Ostgut Ton has always been about placing techno and house above the fray, and that’s precisely where Berghain 04 is simmering. Ben Klock has given us a commercial-free statement on techno executed artfully.
Author Archive: Jordan Rothlein
Sepalcure, Love Pressure
June 28, 2010 – 10:01 PM
That Brooklyn duo Sepalcure could turn out such relevant and future-forward music on Love Pressure, their first time out, bodes very well.
LCD Soundsystem, This Is Happening
June 22, 2010 – 10:01 AM
This Is It, the third album from James Murphy’s LCD Soundsystem project, is less successful at engaging indie rock and dance music audiences as evenly as on previous releases.
Marcel Fengler, Thwack
June 16, 2010 – 10:01 PM
Bigger, punchier, and more self-assured than Marcel Fengler’s previous string of 12″s for Ostgut Ton, the Thwack EP doesn’t just sound like the work of a hungry young producer; he sounds like he’d eat the whole party sub at the coming-out soiree we critics finally owe him.
Elektro Guzzi, Elektro Guzzi
June 15, 2010 – 10:01 AM
As meticulously arranged as the ten jams on Elektro Guzzi’s self-titled debut album are, and as totally nifty as they sound at points, the album does succumb to some of the problems that plague long-players of the bedroom producers they imitate.
LWE Podcast 52: Andre Lodemann
June 14, 2010 – 12:01 AM
Steering clear of misguided Civil Rights vocal samples and those same old Rhodes riffs, Andre Lodemann has instead found warmth through some of the most colorful and utterly heartfelt melodies that have been pressed to vinyl in a hot minute. The Dessous, Freerange, and Simple veteran — and Best Works boss — solidifies his deep house credentials on the exclusive, gorgeous mix that is LWE’s 52nd podcast.
T++, Wireless
June 3, 2010 – 10:01 AM
On Wireless, purportedly Torsten Pröfrock’s final T++ collection, the producer — long recalling a chemist or perhaps nuclear physicist –seems to have moved his operation to a biology lab, if not a roadside barbecue pit.
Little White Earbuds Interviews JD Twitch
June 2, 2010 – 10:01 AM
Jumping from Optimo’s peculiar envisioning of peaktime techno to a strange series of events deep in Madrid clubland, JD Twitch gives Little White Earbuds a peak into the infamous past and exciting future of some of dance music’s most singular party-starters.
Marcel Dettmann, Dettmann
June 1, 2010 – 10:01 AM
While it’s at times painfully monochrome, Dettmann certainly succeeds both as an expansion and as a fine-tuning of Marcel Dettmann’s aesthetic.
Aybee, Ancient Tones
May 27, 2010 – 10:01 AM
Despite its inauspicious beginnings, Aybee ends up making one hell of a statement on his cassette tape-only album, Ancient Tones.
Roska, Rinse Presents Roska
May 18, 2010 – 10:01 AM
Despite warnings that he was jumping the gun, Roska releases his debut full-length on Rinse with nary a concern for how well ten of his tracks can sit side-by-side.
DJ Qu, For The Beneath
May 5, 2010 – 10:01 PM
For The Beneath, his latest 12″ on his own Strength Music label, once again pitches that signature DJ Qu sound — dark melodies always in the service of off-kilter yet hard-hitting percussion — for the bleakest, sweatiest, most subaltern dance floors imaginable. Should you, fair record buyer, take the plunge yet again?
STL, … And His Quest For Sound
April 29, 2010 – 10:01 AM
Every producer wants to make records that set themselves apart from other records. You’d think this would have to be true, right? Otherwise, why would anyone take the time and considerable cost necessary to create a piece of dance music? Practically every producer I hear strives to differentiate him or herself by way of the sounds — to get them as far away from the presets as possible; to design the presets of tomorrow, perhaps. Yet so many of the best moments in house and techno are those when the music itself fades away into a feeling. You can tune your drum machines all day, but if you can’t get something more out of them than soundwaves — if you can’t tease out that hypnotizing x-factor that makes certain dance records good beyond words — then you’re missing something critical.
Martin Buttrich, Crash Test
April 16, 2010 – 10:01 AM
When was the last time you thought about Martin Buttrich? The German studio wiz and producer (occasionally for hire) just isn’t blowing up on my radar like he used to a few years back, when his Seeing Through Shadows 12″ with Loco Dice for Minus and, of course, “Full Clip” were properly demolishing superclubs and underground parties alike. Ultra-detailed and hugely accessible, Buttrich was an ace in the studio by practically every objective measure. I’m personally surprised that I, a huge fan of those 2006 records and someone who thought Loco Dice’s 7 Dunham Place album from 2008 totally killed it, let him slide so far off my “to check” list. Chalk it up to his relative silence on the release front — Stoned Autopilot and its remix 12″ and a handful of remixes comprise his recent eponymous output — or to his brand of alternately C2-vampy and vaguely tropical digital house more or less falling out of favor, but as someone who follows dance music pretty well, I just haven’t had Martin Buttrich on the tip of my tongue for a few years.
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.
Scuba, Triangulation
March 30, 2010 – 10:01 AM
Paul Rose has undoubtedly proved himself to be one of the great dance music triple threats of the moment. He’s flexed his mighty A&R muscle at Hotflush, which in the past year helped launched the careers of next-gen buzz magnets like Mount Kimbie and Joy Orbison. (His forward-thinking Sub:stance nights at the Berghain have surely bubbled up from a similar impulse.) He’s emerged as one of the world’s most impressively dexterous DJs (see his Sub:stance mix or, better yet, his latest podcast for RA for proof), dropping dubstep and 4/4 with equally sure hands. And bass sides as Scuba and a recent foray into techno as SCB have been among the underground’s most beloved records as of late.
BBH: Groove Committee, I Want You To Know
March 24, 2010 – 10:01 AM
Nu Groove, perhaps the most famous name in New York house after Strictly Rhythm, is an infamously difficult label to assess. Frank and Karen Mendez had originally started the imprint in 1988 as an outlet for Rheji and Ronald Burrell, former R&B producers (and twin brothers) who had recently parted ways with a major label. But by the time they pressed their last slab in 1992, the label had released over 100 records in seemingly as many club music subgenres. While the Burrells’ early singles remain fresh (especially Rheji’s, in this reviewer’s humble opinion), and the label provided a crucial early home to the likes of Frankie Bones, Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez pre-Masters At Work, and Victor Simonelli (see below), not all of the mélange holds up so well. Despite Nu Groove’s status as a completist’s worst nightmare, its pervasive underground-ness — disco soul emanating from brittle, staunchly low-tech sounds; a reputation built on a minimum image — manages to tie this behemoth of a catalog together. And as Underground Quality sends similar backroom ripples through the house music universe from the Tri-State Area once more, Nu Groove 12″s will undoubtedly wiggle their way out of dusty used bins at a somewhat faster rate.
Curator’s Cuts 05: Jordan Rothlein
March 22, 2010 – 12:01 AM
LWE’s Curator’s Cuts podcast series features our reviewing staff mixing together recent favorites and providing explanations for their selections. Staff writer Jordan Rothlein was tasked with mixing together Curator’s Cuts 05. We will post the tracklist later in the week, as each curator discloses and describes the tracklist as part of the podcast.