Monthly Archives: September 2003

New/Reviews

Another haul

Leave a comment

It’s pay day!

Afronaught : Transcend Me / Outta Range (classic Broken Beat reissue)

John Arnold : Anaconda / Rough (pure funk with a thick beat)

Bola : Fyuti

Bola : Soup (how could I sleep on these for so long)?

C2C4: Specimen 1 and 2 (Moxie 03, Carl Craig’s re-edit of the Talking Heads ‘Once in a Lifetime. Never noticed that the synth bloops throughout seem to dip and dive in pitch (in the sample itself). Weird).

Cosy Creatures : Freedom EP (Joshua-esque bassline-driven toon from Belgium on DJ Sneak’s ‘Oomph’. Also reminds me of Paper in it’s heydey)

DJs Collapse : Jaw Funk / Shinbone (Herbert + Mouse On Mars on Soundslike. Sounds like Ennio Morricone getting Herberted and Moused in the bassment. Weird)!

Domu & Volcov : The Last Of The Great Apes EP (Nice Titonton mix)

Titonton Duvante : Raunchy EP (More Titonton – very very nice)

Force Of Nature : Dark Nebula (very tech-y broken remix from Moonstarr)

Freedom Soundz Feat. Vanessa Freeman : Feelings EP (new from Alex Attias on Nepenta. Sick vocal. Flip also sounds great)!

Global Soul : Look Into Yourself (the Seiji mix has been caned @ Co-op for ages, which has an unusually full-on vocal for him. Never heard the Alex Attias mix before, but it’s wicked. An almost straight beat with a very broken vocal cut-up. Sounds nice)!

Infinity Plus One : Rhythmic Unison / Looking Like U Sound (sick, limited acid cut-up thing)

LFO : Sheath (YAY!)

Madlib : Madlib Remixes (dope remix of Gangstarr, haven’t heard the rest yet)

The Neptunes : Present… Clones (’bout time I got this, right)?

Nubian Mindz Feat. KJ : Casablanca (very different for them – quite housey)

PC Synergy : Madrugada EP (same label ‘Drenched’ as the Infinity Plus One release above – house chugger, seems really varied)

Pest : Chicken Spit (really nice instrumental hip hop thing on Ninja Tune, which apparently has a broken beat version as well. Very nice for the original, but took a chance on it in hopes the flip delivers too)

Prassay : Krvsin (DJ Gregory one-sider, reissued on Wall of Sound. Big)!

Scott Ferguson: ‘Gnosis EP’ (nothing ground breaking, but contains some nice slow groovers)

Spacek : Vintage Hi.Tech (the high praise this week seems to be completely deserved)

Steppah Huntah : Walk This Step (includes Seiji remix, which is surprisinlgly noodly for him. The original has a really tasty morphing bassline. Definitely worth checking)

32 Project : The Root Of World (mo’ Hiroshe Witanabe)

Truby Trio : Universal Love (wicked Detroity house remix from Ame on the flip)

Louie Vega : Nico’s Song / Africa/Brasil (beautifully musical, but never pisses on itself. For his son)

Various Artists : Radius EP 3 (one really nice Metro Area-esque track from the ’80s on this)

v/a – Headspace 2003 Sampler (all very nice. Well done boys)!

New/Reviews

The Ae Ritual

Leave a comment

So I got the two most recent Autechre albums in my last big haul. I recall that when Tri Repetae came out, I had just started to really get them, after the Anti-ep, Amber, Garbage and Anil Vapre had really made an impression (the earlier stuff is not as consistent IMO). I had invested a lot of time and energy into learning their music, when I’d clearly not come from the same musical roots. Electro was a foreign thing to me, intentionally thwarting the steadyness I typically gravitated towards. But between the GPR and AI stuff of the time, I started to catch on. Even when it didn’t always have immediate appeal, I knew it would be music that would be worth the time required to get acquainted.

So Tri Repetae came out, and I rushed home from the store, slapped on my headphones, laid down in bed with the lights off, and let it roll. I couldn’t believe the result. The first 7 tracks were so intense I had to stop, and revisit the rest later. I needed a smoke, and couldn’t even finish the album. I don’t know that any other album has ever made such an impact on me so fast, which really took me by surprise after my past reactions. To this day, those first seven songs really stand out in my mind as being about as good as their 7 other best songs.

After that, with Keynell, that Gescom thing on Clear, En Vain, Chiastic Slide, EP5 and LP7, I always found one stand-out track and a few other goodies, but I was never sold on the whole thing. And on each of these there was one track with some of the most amazing melodies I’ve heard. They also busted out a few remixes in this time, like of Soft Ballet Forms and that one on !K7, which really hit the spot. But like I was saying, something of the album/ep coherence was lost. By and large I only revisited specific tracks.

Then I lost track of them for a while. When I first laid hands on Confield and Draft 7.30, I couldn’t bring myself to put them on, partly for fear of squashed expectations, and partly because I wanted to allow myself the opportunity to ingest them with patience and relaxation. I finally got through most of the other records last weekend, and Sunday afternoon I pulled up the bean bag into the Circle 5’s sweet spot, moved an ash tray over and filled my glass of water, preparing for two hours of attentive listening.

I’m not going to go into the content itself much since it’s all been covered already, and it’s old news really, but I have to note that Confield really holds together well as an album. What a treat it was to have such amazing sound right in my face. Such an improvement over listening in headphones! To my surprise, there was no stand-out track, but I liked them all even if no single track elevated me to the heights of some of my earlier favorites.

Thankfully, Draft 7.30 rediscovers melody towards the end of the album. But while I can conceptually appreciate their new directions, the noise to melody ratio is a bit lopsided for me, and those songs near the end with the great melodies that I look for tend to devolve into goo before I’m done enjoying where it was at. Sure, that’s the point, but it just doesn’t cut it for me. Oh, and what’s up with the flanger abuse on the first track? Eeew. I don’t want to rail on the whole thing because there are some very fine moments, and some really cool innovation. I’ll be sure to give it some more listens before pronouncing final judgement. Maybe I just need to gear up for a learning process again? It would be unfair not to give them the same benefit of the doubt that I did in the past. Or maybe I should give Confield some time to sink in before I try to leap four years into the future.

Charts

Top 10 for September

Leave a comment

In no particular order:

Alison David : Dreams Come True – Goya Music

Dimlite : A/DD EP – Sonar Kollectiv

DJ Gregory : Elle – Faya Combo

Phil Parnell : Runaway (includes Mantis remix) – Mantis

Pharrell : Frontin’ (Yam Who Remix) – YAM

Riton : Cast Of Thousands / Found My Love – Grand Central

Chief Beef – The Golden Girl (inc Brooks mix) – Sleight Of Hand

Julien Jabre – Paixao – Elias

Dudley Perkins (produced by Madlib) – A Lil Light – Stones Throw

Clyde Feat. Capitol A : Serve It Up! (Brooks remix) – Mantis

Clubs/Parties

Surgeon @ Plastic People

Leave a comment

Surgeon played a fantastic set tonight at Plastic People. Absurdly loud, but all over the electronic music spectrum, including some weird Surgeonized P-Funk track (I think), The Stone Roses ‘Fools Gold’, two Nitzer Ebb tracks, one of which was ‘Join in the Chant’, the Carl Craig’s Drums Suck remix of Dave Angel’s ‘Take Off’ (or is it ‘Airborne’???), some crazy nearly-gabber Aphex Twin, D.H.S.’s ‘The House of God’, New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ (the first time I’ve actually enjoyed this out in a club in years), Tres Demented, Kraftwerk’s ‘Home Computer’ (never getting to the vocal), teased us with bits of At Les flute that never culminated in the song itself, loads of electro and IDMish electro, some acidic techno, a lot of Surgeonized edits of tracks that I can’t remember, culminating in some weird gabber/noisecore thing leading into something I can’t remember and then a UR track that has huge strings that reminds me of the beginning of Laurent Garnier’s ‘Dance to the Music’. There were even a couple of housey moments in there. He mixed fast and long throughout, was as tight as you’d expect from Surgeon, with a few tempo changes, sacrificing none of his precision or coherence to the breadth of this set. Surprisingly he played very few of his own tracks that I could spot, which is a complete turn-around from when I saw him in New York in 2001. Somehow he fit all of this into two hours.

A couple of times in the set Regis would get on the microphone and scream like a profane madman. One bit ended with ‘learn your lesson’. Although I didn’t catch it, I’m told he was also whispering things about ‘your daughter’ softly in the background. Also, the Werk guys who threw the party (and the Ghostly party last month) all had nice PA’s to warm things up. The only downside is that there were times (particularly during the gabber and noise bed bit at the end) when the (easily abusable) sound was utterly damaging, and throughout most of the night it was a bit too loud, even if it was still clear. If you haven’t seen him in the last year, run don’t walk because he has absolutely taken his sets to a whole new level, as evidenced by this set and his possibly even better set at ATP this Spring. The man is really pushing boundaries. He, not Hawtin, is the poster boy for Final Scratch, and what it can empower you to do.

New/Reviews

New Vinyls

Leave a comment

Groovetech ginormo sale:

A Reminiscent Drive – Ambrosia (CD) – FComm

Gilgamesh – Trescore – Fragile

H&M – Tranquilizer – Axis

Joe Clausell feat. Chuck Perkins – Jazz Funeral

Aphrodisiac – Pressure Drop – Fragile (already had a copy, but how can you say no at only £1.58???)

Santal feat Terrence Downs – Past and Future – Guidance

Underground Evolution – Primordial Passage – Peacefrog

Jimi Tenor – Spell – Warp

1954 – Redshot – 21/22 Corp

CiM – Two You See (Sampler) – Defocus

Jeff Mills – Metropolis – Tresor

Juryman – Remixes From The Hill – SSR

Stacey Pullen – Vertigo – Science

Hakan Lidbo – Noise Obscourities – Moody

Autechre – Confield – Warp

Santal Featuring Titus – Be With You – Guidance

Aardvark – Emsees – Music For Speakers

Velocette – Voda – Reflective

Jeff Mills – AX-009ab – Axis

Purveyors Of Fine Funk – Purveyors Of Fine Funk – Nepenta

Romanthony – Never Fu*k – You

James Duncan – Sounds Of A City

Dan Curtin – Superficial Paradise Ep – Groovetech

Vikter Duplaix – Sensuality – Le Systeme Records

G Darsa – Headcore Ep – Versatile

Aardvark – Find A Cow – Delsin

Wyndell Long – Sexuality – Paparazzi

Relaxo Abstracto – Inflatable Scream – Music For Speakers

Optik Nerve – Optical – Delsin

L’il Louis – Whistle Song Edit – Do U Luv Me Re Edit

System 7 and Derrick May – Mysterious Traveller (D12) – A-Wave

Adonis presents Hieroglyphic Being – I F – Mathematics

Procreation – Rhythmatism – Compost

Tom Noble – Muito Legal – Laws of Motion

KSR – Down From The Sky (Octave One Mix) – 430 West

Kaito – Special Life – Kompakt

T Polar – Escort Girls – Modernism

Madslinky – Cargo – Laws of Motion

Planetary Assault Systems – Archives 2 (DLP) – Peacefrog

Alexi Delano feat. Robert Manos remix by Metro Area JT Donaldson Charles Webster – Round And Round Remixes – Statra

Scott Ferguson – Death Of The Diggers – Ferris Park

Autechre – Draft 7.30 – Warp

Unknown Artist – Trapez ltd 5 – Trapez

Diego – Raster II – Kanzleramt

Rima – This World (DLP) – JCR

Broadcast – Pendulum – Warp

Russ Gabriel – In The Boat EP – Nepenta

Piccadilly:

Annie : I Will Get On

Creative Use 001 : The Bootleg Of Dorothy Parker / Don’t Go Cool

Alison David : Dreams Come True

Dimlite : A/DD EP

DJ Gregory : Elle

Pavel Kostiuk : And The Musicals

Phil Parnell : Runaway

Theo Parrish : Natural Aspirations

Theo Parrish : First Floor Part 2

Pharrell : Frontin’ (Yam Who Remix)

Riton : Cast Of Thousands / Found My Love

Slope : Trust The Universe – Atjazz Remix

Brooks : The Distance / Mao Rox

The Underwolves: Let’s Get Lost / Sunrise

Chateau Flight : Cosmic Race

Chaka Domu Vs Buju Volcov : Souljah

Willis : Paper & Stone (Brooks remix)

Various Artists : Detroit Beatdown Remixes 1:1

VJ:

The Mighty Bop feat Duncan Roy – I Will Go Crazy – Yellow

Kemeticjust – Do You Remember (inc Pepe Bradock / Charles Webster mixes) – Silver

Noonday Underground – Boy Like A Timebomb ( Brooks Remix) / Go It Alone / Hallejah – Setanta

Chief Beef – The Golden Girl (inc Brooks mix) – Sleight Of Hand

Julien Jabre – Paixao – Elias

Dudley Perkins (produced by Madlib) – A Lil Light – Stones Throw

Koobla:

Clyde Feat. Capitol A : Serve It Up! (Brooks remix) – Mantis