The best new singles this week
Moodymann in the mix heads up our essentials singles list
SINGLE OF THE WEEK
Inkswel / Colonel Red – Holders Of the Sun remixes (Compost)
It’s fair to say that a Moodymann remix is always likely to generate a certain amount of clamour among his many admirers. His subterranean mystique is, after all, pretty much unparalleled. That he seemingly chooses the projects he deigns to put his hands on so sparingly only multiplies the intrigue, and, considering his relatively languid rate of studio output in the last few years, the enthusiasm that met news of his appearance on Compost’s latest was all the more concentrated.
Here, he headlines a set of interpretations reformed from last year’s ‘Holders Of The Sun’ album by Inkswel and Colonel Red, and, happily, the results more than match the expectation. The original version of ‘Hold On To It’ is a balmy slice of neo-soul, and its grainy vocals provide Moodymann with plenty of inspiration as his version kicks off the set. Pitching the soulful lead over low-slung drums, brooding portamento bass and atmospheric piano licks, he morphs the music into a typically sensual strut brimming with equal measures of off-kilter funk and swagger. KDJ set a high bar indeed, and the next set of remixes are no less striking. German outfit Moodorama turn their hands to ‘Cruel Mistake’, reforming the original into a pair of cosmically charmed revisions.
The ‘Moodorama Weird Mistake’ mix evolves with hazy vocal chops oozing over heads-down rhythms as brooding strings and alien textures drift across the darkening twilight haze. Next, the ‘Moodorama Deep Rise’ mix provides something of a Balearic reprise, with weightless arpeggios spiralling skyward over soothing pitched percussion and ethereal pads. Also included on the EP are a pair of mixes from Canadian duo, Potatohead People, who offer respectful vocal and instrumental revisions of ‘You Make Me Crazy’. Warm, fuzzy, and steeped in synth-funk gloss, their accomplished takes stay true to the neo-soul intention of the original. An impressive package all told, with each version supremely well adapted for various settings. Understandably, many will gravitate towards Moodymann’s beguiling effort — after all, no one walking Mother Earth does it quite like the Moody One.
PC
Christoph De Babalon – Leaving Time (Super Hexagon)
Across an intermittent release schedule, the Super Hexagon label has examined the leftfield hardcore landscape with artists taking a sideways approach. Label bosses FFT and J. Wiltshire have played a significant role as representatives of the (relatively) new guard, but now they’re turning their attention to someone who has been a breakbeat contrarian since long before it was in vogue. Christoph De Babalon has an imposing legacy in deathly sonics with a soundsystem physicality, and he presents further demonstrations of his individualist, uncompromising style on this heavyweight four-tracker.
There is plenty of danceable impact to be felt on the likes of ‘The Upper Hand’, where the icy stretches of emptiness in between the half time rhythms feel as though they were summoned from purgatory before being set to work. But De Babalon has never been a one-dimensional producer, and ‘I Trusted You’ favours a more sombre approach which elicits a more emotional, if no less downcast, impact from the combination of eerie drones and salt-encrusted drums.
The gothic mood maintains through the haunting lead-in of ‘Steps Into Solitude’, although the eventual lock-in has a clear-sighted purpose which feels wholly attuned to the immersive tendencies of early-days dubstep. ‘Got To Let Go’ completes the picture with another foray into heavy-hearted melodic composition and interlocking percussion, following the formula of the prior tracks but doing magically gloomy work with low-pitched 808 subs and some truly soul-straining synth swerves in the mid-section which take on a funereal cadence. It’s powerfully bleak, as is De Babalon’s recognised modus operandi, but not at the expense of nuance and subtlety.
OW
Various – Interactive Test Volume 1 (Utopia Originals)
UK label Utopia dig deep into the archives for the latest chapter from their Utopia Originals offshoot, presenting four prized titles mined from the golden years of Italian label, Interactive Test. Launched in early ‘90s Florence by brothers Franco and Riccardo Falsini, Interactive Test was home to a selection of the Italo house movement’s most alluring prog-leaning pearls. Franco had previously achieved success in the ‘70s with his kraut-rock-inspired group, Sensations’ Fix. Continuing his psychedelic manifestations into the electronic realm, his label blazed a trail throughout the ‘90s with the help of a host of Italy’s cult production heroes, and some of the most memorable moments are immortalised on ‘Interactive Test Volume 1’.
It has to be said, the music sounds remarkably fresh to this day, with the soundscapes presented very music in keeping with sounds championed by the current crop of trendsetting creators and jocks. Pitched somewhere between vintage trance and dream house (both sounds enjoying a fairly massive reassurance in recent years), the remastered tracks translate magnificently to modern floors. The wide-eyed thrust of I Believe’s ‘Master Spirit’ sets a hallucinatory tone before the weightless vocals of ‘Vheladei’ by Girls On Pills maintain the transcendent sensations as they drift over crunching drums and throbbing bass. Steve Mantovani’s ‘Doctor Of Dreams’ is gorgeously psychedelic, with whispered vocals floating across ethereal pads and rolling rhythms, while Italo trance don Miki pitches in with yet more tripped-out textures on the Melly Melody version of ‘107’.
Here, Eastern melodics are woven into hypnotic synth motifs, with sturdy bass and loose percussion tethering the cosmically-charmed instrumentation. Finally, completing a mesmerising set that belies its relatively seasoned age, Open Spaces’ ‘A Beginning Of An Idea’ veers all the way into golden age trance territory. Driven by pounding drums, it’s the toughest of the collection by some distance, with unrelenting bass powering sparse synth lines and oddball effects through the strobe light’s disorienting pulse.
PC
Malvern Brume – Pacing The Hollow Path (TEETH)
Three years ago Rory Salter debuted his Malvern Brume alias in the shrouded folds of the cassette landscape – a fitting clime for his acutely angled experiments. Since then he’s found a little more recognition through Helm’s Alter label and on Jon K and Elle Andrews’ MAL, dealing in tape-wrecked tapestries of synthesis and concréte-facing interference with a hint of dub, creating an obtuse impression which remains betrothed to ferric obfuscation even as it appears on other formats.
Now his titular fog manifests on a new label TEETH, with a project purportedly inspired by repeated walks in locations including Nunhead Cemetery. It’s not hard to envision such ghostly locales when losing oneself in these collages of imagined photography – under-exposed snapshots of spaces where even the more literal sound of a piano takes on an ancient, spectral quality.
These pieces reject conventional narrative arcs in favour of meandering juxtaposition – impressionist suites that heed the impulsive whims of the creator and carry us along for the ride as unwitting participants. The listener supplants their own memories onto such pointedly spooky compositions, where time becomes elastic between more protracted drone passages and scratchy wells of found sound. There’s familiarity in these messy, earthen sources. Even when an unspecified voice comes rambling into earshot with an obtuse diatribe masked by dictaphone distortion, there’s a universality to their tone which feels strangely relatable – a quality which draws you in close despite the stubbornly experimental nature of the music.
OW
Weezer – SZNZ: Spring (Atlantic)
In 2021, equally adored and maligned alt-rock/power pop mainstays, Weezer, dropped not one but two full-length LPs. The first was the, ‘Nilsson Sings Newman’, inspired orchestral curveball, ‘OK Human’, while four months later, the much anticipated, ‘Van Weezer’, would restore the down-stroked power-chords, sugary hooks and face-melting solos, with a much more brazen embracing of their classic 80’s-indebted, hair metal influences.
When asked in interviews what was next on the band’s horizon, endlessly endearing and prolific mastermind, Rivers Cuomo, revealed that their next project would be a four-volume work, centred around the seasons of the year, with the releases set to coincide with the official start dates of each subsequent equinox and solstice.
The first of these components was the, ‘Spring’ EP; originally unveiled at the beginning of the Vernal Equinox on 20th March 2022. Just under a year later, with seemingly the entire music world attempting to catch up with vinyl delays, spring has apparently arrived early for 2023.
Channelling a folk aesthetic akin to taking the family out to the county fair on a sunny day, Cuomo intended for this first instalment to radiate a, “happy, chill, stress-free” atmosphere, which is sonically evident from the opening mandolin strums of, ‘Opening Night’. While initially a breezy ode to attending Shakespeare plays in the park, the deeper meaning lies in the redemptive freedom of being able to enjoy the little things we love in life again since lockdown ended.
From there, it’s a joyful affair with topics ranging from motivating declarations of positive thinking on, ‘A Little Bit Of Love’, to utterly absurd anecdotes about angels leaving heaven to take some much-needed time off on the standout cut, ‘Angels On Vacation’.
Managing to juxtapose the folksy experiments with their classic, crunchy 90’s rock approach, leads to a culmination of simple, standard Weezer fare, but twisted enough to feel entirely fresh and reinvigorating. While not as mature or detailed as the subsequent entries, this starting point is a tranquil ease into yet another grandiose idea from a band seemingly never content with where their craft lay, and at 8 tracks and just over 20 minutes in length, requires little from the listener in exchange for an almost intoxicating amount of careless joviality. Report back in due course for the dawning of summer.
ZB
Ali Renault – Piano For The People (remixes) (Is It Balearic)
Longtime surfer of genres Ali Renault struck cosmic gold with his dreamy chugger ‘Piano For The People’ and here the Is It Balearic team usher in a selection of label favourites to offer up interpretations of the hyper-atmospheric cut. London-based Renault has delivered many a scintillating sonic morsel across a long and varied production career, and this has to be counted among his most evocative work.
The original version sees thick pads envelop soul-soothing bass over sparse-but-crisp machine drums as seductive spoken word vocal garnishes the groove. First to remix the track are enigmatic duo Aihki, who add an off-world vocal top-one to the mix as mysterious synth textures, gentle breaks and murky bass undulate below. Japanese maestro Fukagawa Kiyotaka is next at the controls, donning his familiar Calm cap and following on from last month’s meditative ‘Quiet Music Under The Moon’ with a slightly more energetic composition. 303 lines meander over bittersweet melodies and dense harmonics on his Mellow Acid dub, delicately embellishing the cosmic charm of the original as weighted rhythm complements lighter-than-air synth textures.
Finally, Double Gregory imbues the music with a discreetly new wave edge, with piercing drums driving stripped melodics through industrial sweeps and sinister vocal drawls.
PC
After a sterling run taking in labels like Incienso, Mister Saturday Night and Vanity Press, James Bangura appears to be drawing plenty of praise for his mutant club sound where techno, dubstep and breakbeat become supple putty to stretch, compress and coagulate into vibrant new forms. It’s something of a surprise to see the DC resident snapped up by !K7, but he steps up to the occasion with two razor sharp demonstrations of his strident voice as a producer, no doubt propelling him to further recognition on an undeniable ascendance.
‘Harrar’ manages to be both slippery and surefooted, toying with warping bass and twitchy uptempo beat construction that sounds a hairs breadth from collapse without ever falling over itself. It’s a sound which could as easily sit in a DJ Stingray set as electrify a Livity Sound dance, testament to these hybridised times without falling into the trap of ‘grey area’ genre agnosticism. Proving there’s plenty of scope for variety in his style, ‘Witness Dub’ instantly sets a different mood with its Sunday morning chord blooms and rugged, bumping house beat. There’s still an off-kilter edge to the track, but it’s instantly more human than the artful techiness of the A side, adding up to a potent calling card from an ever-increasingly essential producer from a city that seems to have no shortage of talented mavericks.
OW
James Curd – I Am One I Am Many (Pronto)
James Curd presents the fourth instalment from his new PRONTO label, delivering a hyper-infectious original alongside a set of smartly assembled reworks on ‘I Am One, I Am Many’. Born and raised in Chicago, Curd quickly rose through the underground ranks thanks to a steady stream of authentic house-rooted releases throughout the late ‘90s and ‘00s. His collaborations under both the Greenskeepers moniker and its associated label helped cement his reputation, surfing a wave of boompty rhythms with a discernible West Coast flourish. Now based in Adelaide, the producer, DJ and score composer aims directly for the floor with his latest project, ushering in some of the new wave’s most hard-hitting protagonists to work their respective magic into an already infectious cut.
The original bursts from the blocks, its lively tempo and good time groove driving a soul-enlivening vocal over a funk-flecked disco/house hybrid. Next, renegade UK outfit Adelphi Music Factory stay true to the original while adding body to the drums, morphing the key parts into the shape of an unfettered big room banger. The UK flavour continues with the help of the Make A Dance duo, who maintain the fine form they’ve shown on their eponymous label project while constructing an almost entirely new track around the striking vocal. Here, a contagious organ hook builds tension as saucer-eyed sweeps and off-kilter synths meander across the horizon, the club-primed arrangement poised to ignite floors as the groove ebbs and flows. Finally, Tel Aviv’s Nenor completes a sturdy set, transposing the track into subtly deeper territory with syncopated chords and brooding bass hypnotising as they power the vocal over a sparse sonic landscape. No nonsense house constructed with clubs in mind, each track amounts to nothing short of a dancefloor guarantee. Considering the chops of the players involved, this should come as little surprise.
PC
After snagging our ears with a nod to mid-00s minimal for Fringe White, Facta continues his escapades away from his home turf of Wisdom Teeth with further variations on the tech house template for Incienso. There’s a predilection for pearlescent globules of melody which carries through from Oscar Henson’s more delicate LP work on ‘Emeline’, a charmingly spooky kind of 21st Century bleep which could warm up a moodier dance with just enough playfulness to offset the chilly melodics. B-side opener ‘Mirage’ maintains this sense of spaced-out restraint, albeit with a more sharply angled rhythm section to work a little later into the night.
Incienso is a label tilted towards downtempo inversions of contemporary club music, and the Facta sound has plenty of after-hours cosiness in its palette to match the setting. ‘Felt’ hums with a half-hidden charm which nods to early Jan Jelinek, if not quite as overtly minimal in its execution. By way of contrast, ‘Sick Pup’ tips towards a slow strain of grubby, hardware house music which is a fair distance from the main thrust of a dancefloor, but with enough prominent sonics to keep from slipping into backroom beanbag fodder.
OW
Modal – Lovers Remixes (Remastered) (Sounds)
Woody McBride and Dave Stevens released a short burst of singles under the Modal moniker in the mid-’90s, and following the recent re-issue of one of their standouts EP’s, ‘Lovers’, the star-studded remix edition is resurrected in freshly mastered form. Absorbing the combination of remix artists enlisted serves as a rose-tinted snapshot of simpler times: a tidal wave of rave where bangers abounded, garries were reassuringly expensive and techno was about as far from business as it was possible to get. Hyperactive, DJ Skull, Mystic Bill, DJ Slip — these are the names of bonafide techno provocateurs, their music built to subvert while powering across heaving floors. As such, there are plenty of highlights on this floor-focused double-pack.
Mystic Bill’s rolling interpretation saunters along as coarse sample chops cascade across the groove, while the stripped acid and throbbing house drums of Roy Davis & DJ Skull’s grainy version thump as they echo from the speaker stack. The dreamy syncopation of the Boom Box mix overflows with bygone charm, while Hyperactive’s, erm, hyperactive remix bangs approximately as hard as nails. DJ Slip steps in with a shuffling journey into early minimal, before Greg Stevens serves a glassy-eyed main room strut complete with pulsing acid synth and leviathan drums. Raw, dynamic and rich in personality, this remix package sounds almost as fresh as it did the best part of 30 years ago.
PC
Jayson Wynters – War Heads (Rhythm Nation)
For those who demand authenticity in their house and techno, Jayson Wynters has become a trusted source. With a range which reaches from 140 broken beats to more classically informed mid-tempo 4/4, the Birmingham-rooted producer has taken a singular path not aligned to any one label or crew, standing out for achieving a rugged thump and expressive soul which harks back to the very roots of Detroit techno. Crucially, this never manifests as obvious gimmickry or imitation, but rather an intuitive continuation of the manifesto through his machines – sincere and inquisitive, packed with all the right elements to set a dancefloor in motion in the deepest of ways.
These qualities shine through on this latest drop for Rhythm Nation, leading in with the pressure-cooker compressor pump of ‘War Heads’ but ready to dip-dive into more brain-feeding territory on the crooked electro abstraction of ‘Bandwidth’. The feeling is familiar and yet incredibly fresh – quite simply not enough artists are able to make techno that sounds this on-point. When so many also-rans water down the grit and sweat of true-skool Detroit gear, Wynters seems to have the natural instinct for how to make his tracks pop. The drums sizzle and slam on ‘Exit Wound’ as the synths soar sky-high, and it’s exhilarating to experience. He is, quite simply, the real deal.
OW
Dabeull – Cosmic Fonk (Dabeull)
It’s easy to get swept away in the carefree electro-funk gloss that David Saïd effortlessly squirts when he dons his now-familiar Dabeull moniker. The Parisian artist has his seductive, ‘80s-themed boogie flex down to a fine art, as his previous releases on Roche Music and his own Dabeull imprint vividly certify. With a (presumably) tongue-in-cheek, or at the very least kitsch, alter-ego firmly in place, he funnels these vintage influences into well-carved productions with just a gentle modern sheen, with seductive melodies and sugary vocals driven by slick synth bass and machine drum manoeuvres.
A case in point, ‘Cosmic Fonk’ was released digitally last summer and now receives an entirely appropriate vinyl release as part of a full EP. The title track intricately weaves silky threads of vocoder, sax and mono synth over crisp drums and super sexy bass. Poppier still, the singalong chorus of ‘On Time’ soars over dreamy chords and delicate synth work, the feel-good vibrations surfing the crossover cusp. ‘Glitter Fonk’ again makes full use of the old vocoder, with sultry lead vocal and ornamented synth lines elegantly combined. Finally, ‘Touch’ dials back the energy but maintains the sensual potency, with lighter-than-air vocals gliding over Dabeull’s familiar and most reassuring sound palette.
PC
This week’s reviewers: Oli Warwick, Patrizio Cavaliere, Zach Buggy.