After what seems like a lengthy hiatus (at the current release rate, two years in the house/techno 12″ market feels more like 10) and lukewarm reviews of their debut album, 23 Seconds, Cobblestone Jazz’s return makes no apologies for directness. The band’s penchant for improvisation is a driving force in their creative process and always features heavily in their live performances, but with the “Traffic Jam EP” there is less jazz spontaneity on display and more techno fundamentals at work. The trio makes use of programming assistance from occasional band partner, The Mole, from The Modern Deep Left Quartet. Where their previous collaboration resulted in raw house experimentalism, this EP doesn’t pussyfoot around.
review
LWE’s Mutek 10 Round Up
June 10, 2009 – 9:10 AM
Each year at the end of May, thousands of somber looking people wearing muted tones descend on Montreal for Mutek, a festival celebrating electronic music performance. It’s one of the most important electronic music festivals in the world, and along with Movement, one of the two biggest in North America. In some respects, it offers a counterpoint to Movement. Kicking off only a week after the Detroit festival ends, Mutek focuses on electronic performance of all kinds, including the avant-garde, while Movement is primarily a festival for dance music. Furthermore, Movement is characterized by swarms of DJs at official and unofficial parties, while Mutek encourages artists to perform live rather than DJ. This makes for a rather unique experience for electronic music fans who rarely get to see and hear their favorite artists playing their own songs. Which isn’t to say the festival looks down on DJing as an art form. Rather, Mutek strives to offer a panoramic view of everything going on in electronic music today, from ambient drones to schaffel beats and everything in between. For their 10th anniversary, Mutek pulled out all the stops and put on a truly exceptional festival, affirming their position as one of the best music festivals worldwide.
Lee Curtiss, The Mantra EP
June 9, 2009 – 11:16 PM
The young Lee, long-time Detroiter, Seth Troxler’s former roommate, last seen trafficking in a loose cabal made of Wolves, Lambs and Crosstown Rebels, kick starts a new label by the Zürich-based Cityfox crew. In case you were curious about Lee’s agenda, the opening vocals should fill you in: “I’m only here for one night, but I’m playing for keeps. Sex, drugs and magic, baby, no time for sleep. ” A hard-hitting DJ’s creed for sure. The sparse, wired-tight rolling beats and insistent horndog bass line underneath leave little room for doubt that the man means what he says.
Stimming, Reflections
June 9, 2009 – 8:26 AM
Martin Stimming doesn’t sound anything like Villalobos or Ben Klock. None of the records in his increasingly label-diverse discography evoke frozen tundras, k-holes or the post-industrial cathedral of Berghain on Sunday morning. His distinctively unmechanized house grooves are neither a vintage call to jack nor a dive into the depths. The longer I’ve sat on Reflections, Stimming’s debut full-length, the more I’ve realized what an awesome anomaly this young producer’s music is in 2009: his sound decidedly skirts the zeitgeist, but the undeniable quality and sensitivity of his handiwork renders him a perennial must-listen in a dance music scene moving more and more away from the organic tech-house that earns him his living.
Ernesto Ferreyra, Siluetas
June 9, 2009 – 12:37 AM
After an uncharacteristic period of inactivity from the end of 2008 through the first couple months of 2009 (previously the label had been issuing new releases about every six weeks like clockwork), Cadenza took the unusual step of putting out five releases basically on top of each other. On one hand, the approach makes a big splash in the marketplace and keeps the label’s name in the headlines a bit longeer and more prominently than it might otherwise be. On the other hand, the glut of releases tends to dull the impact of the music as the already fairly uniform Cadenza sound can’t help but get repetitive in such large doses.
Linkwood Family, Miles Away (Intrusion Dubs)
June 8, 2009 – 8:25 AM
When used as an adjective to describe music, “deep” means different things to different people. While the exact definition has proven to be elusive and subject to some contentious discussions in the dance community, most agree you know a record is “deep” when you hear it. Case in point: the original version of Linkwood Family’s “Miles Away” is deep. The debut release on the Firecracker imprint that found its way into the crates of everyone from Derrick May to Moodymann started with a mournful Miles Davis-esque trumpet solo over some lonesome keys and moved into a late-night house bounce and a vocal line bordering on torch song territory. Soulful, jazzy, warm, and melancholy, “Miles Away” featured all the hallmarks of a “deep house” record and then some.
Milton Bradley, Dystopian Vision
June 7, 2009 – 7:23 PM
Do Not Resist The Beat!—should we consider that a listening strategy? “Dystopian Vision,” Milton Bradley’s second release this year for his own willfully obscure label, encapsulates some of the most abrasive, pulverizing techno sound design a producer can commit to record without completely alienating the floor. But if you’re willing to stick your head over Mr. Bradley’s 500 copy, limited-edition hole into hell, you might just find some serious, sulfury funk gurgling up from the deep.
Scuba, Klinik/Hundreds and Thousands
June 4, 2009 – 8:25 AM
Hot on the tail of his remix packages from A Mutual Antipathy, Paul Rose has started the year with two killer remixes for Alpha Rhythm and Fever Ray. Following on from those is his new twelve on Hotflush which will further cement his status as one of the most compelling producers out.
Anton Zap, Outside EP
June 3, 2009 – 11:10 PM
There was a time you had to keep your ear close to the ground to get an accurate read on the whereabouts of true deep house. That is no longer the case as more labels have recently emerged to help push the sound to the foreground. And with that are pushing artists who are dedicated to keeping the deep house revival moving in the right direction. Anton Zap is one such artist. The Moscow-based producer earned instant street cred with just a handful of releases on Underground Quality and Quintessentials over the past two years. With his latest release, the “Outside EP” for Uzuri, Zap reveals a growing confidence and development of his own sound.
Deuce, Deuce EP
June 2, 2009 – 8:22 AM
So far in 2009, Ostgut Tonträger has charted a course favoring harder, more aggressive sounds than in previous years. As the label arm of Berlin’s preeminent Berghain club, whose name has become synonymous with dark and uncompromising techno, this isn’t entirely surprising. Prominent resident DJs/producers Marcel Dettmann and Ben Klock have also seen their stock skyrocket since the label launched in late 2005, furthering the case for harder stuff. And while a discography notched with several releases from Prosumer & Murat Tepeli, 12″s from MyMy and Âme, and the Shut Up and Dance! Updated compilation evinces diverse tastes, one wonders if Ostgut Ton’s recent focus portends a broader shift. If commissioning an EP and album from Luke Slater’s ferocious Planetary Assault Systems project was the tipping point, the “Deuce EP,” a collaborative effort from Dettmann and Shed, lays bare how astringent and foreboding the path ahead may be.
Cooly G, Narst/Love Dub
June 1, 2009 – 9:58 PM
Although Hyperdub has rightly earned its reputation as one of the world’s leading dubstep labels, the scope of its sound is far more complicated. Burial’s spectral aesthetic owes much to 2-step and garage; Zomby and Joker are pioneers of whatever they’re calling wonky these days; and label head Kode9’s sews together bits and pieces of hip-hop, Baltimore breaks, 2-step, dubstep, and mostly recently the nascent sounds of funky. With the latter most genre quickly gathering steam and admirers, it was only a matter of time before Hyperdub signed their own funky producer — South London’s Cooly G.
LWE’s Movement 09 Round Up
May 31, 2009 – 10:09 PM
For many electronic music fans in America’s Midwest, the most anticipated event of each year is Movement: Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival, and for good reason. In spite of the reverence DJs and producer express for the region as the birthplace of house and techno, the Midwest is often passed over by DJs and producers whose U.S. tours reach no farther than New York and Los Angeles or San Francisco. While the reasons for this are too complex to tackle here, suffice it to say many Midwesterners — and those who travel from far and wide — relish the one time DJs and musicians annually descend upon Detroit en masse. It’s also a chance for Detroit’s homegrown talent to strut their stuff for larger audiences who seldom make it to the Motor City.
Hector & Bryant, Tension
May 31, 2009 – 2:34 PM
Berlin’s Hardwax, that Berghain-staffed den of alluringly anonymous white labels, might be the vinyl emporium of the moment. But what about London’s Phonica? Resembling more a design-minded record nerd’s studio apartment than a storefront adjacent to a Soho parking garage, Phonica has built an international reputation not by genre affiliation but on the high quality of the wax lining its walls. As a very green DJ studying abroad a few years back, I received my unofficial techno education at the shop, saddling up at a listening station once or twice a week with an employee-curated stack of new 12″s. I returned to the States with two suitcases full of Phonica’s wares (and a decimated savings account), and the bulk of my purchases still sound fresh today. So it’s no surprise that “Tension,” the first release on the shop’s eponymous label, features some of the most finely honed, built-to-last dance music on the shelves right now (not to mention some of the prettiest packaging).
Dplay, Huub Sand
May 28, 2009 – 8:23 AM
Running Back, managed by journalist, DJ, occasional producer and all-round good guy Gerd Janson, had a great 2008, cherrypicking three superb records by Mark E, Move D and Radio Slave. Quality over quantity seemed to be the year’s motto, but in 2009 the Frankfurt-based label has managed the trick of combining the two, with four fine releases in the first half of this year: The Melchior-esque “Forward Snipping” by Robert Dietz, the frankly ridiculous limited edition “The Voice From Planet Love” from Precious System, and a forthcoming disco smasher by Hamburg’s Tensnake all have their merits, but the real pick of the bunch has been Dplay’s “Huub Sand.”
Terence Fixmer, Machine EP
May 27, 2009 – 11:41 PM
It’s somewhat surprising “Machine EP” is the first time Terence Fixmer and Speedy J, two veterans of hard and fast techno, have worked with each other’s music. Both have churned out banging twelves since the early 90s and have a workman-like quality about their productions. Appropriately, Speedy’s recently launched Electric Deluxe imprint is the venue for their meeting, marking the first time another solo artist is featured there. Fans of either man will find much the EP pleasing if not surprising.
DJ Koze, Mrs. Bojangels
May 26, 2009 – 10:27 PM
Stefan Kozalla has been on a roll for an unnaturally long stretch of time in the mercurial dance music community. His particular take on house music is generally full of humor, energy, and some of the most killer earworms in existence, and his first single for 2009 is no exception.
Actress, Ghosts Have A Heaven
May 26, 2009 – 1:00 PM
Releasing a gem of an album in Hazyville at the end of 2008 saw Actress (nee Darren Cunningham) passed over for the end of year accolades. But with several tracks from the album turning up on recent releases, the Werks Discs label manager is now receiving some overdue attention. His remix of Various Production’s “Lost” was a gobsmacking foray of compressed, blunted house music while the reappearance of album cut “Crushed” on a recent Prime Numbers sampler drew rave reviews from all who encountered it. Combining a touch of the new with further material lifted from Hazyville, “Ghosts Have A Heaven” will only further the reputation of the less than prolific producer.
Oleg Poliakov, Rainy Dayz
May 25, 2009 – 9:09 PM
French producer Frederic Aubourg first debuted in 1997 as Skat, but his career didn’t take off until 2004 when started a string of releases for Karat, Sthmlaudio, and more recently Eklo. Aubourg can also be found producing under the Russian-sounding alias, Oleg Poliakov, turning in one Circus Company single per year since 2007. Despite the distinctive moniker, most Poliakov tracks blend in all too well with their nuevo “deep house” surroundings. “Rainy Dayz” makes headway towards a more distinguishable sound, though perhaps for the wrong reasons.
Kevin Gorman, Elements Part 1
May 22, 2009 – 12:25 PM
Manchester’s Kevin Gorman isn’t one of those artists who tries to conceal the mechanics and methods of his trade. Nor is he one to dictate how and under what conditions his music should be experienced. His four-part Elements series for his own Mikrowave label will be available both on tangible vinyl and portable mp3 formats. The main talking points on the series, though, concern Gorman’s decision to offer each track’s individual components. In other words, you can get an mp3 of just the pads for “Hoodwinked,” or the bare percussion from “Insomnia.” You can even get “Cyclic”‘s toms as an isolated track. Not to mention alternate mixes. The first two installments are already out, and some of the material is even offered at no cost.
Baby Ford, Gravy Train
May 21, 2009 – 12:41 AM
Baby Ford once said, “Voices on tracks have always been part of the sound, but that’s all it is, part of a whole sound.” “Gravy Train” and Soul Capsule’s “Waiting 4 A Way,” a track Baby Ford co-produced with Thomas Melchior in 2007, help us to understand this relationship of parts to wholes when it comes to vocals and instrumentation. There are similarities between the voices on “Gravy Train” and “Waiting 4 A Way,” both in execution and concept. Linguistically, they share a sexual “come on” croon, they’re worked with effects in equal measure, and both have been released as a cappellas. This last commonality suggests a logic where the voices are no longer just parts of a whole sound, but have become a whole sound in and of themselves.