Master percussionist Raz Mesinai continues to stake out iconoclastic territory on his fifth Badawi album. Since 1996, he’s moved with furious inventiveness from illbient dub to ominous Middle Eastern exotica to drum-circle jams to horror-film scores. (Call him the Israeli-American Muslimgauze at your own risk.) Clones & False Prophets is Badawi’s post-rock move. Raz and New York ringers like guitarist Marc Ribot and drummer Ben Perowsky churn out cinematic, ceremonial pieces like a less aggro Savage Republic while retaining elements from past Badawi efforts. The Middle East’s violence, tension and melancholy still haunt Mesinai, but he’s found a new way to transmute them into art.
Chris Carter Xing
On his first release for Botchit in a couple of years, Carter throws down in his dependable tech-breaks stylee. The title rolls a laidback-yet-sharp, synth-driven rhythmic vibe that supports a long, chimerical, bluesy soul vocal. The flipside’s “Udon” goes more minimally funky for the floor with occasional dramatic spotlights on the drum fills and some twinkly electronic bits sprinkled over the whole arrangement. Carter = quality, as usual.
Main Flow She Likes Me
Ah, the vulnerability of a head with new love in his sights. As Cincinnati vet Main Flow contemplates why she’s callin’ so much, he faces hater Elone’s doubts (“Man she likes you not/she like you for ya top spot…she like you for your paper, dawg”<) over both Croatian studio man Nace’s sinewy beat and a richer thump courtesy of Beyonder. The flipside’s “The Wire” takes it back to street realness with some hot cuts, cuz, well, ya gotta stay hard, don’tcha?
Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom El Monte
Artist/performer/synth-playing couple Gonzalez and Russom come at you with two Tangerine Dream-evoking beatless tech bombs under the supervision of New York men-of-the-moment DFA. Clocking in at a staggering 14.5 minutes, the title track here pecks at you hypnotically for its first half before suddenly landing deep in a briar patch of interweaving melodies; by the end, it extracts itself into its initially Glassian origin. Flip for DFA’s late-’80s darkwave-inspired remix of “Rise,” all steadfast machine beats and ominous analogue waves. Delectable.
Boylan Everybody
Boylan gives you the warmth for this fifth slab on Bad Company’s sublabel, with a hypnotizing soul chant of the title every four bars over dense, unobtrusive synths and surprising melodic patterns over a skittering rhythm. The flip’s “Underground” goes all mean with skronky, squishy bass under a house diva ordering us to “Let me see you work.” Yes, ma’am.
Anthony Rother Bad to the Bone
Electro bad bwoy Rother brings the final word to the ’80s electro/wave revival with the launch of his Datapunk label. No dorky twinkly metrosexual melody lines here, as the title track brings a growly ghetto tech bassline under Rother’s chanting robo-vox. Flip for the tuff ‘n’ vulnerable “Back Home,” sounding like early-’80s UK industrial á la Cabaret Voltaire. Masterful.
Chable & Fernandez Before You Break On Me
Down Under hits us with a proggy breaks track by Melbourne boys Luke Chable and Jono Fernandez on Bedrock Breaks man Jonathan Lisle’s new imprint. This thing comes at you midtempo, but with strongly spitting snares and deep atmospherics that take you soaring on the original mix. The flipside’s remix sees the pair strip things down and lead you to a novel, distorted downtempo breakdown before taking it back home. Chargin’.
Glass Domain Glass Domain EP
Dutch label Clone comes forth with this reissue from ultra-obscure Euro Heinrich Muller, but to what end? To show that 1991 was one of those na‘ve times when knob-twiddlers shot for dance hits rather than true self-expression? Thankfully, “Shatter Proof”‘s relentless lasering melody over a simple one-two beat and “Fairy”‘s warped gaylectro make up for both “Hiccough”‘s truly stupid electro and “Interlock”‘s tripe-wave stylings. So-so.
Kettel Cuddle and Then Leave
Dutch wunderkind Reimer Eising follows up his excellently titled “Look At This Ha! Ha! Ha!” EP with a similar grab bag of orchestral-electronic styles. Put aside any comparisons you’ve heard between this cat and Plaid or AFX and just check this on its merits. Few can make percussive stumbling sound as resolutely jazzy as Eising does on the a-side’s “Any Waken Sly Blonda,” or Disneyesque electronic naivete sound as intriguing as on “Prairieplant.” Dude is confoundingly unique.
Sonic & Silver/Gridlok On The Waterfront/Magnetic
Accidental Heroes’ imprint brings its first split single. Sonic & Silver’s “On the Waterfront” rocks tumbling organic beats with some smacking snares before its sparkling bassline opens up with a gorgeously haunted flute vamp and a graceful breakdown. This sucker just keeps building and building. On the flip, Gridlok’s “Magnetic” gives you a rhythm with a bit of a gangsta limp that comes off almost jazzy as it supports a buzzing bassline and shimmering electronics.
