A new label curated by Little White Earbuds’ Editor-In-Chief and Stolen Kisses label owner, Steve Mizek, delivers its first release from American producer, Amir Alexander. Its four tracks reveal a startling rich and complete aesthetic inspired by the history of American house while avoiding merely emulating its forefathers. Alexander’s commanding melodies are carried on hard-bitten beats and often guided by deeply resonant bass lines beftting of this trained bassist.
Call Super is an outlet for hallucinatory club music. Swaying from the lean and muscular edges of techno, to the fractured palette of electronica and rough electro his productions share a tendency towards the live and informal. Now Call Super emerges with two tracks that comprise No Episode EP on New York’s Throne of Blood. Both tracks are then responded to, the former by Madteo, the latter by John Heckle. “No Fun” is a grinding bass-heavy groover rooted by its warehouse techno stomp and embellished with trippy melodic flourishes. Queens-based bass producer Madteo takes the original and recasts it in his singularly buggedout, broken and lo-fi style. “No Fool” is a storming dancefloor sureshot awash in noise and menace. For his relick, UK house upstart John Heckle amplifies the original’s halucinogenic circularity into a swirling monster of warped arpeggios and flying cymbals.
Thema presents the first up out of the 3 releases for the Re:Vision series, Steve Poindexter’s timeless classic “Computer Madness”. It’s hard to imagine that this was really created over 2 decades ago, and Thema made sure to find the right minds to revise this masterpiece. Function and Jerome Sydenham where chosen for this one.
New Brooklyn label Felte will be opening for business with the debut LP from doom-mongers ERAAS. ERAAS, aka Robert Toher and Austin Stawiarz, emerged last year from the remains of Noughties post-rockers Apse. The pair’s aim is purportedly to explore more occult territory than their previous gig allowed them. Fittingly, their self-titled debut – recorded in a “rambling, atmospheric mansion” in Massachusetts – is a gloomy affair, setting murky harmonies over the sort of percussion death-rattle you’d expect from a Vatican Shadow record.
Suzanne Ciani is a composer, recording artist, and pioneer in the field of electronic music. She is best loved for her fifteen albums of original music that feature her performances in a broad array of expressions: solo piano, piano with orchestra, piano with jazz ensemble and pure electronic. No matter the medium, Ciani’s music communicates the special intimacy, passion, and sensitivity that have become her trademark and prompted fans to buy over a million of her albums. The Seven Waves is Suzanne’s first album. She started recording it in 1979, finished it in 1981, and released it in Japan in 1982 on Atlantic Recordings.
This year has seen Tropic Of Cancer stealthily plot a successful course for total infiltration of our affections, with some well chosen releases laying down the foundations of expectation for the band’s much vaunted debut album, slated for release on Blackest Ever Black next year. This eminently collectable three track release for Belgian imprint Sleeperhold will no doubt jostle for first place with that wonderfully atmospheric 12″ on Mannequin and split HTRK release on Ghostly for best Tropic Of Cancer release of 2012. It’s “Children Of A Lesser God”, the final exquisite track that will floor most people, capturing Camella Lobo and company at their most powerful. Spartan drum machines and nerve tingling guitars form the backbone of this stunning seven minute track as Lobo’s undeniably plaintive delivery sinks ever deeper into the murky recesses.
Following on from the success of Delsin’s new house series, the Dutch label are branching out again with a new sideline in electronica. The first release comes from Venetian producer Seawash and comprises 6 tracks of dense and fuggy, otherworldly sounds. ‘Pantomime’ opens the EP awash with ethereal yet underwater sounding synths, light and dark contrast with rough and smooth and the effect is one of pure electronic escapism. ‘Revolution’ shows a lighter side to Seawash and comes over like a mature adult lullaby with harmonic bells dangle above scraping, skeletal percussion. ‘Free Alternatives’ closes out the first side with a stripped and downbeat air: lazy snares cut out a rhythm as more blissful harmonics drift by like feathery clouds. On the flip ‘Close (Vox)’ shimmers like reflections on a lake as an r&b vocal drifts between sun-kissed guitar licks. Slow and sexy without being overly saccharine, it’s more than lush. ‘Emeralds’ is initially more industrial and sounds like machines in torment before Seawash’s surely trademark watery smears dissipate the tension and transport you to a deep sea world once again. Closer ‘Little John’ stutters and skips along with only the slightest hint of a ticking hi hat immersed in oceans of aqueous echo and delay. Traces of garage lurk within, but like the EP overall, it’s a truly unique listening experience.
On Luxury Problems, Mancunian producer Andy Stott builds on the knackered house and techno sound showcased in last year’s brace of brilliance, Passed Me By and We Stay Together. The album will contain eight tracks recorded in the last 12 months, with five of the songs featuring vocals from his old piano teacher who Stott hadn’t seen since he was a teenager in 1996, with the opening track “Numb” seeing her looped and layered vocals exuding a cinematic quality. The paranoid, dense, slow-moving qualities that Stott has made his signature remain, but they’ve been toyed with and manipulated, and the vocal elements feel like a calculated gamble – one that has truly paid off. Modern Love go all out on presentation too, with Luxury Problems arriving in a superb gatefold sleeve.
The inspirational Rod Modell aka Deepchord follows up Sommer, his second album on Soma, with two exclusive tracks perfectly laid down in only the way he can, giving us ‘Tonality of Night’. Both tracks clock in over the 10 minute mark as Deepchord takes us on yet another journey through the unfathomable depths of his unmistakable production.
Thomas Franzmann has long been a dark horse of underground club music. Though he keeps a lower profile than some of his peers, his contributions to esoteric house and techno over the past decade plus have made him a cult favorite. As one of the founders of Perlon, he released much of minimal and microhouse’s creme de la creme. He also happens to be an exceptional DJ, especially when the situation calls for the deeper and weirder side of things. In the club, Zip is known for lacing his sets with unreleased or never-to-be-released tracks that keep trainspotters on their toes. He takes a different tack with fabric 67, sticking mostly to records that aren’t so hard to get your hands on (curiously enough, there’s only one Perlon track). “I did the mix with two record players, two CD players and my favourite mixer. I was alone in my studio and it felt just like it did when I was doing a mixtape ages ago,” Franzmann says of the mix. “Only this one comes with slightly more pressure [laughs]…” [RA]
Future Times presents a limited 12″ release of “New Balance,” from the forthcoming Beautiful Swimmers debut LP. The EP features a great Maxmillion Dunbar mix.
Gerd Janson compiles an exciting ambient-not-ambient compilation that includes exclusive tracks by Âme, Move D, Quiet Village Marco Passarani, Roman Flügel and Tom Trago. “Music for Autobahns” is the result of asking Gerd Janson for a collection that starts where previous efforts left off. While Computer Incarnations for World Peace (his compilations for Sonar Kollektiv) concentrated on tipsy new wave music done by jazz-funkers or neo disco-ists, Autobahns has an
unintentionally strong leaning towards ambient not-ambient, kraut pleasers and codeine house, i.e. Industrial Ambient and Electrifying New Age. It’s all new and exclusive material by people who once or twice crossed paths with the compiler. You will hear Âme with their modular slambient concept sitting next to Amsterdam’s Tom Trago off peak time duties, Roman Flügel with an old DAT tape wunderkind that shares a side with Heidelberg’s very own Move D in love, outsider dance from CF & Daywalker alias Entro Senestre and Willie Burns as well as a greasy sounding Marco Passarani and finally Tensnake’s romantic pop appeal that is a counterpoint to Maxxi & Zeus (better known as Quiet Village) and their “Passion” for all beauties that lie beyond.
The Traveller Records presents the young producer Borrowed Identity, a Romanian born, now living in Germany. The project Borrowed Identity was found as a new alias of the Romanian producer in the summer of 2011, with the idea behind to work on a fusion of classic electronic music from Detroit & Chicago plus his own influences to make something contemporary but timeless. This EP includes remixes by Emil Seidel and Steve Frisco.
