The best new singles this week
Our writers recommend the best 45s from the past seven days
SING:E OF THE WEEK
Solid Gold Playaz – Next To Me (Freerange)
It’s with a profoundly poignant tone that the Freerange Records team deliver their second release from US house maestros, Solid Gold Playaz. In July of this year, the dance underground learnt of band-member Kenny Gino’s tragic and untimely passing – a crushing blow to all that knew and loved him as well as to fans of his exceptional contribution to the deepest shades of the house canon. Alongside partner-in-crime Mike T, the work Gino recorded as Solid Gold Playaz graced the rosters of a broad spectrum of sought-after imprints, including Kanzleramt, Losonofono, Global Underground, and Soulfuric among many others. Since 1999, the duo’s distinct knack of constructing alluring floor-focused grooves found fans in discerning selectors and in-the-know heads, with Freerange co-founder Jamie ‘Jimpster’ Odell among their most fervent of admirers. Describing the pair as “unsung heroes” in a recent interview with Juno Daily, Odell spoke of the pair’s consistent ability to create a special kind of dancefloor magic.
Holding their work in supremely high regard, the label were thrilled to welcome them on board for their Freerange bow last May with the ‘Mind In A Daze’ EP. With Mike T’s blessing, the exquisite follow-up now arrives – serving as a vivid reminder of the staggering talent with which Kenny Gino was blessed. The record leaves no room for fillers, and starting with intent we find the seductively-charged title track ‘Next To Me’ evolving over a typically compelling groove, as waves of atmospheric pads and provocative whispers cascade over an irresistible hook. ‘My Soul Is Quiet’ continues the indefinably propulsive magnetism, as the determined loop discretely absorbs dancers into some kind of glorious primal ecstasy. On the reverse, ‘Who’s Playin For Ya?” makes use of an inspired vocal sample as hypnotic keys loop over crisp rhythms and deeply-rooted sub-bass. Finally, ‘Do You Think’ bumps majestically as intoxicating vocals dance over a heavy bass flex, while space-age synths intertwine with mysterious bells and enchanting clarinet licks. Very few creators are endowed with the ability to compose dance tracks that are so effortlessly bewitching, powerfully hypnotic and recognisably authentic, and – the tragic circumstances that surround this release notwithstanding – this is among the best of Solid Gold Playaz’s uniformly excellent work. RIP Kenny Gino, your legacy lives on through your incredible music.
PC
Jon Dixon – Detroit Get Down EP (4EVR 4WRD)
If you want to take the temperature of Detroit’s current house scene, Jon Dixon is an excellent place to start checking. The Underground Resistance protégé has been building steadily since launching his 4EVR 4WRD label in 2017, and his sound now stands as a rich and accomplished exercise in musicality as much as groove. This is genuine, heartfelt house music of the highest order, so of course it adheres to traditional structures – the sizzle and snap of 4/4 drums, pulsing arps and floor-focused energy arcs. But what Dixon has displayed over the course of some seven releases is that his expressive approach to melodic composition, no doubt informed by the tutelage of Detroit jazz legend Marcus Belgrave, transcends genre boundaries to become simply magical music.
On his latest EP, you could easily get sidetracked by the guest spots and various mixes. Not everyone can tap up Kenny Dixon Jr to do some casual chat on their track, but the original Moodymann teases the intro of opening cut ‘On My Own’ in his unmistakable style. Kasan Belgrave also flies some sax in on the tune, while Britt Frapier lends her voice and Ian Fink his keys to ‘Words Can’t Express’. Sarah Elizabeth Charles sings on ‘Lisbon Nights’, but what’s critical here is how these added elements feed into Dixon’s creations. On ‘Lisbon Nights’ in particular, there’s a strong percussive focus in which Charles’ voice becomes a wraith-like element darting in amongst the clattering drums.
Dixon truly comes across as the conductor, whether it’s a collaborator or instrument he’s steering towards his creative aims. The record bursts with inspiration, with the sound of music as an expression of community, where tradition becomes a springboard to new inspiration rather than a constraint. If you want to hear house music that sounds genuinely inspired, Jon Dixon is out there keeping Detroit’s towering legacy alive and going strong.
OW
Telephones – Presents Point Breaks / Beach Breaks 2 (European Carryall)
When it comes to the Z-axis between lo-fi dance and Balearic music, no-one does it better than Telephones. The Norweigan artist is behind a smattering of this kind of music, and has happily lent it out to a range of labels over the years, from the titanic Rush Hour to his own imprint European Carryall.
Perhaps the most expertly-titled balearic EP since 2014’s ‘The Ocean Called’, this year’s EC release, ‘Point Breaks’, is themed after a hilarious allusion to the classic Kate Bigelow surf film. And in as much as it pulls off the pun, the music succeeds in conjuring images of a waveswept Keanu Reeves flicking his hair and clanking his sharktooth necklace against a wetsuit-clad chest. This time, it’s not just a housey affair, with the artist channelling every influence from Sade, Weatherall, and the Wamdue Kids here. Not only that, but every blugging beat and slow bassline lands at the right time, from the expository deep licks and star-grabbing synths of ‘Genesis (Swell 1019 Mix)’ to the fingerclicking conch-blows of ‘Summit (Wind Dance Dub)’.
Halfway through, we reach ‘Tide And Space (Warning)’, a two-minute break of lyrical synth swells and lapping beachside water soundscapes. It’s a welcome switchup, given that what follows is an unprecednted surprise; Telephones tries his hand at new jack swing on ‘Sensei (5378 Exchange Mix)’, which, being the highlight, even hears him throw some sexy epic sax samples into the mix. Finally, ‘Phase Alternate Line (Daybreak Mix)’ strips things back to 4×4, as Telephones does justice to his own stage name with a series of melodic dial bloops. This music sounds like the equivalent of running mushroom-scented gel through a nice handful of sandy, sea-salted platinum blonde hair. Enjoy this unserious, yet no less talent-filled EP.
JIJ
Tim Reaper – Stand Up (Blu Mar Ten)
At this point it’s frankly hopeless trying to keep up with the unstoppable rush of Tim Reaper. At the vanguard of modern jungle and breakbeat hardcore, he’s embodying the same productive spirit that kept nascent scenes pushing forwards 25 years prior. So far this year he’s landed on Lobster Theremin, Bluff, Banoffee Pies, The Magic 3, Hooversound, Deep Jungle and Myor Massiv, all stoutly modern labels giving a platform to the new age of jungle. Meanwhile, a link up with Blu Mar Ten shows Reaper bridging to an older generation of jungle and D&B, acknowledging the continuum of the culture his music speaks from.
Blu Mar Ten have a legacy reaching back to the mid 90s and seminal totems like Good Looking Records, but they’ve largely forged their own path irrespective of trends and waves within the D&B scene. Their self-titled label is more than just a vessel for their own work, and after giving them the All Right / Innerspace 12” back in 2017 Reaper returns to showcase his own take on the atmospheric D&B Blu Mar Ten helped pioneer.
If Reaper can often be heard leaning on frantic UK rave sounds, here he’s switching stance to a plush, melodic strain which could indeed be lifted from an early Bukem record. It’s not as loungey as Good Looking would eventually go, and certainly not entering the placid waters of liquid, but there’s no denying this is Reaper in relaxed mode. ‘Stand Up’ revels in bottomless pools of harmony where the pads and bass are mixed as one entity. Meanwhile the crisp clarity of the plaintive piano on top and diva vocal snatches all trigger a thousand redolent rave memories – this is music weighted with emotive meaning for any listener with a history in the dancehall.
‘The Tranquillity Track’ tries a slightly different approach as it plays around with cascading chime loops to set its own tender mood, and the snappier rhythm of the melody gives room for a sharper angle on the drum edits. It’s in these conditions Reaper truly excels, letting his needlepoint production fly without derailing the emotional centre of the music. It may be geared towards the mellower end of the session, but there’s still ample ruffness in the rhythm section to induce a shockout or two, pads or no pads. Proving himself to be versatile as well as incredibly eloquent in the language of jungle, Reaper comes up with the goods once again.
OW
Mameen 3 & Dea ‘West & East Vol 1’ (Fauve)
Fauve Records launch their intriguing ‘West & East’ series in stunning style with this exotically-charmed collaboration between Mameen 3 and Dea. The Hong Kong-based label’s team have proudly made it their mission to join the dots between disparate dance scenes around the world. In keeping with this noble manifesto, the theme here revolves around inviting creators from far-flung positions on the Earth’s latitude to compose an original piece of music each, then in turn to remix one another’s work. The first to be called into action are the Belgian/Moroccan duo of DJ soFa & Cheb Runner, who combine under their Mameen 3 alias to carve up some truly wonderful and brightly burning alt-disco heat. ‘Dada Glitter’ surfs the foamy boundary between abstract and accessible, with its deviant groove powering an unthinkably contagious top-line over snarling bass and mysterious late-night textures.
The original version creates some seriously potent dancefloor voodoo, and Dea’s wildly imaginative rework goes above and beyond the remix remit to come up with something entirely new yet magically in sync with its source. Energetic bass, freeform solos and all manner of backroom sleight of hand combine on this proudly eccentric rework, setting the tone majestically for the B-side manoeuvres that follow. Bali-based DJ and producer Dea is a jewel in the southeast Asian underground, and his sprawling ‘Mesopotamia’ cut vividly exhibits his battle-hardened musical nous. The star-gazing cosmic jam flits between styles, taking in intervals of Moroccan-themed wonder, spaced-out disco bliss, and momentary Latin pit stops. Finally, Mameen 3 return the earlier favour by delicately reworking the track. Spacing things out without losing sight of the original, their ‘Rai Not Raimix’ version strolls confidently through a nocturnal landscape, as haunting pads, otherworldly bleeps, and dubbed-out delay feedback join the free-wheeling synth leads on their wonderfully wonky night ride.
PC
Dandeloo/Lamalice – Onogawa Kisaburo
Dandeloo and Lamalice have come together for their first Sentaku release, titled ‘Onogawa Kisaburo’.
Naming a project after one of the most legendary sumo wrestlers of the Edo period, one would be forgiven for presuming an aggressive edge might pulse through these cuts, but like the sport itself, strength and ferocity are balanced, tempered even by a sense of tight focus and control.
Bookending the release with opening and closing tracks, Dandeloo takes us through hypnotic sequencing across ‘Infinite Path’, before crisp percussion and a muted, menacing synth-line creep into the ring towards the climax.
Lamalice counters the subtleties of Dandeloo’s offerings with a far bouncier, rhythmic endeavour while the title, ‘Annihilation’, never truly goes the route towards total despair, rather it mirrors the carefree mindset of its groove and composition.
Title track, ‘Onogawa Kisaburo’, doubles down on the deep-tech sparsity with a shimmering interlocked groove that verges on chaos while never fully welcoming it.
The ultimate highlight comes in the form of Landeloo’s transcendent closer, ‘Dream Machine’, which builds upon samples and ambient hues before allowing dry clusters of percussive musings to steer the adventure. It’s a slow burning oddity/odyssey, that asks a little patience before all is engulfed in robotic, cloudy goodness.
ZB
Valen – Redsphere (Joule Imprint)
Newcomer Valen makes his (Yoyaku sublabel) Joule debut with ‘Redsphere’, and boy, does it come out swinging with a batch of sparse, tightly crafted deep tech house oozers, striking a distinct disparity between groove and atmosphere.
The deep, dank basement sweat of introverted opener, ‘Skyscraper’, seems to lash out at its namesake, going for a muted approach, continuously offset by warm, inviting nuances, like the glimmer of light peering into the room as someone opens the door to leave. The outside world is glimpsed only for a second, offering its refracted hues, before dissipating into darkened bliss yet again.
The springy, bubbly textures of the title track make for an enthralling experience, simultaneously tempered by robotic precision and marshmallow softness, like a robot in a Super Mario game, while the ethereal pulsation of ‘Blinding Lights’ toys with a breakbeat abandon while never relinquishing complete control.
Closing cut, ‘Divinian’, takes the funky route through lush rhythms with a syrupy, sickly bass line so low it could be trampled on the dance floor, which these four cuts were explicitly designed for. Providing just enough space for the brief glimpses of introspective thought that may cross cerebellums while feet do the heavy lifting, ‘Redsphere’ offers a dynamic half-hour slice of true slickness.
ZB
Atjazz feat Dominique Fils Aime ‘See Line Woman’ (Foliage)
It’s always a pleasure hearing new music crafted from Martin ‘Atjazz’ Iveson, and here the prolific producer shows up with a fitting rework of Nina Simone’s 1964 classic, ‘See Line Woman’. Originally appearing as the B-side to politically-charged single ‘Mississippi Goddam’, the often misspelt and equally misunderstood song is among Simone’s most well-known. Supplying the vocals on this interpretation is an artist well-versed in the soul icon’s prestigious catalogue, Dominique Fils Aime. The Montreal-based singer takes her cue from the likes of Simone, Billie Holiday and Etta James, so it’s of little surprise to find her delivering such a graceful interpretation here. Her seductive performance floats over Atjazz’s typically detailed and immaculately constructed backing track, with rolling beats, soul-soothing chords, delicate guitar and muted horns completing the elegant composition.
The instrumental version stands up very well considering the absence of the keystone vocal, before inspired beat master Karizma steps in with his stripped revisions. A producer with a uniquely personal relationship with rhythm, there aren’t too many in the game whose beats bang quite as hard as the Baltimore native, and here he serves a sublime counterpoint to Iveson’s production. Karizma’s ‘Last 1ne dub’ is effectively a meditation in machine drumming, with the sub-heavy kick thrusting the groove through maniacal hits and kinetic rhythm synths, while the ‘dubstrumental’ cuts even further to the core as it reduces the track to its rawest component parts.
PC
Nel Oliver ‘You Are My Dream’ (Pepite)
Here’s another pearl for the collectors, a pair of feel-good boogie jams from Nel Oliver presented on a cute little 7” by the cool dudes at Pepite Records. Nel Oliver is a moniker of composer, producer and author, Noël Ahounou. While he may not be a household name, he released a creditable number of titles throughout the late ’70s and ’80s, and his music has found fans among the more studious global collectors out there. Both tracks here originally appeared on the first of two eponymous albums Oliver recorded, with the one in question landing in 1980 via CBS music.
Recorded in Paris, France – where he was living and running a recording studio at the time – both of the tracks contained here are suitably ripe with joie de vivre. ‘You Are My Dream’ is gorgeously silky, with Oliver’s yearning vocals making way for a tightly wound groove section, where jazz flute soars over driving chords and sing along vocal chants. ‘I Have A Good Job’ is terrifically optimistic, with the apparently gainfully employed crooner joyfully exclaiming the pleasure he finds having found his musical calling. Once again, the groove section steals the show somewhat, with a dazzling organ solo bursting into life before Nel resumes his cheerful serenading.
PC
Angel Rocket – AM003 (Accidental Meetings)
From the vast, multi-scene ether of South London comes four new dance tunes under from Angel Rocket: two boiler-suited young chaps, focusing mainly on dancehall, breaksy choppage and gritty, joking techno. Fresh from debut releases on Good Morning Tapes and BEAM, this dream team have ensured that no less than the firiest of tunes hit the discog of relatively new Brighton label Accidental Meetings – AM’s former releases up until now have otherwise been ambient and dubby.
That in mind, ‘AM003’ almost certainly nails a mood of stakes-uppage. Through pulsing eighth-note basses and snapping neuro-percs, lead track ‘Pomelo Fog’ conjures familiar thoughts of dancefloor-adjacent smoke machine mists – we move through the smoke, which is tinged with the scent of that selfsame exotic Southeast Asian citrus fruit. Said aroma soon morphs into a more sulphuric pong, as eternal mollusc whiffs emerge from hidden recesses to the tune of ‘Osyter Perpetual’. This track, like the last, is a slow melodic dancehall build, wherein the low end seems to move at half the speed of the tops, creating a nicely on-the-nose feel of two styles – IDM and dancehall – coalescing like mating slugs.
A beatswitch ensues on the B side, and we’re struck round the face with a mudslide of grimey wonk techno. ‘Tunnelrunners Unltd’ is less fitted for a happy-go-lucky fruitastic dancehall room, and better suits a Brummie industrial warehouse where DJs like Surgeon or Regis might be residents. Such a switch from colourful to dour gives the feeling of a veil being pulled from our very eyes; ‘Foamstone Hoedown’, the B4, feels like a happy middle ground and coming to terms with reality, churning downtempo chugs with boinging country twangs. By now, you probably understand; this is a thoroughly wacky EP from the AM camp.
JIJ
Batu – I Own Your Energy (Timedance)
Batu’s approach to club music has often teetered on the edge of deconstruction since he first started snapping heads round as a breakthrough artist from the Bristol firmament. A great deal of his appeal lies in a maverick approach to club dynamics and extravagant sound design. Structures and conventions get tested, curveballs come thick and fast and he’s not afraid to try a creative swerve which might well split opinion, but he never takes it beyond the realm of reason for the average dancer.
His last Timedance EP, 2019’s False Reeds, was a fluttering, melodic delight, but by contrast I Own Your Energy is a taut, fierce affair with clear intentions to move large masses. It’s unmistakably Batu, loaded with the future-shock fills and uneasy drop outs you’d expect from this most daring of producers, but it also feels especially clear-sighted in its focus on physicality. The title track moves in a linear direction, even as a thousand shards of sound fall away and come springing back into the sonic spectrum. ‘Go Deeper’ springs with a beat to test a DJ, but once you adjust to the odd slant of the groove it’s as hooky as any conventional swinging missive.
Some accompanying text bills this record as “some of [Batu’s] hardest tracks to date,” but that might mislead some listeners into expecting a kind of vulgar display of power. Batu’s power lies in the richness of his vocabulary and his confidence to do unusual things and still make them bang. At all times, even in its darkest, most difficult moments, it’s always elegant, and that’s exactly why it works.
OW
Beneath – Numbers Talk (Livity Sound)
Beneath’s approach to the UK club tradition is satisfyingly unfussy, which in some ways aligns him neatly with Livity Sound’s resident caretaker Pev. Both have their own weird ways of doing things, but their approach to music shrugs off thematic pretension and instead focuses on an earnest search for inspiration and energy within the strictures of dance music. Aside from a remix back in 2014 this new 12” is the first time Beneath has appeared on Livity despite moving in parallel with the label as the notions of techno, dubstep et al progressively dissolved over the past 10 years.
That dissolution is plain to hear on Numbers Talk, which comes on like 21st Century steppas, gnarly dub techno and halfstep pressure strapped to a 4/4 pulse. As the genre tags slip away into irrelevance, that leaves Beneath’s tracks sounding as clear as day, balanced and intentional in their execution. ‘High Five’ is especially effective, using a catchy lead motif as bait to draw you right in to the unrelenting thrum of the subs. But ‘Legs Eleven’ might be the highlight of the record – a slower, more spacious meditation with twitchy percs and plenty of lingering decay trails which winds up in intricate formations without ever sounding cluttered.
OW
This week’s reviewers: Patrizio Cavaliere, Oli Warwick, Jude Iago James, Zach Buggy.