The best new singles this week
Our critics’ selection from the past seven days
SINGLE OF THE WEEK
Humanoid – sT8818r Humanoid (De:tuned)
The point when acid house caught hold in the UK yielded all kinds of cultural shifts and unlikely success stories, and one of the most endearing and enduring is surely that of Humanoid. As a chance commission for a video soundtrack, Brian Dougans’ creation was never created with the charts in mind, but it caught a wave off the back of the emergent acid zeitgeist. More than an opportune moment, it was also quite simply a perfectly crafted track to transcend the trappings of rave and get under everyone’s skin. With hindsight, you can hear in Dougan’s wholly British interpretation of Chicago acid house the subsequent styles of The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy, Leftfield and all the other rockist chart dance titans of the 90s.
The influence of ‘Stakker Humanoid’ reached far and wide, and there was more than enough mind-bending sonic trickery to inspire the incoming generation of electronica artists. With that in mind, dedicated torch-bearers De:tuned have invited a heavyweight cast to have some fun with a track which set them on their own paths. Given the gravity of the track in question, the treatments have a certain degree of respect, or even deference to the source material. First up is Luke Vibert, the Cornish acid funk maestro who in truth knows how to keep the essence of a track alive in his remixes (check his Kerrier District remix of DJ Mink’s ‘Hey! Hey! Can U Relate’). The acid gets an extra layer of grease and there’s a blissful pad entry in the latter half, but the joy in Vibert’s version is in hearing the original given a shot in the arm.
At one point, an Autechre remix would come with the expectation of savage deconstruction but recently the duo have been taking a more tender approach, not least on their version of SOPHIE’s ‘Bipp’. Of course this is still experimental gear, and their ‘A664’ version teases around the foundational staccato pulse of the lead acid line while slabs of luminescent sound design slide around the mix, but at its core the remix surges forward with infectious purpose. You can absolutely still detect the source material wriggling away in the midst of the studio flexing.
If anything, it’s UK acid veteran Mike Dred’s version which goes furthest away from the source, locking into a gritty but expertly sculpted jack track with a re-imagined 303 flip of the original acid line. Dred instead makes use of the iconic robot voice sample to doff his cap to the original while creating his own devastating slice of squelchy rave business.
Given the clout of the remixers involved, it’s no wonder the quality is so high on these versions, but the sense of respect and homage is hard to refute too. Some classic don’t need revising, but in this instance three stunning versions were wrought from Dougan’s seminal creation, making it an utterly worthwhile venture.
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Mori Ra – Gaia Edits (MM Discos)
Osaka-based edit specialist Mori Ra follows up on his marvellous ‘Japanese Breeze Edits’ album debut with a typically deft set of carefully crafted re-tweaks. Seasoned digger Masaki Morita has proven himself to be one of the more discerning scalpel experts operating in an extraordinarily cramped field, thanks to both his imaginative source material and the elegance with which he revitalises the chosen songs. The revered selector has been serving lovingly adjusted edits under his Mori Ra moniker since around 2015, with the bulk of his work comprised of floor-focused versions of obscure pearls farmed from the musical depths. He’s released sought-after titles on revered imprints including CockTail D’Amore, Most Excellent Unltd, and Passport To Paradise, and – such is the buzz surrounding his music – his releases tend not to lurk around in shop’s inventories for too long. His ‘Gaia Edits’ EP sees him return to regular home, MM Discos, with four suitably compelling cuts sculpted from rarefied sources.
First up, the mystical bells of ‘Gaia Chaos’ sizzle over dissonant drones before a beautifully optimistic lead melody arrives via hypnotic marimba strikes, with waves of seductive synth strings filling the space as a chugged-up rhythm drives the track. Next, the freeform accordion and Eastern-edged melodies of ‘Goreate’ dance playfully over driving cowbells and electro claps to form a delightfully idiosyncratic groove. On the flip, ‘Gaia Disco’ elevates as it explodes with energetic abandon, with life-affirming melodies gliding over thick bass notes and crunching four/four drums to create a powerfully stirring sensation of dancefloor release. Finally, Morita takes us deep into wonky-eyed territory with the aberrant flow of ‘Penguins Repair’, where downtempo machine drums gently saunter under a wonderfully peculiar topline. Mori Ra once again taking apparent delight in fusing oddball aesthetics with dance-ready grit, ‘Gaia Edits’ is a worthy addition to his ever-expanding and roundly engaging sonic repertoire.
PC
U – Joy Of Labour (Where To Now?)
There’s an irreverent streak to U’s work which makes their outsider strain of beats all the more appealing. On ‘Ecstacy’, released earlier this year on Phantasy Sound, Joey Beltram’s ‘Energy Flash’ was flipped as laconic, dishevelled deep house, while back in 2016 they strapped new age motivational mantras to a genuinely stirring, long-form workout which teetered between sincerity and sarcasm in its message. With genuine flair and a keen instinct for experimentation, they’ve shaped out a stubbornly unpredictable creative tract and coated it all in a cosy layer of dust. Where To Now? was the perfect home for their sole album to date, Vienna Orchestra, and it’s to that equally unpredictable label they return with a short and sweet 7” sourced from hidden corridors and pathways through the MPC.
‘Junkies’ centres around orchestral string hits atop a lopsided groove, nodding back to the classical sampling that ran through Vienna Orchestra and giving it a downtempo hip hop feel with some jazzy drums and double bass licks. In the great tradition of perfect beats, it’s barely more than a minute and a half long, and distils everything essential into that modest run time. Sure, all the component parts could have been stretched out for a double-length run time, but then did they need to be? Perhaps it trolls the listener a little, but in holding something back U conjures up a bittersweet sense of longing which matches the mood of the music.
‘Almost Man’ similarly teases with the melancholic beauty of its component parts, albeit edging towards a fuller production stretching out over three whole minutes. U’s rhythm becomes more forthright and structured, even with extended interference from the sweetest of snare rattles, but once again you’re left with the sense this was everything the track needed to be, small and exquisitely formed.
There are murkier ruminations at work on ‘Too Good For Me’. U places the drums up front in a clean and unfussy manner, but in the background a subtle maelstrom of noise is shifting. Half-hidden melodic passages try and fail to call through the murk, but in the miniature nature of the piece every minute detail becomes significant. It’s an exercise in modesty during an age of over-consumption – a reminder of how to be wholly satisfied with less. In the era of mass media storage and limitless digital publication, that can be a challenge for the artist as much as the listener.
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DC Salas ‘The Weight Of Uncertainty’ (I:Cube mix) (Futureboogie)
Futureboogie Recordings has delivered an awful lot of joy into the lives of subterranean dancers during its existence, so a nostalgic sense of melancholy accompanied the news that the Bristol-based label and party starters had opted to ring the ‘last orders’ bell late this year. The event series had been running for a mighty 20 years with the label arm arriving 10 years later, so no fair-minded commentators could argue that Dave Harvey and the Futureboogie family hadn’t put in a more than noble shift. With a varied sound that broadly incorporated the more discerning end of subaquatic disco, house and cosmically-charmed sonic wonder, the label has presented work from a spellbinding ensemble of studio wizards over the years. The list of contributors is long, with Lauer, Julio Bashmore, Crazy P, Kiwi, Mark E, Felix Dickinson, Man Power, Crackazat and PBR Streetgang just some of the many talents who’ve presented exceptional music under the Futureboogie banner.
This latest release (we believe there are more to come) sees Brussels-based DC Salas fly in with a shimmering saucer-eyed future disco workout. Having impressed with recent releases on Live At Robert Johnson, Pets Recordings and Slowciet, Salas serves some ultra-slick club weapons that have already been causing requisite main room damage over recent months. The title track fizzes over crisp drums as atmospheric synths join sinister bass notes to propel dancers into a frenzy, while the hooky lead, bubbling acid and bouncing bass of ‘Gliding Future’ render it arguably even more urgent. Parisian studio don I:Cube steps in with a majestically nuanced darkest night rework of ‘The Weight Of Uncertainty’, brooding with intent as ethereal pads undulate while vocal chants, staccato synths and low-slung bass effortlessly combine. Finally, the dance jugular is once again the target with the stripped horizons of ‘They Don’t See It’, where hard-hitting drums join mysterious synth leads for another club-ready assault.
PC
It’s been a sterling year for Seb Uncles as his deft jungle variations as Eusebeia reached far and wide. His The Sun, The Moon + The Truth album has just landed on Western Lore, while he’s also linked up with the venerable Rupture London crew as well as delivering EPs for Last Night On Earth and Modern Conveniences. There’s a versatility in his sound, but overall he takes jungle and drum & bass in dreamy, cinematic directions. This neatly focused two-track 12” for Furthur Electronix offshoot Ryoko serves as a sharp summation of his craft, demonstrating his ability to avoid breakbeat clichés and present something genuinely fresh.
‘Observatory’ and ‘View’ share a similar spirit – swathes of evocative pad work for the breaks to skitter through, and a light-footed quality to the mix. Mellow they may be, but they don’t fall into the trap of Bukem-aping ‘atmospheric D&B’ or liquid, instead occupying their own meditative space and keeping a focus on energetic edits and arrangements that dance in the ears. Uncles has a highly developed sound – his prolificacy is testament to that – and it offers something exciting for those who want a little sensitivity in their contemporary jungle. When others turn to shock and awe or over-egged sound design to make an impression, Eusebeia is exploring the edges of his sound with patience and poise. Stay locked, there’s undoubtedly more to come.
OW
Tickle Torture – No One Feels For Your Love (Potions Music)
Elliott Kozel returns with his second release recorded under the Tickle Torture moniker, arriving with a rather tardy follow-up to 2014’s ‘Spectrophilia’. Former member of the pop-tinged rock outfit Sleeping In The Aviary, Minneapolis-based Kozel branched out with the solo project in around 2012, continuing his penchant for provocative lyrics and super sexualised stage shows.
In recent years he’s been working behind the scenes with artists including Velvet Negroni, and his latest release proves he’s lost none of his songwriting nous despite the extended hiatus. Finding a welcoming home on NYC label, Potions, the multi-instrumentalist and self-professed mad man appears in fine fettle. Opening track ‘No One Feels For Your Love’ is a turbo-charged disco-house throbber, with pop-coated vocals and glossy production building to a gospel-style crescendo as the proudly energetic track unfolds. On the reverse, we find arguably the standout of the 7” with the Prince-inspired ’80s-flecked strut of ‘Psychic Playmate’. Here, Kozel summons at least a portion of the Purple One’s spiritual swagger, as stark electro drums power freak-funk melodies, delicious slap bass and sexed-up vocals for a fitting ode to his late, great home town hero.
PC
With no rap sheet behind them, Průvan appears on Tectonic with an EP of assured, modernist brutality that instantly demands your attention. Reportedly born in the US and now based in the Czech Republic, they’ve clearly been digging into production for some time and following the developmental arc pursued by labels like Tectonic from the days of dubstep into the undefined realm we find ourselves in now. The Pozor EP reaches hungrily at different lines of exploration, at turns grappling with knotty production trysts and punchy broken beats on ‘Beastwoman’ or revelling in rising rave intensity on the devastatingly effective ‘Pozor’. This is a maximalist sound in every sense, writhing with detail and intricately tuned to be as loud as possible, quite clearly engineered to be the toughest face melter in the dance.
If you thought there was nowhere left for the soundsystem arms race to go, tracks like these remind you a hungry producer will always find a way to push things further in pursuit of the most feverish response. But Průvan’s sound isn’t lacking in subtlety – it’s as clever as it is heavy. ‘Buckets’ whipcracks between phrases and passages with deadly poise and ‘Raw Dawg’ bends and stretches through a ludicrously dynamic display of deconstructed sound design. This is proudly future music in every way, and it won’t necessarily appeal to those who want to meditate on bassweight frequencies and dance their cares away. If, however, you’re in the market for the highest calibre of shock, awe and nerve-shredding pressure, Průvan may well have exactly what you crave. Find a system, send this record in that direction, and feel your atoms rearrange.
OW
Bunzinelli – Atacama EP (Neubau)
Vienna-based Neubau has a consistently intriguing quality in the club records it releases. A physical pulse remains a core facet of the music Heap and Brocksrucker sign, but more than that they look to records that carry some kind of surreal or seductive quality. Rather than embracing freakiness through sound design or shocking new approaches, they seek out music dripping with atmosphere, where there’s a very real chance to lose all sense of time and place on the dancefloor.
Enter Bunzinelli, a Montreal-based producer just breaking through with a couple of releases over the past year, now poised to catch a few more ears in Europe with the psychoactive impression of his Atacama EP. ‘Atacama’ rolls at a tempo that should have the chugging crowd snapping their heads round, but it doesn’t quite fall into the textbook trap of soundalike slowdance. There’s a motorik insistence to the beat and a vivid disruption from the sampled percussion which elevates it. Proving he’s not leaning in on a formula, ‘Anxiety Attack’ does away with prominent rhythmic footholds altogether, instead sculpting a vivid soundworld with sampled voice and synth, letting the percussion quietly shuffle at the back of the mix.
By way of contrast, ‘Ladakh’ brings the heat back and offers the most forthright piece on the record, weaving an infectious acidic thread in around the springy 4/4 stomp and letting fly with some powerful, industrial-tinged synth hooks. The charged tension of the record is even more palpable on this closer, ensuring Bunzinelli becomes a go-to for anyone wanting to work some pronounced edges into their dark, deep and druggy DJ sets.
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The Dexorcist – Drug Test EP (Furthur Electronix)
As The Dexorcist, Simon Brown has been firing out proper underground rave tackle for well over 20 years. Given an early stint on Control Tower, he’s perhaps most readily associated with Radioactive Man and the die-hard UK electro contingent, but his music has always shown a tendency towards the rough n’ tumble of UK hardcore as much as US machine funk. Even as electro has ridden waves of hype in recent years, Brown’s sound doesn’t fit in with the sleeker European trends – too ragged and rowdy to slip into a minimal set.
Proving this point with deadly efficiency, his spot on Furthur Electronix doesn’t even nod to electro despite being on a label wholeheartedly embracing the electro boom. Instead, Brown puts forward a sound which seems most closely aligned with the earliest days of hardcore, when the likes of Blapps Posse and Shut Up And Dance were laying down the hardest breaks they could find but before things started speeding up. There’s towering slabs of bass to feast on, errant bleeps and rough-cut samples with a hip hop swagger. It’s gritty and overloaded but executed with a masterful touch, using distortion in artful ways rather than as a mask for lacking production skills.
All four tracks on Drug Test are moody and mischievous, but they’re not one-dimensionally dark. There’s plenty of fun to be had – just listen to the stabbing bassline and the hoover stabs following it on ‘Getsome’, which has all the delirium of a proto-hardcore classic but with a production finish which does it justice. Any hardcore devotee knows some of the earliest gems lack from a mixdown to match the mad ideas. Not so here, as the likes of ‘Insanityclause’ positively burst out of the speakers, affirming The Dexorcist as one of the best for delivering nasty rave gear at lower tempos.
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Sweater On Polo – Minding The Madness EP (Basement Floor)
You may have picked up on NYC house label Basement Floor over the past eight years, but you could have just as easily missed its low-key manoeuvres through the undergrowth. A hotly tipped first release from Elbee Bad and Line Cook set the tone back in 2013, while subsequent drops from Steve Murphy, Tim Schumacher and others have nodded to a grubby strain of hardware club tackle with small basement spots in mind. That’s the tone that emergent talent Sweater On Polo strikes on this, his second solo EP after an impressive drop on Fixed Rhythms and an appearance on Acemo and MoMA READY’s HAUS of ALTR label.
Based in New York and carving out a promising path for himself, Sweater On Polo deals in jack tracks with hand-wrought flair and plenty of attitude. It chimes with the lo-fi legacy of labels like L.I.E.S, but sports a bit more snap and punch, harking back to the immediacy of Chicago rather than getting waylaid by noise and distortion. ‘Backroom Deals’ may be swimming in heavy flange, but the bass is on point. ‘Chicken Head’ is all twitchy drum machine fits and madcap vocal blurts with a Gherkin Jerks verve. ‘1 U I O’ closes the record out with muffled dreaminess lurking behind the steady tick of the drums, but again there’s a strange kind of clarity to offset the intimate oddness of the sound, marking Sweater On Polo out as a class act within the realm of box jamming house music.
OW
This week’s reviewers – Oli Warwick, Patrizio Cavaliere.