Plenty of producers dabble in airy, keyboard-driven dance tracks that attempt to recreate new wave attitude. But Erik Möller’s lovelorn and edgy reincarnation of ’80s synth-pop on A Love Moderne makes similar contemporary attempts sound as relevant and refined as A Flock of Seagulls. Shimmering elastic melodies establish the requisite dreamy vibe but Möller’s use of washed-out synths, windswept production, and his own fragile voice creates a real sense of desolation and drama. Add a set of minimal and mechanized beats sculpted in a manner that recalls Ellen Allien and you‘ve got the formula for a dark, romantic masterpiece.
Various Artist Boogy Bytes Vol. 02 Mixed by Sascha Funke
A perhaps unintended but fitting follow-up to his 2003 artist album Bravo, Sascha Funke’s new mix showcases his aesthetic, a mutant strain of pop techno that adds warm, breathy layers to chilly, minimal dance music. The mix starts softly with strains of early Detroit techno, as ethereal keyboards and fat, Kevin Saunderson-style basslines creep in beneath the melody. The beats become more otherworldly during an Isolée remix of a Ricardo Villalobos track before segueing into hazy, relaxed songs that nudge the tempo forward. But Funke never loses his cool; even the paranoid banger “Where We At” mixes schizophrenic vocals with Derrick Carter’s smooth monologue.
Psapp The Only Thing I Ever Wanted
Considering their album covers are filled with sketches of cats, it‘s not surprising that Carim Clasmann and Galia Durant, who record as Psapp, demonstrate a certain feline curiosity in their music. They claim to “make songs with little noises poking out” and the album is filled with dainty audio trinkets that fit that description, gentle pop bubbling over with the clicks and clacks of idle hands striking triangles and (supposedly) utensils. “This Way” even exudes a Tim Burton-like atmosphere, swaying with dark bells and strings.
Jamie Lidell Multiply Additions
Glitched-up crooner Jamie Lidell has commented that there is but a thin partition between arrangement and derangement. And with this remix and reinterpretation EP, the mercurial torch singer/bearer lets his colleagues push the source material’s honest Stax homage into darker, more disconnected territory. The rhythmic regurgitations by Four Tet, Luke Vibert, and Matthew Herbert are dilated and dusky compared to the originally splashy, shimmering material. Freeform Reform, Mocky, and Herbert-the latter two kind souls assisted Lidell with the original, Multiply-even take it down a notch to a more pushing-air pace. In contrast, Lidell’s live piano takes celebrate the purity of his English blues.
Various Artist Kitsuneé Maison Compilation 2
The Kitsuné maison (“fox house” in Japanese/French) sits in Paris, claiming allegiances to Daft Punk but also keeping an ear on London by releasing Bloc Party exclusives. This compilation forges French Touch-ed glam with a healthy smattering of British grit. Here DFA1979’s Mstrkrft arm remixes ’70s-rock revivalists Wolfmother while Azzido Da Bass (featuring the singer from Zoot Woman, Les Rythmes Digitales’ other band) borders Joakim (Tigersushi‘s electro art director). Not heard Digitalism? Simian Mobile Disco? The air raid-siren synths that acid-house killer Adam “Adamski” Sky percolates these days? For the foxy about to dance, Kitsuné salutes you.
About Bongo
About is a one-man military force, set out to destroy indietronica clichés everywhere. In the vein of Thurston Moore and company, Bongo ranges from jangling, driving guitars and fierce drumming to offbeat, jazzy pop that’s got hooks coming from every angle. Far from creating just another electronically infused bedroom-rock record, Germany-based producer Rutger Hoedemaekers has integrated live instrumentation with electronic percussion, recalling the best moments of breakcore against a backdrop of ’90s indie-rock romanticism. Cock Rock Disco prez Jason Forrest offers up another solid hit from his eccentric haven for groundbreaking artistry.
Pan.American For Waiting, For Chasing
Pan.American is the iconic transformation of Mark Nelson from guitarist singer in the Kranky-birthing band Labradford into a computer overlord. Five albums and several split EPs later, Nelson has spun his penchant for dub and noise into a captivating long-player that defies the archetypal ambient template. Somewhere in between the bubbling sound waves and incessant pitch shifting exists an intimate center: the sound of the swamp, a multi-celled organism reproducing, a brain hard at work. There is some thoroughly mystical programming and an array of acoustic instruments at work here, making this is by far Pan.American’s most inspired and complex effort.
Solo Andata Fyris Swan
A looming tapestry of undulating, post-rockian, free jazz-tinged, minutiae-detailing, electro-acoustic brilliance, Fyris Swan‘s chest-tugging magnitude is a striking testament to the role of time, space, and technology in composition. Solo Andata’s restrained and measured efficacy benefits from their separation (its members live in Australia and Sweden), as the labored deconstruction applied to every element forms the album’s hefty backbone. Each pluck and bowed, processed sound builds over an hour, culminating in the perfectly realized “Midnight.”
Soylent Green La Forza del Destino
Soylent Green (a.k.a. Roman Flügel) sure loves his TB-303. Half of Alter Ego (responsible for the deservedly huge “Rocker” in 2004), Flügel works the hell out of the synthesizer on the acid-tinged minimal tracks here. But Flügel is best when he’s more complex, as with the piano that makes “Camera Obscura” so much more interesting than the drab “Stay Stupid.” However, he’s best on tech-house where melodic layers warm his stripped-down beats, and on slowly unwound tracks like “Low Pt. 1.” It‘s on the in-between stuff-not quite warm, not quite experimental-that he stumbles a bit.
Jimpster Amour
Jamie Odell’s chops as a producer assure that this album couldn’t turn out bad, but the addition of a range of vocalists helps to bring this largely downbeat, soul-packed album to a higher level. On “Left and Right,” for example, Capitol A lays down mesmerizingly chilled rhymes, while Elsa Hedburg’s throaty singing gives “Slippin‘” a slinking sexiness. A few tracks veer into other genres: The techno-esque “Seventh Wave” has layers of floating synths, and “Love Like This,” with Diamondancer, traverses housey depths. Warm, lush, and ready for the dancefloor.
