With a faultless series of releases focused on ambient and dubby techno textures, Brock Van Wey — perhaps better known as Bvdub, has rapidly become an indispensable fixture of the deeper side of electronica. His latest long player is broken into two parts, with kindred spirit Intrusion offering interpretations of the six tracks in reverse order for the second part of the album. The album’s inspiration is hinted at in the liner notes which feature a poem by Chinese poet Wang Wei, the last line of which is adopted by Van Wey for the album title.
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Bsmnt City Anymle Kontrol & Kyle Hall, The Perfekt Sin
July 16, 2009 – 10:01 PM
You’ll find Kyle Hall’s records filed under “house,” but the music of this protégé of Rick Wilhite, Mike Huckaby, and Omar S has just as much to do with funk, jazz, hip-hop, and R&B. An unkempt braid of diverse influences and bright-eyed talent, this record — Hall’s second release for his own Wild Oats imprint and his fifth overall — resists categorizations as pat as “deep house.”
RV featuring Los Updates/Reboot, Baile/Caminando
July 16, 2009 – 10:20 AM
Ricardo Villalobos’s best productions, the records of his I will play for my children to help explain why daddy can’t remember large swaths of his early twenties, might be behind him. But whenever I’ll tune into a bootleg or Youtube video from a Ricardo festival set (W has left the White House, sir; now will you please book some US gigs?), I can’t help but imagine him seconding Lil Wayne’s rueful boast on the burden of singularity: “We are not the same/ I am a Martian.” Everyone’s favorite floppy-haired, German-Chilean pure sound advocate has traversed stoned aural landscapes where few ears have dared venture before, and it’s only through the labyrinthine logic of his magnum DJ sets that three-quarters of his record bag makes any sense. I thus greet each new platter from Sei Es Drum, Villalobos’s quasi-white label platform on which he tosses the public some of his sets’ most typically-Ricardo material, with the excitement of owning a souvenir from this man’s space voyage and the trepidation of knowing it will bring me no closer to ultimate hallucinogenic-bongo knowledge.
N/A, Variance Edits
July 15, 2009 – 11:16 PM
Where is the original version of “Variance”? What about “Variance II”? Who is N/A (or is the artist’s name just “not available”)? Thing is, the original artist’s name doesn’t really matter; the only name that does is Sandwell District. They’ve always had a penchant for facelessness, and with the recent release of the “Variance Edits” over two pieces of vinyl they’ve gone a step further into anonymity. But you always know where you stand with Sandwell District, and here they give you exactly what you ordered: “True. Techno. Music.”
Willie Graff & Tuccillo, Atracktion EP
July 14, 2009 – 10:59 PM
Born in Ibiza, the world’s tropical dance music oasis, Willie Graff has always held the kick drum close to his heart. Securing his first DJing residency at age 14, Graff went on to become Pacha’s youngest resident before moving to New York and taking the reins at Cielo. With techno and house running through his veins, Graff’s 2005 transition into producing proved remarkably smooth, enlisting a constant stream of collaborators (including Jerome Sydenham, DJ Pippi and Tuccillo) as he refined a jacking style of tech-house. With each new 12″ for liebe*detail, Wave Music, Drumpoet Community and Freerange, Graff and Tuccilo (his most frequent partner) have opted for slower, more house-oriented sounds. The “Atracktion EP,” their new release for Circus Company, finds the duo at their most methodical and mellow.
Rndm, Third Hand Smoke
July 14, 2009 – 10:09 AM
I first heard of Dial’s plan to start a deep house sub-label called Laid about two years ago. It sounded like a great idea; a way to bring in a fresh sound in what was then still a minimal-soaked dance music world. Finally in 2009 Dial’s younger brother was born with the first two records from Laid. Of course, a lot happens in two years of dance music history. Laid’s opening salvo comes after deep house has been “revived,” this time with the minimal bandwagon in tow, their vacuousness made only more obvious by all the a cappellas professing “soul.” After a wonderful inauguration by Detriot’s own Rick Wade, Oliver Kargl, best known as Rndm, continues to steer Laid into the deep end.
Current Value & Rodell, Sparse Land EP
July 13, 2009 – 9:34 PM
Much is made of tempo as it relates to time feel in the world of drum & bass and dubstep. When producers of the former try their hand at the latter, it sometimes lacks the genuine feel so essential to a good composition. With Sparse Land, Tim Hielscher (aka Current Value) and Dean Rodell deliver mixed results on an EP that combines the two genres with a touch of hard techno. This very combination is the idea behind Subtrakt, the Austrian label co-owned by Rodell.
Spatial, Infra002 EP
July 8, 2009 – 9:51 PM
We humans typically deal with space in terms of the three dimensions most readily apparent to our senses– length, width, and height. If theoretical physicists like Brian Greene and Lisa Randal — whose respective bestsellers The Elegant Universe and Warped Passages helped usher the wacky nomenclature of superstring theory into the late night stoner blather of an entire generation — are to be believed, the universe might actually require something like eleven to function properly. You can’t really blame the sizable demographic of dubsteppers, each competing tooth and nail to get their bass jams out of a DJs distended record bag before the other dude’s, for ignoring the extra dimensions we remain more or less oblivious to in favor of amping up the big three. Aptly-named twostepper Spatial, however, has not forgotten those knotted-up pockets wherein only the most esoteric matter tingles.
Adam Marshall, Vespers EP
July 7, 2009 – 11:48 PM
If Adam Marshall’s latest EP, “Vespers,” is to be interpreted as an evensong, it should be played in a house of worship most fitting its utilitarian nature: a night club, warehouse or anywhere a thick bass bin beckons. The Christian iconography depicted on the record’s inner label art speak to the EP’s titular concept but the two tracks featured here will most assuredly not be getting air time in any Sunday school classes. After DJing and producing from a Toronto base for nearly 2 decades it seems that a re-location to (surprise, surprise) Berlin has brought new attention his way. Last year’s “Chord Tracking” turned heads with its punchy, inspired tech-house and as evidenced by his LWE Podcast (precise mixing and a taste for house and techno that runs wide and far), the man knows a thing or two about what will work for the dance floor.
Peter Van Hoesen, Face of Smoke/Continued Care
July 6, 2009 – 11:54 PM
Midway through 2009, we’re no longer debating whether or not Peter Van Hoesen rates a divider card; we’ve moved on to narrowing down favorites for the year-end lists. With the year’s first three records sounding even more assured than the stuff that had everyone blubbering last year, Brussels’ techno mainstay isn’t just a promising up-and-comer anymore; he’s very much arrived. Dude’s even got a nickname in circulation courtesy of mnml ssgs, “The Hose,” although I think his last name actually rhymes with “boozin’.” The Komisch label managed to secure one of the latest of the the Hose’s stunners for its inaugural release, a record that doesn’t reprise the brooding, no-fuss techno of “Attribute One,” but is just as breathtaking.
$tinkworx & Kinoeye, MKB / Mean Old World
July 5, 2009 – 9:45 PM
William Burnett is an unlikely Williamsburg renaissance man, but with the litany of pies in which he has fingers it’s hard to argue. When he isn’t releasing albums under the nom de plume Grackle, collaborating with Eliot Lipp as Galaxy Toobin’ Gang or recording ghetto house as Smackulator, he’s also known to be DJing sick dance music eclecticism on the Short Bus Radio program. And now Burnett has managed to cram one more achievement onto his resume by starting W.T. Records. For the first release he hasn’t held back, roping in North Carolina based $tinkworx and Kinoeye (a new alias for Datahata) for an auspicious split 12″ debut. But according to Burnett these tracks were the whole inspiration for W.T. Records’s inception in the first place. After hearing them posted online he hung onto the MP3s and later noticed they were never released, prompting him to take matters into his own hands.
Isolée, Albacares
July 3, 2009 – 9:39 AM
Based on some of the stuff you read these days, you might think it was settled and agreed that we chalk up “October Nightingale” as a misstep in Rajko Müller’s respected career. Myself, I think it’s among the year’s highlights. Surely, plunging into the depths of “A Nightingale” was one of my spring’s richest pleasures. All this is rather beside the point, though, as 2009’s second Isolée record is something else entirely.
Peace Division, Eh Oh Um
July 1, 2009 – 10:02 PM
Just as hardware stores supply builders with lumber and nails, British duo Peace Division made a career of peddling reliable if largely unremarkable minimal house grooves to reinforce DJs’ sets. Their understated repertoire has hardly changed in the nearly 15 years spent releasing for Low Pressing, NRK Sound Division, Crosstown Rebels and Tsuba (among others), adjusting slightly with the times to meet DJs needs: Their turn of the century beats were often up-tempo, chunky and a bit tribal, only to reduce during the minimal years and plump up again as “deep” became the operative word. This year the pair decided to hang up the Peace Division moniker for good to pursue solo endeavors, with one last single, “Eh Oh Um,” as their curtain call. Yet in spite of their unshakable consistency, one might expect the duo to go out with a bang, or at least out of the ordinary. Don’t get your hopes up.
BBH: Dark Comedy, Plankton/Clavia’s North
July 1, 2009 – 10:13 AM
One of the spearheads of Detroit’s second wave of techno producers, Kenny Larkin has been responsible for some of the most spine tingling moments in the history of techno. It’s a fact that’s often overlooked, but his stunning discography leaves no doubt this is the case. With time spent repairing computers for the Air Force and an intended career in stand up comedy, Larkin’s entry into the Detroit scene was slightly delayed, though perhaps time spent examining the inner mechanics of machines helped with his productions. Before the release of this stone cold classic in 1997 he had already unleashed the brilliant Azimuth album, a string of singles, and under the Dark Comedy moniker the techno epic “War Of The Worlds.” With the issue of “Plankton,” backed with the equally mesmerizing “Clavia’s North” (on limited clear vinyl no less) Larkin’s reputation as a master craftsman of electronic communication reached a new high.
Robag Wruhme, Abusus Adde
June 30, 2009 – 10:54 PM
They may not happen with the greatest frequency but one thing is assured upon tracking down a new Robag Wruhme release — you will be entertained. The veteran producer has a knack of injecting his tracks with a certain buoyancy and mirth that few others manage to conjure with each successive release. The latest on Vakant, “Abusus Adde,” finds Mr. Schablitzki in top maniacal form, with three cuts that not only prove to be weighty peak time contenders but also remind you dance music is meant to be fun.
Various Artists, All Night Long EP’s 1 & 2
June 30, 2009 – 10:03 AM
Dubstep may have found a novel approach to its inherent darkness and sparseness in techno; might there be an alternate path, though, one in which dubstep finds less subterranean manifestations in the dapper grooves of house? Aus Music, the debonair and slightly experimental tech-house imprint founded by Will Saul and Fin Greenall, answered in the affirmative with its recent and astounding Appleblim & Komonazmuk rework of (Greenall-fronted) Sideshow’s “If Alone.” The label continues its genre-melding trek with two new EPs of exclusive tracks from All Night Long, Saul’s new mix celebrating Aus’s twentieth release. Though never quite reaching the sublime heights of “If Alone,” Saul has curated four generally strong sides of house music in flux.
Gravious, Futurist EP
June 29, 2009 – 11:46 PM
An aptly titled release for Glaswegian Ali Jackson on his début for the always interesting Highpoint Lowlife label out of San Francisco. Inspiration for the EP apparently came after Jackson read William Gibson’s The Gernsback Continuum, a sci-fi short set in the 1930’s whose protagonist experiences fractured glimpses of an improbable, far off future. Suitably the sounds employed on the “Futurist EP” take this past-looking-forward approach to heart, some sounding as kitschy as UFO movies looked in the 1950’s.
Holger Zilske, Holz
June 26, 2009 – 10:48 AM
If you figure in Holger Zilske’s release history as Smash TV, Mindlab and Acrid Gain then his debut solo album has been a long time in the incubation chamber. Fifteen years after the German appeared as Acrid Gain on an old hardcore mix (incidentally available on cassette at the time) we receive the long player Holz, which translates in English as timber. Of course we’ve heard a full length from Zilske before under the Smash TV moniker, but that was with then production partner Michael Schmidt and sound wise the two outfits are definitely their own entities. Stylistically, his Mindlab project (also featuring Schmidt), which only released one twelve on the now defunct Salo is the closest link to the recent solo material from the Berlin based producer.
Sendai, System Policy
June 25, 2009 – 10:09 PM
Peter Van Hoesen is a very busy man, releasing a whirlwind of records in the past year. At a time when uncompromising techno has been all the rage, Van Hoesen has been exploring the area where the dark sounds of Berghain meet the atmospherics of dub techno. He’s been shaping Time to Express into one of the premier techno labels around with killer records such as this year’s “Attribute One,” and continues the label’s ongoing run of quality releases with Yves De Mey as Sendai.
Norm Talley, The Journey
June 24, 2009 – 10:25 PM
Norm Talley, along with “Beatdown Brothers” Delano Smith and Mike “Agent X” Clark, has been waiting a while for the world to catch up with him. Inspired and mentored by legendary Detroit disco DJ Ken Collier, Talley and his friends started spinning in the mid-80s, but somehow remained unknown outside the Motor City until the early 00s, when London-based label Third Ear Recordings released a compilation of their productions under the iconic title Detroit Beatdown (Volume One). Of course the remix package that followed spawned the massive Carl Craig remix of Theo Parrish’s “Falling Up”, but it also resulted in a Wax Poetics feature, appearances at Fabric, and influential European DJs such as Efdemin repping the warmer, slower Beatdown approach to house music.