Bristol duo Cybin, who also run the Lockdown label, kicks off with a Highlander-style slice of rolling menace called “No More Lies,” with a thick deformed bassline and tasty amen fills. “Code Red” boasts a spooky, spine-chilling cinematic intro but descends into leaden, murky breaks.
Jammin Go DJ Rmx
The “Go DJ” remix keeps the tempo and DJ-friendly arrangement of the original breakstep anthem, switching up the bass pattern and adding half-time d&b fills but not letting up any of the pressure. Flip for the gimmicky “Uptalking,” a mash of accelerating and decelerating distorted bass no doubt inspired by the sounds of Zinc’s Audi going from ÿ to 100.
McMillan & Tab Work It
Crazy build-ups and minimal, piston-pumping techno breaks await on “Work It,” which is the kind of thing you want to play at 5 a.m. when trying to give a room full of LSD expats from the goa trance scene a collective spiritual orgasm. And if that doesn’t work, you could try the Plump DJs’ tweaky “The Soul Vibrates,” or its B-side, “Bullet Train,” and hope a flying dreadlock doesn’t scratch your cornea.
Melchior Productions The Meaning
The microhouse massive has been jonesing for another album to blow them away like Ricardo Villalobos’ Alcachofa did in 2003. The Meaning runs a Villalobos-like 77 minutes, but Melchior’s productions are more skeletal than his Chilean chum’s, and his idea of party tracks is much more low-key than your typical house gathering. The Meaning‘s booty-nodding bass and head-bumping beats are seemingly swathed in crushed velvet, while Melchior lavishes attention to finicky surface tics like bloopy synth motifs, undulant flutes and truncated soul-diva exhortations. He places everything in the stereo field with the delicacy of a butterfly collector handling his prizes. Yeah, this is 2004’s Alcachofa.
Jack Dangers Forbidden Planet Revisited
Why would Meat Beat Manifesto’s mastermind mess with Louis and Bebe Barron’s untouchable 1956 soundtrack to Forbidden Planet, an ur-document of malevolent, spacey woobs, gurgles and twitters? Because Jack has the world’s only functioning EMS Synthi 100, and, damn it, he’s gonna use it. This recording, live from France’s I.D.E.A.L. Festival, proves that Dangers is well-suited to subtly modify and capture the questing spirit of the Barrons’ original (see “Battle With Invisible Monster” for proof). Disc two contains 50 snippets of sci-fi sound effects-dozens of vintage analog-synth emissions ripe for producers seeking instant threatening atmospheres and otherworldly textures.
Mark De Clive-Lowe Tide’s Arising EP
UK-based Kiwi MdCL has earned a prolific following, working with luminaries such as MAW and a who’s who of the West London massive. This four-track sampler is the long-awaited follow-up to his Six Degrees debut and features great vocal work from Bembe Segue and MC Capitol A. Swinging broken rhythms are tightly woven, with de Clive-Lowe’s magic fingers dancing across the keys.
LAL Brown Eyed Warrior
Brown Eyed Warrior from LAL (producer Murr and vocalist Rosina) comes consciously correct on this environmentally-minded tune. Moonstar remixes the track with heavy beats in his own inimitable style, and Murr relies on both snare and guitar on a re-edit of B.E.W. “Eplilogue.” Cool.
Minoru Take It To The Fireland
Listen up! Ministry’s Al Jourgenson has been reincarnated as a Japanese punk rocker named Minoru, who is going to rip you a new one over guitar fuzz, rough kicks and nasty electro bass. (Skip the “Reflex” B-side, unless you like Lords of Acid). For more Japanese technocrash/electrotrash, check Co-Fusion’s “Hot! Hot!,” a pounding hard house-ish number saved by persistent laser beams and a catchy breakdown that mimics Trans-X’s “Living on Video.”
DJ Dex El Camino
More hotness from the middle of America. DJ Dex presents classic jacking and warping on “El Camino,” fortified by a tribal, drummy remix, but flip for the real stash: “Electrixol”‘s acid techno breaks and the sinister leads, insistent groin kick, and psychotic Satan vocals of “Lowrider Psycho.” Bad trips never sounded so good.
Rodney Hunter Hunter Files
Let it be said that I don’t like most “smooth” music, and I can’t afford the $10 drinks they serve in bars that play it. Still, if I was going to listen to nu-jazz, I could do a lot worse than this Rodney Hunter album. A Kruder & Dorfmeister contemporary, Hunter marries dub, bossa, R&B and house influences to a loose-jointed downtempo framework, then tweaks the effects and massages the bass. The result is a soundtrack to outdoor terraces at sunset and sweaty midnights in tightly-packed lounges, driven forward by outerspace synth touches and soul vocals from Farda P, Hubert Tubbs and Ken Cesar. Think Galliano and Sly & the Family Stone hot oil wrestling, and you’re halfway there.
