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.
nate
Argy & The Martinez Brothers, Debbie Downer/Where’s Mr. Brown?
March 1, 2009 – 11:00 PM
[Objektivity] The Martinez Brothers are best known because they’re not yet old enough to hear their own music in a club. The gimmick is an easy sell — most recently as a New York Times profile in which the Grey Lady traded a little objectivity for a lot of Objektivity. Heralded as “the future of […]
Moody, Det.riot ’67
January 26, 2009 – 10:19 PM
[KDJ] Kenny Dixon Jr., or Moodymann, has earned his capital A Detroit Auteur title. He’s been essential to the scene and sound for the past fifteen years. If deep-house fetish was the biggest meme of European techno in 2008, then it was appropriate that Moodymann exported his own crackle, providing necessary remixes for Jose James […]
Zomby, The Lie
January 6, 2009 – 10:35 PM
[Ramp Recordings] Zomby sees himself as part of the undead but with a taste for skunk weed instead of flesh. He is a resolutely anonymous producer whose publicity photo has few clues into his identity: he wears white gloves and a mask of the all-seeing eye of providence. Zomby’s been banned from dubstep forums, infamous […]
LWE’s Top 5 Reissues of 2008
December 14, 2008 – 9:40 PM
For our first year-end column, staff writer Nate DeYoung gathers his top five reissues — and uses that word loosely — released in 2008.
Ada, Forty Winks/Kink-A-Jou
December 7, 2008 – 8:27 PM
[International Records Recordings] Michaela Dippel (aka Ada) likes to say she was raised by pink ponies, fashioned herself as pseudo-vampire, and had a blond pup named Fizzmann. If you pay close attention, these are all selling points for her music. Ada is part of Areal, a label which dabbles in large amounts of distorted fuzz, […]
Omar-S, The Further You Look – The Less You Will See
November 17, 2008 – 9:57 PM
[FXHE Records] There’s a tendency to describe Alex O. Smith, the owner of FXHE Records who is better known as Omar-S, as “enigmatic” or “mysterious,” but the latter is not something that Smith has spent much time cultivating. Smith is a prankster, with a strong tendency to, in his own words, “fuck with people.” So […]
Lindstrøm, Where You Go I Go Too
October 23, 2008 – 7:12 PM
[Smalltown Supersound] Hans-Peter Lindstrøm can do wrong when he puts his mind to it. That was my second thought when I heard about his new album, Where You Go I Go Too and its epic 29-minute title track. My first reaction, like most people, was either “perfect” or “how perfect,” depending on how glib I […]
John Roberts, Hesitate
October 8, 2008 – 8:26 PM
[Dial] “Hesitate” is in the running for the most ironic title of the year. As John Roberts’ debut on the frequently great label Dial, the single begins with a hiccup of a listless groove that quickly fades as a facile tribute to the title — there are few actual hesitations on “Hesitate.” Roberts can afford […]
Runaway, Brooklyn Club Jam
September 28, 2008 – 7:56 PM
[REKIDS] Taking after the piano-driven house of Still Going and Osborne, Runaway’s “Brooklyn Club Jam” starts with the same impetus but makes sure to contort itself. First released on Runaway’s Myspace page, the track was surprising almost to a fault; as a stream of an unreleased track, “Brooklyn Club Jam” sounded like it could (and […]
DJ Koze, Let’s Love
September 10, 2008 – 8:41 PM
[International Records Recordings] Well-known but worth repeating: DJ Koze gets to be as weird as he wants. As a solo artist, he might have made his first mark with the solemn chimes of “Brutalga Square” but it’s been a long journey from there. Like his work with International Pony, Koze flourishes when he’s been willfully […]
Dave Aju, Crazy Place
September 1, 2008 – 7:10 PM
[Circus Company] Step number three of Dave Aju’s recent manifesto for dance music is to “personalize all sounds… whenever possible.” With his upcoming album and lead-off single, “Crazy Place,” he’s taken that maxim at its most literal -– making music entirely from sounds made by his mouth. Like his former San Francisco neighbors, Matmos, Aju […]
LWE 2Q Reports: Top 5 Underrated Singles
August 17, 2008 – 9:15 PM
“Liberty Bell” by Jeff Koons For our first report, LWE correspondent Nate DeYoung collates his top five underrated singles from the first half of 2008. With a market flooded with singles week after week, it’s only natural that a few get lost along the way. After seeing more than a couple singles released with none […]
Slowhouse, Three
August 4, 2008 – 8:59 PM
[Slowhouse Recordings] If house is a feeling, then Slowhouse’s “Three” is a little too pristine and controlled to fit in completely. This is not a criticism; the project has taken the vogue pared-down house of Cassy, et al., and stripped it to the warm essentials. Bridging house vibe and techno precision, the series has hit […]
Matt John, Teleparty
July 20, 2008 – 9:32 PM
[Holographic Island] Matt and John are the two of the most common names in America. Matt John really deserves to be a pseudonym; remaking “faceless techno bollocks” for the Google age, there are a billion and a half results when searching for one “Matt John.” Even when you dig deep enough, the most common result […]
Sleeparchive, Hadron EP
July 1, 2008 – 5:33 AM
[Sleeparchive] You have to give credit to Roger Semsroth for the balls to label his austere minimal techno brand Sleeparchive and to categorize his label with the onomatopoeia for sleep (Zzz). It should be easy ammunition, but save for a track or two, like my personal un-fav “Track 4 (Recycled),” Sleeparchive has never been willing […]
Sun over Sonar: LWE reflects
June 26, 2008 – 9:07 PM
Anja Schneider slays the crowd. Photos by Nate DeYoung. After a few days’ rest, LWE’s Nate DeYoung files his report: In the Sonar coverage I’ve seen over the years, I never read too much between the lines -– the fact is that this is a festival built upon the principle of overwhelming you. Take a […]
Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts, They Only Came Out at Night
June 22, 2008 – 9:35 PM
[Musique Risquée] Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts is a slightly misleading name. The “group” might only have one member, Guillaume Coutu Dumont, but his output of the last year could be described as a one-man Hitsville Berlin (via Montreal). Recording and remixing for no less than nine labels in the past year, Guillaume has spread […]
Move D, Drone
June 15, 2008 – 8:14 PM
[Modern Love] It’s hard not to hear Move D’s tracks as essentially calm. Consider this: “Quit Quittin’” is one of his most jacking recent songs, plush with arpeggiated trickles and acid stabs (not to mention the shrill of “oh YEAH”), but Move D stabilized the whole thing with a gentle analog suspire. The calmness, a […]
Sammy Dee, Purplehummer
May 25, 2008 – 10:09 PM
[Perlon] “Purplehummer” (or “Purplehummerultrastretch” for the superlonfragilistic) might be Sammy Dee’s solo debut for Perlon, but that factoid is a bit of a misnomer. Sammy Dee has released a decent chunk of vinyl on Perlon, as one half of Pantytec and more recently as Half Hawaii with ex-pat Bruno Pronsato. “Purplehummer” comes as no big […]