A Paw In My Face

New Release Update

2009-06-25T20:48:00.002+01:00

A brief list of some new and upcoming long players. Opinions on these at a later date.

Bodycode - Immune

On Ghostly International

Manuel Tur - 0201

Out now on Freerange Records

Ada - Adaptations Mixtape #1

Out now on Kompakt

Brock Van Wey - Clouds Drift On & On

Due soon on Echospace

Opinions on all these coming soon, but they are all definitely worth checking out.

Anthea - Ibiza Voice Podcast

2009-06-11T20:45:00.007+01:00

Up and coming Londoner Anthea's Ibiza Voice podcast left me pleasantly surprised.

The deep house resurgence has been a bit hit and miss for me, whilst I do enjoy some of it, there are certain producers and DJs that I find very boring.

I will be seeing Anthea at the well-established Leeds based mono_cult tomorrow night at The Mint Club, so I thought I'd best give the podcast a whirl.

The podcast finds the perfect balance between deep-and-tech-house. Very musical and groovy with some serious bass lines. Nearly every track has real bump to it and she manages to keep it interesting throughout. Special mention has to be made of the mixing and programming too, which is near-faultless.

Gotye - Hearts A Mess

2009-06-08T19:49:00.013+01:00

I know very little about Gotye, in fact the first time I had ever heard anything by him was this very remix I am reviewing. A quick bit of research via Allmusic reveals that he is apparently a Belgian-born Australian cut and paste electronic pop artist. Whatever that means.

The original Hearts A Mess is a heartfelt piece of soul music, that defies easy classification. Somewhat electronic, somewhat acoustic. It is compiled of loops from a collection of records left to him by a neighbour and a friend. The track is very nice, although not something I would usually listen to.

The Kompakt heavyweights, Michael Mayer and Superpitcher, who collectively Saved The World a couple of years ago are on remix duty. They recognise what is a quality piece of work and leave the best elements of the original mostly untouched, adding little. In fact, other than a solid 4/4 kick and other light percussive elements, which are added to the warping bass of the original, and along with the guitar riff form the foundation of the music. Much of what they have done here is re-arrange and stretch out the existing elements. Supermayer allow the vocal to shine throughout, as the track gradually builds, picking up momentum for over half its length before it breaks down leaving only sparse elements. Supermayer let the music completely unwind in the final few stages as the track becomes completely acoustic, baring Gotye's soul. It's a powerful couple of minutes, that will stick with you for a long time after the music has stopped. A fitting end to what is easily one of my favourite tracks of the year so far.

Now if only someone would play the Supermayer remix as their last tune of the night.

You can hear the original below:

Wikkid Times

2009-06-04T21:05:00.008+01:00

Released earlier this week, the 'Versions & Remixes' edition of Beat Pharmacy's Wikkid Times.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the original Wikkid Times. It had a few great tracks and although the production was excellent throughout, there were too many in your face spoken-word vocals for my taste.

I'm pleased then, that Deep Space Media have released two new editions of the album.

The first of these releases features dub-remixes from Intrusion, Quantec, Deadbeat and Appleblim together with re-works from producers who are a little more dancefloor orientated including Cocoon's Minilogue and the man of the moment cosmic deep houser John Daly.

The second release, 'Versions', in Burial-mix tradition reduces but doesn't entirely remove the vocals from the tracks. This is the one to go for over the original album, in my opinion.

You can pick up both releases on Beatport - the Remixes and the Versions.

In The Summertime

2009-05-31T19:17:00.005+01:00

Something to get you in the summery frame of mind. Milky Disco 2 - A two disc collection of the finest cosmic/balaeric/nu-disco (sorry - I don't know the 'proper' term) compiled by Hatchback, featuring the likes of Black Devil Disco Club, Pink Stallone, Subway, Soft Circle, Ghost Note, of course Hatchback himself & many more.

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.

New Monolake

2009-05-27T21:14:00.005+01:00

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.

£1.70 for the EP @ Boomkat, not bad at all.

Brock Van Wey - A Chance To Start Over

2009-05-26T20:58:00.005+01:00

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.

Sublime Porte

2009-05-22T19:47:00.003+01:00

Just a quick post to inform people about a net label I just discovered.

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.

Symphony Of The Night

2009-05-21T20:53:00.003+01:00

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

2009-05-21T19:03:00.002+01:00

Currently my favourite track from Kettel's latest album, peformed live in Utrecht a few months ago:

The Black Dog

2009-05-21T12:39:00.000+01:00

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 Community

08. 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

New Releases

2009-05-20T22:39:00.002+01:00

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...

2009-05-20T21:01:00.004+01:00

This week has seen the release of two albums which were quite possibly my most anticipated releases of the year.

Kettel - Myam James 2

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.