June 6, 2023 at 8:27 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
DJ 0.000001: Recombinant Shangaan Mixtape
I miss Shangaan Electro. The
compilation Honest Jon’s put out years ago and the
Nozinja album on Warp were such remarkable, refreshing, creative releases and I was hoping we’d hear more from that particular scene, but there haven’t been any other releases of that magnitude of this type of music. Thankfully people are still making these sounds and pushing it further, even if it isn’t getting much outside exposure. This mixtape features tracks made between 2015 and 2022, and it’s generally glitchier and less vocal-heavy than the earlier Shangaan Electro releases. There’s touches of the playful, sweet melodies from the older tracks, but it’s generally more frantic, with loops that stutter and clatter before racing into the next section. Yet it also feels pretty fluid for a mix of such frenetic music. A sample of Tshetsha Boys’ “Nwa Pfundla” (my favorite track from the 2010 comp) is chewed up and spit out near the beginning of the second side, seemingly as a point of comparison for how the style has evolved since then. The second side in general has a greater presence of harder moments and more intense edits, but still ends up bouncy and playful.
June 4, 2023 at 2:56 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
NO EYES: Some days i’m completely vulnerable I can feel everything.
For over a decade, Atlanta’s NO EYES has been making remarkable music that points to what breakcore could evolve into. His music is far away from the melancholy atmospheric jungle or watered-down digital hardcore that most people associate with breakcore these days, it’s much more like x.nte’s abrasive, overwhelming data-mashing.
This new album starts out with frustrated footwork jungle that slips and falls on a heavy syrup stream, with guest production by Teklifer DJ Manny. “da wut good” is the overloaded centerpiece, somehow concealing orchestral arrangements/samples inside a glitch tornado. “blay” has this moment where a James Brown drum sample is being bitcrunched, and then it bursts into this sonic boom mindfuzz out of nowhere. Then “going fast” is disorienting panic rap played at 500BPM. NO EYES maxes out all the emotions until everything’s a massive chaotic blur of numbness, and just keeps drilling away because there’s no way to slow down or turn off, only blast into other directions. I love his music so much.
June 4, 2023 at 2:28 am | Posted in The Answer Is In The Beat | Leave a comment
12:00 AM Arlo Parks ~ Purple Phase ~ My Soft Machine ~ Transgressive ~ 2023
12:05 AM Hannah Jadagu ~ Lose ~ Aperture ~ Sub Pop Records ~ 2023
12:08 AM Madison McFerrin ~ Run ~ I Hope You Can Forgive Me ~ MADMCFERRIN MUSIC ~ 2023
12:12 AM OCB ~ Translate ~ The Sequel ~ Metroplex ~ 2023
12:17 AM Kesswa ~ WAV ~ Soften (Deluxe Edition) ~ Portage Garage Sounds ~ 2023
12:21 AM Suburban Knight ~ Magnetic Timetable ~ Nocturbulous Behavior ~ Underground Resistance ~ 1993
12:24 AM Andy Garcia ~ Mosquito ~ The Pepper EP ~ Docile Recordings ~ 2020
12:28 AM Underground Resistance [Perception & Mad Mike] ~ Windchime ~ 12″ ~ Underground Resistance ~ 2004
12:35 AM Ford Inc [Paul Woolford] ~ Satire ~ 12″ ~ Throne of Blood ~ 2011
12:44 AM Suburban Knight ~ The Warning ~ By Night EP ~ Underground Resistance ~ 1996
12:49 AM The Creative Technology Consortium ~ The Descent ~ Panoramic Colorsound ~ Dark Entries ~ 2023
12:54 AM Octave One ~ Metal Forest ~ Never On Sunday ~ 430 West ~ 2023
12:59 AM Pursuit Grooves ~ Garner ~ 100 Seams ~ What Rules ~ 2023
1:02 AM Overmono ~ Sugarrushhh ~ Good Lies ~ XL ~ 2023
1:06 AM Jo Johnson ~ The Wave Ahead of the Wave Ahead ~ The Wave Ahead ~ Mysteries of the Deep ~ 2023
1:12 AM Nabihah Iqbal ~ Lilac Twilight ~ DREAMER ~ Ninja Tune ~ 2023
1:16 AM motifs ~ lovelost ~ remember a stranger ~ Shelflife ~ 2022
1:21 AM Beach House ~ Black Magic ~ Become EP ~ Sub Pop ~ 2023
1:26 AM Swallow ~ Cherry Stars Collide ~ Blow ~ 4AD ~ 1992
1:30 AM Bang Bang Machine ~ Geek Love (Original 12″ Version) ~ Still in a Dream: A Story of Shoegaze ~ Cherry Red ~ 1991
1:39 AM Laraaji & Kramer ~ Ascension ~ Baptismal ~ Shimmy Disc ~ 2023
1:43 AM Kool Keith & Haji Outlaw ~ Sporty Nights (Uber Eats) ~ Keith & Outlaw – Single ~ FCBRV ~ 2023
1:46 AM Sun Ra ~ The Mathematics of the Altered Destiny ~ Space Is the Place (Music from the Original Soundtrack) (new reissue) ~ Modern Harmonic ~ ’70s
June 3, 2023 at 10:00 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Jo Johnson: The Wave Ahead LP
The title to
the new Jo Johnson LP evokes aquatic imagery as well as sound waves. The electronics flow in ripples, sometimes in a more stately manner, and in more of a curious rush on “Orbit”. “The impossible in the impossible” smooths it out into a more serene wash, but becomes more defined with the upturn of bass synths and smaller, quicker movements which seem like fish swimming underneath. The digital version has a bonus track, “Vigil”, which sounds like a mass of night creatures mourning one who has ascended to the spirit realm.
June 2, 2023 at 7:07 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
OCB: The Sequel 12″ EP
One of the newest Metroplex releases is this
five-track EP from Moroccan DJ Driss Bennis, aka OCB. I picked this up straight from the Metroplex booth at Movement this year. Even though it’s totally unrelated, to me it brings to mind the Mano de Fuego EP on UR last year, in that it has the unmistakably Detroit techno-electro feel but comes from some place totally different. The first track on here is a continuation of the title track to OCB’s previous release, last year’s
Transhuman X-Press, and it continues on a Kraftwerk-but-Detroit path. “Global Warning” is lush and rainforest-like but also alien, with bird calls and vibraphone-like patterns along with fluidly morphing synth notes. “Syntax Error” is nothing but a locked-in electro groove and glitchy Spean-N-Spell voices, and it needs nothing else. “Translate” channels the bleepier side of Detroit circa Transmat’s early catalog. “But in Time” is a more reflective, midtempo electro track with piano melodies, breakbeats, and scratches.
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