From the jump, Who Still Kill Sound? announces the return of Miguel Depedro at his bratty best, shaking off the relative consonance of last year’s Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You. Numbers like “Slammin’ Ragga Bootleg Track” and “Live Acid Jam” are suitably titled, as is “Robitussin Motherfucker,” a tribute to Houston’s DJ Screw, the progenitor of the chopped and screwed remix. Even after imbibing a bottle of cough syrup, the Kid can’t help but turn his phasers to full blast, slowing only the vocal in this otherwise manic post-jungle burner. Indeed, if the globe seems to be spinning faster these days, blame Kid 606.
Masta Ace A Long Hot Summer
Perhaps the only artist to have collaborated with both Eminem and Paul Barman, Brooklyn’s Masta Ace belongs to that class of good-but-not-great New York MCs forced underground by major label shenanigans. A loosely conceptual account of an indie rapper on the come-up, Ace’s fifth album plays like a prequel to 2001’s Disposable Arts, showcasing his tirelessly modifiable delivery and beats from DJ Spinna and Dug Infinite, among others. Heads will skip straight to “Good Ol Love,” a poignant 9th Wonder-produced joint made for moonlit smoke sessions. Indeed, few LPs this year will deliver more soul per square inch than this album, which proceeds leisurely enough for even the wooziest of weed heads. If you’ve got ’em, smoke ’em.
Fabrice Lig My 4 Stars
Belgium’s Fabrice Lig is perhaps the most American of European technoists, a producer who well understands that machine music need not always sound machine made. The roots coursing underneath New York, Chicago and Detroit have rarely been so meticulously exposed as on My 4 Stars, Lig’s best full-length to date. The title track is emblematic of the whole, propelled by a feathery kick, screwdriving analog synths and a classically uplifting diva turn. Elsewhere, “In My Arms” appears twice; first as a disco-tech midtempo number, then as a lachrymose cabaret piece minus the former’s cowbells and propulsive kick. Best among the tunes here is “My Old Friend,” a boompty ode to the Windy City marked by Nicolas LefÀvre’s plaintive sax figures and Lig’s intricately cross-hatched drum schematics. Striking in its compositional scope and sonic integrity, My 4 Stars eulogizes the last two decades of American dance music-a tribute that’s equal parts irreverent, poignant and celebratory.
Digitek Keep The World Guessin’
England’s Zebra Traffic label continues to impress, here loosing the full-length debut from Brighton’s five-man Digitek crew. Where labelmate Cappo has forged his own distinctively Northern style, these South Coasters align themselves with London’s bouncement scene, sporting the influence of ragga and garage on this sharply produced LP. For all the breathless poetics of MCs Buzz and Junior Red, producers Pablo and Warwick best their vocal counterparts, conjuring the sort of tightly compressed beats that induce palpitations in the faint of heart. Beat fiends take note.
Various Artists DJ-Kicks: The Black Edition
A vain attempt to breathe new life into the mash-up phenomenon, The Black Edition finds !K7 associates SST & Superdefekt pilfering the company’s back catalog for mixable fodder. As such, you’ll find a vocal by Dani Siciliano gliding over Swayzak’s “I Dance Alone,” and Mike Ladd getting all hot and bothered over Princess Superstar’s “Do It Like A Robot.” Well-blended though this disc may be, newbies looking for an introduction to the label would be better off buying last year’s unmashed two-disc label compilation instead of this bastard child.
Aeroc Viscous Solid
Geoff White departs from his typical minimal techno sound-well documented on releases for Cytrax, Force Inc and Traum-with his debut release for Ann Arbor’s Ghostly. As Aeroc, White indulges his sentimental side, strumming feathery acoustic guitar against ruffled, glitchy beats that mimic brushed snares and cymbals. On tracks like “My Love, The Wave Break,” a surprisingly jazzy sensibility bubbles up in the murky chords, but White never indulges lounge clich»s. Instead, as the angular “Rusted Dress Up” and the muddy “Wish Eyes” demonstrate, White succeeds in finding a middle ground between Dabrye’s hip-hop leanings and Two Lone Swordsmen’s most experimental aquatic moments.
Das Bierbeben No Future No Past
From the opening onslaught of “Readyroom,” there’s no need to ask what Germany’s Das Bierbeben (The Beerdrinkers) are doing on techno-punk headbanger T.Raumschmiere’s Shitkatapult label. The double-time synth attack and 17-part shrieking vocals are easily as bombastic as anything the gear-destroying label honcho has ever done. But at heart, Das Bierbeben don’t want to junk society, they want to funk it. And funk they do-on tinny electro-disco tracks like “Staub,” which sounds like an 8-bit Metro Area fronted by Nena, and “Mach Deinen Fernseher Kaputt” which adds a metallic tinge before unspooling into a rickety garage rocker.
Various Artists Bis Neunzehn
Areal proves that the sound of Cologne doesn’t begin and end with the city’s internationally recognized minimal techno chug. The label’s second mixed compilation presents a dozen tracks from its core acts, slipping from Konfekt’s gauzy dream states to Ada’s emotion-overload click-house to Metope’s post-trance wallop. The common denominator is a spangled acid touch that makes every bleep and bleating synthesizer line sparkle. Fans of Kompakt and Sub Static will inhale this eagerly, but the buzz is unpredictable, swinging from euphoria to melancholy in a few bars. Is it microhouse? Macrohouse? There are no obvious catch-alls for Areal’s sound-just a monumental mass that recedes in the distance no matter how doggedly you pursue it.
Park Attack Last Drop At Hide Out
Just when you thought you had Paris’s hippest label, Tigersushi, all figured out, they throw yet another curve ball at you. Unlike their labelmates, Park Attack doesn’t make disco, punky house or reverse-engineered EBM. The Glaswegian trio, who comes to Tigersushi via the label’s Scottish partner, Oscarr, pounds away on trashcan drums and Confusion Is Sex-era drones. Suddenly, it’s 1982 again-and in basements across the world, kids are using punk rock to make virtues out of their limitations. The singer’s shrieks make The Slits sound like lounge singers, but cool organ tones offer a cold compress to keep the pain away.
Beta 2 Milan
Beta 2 takes a break from collaborations with fellow Irishmen Zero Tolerance and Calibre to flex his solo strengths on Nu Directions. “Milan” builds on choppy, offbeat breaks and warm atmospherics until a surprisingly pounding bassline drops in to move punters from the bar to the dancefloor. The flipside, “Miss U,” is rough and sexy as it supplies seductive vocals over low-end rumbling bass.
