Production stalwart Ryan Tapia finally releases his Ear Lotion EP after no less than seven years of tweaking. “Ryan’s Original Formula” harkens back to the early ’90s warehouse sound propagated by the likes of Mr. C and Grooverider. Watch carefully for the “Rubdown” mix by Chi-town’s Johnny Fiasco.
Gotan Project Santa Maria (Tom Middleton’s Cosmos Mix)
Ex-Jedi Tom Middleton adds his signature Cosmos touch to this Gallic tango trio’s “Santa Maria,” taken from their debut album. Middleton spices up the original with sizzling synths and building beats on the main side, while Peter Kruder weighs in on the flip with a quirky, off-kilter, beat-driven retool. A tasty little package.
Red Snapper Red Snapper
Red Snapper’s final album is warmer and considerably more mellow. The group flanks meaty, thick grooves with an upright bass that at times serves as a solid anchor and at others a quivering catapult. “Regrettable” is striped with deep-red shadings of piano, horns and strings. “Ultraviolet’s” shifty, shuffling break gives way to a funkier 4/4, moving from its initial jazziness to twinklier techno, though the flip and slap of hand against bass remains audible. “Odd Man Out” slowly oozes juice, and by the time “Four Dead Monks,” a live track, dissolves into applause at the end, there’s no doubt this slab of Red Snapper is well-seasoned and well-done.
Accelera Deck Echo Economy
This Accelera Deck re-release feels like a series of still-lifes of rusty scraps of crumpled metal, each portrait a slight variation on another, threaded together into animation. Its abruptness is a distinct departure from other Accelera Deck works in which sheets of delicate ambience unroll on top of tiny, skittering beats. “&loop2” is a garbage-can tumble, and “&loop3” features a controlled and measured clock ticking while a rumbling chaos churns at the edges of earshot. Echo Economy‘s minimal loops are variations on a sparse theme, with each component slightly shifted, nudged, elongated or eliminated per iteration. The sheer number of permutations is impressive, if not kind to the ears.
Rehash Morning b/w Number Four
The second 7″ by self-described Dallas record nerds High-C and Wilson proves that Texas booty got soul, GWB excepted. As expected from a couple of diggers, the breaks are funky, but it’s the atmosphere built up by lazy Rhodes vibes and gossamer trumpet that makes this record sublime. A bit scruff around the edges, but in that waking-up-after-a-bender-and-realizing-you-bagged-the-hot-bass-player sort of way.
DJ Cam Soulshine
Soulshine is Cam’s reflection on US r&b and soul (there’s even a tribute to Aaliyah), a side-step from his previous hip-hop-centric approach and hard-hitting jazz cutups. More grounded than his Loa Project trilogy, Cam uses a slew of guest players and vocalists to good effect here, centered around minimal, laidback grooves. The DJ Premier remix of “Voodoo Child” makes this all the more evident-it’s the oldest cut here, and is much more in your face than the sophisticated r&b rubric motivating the bulk of the album. He hits the mark with “Love Junkie,” which features Cameo’s Larry Blackmon working the tune into a nugget that should rocks bedrooms from west to east. The smoky soul of China’s voice on “He’s Gone” is another highlight, along with the masterfully skittering collaboration with Atlanta’s Donnie on “Elevation.” Cam’s meandered in various directions since his impressive early catalog-Soulshine is a welcome new focus.
Spacek Vintage Hi-Tech
It seems the Courvoisier r&b that used to be the purview of our older, more normal siblings’ bedroom missions has now become our downtime soundtrack. Spacek are a London trio on their sophomore release, providing an angular and unexpected work of neo-soul-that focuses on the neo. “Life is like a bassline,” Steve Spacek sings (almost whispers, really) in songs both knowing and personal. The beats (by Spacek, Morgan Zarate and Edmund Cavill) are deceptively minimal-seemingly simple, yet rewarding subsequent listens with unexpected sound design and a decidedly non-retro approach to arrangement. Nothing here swings like their debut single “Eve,” but Spacek are still a jaded clubber’s best friend.
Sleepwalker Especial
After a noted (and now scarce) single on Kyoto Jazz Massive’s Especial label, Sleepwalker drop a corker of an album, one which may seem a bit anachronistic to the casual listener. Raspy, Rollins-esque saxman Masato Nakamura leads a group that includes keys player Hajime Yoshizawa, bassist Tomokazu Sugimoto, and drummer Noboyuki Fujii in a session closer to combo-driven pre-fusion jazz on ’60s-era Impulse label release than anything one usually finds in these pages. At times it seems a fetishistic Japanese reading of the jazz idiom, but in the ferocity of the playing and obvious interplay of the musicians, one finds hints of the love of the dance. Sleepwalker isn’t ironic and sly, nor winsome and lovely-it’s a blistering set that takes the piss right out of jazz dilettantes by rediscovering the original notes.
Lory D Sounds Never Seen
Assembled as a disjointed tracklist rather than a set, Lory D takes hard techno to its most sinister level with Sounds Never Seen-the name of his new album and his Italian label. From beginning to end, we hear typically plodding techno sounds programmed in very atypical ways. An experienced early-’90s producer, Lory creates an audio playground of old-skool drum machines and sci-fi influenced synths all on a slight electro tip, like Morroder tracks refunked by Juan Atkins. With its robot noises, laser sounds and echo effects, Sounds Never Seen is on top of its game. And who doesn’t love robot noises?
Bad Company UK Shot Down on Safari
I interviewed Bad Company for XLR8R a few years ago, and they are nice guys. They’ve been making some of the meanest sounding shit I’ve ever heard for years now, but they still manage to sneak in some funky little polyrhythms and the odd soulful track here and there for flavor. Ripping basslines and chopped up amens are in evidence as always, but hey, Bad Company is nothing if not consistent. Just check out the included bonus Best Of The Bad mixed-CD if you don’t believe me.
