The best new singles this week
Our writers highlight their favourite nuggets of brilliance from the past seven days
SINGLE OF THE WEEK
The Rhythm Odyssey & Dr Dunks – El Cid (Phantasy Sound)
The dream pairing of Dean Meredith and Eric Duncan reunite as The Rhythm Odyssey & Dr Dunks for a long-overdue dancefloor dalliance, arriving on the ideal home of Phantasy Sound with the two-track ‘El Cid’ EP. The duo combined to dazzling effect on a string of releases for Phil South’s (sadly departed) Golf Channel label, with the most recent joint effort on the imprint hitting the shelves a good seven years ago. Disciples of the nocturnal groove are likely to be as thrilled as we are to see their names appearing together once again, and sure enough, the music more than lives up to saucer-eyed expectation. Individually and as team members in various delightful sonic unions, both artists have been responsible for more than their share of irresistible meta rave and disco deviance over the years.
Meredith’s work as part of the Chicken Lips project he co-founded with Andy Meecham has provided some of subterranean UK disco’s most indelible moments, while Duncan’s Rub N Tug shenanigans with Tom Bullock routinely hit the sweet spot of the world’s divergent dancers. Add to this the lengthy list of solo compositions and remixes from the pair, and it becomes abundantly clear that their combined chops are far beyond reproach. With all this in mind, it’s perhaps predictable that ‘El Cid’ is primed to spark esoteric dancefloor eruption. On the A-side, the title track struts over a marvellously aberrant nine-plus minutes of warehouse abandon. Simmering acid bubbles under loose-limbed rhythms, as the morphing horizon is periodically permeated by screeching synths, fizzing textures and whistling sweeps. On the flip, the throbbing bass and bristling hats of ‘Fast Leather Jacket’ propel wonky synth leads, undulating effects and all manner of big room swooshes, maniacally combining for an unadulterated voyage into hedonistic skylarking. My, how we’ve missed this.
PC
Tapes Meets Nikolaienko – Sunda School II (Porridge Bullet)
Ukrainian dub techno god Dmytro Nikolaienko takes a break from his mysterious mainstay label Muscut, here releasing a divertive and exciting collaboration with London retroist Tapes (Jackson Bailey). Forming one part of Porridge Bullet’s ‘Sunda School’ series (with Ajukaja killing the first), it’s not quite clear as to what the rules of this promised 7” trilogy are. But hey, we’re all for it!
Breaking from both artists’ tape-loopy live sets and visuals, the name of the game with this album is the organ. Both Nikolaienko and Bailey get comfortable behind the ‘pipes’ on this long 4-tracker, adding in their own bleeps, bloops, delays and grit for good measure. It also makes sense; both artists (as far as we know) are now based in Tallinn, Estonia, where underground music radiates like volatile plutonium, while most English listeners remain oblivious to it.
From the moment we press play, a verdant, hauntological exploration of sound ensues: ‘Rush To Closing Gates’ lops off the high end, while, at the same time, the track paints a kind of synthetic, nigh ‘fake’, ambient country scene. Something deeply haunting similarly lurks beneath the surface of ‘Countryside Emergency’; it’s like the musical equivalent of a 1970s sitcom set, but its open plan living room is slowly disintegrating, and has shapeshifted to form the interior of an art deco spaceship.
Tapes’ obsession with roughed-up arpeggiations and strange twinkly melodies plays out continually. ‘Time With Burnt’ is both playful and sinister, cycling through old tatty samples, and what sound to be the broken noises of labour-saving devices. ‘Jaaksoni Tamm’ is no different, but it’s at least more new-agey. This is the kind of collaboration that seems obvious and long overdue, yet we never would have thought to suggest it ourselves.
JIJ
Feel Fly – Cosmo Cosmo (Internasjonal)
Following on from 2019’s ‘Syrius’ LP, Italian producer Daniele ‘Feel Fly’ Tomassini returns to Internasjonal with the sumptuous ‘Cosmo Cosmo’ EP. The Perugia-based artist has made a promising start to his production career, with an appearance on Hell Yeah! Recordings and a forthcoming outing on International Feel illustrating the esteem with which is work is already held by some of the most discerning A&R ears in the business. Having seen a pair of his album tracks reworked by DJ Sotofett and (label co-owner) Prins Thomas, he returns to Internasjonal with his first full-length EP for the imprint. In keeping with the dreamy landscape conjured on ‘Syrius’, the music dips between throbbing basslines and floating analogue textures throughout, vividly evoking wide-eyed echoes of vintage Italo house.
The title track opens over glistening pads, with gentle arpeggios ushering in thick bass and driving house drums. Subtly melancholic but guided by hope, the pulsing rhythm powers the groove into the pastel half-light of a Mediterranean dawn. Next, ‘Sinfonia Celeste’ bursts with the turbo-charged sincerity of a golden age trance track, with mighty drums powering shimmering synth arpeggios and dramatic chord stabs through peaks, troughs and rising snare rolls. Gliding in for a gentle change of pace, ‘Tripp Cosmo Mix’ evolves over delicately undulating chords, as propulsive percussion embellishes the rhythm with an infectious dynamism. Next up, the pulsing bass and atmospheric swirls of ‘Playa Paraiso’ once again arouse sunrise sensations, as the hypnotic groove speaks to primal rhythmic urges as the steady drum track drives the eyes-closed meditation. Finally, the distant breaks of ‘Argonauta’ energise emotive pads, seductive synths and mood-enhancing piano chords, elegantly combining for a transcendent moment of dance-induced togetherness. Timeless, heartfelt, and kinetically charged, this is compelling work across the board from Feel Fly.
PC
Cousin – Hudson (Nummer Music)
Previously the Nummer lads kept their own label for their own music, slipping out a string of 12”s with their own curious strain of house music inside. Last year they broke the chain with a record from Bristol’s Deep Nalström, and now they’re continuing the trend with a release by Cousin. Based in Sydney, the artist otherwise known as Jackson Fester has been quietly doing his thing for over five years now, sneaking out 12”s on 81 and Best Effort as well as running his own Moonshoe label and recording with Freda. Between them, Freda & Jackson are helping cultivate a particular vibe which fits in with the Butter Sessions and Inner Varnika circles within the Australian scene, but also strikes out with a unique, delicate touch which gets crystalised beautifully on this new record.
Hudson is a record for meditative immersion, but it’s not ambient per se. Each track is densely crafted and propelled by pronounced rhythms. They just happen to be organic and light-footed in nature, programmed with a sensibility which asks, ‘how much can I pull this back’ rather than ‘how much can I push this forwards?’ As such, you get a dance music which energises rather than bludgeons, which seems to rise up from the earth and spiral outwards. It can slap when it wants to, and there’s very much a 4/4 thump nudging ‘Locked’ along, but it’s far from the most prominent sound in the mix. Bar the ascendant peaks of pad, nothing seems to win out as the dominant sonic force – everything works in simbiance whether it’s a synth gurgle or a woodblock perc line.
This left-of-centre approach suits the universe Nummer sculpted for themselves, where a whisper of a house sensibility still sneaks in underneath the undulating patterns. You could have a lot of fun with these tracks in the mix, but they equally don’t seem to be crying out for that purpose. They’re not structured with the steady intro, build-up, breakdown kind of formula, but rather bob and weave, ebb and flow like mini ecosystems. If that all sounds a bit earthy you might be best off finding some proper machine music, but if you’re the sort who likes to kick their shoes off and dance barefoot on the grass, you’re definitely going to dig this EP.
OW
Fatima Yamaha – Bring Back Bangers (Magnetron)
It’s been a while since we last heard the name Fatima Yamaha, and perhaps the title of his latest EP, ‘Bring Back Bangers’, is a nod to this sense of recollection. Several years ago, his breakout track ‘What’s a Girl To Do’ enjoyed a renewed popularity among university students club-goers, soundtracking many ketty afterparties spent hunched around kitchen tables.
But that track is now over 10 years old, and despite its infectiousness, it sounds sort of primitive for Yamaha’s now well-rounded production palette. By most accounts, ‘What’s A Girl To Do’ is probably a bad point of reference for ‘Bring Back Bangers’. Unlike the sensitive, sparse and meek vibe of his most well known song, this new debut for Netherlands label Magnetron is a four-track slew of unrelenting nu-disco and deep house, nailing a harder edged version of the ‘wonky techno disco’ that briefly came to in the last decade.
‘Build It Up’ is – undeniably – reminiscent of Daft Punk, with repeated and bitcrushed soul samples ducking in and out of the high pass, as ragtime piano adorns the top end (yes, the reference to Daft Punk is obvious, but the resemblance is particularly uncanny). Yamaha’s own identity shines better on the follow-up ‘Own Nothing’, where a kitsch melody overlays a more serious night-driving beat. The track is as worthy of alternatively soundtracking Beverly Hills Cop as it is for the music video for Justice’s ‘Stress’, straddling moods of both pain and joy.
Pop is eked out on the B, with Netherlands rapper and friend Willie Wartaal guesting on vocals, and giving Yamaha free reign over vocal science, all while videogame leads adorn the top of the track, like melodies cut from the soundtrack of a lost Zelda or Pokemon level. Finally, closer ‘Reset Me Nots’ shows off what Yamaha can really do; antithetical to the EP’s title, it’s not a banger, but really rather a dreamy and filmic synthwave bit that captures our imaginations all the same. This EP is a remarkable return for Yamaha, legitimising the more accessible, retro-80s end of his discog.
JIJ
Heron – Bye & Bye (Trading Places)
Nowadays, our online connectedness makes music marketing easier, but the ‘70s were different. Many young bands were worth their salt, but they were still at the mercy of the time period in which they were active. Maidenhead folk outfit Heron, formed in 1967, were one such band. Their 7” EP ‘Bye & Bye’ was forced to slink into obscurity on the sales front at the time of its release, despite receiving heavy radio play.
The culprit was the postal workers’ strike, 1971: low wages from Royal Mail, then still a public service, led to Pye Records’ inability to operate their mail-order system. Other bands could adapt: Yes’ manager, Brain Lane, pounced to save ‘The Yes Album’ by simply buying up all the copies of the store in the only shop active at that moment, the Virgin Records store in Oxford Street.
But Heron got no such luck. It’s a shame, too, because this psych-folk four tracker is futuristic enough, with the first song commanding immediate attention with its subtle marrying of accordion (or is it a synth?) and galloping drum ‘breaks’. Lyrically, the song gets at lead singer G.T. Moore’s love for travel and aversion to saying goodbye. ‘Through Time’, meanwhile, lowers the tone to near swords-and-sorcery levels of folk fantasy, with the raw ache of heartbreak via Rhodes, grand piano, and psych twang shining through. ‘Only A Hobo’ is the 6/8 waltz and Bob Dylan cover that charms us. If anything, we find it hard not to accuse Neutral Milk Hotel of ripping Heron off here, with ‘In The Aeroplane Over The Sea’ sounding like a pale imitation. Perhaps this band deserves more credit, as reissuing label Trading Places would attest.
JIJ
This week’s reviewers: Jude Iago James, Oli Warwick, Patrizio Cavaliere.