Released last year on the UK label Laws Of Motion, this song gets the proper remix treatment from Blaze and DJ Spinna for another top-notch Giant Step release. Spinna stays with the broken beat vibe and adds groovy but sophisticated melodic elements, while Blaze gets lush with wonderful orchestration. It’s their trademark groove that brings this one home, especially in the second half of the vocal mix with Josh Milan’s hooky synth solo.
Instant House Awade (Joe’s Jungle Sounds Dub)
Another monster remix courtesy of Joaquin “Joe” Claussell, who revisits a record he originally mixed in 1992. This has been one of my main staples for the last few months-thundering percussion and dub effects on top of a muscular synth bass that will make short work of any dancefloor. The b-side has stripped-down elements for even more creative possibilities in the hands of the adventurous DJ. Absolutely essential!
Aztec Mystic Aguila (The Eagle)
The prolific Detroit-based DJ Rolando introduces a brilliant follow-up to his now-classic “Jaguar” on the ?ber-cool and mysterious Underground Resistance label. The very forward-thinking electronic production features the lushness and vibrant energy of disco strings, making this a natural for both house and techno DJs…which will also most likely keep it in my record box for a whole year!!
Africanism Presents Liquid People Feat. Heidi Levo Don’t Go Away
This is one of those records that you hear and might not immediately react to, but it really sticks in your head; the next time you play it, you won’t be able to get rid of its infectious melody and sweet acoustic guitar work. Although slightly less percussive than some of the other releases in this very successful Africanism series, it’s another perfect summer song with a gorgeous, sassy vocal hook, and it’s bound to fill dancefloors everywhere.
Ellen Alien Berlinette 2003
Ellen Allien’s second proper full length (after 2001’s Stadtkind and last year’s Weiss Mix CD) is one of the triumphs of the year. Battered beats spray skittle grease over a fatty backdrop of analog bass and smeared, oily chords, while Allien pushes her own voice, run through a thousand plug-ins, front-and-center in the mix, whispering, confessing, cajoling, comforting. The result is a dancefloor masterpiece (think: Two Lone Swordsmen) that offers intimate pop pleasures rivaling Barbara Morgenstern’s Nichts Muss. Kompakt, New Order and Soft Pink Truth all provide reference points, but by the end of the album, Allien’s demure booty techno sets a standard all its own.
Smyglyssna We Can Fix It Remixes
Though there was never anything broken (well, besides the fractured beats) about Smyglyssna’s We Can Fix It LP, a host of remixers pull out the pliers and plug-ins on this collection of remixes. Lex’s Boom Bip does his best Prefuse73 imitation on the stammering “We Can Fake It”; Soft Pink Truth goes for low-slung electro-funk on “Work Shall Be Abolished,” a tune that Fujiya & Miyagi take to sexy new depths of whispered glitch-grinding; Restiform Bodies propel “Tea with Angela” into a stratosphere of dead satellites and liquid silicon; and Ein?ma turns “We Can Take It” into a Gothic electro vortex of unspeakable darkness. Smyglyssna’s own two contributions are fucked up digital funk of the highest order, somewhere between Twerk and Super_Collider.
I.A. Bericochea Rojo
It’s only coincidence that Ignacio Aguilera Bericochea’s name is so reminiscent of the cochlea, that bony, shell-shaped part of the inner ear that’s the heart of our hearing, but how fitting it is. I.A. Bericochea’s music, a profoundly thinned-out minimal techno that’s more absent than present, offers the profoundest kind of intense listening, grounded with bass that reverberates deep in the body and graced with white noise that seems to graze the very surface of the ear drum, like summer grasses brushing against weathered cement. “Rojo-like red eye,” which reflects blood vessels in the eye of a photographed subject-is a journey into the pulsing heart of sound.
Aural Float Presents Space Night Volume IX
By the late 1990s, the terms “downtempo” and “chillout” became synonymous with flat, coffeehouse-friendly dreck peddled to the masses under such titles as Ibiza Beach, Pure Moods and related swill. Despite that, there is good chill music out there, evidenced by the ninth volume of the German Space Night series curated by Elektrolux artist Aural Float. The two-CD set has its share of obligatory filler tracks, but contains new works by veteran artists such as The Orb, the Black Dog and Funki Porcini as well as contributions from R?yksopp and Pascal FEOS. Heavy on vaporous atmospheres, lush synthetics and stargazing moods, it’s good musical accompaniment for getting extremely high.
Ron Trent Deep and Sexy 2
While it seems like Ron Trent has been around forever spinning glistening deep house for the funky people, he still manages to crank out sweetly smooth DJ sets that are fresh and unique. On the second installment of the Deep and Sexy series from Fran
James Zabiela Sound In Motion
Once in a while you run across an unknown DJ who rocks your ass off and you wonder, “Why is he/she still toiling in obscurity?” No such questions came to mind, however, while listening to the UK label Hooj’s latest Sound In Motion compilation, mixed by James Zabiela. OK, there’s some nice track selection (funky electro here, bumping tech-house there), but Zabiela seems so bent on making the monotone beats match up, things don’t get moving till halfway through both CDs. And at that point, who cares? Sound is by no means a bad set, but at more than 140 minutes, it should grab me by the neck or ass. It does neither.
