[Get Digital Music]

For the past decade the oft underrated U.K. producer Mike Monday has been busy dropping inspired remixes and tracks which range from understated to bleeding obvious. For those who know his style, the phrase “house music with a splash of humour” tends to ring pretty true. His tracks are all wonk and weirdness twinned with rudely competent production which befits an Oxford music production graduate. And as he’s found his releases on a number of labels of note, from Freerange, Simple, Buzzin Fly and even Om, it’s apparent that label owners are rather partial to his idiosyncratic take on house. This time it’s the Get Physical crew who buy into the Mike Monday experience with Yoppul on their Get Digital imprint. Once again it’s rather impressive, if not as memorable as his releases on Playtime.

The title track begins with a Notting Hill Carnival nod to percussion in the mold of old Africanism tracks such as “Block Party,” albeit a more contemporary version thickened with additional steel drums and a sly wavering guitar refrain. On the flip, “Touch” has sprinkles of the wonk that made his 2006 debut album, Smorgasbord, so interesting. On first listening it sounds like a straight up deep house cut, panning Detroit-esque warm pads over subdued hi-hats and snippets of augmented vocals. Further spins bring out the sting of the late string stabs and heighten the strong hooks in its body moving groove. It’s timelessness appeal is a double-edged sword: Sounding like it could’ve been produced anytime in the last decade gives the record a “lost gem” feel, yet its details are not enough to overshadow the sense you’ve heard this track a hundred times before. Whether Yoppul makes dancers tick may depend on their appetite for a subtle, broken-in sound from a much stranger producer.

Sometimes I think electronic music, especially and techno and house, can be a sinkhole refuge of musical taste for musicians and music fans fed up with pop, rock and rap. Personally, I became increasingly frustrated with the stale state of contemporary rock, rap and soul in 2006 and fell in deep for house and techno. A lot of today’s producers as, well as its founders, were in bands before turning to the dance side.

Paul Frick had already traversed many a genre before releasing his debut, “Do Something EP,” on Kalk Pets. While producing two hip-hop albums and performing in salsa, heavy metal and jazz groups, Frick studied classical composition under Friedrich Goldmann at Universität der Künste Berlin and later composed experimental string pieces. Still, it’s his house material which lead me to investigate beyond the lonesome entries on Discogs. In addition to the tightly-laced and bumping “Got the Blues,” Frick’s house Myspace features three new promising tracks soon to be released on Barcelona-based label, 30porumalinha (LWE highly recommends “Tiki Tiki”). Another tune favorite tune, er, “Favourite Song,” will even be included on a split with Frivilous and our boys, dOP. Keep your eyes peeled for this promising platter at your favorite music retailer.

Frick also compiled a DJ mix which includes a few of his tracks and recent favorites which is quite good, especially for a guy whose other music career is in chance musical experiments. Warning, cuts off suddenly.

Download: Paul Frick, “House Got Soul Mix” (41:26)

Tracklisting:

01. Paul Frick, “Do Something” [Kalk Pets]
02. Curv, “Scrabble” [Vinyl Vibes]
03. DeWalta, “Eftive” [Meander]
04. Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts, “Sous l’arbre” [Circus Company]
05. Soundstream, “Good Soul” [Soundstream]
06. Anna Kaufen, “Who Cares” [A Touch of Class]
07. Rhythm & Sound, “Free For All” (Soundstream remix) [Burial Mix]
08. Wighnomy Brothers, “Guppipeitsche” [Freude am Tanzen]
09. Antislash, “Soloport” [Circus Company]
10. Paul Frick, “Got The Blues” [Kalk Pets]

+Also+

Get Physical’s toddling two-year-old sub-label, Kindisch, has built its first website, how cute. They’ve also assembled a little best-of retrospective mix (crayon tracklisting, backwards letters, totally adorable) you might enjoy.

Download: Kindisch, Child Proof 2 Year Mix (62:00)

Tracklisting:

01. Raz Ohara, “Witmey Na”
02. Vita, “Mare Mare”
03. H.O.S.H., “White Elephant”
04. Daniel Mehldhart, “January”
05. Jay Haze, “Soul In a Bottle”
06. The Skull, “All You Booty Shakers”
07. Einzelkind in bed with Douglas Greed, “La Belle”
08. Samim, “Circles”
09. Einzelkind, “Maferefumeco”
10. Gavin Herlihy, “Opium Haze”
11. Matchbox, “Upehd Ah”
12. Riva Starr, “War Drums”

(post by Steve Mizek)

Glasgow-based producer Williams (William Threlfall) has emerged from his laboratory with two new singles in hand after a quiet year. He’s updated Tangerine Dream’s “Love On a Real Train” for his own label, Love Triangle; it hits shelves February 14th, in time to buy a copy for your sweetheart. Williams returns to Get Physical with a trio of tunes: “El Baile/Kiss of Life/Unbearable Truth” will be available on February 27th. In anticipation of his new releases, Williams was kind enough to compile an hour long mix set, capped off with “Love On a Real Train,” for your enjoyment.

[This mix has been archived.]

Tracklisting:

01. Ilario Alicante, “Vacaciones En Cile” [Tenax]
02. Solumun, “Beauty & The Beast” (Vocal mix) [Four:Twenty Recordings]
03. Steve Lawler, “Sleepwalking” (Kevin Griffiths mix) [Tsuba Records]
04. Hercules & Love Affair, “Blind” (Hercules Club mix) [DFA]
05. Plasmik, “Pitch It” (Claude VonStroke mix) [Connaisseur Recordings]
06. Glass Candy, “Life After Sundown” [Italians Do It Better]
07. Haito & Diringer, “Perception” [Kickboxer]
08. Pitch & Hold, “Twins” [Love Triangle]
09. Emil Lassaria, “Balada” [unknown]
10. Kaliber feat. Elodie, “Is This For Love” (Paolo Bolognesi mix) [Toolroom Trax]
11. Williams, “Love On A Real Train” (Williams Odyssey mix) [Love Triangle]

[Spectral Sound]

For a DJ, there are few feelings as gut-wrenching as seeing the floor clear out when you start playing techno or house. The realization that you’re playing to an “indie” audience is usually accompanied by choice four letter words and a frantic search through your crate/hard drive. Which is why it’s always good to have at least a few tracks whose dual citizenship (your taste and theirs) that might just fly with dancers unamused by Marcel Dettmann’s latest opus. Daso’s Spectral Sound debut, “Meine Idee EP,” fits the bill like a pair of tight jeans.

Listen to “Idee”:

Daso pairs his discerning ear for hooks with a spacey electro-house tool kit, making the EP’s three tracks comparable to Alan Braxe and Fred Falke’s better remixes. The cruising bass line of “Meine” is well worn but entirely appropriate for propelling the phased cosmic groove into clouds of digital cowbell and flickering synth patterns. “Idee” is similarly bass-driven, this time cycling through addictive arpeggios and sci-fi whirs and reverberations; think Aril Brikha’s “To Begin” lost in space. The least distinctive is “Deine Schuhe,” which, while pleasant and bleep-happy, is about as enticing as the title (“your shoe”). This EP might not be Daso’s boldest moment artistically, but it finds him playing pop star with great ease and matches the appeal of earlier Get Physical singles. In case of emergency, rip this one’s cellophane.

Five years is an awful long time in dance music culture. Trends come and go within a few months; labels and artists do, too. But thanks to Booka Shade’s generous work ethic (i.e. writing songs for the labels’ figureheads) and pop tech-house aesthetic, as well as M.A.N.D.Y.’s relentless A&R scouting (the artists played a role, too, but let’s be honest here), Get Physical Music has reached near major status in the electronic scene and shows no signs of closing shop anytime soon. 5 Years Get Physical is a forward-looking compilation which offers new takes on old favorites and previews the label’s forthcoming direction. But the results are not quite as inspiring as the journey to get to this point.

Because Get Physical has a knack for constantly anthologizing itself, the first disc recruits producers both big (Herbert, Henrik Schwarz, Moby[!]) and relatively obscure (Earl Zinger, Dexter) for remixes rather than simply recycling hits. Schwarz delivers the best of the bunch, attacking Booka Shade’s “Vertigo” with deep, growling dub stabs and a limber bassline without piercing the track’s mysteriously swirling synths. Herbert imbues subtle pop bubbles into his stuttering edit of Chelonis R. Jones’ “I Don’t Know,” while Lopazz takes the same tune in a somber and organic direction, replete with acoustic guitar leads and strums and hand percussion. Hot Chip and Fujiya & Miyagi don’t remix so much as cover M.A.N.D.Y.’s “No Stoppin’” and Lopazz’s “Migracion” (respectively) as by-the-book rock tunes – not exactly stirring. Legendary string arranger Larry Gold of The Salsoul Orchestra recasts Booka Shade’s “Nightfall” as the opening sequence of a drama flick. Along with Senor Coconut’s cheeseball cover of “Body Language,” these are so out of context they appear as mere novelties. Sideshow, Dexter and Fakesch all do regrettable things to their tracks; but Moby’s remix of “Les Djinns” is sure to draw the most ire simply for a) being Moby and b) messing with the overrated tune. (To be honest, it sounds OK if hugely histrionic.) But by the end I was asking myself, “Why take this lot instead of more producers?”

Chelonis R. Jones, “I Don’t Know” (Herbert’s Presets Only Remix) [Get Physical] (buy) (buy)

If disc one was to reinterpret the past, disc two shines a light on Get Physical’s future. The forecast isn’t as promising as one might hope. Certifiably the most hyped tune on the compilation is M.A.N.D.Y. and Booka Shade’s cover of Laurie Anderson’s “Oh Superman” – a simple romp that’s heavy on her vocals and catchy as all get-out. BS’s new track, “Unhealthy Pleasures,” focuses the duo’s pop chops on a jagged melody slicing through dark atmospherics. DJ T. (Prosumer, actually) also delivers a standout, “Once In a Life,” a boiled down tech-house track which gets a lot of mileage from a bopping motif. Lopazz and Chelonis both go the narrative route with their tracks, the former of which is a snappy Prince-ian tune. Jona, Audiofly X and Williams all fall victim to the minimal bug to uneventful ends while Riton & Heidi’s ghetto-house “To the Gum” is simply insulting to the senses. As with its choice of remixers, Get Physical is continuing to branch out from its popular strain of tech-house, and these uncharted waters haven’t made for the smoothest of sailing. 5 Years of Get Physical isn’t as bad as some critics will have you believe, but it does publicly exhibit the growing pains this established label is growing through. Here’s hoping they have the longevity in them to power through this somewhat awkward period toward 10 Years.

DJ T. (& Prosumer), “Once In a Lifetime” [Get Physical] (buy) (buy)