Bigger, punchier, and more self-assured than Marcel Fengler’s previous string of 12″s for Ostgut Ton, the Thwack EP doesn’t just sound like the work of a hungry young producer; he sounds like he’d eat the whole party sub at the coming-out soiree we critics finally owe him.
jordan
Elektro Guzzi, Elektro Guzzi
June 15, 2010 – 10:01 AM
As meticulously arranged as the ten jams on Elektro Guzzi’s self-titled debut album are, and as totally nifty as they sound at points, the album does succumb to some of the problems that plague long-players of the bedroom producers they imitate.
T++, Wireless
June 3, 2010 – 10:01 AM
On Wireless, purportedly Torsten Pröfrock’s final T++ collection, the producer — long recalling a chemist or perhaps nuclear physicist –seems to have moved his operation to a biology lab, if not a roadside barbecue pit.
Little White Earbuds Interviews JD Twitch
June 2, 2010 – 10:01 AM
Jumping from Optimo’s peculiar envisioning of peaktime techno to a strange series of events deep in Madrid clubland, JD Twitch gives Little White Earbuds a peak into the infamous past and exciting future of some of dance music’s most singular party-starters.
Marcel Dettmann, Dettmann
June 1, 2010 – 10:01 AM
While it’s at times painfully monochrome, Dettmann certainly succeeds both as an expansion and as a fine-tuning of Marcel Dettmann’s aesthetic.
Aybee, Ancient Tones
May 27, 2010 – 10:01 AM
Despite its inauspicious beginnings, Aybee ends up making one hell of a statement on his cassette tape-only album, Ancient Tones.
Roska, Rinse Presents Roska
May 18, 2010 – 10:01 AM
Despite warnings that he was jumping the gun, Roska releases his debut full-length on Rinse with nary a concern for how well ten of his tracks can sit side-by-side.
DJ Qu, For The Beneath
May 5, 2010 – 10:01 PM
For The Beneath, his latest 12″ on his own Strength Music label, once again pitches that signature DJ Qu sound — dark melodies always in the service of off-kilter yet hard-hitting percussion — for the bleakest, sweatiest, most subaltern dance floors imaginable. Should you, fair record buyer, take the plunge yet again?
STL, … And His Quest For Sound
April 29, 2010 – 10:01 AM
Every producer wants to make records that set themselves apart from other records. You’d think this would have to be true, right? Otherwise, why would anyone take the time and considerable cost necessary to create a piece of dance music? Practically every producer I hear strives to differentiate him or herself by way of the sounds — to get them as far away from the presets as possible; to design the presets of tomorrow, perhaps. Yet so many of the best moments in house and techno are those when the music itself fades away into a feeling. You can tune your drum machines all day, but if you can’t get something more out of them than soundwaves — if you can’t tease out that hypnotizing x-factor that makes certain dance records good beyond words — then you’re missing something critical.
Martin Buttrich, Crash Test
April 16, 2010 – 10:01 AM
When was the last time you thought about Martin Buttrich? The German studio wiz and producer (occasionally for hire) just isn’t blowing up on my radar like he used to a few years back, when his Seeing Through Shadows 12″ with Loco Dice for Minus and, of course, “Full Clip” were properly demolishing superclubs and underground parties alike. Ultra-detailed and hugely accessible, Buttrich was an ace in the studio by practically every objective measure. I’m personally surprised that I, a huge fan of those 2006 records and someone who thought Loco Dice’s 7 Dunham Place album from 2008 totally killed it, let him slide so far off my “to check” list. Chalk it up to his relative silence on the release front — Stoned Autopilot and its remix 12″ and a handful of remixes comprise his recent eponymous output — or to his brand of alternately C2-vampy and vaguely tropical digital house more or less falling out of favor, but as someone who follows dance music pretty well, I just haven’t had Martin Buttrich on the tip of my tongue for a few years.