Hello,
Here comes our June recap - its for all of you who might have missed some of the month's music over watching football or enjoying the perfect weather that surely must have existed someplace.
Outstanding albums have come from Jamie Jones, Guy Gerber, Fennesz, Christian Löffler, Moritz Von Oswald Trio, Cristian Vogel and Barbara Morgenstern, and it's been a great month for reissues as well with Drexciya's 'Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller II', Shed's collected 'Equalized' works, and Richard Sen's brilliant collection of early UK house, 'This Ain't Chicago'.
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FEATURED RELEASE
Once again Modeselektor are playing connect the dots. It's a game the charismatic duo truly excels at. Not only with their own productions that so brilliantly blend rave with electronica and techno with bass music, but also with their Monkeytown label and 'Modeselektion' compilations.
2010's first 'Modeselektion' did a admirable job at showcasing the diversity of cutting-edge club music while maintaining an insane level of quality. Its second edition aspires to repeat its success with another star-studded and diverse line-up featuring Monkeytown's illustrious artist roster as well as quite a few surprises.
The appearance of Monolake is certainly one of them. Edited by Electric Indigo, Robert Henke's 'Hitting The Surface' follows up Egyptrixx's moody opener 'Levitate' with an uptempo, garage-flavoured track that complements its bleepy bassline with endless echoes and tranquil pads. Addison Groove and Parisian newcomer Bambounou continue with two percussive bangers before Clark and Mouse on Mars head for more experimental terrain, pairing a bass music foundation with spiraling synth arpeggios and Rephlex-style edit science.
Phon.o's dramatic 'Fukushima' gives way to Sound Pelegrino's minimalist electro bounce 'Activate', Martyn's acid breaks groover 'Red Dancers' and Modeselektor's own 'Maik The Chicken', the album's only straight-on techno track. The surprises continue with Alva Noto and Byetone introducing their new project Diamond Version, Pixeltan's Hisham Bharoocha reviving his Soft Circle project, and Prefuse 73 giving a new meaning to barbershop music with the low-slung beats of 'Haircut Zero'.
Add to this more music by Monkeytown mainstays Lazer Sword, Anstam and Siriusmo, and what you have is a compilation that perfectly captures the adventurous spirit and ingenious eclecticism that Modeselektor stand for. Essential.
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FEATURED EXCLUSIVE
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Glasgow's Marco Bernardi contributes three excellent analogue house cuts to Clone's Royal Oak imprint: 'Days Gone By' stands out with its pumping swing rhythm, while the title cut and 'La Montagne De Reves' add their own twists to the EP's synth and string-heavy theme. Recommended, zero" exclusive!
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TECHNO / HOUSE ESSENTIALS
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Guy Gerber's sun-drenched house music style is just the right choice for a summery fabric mix, which the Israeli producer has crafted solely from his own unreleased productions. Infused with trancey synth lines and dreamy pop electronica, this album is a perfect holiday companion.
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Drexciya's sonic art speaks for itself and still sounds as brilliantly futuristic as anything out there today. Clone have to be commended for a great selection for the second volume of 'Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller', including obscure and lesser known tracks besides timeless classics. Essential, zero" exclusive!
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Album released 25-06-2012 on Strut
UK DJ veteran and crate digger extraordinaire Richard Sen educates us to the fact that house might have been born in Chicago, but refined in the UK. This album compiles little known gems and classics from the early days of acid house, filling in the blanks between 'Blue Monday' and 'Voodoo Ray'. Utterly Essential!
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Hand-picked ahead of Nick Höppner's upcoming Panorama Bar mix release, four previously unreleased tracks - The Mole's shaking funky bassline, Holland's Dexter wibbling groove, the murky depths of Matthew Styles' 'Liquid Sky' and Jon McMillion eerie intriguing techno journey certainly whetting the palette.
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Smallville fans rejoice: Smallpeople Julius Steinhoff and Just von Ahlefeld release their debut album on the cherished Hamburg imprint, and it's a stunner, serving up subtle deep house and moody, Dial-style techno over nine tracks, always with an analogue heart and soul. Excellent.
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Just in case you burned all your vinyl when the mp3 was invented, the wait to own Rene Pawlowitz, better known as Shed's much revered EQD series is now over. Needless to say, this release contains all the EQD white labels and some of the finest techno tracks of recent years. Essential techno.
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Hot Natured co-founder Jamie Jones drops his second artist album. The effortlessly warm funking London house his label exudes, shines in the shimmering vibes of 'Frequencies' and 'Paradise' and darker charging tracks like 'Our Time...' feat. Art Department. Each track engineered for perfect dancefloor chemistry.
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Christian Löffler follows up his acclaimed recent singles with an equally impressive full-length for Cologne's Ki Records imprint. 'A Forest' achieves a natural fusion of pop house, minimal techno and electronica that fans of Dial, Kompakt and BPitch Control should equally enjoy. Recommended.
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Tiga's Turbo Recordings has certainly let its taste expand and ripen in recent years, this new compilation marks this fresh direction of low-slung darker techno sounds with Locked Groove, Nautiluss, Sei A and Gingy & Bordello, electroid wickedry not forgotten. Turbo's new era clearly showing promise. Smashing.
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Braindance poster boy Nathan Fake returns to Border Community with a 'Iceni Strings, a symphonic monster constructed from a snaking triplet bassline and AFX harmonies. 'Sense Head' and 'Bauxite Dream' are equally delirious with stumbling rhythms and surging synths. Trippy hippie techno deluxe.
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Compilation released 18-06-2012 on Areal
The label founded in Cologne and now-based in Berlin led by Konfekt, Basteroid and Metope has a harvested a hearty catalogue over the past twelve years. Sampling older Areal tracks the label-heads have conjured up almost all-fresh material with contributions by affiliates Hrdvision and Falko Brocksieper too.
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Brendon Moeller appears with his ninth studio album, following up last year's mainly beatless 'Subterraenean' LP as Echologist, 'Works' steers towards the dancefloor. His idiosyncratic dub techno textures are given expansive space, yet pristinely honed for maximum impact. Mighty.
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The humble duo with plentiful 12s on Retreat and others since 2008 release their debut album. Aptly titled, given their knack for reworking core house essences that have persisted over the years, call it balearic if you must, but this is finely made soul/disco/funk infused-house you'd be hard pushed to argue with! Ace.
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Taken from Phillip Lauer's excellent recent solo debut LP, 'Tentatious' gets spruced up by US duo Jacques Renault and Marcos Cabral aka Runaway who inject a mischievous energy into the original nonchalant groove, I:Cube augments with twinkling synths. Plus, two prime new cuts from Lauer highly recommendable.
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Mr Flügel's first proper release since his excellent Fatty Folders LP last year, he is absolutely on top form. 'O.T.H.' roves a tactile house groove with twinkling synths, 'Thank You Jack' a soulful sung interlude, 'Cookie Dust' on a brasher noisey electro tip and 'Girls With Status' similarly addictive. Ace.
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Some wonderful remixes courtesy of Robag Wruhme of Jimmy Tamborello's recent 'Aimlessness' LP. Stepping the tempo down a notch, 'Bright Night' trots delicately and magically and two reworks of 'Jitters' are further shining examples of Robag's infinitely golden touch. Delicious.
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Album released 11-06-2012 on Vakant
Tolga Fidan appears with his debut album proper, a year since his top mini-album 'We're Strangers Now' appeared. As usual, his sound strikes effortlessly, sturdy house base with smatterings of vocals, encased in heavenly synth swells and some post-punk leanings adding that edge which sets him apart.
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Album released 04-06-2012 on caravan
Emptyset raid their vaults to compile an album of early recordings: Eight tracks (four of them unreleased) of sparcely instrumented, cold and spacious techno that make 'Trace: 2005-2009' a must for fans of Säkho, Sandwell District, or the Prologue's label output. Highly recommended.
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Debut release from a new collaboration between Danny 'Legowelt' Wolfers and Brian Chinetti of Orgue Electronique. These two meisters of naughty electronics unite wonderfully with fantasy-rich synth melodies, gently jacking Chicago-heritage beats and quirky trimmings. Brill.
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The debut release of a new Naples-based imprint sees Rick Wade providing some typically seductively deep house body music, accompanied with softly ebbing synths in 'Phantom of the Deep', 'Nasty Disco' on the flip delivers works the disco edit with supreme flair and Wade's unflailing quality.
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Robert Hood in his Floorplan guise dishes out two new cuts, 'Altered Ego' cutting any superfluous sonics and brutally hitting the jacking core, hypnotising syncopation under classic Hood keys. 'Confess' juxtaposes gospel piano and pounding techno, thus solving that eternal Sunday church or Panoramabar dilemma.
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The blinding smeared and twisted Actress remix of Tom Trago's 'Lost in the Streets of NYC' from 2009's Voyage Direct gets a well deserved rewind, accompanied by an unreleased holy electro gem courtesy of Convextion reworking Terrence Dixon. Better than Ferrero Rocher - Rush Hour, you are spoiling us!
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More techno remakes for Manchester's Trus'me: After Dettmann and Nodge this time DVS1 and Detroit legend Terrence Dixon step up to the plate. DVS1 delivers a prime-time banger with ahousey touch, while Dixon's rework shines with bleepy and percussive playfulness. Excellent.
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Lucky for us Robag Wruhme doesn't seem to run out of dadaistic pseudo-German track-titles to suit his quirky, yet immaculately produced minimal techno bangers. 'Brumby Kapell' and 'Wolluwe' both feature spot-on percussion, brittle funk and a wealth of surprising edits to please his many fans. Great.
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Following their recent output on Prologue Cassegrain activate their Vienna connection for a collaboration with Tin Man on Berlin's KILLEKILL imprint. Four tracks of rough and dubby acid techno that fuse Cassegrain's reverb trickery with Tin Man's mastery of the TB-303. Nice one.
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Three friends collude once more with this latest release, a gently oozing nonchalant groove of 'Bus Ted' remixed in four different directions. Kenny Larkin's kicking up dramatic beats, Kris Wadsworth inserts a stronger techno frame, Daria's direct melodic approach and H2's skinny bounce.
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DUBSTEP / HIP-HOP / ELECTRO ESSENTIALS
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Lil Silva returns to Night Slugs for the second volume of 'Club Constructions', and as we've come to expect from the much-lauded label, the three tracks on display are definite winners for the bass music crowd: Subtle, half-stepping rhythms meet bouncy basslines and grimy drops. Bass deluxe.
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Parisian beatsmith Débruit appears with a stunning new album on Civil Music. His vivacious synths and off-kilter hiphop grooves this time sampling his recent collection of field-recordings from Africa, he harnesses these intensive energies and produces something unique and completely infectious. Big up.
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Arthur Cayzer's follows up his brilliant Safehouses EP and Detroit Falls maxi with another fine cut on R&S. 'Rift' carves a svelte figure in low-end science, a tremoring bassline set alight with ethereal dusty highs, 'Signal Loss' echoey vocals and song structure and the lush ambient textures of '...Metal Trees'. Top.
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Finland's Matti P dishes out his first release for Sound Pelligrino, his knack for injecting new life into a style which has frankly gotten a little tiring over the past year and divine act of hipster self-referentiality in 'Percolater Meme' is just too delicious. Remixes by Lazer Sword and Kowton are cherries on a plush cake. Don't miss.
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ELECTRONICA / AMBIENT ESSENTIALS
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Touch release Fennesz's soundtrack to the Austrian-Japanese film by Edgar Honetschläger 'AUN', with twelve new pieces plus three taken from his 2007 collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto 'Cendre'. His masterfully crafted electronic ambience and swelling, hypnotic guitar tones as poignant and elegant as ever.
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The trio of Von Oswald, Sasu Ripatti and Max Loderbauer return with a third album. Whilst their exquisite sonic finesse is as striking as ever, these four tracks are broodier, darker - 'Jam' on a hypnotic free-jazz tip, 'Yangissa' evoking African percussion and 'Club' casually nailing incredible techno territories.
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At long last, Cristian Vogel returns to the context of club music with a new album, and this time this context is dubstep rather than funky Brighton techno. Fans needn't worry though, as Vogel's brilliance in sound design and arrangement makes 'The Inertials' as much a classic Vogel album as it is mind-blowingly futuristic. Essential!
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Finding time alongside the Moritz Von Oswald Trio, Sasu Ripatti has a new album upcoming with this EP appearing in advance. Densely rhythmic with minimal structures yet intriguing sonic textures, ingeniously straddling synth-pop and C20th avant garde. An intense and truly stunning EP. Highly recommended.
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Tri Angle continue to showcase exciting new talent with the debut EP of young producer Nathaniel Oak aka Howse. From soupy synth delirum of 'Other Ways', to the exoticized juke-porno of 'VBS', a wicked fusion of primal rhythms and video-game glare, he amply makes his mark amongst producers to watch in 2012.
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The Vienna-based trio of Joe Williamson, Martin Siewart and Martin Brandlmayr release a new album. Journeying with electronics and instrumental improvisation between free-jazz, psychedelic noise, kosmische and visceral electroacoustic with breathtaking tact and style. Stunning.
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DJ Koze's Pampa label continues to surprise, this time with the return of LA's electronica veteran Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel, Postal Service). 'Aimlessness' is his first proper album as Dntel since 2007, and it's an intriguing affair of abundant melodies and rhythmic creativity. Welcome back!
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Pillow is the solo project Giardini Di Mirò keyboarder Luca Di Mira, returning with a second album after 'Flowing Seasons' from 2006. 'From Dusk To Dawn' is an intriguing journey, meandering between the poles of electronica, neo-classical music, and abstract post-rock. Excellent album.
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Album released 04-06-2012 on Dial
A new project between Hendrik Weber, aka Pantha Du Prince and Stephan Abry of Workshop explores different facets of the guitar in new ways. Ethereal hints of Krautrock, post-rock, experimental electronics and ambient, with guiding beats and bass of house somehow never completely disappearing. Exquisite.
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ALTERNATIVE / POP / DISCO ESSENTIALS
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Album released 08-06-2012 on Monika
Long-standing figure in Berlin's electronic music scene Barbara Morgenstern releases her sixth solo album. For the first time, she switches to English vocals for her concise electronic pop. The album sails gracefully, striking a balance in melodies, subtle beats and restrained emotionality. Sweet indeed.
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Album released 25-06-2012 on !K7
Digitalism has always been the most French-sounding German dance music act, and as if to prove a point it takes their DJ-Kicks mix little over a minute to arrive at a first Daft-Punk-style guitar solo. This is not to say that it hasn't been assembled with love, skill and precision - disco-rave fans should love this.
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Maxi-Single released 29-06-2012 on Gomma
Sweden meets Spain in Berlin once more with the latest collaboration of Hugo Capablanca and T. Keeler on Gomma: 'Acido' is a 13min cosmic bomb with trippy synths and Carl-Craig-style FX weirdness, while 'Tropanado' brings back the duo's dubbed-out guitar licks. Excellent.
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Maxi-Single released 11-06-2012 on Bromance
Club Cheval bring a Prodigy vs. Felix touch to the game, their 'Now U Realize' providing a veritable electro-rave-step anthem for Brodinski's Bromance label. Brodinski himself supplies the flip, a straight but funky banger (and not to mention catchy as hell), 'Nobody Rules the Streets'.
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The second EP of Berlin-based electronica-pop duo UMA (singer Jules Hunter and Mediengruppe Telekommander's Florian Zwietnig), has the hypnotic synth piece 'Wild At Heart' turned into a UK funky banger by Doc Daneeka and a dreamy witch-tech track by The Drifter. Nice.
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Young London-based duo of Thom Hill and Linda Jarvis appear with a hugely impressive debut LP, Jarvis' dreamy vocals floating hauntingly above cloudy textures of whirling echos of guitars. My Bloody Valentine comparisons are perhaps inevitable, yet done by and for a new generation. A stunning record.
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