Disco might have regained lost popularity in the last couple years, but more often than not, it’s still a collectors’ game. Take Cage and Aviary (Jamie Paton and Nigel Hoyle), a partnership which began on the super-vogue Dissident Distribution label. Releasing one-sided and ultra-limited edition singles, Cage and Aviary’s 200 copies per record would almost surely lose money for Dissident — if the label cared about promotion or profit. Instead, Dissident has become a means to an end, letting Cage and Aviary to, as they describe it, “win the cosmic lottery” and begin their recording careers.
nate
Argy & The Martinez Brothers, Debbie Downer/Where’s Mr. Brown?
March 1, 2009 – 11:00 PM
Art by James Jean
[Objektivity] (buy vinyl) (buy mp3s)
The Martinez Brothers are best known because they’re not yet old enough to hear their own music in a club. The gimmick is an easy sell — most recently as a New York Times profile in which the Grey Lady traded a little objectivity for a lot of [...]
Moody, Det.riot ‘67
January 26, 2009 – 10:19 PM
[KDJ] (buy vinyl)
Kenny Dixon Jr., or Moodymann, has earned his capital A Detroit Auteur title. He’s been essential to the scene and sound for the past fifteen years. If deep-house fetish was the biggest meme of European techno in 2008, then it was appropriate that Moodymann exported his own crackle, providing necessary remixes [...]
Zomby, The Lie
January 6, 2009 – 10:35 PM
[Ramp Recordings] (buy vinyl)
Zomby sees himself as part of the undead but with a taste for skunk weed instead of flesh. He is a resolutely anonymous producer whose publicity photo has few clues into his identity: he wears white gloves and a mask of the all-seeing eye of providence. Zomby’s been banned from dubstep forums, [...]
LWE’s Top 5 Reissues of 2008
December 14, 2008 – 9:40 PM
For our first year-end column, staff writer Nate DeYoung gathers his top five reissues — and uses that word loosely — released in 2008.
Ada, Forty Winks/Kink-A-Jou
December 7, 2008 – 8:27 PM
[International Records Recordings] (buy vinyl) (buy mp3s)
Michaela Dippel (aka Ada) likes to say she was raised by pink ponies, fashioned herself as pseudo-vampire, and had a blond pup named Fizzmann. If you pay close attention, these are all selling points for her music. Ada is part of Areal, a label which dabbles in large amounts [...]
Omar-S, The Further You Look – The Less You Will See
November 17, 2008 – 9:57 PM
[FXHE Records] (buy vinyl) (buy mp3s)
There’s a tendency to describe Alex O. Smith, the owner of FXHE Records who is better known as Omar-S, as “enigmatic” or “mysterious,” but the latter is not something that Smith has spent much time cultivating. Smith is a prankster, with a strong tendency to, in his own words, “fuck [...]
Lindstrøm, Where You Go I Go Too
October 23, 2008 – 7:12 PM
[Smalltown Supersound] (buy vinyl) (buy CD)
Hans-Peter Lindstrøm can do wrong when he puts his mind to it. That was my second thought when I heard about his new album, Where You Go I Go Too and its epic 29-minute title track. My first reaction, like most people, was either “perfect” or “how perfect,” [...]
John Roberts, Hesitate
October 8, 2008 – 8:26 PM
[Dial] (buy vinyl) (buy mp3s)
“Hesitate” is in the running for the most ironic title of the year. As John Roberts’ debut on the frequently great label Dial, the single begins with a hiccup of a listless groove that quickly fades as a facile tribute to the title — there are few actual hesitations on “Hesitate.” [...]
Runaway, Brooklyn Club Jam
September 28, 2008 – 7:56 PM
Illustration/book by Lisa Brown
[REKIDS] (buy vinyl) (buy mp3s)
Taking after the piano-driven house of Still Going and Osborne, Runaway’s “Brooklyn Club Jam” starts with the same impetus but makes sure to contort itself. First released on Runaway’s Myspace page, the track was surprising almost to a fault; as a stream of an unreleased track, “Brooklyn Club [...]