[Resopal Red]

In the span of just over six months, Grecian producer George Lemos has quickly leaped from obscurity to rising star status. Along the way he helped put the Frankfurt-based label Be Chosen on the map with a keen 12″ collaboration with Chevy and garnered choice remixes of the “Lookooshere” EP from Anthony Collins, Art Bleek and one Wighnomy Brother. The white hot Cécille Records even launched their Numbers sub-label on the back of two of his solo singles. But every journey is not without its bumps in the road, and unfortunately Lemos’ “Faust EP” hosts a few of them.

Which isn’t to say “Faust EP” is without its highlights. “Tsitsi’s Dance” pulls a future primitive vibe by drizzling fuzzy and full-bodied synth stabs across scratchy, tightly-laced drum work. This carries over into “I Mousa Pu Gamousa,” which inverts its blunt and pumping melody and turns up the reverb, leaving dancers wondering how they suddenly ended up in the wake of a dub techno tune. Other moments on the EP leave me scratching my head as to what Lemos was thinking. It opens with the stuttering builds of “Noudle Soup,” cuts to a bouncy and unrelated second part, then tries to blend the two with stomach-turning results. Lemos uses these unexpected builds several times on the EP, each time more flow-disrupting than the last. Combined with a murky sound design, listeners have to jump a number of hurdles to fully enjoy the “Faust EP.” Still, at the rate Lemos is going, such early missteps could soon end up at the bottom of a tall stack of vinyl.

[Cécille Records]

Cécille Records, a new label from Nick Curly and Marc Scholl, has managed to put itself on the map after only three releases, each more enjoyable than the one before it. First recruiting Markus Fix, then the semi-mysterious Sis (who recorded for Curly’s other label, 8bit), Cécille now courts Andreas Wiegand, better known as Andomat 3000. “Cognitive Dissonance,” Wiegand’s latest, finds the experienced producer working minimal house grooves into warm-blooded movers and shakers that cannot be ignored.

Listen to “Vertical Smile”:

Opener “Vertical Smile” weaves in and out of patches of reverb, almost as if being dunked under water as the track tries to cut through the refracting depths. Wiegand spares no nuance, opting for percussion that compresses/expands like tiny pistons and pacing pitches awash in viscous timbres, suggesting the track could take place as easily in a lap pool as in a club. He moves to more traditional house ideas with “Cicl?”, a piano-driven cut that’s ripe for the mixing in today’s ivory-happy environment. His rambling piano chords are cut to slivers by jacking claps, all operating under the muted glow of warm pads. Definitely a cut above a lot of piano-heavy tracks these days. Closing out the package is the rattling “Hominid,” a bare bones number whose only melody is the subtle squeak of its joints. Those favoring Andomat’s material with Jan will latch on to this skinny one.

It might be a little early to call Cécille a buy on sight label, but with “Cognitive Dissonance” as the knock out punch on a 1-2-3 combo, it seems safe to say Curly and Scholl know quality when they hear/release it. And if any of these tracks are an indication, 2008 could be a hot year for Andomat 3000 as well.