The best new singles this week
Our critics choose this week’s essential singles
SINGLE OF THE WEEK
Masterfully impressive electronica from LDS (Luca Daniel Schwarz), exploring an unusual style of techno constructed not in the box, but rather an array of modular gear the artist has built for himself over the years. The German native debuts these six new ones for his friends over at Blue Hour, working through innumerable twists and turns; unpredictable synth chord stabs, exhalatory textures, and overall, suffocatingly mind-boggling production.
While LDS’ prior releases such as ‘Dub Tapes From Outer Space’ and ‘Organic Computer Awareness’ were much less grand (paring back the variation for a doublet of experiments in ambient dub techno, albeit with many-a-glitch added in) this EP marks a full shift in scope. Opener ‘nbdfoil’ seems to describe a new kind of manufacturable super-material, capable of slicing, upholstering, stretching, and withstanding extreme heat – move over, Buckminster-Fuller. The waxings and wanings of the track sound as if LDS is sonically demonstrating the foil’s otherworldly properties as part of a futuristic slideshow; a pulsatory fill signals the material’s ability to withstand bullets, a stretchy chord denotes its tensile strength.
‘kizzt_VF’ marks the EP’s first straight-up drop into 4×4 techno, propelling the listener through a world of farty, buzzing and playful subworlds. Experiments in modular FM synthesis, blended with flecks of videogame-worthy arps (akin to the ‘coin get’ sound effects in Super Mario) show up on ‘<13’, which either slowly detune, glitch into silence, and/or escape into the stereo field. Clearly, LDS is intentionally doing everything possible to introduce variation to an already ultra-abstract palette.
The latter half takes a further technoish turn, with ‘fl+’ and ‘Vone’ acting as equally excitable wormholes through forward-moving and -thinking dance. Closer ‘mfäg’ is the highlight, messing with a kickless constructed melody made of a synth that sounds as if it were made out of a bouncy ball shot into a particle accelerator. For any of our readers on the lookout for their weekly slice of shifting, restless braindance, ‘Algo5’ is your one.
JIJ
Deep Dean – Ocean Groove (Mysticisms)
The moniker may be unfamiliar, but the quality of production hints at a sure hand behind the glorious dream house retrospection of ‘Ocean Groove’. The name Deep Dean doesn’t appear to have cropped up before — or, indeed, since — the original 2018 release of this tight four-tracker on London’s Mysticisms label, but a quick round of online sleuthing reveals that the man behind the mask is most certainly a well-known protagonist. Lewis Day, better known as Tornado Wallace, is an artist with some seriously impressive production chops, and it turns out ‘Ocean Groove’ is, in fact, a so-far one-off project from the Berlin-based maestro. Having released exceptional music on labels including ESP Institute, Mule, Optimo Music and many other fine labels over the years, Day has had a relatively measured output of late. With that in mind, it’s especially pleasing to see this EP pop up again after almost five years. His music has brilliantly evolved over time, morphing through shades of nu-disco into cutting-edge deep house and electronica as the years have rolled by.
The original mix of ‘Ocean Groove’ feels like something akin to a loving ode to golden age Italo house, with glistening pads, carefree melodies and rubbery bass combined over crisp machine drum rhythms. Add to this a set of stirring piano chords, as per the descriptively titled ‘Piano Mix’, and that implied Mediterranean inspiration seems all the more pronounced. That’s not to say this is a strictly revivalist production, as the altogether grubbier ‘Basement Dub’ confirms with its stripped soundscapes and warehouse-ready groove. The collection is completed with the bonus track, ‘The Awakening’, where off-kilter and Eastern-tinged melodies glide over growling synth syncopations and sub-rooted bass. A release that may have slipped under the radar for some, its reappearance is certainly a nice surprise. And the music, considering who wrote it, is predictably splendid.
PC
Eusebeia – Illusion Of Time (Literature Recordings)
Seb Uncles is one of those artists who just can’t seem to keep music locked up within him. For someone who is relatively young in the releasing game he already has a formidable catalogue behind him, and there’s an alarmingly strong consistency to what he releases, but of course abundance can sometimes dilute appreciation and with that in mind it was no bad thing to have just a few key releases in the past 12 months to reflect on. His drop for Livity Sound was significant – a larger EP release than is usually found on Pev’s label, and notable for Uncles bringing the immersive Eusebeia sound to bear in a place where you might not have expected it.
Operating as a unique producer on his own terms wherever he lands, now it’s the turn of Literature to carry some Eusebeia joints, and once again we’re offered a vision of jungle and drum & bass which is classically informed but also independently minded. There’s no particular complexity to unravel on ‘Illusion Of Time’ – this is an exercise in atmospheric jungle through and through, but Uncles manages to make a familiar approach sound special through a conviction in his sound. He keeps the breaks light-footed and agile rather than bludgeoning, and he uses those vast, distant pads to intone mystery and intrigue rather than one-dimensional chill.
‘Pilgrimage’ doubles down on this idea as the icy melodic tones take on a more snaking quality and the drums get more intricately diced up. There’s a strong sub presence anchoring the rollage, but still the track feels like it floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee. There’s a degree of finesse holding everything together which makes for some of the most compelling jungle from the deeper end of the spectrum you’re likely to hear all year.
OW
Harri Stojka Express – What A Funky Night (Mother I’d Like To Funk)
First and foremost, let’s salute the team behind the all-new Mother I’d Like To Funk imprint for their magnificent use of both wordplay and acronym (see the catalogue number for the latter). With a playful approach sunny enough to bring a smile to the weariest of weather-beaten January faces, it’s especially pleasing to see that the label’s love of double entendre appears to be matched by a promising curatorial nouse. Launching in some style, the debut MILF release (there, I said it) is a thoroughly warranted re-issue from a somewhat unlikely source. Celebrated Austrian guitarist Harri Stojka is best known for his sonic adventures into rock and, later, jazz-rock. Originally released back in 1983, ‘What A Funky Night’ isn’t particularly in keeping with the bulk of his considerable output, rooted, as it is, in a delicious boogie-meets-Italo-meets-rap aesthetic.
Composed alongside his brother, Robi, the track is bags of fun and unashamedly feel-good in tone. Any smile would previously likely have been wiped off the faces of potential suitors, however, since copies of the original release are advertised at upwards of £130 on the resale market, making this timely re-issue all the more alluring. If the unabashed positivity of the A-side doesn’t clinch the deal, a trip to the smoke-filled reverse might still prove tempting, with a faintly psychedelic tribute to everyone’s favourite illicit herb completing the package. As the name suggests, ‘Marihuana’ sings of the distinct joys of wacky baccy, framed over a cod reggae bed and neatly embellished with stoner guitar solos and call-and-response vocal lines. It may well end up being a case of ‘grab this while you can’, such is the scarcity of the original, but, in any case, it’s a mighty strong start from the MILF crew (I said it again). We look forward to seeing what will be next to arrive from their stable.
PC
Death Bells – Echoes (Funeral Party)
Forming one part of the tight-knit Kentucky label Funeral Party, Death Bells are arguably Australia’s best modern-day answer to The Cure, The Smiths or any other emo-goth outfit hailing from these isles in the 1980s and 1990s. The sextet’s two new vinyl bits come in the form of a split single here, ‘Echoes / Move Through Me’, locking in an interestingly dark take on a sound that has been successfully tried and tested this side of the pond, but which still calls for takes from our friends across the globe.
A camera-shaky, retro-style music video came out for ‘Echoes’ all the way back in 2018, when the band debuted the track digitally. On vinyl, the song sounds equally washy, tambourine-glued and hurt, with the loomingly low vocals of Will Canning soaring over its box-limited mix. Matching the song’s overall palette, which is as bright and squashed as jangle-goth should be, its lyrics concern a lost love interest whom Canning insists must have “every piece (of you) free from me, free from my head”, implying a mutual interaction of codependency wherein said person lives rent-free inside Canning’s head, while Canning himself continues to live out his youth as a free agent.
The B, ‘Move Through Me’, deals with the same love lost but is less washed out, with an extra-toothy bassline gnawing at the bass region. The overall up-down rhythm renders the track so compressed that its cymbals sound like electricity, weaving through the track’s emotional signal flow. This is an overall impressive sonic elegy for both a sound and a real lived experience of love.
JIJ
Mor Elian – Diva Test (Fever AM)
Anyone who has witnessed Mor Elian working a dancefloor with her finely honed DJ instincts will have plenty of expectations hitting play on one of her EPs. The Berlin-based artist is cultivating a formidable presence in that flexible corner of modern techno-electro-bass-ish club music where delicacy and inventiveness take precedence over lumpen brawn.
Having graced wide-reaching labels like Prime Numbers, Hypercolour and Radio Matrix, it’s felt like building out her Fever AM platform has been the right vehicle for her sound to develop as a formidable, independent voice. At this point, we assume we’re getting high-grade, advanced club music for those who like a surprise or two, but even so Diva Test is a knockout work to make you sit up and take notice.
It’s ‘Diva Test (Cicada Mix)’ which especially drives this sensation home through its melodic incantations – oddly organic phrases with a quality which takes you into wide open spaces filled with natural light. In a climate of oppressive, nihilistic techno de rigeur, these kinds of qualities feel so precious and welcome. Elian’s instinct for invigorating club music extend elsewhere on the EP, in the playful but never kitsch melodic hooks of house swinger ‘Beta Zest’ or in the shimmering figures inhabiting the collaboration with Fever AM partner Rhyw, ‘Liquid Silver’. The clue is in the name, and the synthesis is indeed marked out by these vivid elements which give the music so much personality.
It is easy for such an approach to fall into the trap of novelty, but there’s also an emotional depth to Elian’s tracks which keeps them up top, moving with a kinesis which will absolutely set a club alight but offering something more meaningful than run of the mill thudders and chuggers.
OW
NW2 Music is a ragga and dancehall label active since at least the early noughties and run by local London vocalist K-oss. A stalwart of the underground reggae and dancehall scene in the UK, K-oss is noted both for his South Asian heritage and being stooped in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s scene (the era of doo-rags, Sean Paul and Sizzla). His label NW2 should be noted for its self-starting, organic origins; K-oss began making music after responding to a newspaper ad for ‘reggae artist needed’, and thinking on his feet, thought to himself, “yeah, that’s me, I’m a reggae artist”. The rest was history.
‘Round The Way’ is a choice cut from NW2 Productions’ timeless repertoire, a digi-ragga cut inflected with the cut-and-paste rawness of grime. A classic among such other greats as ‘Whine Like That’ and ‘Want You’, this track, and all K-oss’s other originals, were first released on wide-adapted 7” 45rpm vinyl singles, which were the norm for dancehall back then. The track is as scratchy and immediately gratifying as some of the best early dancehall out there, with Hitchcock-worthy psycho strings, glute-slapping claps and matter-of-fact subs making up its gut-punching mix (the instrumental is on the B side, in case you hadn’t guessed). With the A’s lyrics containing all the braggadocio one might expect from a real underground originator like K-oss – “ya, mi girls up mi back and mi girls on di way” – it’s no secret he’s been drowning in options since day dot.
JIJ
Kassian – Kassian Versions 003 (Kassian)
Hackney-based duo Kassian have done rather well since arriving on Heist recordings with their startling debut in 2019. With a forward-facing sound straddling various shades of the contemporary house spectrum, the skill with which they’re able to frame bygone samples with a futurist production aesthetic goes some way to describing their distinctly recognisable sound. Further releases on Shall Not Fade, Phonica and SB Jams helped cement their status, while the previous two instalments of ‘Kassian Versions’ found them in typically inspired form. Between them, Warren Cummings and Joe Danvers, unsurprisingly, have some not-inconsiderable musical credentials under their respective belts. Both have been rooted in London’s subterranean dance movement for more than a minute, while Warren previously worked as a producer at Worldwide FM.
Focusing their battle-hardened chops with laser-sharp intensity, volume three finds the pair in typically effective form. The mutant synth bass and rugged drums of ‘Get Down’ start on the strongest possible footing, with acidic squeals and evocative vocal samples expertly combined over the warehouse-ready groove. ‘Timewarp’ follows a similar channel, with sinister acid licks and paranoid synth swells rising over pounding drums and thick bass, while ‘Ultimate Warlord’ is perhaps the most aberrant of an altogether mischievous set, with jagged bass and fierce 303 lines powering over robotic vocals and murky house drums.
PC
Boris Divider – Ultralink (Remastered) (Drivecom)
Madrid-based artist Boris ‘Divider’ Saez recently revived his Drivecom label after a family lengthy hiatus, and the latest release on the imprint sees him revisit a highlight from his back catalogue with a remastered version of ‘Ultralink’. Originally released in 2010 on cult label, Semantica, the newly-invigorated versions sound remarkably in keeping with much of today’s crop, hinting at both the forward-facing scope of the electro-tinged productions and the cyclical nature of how audiences perceive music in general. Featuring five undulating tracks that vary in style from kinetically-charged belters to brooding backroom jams, the record finds Divider in spellbinding form throughout. The agile textures of the title track certainly grab the attention, with off-kilter synth motifs, moody pads and distant vocals darting over uptempo rhythms and murky bass notes.
A few degrees more subdued but no less vital, the bubbling acid and heads-down pace of ‘Axonal Destruction’ bursts with atmosphere, while the rolling breaks of downtempo bubbler ‘Neural Locator’ brilliantly maintain the nocturnal mood. ‘Neuroblasto’ dives deeper into the darkness, with stripped rhythms keeping the tempo as grubby synths slowly emerge from the late-night fog, before closing track ‘Genoma (Recloned)’ stays the course with morphing glitches and clicks powering edgy acid licks over a pulsing rhythm.
PC
This week’s reviewers: Patrizio Cavaliere, Jude Iago James. Oli Warwick