For whatever reason, this track popped into my head today and I’m struggling to shake it loose. Not that I really want to of course, because like the best that Public Enemy have made, it’s a supercharged piece of militant rap messaging which is, as ever, totally on point. The superlative grunginess of the rock/rap backing track is heavy beyond belief, aligned with Chuck D’s stream of consciousness approach to rapping, which occasionally flows into the abstract, we have a recipe for success. The theme of this track, “the black community's frustration that some US states did not recognize Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a national holiday” (Wikipedia), hasn’t gone away. The video itself is a 6 minute masterpiece. Cinematic in scope and banned from MTV. An absolute bomb then and now!
Friday, June 30, 2023
Thursday, June 29, 2023
Plant43 In The Chat Room
Plant43, aka Emile Facey, is one of electro’s most introspective voices. His music, which has been released on labels such as Frustrated Funk, Semantica, CPU and most recently on his own eponymous imprint, plunges into the depths of the genre and emerges cloaked in emotion, intrigue and physical expression. Music that is both deep and danceable you say? This year he produced an ambient album ‘Silver Streams’. Preceding that was ‘Sublunar Tides’, at the end of 2021. Right now he’s in the process of releasing his ‘Reflection/Reaction’ trilogy, the first part has just come out, the final part sees daylight in August. Having been releasing music for almost 20 years, Facey is in a rich vein of form right now, his live sets are in demand, and he is also starting to DJ. I recently sent him a few questions to peruse that he was kind enough to answer. So, read on . . .
Which of your releases are you proudest of and why?
I don’t have a favourite. Most of my tracks are written in the run up to live shows and so I’m writing very much in the moment for that particular gig. Once the live show is done I’ll go through and finish off the new tracks. Then they go into a playlist and I listen back to them a lot before deciding what to release and which tracks go together. That workflow allows me to test, hone and listen to tracks a lot before I commit to releasing them.
Why has electro endured?
I got the bug for it at a very early age – around 1984 – so I’ve seen it change and evolve over time. At this point it’s become the soundtrack to our lives, as producers, DJs or listeners, or all the above. It’s really heartwarming to see new people discovering electro and helping the scene to thrive. Tresor in Berlin have just launched a regular electro night and it’s been great to be a part of that.
How would you define your specific take on electro?
I have always listened to a really wide range of different music and I think it all influences what I make in some way. As humans we all experience a wide range of emotions and music can help us understand them and share them with others. When I’m making music I very seldom set out to make a particular thing, I just switch on my machines and see what comes out.
Where are the current electro hotbeds, and why do you think this is?
I like to follow artists whose music I like on social media and Bandcamp and generally find out about new music that way too. Listening to podcasts and mixes is also a great way to hear new music. The internet has connected everyone in the scene together to such an extent that I now talk to other producers who I’ve never met in person on a daily basis, exchanging tracks, mixes and ideas. Some of them have become good friends.
What inspires you to make your music, and do other interests influence your creative process?
My inspiration seems to come from all sorts of places and other interests definitely influence my music making. I trained in art and design and have a background in turning my ideas and inspirations into real things which I think is quite useful in the world of music making. I get a lot of inspiration from experiencing music, art, movies and books by other people too. With gigs coming back I’m spending more time in cities again and I find that inspiring too. I visited Berlin in April and it rained the whole time I was there. The city had a very particular atmosphere that I felt compelled to soundtrack.
How has your sound evolved?
I try to keep learning new things and incorporating them into my music and visual art. I like trying new studio techniques and I enjoy learning from other producers. I got a new synth at the end of last year and it’s given me a real burst of energy. I am always striving to evolve but want to keep the spirit of my music intact too.
What is there left to discover in electro?
I think as long as people keep making music there will always be more to explore, because every producer has a different take on how they make electro, what they use to make it, their influences. Someone like Sansibar is a great example of that, his productions are just incredible and they take an established sound and take a totally fresh approach to it. Also there are artists who keep pushing boundaries with every new release even though they’ve been going for many years. I find that very inspiring. I still hear new and exciting things happening in many genres and the advances in audio and technology in general have made it easier for people to make really professional recordings without the need for expensive studio time. We’re seeing a blurring of the lines between genres, people are just making the music they want to make and I think that’s really exciting.
Is life as an artist more difficult now, post-pandemic and within the realms of Brexit?
I never wanted the UK to leave the EU and at first it was really hard. As time has gone by and with the help of Bandcamp, my distributor Juno and other label owners things are getting back to normal. There’s still an enormous amount of admin and paperwork involved with sending a record to the EU compared to before we left but the alternative was to stop sending to those countries and that just wasn’t an option. I’ve always been very grateful for all the people in the EU who’ve supported my music and they’ve played a vital role in getting me to where I am now. I am really thankful to them for taking the risk of continuing to support me through that period.
I’ve read that you trained as an illustrator and graphic designer. How has this influenced your music?
I think the training you receive at art collage and through studying design has been really helpful for me as a musician. I was trained in how to apply my creativity to a brief and that translated into music quite naturally. Both of my parents are very creative too, my mum is a portrait artist and photographer and my dad is a cabinet maker. They’re both still at it long past retirement age because it’s a passion for them and that’s really inspirational to me too.
Do you have any particular approach to playing live, and do you ever DJ?
I started out as a DJ well before I had a proper studio. When I was in my late teens I got a small inheritance from my grandparent’s estate and I used that to buy my first studio gear. At that point I immersed myself in making music rather than playing records although I still love collecting vinyl and listening to other people playing it. Recently I learned how to DJ with Ableton Live and now I’m back to making mixes again regularly. It’s a great way to show your appreciation of other producers' work and a fun way to test out my own tracks for DJing too. Last year I played my first proper DJ set in a club (Natural Selection at FOLD in London) and I really enjoyed it.
Your recent album ‘Silver Streams’ was an excursion in to ambience. How, if at all, did your approach to putting it together differ from what you are more used to assembling?
There’s very little difference honestly. I suppose I am not so concerned with creating ‘on the grid’ which is quite a nice feeling sometimes. I am still essentially doing the same thing which is expressing myself through music, it just happens to be without drums.
What are your top 5 all-time electro tracks?
That’s impossible for me, sorry. There’s Just too many to try to narrow it down to five.
Plant43’s Reflection|Reaction trilogy of EP’s is released on Plant43 Recordings this summer. Follow Plant43 on Bandcamp https://plant43.bandcamp.com/follow_me.
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Wednesday, June 28, 2023
Track Of The Day: Wulf n'Bear - Raptures Of The Deep B1 Untitled (20/20 Vision)
The third release on 20/20 Vision, a label that is still going strong. However, it’s debatable if anything has ever bettered this collaboration between label head Ralf Lawson, Paul Huggett and the omnipresent Carl Finlow. The bassline defines it, but the cohesion of the sound design, which seems to be an aural collage of variously patched together random noises, some of which sound like malfunctioning droids, others like the creatures from then upside down in ‘Stranger things’, is something else. This track induces instant head nodding and shape throwing whenever it’s played and bridges house/techno divide with flair.
Natasha Bai - Soldier Of Love EP (Ransom Note Records)
Title: Soldier Of Love EP
Artist: Natasha Bai
Label: Ransom Note Records
Cat Number: R$N36
Genre: Electronic Pop
1: Sun & Sky
2: Soldier Of Love
3: Human, Right
4: Outlaw
5: Two Words
This release covers a few electronic bases and manages to combine a keen ear for melody with lyrics that, I’m told, are “coloured by (Natasha’s) personal experience of Russia’s human rights violations.” The individual tracks draw on trance/breaks (‘Sun & Sky’, ‘Soldier Of Love’), trance (‘Human, Right’), and electro/trance (‘Outlaw’) with, I daresay, techno being the unifying factor. ‘Two Words’ is an outlier here, slowing things down to a morbid plod. The social conscience on display here is put across in a very accessible way, which I guess is the idea. However, it lacks edge and would be more at home at Eurovision than in a dark basement.
Tuesday, June 27, 2023
Track Of The Day: Halo Varga - Future (Siesta)
Around the turn of the century, tribal house was the lingua franca of the underground basement, as well as transitioning to the more overground. A glut of labels came from the west coast championing the sound, one of which was Siesta. The breaks were straightened out into more linear, percussive arrangements, and H-Foundation, Halo & Hipp-E were amongst its biggest faces. This timeless track from Halo, with its spoken word sampled from ‘Withnail & I’ is one of the labels more enduring tunes, along with H-Foundations ‘Hear Dis Sound’ and DJ Buck’s ‘Make It Hot’. To a certain extent a lot of the tracks are banging elevator music, but it’s not too difficult to skim the cream off the top of the genre if you know what you’re looking for, and where to find it. I’ve heard this track creeping into a few online sets recently, so it’s definitely ripe for a rerelease. File this thick, bumping tribal stuff next to Peace Division and sundry other drug sounds. So versatile, you can toughen up practically any tune you mix it with. The panacea to banging loops.
Vinicius Honorio - Sem Rumo (Blueprint)
Title: Sem Rumo
Artist: Vinicius Honorio
Label: Blueprint
Cat Number: BP071
Genre: Techno
A1: Sem Rumo
A2: Reiki
B1: Uruk
B2: Visions
I don’t know if anything more can be done regarding the looped, driving approach to techno. As postulated in earlier reviews, there’s obviously a demand to be met. However, something needs to be done in order to raise eyebrows than simply churning out formula. Vinicius Honorio is a Brazilian DJ now resident in London who clearly has some insight into what moves a dance floor which, according to what he has produced here, is high intensity, industrial loops with a sense of syncopation. Flourishes that make these tracks stand out a little are the rhythmic claps that are dispersed over ‘Uruk’ and ‘Reiki’ without dominating. Is ‘Visions’ a Robert Hood homage? It sounds very much like it is. And the title track feels draped in 1950s – inspired Millsian sci-fi soundscapes. So, although here really isn’t that much room to manoeuvre, Vinicius Honorio does a more than competent job with this quartet.
Monday, June 26, 2023
Track Of The Day: Floppy Sounds - Ultrasong ((François K Studio A Mix) (Wave)
I can remember buying this from a young Ivan Smagghe at Rough Trade Paris like it was last week. (Actually, I can remember lots of similar transactions taking place, so this one isn’t unique, but I can’t use this phrase too often, so let’s get it over and done with.) This double pack is all about François K’’s Studio A & Studio B mixes. Each go off in a slightly different direction tempo wise, and each is every bit as good as the other. It’s just a question of choosing the version that best suits the occasion. This particular mix differs from the other in view of the fact that it has a great kick and a better low end. There’s also the intermittent flange and that pervasive electric guitar strum also, around the middle, there’s a bit where the syncopation goes to uncharted regions of the diaphragm. The other mix is a bit more out there, while this one is much more linear and a better tool. Horses for courses innit.
Sunday, June 25, 2023
Track Of The Day: Jesper Dahlbäck & Jean-Louis Huhta - Untitled Midnight Express - B1 (Svek)
Svek was one of the first labels to flirt with dub techno and minimal house. Of course it did this before either thses sub-species had really been invented or defined well enough to be considered as such. So while the label possibly didn’t coin either genre, it became a host for like-minded ideas which pioneered it. I have most of the Svek releases, but it’s the early ones I keep coming back to, particularly those of Alexi Delano, Stephan Grieder and Jesper Dahlback. This track, a joint effort between Dahlback and Jean-Louis Huhta, comes from ‘Midnight Express’, and is one of three untitled, low frequency workouts that examine the dub wise and minimal aspects of house and techno a while before it became the thing to do. The only other label I can think of that was doing something similar is Russ Gabriel’s Ferox, but this is more analytical and specific. There’s nothing to mark this track out, other than a certain ambience and an obvious eye for texture and detail. It’s a pioneering piece of work though, and comes from a period in this label’s life. the influence of which has been far reaching.
Saturday, June 24, 2023
Track Of The Day: Sound Of The Suburbs - I Won't Stop (Jay Tripwire Remix) (London Housing Benefit)
With the cerebrally dissonant as its target audience, this remix of ‘I Won’t Stop’ by Jay Tripwire has perfect, off-kilter credentials. Rolling percussion, a kick at the beginning that sounds like another record being mixed in, a throbber of a bassline and vocal samples that come and go, emphasising as they do the touch of dub. The original is a little bit quicker and, I think, has a sound that resembles the bubble pop from DJ Dozia’s ‘Pop Life’ toned down. And like the original It’s unclean. Which doesn’t mean that it’s leper music, rather that it’s raw and built for some ensuing messiness. This is one of many tracks that the great Peter Hurst has held sway over. Here’s his Bandcamp should you feel so inclined.
Friday, June 23, 2023
Track Of The Day: VC-118A - Plonk (Delsin)
Definitely one of the most original artists working in techno right now: VC-118A, put this one out when the pandemic was getting into full swing. Difficult to work out whether to classify this as electro actually. It has the relevant beat patterns, but it also has a rawness that takes it to another place. And then there’s the industrial bass, generated from somewhere deep inside the Earth’s crust. A location so deep that it can only be inhabited by Morlocks. The break beats are allowed freedom to flourish, but the paradigms are b-boy certified. An absolute belter and unlike anything else. Lovely on orange vinyl too.
Thursday, June 22, 2023
Track Of The Day: Glory B - E.Dub (Grow!)
From the ‘Friday Island EP’ this track by Glory B, aka Martin Retschitzegger and Michael Peter is, for me the quintessential track of this wonderful label straight out of Vienna. Grow! Lasted around 5 years, and I only have around the first 7 or 8 releases, but it’s quite classy deep house with a techy edge. This particular track has a dub feel, and you can definitely hear the influence of Maurizio/Basic Channel/M-Series within the grooves. Label founders, along with Jeremiah, Retschitzegger and Peter, were busy around the time of this release, also releasing as The Skinless Brothers, Die Rhythmiker and Ratio on another great Viennese label, Central, and as Memory Foundation on Robert Hood’s M-Plant.
Holger Zilske - AI Sex (Hypercolour)
Title: AI Sex
Artist: Holger Zilske
Label: Hypercolour
Cat Number: HYPE104
Genre: House
01: AI Sex Pt. 1
02: AI Sex Pt. 2
03: Inside
“Downfall of humanity, isn’t it?” AI is all over the news right now, so it was only a matter of time before something on that theme came onto this blog for a write up. So here’s Holger Zilske, following up last year’s ‘Someone’, also on Hypercolour, with a slo-mo Euro disco throwback respelendent with a cheesy, deadpan AI spoken word vocal, and that’s just Pt. 1. Pt 2 is darker, faster, and dirtier. I wouldn’t play it on acid unless I wanted a good laugh, or wanted to shit myself. Two sides of the same coin as far as sex with machines is concerned I suppose, only the for the vocal in Pt. 2, I’m imagining an x-rated gruffalo. ‘Inside’ is my favourite track on this release, again, a spoken word is used, underpinned by a grinding, percussive foundation. Definitely one that would appeal to the slowed down 120 bpm or thereabouts crowd. All in all, a good release, but I can do without the spoken word on the two title tracks.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Track Of The Day: Barac – One Who Can See In The Dark (Remus Remix) (Shamandrum)
A track like this is very typical of what Barac plays. His sets are made up of finely spun layers, mostly of varying shades of darkness, unified by bass, groove and miscellaneous flourishes; be they vocal samples, off-key harmonics or spaced-put synth lines. All vie for clarity amid the twilight zone, which is constantly distorted through fine filtration and distillation until a concision is achieved. His DJing has been described as “shamanic”, and it’s not hard to see why. On the one hand specific compositions can be recognised, on the other they’re all part of one large composite score designed to raise subconsciousness levels on the dance floor. It’s my suspicion that Barac, like Jay Tripwire, makes music for people on drugs. What is indisputable is that this is music that puts the dancer in a zone from which it is difficult to break out of. This version improves on the original, which has the building blocks in place, but is flat by comparison, lacking swing.
Photonz - The Sun And The Moon (One Eyed Jacks)
Title: The Sun & The Moon
Artist: Photonz
Label: One Eyed Jacks
Cat Number: OEJll002
Genre: House
1: The Sun & The Moon
2: White Pelican
3: The Sun & The Moon (Cigarra Remix)
4: The Sun & The Moon (Kaumel Remix)
With an emphasis on minimal funk and detail, Photonz latest ‘The Sun & The Moon’ is a finely tuned release which relies on the dancer’s discretion further to its mission. I say this because the two original compositions aren’t that danceable. There is enough to work with though, particularly the title track. It’s a dubby tune with recognisably rousing piano samples all heard through a barbiturate haze. ‘White Pelican’ is a looped descent into the underworld and is anything but concrete. The two remixes take ‘The Sun & The Moon’ in different directions. Cigarra’s remix is footwork – inspired, while that of Kaumel unleashes the acid and is the most floor friendly track of the four.
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Track Of The Day: Moodymann - Shades of Jae (KDJ)
If there’s a house track that is simultaneously laid back and upfront, relaxed and urgent. Something that will sound good at any stage of the night, it’s ‘Shades Of Jae’. Its genius is in the way it builds. It doesn’t really stop, but it does. How long is a piece of string? As long as this tantalizing track I reckon. One aspect of it is that it sounds like it’s being mixed live, and the pauses, the occasional silence, the rewinds. This is one of those records that can raise the dead. Moodymann could just have made this one track and his legacy would be assured.
Code Industry - Strucutre (Dark Entries)
Title: Structure
Artist: Code Industry
Label: Dark Entries
Cat Number: DE303
Genre: EBM
1: Behind The Mirror (Image Mix)
2: Behind The Mirror (Release Of Anguish Mix)
3: Fury
4: Dead City
5: Crimes Against The People
6: Ail
Code Industry was a rare thing; “black artists working in the idiom of EBM and industrial” and tackling “issues of racism, the media and the hypocrisy of patriotism”. Drawing on the likes of Chelmsford’s finest (Nitzer Ebb) and Front 242, this release, originally unleashed on Antler-Subway, doesn’t sound dated at all. ‘Fury’ definitely has the stamp of Nitzer Ebb, with the shouting and the stridency. It’s a powerful, jet-propelled piece of work and is, thankfully, the longest track on this release. It could be twice as long and I wouldn’t be sick of it. That’s what you get when the synths are posture sprung I suppose. There is an awful lot of shouting on this record innit. The cries of “Burn It Up”, “Shoot It Up”, etc, on ‘Dead City’ are interspersed with what sounds like tonally different spoken word samples, dropped for dramatic effect from lost radio broadcasts. There’s a live feel to ‘Crimes Against The People’, drums and guitar clashing with ascending and descending deadpan keys. Omnipresent within the primal dirge is more spoken word, and whispered vocals not a million miles away in tone from Steven Mallinder’s. The vocals on ‘Ail’ also bring tom mind discofied Cabaret Voltaire, as does its rhythmic jerkiness. The two mixes of ‘Behind The Mirror’ are different enough in tone and length so as to come across as two completely unrelated tracks. The ‘Image Mix’ being a very uptempo, vocally led tune (I’ve already alluded to vocal style), and the ‘Release Of Anguish Mix’ a slower, ominous foil built around spoken word and a sense of gradual decay. This is a fabulous, and very timely (re) release and I’m going to be playing it and annoying the neighbours with it every chance I get.
Monday, June 19, 2023
Track Of The Day: DJ Assassin - Face In The Crowd (Intellidread Mix) (Cross Section)
Chris Simmonds’ Cross Section label put out some proper bangers towards the end of the nineties, and this is one of them. DJ Assassin, who also made the superb ‘Jazz Journey’, has his ‘Face In The Crowd’ track stripped won and fleshed out. Reduced, if you will, to a pounding kick, a sub bass, a vocal and a dissonant buzz. That’s about it pop pickers; clarity is all though, as far as this interpretation is concerned and while the vocal might not be everyone’s cup of tea, in conjunction with the confrontational beats, it’s a winner.
J. Wiltshire - sun link (Super Hexagon Records)
Title: sun link
Artist: J. Wiltshire
Label: Super Hexagon Records
Cat Number: SHLP002
Genre: Abstract Breaks
1: sun link
2: century
3: drilled into
4: west uns
5: slk6
6: gothub beginnings
7: formless in the antichamber
8: up/upside down
‘sun link’. Super Hexagon co-founder J. Wiltshire’s debut album for the label, is an episodic piece of elemental techno ambience that soundtracks an imaginary English summer, evoking historical strata as it does. It’s an evocation of freedom and the countryside idyll of the mind. It also typifies a certain strain of idm, not there at the beginning, but one that has evolved, built on break beats and whimsy tempered with solemnity. The compositions, with the exception of the strolling ‘gothub beginnings’ and the beatless/ambient pair of ‘century’ and ‘formless in the antichamber’ all follow this blueprint to a lesser or greater extent. Starting in the form of the synapse snapping title track, a peak of sorts is reached with the not too dissimilar ‘west uns’, before the reflective and high tensile spider web beats of ‘slk 6’. A track whose dramatic persona is belied by its lightness of touch. Nothing here is immediately as it seems, and repeated listens only open one up to new experiences.
