The ill-ec-tro-nic

OK, so the fact that we officially closed this blog in 2010 serves as some excuse for not dropping by here to give an update on things sooner but this post is a little overdue so as I'm here now, I'll cover off a couple of bits at once.

As mentioned previously, my main musical focus after quitting blogging was always intended to be making music of my own and last year finally saw the official release of some my music - hoorah! My debut EP, Beyond The Green Wall, came out as a digital release on Broken20 at the end of November and is available to buy via Boomkat and direct from the label. The EP contains two tracks from me plus two remixes from Broken20 label boss TVO and another from Spatial. It picked up nice reviews from Boomkat, who also put it on their 'recommendations list, and Bleep 43. Getting such nice comments from both of these camps made me really happy as I hold both organisations in high regard and have long used their views as a staring point for hunting out music to buy myself.

The EP proper also came with a great little bonus release; four additional remixes - one from me plus fellow Broken20 label mates Erstlaub, Production Unit and Kwaidan. The companion release is FREE and you can pick up a copy here.

So that's the main news from me on my Nanorhythm front - I started a new Nanorhythm blog over on wordpress so you can keep up with my production adventures there.

As it's the start of the year, I figured on also throwing my hat into the ring for a 'best of 2011' roundup. Characteristically, I'm somewhat late off the mark with this as people seem to be putting lists up earlier each year - some even starting as early as November which seems rather strange to me but there you have it.

For various reasons, I didn't really buy that many 12s last year but the pick of my rather limited crop was: a smattering of Sandwell District EPs, the awesome Black Dog 'Liber Chaos' remix package, the first part of the Drexciya reissues on clone, a couple of nice things Burial was involved with ('Street Halo' and the collaboration with Four Tet & Thom Yorke), Tropic of Cancer's 'The Sorrow of Two Blooms' plus a great Digital Mystikz remix of Lee Scratch Perry's 'Like The Way You Should'.

Album-wise my favourite was probably Zomby's 'Dedication' - it has loads of great moments that really do it for me although it's definitely something to be listened to in its original context as many of the tracks are ridiculously short and the album feels like a mix in parts with tracks effortlessly flowing between one another. On the dancefloor front, Byteone's 'Symeta', Omar S' 'It Can Be Done But Only I Can Do It' plus Sandwell District's 'Feed Forward' (which actually came out very late in 2010) were all brilliant. Lucy's Wordplay For Working Bees' has some great moments and save for the guitar intro (sorry boss) I really like TVO's 'Amid the Blaze of Noon'. Kangding Ray's 'OR' is a sonic delight and finally Tropic of Cancer's 'The End Of All Things' is also very enjoyable, albeit that it doesn't really have any particular standout moment for me, unlike the awesome 'A Colour' from their Blackest Ever Black single that I mentioned earlier.

Anyhow, that's my brief roundup - no links I'm afraid as getting bogged down with such tedious admin was one of the reasons why we got bored of this blog in the first place. If you're interested enough, a quick google will soon help you track the releases down.

Bye for now and I'll hopefully be back later in the year with some more Nanorhythm news. Until then you can always drop by Cafe1001 on the second Thursday of each month to catch Langer, myself and a bunch of our mates dropping some of our favourite tunes as per the flyer Langer posted up previously.

Labels: Broken20, Erstalub, Kwaidan, Langer, Nanorhythm, Production Unit, Spatial, TVO

Since having heard Production Unit's 'It's Personal' on The Highpoint Lowlife 2010 Mixtape I've been waiting eagerly for it's release. It seems like an age has gone by since then but the Ghost Track EP on which it features is now available via the HPLL website and I think will be hitting the main digital retailers within the week. The track and in fact the whole EP itself is not something that's easily pigeonholed although both dubstep and techno influences can clearly be heard throughout. The net result on It's Personal and, to a lesser extent, Axel, sounds like some kind of futuristic spaghetti western soundtrack. The rest of the EP is similarly intriguing and melds together distorted vocals, rave stabs and a variety of other electronic trickery on top of common themes of throbbing bass and crisp percussion. My biggest gripe about the whole thing is that (I think) it's a digital only release as this would surely have been an addictive piece of black crack.

It's Personal can be downloaded via the link below and the full EP can be previewed via Production Unit's Soundcloud page although if you've got any sense, you'll just head on over to HPLL where for the paltry sum of £3 you can bag the full release for your takeaway pleasure.

To help promote the EP, Production Unit has also put together a mix for Clash magazine - I've not checked it out yet but the tracklist is pretty interesting so I'm looking forward to doing so.

Production Unit - "It's Personal" by highpoint lowlife

For those not aware, Production Unit was part of the now defunct Marcia Blaine School For Girls which takes me nicely onto this little video which involves the other two members - Bryan Kerr on visual duties and Ruaridh Law aka TVO on the sonics. As regular readers will know, TVO has featured several times on these pages previously and given his varied musical output, each new offering is both a treat and a surprise. This time, the music is abstract and experimental and one for headphone listening. Taken from the forthcoming album 'Amid The Blaze Of Noon', again out on HPLL but not until late summer. The album will be out on both CD and DVD and while I tend not to spend masses of time watching visuals in a home environment the A/V pairing on this particular project seem to complement each other perfectly.

Dalston. Ala from Bryan Kerr on Vimeo.

Labels: Highpoint Lowlife, Marcia Blaine School For Girls, Production Unit, TVO