Category Archives: Music

Gigs

[313] Party @ Public Life

Leave a comment

So… arrived @ Public Life pretty much right on time. Max came on before me and played a nice set of quirky/slower techno/idm, ending with Kraftwerk’s Neon Lights, at precisely the right speed for me to mix out of it. Wicked! This is what I followed it up with, from 10:15-11:00:

  • Luke Vibert – Acidisco – Warp
  • Moodymann – Shattered Dreams – Peacefrog
  • Meg – Kouro (Theo Parrish Remix) – Joint Records
  • Fabrice Lig – Meet U in Brooklyn – Playhouse
  • James Duncan – Times Like These (B2) – Le Systeme
  • John Arnold w/Amp Fiddler – Get Yourself Together – Ubiquity
  • 32 Project AKA Hiroshi Watanabe – Summon – Ibadan
  • Chicken Lips – Bad Skin – !K7
  • Riton – Cast of Thousands – Grand Central
  • Infinity Plus One – Rhythmatic Unison – Drenched
  • Ennio Morricone – Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo (Swell Session Remix) – Compost Records

I was followed by Dan Butler, who played some deep-as-hell techno, then mah boyee Matt Chester picked up the tempo a bit, but not sacrificing an ounce of funk, then Lunar Selector played a fantastic Ableton set packed with classics and new stuff alike, going all over the place. The last Ableton set I saw Brendan do was a bit frezied for my taste in parts, although still really impressive, but this one was bang-on-the-money throughout. He even finished with my remix of The Shit, although Guy faded it out after about 60 seconds, not realising what it was – the bastard. 😉 Guy Thackeray closed things out with another really nice set, although I must confess the memory becomes a bit more faint at this point. All I know is that I had a great time, and the music throughout the night was all top notch. As Brendan said, it all worked really well together. An excellent progression from start to finish.

New/Reviews

On Receipt

Leave a comment

The AM Feat. Sky : Choose To Believe – Not the most stunning Mahogani yet, but very good none-the-less. Think it’ll be a grower.

Fabrice Lig : Meet U In Brooklyn – The A side is the one that does it for me, with chunky retro drum machines, huge claps and Fabrice style synths that strangely fit really well. An excellent departure, with all the Fabrice Lig character crammed in there still. The B side is good too, and a strange cross between UR stabs, disco strings and Metro Area synths. Must be heard for its balls and originality.

Meg : MGRMX – Haven’t had a proper chance to injest all of this yet, and to be honest the Theo track stands out so much, I don’t know that I’ll ever properly give the rest of it the attention it deserves. The Theo remix is easilly one of his best efforts ever. Unusually clean production for him, a good pressing, and gorgeous vocal treatments compliment some amazing instrumentation. This is pure beautty with a devastating groove. The one remix justifies the unusually low price (at least in the UK).

Various Artists : A Secret History – It’s an amazing presentation, down to those best-of-both-worlds, paper-on-the-outside, plastic-on-the-inside sleeves. I’m really happy to have an excellent pressing of Peut Etre Pas, Visgage, Problems D’Amore and the rest. Shamefully, I didn’t own any before, so this is both a unique offering, and a huge penny saver.

Various Artists : Iridite Productions Present Electron Music – Really like the whole thing. 4 tracks of tasty, big Detroit/Glasgow techno. On first listen, I think the last track is my favorite, but they’re all nice fo sho.

Various Artists : Sun Ra Dedication – The Myth Lives On – Late catching up on this one, but very happy to have done so. I think the Alex Attias (Mustang) version of Nuclear War is the stand-out for me so far, with the Vanessa Freeman version of Astro Black in close second at the moment, but can tell I’ll really need some time with this one.

New/Reviews

These are on the way

Leave a comment

(and yes you’re right, I shouldn’t have)

The AM Feat. Sky : Choose To Believe Already mentioned lots. Short new (possibly) Alton Miller thing on Mahogani. Tasty.

Chicken Lips : Bad Skin / Skin Bad Not sure what to make of this one yet, but sounds quirky and good from the online snip. Took a chance on it for £5er.

Fabrice Lig : Meet U In Brooklyn Very disco-y but with some characteristic Fabricing therein. Nice.

Meg : MGRMX Theo Parrish and Hiroshe Watanabe remixes of this Japanese vocalist. The Theo one sounds dope.

Various Artists : A Secret History Looks to be a fantastic compilation of ’80s pre-techno, from Alexandre Robotnik, Klein & M.B.O., Telex, even Paul McCartney and many others. So far everything I’m reading sez this is also a brilliant package and high quality, heavy vinyl. Can’t wait to get my mits on it. Compiled by New Religion’s Dan Keeling and Alex Bond.

Various Artists : Iridite Productions Present Electron Music Really tasty Detroitish techno from Scotland that finally made its way into my basket.

Various Artists : Sun Ra Dedication – The Myth Lives On Remixes from Recloose, Theo Parrish, Jimi Tenor, YNQ w/Dudley Perkins, Mustang, King Britt and many interludes/remixes by Francisco Morra of Inner/Outerzone fame.

Charts

November Top 10

Leave a comment

1. Ennio Morricone : Remixes Volume 1 – Compost

2. Infinity Plus One : Rhythmic Unison – Drenched

3. OutKast : The Love Below – Arista

4. Inverse Cinematics : Shoot The Pianist – Fluid Ounce

5. Luke Vibert : YosepH – Warp

6. Charles Webster : Remixed On The 24th Of July – Peacefrog

7. James Duncan : Times Like These… – Le Systeme

8. Cai : Calling Out EP – Out of the Loop

9. Declaime : Life / Enjoy Your Stay – Stone’s Throw

10. The Age Of Selfishness : Wakako’ka – Visions

New/Reviews

Snipped Reviews ‘o Mine

Leave a comment

The 2×12 of Remixed on the 24th of July is out now. Very good it is as well.

I particularly like the gritty Theo Parrish remix, the Pepe Braddock remix,

Charles Webster’s own Presence remix and the Jimpster one. Already had the

Herbert one, but it’s great too of course.

Also got the Times Like These… 12″ by James Duncan on Le Systeme. Sounds a

lot like the disco-y material on Ferris Park, or Pal Joey in cut-up mode.

Really subtle, funky and quite diverse and coherent.

Going through some of the other semi-relevant purchases of late, I’ve been

really impressed with the new Cai ‘Calling Out EP’ on Out of the Loop, or at

least the a-side anyway. The first Cai did not please me nearly as much, and

the b-sides of the new one seem a bit less imaginative, but the a-side is

pure class. Woke up yesterday morning with it looping through my head,

making my start to Tuesday much nicer than Monday. 😉 It reminds me a lot of

Norma Jean Bell’s ‘Dreams’, especially that wonderful feeling of seeing her

open with it at the 2nd DEMF. Takes me right back.

A lot of people seem to be getting really lazy with their Theo

Parrish/Moodymann comparisons. There is a whole lot more Detroit house out

there than those two, and while I love them, the overuse of them as ‘style

markers’ is becoming nearly epidemic! Apologies for the rant, it’s just that

it’s almost like these two fellas have become marketing icons in the

underground, and it cheeses me off a bit to see a record like the above

lazilly lumped in with them when it clearly sounds a whole lot more like

NJB.

Sonar Lodge & Max 404 : Celsius – picked this up for the Domu mix, but was

intrigued by Max 404’s involvement all over it. Have to say his hand in it

is not such a selling point. I love his older stuff, but this really doesn’t

touch it in any way. It’s not to say that Max 404 hasn’t occasionally been

cheesy in the past, but this is certainly not a revival of his finer

moments. The Domu mix, however is yet more severe funk from the man who is

on an unstoppable roll. Definitely worth seeking out for the Domu devotees.

Also got a copy of the forthcoming debut on 11th Hour from Shawn Rudiman. On

receipt, I played the A2 track on a fairly loud system and it sounded very

nice! On further listens in headphones, that track has not done quite so

much for me though. Think it needs to be really loud. A1 is good, but

doesn’t stand out quite enough for me to listen repeatedly, and the B sides

are total winners. B1 is an almost Aril Brikha-ish track, but with signature

Rudiman all over it. Drenched with melody and slick beatwork, this one

should be tearing up a dancefloor near you soon (or near me at least). B2 is

a thick electro cut reminding me of a cross between Shawn’s epic melodies

and the same from UR. The beat is pretty devastating too. I think the big UR

electro fans will probably go for this one most. Matt’s label should be

churning out some more goodies down the road, so keep your eyes peeled for

more 11th Hour tastiness!

New/Reviews

Bought another grip of records last night

Leave a comment

Cai : Calling Out EP (new Detroit house sounds on Russ Gabriel’s Out of the Loop – much better than the last Cai IMO)

Mark De Clive-Lowe : Relax… Unwind (classic, finally out fo real)

Declaime : Life / Enjoy Your Stay (Dudley Perkins and Madlib getting nutty again)

Diverse : One AM (Everyone and their mom on the hip hop tip – who’s got more info on this?)

James Duncan : Times Like These…

James Duncan : Dub With Me / City Life (one older, one new from Metro Area and Pal Joey cohort – both nice)

Hanna : Faceless Emotion (can do without the Landslide mix, although it is pretty good, just not necessary. Never heard the original before though, and like it plenty)

Justice (Vs Simian & Gambit) / Espion : Never Be Alone / Steamulation / Anything Is Possible (Chateau Flight Remix) (not seen this one before. Suddenly becoming completist with the Chateau Flight stuffs)

OutKast : Speakerboxxx / The Love Below (a whole lot of wax)

Sonar Lodge & Max 404 : Celsius (Domu mix + original both sound groovy)

Charles Webster : Remixed On The 24th Of July (can’t wait to hear the Braddock and Theo Parrish mixes loud)

Quasimoto : The Unseen (furthering my Madlib craze at the moment)

New/Reviews

A couple more records

Leave a comment

The Age Of Selfishness : Wakako’ka (Alex Atias + Oren Walters – house one side, broken the other)

Inverse Cinematics : Shoot The Pianist (See Danny’s review from last week)

Ennio Morricone : Remixes Volume 1 (Everyone and their mom on the remix doodies)

Luke Vibert : YosepH (first Vibert I’ve bought since Tally Ho!)

Violator Featuring A Tribe Called Quest And Erykah Badu : I C U (Doin’ It) (can’t wait for the album, sounding in good form, if with a bit more emphasis on prototypical hip hop choruses)

Various Artists : Jazz Bizniz 3 Reworks EP (can’t remember what this one’s all about – seem to recall it was quite tasty)

Infinity Plus One : Rhythmic Unison / Looking Like U Sound AAAAAAACCCCCCCIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDD!!!

Clubs/Parties

Fabric rant, Fabric Birthday and other online shenanigans

Leave a comment

Posted a huge rant to [313] about big club deaths the other night, then followed it up by going to a big club last night. Here’s the story:

Speaking as an outsider, I think the bigger clubs are suffering from their own weight these days, which in my mind is a good thing since most underground DJs will never step up in a big space. With the wealth of tunes and DJs around now, it’s no wonder larger clubs book who they do, and who can really blame them? They are there to support a larger audience, give people what they want, etc. Unfortunately, very few of those larger clubs have found a way (or maybe just the balls + insight) to sustain themselves while appeasing an audience that come for what they know, and are sick of it at once (as illustrated by The Orbit).

To this end, I think it is amazing the kind of lineups Fabric pulls in while constantly filling to way beyond capacity. They push boundaries much further than The End (which also fills regularly) on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, the place has a somewhat deserved reputation for pulling in a load of wankers, and even more unfortunately, the DJs who spin there rarely extend themselves in that venue. Rob Hood played a great set on my birthday, but it wasn’t his most adventurous outing. Francois K and Jeff Mills each played good sets late last year but nowhere near their best. Very few performers really have enough faith in that audience to say ‘f*ck it’. I can think of three nights in the last year when I got that treat, and on each occasion the crowd responded more than usual. One was Fabrice Lig opening up (for nearly four hours I think), earlier this year. Another was Octave One live (Stacey Pullen followed with wank) while the Jedi Knights held it down all night in the 3rd room for six hours. The third was Technasia live (following Dave Angel, who sucked).

Basically, as much as I would like to place the blame on hugeness, I think most of them have dug their own graves through complacent bookings rather than some inherent flaw in being large (as Fabric illustrates), and what dissapoints me most is that when artists who play both medium and large venues get a chance at bigger spaces with a good agenda, they rarely capitalize on the opportunity. Fabric could be such an amazing nexus, but most DJs aren’t willing to take a chance there. I think with few exceptions the performers are equally to blame. Just look at Fabric’s lineup for the next month and tell me it shouldn’t kill: http://www.fabriclondon.com I’d be surprised if most of those DJs live up to their potential though.

Francois K may be the prime example of this. He’s deveoping quite a reputation for playing brilliant eclectic sets where he has faith in the crowd, and really flacid effects-laden techno when he doesn’t. As a result, it further separates the small and large audiences. This ‘knowing your audience’ thing has gone way too far… When a DJ who has 25 years under his belt can stun his crowd one weekend and deaden them the next, the formula has failed. This is why I’m seeing him on a boat tomorrow, and couldn’t care less about his performance at Fabric next weekend, even though for once, Fabric is cheaper and it has the added bonus of Aukufen.

So I was saying I thought this was a good thing. Maybe I don’t really, but given that I don’t believe things will change, I’d rather just get to see who I want where I know they will actually play good music. And while I really hope Fabric’s amazing lineups continue, I think the DJs need to do a lot to bring the heads back into those spaces.

===

That was the rant. Here’s last night’s bit:

Further to my rant, I attended Fabric’s birthday party tonight after another wicked Bleep (Emile/Plant 43 played a very nice set). Got there around 12:30 – line around the block. I wouldn’t have gone unless I was lucky enough to get guestlist via a friend, but that is what typically makes it enjoyable. I usually hate that crap – but @ Fabric you normally have a bit of a reprieve up there, with a great view of the dancefloor and no hassle.

However, it was so unbelievably rammed (I’d estimate nearly 200 people over capacity) that there was a 15-20 minute wait for drinks up there and you could hardly even move in that ‘exclusive’ space. There must’ve been *at least* 250 ‘VIPs’. To state the obvious, it was even more packed downstairs. At 3:15 LFO live came on, and it was a perpetual fight just to stay put, about 10 deep from
the stage. At one point, some f*cker barged up behind me and said ‘come on – give us some space’, so I turned around and screamed ‘THERE IS NO F*CKING SPACE’! It was rather annoying. Nothing new for Fabric but amplified beyond the usual levels of chaos.

Anyway… LFO live was not so much ‘live’, as it was a bizarre hybrid of DJing and live performance. It was fantastic though. He started out with some proper, reminiscent-of-mid-’90s-Mark-Bell-minimalism, which switched back and forth between that and his newer brand of noise-coated electro, mixed with a healthy dose of jack. His 2nd or 3rd track (if you could call it that – the whole thing was seamless and integrated over long periods) was a really varied minimal techno track that very well could have been his, but on the 7th and 8th beat of every few bars the whole track would drop out and that LFO sub bass sound from ‘LFO’ kicked in. Seriously mind-bending. A few minutes later he was well into some other song and the primary synth line from ‘LFO’ kicked in. This kept up for a while, with special emphasis on the Chicago jack, then about 30 minutes in he got really into noisey IDMish electro territory, then came back out into a switch back and forth between that and electro stage, and then suddenly it was over after 45 minutes. Very sudden. He played a couple tracks off the new album along the way as well.

So… we ran over to the other room to catch the last 1/2-hour of Villalobos (through some feat of unbelievably crappy scheduling, LFO was 3:15-4:15 and Villalobos was 3:30-4:30 in the other room). WTF??? Anyway, when we got in he was playing this really crappy electro song, but after that he settled into a very Chicago-sounding Perlon style for most of his last 1/2-hour, which really hit home. Very nice conclusion! I will make a point of finding him again. Then I left well before the 10am finish.

In the end, I came out feeling like it was a great night, despite the even fuller and wankier crowd than normal. I guess if you’re seeing something once in a lifetime like LFO live, you make do with an annoying surrounding. I think that explains a lot of why a club like Fabric can maintain.

Clubs/Parties

Whistleboat

Leave a comment

I’ve had a couple of hours to digest what happened. First and foremost, amazing fucking boat, and amazing fucking crowd! Seriously up for it throughout!

2nd, FK did not quite live up to my expectations, which were quite high. There was nothing wrong with his set per se, but somehow it lacked a cohesive direction and that really substantial momentum that he can generate. This is not to say there weren’t unbelieveably energetic parts, but he never sustained it. In this instance, his impulse to switch things up may have hindered him, because eventually I just wanted him to hit a house groove and run with it (which he did at the end). Maybe I’m just a pussy though…

3rd, after discussing it a bit, and thinking back on my activities throughout the night, I realized that I danced nearly the entire fucking time once I got on the dancefloor, that it was one of the best dancefloors I’ve ever been on in terms of communal feeling, and the whole damn party was just so much fun! Ultimately, it doesn’t matter that he wasn’t the best I’ve ever seen him, because it was a really fantastic voyage in every respect.

He played a load of house of all sorts (the aptly selected Whistle Song sounded great early), the DK edit of Strings of Life nearly sunk the fucker, followed by Tres Demented which kept it up. Beyond that the general theme was a la Body & Soul – east coast garage anthems and disco/funk/rarity smatterings in between. The selections really were impressive – nothing canned about this, just not quite what I’d built it up to be, and not quite on a par with his Deep Space performance in May. Still worth every penny and then some. The assembled cast and crew made it a night to remember.