[Kontra-Musik]

The Swedish producer Andreas Tilliander has long been a shapeshifter in electronic music. Under numerous names, he’s been instrumental in the development of “clicks & cuts” with Mille Plateaux and ambient IDM under the Mokira name. After being nominated twice, he won a Swedish Grammy for his album World Industries in 2005. His reach extended into mastering and running a label, both under the name Repeatle. His brand of richly layered, thick electronics carries over in this mastering work, showing a keen ear for sonics of all types. The Mokira guise was last seen in 2009 on Type Records with the billowing, subtle Album. Now in 2011, however, he’s bolstered Mokira ambience with a more pronounced dub techno sound structure. On this three-part 10″ series for Kontra-Musik, his shift in rhythm is ideally suited to being remixed by Silent Servant, Echospace, and Redshape.

The first installment is called “Time Track,” where Mokira is at his most gentle while belying the distress to come. Synths roll out like waves and dissolve into ambient dub textures that would sound right at home next to tracks by Pole or Dub Tractor. As the layers build, buried rhythms start to emerge. This very slight rhythmic element gives Silent Servant his direction as he pushes them to the hilt, winding the ambient melodies around the beat and rendering any semblance to the original moot. “Axis Audio” might best be described as controlled cacophony, a skittering, tumbling stew of echo chambers and crinkling sheets of noise which lumbers forcefully to a shuddering stop. Of the three original tracks in this series it’s the most striking, bridging dub, techno, dubstep, and noise with a stately grace. Echospace turns the noise down and reforms the percussion into a fast-paced stomp with the echo chambers turning their focus to a looping maze of electronic grit. This is what most remixes aspire to be, an artist showing respect for the original by highlighting the ways in which it can be skewed to a new audience.

Where “Axis Audio” was gritty like a factory grinding to a halt, “Manipulation Musik” spreads it’s grit out over mournful strings and submerged pads. The sounds of the sea can be heard in this track, lonely and vast, but with digital squalls of harsh electronics cutting into the melancholy. It’s a very narrative track, showing an ambition hinted at in “Time Track” and “Axis Audio” but only fully realized here. Redshape purportedly used only sounds from the original for his remix of “Manipulation Musik”; this is striking considering how reduced the original rhythms are. His version starts with clipped percussion and injects bursts of grainy noise to build his melody. By the track’s middle the noise almost overwhelms the drums, as if the original’s ghost is coming back to haunt Redshape. The most interesting remixes always come when the artist and remixer sound completely different, and this series by Mokira is a perfect example. Where Mokira’s experimental bent puts sound design above all else, his editors excel at purposing those textures for the dance floor. Mokira for the club? It’s just the latest shape he’s taken.

[Modern Love]

Both Rod Modell and Stephen Hitchell have kept themselves very busy since the release of the last Deepchord presents Echospace album on Modern Love, 2007′s The Coldest Season, and the evidence of their individual journeys is writ large all over the grooves of Liumin, the duo’s latest collaborative effort. If The Coldest Season was the soundtrack to a deep-dive into the sub-oceanic space beneath the largest glacier imaginable, Liumin warms things up considerably with much more active and aggressive grooves built on top of field recordings made on the streets of Tokyo (the field recordings themselves are available on a bonus disc, Liumin Reduced, included with the first pressing of the CD). The results are definitely still informed by dub — Modell and Hitchell aren’t making a complete 180 here — but are distinctly updated, conjuring aural images of rolling through the world’s most high-tech city at night, still full of old-world wonder but hypermodern all at once.

Opener “In Echospace” sets the tone with nary a beat in earshot, as deep, rolling waves of sound splash by in slow motion, peppered with sharp bites of static and disembodied voices cutting through the ether, ghosts of old radio broadcasts pulsing their way to the surface. The track melts away into the bullet train-intro of “Summer Haze” and the beats make their appearance at last. Percolating and lively but just shy of aggressive, this is the classic Echospace sound perfected, with swirling, looped chords and layers of echoing percussion fading in and out of the mix in a hypnotic blend that Modell and Hitchell must be thinking about copyrighting by now. Aside from the organic feel of the field recordings, that percussive base is the other way in which Liumin sets itself apart from its predecessor: where The Coldest Season was content to move in giant, monolithic swathes of rhythm, Liumin is active, even danceable.

“Sub-Marine” thumps along at a pretty good clip with some insistent rattles and funky low-end notes thrown in to move some asses, while “Maglev”‘s bass bubbles and snapping hi-hats are deep house played through a busted-ass speaker cone to surprisingly great effect. “BCN Dub” on the other hand, shambles along like an outtake from Hitchell’s stellar Intrusion project, wearing it’s Jamaican influence proudly as a spectral horn melody drifts through on a distant transistor box that just gets dirtier and dirtier as it repeats. Lesser artists may have reduced dub techno to its base elements and produced cookie-cutter tracks that ape the style set forth by Echospace and their sonic predecessors, but with Liumin, Modell and Hitchell prove that they are no one-trick ponies, evolving musically just as surely as they have maintained their distinctive sound. If you think you’ve heard everything that the dub techno genre could possibly throw at you, Liumin will prove you ain’t heard nothing yet.

[echospace [detroit]]

When the time comes for year-end wrap-ups, count on STL’s pursuit of techno’s humid depths to be one of 2009′s leading stories. The past eleven months saw Stephan Laubner following other creative muses as well (and prolifically), but between the “Silent State” EP for Smallville and a mix CD tellingly titled Dub Techno Explorations, it seems safe to declare a new chapter in the STL legacy. Despite its reverb and grit, “Silent State”‘s bass lines were so buoyant that many notched it as house, but Exploration‘s seventy minutes of dub techno oxidation aimed more for texture and atmosphere. Appropriate enough, then, that the Echospace crew took interest, helping Laubner issue — by my count — his tenth record of 2009.

The two STL tracks featured here, “Check Mate” and “Beautiful Mind,” both appeared on Explorations mix (tracks 2 and 5, if you want to check). Tenuously contained between hasty fade-ins and fade-outs, these aren’t autonomous tracks so much as windows opening on sonic continuities exceeding the capacity of vinyl. Not that they’re less entrancing for it, though. Hypnotic, soft focus, texture, murk, haze, smoke — you know the tags. But this is nebulous even as dub techno goes, the ponderous chords, treated percussion, and field recordings matted into diffuse abstraction. The listless, tinny percussion in “Check Mate”‘s high-end captures the track’s sense of absent drift but, all the while, churning bass grooves and neat kick drum patterns steadily pull us forward. It’s the permeating fog that registers most, of course, and that goes double for the sleepy-eyed “Beautiful Mind.” Dub techno lends itself well to headphone-listening, and Laubner’s gift for early morning, solitary music really blossoms on this track. Behind a drizzle of shakers and dripped drum taps, the atonal chords moan like emanations from some distant shipyard. It’s gently immersive but, more than that, its casual melancholy achieves an emotional depth that sets it apart from just about everything else on the field.

We’re also treated to a rare remix of STL’s work, courtesy of cv313. Their “Remodel” of “Check Mate” — actually positioned at the front of the record — asserts dub over drift, its tougher kick drums and cheerier rhythms resulting in a firmer track with a lot more oomph. Offering a sort of counterpoint to STL’s take on the genre, it’s another fine entry in cv313′s run of dub-inspired head-nod. There’s not a complaint I can lodge against this package.

[echospace [detroit]]

With a faultless series of releases focused on ambient atmospheres and techno textures, Brock Van Wey — perhaps better known as Bvdub, has rapidly become an indispensable fixture of the deeper side of electronica. His latest long player is broken into two parts, with kindred spirit Intrusion offering interpretations of the six tracks in reverse order for the second part of the album. The album’s inspiration is hinted at in the liner notes which feature a poem by Chinese poet Wang Wei, the last line of which is adopted by Van Wey for the album title.

A serenely meditative collection of droning ambience, White Clouds Drift On and On makes studied detail of the repetitive fabric of woven pads, strings and silken noise. Van Wey’s floating compositions weigh in with a gossamer lightness despite an occasional mournful tenderness here and there. “I Knew Happiness Once” is a prime example of this, the yearning tones hint at some long ago emotional treasure buried by time, though the mood remains overall of hope rather than despair. On “A Gentle Hand To Hold” fragile guitar strings combine with angelic, breathy snatches of voices while vast, cascading pads rain down from the heavens. “A Chance To Start Over” takes these elements in reverse, the backwards guitars sucked up into an invisible vacuum, the strains of voices swallowed back into the mouths they came from as pulsing pianos key minute melodies. With the basis of White Clouds Drift On and On being comprised of broad sweeping pads and otherworldly, near religious sounding vocal phrases, these exploratory soundscapes would not sound out of place in a surreal nature documentary. In fact it is hard not to picture the equally wondrous and haunting images of Baraka while listening to this album.

Stephen Hitchell applies his Intrusion touch to the album, adding not only his own interpretation of the tracks but also some notably absent bottom end. The Intrusion “Shapes” are not the usual hallucinatory dub-influenced fare you’d expect from Hitchell; in keeping with the ambient nature of the album his versions are slow, ambling excursions into the deepest of atmospherics. Armed with just a kick drum, a light smattering of toms and some hats, Intrusion creates the same dreamy vibrations he is known for with his more uptempo releases on “A Gentle Hand To Hold,” though with the BPM here hovering around 70 here the amount of breathing space he creates is astounding. The dubbier side of Intrusion emerges on “A Chance To Start Again,” “Forever A Stranger” and “I Knew Happiness Once,” though these too remain purposefully sedentary. Van Wey and Hitchell each capture a masterful beauty in their respective parts on this album, one which is a modern ambient masterpiece and shows each producer in prime form. It will however be much easier to aurally digest by those who are content to lay back and gaze skyward while the two and a half hours of gentle undulating rhythms roll and wash over them.

[echospace [detroit]]

Certain schools of thought believe the highest achievements of dub techno have been long ago attained by the likes of Maurizio and his Basic Channel/Chain Reaction cohorts. However there is no denying the stunning addendums from the likes of Quantec, Rod Modell and Stephen Hitchell et al. have furthered the legacy of the deep, dubby sound. Hitchell has been carving out a name for himself since the early days of the millennium with his stunning twelves and EPs under various guises and now marks his debut foray into the full length album stakes as Intrusion.

There are other producers of this sound who have made their own mark with rich, palatable offerings of dub-wise bounty, some steeped in the blueprint of those who came before them, others presenting a more modern slant. For my money though the refined sound-sculpture of Intrusion captures the essence of this music’s past as well as staying true to the ethos of dub being a future gazing sound. This becomes more and more apparent throughout listening to The Seduction Of Silence, especially on repeat as the frayed textures weave in and out of the atmospheric hiss and tape noise, that sonic grit itself punctuating the notes through various filters and gates.

This is not just a well realized and cohesive album, but also one displaying an encompassing approach to dub techno, from the spatial, languid grooves on “Montego Bay” to the more upbeat, faster paced “Intrusion” and “Tswana Dub” (the latter even sound checks its own history with a nod to the disco zaps of the 70′s era Brentford Road producers). For every peak of intensity reached a more sedate, gloriously downbeat moment follows, the apex reached via the ten plus minute instrumental sounds of “A Night To Remember,” which is about as heady and trance-inducing as dub techno gets. Things start winding down with “Little Angel,” quite fittingly featuring the heavenly vocals of Paul St. Hilaire, the Dominican with a long associated history within the genre. More commonly St. Hilaire’s lyrics are songs of praise or rastaman’s lament; “Little Angel,” though, is a love paean through and through and marks an exit towards the ambient rub of “Under The Ocean.”

Where other albums represent a more clinical or detached take on this oeuvre, Hitchell’s heart is in the analogue gear he uses, giving The Seduction Of Silence an unbridled human warmth that is the very pulse of emotion. It’s this feeling — all at once melancholy yet hopeful — that keeps this album on continuous loop on my system and surely makes it worthy of consideration as as an early contender for album of the year.

Welcome to the twelfth edition of our series of interviews and mixes affectionately titled Talking Shopcast. The majority of media and fan attention gets showered on the artists who create the music we love to listen to/DJ with/dance to, and for good reasons. But without the hard work, keen ears and business savvy of label staff, we’d be stuck only streaming tracks on Myspace. Our latest bring us to echospace [detroit], one of America’s finest imprints which often sets the bar for dub-influenced techno worldwide. Owned and operated by Stephen Hitchell (aka Soultek, cv313, Intrusion, et al.) and Rod Modell (aka DeepChord), the label’s self-contained roster explores the furthest edges of electronic music across a series of colorful vinyl slabs. The label also honored Model 500′s “Starlight” with a host of new remixes and its latest venture, the Intrusion sub-label, dives even deeper in the very essence of dub music. Hitchell talked with us about the state of the music industry, lessons learned, and echospace’s forays into the digital world. He also weaved together a truly stunning exclusive mix which is available after the jump.

Please tell me about the beginnings of echospace. Why and how did you start out? How did you decide on the name echospace?

Echospace originally started as a project name for a remix of my friend Erik Møller (I:, Unai) on my other label, Souldubsounds in 2004. The remix was finished but it didn’t quite sound like anything related to my other projects; echospace was really the only way I could describe the sound of the recording, it was very spatial and filled with tons of atmosphere. I could only imagine in space the slightest sound traveling would echo for miles and spin around you in every direction, very immersible. I suppose the title was best suited as a description of the music rather than a name of an artist, but over time it really grew on me and Rod really liked it, so we went with it on The Coldest Season album as well.

You’ve been running labels for a number of years now; how is echospace different from the rest for you?

I have been involved with labels since 1995 when I did a small run on a 12″ (as Radius) with a close friend. We only released one record which we didn’t even sell to distributors, we gave them away to friends. In 1998 I was a bit more serious about getting music out through proper distribution channels and a few friends and I decided to start a label which would give a home to all of our work. The best thing about doing your own label, artwork, promo etc. is you never lose your artistic vision, you can release something without compromise. In the time I was working on a label with many friends, I learned everyone has their own opinion on what they think is good or where the focus should be with the sound of the label and you end up changing your sound to fit that direction. I think that was a big reason why I walked away from working with too many people on a label and started to get more involved with my own personal things.

With echospace, Intrusion, cv313, Variant, Phase90, Soultek et al. its a bit more personal and I can say things exactly as I want them to be heard without compromise — it’s exactly the sound I love and have been producing for the past 15 years. I think each project has a slight variation and different mood in each production, which is why I feel they should be separated from one another. With echospace, working with Rod Modell has been artistically rewarding. His strong background in the specifics of sound and recording really expanded my horizons with innovative production techniques and has been a radical departure from the traditional recording methods I was used to. There are certain people in this world who are great observers of their environment and surroundings and Rod is definitely one of those people. He notices things most people wouldn’t look twice at and can find subtle beauty in the sounds around us. The knowledge I’ve gained in this respect has changed my whole direction in a lot of my recent material.

Tell me a story from one of your favorite moments in running echospace.

I would have to say one of my favorite moments was working with Juan Atkins, a legend and a person I respect and revere more than just about any other producer in electronic music. When I first talked with him about the [Model 500 remix] project he was very receptive to my ideas, and to me this was amazing. After all, he is the godfather of techno. When he finally agreed to do it and seemed honestly excited about it, well, it was one of the proudest moments I have experienced in my musical career. Juan’s music has had such a huge influence on me over the years, I had the distinct privilege of opening for him at a party I was involved with in Chicago (in the early 90′s) called Dee Day 2, and I also had the honor of announcing him to an audience of 5,000 raving fans. It was a very special moment I’ll remember the rest of my life. He and his wife were both so humble and down to earth, it didn’t surprise me he is very much the same person close to 15 years later. I still remember buying Metroplex 24 on white vinyl at Gramaphone. Josh Werner held the last 2 copies he had for me, and that record changed my life. To me, “Starlight” is what Detroit is all about. It’s sorrow and funk all put into one, there’s pain and love in each sweet note, and to this day doesn’t sound a second older than it did almost 15 years ago. That project in particular was certainly a highlight for me and I think for everyone else involved with the project.

You recently disclosed that you would be making echospace releases available digitally. Was it a difficult decision to make? What kept you from releasing that way previously? What do you think the benefits will be?

The label is now available digitally, which was a hard decision to make. But after long conversations with other labels and friends, it seemed like the right move to make. One thing that put it all into perspective was a show we played in Rotterdam. A few fans came up to me during the course of the night who were all much younger than me and said they didn’t buy vinyl, they djed using Traktor and wanted high quality files of the echospace catalog. Throughout the course of that tour I must have had 100 people asking if they could buy the MP3s from the website in high quality. I realized we were missing an audience and an audience which had grown immensely over the years. As much as I love vinyl and always will, I understand not everyone is me or has the preferences I do. In turn, some of the vinyl junkies (like myself) felt betrayed by going this route, but in the end so many people were sharing the material on file shares it didn’t make a tremendous difference anyhow. If you have an audience or group of people who love music it really shouldn’t matter which medium they prefer, the only thing that matters is if they love what they’re hearing.

Echospace in action at Sonar. Photo by nudevinyl

Do you think there is much promotional value in a blog like LWE or its peers? Do you read many blogs?

I think the new age of blogging has become a great resource for fans, journalists and musicians to talk about their passion, spill out their heart for what they love and that can only be a great thing. In the last few years I have watched this new age of blogging help seize a presidential race, unite people in disastrous events and help in the honest disclosure of news related to the war in Iraq and other hostile territories. It’s the people’s press. Granted I am sure there is a good 50% of information out there funded by corporations whose sole purpose is opposition and miss-direction, but there is still a great deal of honesty in it. I think for the most part blogs are the new information super highway; it’s a great way for people to express their opinion to the masses (who care to read them) and in some cases get inside information on true events in accurate detail, its why I limit my television viewing to public broadcasting stations.

I think its important people have options to how they receive information and what they choose to do with that information. As with everything it’s so important to have different view points, to listen to debates and views from 100 different angles before formulating a decision. The same thing applies in the world of music: now more than ever, the market is filled with thousands of musicians with very little room for top critics and journalist to write about them. Blogs help support and push those obscure titles and increase awareness of the music. Not every release makes it into every record shop — in most cases very few do. Blogs discussing records (as much as message boards) are critical, you read 100 different opinions and become aware of new music. It becomes a social event in a time most people prefer to download music or buy records off of a webshop than take the time to go hunting through crates at a record store.

The most important thing though is that the blog or website is honest and really trying to support the music, not steal it. This is the one aspect of blogging which has hurt the music and recording industry tremendously, (not to mention the 1,000s of vinyl and CD plants that have shut down these past 5 years) I’ve watched shop after shop & distributor after distributor close their doors as a direct result of illegal file sharing. It is theft regardless of how its justified, would you go to Paris and steal the “Mona Lisa”?

What are a few other labels you respect/revere most? Why?

Well, this list could go on forever but off of the top of my head I would say Studio One, On-U Sound, Pressure Sounds, Blood & Fire, Trojan, Firehouse, Wackies, Basic Channel, Chain Reaction, Main Street, Maurizio, Basic Replay, Honest Jons, Deepchord, Down Low Music, Imbalance, Blue Note, Clock Tower, Sub Pop, Fortuna, Silent, Transmat, Fragile, Tresor, Underground Resistance, Studio 1/Profan, Planet E, 7th City, +8, Communiqué, Mille Plateaux, Force Inc., Metroplex, KMS, Trax Records, Warehouse, Relief/Cajual, DJ International, Dance Mania, Warehouse, Irdial Discs, Soma, KDJ, Sound Signature, Red Planet, Prescription/Balance, F Comm, Ampoule, ~scape, Scion Versions, Hypnos, Smallfish, Mojuba/A.R.T. less, Metrolux, Sistrum, Styrax, 430 West, Frictional, Millions Of Moments, Axis, Purpose Maker, M-Plant, Peacefrog, Perlon, Distance, Large, Kompute, Wax Trax, Hot Mix 5, Dust Traxx, Night Life Collective, Guidance, Sub Static, It Is What It Is, Anticipate/Microcosm, 4AD, 12k, Ghostly/Spectral, Cadenza, Antenna, Mathematics, Background, Ai Records, Playhouse, Kompakt, Ostgut Ton, DFA, Skull Disco, Hyperdub, Art Of Dance, City Centre Offices, FatCat, Mute, MDR, Klockworks, BPitch Control, Orac, Rephlex, Warp, Amplexus, Plug Research, Soul Jazz, Type, U-Cover, Yore, Huume, Asphodel, The Agriculture, ROIR, R & S, Third Ear, Skam and hundreds of other labels I’ve followed and bought over the years, I have over 10,000 records so I am sure I could go on for hours here, there are so many artist and labels out there I love for many different reasons.

Stephen Hitchell lets his soul shine through. Photo by nudevinyl.

With the state of the American economy/dollar and the general state of the recording industry, what keeps you going?

That one is simple, the love of it all. If you get back to the state of mind you had when you first discovered this music (for me that was 1986) and the power and love you felt when you first heard it, well it’s something indescribable with only words. I’ve always been addicted to music, even when I enlisted in the Army. My roommate’s would go out every weekend drinking and I would stay in our barracks with my only personal items, consisting of a drum machine and a pair of headphones. I would spend 95% of my free time studying drum sounds and different sequencers. I also had a little side business splicing reel to reel tape replacement loops for various echo units, but that is a story for another time. Honestly though, if this music grabs you the way it does me it just takes control of 95% of your thoughts — its hard not to be consumed by its beauty, I will for the rest of my days here. I could only compare it to the first time a person discovered the power of religion, it makes such an impact on people and as a result of that you hold onto it for the rest of your life. The first time you touch your childs hand, look into their eyes and you know in your heart you truly love something more than yourself. Well, that is this music to me, it’s eternal love.

What are some of the lessons you’ve learned in your years in the label business and with echospace specifically?

To summarize that in a few short sentences isn’t possible but the one thing which I would consider most important (a life lesson, if you will) always trust and follow your heart. Regardless of what is said and what happens, always remember why you are here and what you love the most and for me that has always been the music. I will be the first to admit I am a complete isolationist and for the most part don’t leave my house if I don’t have to, so I have no real attachment to a scene nor do I care to, the music is and always has been the only thing that has kept me here. In regard to the business (marketing, press, promo, etc. or life in general) you must always remember, life is 10% what happens to you or is said about you and 90% how you react to it.

What do you foresee in the future of dance music record labels? What are your hopes for the future?

This question is a tough one, I honestly don’t know. I think it will always be here, my only hope is I am there with it.

What can we expect from echospace over the next year’s time?

For now, we just released my first solo album and third 12″ installment as Intrusion this week, entitled The Seduction Of Silence, and the final 12″ features Paul St. Hilaire (Tikiman). Teaming up with Tiki has been a dream of mine for over 10 years now and it’s a song I love and am very proud of. Beyond that, I signed a new artist to the echospace roster who will be contributing a beautiful full-length CD album of heart-felt ambient work and I will also release the amazing “I:” project from Sweden’s Erik Møller in March with new remixes on Souldubsounds.

Please tell me a bit about the concept behind your mix.

Well, I tried 10 different times to make a hybrid “closer to the edit” style mix in Ableton with over 100 different cuts up and loops of various songs and I just couldn’t do it. In the end all I wanted to do was make a simple old school mix with two Technics, a Pioneer DJM500 mixer, my record box, play some music I love and hit record on the tape deck. I pretty much stuck to one crate of records as much as I wanted to be diverse. (I didn’t want to screw up!) More importantly, I wanted to have a mix which wasn’t so all over the place and stick with a formula I am used to and feel most comfortable mixing. I know most of these records more than most of what I own and have mixed and played almost all them 1000+ times so I felt much more comfortable this way. The unreleased material I included was a bit of a gamble, as most of it isn’t on vinyl and the CD mixing thing is still a bit foreign to me, but I think it worked out OK in the mix. I did four other one hour mixes which had a much broader artist range and track selection, but sadly I wasn’t 100% comfortable with any of them in the end. This one was by far my personal favorite.

Who are a few of your favorite DJs past and present?

Derrick May, Jeff Mills, Derrick Carter, Miles Maeda, Mickey Oliver, Josh Werner, Mike Huckaby, Diz, Claude Young, Mark Farina, Anthony “Shake” Shakir, Dan Bell, Danny The Wildchild, Phantom 45,  Jesse De La Pena, DJ Pete, Rhythm & Sound (w/vocalist) Richie Hawtin, Don Williams, the list could go on for quite a while! There have always been some great DJs out there and still are, but one set I distinctly recall as being magical was by Derrick Carter in the early 90′s at a loft party at 500 West Cermak where he was working 3 decks and had mixed Prince “When Doves Cry” with Hawtin’s “Spastik” and Todd Sine’s “X-Trak” all to total perfection, it was mind-blowing. No beat sync feature back then, no Ableton, no lock up sync and walk away shit. That’s partially why I don’t quite understand the new age of mixing — it takes away the art of it all. When it comes to downright technical mixing ability and demonstrating the true art of djing and working an audience, no one does it quite like Derrick in my humble opinion.

Download: Talking Shopcast 02: Soultek (92:47)

Tracklist:

01. Intrusion w/Paul St. Hilaire, “Angel Version” [echospace [detroit]]
02. Rhythm & Sound, “Mango Walk” [Rhythm & Sound]
03. Rhythm & Sound w/ Tikiman, “Ruff Way” (Afefe Iku remix) [white label]
04. DeepChord, “Electromagnetic Dowsing” (Mike Huckaby remix) [S Y N T H]
05. Substance, “Relish” (Shed remix) [Scion Versions]
06. Pelon, “No Stunts” [Chain Reaction]
07. cv313, Unreleased track from live PA at Smart Bar, Chicago
[echospace [detroit]]
08. Intrusion, “LostSequence” [echospace [detroit], unreleased]
09. Phase90, “ShiftSequence” [echospace [detroit], unreleased test press]
10. Maurizio, “M5″ (side a) [Maurizio]
11. Maurizio, “M5″ (side b) [Maurizio]
12. Rhythm & Sound w/Cornell Campbell, “King In My Empire” [Burial Mix]
13. Maurizio, “M5″ (side a loops and effects) [Maurizio]
14. Rhythm & Sound “See Mi Yah” (Basic Reshape) [Burial Mix]
15. Model 500, “Starlight” [Metroplex]
16. Sons Of The Dragon, “The Journey” [Sons Of The Dragon]
17. Rod Modell & Michael Mantra, “Vitamin K” [Hypnos]
18. Variant, “The Setting Sun” [echospace [detroit]]
19. This Mortal Coil, “The Lacemaker” [4AD]

[echospace [detroit]]

It made perfect sense for echospace [detroit] to issue new remixes of Model 500′s immortal “Starlight” back in the summer of 2007. After all, Juan Atkins’ and Mortiz von Oswald’s 1995 original is a clear touchstone for the echospace sound, fusing the dubbed-out analog washes of Berlin’s Basic Channel camp with the rhythmic knowhow and deep, deep soul of Detroit to achieve cosmic nirvana. The only problem was, of course, finding (and affording) a copy of the limited edition, uber-collectible, colored-vinyl double pack. Never let it be said that the good people at echospace don’t have a heart, then, as this welcome CD compilation gathers most of that double’s contents (only the echospace mix here is different, presented in an unreleased mix) along with four new mixes.

The mixes themselves pay homage to the spacewalk feel of the original without aping it outright, and the interpretations are stronger for it. Deepchord’s version bobs along to a sub-oceanic bass bounce while those famous floating chords try their best to cut through the analog haze, while Soultek’s version plays up the rhythms with a slithering electro-creep and a gently melodic new theme. Echospace’s Unreleased Mix brings the boogie with a nifty bass groove and a propulsive rhythm track pinning the chords to the black sky, while Sean Deason’s PSYKOFUK mix is the hardest hitting, utilizing sounds and percussion that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a vintage Plus 8 side. Convextion’s mix is, conversely, the hardest to figure and the least recognizable, a dark, loping gallop that stands in contrast to the deepness of the rest of the collection. Solid work, but it’s more effective standing alone on its own side in the double pack.

Perhaps the three best versions, however, are three of the new mixes. Mike Huckaby turns in a deep house monster, weaving the chords tightly into a hypnotic dream bed before unleashing a pummeling bass attack and a drop-out that steals the breath from the room. Two of Steve Hitchell’s aliases turn in inspired work as well, as the Phase90 Reshape turns the tape inside-out and holds it deep down in ice-cold water, chattering teeth providing the rhythmic drive; the Intrusion Dub flows effortlessly into deep, hissing, and spacious ambient bliss. Those really feeling it should seek out the 18 minute take on a companion 12-inch (alongside Huckaby’s floor-ready stormer), nearly 10 minutes longer than the version here.

The mixes are gently rolled into each other to create a seamless mix, but more than that, it’s those magical, shimmering chords that tie the work together, becoming the common link between the 10 versions. Whether they are played straight through, album-style, or plucked out one by one, each mix brings something new out of a deceptively simple original, paying worthy homage to the twin legacies of Metroplex and Basic Channel.

[echospace [detroit]]

Given the wobbly state of music distribution after the shuttering of Syntax, Amato and Watts Music and a dollar value which shrivels daily next to the euro, Detroit/Chicago-based label echospace can be forgiven for being stingy on new releases. Echospace released the majority of its catalog last year as well, which makes this year’s new additions look scant in comparison. But after digging in to the label’s seventh release and first from heretofore unknown producer Intrusion, fans will be glad its owners (and in-house producers of a sort), Stephen Hitchell and Rod Modell, waited to throw their weight behind such a fantastic release. The 2×12″ comes on multi-colored vinyl and arrives April 30th.

As with many echospace releases, the massive scope of sound captured on “Intrusion” could score an ecosystem in mid-breath. The 12 minute behemoth ebbs and flows between a natural drifting momentum and the more deliberate structure of two rhythms (kick and upstroke) syncing together. Arriving suddenly, an affected organ tone sizzles through circuitry as its pitch defrays into many smaller notes, roughly following the loping main progression through the sonic obstacles of hiss and more effects. To call it an immense piece of music would be an understatement, as it’s easy to find something new during each spin through “Intrusion”‘s many eddies.

But just in case you’re the rabid fan who quickly commits every note to memory, there are two extra versions to turn your head inside out. Hitchell’s once secret cv313 moniker provides a more streamlined version which could actually fit inside a club. Its bumpy yet singular progression mutates and bounces back upon itself as it’s pressed through ever more delay and effects. It’s the pared down, floor-pounding techno mix from Phase 90 (who? a guitar pedal enthusiast?), however, which captivates me the most. Like a giant oar scraping in its well, the tune churns with great force and explodes into a rolling 4×4 groove at the kick drum’s arrival. Padded with pneumatic hi-hat swish, the spartan Phase 90 mix nicely compliments the dark and dubby sounds of Shed/Ben Klock/Marcel Dettmann; don’t be surprised to hear them playing it out this summer.

Then there’s the “Reflection” side of the equation, which is comparatively closer to conventional dub techno. A perpetual and affected give-and-take transforms a wandering liquid melody trickling through the first minutes into electrified bolts of singing tone on “Reflection I.” By contrast, “II” is nearly beatless and almost ambient, a muffled pitch rumbling through sheets of manipulated fizz. “Intrusion/Reflection” is a strong way for Intrusion and echospace to start 2008, one much more thoroughly composed and versatile than the many derivations of dub techno bubbling around these days. It’s certainly worth the wait and your hard earned cash. Watch this site for more exclusive and exciting content from echospace [detroit] in the coming weeks.

02. Ricardo Villalobos, Fabric 36 [Fabric] (buy)
Fabric 36 was not an easy sell for me (and many others), at least partially because it wasn’t meant to be. You have to bend your framework for what an album or mix should be, how it should develop, how it should flow. Villalobos hits the reset button on these expectations and offers one of his most creative statements to date — oh yeah, and some killer tunes. “Won’t You Tell Me” and “4 Wheel Drive” are future classics, weaved into a dense web of exuberant rhythms and movements. Artists and fans will be reacting to this for some time to come.

03. Efdemin, Efdemin [Dial] (buy)
Efdemin’s debut album meticulously and gracefully re-interprets deep-house with a minimal lens in a manner unmatched in 2007. Phillip Sollmann utilizes his musique concrete/sound design knowledge to construct stunningly melodic movers and challenging experimental cuts still capable of wonders on a dance floor (“Acid Bells”). Together, its 10 tracks form a compelling and cohesive statement. Those who argue against the long-player format as it pertains to dance music should stick this in their pipes and smoke it.

04. Melchior Productions Ltd., No Disco Future [Perlon] (buy)
Thomas Melchior’s first full-length since his stellar 2004 album, The Meaning, is even more demanding of listeners with a similarly sweet payoff. Favoring tight loops of atonal textures and samples over past colorful patterns, Melchior invites the audience to revel in the tiniest of details while reserving a great deal of utility for the dance floor. Still more proof after two decades in the biz that he’s sharp, that micro-house isn’t dead, and that new listeners will soon be digging through his back catalog. I know I have.

05. Henrik Schwarz, Live [!K7] (buy)
Though Henrik Schwarz’s productions stand up well on their own, Live suggests they’re best heard sewn together into a gorgeous and flowing document of his talents. But the most stunning facet of Live is how human and alive the tunes feel. It’s evident in the loose jangle running through his Kuniyuki remix, the calming marimba pattern and rootsy upstroke of “Stop, Look & Listen” and the busted, live band funk of “Leave My Head Alone Brain.” It’s the refreshing sound of people outnumbering computers.

06. Panda Bear, Person Pitch [Paw Tracks] (buy)
Looking back, only one new rock album actually impressed me this year, and its source was quite unexpected. Panda Bear’s Person Pitch is the joyful intersection of techno (the liner notes, which list some of Noah Lennox’s influences, start with Basic Channel, Luomo and Wolfgang Voigt) and experimental rock — an euphoric, encompassing experience you won’t soon forget. Its loop-based construction brings Panda Bear’s Beach Boys influences into the 21st century, stretching the walls of more traditional rock arrangements nearly to their breaking point. As important of a record for dance music as it is for rock.

07. DeepChord Presents Echospace, The Coldest Season
[Modern Love] (buy)
Perhaps the best way to describe The Coldest Season is immersive: music to let seep into your brain while laid out flat, used to wash away worry or conjure a contemplative atmosphere. You can feel the icy wind creep across your body as the album unfolds and take comfort in the scant blanket of melody draped across the glacial movements. Rod Modell and Stephen Hitchell’s desire to make something new (and largely influenced by the latter’s experience of becoming a father) results in a truly innovative hybrid of dub techno, ambient and experimental sounds that defies obvious influence or reference points. Chicago’s oppressive winter meets its match on this album.

08. Burial, Untrue [Hyperdub] (buy)
If dubstep ever does crossover into the pop realm, Untrue will likely be the first to crack its rarely porous shell. At first I wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of vocals which distinguishes the album from its predecessor, and ultimately perches melodic halos on Burial’s urban phantom rhythms. In his rather revealing interview with The Wire, Burial admits the final version of Untrue was composed in a scant two weeks, a baffling fact to consider when basking in the depth of its tunes, the murky landscapes from which they crawl out — not to mention when “Archangel” gets caught in your head. Untrue gives me the good shivers.

09. Tiger Stripes, Safari [Nite Grooves] (buy)
If there’s one house record I neglected to tout enough, it’s certainly Safari, Mikael Nordgren’s first compendium of Tiger Stripes tracks. Though many of these tracks were previously released on King Street Sounds, they hang together remarkably well in the long player format. Here Nordgren’s palatte leans towards classic elements of house through live instrumentation, recruiting Swedish Hitmusic Strings, Kerri Chandler’s keys and Rasmus Faber’s marimba. If mnmlzd house is too emaciated for you, stick on Safari and climb through some meaty rhythms.

10. Gui Boratto, Chromophobia [Kompakt] (buy)
Boratto is particularly apt at sculpting big, bold and beautiful melodies which resonate across genre lines; and with Chromophobia (Kompakt’s best release this year, don’t let The Field fans fool you), the Brazilian producer adds “cohesion” and “diversity” to his list of talents. Lush, hovering ambient tracks like “Acrostico” and “Malá Strana” fit snuggly between big room bangers (“Terminal”) and future stadium anthems (“Beautiful Life”) while providing plenty of fodder for remixers (Babicz’s remix of “Mr. Decay” has been a big local favorite). A very 2007 album for a very 2007 year.

Honorable mentions:

11. Various artists, Soundboy Punishments [Skull Disco] (buy)
12. Justice, † [Vice Records] (buy)
13. Various Artists, Shut Up and Dance! Updated [Ostgut Tonträger] (buy)
14. Pantha Du Prince, This Bliss [Dial] (buy)
15. Thomas Fehlmann, Honigpumpe [Kompakt] (buy)
16. Simian Mobile Disco, Attack Decay Sustain Release [Wichita] (buy)
17. False, 2007 [M_nus] (buy)
18. Dettmann & Klock, Scenario [Ostgut Tonträger] (buy)
19. Cobblestone Jazz, 23 Seconds [Studio !K7] (buy)
20. Petre Inspirescu, Tips [Cadenza] (buy)