Super Numeri follows in the line of Funki Porcini and Neotropic-brilliant Ninja Tune groups that likely will remain under the radar because people just won’t get it. Super Numeri’s particular flavor confronts you on the first few seconds of the album: dreamy, luscious guitar. The execution is as heartfelt as Vini Reilly’s muted brazenness, the atmosphere as humid and jazzy as another largely unsung group, 33.3 on Aesthetics. Great Aviaries summons magical, fluid melodies that range from synth opera tendencies (“Sundials”) to harp-toned neo-funk (“The Ember Love”) to full-on vibraphone lounge jamming (“Classic British Ponds”). Find it, please!
Yunx SO*_WHATtype ofMUSIC DOYOUMAKE*
Right on! Yunx (a.k.a. Iyunx Productions) finally decide to commit their three recent 12″s to CD, along with two new tracks-now you can pick up the best Black Dog music Black Dog never made. If for no other reason than the first track-the Detroit-stringed downtempo gem, “Thinking About Your Next Move”-SO* is essential listening music for its remarkably clean IDM production values and constantly meandering melodies. “Synax,” “Hoc” and “Old Sckool Junkski” are so smooth in their mixture of traditional percussion and bell-tone synths, the whole thing begs for silk wrapping.
Misc In Between
When a producer wakes up one morning, looks in the mirror, and muses, “I think I’ll be a minimalist,” we can almost always guarantee that he’s been duped. The broadly sweeping word-of-the-day has grown out of control like some rather nasty backyard sumac, and as plenty of records demonstrate, too little often becomes too annoying. But when the aesthetic is as natural as two-steppin’, there’s never a question of quality, as in the case of Hannes Wenner and Christopher Bleckmann. They explore the basics without appearing creatively broke, and while they tie the beats to the ground with familiar restrain, it’s the melodies that they slowly stretch and fold like clouds in the sky.
Data 80 S/t
While producers like The Neptunes and Timbaland were raking in accolades with their syncopated stencils of late-’90s electronic beats, Håkan Lidbo was busy restructuring pop sensibility to meet with the tenets of digital disco. His results are a catchy and soulful tech-house that adds sincerity to the bromidic four-minute verse-chorus-verse song structure. With hooks that stick in your head like the name of your high school sweetheart and basslines that bubble and shine, what it comes down to it is that when everyone was raving about Schneider TM’s melancholic haze, Data 80 opened the backdoor and let in some light.
Corven Dalek Wet and Hard
Has nothing changed in the past ten years of massive-targeting techno? I was hoping for something a little more intuitive, so maybe it’s my fault, but I’d swear that this same set was released in mix tape format by hundreds of kids who thought they were rebellious trendsetters way back when. Dalek’s 16-song mix consists mainly of his own tracks, with various versions of his “hits” like “Pornoground” and “A Real Man.” Maybe this will actually be a grand entrance into electronic music for someone somewhere, but it’s just been added to my Goodwill box.
Hausmeister Weiter
As Hausmeister, Christian Przygodda makes sublime house music. But, erm, not that kind of house. His delicately crafted pop vignettes are tailored for prosaic home activities. Part Sound Library cheek, part ambient etude, part Brian Wilson homage, Weiter sounds not unlike if Sean O’Hagan had grown up in Berlin and been raised on minimal tech-house and Caetano Veloso. Harpsichords neighbor 4/4 pulses. Breezy acoustic guitars neighbor drum machines. And your hand keeps hitting the repeat button. Smart hand.
Bill Laswell Sacred System Dub Chamber 4: Book of Exit
Oh, Bill Laswell. So much to answer for. He’s loved. He’s hated. Lately it seems, mostly the latter. Why? Mostly, for what’s seen as a prolific output combined with a lack of quality control. But then, ask yourself who else has collaborated with Fela Kuti, Herbie Hancock, Eddie Def and, erm, Whitney Houston? Dub Chamber 4 comes off quite nicely, especially if you’re prone to drawing baths now and again. With Ethiopian singer Ejigayehu “Gigi” Shibabaw in tow, Book of Exit is on a serious body-soak dub tip, in all its cavernous, sudsy, tranquil glory. We all need more baths anyhow, don’t cha’ think? Draw away.
Jukeboxer Man Throughout the Ages EP
Brooklyner Noah Wall works a naïve, knowing sort of kitchen-sink electro-pop. Not far from the homespun Beach Boy-isms of His Name is Alive circa Stars on ESP, with a dash of Americana thrown in for good measure, Wall and vocalist Amy Jones throw in just enough experimentation to keep them on the right side of fey. Which is to say it’s quite dashing.
Antonelli Electric Love and Other Solutions
Over the past year, Stefan Schwander has released countless excellent 12″s on Italic, and appeared on Mille Plateaux, Output, Ego and ~scape compilations under guises like AG Penthouse, Pop Up (w/ Jorg Burger), Repeat Orchestra and Rhythm Maker. Love and Other Solutions finds him roaming from the crisp tech-house of prior full-lengths in favor of drifting, unanchored post-Kompakt musings that are appropriately searching but rarely find their destination. If there’s a metaphor to find in this, I haven’t found it yet.
Bosco & Jorge Ally in the Sky
It’ll take you a whole 26 seconds to guess this was made in Chicago. And indeed a glance at the sleeve will reveal guest credits for Isotope 217’s Rob Mazurek and the brothers Navin from Aluminum Group. Apparently, Bosco & Jorge, otherwise known as Bill Lowman and Brad Gallagher, met as kids at a Leo Kottke concert. Lo and behold, years later, they’re still not straying far from Kottke’s rustic, fingerpicking Americana. But the curiously titled Ally in the Sky sounds closer to more recent offerings from Rex, Pullman and Gastr Del Sol, approximating an ambient study in folk-blues minimalism with a sprinkle of out-jazz thrown in for good measure. It’s quite nice-just nothing extraordinary.
