Michigan’s D’Marc Cantu has long been a revered house and techno craftsmen with a misty analogue sound that has spawned killer EPs and LPs. As well as also being part of 2AM/FM with JTC, the jackbeat proponent now steps out on Tom Dicicco’s Run Out Run label for the first of two upcoming EPs.
Ann Arbor-based producer D’Marc Cantu will next land on Richard Fearless’ fledgling Drone imprint with the ”Decay” b/w ”Rival” 12”. The two-track record will serve as Drone’s third release.
The Doomsday Initiative is a musical concept that the end of the world was here and doom was plunging to terrible sadness. Selected artists 2AMFM ( D’Marc Cantu & Tadd Mullinix) produced and created ideas of this planet we live on in an ideal landscape of doomsday.
The first release on the San Francisco label Secret Studio Records, featuring a remix by D’Marc Cantu.
Interesting collaborative release between powerhouse labels MOS Deep and Creme Organization. The artists behind the two tracks are Michigan duo 2 AM/FM aka JTC & D’Marc Cantu. ‘Starfist Lazerbeam’ is the first cut and is a slow, purposeful house track run through with a slithering, laser like synth that constantly changes shape. Muffled, filtered vocals are hidden behind and the arpeggiated line eventually lets up and gets a little funky as the icy percussion ticks on. Its a real pressure-building track with curveball melodies that are as beautiful as they are weird. On the flip, ‘Passion’ has raw analogue drums, ticking his and trippy melodies all dancing round each other in old school Chicago fashion. A nimble bassline also dances around the mix, bring with it lots of energy, stylish funk and a real sense of playfulness.
Cantu’s electro-heavy sound is fleshed out here and while still lean enough for dance floors, it makes bolder moves into atmospheric and melodic territory. The A side, “Some Kind Of Strange…,” begins with long synth strains before one of his signature overdriven drum workouts immediately punches through the lush spectral melody. Cantu runs through the patterns on his 808, weaving a sort of broken beat track that cruises through acidic space time. On the flipside you’re treated to the electro/freestyle jam, “A Space Age Function.” There aren’t many surprises here nor is there any need for them: just pure and grimy electro joy…right down to the pitched down vocal sample and octave-hopping bassline. “September,” the beatless coda, is an echo from a childhood spent in dark cinemas with the sounds of Carpenter and Howarth. Tinkling FM bells dot the layers of rich ethereal pads and you can practically hear the clattering of the projector somewhere behind you in the dark.
“Zone 4 was the first project that I created as a whole idea, the creation of Zone 4 started around the time that the final track selection to A New World was taking shape. It sat for a number of years, shelved till the day that I found a label that would honor it the way I had envisioned”.
Desire presents a new release, featuring 5 jacking tracks with sleazy 303’s frantic synths by D’Marc Cantu.
Death in Vegas main man and Drone founder Richard Fearless delivers an epic dance track. D’Marc Cantu picks up remix duties on the flip, toning things down in tempo but certainly not tension. This is deep, brooding, suspense filled slow-motion techno creating a wholly satisfying first taste of the meal that is Drone.
From the shores of the Great Lakes comes a 3 track floor filler from MI duo 2AM/FM aka JTC & D’Marc Cantu. Confronting the canons of Techno & House head on, this 12″ takes you beyond the dance. Best experienced loud though, preferably in a darkened smoke filled room.
The explosive initiation of One Electronica’s “1210” series comes from Ann Harbours D’Marc Cantu. The series will consist of one twelve inch and one ten inch vinyl. The extensive palate of sounds available on this pack range from slower ambience influenced grooves, outright “jak”, industrial grit pursuing to intense, pace-ridden, electronic mayhem; as heard in “Microdots”.
D’Marc Cantu has long been a standard bearer for hardware revivalism, having first released his drum machine-heavy blends of vintage jack and starlight rave revivalism on Creme Organization back in 2007. Here, he pops up on Ansatz with a superbly varied trip into warehouse-friendly territory. There are a couple of rush-inducing doses of strobelight-enhanced rave revivalism territory (the frankly nasty “Heater” and brilliantly wide-eyed “Surface Dweller”, which sounds like it’s been ripped from pirate radio sometime around 1992), a Larry Heard-ish foray into tactile analogue deep house (the brilliant “Grey”) and a thrillingly industrial-sounding fusion of jackin’ beats and clanking bleep melodies (“Box Sound Scape”).
This new EP from D’Marc Cantu, Long Weekend, features three new tracks of fully formed house and techno with more than a touch of acid along the way. The title track opens the EP with a lively house jam that has proud kick drums, plenty of muffled and deeply buried chords and a busy bassline that darts about like a kangaroo on hot rocks. It’s propulsive and emotive as it surges along, taking you with it every step of the way. Next up, ‘1Lb Of Flesh’ is a much more jagged and serrated track, mainly because of the manic acid squiggle that runs right through the heart of the slapping snares and icy cold hi hats. Full throttle and as ever delightfully frayed and analogue sounding, it’s a real face melter. Last but by no means least, ‘Acid Test’ is the quickest of the lot, coming over like a slick, powerful fusion of electro and techno that whips and snaps as Dance Mania style snares flap about above a grilling bassline and acid wiggles in and out. It’s a busy, fulsome track but never feels cluttered and rounds out another exceptional EP from both MOS and main man D’Marc Cantu.
Nicolas Cantu makes a welcome return to Sequencias with The Lost Tribe—a brisk 808 workout with lush synthwork and psychedelic acid stylings. This is a more breezy approach compared to his work on other labels yet spares none of the imaginative or emotive qualities. On the flip side, label head JM De Frias offers up the dissonant groover The Light as a follow up to his debut track from Levon Vincent’s acclaimed Fabric mix CD. Brash percussion collides with staccato melodies awash in echo and organ, sustaining an intensity that never quite boils over. The two team up for the closer The Last Light, an atmospheric epic of growling strings, breathy ambience and melancholy stitched together with creaky, decrepit acid stabs and brittle percussion. This is the beginning of an on going collaboration between the two, keep your ears open in the near future.
18 Months after serving up his debut LP ”Fallen”, D’Marc Cantu returns to his other home from home, Crme Organization. He’s back with a six track EP, Alternate Frequency, that sees him explore the same prickly analogue house and techno that has made him into the revered producer he is today. The title track opens up the EP with fizzing analogue synth lines and a nervous, howling melody before acid, muffled vocals and coarse claps all get chucked into the dense sci-fi mix. ‘Size And Shape’ is a more propulsive and dancefloor facing track. Surfing along on a lively kick drum, repeated vocal phrases interact with choppy percussion, glowing pads light up the backdrop and a delightfully lively melody runs amok at the centre of it all. Like an old school garage house track in overdrive, its full of charm. ‘Straight Shooter’ is then a zithering, 100 mile an hour piece of skeletal acid techno that grows ever more frantic and ‘Tazakuro’ is a lively analogue brew of cowbells, freewheeling synths and tumbling drums. Titanium Control Arms lurks deep in outer space with the humdrum of intergalactic space travel gurgling all around the central melodic motif and ‘Speed Freak’ is just that, a hyper-driven bit of electro with frantic percussion and riddled with unnerving synth lines that makes you want to jiggle every bone in your body.
The first Forbidden Planet release, featuring D’Marc Cantu with some Autistic and weird chicago-jak madness. DVS1 is on remix duties.
The tenth release on Don’t Be Afraid is coming from Alis. Alis is the new project from Italo-Bulgarian Londoner, Sabina Plamenova. Azimuth EP showcases this producer’s fresh take on electronic music across a range of tempos. The influence of acid house on Alis’s music, and the influence of cities like Detroit and Chicago, are pronounced. In addition D’Marc Cantu remixes the EP’s most dancefloor-friendly track, Azimuth, lending it a deeper and more brooding edge.
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The Hipodrome Of Music 