The flaw of swung, R&B-sampling house is that it can easily feel overworked; sometimes it's the hyperslick, typically melodramatic source material, sometimes the looming need to constantly "push things forward." The 22-year-old Brighton-based producer Lorca (who first appeared last year alongside Visionist on the Left_Blank imprint) verges on these traits on Can't See Higher/Missed Me , his debut for the Dummy label, though it surely won't disappoint fans of contemporary UK garage variants. This week's download offers a rawer, more immediate, and less garage-influenced take on his sound. "What You Don't Need" combines an energetic, electro-influenced rhythm with more [...]
Installation by Gabriel Dawe [Clone West Coast Series] His work may not be as distinctive as that of say, Roman Flügel, but Boris Bunnik has done an admirable job of carving out a "Conforce sound." What's remarkable is that he's done so precisely where it seemed unlikely: at the well-scavenged intersection of dub and Detroit. Night Time Activities Part 3 - Bunnik's fourth record for [...]
[Modern Love] As much as we would rather not think of ourselves in this way, in some respects we're all primarily consumers. In few areas does our consumption mean so much as in music: what we choose to consume (as well as avoid) is how we indicate our taste and expand our knowledge. As a vinyl buyer, there's a ritualistic aspect of consumption that [...]
[ Poisson Chat Musique ] Since emerging with a Swayzak cosign a decade ago, Roger 23 has maintained a pretty mellow release schedule, sporadically releasing on labels like Meakusma, Playhouse, and Volt Musik. He appears to be the kind of producer who only releases when he feels like it, less concerned about staying in the charts than simply enjoying the process. It absolutely shows on the three-track Elemental 7 , his first effort for the fledgling Poisson Chat Musique [...]
[ Prologue ] Donato Dozzy cuts a neat line in skewed, after-hours techno that leans toward the twisted and melodic. Championed by Omar-S, his tracks have found an appreciative audience in venues such as Panorama Bar where - unrestrained by traditional notions of time - they provide a perfect soundtrack to messy daytime sessions. On this album, however, Dozzy and engineer Neel provide something rather different. A selection of increasingly hypnotic tracks that immerse the listener [...]
[ Crosstown Rebels ] Crosstown Rebels has been slowly expanding its remit over the past 12 months, branching out its web of bubbly pop house to include producers like Mathew Jonson. The newest addition to its roster is Toronto-based Amirali, whose "Beautiful World" strikes a perfect median between dance and pop, a full vocal house tune sung by a thickly accented, eyeliner-sporting, brooding male singer. The vocal's almost post-punk qualities are at odds with the track's [...]
[ 50 Weapons ] When LWE interviewed René Pawlowitz towards the end of 2010, he expressed disdain not only for the current state of techno, but for the ménage à trois arrangement it had found with dubstep and house. "Some dubstep guys can't make techno music.... The same way when house producers want to make dubstep, it's impossible," he proclaimed. It was - and continues to be - [...]
[Clone Jack For Daze Series] Geeeman is one of Gerd's newer aliases, debuting at the end of 2010 with the Rubberband2 EP, which defined the project as a tribute of sorts to mid-90s Chicagoan ghetto house. Its follow-up, Bang't / Fire Extinguisher , is more of the same, combining a studied reverence for that era (doesn't "Fire Extinguisher" sound exactly like a Dance Mania track title?) with a subtle emphasis on [...]
Rod Modell may be best known for his faultless collection of DeepChord records; the short-lived label issued some of the most cerebral variations on dub techno that stand up proudly beside any of the first-wave artists from the German strain of the genre. Others may know him from his part in the duo that gave us the haunting resonance of his and Steven Hitchell's immaculate The Coldest Season album, which was just the beginning of the multi-layered, sonic-textural delights that Echospace have thus far been responsible for. Before these forays in the world of subconscious mind-mood rhythms, Modell [...]
LWE's 77th podcast, mixed by BNJMN, wove together blurry house, acid, and a couple tracks that still have yet to be released. Be sure to add it to your collection before it's archived this Friday, February 24th.
Voices From The Lake comprises a collaboration between headfuck techno figurehead Donato Dozzy and his friend Neel (not to be confused with frequent Dozzy collaborator Nuel. After debuting last year with the Silent Drops EP , the duo are preparing to release their self-titled LP (available on their Bandcamp page on February 20th), and frankly, it's a stunner. It's serenely sequenced in the vein of Global Communication's 76 14 or Move D and Benjamin Brunn's Songs from the Beehive ; laced with a kind of intoxicating liquid precision, it flows so seamlessly that it [...]
[Aim] Oliver Deutschmann, purveyor of techno-tinged house (or is it the other way around?), is not the likeliest name to see on Berlin label Aim, thus far home to quiet, Smallville-esque nocturnal deep house. Deutschmann's first solo release for the label marks the start of a new series cataloged with "X" - no other information given - appropriately enough, because it's pretty damn far removed from previous Aim efforts by Oskar Offermann or OCP. The first thing that [...]
[Delsin] Sometimes label moves can seem a little jarring, especially with a serial monogamist like Claro Intelecto. He had an early fling with Ai Records, but soon settled down with Modern Love, becoming one of the label's leading artists. As Modern Love travel down the rabbit hole of Andy Stott's gnarled, knackered sounds and Demdike Stare's library witchcraft, the man born Mark Stewart releases his first proper 123 in over a year [...]
[ Tectonic ] Distance has been applying industrial metallic textures to his bleak and foreboding productions for over half a decade. One of the "school of 20043 dubstep originals, his sound has always been cut from a rather different cloth, subtly referencing heavy metal while retaining an elephantine groove. He has released a number of tracks on Tectonic in the past, the pairing making perfect sense as both label and artist have [...]
Every year, the Red Bull Music Academy chooses 60 talented individuals to participate in a two week, all expenses paid trip to a specific destination. There they participate in workshops, listen to lectures from both musical legends and rising stars, and enjoy studio time with their fellow participants. But in order to be part of the RBMA, you have to apply . RBMA also throws a series of events/info sessions in selected cities that feature alumni of the program as well as other exciting names in electronic music. As a media partner of RBMA 2012 (which takes place in [...]
[ Smalltown Supersound ] Last year, the Norwegian producer Terje Olsen released Ragysh , his biggest record since 20052s Eurodans . Its two anthemic singles - the title track and "Snooze 4 Love" - were virtually unavoidable, and with good reason, as few others managed to reach their levels of end-of-the-night euphoria. The question of whether he'd take as long to match its highs has been swiftly deflated, as he's [...]
[ Planete Rouge Records ] As anyone who's followed house for the past few years knows, retro sounds have never been more accepted. When it comes to techno, however, producers seem keener on looking forward, at least for the time being. Enter Emmanuel Top. Throughout the 90s the Frenchman was a giant of the scene, but citing excessive commercial pressure , abruptly ceased releasing in 2003. When he returned last year, it was as if [...]
[Live At Robert Johnson] The past few years in dance music have suggested that no one can do house quite like Americans: no matter where your favorite contemporary house records were coming from, there's a good chance their warm chords and reverent drum programming wouldn't have been possible were it not for Detroit, Chicago, and New York. But while the steady stream of amazing records flowing out of Frankfurt institution Robert Johnson's [...]
[ Delsin ] Until recently, Delsin had not been known for having a particularly ambitious A&R department. The label tended to release material by a limited selection of family members, but lately it's been on fire with talented new signings - putting out records by newcomers Yør and The Please on the Purple Maze imprint and now the debut 123 by the Italian producer Hazylujah. It's immediately clear why Delsin sought him [...]
With his discography stretching back more than a dozen years, Sam Geiser can rightfully be regarded as a house and techno veteran, having notched up nearly 30 single releases, one full length album, and a staggering number of remixes since his debut in 1998. Hailing from Bern, Switzerland, Geiser first appeared at the end of the 90s via a series of hard looping techno releases on labels of the day like Phont, Primate and Intec. Since then he has been steadily refining and evolving his productions, coming to the wider attention of the electronic music community with Detroit-soaked slices of [...]
Little White Earbuds
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
Mr Fogg - Eleven
