LWE caught up with Costello for a quick chat a bit about the album as a format and his love for old gear while he provided LWE with its 46th exclusive podcast, a trip through his early influences and favorite records.
chris miller
Falty DL, All In The Place
March 11, 2010 – 11:01 AM
The music of New York based producer Drew Lustman, best known as Falty DL, could lazily be described as dubstep, in part because his records have found homes on Planet Mu and Ramp Recordings, two labels that have pushed a sound which could also be imprecisely termed dubstep. So does his appearance on Rush Hour, an old house standby, mean he’s gone and made a house record? No, the All In The Place EP still contains his characteristically fragmented two-step seen through a kaleidoscope of sounds.
Various Artists, Laid006
March 3, 2010 – 11:01 AM
In only a handful of months the still fresh Laid imprint has made quite a name for itself. Despite being born in the shadow of its older brother label, Dial, Laid has quickly established its own area of expertise, pummeling record buyers with five solid singles of dance floor-primed house music while Dial vascilates between floor friendly and leftfield sounds. The sixth record to don a lux Laid sleeve is the first showcasing multiple artists’ originals, for which they’ve collected some of the freshest names around for a survey of the current state of deep house on both sides of the Atlantic. Hamburger Christopher Rau and New Yorker-cum-Berliner John Roberts are both members of the extended Dial family while New Yorker Fred P. has earned well deserved heaps of praise for his work as Black Jazz Consortium. It’s perhaps no surprise that Laid006 is about as solid a record as you can get, throwing three distinctive and in vogue sounds on one wax slab.
Little White Earbuds Interviews Levon Vincent
February 26, 2010 – 11:01 AM
Although Levon Vincent has seen his profile rise dramatically over the past 18 months he’s anything but a newcomer. Having spent nearly a decade making house music after many years studying music generally, Vincent’s recent fame can be seen only as welcome payoff to someone who has spent his fair share of time in the trenches. Enmeshed in the much-discussed revitalization of New York house with his own imprints, Novel Sound and Deconstruct Music (with Anthony Parasole), alongside Jus-Ed’s Underground Quality stable, he blends his influences into a thick, rich soup of raw house music that finds him wearing his heart on his sleeve. LWE caught up with Vincent in Paris before his appearance at Rex Club kicking off a month of touring around Europe to discuss everything from Thriller and Discreet Music, the newest musical instrument in his arsenal, and the struggles of being a vinyl proponent in America.
SCB, SCB001
February 23, 2010 – 11:01 AM
It’s almost silly that Paul Rose would go make a house/techno alias (somewhat) different from his well-established one. Lately Scuba’s productions would be more readily categorized as techno than dubstep anyway, even though his wide range of tempos and blend of styles comes out genre-less anyway. After the sublimely subterranean debut of the SCB moniker remixing his own “Hard Boiled,” the SCB project developed further with one of the mixes of 2009: the 37th mix in the mnml ssgs mix series. Kicking off a new series of catalog numbers on Hotflush, Scuba now looks to firmly plant the SCB flag with the succinctly titled SCB001.
Reagenz, Playtime
February 11, 2010 – 11:01 AM
Improvisation. In house? Sure, DJs do it every night. Move D did it before with Benjamin Brunn on Songs From The Beehive, creating sketches beforehand but recording everything in more or less real time. Plenty of parallels exist between that record and Playtime but none are quite so telling as this. To be frank, I don’t know if the recording of Playtime was actually in real time or improvised, but this is a release whose unfolding seems so natural and human it seems unlikely that it’s the work of automation. Many complain about the lack of musicianship in house and techno, and Playtime serves, in part, as a solid response to such silly claims.
BBH: Robert Hood, Stereotype EP
February 3, 2010 – 11:01 AM
Robert Hood’s burst of activity in 2009 was composed half of new releases and half of reissues. After reissuing the classic Minimal Nation Hood fired off a couple new jams (including the wicked “Superman”) before continuing the reissues with The Pace/Wandering Endlessly. Which leads us to M.PM number 5, the legendary Stereotype EP first released in 1998. Last year we noted the strength of 2009’s reissues, and Hood’s were a big part of that.
Peter Van Hoesen, Variable Parts EP
January 28, 2010 – 11:01 PM
Free. In whatever digital format you like. Possibilities like these make me question the very purpose of reviewing such a release. “Is this record good enough for me to shell out the money to buy it?” LWE generally hope to provide such answers. But here you’re being treated by Peter Van Hoesen to three reworks of his tunes, as well as a new one, for no cost at all. So whether I’m telling you if this release is worth your time, giving Van Hoesen a thumbs up or simply sharing my thoughts on a new record, you, dear reader, should be picking this one up and making your own judgments even if I determined it were terrible. But being the work of Van Hoesen, it most certainly is not.
Martyn, Fabric 50
January 20, 2010 – 11:01 AM
We all know about the current state of mix CDs. Fabric, however, stands strong in the face of adversity with milestone release number 50. Fabric has cemented its position as one of the mix CD series of all time, not only for its longevity but for containing classics like editions 13 (Michael Mayer), 36 (Ricardo Villalobos) and 39 (Robert Hood), just to name a few. How the London club would celebrate release number 50 was a source of much speculation, and their choice of Martyn was both an inspired and daring one. Shaking up the rigid 4/4 that has defined pretty much every Fabric CD, Martyn’s dubstep sensibilities and love for techno breathe fresh air into a series that has struggled to maintain its cutting edge cachet.
Levon Vincent, Double Jointed Sex Freak
January 13, 2010 – 11:01 AM
Dance music enthusiasts of all kinds were treated to a wide variety of tracks from Levon Vincent last year: minimalist peak-time anthems (“Solemn Days”), vocorded house jams (“I Owe You Everything”) and dub-techno freak-outs (“Games Dub”). With his newest release on his own Novel Sound, the wonderfully titled Double Jointed Sex Freak, I find myself returning to an increasingly common question for each LV release: What the hell is this? With the help of his muse Rebecca (“a true athlete”) Levon has managed to out freak himself, taking the varied sounds of his breakout year and throwing them into one big messy pile of dance-music bliss. Other producers might provoke skepticism by claiming, “It is the best record I have ever made — my proudest moment!” m, Levon’s enthusiasm rings true; and even compared with his top notch back catalog, it’s hard to argue Double Jointed Sex Freak is anything less than the work of a man realizing his full potential.
Planetary Assault Systems, Remixes
January 11, 2010 – 11:01 PM
If Luke Slater’s Temporary Suspension reminded us anything, it’s that the rough techno waves being made by your Dettmanns and Levons are not without precedent, and that techno veterans are keen to be still be part of the sound they, in many ways, defined. For every Delta Funktionen or Frozen Border looking to offer their new take on techno there’s a Regis, Robert Hood or James Ruskin picking up the 909 again and getting back to work. Ostgut Ton chose Hood and Kenny Larkin to remix Ben Klock; and so, in a sort of antisymmetry, they choose some of the most influential producers of the past couple years to remix one of the 90’s more influential figures.
Frozen Border, Frozen Border 04
January 4, 2010 – 11:01 PM
As its sub-label, Horizontal Ground, is quickly defining its own brand of stripped back, DBX-style techno, Frozen Border continues on its own trajectory north, getting colder and more restrained with each release. While its counterpart seems to have developed a coded number system to “identify” the artist behind each release, no such identifications are available for Frozen Border, and thus each release can only be contextualized in terms of previous installments. Whereas Volume 3 seemed like the summit point towards which the first two were headed, the fourth issue in the Frozen Border series diverges from its predecessors in sound but not in temperature.
LWE’s Top 5 EPs of 2009
December 9, 2009 – 12:01 AM
When we make our year end lists we divide our favorite music into two categories: albums and singles. But the definition of an album is constantly shifting as evinced when Shackleton declared Three EPs was not an album but rather, well, three EPs. While many will still slot the release into their albums list, it got me thinking. Between singles and albums lists we miss a crucial group, especially for electronic music: the 12″ EP. More than a single but not quite an LP, the 12″ allows producers to execute their vision over the course of around 20 minutes. For me, these records contained some 2009’s best music.
Al Tourettes, Dodgem/Sunken
December 1, 2009 – 10:01 PM
Apple Pips sure do have an odd release schedule. After “Humber” appeared in April following a couple months of delay, the Bristol based label was silent until late June, when Brackles’ “Get a Job” and Ramadanman and Appleblim’s “Justify” appeared within just two weeks of each other. Cue more radio silence until late, at which point two new Apple Pips 12″s appear from nowhere in the same week: Instra:mental’s long-anticipated “Leave it All Behind” and “Dodgem/Sunken” by frequent Appleblim collaborator Al Tourettes. Apple Pips have proven exceptional at providing little-known artists with much needed exposure, and Al Tourettes seeks to impress with “Dodgem/Sunken,” the label’s eighth record.
Function, Remixed
November 24, 2009 – 11:01 PM
Sandwell District have been making acerbic waves in the techno scene for a couple of years now, and in 2009 it’s common knowledge that if you want proper techno you’d best head to Sandwell. Given that every one of this year’s SD releases, aside from Silent Servant’s fantastic “Negative Fascinations,” has been technically a remix, the choice to abandon the usual procession of catalog numbers in favor of the new “SDRM” code for this new 12″ of remixes is a surprise. Regardless, Berghain favorites Ben Klock and Norman Nodge are on deck to reshape Function’s massive “Disaffected” while anonymous Sandwell insider, CH-Signal Laboratories lends their hands to continue the Variance remix project from earlier this year.
Curator’s Cuts 03: Chris Miller
November 23, 2009 – 1:01 AM
LWE’s Curator’s Cuts podcast series features our reviewing staff mixing together recent favorites and providing explanations for their selections. Assistant editor and writer Chris Miller steps up to the decks for Curator’s Cuts 03. We will post the tracklist later in the week, as each curator discloses and describes the tracklist as part of the podcast.
2562, Unbalance
November 20, 2009 – 10:01 AM
Just a year after releasing his debut album, Aerial, Dave Huismans is back for more with his sophomore long-player under the 2562 moniker, Unbalance. So far the the critical consensus has been that Aerial was overcast and perhaps a bit brooding while Unbalance is chipper and full of color, but those looking for a smile should head elsewhere. Indeed, Unbalance does find Huismans allowing the most color yet into his steely palate, but more than any other dubstep album this year it demands you sit down and listen; there will be time for dancing later. An appropriate title as any, Huismans’ beats are rough and shattered, tipping every which way while defeated synths descend in their own time.
Traversable Wormhole, Traversable Wormhole Vol. 4
October 29, 2009 – 10:01 PM
In Physics, the idea of a traversable wormhole is an exciting one. As valid solutions of Einstein’s General Relativity, wormholes allow travel between two points in spacetime, leading to the possibility of time travel as well as travel to far corners of our universe in timescales we’re familiar with. They can also, however, act as bridges to neighboring universes, which is primarily where Traversable Wormhole, the mysterious producer and label, derives their inspiration.
Marcel Dettmann, MDR 06
October 20, 2009 – 10:01 PM
After a banner year in 2008, releasing his first mix CD to widespread acclaim and seeing his profile rise a hundred-fold, Marcel Dettmann has let none of his newfound fame go to his head. He is still innovating, which means that he’s still doing things according to his own rules. The summer’s Deuce record with Shed largely ignored trends and instead demolished them, roughing techno up to a point beyond what many were familiar with. “MDR 06” is his first solo record since the last contribution to his own shadowy Hardwax-distributed label. Following an extremely stripped back and paranoid (not to mention flat out devastating) remix of Fever Ray’s “Seven,” “MDR 06” doesn’t so much continue Marcel’s sound as refine it.
Basic Soul Unit/Lerosa, Panorama Bar 02 Part I
October 19, 2009 – 10:01 PM
Ostgut Ton have made quite an impact with their mix CDs. Both timely and timeless, the Berghain and Panorama Bar residents always try to create something lasting; indeed, the first Panorama Bar CD by Cassy has yet to leave my mix CD rotation. With high standards in mind, anticipation for Panorama Bar 02 grows every day, not least thanks to two teaser 12″s Ostgut Ton releases containing exclusive tracks from the CD. “Part I” features the talents of Toronto’s Basic Soul Unit and Dublin-based Lerosa, and is soon to be followed by contributions from Levon Vincent and Panorama Bar resident Steffi.