San Francisco-based Michoacan (aka Fernando Miranda Rios) is one of those artists who’ve thus far managed to make a pretty decent name for themselves while remaining mostly hidden from view. No real bio, a couple of Q&As dotted around but bar that, nada. Up until now, that is. Prior to this release Michoacan had been dropping a slew of low slung ’80s disco-pop on the likes of Lecktroluv and Grayhound Recordings, as well as dance floor-baiting cosmic disco cuts for Bear Funk or Tiny Sticks. But with In The Dark Of the Night the game has changed: DFA is involved, videos have been made, and buzz has been growing louder as the record creeps into springtime playlists and mixes.
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BBH: The Subjective, Tremmer/Critical
April 14, 2010 – 10:01 AM
One of England’s premier techno outfits of the nineties, Colin McBean and Cisco Ferreira are best known as The Advent. Their discography as The Advent reaches back to 1994, though Ferreira scored early releases in 1988 on R & S and in 1989 on Fragile, while the two collaborated as early as 1990 in the group K.C.C. As The Advent they crafted hard-nosed looped techno tracks and occasionally indulged in a spot of electro. When the feeling took them they would divert towards something a bit more melodic under the name Man Made (as on their brilliant Space Wreck 12″ for Fragile) or as The Subjective, even dabbling in filtered disco house as G-Flame & Mr G. Arguably one of their finest releases was “Tremmer/Critical” as The Subjective on Dave Angel’s Rotation label in 1997. It was a notable release at the time for fusing together the hard, fast techno they were known for with shimmering, ethereal melodies that lay in direct contrast to their uncompromising, near industrial sound.
Bon & Rau, Cloverleaf Days
April 13, 2010 – 10:01 PM
Smallville has long maintained a low key approach to releasing music, even when a critically adored album (Move D & Benjamin Brunn’s Songs From the Beehive) and gargantuan 12″ (STL’s Silent State, our top track of 2009) propelled the Hamburg-based label into the uncomfortable position of being the label for reduced house music. Not carried away with big names, one of Smallville’s charms has been their equal treatment of established producers as well as newcomers. Following a solid label compilation released last fall comes their eighteenth record from the team of newcomer and Smallville Paris clerk Jacques Bon and relative newcomer Christopher Rau.
Cage & Aviary, Beat N Path
April 13, 2010 – 10:01 AM
If “Giorgio Carpenter” and “Television Train” told us anything about Cage & Aviary, it’s that Jamie Paton and Nigel Hoyle are good listeners. Heavily referential, both tracks relied on in one sense — and racked up in another — some serious musical credit, while somehow managing to skip the bill when it came time to pay the price for the goods. There’s something cool as cucumber about their synthetic style and the slow developmental arc of their tracks. They take ample time to celebrate their collective and contrasting influences (i.e. disco, Italo, post-punk, white-boy funk, indie rock, new wave, all the way up to early Chicago and acid house) without sounding derivative, predictable, or feeling the need to rush headlong into blatantly new territory.
Erik XVI, Stern-Gerlachs Versioner
April 12, 2010 – 10:01 PM
Erik XVI’s Stern-Gerlachs Versioner, released in January on Highpoint Lowlife, compiles seven remixes of tracks from last year’s Stern-Gerlachs Försök EP. The collection is a veritable stylistic melting pot; the dystopian aura of the originals pervades but is filtered through everything from Dissident-style arpeggiator disco to dark garage. This sort of variety is a potential weakness: in pre-download days you might end up paying full price for a single quality track in a sea of duds. Luckily, the curatorial work here is impeccable, rewarding the versatile modern DJ with its diversity.
Marino Berardi, Best Intention EP
April 8, 2010 – 11:09 PM
Marino Berardi’s first claim to fame was being among the first Belgian-based producers to be licensed by a notable American house label when his Expression In E-Dub single was picked up by Wave Music. But that was in 2000; and despite a string of solid if not stellar singles for Ovum, Fresh Fruit and more — not to mention that MB Recordings was built to host his tracks — dance music buyers let past accomplishments recede into back catalogs without a second thought. Berardi has since begun the second act in his musical career with a few tracks for Phil Dairmount’s surprisingly underrated Room With A View label. This renewed push is accompanied by a noticeable shift in Berardi’s sound, moving away from the sometimes bland palette which dulled his often rigorous arrangements. Collaborations with Dairmount on RoomWAV comps Perspectives 01 and 03 suggested an interest in orchestral source material; and on the Best Intention EP, Berardi’s first solo release since 2007, his examination of this inspiration yields what’s sure to be another career highlight. It’s also backed by remixes from Pezzner and Christo.
Fudge Fingas, About Time
April 8, 2010 – 10:01 AM
“A lot of people have to work. You gotta go home, you take a bath. A lot of people, you go home and fuck your wife. A lot of people go home, you cut your grass. I go home, and I fuck that motherfuckin’ MPC all fuckin’ night.” I was thinking about Kenny Dixon Jr’s recent eruditions on domesticity and art while listening to Fudge Fingas’ “It’s About Time.” It deals with the quotidian problems of part-time music making; what if when you get home from a hard day at the office, you’re are just too worn out, or lack the inspiration, to “fuck your MPC,” or for that matter, your significant other?
Ricardo Miranda, Black Acid
April 7, 2010 – 10:01 PM
There is no shortage of tracks named acid-something-or-another, and when you pick a title like “Black Acid,” you’re generally promising your listeners at least a twisting 303 line and some hand claps. Ricardo Miranda’s effort bears these hallmarks but doesn’t extend much further, a track with all the standard acid elements and little panache to back them up. Nevertheless, the Chicago producer sandbags by giving Danny “Legowelt” Wolfers the flip, who ably demonstrates how not to abide by rigid titular ambitions, delivering a haunting, hypnotic remix that ends up being far more lysergic than most studies of the genre.
BBH: Glenn Underground, Future Shock
April 7, 2010 – 10:01 AM
Within the scope of Chicago’s early/mid ’90s house renaissance Glenn Crocker, aka Glenn Underground, played a strong role in helping to define what was an emerging new sound for city. Along with fellow artists Boo Williams, DJ Sneak, Tim Harper and several others they formed a dichotomous current that for several years was defined by the direction of the Cajual and Relief labels: disco-styled house for the former and banging raw tracks for the latter. European labels quickly picked up on this and plucked nearly all of the aspiring new faces on the scene for at least one 12″ and at most two albums. Crocker was one such artist that technically got his start on Eindhoven-based label, Djax-Up-Beats, with the Future Shock 12″ in 1993.
Ilija Rudman, Call Me Tonight Remixes
April 6, 2010 – 10:01 PM
Croatian disco DJ/producer Ilija Rudman first appeared on my radar back in early 2007 with the After Midnight EP on Love Is War. Its killer cut bore a distinctly different lean than many records at the time, sounding like a mix between Steve Kotey’s Bear Funk productions and LFO’s rather exceptional electro. By this time he’d been kicking around for a number of years, releasing tracks on his own Red Music as early as 2003. Since then Rudman has slowly risen through the ranks, courting remixes from the likes of Pete Herbert, The Revenge and Mark E over the years. The original “Call Me Tonight,” which dropped in February, was a sharp turn for the boogie — all slapped bass, cowbells and 808 drums. Here, however, he teams passes this joint to a few of his old friends for a workout.
Billy Love, Melloghettomental
April 6, 2010 – 10:01 AM
Few contemporary producers elicit unqualified, borderline worshipful praise quite like Theo Parrish. The mere mention of his name is enough to cause the eyes of house-heads to glaze over as they exhale the longest, most reverent “Ohhhhhh, dude” imaginable. The cynic in you refuses to believe that any producer, let alone one working today, could live up to this sort of breathlessness, but Parrish — now well into the second decade of his discography — consistently does. I often wonder if his sounding like practically no one else is a function of him understanding house better than practically everyone else: whether in the slow shuffle of his Sound Signature 12″s or the unbridled eclecticism of his legendary DJ sets, Parrish commits to the groove with a warmth, adventurousness, and veritable taxonomy of influences that makes him the standard-bearer for so many of us who love this music. I could keep talking about Theo for the next three days, but I haven’t mentioned Billy Love’s new doublepack for Sound Signature yet, and I’m pretty sure my eyes are starting to glaze over.
Daryl Stay, My Groove EP
April 5, 2010 – 10:01 PM
With a hot new batch of younger labels stealing their thunder, Poker Flat is no longer seen as the vital label it once was, though like Get Physical who are also victim of the same zeitgeist, a release with the famed imprint can still spell big things for a producer. Though they bill him as a newcomer on the release info, Daryl Stay is anything but, having notched up his first release as early as 1997. His profile has hardly been prolific to date, but this Englishman may well experience a surge in interest with his latest release for Steve Bug’s aforementioned label.
Jason Fine, Future Thought Remixed
April 2, 2010 – 10:01 AM
When I saw that Ben Klock had been commissioned to remix Jason Fine, my gut reaction was to flinch in discomfort. After all, the Berghain resident’s music isn’t really known for its sense of romance or emotion, and here he was reworking a track from of the most seductively introspective electronic music albums of recent years.
Erik & Fiedel, Nous Sommes MMM
April 1, 2010 – 10:01 PM
Every once in a while a record comes along that changes things entirely. OK, perhaps MMM’s Donna, first released in 1997, didn’t quite change electronic music as we know it, but it was a deliciously raucous slice of near-perfect raved-up techno. Erik (Errorsmith) and Fiedel are hardly a prolific duo, releasing only their fourth record, Nous Sommes MMM, two years after their third and a full 13 years after Donna. What they lack in quantity of tunes they most assuredly make up for in the quality of their productions, which will all but transform any club environment into a dusty old warehouse located on the outskirts of town.
Marcel Dettmann, Dettmann Remixed
March 31, 2010 – 10:01 PM
Expectations greatly inform our record buying habits. What do you expect from Marcel Dettmann? If previous releases are to be believed it’s stripped down, no nonsense techno. What about from his friends Norman Nodge and the either incognito or actually-a-newcomer Wincent Kunth? More or less the same thing, and that is exactly what’s on display here with four remixes of Dettmann material which didn’t make the album.
Actress, Machine And Voice
March 31, 2010 – 10:01 AM
Earlier this month, the New York Times‘ ArtsBeat blog ran an assessment of the latest Joy Orbison EP in graph form, in which Andrew Kuo mapped his knee-jerk reactions to each of the record’s three tracks, vacillating between breathless Aphex Twin comparisons and “Fatboy Slim Junior” skepticism. Cute, if a little pat, it speaks to the “buzz about the buzz” situation that Joy’s been saddled with, his music discussed more by a watchful but largely disinterested blogosphere than by his ardent fans. A contributor to that record, Actress (Darren Cunninham) is similarly blessed with high expectations, yet he’s bypassed most of the factional fanaticism of electronic dance music and hardly registered with whatever it is that now occupies the district once known as indie rock. Perhaps it’s that his compression-faded, gray-scale sound is too modest in scale, or simply too murky. There are no sinus-clearing swells in Actress’ music; the sensation is closer to the sound of blood rushing through your ears. The man’s no recondite wall flower, though. His debut album, Hazyville, found its way onto quite a few best-of-decade lists, and his tracks have been licensed by Trus’me’s house-centric Prime Numbers, as well as for two Fabric mixes. His latest transmissions have made it easier and easier for me to see what it is that so many find special. His records have a naggingly familiar sound but, at the same time, have trademarked a sound that’s unmistakably “Actress.”
RezKar, Above The Clouds
March 30, 2010 – 10:01 PM
LWE’s Kuri Kondrak caught up with South Africa’s RezKar two weeks ago, noting the promise of big things to come. RezKar’s newest, one track backed by four remixes on the Running Back label, is significantly more assured, without quite seeming to realize the potential present in earlier efforts. There are a number of very good things in the original mix of “Above the Clouds”: pretty melodies that dance through artful synth arrangements, defying both hands in the air schmaltz and limpid disco house recombinations. This is a good trick to know, and the track generally betrays a good ear and considerate attention to musical quality. But carefully negotiating a divide that has at its one end Gui Boratto and its other Prins Thomas is an insufficient accomplishment for someone whose earlier output promised galloping individuality.
Black Van, Yearning
March 29, 2010 – 10:01 PM
2010 looks like it will be a big year for DFA with the hotly anticipated final album from LCD Soundsystem due out in the next two months. Already they’ve been warming up their release sheet with Yacht, Michocan and Ray Mang featuring a vocal comeback of sorts for Lady Miss Kier. Black Van have also presented their debut on the label, which on closer inspection reveals two veteran producers collaborating on a new disco project. Oliver Kowalski from Hamburg duo Moonbootica and French producer Kris Menace who has remixed everyone from Robbie Williams to Tracey Thorn have come together with ongoing aspirations, Yearning being the first fruit of their labor.
Tolga Fidan, Gaijin EP
March 25, 2010 – 10:01 PM
With the swelling tide of deep house washing over the landscape of electronic music many techno producers have been turning out tracks in this vein as well, whether in order to keep their style current and on-trend or just because they have fallen under the influence of the sound themselves. Others, like Tolga Fidan have continued exploring their signature style, albeit with strains of house creeping in around the edges, evident on his latest release for Vakant.
Kirk Degiorgio, Membrane
March 24, 2010 – 10:01 PM
Back in 1992, Kirk Degiorgio’s first ART EP (originally released by R&S Records) found itself getting licensed to Planet E, albeit in a slightly paired down and remixed form, but nonetheless giving two of productions front and center billing. He returned the favor soon after, providing a home for some of Carl Craig’s finest work under his Psyche and BFC monikers on the ART 3 EP. Fast forward 18 years and Degiorgio has returned to Planet E with his latest 12″, Membrane. With Degiorgio reviving his ART imprint and catching his second wind on the techno front, this would seem a perfect fit if not somewhat of a homecoming.