While dark minimal techno can often lead to crowded exit ways, this team twiddles the right knobs to keep folks paying entry. Hues of a sinister mastermind are at work as eerie minor chords and white noise crescendos fuse with intelligently funky lows. A bit on the intense side, but with enough soul to even please the masses.
Moving Units Dangerous Dreams
Prompting a hipster to dance (or lift a finger, for that matter) is a bitch. So when a band comes along and lights a fire under their carefully considered britches, it’s time to fucking celebrate. This month, the band is called Moving Units, and they have been bringing hot, slutty women with good taste into LA venues for over a year now. A huge bonus, of course, is their neck-snapping brand of white funk, white heat. Not one raw-throated track is a throwaway on this fine maiden LP. Just lose the Gang Of Four and A Certain Ratio fixations, and I’ll re-lacquer the dancefloor myself.
Savath & Savalas Manana
The fanboys may gravitate toward Prefuse 73, but Guillermo Scott Herren’s acoustical alter ego Savath & Savalas attracts revolutionaries. (Have you made the Gil Scott Heron connection yet?) His own personal sketch of Spain, Herren’s Manana grows from the soil of Apropa’t with a similar beatific haze, but incorporates distinct rhythms and electronic grace notes that are decidedly Prefuse-like. With tracks like the restless “No Puedo De Cidir”-discernibly beat-driven with, gasp, a sample-you might say Herren has gone full-circle.
Freq Nasty Bring Me The Head Of Freq Nasty
Rick James may have nosed his last, but his ego-splattered funk lurks amid the absolutely bad-ass beats of Freq Nasty’s latest. The album flounders at the outset, with awkward vocals and off-kilter beats, but it’s in the pike midway with hairy analog melodies and stellar guest performances by roots reggae maestro Junior Delgado, plus Roots Manuva and Yolanda. Culture pundits might dub it bashment, but the Freqster does whatever the fuck he wants-and Bring Me The Head is the sound of this native New Zealander ditching the homeland to hang with the Brixton Orcs.
Various Artists Fabriclive 17: Aim
Aim (producer Andy Turner) was once photographed leaping from a dilapidated jetty in the pouring rain near his home in the UK’s Lake District. It was an appropriately apposite image, locating Turner and his music outside of hip-hop’s usual urban environment and obsessions. Turner bookends this adorable mix album with tracks from Grand Central label mates Tony D and Fingathing. In between, the DJ draws on melodic hip-hop and rare funk from the likes of The Village Callers, A Tribe Called Quest and Lewis Parker. But, nicely, Turner also underpins the set with a curious pastoralism, directing the mood via James Yorkston’s rustic folk and Boards of Canada’s bucolic electronica.
Swayzak Loops From The Bergerie
Even though Swayzak’s fourth album title is inspired by a Gainsbourg soundtrack, the duo offers an overtly English take on what is frequently perceived as a Teutonic music. This appears not only via their apparent love of New Order, but by their deployment of friend/prot»g» Richard Davis as the predominant guest vocalist; his voice, which reminds of no one so much as Robert Wyatt, is infused into an amalgamation of dub and techno more readily associated with Cologne and Berlin. Slick and bouncy, Loops From The Bergerie is a fine record but, oddly, there’s nothing quite so potent as Davis’ own “Bring Me Closer,” a track issued via Swayzak’s 240 Volts imprint.
Potential Bad Boy You’re Mine
Potential is one of Jungle’s originators, and is certainly making a comeback-this track is gonna put him back on the map. Some lover’s rock-esque vox runs throughout with a cool little skanking b-line to boot. This is one of them ones where you can’t get the b-line out of your head.
J Magik & Wickaman Good Vibes Rmx
The dynamite pairing of J Majik & Wickaman continues to cause havoc! This is a remix of one of my favorite releases from the duo-“Good vibes” vox running throughout with rollin’ bass tones and plenty of hi-hats to keep the energy maximum. It may not be as intricate as some productions, but fuck it. It’s good quality dancefloor d&b, and that’s what I am all about.
Juju Sahara Run
I got sent all the tracks from Juju’s forthcoming EP on Liquid V, and it was a tough choice to grab just one. “Sahara Run” drops Calibre-esque dubby vibes with some of that old skool jungle bass that’s gonna have necks twitching. I’d like to see more of this dirty, stinking drum & bass/jungle flava. America doing us proud!
Jake Fairley Touch Not The Cat
Toronto’s Jake Fairley is an inexhaustible minimal techno maker and relentless punk rocker at heart. On Touch Not, Fairley pumps out 10 vigorous dancefloor killers-some accompanied by his own gritty Brit-pop vocals. Stepping beyond his singles on Sender and Dumb-Unit, this raw techno grindcore shuffles and drives with mind-numbing abrasiveness. Ultra-distorted synthesizers splice cleanly through your body while mechanical melodies bring out the punk in all of us. Imagine Kompakt’s Reinhard Voigt meets The Misfits, get out your best bottle of whiskey and Touch Not The Cat.
