Unlike many contemporary producers, Karlsruhe-based duo Ame do not seem particularly attached to the methods and aesthetics that have brought them critical and popular acclaim. There have been no variations on their international breakthrough, “Rej,” or retreads of “Where You At” territory, even though doing either could have meant them broader notoriety. Rather, Kristian Beyer and Frank Wiedemann are committed to not repeating themselves, which means each new platter is a stylistic surprise. Their principled approach has not come without a few puzzled looks — “Fiori” in particular caught some listeners off guard with triplet clusters and lush, proto-techno orchestration — but it’s certainly solidified the group’s fan base and positioned them at the cutting edge of electronic dance music. Yet even those who welcome their curve balls may be surprised by the organic rawness of “Setsa/Ensor,” Ame’s challenging new single.
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Sevensol & Bender/Brotherhood, 00 Remixed
Leipzig’s Kann Records, masterminded by Bender, Sevensol, and map.ache, kicked off last year with the first of several unremarkable releases drawing mainly from the productions of the label owners. Daniel Stefanik and Sven Weisemann have fashioned remixes of two tracks from that debut 2X12″. Both are frustrating studies in how easy it is for tracks from talented producers to slide into gooey bland ignominy.
Jason Fine, Our Music is a Secret Order Remixed
Delivering on the promise of a heavily tipped 12″ for Omar-S’s FXHE label, Jason Fine’s 2008 double-pack for Kontra-Musik, Our Music Music Is A Secret Order, was a remarkably confident collection of understated, soulful techno with vintage Detroit flavor. Owing perhaps to the secrecy of its order, Our Music wasn’t much discussed, but perhaps these reinterpretations from a pair of rising stars will help that.
Anstam, Cree
Anstam are apparently a pair of brothers from Germany who seem to value anonymity and quality control, infrequently releasing the austere records bearing their name. “Aeto” and “Brom,” their first two 12″s, are notable for industrial atmospheres featuring beats familiar to fans of Warp, Skam, Rephlex, etc. However, Anstam’s music isn’t wholly encompassed by a 90s sound, as they’ve been likened to contemporaries like Distance and Vex’d. The similarities are cosmetic though, as the records aren’t specifically operating within the constraints of dance-oriented music. Nonetheless, they do tap into nostalgia of bygone electronica and encourage sound system brutality.
October, My Left Tool EP
Caravan’s dependable Julian Smith follows last year’s dark, bumpy “Say Again” with a second package for Perspectiv. Don’t let the title’s “Tool” cool your interest, though. While this may well be a brilliant record for brokering transitions in your next set, “My Left Tool” is also an autonomous pleasure and evocative journey of a record in itself.
STL, Silent State
As the owner and sole driving force behind the label Something, the enigmatic Stephan Laubner manages to freely indulge his prolific nature without sacrificing quality. In 2008 alone he notched up six well rated releases, three of which could be considered albums, only one arriving on another label (“Lost In Brown Eyes” for his friends at Perlon), and he’s already released a new 2×12″ in 2009. Laubner’s efforts also seem immune to easy characterizations. They stretch from massaged field-recordings to wistful deep house, caustic techno to more chipper tech-house treats, and that’s ignoring the many loops etched into most STL releases. What’s surprising, then, about STL’s debut for Smallville Records is not that it turns the page in the self reliant producer’s catalog, but rather its potential to loom large over what came before it.
LoSoul, Slightly/Gridlock
“Slightly/Gridlock” is the first of two new LoSoul singles released in anticipation of his third album for Playhouse. If this release is anything to go by, Care will have an enormous range. A-side “Slightly” is a swirl of fat, bright and wet minimal house elements anchored by idiosyncratic drum programming. Like most successful minimal house, “Slightly” combines melodic and rhythmic components seamlessly. A stuttering, filtered, and oddly unrecognizable noise that forays into the track’s third minute, playing with the central riff before switching its focus towards some lonely snares that enter the fray. It always seems to me this quality –- the slippery wrestle of movement and tone until they become indistinguishable — gives the most reduced music its unique charm. “Slightly” affords that sensation generously, and LoSoul seems to have gone one step further by imbuing into his sounds a gregariousness that gives each a little personality unto itself.
Motor City Drum Ensemble, Lonely One
Listening to “Lonely One,” the latest single from Motor City Drum Ensemble, I found myself focusing on the artist’s name more than his music. In all likelihood the Stuttgart-based producer (nee Danilo Plessow) picked the moniker as homage to Detroit’s many pioneering artists or as an unacknowledged nod to his hometown’s manufacturing claim to fame, but I can’t help feeling suspicious of his choice. A bit more than a year after minimal’s popularity bubble went bust, many producers and fans have found comfort in the “realness” seemingly innate in Chicago house and Detroit techno. Plessow’s music is likewise influenced by Detroit sounds; but as the press material for “Lonely One” admits, his is an outsider’s take that aims for more than emulation. Why then opt for an alias so tied to that ethos?
Tobias. & Efdemin, Phantasma Vol. 1
To anyone who’s been following house and techno recently, a split EP by Efdemin and Tobias. sounds like a sure shot. The former has delivered several years of ceaseless quality, while the latter had an especially impressive run in 2008. Both are at a point where it seems they can do no wrong. Unfortunately, “Phantasma Vol. 1” disproves this notion. As the first installment in a series on Diamond & Pearls Music, it’s decent at best — more than can be said for plenty of releases in general, but much less than we’ve come to expect from these two.
Brendon Moeller, The Big Thrill
Moeller’s latest takes the echoey atmospheres from last year’s “Electricity” EP and injects them with some big-room steroidal girth, resulting in muscular late-night dub techno. Besides flushed and sweeping filters, the means to providing the “Big Thrill” in question seems to be a very prominently mixed low end, particularly the bass, a face-slapper rough with grizzly saturation. It’s thunderous bass that yearns to be free, a brown-note floor-rattler so forceful that home listeners (who will doubtlessly enjoy “The Big Thrill” there, as well) will have to acknowledge they’re missing the full experience imparted in a club.
Shake, Levitate Venice
Anthony “Shake” Shakir told Detroit’s Metro Times in 2002 he sometimes felt “like the invisible man of techno.” This rueful admission may well be partly true. While Shake’s first track was included on the compilation that coined the genre name (Techno: The New Dance Sound Of Detroit), he’s never had the high profile other Detroit first wavers have enjoyed. This outsider status is in some ways self imposed. Shake’s music has always been too idiosyncratic, too eclectic, too damn futuristic to fit in with any hype, trend or zeitgeist. Compare this to the single-minded approach of peers such as schoolmate Mike Huckaby or fellow drumming student Robert Hood, and it’s apparent that maybe a lack of a signature sound resulted in this long-term under appreciation. A typical Shake release, if there is such a thing, traverses genres, tempos and moods without even blinking. So it is with “Levitate Venice,” his first record for some four years.
Wareika, Ascending, Descending
Wareika have chalked up some impressive releases since they first appeared in early 2008 “Men Village.” Their organic deep house and slightly more tech related fare has found its way in to many a discerning jock’s box, and they even managed to make a half respectable go of The Door’s “Riders On The Storm.” With all three members being rather accomplished musicians as well as being involved in other notable projects my own expectations were rather high for their new EP.
Matt John, Radio Self
It’s been a quiet beginning to 2009 for the esteemed Perlon label. In fact, they haven’t been heard from since the October 2008 release of the CD version of Ricardo Villalobos’ Vasco project, itself made up mainly of material previously released on vinyl. Blame it on the economy if you must, but there’s no questioning the musical landscape has shifted during Perlon’s silence as the dance universe moves further and further away from minimal tech-house of the last few years in favor of other sounds: dubstep, deep house, and others. While the label’s (and Matt John’s) first release of 2009 certainly won’t bring about any sort of widespread revival, it slips on like a comfortable old shoe or worn-in sweatshirt and reminds us what a reliable and quality label Perlon is.
Various Artists, Secret Weapons EP (Part Three)
Innervisions made its name on records from its close-knit family of Âme, Dixon, Henrik Schwarz, Tokyo Black Star et al., so the label’s “Secret Weapons EP” series has acted as its window to the rest of the house and techno world. Combining Dixon’s voracious A&R appetite, the label’s esteemed reputation and a host of overlooked gems, “Secret Weapons” allowed Innervisions to release tracks it believed in without enlarging its roster. Although recent 12″s from Lil’ Tony, Boola and Culoe De Song suggest a softening of this attitude, Innervisions’ taste-making ears prove as sharp as ever for “Secret Weapons EP (Part Three).”
Download this: WhoMadeWho, The Plot (The Mole remix)
Although The Mole’s productions rarely step outside the comfy confines of house and techno, his often loop-centric style seems at home with less electronic source material. So our ears perked up when we heard he was joining French merrymakers Nôze and Discodeine in remixing the latest from Danish dance-punks WhoMadeWho. His thick and hoary take plays up the track’s foreboding mood with scores of textural elements: shards of metal percussion, hollowed out vocals, sucked in breaths, and tense melodies whining in the background. You might not hear this one caned in clubs near you, but don’t be surprised if you get sucked into its sonic cyclone for a few repeat spins.
Jitterbug, Raw Winter EP
It’s taken London-based label Uzuri only six releases to define its coherent signature sound. 12″s from Cassy, Lerosa, Move D, Vakula and DJ Aakmael have cast Süd Electronic’s sister imprint as purveyor of raw house cuts conspicuously influenced by the genre’s American forefathers. Uzuri’s latest is also Jitterbug’s artistic debut, and its three original cuts and attendant DJ Qu remix fit easily into the mold set out by its predecessors.
Stefan Goldmann, Art of Sorrow
After a year that saw Stefan Goldmann in top form with “Radiant Grace” and the issue of his collected singles as the album The Transitory State, 2008 ebbed with “Wolverine,” a slightly lackluster affair that failed to deliver the same punch as the string of previous impeccable releases. Goldmann’s first offering of 2009 will address that balance with a startling double header on the new Victoriaville imprint, a mixture of melody and mayhem that is setting alight techno and dubstep camps alike.
Cage & Aviary, Television Train
Disco might have regained lost popularity in the last couple years, but more often than not, it’s still a collectors’ game. Take Cage and Aviary (Jamie Paton and Nigel Hoyle), a partnership which began on the super-vogue Dissident Distribution label. Releasing one-sided and ultra-limited edition singles, Cage and Aviary’s 200 copies per record would almost surely lose money for Dissident — if the label cared about promotion or profit. Instead, Dissident has become a means to an end, letting Cage and Aviary to, as they describe it, “win the cosmic lottery” and begin their recording careers.
Kromestar, Alien
Over the past few years Kromestar has emerged as one of London’s most prolific and creative dubstep producers. Real name R. Kalsi, he also goes by Iron Soul when making grime and Droid for a kind of hybrid sound. Using a sonic palette similar to last summer’s “Attenshun,” he channels Lil’ Jon and bangs out another crunkstep classic with the release of “Alien.” A pumping bass note, as though driven by servos, chugs along under what can only be described as machine gun laser synths.