Computer Controlled Records

The Lost Trax

Mike Servito

Drum Vortex - Mor Elian (Hypercolour)

Title: Drum Vortex

Artist: Mor Elian

Label: Hypercolour

Cat Number: HYPE053

Genre: Techno

A1: Drum Vortex

A2: Drum Vortex (Joey Anderson Remix)

B1: Drum Vortex (Markus Suckut Remix)

B2: Basma

It is what it is. A bounding, loping percussive bouncer in its original form with some dubby accoutrements and crepuscular keys discordantly piped in. Markus Suckut takes things down a tadge, but not enough so that the track loses its sense of self. It’s left to Joey Anderson to do that with a version which feels reductive but contains multitudes. ‘Basma’ takes its cues from the original, but feels like its shadow, albeit one emphasizing different facets. A finely-textured and subtle release.

Rant

It’s difficult to describe the last week really. Since last Friday morning the atmosphere has changed in this country for obvious reasons; I have the feeling that I don’t live in a proper country anymore, but a composite of Trumpton, Chigley and Camberwick Green. This is just the beginning too, as this referendum saw bullshit on an unparalleled scale with zero accountability. I’ve obviously been immersed in the football for the last few weeks as well, with England’s sorry, but entirely predictable demise mirroring the country’s current political debacle.  An insular nation producing an insular team which is culturally redundant and places style over substance. There are no proper candidates to follow the owl  . . . How much was he paid? £3.8m a year, or something like that. He should have been sacked after the last World Cup, but this nation savours failure as long as it preserves the status quo. What’s ironic is that the referendum failed in that it didn’t preserve it. It exists for a reason, to make humanity a better, more caring adventure and to have a set of common rules and regulations that everyone has to adhere to, no matter what. The contempt that the Leave campaign has for these standards is, I think, borne out of an envy that they didn’t think of it first. I keep on thinking back to the 1970s and American petty jealousy   of Concorde. Also of Baseball, Basketball and American Football. World Champions on their own soil. It’s slowly going that way here, but as far as football is concerned, England have so under-achieved that they’d be hard-pushed to win a tournament consisting of Gibralter, The Faroes and themselves. It’ll be island championships in the future, but not including Iceland. The old chap who lives next door summed it up: voted Leave for no other reason than he had been scared into doing so by the Daily Mail, and when he spoke to my wife the next day (she’s French), thought he was being conciliatory when he pointed out that “the French are congratulating us”, until she pointed out that it was the Front National doing this, not any credible government. We were at a barbecue the weekend before at a friend’s. There was another couple there who we didn’t know. Once the bloke found out my wife’s nationality he couldn’t stop talking about how great France is, how they are over there all the time, what was his French like? Etc; we were leaving at 5 to meet my eldest son but just before we had started to get our skates on he brought up the referendum. “Oh I’m voting Leave because I hate Brussels and its bureaucracy”,  and off he went. I was thankful for the excuse to leave. The only reason for Brexit is to empower the right wing generally in this country and to further dilute worker’s rights. The only silver lining for me personally, on the other hand, was that I had a satisfactory insurance payout on my records, although I still can’t play any of them because our flood-damaged house is still recuperating and shit is everywhere. The summer has been crap so far and shows no signs of recovery, so here’s a chart. The first for a while.

Stuff I Like In Spite Of The Shite Going On At The Moment:

Acido 22 – Convextion (Acido)

NS012 – Levon Vincent (Novel Sound)

Scenes – Studio OST (Lustwerk Music)

Structures & Rhythms 94-99 – DJ Guy (Organic Analogue)

Interstellar – Jeremiah R (Instruction)

Conjure – DJ Qu (Strength Music)

Previsto – Leonardo Martelli (Antinote)

I See What You Did There – 214 (Shipwreck)

No Sleep Not In America – Savile (Stripped & Chewed)

DJ Safety – Suzanne Kraft (Kitjen)

Mark Foreshaw

Dan Bell

Current Inhibition

It’s difficult to get started at the moment at our place. The house still looks a mess in the aftermath of the flood. We’ve still got an industrial drier blasting out on the dining room, trying to get the last vestiges of moisture out of the newly exposed floorboards. Added to that, there’s the football, which I’ve been glued to for over a week now. Just as well, because even though voting in the EU referendum couldn’t be more important, I’m fed up with it, particularly in the aftermath of the Jo Cox murder. Annoyingly I can’t even play my records because all my equipment is mothballed in the front room, waiting to go into storage.

So, I know this is a music blog, but the vote on Thursday could change everyone’s lives, particularly those below middle age. Unfortunately it’s been turned into a clash of ideologies and those in the Leave camp are the best advert to vote Remain. The EU isn’t perfect, but when I look at the leanings of most of those who want out, as well as the fact that a lot of rights workers enjoy in this country have come as a result of EU legislation, I think the choice is an easy one. I’ll leave it at that.

So the music has been on hold for a couple of weeks, but will resume over the next few days. It’s been a while since I put a chart together, but I haven’t bought much so far this year and, judging from whatever I have in my shopping cart at Juno staying in it while I bide my time, I have a feeling that sales aren’t what they used to be. Still, that doesn’t have any influence on the way I consume music, but I have set my sights on more limited and less frequently released editions these days.

I’m all about togetherness and internationalism. I hope my friends are too.

Sean Dixon

Timeworm EP - 2030 (Black Crow)

Title: Timeworm EP

Artist: 2030

Label: Black Crow

Cat Number: BC006

Genre: Deep House/Techno

A1 In aeternum

A2 In aeternum (Luke Hess remix)

B1 Timeworm

B2 Timeworm (Deep'a & Biri Interpretation 1)

B3 Timeworm (Deep'a & Biri Interpretation 2)

Detroit copyists come and go, but the music can be so emotive that I don’t care who makes it as long as it takes me to another place. This EP does just that, the two original versions having been constructed with so much obvious reverence that Italy’s 2030 belies his European heritage in the process. Nothing else here tops this pair; The remixes, however, are more direct, Luke Hess’s remix is a cleaner than either offered by label heads Deep’a & Biri; which go down a similar (but faster and spacier) route, even though they are rerubs of a different track. Did they need to remix it twice? Not on this evidence, but it won’t cost you any more to buy the whole release as a result, so no big deal.