SECT’s Man of Wisdom EP is three tracker of mid tempo house cuts on the deeper end of the spectrum, but still packs some serious heat for the feet.
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DJ Koze, Rue Burnout
The two tracks of Rue Burnout, arriving on DJ Koze’s newly launched Pampa label, are full of his familiar playfulness with the weight behind them to move a peak time crowd.
Richard Davis, What You Are
Five years since his warmly received album, Details, Richard Davis returns with What You Are, a three tracker for his new label Safer that perhaps hints we will begin to see more regular material from the singer/producer.
Hrdvsion, Where Did You Just Go? EP
Although only teasing six tracks of what will be a full length album, Hrdvsion’s Where Did You Just Go EP packs more ideas into it than most artists manage over several albums.
The Echologist, Slow Burn EP
“Slow Burn” is naturally ebullient; its rounded chords and breathing, spatial atmospherics chart the hopeful beauty you’d expect to find on an Intrusion release.
Cottam, The Rub EP
Still surrounded by an air of mystery, Cottam’s next release arrives on Cologne-based imprint Story, also known for keeping its producers’ names a closely guarded secret.
Todd Edwards, I Might Be
Todd Edwards hasn’t exactly been dormant over the years, but if there was ever a time for one of the leading proponents of what became U.K. garage to reassert their status then it is certainly now.
Space Dimension Controller, Journey to the Core of the Unknown Sphere
Jack Hamill can be forgiven for his cosmically comical references, from the outer-planetary names he gives his music to the cover art that looks like it was beamed direct to Earth some time in the early 80’s. He can be forgiven these things because it doesn’t hide any of his incredible talent, which becomes very clear upon first listening to one of his releases.
BBH: Anthony Rother, Sex With The Machines
Growing up listening to the sounds of Kraftwerk, there was one thing in the forefront of Anthony Rother’s mind when he started producing music: introducing others to the chilling machine funk of electro. Through his own Psi49Net label and on others like Kanzleramt he pushed his mechanical, dry take on the genre, proving himself a vital part of an electro revival that was also being championed by people like Drexciya, Aux 88, and latterly the Interdimensional Transmissions crew. Later work on his Datapunk imprint has explored further reaching territories, angling more towards the grey area between electro and techno, but at Rother’s roots lie the bone dry communications of a supposed future in which man is surpassed by machines of his own making.
Andrea, You Still Got Me/Got To Forget
Popular music has always flirted with the idea of gender ambiguity. David Bowie and indeed much of the glam rock scene supposed flouncy gender-bending alter-egos and it has been a theme employed time and again by many an artist, finding its way into dance music probably first through people like Brian Eno and Throbbing Gristle. Having followed the releases on Modern Love’s offspring imprint Daphne with some fervour, I was surprised however to find out that the Millie & Andrea duo who had been issuing blunt, dreadnought dubs, were in fact not studio-wise ladies with a penchant for bum-worrying bass, but MLZ and Andy Stott. Going it alone for this one, Andrea (Stott) marks the change with two tracks considerably more “feminine” by nature, instilling measured doses of honeyed vocals into both “You Still Got Me” and “Got To Forget.”
BBH: The Subjective, Tremmer/Critical
One of England’s premier techno outfits of the nineties, Colin McBean and Cisco Ferreira are best known as The Advent. Their discography as The Advent reaches back to 1994, though Ferreira scored early releases in 1988 on R & S and in 1989 on Fragile, while the two collaborated as early as 1990 in the group K.C.C. As The Advent they crafted hard-nosed looped techno tracks and occasionally indulged in a spot of electro. When the feeling took them they would divert towards something a bit more melodic under the name Man Made (as on their brilliant Space Wreck 12″ for Fragile) or as The Subjective, even dabbling in filtered disco house as G-Flame & Mr G. Arguably one of their finest releases was “Tremmer/Critical” as The Subjective on Dave Angel’s Rotation label in 1997. It was a notable release at the time for fusing together the hard, fast techno they were known for with shimmering, ethereal melodies that lay in direct contrast to their uncompromising, near industrial sound.
Daryl Stay, My Groove EP
With a hot new batch of younger labels stealing their thunder, Poker Flat is no longer seen as the vital label it once was, though like Get Physical who are also victim of the same zeitgeist, a release with the famed imprint can still spell big things for a producer. Though they bill him as a newcomer on the release info, Daryl Stay is anything but, having notched up his first release as early as 1997. His profile has hardly been prolific to date, but this Englishman may well experience a surge in interest with his latest release for Steve Bug’s aforementioned label.
Black Van, Yearning
2010 looks like it will be a big year for DFA with the hotly anticipated final album from LCD Soundsystem due out in the next two months. Already they’ve been warming up their release sheet with Yacht, Michocan and Ray Mang featuring a vocal comeback of sorts for Lady Miss Kier. Black Van have also presented their debut on the label, which on closer inspection reveals two veteran producers collaborating on a new disco project. Oliver Kowalski from Hamburg duo Moonbootica and French producer Kris Menace who has remixed everyone from Robbie Williams to Tracey Thorn have come together with ongoing aspirations, Yearning being the first fruit of their labor.
Tolga Fidan, Gaijin EP
With the swelling tide of deep house washing over the landscape of electronic music many techno producers have been turning out tracks in this vein as well, whether in order to keep their style current and on-trend or just because they have fallen under the influence of the sound themselves. Others, like Tolga Fidan have continued exploring their signature style, albeit with strains of house creeping in around the edges, evident on his latest release for Vakant.
Conforce, Machine Conspiracy
Boris Bunnik’s music may well have been inspired by the wind swept scenery of the tiny island of Terschelling in the Netherlands where he grew up, but more likely it was the random cassette his father found on a beach one day that shaped his penchant for discerning, electronic music. The faceless, black cassette Bunnik played was full of Detroit techno and it was to be the start of a love affair with those sounds that further developed when he moved to the city of Leeuwarden and forged friendships with both Mohlao and Delta Funktionen. After a short run of acclaimed EPs for Rush Hour, Modelisme and Curle, Conforce’s full length debut, Machine Conspiracy appears on the Meanwhile label. It’s a studied, polished exercise in deep and dubby techno from the young Dutch producer.
Red Rack’em, All I Ever Wanted
I read a review recently that took issue with a release not treading new ground, of sticking to familiar pathways within its genre. Like rock music with all of the best chords already used up, there will always be a certain amount of familiarity within electronic music. The 808 and 909 drum sounds are an instantly recognizable feature within the medium, while there are a plethora of production tricks and sounds that are aped, rehashed and re-molded by the bulk of producers. Red Rack’em may not be breaking new soil with his latest twelve for the coveted Untracked label, but through employing some of the classic deep house sounds and themes on the release he also touches on that vital quality of creating a classic vibe.
BBH: South Street Player, (Who?) Keeps Changing Your Mind
You’ll read a lot about how house music and in particular vocal tracks, lift you up, carry you along with a feeling, make you moist around the tear ducts. For me, most of that carries about as much weight as hearing kids in California harp on about P.L.U.R. back in the mid 90’s while they sucked on pacifiers and sported gargantuan, street sweeping baggy jeans. But I have to be honest that there are a select few vocal house tunes that can, to this day, send a shiver up my spine and have me dabbing at the corners of my eyes. Roland Clark’s South Street Player alias only graced two releases, but throughout his entire career that has spanned over twenty years this Strictly Rhythm release under that name is undoubtedly the highlight.
Aufgang, Barock Remixes
What kind of music would people like Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Robert Johnson, or Johann Sebastian Bach be making if they were alive today? Would they have stuck to their roots and continued to play the music they were famous for and helped make famous? Or would they have updated their existing systems and ideas, used the latest technology and reflected their newer influences? It’s highly likely they would choose the latter (if you can look past the sheer logistical impossibilities of Bach especially surviving for so long). A group like Aufgang may well present us with the closest approximation of what someone like Bach may have sounded like some three hundred years after his time. The combination of Francesco Tristano, Rami Khalifé — both classically trained pianists from the prestigious Julliard school — and Aymeric Westrich, a formidable percussionist in his own right, lends itself to an interesting new take on both classical and electronic music. Taken from their self-titled debut album, “Barock” is reinterpreted by Wareika, Mondkopf and Robert Hood who all personalize the track and take it in whole new directions.
LWE Podcast 45: Stacey Pullen
LWE spoke to Stacey Pullen about that album which lead to a bleak period of disillusionment, the early years at Transmat and feeling reinvigorated again with a basket-full of new music to unleash on the world. He was also kind enough to put together an exclusive mix for LWE of tracks he has been feeling lately.
Martin Landsky, Werkschau EP
“Life moves pretty fast,” were the worldly words of wisdom from Ferris Bueller. In terms of electronic music, trends move pretty fast and depending on the style they are crafted in it’s easy for tracks to sound dated after a period of time. Martin Landsky is putting his tracks to this test with a forthcoming LP aptly titled Werkschau (retrospective). As a teaser we have the Werkschau EP featuring two early tracks from the Naked EP from 2000, and a reworking of one of his most popular tracks “1000 Miles” from more recent years, updated here under the name “2000 Miles.” Choosing to remake a track he only released three and half years ago is an odd choice.