DFRNT - El Spirito (27 Aug, Echodub)

DFRNT - El Spirito (27 Aug, Echodub)

Long-time DFRNT fans, it's always exciting to catch new releases from the 'Burghian producer, and El Spirito, released in advance of his forthcoming second album, is a pretty fine piece of cross-genre electronica. Leaving aside the shuffling garage-isms that usually underpin his work, the title track is a solidly kick-driven splay of bleep melodies, tape-wound vocals, and those trademark warm chords that just about passes for house music. Despite the more driven percussion, the atmosphere is still melancholic and smoked-out, hyper-extending every chord and vocal riff to sprawl somnambulantly across the mix. On the B-side, Work Harder is akin to Scuba or Ramandanman's cross-genre material; mixing the skittering percussion of garage/house with DFRNT's distinctive chord washes, and a powerful sub-bass that teems beneath a low-pass. It's a strange mix of the subtle and the brutal, and in typical fashion, the production's fuzzy and heavily-filtered, with the bass straining to break loose, whilst the high-end continually spreads.
El Spirito shows a definite evolution in Cowles as a producer, able to handle a more diverse palette of styles whilst retaining a signature sound - the closer Homeward, which ought to be a filler B-side or a lazy dub is a strange 110bpm trip-hop / electro-pop hybrid that breaks new ground and brings a real depth to what was otherwise a fairly straight up DJ 12". Featuring renowned Scots / Gaelic folk singer Joy Dunlop, Cowles matches languorous vocals with aquatic washes of synths to produce a surprisingly radio-friendly dark pop song that indicates great things to come from Fading. However, for those familiar with Cowles already extensive back catalogue, El Spirito does bear marked similarities to a lot of his already existing material - the signature sound of big chords, comfort reverb etc perhaps needs to be switched up in the near future. Intriguing nonetheless.

George Fitzgerald - Child (Aus Music, Out Now)

George Fitzgerald - Child (Aus Music, Out Now)

We've been fans of George Fitzgerald's output so far, and have had nothing but good things to say about his output, but his latest EP for Aus Music sees him stepping up his game and nailing some vintage-sounding house, whilst still sounding fresh and contemporary. Heavily Chicago-influenced, Fitzgerald uses a mixture of 808 and 909 percussion, a wonderfully vintage-sounding bass synthesiser, and vocals that sit somewhere between neo-soul vocal solos and chopped up UKG to build a quality four-track EP. Whilst it's a fully-rounded EP, with genius to be found across the board, Child and Lights Out on the A-side are possessed of immediately engaging riffs and big breakdowns that scream peak-time house music, whilst Hindsight and Unilateral on the flip both lend themselves more to early evening or build-up tunes. Child manages to make the best of one nagging two bar-riff, slowly filtering a warm bass synth at first, before augmenting it with verging-on-cliched house piano sound and a more ethereal hi-end synth. Similarly Lights Out is all about the dropping in and out of drum sounds - taut claves, steely open-hats and weirdly swung claps shift focus, whilst Fitzgerald warps around a chopped up vocal demanding we "turn the lights out". Whilst Fitzgerald's first releases were laden with androgynous, warpy vocals that made for melancholic tracks, this EP sees him embracing the more retro notion of the male Diva, with vocals that owe more to house singers like Steve Edwards or Donald O.
In contrast, the B-side retains more influences from the Joy O sound that made his name, keeping the metallic chicago percussion, but using more ethereal synths, and sending the percussion into all the wrong places. Both are solid in their own right, and the bizarrely innapropriate rave stab that keeps crowbarring it's way into Unilateral is a surreal delight, but these two are very much slow-builders that require a little work to find the best in them. Nothing groundbreaking, but a really solid EP that will get a good workout for sure.

Guy Andrews - The Wait (Hotflush Records, 28 May)

Guy Andrews - The Wait (Hotflush Records, 28 May)

Perrenial Shallowrave favourite Guy Andrews follows up his acclaimed 12" for Hemlock with a dark dancefloor killer for Hot Flush, undoubtedly one of our favourite labels. Whilst we've had nothing but good things to say about Andrews' post-rock/ambient output, it definitely feels that he's hitting his stride as a producer with his recent dancefloor 12"s - Iambic's focus on soundscapes, texture and the wall of noise limited the potential for narrative and drive. The transition to more focussed and beat-driven productions sees Andrews using his readily-established talent for composition and rhythm to create powerful bass music hybrids. Mixing snippets of acid basslines, complex percussion and warm, reverb-heavy synth lines, The Wait is one of those brilliantly wtf?-inducing tracks that deserves to be absolutely massive, whilst Hands in Mine continually fakes out the listener, mixing Mount Kimbie-esque walls of noise and Baile funk percussion before dropping into something that sounds a bit Kode9's Too Far Gone, a bit like Music era Talking Heads and a lot like what James Blake wishes he was making.

Andrews work sits nicely alongside other releases from Hot Flush and Hemlock, mixing many of the elements that both labels helped to build. However, unlike some of his labelmates, Andrews never sounds like a techno producer incorporating R'n'B elements, or a dubstep producer who's listened to too many Ostgut records; like Shades/Textures before it, The Wait feels like someone approaching dance music with a completely blank slate, incorporating whatever elements appeal to them, rather than attempting to emulate existing artists. His mixes (see below) clearly demonstrate a pretty solid knowledge of current dance music, yet The Wait feels brilliantly naive and unencumbered in both production and composition. Awesome work.
http://soundcloud.com/guyandrews

Scuba - Adrenalin

Scuba - Adrenalin (Hot Flush, 26th September)

It's no secret that Shallowrave has a bit of a thing for Scuba - as well as keeping the truly epic Hotflush record label turning out next-big-thing after next-big-thing, Paul Rose's role in bringing together the globe's different strands of bass music is second only to that of Kode9, and frankly, Aesaunic is a better single work than anything Goodman's managed. Seriously.

His latest offering, a 3-track EP on Hot Flush, once again utterly nails it; welding the broken glamour of UK garage onto a framework of purist Detroit beats and widescreen synths, it's a rich, euphoric piece of work that channels all the best bits of dub , R'n'b, techno and hip-hop into a seething dancefloor mess. Casting aside Scuba's previous propensity for cloying bass and Berghain-inflected doominess, Adrenalin occupies a weird mid-ground between Joy O and Carl Craig, with it's crisp, floaty synths, vocal samples and garagey bassline sneaking along in the background. It's dead on the money and sets the tone for two more monsters. In contrast, Never rips wholesale from the best of Afrika Bambaata, layering up that boom-bap with some gloriously rich synth lines and building a brilliantly twisted take on London garage. Closing the record, Everywhere sets up a beautiful piano riff that ultimately ends up a bit of a let down when the drums and vocal sample comes in and it gets all Prince. It's by no means a bad track, but the B-side just cries out for a dark and mangled dub, rather than a third dose of 808-driven uber-house. Good work from Scuba, and definitely his most dancefloor-centred to date.

Four Tet - Fabric Live 59

Four Tet - Fabric Live 59 (19/09, Fabric)

I've never been the biggest fan of Fabric's output as a whole; amongst the undoubted greats (Shackleton, John Peel, Jackmaster), there's a few that date badly (Nitin Sawhney), or really just don't do it for me (John Digweed, LTJ Bukem). Occasionally, they pop out the kind of mix that keeps you fascinated for weeks and totally redefines the idea of a 'mix'. Four Tet's approach to his Fabric mix isn't quite the magnificent slice of awesomeness that Shackleton's was, but it does manage to do away with certain conventions, and surprisingly accurately convey his uniquely weird approach to production and performance. Based around a framework of 90s 2-Step and Grime, Hebden has tracked down vinyl rarities, ripped digital versions from records and recorded found sounds from Fabric itself in an attempt to convey his sense of what a night out feels like, rather than merely blending tracks as anyone else would have been happy to do. It's a headfuck, and stands up as one of Fabric's more unique releases, taking in Burial's mournful Street Halo, C++'s hyperactive Angie's Fucked, compositions Four Tet created especially for the compilation, and crafting them into a surreal musical masterpeice. Definitely one of Fabric's more interesting releases.

George Fitzgerald - Silhouette EP

George Fitzgerald - Silhouette EP (Aus Music)

George Fitzgerald follows up his fantastic work for Hot Flush with a 3-track EP for the equally awesome Aus Music, who've gone from being a solid house/ techno label, to putting out some of the best cross-genre records in less than two years; Carl Craig remixing Ramadanman & Appleblim, Ramadanman and Midland's collab, Joy F'n Orbison.

Fitzgerald's pushed a lot of the right people's buttons with his mix of R'n'B, house and dubstep, and I was about to criticise this one for being overly-predictable, decent enough garage. Until I released my promo copy's been mislabelled. The B-side Reset (which I had as the flagship track) is a rolling, off-time garagey/r'n'b number that takes its time working over a single vocal line and offbeat piano stabs. It's pretty decent, but doesn't even come close the crossover potential of The Let Down, and frankly, the vocal's fucking irritating. Equally, the remix of Silhouette, by John Roberts, is this loping, weirdly played purple wow/ hip-hop number that doesn't know if it's trying to be smart electronica or a quality banger and had me ready to pan the release as a missed opportunity.

Then we get to Silhouette.

Holy Shit. Big analogue synth line warping through delays, epic smashes of white noise and irresistibly funky percussive riffs; big tune. Building up over time, it eventually bursts into a lush, drawn out slice of techno, with a looped and chopped vocal acting to drag the tune to new heights. Then, with the briefest of drop-outs, a monster sub-bass line kicks in and it all gets messy, turning it into one of the best tunes I've heard for months. This one's going to be big; I did find myself wondering why such a magnificent piece of work was consigned to the B-side. Buy it.

Deadboy - Here (Nmbrs)

Deadboy - Here (Nmbrs)

The cover says it all really; the almost Rocky Horror-esque, oversexualised lips splintered and fragmented, rearranged as an offbeat interpretation of a classic image. Deadboy's second vinyl for Numbers, after the excellent (though frustratingly one-sided) If You Want Me is another slice of achingly cool dancefloor destroyers that take the classic house template and move everything to the wrong places in the best possible way. Opening with his trademark fuzzed-up synths and filtering vocals, Wish You Were Here has the kind of epically lush intro you're going to spot a mile off, and rinses it for all it's worth, before dropping into a bouncing, 4/4 house riff, replete with off-time woodblocks and claps. With every new synth line and vocal filter, it just gets more hands-in-the-air and is a surefire set finisher for the likes of Jackmaster, Joy O et al. Here For You and Aint Gonna Lie are no less glorious, working synth lines that recall vintage Inner City against loping funk riffs, rolling bass and big drop-ins. Hell, Here For You even manages to work in bongos and tabla without sounding cheesy.

My only sticking point with this record is that whilst Deadboy, fitting perfectly with Numbers ethos, DJs right across the board (Detroit electro, classic house, hip-hop and dubstep all get a work-out), Here ties in all of these, but is just slightly too cleanly produced; there's just not enough growl, grit, or dirt smearing the record. Maybe it's just too much of Kode9 and Burial, both of whom work with similar dubstep-garage-house variants, but Here lacks the dark side that throws the light into perspective. Final track / B-side Aint Gonna Lie comes closest, with the vocals detuned, the synths pitchbending mournfully, and a seductively deep bassline rolling along. Still, it's a cracker of a record, and after the frustratingly limited one-sided debut, it's good to hear more from Deadboy.

Joy O - Jels / Wade In

Joy O - Jels / Wade In (Hot Flush) - 10/03

Definitely the most ballsy Joy Orbison record to date; despite the glossed-to-fuck synths he's made his trademark, the 303 bassline rubber-ducking it's way through Jels is far harder than anything from his previous house / r'n'b / step variants, and combined with beefy kicks and big booming claps, makes for a seriously jacking peice of work. Of course, there's the obligatory vocal dropped into the mix - a detuned, mournful cry of "torn" cutting through, but this one's played a lot straighter than other Orbison tracks, basing itself around classic house grooves. Wade In is similarly grounded in proper house, building from solid 303 percussion and a definite kick-clap structure, but shuffling the rimshots and cowbells to weirdly accentuated positions. The filtering, loopy vox is still garagey as fuck, as is the surreally strung-out breakdown, but the piano riff worming it's way through the drop is pure Chi-town stuff. Without retreating into simplistic formulae and done-to-death styles, UK bass music is circling back a degree or so, dragging with it all the new flavours and styles acquired along the way; the artist formally known as Orbison might just turn it all into house music again....

"Them pigeonholes were never nothing to hold me"

Pangaea - Inna Daze / Won't Hurt

Pangaea - Inna Daze / Won't Hurt (28.02.11)
Hessle's 17th release sees co-boss Pangaea dropping a couple of deep house variations, dropping down from his standard garagey 140 to a more restrained 130bpm tempo. With distant wails, slow-attacking synths and skittery percussion, Inna Daze echos the same sparse atmospherics of Burial or 2562, revelling in the spaciousness of the production, before a fractured R'n'B vocal and a warm bass melody emerge from the emptiness. It's not exactly big room material, and lacking a solid foundation, it achieves the kind of slow-groove, dubbed out feel that we love. Though the construction's obviously heavily indebted to UK urban music styles, the production values are undeniably tinged with the warped and skewed sonic ideology of Moodymann and Theo Parrish, as well as modern head music like shoegaze and ambient, placing all the best bits of the production in weirdly inaccessible places. Won't Hurt, whilst a little faster, and charged with a sickeningly gigantic bassline, is possibly even more leftfield. The vintage string melody, plucked straight from a matinee classic, gets reversed, skewed and offset until it lapses into complete abstraction and withers into the distance, allowing the beasting garage riddims to return in full effect. Pangaea's Sunset Yellow was probably as important a record as Hyph Mngo (dropping within weeks of each other), but ended up massively overshadowed by Orbison's oooh-wa-ooh-ooh monster - this one aught to stand on it's own as a contemporary bass classic.
Inna Daze by pangaea

Blawan - Bohla (R&S Records)

Blawaan - Bohla (R&S Records)
Weirdly swung acid techno from Blawan on R&S records, following his debut 12" on Hessle. The Hessle release had a couple of pundits suggesting that the nimble fingers of production-shy Ben UFO might have put together the twisted beat-logic of Fram / Iddy. But that's what they said about Joe, so I'm beginning to think "it might be Ben UFO" works the same way as "may contain nuts" - highly unlikely, but pretty hard to prove either way. No-one really gives much of a damn about AFX-esque games of Clue at the moment, and frankly, Blawan's music speaks for itself; a bubbling fusion of raw 303 basslines, swung percussion and hyperactive rhythms. Much like Untold's devastating 12" for R&S, Blawan aims somewhere between the classic sound of R&S techno and the warped structures of UKG / Funky, it's acid squelch coming on like a beefed-up Bam Bam, whilst scattershot percussion bounces around, never solidifying or settling. Opener Bohla apes Untold's Stereo Freeze, with it's diving bassline uncomfortably set in the middle of the bar, and garagey beat, whilst Kaz follows a much more technoid imprint, with it's rubber-duck synth grounding the rimshot-heavy percussive workout.
For me, it's all about final track, Lavender though, which borrows a little Bambaata-esque hip-hop groove and offsets it with a squelchy melody, before bringing a dubstep-style wugga bass to the proceedings. Slightly uncomfortable, and oddly pitched at 133bpm, it's set to be a massive cross-over tune for sure.

"It's all house music anyway"

George Fitzgerald - Don't You / SCB Remix

George Fitzgerald - Don't You / SCB Remix (Hot Flush Records)
George Fitzgerald, whose debut EP, The Let Down, neatly tied together the dominant strains of garage, bass, house and R'n'B that were big at the time, returns to Hot Flush with another cut of fractured vocals, broken beats and lush synths. To some extent, it's more of the same; there's mournful detuned vox that warp in and around the melody, skittery half-step percussion and rich synths all bundled up in warm atmospherics. Undoubtedly, this is going to get rinsed to death, especially with Scuba, the man who's A&R skills have launched Joy Orbison, Mount Kimbie and Sigha backing it, and providing a remix on the flip. But this is no monster anthem; it's the moody, richly textured version of the garage-not-garage thing that Kavsrave, J.O. and the rest are punting at the moment. Whether or not there's space in the marketplace for more of the same remains to be seen, but Fitzgerald has his own charm and energy that makes him worth looking out for. Hell, even the vocals have their own place, unlike a few too many of Orbison's tracks.
For me, though, the B-side is where it's at - Paul Rose (Scuba), under his SCB moniker careful extracts the essentials of the original and processes them into the kind of Berlin Boom-Tish that he's been espousing lately. Honestly, it's not the best thing he's done under either moniker, but nailing the synthy, purple wow-inflected garage-isms of the original onto a solid technoid template makes for a genre-smashing synthesis. Nice work.

Free Zed Bias - LOTS of Zed Bias.

Very Very Much blog (the online home of Joe Muggs) has an exclusive interview with British garage/dub legend Zed Bias up just now, and it's really worth a read. But not only do they have an interview, they have a Soundcloud set with 20 unreleased ZB productions dating from 1998 to 2000 too. This is like beyond awesome! Well done sirs.


Zed Bias - 'LOST DATS ARCHIVE' volume 1 (Xmas Giveaway) by zedbias

Kelvin Brown dj set @ Swing Ting

Another great mix form Mr Kelvin Brown, this time recorded at the Manchester club night Swing Ting and featuring MCs Fox and Diamond. This takes in garage, hip-hop, R&B and dancehall, with a smattering of classics to keep the oldies happy. For more info on Swing Ting visit their blog.

V/A - Worth The Weight; Bristol Dubstep Classics

V/A - Worth The Weight; Bristol Dubstep Classics
After 5 years, 20 releases and an unmeasurable impact on the club scene, Punch Drunk release a pretty comprehensive retrospective that ties up the best of garage, dubstep, grime etc in a satisfyingly hefty package. As the subtitle suggests, Worth the Weight isn't exactly a Punch Drunk sampler, and takes in dubstep tunes from Skull Disco, Tectonic and Planet Mu to demonstrate the depth of Bristolian bass music. The tracklist is undoubtedly impressive - Smith & Mighty's Bi Line Fi Blow is a total anthem, the RSD compilation (represented on this disc by Pretty Bright Lights) was a cornerstone of dubstep's evolution, and the Guido and Gemmy tunes are purple wow bangers waiting to be pushed into public consciousness again. With 24 tracks, including a few lesser known items from the likes of Komonazmuk, Hyetal and and Dubkasm, the depth of focus is nothing short of epic, and Worth the Weight manages combine the best of Bristolian to stunning effect. Thankfully, the urge to put all the anthems on one disk is avoided - Skull Disco is represented by Appleblim's Vansan, rather the massively over-rinsed Blood on My Hands or Stalker, whilst it's second-stringer Joker tunes like Holly Brook Park and Stuck in the System, rather than Snake Eater that make up the majority of the compilation.

For value and quality, it's hard to quibble over, but in their desire to capture all of Bristol, Punch Drunk seem to have missed off a couple of classics- notably, the inclusion of only one RSD track, when his blend of wubba-bass and crisp dub is some of the best some of the best music to emerge from Bristol. Then again, looking up some of the originals on Discogs, it's evident that my tastes aren't entirely in line with the rest of the world on this one. Orchestral Lab is one of my least favourite tunes from Punch Drunk - the whole pseudo-symphonic sound feels like being stuck in some mawkish Hollywood slop - yet it's fetching up to £35 for a mint-condition on Discogs, whilst Pinch's brooding Qawwali (in my mind, one of the disk's finest cuts, and one Planet Mu's seminal discs) is easily available and has recieved much less attention.

As a dubstep primer, or just a good collection of digital tracks, this is definitely worth picking up, but there's a great amount of trawling to be done to fill in the blanks the compilation leaves.

Spark - Revolving (Ramadanman refix) - Free Download

Seen this one kicking about a few places now, but figured it's still worth posting. If you've followed the blog for any length of time, you'll know how we feel about Ramadanman - consistently excellent with both melody and rhythm, he's a definite favourite.
This is the first of heard of Spark, and though her voice has a lovely crisp quality, I'm always hesitant about vocals and dance tracks. Mostly, Ramadanman throws samples into the mix that filter in and out, before allowing it to collapse into a big crashing breakdown that gives Spark the centre stage. It's testament to the strength of both that this isn't immediately filed under "annoying big vocal number" - it totally works, and he's kindly giving it away for free.

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Save File: Revolving (Ramadanman Remix).mp3

Untold - Stereo Freeze

Untold - Stereo Freeze (R&S Records)
Holy fuck. R&S have been returning to impeccable form following releases from James Blake and Model 500, but with this 12" from Untold, they just raised the game a notch. Opening with a brooding bassline and his trademark breathy samples, Untold builds up a rapid-fire wall of percussion and bass shifts until it all peaks and drops into a lurching, offbeat syncopation. Peppered with distorted synth jabs and wild wobbling bass, it occupies a weird mid-ground between Garage/ funky and Detroit electro, uniting the classic R&S sound with the new school of dance music producers. Make no mistake, it's a dancefloor destroyer alright - a rampaging clusterfuck of styles. The B-side's pretty special too; kicking in on a swung 4/4 beat, a bass melody and a filthy sub do battle for domination, before those rave stabs re-emerge again and it reaches a similarly pounding climax. This is easily on par with Untold's previous anthem I Can't Stop This Feeling - with R&S pushing it, it's going to be massive.

Elgato - Tonight / Blue (Hessle)

Elgato - Tonight / Blue (Hessle)
More of the quality bass music from Hessle...
Elgato made his name with his eclectic DJ sets that flitted smoothly between house, garage and dubstep way before the rest of the world caught on. His debut 12" completely captures this forward-thinking attitude, touching on funky, garage and house, with a solid bass undercarriage, ear candy melodies and syrupy vocals. The bassline of both tracks immediately stands out - this is hefty subby material that morphs and slides, melodies slowly spiking up in the mix and the rattling snaredrums tap-dancing in the far off top-end. Managing a distinct range across both sides of the 12", Tonight leans to the UKG end of the spectrum, with taught, syncopated snares, whilst Blue drops down to a slow-grind 124bpm for the techno heads to enjoy. These are decidedly minimal rhythms, which challenge DJs to move away from the intro/outro style of mixing that's beginning to damage DJ culture - you can't just stick these on and fade out over the 16s. Blue breaks down into almost complete silence; slowly creeping back into life with a glowing synth line and repetitive vocals that take over a minute and a half to crack open and return to the shuffling rhythm. Gorgeous DJ tools that will be making many an end of year playlist....

SMOKE/LESS/FUELS

There's a great four-track free download EP available at the moment from the Irish blog Smokeless Fuels.

The four tracks are in a nu-skool garage vein - lots of skippy beats & samples and fat basslines, with some nice deep chords over the top of some of them too. The tracks are from the Standard Crew, who do a radio show too. These guys are new to us, but the quality of these tracks means we'll definitely be keeping an eye on them in the future. Click the pic above to download the EP.