Last August, after similarly-themed missives by Ewan Pearson and Ronan Fitzgerald, I offered my own thoughts about the pros, cons and ethical conundrum that is hosting uncleared mp3s for download. As anyone who reads this blog consistently knows, I took the issue seriously enough to declare a moratorium on offering tracks and have since been […]
little white earbuds
Toby Tobias, Nervoso EP
March 10, 2008 – 12:58 AM
[Rekids] Toby Tobias first grabbed the dancefloor’s collective ear with the retro-tinged, Rekids released “A Close Shave,” especially with its Prins Thomas remiks. His “Dave’s Sex Bits” was more tepidly received, but yet another high profile remix, this time from Quiet Village, kept punters on his scent. “Nervoso EP,” his latest on Rekids, offers a […]
Talking Shop with Modern Love
March 7, 2008 – 12:49 AM
Welcome to the third edition of our series of short interviews affectionately titled Talking Shop. 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, […]
MyMy, Southbound
March 5, 2008 – 12:39 AM
[Ostgut Ton] Artistically, Lee Jones and Nick Höppner of MyMy have never been ones to stand still. Though a love for stitching together beautiful ends from odd means and persistent attention to detail are two overarching principles in their music, each new record from this buy-on-sight group often confounds as much as it delights. Take […]
Urban Soul, Alright Remixes
March 4, 2008 – 12:34 AM
[Juno Records] The house music revival and the Internet have offered DJs something of an all access pass to rifle through the genre’s dusty archives and play out their findings without hearing clubbers sniff about moldy oldies. For me, doing so has lent context to and exposed the contrasts between the modern deep house being […]
Little White Earbuds February Charts
March 3, 2008 – 12:54 AM
Graphic by The Economist 01. Prosumer & Murat Tepeli, Serenity [Ostgut Tonträger] (buy CD) On Serenity, Achim and Murat deftly avoid the pitfalls of making anachronistic music while crafting stylistically faithful floor jackers. I’m enthralled with its full-bodied, Chicago-styled intonation and true emotional depth; it’s all too rare to personally identify with a house track […]
Carl Craig, Sessions
February 29, 2008 – 12:02 AM
[!K7] Thanks to the generosity of Carl Craig and !K7, there’s a free download after the jump. After an artist reaches legendary stature too often they are boiled down to just that — a legend who needs no explaining or closer examination. Even though most of us are quite familiar with Carl Craig as a […]
Kerri Chandler’s laser assault
February 28, 2008 – 11:13 AM
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoG6PgO_idU] Yesterday I wrote up a New City preview for Kerri Chandler’s upcoming appearance at Chicago’s Green Dolphin Street, which required a bit of research on my part. I read that he uses lasers to build tunes during his sets but I had no idea how it worked until I popped his name into a […]
In the mix
February 26, 2008 – 11:24 PM
Illustration by Jen Stark Download: Little White Earbuds, 2.26.08 Mix (51:24) This past weekend I loaded up on live sets and DJ mixes for a long car trip down to Peoria. One of them was a radio mix by Len Faki and Marcel Dettmann recently featured on mnml ssgs. The sets were so tightly controlled, […]
Jimpster, Dangly Panther
February 26, 2008 – 12:05 AM
[Freerange Records] Between running Freerange Records, a boatload of remixes for Justin Martin, Miguel Migs, Joey Negro and Bob Marley(!) among others, and a toddling Jimpster Jr. to raise, Jamie Odell has had his hands full. So it comes as little surprise that Jimpster/Audiomontage’s name hasn’t appeared on the spine of a record since 2006. […]
The Hasbeens, Keep Fooling Yourself
February 25, 2008 – 12:14 AM
[Clone] For those who find much of techno, house and electro to be too damn optimistic, nihilistic duo The Hasbeens and their “Keep Fooling Yourself” 12″ offer a welcome reprieve. Its three tracks are surprisingly catchy, retro-minded Italo disco and electro rather than gut-busting EBM racket or sanity grinding hard house, contrasting dystopic themes with […]
Head’s up
February 24, 2008 – 10:58 PM
The lovely folks at Get the Curse asked me to join the ranks of Phil Sherburne and Ronan Fitzgerald in curating a playlist. You can view/listen to it here; hopefully you enjoy my selections.
New residency alert
February 22, 2008 – 10:16 AM
Manuel, my friend James and I are starting a new house/techno night at a brand new bar called Tumbao. We’re excited to have the opportunity to give this a try and DJ for some folks — hopefully people who like to dance. And did I mention it’s FREE? I encourage you to stop by, say […]
Talking Shop with Brontosaurus
February 20, 2008 – 12:25 AM
Welcome to the second edition of our series of short interviews, affectionately titled Talking Shop. 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, […]
Get linked
February 19, 2008 – 10:06 AM
Matthew Dear has released “Don’t Go This Way,” a spare track from the Asa Breed sessions, for free on the blog/label hybrid RCRD LBL. Last night I helped my friend Tyler Grisham write Pitchfork’s Forkcast post for the tune, which you can read here.
Introductions are in order
February 13, 2008 – 9:19 AM
You may have noticed a new tagline at the end of the last post. Well, that’s me. I’m Manuel and I live in Chicago. I’m not really sure what I should be saying right now, introductions like this are not my favorite thing to do. My music background is noise making with real instruments and […]
Luciano, Etudes Electroniques
February 6, 2008 – 12:15 AM
[Cadenza] In spite of being an influential and accomplished producer in his own right, Lucien Nicolet aka Luciano is too often mentioned in the same breath as his countryman, Ricardo Villalobos. While their respective work shares a distinct and heavily documented organic warmth, their paths diverge there, with Luciano experimenting with both abstract forms, jiggling […]
Jamie Lloyd, May I? (Quarion remix)
February 5, 2008 – 8:13 AM
[Future Classic] Sydney-based producer/vocalist Jamie Lloyd didn’t make much of a splash with Trouble Within, his 2006 debut album, at least in part because of distribution troubles. But his label, Future Classic, figured out a way to sidestep these issues by letting a raft of producers remix some of his best tracks. Last year I […]