featured releases
(Wagon Repair) CD & 2LP
Now stationed in the techno mecca of Berlin, Montrealer Scott Monteith has chipped a distinct pattern out of dub’s storied lineage. His career has been a dichotomy of sorts to date, juggling his own take on post-Basic Channel dub techno with a future-purist strain of classic skanked-out dub. As the title indicates, Roots & Wire maintains this path. Opening with “Rise Again”, the esteemed chants of Paul St. Hilaire litter a classic dancehall dub track; he blesses the sparse, echo chamber scape with energy & soul. The paced ventures are great, but when Deadbeat hones in on the dancefloor, Roots & Wire really opens the meditative channels. “Xberg Ghosts” is flawless textbook dub-techno; familiar delayed chords whisper around, finding ground in rhythmic basslines. And then the kick & clap drops & you’re sucked down the vortex of techno-hypnosis. “Deep Structure” & “Sun People (Dub Divisionaire)” follow this same brilliant form of spectral lures inside of throbbing, undeniable rhythms. Turn it up loud.
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6 November 2008 by Chris Long
| Electronic
(Warp) CD & LP
So far, these NY hipsters have tap danced in the chasm between spaced-out tribal-psych meanderings & arty synthetic pop. But on Saint Dymphna, Gang Gang Dance congeal around their fondness for hip-hop, house & Eno with a fizzy, fresh outcome. The new material twinkles in technicolour, devouring stuttering grime beats, phasing synths, Animal Collective manic sound environments & striking melodicism. Just skip directly to “Prince” to have your mind blown: UK grime MC Tinchy Stryder creeps out of a Pink Floyd-esque cloud of psychadelia & faster than you can say Anti-Pop Consortium, you’ve got yourself one of 2008s weirdest/catchiest hip-hop tracks. “Inners Pace” is part loping dubstep (think Burial in a k-hole) & part electro-drum machine workout. “House Jam” feels like Kate Bush fighting with Digitalism. But make no mistake: Gang Gang Dance feel no gravity toward the past; Dymphna is the patron saint of hybrid future-pop. Totally, completely, utterly fresh.
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3 November 2008 by Chris Long
| Electronic, Pop / Rock
(mail order) CDR
Flying Lotus’ mysterious pal (some have ventured to suspect that they are one & the same) Samiyam has been hotly tipped for much of 2008. With only a 4 track 12” available on London’s Hyperdub imprint (home to Burial & Kode9), we saught out what we could & found this – a CDR direct from Los Angeles via snail mail. Simply titled Rap Beats Vol. 1, the disc is chock full of brief bursts of L.A. now-funk hip-hop instrumentals, none of which last longer than 2 minutes. Much like Dilla’s amazing Donuts, this format is a brilliant way to venture into Samiyam’s vault of ideas; the quirk, lope & bounce of Madlib, Dilla & Flying Lotus are here, in focused shots of robotic funk. We only have a few of these for sale; simple CDR with no track titles, but each comes with specific custom individual artwork, forged by Samiyam himself.
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8 October 2008 by Jeremy Robinson
| Electronic, Hip-Hop
(Environ) CD
Morgan Geist is one half of the legendary New Jersey duo Metro Area. Over the past decade, MA have fused funk, R&B, house & techno with seamless proficiency, creating some modern dance classics. Geist has released a sparse amount of work, but finally delivers here with a full length of slick late night cruisers, fit for dance floors, car stereos, headphones, bedrooms, you name it. Double Night Time comes with an added little bonus feature: the bulk of the album’s tracks are littered with coos & whispers from Jeremy Greenspan of the Junior Boys. Greenspan’s style is employed brilliantly by Geist, who ends up using the vox as a final layer over retro percussions, vintage analog lines & ebb/flow melodicism. The first single “Detroit” has two hearts: one lingering with ghosts of passion (a girl? the city?); the other willfully toying with the fruits of Kraftwerk’s sonic legacy. Beautiful electronic sound environments.
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7 October 2008 by Chris Long
| Electronic
(Death From Abroad/DFA) 2CD
The DFA — James Murphy (of LCD Soundsystem) & Tim Goldsworthy (Cut Copy, Rapture producer) — have done much to bridge the seemingly unconnected edges of dance culture’s past, present & future. At a time when over-produced, excessively loud & brash electro productions are dominating the feet & minds of hipster dancefloors, The DFA continue to plug away, dragging the classic sensibilities, stylings & sonic pallets of disco, funk, house & techno into the fray with every release. (If you haven’t checked out Hercules & Love Affair already, PLEASE, do yourself a favour.)
With Nobody Knows Anything, The DFA’s Death From Abroad offshoot have partnered with Berlin’s Supersoul Recordings to bring a SLEW of new names, sounds & possibilities to dancefloor adventuring. Supersoul Recordings’ roster focuses on “the cornerstones of electronic dance music: Krautrock, Italo Disco, Electro, Chicago House & Detroit Techno.” And compared to much of the French & Australian blog-racket that has filled dancefloors over the last couple of years, these tracks sound truly refreshing, almost to the point of alien.
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8 September 2008 by Chris Long
| Electronic
(Smalltown Supersound) CD, 2LP due in October
Hans Peter Lindstrøm’s splash on the scene was a glitter-washed one; 2005’s still-brilliant “I Feel Space” announced the space-disco revival that he has since spearheaded with frequent collaborator Prins Thomas. Where You Go I Go Too is closer to the pair’s self-titled release on Eskimo from 2006 – Lindstrøm opens up a Pandora’s box of tropicalia, Italo-lounge & 80’s cocaine-epic-osity, all throbbing, bobbing & spilling over round, mid-tempo drums. The lengthy 30 minute title track spends equal time grooving & meandering – it’s too indulgent for most – but for anyone wanting a bit of a twinkling, sun-soaked journey, Hans Peter is your man.
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28 August 2008 by Chris Long
| Electronic
(Kompakt) 4CD
Wolfgang Voigt is the mastermind behind one of minimal techno’s largest stables: Kompakt. But before his brand was dominating global dancefloors, Voigt was exploring the deep dark realms of his German psyche as Gas. Drawing from German schlager music & Wagnerian classical influences, plus ambient staples like Satie, Aphex Twin & Eno, Voigt conjured clouds of throbbing ambience & drone, ceaselessly propelled by submerged kick drums. Nah Und Fern compiles the entire Gas output — Gas, Zauberberg, Königsforst & Pop — there’s slight remastering, but nothing that detracts from the nimble balance of tension & levity within Voigt’s most revered project. A brilliant document of one of the most important canons within the ambient techno world.
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28 August 2008 by Chris Long
| Avant-Garde, Electronic
(XL) CD & LP
On their, ahem, third full length, the NY duo slow things down a bit. Spreading out the ecstatic romp of ‘hits’ like “Wildcat”, “Seventeen Years” & “Lex”, LP3 explores the latin/tropicalia/scoring tendencies of Ratatat’s more subdued side. Tracks like “Flynn” splice 8-bit bloopery with scenic vibes & vocal samples, while “Brulee” is kind of um, cute I guess? There’s a lot of rhythmically rich tonal adventuring going on here: wildlife samples, claps for days, chopstick breaks & tons of tinkly noises… still, “Shempi” will make you want to grind your hips & bang your head at the same time with it’s crazy organ line…
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3 July 2008 by Chris Long
| Electronic, Pop / Rock
(Warp) CD & 2LP
Warp’s newest signing is Flying Lotus aka Steven Ellison. An L.A. based post-hop producer, Ellison crafts dense instrumental hip-hop soundscapes, melding the styles & moods of J Dilla, Madlib & Prefuse 73. But it’s Amon Tobin that seems Ellison’s closest touchstone, especially Tobin’s recent micro-sampled, atmosphere-heavy releases. The nephew of legendary jazz harpist Alice Coltrane, Ellison encrusts lurching drones, insect atmospherics & jilted, off-kilter head-nod breaks with a layer of soul; guest vocalists appear, sometime up front, sometimes splintered & echoed around the track. Again, Los Angeles is more music for the headphones, but hey, I see you all out there on the street with your lil’ earbuds – gobble this up. For fans of Amon Tobin, J Dilla, Madlib.
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25 June 2008 by Tara Campbell
| Electronic, Hip-Hop
(Lex) CD, LP coming soon
Doseone & co. return from relentless touring for 2006’s criminally under-appreciated for hero: for fool with their first bonafied attempt at pop (somewhat). Over three proper full lengths, Subtle have become a lot more comfortable shedding their shoe-gaze hip-hop aesthetic for inquisitive adventures into more traditional pop arrangements. Dose’s vocal melodicism has developed, as has the band’s balance of restraint with full-on sonic blitz. There are echoes of hip hop — the drums punch & the odd rapid fire oration from Dose pops up here & there — but for the most part, Subtle seem like their shooting for a new hybrid of the synthetic pop that The Flaming Lips are known for. Creative, interesting music fo’ sho’.
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11 June 2008 by Chris Long
| Electronic, Hip-Hop, Pop / Rock
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