There is a long tradition in aesthetics presupposing that art should aspire to resemble nature. Art’s artifice, all the craft and design, should disappear from view, leaving behind only a surface on which elements seem to move with natural necessity. The enjoyment of art stems in part from experiencing something that seems almost like nature, while all along still knowing somehow that it’s artificial, shaped by the hands of man. The chance of enjoying the four tracks offered up by Joshua Iz for his second release on his own Vizual Records thus seems summed up by the title. “Flower Sparks” reflects how these numbers seem to unfold organically, yet also use a distinctly synthetic sound palette that reminds you of the electrical energy whirring through machines that makes it possible. What’s more, I wouldn’t be surprised if “Flower Sparks” was the name of the VST plug-in Joshua used to generate the synth lines that take center stage throughout — buzzing with electric warmth, they wind through twisting melodies in fluid undulation.
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The Result, Niagara
The Result have fashioned a 12″ whose delirious stereo carnival antics finds it closest analog in the deep-end productions Matt John cultivated while after-after-hoursing at Bar 25. Catenaccio label owner Benjamin Fehr has a track record of dense and weird productions, like “Better Thrill” and “My Favorite Shop Is Me,” and here his first collab with Falko Brocksieper effectively doubles the trouble.
Hot Natured, h.e.a.d.s
One thing about the whole general Crosstown/Wolf + Lamb tech-housey sound, on display here in the Jamie Jones and Lee Foss duo Hot Natured, is that it’s often at its best when it’s got balls. I don’t mean balls like courage, I mean balls, like stanky, swaggering balls. The way that Prince and Rick James and all those other synth-funk deities whose influence you can feel in Jamie’s poppier productions, the way those guys have balls. When it comes to Jamie, Lee and their extended LA/Detroit/Brooklyn buds, Prince is all over the place, most notably through the effects of his club classic “Erotic City,” which you can for example feel shining through in JJ’s omnipresent “Summertime.” The name “Nikki Norris” even sounds like a Prince B-side, or maybe a forgotten member of his extended lace & leather-draped harem.
Lee Curtiss, The Mantra EP
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.
Santiago Salazar, Arcade
If Salazar turned in his needles today he’d leave sporting a first-class resume: member of the legendary Underground Resistance, core contributor to live acts like Los Hermanos, and steady recording mercenary for Carl Craig’s Planet E. So it’s not like S2’s aching for a new belt-notch. If anything, his latest on Macro proves that he’s still out busting his hump like the rest of them to turn out quality music.
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.
Henrik Schwarz/Âme/Dixon, The Grandfather Paradox
This seems to be the learned lesson of the Innervision team’s stunning 2-disc comp The Grandfather Paradox. Their laser-focused curatorial skills deftly traverse a musical history so broad that we’re left with a series of epiphanies about form and genre that taken together read: we were minimal, even when we didn’t know it.
Seth Troxler, Aphrika EP
[Wolf + Lamb Music] Raise your hand if you saw this one coming: a tech-house appropriation of Maya Angelou’s classic poem “Phenomenal Woman.” Oh, nobody? In the long run, however, it’s not much of a surprise given Seth Troxler’s predilection for 12″ curveballs. If his output in the past twelve months is any indication, picking […]