CD Album Recommendations March 2015

Review: To say this second album from Linkwood has been a long time coming is to present yourself as a candidate for Understatement of the Year. A follow up to Nick Moore's fine 2009 debut System has been regularly alluded to by Firecracker boss Lindsay Todd within the context of the label's other releases. It wasn't until an unreleased Linkwood track appeared in Prosumer's fine fabric mix last year that the notion of a new Linkwood album began to take on a semblance of reality. We still can't quite believe it's happened, despite the rather dashing copies of Expression sitting pretty in the Juno warehouse. There's a 12 cuts from Linkwood to work through on Expressions and it's a real sumptuous listen, taking in new age ambient vignettes, bass heavy beat down, deep house workouts and plenty more.

Review: Ninja Tune's relentless release schedule continues apace here with the much anticipated debut album from Romare. Under the name, London producer Archie Fairhurst first made waves with a couple of excellent 12" releases for the Black Acre label which revealed a quite distinct approach to production. Inspired by the collages of noted US artist Romare Bearden, Fairhurst's fascination with African-American culture is explored through his productions which deftly weaved in untold amounts of samples in an illuminating fashion. How Romare applies this approach to the album format is one of the most compelling thoughts you will have when listening to Projections. The resultant 11 tracks suggest Fairhurst has achieved it with aplomb.

Review: The master returns! Digital Solutions sees Juan Atkins toast some 35 years as a Detroit techno visionary with the release of a new Model 500 album after some 16 years! The notion of a new Model 500 long player was first mooted by Atkins last summer and now arrives as the most high profile release from his own Metroplex label in some time. Whereas recent years have seen Atkins open up Model 500, working with Mike Banks, DJ Skurge and Mark Taylor both live and on the smattering of 12"s issued through R&S, Digital Solutions is largely the work of Juan alone. Nine tracks deep, Digital Solutions features a crisp array of electro and techno productions from Atkins with "Standing In Tomorrow" and "Storm" standing out upon first listen.

Review: Few British techno acts are quite as lauded as British Murder Boys, the industrial strength collaboration between Regis and Surgeon. Throughout the early-to-mid 2000s, their distinctive EPs provided the soundtrack to many great moments in dusty basements, dark rooms and sweat-soaked raves. Whether you missed out first time around or simply want a trip down memory lane, this career retrospective should be an essential purchase. Alongside 12 hand picked tracks from the catalogue - the vast majority in their rolling, pounding, industrial strength style - the package also includes in-depth sleeve notes from Blackest Ever Black boss Kiran Sande, and a DVD of the duo's dystopian 2013 live show at Club Unit, Tokyo (excerpts from which were released on 12" last year).

Review: It's been over ten years since Thomas Melchior made his bow on Perlon, and the house and techno fusionist has released most of his best work on the imprint since. Here he returns to the acclaimed German label with a series of six "meditations" - long, drawn out compositions that variously doff a cap to hypnotic tech-house (see the excellent, jazz-flecked "Meditation 5"), tribal-influenced, spaced-out grooves ("Meditation 6") and woozy, evocative deep house ("Meditation 3"). Best of all, though, are the album's more melodious moments, with opener "Meditation 1" - a loopy, picturesque concoction that sounds like an unlikely collaboration between Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Ricardo Villalobos.

Review: Deep house enthusiasts have long held the work of Chicago producer Vincent Floyd in high regard. While he was never exactly prolific - unlike, say, Larry Heard, whose melodious, colourful and evocative productions his tracks most resemble - his early '90s singles for Resound, Dance Mania and Relief are widely considered to be peerless classics of the genre. Moonlight Fantasy revisits this period, delivering 10 previously unreleased tracks from the period, mastered from DATs that have long been hidden from view. Predictably, there's much to admire, and it seems odd that these cuts never saw the light of day first time around. Whatever the reason, tracks like "Dark Matter", "Lunar Moods" and "Unwanted Noise" should be considered to be previously unheard classics.

Review: Many will be familiar with Milton Wright's Friends & Buddies album, a much-sampled Miami soul classic that's been in demand since its' release in 1975. Intriguingly, that version of the album was Wright's second version; the first slipped out in limited numbers on promo before the master tapes were destroyed in a fire, forcing the artist to re-record it. This, then, is the first release of Wright's original version, rescued from permanent obscurity by Athens of the North. Notably folksier, looser and breezier than the version we've all come to know and love, Original Friends & Buddies sounds more like Terry Callier than Wright's later output. Happily, he tells the whole story himself in the excellent sleeve notes.

Review: San Francisco-based DJ/producer Nick Monaco has long been part of the Soul Clap family, releasing his first 12" on the label back in 2012. Mating Call, a double 12" set running at album length, is easily his most expansive release yet. It's typically eccentric, delivering a range of songs - featuring his own distinctive vocals - that blend numerous styles whilst retaining a loose, funky and altogether rather kaleidoscopic feel. It's rooted in Balearic pop, but also touches on dub, deep house, boogie, dub disco and a strangely deep and contemporary take on the triple-beat rhythms of glam rock. It's hard to accurately describe, but is really rather good; certainly, it's one of Soul Clap's strongest releases of recent times.

Review: Melbourne music-maker Roland Tings is the latest talent from down under to make his name on the other side of the world. His early productions for 100% Silk caught the ear of Prins Thomas, who promptly ordered a debut album for his Internasjonal label. That album has finally arrived and, predictably, it's rather good. Largely cheery and melodious, it fuses the humid warmth of a Melbourne summer - as captured in the material of many of the city's beat-makers - with the synthesizer-heavy tunefulness of Scandolearic nu-disco and a myriad of classic house influences. He moves between tempos regularly, too, with some of the album's slower moments - particularly the early Aeroplane style Balearic chug of "Devotion" - outwitting their more obviously floor-friendly counterparts.

Review: Few British techno acts are quite as lauded as British Murder Boys, the industrial strength collaboration between Regis and Surgeon. Throughout the early-to-mid 2000s, their distinctive EPs provided the soundtrack to many great moments in dusty basements, dark rooms and sweat-soaked raves. Whether you missed out first time around or simply want a trip down memory lane, this career retrospective should be an essential purchase. Alongside 12 hand picked tracks from the catalogue - the vast majority in their rolling, pounding, industrial strength style - the package also includes in-depth sleeve notes from Blackest Ever Black boss Kiran Sande, and a DVD of the duo's dystopian 2013 live show at Club Unit, Tokyo (excerpts from which were released on 12" last year).

Review: Russian ex-pat techno maverick Dasha Rush has always been a unique talent. Even so, Sleepstep - her first full-length for the admirable Raster Noton imprint - is a high concept affair. Designed to induce a dream-like state, it offers a mix of droning ambience, slo-motion electronica, yearning ambience and hypnotic, far-out techno, all interspersed with brief readings of Rush's poems. By and large, it has the desired effect, and even the darker, more macabre moments - see the percussive hit of "Lumiere Avant Midi", for starters - have a calming, atmospheric quality. By and large, it's the beatless excursions that really stand out, with the operatic vocals and woozy strings of "Sail Away To Her" being particularly spellbinding.

Review: New material from Throbbing Gristle's Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti should always be celebrated and their latest joint opus will be of particular delight to hardcore fans. Carter Tutti plays Chris & Cosey is a logical extension of the live show of the same name the pair have been performing and perfecting over the past three years, transferring revisited classics from the stage to the album format. Completed to heed requests for the release of a live album, this CD version features classics like "Driving Blind" and "Obsession" newly reworked and recorded at their Norfolk studio. Of course it all sounds as imperious and industrially challenging as you'd expect and this CD-version comes with an exclusive mix of "Vengeance" not featured on the vinyl edition.

Review: To date, Appian's vinyl-only releases have been pleasingly varied, with the Detroit native variously delivering experimental electronics (the glitch-hop inspired Endomusia EP), sci-fi tinged techno (various appearances on Sly Fox Records), and warm deep house (the recent Chatter EP on Fina). These disparate strands are finally brought together on Aprileft, a debut album that bristles with Motor City themes. The album's 14 tracks are typically varied - think tech-soul-inspired electrofunk, acid, deep dancefloor jams and experimental electro - but all come laden with spacey electronics, classic synths and a jazz-like swing. It makes for hugely enjoyable listening, and marks Appian out as a name to watch in coming years.

Review: Even by the increasingly out-there standards of the Greta Cottage Workshop crew, this album is delightfully out-there. Designed to evoke the experience of a "cold war border crossing through the eyes of a child," Bernau 4 started life as a series of foreboding, chilly and haunting field recordings made during a trip to Berlin back in 2013. These recordings were then handed over to regular contributor Max Trukker, who chopped, sliced and diced them into crackly, strangely rhythmic and notably bleak shapes. The seven tracks sit somewhere between Chris Watson style soundscapes, uncomfortable ambience and stripped-back dub techno, with Trukker emphasizing the atmospheric nature of the source material throughout.

Review: In many ways, the longevity of Andreas Kruger and Ralf Uhrlandt's Der Dritte Raum project is astonishing; they released their first album way back in 1994, and have been a permanent part of the techno landscape ever since. The almost unpronounceable "Aydszievalaidnem" is their first album for two years (and ninth studio set in total), and sees them joining the dots between the past and present of techno and tech-house in typically uncompromising manner. While there are plenty of clanking, squelchy floorfillers present (see "Drehscheiber", "Seperat" and the strobe-friendly title track), it's the more melodious efforts that hit home hardest. At these points, they sound a little like a German take on British tech-house pioneers Swag - all swinging drums, metallic noises and off-kilter deep house chords.

Review: Josh Tillman, the ex-Fleet Foxes member, has confused plenty with his alter ego Father John Misty, and occasionally it can be hard to tell whether the recently-married troubadour is inhabiting a distinct role or dealing out confessional ditties straight from the heart. Yet what is beyond question is how fascinating and addictive I Love You, Honeybear manages to be. By turns lushly arranged and stark, Tillman sets his reflective songwriting to a sonic backdrop infused with Laurel Canyon flavour, arriving at a reinvention of the singer-songwriter stylings of the mid-'70s for a newer, still more complicated era-think Elton John by way of John Grant. The result is a modern-day triumph that's as acerbic as it is emotionally involving.