Photos by Ivan Gaytan Unlike our rock fan peers, dance music enthusiasts are often unaccustomed to experiencing our favorite artists as live acts. And while laptops, midi controllers and Ableton now allow producers to stitch together “live PAs” with double clicks and knob twists, the experience is still closer to a DJ selecting and mixing […]
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Sound Stream, “Live” Goes On
October 12, 2008 – 5:56 PM
[Sound Stream] Whether as Soundhack, Sound Stream or half of Smith N Hack with Errorsmith, Frank Timm’s steady hand with an editor’s razor has been in great demand since the late 1990’s. But like a surgeon, Timm knows it’s not the number of cuts you make, but how well placed they are. His house/disco moniker, […]
Melchior Productions Ltd, Who Can Find Me EP
October 5, 2008 – 7:29 PM
[Cadenza] Last year Thomas Melchior revealed a darker side of his musical personality in his powerful second album, No Disco Future. With texture, repetition and context as the dominant themes, slits of light and shades of tone color shone through even brighter when they appeared in the elegiac strains of “Water Soul,” the reduced regal […]
Chicago invades Ann Arbor tomorrow
September 26, 2008 – 10:39 AM
All right, Ann Arbor: you come to dance your ass off with James and myself and no one gets (their feelings) hurt. Chris Hahn and Robert Lowell of Primed Recordings have generously invited us to play their weekly Frequency Saturdays night TOMORROW at The Necto. Cheapskates aiming to get blitzed quick should arrive before 10 […]
SIS, Nesrib
September 21, 2008 – 7:30 PM
[Cécille Records] One of Nick Curly’s best A&R decisions since founding Cécille Records was providing a vinyl home to Burak Sar (who produces as SIS), an artist who operates in his own orbit. It’s just as well that there’s a dearth of information about Sar (excepting his documented passion for Che Guevara), as his music […]
James Kartsaklis & LWE tomorrow @ Cafe Lura
September 3, 2008 – 9:10 AM
As the last edition of The Body Politic went out with an unfortunate and unexpected fizzle, James and I are back with a bang this Thursday. Cafe Lura (3184 N Milwaukee), an impressive venue usually servicing the drum n’ bass/reggae/dubstep scene, is throwing open its doors to techno and house fans by hosting Thunderous Olympian, […]
La Peña, #1
August 25, 2008 – 5:22 PM
[La Peña] The recent boom in one-off 12″s which share artist and label names with little other info (sometimes a rubber stamp if you’re lucky; browse through a few pages of Hardwax‘s new releases for examples) is necessarily difficult to pin down. Is it nostalgic pining for the faceless days of yore, a way to […]
LWE 2Q Reports: Top 5 Overrated Singles
August 20, 2008 – 6:25 PM
For our fourth report, LWE’s editor in chief Steve Mizek picks his top five overrated singles from the first half of 2008. The number of dance music singles released each year is absolutely mind-boggling, likely well into six digits and rising each year as production software becomes more accessible. So how does a track stand […]
Brendon Moeller, One Man’s Junk
February 21, 2008 – 12:14 AM
[Third Ear Recordings] A lot of modern dub techno practitioners, especially during this recent popularity boom, tend to rely too heavily on the play books written by the Basic Channel/Chain Reaction family and not enough on their own ingenuity. South African ex-pat and long-time NYC resident has never seemed too bound to that template as […]
Luke Hess, Believe & Receive EP
February 18, 2008 – 11:02 PM
[Kontra-Musik] You don’t get released on Omar-S’ FXHE Recordings or get taken under the vaunted producer’s wing without being someone special. And with his third solo release, Detroit native Luke Hess confirms that he’s certainly someone to talk about. Though he’s been releasing since 2005 on labels like the Detroit-based Berettamusic, the young producer made […]
Duplex, Autosample EP
February 10, 2008 – 11:11 PM
[Frantic Flowers] Dutch producers Chris Callahan and John Matze have been recording together as Duplex since 1997, though Matze’s work dates back to ’92. Drawing from the spacious well of influence that is Detroit techno — Anthony “Shake” Shakir, Juan Atkins and Drexciya, among others — the duo somehow received help on their latest EP […]
Wareika, Men Village
February 7, 2008 – 11:06 PM
[Connaisseur Supérieur] The fine folks over at Connaisseur obviously take their role as A&R agents quite seriously, particularly for their Supérieur sub-label. So far they’ve found and provided first opportunities for Girrèsse & Erb, Sebastian Roya and Dani Casarano; and one look at their well organized website suggests there are many more to come. Their […]
Luciano, Etudes Electroniques
February 6, 2008 – 12:15 AM
[Cadenza] In spite of being an influential and accomplished producer in his own right, Lucien Nicolet aka Luciano is too often mentioned in the same breath as his countryman, Ricardo Villalobos. While their respective work shares a distinct and heavily documented organic warmth, their paths diverge there, with Luciano experimenting with both abstract forms, jiggling […]
Andomat 3000, Cognitive Dissonance
January 30, 2008 – 10:30 PM
[Cécille Records] Cécille Records, a new label from Nick Curly and Marc Scholl, has managed to put itself on the map after only three releases, each more enjoyable than the one before it. First recruiting Markus Fix, then the semi-mysterious Sis (who recorded for Curly’s other label, 8bit), Cécille now courts Andreas Wiegand, better known […]
Controversy, a Tribute to Prince
January 30, 2008 – 11:28 AM
[Rapster Records] The tribute compilation is a strange beast to judge. As I see it, the artists being paid tribute rarely have much control over who is mangling their songs or what actually ends up on the comp. Perhaps they choose the tracks receiving send ups because of licensing issues, but even then they need […]
Chevy & Lemos, Woman’s Key
January 28, 2008 – 10:14 PM
[Be Chosen] For one reason or another, producers from Greece rarely register on my radar. And even after a bit of research and brain-wracking, Argy and GummiHz were the only two names that rang a Grecian bell. A new record on the recently launched Be Chosen label threatens to greatly expand that circle of recognition. […]
Rodriguez Jr., Rubbo Swingo
January 21, 2008 – 11:04 PM
[Leena Music] Mobilee’s choosy younger sister, Leena Music, deserves praise for getting established producers away from their usual hangouts for one off singles. Their first salvo of records came from Holger Zilske, Catz N’ Dogz (3 Channels trying on another moniker) and Paul Brtschitsch. Olivier Mateu, one half of Parisian duo The Youngsters, adds his […]
Ksoul & Ra.H, Turning Point
January 18, 2008 – 11:24 AM
[Sistrum Recordings] In a lot of contemporary deep house tracks I’ve heard, it seems percussion has taken a backseat to melodic arrangements in complexity and originality. Maybe it’s a subconscious reaction to mnml’s rhythmic focus and the genre’s present over saturation. Maybe chords are more satisfying or maybe it’s just easier to throw down a […]
Melchior Productions, No Disco Future
January 16, 2008 – 11:01 PM
[Perlon] In his work as Melchior Productions and various Aspect Music projects with Baby Ford and Tim Hutton, Thomas Melchior has consistently evoked a great deal of motion, thought, and feeling with relatively little grist. He helped define the micro-house era with his 2004 album, The Meaning on Playhouse by snatching sensual vocal slivers for […]
Sebo K, Far Out
January 15, 2008 – 11:01 PM
[Mobilee] How much stock listeners put into track titles is usually relative to how it sounds. For example, Martin Buttrich’s “Hunter” aurally portrayed the food chain in progress and Daniel Wang’s “Berlin Sunrise” captured the glowing warmth emerging from the horizon. By contrast, Tiger Stripes’ “Mad At Me” is hardly an aggressive or even upset […]