With its irreproachable roster of talent, Hotflush has become over the last couple of years a buy on sight label. Scuba himself has already provided one of the standout moments in dubstep this year with his “Klinik/Hundreds and Thousands” release, while Mount Kimbie’s “Sketch On Glass” emerged to leave critics slack jawed and saliva mawed at its recondite rhythms. Scuba’s new EP, lovingly spread over two slabs of vinyl will further fluster bass heads, encapsulating the breadth of his sound over five tracks ranging from blunt, fathomless ambient through to shimmering half steppers and steely, chrome-plated house.
review
Marcel Dettmann, MDR 06
October 20, 2009 – 10:01 PM
After a banner year in 2008, releasing his first mix CD to widespread acclaim and seeing his profile rise a hundred-fold, Marcel Dettmann has let none of his newfound fame go to his head. He is still innovating, which means that he’s still doing things according to his own rules. The summer’s Deuce record with Shed largely ignored trends and instead demolished them, roughing techno up to a point beyond what many were familiar with. “MDR 06” is his first solo record since the last contribution to his own shadowy Hardwax-distributed label. Following an extremely stripped back and paranoid (not to mention flat out devastating) remix of Fever Ray’s “Seven,” “MDR 06” doesn’t so much continue Marcel’s sound as refine it.
Patrick Cowley & Jorge Socarras, Catholic
October 20, 2009 – 10:01 AM
To Italo disco and Hi-NRG heads, Patrick Cowley will always be revered for his definitive remixes of “I Feel Love” and CBS favorite “Hills of Kathmandu,” as well as megahits such as “Menergy” or Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real).” Despite this cult status, Patrick Cowley’s music hasn’t received the critical acclaim afforded to a certain other disco auteur. The reasons for this are quite apparent; while Cowley and Arthur Russell’s back stories are superficially similar (experimental backgrounds, disco and Larry Levan, tragically young AIDS victims), their music is not. Cowley’s music seems too epic, too gay, too flamboyant, or even too “disco” for hipster appropriation; I mean, you’ve seen your uncle dance to “Do You Wanna Funk” at a wedding, right? All that may be set to change now that the good people at Macro have unearthed Cowley’s incredible, late ’70s new wave project, Catholic, made with Indoor Life singer Jorge Socarras.
Basic Soul Unit/Lerosa, Panorama Bar 02 Part I
October 19, 2009 – 10:01 PM
Ostgut Ton have made quite an impact with their mix CDs. Both timely and timeless, the Berghain and Panorama Bar residents always try to create something lasting; indeed, the first Panorama Bar CD by Cassy has yet to leave my mix CD rotation. With high standards in mind, anticipation for Panorama Bar 02 grows every day, not least thanks to two teaser 12″s Ostgut Ton releases containing exclusive tracks from the CD. “Part I” features the talents of Toronto’s Basic Soul Unit and Dublin-based Lerosa, and is soon to be followed by contributions from Levon Vincent and Panorama Bar resident Steffi.
Trickski, Lost Jams
October 15, 2009 – 10:01 PM
Jerome Derradji’s off-shoot label from Still Music continues to hit all the right buttons for lovers of pure unadulterated house, adding German duo Trickski to their list of contributors with number nineteen in the “Lost Jams” series. Yannick Labbé and Daniel Becker have certainly done their homework for this release, crafting two stunning tracks steeped in the feeling of Chicago and Detroit house that are made all the more impressive considering their regular musical ethos. Check one of their Sonar Kollektiv releases over the past few years and you’ll find a mechanical edge to their music, an almost robotic brashness when stacked up against the two cuts they proffer here on “Lost Jams.” These two tracks, collected on anonymous blacked out vinyl, evoke such a feeling of classic house you’ll be scratching your head asking yourself where you’ve heard them before, pondering whether the vocals are culled from some dusty old half forgotten track from the murky reaches of another time. In that sense what we’re dealing with here is undoubtedly derivative, but then the whole purpose of Stilove4music is to collate such classic sounding records suffused with the heritage to which they pay tribute.
Linkwood, System
October 15, 2009 – 10:01 AM
Prime Numbers has surfaced from the wading pool of deep house labels at a remarkable rate. Considering the apparent nonchalance of Prime No. 1 David Wolstencroft (best known as Trus’me), the consistency and quality of PN’s catalog is almost surprising. Developing an identifiable sound around a close-knit and capable collection of producers in just a few years requires equal amounts of luck, astute determination, and obviously, trust. Both eerie and warm, indivisible and expansive, reflective and current, the Prime Numbers sound boogies down like tears in rain. Prime producers like Reggie Dokes (owner of Detroit’s Psychostasia Recordings), Linkwood (Nick Moore), and Fudge Fingas (Gavin Sutherland) share Wolstencroft’s ethos to the point of near interchangeability (as evinced by the mixed disc of last years PN comp), while maintaining fresh takes on the sound. But with only bits and pieces thus far (albeit bright and poignant ones), and with Trus’me’s second album In the Red yet to see the light of day, it’s still to be seen how this collective drive should play out in greater detail. With System, Moore has slow-brewed just such a model, while further rendering his thematic preoccupations and once again proving his consummate production style.
St. Plomb, Escape Run
October 14, 2009 – 10:01 PM
Having spent the better part of the last three years on sabbatical from releasing records, St. Plomb (Vincent Kolb to the family he nurtured in the meantime) fiercely assures fans his creative and producing faculties are still sharp on the long awaited return, “Escape Run” on Brut! He was last spotted with production partner Crowdpleaser, zig-zagging around the globe in support of their critically acclaimed and sonically diverse debut album, 2006. So it’s with great pleasure that I report St. Plomb’s latest retains the eccentric, non-linear style which made him such an intriguing producer in the first place.
BBH: Joe Louis, Back To The Beginning
October 14, 2009 – 10:01 AM
When I bought this 12″ back in 1996, I had no reason to believe it was anything other than a release by early Chicago house producer Joe Lewis. He had already released under that surname variation on his own Target label a decade earlier and had accumulated three releases on Relief. What I didn’t know was that Lewis had come into possession of these four tracks by way of a trip to the UK, during which Jaime Read gave him two DATs of music with the understanding they would be handed to Relief on his behalf. The truth of which was never widely recognized, allowing further releases of more of that music on Basement 282 and a retrospective album on Peace Frog years later. I had heard rumors of this fact for several years but never got full confirmation until researching for this review. In addition to a thorough telling of its history on Discogs, Read has made his regrets and frustration known publicly: “I gave Joe Lewis my DATs when I was young and naïve, so there is an expensive lesson learnt. Shame there’s no music journos with any bollocks.” But if you can put this release’s ignominious underbelly aside, there is music contained within that deserves celebrating.
Samuli Kemppi, No One Can Hear Your Echo In Space
October 13, 2009 – 10:01 PM
Although Samuli Kemppi has yet to become a household name, techno fans took when Samuli’s exceptional “Vangel” appeared on last year’s Berghain 02 mix. Since then he’s released only a remix for Peter Van Hoesen’s “Casual Care,” but the coming month sees two new records from the Finnish producer. In addition to the second installment in the Komisch records catalog (the follow up to Van Hoesen’s remarkable inaugural 12″), Samuli strikes with “No One Can Hear Your Echo In Space,” the sixth transmission from Munich-based Prologue. Prologue have made a name for themselves this year by specializing in “headfuck techno,” which is about as apt a description as one could imagine. “No One Can Hear You Echo In Space” continues the label’s high standards, delivering three tracks of twisted, subtly-mind-warping techno.
Paul Frick/Scott, Would You/What You Got
October 13, 2009 – 10:01 AM
So far in his brief dance music discography, it seems wherever Paul Frick goes his pals Daniel Brandt and Jan Brauer are sure to follow. The pair, who record together as the ambiguously named Scott, have been remixed by Frick, appear on two compilation EPs with Frick (for klamauk and 30porumalinha), and round out the trio Brandt Brauer Frick (whose excellent “Iron Man” single and attendant Lee Jones remix have been unfairly overlooked). So don’t expect to win points guessing who’s on the flipside of the Paul Frick-fronted single from the brand new imprint The Gym.
Jacob Korn, I Like The Sun (But Not On LCDs)
October 12, 2009 – 10:01 PM
Gerd Janson first heard Jacob Korn’s “I Like The Sun (But Not On LCDs)” almost two and a half years back at a Red Bull Music Academy gig in Toronto. Not that you would know it, as the three tracks on the latest Running Back still sound box fresh and, in fashion-editorial speak, “on trend.” What that says about how far ahead of the curve Running Back are, or how retroactive house music is these days, or even how laborious the process of signing, pressing and promoting a track is, are matters best discussed elsewhere. What matters here (this is a review, right?), is that eventually the music got released, and it’s really rather good.
A Work in Progress, Untitled EP
October 8, 2009 – 10:01 PM
New releases from Yore always catch my attention. Some days you’ll get a fresh release from a revered veteran like Alton Miller, while on others you’ll find something unexpected from an artist you’ve never heard of before. The “Untitled EP” from A Work in Progress is a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B. The single’s two metropolitan house cuts come from Priceless One, described by the label as “a club kid from Detroit,” but also boast contributions from deep house royalty Chez Damier.
Juju & Jordash, Juju & Jordash LP
October 8, 2009 – 10:01 AM
It’s widely known that pulling off a dance music full length is a difficult proposition. The cards are inherently stacked against a genre that is dictated by the quick fix that fits neatly in the mix. Juju & Jordash’s music, however, seems to be tailor made for the album format. Their productions are based ostensibly in the house/techno arena but the Amsterdam-based duo’s background playing in jazz bands and predilection for several other genres heavily inform the outcome. Live instrumentation gets mixed with keyboards, laptop and psychotropic effects resulting in unpredictable variations. In other words, what passes for a Juju & Jordash house track nary sounds like what falls under the Beatport house charts. You only have to listen to one of their Off Minor radio shows to get a feel for what goes into their own blender and comes out in a refreshingly new shape.
Social Disco Club & Maia, The Way You Move
October 7, 2009 – 10:01 PM
The name of Social Disco Club’s monthly party in Porto, Portugal is “Are You Re-Edit?” which up to now has been an apt description of Humberto Matias’s dance floor MO. On the SDC blog, Matias has been exploring the history and consequences of disco and posting choice and cheeky vinyl-rips and re-edits since 2007. His wholehearted enthusiasm (even for the English language) has made the SDC a popular watering hole on the disco blog circuit and eventually given him the opportunity to reach a vinyl audience last year with releases on Spanish label OCSID Music and Belgian label Mindless Boogie. While “The Way You Move” shows Matias trying his hand at original production with X-Wife band member and fellow Porto native Rui Maia, it clearly reflects a re-edit sensibility with some left of center vocal sampling and a restrained, indulging pace that maintains both tension and release.
Various Artists, Lo-Fi Soundsystem
October 7, 2009 – 10:01 AM
Stephen Hitchell continues to plumb the depths of dub-influenced techno to bring us further crucial low range soundscapes via the Echospace and Intrusion labels. His recent cv313 release “Sailing Stars” found him geting deliciously minimal with the cuts all employing a less is more approach to their output. Here Hitchell calls in assistance from kindred spirits Mildiou and Lo-Fi Soundsystem to further engage fans of dub-rooted house and techno.
Artist Unknown, Hate 5
October 6, 2009 – 10:01 PM
Finally, some light relief amid the furrowed-brow seriousness that’s all too prevalent in electronic music. The fifth release on the Modern Love-affiliated, rave/hardcore-inspired Hate label sees yet another unknown artist inject some humour into their work. Sampling Simon & Garfunkel singing the line “Hello farkness my old friend” from “The Sound of Silence,” she/he then loops the word “darkness” and splices it up with a standard amen break, a cartoonish hoover bass and some bleak chords. Like the scene and the music it so clearly apes, it’s daft and utterly disposable, yet infinitely more entertaining than much of what passes for cerebral techno or house in 2009.
Wax, Dub Shed Sessions I
October 6, 2009 – 10:01 AM
It’s easy to gloss Rene Pawlowitz’s essential Shedding the Past album for Ostgut Ton last year as an exercise in purity through genre affiliation (in that instance, industrial-strength techno). Yet I suspect the man — recording variably as Shed, EQD, Wax, STP, and Deuce (with Marcel Dettmann) — believes less in adherence to a particular beat structure and compositional strategy than in finding club music’s future in a raw envisioning of its past. How else can Pawlowitz’s instantly recognizable sound (bass boom + sharp synth burst = swift Armani Exchange model genocide) wend its way through steely retro house (Wax’s “20002B”) and soulful dubstep (his Shed remix of Peverelist’s “Junktion”), all the while keeping the fire of true techno music better than any of his more clear-cut classicist Hard Wax associates?
Tolfrey & Ramirez, Bounce to Me
October 5, 2009 – 10:01 PM
Record shops housing their own record labels is becoming increasingly. Clone, Kompakt and Smallville immediately spring to mind, as do the many stamped records that come out of Hardwax. London vinyl haven Phonica has long been the destination of choice for Soho crate-diggers in search of quality house and techno, so it was perhaps only a matter of time before the store stocked its shelves with its own records. However, London lacks a distinct house or techno sound like Hamburg or Cologne do, instead priding itself on giving rise to a new sub-genre of syncopated dance music every six months or so. Phonica stock is hardly relegated to a single aesthetic either. As such, it’s difficult to anticipate what each transmission from the newly minted label will sound like. The first release from Hector & Bryant featured a genre-bending remix from Appleblim and Al Tourettes, while PHONICA002 from JC Freaks dabbled in pale minimal house. It seems fair to wonder, what’s next?
San Proper, Keep It Raw
October 1, 2009 – 10:01 PM
San Proper is the latest in a long, long line of dance producers to come from Holland. While his hometown of Amsterdam is often seen as a techno hub thanks to the work of first-wavers like Steve Rachmad and Orlando Voorn, as well as newer talents like Shinedoe, it also has a rich house heritage that stretches back to the early 90’s days of Outland Records. It’s this period that Proper looks to for inspiration on his debut on Zip’s Perlon.
Audision, Surface To Surface
October 1, 2009 – 10:01 AM
Among the Vince Watsons and Arne Weinbergs that slot comfortably into the “Neo-Detroit” section on the Hardwax website, Audision are probably one of the less well known. “Gamma Limit,” “Vanish” and their exceptional, bass-heavy remix of Tensnake’s “Around The House” are all minor classics in their hometown of Hamburg, but the pair have struggled for recognition elsewhere. This may be because they wear their influences so shamelessly on their sleeves. Why buy the copy when the original is easily available? Even their press blurb admits Niko Tzoukmanis and Tobias Schmid bonded over a shared love of Basic Channel and classic Detroit techno, inspirations that are frequently all too apparent on debut album Surface To Surface.