All posts by Phonopsia

The Ae Ritual

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.

Top 10 for September

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

Surgeon @ Plastic People

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 Vinyls

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

Bootytronics

Got to Public Life @ 7:55, with a few minutes to wipe off the sweat, grab a water and collect myself before I started spinning. Nick and I split the first two hours of our set into thirty minute chunks. I offered to go first, and struggled a little with battle-style tables and a crazy cross-fader that slid all over the place when you didn’t even touch it. After my first (slow, around 110 bpm, maybe up to 120) set, Nick suggested we move the tables horizontally. Light bulb number one. I played two Moodymann tracks, and Nick played a Theo Parrish remix and one of our mutually favorite Theo Parrish tracks, ‘Falling Up’ (he played the whole damn thing too). 🙂 So I got back on, and felt marginally more comfortable, and a few friends had arrived, and a few others wandered in. Then after that next bit, in which I went properly east coast with my housing (and jacked it up to 125-128ish), and a few fuck ups with the cross fader, Nick suggested we turn it off. Lightbulb number 2. Actually, I had looked all over this mixer for the on/off switch, and it was in a totally unlikely spot in the upper left-hand corner (sort of), just to the left of the Channel 1 EQ’s. WTF??? Anyway. That was sorted. As I got off, most of the posse arrived, and Nick really got into his 2nd half-hour, throwing down some Relief gems and the like. It was really nice. Everyone loves that shit. Then we opted to go two-on/two-off for the last hour, which was fucking wicked. We both had an awesome time, fed off each other, and totally jacked the crowd to hell. It was really fun. Played a bit of techno, but mostly just house with depth and considerable energy, at a pretty fast tempo. Finished with “Who’s Pussy is This”.

Afterwards, Brendan and Guy came on for their Ableton + scratching debut, which was nice. Most of the Brixton massive and the extended family headed off to Lost, leaving Mark, Steve and I there with a suddenly fairly-vacant club. The set was quite interesting, with a ton of great moments, but overall it was far too intense for me in that state. Cutlass Supreeme finished up with a really nice set of ghetto tek, booty and drum ‘n bass, all worked together nicely, with some really good scratching in parts.

Brett Dancer and Larry Heard at Barrumba

Brett Dancer and Larry Heard played at Barrumba tonight, and their sets were every bit as good as their sets at the Trackmode/Sound Signature party @ DEMF 2001. I hardly recognized any of Brett Dancer’s set, but maybe 30 minutes in he dropped Attend 1, which instantaneously catapulted me into dancefloor readyness. How f*ckin’ good is that song loud??? Must’ve heard it out at least 10 times this Summer and played it countless times at home. It just doesn’t get old or lose anything. Anyway, his whole 2-hour set was tight as hell, some Theo-style EQing throughout, and really got the dancefloor moving.

Then Larry Heard dropped the tempo down to about 110bpm, played some really nice slow stuff for about 20-30 minutes, then it got a bit noodly and ploddish for my taste for the next 20-30 minutes, but then he kicked it back in and all the stops were pulled. Within the next half-hour he played Energy Flash into that crazy wobbly acid song that has something to do with Whiskey. He played this insane track that I’ve heard a couple of times with this nearly Fix Flash style synth line that jocks back and forth between that and deeper pads with a drum ‘n bass style wobbly sine wave sub bass sound that devastates. After that he played a version of John Redman’s ‘People Everyday’ that sounded completely reworked from the original Cajual tune. Throughout all of this Brett Dancer would occasionally grab the EQs and jack away for a bit. 🙂 He also threw in ‘Change For Me’, Cajmere’s ‘Lookin’ For a Man’ and concluded his two-hour set with Plastic Dreams, at which point the mic dude came on.

He made us give it up for Brett Dancer and Larry Heard, which all were very happy to do, then he mentioned the special guest. Had I realized there was one, it may have occured to me that seeing Robert Owens in the DJ booth earlier meant something, or that he was working up to something when he was tearing up the dancefloor, but then they announced that he was the special guest, and it clicked. This was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. They started with ‘Can you Feel It’, with both Larry Heard and Robert Owens singing in parts, and Robert Owens freestyle singing over the remainder. The second song had a chorus that had something to do with life. I recognized it but I don’t know the name. The third song (I think) was Mysteries of Love, which was a vocal version that he sang on top of, and in response to the existing vocals on the record. Wicked! The conclusion was Distant Planet, and frankly, it was f*cking stunning. Jamie and I were completely gobsmacked throughout.

Duke

Am just listening to Andrew Duke’s remixes of me for the 2nd time (first time on speakers). It’s bloody weird hearing someone remix you! The remix of ‘Frosting’ is not the first I’ve heard, since Christian Bloch has already had a go at it, but this one is really faithful to the original, but a nice variation, and about 50bpm slower. It’s really slow. The remix of ‘In Flight Defibrillator’, which he aptly titled ‘Flight 313’ is almost unrecognizeable, and much more dancefloor. I may need to play it out on Sunday. It’s quite driving and dubby with a slightly clicky edge. At any rate, this is cool stuff. Need more time to digest them!