With prudent timing comes yet another artful release from Greece’s Nous contingent, this time courtesy of Manchester’s Moodcut who muses succinctly on the invisible overlap of Chicago and Detroit’s aural heritages. The Tame Cats EP delves deep into the industrial overtures of each with the melancholy sparseness of sound that characterizes the brutally beautiful aspects of man-machine-music.
Dave Huismans (A Made Up Sound) returns under his 2562 codename with the oneiric ambient/concrète dancefloor states of ‘The New Today’, his 4th solo album in this guise. Where its predecessor, ‘Air Jordan’, also for his When In Doubt label, took inspiration from the arid landscapes of the Middle East, ‘The New Today’ draws upon ideas sketched out whilst 2562 was in New York, late summer 2013, and was later finished at his home studio in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Rather than disco samples, as with his last LP ‘Fever’, he sources from and splices together an enviable library of European synth experiments, new age tapes, avant-garde, post punk, pop and long forgotten aces, offering an entirely different palette of textures and tones. Ambient is a keyword here, taking inspiration from the feeling of drift of utopian/dystopian novels, as much as the sublimation of electro-acoustic processes. Between the humid concrète drone sphere of ‘Arrival’ and the sweeping celestial space of closer ‘New Life’, there’s a keen sense of momentum through dreamy time and space, taking in the airborne melodies and syncopation of ‘Vibedoctor’ and ‘Utopia’ along with killer Afro-centric gyrations in ‘Terraforming’. Inarguably, it’s the the most diffuse yet cohesive and involving album in his celebrated cache.
Swedish producer Sean Dixon once again contributes with his characteristic sound. Classic analogue synths and drum machines used in his very own way, with the result being three killer melodic and warm tracks, all with short vocal parts on top. Fellow swede Sankt Göran wraps things up with an excellent floor friendly remix of the title track Believe.
Dekmantel opens a one-sided window into the new album from two of the most unpredictable on the scene, Juju & Jordash.
Savage Grounds are CCO and Daniele Cosmo, co-owner of Lux Rec. A techno related outfit to explore a darker, noisier and more menacing sound. The EP has been realized by using only three machines. A Roland 808, a modular synthesizer and a Roland Space Echo. Every track has been recorded live with a minimum of post processing. Come over the fence and dance with the savages.
Surfacing earlier this year with two 12″s on Planet E, the anonymous Korrupt Data now deliver a debut album for Carl Craig’s label. Korrupt Data’s music straddles the divide between Kraftwerk and Model 500 without the crazy frenetics of Drexciyan electro. Said to be made with ‘old kit’ this 11-track album is spread across two discs and it’s very much geared for the dancefloor and sounding distinctly Detroit. Highlights include the vocoder electro space pop of “Inter Arrival”, the glitchy tones and rigid beats of “Photons, Protons, Microns, Mutrons” and the emotional techno acid of “Memory Loss”.
An EP done by Ukrainian producer ‘Recid’ – 3 catchy techno bangers accompanied by straightforward remix done by Saint Petersburg based techno producer Sanys. The EP is named after one of the key elements in universe and Recid’s home city Kirovograd which is full of uranium mines.
A-side with pounding worked up and almost gnarly techno by SVN, feat. vocals by Paleo aka Paleologos Koukouvelis. Flip-to-B and dive into a ultra deep chorded stabber by AU (SVN and DNL) for those hours hanging in the air, also this side features Paleo on vocals – giving it a spiritual transit – from the energy in the room when produced.
Xosar’s new release for Valcrond Video marks the onset of a darker, more dungeons & dragons oriented point of view. The four tracks feature both propulsive, doom-laden beats and expansive drum-free dream spaces. These sounds, appropriate for perved-out DJs and depressed teens alike, trace a narrative of pursuit, captivity, and erotic exsanguination. Held in a stone tower, a prisoner’s fluids are harvested for carnal application, before he is finally allowed to drain and find release in euphoric fields: bare dead trees, empty veins.
Deep and tripping acid backed with some jazzed out drumworks on the flip. Producer and boss of Mathematics records, Chicago’s Jamal Moss a.k.a Hieroglyphic Being is a one-off musical explorer. Jamal’s music takes cues from the EBM and House that played a huge part in the city’s musical underground in the late eighties and early nineties, notably Ron Hardy and Adonis, but also Industrial, Avant-Jazz and Noise. His releases, much like his music, have straddled House labels and the more leftfield avant garde electronic imprints with ease. However his deeply held Afrofuturist intent and the discipline of his radical designs set him apart from the pack. Always moving forward, his music is an ever-evolving transmission from his mind to our bodies, or as he sees it, a form of meditation that the supple, tuned listener will enjoy immensely.
45 ACP who has seen prior releases on the Odd Frequencies label presents a dense five tracker that is equal parts dj fodder as well as dips into the low tempo trip tracks. This one crosses all lines taking you to bizzaro world and back to the club again.
In 2011, Julia Thompson (DJ Black B1tch) gave me a TDK SA90 tape of a spontaneous live jam by Insync recorded in her flat in Forest Hill, South London in March 1991. She had found it in a drawer when clearing out stuff. She gave it to me to listen to simply thinking I might be interested in hearing it. Of course I was, particularly because the date on the tape immediately told me that the session was recorded more than a year before the release of Insync’s debut, the seminal Storm on Irdial Discs. In fact Storm was recorded before this session but not released for more than a year after it. The A side of the cassette is a live jam comprising a bass-line/repeating melody and one other four-note motif. Other than that, Lee Purkis rinses a Yamaha SH101, SPX90, Roland 909 drum machine and some delays, to create a 43 minute journey that passes through beautiful elegiac ambient passages to crashing drums that had me nodding my head to the point that I had to force myself to sit still because of the shooting pains in my neck. Insync was accompanied by Paul Chivers aka Ramjack. Ramjack was playing an Ensoniq Mirage containing samples of himself playing various percussion instruments. I listened a few times to see if there were four 7+ minute sections that could be released as an ep. I thought there were, and here they are. Lee Purkis gave his permission for Third Ear to release the cuts, and the whole jam (available as 3eep201409). Next I contacted Stefan Betke at Scape Mastering to ask if he would listen to the tape to assess whether he could create a master that would sound good enough on a big sound system. Together we decided that he could. The sound quality of these cuts is a testament to Lee Perkis’ sound engineering and to Stefan Betke’s mastering. Judge for yourself. Guy McCreery.
Antinote house Maestro Geena returns triumphantly with a 4 track ep that weaves the deepest melodies with the strongest rhythms. ‘Niagara galleries’ is pure deepness with it’s mesmeric panpipe lead while ‘Lunar substance’ proves that the parisian producer is also a master of the esoteric & ambient. ‘Gotta wear shades’ is filled with the dark memories of lost basement parties and ‘gamma sector’ is a fine example of the best of Acide maison.
The increasingly impressive Lobster Theremin label seems to be developing close ties to Hungary’s emerging electronic music scene. Having previously released a superb EP from Budapest-based Imre Kiss, they’ve now turned to one of the country’s more established names, S. Olbricht (an alias of producer Martin Mikolai). There’s much to admire on this intoxicating four-tracker, from the alien electonics and hustling drums of leftfield techno opener “Fi”, to the crackling, off-kilter rhythms and ghostly chords of “RPSTS”. Elsewhere, Mikolai demonstrates his deep house nous on the warming “IIX1”, and fuses twinkling melodies, creepy chords and a throbbing low-end groove on the similarly impressive “Veuns”.
Beau Wanzer delivers a 12 track LP of archival material culled from tapes stored away from years past, the tracks in question being plucked between 2002-2008. Wanzer has stuck to his grotesque guns over the years, keeping his music personal, grating, and down right bizarre. Each track takes a narrative of its own, from the languidly vocaled, yet uncannily catchy ”Mob Boss” to the possessed murmurs of ”Love Tone,” Wanzer has created a completely unique collection of music which engages the listener all the way through.
California-raised Johannes Auvinen made his name blending hypnotic techno with the distinctive electronics of acid house. His most recent album, 2012’s Neo Neo Acid, moved further towards the sounds of Phuture. Ode, his seventh full-length, sits somewhere in between, delivering a sequence of deep, hypnotic grooves that utilise acid lines not to create energy, but as melodic hooks. With the addition of his own half-whispered vocals on a number of cuts, the result is an atmospheric set that feels like the soundtrack to a hazy after party. For the most part, it’s very impressive, and has a genuinely weary, late night mood that’s strangely attractive.
The Hipodrome Of Music 