Staff Picks w / c 12th June 2020

Review: Earlier this year, Jeff Mills decided to don his occasional Millsart alias for the first time in 17 years, in order to release the fifth volume in the long-running "Every Dog Has Its Day" series. The Motor City stalwart is obviously in a rich vein of form, because he's now ready to serve up volume six, which at nine tracks deep is the series' most expansive release to date. There's much to set the pulse racing throughout, from the hybrid deep house/Detroit techno warmth of opener "Phoenix Rising" and the summery, sun-kissed tech-jazz of "What's So Funny", to the Robert Hood style Motor City minimalism of "Six By Six By Nine" and the classic, sci-fi-fired futurism of "World Wide Whoops".

Review: The always excellently go slow and tropical sounds of Big Crown now look to Bacao Rhythm and Steel Band for covers of two classics. Up first is Grace Jones' nightclub classic "My Jamaican Guy" while on the flip is Erykah Badu's tribute to the legendary J Dilla, "The Healer". Both retain the essence of the original but come with loose hand claps, shimmering steel drums that bring coastal breezes, sand and sun into the equation and leave you laying horizontal. These are fine interpretations of top notch source material.

Review: Before becoming the multi-instrumentalist and producer extraordinaire behind most of Favorite Recordings' disco, boogie and jazz-funk flavoured releases, Bruno 'Patchworks' Hovart delivered one of the best revivalist funk albums of the 21st century, 2009's "The Empire Strikes Back", under the Uptown Funk Empire alias. Here he revisits the album, gathering together a bunch of killer cuts previously included on digital versions of the set but omitted from the vinyl release. As you'd expect, it's an authentic-sounding affair full of killer grooves, brilliant instrumental arrangements, fluid solos and dancefloor-ready workouts shot through with knowing references to 1970s black American music. There's one previously unheard gem - the righteous and celebratory "Party" - and a whole lot of insatiable good-time grooves.

Review: After making a splash with releases on Twig and Lumbago, Raphael Beneluz brings his classy machine music to Cartulis with the P 12". Things get off to a pumped-up start with the dynamic, detailed thrust of "Xzomet" before the night draws in around the tastefully creepy workout "Darkanethesie". "Hostile Planet" opens up the B-side with more eerie atmospheres and stout box jam beats, and then "System Down" completes the package with another thumping tapestry of nervy acid and old-skool jack. For all the familiar touches, this is music dripping with personality and attitude, bottom-heavy and sure to devastation in the dance, real or virtual.

Review: Sometimes we all need to escape from the realities and mundanities of everyday life. Here's your perfect opportunity. On this beautiful, playful and sincere collection of 'niceness' , the legendary Alessandro Alessandroni allows us to take a step back in time by painting stunningly detailed pictures with broad, jazz-inflected brush strokes.
Putting elements of Bossa Nova, freeform, classical and Big Band to innovative use, the result is a hugely enjoyable and - in today's world - incredibly unique insight into the type of output this Italian musical titan left behind when he finally bowed out in 2017, at the grand age of 92. This is just a flavour of the more than 40 movie soundtracks and scores of library recordings that now make up his legacy, making for a delightful way to get familiar with one of the 20th Century's greats.

Review: Los Angeles has firmly established itself as one of America's electronic music capitals over the last ten years, with the city particularly fertile in more experimental ends, where rave, urban and downtempo collide in a haze of found sounds, samples and original loops. Kutmah pretty much encapsulates this point. Melding elements of hip hop, post-punk and industrial, 'New Appliance' is basically the producer's new calling card - a mini masterpiece that's so tight and well-executed it leaves no questions as to the creator's ability. 'Ramallah''s intoxicating Arabic references, crackling recordings of bells, haunting chants and exotic flutes. 'Stoned In Brixton' cries out for a sunset to soundtrack, nodding to the productions of DJ Krush or Bibio, with the latter similarly invoked on 'Tres Flores'. Smoked-out innovations by the kilo.

Review: You may not be familiar with avant-garde composer Valentina Goncharova, but this incredible collection of rare home recordings is enough to answer any questions you might have as to how mind-blowing her work is. The sort of artist who needs to flee the Leningrad Conservatoire in order to have the space and freedom to fully explore ideas. Combining elements of musique concrete, drone, ambient and a kind of lo-fi classical, this is an expression of place - sanctuary of the home - and its ability to offer protection from creative oppressors. Using vocal mantras, curious refrains, amplified and distorted strings (cello in particular), you really get a sense of not only the where but the how behind these arrangements. Hushed but dense, they draw the listener in with surprising speed, so before you know it you're right there in that domestic studio watching a genius at work.

Review: It's one of life's great ironies that success often has a negative effect on the person who is successful. And not just through a wildly out of control ego. The weight of expectation on creators is never higher then when popularity is peaking, often a creative barrier, keeping artists kept within stylistic confinements for fear or putting fans off.
Word on the street puts it that Jehnny Beth felt this had become the case with the acclaimed post punk outfit, Savages, and as such it's no surprise her debut solo album tries to pack in everything it can, along with the kitchen sink. There's the melancholic piano heartbreak of 'The Rooms', the artful pop of 'Heroine' and 'We Will Sin Together',(fans of Bjork and Kate Bush take note), classical beauty re-read through an experimental lens on 'A Place Above', and the angry, thrashing 'I'm The Man', to name but a handful.

Review: Adding vocalist and second drummer to the already commanding Radar Men team sheet, the Dutch avant-garde noise makers return with yet another bold step for music - raw, loud, and unfettered by outdated ideas like genre, 'The Bestial Light' is a record that wants you to notice it, and does everything in its power to make sure you do.
Whereas past excursions have touched on spacey rock, drone and even industrial techno, here they navigate the blood, sweat and spilt beer of punk, an attitude that's carried through in the song titles themselves - see 'Piss Christ', if you need an example. It's not just cacophonous face-melters , though, with tracks like 'Sacred...' using slow, syrupy riffs to create far more proggy atmosphere. Impossible to ignore, damn difficult to escape from, and guaranteed to leave a lasting impression.

Review: Previously, London label Butter Side Up was probably best-known for offering up some quietly impressive EPs from rising stars Sweely and Christian Jay. This EP, which comes from high-profile Los Angeles-based techno producer Urulu (real name Taylor Freels) under his alternative Liquid Earth guise, is undoubtedly the fledgling imprint's biggest release to date. Across the four tracks, Freels explores the more psychedelic side of the Californian house and techno sound, variously doffing a cap to colourful 90s techno/dub house fusion (on the chunky and ear-catching "Transcedenton"), the Orbital end of the breakbeat hardcore spectrum ("Senator Bomgwater's Revenge", which sounds like it could have featured on the Hartnoll brothers' "Brown Album"), San Diego style tech-house (the Hipp-E and Halo-ish "Twisted Metal") and dreamy breakbeat techno (lovely closing cut "Neutral Circuits").

Review: By now, you should be familiar with the "Soul Is My Salvation" seven-inch series, which sees gospel-loving DJ Tone B Nimble showcase some of his favourite gospel-soul, gospel disco and gospel boogie gems. This fifth 45 in the series is just as essential as its predecessors. On side A you'll find Fay Hill's 1981 single "I Know Who You Should See", a languid, jazz-funk era shuffle through glassy-eyed gospel soul pastures blessed with one of the most addictive choruses we've heard this year. Over on the flip there's a chance to enjoy Peaches Mann's synth-heavy, ultra-soulful gospel boogie number "Get In Rhythm With God's Love", a more upbeat affair whose many highlights include killer slap-bass, D-Train style synth solos and an infectious rhythm.

Review: Destination 78/79: Expansion take us deep into the illustrious back cat of revered boogaloo fusionist Willie Bobo for two of his many fiery delights. Side A is his feel-heavy cult instrumental take on Ronnie Laws' disco classic "Always There" while Side B throws us into the heart of his 1979 album Bobo with gutsy raw soul power (and just a few cheeky funk slap bass twangs for good measure) Two stone cold classics together for the first time on 45.

Review: Earlier in the year Gerry Rooney and Joel Martin donned the Velvet Season & The Hearts of Gold guise for the first time since 2018 for a typically off-kilter disco edit outing on Resista. Here they flex their scalpel skills once more, offering up revisions of two undeniably deep, sought-after cuts from the margins of the Italian disco spectrum. On side A they take their scalpel to Aldo Tomborelli's 1983 soundtrack number "Voices", a bubbly chunk of obscure horror movie Italo-disco rich in undulating, arpeggio style bass, weirdo vocals and trippy, saucer-eyed electronics. Over on the flip they travel further back in time to 1974 and Stefano Torossi's jostling jazz-funk gem "Having Fun", expertly extending it by flitting between the jammed-out, groove-based sections and the composer's swelling orchestration.

Review: A re-issued classic from the veterans of the genre, welcomed back via the Direct Beat Classics (DBC) label.

Review: For reasons not fully explained in the accompanying press release, 22a regular Tenderlonious is now the proud owner of the half-size "piccolo" flute once owned by legendary British jazz man Tubby Hayes. That piccolo is naturally the dominant feature of "The Piccolo: Tender Plays Tubby", a fine EP of Hayes covers from the Ruby Rushton founder. "Down In the Village" is a high-octane big-band jazz style affair that includes some superb drumming and piano solos aplenty, while "Trenton Place" is a wonderfully emotive slab of downtempo jazz bliss. Tenderlonious's piccolo playing takes pride of place on the tango-tinged flipside opener "Raga", but is even more prominent on the superb EP closer "In The Night", a classic-sounding affair that's probably the pick of a very strong bunch.

Review: Blind Allies are an unstoppable force in the slimy underbelly of electro right now, and they're back with another shell shocker on the bounce from Zeta Reticula's "Sonic Assault". This time around Void Cells (Bristol-based Latvian producer Aleksejs Apolskis) makes a pointed return following the digital release Perception Model back in 2018. The drums rain down hard on this record, not least on punchy electro bruiser "SHE". NX1 offers up a rabble rousing techno twist on the original, before "Saturated Faces" opens up the B side with another fist-shaking slab of 4/4. Behind the grubby demeanour of the music lies some serious craft, making this a must-check for those looking in the more interesting corners of the electro boom.

Review: If you only ever bought DMX Krew records, you could amass a pretty sizable record collection filled with high-quality releases. The Bedford-born producer is perhaps not as prolific as he once was, but the quality of his releases has never dipped. For proof, check his latest EP, which marks his first outing in Italian imprint Club Visions. He sets the tone with "Panic Stations", a melodious, jaunty and colourful skip through funk-fuelled electro territory, before reaching for the TB-303 acid lines on the Like Vibert-ish electro/acid house fusion of "Going Back". "Alkane" is a spacey, glassy-eyed chunk of retro-futurist acid house-meets-techno action, while "Last Year's Model" is a deeper stroll through warm and playful electro territory.

Review: Electro heads take note, Gaetan Votion is here with his emergent Aquatronics alias looking to celebrate everything Drexciyan. From the project title to the sounds on this latest 12", you can hear the influence of Gerald Donald and James Stinson faithfully channeled - the important thing is Votion has done a good job of it. "Wave Gliders" is awash with rich, sweeping pads and underpinned by chunky bass synths, while "Ocean Myst" takes things under the waves with beautifully rendered aqueous atmospherics. "Deep Horizons" is a sweeter mood with powerful chord progressions at its heart for a highly emotional listening experience. "Twilight Dive" completes the set with a mellow mood for that brings a perfect sense of balance to this top drawer EP.

Review: aeX011 welcomes back Tetelepta, Daniel Jacques and Selfsoul and welcomes Dutch dub techno connaisseur Roger Gerressen to their series.