LWE 2Q Reports 2011: Labels Narrowing labels down to the best of the best for any time period is always a tricky thing, as there are always so many great outlets that some are bound to get left out. Some exist in so much of a niche that it’s awkward calling them “the best” (this is always the case in writing about music though – this isn’t a race), while others keep their fans tantalized with exceedingly sparse release schedules. Mathematics, Future Times, Hivern Discs, Aus Music, Time to Express, L.I.E.S., Hessle Audio, Absurd, Crème, Hotflush, Lunar Disko, Swamp81, FXHE, Acido, and Sex Tags Mania (among others) are having a great year and deserve honorable mention. The following list is split between some of the most successfully prolific labels in dance music and some of the more interesting smaller upstarts, in no particular order. Live At Robert Johnson Rush Hour Recordings M>O>S Recordings You could argue that every year is a good year for Aroy Dee’s M>O>S, but its 2011 output has been particularly impressive.
Various Artists - Laid Compilation Various Artists - Laid Compilation If house music's always been the musical springboard for Dial, then the label's subsidiary, Laid, is their attempt to launch into the deeper machine-soul ends of the spectrum. Established with the vinylphiles in mind, Laid's until this point been wax only, releasing a series of quickly snatched up singles from artists like Rick Wade, John Roberts, Lowtec and Kassem Mosse. So it's no surprise that the news that the label would collect those recent artefacts onto a CD compilation struck the stringent (and often needlessly stiff) vinyl-only brigade as a back-turning maneuver, one that undermined the rarity of their hard-sought 12-inches. Given its packaging as a virtual greatest hits for the label, hearing these ten tracks back to back just reinforces the run Laid's had over the last two-and-a-half years. Kassem Mosse's "Untitled," on the other hand, is simultaneously gritty, funky and often breathtakingly beautiful.
Deadbeat - Drawn & Quartered Deadbeat - Drawn & QuarteredPretty much the only way for dub techno to sound interesting—or at least interest people—these days is to be so experimental that it barely even qualifies as "dub techno" anymore. Quite a quandary. Canadian producer Deadbeat, now based in Berlin, has always embraced this anything-goes spirit, filling last album Roots & Wire with cross-genre flirtations and presenting a stunning and canon-challenging vision of dub techno history with his Radio Rothko mix CD. Don't be disheartened: this isn't an album of Basic Channel ripoffs. It's that latter quality that lends the album its greatest strength: deep, powerful, persuasive hypnosis. Each track represents a different side of Monteith's musical persona, thematically and structurally: the opener and closer are pure digital skankers, while "Second Quarter" dips into techno territory, its 4/4 pulse blinking benignly under a bevy of translucent effects and filters.
Emptyset - Demiurge Emptyset - DemiurgeHow abstract can you make techno and still call it techno? How noisy can you get before it's all washed away in a torrent of fuzz? These are the kind of questions Bristol duo Emptyset pose with their second album, Demiurge, a pulsating storm of distorted frequencies that occasionally takes the shape of intelligible beats. Demiurge is a move, conscious or not, towards outright accessibility even though it mostly abandons their eponymous debut album's more distinctly beat-oriented structure. The pre-album single "Altogether Lost," released on techno label CLR and represented here in instrumental form as "Point" is the best indication of Emptyset's new sound. Techno isn't the only reference point. For territory that would usually be so unapproachable, Demiurge seems designed for easy consumption: songs rarely breach four minutes and the album registers at a scant forty minutes.
Surgeon - Breaking the Frame Surgeon - Breaking the FrameListening to Breaking the Frame is not unlike going to an exhibit at which each of the displayed works occupies an entire wall. Each of these nine tracks is stark and enormous. Straight off, they announce themselves, and while each has a good amount of detail that you don't even have to listen very closely to notice, what's striking about them all is that those strong first impressions remain true the entire time each track plays. Two-thirds of the album is techno, but it's the other three tracks that define the album's tone, maybe because two of them open and close the album. They give extra depth and dimension to a clutch of beat-driven tracks that have plenty to offer of their own.
modyfier This is an archived mix from '2007. Enjoy and always remember to live the music. I do. It governs most of my life decisions which, in-turn, give me inspiration to create. It's a very simple process for me and, in my opinion, very understandable to almost anyone. dj qu - process part 227 by modyfier 01. The ill-ec-tro-nic Midi Deux Best Albums Of 2010 Nous vous proposons une liste des albums qui nous ont marqué cette année. Elle reste complètement subjective et ne reflète que nos goûts personnels donc n'hésitez pas à nous faire part d'albums que nous aurions loupé. John Roberts - Glass Eights Sascha Dive - Restless Nights Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise Kollektiv Turmstrasse - Rebellion Der Trauemer Label : Connaisseur Recordings Mathew Jonson - Agents Of Time Label : Wagon Repair Sortie : Juin 2010 Four Tet - There Is Love In You Efdemin - Chicago Martin Buttrich - Crash Test Sortie : Mars 2010 Ripperton - Niwa Rennie Foster - Blood Sugar Gonjasufi - A Sufi & A Killer The Roots - How I Got Over Mount Kimbie - Crooks & Lovers Lone - Emerald Fantasy Tracks Label : Magic Wire Sortie : Novembre 2010 Sortie : Juillet 2010 Odd Future - Radical Juan MacLean - DJ Kicks Label : DJ KicksSortie : Avril 2010Chronique
Made Like a Tree [Copenhagen, Denmark. July 17th, 2010] - Thick, atmospheric, resonant dub techno infused with melancholy. ♫ mlat29 - Mikkel Metal.mp3 Mikkel, what have you been up to lately? Besides working on a lot of new material, I've "rediscovered" mixing and had some fun mixing at home. Tell us about the uniqueness of your music. This is a classic question I've heard many people pose. Many of the great dub techno artists have been a fan of incorporating Paul St. The collaboration was partly accidential. I especially like when Paul does some slightly melancholic melodies. Before you got into electronic music you were heavily influenced by British shoegazeand noise-rock, and played a great deal of guitar in several bands. Sure - I think about doing other projects from time to time. Do you have any long term goals with your music? Who have been (and perhaps still are) some of your most important musical influences? I've had differetn influences at different times.