Sophie's Choice

Soaked through.

One of my worst nightmares occurred the other day and I’m still going through it. The situation: Manet’s garden in Giverny, family day out. Shit weather but beautiful surroundings. I’m just starting to assume my Monty Don persona, along with a side order of requisite silliness for the children present when I receive a call. It’s Antonin, my stepson, who is back in the UK. I take it and immediately enter a world of pain.  He happened to be passing by the house and went in, presumably to steal food, and was greeted by water spurting everywhere. He’s panicking so I get it together enough to tell him where the stopcock is and then start panicking myself.

At this point I’m relaying info to Emmanuelle, who tells me to call the emergency plumber through the insurance, which I do. Further communication with Ant reveals the situation to have been resolved, but not before quite a lot of flooding had occurred, SOAKING SHITLOADS OF MY RECORDS! By this point I’m starting to visualise the scene that will greet us on our return., so I urge Ant to get as many of them as possible out of the water and onto anything dry.

We return home more than a day early to be greeted by tons of wax all over the place. It’s an ongoing process. I’m trying to save as many as I can, but a lot are lost. I estimate around a thousand. They say your whole life flashes in front of you when you die, but it’s already happened to me, well the last twenty years or so anyway. Everything in plain sleeves, particularly black or white, will live to fight another day. What’s frustrating is that those with the artwork, the most original packaging, are the ones which depreciate the quickest. As can be seen from previous posts, I’d just started cataloguing on Discogs, but the last hundred or so will have to be struck off, as they’ve succumbed to the mess. I’ll also have to resume the filing at a much later date. Half of the ground floor has to be ripped out and replaced first.

Still in shock, but life goes on. Still looking for my brand new clear vinyl copy of the new Der Zyklus album.

Ruf Dug

Serge

Veronica Vasicka

The Storytellers EP - DJ Bone/Deetron (Subject Detroit)

Title: The Storytellers EP

Artist: DJ Bone/Deetron

Label: Subject Detroit

Cat Number: SUB041

Genre: Techno

Side D: DEETRON

D1. The Core

D2. The Core (Beats)

D3. The Core (Reprise)

Side B: DJ BONE

B1. Black Patterns

B2. Black Patterns (Beats)

B3. Black Patterns (Reprise)

DJ Bone and Deetron, whoever thought this was as unlikely as Hibernian winning the Scottish Cup had better think again.(Someone did, but it wasn't me). This is the first in a series of releases by the duo, who also plan to tour together this year. ‘Black Patterns’ is a melodic, piano-led, uplifting galloper, whereas ‘The Core’ is the harder of the two pieces, being all bubbly bass and swirling synths, The beats offer another side, being much rawer takes and predictably functional, the reprises the electronic gossamer cloaking them. ‘Black Patterns’ is more of a tune, ‘The Core’ is its shadow.

DJ Stingray

John Johr

Procrastination

Your Cradle – Trux (Office)

Nocturnal Passions Pt 2 – Area 41 (Delsin)

Level Above Human – Telkhin (Shipwrec)

Shinar – Nicuri (Sound Theories)

Man With The Red Face (Svek Mix) – Laurent Garnier (F Comm)

Don’t You Worry – Jorge Zamacona (Mosaic)

Lone Passenger – Obsolete Music Technology (Dolly)

Counting Sheep – Gemini (Peacefrog)

It’s You I See – Doms & Deykers (3024)

Track 2 – Globex (Acting Press)

Slow Swing – Inverse Cinematics (Pulver Records)

Synth Sparkle – OB Ignitt (Obonit)

Beyond The Dance (Mr Fingers Mix) – Simoncino (L.I.E.S.)

Punta Christo – Our Mutual Friend (Voodoo Down)

We Will Be There Yesterday – ITPDWIP (Frustrated Funk)

Guh Ik Trigger – Neuroshima (All Caps)

Time Running Down – Life Recorder (Sound Reflection)

Mark Foreshaw

Hashman Deejay & Eranthos Beretta

Uta

DJ Qu & October

Alexey Volcov

Rive Gauche - Phillipe Chany (Dark Entries)

Title: Rive Gauche

Artist: Phillipe Chany

Label: Dark Entries

Cat Number: DE-122

Genre: French Disco Fusion

SIDE A

Aimez-moi

Fiction

Cinecitta

Cairo Connection

SIDE B

La mystique du mâle

Castor

Unsquare Dance

Lettre à Monsieur le Législateur (De la loi sur les stupéfiants)

Dark Entries isn’t all about reissuing italo classics, as this 1983 solo project from French songwriter, film music composer and producer Phillipe Chany proves. Seemingly revived just as much for its technical specifications as much as its curiosity value, it is French with a capital F, emphasizing the chanson just as much as everything else and blending the modern with the traditional. There’s even a passage read from “L’ombilic des Limbes” by Antonin Artaud. The attention to detail is great, and evokes a sense of nostalgia, not gained from a long lost dance in a disco on the Cote d’Azur, but more than likely a vague inflection from a transistor providing the ambience on holiday. Dark Entries are doing an interesting job curating the recent past and, while some of it will be hit and miss, it’s always interesting.

Crystal - Justin Cudmore (Honey Sound System)

Title: Crystal

Artist: Justin Cudmore

Label: Honey Sound System

Cat Number: HNY010

Genre: House

Side A   

Crystal

Side B

Crystal (Servito's 730 Reshape)

Crystal (G. Haslam Dekalb Avenue Remix)

Better late than never with this one, and I do like tracks which start as they mean to go on. The original version gets into its seedy, acid hoedown immediately. It’s well-paced and flows, never feeling like it’s pushing against any ulterior forces. Mike Servito distils the original’s essence, and eschews the 303 in favour of a squiggly, funky bass line adorned with slightly more extra-terrestrial outpourings. Gunnar Haslam reduces things further, until we’re left with a skeletal reinterpretation, which is all sharp edges high frequencies coming full circle back to the acid. All three, while treading a similar sonic line, are very much worth your while.