As a dedicated mixtape head’ love and hate this CD. Love it because it’s packed full of golden-era goodness; hate it because they have records I want (yo”mma knock you fools out for those Sir Ibu and 360 singles!). The track listing is the main attraction here: rare cuts from the late ’80s and early ’90s, featuring artists like Chill Rob G, Doug E. Fresh and Nice & Smooth, plus a bunch of more obscure names. The mixing is very smooth, but both DJs wisely stand back from turntable trickery, letting these songs speak for themselves.
Various Artists Lost Treasures
Occasionally a record pops up that simply doesn’t make sense, for better or worse, no matter how many times you listen to it. Lost Treasures is one of those. Bomb 20 and Patric C, late of Digital Hardcore, rounded up a bunch of rhymers (including Chilly Gonzales, Peaches and others) for jams that range from straight-up sampler bangers to noisy distortion meltdowns. Think of Lost Treasures as a Berlin version of Handsome Boy Modeling School-which, come to think of it, didn’t make too much sense either. Try “Monster Bitches,” a dubbed-out horror tale of Halloween booty. Huh? “
Styrofoam I’m What’s There to Show That Something’s Missing
Arne van Petegem was once easy to overlook in the middle of Morr’s roster of mellow, blissfully melancholy electronicists. No more-this time around, he keeps the slowed-down programming and DSP jabber, and slots in his own vocals. Van Petegem’s wan, human voice is front-and-center amidst instrumentals as goopy and complex as any Mouse on Mars tunes, creating a perfect abstract pop album, the inverse negative of Schneider TM’s carefree Zoomer from last year. I’m What’s There to Show That Something’s Missing proudly sports the new fusion of emo and IDM that shouldn’t slip under the radar.
Various Artists The Produce Section Vol. 1
Wishbone Entertainment is a group of MCs, DJs, entertainers and activists loosely organized around a core known as Felonius. The Produce Section is like a tape of a weekend basement session, with Felonius bringing the loops and instruments, and a group of conscious MCs kicking it over the top just for the sheer joy of it. On “Protest,” they reveal a sharp eye for aspects of politics that often go unnoticed, like the racial composition of the armed forces. “1234” takes the prize here, though, simply for featuring raps for unity in English, Spanish and German all in one track.
Air + Baricco City Readings
I’ve always found Air’s moody loungescapes a little flabby-sentimental without discretion and full without restraint. Their work for The Virgin Suicides, though, breathed fresh life into the duo; their cinematic aspirations finally fit when corseted by both visual and narrative parameters. City Readings is Air’s collaboration with Alessandro Baricco’s tale of youth and grizzle, urbanity and the Wild West, and the result’s a soothing hour of scene-setting and storytelling. Baricco’s voice is deep and hypnotic (perhaps even more so if the only Italian word you can pick out of his reading is the oft-repeated pistola”), while Air lays on the pretty, fuzzy atmospherics.
Aphrodite Urban Junglist
The jungle equivalent of the kind of wet t-shirt contest in which everyone gets hosed down as they jump the fuck up, Aphrodite’s latest mix is charged with overwhelming pneumatic bounce and drenched with a lush energy, and it’s big big big. Featuring ragga bumpin’, sassed-to-the-max vocals and flamenco come-ons, there ain’t nothing subtle about the irrepressible party contained herein. Gavin King sticks to his trademark sound, but shines it up till each curve is slapworthy. Makes like a busted-up fire hydrant on a sweltering day-basic like water and cement, but, in the moment, so much more.
Tes X2
Tes’s lyrical delivery has the piercing urgency of a bugle call, and his second EP is a call to arms for nostalgic city living. “New New York” is trimmed with old school disco, a sweetly boasting Saturday Night Fever ode sung while swaggering past brownstone stoops. At his best, the skilled, bristly production is meaty enough to support his wide plank of a voice, but when he’s rapping over dustier atmospherics, it’s a strange mismatch of brassy rap and gray desolation. They’re beats made for a spacier emcee, while Tes needs more solid ground.
Puente Latino Takes U There Remixes
After a short sabbatical, this top tribal imprint returns with a powerful release engineered by some of the genre’s pinnacle talent. Originally released as the label’s third title, this reworking proves quite effective, as Cari Lekebusch and Joel Mull add funky percussion to an already solid dancefloor jam.
Redhead Nuclear Assault EP
This electro-tech technician is almost insolently disciplined in his work. Massive rolling basslines in front of an organic polyrhythmic shuffle lead this EP foward. Followers of Adam Beyer and Marco Bailey will find guidance here.
Dylan Drazen & Tim Xavier Heavy Flow
Chicago’s leader in profuse audio assaults materializes this round with an EP charged with lustful dreamscape techno. Set for the floor of a poorly lit dance dwelling, the textures here complement the complexity of the US techno sound. An enchantingly vibrant mix-down; this duo oozes audio cleanliness.
