This Week At Juno

Still very much in the lean period where label bosses forgo adding to their release schedule in favour of attending those annoyingly attractive looking boat parties off the coast of Croatia, Editions Mego stood apart with a raft of releases that continued to show the label’s strengths.

Ekoplekz debuted on the label with Plekzationz, a four track double LP under his own name Nick Edwards which contains the same stylistic approach to the music that made up his releases across Punch Drunk, Public Information and Mordant Music – this is still the same dense mix of raw analogue matter, dub techniques and radiophonic tendencies as before, but allowed to stretch out over four 15 minute tracks, his sound is more immersive than it’s ever been. Alongside this, the label also dropped Sentielle Objectif Actualite, a weighty double pack of Mark Fell productions – purportedly containing seven remixes of the first three 12″ singles released on his Sensate Focus imprint – and that was joined by a reissue of Let’s Build A Pussy, a double pack of noise rock from 90s outfit Harry Pussy which is among Editions Mego’s most confrontational releases to date.

Elsewhere, Ross Tones aka Throwing Snow heralded the start of his new Snowfall imprint with some typically hard to predict wares on the Clamour EP, which complemented the Autumnal mists and booming live drums of the title track with “Brook” a slow, jerky house track formed of distorted snippets of melody and the loping boom bap of “Perca”. Robert Hood primed expectations for the forthcoming third edition of his infrequent Nighttime World albums with two tracks that trade in his grinding minimalist style for a softer, more subtle approach, Zooloft continued to showcase the finest in noirish techno as Svreca, Claro Intelecto and Brando Lupi remixed tracks from the personal archives of label bosses Giorgio Gigli and Obtane and Szare continued to surprise with the Our People Need Social Housing EP. A release for Deepmoves, the duo  touched on Comeme doing jacking Detroit techno, samba infused darkness along with the sort of shadowy, drifting techno we’ve come to expect.

Not content with announcing news of a second album of 2012, Lindstrom and Smalltown Supersound continued to plunder the less obvious musical talents out there to remix tracks from Six Cups Of Rebels the former’s first album of 2012, with two twelve inches arriving this week. The first had the Transatlantic duo Rub N Tug doing a dependably delirious disco remix of “De Javu” which contrasted nicely with the glitched out cosmic remix of “No Release” from Canadian composer Owen Pallett. The second flipped the script entirely, with OPN, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti and Emeralds type Mark McGuire all contributing, with the latter’s brutish, delay ridden, psyche rock remix of “De Javu” our favourite.

If all you want this week is a mind bending house record from some French legends backed with a couple of diverse remixes from one of the USA’s most underrated producers then you’re in luck as Chateau Flight came through with their first production of 2012 that was complemented by two superb Steve Moore remixes. It’s pretty hard to describe “Kounka” in genre specific terms, with the track commencing in some sort of ascendant cosmic Italo strut, before embarking on the first of many swerves as the grubby kick mainlines into action and veers off into weirdo Gallic bleep. Somehow harnessing the unbridled sonic chaos of the source material, Moore invites us into the deepest recesses of endlessly building, multi layered dancefloor intoxication on the first remix, while the self styled “Off-World” version pitches down into the realm of luxuriant cosmiche.

Over at Juno Download, much of the excitement was at the crossroads where techno meets bass. Hot on the heels of his ClekClekBoom release, Bambounou had the honour of joining the 50Weapons stable with a trio of jagged grooves. In many ways the Cobe EP is the quintessential 50Weapons release – a canny melding of syncopated techno and melody eschewing low-end which reflects the off kilter productions of the label’s owners Modeselektor. Untold meanwhile concluded his trilogy of EPs with two tracks that could have emerged out of the dancepunk boom of ten years ago, in the process ensuring his legacy for years to come, and techno/bass fusion pin up boy Jon Convex released his much anticipated debut set, Idoru. What’s most impressive about this collection is how it perfectly demonstrates Kirkham’s ability to inject copious amounts of subtle funk into warm, glitchy techno and melody-rich post dubstep grooves.

Having previously impressed with his left-of-centre Friends of Friends imprint, Leeor Brown teamed up with LA pal David Fisher to launch Young Adults, a new label dedicated to the fluid sounds currently coming out of the disco and house scenes. This first label sampler set their stall out impressively, with contributions from Suzanne Kraft, Dead Rose Music Company, Urulu and a touch of retro-futurist acid goodness from LOL Boys and Grown Folk. Elsewhere Egyptian Hip Hop stepped up to the ever-steady R&S with a powerful synth-pop track characterised by impeccable 80s stylings.

CD-wise it was another R&S signee, Teengirl Fantasy, who returned with their second album, Tracer, which felt like an altogether more balanced album than their lauded debut 7am, hitting the right note between their looser, experimental rhythmic tendencies and grandiose melodic nature. Of course there were some certified club tracks too – “Do It” is almost pure 90s Nu Groove, while “Timeline” is a forcefully acidic track swathed in deep, marshmallow pads – but they fit nicely with the album’s whole – forward thinking electronic music that is an ideal fit for the R&S mission statement.