Yeah I've not heard of many of them either (possibly showing my ignorance to the balaeric disco scene here), nevertheless it's an excellent collection of tracks and the whole thing can be purchased from Amazon Downloads for £4.99.
Sunday 31 May 2009
In The Summertime
Yeah I've not heard of many of them either (possibly showing my ignorance to the balaeric disco scene here), nevertheless it's an excellent collection of tracks and the whole thing can be purchased from Amazon Downloads for £4.99.
Wednesday 27 May 2009
New Monolake
New material from the mighty Monolake. I am a relative newcomer to Monolake so won't say too much, but this new two track EP is very good. Deep sub-bass & industrial hi-hats in full force. Intense.
Tuesday 26 May 2009
Brock Van Wey - A Chance To Start Over
Ambient music can be found in many forms, from dark, industrial, drone ambience to warm, light-hearted, breezy soundscapes. On this two-track EP released on the ever-excellent Echospace label, Brock Van Wey better known as Bvdub serves up a lovely slice of the latter.
The track begins with the sound of birds chirping. The chirps are joined by gentle swathes of ambience and a lucious piano melody. Around half-way through the track, a short, reversed guitar chord and an ethereal vocal enter the mix leading into what is one of the most beautiful six or so minutes of music I have heard for a long time.
Intrusion turns in the remix, and whilst not messing with things too much, adds enough variaton to make it worthwhile. The first few minutes are buried in white noise and static, with elements of the original piano melody and guitar chord trying to break through at various points. Gentle percussion livens things up slightly but the track still maintains it's gentle beauty and will certainly not hurt your head if you're feeling a tad fragile. The vocal surfaces briefly, toward the end of the track, sounding even more distant than before as the track gradually fades into a hiss.
Bvdub's music is always about subtle melodies buried in ambience, that take time to appreciate and this is no different, but stick with it and you will uncover an amazing piece of music.
The EP can be sampled and purchased @ Boomkat.
Friday 22 May 2009
Sublime Porte
I'm probably late on this but if you head over to Sublime Porte you can download some quality dub and deep techno releases by various producers.
Definitely worth a scan.
Thursday 21 May 2009
Symphony Of The Night
I'm not usually a massive fan of house, but the latest Dennis Ferrer release on Strictly Rhythm is absolutely fantastic.
Seven minutes of powerful synth-led classic yet modern sounding house music destined to cause many an uproar on dancefloors. The track progresses with the addition of classic house violins and piano keys and if the break down at around the mid-way point doesn't get you wet, then nothing will. Outstanding!
You can buy Simfonia Della Notte for 99p from Strictly Rhythm.
You can also hear it on Mr. Ferrer's Myspace.
Verkens In Londen
Currently my favourite track from Kettel's latest album, peformed live in Utrecht a few months ago:
The Black Dog
The Black Dog released Further Vexations last month, a good 'home-listening' techno album, although not quite as good as last year's Radio Scarecrow.
Here you can find a DJ mix they recorded for Dave Clarke's radio show. The tracklist looks good, and i'm interested to hear their re-working of 'The Sky Was Pink'.
01. The Black Dog - Phil 1 Because Ov Indeed - Soma
02. Beroshima - Horizon (Pig & Dan Remix) - Cocoon Recordings
03. Nomadic - High Tone - Touchin’ Bass
04. Ellen Allien - Just a Woman - Spectral Sound
05. Plastikman - Spastik (The Black Dog’s Towel Mix) - Plus 8 Records
06. The Black Dog - Skin Clock (The Black Dog’s Corrupted Mix) - Soma
07. Nathan Fake - The Sky Was Pink (Icelandic Version: tBd Fuck Up)- Border Community08. Avus - SPNKR Acid Paddle - Border Community
09. Stephan Bodzin - Treibsand - Cocoon Recordings
10. The Black Dog - 0093 (Berlin Mix) - Soma
11. Slam - Azure (The Black Dog’s Corned Beefy Mix) - Soma
12. The Black Dog - CCTV Nation - Soma
13. Carl Taylor - Scanner (Auteform Mix) - Dust Science
14. Christian Smith & John Selway - Total Departure (Cirez D Remix) - Drumcode
Wednesday 20 May 2009
New Releases
An excellent new EP out this week, in the form of the Intrusion dubs of Linkwood Family Miles Away. Two excellent pieces of spacious laid-back dub techno from the mighty Stephen Hitchell. As far as I know this is vinyl only and can be purchased @ Boomkat.
The much talked about RA Podcast by Intrusion is amazing. 90 minutes of quality dub techno starting off with the above-mentioned track. You can download that here.
Slightly related is the release of The Moritz Von Oswald Trio's debut album Vertical Ascent due out on Honest Jon's Records sometime next month. The Trio consits of Moritz himself, Max Loderbauer and Vladislav Delay (aka Luomo) The samples suggest a much more experimental dub sound to the usual. Interested!
I am currently listening to...
This week has seen the release of two albums which were quite possibly my most anticipated releases of the year.
The follow-up to one of the most enjoyable albums I have heard for some time, Myam James Part 1, the second outing has a lot to live up to.
For those unfamiliar with Kettel - he is a young, classically trained producer and musician with an already impressively large and consistent discography of electronica that incorporates elements of ambience, classical, acid, hip hop and IDM. He releases on the Netherlands-based Sending Orbs.
Kettel certainly seems to have attempted to push things in a slightly different direction this time around. The music on this CD manages to take into account the more ambient and classical sound as displayed on the excellent Whisper Me Wishes and Volleyed Iron as well as the upbeat IDM of Myam James Part 1.
The mood here is altogether more solemn and mature, as reflected in the artwork (which, it has to be said is very impressive). That isn't to say that Reimer Eising has lost his playful nature, and this can be found again on tracks such as Begging For A Herring.
Of course, Kettel's fantastic melodies are one of the biggest draws of his music, and these are in abundance here, whether it be in the beautiful classical piano driven pieces (Shinjuku Inn) or emotive violin tracks (Pers Patrys) to the triumphant and utterly brilliant synth sounds of Verkens In Londen.
The intelligently programmed drums, when they appear, seem to have been taken up a notch, too. The bass kick seems deeper and fuller than on previous releases. He even experiments with jazzy percussion (Michael Space Airlines).
Myam James 2 has the potential, provided it stands the test of time, to be one one the most complete and outstanding pieces of work yet released by the wonder-kid.
You can hear and buy the album at Sending Orbs.
The Field - Yesterday And Today
The second album is the follow up to The Field's hugely successful debut released on Germany's Kompakt - From Here We Go Sublime, a CD which received an extortoniate amount of praise from pretty much anyone and everyone including a coveted 9.0 on Pitchfork and full marks from Resident Advisor. That is to say, Yesterday And Today is a highly anticipated album.
Varying degrees of fuss have been made about the addition of Battles drummer John Stanier and other musicians to the outfit known as 'The Field' and whether or not Axel Willner's Gas-influenced ambient techno would suffer for it. Upon hearing Yesterday And Today, I can confirm that this is certainly not the case.
Willner (and band) have successfully advanced the trademark Field sound without changing it into something completely different. Still in check are the looped samples, the clipped snares and kick drums, the rising and falling voices and of course that feeling of euphoria and pleasure that was associated with the debut album. Now though, the tracks often morph on their lengthy journey. Leave It, for example starts off familiar enough, a clipped kick drum, chopped synth samples and a glockenspiel. But after about three minutes, what I can only assume is a live bass guitar, kicks in and the track takes on an altogether noisier, more condensed feel. The track continues to gradually morph for the remaining eight or so minutes before being reduced for the outro.
The title track too shows the subtle advancement of the sound, my immediate impressions were that it was a blend of Everyday from From Here We Go Sublime and Evening from the Sound Of Light EP after further listening it is apparent this is not the case. Although it contains elements of the aforementioned tracks, part-way through things take a decidely more Kraut rock-esque feel with delayed and layered electronic guitars. The two moods are switched between and moulded together before the track winds down towards the end, when the familiar kicks are joined by 'real drums' (!) courtesy of the Battles man (I assume).
It is things like this that separate the album from The Field's previous work and to me show true progression whilst not straying too far from what the fans inevitably want.
Early standout track at the moment has to be the first single The More That I Do, followed closely by the cover of The Korgi's Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime. At this point it is too early to tell whether any of these track will reach the soaring heights of the absolute classic A Paw In My Face.
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