Sunday, June 29, 2008
Master of the House
Coming from the same school of musical lunacy as the likes of Modeselektor and many of the artists associated with the North South Divide, Germany's Housemeister has just dropped his second album.Who Is That Noize came out a few weeks back on All You Can Beat, a label co-run by Housemeister and the superbly titled Dirty Doering.
Sitting somewhere between techno and electro house with some crunk attitude thrown in for good measure, the album bucks the recent trend of over-production, preferring to keep things a touch rawer and concentrating more on the age old tradition of delivering good honest party music; a manifesto Housemeister was also sticking to when I saw him DJ a couple of weeks back and one to which the crowd was wholeheartedly signing up to.
Housemeister cites a love of classic analogue equipment and this is abundantly clear throughout this album as well as on this live set from earlier this year:
Housemeister - Live at Registratur, Munich 2008
Head on over to his website for more free downloads and pick up a copy of the album here
Labels: All You Can Beat, Housemeister
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Be Kind. Rewind
I've not been inspired to write about much new music recently so I thought I'd give you a blast from the past and share what I have been rediscovering recently.
Plaid are one of the foremost Electronica artists on Warp records. Having grown out of a side project of Black Dog Productions, Ed Handley and Andrew Turner released their first proper full length album, Not For Threes in 1997. This was followed by Rest Proof Clockwork in 1999, Trainer (a compilation of early works) in 2000 and Double Figure in 2001. Spokes followed in 2003 and Greedy Baby in 2006. Lazy this duo is not.
Here is but a taster of their unique electronic sound which has a purity and clarity all of its own encompassing many styles and influences. Enjoy.
Plaid are one of the foremost Electronica artists on Warp records. Having grown out of a side project of Black Dog Productions, Ed Handley and Andrew Turner released their first proper full length album, Not For Threes in 1997. This was followed by Rest Proof Clockwork in 1999, Trainer (a compilation of early works) in 2000 and Double Figure in 2001. Spokes followed in 2003 and Greedy Baby in 2006. Lazy this duo is not.
Here is but a taster of their unique electronic sound which has a purity and clarity all of its own encompassing many styles and influences. Enjoy.
Plaid - Rakimou // Not For Threes. Warp 1997
Plaid - Ralome // Rest Proof Clockwork. Warp 1999
Plaid - Squance // Double Figure. Warp 2001
EDIT: The links are now fixed.
Buy all these releases at Bleep
Labels: Black Dog, Electronica, Plaid, Warp
Sunday, June 15, 2008
The Sound of [Mu]sic
Despite their long running and prolific release schedule, Planet Mu isn't a label that I know a great deal about as I've always associated it with the more caustic end of IDM (something which I can only take in small doses). However, I was recently given some of the label's latest releases and although the crazed breakbeat of Venetian Snares' Detrimentalist resulted in a fairly short slot on the CD player, it was the efforts of two artists that I'd not heard of previously that tickled my ear buds and have been on frequent rotation since.The Standoffish Cat (dodgy title!) is the debut LP from Mrs Jynx and is 13 tracks of electronica goodness. While none of the tracks are particularly groundbreaking they are all high quality mixes of floaty melodies and clicky percussion and if you've been hankering after the good old days of mid 90s electronica then this album should be just up your street.
Mrs Jynx - Time Missed //The Standoffish Cat
Buy The Standoffish Cat here.
iTAL tEK is another relatively new producer with only a handful of EPs ahead of his first full long player here. Cyclical shows off another of dubstep's many facets only this time it's luscious electronica melodies that have been thrown into the melting pot to spice up the sparse rhythms and gargantuan sub-bass.
iTAL tEK - Cyclical //Cyclical
Buy Cyclical here.
And for those of you that are fans of the slightly more deranged face of Planet Mu's releases, here's something from label owner Mike Paradinas from a few years back:
u-Ziq - Siege of Antioch //Bilious Paths
Buy Planet Mu here.
Labels: Dubstep, Electronica, iTAL tEK, Mrs Jynx, Planet Mu, u-Ziq
Monday, June 02, 2008
The Death Disco
One of the darkest Electro Disco tracks I have heard has landed in my inbox. This is just the B-side to a new Discodeine release from the Dirty Soundsystem crew and it wipes the (dance) floor with the much more pedestrian Electro House of 'Joystick' found on the A-side. Described as music for fans of Dario Argento and Goblin, it utilises bass synths so dark and nasty it is what Radioactive Man would sound like if he ever made a Disco record. Be Afraid.And the reason it's called Homo-Compatible?
"Male electronic duos always convey a load of queer eroticism, latent (Silver Apples, Ralf & Florian) or assumed (Softcell, Pet Shop Boys).
For their love of the moustache, DISCODEINE was almost named "Homo compatible". But Benjamin and Cedric still fall for epilated ladies."
Discodeine - Homo-Compatible // DLL 011
Another slice of tripped out druggy Techno has also just been released from the same stable. Photonz are two Portuguese producers that describe their sound thus... "Think Kristof Komeda, Kevin Shields, Throbbing Gristle"
Photonz - Trembler (Discodeine Mix) // DLL 010
Trembler should be out by now, The new Discodeine will be out mid June. Both limited to 1000 vinyl copies.
Labels: Dirty Crew, Discodeine, Photonz
