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.

Ikonika - I Make Lists

Ikonika - I Make Lists (16 July, Hum+Buzz)

Ikonika's debut album Contact, Love, Want, Have scored her a hefty critical following and garnered high praise for it's technicolour mixture of grime, dubstep and wonky; whilst I wasn't hugely enamoured with it's day-glo nature, forthcoming (mini?-)album I Make Lists has definitely cemented Sara Abdel-Hamid as one of the most bravely innovative producers operating at the moment. I Make Lists is an epic journey of fully-fledged synth mayhem that drags in aspects of purple wow, Chicago house, acid techno and 8-bit soundtracks that seems way more complete than it's half hour time span should allow, and throws any possibility of pigeonholing out the window.

The biggest evolution of Ikonika's sound has to be the development of a more solidly 4/4 rhythm, without dropping the intricate drum-programming that had her cast as garage or dubstep on her first releases; confusing triplets, hi-hats that double-up or drop out for single bars, and juke-inflected kick patterns are all thrown into the mix. It feels techno, mixes with techno, and constantly fucks with techno. The high point of this melting pot is the wonderfully epically With Your Mouth, an almost Drexciyan mix of rubber-duck bass and relatively straight-forward percussion that builds into a crescendo of purple wow synths. Catch Vibes is equally bizarre - euphoric house drum-programming and acid bass are offset by GLaDOS-esque vocals and arcade synths that feel like the soundtrack to some retro-futurist VR program.

Much like Rustie's impressive and divisive Starburst EP from earlier this year, I Make Lists is an inherently prog record; one that embraces indulgence, experimentation and the spectrum of psychedelic experience. However, Ikonika's take on psychedelia puts aside the pastoral Britain Syd Barrett eulogised, or the eastern mysticism that runs through Mahavishnu orchestra and Goan trance, and updates the machine-fetishism of Dark Side Pink Floyd or Trans-Europe Express for the post-rave echo boomer generation. Closing the record, PR-812 is an unashamedly epic coda to this expansive mess, that gathers clanking mechanical percussion, broken-radio percussion and warm bass, before floating off into the ether in a series of fuzzy-edged, plant-food friendly riffs. Set controls for the heart of the sun.

CUR$ES

A quick post about Glasgow synth trio CUR$ES, whose albums are all up for free download on their Bandcamp page. Three musicians, using a Prophet 08 synth, MIDI pads and a Yamaha drum pad station, the multi-instrumentalist band switch parts mid-song while playing live, creating a vibrant, musically capricious sound that evokes everything from Joker's purple-wow dubstep sounds to the ghost-garage of Burial or Ghostek, with detours through witch house, drag and classic synthpop. 

They're an absolutely incendiary live act, as was proved when we saw them deliver an outstanding live session in support of Com Truise at Captain's Rest last week. Have a listen to their latest album Hey, cool! I'm dead, and their recent split with ARM WTCHS FNGRS, and click through for yet more goodies from three rising stars of Scottish electronic music. We expect big things from CUR$ES as their career progresses!

Untold - Caslon / Breathe (Hemock, 25th June)

Untold - Caslon / Breathe  (Hemock, 25th June)

Hemlock continues to impress with an unsurprisingly solid 12" from head honcho Untold, which channels a very satisfying amount of Berghain darkness, shot through with subtle melodies and counter-rhythms. Whilst Untold's biggest strength is his fluid percussion and complex approach to rhythm, I've always been particularly keen on his lower end landscapes; the strange way that he manages to combine both misanthropic gloominess and a surprising amount of delicacy in his subs and basslines. Check out his work on Round Black Ghosts for proof. Caslon takes an entirely different root - with an arpeggiated acid synth bludgeoning the listener, it's way more aggressive than previous works. Complementing this more hard-nosed aesthetic is some beautifully over-driven percussion, with the white noise on all the hats and cymbals turned up to a wickedly distorted level that recalls Karl O Connor's work with Peter Sutton. On the flip, Breathe adopts a more late-night
house feel, mixing classic garage-house with sparkling keys that recall Claro Intelecto's early analogue fanboyisms. The problem is that Untold never really gets beyong fanboyisms, despite the mentally innovative nature of Stereo Freeze (RandS ), and with the current wave of Berghain-fixated UK producers, this doesn't stand out as much as Can't Stop This Feeling or Anaconda. It's not that either of the tracks on this 12" are bad (Caslon's definitely getting rinsed), but that considering the cross-genre masterpieces Guy Andrew's been dropping on Hemlock, this feels limited in its scope, and slightly masturbatory.

In 2012, dubstep is at best an ill-defined concept, and at worst, an excuse for terrible rave music; it's very satisfying to see once "dubstep" labels like Hemlock, Hessle and Hot Flush shaking off the last vestages of that shroud and turning out great dance music, period. Untold's definitely a big part of that change, but as good as these tunes are, they lack that ineffable je ne sais quo, or "what the fuck is this?" factor to make them truly great.

So Long, Mixed Bizness

So... Nine years of parties and it's drawing to a close, with some of the promotions mainstay performers turning up to rock it one last time. The poster says all you need to know. Goodbye and thanks.

Mala in Cuba - preview

Mala unveals the first full-length tracks from his forthcoming Mala in Cuba album, a collaboration with Gilles Peterson and various Cuban musicians set to drop on the 10^th September. Whilst Coki's particular brand of dubstep is starting to become rather overplayed, Mala's constantly been spreading his wings and experimenting. Peterson fairly boldly claims that "This is the record that reevaluates and realigns the dubstep movement within soundsystem culture", and whilst that's a hell of a grandiose statement to live up to, the two tracks so far sound fun, fresh and begging for a big-system run-out, though frankly, they sound very little like dubstep.




More details as we get them.

The Shallow Rave Show - 22nd March 2012

Shallow Rave's radio team returns! After last month's triumphant guest mix from TEXTBEAK, which garnered in excess of 1500 listens, hosts Liam, Boag and Bram (aka Black Lantern's Texture) are back to present their selection of the finest cuts in experimental and electronic music, with exclusives, classics and red-hot mixes.

You can download and stream below. Show A features some chat from the presenters about their selections, while Show B has just the music, nothing else. We'll be back very soon with Show 004, when we'll have some exciting news about the show, and some very special guests, including a guest mix from dark electronic / hip-hop wunderkind BL▲CK CEILING.



Playlist for Shallow Rave 003:

Voltergeist - 69 Psalmpled [ soundcloud.com/microrave-records ]
Demdike Stare - Filtered Through Prejudice   (Tryptych) [ modern-love.co.uk ]
GZA - Publicity   (Beneath The Surface) [ MCA Records ]
Byetone - Golden Elegy (Symeta) [ raster-noton.net ]
Randomer - Get Yourself Together   (HEK015) [ hemlockrecordings.co.uk ]
The Roots - Thirsty   (Phrenology) [ MCA Records ]
Silent Servant - Untitled Regis Edit (Sandwell District) [ Sandwell District ]
Solomun - He Is Watching You  (Something  We All Adore) [ wearesupernature.com ]
FiNiGHT - Neverglades (Icepunk Compilation) [ auralsects.bandcamp.com ]
Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica (Replica) [ Mexican Summer / Software ]
oOoOO - No Way Back ft. Butterclock [ soundcloud.com/ooooosounds ]
Roly Porter - Rossack - [ subtextrecordings.net ]
Unknown Artist - Untitled - [ soundcloud.com/kid-ritalin ]
Sigha - How To Disappear - [ hotflushrecordings.com ]
Ben Klock - Static Test - [ ostgut.de/label ]
Sigha - Where I Go to Forget - [ hotflushrecordings.com ]
Northern Structures - Plus Minus - [ sonicgroove.com ]
Claro Intelecto - Voyeurism - [ delsinrecords.com ]
Ricardo Villalobos - Easy Lee (LetKolben Remix) [ soundcloud.com/letkolben ]
Model 500 - The Messenger [ randsrecords.greedbag.com ]
Soft Riot - Another Drone In Your Head [ tundradub.bandcamp.com ]
Ingen - TRYC9 [ soundcloud.com/ingen ]
Micoland - Awareness Spectrum Narcotic (Pirate Radio Astronomy) [ dead-channel.com ]
Louie - Oddacity ft. Solareye (The Discernible Truth) [ louiedeadlife.bandcamp.com ]

Slugrave mixtape #010

What is "Slugrave"? Listen and find out:

Slugrave Mixtape #010 by slugrave

Coki - Don't Get it Twisted

Coki - Don't Get it Twisted (DMZ 23rd January)

DMZ have done a great deal of good as part of London's bass music scene, and I was particularaly vocal about Mala's epic remix of the Moritz Von Oswald Quartet; their cross-over into more techno-influenced territory and gigs in Berghain have only served to cement my respect for the work they do. However this record from Coki feels like a step backwards, a regression to dubstep's ket-friendly, strictly-formula blend of massive basslines and loping percussion that feels tired and done to death. Tree Trunk opens the record promisingly with Carpenter-esque horror-synths and breathy atmospherics, building the kind of hypnotic dub Pinch or Martyn do on their best days. And then the bassline comes in. All nippy high-end and wrenching pitch shift, it murders the majority of the mix and is an unpleasantly abrasive addition to what was shaping up quite nicely - when the drop hits, it reverts back to being a well-engineered, intriguing track. Following it up with Lower Octave, Coki fires back in with exactly the same kind of nagging look-at-me sawtooth synthline that dominates everything in sight, and the predictable one-and-threes kick & snare pattern. Obviously it's a question of taste, but in comparison to the substantial body of work Coki had amassed, and the reputation of DMZ, this feels immature and badly-worked.

The biggest shame about this record is that the second plate is a pretty solid piece of work - Celestial Dub's hydro-inflected organ is a thing of beauty and adds a much needed dubby element to the record, offsetting it with mental levels of delay on everything. Everything. Leaving aside the brain-melting basslines, Coki builds up a very competent and blissfully stoned steppa's riddim that deserves a good run out. The fourth side of this EP again throws a total curveball, and garners that same "what the hell has he been smoking?" reaction that Boomba brought out - the bassline flip-flops around, contorting and meandering, whilst a plethora of Bomberman melodies skew across the top. It's as abrasive as anything off the first disk, but the level of surrealism and completely over-the-top nature make it a genuinely interesting piece of work. Buy the tracks digitally.

Gravious - Spatial Dimensions EP [Broken Bubble]

 

Broken Bubble have had a great 2011, releasing several superlative dubstep / 2-step EPs (without a hint of mindless Wub), from the likes of Sorrow and Bonecold. Their latest release is from Glasgow-based producer Gravious, whose electro-inflected 2-step tracks are complex, melodic and inventive. There are even flutes at one point! Despite the sombre names of both Gravious and his labelmates, often the music on Broken Bubble is uplifting and sparsely beautiful, and 'Spatial Dimensions' is no exception. There's a psychedelic, natural feel to Gravious work on this EP which hearks back to the early work of Pinch and Scuba. With three new tracks and 3 remixes (one by Sorrow), this is well worth your time and money, from a netlabel fast becoming the go-to guys for quality future bass.

"Dubstep is awful right now, truly terrible"

Red Bull Music Academy - great work, great ideas, world's shittest sponsor.

Lecture: Scuba (Madrid 2011) from Red Bull Music Academy on Vimeo.

Seriously, Red Bull is mind-bogglingly awful and a massive pet hate of mine, yet the RMBA actually has a pretty cool thing going on. I like this video with Scuba, which, despite the weird German breakfast tv setup, has a nice bit of narrative and some very interesting chat. Nice seeing Scuba opening up so much.

Interviewer: "and what did it become?"
Scuba: "A really terrible music scene"

Brilliant.

Pinch - FabricLive 61

Pinch - FabricLive 61 (16 January)

I don't generally give the Fabric mixes much coverage, partly because they hardly need the rub, partly because few of the mixes lately have gone beyond being predictably okay;
whilst I enjoyed Brodinski's fusion of disco, house, hip-hop and Balearic on Fabriclive 60, there hadn't been a great deal else pushing my buttons lately. I'm listening to a stream of Pinch's forthcoming mix, due in February, and aside from the infuriating Hal-lite voiceover designed to prevent me from making illegal copies, this is a beauty of a mix that takes in a brilliant array of sounds and styles. There's saw-toothed half-step from the likes of Jakes and Goth-Trad, Addison Groove's Juke/Footwork inspired spasticity and even some more straight-up techno from the likes of Shed's EQD project, chopping and changing without becoming confusing or incoherent. Similarly, Pinch throws in multiple dynamic shifts to wrong-foot the listener, booting off with the high energy Venom pt 2 by Distal, he wallops the listener into submission before dropping into Pinch & Shackleton's haunting Rooms within Rooms to break up the mix fairly quickly after. Often this kind of chop-and-change gets all too Jive Bunny, and there's a few FabricLive that have suffered from being too attention deficit and not allowing tracks to breathe (Caspa, Rusko, this means you). However, Pinch's sense of dynamic and narrative makes for a compelling journey.

Pinch's main strength as a producer has always been his ability to create an intense, claustrophobic atmosphere - Underwater Dancehall's sense of sparseness and depth made it one of the more successful artist albums of the UK bass explosion, and he's one of the few dubstep artists I'll contemplate buying on vinyl. Whilst it's full of screeching synths and wobble bass, Pinch channels the same subdued sense of menace into his mix, and we're treated to a skull-crushingly heavy delight.

Morphamish - Another Position EP

Morphamish returns with another package of rampaging electro-nasties that draw on the darker sides of drum 'n' breaks, dubstep and electronica to create a seething mess of awesome. Out now on Blacklantern, you can pick it up as a free download from the homebase, or use their official.FM page to stream the tracks. It's a doozy alright. BLM041 - Morphamish - Another Position E.P. Trailer whole ep FREE DL www.blacklanternmusic.com direct link in comments at 0.00 by morphamish

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.

Dirty Marc "Pop Pop Poppin Mix"

Resident Deathkill4000 deej Dirty Marc (aka Monty FUnk) has a new mix of more pop-oriented dubstep shiz up on Mixcloud. Don't let the combination of the words "pop" and "Dubstep" put you off though, this is a goodyin. It iwll clean the cotton wool out your ears anyway.

Dirty Marc - Pop Pop Poppin' FTW (30min mix) by Dirty Marc (Aka Monty Funk) on Mixcloud

Far East Movement - Like A G6 (Dillon Francis Mix)
Benny Benassi - Cinema (Skrillex Mix)
Wtf?! Ft. Dead Prez - Bigger Than Hip-Hop
Neki Stranac - Worldwide Moombahton
Foreign Beggars Ft. Noisia - Contact
Neki Stranac - Worldwide Moombahton
Dave Nada - Riverside (Moombahton Edit)
Wretch32 Ft Example - Unorthodox (Instrumental)
O.D.B - Got Ya Money (Acapella)
Justice - Civilization
Ella Fitzgerald - Sunshine Of Your Love (Leonidas Deejay Club Edit 2011)
Monty Funk - Pony Ride (Demo Edit)
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - The Golden Age (Prince Vince Mix)
Friendly Fires - Live Those Days Tonight
Green Velvet - Flash ( Jamie Jones Mix )
Calvin Harris - Bounce (Michael Woods Mix)
Adele Vs Prydz - Rolling In The Pjanoo (Djt! Mashup)
Katy B - Broken Record (Geeneus Mix)
Major Lazer - Pon De Floor (Slink Refix)

FREE Mungo's Hi-Fi v Soom T v DJ Zinc download

Our favourite reggae soundsystem meets our favourite female MC nicking bits from our favourite drum'n'bass tune? This is JUST NOT ON.

Here's some words from the people themselves:

"The original Roll it vocal by Soom T on the riddim track by Mungo's Hi Fi. Check the Disrupt version on Jahtari's massive 'Ode to a Carrot' LP . Large up DJ Zinc for the Super Sharp Shooter track - big tune.

We never got around to releasing it, so we thought we'd share it."

Have at em:

Mungo's Hi Fi feat. Soom T - Roll it by mungoshifi

Benji B's Soundcloud

is well worth checking out. It features recordings from his BBC1 radio show and also sets from his London club night Deviation.

I have been hooked on a set from Deviation by synth boogie don Dam Funk. He really is the master at this kind of post-disco, American 80s funk sound:

Dam-Funk DJ Set | Recorded Live Deviation 1st Birthday Session by Benji B

And for people who STILL don't know what dubstep is exactly, check out this "History of Dubstep" special. It's a bit hit and miss for my liking, but a great rundown of the whos, whys, whats, wheres and whens:

Benji B The History of Dubstep on BBC 1Xtra 11 12 10 by Benji B

Surgeon - Breaking the Frame

Surgeon - Breaking the Frame (Downwards, out now on vinyl, CD / Digital next month)

Anthony Child returns to his Surgeon moniker with his first album in just over a decade, channeling everything from the brutalist techno of British Murder Boys, to his more experimental works with Karl O'Connor and Mick Harris into a seething melting pot of electronic head-fuckery. Considering Surgeon's vast body of work, plus his status as one of techno/dubstep's most singular DJs, there's a lot piled into Breaking the Frame - the gatefold artwork alluding to this with it's chaotic mix of colour and shape.

Dark Matter opens the record, with a series of analogue tones and glitches taken straight from Mika Vainio lilting over a subtle sub-bass, before Transparent Radiation rolls in like T++ or Dettman turning it up to full volume. We get the same treatment with Radiance and Power of Doubt, both running on grinding metallic pads and barely recognisable snares and hi-hats, utterly demolishing everything in their way. This isn't just a case of 4/4 destruction throughout though; Child continually shifts the dynamic of the tracks, ending one set of beats halfway through and giving way to an epic run-out of keys on Transparent Radiation, and indulging in some more Autechre influenced down-tempo work on Remover of Darkness.

It's undeniably Surgeon, contrasting the raw, to-the-knuckle techno, with warpy, melodic and offbeat passages. At times though, it almost feels like the repetitive beats are merely there as an afterthought, and Breaking the Frame focuses more on space, depth and atmosphere, floating off towards the end in a haze of analogue blurs and washes of sound.

Stagga - The Warm Air Room

Stagga - The Warm Air Room (Rag and Bone)

Following on from his singles on Rag and Bone and Rudeez, Stagga drops his debut album, The Warm Air Room, fusing violently nasty basslines to subtle hip-hop frameworks, and chanelling it all into a doomy, dread-fuelled warehouse sound. Whilst Face Get Splat and Sick as Sin were rooted squarely in the kind of full-on dubstep-mutant-bassline territory that Rag and Bone have made their own, The Warm Air Room displays a surprising amount of subtlety and delicacy of touch, without in any way sacrificing heaviness; following the Zomby-esque bleepy intro, Is This The Future rolls in bouncing hip-hop boom-bap, complete with G-funk strings and as detuned sample of U-God's famous "Roll like cocaine, straight from Bolivia" on the breaks. The Dragon heads more for a UK funky feel, with the monstrous bass-drone offsetting rattling tabla percussion and slightly surreal manga-esque quotes about summoning dragons. Even the pixel-driven psychedelia of Zomby and Rustie rears its head, on the likes of The Chilski and Original Misty, both featuring many-time collaborator Monky and skillfully bridging the divide between hip-hop and purple wow.

Neatly fusing the major strands of UK bass music, and creating a few anthems in the process, The Warm Air Room is an accomplished album from an artist who risked just plastering big basslines over everything and riding the Ket-massive all the way to the bank in his first few singles.

Kode 9 - Black Sun

Kode 9 - Black Sun (Out Monday)

Yes, though the hype is absolutely through the roof over Kode 9 and the Spaceape's second album (over four years since Memories of the Future), it is actually as good as you want it to be. 'Memories was a barren, scorched record, full of empty, echoing soundscapes and sparse percussive frameworks; a low-end depiction of the wasteland after the apocalypse, where Spaceape's almost inhuman poetry growled across the emptiness. Jesus, Sine of the Dub consisted of a low-end rumble and an uncomfortably loud chord, with a few cymbals trapped in the high-end. Black Sun, despite the apocalyptic title, and Spaceape's ever-doomy delivery is a much warmer, richer record, reflecting the evolution of UK bass music in the intervening years, with tracks like the R'n'B inflected Love is the Drug and the reworked Black Sun (Partial Eclipse Version) brimming with richer percussion and evolving synth work. It's still dark and upsetting, with Spaceape spitting viciously about "the prophets taking liberties and re-arranging the words we say" and "a god who has underachieved", and Goodman crafting Bullets against Bone from the sounds of riots and protest. However, this feels like the place after the wasteland, a post-apocalypic, dystopian society - everything feels recognisable, but deformed and reworked according to a stranger set of values than we can comprehend.

It's a massively accomplished record, and far more accessible than Memories, without ever-losing the dread dub feel that the pair have made their own. Spaceape in particular has become a far more potent MC, combing the violent growling we last saw on Fuckaz with R'n'B aspects, hints of Roger Robinson's abstract rasta poetry, and even delivering a few bars in straight-up rapping. It's as broad and compelling a mix as we've come to expect from both Hyperdub and Kode & the Spaceape, and frankly is a good contender for album of the year already.

Out on monday.