pm.
filed under: deep house, house, interview, suol, trickski

heart the art volume 1

for no other reason than looking at them makes me feel… something, i thought i’d start irregularly highlighting some of my favourite sleeve designs of the moment. good ones and bad ones alike can certainly add context to the music contained within, and if you get yourself one of these ace frames they can even brighten up your living room. you don’t get that with an mp3, do you…

the first thing to note is 2011′s trend for including a picture of yourself, as a child, on your album cover.  the first to do so was nico jaar, with a picture of him in the no man’s land between east and west berlin shortly after the fall of the berlin wall. “a place at that time” he told me in a dj mag interview “with no ideology, dialogue, struggle or anything else… just a space lost in the middle of two worlds.”  as, you might say, is the album.. lost between the old and the new, the digital and the analogue, the simple and the complex…

then came a baby 2562 flicking through his parents’ music collection on the cover of fever

and most recently robag with mother and sibling in a nostalgic shot adorning his shit-the-bed good long player, thora vukk. did i miss any other taking this tact? will there be more this year i wonder?

elsewhere and unrelated, ali perc offers hints at the sort of aesthetics to expect from his forthcoming, brushed and scuffed techno full length… (fascinating notes from the designer here)

on the cover of his latest long player, tony surgeon throws together as many different elements as he does in one of his high-octane mixes with, somehow, just as coherent a result …

brendon moeller manages to capture the  same sense of subtle movement with the art work as he does with the sounds of his recent and excellent exploration, subterranean…

john beltran gazes through a damp and misty window which you could a) totally ignore or b) consider for hours, wondering what was behind it in much the same way as you do with the ambient sounds contained within….

and slow hands conjures an immediate sense of awkwardness with the cover of his recent and appropriately entitled ep for more or less.

that was fun, i might do it again…

published on June 9, 2011 6:37 pm.
filed under: 2562, heart the art, john beltran, nico jaar, perc, robag whrume, sleeve art, slow hands

label profile ~ roundabout sounds


time for another hot new label profile… this time i have rather indulged my self with plenty of lengthy questions, mainly because of joe bablylon’s interesting back story… he’s been involved with labels before, was an early player in the california scene and is now producing/releasing some of the most authentic and pleasing house music around courtesy of his new roundabout sounds label.

read the rest of label profile ~ roundabout (…)

published on June 6, 2011 10:30 am.
filed under: house, joe babylon, label of the month, mike huckaby, roundabout sounds

andre lodemann ~ riven reminiscences on freerange

jimpster’s freerange is nothing if not reliable. serving up solid ep after solid ep of deep but mobile house music that wallows in the dusky light of an early evening dancefloor, they here offer something that immediately stands out from the crowd; a new ep (well, two originals plus a san soda remix) riven reminiscences, from always simmering german producer andre lodemann.

read the rest of andre lodemann ~ riven (…)

published on June 2, 2011 4:29 pm.
filed under: andre lodemann, deep house, freerange records, review

snowbombing 2011 ~ review

if you haven’t been, i suggest you do, because as i hope to have conveyed in this djmag review, it’s a great way to spend a few days…

electronic music and all its associated rave pursuits are, at a base level, about escapism. partying in a well appointed city centre club is all well and good, but it’s the abandoned warehouses, underground car parks and sea faring boat venues that get us most excited year in, year out. over the course of the past eleven years, though, snowbombing has taken outside-the-box concept clubbing to a whole new level. having evolved from a cute après-ski party in france, their chosen rave paradise is as far removed from the dullness of daily life as you can imagine, namely mayrhofen, an achingly picturesque alpine village nestled in the lush green flatlands of austria’s ziller valley. so successful has snowbombing been in its mission to break from convention that it now attracts 5, 000 clubbers from across europe, as well as a major sponsor in the form of volvo. ‘why a swedish car manufacturer?’ you may ask. well, it is with the vehicular aid of said sponsor that 2011’s festival officially kicks off….

a few days before dj mag arrives, a road trip rabble of five hundred or so ‘bombers, djs, live acts and revived tv celebs arrive in a large procession on mayrhofen’s man high street having weaved their way across europe in the preceding days. bathed in the 25° heat of a spring sun, their arrival marks the start of a number of pre-parties across the town which is, ostensibly, one quaint, 300 yard road with bars, shops, hotels, spas and pavement cafes lining each side. for this week in april, though, the normally sedate street becomes a surreal catwalk alive with activity, day and night. bunting runs the length of the village, music bleeds out from various ad hoc dj stations and people mull about in shorts, fancy dress and all manner of non-olympic standard ski and snowboard wear.

the first event to which we head on wednesday afternoon (having dumped our kit in one of the many clean, well appointed and well located wooden chalets) is the royal wedding themed street party, where we find a huge bandstand has been transformed with some of the tons of extra production that’s been shipped out especially: stacks of funktion ones, racks of lasers and tables laden with cdjs, decks and all the rest of it form the focal point at which a couple of thousand swat team members, firemen, smurfs, gimps, penises, kings and queens all stare. mr motivator is up on stage, punching the air, doing squats and enthusing a crowd which grows ever larger as the sun disappears behind the mountains to each side of us. after raucous, party-starting and atmosphere stoking sets from plump djs and a-skills (who adds a breakbeat to every song ever, then plays it for 90 seconds) the crowd disperses around town to one of the six or seven clubs which operate each evening during the course the festival.

the candidly named raquet club is where dj mag heads: it’s an amazingly well converted set of subterranean squash courts that have a temporary, draped cloth roof and now dazzle with icicles, huge snowballs, led screens and yet more huge stacks of funktion one speakers. once indie specialists sunshine underground take to the stage, the place heaves with surreal costumes that dance about without a care throughout the leeds band’s angular, 45 minute set. the rest of the week here sees sets from fatboy slim, d&b crossover stars chase & status and magnetic man, with each drawing ever larger crowds, but it’s the draw of raving in a wooden hut that has us heading out into the crisp alpine air once again…

just 150 yards up the street is the schlussel, a cosy space that each year plays host to a set from fully subscribed snowbomber james zabiela. a quick flash of the all inclusive wrist band (one advantage to the festival’s increased size this year, dj mag notes, is that there are more venues, more acts, and so less queues and less crushing dancefloors as a result) and you’re in, immediately immersed in one of the warmest soundsystems… anywhere. as jz works it, he weaves techno into d&b, house into after-dubstep whatever and does so with logic-defying displays on his ipad, kaos pad, midi controller and efx unit. “i love this festival, but it can be hard work with all the late raving and early snowboarding!” he tells us at the airport on the way home, like many, concealing his excesses with a pair of shades. “the schlussel gig was amazing as ever. it got so hot and sweaty in there my midi controller was getting a bit upset… i had to keep towelling it off!” he adds. for those that stay for the jazzed up, piano led house of henrick swartz (which goes on until past 5am) the thought of snowboarding tomorrow is surely but an optimistic one….

nevertheless, a few hours later and the sun has returned, boarders and skiers are everywhere and head variously for the cable car that lifts you right from the centre of town up the penken; or to a bus which shuttles the keener types 20 minutes away to the base of the much snowier , 10, 000 foot tux glacier. opting for the former, dj mag spends the day doing some skiing, but also partaking in all sorts of extracurricular on-piste activities from boarding on water competitions, to get-fit with mr motivator and ski-lessons with eddie ‘the eagle’ edwards. the whole mountain is turned into an adult’s playground where booze and beats are on tap, all day long, and where the regenerative mountain air surreptitiously revives us all for the evening ahead.

that said, there are raves to be had in the afternoons, too, and in particular ones that play out in an igloo village 2000 meters up another mountain (the endlessly amusingly entitled a-horn), known as the arctic disco. the funky, soulful sounds spun up here by the likes of sasse, dixon and aeroplane are so warm they surely melt the snow all around us, whilst body temperatures also rise as the dancing goes on. and on, and on, now down in the village once more at the newest venue, bruch & stradl (in which, as everywhere, you are allowed to smoke). it’s a larger space than the schlussel but with just as punchy a sonic imprint thanks to more beefy f1 systems and the absorbing wooden beams, struts and bars which construct this den.

in control is ewan pearson, his slo-mo house sound drawing out aching punters as they shake off any injuries or inebriations and convene on the dancefloor once again. by the time space dimension controller begins to drop classic acid, modern house and his own brand of detailed disco, the ‘floor is heaving and stays that way as jamie jones goes deep, 80s and sexy; zabiela injects some steel for an hour and ramadanman pummels our every last sense with an impressively tight selection of house flecked dubstep, techno, funky and garage.

and so to the final day, though one it would be hard to call a highlight given the proliferation of acts doing their thing over the course of the whole week. it starts late for us (most?) with a hearty meal in the sun at one of the many meat-heavy restaurants in the village. hovering way above are paragliders; all around are endless streams of absurd and – frankly at this stage – trippy fancy dress costumes and up the street forms a gaggle of people waiting for this evening’s comedic entertainment courtesy of the 2011 installed altitude comedy festival arena featuring jokes-a-plenty from stars like rufus hound and andrew maxwell.

there’s only really one place to be, though, and that’s the eristoff (think smirnoff) forest, where, in the fading sun, circled by pine trees and on a bed of chipped bark, a log stage protrudes from the foot of a mountain. it’s a gorgeously bespoke and natural setting for the wholly un-natural sounds of beatboxer beardyman and rave antiques the prodigy who send punchy sonic waves through the whole rolling valley for the next couple of hours. glasto- quality lights, sounds and screens make the respective sets audio-visual delights, and the intense, electrified antics of prodigy mad-men keith and liam only add fuel to the fire as an inescapable pool of moshers swirls round and round at their feet. it’s lung crushing, insanely anarchic stuff that makes for plenty of collective ‘fuck-me’ moments, as does the week overall. but this is not just any festival; this is schnitzel, snow, sonics and superlatives over the course of a weeklong party in your very own paradise: this is snowbombing.

what we learned…

  • everyone’s favourite christmas carol, silent night, was first heard in the ziller valley where snowbombing is held 
  • in the 80s, rick astely was a regular visitor to mayrhofen for his annual ski jolly
  • the arena club (one of the ‘bombing venues) originally opened in 1982 and played host to the likes of boy george, the four tops and human league
  • eddie ‘the eagle’ edwards – when not giving out ski instruction at snowbombing – is now a humble plasterer
  • book early – the sooner you book, the more centrally located will be your hotel room
  • go for the full week – get some decent skiing done in the first few days before the late nights of partying being to take their toll
  • withdraw your funds each morning – by evening most of the town’s cash machines have been bled dry

published on May 31, 2011 11:38 am.
filed under: house, snowbombing, techno

redshape ~ in trust we space on present

the dance paradox from 2009 is immovably one of my favourite records. thankfully, since then, the reclusive producer behind it has continued to explore his fine grain house and techno template – often on delsin, here on his own present – with equally beguiling results.  the below-the-surface tension of his drums; the mystery of his outer planetary visions and the authenticity of his emotions are the elements redshape has come to perfect, and the ones which again define this ep, in trust we space (which, i’m sorry to say, i’m late on – it came out in april).

published on May 27, 2011 3:23 pm.
filed under: delsin, house, redshape, review, techno

jack dixon & robin card ~ decade ep on take recs

at the end of a week which had seen yet more increasingly formulaic electronic house music flood my inbox, this ep on a record label i didn’t know (insanely, given past releases have come from diverse dons ramadanman and bearweasel), and from a pairing with which i was not familiar, came as a breath of fresh air. and i don’t just mean that metaphorically: the four tracks and three remixes which make up jack dixon and robin card’s decade ep for auspicious london imprint take are awash with a grand sense of space; each one falls away bottomless-ly below whilst soaring to lofty, gaseous heights at exactly the same time above. to be reductive but would be to tag it bassy, bubbly, hot flush house, but to do it justice would be to declare it in a realm all its own.

opening with a jumble of staggering beats, rim shots and stumbling hats, ‘adrian’’s drunken rhythm is propped up with lateral synth ripples which add ‘aqueous’ to ‘airy’ as the adjectives of best fit. at this point all is calm, something the breakout synth stabs at the midway point try to betray, but don’t: instead the opposing forces of slow motion and rising e-motion make for a tense cut that manages to be deep as you like without ever being suffocated by an all too humid or claustrophobic atmosphere.

‘alone’ is more restless where skittish 2 step drums and jogging kicks try to keep up with a tunefully whining synth line that aches with the loss of a loved one. it’s the sort of sound that shouldn’t sound nice but, given the heavily melancholic note it strikes so well as it crisply cuts through the bulbous aesthetic overall, it does. add into the mix some refracted underwater female vocals and you’ve something warm but vibrant; organic but synthesised sounding. ‘keith’ provides the most upbeat moment on the ep, and one that again is torn in two by soaring synth lines and buried-deep beat structures. getting lost in the middle with the snappy, excitable snares and snatched vocal infections is like being just below the surface of the sea… look down and it’s dark hues, up and it’s sky blues, both of which also characterise the dubbed out, reverb heavy and echo-tastic closer ‘leave’.

as for the remixes, colo strips out ‘alone’ and holds it forever back as a tantalisingly slow-mo house groove; elphino tweaks ‘keith’ rather than re-rubbing wholesale and james fox imbues ‘leave’ with a sense of funky africanism. dealing in both devilish drum play and moreish melody overall, these are the sort of house, dub and bass fusion records that everyone’s always talking about in these times of de-genrefication, but that few pull off.

published on May 26, 2011 12:27 pm.
filed under: jack dixon, review, robin card, take records

label profile ~ andy butler’s mr.intl


you have to admire andy butler’s resolve with this label… so enamored is he with the halcyon house days of betwixt ’84 and 95 that he’s birthed an imprint, mr.intl, specifically to re-investigate that period’s aesthetic.

read the rest of label profile ~ andy (…)

published on May 25, 2011 10:48 am.
filed under: andy butler, chicago house, deep house, house, interview, label of the month, mr.intl

top 12 ~ popstars turned djs

so here’s a fun thing i wrote for mixmag in may. many thanks to my twitter chums for some of the suggestions…

andy pickles (tidy boys)/ jive bunny
conceived in a doncaster electrical store by his father, novelty 80s pop act jive bunny gave andy pickles his first foray into the world of music. the cartoony duo smashed their way to the top of the charts with three consecutive number ones and sold millions of records in the process. now who’s laughing?

underworld / freur
although their seminal techno work in the 90s means they can now count appleblim and high contrast as happy collaborators, it’s hard to image said stars would have been so quick to work with freur – the proto-electroclash/new romantic band karl hyde and rick smith were in during the early 80s.

d.ramirez / lisa marie experience
if you think his remix of bodyshox’s ‘yeah, yeah’ in 2007 was commercial, you’ll baulk when we tell you dean marriott’s previous incarnation was as part of chart bothering ‘house’ act lisa marie experience. still, he won’t care given they had five top 20 hits and even appeared on top of the pops.

erick morillo / reel 2 reel
back in the 90s, subliminal boss erick morillo played a key role in chart topping, ragga influenced house duo, reel 2 reel. yup, the same reel 2 reel whose biggest hit, ‘i like to move it’ is still aired on tv, in films like shrek and on the back of inner city buses through tinny phone speakers. thanks, erick…

boy george / culture club
before the drugs (maybe), community service, embarrassing police charges, ministry of sound compilations and ibiza dj sets, boy george was at the heart of the 80s new romantics revolution with culture club: if anyone else has done as much for androgyny before or since, we’re yet to find them.

mr c / the shamen
surely the end co-owner, dj, rapper, and house producer mr c must still count topping the charts for four weeks with a track whose chorus rang out ‘es are good’ (a homophone of the actual words ‘ebeneezer goode’) as his proudest achievement. certainly beats anything he’s achieved since moving to la to become a ‘movie star,’ anyway.

ben watt / everything but the girl
at the time, few people actually knew buzzin’ fly boss ben watt was dating the woman for whom he provided keys and guitars, tracey thorn, during their years together in sophisti-pop act ebtg. although the band is now inactive, watt still provides instrumentals for thorn’s continued solo work.

laidback luke & don diablo / ultimate dj boy band
you know you’re always debating how good a dj super group would be? no, exactly, so why on earth a dutch tv channel thought it would be a good idea to put one together and profile them – awkwardly live on the sofa – nobody knows: even louis walsh would cringe at this one.

chicken lips / bizarre inc
andy meecham and dean meredith are now best known as dj kicks mix series entrants and leftfield house duo chicken lips, but it was as bizzare inc that they initially made their name. being an early 90s act, of course, meant their sound was decidedly acidic, but that didn’t stop it garnering international acclaim and lofty heights in the us’s billboard top 100.

fatboy slim / house martins
‘marxist politics’ and ‘christianity’ might not be the first subjects you associate with big beat specialist fatboy slim, but they loomed large in the air during his involvement with indie outfit the housemartins from ’85 – ’88. after that came another band, beats international, before his latest group the brighton port authority debuted to a lukewarm response in 2008.

bookashade / planet claire
it’s no coincidence bookashade have turned into a stadium filling live act given their former careers as planet claire – an 80s synth pop duo. they released a number of singles and albums, even entering the charts with a remix of culture beat’s 1993 hit ‘mr. vain’ before finally finding the underground allure too strong in 2002.

sven vath / off

party prince sven vath hasn’t always been a techno titan: back in the 80s he fronted cold synth pop group off, singing on a number of tracks including their (no doubt prophetically parentheses-ed) biggest hit ‘electrica salsa (baba baba)’ in 1987. youtube it if you dare…

published on May 24, 2011 9:17 am.
filed under: house, popstar djs, sven vath, techno

maya jane coles ~ focus now on 2020 vision

maya jane coles polarises opinion: you either love her or hate her. if you hate her, though, it’s probably because of how popular she has become, and how quickly. but that aint her fault, and even if you thought ‘what they say’ with its hooky, bound to be an anthem organ-line was an all too obvious hit, you’d be hard pushed to level the same criticism at material from her new 2020 ep, focus now: it’s a decidedly mature four tracker characterised by plenty of restraint.

the title track opens immediately with a simple melody progression where each note glows then fades like a distant lighthouse beam… it adds a nice soft focus but rolls ad nauseum, right to the end, and rather serves as a grating distraction from the tidy, shuffling drum work below… if it were lower in the mix; hypnotic would be the fix. ‘the high life’ is less a poppy, deeper, and dustier house groove in place of the electronic overtones of the opener. crackling drums, sandpaper claps, a vintage male vocal and plenty of sepia synths make it a nostalgic cut on the surface, but the hidden blips and colourful below-the-surface squiggles throughout bring it right up to date, and right to the top of the pile.

‘little one’ reverts back to more polished sounds, and ones that take you out of the basement and into a vast, arcing, deep blue night sky. muted synth stabs are allowed to wander free and create huge spaces in their wake, straight through which chugs a train track 4/4 groove (which desperately wants to break out into two step, but isn’t allowed) that hits the sweet spot with every rotation. the most inward and emotional of the lot (her whole discography?) is ‘senseless’ – a cut that churns so slowly it’s almost lethargic. recalling both the warm electronic dub of trentemoller’s last resort and the frailties of dub-pop architects the xx, it’s about as vulnerable a record as you’re likely to hear on the dancefloor.

there’s a diversity and understanding here which, without wanting to sound like a clichéd cheese bag but doing so anyway, means mjc really is living up to the hype.

listen/buy it

published on May 23, 2011 9:38 am.
filed under: 2020 vision, house, maya jane coles, review

paul woolford ~ achilles/razor burn on planet e

never one to tirelessly tread the same sonic waters, paul woolford’s sound has recently been shifting towards the bassier end of town. in fact, you’d be excused thinking his courting of the style may well turn into a full on romance with this release on planet e, but it doesn’t: rather it seems there’s one more – loosely defined – techno record in him, even if listening to the brilliance of his red-hot t williams remix suggests it may (should? probably a bit strong) be his last.

achillies, as you ought to expect, is composed of sounds you don’t just get from randomly selecting a plug-in and whacking a few buttons in ableton. the personality of each machine used has a bearing on the track’s overall charm… from the mike monday like cartoon acid belches to the menacing 303 melodies via the pulsing, monolithic kicks, there’s an economical efficiency to every sound. they melt and flex around each other (as if of their own volition, rather than being rigidly sequenced by some overheating computer) to create an occult atmos’ that doesn’t so much move forward as loiter menacingly for seven deep and mysterious minutes. it’s a mood track, basically, but one that keeps you delightfully on edge.

‘razor burn,’ on the other hand, is about marching rhythms, where punchy kicks and stripped bare beats pad out an earthy thud before filtered synth lines open and close to add breadth to the track’s inherent depth. the jewel in its crown, though, is the so-furiously-oscillating-it’s-fury-fuzzy-and-k-hole-like synth line (is it?) that assumes centre-sage at the midway point and again toward the end. it’s such a marvellously designed sound that it feels you could almost reach out and grab it. but you can’t, obviously, and instead you have to let it pan through your brain where it fires up synapses and sensations you never knew existed, before unceremoniously dumping you back in the woody bed of beats from which it came… simply great shit that’s, typically for wooly, incredibly hard to date, define or dislike.

listen/pre-order

published on May 20, 2011 4:59 pm.
filed under: paul woolford, planet e, review, techno

teshcast e ~ damiano von erckert

so last week i reviewed damiano von erckert’s debut release, then spoke to him about life, his label ava. and other stuff, now i’m happy to be hosting this mix from the cologne man as the 5th installment of the teshcast series. but a glance down the tasty tracklist should get any house fan all excited given the inclusion of venerated names like omar s, soulphiction, and kyle hall, whist listening to them blended together with martyn, kraftwerk and 6th borough project is no dull experience either.

read the rest of teshcast e ~ damiano (…)

published on May 18, 2011 3:22 pm.
filed under: ava., damiano von erckert, deep house, podcast, teshcast

brawther – do it yourself on secretsundaze

criminally, i’ve never been to secretsundaze. despite that, though, whenever the name crops up a certain sound track begins to play in my head. it’s an unassuming one, a groovy one, and a subtly sexy one. listening to this (a first original release, and the first of any sort – ie mix cd – since 2008) tells me i’ve not been far wrong: i’d be lying if i said it was anything wholly new, but warm, well produced house will never sound tired.

‘do it yourself’ is to-the-point, where the point is to get caught up in a deep, chunky and tunnelling groove and stay there for, in this instance, six and half minutes. cutting through the sub-bloated throb are garage-derived wooden hits and masked female vocal inflections, both of which do little to distract you from the ongoing march, but both of which are important touches to bring the whole thing out of the speakers with a little extra dynamism: no nonsense business, to be sure.

contributing his second track, ‘spacerman funk’ young parisian brawther again harks back to less exhaustingly creative times (good thing), where an unaffected boom-bap, crafted on vintage gear and with suggestive sampling, was enough to get the job done. and frankly, when done as economically yet authentically as this (it’s aged with a lovely dusty crackle), it still is: pure, unadulterated deep house… no more, no less, it’s effortlessly cool.

after reading that, it should come as no surprise to learn that brathwer has been raised under the tutelage of chez damier; whilst traces of pepe bradock and kerri chandler are never that far away. it may surprise you, however, that george fitzgerald is on remix duty. breaking things down into restless, punchier kicks and rattling hits, you dive into deep, hotflush-styled bass territory that’s typically infused with a radiating glow of tonal warmth and refreshing airiness. evolutionary not revolutionary, the whole ep is solid as a rock.

buy it

published on May 16, 2011 9:26 am.
filed under: brawther, deep house, review, secretsundaze