Crate-digging don Florian Keller ventures once again on a global music spree of funkified delights. Named after his monthly club night in Munich, this compilation casts a wide net. Whereas the first volume pulled music from the way-back machine, this one explores funkateers of the 21st century. The Lefties Soul Connections cover DJ Shadow’s “Organ Donor” with some killer organ and bass interplay, while Sidewinder’s bumpin’ floor-filler “Ego Riot” proves that Glasgow can stir up wicked, organic soul business with the best of them. Yes, the new school does it the old-school way. Dig!
Soulphiction State of Euphoria
Michel Baumann, a veteran producer with a variety of aliases and labels under his belt, traverses genres but remains rooted in future soul. As Soulphiction, his State of Euphoria oozes with compelling beats and funktastic melodies, with more than a hint of jazz thrown in. “Make It Slow” is a mood-enhanced boiler that starts with disjointed organ action and grows darker and more gripping by the minute. How much further can the merging of organic soul and electronic beats go? Who knows, but it’s nice that Soulphiction skillfully blends them into one fresh collection.
John Beltran Human Engine
John Beltran returns to his ambient roots with a sprawling and intimate collection that draws listeners into peaceful dreamscapes. Human Engine never strays far from a simplistic, melodic beauty. Take in “Some Place New,” a soothingly pleasant tune with engaging chimes and bells set to lullaby tempo. The record is like a new spiritual awakening, encompassing the collective experiences of an artist who has blossomed and matured in his own right. One of his most accessible albums to date, it’s a personal journey worth taking.
Tristeza El Nuestro Desafio
Unlike the spiraling guitar instrumentals of their previous effort A Colores, Tristeza’s latest disc is a mostly formless slate of ambient drum-tracking. Sure, there are a few atmospherics, but barely any of them come from a guitar, and none of the songs stick around long anyway. Only the hypnotic nine-minute title track aims for epic proportions; the rest barely clock in more than two minutes apiece, and often sound like half-finished experiments that were adopted then abandoned. Much more compelling and illuminating is the accompanying DVD, which shows the band gut it out on the road.
Various Artists Paul Kalkbrenner Reworks
Getting the spit ‘n’ polish treatment from a cadre of mostly German techno producers, Paul Kalkbrenner’s music takes on a sleeker vibe than before. You don’t need to see Ellen Allien & Apparat’s name on their remix of “Queer Fellow”- a slowly percolating track filled with echoing scrapes of sound-to know it’s their handiwork. Alexander Kowalski gives Kalkbrenner’s popular single “Gebrünn Gebrünn” a booming, models-on-the-runway feel, while Modeselektor’s mix makes “Gia 2000” skip along at a rocksteady pace. Remixes can sometimes become personality clashes between artists, but these tracks exude a more collaborative vibe.
Various Artists Green Velvet Vs. Cajmere: Ministry of Sound Sessions
DJ iconoclast Curtis Jackson schools house fans again on a double-disc mix that pits his most famous alter egos against one other. Taking a typically rapturous turn on the soulful Cajmere disc, he really rocks the vocal tracks, integrating them with the same precision a jazz drummer applies to slipping in drum fills. Alternating between tribal chants, singer Dajae’s gospel-strength roar, and the gibberish sounds of a ranting old man, Jackson showcases the human voice as a varied and powerful instrument. The acid-drenched Green Velvet disc is a lesson in keeping after-hours parties dirty and unhinged. A schizophrenic masterpiece.
Beach House Beach House
Yo La Tengo can kick your ass, but Beach House, a Baltimore duo that creates gauzy and gentle soundscapes, wouldn’t even put up a fight. Shuffling, bossa nova-like beats steadily punctuate their haze, a simple mixture of dreamy, escapist pop that’s designed for wallowing. Singer Victoria Legrand sounds like an easy-going version of Maureen Tucker and exudes bittersweet romance, especially on “Master of None.” Running at a grand total of 36 minutes, this album should be pressed onto an LP, if only because vinyl pops and hisses would compliment the sublime mood.
Various Artists Aaron LaCrate: Science Faction-B’More Gutter Music
To fairly judge Brooklyn-based, “Bodymore, Murdaland”-bred Aaron LaCrate’s output, it should first be placed outside of the two-decade-strong Baltimore Club style. It’s impossible to deny the facets of B-More’s Bronx bangers-meets-Chi swing inherent in LaCrate’s sample-free, self-christened “Gutter Music” amalgam, but the intentions are questionable. As splayed across the blogosphere, “gutter shit” falls short of the rhythmic diaspora’s transcendent power to purge. Judged only as “club crank,” however, the crunked-out, hard-house bass kick/clap-given cred by production associate Debonair Samir-is fierce. Of course, the track featuring bleach-blonde NYC promoter Oxy Cottontail may be the most grating thing evah.
Dave Fischoff The Crawl
As tales of reinvention go, Chicago-based singer-songwriter Dave Fischoff’s could sit comfortably aside The Count of Monte Cristo. On 1998’s Winston Park, he kept residence in the shell of an idea, carving fuzz-caked frescoes in the poetic gloaming. But The Crawl comes across almost like a Terry Gilliam take on Cristo, all exaggerated pieces filmed with a fish-eye lens that rarely stray from the main character’s rifts between fantasy and reality. Endearing indie-tronic melodies and low-bit pneumatics place Fischoff in the territory of Figurine/Styrofoam, but the jittery staging never subverts the humanity.
Claude VonStroke Beware of the Bird
Detroit native and San Francisco resident Barclay “Claude VonStroke” Crenshaw is eagle-eyed when it comes to tech-funk detail. Releasing singles on German labels Get Physical and Neuton-but mostly the dirtybird imprint that he runs with Justin Martin-CVS is internationally recognized for his percussive, swinging basslines and cheeky, swarthy details sure to please both Green Velvet and Alex Smoke. This CD collects the original dirty bird’s output, bolstered with his remixes. The only caveat: as the majority of tracks were previously released as singles, the rubber ball only bounces so far from the core.
