Following Heroin, the brilliant collaboration between Ekkehard Ehlers and Stephan Mathieu, Brombron (a label project between Dutch imprints Staalplaat and Extrapol) returns with their third release. And if Heroin rested on the periphery of one’s consciousness, in one’s memory, Sovezacht chronicles the very narrative of unconsciousness-or, more specifically, sleep. Moving from barely audible stillness through to a turbulent (hardrive) nightmare and back again, this album mirrors its cover image: a hovering pillow upon which the indentation of a sleeper’s head once was. Dreams leak into day.
Various Artists On the Right Track
This could easily be a one-line review, “On the Right Track features a Finnish goth band.” Finns are already pale, so their goths must be reflective shadow dancers. Oddly enough, Kuusumun Profeetta contributes in the warmest way-their velvety bossanova glows like Chet Baker serenading the Northern Lights. Swell Session, the Vogado Project, Moonstarr & John Kong, Nicola Conte and other qualified cohorts round out the On the Right Track pack. As they splinter and spark, shuffle and shift, riff and ramble through the curves of jazzy dance, what flashes through the mind is more goth music please.
Bottleskup Flenkemkenmike Looks Like Velvet, Smells Like Pee
For a lightning jolt, chomp into an electric blanket. It has a fuzzy layer, but when you get down to the core it’s a shocker. The blanket of the moment was hand-woven by Bottleskup Flenkenkenmike a.k.a. Aiden Girt, a master of disguise. Mr. Girt is the drummer for Godspeed You Black Emperor! and Exhaust, and records solo as One Speed Bike. He has a habit of mashing up percussion into dub chaos. Looks like Velvet, Smells Like Pee is a fine showing of lo-fi, I-don’t-give-a-super-fudge-what-anyone-outside-my-head-thinks gems. Raw, tonal explorations anchored by a trap drum set on fire. Zap.
Various Artists Wackie’s Sampler Vol. 1
If you visited a coconut shop, you would encounter sizes and shapes unique as snowflakes. Wackie’s brings you coconuts of the Jamaican German Big Apple dub variety. This is roots reggae music recorded in New York City at Lloyd Barnes’s studio and reissued by Berlin’s Rhythm & Sound posse. An early-’80s vibe defines the sound. Classic dub riddims ride the digital fringe. The sweet meat is thick with lover’s rock crooned atop blazing backing tracks. The Lovejoys, Wayne Jarret, Sugar Minott and Junior Delahaye sound as fresh as the day their voices were laid to tape. Crack open the coconut, sip and satta.
Parlour Googler
What Kentucky natives Parlour (featuring ex-members of Aerial M and The For Carnation) offer in Googler is a hypnotic glimpse of what post-rock is best capable of. Songs like “Jololinine” and “Regulkfro Reel” glide down the same night-fallen freeway that Jonathan Richman and Neu! romanticized 30 years ago, with pristine guitar harmonics, interwoven math-rock melodies and electronic coloration over a midtempo cadence. Parlour also evokes melancholic images of a wilderness that will soon be paved over by subdivisions. The last two tracks slightly deviate from the rock-centric album, as they are science documentary-synth explorations. “Svrendikditement” particularly startles with its split-personality duel between art-damaged hip-hop beats and music-box melodies.
Scorn Plan B
Mick Harris is celebrated for jackhammering the apocalypse at 200 bpm on a trapkit for grindcore avatars Napalm Death. In his incarnation as Scorn, he settles down to watch the nuclear winter set in. With Plan B, Harris continues to explore brooding dub atmospherics with ghostlike piano melodies and DSP noises that roil in psychosomatic flashbacks over hip-hop beats that land like fists. Unfortunately, he clings to this formula too tightly, where the majority of the album seems to be remixes of the same track. This problem is heightened by some plodding drum machine rhythms. Harris thankfully breaks that monotony with the self-immolating polyrhythms that shatter like storefronts in a street riot in “Sleep When Home” and “The Snow Hill.”
Hive & Keaton Feat. Busdriver Death Threat
L.A.’s own Busdriver convincingly steals this one right out from under this tight team-up. With a style that is definitely all his own, Bus provides the perfect lyrical complement to the equally ill beats bumping and grooving underneath. A superb release sure to work the crowd into a frenzy.
Infekto Burner
The debut cut from Finland’s own Infekto proves a dancefloor killer of the highest degree. “Burner” is the standout of the two, slowly layering and unfolding before allowing the darkness to creep in. Hit the flip for the equally precise two-stepper “Black Magic”-a solid groove holds it down with the sweet touch of old-school techno stabs and crowd-roars. It’s high-energy dancefloor bounce makes this one an essential purchase.
Tango & Ratty Steel Fingers
Tango & Ratty return with another heavyweight floor-killer, this time for Digital’s Function imprint. “Steel Fingers” lays it down proper, with tough rolling beats and a heart-pounding drop that chugs past haunting atmospherics and that essential bass-pump. The flip’s “Snake Style” brings it even harder, inducing the chill before busting things wide open with a bouncing bottom end and infectious hook that’ll have them screaming for more.
Majistrate Fury
Majistrate lays down some hardcore analog jump-up biz before re-rinsing a smooth roller from yesteryear on the flip. True Playaz fans will appreciate “Fury,” as a monstrous b-line burps its way across Majistrate’s signature crisp breaks. “If (Part 2)” is more for those who dig getting lost in beats, as Maj strips the original down to its bare essentials and rolls it out in stoner evolution mode.
