The best new singles this week
All the best 45s from the week’s offerings
Dego – 7 Inch Nails (Sounds Familiar)
Sounds Familiar swoop in with the second instalment of ‘7 Inch Nails’, this time welcoming genre-surfing rhythm master Dego to supply the goods. Italian-based artist agency Sound Familiar boast a small but spectacular roster of unthinkably talented creators chosen from the refined depths of the dance underground. A glance at their portfolio sees the likes of Kai Alce, Ge-Ology, Patrick Gibin, Spinna, Volcov, Jay Daniel and Masalo shining brightly among the compact list of featured artists. With a line-up as glittering as this, it’s perhaps only natural that the organisation would adopt a label arm from which to present music from the effervescent number. Releases have previously arrived from Danny Krivit (under his Mr K moniker), Kai Alce, and Volcov, while the all-new ‘7 Inch Nails’ series was ushered into life via the dextrous hands of Kaidi Tatham earlier this year. Seamlessly sashaying into episode two is a frequent collaborator of Tatham’s – and another figurehead of the jazz-inclined broken beat scene born out of 1990s West London – Dennis ‘Dego’ McFarlane. Dego rose to prominence as a founder member of revered outfit, 4Hero, and has subsequently released boundary-defying sounds on labels including Neroli, Eglo, Especial, and – most often – via his own 2000 Black.
Following his magnificent ‘The Negative Positive’ long-player that landed in the summer, Dego continues his scintillating form with two sparkling boogie-themed cuts. ‘Drop It Now Pick It Up’ arrives with all the synth-funk luminosity we’ve come to expect from Dego, with freaky analogue leads bubbling over dense bass as joyful chorus vocals chime in unison. On the reverse, the sound palette extends into the mid-tempo deep house strut of ‘Too Humid’, with cheeky synth motifs dancing over luscious chords and rolling bass guitar as the throbbing rhythm is enlivened by propulsive shakers.
PC
Stasis – Rare and Unreleased Vol 1 (Fencepiece)
There’s always been an air of mystery around the music of Steve Pickton. Even at his most prolific in the mid 90s, juggling multiple aliases from Stasis to Phenomenya and his own Otherworld label, he was never in the spotlight or forging an identity in the way his peers like Mark Broom and Kirk Degiorgio were. Even the labels he rolled with were predominantly low key, from B12’s initially anonymous pressings to the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Likemind. Bar the odd scattered track, the recent run of releases on his Fencepiece label represent the best chance for fans to get hold of long sought-after gems from the early days of UK techno. However, where many would aim to press up anything and everything in pursuit of that buoyant repress market, Pickton seems to be taking a more personal approach cherry-picking tracks he deem to be the highest priorities from across his considerable body of work and buried in the archives.
Well, whatever his intentions, thus far he’s picking nothing but gold, following up the previous Time Is Right 12” with three tracks that yet again demonstrate while his particular take on techno was so special. ‘Artifax’ surely counts as a classic within the Stasis annals, cult as it may be, having previously come out on Likemind in 1993 on a split 12” with Nuron (who has also been digging out some of his own deep cover material from the era). As a piece of music ‘Artifax’ sums up everything about the Stasis sound, soaring on a cornucopia of string pads before sliding into an exquisite, meandering acid tapestry as vibrant and fluid as it is delicate.
Also nodding back to Pickton’s work with Likemind, ‘Monolife’ appears here in a new, previously unreleased mix mastered from the original tapes. It’s a more jagged, chaotic affair with a clattering rhythm section up front, but these elements never come at the expense of the pervading Stasis mood. ‘Occasions & Adventures’ should have the trainspotters the most excited though – a completely unheard track from 1992 which stretches across the B side in a flurry of jazzy drum machine programming, nimble synth lines and grandiose synthetic orchestrations. With its extended beatless mid-section, perhaps it felt too far from the club when it was first made, but as the work of Stasis becomes increasingly considered as home-listening gear as much as club techno, this piece sums up the higher level Pickton was operating at when he took to the studio.
OW
Move D – Inside The Freero Dome (Smallville)
Move D is back among the Smallville Records grooves with his latest offering for the Hamburg-based label, showing up in inspired style with the immaculately-formed ‘Inside The Freero Dome’ EP. Smallville have been extraordinarily reliable when it comes to showcasing the deeper shades of house and techno, and despite a relatively modest release schedule in recent years, they still manage to routinely come correct when their carefully curated titles sporadically hit the shelves. Their hand-picked roster has featured in-house collective Smallpeople, Christopher Rau, STL, Benjamin Brunn, Iron Curtis and many other talented creators, and German artist David Moufang adopts his Move D persona here for a seventh appearance on the imprint. Moufang has been deep in the game for decades, operating both as a solo artist and one half of acclaimed duo, Deep Space Network. He’s released exquisite material on a wide range of highly-regarded labels – including Compost, Uzuri, Underground Quality, Philpot, Electric Minds, Workshop, and many more – and has garnered a deserved reputation as a captivating performer while working the platters at prestigious shows across the global underground. The EP’s title track begins proceedings in a beautifully meditative mode, as enchanting pads caress delicate keyboard motifs, steadily rising over sparsely positioned drums and simmering bass notes. Equally affecting are the spellbinding sonics of ‘The System Is’, with undulating bass making way for looped vocal samples, dissonant swirls and hyper-atmospheric pads, combining to form a hallucinatory fog as crisp hi-hats and muted snares maintain the concealed trajectory.
Finally, ‘Swarm Robot Love’ continues in a similar vein, with immersive chords filling the near-infinite space surrounding stripped drums, implied melodies and bare-bones rhythms. Gracefully occupying the mysterious territory between deep house and ambient, this sumptuous EP is just as well suited to at-home listening as cultured backroom jamming, once again vividly illustrating Move D’s elevated mastery of his seasoned studio craft.
PC
Jai Dee – Timeless Fantasies Of An Altered State (Lobster Theremin)
s of now, Glasgow’s Jai Dee has only released two EPs, but he’s already scouring ahead-of-his-time rave fusions that until now have only existed in our astute imaginations.
‘Whirling Masses Of Formless Darkness’ (released via 1Ø PILLS MATE only three-ish months ago) was a euphoric piano breaks and rave extravaganza. Its grand score of 7 tracks, all clocking in at between 4 and 8 minutes long, made the project more of a mini-album than an EP, and besides conjuring an utter vortex of dance heat, dealt in themes of anxious cosmos and sci-fi existentiality. Breakbeats were the impetus to explore event horizons and weird warp drives, like a more mysterious take on the space-jammed styles of fellow astral pilot Space Dimension Controller.
‘Timeless Fantasies Of An Altered State’, by contrast, flips the mood from cosmic anxiety to heaventy eternity, with rave itself shuffling off its mortal coil and grasping at newer heights. Between gargantuan beds of e-ambience and crisp breaks solos, everything seems smothered in a sort of smeary, bleary blur, united by the sonic implication of far-off, unreachable rave elysium. ‘Tears In Your Voice’, for example, opens with a cut-up, glossolalic sample of a cosmic geezer – “garage” being the only word we can decipher – before dropping into a junglist’s daydream.
Pianorave weaponry, meanwhile, is the main munitions class in Jai Dee’s arsenal. ‘We Can Have It All’ buries a smothered lo-fi break below judder-stabs and seraphic crowd jeers, while ‘Hold Love By The Hand’ might just steal the title of ‘rave symphony of the year’, homing in on the resounding nature of emotion. By layering several breakbeats on top of each other, and burying each breaks’ed edge in endless hall reverbs and echoes, something much deeper and important is achieved than simple retro-rave tomfoolery.
JIJ
Session Victim ‘10,000 Hours’ (Toy Tonics)
On song production duo Matthias Reiling and Hauke Freer have enjoyed another superlative year operating under their much-loved Session Victim moniker. 2021 has seen them continue an impeccable run of organically-fused deep house releases, including the excellent ‘Listen To Your Heart’ long-player that arrived via regular home, Delusions Of Grandeur, as well as a gently flowing stream of well-formed EPs. Following on from their delectable cover of Mark Almond’s jazz-pop gem ‘The City’ – recorded alongside Jamie Lloyd and Erobique – the pair make their Toy Tonics bow with four varied but coherent jams. It seems almost unfathomable that this is the first time Session Victim have presented work on the high-flying Berlin-based label, but, sure enough, their (arguably long overdue) debut is every bit as impressive as we’d hoped. The ‘10,000 Hours’ EP opens in a particularly sprightly manner with the joyously energetic, sample-heavy groove of ‘Chunky Dip’. Here, irresistibly looping guitar and bass licks do a magnificent job seducing the listener, whipping up a dancefloor fervour while peppy horn stabs complete the sensual assault as they rise over shuffling house drums. Next, the rolling drums and thick bass energy of ‘MPFree Now’ serve as the ballast to allow the gorgeously free-spirited vocal liberty to dance and dip over a breezy synth lead and hypnotic congas.
On the reverse, the blissful Latin-fused melodies of ‘Hide & Seek’ soothe as they meander over warmly filtered loops, creating a vivid sense of ocean-side abandon as harmonic waves gently lap at sandy shores. Finally, frequent collaborator Jamie Lloyd makes a welcome appearance alongside Tx on the bittersweet introspection of ‘House In The Hills’. Two-step drums skip over deeply-rooted bass before emotive chords are joined by mysterious synth and delicate guitar plucks, fusing to form a strange but beautiful panorama as the arrangement elegantly unfolds.
PC
Josh Thompson’s earlier work as Alma Construct already pointed to the fact his gift lies in needlepoint digital production. Rather than being seduced by retro-fetishism or hardware dogma, his music embodies the spirit of electronics as the gateway to progression, testing new forms and approaches to program his own language. Alma Construct was some time ago now though, and in more recent years he’s been pressing ahead as FFT, recently landing on The Trilogy Tapes and Low End Activist’s Bruk label with modernist variations on the hardcore tradition and a kind of souped-up electro twist. One gets the impression genre is a fair few steps behind process in Thompson’s thought pattern as he works on his music.
Process feels like a looming presence on this sophisticated drop for Numbers – a label who know a thing or two about artists looking ahead instead of behind them. The three versions of ‘Disturb Roqe’ are very much pulled from the same area of investigation, pivoting around micro-sampling, dub-informed minimalism and hushed chord impressions. The overall effect is minimalist, but there’s always plenty of movement in the detailed sound field, calling to mind the slender subtleties of Jan Jelinek or maybe even the more playful sound of Kit Clayton. It takes a certain amount of conviction to release three similar variations on a very particular theme, but the sound Thompson conjures is at turns compelling and soothing on the ears. Cast in deeper shades and testing ideas in idiosyncratic style, it’s another intriguing step on for an artist who seems to evolve with every release.
OW
Alex Attias Presents El Mustang ‘Life EP’ (Visions Inc)
Alex Attias revives his Mustang moniker on the rather wonderful ‘Life EP’. Landing on the Visions Inc label he runs alongside his brother, Stephane, the four-track EP serves as a tantalising teaser to his forthcoming album. The Visions Inc brand is exemplified by authentic deep house sensibilities admired through an organically-tinted lens and has regularly hosted luminaries from the scene – with Trinidadian Deep, Jon Dixon, Vick Lavender, Peven Everett, and Hanna just some of those who’ve joined the Attias brothers on the roster.
The new EP opens with the sumptuous vocal manoeuvres of vintage US house-themed ‘Love Me Better’, with its dreamy chords, heartfelt lead vox, and jazz-centred melodies. ‘Dream Drums’ veers delightfully off-piste, with its dramatic chords, fizzing synths motifs, and scattered bass rhythms combining for four minutes of dancefloor delirium. No-less bold is the EP’s title track, with its deviantly simmering bass, errant synths, and jerking rhythmic patterns stealthily swimming through murky deep house waters. Finally, the loose-limbed rhythms continue into closing track ‘Wonderlust’, with jagged percussion and elastic bass throbbing beneath idiosyncratic synths and minor chords. This is engrossing work from El Mustang and should keep listeners suitably primed for the imminent arrival of his keenly-anticipated album.
PC
Make A Dance ‘MAD 002’ (Make A Dance)
Mysterious new imprint Make A Dance follow on from their ferociously well-received debut with another four-tracks of retro-futurist club destroyers. The EP’s predecessor ‘Somebody’ caused something of a stir when it arrived at the top of the year – thanks to its rousing vocals and floor-focussed dance dynamism – and it appears as though the shadowy figures behind the project have lost nothing in the way of club-ready grit in between instalments. Opening track ‘Acid Kid’ rockets into life with kinetic intent, as sampled vocals arrive over broken drums before an almighty acid line powers in over warm bass and cascading synth lines. Next, the atmospheric vocal chants and vintage house shuffle of ‘Lush Action’ set the scene majestically for emotive strings and irresistible bass to unite for a fist-pumping big room strut.
On the flip, the twinkling e-piano keys and distant horn stabs of ‘Howlin’ Hutch’ gallop over snarling synth bass before welcoming the arrival of a memorable trumpet lead. Finally, the space-age staccato synths and muted guitar plucks of ‘Jonny Jet Set’ steer the EP into cosmic boogie territory, as glistening vibraphone hits and triumphant horns soar over the tightly wound beat.
PC
This week’s reviewers: Patrizio Cavaliere, Oli Warwick, Jude Iago James,.