Clement Meyer is somewhat of the youthful upstart. Emerging back in 2007 through Get The Curse, his influential electronic music blog focused on dirty house and electro, he’s seen his stock rise quicker than eco-energy. First earning a residency at hipster Parisian haunt Social Club, he’s since become an associate (and eventual co-owner) of Fondation Records with Danton Eeprom, lined up residencies at East London’s T Bar, and released the double A side Get The Curse on Seinan Music with apparent partner in crime Olibusta. Now he’s launched the Get the Curse Records imprint and begun its tenor with his own Midnight Madness EP. It’s not that this type of rise is unusual in the slightest, with cats such as Fredski from Tartlet Records, or fellow Social Club resident and infamous blogger for Fluokids, Casper C rising in a similar fashion. However, unlike some of his contemporaries, Clement’s music has a maturity that seems to reflect more than his age.
Author Archive: Jean-Robert Saintil
Joshua Iz, Vizual Rydims #2
Back in 2000 at the apogee of Classic Records and Music For Freaks, DJs and producers such as DJ Sneak, Justin Harris and of course Derick Carter were de rigour. The entire Chi-Town bent on boompty bass lines and a serious penchant for fun sounds, be it the unfortunately too short lived Charleston house sound exemplified by Greens Keepers’ “What’s Your Man Got To Do With Gan” (and check the Igloo Records and G-Swing imprints) to bells, whistles, meows and barks blew up dance floors and headphones. On the flip side there were the deeper house sounds of Chicago with Iz & Diz’s enduring “Mouth” on Classic and “If You Love It, Dub It” on Silver Network. That’s probably how you know Iz; these days he’s all about his new imprint Vizual Records, using it as a vehicle to release music across the gamut of electronic music from Jamaican dub to Detroit techno. As with many contemporary solo artist led imprints, all the initial releases have been by Iz himself, but they’ve not lacked diversity. After an honorary bow to boompty on the first Vizual Rydims release, he decided to take a slightly deeper, Detroit lean while attempting to retain a hint of breeze from the windy city.
Greg Wilson, Credit to the Edit 2
There’s something about the name Greg Wilson that tends to inspire awe in even the most hardened of musos: His legendary turns DJing and creating re-edits from reel to reel tapes through to spreading the sounds of electro-funk throughout Manchester via his 1983 residency at The Haçienda. That’s combined with his abandonment of DJing at his pinnacle to concentrate on producing the likes of the once timely Ruthless Rap Assassins and Yello. As one would expect, he made a rather loud return to the fray in early ’00s during the heady days of nu-disco, dropping the killer LP, Credit to The Edit, on Tirk. Consisting of hand cut edits a la 1983, one saw a number of tracks which harked back to the ’70s and ’80s. Cuts such as Chaka Khan’s “I Feel For You,” “I Can’t Turn The Boogie Loose” by the Controllers and “Rockers Revenge” all made an appearance, complete with the excellent, seams ‘n all cuts and bounces. The LP was such as classic that after speaking to one of the Tirk chaps, apparently it’s still shifting units today. CTTE 2, however, is something of a different breed — as if Wilson’s been fully updated with the contemporary technology and his forays back onto the dance floor have provided him with some new inspiration.
Lopazz & Zarook, Studiorevox Taperecordings
Former Output Records labelmate, Get Physical cohort and all round badboy Lopazz aka Stefan Eichinger and Italic records chap Eddie Zarook get back together after a slew of remixes to drop this sample ridden double A-side. And if you’ve not heard their wonky remix of Gus Gus’ “Add This Song,” I advise you do so — it jacks like a iron fist in a padded glove against a brick, sweat covered wall. They do it again here, and the producers’ respective styles complement each other perfectly with Lopazz’s somewhat warm in tone, house-fused vocal stylings together with Mr Zarook’s stripped back, near minimal techno leanings.
V/A, Significant Others Too
While out in Tokyo, I once read a review in which a DJ was described as playing “insidious house” due to his ability to get said reviewer from “happily sitting with a drink to dancing thirty minutes later without knowing what happened.” The kind of deep, warm groove ridden sound which creeps under your skin and is as conducive to listening as it is to shaking it on the floor. Unfortunately I forget the DJ referred to, but the term captures the trend which has been prominent during the past few years. Injecting soul and an infectious warmth back into house as an anathema to glacial minimal sound that came before it. And it is this non-pejorative, soul-infused “insidious house” which Wolf + Lamb have made their signature and stock in trade. This collection of new projects, first releases and previously digital only tracks sounds strangely more like an EP pulled from a Best Of compilation rather than a showcase — each of the tracks presenting themselves as dusted down nu classics. Even the title Significant Others Too bears the hallmarks of a quiet confidence Wolf + Lamb have created for themselves over the past four years.