... is the solo project from The Faint's bassist Joel Peterson, and on many of the tracks here B.S. does indeed closely resemble those Nebraskan new wavers, but minus the vocals (although actually the first track immediately brought to mind the chiming intro to OMD's Dazzle Ships too). Overall though, it's a much more diverse affair: ultra thumpin' rump-shakage, prettily chiming glassy bell / harpsichord-y tones, glitchy digital abrasions, and thick blurts of analog synths. Band lineage aside, this is an adeptly executed collection of cool tracks which veers closely to industrial dance at times, and at others becomes quite moodily atmospheric.
If you hated the first Brokencyde full length, you'll hate this one even more. And if you loved the first one, you'll still probably hate this...
Local electronic duo Broker/Dealer hustle out new tracks for German minimal tech house label Traum. Not unlike the snap, crackle and pop of labels like Kompakt, Shitkatapult and WMF.
The local Broker Dealer outfit mines similar sonic territory to such minimalist techno purveyors as the Chain Reaction and Kompakt labels -- think Gas, Thomas Brinkmann, Markus Guentner, Vladislav Delay. Insistently throbbing yet melodic bass overlayed with vintage synth tinklings and an overall freeze-dried disco sheen. No vocals, just ultra cool and unemotional. The last track "To Hear the Fires", though, tugs at the heartstrings -- a surprising remix of local country twangers The Court & Spark. Achingly pretty.
Comes with a video our Macs were unable to play.
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Broker/Dealer play an especially lulling and lovely brand of mellow electronica suffused with melodies and warmth. It's a lot like Boards of Canada, so it's worth the risk. And at 2.99, it's the nice price. 4 song EP recorded on a cd-r.
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For those of you who've been itchin' for some more from SF's mellow, pretty electronicians Broker/Dealer or simply those of you in need of some electronic levity, here's a new and unusual B/D snippet. It's a Hall & Oates-tinged track called "Haulin' Oats". Actually this 12" is a bit silly all the way around as the flipside contains an equally Joe Jackson-flavored cut by Rollmottle that goes by the name "Steppin' Right On Out".
Over the past decade, Susanne Brokesch has produced a handful of throroughly abstract techno for some of the more respected labels in electronica, including Sahko, Cheap, Tension, and Disko B. Yet it has been 6 years since her underrated debut album "Sharing The Sunhat" came out. While that album was built from cold slivers of Pan Sonic techno-minimalism, her second full album "So Easy, Hard To Practice" seeks the recombination of sultry jazz and electronic production techniques. The results find loose rhythmic structures punctuated by electronic drum fills, occasionally pulled together into swells of German disco grooves or washes of ambient synth patches. Disko B's press release quoted one critic in praising her debut as "a cross between Oval and a good ECM record." I would offer that "So Easy" is a cross between Microstoria and an average ECM record.
MPEG Download: "More" [/audio/brokeschmore.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "More" [/audio/brokeschmore.m3u]
One of FIVE new releases on Ormolycka, and another contender for most fucked up and confusional, which by now, having been exposed to the mutated musical gene pool that produces these warped and wonderful tapes, you know that means a lot. A sort of damaged DJ collage, BT is all primitive analog lo-fi hip hop loopscapes, but with little regard for groove, or beat, instead, it's like if one of the guys in Faxed Head did a solo electronic record. Plunderphonic weirdness galore, mutated samples, the tape physically being stopped and primitively scratched, synths that buzz and burble, snippets and sample colliding and then crumbling, the various random chunks of sounds loosely organized into some sort of stumbling downer funk, like a brain damaged DJ Shadow, Dubs Absoludicrous is like a caveman Endtroducing, made with boom boxes, a broken 4 track, and a handful of old tapes, woozy, druggy, fractured and freaky, our favorite part is when all the beats seem to ooze into one billowy black mass, and then transform into a lurching low end thrum, squelchy and blurpy, a synth bass slowed down and captured on tape, while the tape is just dragged back and forth over the tape head, weirdly hypnotic and rib cage rattlingly dense.
Fucked and fantastic, and peep the awesome photo inside, of a corpsepainted metalhead sitting in an old faded grandma chair, watching a tiny red TV in his crappy apartment! Six different covers!
Latest on Dom Fernow's (Prurient, Cold Cave, etc.) Bed Of Nails label comes from Kris Lapke, aka Bronze Age, whose three song 12"s is a fierce slab of Teutonic gothic techno, pulsing four on the floor synth squelch, backed by ethereal swirling melodies, peppered with low end percussive stutter, dense and driving and super hypnotic, definitely an extension of Fernow's Vatican Shadow, albeit much more intense. The second track is probably our favorite, a creepy slab of dour techno pop, a rhythmic drag that churns and chugs, moody, murky, morose, dubbed out, rife with plenty of skitter and hand clap rhythms, it's a dark drowsy pulsing techno trance out, that we almost wish went on for way longer.
The side long third track is super spare, still plenty housey, but with a seriously anthemic vibe; it's propulsive and stuttery, a bit spaced out, but still driving and hypnotic.
And since we accidentally spun this at 33 instead of 45, we can tell you it sounds even better slowed down, the side long track becomes some lost Burial jam, a gorgeous washed out dub dirge, while the other two sound like doomy Depeche Mode and murk step creepiness respectively! Either way, super rad.
Much like the recent Chris Clark album on Warp, Brothomstates' "Claro" typifies the direction where Warp has been pushing electronica and the IDM subgenre in particular. The label is not really concerned with the MicroHouse of Mille Plateaux or the
A lengthy 6 track EP from new Warp signings Brothomstates, full of Funkstorific hip-hop mutilations and Autechrish rhythmic stumbles and Aphex-y disjointed ambience. Things could be promising for this IDM outfit.
Two new, 7"s of delicious skweee here folks! From the same Portland label, Poisonous Gases, that previously brought us Lazercrotch. Now they've gone and signed up a genuine Scandinavian skweeer, Daniel Savio from Sweden, as well as Portland's Michael Bruce (NOT the guy from the Alice Cooper Band we're pretty sure).
Bruce's 7" is squarely in the skweee tradition, dropping the bass and the blip-bloop of 8-bitty sci-fi video game SFX across two groovy instrumentals. Very cool, glad to see US skweee making a showing. Too bad Bruce didn't come up with a catchy monicker like Lazercrotch though, we've probably be guaranteed to sell more of 'em...
Bobb Bruno plays in the quirky, instrumental LA post rockers the Polar Goldie Cats as well as in The For Carnation, but that might not prepare you for this, his *very different* solo disc, an instrumental electronica thing kinda in the Aphex Twin mould (also
"1000 Fehler" (translated as 1000 Errors) is a fusion of the spoken theory-fragments by Adilkno
(Foundation of the Advancement of Illegal Knowledge/Amsterdam) and gossamer electronica-concrete pulses by Br�sseler Platz 10a-Musik - a Cologne collective with Georg Odijk, Jan St. Werner (Mouse On Mars), and Marcus Schmickler (Pluramon). Bored of academic culture pessimism, the authors of Adilkno are "dedicated to illegal knowledge and research degenerated tendencies of the roaring every day life in media." Along with the spoken text (which you should know is in German), the ghost of Thomas Brinkmann's phase patterned techno haunts the musical contribution.
The latest from (now) local label Moon Glyph, comes from Minneapolis trio Brute Heart, who were commissioned by Walker Art Center to perform a new score for the legendary German expressionist film The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari. Their usual arrangement of bass, drums, viola and keyboard, expanded here to include analog synth and cello, which makes for something spectacularly spectral and spacey, the new score begins with a shuffling minimal pop, that slowly blossoms into something much more ethereal and ambient, swirling voices and shimmering synths, all wedded to a slither bass pulse and a hypnotic rhythm of kick drum and brushed snare, all wreathed in soft billows of space-y FX. That pretty much sets the scene as it were, BH weaving lush, smoldering soundscapes, haunting and moody, delicate keyboard melodies swathed in swoonsome strings, many of the tracks with a sort of chamber jazz feel, appropriately old timey, but others sounding surprisingly modern, futuristic even, giving the music and mood of the film a nice tweak.
Some of the tracks here sound almost like weird hybrids of Stereolab and Portishead, a sort of downtempo shuffle here, a creepy crawly shuffle there. Swoonsome ballads, unwind languorously alongside ominous buzzing spaced out dronescapes, replete with ghostly female vox and dreamlike strings, while other tracks get downright noise, and a little chaotic, shuffling dark jazziness wreathed in clouds of crackle, and field of glitch and glimmer, all blurring into a woozy soft focus psychedelia. And still others have a classic baroque pop vibe, think the New Lines or even a more minimal abstract Beach Boys. Even (especially?) removed from the images, Brute Heart's score is a dark gem, one that we've been listening to like crazy, and which has us really wanting to see the film with the groups gorgeous new accompaniment.
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Masked madman of the fretboard meshes his mechano-metal with the beats of the UK's DJ Ninj for an excursion into the exciting world of Jungle! Buck's pal Bill Laswell provides the bass. This could be the album with which to introduce your Zorn-o-centric friends to jungle ...
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Remixers include Alec Empire (very recognizable!), Stock, Hausen & Walkman, Money Mark, and U.N.K.L.E.
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Never really imagined we'd hear Grouper's Liz Harris toasting on a ragga / dancehall record, and sadly, we still haven't, but she does lend her voice to the opening track on this, the first record from The Bug, aka Kevin Martin, since 2008's London Zoo (not counting a handful of singles). While we were envisioning Liz getting all Lady Saw, instead, it probably is more like you might imagine, the vocals still ethereal and gauzey, over a surprisingly subdued Martin production, that makes this sound more like Portishead, although a bit more brooding and tense, with some sinister synths, some tightly coiled rhythms, and some bleak atmospheres, and somehow, it works, really well, enough that we wouldn't mind hearing a whole record of Bug / Grouper collabs.
The second track is actually sonically quite similar, a dark sort of trip hoppy vibe, but with some seriously thick, rib cage rattling bass, the vibe though still sort of nocturnal and smoldering, a lot like "Ascension" another low slung brooder, big beats, and lots of hiss and crunch and static, but still pretty subdued and slithery. "Mi Lost" cranks the volume a bit, but again, it's much less bombastic than London Zoo, and with way more of a focus on female vocalists, Miss Red doing the honors on "Mi Lost", a tangled ragga dub groover, with wild hi-hat skitter, and spacey drifty synths behind a seriously funky groove. "Pandi" is almost all organ, a dense, tense sprawl of throbbing drones, and lush layered thrum, the beats, when they do surface, more sort of pulsing and crackling and textural. And so it goes. The sound veering toward a late night somnambulence, Gonjasufi guests on the creepy slo-mo-soul dub of "Save Me" replete with super dramatic strings, and billowy clouds of soft focus static.
It's not really until "The One", that things get bangin', with Flowdan joining in for a fucked up fierce grime workout, a crunching big beat, some Twilight Zone melodic stabs, machine gun rhythms (literally) and plenty of noisy chaos, culminating in a dense, distorted finale. The follow up "Function", is another grime-y blowout, with some awesome rapping from Manga, over a bed of gristly, ultra-distorted bass buzz, and suddenly it occurred to us, that okay, we must be in the 'Devils' half of Angels & Devils, duh.
Anyway, the rest of the record plays out sonically devilishly as intended, maybe the only misstep is the collab with Death Grips, which has its moments, but is ultimately mostly annoying, especially when you hear "Fat Mac" which comes right afterward. That track's a crushing chunk of doom-dubstep, if there is such a thing (there is now), thick, lumbering beats, insane, distorted guitar buzz, maybe riffage, or maybe just blown out synths molded into something totally metallic. Wow. Couple more ragga / dubstep / grime bangers to finish things off, the first with longtime Bug collaborator, Warrior Queen, and one more with Flowdan, who kind of ends up being the surprise star of Angels & Devils...
The second single in The Bug's (aka Kevin Martin, from God, Techno Animal, Ice, King Midas Sound, etc.) new Acid Ragga series/label, the first so limited, that we were never able to get enough of to list. And like that one, this is a killer, the sound fierce and furious, and like the name of the series lets on, this is indeed "acid ragga": big pulsing ragga beats, wreathed in a cloud of skittery snares, acid-y synth squelches, thick fuzzed out basslines, and on the A side, Daddy Freddy toasting over the top. Fans of the Bug will be in heaven, fierce and furious and funky as fuck.
The flipside offers up a similarly sonic template, wild swirls of insectoid snare fills, flitting constantly around that loping raga groove, more buzzy bass and super distorted synth squelch, Miss Red providing the vocals this time, her delivery, sassy and swaggery, a perfect match for the music underneath, both sides booming sound system killers, that we find ourselves listening to over and over, hankering for more more more!
Super swank packaging, yellow and blue printed silver reflective sleeves, pressed on yellow vinyl and if the first 7" is anything to go by, this one too is likely VERY LIMITED.
If you're already jonesing for some more Bug tracks, here's one more song for you. Well, a vocal and a dub, so almost two songs. This one features Cutty Ranks on the a-side. Yeah, it sucks that it's almost ten bucks for so little playtime, but then again it's a heavy fucking single; as good as any of the DJ Scud Ambush! 7"s.
Third in this new 7" series of dancehall bangers from Kevin Martin aka The Bug, the A side of this one is a twisted mix of loping big beats and woozy tangled synths, sounding like some alien sound system, Warrior Queen toasting over the top, the end result like some playground double dutch jam, but cranked WAY up, and when the low end drops, it's some serious chest caving buzz and rumble punishment.
The flipside pulls from the same sonic palette, more squelchy sci-fi synths, this time though, the bass is slithery and fuzzed out, the vocals, all call and response, sing songy and swaggery and a little bit snarly too, courtesy of Miss Red, perfectly complimenting Martin's fierce digi-raga damage, which begins sort of dubbed out, but by the track's end has transformed into some dense digital skitter.
Pressed on bright yellow wax, housed in a super swank metallic silver and yellow sleeve, and if past 7"s in this series are any indication, these aren't gonna be around for long...
Hard to believe it's been 5 years since the last Bug full length. We were so obsessed with Pressure, it was exactly what we had been dreaming of, a disc of dancehall, but supercharged, the beats bigger, the toasting more tongue twisting and agile, the flows sick sick sick, the loops and music darker and more fucked up. Makes sense when you have a look at Kevin "The Bug" Martin's resume, having recorded as God, Ice, Techno Animal and Curse Of The Golden Vampire, so imagine classic dancehall filtered through all that cracked and noisy business. Fucking mind blowing. And it's not like Martin has been doing nothing since Pressure. There's been a steady flow of ep's and 12"s, singles and one-offs, but we were long overdue for another batch of damaged fractured fucked up and funky dancehall, and finally, here it is!
And it's so so good. Not quite as hard as Pressure, much more musical, but somehow all the better for it. The beats are still bangin', and the vocalists Martin has gathered are pretty top shelf: Tippa Irie, Ricky Ranking, Flowdan, Killa P, Warrior Queen, Spaceape and Roger Robinson. All of 'em on fire, and the tracks, total dancefloor destroyers, groovy, funky, a wild dancehall mashup, that stuttery beat in all its various permutations, simple looped Double Dutch repetition, skittery almost jungle, murky stripped down dubstep, pounding buzzing gabbery crunch, rubbery woozy shuffle, groovy late night minimal throb and several other variations.�
It's hard to pick favorites, all the tracks are pretty amazing, although we're pretty partial to the songs featuring Ricky Ranking, the super hooky "Murder We", with it's growled buzzing verses, but then an insanely catchy chorus, with gorgeous vocals and lazer gun style FX, then there's the closer "Judgement" a sort of slow jam, but so washed out and fuzzy, menacing and sinister, complete with soulful breakdowns, which shift effortlessly into the growly buzz drenched verses (stick around too, after a few minutes of silence, there's a really beautiful outro). The Warrior Queen tracks are awesome too, especially "Poison Dart" with its school yard flow and rib cage rattling synth buzz, unfurling a weirdly catchy melody beneath pounding simple rhythms and WQ's wicked flow. "Fuckaz" with Spaceape is a pulsing throbbing groove, the vocals a sing songy flow, not nearly as murky and mean sounding as his collabs with Kode 9, and the opener "Angry" with Tippa Irie, is a super bouncy ragga jam, the beat so simple but so infectious, and the vocals again raspy and raw, perfectly balancing the wild bounce beneath. Hard to know what else to say. We're such suckers for dancehall, especially when it gets revved up a bit. Here's hoping we don't have to wait another 5 years.
We gotta hand it to Tigerbeat6 head honcho Miguel for giving this disc a domestic release and price. Released in the U.K. by Rephlex, "Pressure" is the second outing by Kevin Martin under the moniker of The Bug. While this guise may be a recent one for Mr. Martin, he's not a newcomer to the scene. You may already be familiar with his previous projects Techno Animal, Curse of the Golden Vampire, God and Ice (certainly not a curriculum vitae to be sneezed at). With The Bug though, Kevin attacks our lower intestinal tracts with some of the best hardcore dancehall we've heard in a long time. Residing somewhere between DJ Scud's pummelling gabber style Ambush! material and Timeblind's Three-Foot-Long Bong-Hit of a track "Rastabomba". It's exactly the dancehall cuts that what we here at Aquarius have been thirsting for. Whereas Scud's tracks, being instrumental, were totally insane over-the-top panacea style gabber, "Pressure" is primarily a true dancehall record, with toasting on every track. As such, Martin's rhythms tend to be stripped down more than Scud's. Which isn't to say they ain't hard. Under Wayne Lonesome's damaged toasting for "Fuck Y~Self" for instance is some busy as hell, noisy-assed rhythm that battles 10 rounds with Lonesome's growling. Along with Lonesome, toasters on this record include Daddy Freddy, Roger Robinson, Paul St. Hilaire, The Rootsman and more. A definite must for fans of Ward 21 and sundry other demented dancehall. Absolutely sick, absolutely essential!
There are so many amazing records, longtime aQ faves that sadly predate the aQ list, so thus never got reviewed, or often got a cursory one or two sentence write-up when we put it on the site some years later. We could probably do a hundred lists, just reviewing all the records we loved and raved about and sold in the store, before the aQ list got started. But, we often do try to go back pick some of our favorites, when we can get them, to revisit and relist, to hopefully expose them to a whole new audience. One old fave in particular that we just managed to get some copies of back in, after YEARS, is this, the debut from The Bug, one of the many projects of Kevin Martin (God, Techno Animal, etc.). But before it was strictly a Kevin Martin solo thing (eventually becoming his sort of modern hard ragga dancehall project), The Bug was in fact, at least on this disc, a quintet that featured Martin, along with most notably, DJ Vadim - and also Swiss reedsman Alex Buess from late great noise-jazz outfit 16-17!
This first Bug record was inspired by the '70s Gene Hackman thriller The Conversation, and according to the liner notes does NOT feature any samples, sonic or visual, from the movie. Is a dense, claustrophobic, paranoiac dub jam, that still sounds so good, and so vital all these years later. Longtime fans of WordSound, are already familiar with this sort of low slung illbient dub, all creepy crawly beats, buzzing burnt out blunted bass, the vibe dark and shadowy, sinister and ominous, but here, the minimal palette of later WordSound jams is greatly expanded, Buess' bass clarinet is the real star, adding melody and texture, a dark jazziness, often without really sounding like a horn at all. The tracks here are all dark, malevolent grooves, DJ Vadim adding weird crackle, as well as more texture, weaving mutated loops, constantly shifting layers, sheets of noise and murky sound effects, there's guitar too, but it seems to be mostly utilized to add texture, Martin overseeing the whole thing.
When this first came out, back in 1999 or thereabouts, we often fantasized about someone doing a modern remake of the Conversation, with this as the soundtrack, which on the one hand would have been kind of amazing, but on the other, a total travesty. As far as we're concerned (and we're guessing Martin would agree), the original movie is perfect, as was the original soundtrack by David Shire, and really Tapping The Conversation works just as well even without knowing its inspiration. So as an homage to one of the greatest movies of the seventies, it too is pretty much perfect.
A new Bug single and it's a doozy. Featuring the amazing (and new to us) Warrior Queen, who kicks so much ass that the tracks without her vocals seem wimpy and pale in comparison. So I guess it's good that most of the tracks on this ep do indeed feature here fierce toasting. Tack on a couple instrumentals / versions and a wicked final number featuring Ras B, and you've got a decent little chunk of bassbin rattling ragga brutality to hold us over 'til the next Bug full length. Awesome.
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We only got ten of these so if you want one act fast. Two mixes of one of our favorite tracks from 'Pressure', both souped up with some wild and chaotic old school drum and bass, huge fuzzed out synth lines and maniacal drum programming, with Rootsman's toasting chopped up and sprinkled throughout. Cool stuff.
Tape hiss, simple melodies, mechanical rhythms, dubby reverb... Nice! We're diggin' on the 16 tracks, 33 minutes�of blissful, bedroom-recorded Casio-dub instrumental music here, this cd-r being the second solo joint from Oakland's Adam Bugaj, a Pennsylvania transplant who played "lysergic barn rock" with underground psych acts Peacefeather and Clear Spots back in PA. Rather than rockin' out, though, this is lazy Sunday stoned music from the man, lo-fi DIY mesmerism, like a Jewelled Antler production of home-brewed Kompakt techno, shimmering with hiss and distortion. 'Tis spacey and mellow, sometimes subverted by sudden manual tape edits... Throw in a bit of Fahey folky guitar ramble here or there, and broken electronics that get accidentally cosmic and Cluster-like, with echoey keys, heartbeat drum machine pulses, minimal drones, fractured rhythms... Imagine, maybe, a more outsider version of Pantha Du Prince, recorded on, like, $15 worth of yard sale equipment and cheap cassette tapes. Yes it's pretty nice!
Another really, er, uneventful double cd of slowjams for the electronica set from the popular LTJ Bukem. Rhodes organ tinkling, flute & sax jazz solos, and sensitive-boy synth pads over downtempo drum & bass/two step breaks.
Described as "cinemascopic big beat" but that's not to say that they sound like the tepid funk of the likes of Chemical Brothers--rather, Bump & Grind drop explosive 'Amen' drum & bass breaks as well as swing 4/4 drum kicks. Includes remix work by Third Eye Foundation and Scanner. Nice graphics too.
"The Federation of German Programmers" has only one member, but one that has so many alter-egos as to comprise a small parliamentary body. That individual is Uwe Schmidt -- better known as Atom Heart and Senor Coconut, and also known as Lisa Carbon, Datacide, LB, and many others. "Stoffwechsel" is more seriously minded than much of his recent output. Complex bubbling electronic percolations -- like Schematic without the big post-hip hop breaks or Mille Plateaux's clickery with more of a groove. Intersperced between all of the electronic clicks/cuts, Schmidt drops in fragments of German spoken word, which give the whole album a sort of academic vibe.
Oh shit! These are some intensely sweaty and dancey jammers that are sure to be the soundtrack of any truly down and dirty party this summer, and probably for a long time to come. Hailing from Portugal, Buraka Som Sistema have become international ambassadors for the Kuduro scene, bringing this unique sound to people throughout the world. It makes perfect sense that M.I.A. lends her voice to the record's standout track, as the sounds on Black Diamond make a great companion to her latest record Kala. Incorporating elements of hip-hop, Baile funk and electronica, Black Diamond is all about being uptempo and making bodies sweat, move and shake and groove. This is one of those records that should appeal to all sots of music lovers, from fans of Konono No.1 seeking that same sort of intense all out energy to fans of Missy Elliott who want something pulsating and creative to move them on the dance floor. So damn good!
The euro-pop sounds of composer / solo crooner Monsieur Bertand Burgalat pleases many ears around the globe. Swirling strings, funky guitar and basslines, playful keyboards, horns, woodwinds, swooning male and female choruses -- it's charming in oh so many ways, elaborate and suave but not without levity and wit. If we have any complaints about Portrait-Robot, it would be that when on occasion Burgalat opts for programmed drum beats (versus live acoustic ones) such as on the song "Ripples" they're a bit... well, clunkily robotic and too upfront in the mix. When you take into consideration the album's title, you wonder if maybe be that was his intention, but it's oddly jarring when you take in the rest of the carefully crafted and composed smooth operatin' affair. The album features 19 lounge-ready songs, plus 2 bonus tracks and a video for "Spring Isn't Fair".
Paying homage to French lounge pop maestro Bertrand Burgalat are such jaunty hipsters as April March, Louis Philippe, Etienne Charry, Mick Harvey, and Nick Cave. This is a compilation very much for the swoonsome, euro-cocktail set. Fans of such labels as Burgalat's own Tricatel or Le Magistery (home to Momus and Kahimi Karie), and of artists such as Air (who also contribute a track here), Pizzicato Five, and Charles Wilp...what are you waiting for? Ultra-stylish and playful music to spin in your swingin' space age pad.
The label tells us: "The hypnotic sounds of 'Las Vegas are the products of a running collabortaion between Mike ink (Love Inc., Gas, Vinyl COuntdown, and the Profan and Studio Eins labels) and Jorg Burger (The Modernist, Bionaut, Burger Industries, the Eat Raw label), the two prominent figures of the burgeoning Cologne techno underground. Neither have dated Jerry Hall." Minimalist, subtle electronica. We're glad Matador is releasing good electronica, especially the forthcoming Boards of Canada record, which will please Aphex Twin fans everywhere.
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Whether or not we'll ever see a new full length from this mysterious producer, the arrival of a new single is still cause for anxious excitement. And this one is beautifully sad and heavy, with three long gorgeous tracks.
At 12 minutes on the A side, "Kindred" is laid out like a dystopic symphonic requiem that morphs through a slow-motion roughshodden landscape. Lonely remote vocals spliced and polished into barely discernible words pitter-patter over record crackle, far-off doomy atmospheres and clanging minimal garage rhythms propel forward and then drop out at irregular intervals. On the B side, "Loner" steps it up with arpeggiated synths and an anxious pace with a cinematic car chase theme feel and r&b-ish vocal shadows buried underneath a layer of sonic grit and asphalt that freefalls into a strange haunted ambiance. "Ashtray Wasp" show a bit more light and hope at first. The vocals culled from cell phone recordings give a broader sense of actual song structure with sped up minimalist Phillip Glass-like orchestrations wrapping the song in a dramatically understated fury, eventually disintegrating into an extended oceanic womb of crackling unease. The final salvo turning into a lyrical filigree of piano, cascading vocal swatches and waves of radio static that fades like the night into the stratosphere. Chilling!
A reissued 12" from one of this list's Record of the Week artists, Burial, who unleashes a lurching, shuffling, deep and dense mix of murky grimy dubstep. Equal parts minimal dub, slowed down grime, and super slow motion jungle.
This 12", originally released last year, features what sounds like an alternate version of one of the album tracks, sort of slowed down and more blissed out. The other track is WAY more drum and bass, a mumbled 16 rpm jungle stutter, with a definite grime vibe and a super dense chaotic rhythmic coda! So cool.
