Since Steve Bug first discovered him in 2007, Ryo Murakami has been busy giving Japan’s techno scene a good name. Following close on the heels of his deep and dubby Lost It EP, the producer has delivered yet another aural treat from Tokyo. Rarely do house singles have the coherence and consistency found on this release. Put simply, this is just good stuff. The three tracks fit together like the matching pieces of a china set: the slow and sultry title track is the bulbous tea pot, steeping some seriously deep house grooves; the remix is the flare-rimmed teacup, delicately endowed with fresh organic drums; “Untitled” is the wide-mouthed sugar dish, full of party sweets. Each piece earns its distinctive place in the set.
review
Peter Van Hoesen, Variable Parts EP
January 28, 2010 – 11:01 PM
Free. In whatever digital format you like. Possibilities like these make me question the very purpose of reviewing such a release. “Is this record good enough for me to shell out the money to buy it?” LWE generally hope to provide such answers. But here you’re being treated by Peter Van Hoesen to three reworks of his tunes, as well as a new one, for no cost at all. So whether I’m telling you if this release is worth your time, giving Van Hoesen a thumbs up or simply sharing my thoughts on a new record, you, dear reader, should be picking this one up and making your own judgments even if I determined it were terrible. But being the work of Van Hoesen, it most certainly is not.
Hell ft. Bryan Ferry, U Can Dance
January 28, 2010 – 11:16 AM
Taken from Hell’s ambitious double album Teufelswerk, “U Can Dance” unapologetically looks back at electroclash with rose tinted glasses, Bryan Ferry lacing the track with his languid, lounge lizard tones. Hell’s original (with help from Peter Kruder and Christian Prommer from Trüby Trio on programming) starts off strong, merging icy cool, arpeggiated synths with Ferry’s equally frosty serenade to a club nymph. Though clocking in at nearly ten minutes, it is in danger of overstaying its welcome after two thirds of the way through. The keyboards start getting a little cheesy and Ferry has long since left the vocal booth, presumably in search for a cigarette or a martini; in any case the magic is over by the six minute mark or so.
Simon Hinter, Klappsn’ Funk EP
January 27, 2010 – 11:01 PM
Generally speaking, I can’t say I’m much a fan of the ProgCity Deep Trax label. The name itself suffers from genre fatigue with a potentially misleading composite of modifiers that typically do not sit well together. How often do you see “prog” and “deep” in the same sentence other than as a nullifying denouncement of one or the other? The music that has typified the label runs a consistent line of tech-house with occasional interjections of clean cut European deep house. And being a sub-label of ProgCity, which championed a gilded house sound through much of the ’90s and early ’00s, doesn’t inspire much confidence in their releases either. Once I put all that aside, though, something caught my ear with Simon Hinter’s Klappsn’ Funk EP.
BBH: Various Artists, Detroit: Beyond the Third Wave
January 27, 2010 – 11:01 AM
There have been plenty of Detroit techno compilations over the years; True People would probably rate as my favorite for its sheer comprehensiveness and myriad pieces of vinyl, though its spot at number one has often been contested in my mind by this compilation on Astralwerks which came out the same year in 1996. Packed with ten tracks of exclusive material from the creme of Detroit’s third wave of techno producers, it showcases their many different sides, from deep and hypnotic through to raw, jacking soul and clinical, electro funk. Though many of the producers on the album were familiar to me already, there were others like Ectomorph, Will Web, and Mode Selector I was discovering for the first time. Throughout it all can be heard strains from their mentors mixed in with the new directions in which these younger guns were taking the music.
Alex Smith, Here With Me
January 26, 2010 – 11:01 PM
Omar-S is dead, long live Alex Smith. OK, Omar-S isn’t dead, but still, long live Alex Smith. The most provocative and precocious of the Detroit new-school is back on his latest outing for FXHE and this time he’s releasing under his God-given name. Oh, and this time he is on fire. Here with Me is a stunning micro-statement of intent, an atomic particle of sonic abundance that twinkles brightly amidst its creator’s finest achievements.
Roni Nachum, Guest Service Shalom
January 26, 2010 – 11:01 AM
The Hebrew word “shalom” means peace, but it’s also a greeting and sometimes a goodbye. For Roni Nachum, a young producer from Jerusalem, “Guest Service Shalom” is one hell of a hello. His vinyl debut, which so skillfully walks between deep house moods and techno’s edges, arrives care of the shrewd A&R work of Nitzan at Fine Art Recordings. It’s also backed by a superb, decompressing remix by Mark E.
Oskar Offermann, Apple Crumble Beneath My Feet
January 25, 2010 – 11:01 PM
Dance music is nothing if not purpose-driven. And when one of your primary concerns is filling up a floor and making those on it go apeshit, it’s tough to resist what’s tried and true. But how does a producer not reinvent the wheel without engaging in outright hackery? In the weeks since I received Oskar Offermann’s latest White 12″, “Apple Crumble Beneath My Feet,” I’ve been scratching my head over whether the producer and labelhead is painting by numbers or insidiously distinguishing himself from the hordes of producers making records nearly identical to this one. WHITE008 brings you three tracks of bog-standard, disco-flecked Rhodes riffs — your laptop wearing a Moodymann wig, basically. But I can’t help but feel like Offermann has a compositional sense that pushes him beyond his music’s ever-obvious sound palate. It’s quite possible you already own this record in about twenty or thirty near-identical forms. Is it worth buying again?
Anthony “Shake” Shakir, Frictionalism 1994-2009
January 22, 2010 – 11:01 AM
When reviewing Anthony “Shake” Shakir’s first release in four years last April, I quoted an interview in which Shakir described himself as “the forgotten man of techno.” I wonder how he feels about that statement now. The record reviewed, “Levitate Venice” ended up in any year-end list worth reading (including LWE’s), and was widely played and supported by artists and DJs from across the electronic music world, from Ben UFO to Ben Klock. Following up this renewal of interest in Shake’s work, and perhaps conscious of the inflated prices his music was beginning to fetch on the second-hard market, comes this full-fat retrospective from the good folk at Rush Hour. In the past, the Dutch label have given the anthology treatment to Rick Wade, Daniel Wang and Kenny Larkin amongst others, but never before in such exhaustive fashion.
Anton Zap, Take It As It Comes EP
January 21, 2010 – 11:01 PM
Within a few short years Anton Zap has made himself an indispensable part of deep house and has displayed a growing talent for mining late night emotion from his productions. The aquatic feel of his Take It As It Comes EP sounds like a nocturnal journey to the briny depths to preach the word to all manner of sea floor dwellers. Spread over four tracks, Zap washes layers of dreamy pads and chords over waves of rolling bass and textured rhythms. It’s an approach he uses for every track here, which may lead to some seeing the EP as samey and uninteresting, but I feel that what Zap is aiming for here is creating moods and vibes with these tracks, which he does and does incredibly well.
Lerosa, Dual Nature
January 21, 2010 – 11:01 AM
Releasing a debut album on a TDK cassette only format limited to just 100 copies seems like a peculiar career move for an ascending electronic artist. And for someone like Lerosa, collaborating with Further for the release is even more puzzling. Since 2005, Lerosa aka Leopoldo Rosa has established himself with a string of critical 12″s that could be declared loosely as house, but have incorporated stylistic markers that span from acid and techno to jazz and electro. Stamped with a quirky identity, Rosa’s productions may nominally fit the deep house billing their often filed under but there’s much more hinting at expression. On the other hand, the newly formed Further label has established itself with digital-only releases that are aimed at progressive house and the trance end of techno audiences. In other words, adding Lerosa to the roster stands out like a sore thumb. But according to Rosa, the release and format was a deliberate move by the label owner to allow for more freedom to the artist, less financial risk by label while still producing a tangible object, which Dual Nature accomplishes.
The Mole Presents Guilty Pleasures, Family/Rotation
January 20, 2010 – 11:01 PM
With a veritable glut of disco-tinged tracks raining down on 2009 like The Weather Girls’ beefy protagonists, it would have been easy to pass much of it off as sound-alike twaddle, and of course within any popular music trend it would be fair to do so. The Mole’s scant few releases last year showed he was in no trouble of falling into that camp though, as is the case with this collaboration of sorts with Guilty Pleasures. It’s hard to say how much of a hand the producers behind Guilty Pleasures (including Tyger Dhula and Danuel Tate of Cobblestone Jazz) played a part in these two tracks, sounding as they do like vintage works from The Mole, though their credits are listed so we can only assume that input was shared.
Martyn, Fabric 50
January 20, 2010 – 11:01 AM
We all know about the current state of mix CDs. Fabric, however, stands strong in the face of adversity with milestone release number 50. Fabric has cemented its position as one of the mix CD series of all time, not only for its longevity but for containing classics like editions 13 (Michael Mayer), 36 (Ricardo Villalobos) and 39 (Robert Hood), just to name a few. How the London club would celebrate release number 50 was a source of much speculation, and their choice of Martyn was both an inspired and daring one. Shaking up the rigid 4/4 that has defined pretty much every Fabric CD, Martyn’s dubstep sensibilities and love for techno breathe fresh air into a series that has struggled to maintain its cutting edge cachet.
Various Artists, Significant Others Too
January 19, 2010 – 11:01 PM
While out in Tokyo, I once read a review in which a DJ was described as playing “insidious house” due to his ability to get said reviewer from “happily sitting with a drink to dancing thirty minutes later without knowing what happened.” The kind of deep, warm groove ridden sound which creeps under your skin and is as conducive to listening as it is to shaking it on the floor. Unfortunately I forget the DJ referred to, but the term captures the trend which has been prominent during the past few years. Injecting soul and an infectious warmth back into house as an anathema to glacial minimal sound that came before it. And it is this non-pejorative, soul-infused “insidious house” which Wolf + Lamb have made their signature and stock in trade. This collection of new projects, first releases and previously digital only tracks sounds strangely more like an EP pulled from a Best Of compilation rather than a showcase — each of the tracks presenting themselves as dusted down nu classics. Even the title Significant Others Too bears the hallmarks of a quiet confidence Wolf + Lamb have created for themselves over the past four years.
EQD, Equalized #003
January 19, 2010 – 11:01 AM
Equalized #003 is not an easy record to identify, and not just because its creator went through reasonable pains to stay anonymous. Both sides of the disc feature thoughtful, hard tripping grooves that feel like they might disintegrate into warm, gooey, and rhythmless piles of mash at any moment. Drums lurch into the mix on one off-beat, never to be seen again; towards the end of the A-side, a house stomp emerges from the techno shuffle: this is a record that makes unpredictability into an art form, using surprise, rather than an emotional sonic palette, to deliver pleasure. On its own, this might not make the latest from EQD worthy of careful discussion. Plenty of tracks in techno history evolve in unexpected ways — I’m thinking now of Jichael Mackson’s dubby rework of Chris Isaacs — but very few producers are skilful enough to avoid using the genre conventions of house and techno enough to let the surprise do so very much of the work.
Brandt Brauer Frick, Wallah/Button
January 18, 2010 – 11:01 PM
If you don’t already know the names, nota bene: this three-man acoustic techno team is one part Paul Frick (classically trained musician cum dance music producer) and two parts Scott (aka Dan Brandt and Jan Brauer). After only a handful of releases — all noteworthy — the hubbub surrounding this trio means that each new addition will be met with great expectations. Here, although their self-recorded acoustic sounds are ripe for the picking, the group falls slightly short of their soulful reputation.
Hydronaut/Aquarhythms, Deep In The Feeling/Warm Seqs
January 14, 2010 – 11:01 PM
Jay Ahern’s name has crept up a lot recently, often in the same sentence as his Hauntologists project with Stefan Schneider or his Cheap and Deep moniker/label born in 2009. Seasoned techno watchers, however, will recognize Ahern as the scene stalwart behind Aquarhythms (who recorded for Astralwerks), Add Noise, and a handful of other monikers dating as far back as 1992. With a new crop of listeners awaiting his next transmission, Ahern offered a personal history lesson that was remarkably germane for 2009’s sonic climate. The “Deep In the Feeling/Warm Seqs” 12,” which features mid-90’s era remixes from Morgan Geist and Carl Craig, feels more than 10 years ahead of its time.
Reggie Dokes, Untill Tomorrow
January 14, 2010 – 11:30 AM
I can’t think of a producer with a stranger idea of what constitutes house music than Atlanta’s Reggie Dokes. Like fellow Detroit expats Octave One, he gives listeners the sense that every off-kilter drum hit or plaintive piano chord has been placed with great care. Yet the melodic logic he’s employed since he leaped into production in 2001 has rarely made anything close to perfect sense. To be blunt, Dokes is positively all over the place, brewing up for his own Psychostasia imprint and labels like Philpot and Clone Loft Supreme a psychedelic suspension of weird chord changes and jarring phrase shifts. His Spectacle of Deepness EP on We Play House, a serious highlight of my 2009, even played like the hallucination of a madman. But what a gorgeously schizophrenic mess it was. His final transmission of 2009, “Untill Tomorrow” [sic] for Clone’s absurdly limited Royal Oak series (who knew you could press just fifty records?), finds him doubling back on the haziness of that release to produce a record on the whole more direct, more floor-oriented, and more obviously funky than most of his output to date. Unsurprisingly, however, those of you longing for those same old Rhodes vamps and Sascha Dive vocals might still want to look elsewhere.
LoSoul, Time Passes EP
January 13, 2010 – 11:01 PM
As soon as minimal descended from opera to operetta, from the clinical distillation of techno’s essence to its buffoonish, showboating bastard-child, it was inevitable that producers would one day revisit it with a dewy-eyed nostalgia. LoSoul has always worn his influences on his sleeve, and as a producer working throughout the decade of minimal’s far-reaching reign, it seems both fair and correct that he should have something to say about its demise. Leaving behind the cushy environs of Playhouse for an outing on Dan Ghenacia’s Freak n’ Chic, he gets his opportunity and delivers a fitting eulogy.
Levon Vincent, Double Jointed Sex Freak
January 13, 2010 – 11:01 AM
Dance music enthusiasts of all kinds were treated to a wide variety of tracks from Levon Vincent last year: minimalist peak-time anthems (“Solemn Days”), vocorded house jams (“I Owe You Everything”) and dub-techno freak-outs (“Games Dub”). With his newest release on his own Novel Sound, the wonderfully titled Double Jointed Sex Freak, I find myself returning to an increasingly common question for each LV release: What the hell is this? With the help of his muse Rebecca (“a true athlete”) Levon has managed to out freak himself, taking the varied sounds of his breakout year and throwing them into one big messy pile of dance-music bliss. Other producers might provoke skepticism by claiming, “It is the best record I have ever made — my proudest moment!” m, Levon’s enthusiasm rings true; and even compared with his top notch back catalog, it’s hard to argue Double Jointed Sex Freak is anything less than the work of a man realizing his full potential.