With 20+ releases this year, 20-year-old Swede John Dahlbäck (Jesper‘s cousin) seems unstoppable as he offers his second album, the first through Marc Romboy‘s Systematic imprint. In keeping with the label‘s aesthetic, Dahlbäck crafts bumpin‘ electro-house that works best in the Chicago jack of “Take Me Back” or the sawtooth melodies of “My Love for Machines.” Shades of Underworld-intricate, driving rhythms and large hooks-permeate the album, especially on the simple yet effectively quirky “Day of the Night” or the anthemic “It Feels So Good,” but what you‘re getting here is pure dancefloor creativity from one of the most promising talents on the planet.
Various Artists The Electric Institute
While his last albums explored a more organic approach to electronic soul music, Kirk Degiorgio returns to his techno roots by resurrecting his long-dormant Applied Rhythmic Technology label, beginning with this exquisite compilation. Detroit is in full effect, as Carl Craig (operating as 69), Stacey Pullen, and Anthony “Shake” Shakir gift exclusive jams. Craig‘s “Puntang” wins out-it‘s a signature builder with underlying breakbeats that melds his past and present in a blistering soundclash. It‘s not all 4/4 business, though. Broken beats get a look in via Domu‘s whiplash-inducing “Quarantine” and Pullen‘s sick synth roller “Liquid Letter” carries the torch for future jazz. Add in tracks from Plaid alter ego Balil and Degiorgio himself (one a collaboration with Ian O‘Brien) and you‘ve got the welcome return of a mindset thought lost. Don‘t sleep this time.
Ivana Santilli Everlasting
Canadian-bred, New York-based chanteuse Ivana Santilli‘s ballad “Everlasting” trails along the downbeat path. Japanese DJ Mitsu The Beats, one of the dopest hip-hop producers of now, drops jazzy ambiance over trippy beats that seem to float effortlessly. Meanwhile, fellow Canadian producers Circle Research lighten the beats and let the groove do its thang, with Abdominal flowing rhymes without a hint of intrusion.
Various Artists Jazz Toys 2
Between issuing his label‘s steady output of quality EPs, artist albums, and compilations, Marcus Hacker has found time to compile the second edition of the Jazz Toys series, which (like JCR‘s Formation 60 comp) focuses entirely on rare and funky ‘70s German jazz. Hacker lovingly compiles a stellar batch from his rare 45s collection including the beautifully composed “The Pawn” by the Heikki Sarmento Big Band to smoking covers such as Wendy & the Nolan Ranger Orchestra‘s version of “Fever.” Jazz Toys 2 is another peak into the fascinating mojo of post-war German jazz-funk.
All Good Funk Alliance On The One
Funkateers Frank Cueto and Rusty Belicek have worked on perfecting their take on funky breaks via their DC-based Funk Weapons label. With On the One, their full-length debut as All Good Funk Alliance, they attempt to bring in multiple musical strands and bind them together. True to form, there are enough cuts here to rock your house. Whether it‘s the smoldering, head-nodding vibes of “Who‘s That” or the playful stride of the Latin-infused “Queres Bailar,” the album knows how to get its bad self going. On the One contains champion sounds good enough for one party after another.
Democustico Vaga Lume
Far Out kicks off its 7″ series with a new project produced by label stalwart Roc Hunter. “Vaga Lume” is a warm and breezy composition with a bit of Brazil-meets-lounge, creating a longing for a summer gone by. Mauro Berman‘s musicianship compliments wife Gabriela Geluda‘s dreamy voice.
Tilman Ehrhorn Heading For The Open Spaces
On Heading For The Open Spaces, modern jazz musician Tilman Ehrhorn eschews the huffing and puffing of his saxophone for deftly deployed micro-fragments of designer samples. With its sleeve-images of forests and lichen-covered trees, it would be easy to perceive the release as an attempt to replicate the ambience of a solo walk in the woods, with Ehrhorn‘s fidgety clicks and snaps the aural equivalent of footsteps through fallen pine needles, cracked twigs, and the scurrying of disturbed wildlife. On the album‘s most gratifying tracks, however, something more complex than imitation is going on. Ehrhorn allows trace elements of funk to seep through his digital debris, creating something oft-magical.
Various Artists Cute And Cult: Mixed By Agoria
Attempting to create a singular, slightly cartoonish environment, Sebastien Devaud has previously said his Agoria alter ego exists in a world “without right angles, where forms and atmospheres aren‘t rigid.” For his first mix album, however, Devaud introduces right angles via a door turned 90 degrees and used as a table for a trio of decks, a mixer and a loop machine. Devaud feeds tracks by the likes of Angelo Badalamenti, Carl Craig, Swayzak and Radiohead into his machines, forging a mix that is busy, distinct and full of character. Still, the inclusion of Iggy Pop‘s‘ “Nightclubbing” seems a disruptive misstep, however droll it might be.
Triola Im Dubraum Teil 2
A quartet of interpretations of tracks from Triola‘s Im Fuenftonraum suggests that Jürg Burger concurs with Michael Mayer‘s belief that minimal music needs to be compared with other sounds to remain interesting. Bus‘s remix of “Neuland” seems to match Triola‘s semi-ambient minimalism with nothing so much as (slow-motion) ‘80s funk. Dettinger, (Burger alter-ego) The Modernist and Mikkel Metal also contribute likable re-versions.
Scsi-9 On The Edge
One-time metal and oil trader Maxim Milyutenko was apparently seduced by music-making after a business trip to Cologne alerted him to the joys of techno-it seems only fitting that he and Anton Kubikov continue to release such exquisite music via Kompakt. The slightly melancholic title track of their latest EP sounds so graceful and perfectly poised that it could happily be renamed “On The Money;” on “Senorita Tristeza.” Meanwhile, Milyutenko and Kubikov curiously evoke the joys of Espaìa from their Russian bunker.
