sorry for the radio silence peeps, it has been a pretty busy week or so for the mnml ssg crew. there should be a few new posts in the coming days, including the second installment of the mix series being provided by berghain resident norman nodge (yes, we are excited). so stay tuned...
in the meantime, here are a couple of sets i've been enjoying the last few days:
a new set from this special suisse dj that the ssgs have really fallen for. she manages to play deep house sounds that fit with the current vibe, without slipping into same-ness or bland beats. like all the music ssgs love it has personality. eli really has the groove. worth a listen. we are trying to get eli for a ssg mix. lets hope it happens. this girl is a real hidden gem.
i am going to have to plead complete ignorance on this one. sinergy networks appears to be a pretty well established mp3 label, with some really good artists and sounds. this dj mix is from part of a label showcase which includes livepas from LOD, pep gaya and marko fuerstenberg. i haven't listened to these other ones properly so don't want to post them, but can give links if people are interested. anyway, this set of schulte's is excellent. i am not sure quite how to describe it - it has dubby elements, but certainly isn't straight up dub techno. if anything, it could perhaps sound like something you'd be hearing on force inc if they were still around. so have a listen. it is a very well crafted set.
jan krüger berlin + osaka mixes.
here are two recent recordings from the head honcho of the hello?repeat label. i must admit i sometimes find their records a bit too dry and clicky for my tastes, but our silent ssg dave can never get enough of hello?repeat's sounds, and there is little doubting their quality. anyway, no one could accuse jan krüger's djing of being dry. both of these live mixes have a great groove and he does an excellent job of switching between sounds, as well as the old and new. the osaka mix is a bit more jacking, while he goes deeper in berlin. best thing you can do is just download both.
000:00 Alter Ego - Lycra (Wishmountain's Tight Fitting Lycra Mix) 002:30 Lil' Mark - Feel The Rhythm 008:00 .Xtrak - Flada 011:50 DBX - Flying Saucer 014:00 Daze Maxim - Unreleased 019:40 Vera & Federico Molinari - It Ain't Music 024:20 Alexi Delano - Debajo 029:30 DS - Orangefood (Jens Zimmermann's Vitamin C) 034:10 Ricardo Villalobos - Panpot Spliff 039:20 Daze Maxim - The Trickster 043:30 Brother's Vibe - Spherical Bones (Long Version) 047:30 Ido Oshkopun - Naypyidaw 053:00 Johnny D - Orbitalife 058:30 Derrick L. Carter - Where Ya At? 062:30 Chez Damier & Ron Trent, M.D. - Hip To Be Disillusioned 066:30 .Xtrak - Don't Stop 069:00 Wolf N' Flow - I'm Feelin' Moody 073:40 Steve Poindexter - Work That Mutha Fucka 076:20 Schatrax - A Question Of Timing 081:00 Phil Weeks & Chris Carrier - Method To The Madness 086:00 Freak Seven - Pitch Black (Orlando Voorn Remix) 091:00 Terence FM - Feelin Kinda High (High As Hell Mix) 097:00 G-Man - Quo Vadis 102:00 Plastikman - Snark (Ricardo Villalobos Edit) 105:00 Ido Oshkopun - Out Of Burma 110:00 Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - Mederico 114:30 Dj Sneak - Recycled Loops 118:30 Daniel Bell - Warped 120:00 Stax - Str8 Nasty
Well, it never rains, it pours (and pitches, smokes, and tangoes). This coming weekend’s a doozy as far as international acts are concerned, with Alex Smoke, Michael Mayer & Superpitcher as well as Pilooski and Todd Terje all adding their spin to the rotating assembly that is Melbourne’s nightlife. One of the more interesting unintended consequences of the arse falling out of CD & record sales may well be that you have more internationals travelling to play more gigs, more often. If you want to see your favourite artist play in Melbourne, keep torrenting their music…
On the torrent tip, the consistent responses from recent interviews in Inpress over the past few weeks are painting a picture of the new musicscape, and it's a pretty bleak one. Depending on who you ask, sales of vinyl are down between 30-70% in the past twelve months, and this decline has not been offset by an increase in digital sales. More people are buying digital, but a helluva lot of people are sharing music through Soulseek, BitTorrent and the like, and (again, depending on who you ask), this means a lot of small labels and independent record stores are going to the wall. A small but perhaps very telling anecdote from a writer friend of mine who works for a music magazine: he reckons that no-one can be bothered coming in to pick up promo CDs any more. Free CDs, and no-one’s interested in them (even people working in the office). What does this say?
Who knows what the future holds for electronic music? This little vignette from the WMC paints one kind of picture. A journalist friend of mine in attendance asked Richie Hawtin (and his ‘I wanna be Sven’ beard) what had been his favourite track of the Conference, to which he replied: ‘I don’t remember any of the tracks I’ve played.’ To which he quickly added, ‘Heartthrob, Heartthrob.’ High five, Richie! Rack ‘em up!
This also lends credence (and more than a little unwitting irony) to Michael Mayer’s opinion – published in my interview with him in this edition – that the use of digital is actually affecting people’s musical selection, that it’s ‘impairing their judgement’. He said: “There might be some DJs who really know what they’re doing there, like Richie, but I know so many DJs who switched to Serato and totally lost it. They play generic music. The dramatic side of the set got lost, ‘cos they’re scrolling through menus. It’s not the same thing. It’s code. So I’m totally pro-vinyl, and I’m not going to give that up.”
To some vinyl of the moment, beginning with one thing I’m fairly non-plussed by. It’s the new Dial EP. And it’s BLAND. Terrifyingly bland. Prog for architecture grad students. The only interesting track on the whole thing is the appallingly kitsch (in a good and bad way) Phantom/Ghost cover of… the Right Said Fred song ‘You Are My Mate’. While it’s too early to declare that the Dial shark has been jumped (especially with the Sten LP due), this is a pretty dire release. The bit that sums this up for me is the use of the vocal sample 'Detroit' on the Jost and Klemman track. Like, 'Detroit?' WTF? It's a totally empty referent – all it means is 'we are referencing Detroit'. Ooh, the echoes in the carapace, ahhh, the insults from the parapet.
The Dial EP also got me thinking abou three strands at work in the music at the moment. The first is a repudiation of ‘mnml’, which is music that emphasises spaceform, waveform, plugin, mixbuild. Frank Zappa might have said that ‘writing about music is like dancing about architecture’, but in a very real way, mnml is all about dancing about architecture, or dance music about architecture – the titles of Monolake’s recent works ‘Momentum’, 'Polygon Cities’ and so forth, are a dead give away in this regard.
So mnml (and its architectonics) is being repudiated, in favour of an avowal and appropriation of the blackness, deepness, ‘funk’, ‘soul’ or whatever. This is music that emphasises history, influence, innovator, and ‘respect to deepness’ and so on. The danger in some appropriations of this is ‘standardised magic’, a bland, closed world of boring, functional, interchangeable, indifferent interpretations of ‘funky’ and ‘soulful’ music that are neither funky nor soulful. ‘Tiefschwarz’ as both word and concept sums it up. Tiefschwarz means ‘deep black’, even though ‘Tiefschwarz’ is actually pair of slightly creepy brothers who are neither ‘deep’ nor ‘black’. And while the best of the vibrant tropes of the moment (‘dub techno’, ‘deep house’ and ‘minimal techno’) continue to produce, mix, and interpret in an interesting (if not innovative) ways, there’s a deathforce in the ‘Detroit’ sample. Just say ‘deep’ enough, and depth will appear. Say ‘Detroit’ (or have a sample of a black man do it for you) and the 313 will manifest – and you will have soul. Paul van Dyk’s appropration of Audi’s motto (Vorsprung Dyk Technik) was much more honest.
The third strand is the ambivalent embrace of kitsch, sentimentality and nostalgia, an indirect nod to the ACDC lyric: ‘The white man had the schmaltz/ the black man had the blues.’ This is a social emphasis (unlike mnmls architectonic and house/techno's historical), and you can see this at work with the Phantom/Ghost track, but it’s also highly apparent at Kompakt’s HQ, right down to Burger and Voigt calling their last EP ‘Bring Back Trance’. Again, maybe PvD had his finger on the pulse. This one might take off... be afraid.
it is now late at night after a rough day, which has come on the back of an overly busy and stressful period of constant over-work (any people out there thinking about doing a PhD, i would suggest thinking carefully), and my instinctive response was to turn the lights down, put some vladislav delay on the stereo and then turn the volume up loud. for those of you who know his work, chances are you will join in this little love letter to my favourite producer, and for those who have not yet discovered the sounds of vladislav delay, please read closely and pay attention.
i first discovered the music of vladislav (his real name may be sasu ripatti, but he will always be vlad to me) back in 2000 with his release on chain reaction, 'multila'. while i appreciated its deep rumbling techno dub, it was his next album shortly after on mille plateaux, 'entain', that fully converted me to vlad. since then, he has never left my side, with his sounds providing me with warmth, comfort, solace, escape when needed.
early in 2001 i was feeling rather disenchanted with electronic music. at the same time i purchased two cds, which removed this feeling and reminded me how special this music can be. the first was herbert's wonderful 'letsallmakemistakes' globius mix, the other was vlad (or sasu) under the guise of uusitalo and his 'vapaa muurari live'. both of these cds still sound amazing today, and the warmth and feeling conveyed in 'vapaa muurari' - especially in the final section of the piece 'lunni' - is something i can personally find and connect with in few artists.
it was vlad's next piece of work, 'anima', which has been since i first heard it - and remains - my favourite piece of music. the cd consists of one 62 minute track that flows and ebbs, constantly exploring a similar territory of sound, without ever quite returning to where it had been previously. it kind of feels like being afloat at sea - constantly in the water, but never in quite the same place and each wave being different. i am probably getting a bit lyrical now, but the point is this is a very special album for me that has been with me constantly since i bought it as soon as it was released.
to be honest, following this highpoint, i went through an inevitable period of disappointment. vlad became luomo, and while he did do some really good stuff, he wasn't doing what i wanted him to do. when he did come back to being vlad, the magic wasn't quite there - at least not to the same extent. demo(n) tracks in 2004 and the four quarters the following year were both good and definitely had their moments, but neither were quite able to evoke the same feelings his earlier releases had. this changed with his release last year, whistleblower. i am listening to this album as i write up this post and i really feel this is vlad's (and probably sasu's) strongest outing in many years. for me - with my biases - this was the best album i heard in 2007. like his best material, it replicates the very unique and distinct sound signature one associates with vladislav delay, without it ever getting boring or repetitive. vlad's sound operates in its own separate world, and while the basic features of this world stay the same, the details shift, alter and reshape (fellow ssg pete wrote an excellent review on 'whistleblower' at RA which inspired some of these thoughts). one of the real highlights of last year was to discover that vlad was still alive and travelling along with me.
i could keep going, but i shall wind up this post. vladislav delay's music has been very close to my heart for around 8 years now. i have never grown tired of his sounds, nor looked for another friend to help me along during those times when i am tired, unhappy, quiet, meloncholic, ambivalent, or contemplative and reflective. vlad has provided company and a soundtrack for me in these moments of my life and i feel lucky to have such a good musical friend.
if you haven't listened to any or much of his work, i strongly suggest changing this asap. here is a live recording of vladislav delay at DEMF, 28.05.2007. also if you go to the media page on his website, there are a number of tracks you can download. these should give you a good introduction to his distinctive sound palette. finally, it happens (and this is coincidental - i just discovered when writing this post) that vladislav is releasing 'anima' with a brand new track. my original version is starting to get a bit worse for wear, so i am looking forward to getting the re-release. anyway, more info about the re-release here. in my opinion, pretty much his whole back catalogue is worth getting your hands on...
ok, i shall leave it there. thanks vlad. you've been a great source of comfort and strength over the years. you're a good friend.
mnml ssgs are very happy to announce the start of our ssg mix series, which will soon be a ssgcast (as soon as i find the time to figure out how exactly podcasts work). before introducing the first mix, i just want to explain a bit about the concept behind this series.
what we are trying to do is to showcase artists that are really exciting and interesting us. the point is not just to slap a mix up, but for this series (like the blog as a whole) to be a medium for promoting djs and producers that we feel people should be listening to. the mandate we've given to those that have agreed to do mix is simply to express themselves and their music: to use the mix to tell us who they are and what they are about.
in many ways, the template for this has been the wonderful betalounge. there are two dimensions that really separate many of the mixes there from all the disposable mixes and podcasts floating about. first, along with plenty of recognised names, the betalounge does a tremendous job of introducing us to new sounds (to take one example, go back through their archives and check how long they've been championing efdemin for). second, many of the betalounge mixes have a real timeless quality to them. even after hundreds of listens, the old michael mayer betalounge set (from 2002?) sounds as fresh as ever.
anyway, that is basically what we are trying to do with the mixes. this is something the ssgs are very enthusiastic about, and we are hoping the series will continue on an irregular basis. in the coming weeks, we should have mixes from ana (harry klein) and pawel (orphanear/dial),
and a few other people we really like have also agreed to contribute. unfortunately, we dont have our own server (yet), but we've given quite a few different download options, including a streaming version. as i said, we'll try and get the podcast up and running in the next week. this should give everyone a good enough option to get the mixes.
enough talking, onto the first installment. since cam posted about bvdub's lovely sounds, we've been in touch with him and the result is this one hour slice of beauty. bvdub's dedication to his craft, his sincerity and good will have really been a great source of inspiration for us ssgs. as well as our love for his music, over the last couple of months we've developed a real respect for brock (bvdub) the individual. this artist and the mix he has made represents exactly what we are hoping this series will be about. respect.
Tell us about the mix: what was the intent/purpose behind it?
Bvdub: First of all, I just want to say thanks for the opportunity to do the mix in the first place. If you wouldn't have asked, it surely never would have happened. It is one I've wished I could have seen materialize for quite some time… and now that it has, I'm not sure it will ever happen again. So I'm grateful for the motivation to see it happen for what will likely be the last time.
"Waiting For The World To Go By" will hopefully paint the picture in my head that I had while making it… I have always had this obsession with music that exemplifies sitting at the window, staring off into an overcast, rainy day, when the world seems to exist on a totally separate plane, far away… and when your life almost seems to be on hold, but in a good, peaceful way, even though it's tinged with a sort of beautiful sadness. I don't know if that makes any sense. The mix is basically a soundtrack to that moment.
Times such as that are always the times of deepest reflection for me, about what has been, what should have been, and what I wish would be, but which I know deep down will never happen. To me, that's the pinnacle of what music is to me, and, quite frankly what my life is about.
These are all tracks that have long held this meaning for me, and have provided a loyal companion for me countless times on those reflective days, and those moments that sometimes I wished would never end. They are tracks I will never forget… and hopefully they will tell the story I can't put into words.
I also have some other special projects in the works, but for now, mum's the word… mostly because I don't even know if they are going to see the light of day, not because I'm trying to be obnoxiously mysterious.
Thanks again for the great opportunity to make the mix… thanks to the artists who made the beautiful music… and thanks to anyone who takes the time to listen. I hope the music contained within can mean as much to you as it has to me…
first up, we are very happy to announce that our ssgcast should be appearing within the next week or so. we've been working hard on putting together a unique series of mixes from artists that we think are really special and should be listened to very carefully. we'll give more info about the concept when the first installment appears, but for now we'll just say that we are very excited about it, as we've got some amazing people involved with this. the first couple of mixes are going to be from ana (harry klein, munich), pawel (orphanear/dial) and bvdub (styrax/quietus). in the meantime, here are some really great sets to listen to and enjoy from some of mnml ssg's favourites.
prosumer: consumer
to avoid complaints about being contradictory, i should make it clear that while i am growing increasingly sceptical about the current deep house fad/revival, this doesn't mean there isn't great music of this genre floating about at the moment. case in point is prosumer, who has been spinning and producing some really amazing stuff. this new mix of his is quite sublime. definitely worth checking for those who like it deep.
01. Prosumer And Murat Tepeli - Cathedral /Ostgut Tonträger/ 02. Romanthony - The Wanderer (Intro) /Prescription/ 03. Nick Holder - Love Is Blind /DNH Recordings/ 04. Moodymann - Backagainforthefirsttime? /Peacefrog Records/ 05. Nick Holder - Love Is Blind /DNH Recordings/ 06. Ron Trent And Chez Damier - Morning Factory /Prescription/ 07. Larry Heard - Free /Track Mode/ 08. Larry Heard - Tell Me What It Is /Track Mode/ 09. Fingers Inc. - Never No More Lonely /Jack Trax/ 10. Raze - Break 4 Love /Champion/ 11. Andthoney And M. Kinchen - The Feeling /Prescription/ 12. Colonel Abrams - Trapped /MCA Records/ 13. Noni - Be My (Friend) /Prescription/ 14. Walt J - 'Untiteled' /Dow Records/ 15. Ralphi Rosario feat. Xavier Gold - You Used To Hold Me /Hot Mix 5/ 16. Paul Johnson - Something Strange /Dance Mania/ 17. The Sanctuary Project - Running It /House Jam Records/ 18. Paul Johnson - Don't Stop Movin That Ass /Dance Mania/ 19. Instinct - Just A Feeling /Decisive Records/
house music all night long
one more on the deep tip, this is a mammoth recording (almost 8 hours in length, sound quality is still pretty good, though) taken from a night somewhere in southern suisse featuring mountain person serafin, mr dependable dan bell and resident dj seranthony. i still haven't finished digesting all of it, but so far so good, and i figured there would be plenty out there who'd be keen.
i discovered kate simko's smooth sounds last year and have been enjoying them ever since. i am yet to hear her new 'she said' ep on spectral, but am keen to after reading philip sherburne's recent praise of it. for those of you haven't heard any of simko's work yet, i strongly suggest giving this livepa a listen as it gives a great representation of her music. kate is also really developing a sound signature of her own, which is all the more impressive at a time when people are sounding very 'same-y'. and what really impresses me about this set is how well it is put together and coheres. it has an excellent tempo and flow throughout. definitely worth checking (as are all of the sets posted here for that matter -only the best for our readers!).
couldn't resist when i saw this mix appeared: a lost acid house mix from peter grummich recorded in 1992, found and mastered in 2008. i downloaded this and put it straight on cd. since then, i've been rocking around in my car to old school acid house. aciiiiiiid! this mix is exactly what you'd expect: plenty of acid, one or two cringe-worthy moments and lots of fun. a really guilty pleasure. enjoy.
we recently posted an excellent mix from cio d'or. and now, another new set from her. and again, this mix is gold. there are two things which really attract me to cio d'or sounds. first, her mixes have a very clear intent and concept behind them. these are well thought and constructed. second, she has a very distinct sound. like simko, this is something i really look for and appreciate.
Kassem Mosse and Boys "r us" - Message from Haifa (Mikrodisko) Jens Zimmermann - Reduction Seduction (Harthouse) Planetary Assault System - The Electric Funk Machine (Peacefrog) Alka Rex - Shapes to Phases (Supraliner) Cio D'Or - Kimono (Motoguzzi) Rasmus Hedland - Hidden Structure (Resopal) Non Standard Institute - Reference (NSI) Function Isolation - Isotope (Sandwell District) M.Parker/D.Dozzy - Excavations (Dozzy Records) Tim Xavier - Astral Plane (Podium - Repress) Sightdraft (Paul Brtschitsch) - X Rated (Crash Records) Johannes Heil - The Coming EP (Metatron) Planetary Assault System - Deep Heet Vol.1 (Mute Evolver) Mathew Jonson - Gemini EP (Itiswhatitis) Mike Parker - Light&Dark Part 4 (ID004) Byetone (Sleeparchive Rmx) - Plastic Star (Raster) Mike Parker - Light&Dark Part 4 (ID004) Kassem Mosse and Boys "r us" - Message from Haifa (Mikrodisko)
new sounds
last, but not least, a livepa from an artist that is new to me, marko fürstenberg. this is the first thing i've heard from him and i dig it. it is dub techno all the way. like everyone in this genre, the basic channel shadow is always looming over his sounds, but that doesn't mean that there is no point listening to marko and the rest of this new generation of techno dub artists (as some people seem to think). it is also nice to hear techno dub in the format of a livepa, as the vast majority of stuff available on the net is dj mixes. anyway, give it a listen if you like this brand of music.
ok, there you go. plenty of new music filtered and given the 'mnml ssg stamp of approval'. if there are problems with any of the links, leave a message and i'll try to sort something out. and get ready for the ssg mixes!
And now for something completely different... as we know, it takes a few years for a good vintage to mature. I’ve been listening to this mix since the end of 2004 or thereabouts. I dug it out the other day at the insistence of my lady, and I was freshly amazed by how well it flows, despite having the aleatory looseness of a live set where the DJs have been on the sauce. And the mixing is so exciting: cuts, loops, layers, some FX, even the occasional flam – I love hearing mixing like this, and it’s getting to be a rarity. By comparison, the mixing of a lot of popular DJs seems stiff and timid. This is house at its most hedonistic and brazen, letting it all hang out (see pic). There’s also good reason to listen this given the resurgence of funk basslines and swinging percussion loops we’ve been witnessing recently at the moment – I think that everyone who was bored by Mara Trax’ RA podcast should listen to this: it’s the antidote to their dote. And the sax track around 24:00 is just fucking ridiculous. There’s a dodgy Brazilian track around the 42-45:00 mark, but the way they disrespectfully mix it out seems to be some kind of ‘speaking through the hands’ admission of this – but they follow it with this killer batteria track which is great… anyway, listen to this mix and judge for yourself. I think it’s a classic, especially the first half. I should also add as a postscript that this is also the 'unshaven' form of the hype sound at the moment, with all the things that some people find objectionable (screaming divas, wailing saxes, gospel-influenced melodies, camp, cheesy vibe) about house left there... I wonder who of you will hate it, and why. Constructive invective is, of course, welcome...
isn't one of the reasons the current deep house fad emerged is because mnml had gotten so stale, repetitive and formulaic? well, it might be time to move on again pretty soon. listening to the new sascha dive RA podcast today was the final straw. the set is bland, flat and lifeless. and worst of all, it completely lacked personality. much of the sounds that emerged to combat the locked groove mnml got stuck into are now suffering a very similar fate. it seems almost every set i listen to these days has the requisite inclusions from oslo (johnny d or mara trax anyone?), sascha dive's 'annihilating rhythm', plus throw in some old school moodymann and dan bell to show off your old school chops. it all sounds good and the records they are playing are fine, but it is quickly getting very, very tiresome. my fellow ssg pete put this really well, "it really is the track selection. and, ironically, it's 'cos they don't have a deep understanding of house.' time to go warm up the engine. come get on board the 'house backlash bandwagon'. departing soon.
some of who and what i've been listening to lately:
troy boy @ bar25 31.7.07: this set may be messy as hell, but troy pierce is a man who knows good music. so many great records in the hours and hours that he plays for (it is somewhat worrying how long the set is...).
lots of marcel dettmann: i won't start repeating myself (again), but him and troy are definitely most the interesting djs for me right now.
vladislav delay 'recovery idea (andy stott remix)': whoever thought of combining vlad and stott deserves a medal. what a match made in heaven. the ethereal bleeps and glitches of delay mould perfectly with the metallic chords of stott. this is a really amazing track. definitely one of the best things i've heard this year.
métisse 03: one of the strongest records about at the moment. on the A you've got zander vt remixing mark august. i haven't heard much from zander vt yet, but i think i should start investigating as this is a great mix. warm, lush and builds nicely. in many cases, it'd be the standout tune, but here unfortunately the newcomers have to compete with the old hand tobias. his remix of tampopo 'helicopters got cameras' is absolutely brilliant. it just builds builds and builds. it kind of feels like the musical representation of a helicopter's blades swirling round and round as it lifts off.
radio slave 'no sleep part 5': it has taken me a long time to come round to mr slave, but i've finally overcome my unexplained prejudices. the preceding release, part 4, didn't work for me, but i do like this one. while the B works well and has that typical elongated feel to it, i haven't listened to it much because it the A side that i find myself playing. there is nothing particularly special about it, 'k-maze' just has a really nice warm, groove and build. it has nice light release and the female vocal sample reminds me of an old jeff mills record i can't remember the name of right now ('pacific state of mind' maybe?).
the bros are back? or is it me that left?
the new mix cd by the wighnomy brothers has been a bit of an enigma for me. it has taken me a while to reach a judgment, but i think i am there now. having been a former wighnomer and now jaded with their repetition, i was intrigued to hear what this would be like. after my first listen, i thought, 'wow. the bros are back!' what immediately excited me about it was that it sounded really unique. the mixing was different, as were the sounds and the composition. then i listened to it some more. and some more. and as i quickly tired of the mix it dawned on me, the bros aren't back, they've always been there. what changed was that i left. this mix isn't actually removed from what the wighnomy brothers have been doing, it is just different to what i've been listening to lately. indeed, it is pretty much the same thing the bros were doing when i got bored of them. the cd has its moments - especially in the opening 15-20 minutes, but for the most part it loses its shine and interest quickly. i guess they only have one trick. and again, i am tired of it.
too much intellecto?
another new release i've given a lot of listening and thought to is the new claro intellecto album. what struck me - and at least some other listeners - is precisely how underwhelming it is, in terms of both length and content. considering the extremely high quality of claro's past output and modern love's releases, i think most of us were working on the presumption that this would be excellent. in this regard, while i find myself normally agreeing with the excellent test industries blog, i think he is giving claro too much benefit of the doubt. i doubt listening to this on repeat will allow for the 'intelligent design' of this album to make itself apparent, as my gut says it just isn't there. rather than over intellectualising and trying to discover the hidden brilliance or supposed 'meta narrative', it'd be more worthwhile just accepting that unfortunately someone who is capable of producing amazing music happened to come up a bit short this time.
I’ve recently found myself listening to a lot of ambient music. It’s something I’ve long had a soft spot for; now that I think about it, it actually predates my interest in dance music.
When I’m in the mood for ambient music, I’m usually not in the mood to play DJ. I don’t want to dig through CDs, vinyl, and MP3 files; I’d much rather someone else do that for me (preferably while I lounge about in a beanbag). As a consequence I’ve been searching about online for mixes of ambient material, but I’ve come up almost empty-handed.
As well as making me a little annoyed, this has gotten me thinking about the relationship between ambient and dance music. Once upon a time they held hands quite comfortably. Remember the days of the chill out room? It used to be de rigueur for parties to have a side room dedicated to relaxing soundscapes. Now they’re gone.
In a recent interview over at the Mutek site, Stefan Betke (better known to you and I as Pole) said something very similar as he lamented the lack of diversity in electronic music.
“For me, the electronic music scene and how it was ten years ago there was a lot of diverse places and different things. Even in the same club you had a main room and an ambient floor where you heard something totally weird, and I have no idea why this isn’t existing anymore.”
The man has a point. Remember when dance labels and producers released ambient records? Remember Mille Plateaux releasing ambient albums by Wolfgang Voigt (the sublime Gas releases, which set the blueprint for the Kompakt Pop Ambient sound), Robert Babicz, Donnacha Costello? (“Together Is The New Alone” still ranks as one of my favourite albums … I could listen to “Dry Retch” on repeat endlessly.) Remember Richie Hawtin teaming up with Pete Namlook for the From Within albums?
Looking back, it appears that the relationship between ambient and dance music was largely a 90s thing, with a slight carry-over into the early 2000s. Today, Kompakt is one of the few dance labels that still flies an ambient flag. For the most part, ambient has become somewhat distanced from dance music, with such music mostly appearing on ambient-only labels, or on "home listening electronica" labels such as Type, Leaf, and City Centre Offices.
Why did ambient and dance music fall out of love with each other? Why are there so few ambient mixes to be found online? What happened to the chill out rooms?
In honour of the chill out rooms of yesteryear, and the first step in creating a virtual chill out room of our own, I’d like to present two ambient mixes that have caught my attention.
A little while ago I mentioned how much I was enjoying Bvdub’s productions. When I wrote that I had only just stumbled across the mixes on his site. I still haven’t listened to them all, but one that I’ve been listening to repeatedly is the final mix, “A Willing End.” A little over an hour long, it’s a gorgeous mix that starts with warm static (bringing to mind Tim Hecker), moves into some lovely sombre strings, and finishes off with some delicate piano. Overall a very warm, comforting mix.
The second is a 2006 mix by microsound artist Richard Chartier, which you can stream from the WPS1 website. Where the Bvdub mix is warm, this mix is a little colder, mostly using artists from the 12K and Raster-Noton labels, such as Fourcolor, Motion, Sogar, Taylor Deupree, and William Basinski (although he also uses artist such as Laurie Anderson, Chris Carter, Nurse With Wound, and Zoviet France). Some may find this mix a touch too eerie at times, but it’s sublime listening for those who want a hint of darkness to their ambience.
Consider this post an open call. If you know of any ambient mixes floating around that you think are particularly good, please let us know. Let’s carve out a virtual chill out room together.
following on very closely from the last post about the current zeitgiest, here is a brand new set from another person us ssgs have been talking a lot about: marcel dettmann. since the last time i wrote, my opinion of him has only increased further. as far as his productions go, i've been very impressed with what he has done so far, and am confident the best is yet to come. at the moment we are seeing the fully fledged arrival of a really distinctive sound signature roughly centred around berghain. dettmann and klock are perhaps the most instantly recognisable names, but to this should be added T++, shed, norman nodge and marcel fengler, amongst others. if some people are reacting to minimal by going deep into house, this is the other direction: a (re)turn to techno.
beyond dettmann's productions, it is really his djing that has grabbed me. in his sets you can hear that this is someone who is at the very top of his game. his sound is tough and driving, without ever getting cold or alienating. my sense is that dettmann's star is on the rise, and this guy is really going to explode over the next 12 months, especially after the release of his new berghain mix cd on ostgut, which is due mid year. if you want further evidence, have a look at his latest chart below and listen to this new marcel detmman mix, care of mixmag.ru.
*edit* for those who want even more of the berghain sounds, the latest berlin mitte institut show featured guests marcel dettmann and marcel fengler. you can download the whole recording (all 338mbs) and watch videos of it here.
ok, it has taken a while, but we've finally got the blog a bit more organised. in the top right hand corner of the blog we've now got our email listed, along with a link to our fancy new myspace/ssgspace. there is also - finally - a feedburner for subscribing to the RSS ssg feed. nice. but all you smart ssg readers had probably done that already, hadn't you? hopefully this will get us all contacted/connected/etc. and it is definitely worth keeping an eye on the ssgs as we are currently working on some things we are really excited about...
anyway, i can't just have a post about that - way too boring. so perhaps some suisse musical treats to sweeten this post. like pete, i've been listening to rozzo, the mountain people and all the lovely deep house sounds floating down from the suisse mountains. it seems almost every set i listen to these days includes a mountain people cut or the latest sascha dive ep (do you think people like the B side so much because it samples ultra-sonic?). and this is most certainly not a bad thing - i am thoroughly enjoying all this deepness. but it has got me wondering what has been going on up in those mountains. have the sounds always been so good? or has suisse really emerged as an important pole/point in the techno-sphere quite recently? i remember when chatting to bruno pronsato last year he said that for him outside of berlin, zurich was where it's at. and based on my nights out in geneva and lausanne the other year, i was also impressed with the suisse scene. it struck me as very well developed and mature. one only needs to look at the mental groove label, based in geneva, and it is obvious there are some cats (or mountain dogs?) that really know. so chances are, it is perhaps more a case of the zeitgeist moving up into the alps, rather than the suisse adjusting to current trends. case in point is one mountain person, rozzo - looking at his entry on discogs, i felt embarrassed that i only discovered him in the last year. his hiking partner, serafin, i found out a while ago care of betalounge, but it was really only when 'berlin has no cows' came out that i started paying closer attention. so i think it could have been a case of me - and many others - just not knowing about the amazing music and dj existing in suisse, and elsewhere for that matter. it makes me wonder what else i am missing... so who are the hidden treasures out there guys? thoughts?
this has turned into a very longwinded introduction to two sets i discovered this week which i've really been enjoying. despite these being almost a year old, as far as i know they haven't been posted on the regular liveset boards, most likely for the same reason i hadn't downloaded them before - i/we didn't know better. but now we do. enjoy:
When I look at this photo, I'm straight away reminded of the bit in Tejada's 'Sweat on the Walls' where the vocalist Q'Zen (spelling?) quips: 'Ungrateful bitches.' Okay, there's the tenuous link, here's the column...
Last month, I said that “2008 will be a year of very well made but rather unadventurous records, with people turning out fine examples of proven formulas,” to which another commentator responded, “erm, won't 2008 actually be a year when records that aren't even out yet can't be pre-emptively summed up by pithy non-plussed one liners?” Point taken, but I’m sticking to my pithy-plussed guns: at least as far as tracks are concerned, 2008 is partly about new applications to old institutions and the many happy returns of old genres dressed in fresh frou-frou. One among these is the boomptilicious deep house of the Swiss scene. I hear the parties are good in Zurich… buckets of snow…schuss… Anyway, the other day I was listening to Serafin and Luciano’s ‘Funk Excursion’ again. What an amazing record – what can you say? But excellence aside, I think that ‘Funk Excursion’ also has renewed relevance, because in many ways it’s the track that perfectly foreshadowed so much of what this Swiss sound has become. For me, the best intro into this is through the Mountain People (Serafin & Rozzo), but actually it’s Rozzo, more than Serafin, who’s been doing it for me of late. His track ‘I wish I was a cat’ has been steaming up the charts (as I’m sure many of you know), but if you really want to catch the guy at his best, check out some of his DJ sets. We at MNML SSGs have got some for you to download, but by far the best is his afterhours at ‘Slutfunk’ set. I can’t speak for the sluts, but I will vouch for the funk.
A question I’ve also been asking myself a lot recently is ‘what ever happened to Marc Leclair (Akufen)?’ Well, he’s working on a new album, apparently, but in the interim, check out Guillaume and the Coutu Dumonts, who appear on the Musique Risquée label that Leclair runs with fellow Canadians Scott Montieth (Deadbeat) and Steven Beaupre. Probably quite a few of you have heard Guillaume’s remix of Shackleton’s ‘Next to Nothing’, which has been getting a lot of play recently, but for me his album Face A L’est is the bucket I’ve been dunking my head right into. Very cool, spacious and groovy, with lots of well-chosen, slightly ‘ethnic’ samples… which also strengthens the link to Shackleton, in an indirect way. Guillaume has also released an EP on Oslo, which is the other label that gets name-dropped in the same breath as Mara Trax and Mountain People. The style is essentially a minimalist’s reduction of house, retaining its swinging basslines and exploring a penchant for Africanised killer percussion loops. For a lot of people, I get the impression that it’s the funky ‘+’ that cancels out 2007’s boring ‘–’.
Hercules and Love Affair’s album has been getting rave reviews recently (and justly so). The other week when Optimo’s JG Wilkes dropped the club version of ‘Blind’ at their Third Class gig, I got moosebumps (and nearly grew antlers). Seriously, is this the track of the year? It is so far. Get your ears around it, if you haven’t already. But as good as ‘Blind’ (and H & LA’s album) is, there are also a few other recent long-playing releases that are equally worth of attention, ones I feel might have slipped under the radar. The first of these is Luke Solomon’s The Difference Engine, which forms an interesting (if unlikely) free-revving counterpart to Cristian Vogel’s excellent The Never Engine from late last year (which slipped into the black hole where most Chrissy-New Year releases end up these days). The likeness is not just in the name: both albums are turbocharged loop collages, ones that are really zooming off in their own direction. But where Vogel’s album was an excursion deep into the belly of the bleep (with heaps of great loops for all you dyed-in-the-plip-plop mnml headz out there), Solomon’s is all about using weird vocal samples, Jeff Buckley (yes, really), cellos, and maybe even the cat, the fiddle, the dish, the spoon and the kitchen sink to achieve something which is different, inventive and also totally listenable from start to finish. It’s just so darned engaging, it pulls you through its weirdo assemblage of sounds and keeps surprising and entertaining as it does.
Another album worth checking out is Kelley Polar’s newie, I Need You To Hold On While The Sky Is Falling. Where his last used Morgan Geist’s patterns and formulas as the structural stage for Polar’s songs and viola, the newie is much more Polar’s own build, and it’s more hymnal, more ethereal – just layer upon layer of incredibly colourful harmonies. The whole thing’s one expansive, floating work of kooky lyrics and hooky melodies, which makes it so incredibly catchy that it definitely has crossover potential – should the radio stations deign to get behind it. But, knowing the despot (Richard Kingsmill) and his distain for electronic music that doesn’t suck, it ain’t likely to happen outside of RRR and PBS. Polar has come a long way from being the string player on Metro Area records – this album is a showcase for an artist who has created a unique, fully-realised soundworld all his own.
Another creator who’s no stranger to praise from this column is Omar-S, but man, his recent work has been really exceptional. If you haven’t heard ‘Psychotic Photosynthesis’ yet, please remedy this. This guy is just ridiculous, seriously, and his protégé Luke Hess is only slightly less impressive (and getting better with every release). One of the reasons why Omar’s music is so outstanding is the freaky, freaky frequencies he uses, something either neglected in or absent from the tracks of the majority of ‘producers’ who work firmly and squarely within the ‘pure production’ aesthetic/stance. I’m beginning to feel that it’s the dominance of this idea of ‘pure production’ that has become more responsible than anything else for the incessant stream of incredibly polished, deadly boring records that we all suffer from. I worry that I’vre become dismissive of new labels or even anything that ‘looks boring’, but really, there’s so much to be dismissive of, so much to be bored by. Who’s got the time? So much of the problem these days that trying to keep up with music, even one sliver of the spectrum, is like trying to sip from a fire hose. Well, for those of you who’ve endangered their jawbone trying, don’t worry, we’re here to help.
in an earlier post about people to keep an eye on in 2008, one name i put forward was cio d'or. while i haven't heard that many of her productions, the few dj sets i've managed to find have all been bang on. my feeling that there is something special about this woman has been further confirmed by a new mix which has appeared on the excellent modyfier blog. for those who haven't come across modyfier yet, each episode consists of a mix and an explanation by the dj on the thinking and intent behind the mix (kind of similar to what pete did in his last post). this is a really unique and worthwhile way of presenting the music. so big respect to modyfier. and double respect for getting cio d'or to contribute the latest mix. definitely make sure to head over to modyfier and read cio d'or's explanation for how she constructs mixes and what she tries to do with them. while you are there, have a look through the impressive archive of previous episodes.
this modyfier mix from cio d'or has really grabbed me, largely as it has the same basic elements which have attracted me to her previous mixes. the structuring and programming is spot on, and through the records and her mixing she creates a certain sense of space which really appeals to my aesthetic. anyway, i could keep trying to explain her sound, but it would be much easier and more enjoyable (for all of us), if you just download the mix and give it a good listen.
01. planetary assault system - the dream [peacefrog] 02. planetary assault system - the electric funk machine [peacefrog] 03. m.parker/d.dozzy - excavations [donato dozzy records] 04. riley reinhold - lights in my eyes [mbf] 05. function isolation - isotope [sandwell district] 06. d.dozzy/m.parker - excavations [donato dozzy records] 07. imek - elirios [apnea] 08. max cavalerra - der weg zur sonne [karmarouge] 09. mike parker - light&dark part 4 [ld004] 10. minilogue - space ep [traum] 11. dj galax - ruido & colorismo [cara] 12. jens zimmermann - blub [international freakshow] 13. cio d´or - psst! [motoguzzi] 14. marc romboy vs. stephan bodzin - puck [herzblut] 15. planetary assault system - the dream [peacefrog]
I made this mix in January 2006, on an incredibly hot summer’s evening (like the recent one photographed above). At the time, I had just returned from travelling and was extremely disillusioned with the music scene in Melbourne. I just found it all so utterly alienating - I just didn't want to play the Tiefschwarz remix of whatever or some Hollertronix mashup, and at that time, that seemed like 'the deal'. So this mix came together through frustration – I just wanted to hear what I wanted to hear, and to hell with it if no-one likes it. I say this in the context of DJ acquaintances of mine telling me what I’d have to play in order to get gigs around town, and that there was no real way for me to find an audience for this style. Perhaps this is when I realised that if I am a DJ, then it is not in the mold of the ‘mobile DJ’ who’s there to bring the party and play whatever the crowd wants to hear. I guess I’m too much of a snob. As a consequence, this set is the DJ equivalent of ‘selfish in bed’, but that also means that it’s the focussed expression of its own desires, my own dreams. It is what it wants to be, and as such it’s very close to my heart.
I haven’t been DJing much since then (not in front of people at any rate), so posting this mix is also a way of announcing that 36˚C will be the first in a series of mixes that I’ll post over the next few months, whenever a good one comes together. I’d like all of them to have something durable about them, so I won’t be posting them that often and I definitely won’t be doing anything particularly zeitgeisty. Blogging allows me to share with you people records and sequences that would almost never ‘work’ in any context where they’d have to sing for their supper, but this can be a good thing, ‘cos to me this also points to something in groove-based music beyond the vulgar, functionalist calculus of ‘what works’, just as it's about questioning what a mix is 'for'. This is something that seems resurgent, and we SSGS have definitely been trying to present something of this with other mixers like Eli’s Carebear mix and so forth. Anyway, ‘nuff said. Have a listen, and please let me know what you think.
Nativespeaker: 36˚C (possible thunderstorm)
01. AM/PM – No Matter Whether [Dreck] 02. AM/PM – The Ends [11] [Dreck] 03. Lawrence – Teaser [Kompakt] 04. Carsten Jost – Krokus [Superpitcher mix] [Dial] 05. James DinA4 - ??? [Esel 03] 06. Luomo – The Right Wing [Force Tracks] 07. Oxtongue – Delight [Voigt & Voigt mix] [Kompakt Pop] 08. Mark Henning – With the Folks [Freude am Tanzen] 09. Guido Schneider – Long Distance Runner [Pokerflat] 10. Dublee – Eleven [Mule Musiq] 11. Noon(at – 780km nach osten [Salo]
In the last post for February here at mnml ssgs, Pete noted that one of the signature movements of this year, based on the closing months of 2007 and what we’ve seen so far of 2008, is a resurgence of interest in dub-tech. Witness the flurry of interest in DeepChord and Rod Modell, even though they’ve been around for years, thanks to their brilliant “The Coldest Season” album on Modern Love. Modern Love themselves have attracted attention with releases from Andy Stott, Pendle Coven, and MLZ. Andy Stott & Claro Intelecto hit it out of the park with their Resident Advisor podcast in January, and just a few weeks ago dub-tech veteran Pole did the same. We are indeed in the middle of a dub-tech renaissance.
While I’ve been enjoying the above-mentioned artists’ work immensely, the producer who has most captured my interest is a relative newcomer called Brock Van Wey, better known as Bvdub. Van Wey is a San Francisco based producer who has only been releasing material since the later half of 2007, but in that short time has already released four EPs and one LP on Styrax Records, his own Quietus Recordings, and MP3 label Night Drive Music and its sublabels. And thus far every release has been an absolute killer.
Van Wey’s tracks are long, gaseous pieces that gently drift along, underscored by an insistent (but never intrusive) beat. Serene, contemplative, and hypnotic, like watching grey clouds gliding overhead, the tracks owe just as much to the ambient scene as they do to dub-tech – something Van Wey has pointed out himself (perhaps keen not to be pigeon-holed as a bandwagon jumping dub-tech producer). The titles are also wonderfully evocative, and emphasize the meditative nature of the music: Somewhere Far Away, It Could Have Been So Beautiful, I Never Cried A Tear, Remembering To Forget, Dreaming Of Your Downfall, A Quiet Vengeance.
The prolific producer has recently started his own label, Quietus Recordings. Quietus is a CD-R label, with each release limited to just 100 hand-made, hand-numbered copies, each containing a unique photograph taken by Van Wey. Van Wey has said he will never consider increasing production, nor will the tracks be made available as MP3s. This is something I find fascinating, especially in light of some recent discussions about the merits of MP3 releases. Although he has released on MP3 labels, Van Wey is very clearly making a statement with his own label. Reading the Quietus website reveals that he wishes to establish a deeply personal connection between artist, listener, and label, with every step of production emphasizing the personal (and personalized) nature of each release.
Van Wey shows no signs of slowing down, with his website noting six upcoming releases (and the Quietus website mentions another, bringing the total up to seven). If he can maintain the excellent quality along with his output, Bvdub will most definitely be a key producer of 2008.
You can hear some samples of Bvdub at his myspace page or his own website, which also hosts eight mixes. (I’ve listened to the most recent two, “A Willing End” and “When”, and both are absolutely gorgeous ambient mixes without a trace of dub to them.) There is also an excellent interview with him here, and another here.
Ten years ago, it would have been inconceivable that indie kids would have ‘taken dance music seriously’, but what with the likes of Kompakt and the DFA (with Pitchfork betwixt and between them tine after tine) all that’s changed. It’s been a long time since James Murphy (or his character in ‘Losing My Edge’) ‘first played Daft Punk to the rock kids’, but one of the things that’s remained fascinating for me after (and despite) all the cross-pollination and debordering is that you effectively have two communities listening to each other’s work’s with vastly different ears and expectations… or do you?
Witness the indie reaction to Hercules and Love Affair. A DFA dud, apparently… I confess I speak as someone who genuinely and deeply wondered why people liked Sound of Silver so much. And guess how much I’m digging H & LA? But I digress (in order to engage in a wild and unsupportable generalisation): the people who loved Sound of Silver probably also thought Gui Boratto’s Chromophobia and the Field’s From Here We Go Insipid were the dance albums of 2007…
And so here we are, in a place and time where people with vastly different soundmaps have converged upon a common field (however insipid or sublime)… and from here we go mutually misunderstood…?
One of the ways this shows is when slacker boys bang against amphetamine subcultures. A lot of indie kids who talk/think about dance music have never taken ecstasy in a club or danced all night to techno – and they don’t care to. Take, for example, the friend of a friend of mine. He had eagerly pre-purchased his Superpitcher ticket… but when he got to the gig, he was the only one there. Why? Could it be that Kompakt was reviled in Melbourne… ?!
‘What time is Superpitcher playing?’ he asked the bartender, checking his watch and thinking, sheesh, it’s ten o’clock already.
‘About five AM,’ replied a pierced fellow polishing a glass.
‘Fuck that,’ he said, and went home.
A lot of indie kids dislike house and are deeply suspicious of the gay/disco/gospel culture that is one of its foundational tropes (so are a lot of techno 'men' too though). This is ‘bad’, ‘cheesy’ music that is made using ‘soulless’ machines, instead of ‘real musicians’ (and Steve Albini). And besides, who wants to take E and listen to ‘doof doof doof’ when you can get drunk and dance around with (admittedly better looking) indie girls on the sauce while the DJ plays the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ ‘Maps’. You can mouth ‘they don’t love you like I love you’ at her while you crack fat over the thought of Karen O’s sweat, torso and lipstick.
But (on the other hand) indie kids became curious, or, at the very least, it simply won’t do to dismiss dance music anymore… you might lose your preciously accumulated cred if you sneer at the wrong cat, if you don’t form some kind of opinion on Ricardo. Basically, the contemporary indie consensus seems to be that one ‘should’ listen to some electronic music ‘in some way’ (but only ‘the good stuff’). This has meant that ‘the good stuff’ has been reviewed, usually by half-decent writers with half-baked literary pretensions, who can hide their ignorance and perplexity behind a whole bunch of very prettily phrased phoney baloney.
But what’s ‘the good stuff’? Look out! Here Comes Love… was one of the albums that perfectly captured the condensation point. Indie kids (who’ve never been to a rave) raved about it; dance kids (with some exceptions) just thought the ‘pitcher was raving mad… man, did you hear his cover of ‘Fever’? But, however much Aksel and Kompakt committed ‘credibility suicide’ in danceland with Here Comes Love, both artist and label got a helluva lot of indie kudos from it, and roughly since then Kompakt invariably gets ‘taken seriously’ in reviews from indie rags and websites in a way that Perlon, say, would never do in a million years (Ricardo excepted).
Clearly, it’s not just that ‘Here Comes Love was crap’, even though, I freely concede that I think so, due to my expectations as well as the aesthetic prejudices that I hold (and cherish). What it was, really, was a whole new soundmap (with its own expectations, its own aesthetic prejudices) being brought to bear on ‘dance music’. And this is significant because it is this ‘indiemap’ that has become one of the decisive filters of new electronic dance music, shaping the understanding and response of new releases.
Recently, I read a review that typifies this way of listening to (and talking about) dance music. I want to dismiss it, but I can't, although it smacks of egregious misunderstandings (to me, to me) and is riddled with lazy, ignorant comparisons and non-sensical rhetorical flourishes. But why not dismiss it, if I diss it? Well, simply, it’s because I immediately recognise the indiemap, with its implied audience and the buttons it’s trying to push with them. I should add that this isn’t a Pitchfork review, and that although ‘the fork’ have been responsible for some of the most outrageously stupid and misguided dance music reviews, that they also ‘employ’ (I use the word with the looseness of empty pockets in baggy trousers) writers like Tim Finney, Phillip Sherburne and Mark Richardson, all of whom know their shit and write very eloquently about electronic music. Check out Sherburne’s review of H & LA, or Mark Richardson’s review of Quaristice, which was much more thorough and informative than the one I wrote for RA.
These are all great reviews, and nothing like the one I’m griping about – XLR8R’s for Sascha Funke’s Mango. Now, to these ears, Mango is an all-hat-and-no-pants harmonic/atmospheric tech-house workout as thin and underwhelming as Funke’s moustache. But I never ‘got’ Funke, never liked much of what other people said was his best work.. I never even felt the need to keep Bravo on my back-up drive after I’d wiped it off my mp3 player and sold the CD copy, let’s just put it that way. Anyway, you can read the whole XLR8R review here, as well as RA’s review here, but it’s not the artistic merit of Mango (or lack thereof) that I’m interested in. Anyway, to the chase!
Here’s the opener: “Somewhere between dancefloor utility, lazy-time pop music, and an audiophile’s workout lies the perfect techno album.”
Leaving aside the dubious truth-value of the claims the writer makes, what’s striking is the embedded assumption of ‘what techno is for’, which is, as the concluding sentence reinforces, “listening, dancing, and sleepwalking.” It is these three frames (and Funke’s success within them) that, for the reviewer, “reaffirm(s) Funke as a current master of the minimal techno form” as well as confirming “that the genre still has much more going for it than just its benchmark thup.” Well, I’ve never even heard a ‘thup’, but, unlike most dance music (Perlon) – which just goes thup – Mango is good because you can listen to it, dance to it and fall asleep listening to it (but not in a boring way). This listening, dancing, sleepwalking idea (the 'good things' forever threatened by some kind of unfortunate backsliding back into the land of thup) get expanded on in the next paragraph:
“At times, Mango just feels like an incredibly somnolent rock record, something Morr Music might deliver in a particularly ballsy release cycle; in other spots, it’s full of blinds-shut, bell-toned – oh, how he loves that sound – brooding ambience. Of course, there are plenty of Funke micro beats, perfectly placed, always developing in some way, like compass points leading from a wet winter street into the club that never sleeps yet never really pulls out of its dream state.”
Indie kid A: So, how’d you like the new Villalobos track? Indie kid B: Yeah, well, I rate it for dancing and listening to, but as far as lazy-time pop music goes, this one sucks, man… Indie kid A: Yeah… and it keeps on going ‘thup’ - but I *did* like the microbeats. Indie kid B: Mmm, totally…
Just behind the blossoming bush of adjectives ornamenting the three categories of merit that can be awarded to techno (‘listening’, ‘dancing’ and ‘sleepwalking’) are a pair of tiny little screaming symbols that look like this: ‘?!’. They’re the symbols of a person totally out of place and depth, lost, scared, and worried moreover that they might reveal the at any moment the truth and depth, nay, the 'thup' of their perplexity… but they’re also howling symbols of non-recognition that can easily shift shape into cooing, soothing sighs of contentment, once the categories it blesses and recognises are re-introduced. Witness the ‘relief’: Nathan Fake makes ‘shoegaze techno’. ‘Pop’ goes the dance producer; ‘Scha-wing’ go the indie-kids. Meanwhile, back at the thup cave…
But this is ungenerous piss-taking (as much fun as I'm having with it) – at least this guy’s got his understanding of what the music is/does for him, an understanding that his friends will comprehend and relate to… and this, precisely, is what music is about to most people. Sociability, soundmap, bonding entwined memories and values – the empire of like. There is an idiom (?indieom?), and to me the Mango review was an exemplary form written in this dialect… the fact that I think it’s crap is beside the point… almost... 'the point' (or the question) to me is this:
Why don't techno kids have an idiom for discussing indie music?
Well, it's like Rik from the Young Ones once said to a senior citizen:
'Well, I've got news for you. I think old people are boring. And the only reason you don't understand our music, is because you don't like it.'
....over to Chris...
Chris’ two cents:
When Pete forwarded me the review in question, it immediately made me think of the Big Lebowski. And this scene in particular:
“Donnie – you’re outta your element”. Exactly. The indie kids and the reviewers they read lack the frame of reference to be able to understand and comprehend techno (broadly understood). I don’t have a problem with this when it comes to those who listen to indie; that is unless they start trying to have an ‘informed’ conversation with me. Of course, it is completely an individual’s choice how they engage with music. I must admit, I sometimes struggle to understand how compatible a love of techno is with indie (or when people say their favourite djs are Richie Hawtin and Tiesto). But at the end of the day, it isn’t my call.
Reviewers, however, are a different story. Doctors have to sign up to a hippocratic oath, reviewers really should follow a policy of ‘if you don’t know, don’t say’. When it comes to Funke, the reviewer’s only frame of reference is the Supermayer experiment of ’07, or as he so ineloquently puts it: “Supermayer’s super-minimal-cum-electro-pop/rock effort Save the World”. “Donnie. Shut the fuck up!” “Super-minimal-cum-electro-pop/rock”? Surely a phrase like that should get any writer fired on the spot. Anyway, I digress. The point is this – what exactly does the Supermayer album have in common with the Funke one? Very little, beyond the fact that it is probably one of the few dance albums the reviewer has listened to in recent times and is thus able to compare Funke to. I really can’t see any other decent explanation for this stupid comparison. Again, this kind of (il)logic on a personal level is fine, but it does not cut it for a reviewer.
On a deeper level, what frustrates me about this is that it helps to (re)construct a completely inaccurate frame of reference for those outside of techno – indie kids/whoever – whose understanding is influenced by those lacking even the most basic comprehension of what our music is about. It is exactly these kind of Donnie reviewers that reinforce the (mis)perceptions that surround techno and lead to some feeling the need to justify/explain the love for techno/house/mnml (as I felt I needed to for a long time).
Personally, I don’t give a flying fuck about indie. Never had, never will. I am an unabashed techno purist through and through. Saying that, an undeniable overlap/crossover/interest between indie and dance exists and will surely continue. Given this situation, the best we can hope for is having the frames of references expanded, challenged and pushed. And to do this, it is important that peeps with techno knowledge talk to the indie crowd, rather than leaving it up to a depressing large crowd of Donnies…
over the last few days i've really been enjoying this new set from samuli kemppi. there is nothing that spectacular about the mix, it is just very well programmed. kemppi lets this beautiful collection of records breathe and speak for themselves. the title and tracklisting completely give away what it sounds like - deep and dubby. definitely worth a listen for those who love this sound (as i do). enjoy...
Samuli Kemppi - Dubtechnomiks Carl Craig - The Climax (Basic Reshape) | Basic Channel Echospace - Sonorous | Fortune CV313 - Dimensional Space | Echospace Echospace - Spatial Dimension | Deepchord Echospace - OBMX | Fortune Deixis - Form.v1 | Abstract Forms CV313 - Saraya | Fortune Quantec - Lunar Orbiter | Echocord MLZ - M-Brane | Modern Love Leftover - Linear Aspect | Baum
I've recently been listening to two new mix cds, Ellen Allien's contribution to the Boogie Bytes series on Bpitch, and Robert Hood's installment in the ever-growing library of Fabric mixes. While these cds appearing about the same time is obviously coincidental, put together they actually provide a really nice contrast. Before giving my thoughts, here are tracklistings for the two cds:
Ellen Allien - 'Boogy Bytes': 1 Agf Liniendicke 2 Vera In The Nook 3 Ricardo Villalobos & Patrick Ense Fizpatrick 4 Melon Nitzi (In My Mind, So Fine) 5 Andres Zacco & Lucas Mari Carbonela (Seph's Vidrionela Remix) 6 Konpiùta Christmas Fairytale (Moessap Edit) 7 Sozadams Eyes Forlon 8 Richard Seeley Juicy Vermin 9 Lucio Aquilina My Cube 10 Melchior Productions Don Juan 11 Friendly People Music Is Improper (Martin Buttrich Remix) 12 Sascha Funke Double Checked 13 Gaiser* Withdrawal 14 Kassem Mosse A1 15 Little Dragon Twice
Robert Hood - 'Fabric 39': 1 Monobox Silicone Fingers 2 Robert Hood Element 9 3 Robert Hood Who Taught You Math 4 Pacou X-Factor 5 Robert Hood Strobe Light 6 Marco Lenzi Taboo 7 Joris Voorn Fever (Rephrased) 8 Fab G* Bust The Vibes (Real Disco Mix) 9 Dan March Sand Dune 10 Robert Hood Element 3 11 Diego Mind Detergent (Robert Hood Remix) 12 Jeff Mills Skin Deep 13 Robert Hood School 14 Robert Hood Element 23 15 John Thomas Mr. Funk 16 DJ Skull Informant 17 Scorp One Side 18 Pacou All It Takes 19 Phase Mass 20 UK Gold Agent Wood (Adam Beyer Remix) 21 Solid Decay Legalize! 22 Robert Hood Element 7 23 Robert Hood Side Effect 24 Mion Drop The Filter 25 Scorp New Energy 26 UK Gold Agent Wood (Original Mix) 27 Robert Hood Still Here (Los Hermanos Remix) 28 John Thomas Pulp Funktion 2 29 Robert Hood The Greatest Dancer 30 Low-Life Exclamation 31 Robert Hood And Then We Planned Our Escape 32 Robert Hood Element 12
My initial reaction on seeing these tracklistings (one shared by my fellow ssgs) was that the Ellen one looked interesting, but that the Hood mix was much closer to 2000 than to 2008. I had been really looking forward to seeing what Hood would do with his Fabric mix and truth be told, the tracklisting left me most disappointed. Having now listened to both of these mixes, my opinion has shifted considerably.
Ellen's mix may have plenty of good tracks, but it sits together incredibly awkwardly. To take only the most obvious example, she goes from the warming, Ibiza-esque Melon moment to the cold minimal of Seph, which jars the ears and flatout doesn't work. The whole mix lacks direction and coherence - shifting from sound to sound but never getting comfortable or settled. The result is a really subpar mix. For someone with so much experience behind the decks as Allien, it is a real surprise how poorly put together this mix is. And considering what Ellen has been capable of in the past - such as 'Weiss' - it makes this mess all the more disappointing.
Rob Hood's mix, in contrast, clearly reflects someone who feels confident, assured and comfortable in his sound. This is balls out techno; there is no messing about. It is fast, furious, banging and there are most certainly no apologies made. It may not be particularly fresh or especially innovative, but for what it is, it is done excellently. Jacob Wright at RA gives a good summary of it: "If you’re already a fan there’s not much here that’s going to surprise you. If you’re not so familiar this is as a good an introduction as any to both Robert Hood and the classic second-wave Detroit style." Given my dismay when I had read the tracklisting, I was happy to discover that Hood's effort sounds so much better than the tracklisting may imply. The mix really feels like Hood is saying 'trends or not, this is who I am and this is what I do'. In a certain sense, this generated a real sense of respect for Hood. He is not clamouring and shouting about all he has done - desperately trying to stay relevant like the old detroiters like May - but he is asserting his identity.
Listening to these two mixes together, what struck is that both represent different ways two prominent djs have reacted to the way techno has changed in recent years. Ellen Allien seemed to really peak a couple of years ago when electro-tech was going strong and Bpitch was at the forefront of pushing that sound. As the more electro influenced sounds have been sidelined by the pings and effects of mnml, Ellen has attempted to shift her sound accordingly. What this mix seems to indicate is how poorly she has managed to make the transition (in this regard, her mediocre Fabric mix of last year was also suggestive). She is certainly not alone in struggling to re-adjust to the way the music has shifted. Hood's approach, in contrast, has clearly been one of 'business as usual'. His mix represents a refusal to bend or change, rather continuing to pursue the same conception of 'minimal' he has held since 'Minimal Nation' way back in 1994. While this means he perhaps may not be as relevant as he previously was (his recent track 'And then we planned our escape' suggests otherwise, though), it strikes me as the better option after listening to these two cds.
To be honest, I don't think I'll listen to either of these mixes much. Despite some really nice tracks, Ellen's is just not very good. Meanwhile, Hood's mix may be very well done for it is, but the sound he presents is one that does not interest me much anymore. Still, it has been an interesting process listening to them and considering how djs do/can/should react to the continually shifting sands of techno. And at the end of the day, perhpas the lesson is: why change your spots when you can keep them?
eli verveine - dustbunnies mix.
