The ill-ec-tro-nic

I can barely believe it's Easter already and as the days keep passing by I seem to be increasingly short of spare time with which to do anything worthwhile.

Even at the start of the longest public holiday of the year, I'm in a rush as I'm about to go and visit relatives but I figured in sharing a couple of quick nuggets before I set off.

First up is something for the old school crew or in fact anyone who loves a bit of 303 action. Syntheme's 'Lasers n Shit' has been out a little while now and while it doesn't deliver anything massively groundbreaking, I don't think that's the intention as it clearly looks back on the early days of the Acid House era with misty eyes. What the LP does provide is an interesting and nostalgic retrospective of an era that was so important to electronic music's history yet whose sounds are seldom heard today.

Sytntheme - FabaceaeCPea // Planet Mu buy

Next is a 4 hour Sandwell District set I picked up from the excellent mnml ssgs. It was recorded in February this year and features Regis & Function laying down some seriously good tracks for what must have been one hell of a night. The mix is split into two parts and the second is probably my favourite as it takes 20 minutes or so for part one to get going and also moves into (comparatively) housey territory at one stage but once you reach the 90 minute mark it's pure techno heaven from then on in.

Sandwell District @ Planet Rose (14/02/09) - Part 1 / Part 2

Lastly, and somewhat strangely given the comment I've just made about house music, is something much softer than my usual bag. It is however the kind of track that perfectly fits early morning sunrises and as spring is now upon us and I'm sure a good few people are going to be up until the early hours over the next few days it seems a good time to share it.

Timmy Thomas - Why Can't We Live Together (Luke Solomon's Re-edimix)

Labels: Function, Luke Solomun, Regis, Sandwell District, Syntheme, Timmy Thomas

As every music enthusiast knows, the ability to quickly locate a given track within their collection is almost as important as having the record there in the first place. Artwork is without doubt one of the best ways of making such a task possible and even with a (well ordered) large vinyl collection, it's easy to pick out specific releases based on spine markings. However, over the past year or so, I seem to be picking up an increasing number of records that are sold in nothing more than the flimsy paper inner and to make matters worse, many of these releases bear little more than a rubber stamped label logo rather than the usual artist and track name details.

Many of these records seem to be coming out of Berlin and are frequently associated with the Hardwax and Berghain crews e.g. MDR and Equalized although another Berlin label that really surprises me with it's lack of proper packaging is Styrax Leaves as this seems totally at odds with the care and attention that clearly goes into their artwork (not to mention the music itself).

Sandwell District is another label that's (sometimes) guilty of this too and in terms of the ueber-anonymous protagonists, Seldom Felt has clearly decided that the UK can hold it's weight against the mainland Europeans by sharing little more than catalogue numbers and a brief statement around the label's ideology.

OK, that's my moan over and in reality this is little more than a minor annoyance which can easily be resolved by picking up some sleeves from a local independent store. All that really matters is the quality of the music contained in the grooves and this is without doubt where all the labels mentioned here are right on top of their game and what keeps me going back for more of these little beauties.

Berghain-related material has been getting a lot of column inches of late and the residents seem to be gravitating towards iconic status so I figured on sharing two tracks that are worthy of similar praise although you'll have to make your own guesses about who's behind the Seldom Felt one.

Silent Servant & Kalon - Violencia // Sandwell District buy
Unknown Artist - Seldom Felt 4 (A) // Seldom Felt buy

The final part of today's post goes out to a mix that I got sent a few weeks back which takes a whole bunch of this sort of stripped down techno that I'm so fond of and splices it all together to deliver 60 minutes of warehouse style goodness. It's from a little-known known DJ called Benjamin Anon and if you like what you hear, why not pop over to his Myspace and say hi.

Benjamin Anon - State of the Art

Tracklist:

Sleeparchive - Radio [ZZZ]
Dasha Rush - Ionik (For Me Mix) [Fullpanda Records]
JPLS - Synthesis (Wax Edit) [Minus]
JPLS - Quasarlude [Minus]
Brian Aneurysm - Certify (Remix) [Ironbox]
Samuli Kemppi - Vangel [Ostgut Ton]
Function - Burn [Sandwell District]
Marcel Dettmann - Corebox [Marcel Dettmann Records]
Robert Hood - Side Effect [Music Man Records]
Len Faki - My Black Sheep (Marcel Dettmann Mix) [Figure]
Jonas Kopp - Ruido De Junio [Weave Music]
Plaid - OI [Warp Records]
Kalon - Man Is The Superior Animal [Sandwell District]
Gowentgone Remixes - ibex (Marcel Fengler Remix) [Vidab]
Regis & Female - CChaos [Dust Science]

Labels: Benjamin Anon, Equalized, Kalon, MDR, Sandwell District, Seldom Felt, Silent Servant, Styrax Leaves