Thursday, October 29, 2020
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Maelstrom - Eliphino (Hypercolour)
Title: Maelstrom
Artist: Eliphino
Label: Hypercolour
Cat Number: HYPE087
Genre: House/Breaks/Electro
1: Maelstrom
2: Bubbling Glass
3: Eddy
4: One Day
This is Eliphino’s second Hypercolour outing, the first one being back in 2013, a fact the depresses me slightly, “The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over The Hills” and all that. So here we are and what has changed? His previous outing for the label, ‘I Don't Care/Understand’ matched vocals over light, syncopated beats. ‘Maelstrom’, on the other hand, spreads its influences more thinly, with the title track harkening back a little to its predecessor, ‘Bubbling Glass’ and ‘One Day’ being electro tinged, and ‘Eddy’ an epileptic exercise in breaks, neatly mixing abstraction with shape throwing. It’s an impressively varied release with each track being neither one thing nor the other.
1998 - Boxia (Balkan Digital)
Title: 1998
Artist: Boxia
Label: Balkan Digital
Cat Number: BD18
Genre: Techno
1: Ariel Acid (Biology Mix)
2: 1998
3: Call Me Romantic (Love Will Save The Day Mix)
4: Call Me Romantic (Love Will Save The Day Vocal Mix)
Is it possible to be claustrophobic and spacious at the same time? Probably not, but those are two of the adjectives that first come to my mind when listening to this steam hammer of a release which, in spite of its occasional dense, pounding racousness, is eloquent and sophisticated also, displaying a lightness of touch within the sonic void. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the two mixes of ‘Call Me Romantic’, which mixes industrial drone with respiratory beats as a counterpoint. The ‘Vocal Mix’ uses a low frequency spoken word to distinguish it (I don’t know what it’s saying btw). ‘Ariel Acid’ meanwhile, is a big room banger full of suppressed power and menace, while ‘1998’ is an airy adventure into a funky filled minimal techno interzone. Lovely stuff.
Saturday, October 10, 2020
Friday, October 09, 2020
Time Traveler & Your Ghost In Me - Kito Jempere (Kito Jempere Recordings)
Title: Time Traveler/Your Ghost In Me
Artist: Kito Jempere
Label: Kito Jempere Recordings
Cat Number: KJR014/KJR015
Genre: House
1: Time Traveler feat. Cedric Gasaida & Lipells Mujuice
2: Time Traveler feat. Cedric Gasaida & Lipells Mujuice (Cable Toy Remix)
3: Time Traveler feat. Cedric Gasaida & Lipells Mujuice (Errotica Remix)
4: Your Ghost In Me Feat. Hard Ton Noteless (Radio Version)
5: Your Ghost In Me Feat. Hard Ton Noteless (Lipelis Remix)
6: Your Ghost In Me Feat. Hard Ton Noteless (Moonoton Call Me Back Remix)
Bonkers this. The original version of ‘Time Traveler’ is an aspirational neo psychedelic romp which has echoes of Larry Heard and Serge Gainsbourg (if you’re not getting that, it’s fine). It could be the result of too many drugs or not enough. The ‘Cable Toy Remix’ is starker and the production feels sharper and, consequently, more pretentious. Then we have the chugging, acidic ‘Errotica Remix’ that has ALFOS potential. ‘Your Ghost In Me (Radio Version)’ could be the next Russian entry to Eurovision. It’s extremely full of itself, but hopefully not without a sense of irony. Both the ‘Lipelis Remix’ and the ‘Moonoton Call Me Back Remix’ have the potential to do dance floor damage in a funk fuelled 1980s parallel world. Which is nice.
Wednesday, October 07, 2020
Tuesday, October 06, 2020
Monday, October 05, 2020
Glacial Raid - La Vie C'est Facile (Creaked)
Title: Glacial Raid
Artist: La Vie C’est Facile
Label: Creaked
Cat Number: CRDS62
Genre: Bass
1: Ultraviolet
2: Neptune
3: Emperor
4: Transform
5: Raiden
It’s either a worrying trend, or a sign of the times. Either way, this is the second release I’ve reviewed this week that’s incorporated clothes into its package. La Vie C’est Facile have socks, and previously a hoodie and a sweatshirt. It’s a buyer’s market I suppose. The music, on the other hand, is more interesting, if a little uniform across this release. Listening to the five tracks sequentially, as one is liable to do, there seems to be little difference in regularity. One merges into the next and the experience is a panoramic one. On closer scrutiny more detail is revealed and the world created more enveloping. This strain of grime is a high frequency one, albeit underpinned by low-end rumblings, and has a dank, threatening ambience.
Esta Noche EP - Rodion & Alejandro Paz (Lumiere Noir Records)
Title: Esta Noche EP
Artist: Rodion & Alejandro Paz
Label: Lumiere Noir Records
Cat Number: LN030
Genre: Darkside Chug
1: Esta Noche
2: Esta Noche (Fabrizio Mammarella Remix)
3: Una Vez Mas
4: Dime Que No
‘Esta Noche’ follows up the impressive ‘Diaoul’ on Chloe’s Lumiere Noir’ and, if anything, I love it more. It’s a disorientating drive through a post-disco hinterland, where the happiness count is carefully calibrated against a darker, more deliberate arcane sense of dynamics. Both versions of the title track hit home, with Fabrizio Mammarella’s more stripped down metallic take being an aboe variant of the fuller sounding original. Both ‘Una Vez Mas’ and ‘Dime Que No’ offer different views through the dance floor looking glass. There’s plenty of melody, but also a healthy amount of dislocationas well; which is, as well as a propensity for invoking various deities through the medium of high frequency but chugtastic BPM with disembodied vocals, what it’s all about.
Thursday, October 01, 2020
Interstellar Rhythm - 30303 (Vault Wax)
Title: Interstellar Rhythm
Artist: 30303
Label: Vault Wax
Cat Number: VWX003
Genre: Techno
A1: Acid Sun
A2: Cosmos
A3: Moon Acid
B1: Eclipse
B2: Acid Galaxy
‘Interstellar Rhythm’ summarises this release very nicely. Traversing a range of astronomically tinged tempos with a significant side order of transcendentalism thrown in, we start with the rocketing synth driven drum and bass of ‘Acid Sun’. And then experience the full bodied reentry vibes of ‘Cosmos’, where acid and break beats combine to devilish effect. ‘Moon Acid’ does desolation very well, while ‘Eclipse’ and ‘Acid Galaxy’ ratchet up the intensity. I’m not as keen on these two as I am on the first three, which use their background elements marvelously well.
Chart: October 2020
Chart: October 2020
Artificiality – Sepehr (Klakson)
Doing Regular Things – Reedale Rise (Frustrated Funk)
Workshop 29 – DJ Slyngshot (Workshop)
Nanel 005 – Nanel (Nanel)
Crunch/Plonk – VC-118A (Delsin)
Kingston EP – Dylan Forbes (Echocentric)
