Iconic DJ and well-traveled tastemaker Mad Mats has not only cultivated the Raw Fusion club night (which turns 10 this year), but also an accompanying record label, which showcases underground Nordic talent steeped in the soul-jazz tradition. Inside Scandinavia 2 continues to explore the fertile musical underground of Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, where neo-soul, hip-hop, and jazz are seen from fresh and compelling perspectives. Jukka Eskola kills it with the uplifting jazz epic “1974” and Copenhagen’s Povo makes two appearances, including a swinging Latin jazz touch-up of Fertile Ground‘s “Another Day.” From above-average wonders to high-caliber delights, Inside Scandinavia 2 is nothing short of exceptional.
Various Artists Shapes
Robert Luis’ Brighton-based Tru Thoughts label and club night has scored worldwide love with a wink and a nod. Twisted, whimsical, and humorous, the latest in the attention-grabbing Shapes series puts a greater emphasis on both unreleased and previously vinyl-only tracks. Just about the entire TT roster is represented with oodles of killer tracks. Quantic’s “An Announcement of Answer” (where funky breaks meets the tango) and Life’s scrumptious downbeat treat “Come On” are two heavy bangers on opposite extremes. A tight collection that won’t go stale anytime soon.
Various Artists The Rough Guide to Bhangra Dance
As world music has expanded beyond niche markets to become part of the global pop-culture landscape, its evolution has moved past purist-pleasing traditionalism and embraced a multifaceted, multicultural aesthetic that draws from a melting pot of influences. On Bhangra Dance, contemporary Indian pop gets infused with electronic textures, dancehall reggae lickshots, hip-hop attitude, and outernational club sensibilities (from the likes of Panjabi by Nature, Manak-E, Malkit Singh, Juggy D, and Taz). If you liked Panjabi MC, this comp represents the next wave of Eastern beats. Bhangra is already banging from Mumbai to Miami, so it’s not too much of a stretch to call it this year’s reggaeton.
T-Kash Turf War Syndrome
The album’s title sounds like something Three 6 Mafia might release, yet its content is surprisingly thought-provoking. Dispensing with most, if not all, of the clichés of gangsta or turf rap, T-Kash-a former Coup member and current protégé of Paris-absolutely flips the script with one of the hardest-hitting political rap albums ever to come from the West Coast. Whether it’s jacking Nate Dogg hooks and trading misogyny for cheery-eyed rebellion, reworking “Shook Ones” as a revolutionary anthem, explaining “How to Get Ass(assinated),” or breaking down the socioeconomics behind “a psychological Hurricane Katrina,” T-Kash maintains both a street-level perspective and a conscious mentality, and does both with lyrical finesse.
Miss Yetti Insights
Former Cologne resident Henrietta Schermal combines music-making with the study of psychology, simultaneously drawing influence from social science and the likes of Jörg Burger, Reinhard Voigt, and Michael Mayer. Now relocated to Berlin, Yetti runs Gold und Liebe while working on a doctoral thesis about musical taste and personality traits. Not surprisingly, the slightly dated Insights-which is overtly inspired by Electronic Body Music-plays like an intellectual exercise for the dancefloor; its tracks frequently seem constructed more for sheer physicality than emotional impact.
Booka Shade Movements
The title is presumably intended as a play on words, simultaneously referencing the Get Physical label and Booka Shade’s own place in the scheme of scenes and trends. Featuring interpretations and album versions of Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier’s crossover hits, Body “Language” and “Mandarine Girl,” Movements was being dubbed an “important” album three months before its actual release. Thankfully, the long-player lives up to expectations, with the duo applying their dexterity as sound designers to their usual expansive tech-house; a technoid-disco take on Thai music; metallic, neo-Detroit techno; and, most unexpectedly, a convincing (deliberate) homage to Sigur Rós. The latter band isn’t an obvious comparison point but Booka Shade shares with the Icelanders a keen sense of space and atmosphere, making Movements a joy.
Various Artists Kiki: Boogybytes Vol. 01
Axl Jansen’s peculiar/ugly sleeve portrait of Joakim Ijäs (a.k.a. Kiki) captures the Finnish DJ mid-head-bang, his features unflatteringly frozen. Conversely, the inaugural release for Bpitch Control’s new mix series thrives on movement: a sense of forward propulsion, a rushiness. Kiki’s splicing of tracks from the likes of Fairmont, Ellen Allien, Troy Pierce, and Anja Schneider seems close to unstoppable-when the pace plummets close to the dextrous set’s conclusion, it feels like a minor act of sabotage.
Alex Smoke Paradolia
Paradolia is the phenomenon of finding familiar images in random scenes, like faces in clouds or religious icons in root vegetables. By a comparable process, it’s easy to pick out familiar motifs in Alex Menzies’ music-making; throughout Paradolia, trace elements of other music released in the last 24 months or so on labels like Kompakt, Traum, Get Physical, Border Community, and, most pronouncedly, Ghostly International (via Matthew Dear’s melodic, song-based techno) seem to teem from the speakers. Nevertheless, on the follow-up to Incommunicado, Menzies transcends mere homage; by surveying the micro-and electro-house scenes of 2004-05, he produces an album that might be among the more loveable of 2006.
Mr. Velcro Fastener Telemacho
Electro is alive and well thanks to outfits like Finland’s Mr. Velcro Fastener, a band who continues to build on old school-inspired foundations. A superbly programmed record, Telemacho presents a spectral array of moods, drawing elements of dub (“Housin’ With the T’s”), IDM (“Skip Intro”), and classic tech-house (“Muurame”) into their core. Armed additionally with a host of deadly beat-boxers (“By Your Command”) and deep-space electro numbers (“Silent Running”), Telemacho completely submerges the late-night set, cementing a place in public and private rotation for years to come.
Dub Tractor Hideout
Moving beyond the constraints and classifications of the electronic realm, Anders Remmer goes post-everything with his latest album. From the soothing static pulse of “Five 6” to the fairy-dusted dubbery of “I’m Like You,” Hideout ebbs and flows with a superb fusion of basement-band instrumentation, daydreamy folktronics, and deliciously reverberant textures that softly melt all linear thought patterns. Each song unfolds gradually, taking its time to explore the nuances of every fuzzy, minimal melody and downshifted cadence through the warmth of Remmer’s rich, granular production. If this is lo-fi, you may never want to be high again.
