Space Dimension Controller - Return to Microsector 50 ()

Space Dimension Controller - Return to Microsector 50 (R&S, 25 Feb)

In the past, we've possibly been a little disparaging of Space Dimension Controller, not for the quality of his music, which is an unquestionably excellent fusion of electro-funk, techno, cosmic disco, but for the over-the-top presentation he insists on. The musical Kayfabe that he adheres to draws so heavily from trash-fiction and indulges it without a shred of self-knowing, that it comes across as slightly demented... However, SDC's Mr 8040 character and his rapidly-expanding universe do have their own unique charm, and with the fine line between genius and madness blurring at post-light speeds, Return to Microsector 50 currently orbits the twin moons of "so bad it's good" and "so bad it's horrible". To put it another way, I can't decide if its Batman and Robin or Batman; The Movie.

As well as the fact that the music's bloody brilliant, it's SDC's dedication to and enthusiasm for the gimmick that's slowly turning me into a convert; this teaser EP for debut album Welcome to Microsector-50 features a final track of ambient washes and desolate drones that seems fairly typical of electronic EPs. Its title? Music for Spaceports. It's this hilariously irreverent bastardisation of Eno's terminology for his own ends that just tips the balance and lands Space Dimension Controller firmly in the land of the eccentric genius. As noted, the rest of the EP's pretty damn good too, functioning as both deleted scenes from the full album and the missing links of Space Dimension Controller's musical history - the title track joins the dots between Juan Atkins and the Rotters Golf Club, and Whilst I Was Away brings together aspects of ambient and dub that feel a little disparate in the album's lengthier interludes and had left Quadraskank Interlude feeling out of place. Most importantly though, the EP flat out drips cosmic slop, opening up into a massive George Clinton homage, replete with future-funk riffs, wailing guitar solos and acid-fried fantastical narratives.

For me, the Funkadelic love is the last piece of the puzzle that suddenly makes sense of SDC's overblown narratives and deliberately trashy vocals - it's the cornerstone that contextualises everything else and gives credence to magnificent combination of funk and psychadelica.

813 - Recolor EP (Activia Benz, Out late Feb)

Day-glo hip-hop / rave crossover stuff from Slugabed's label, due to drop some time in late February. Enjoyably hyperactive and luminous.

Shelter Point - Forever Now (Hot Flush 22nd August)

Shelter Point - Forever Now (Hot Flush 22nd August)

Shelter Point's debut EP for Hot Flush marks a distinct evolution for the primarily dancefloor label; incorporating elements of hypnagogic pop, found sounds, shoegaze and lo-fi, it's a brilliantly skronky mess of melancholic and euphoric sounds channeled into four quality tunes. Certainly, Forever Now shares DNA with other Hot Flush acts - Mount Kimbie most obviously, though there's elements of George Fitzgerald's r'n'b stylings in there - but Shelter Point's sound is a good a two steps to the left of anything else we've seen from Scuba's baby. The two piece act manage to work with a spectacularly diverse sound palette of analogue synthesis, upright pianos, spectral effects and some unique vocals that will undoubtedly garner James Blake comparisons, despite having a great deal more in common with Burial.

Much like Burial, Shelter Point approach dance music with a heavy focus on deconstruction, reconfiguring the building blocks of dance music from the ground up; blurring the synth lines and drawing out the vocals to leave the melodies feeling strained, distant and ineffable. The percussion feels like a vague sketch of a familiar shapes, as hi-hats and claves are reduced to mere frequency spikes, shorn of their decay, whilst the staple 909 snare becomes a broken-glass shatter, or the harsh metallic strike of Zippo. Forever For Now exhibits this best, with brittle yet forceful drums stabbing up through the mix, harshly punctuating the isolation tank synths. In the most literal sense, Shelter Point's aesthetic is "post" dance music - the sounds from after the dance, the fuzzy third-hand memory of bright lights and big beats, drawn from background hum of the city. Occasionally this drags a little, and the 2nd half of the EP is nowhere near as strong as the first, with both Hold on Me and Sleep Easy indulging in excessive chopped and screwed dynamics that detract from their beautifully melancholic feel. That said, the formers detuned vocal snippets are beautifully executed, and hint at further greatness. Coupled with two really strong tracks in Braille and Forever For Now, this is an exciting debut from an act we'll definitely be watching.

Sigha - Abstractions I-IV

Sigha - Abstractions I-IV (Hot Flush, 20 Feb)

Awww yeah. Sigha's new 12" for Hot Flush expands his range even further and confirms him as one of the most consistently interesting producers of modern electronica, blending industrial, drone and techno to brilliant effect. Whilst previous EPs have been a solid blend of techno and dubstep, with one more surreal number tacked on, Abstractions is firmly centred around Sigha's more disturbing machinations, with only How To Disappear working a conventional techno groove. Opener Something in Between Us is a beatless, glacial drone sketch, channeling a fair dose of Eno or Ulrich Schnauss and building up a wall of ambience that peters out far too soon for my liking. Working with a similarly frosted aesthetic, Sigha continues with the Autechre-esque Where I Come To Forget, which delivers a pallete of blips and snarls that continually threatens to morph into breakbeats, but resolutely fails to ever kick off. The absence of notable breaks and drops will doubtless infuriate, but the cold, mechanistic feel that permeates the record translates beautifully to repetitive, minimal structures.

As the title suggests, Abstractions appears to composed of extracts from live jams, with more attention given to sculpting sounds than to crafting DJ tools, however How To Disappear's eventual four-to-the-floor rhythm makes for great dark techno. With its gasping reverb and three-note melody, it sits somewhere between Sleeparchive and Regis and begs to be given a workout on full soundsystem. Closing off the record is Drown, and appropriately aquatic, polyrhythmic dub-techno number that feels similar to the Black Dog's more recent industrial experiments, albeit without their gift for a strong technoid narrative. Whilst the overall minimalism and lack of drive may render the EP less accessible to some, Sigha's ear for sound and dynamic continues to improve, and it's an enjoyable challenge to DJ with.

Drums Of Death - Red Waves EP

Drums of Death - Red Waves EP - (Civil Music, 05/12)

Incoming! Monster new business from Colin Bailey that's as wonderfully over-the-top as we'd expect. Fusing house, synthwave and unadulterated rave madness, it's a mad banger of an EP that's on par with his devastating 12" Steps Into The Ring for Greco Roman records and a cracking follow up to Black Waves back in July. Tear the Box Apart rips it up with epic synth lines and monster subs to create full metal jacking techno, whilst Venice Beach combines the same 808 booms into a hip-house inflected work-out. Relentlessly cheesy and unashamedly old-school, DOD manages to create crossover classics with a huge retro appeal. Refusing to rely on the nostalgia ticket, DOD fires up the 808 again for aptly titled The Jerk, but throws in a weird mix of breakbeat and UK funky to striking effect. Sadly, the more experimental moment falls a bit flat, and I can't say I was desperate to hear garage given a death-zombie reinterpretation, but it has it's own niche.

There's always been something of a disparity between the dancefloor productions of Colin Bailey and the Danse Macabre electro-pop that Drums of Death busts out live - the former is an introverted electronics geek, the latter a wild-eyed pop misfit in the Manson/ Danzig/ Gaga vein who exists to entertain. Whilst Bailey seems to be finding the confidence to leave behind his extra skin, Bang the Drum is the perfect fusion of the two; a jacking 808 beat leads into a duel between Bailey's vocodor-distorted vocals and a wirey, acid synth-line that ought to kill it live. It's a powerful cross-over tune that will appeal to a massive cross-section of clubbers, and we expect to hear this ending a lot of sets for the next few months. A solid and well worked ep.

Vatican Shadow - Pakistan Military Academy

Vatican Shadow - Pakistan Military Academy (Hospital Productions)

Shallowrave are big fans of Muslimgauze; Bryn Jones' output of truly surreal electronica, with its penchant for fucked up time signatures, eastern instrumentation and deliberately wrong production levels, is full of hidden gems I'm still discovering. I've been inundated lately with suggestions that I check out Vatican Shadow (solo project of Dom Fernow from Prurient & Cold Cave), who have had a whole bundle of accolades thrown at them lately, most of which reference the quintessentially lunatic style of Muslimgauze. It's a valid comparison, as VS utilise many of Jones' technical tricks - warping tapes, skipping beats and generally adding in at least one thoroughly sickening moment per track. As well as the aesthetic similarities, track names are equally long-winded and descriptive; Prime Minister Defiant As Pakistan Outs CIA Agent, closes off this particular 12", and Vatican Shadow imbue Bryn Jone's signature skewed aesthetic with more contemporary middle eastern issues; the death of Bin Laden and the Arab Spring unsurprisingly contributing much of their imagery.

However, casting aside Vatican Shadow's cursed compliment - their slew of recent releases have been great genre-crossing material, managing to channel the best of hip hop, techno, classic braindance, drone and noise, driving it all through a filter of sandblasted desolation. Whitewashed Compound Stealth Helicopter Crash opens the EP with Murcof-inflected noise compositions, skull-crushing Merzbow-isms and folk-drone hybrids that wouldn't sound out of place on a Carl Sanders record. Following it up with the cinematic Staccato Bursts Of Gunfire, which comes across like finest Shackleton, it's not exactly easy listening. Continuing through smacked out breakbeat and hard-wired techno, Fernow achieves a breadth of vision rarely seen from modern producers, clinically engineering a myriad of styles and conjuring a twisted, paranoid atmosphere. Deserving of recognition and a joy to listen to, Fernow's work is a genuinely pleasant surprise.

G.H - Ground EP (Modern Love)

G.H - Ground EP (Modern Love)

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Modern Love, and indeed much of the related material that emerges from the nothern techno axis; first hearing Neurofibro led to a fascination with Claro Intelecto, which in turn introduced me to Andy Stott's monolithic techno, and the surreal output of Miles Whittaker as MLZ and Pendle Coven. Lately, Demdike Stare's rusted and decayed drone compositions have dominated my listening, imbued with such a phenomenal depth of detail that I've found their albums impossible to move on from, and have left too many hours lazing in Hashashin Chant. This latest release from Modern Love features the other half of Pendle Coven appearing on his own for the first time, presenting three cuts of leaden-slab techno that revolve around the tension between a solitary bassline and a wildly malfunctioning tape echo device. Dark and experimental almost to the point of frustration, G.H. deals in Sleeparchive-influenced minimal grooves, dowsed in cobwebs and engineered to clinical levels. There's still a wall of noise there, but the majority of the noise comes from the subs and the rolling bassline, with the hi-end almost vanishing into nothingness; the epic breakdown on Ground emerges as the bass dissolves and a ray of high-end brightness breaks through, before dropping into the murk again. Albedo again bullies the listener with an omnipresent wall of noise, and sees G.H. referencing his Pendle Coven roots, sending a dubby stab trickling through delays and casting light onto the darkness. Despite the steady kick and warm chord, G.H. stays at arms length from the house-driven style of earlier projects, preferring to disconsert the listener with blasts of noise, dangerously constructed dynamics and continually garbled tape voices. Closing the record is the off-kilter Earth, which fires out the clearest vocal snippets, teasing a continual house vocal amidst a stuttering kick-drum and overloaded echo units. Despite being the most clearly developed track on the EP, its a little confusing - stopping and starting, disappearing in swathes of noise and changing focus a little too rapidly, providing an appropriately muddled, yet deeply infuriating finish to a fun little curio.

Guy Andrews - Shades / Textures (Hemlock)

Guy Andrews - Shades / Textures (Hemlock, 21 Nov)

Guy Andrews of Iambic / Moving Dawn Orchestra turns his hands to more dancefloor orientated material with this intriguing EP for Hemlock; taking on a more dense, percussive style but retaining his signature warm production, it's intriguing stuff. Shades kicks off in typical Hemlock fashion - skittery rhythms and snare-heavy drum fills that recall Pangaea, whilst warm swathes of synths build up in typical Iambic fashion. Despite the higher tempo and influences from UK funky, it's surprisingly delicate and melodic material, even with the beefy 808 kicks and hefty bass that come in on the drop. Chopping and changing throughout, Andrews uses some seriously convuluted percussive structures and dyamic shifts that are a welcome challenge to DJ with. AA Side Textures similarly skews perceptions, balancing neatly between techno, dub and funky (small f) percussive arrangements, refusing to ever settle into a solid groove to the point of infuriation. Again, Andrews manages to apply a welcome dose of melody and warmth to the UK funky template, and builds a powerful dancefloor tune.
Another big hitter for Hemlock, and really intriguing work from Andrews, who manages to turn out quality dancefloor material without relying on cheap tricks like wobble bass or over-compression. Perhaps a little too subtle for some, but definitely worth watching.

Pole - Waldgeschichten (Pole Music)

Pole - Waldgeschichten (Pole Music)

Stefan Betke's relationship to the outside world has always been a tricky one, with very little acquiescence to the demands of journalists or fans - letting little slip with the starkly titled trio of 1, 2 and 3, similarly withholding rhythms and melodies in clouds of static, echo, and that trademark Waldorf filter. Even with the wonderful ~scape, Betke was ever the behind-the-scenes A&R man, whilst Barbara Preisinger took the public role. So, when Pole's emotive Steingarten was released, replete with a rework package engaging with the current zeitgeist, it felt like a massive change for someone whose style revolves heavily around obtuseness and distance. Sadly, when ~scape closed its doors earlier this year, Betke once again returned to his status as the great enigma.

Finally then, Pole releases his first EP in far too long - a three part journey into dub, experimental and techno titled Waldgeschichten, and it is an undeniable pleasure to listen to. Whilst the material on early releases conceptualised dub as an aesthetic of sparseness, reductionism and delay work, Wipfel sees Pole embracing a rootsy, rhythm-led sensibility not previously seen, with a skanking organ lead and loose percussion. Similarly,Wurzel works around Maurizio-esque synth drones, but draws a solid steppa's riddim out from the murk, and channels some serious bass into the mix. For most Pole fans, the highlight will undoubtedly be the B-side, which gives us the expected cavernous bass and infintessimal sound design, replete with massive delays that float around and feed back. However, the greatest joy of Waldgeschichten is hearing Pole truly open up and deliver something that feels warm, full of life and more potent than ever. Welcome back.

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.

9West - Velvet EP

9West - Velvet EP (Dessous, Out now)

Dessous continue to turn out more subterranean house, with a four track EP from Greek duo 9west, who's debut EP for the label dropped last year. I recently praised Steve Bug and Cle's new EP as a return to form for Poker Flat, and now Bug's pulled the same trick with Dessous; this is the kind of rich, late-night house music that the label's famous for. Good shit.

Opening with Chasing Demons, 9west summon up a lush palette of bongo-laden percussion, whispered vocals and loping synth riffs, building a long-running deep house epic from a vast array of elements; hardly devastating, but definitely one to build up with. There's much of the same on the other three tracks, with Moments leaning heavily toward Detroit, ratcheting up the tension via swelling synths and percussive drop outs, whilst the second half of the EP showcases a more dub-friendly palette of delay and comfort-reverb. It's with the latter that 9west shine; their sound's so heavily layered that the more straight-forward 4/4 material can feel a little too complex, whereas when they draw out a single idea over the course of one track, it's far more effective. Velvet's definitely the stand-out number, reminiscent of Trentemoller's Moan with it's recurrent two-note lament and ethereal vocals, whilst The Big Picture is perfect after-hours music that slowly draws the EP to a close.

BEN BUTLER: Skwee tomorrow! & "Worm" EP

Synth fans, tomorrow sees the first installment of Ben Butler & Mousepad's new skwee night at Stereo, with DJing from the man himself and Wavy Graves, and a special live set from Finland's Mesak (Harmonia). It sounds like top notch fun, and if you don't know what Skwee is, check out this mix from BB&MP, or watch this clip from the documentary "We Call It Skwee":

We call it Skweee -mini preview from David Giese on Vimeo.

BB&MP have a new EP up for sale on their Bandcamp at the moment too, called "Worm", which was recorded using all analogue synths and no sequencers at Worm Studios in Rotterdam. This is actually a bit less skwee than usual, but still packed full of synthy goodness.

FUCKNO EP free download

It's our 3rd birthday here at Little Rock, so to celebrate we have a few freebies coming your way over the next week. First up is the FUCKNO EP - featuring new tracks by 7 of the acts featured on the FUCKNO LP (still available to download). In keeping with the spirit of NORAVE the tracks veer from post-crunk to delicate ambient, from noise-hop to torch song to a bizarre afro-rock-house jam to end it all. All tracks are at 320Mb and the whole thing clocks in at 49 minutes. Total artronica. Go get:

http://www.littlerockrecords.com/releases/Lil061_FUCKNO_EP.zip

BLOOD OF THE BULL - The Saxophonist
DAM MANTLE ft JULIE AUGERE - Yoghourt
DR NOJOKE - Sublimacy (Instrumental)
HANNAS BARBER - Cloud Mountain
HARLEQUINADE (ft gungwho, asthmatic astronaut, eaters, kobra audio labs, paul keene, mo-seph, texture + tickle) - Bootlegs & Besides
MINUS TWO QUARTET - Untitled (full length version)
KODAMA NORIHITO - Panzzy