The best new albums this week

The top notch albums from this week’s pile

ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Jimpster Anthology Vol 2 (Freerange Records)
Long-serving UK imprint Freerange Records reached the mightily impressive milestone of a full 25 years of operating on the deep house underground this year. To mark this most joyous of occasions, the team compiled two volumes of production highlights from label co-founder and all-around visionary creative jewel, Jimpster, with the second instalment hitting the shelves this week.

To thrive or survive in any field of music for a quarter of a century is something thoroughly deserving of celebration, but considering the hyper-precarious nature of the more nuanced shades of the dance scene – and the vinyl racket in general – the achievement appears all the more remarkable. That’s not to say The Freerange rocket ship made it this far by accident. Since launching in the midsts of a cosmic explosion of rave-related subculture back in 1996, the label has routinely shown impeccable curation aptitude to masterfully maintain its position in and around the apogee of the ever-evolving esoteric dance arena. Showcasing groundbreaking music from the likes of Manuel Tur, Milton Jackson, Kirk Degiorgio, Detroit Swindle and Switch, Freerange was also among the very first to offer a platform for then-burgeoning talents of the calibre of Tornado Wallace and Session Victim.

The label was manifested by school friends Jamie ‘Jimpster’ Odell and Tom Roberts. Between them, the pair have shown enough acumen to surf endless waves of volatility, including the arrival of vinyl’s arch-nemesis – the now ubiquitous audio file format (in all its various guises and variants). Surviving the near-mortal blow that intangible digital music dealt to a good many labels, distributors and record stores, the savvy duo were able to supply morph without ever losing sight of their refined musical manifesto. Odell defines the label’s sound as a distinctly British form of the pure deep house sound, and – aside from the diligent work that goes into A&Ring the inventory – a huge factor in the sonic identity comes from his own expertly crafted productions periodically woven through the release schedule and beyond.

Jimpster’s ‘Anthology Volume 2’ offers a distilled collection of highlights from across the decades, cataloguing a constantly shifting re-imagining of the 4/4 template through immaculately produced and floor-focused club cuts. The album opens with the blissful chord progressions, dreamy pads and rush inducing vocal textures of ‘Square Up’, which originally featured on Ben Watt’s wonderful Buzzin’ Fly label in 2006. There’s a striking change of mood as we arrive in the tripped-out bass-heavy chug of the mind-melting (and appropriately named) ‘Headspin’, before last year’s hip-house anthem ‘One’ bursts from the speakers. ‘English Rose’ occupies trademark ethereal territory as rush-inducing pads and dubby effects soar over a thick, rolling bass, and there’s absolutely no let-up in quality as we land in the warm embrace of quintessentially UK-tinged anthem ‘A Love Like This’. The driving aquatic chords of ‘Late Night Blues’ continue the heads-down party as they gently undulate over shaker driven drums, before a dramatic switch in atmosphere as Odell flexes his warehouse muscle on the defiantly pounding ‘Burning Up’. Completing a delicately varied but eminently coherent selection is the enchanted mid-tempo haze of ‘The Sun Comes Up’, featuring the achingly soulful vocals of Jinadu gliding over elegantly psychedelic refrains.

This exquisitely refined eight-track ensemble represents a genuinely phenomenal accomplishment for the Freerange family, inherently connected to the equally momentous production career of a true treasure of the dance community. With both the label and Jimspter himself thankfully showing zero signs of abating in their aural crusade, here’s to another 25 years of distinguished deep house goodness inseminating from their illustrious stables.

PC

µ-Ziq – Scurlage (Analogical Force)

Mike Paradinas doesn’t have much to prove at this point in time. As the Planet Mu maven he’s become much more than just a producer of fine electronic music. Under his stewardship, outlier scenes like breakcore, ragga jungle and footwork have found increased relevance in the broader electronica domain, sitting on his label alongside warbling ambient, gnarly acid, lopsided machine funk and plenty more besides. At times it’s felt like his work as a label boss has somewhat overshadowed his own sonic legacy, but when you stop to consider it, the µ-Ziq canon is imposing enough on its own.

In recent times Paradinas has been on an archive run, digging out mid to late 90s gold for the heads. His last album of new material was 2013’s Chewed Corners, but now he’s back on Spanish label Analogical Force with a collection of tracks recorded last summer whilst on a break in South Wales. In the wake of the archival material, this album arrives as an interesting update on where Paradinas is at creatively, born out of the surreal vacuum of lockdown.

It’s easy to supplant ideas on the music given the context, and certainly Scurlage moves with a suppleness which implies a lack of pressure to meet a brief, concept or deadline. It sounds like Paradinas on holiday, and in the process it comes across as thoroughly sincere and consistent. There’s also an interesting sense of time folding in on itself here – some of the winsome melodies and phased breaks that flutter through the album could link right back to the heady days of early µ-Ziq album Tango N’ Vectif. But it’s no retro-fetish excursion – ‘Oxwich & Penrice’ bursts with vitality and bright daubs of colour that sound wholly contemporary, while ‘Cleaning’ locks into a spooked-out but dexterous strain of broken techno. The ideas flow, and Paradinas sounds like the most µ-Ziq he’s ever sounded.

OW

DJ Loser – Illusion Hunt [Forbidden Planet]:

If anyone has mastered the art of making music worthy of cybergoth reunion shindigs, it would be Greece’s DJ Loser. Loser is known for their part to play in the development of a newly-popular lo-fi, crunchy hardcore sound, with their previous EP releases on Live Adult Entertainment, Novi Svijet and Veyl having become drooled-over collector’s rarities. 

One can only imagine what this collector looks like. If they’re not a gas-masked, neon-clad gesticulator, then they’re probably you. And now, you’re face to face with ‘Illusion Hunt’, Loser’s debut LP. Just look at that cover. Tinnies on the left, anime girl and a gothic hellhound on the right. It’s Castlevania meets Skins.

Much like this masterfully executed exercise in post-taste, the music on ‘Illusion Hunt’ is a frostbitten selection of al dente acid trance, headroom-barging beats, and uncharted fusions of hard dance and edgelord trap. If Flosstradamus were to work with Choci, they’d probably have tried to make something close to lead banger ‘Bad Standard’, but the end result would have paled by comparison. The breadth of Loser’s stylistic palette is so wide that it forms an obtuse angle; trance becomes gothic thunderstorm techno on ‘Everything (But The Rain)’, which is like a nega-Scott darkside version of Joy Kitikonti’s ‘Joyenergizer’, in all its grotty, warp-synth glory. Elsewyr, lighter territories are scaped on ‘Synesthesia Symptom’. Imagine a cyborg created exclusively to make bloop-dub and trance; this track is the ghost in its machine. Its soul.

We’re believers in wacky bangers at Juno, which is why we’ve chosen ‘End Of Hypnosis’ as our lead track of choice. Dis wan ups the sidechain to asphyxiated levels, while a crossrhythmic synth pendulum-swings in close proximity to our third ear. Other times, drowned ambient trap – like the relentlessly tempo-warping ‘Godknights Stigma’ – has the mood of medieval depression, like being thrown into one of Bowser’s lava moats. This album is rather like a papercut; you don’t see it coming, it makes index fingers wildly point in the air, and it’s edgy as.

JIJ 

Beatbully – BBBeatTape (Finegrains)

Finegrains has been operating as a European outpost for the beat scene since 2012, supporting the work of a select few operators and playing a patient game with their release schedule. When so many labels and artists are hell-bent on throwing as much as possible into the pot and giving it a good stir, Finegrains seem to savour the

slower approach, taking care over design and presentation to make sure every release is genuinely worth it. Beatbully last appeared on the label in 2015 on a split 12” with Fitzroy North, but in the mean time the Norwegian producer had been busy making a name for himself in skweee circles via his respected label Dødpop.

On this mixtape album for Finegrains, Beatbully demonstrates the evolution of his sound to encompass wider processes and palettes. Perhaps this is most acutely rendered on the self-referential ‘Døddøb’, which sports a steppas demeanour splashed with cheeky jungle snare rushes. There’s still an abundance of playfulness in the Beatbully sound though – bright and catchy melodic hooks, and a full spectrum mix which reaches gleefully from chopped up samples to dusty, hard-knocking drums and wobbly FX sends. True to the mixtape vibe, BeatTape holds steady at lower tempos and unfolds like the pages of an over-stuffed scrapbook. You learn a lot about Beatbully’s tastes, inspirations, sensitivities and sense of humour across these 13 tracks. The ideas come thick and fast, and the vibe stays fresh at all times.

OW

Giant Claw – Mirror Guide (Orange Milk)

Some artists are simply unmatchable. Keith Rankin’s output as both a musician and visual artist, in its sheer creative might, is one such example. It must have taken a lot of pressure for Rankin to have gotten to where he is now: he’s mastered a pastiche of proto-vaporwave, musique concrete, and glossy, sloshy electronics, resulting in a sound as refined as an expertly cut diamond. 

Now presenting his 11th album, ‘Mirror Guide’, for his co-owned Orange Milk Records, no explanation needs giving, no press text needs flaunting. Sometimes all one needs to excite the listener’s imagination is a well-rounded, succinct array of tracks – and a mysterious, hooded album cover to boot. The music on ‘Mirror Guide’ itself is a dark, pastel-hued trip, consisting of trip-up timings and effortlessly-emulated synth plucks so trembly and wavery that they could easily rival the work of Georgia or, hell – given the amount of trumpet on this project – the late Jon Hassell. Take ‘Mir-Cam Online’. Strange, layered climaxes abide by flickering white noise sweeps, while too-perfect kotos wrestle with vacuum space. Elsewhere, sharp intakes of breath appear courtesy of NTsKi; the vocalist’s gripping throat-tones herald orchestral pings and patters as much as they do for gargantuan dilating doors. A masterfully succinct, yet colossal sci-fi album, and one of indeterminate space.

JIJ

Gerald Cleaver –  Griots (Meakusma)

In jazz circles, Gerald Cleaver has an imposing presence. A drummer originally from Detroit but for a long time firmly entrenched in the New York scene, the scale of his creative stamp across scores of collaborations is hard to get a fix on, but it’s a lot. He’s perhaps less familiar to those in the experimental electronica field, and that’s where labels like Meakusma serve such a vital purpose in bridging the gap and encouraging a dialogue between disparate but compatible areas of music.

Cleaver explored electronica previously on last year’s Signs LP for 577 Records, and now 577-sublabel Positive Elevation is co-releasing this sort of spiritual sequel, Griots, with Meakusma. It’s a bold and confident album, striking a unique tone which seems to celebrate the electronic and acoustic elements of the music as distinct forces rather than a coagulated whole. Cleaver’s drumming takes on a motorik insistency, but it’s still as lithe and agile as when he’s in a jazzier setting. Meanwhile the electronics melt and shiver through meandering modulation, revelling in microtonal irregularities and varying intensities. It’s an album that doesn’t sound like someone who has been making electronic music all their life, but rather someone approaching the wonderful world of synthesis with an untethered, exploratory attitude. And that’s why it’s so damn fresh.

MH

Half Japanese – I Guess I’m Living: The Semi Charmed Life Tapes (Record Store Day) (Fire)

Originally dropped back in 1988, this was the second album released by the captivating group under 50 Skidillion Watts. Now being released for the first time on vinyl, this all-enveloping superbly alternative third take on 1988’s Charmed Life album which features previously unissued versions and a half dozen previously unreleased songs. Including brand new liner notes and an interview with Jad and David Fair for fans to enjoy, and expect the release to be on Yellow vinyl to match the cover art.

The way Jad Fair sings about love and joy is part of what makes these records vital nearly three decades later and relevant across all age groups. With this style, they set a blueprint for subsequent indie rock, the kind that valued DIY yet didn’t shy away from melody, and addressed matters of the heart without arch distance. Mastering the art of producing songs with a two minute length, the alternative versions are far grittier and heavier than their original predecessors, but make the record so much more in combination with the unreleased tracks. Tracks like ‘Day & Night with Angie’ add to the feel of the record and remind listeners of its original conception with a heavy 80’s garage rock tune. It’s enough to make one wonder, how it would have been received if this was the record they put out then.

AY

Stone Giants – West Coast Love Stories (Nomark

Trust Amon Tobin. Having established himself as one of the world’s leading manipulators of breaks and leftfield beats, he’s taken himself off to LA and created a mini army of alter egos – all of which, ultimately and despite their different falvours. are very much him.

Stone Giants is the last of the tribe to emerge, a culmination of an eight year period of incredibly rich work. It is, however, the second recent release to feature Tobin’s own vocals and the extra emotional connection that creates seeps through every note of the album, from the slightly Spiritualized-esque title track to the Mike Paradinas-esque microtonal synths of ‘All of the PIllows’. All in all, it’s a heart rending but deeply mood swinging take on Tobin’s disorientating, post-electronica psychedelic sound, and arguably his best work for while. We’re also assured that a vinyl edition is in the pipeline too – check the Bandcamp page for details of the crowdfunding campaign. Love it.

BW

Sit – Invisibility (Sushitech 15th Anniversary Reissue) (Sushitech)

SIT, short for Sideways Invisibility Theory, is the collaborative project of Vlad Caia and Cristi Cons. As two scene leaders of the Romanian minimal phenomenon, both artists have proven over many years to have a unique vision for creativity and fresh approaches in what can be a homogenised scene. Of their many achievements, on their Amphia label as much as elsewhere, this album on Sushitech stands as one of their finest moments. As with all the best Romanian minimal, it’s also still hotly in demand, making it a welcome addition to Sushitech’s 15th anniversary pressing marathon.

From dub tech laced rollers to gossamer-light trippers, this is the classiest end of the minimal tech house game from two artists with the vision to push things a little bit further. Where some dance music conjures images of dark rooms and sweaty dance floors, SIT tunes call to mind palm trees and sunshine. With their groovy minimal tech, pulsating throughout the record, each track picks up where the previous left off to keep the pace going. Creating continuous melting sounds that morph into a different beat, it’s laced with great vibes and good judgement calls from Sushitech to add this to press once again.

AY