This week at Juno
Uncovered Jeff Mills industrial, Biosphere ambient, Eargoggle electro, Omar Souleyman remixed by Rezzett, Tony Allen Experiments, Not Waving’s album on Diagonal and more.
Not Waving – Animals (Diagonal)
It’s been a long time coming for Alessio Natalazia to make his album debut on Diagonal, and now that we have it, No Waving doesn’t disappoint. Natalazia’s eclectic taste and varied musical styles comes through on Animals in colours as lurid as the artwork, with grungy Western rock in “Tomorrow We Will Kill You” coming up against a mash of industrial, synth heavy ‘80s-inspired body music that makes you understand why Natalazia was asked to compile an Italian new wave compilation for Strut. The breadth of style to the album means it’s truly a long player that you won’t get tired of once the honeymoon period of your purchase is over; influences will forever seep from the speakers each time this record is played. It’s an album we’ve had on repeat this week, with the Powell-style spangled punk of “24”, chirping birds in “Gusty” and moody distortion and squeals of “Presenza Immobile” the tracks we’ve given the nod.
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Phase Fatale – Jealous God 10 (Jealous God)
Since Silent Servant and Svreca helped launch Jealous God in 2013, the likes of James Ruskin, Oliver Ho’s Broken English Club and In Aeternam Vale helped establish the label as a new force of synth wavey techno with touch of the occult. Terence Fixmer and Planete Rouge protégé Alexy Volkov then made their bows as did New Yorker Lili ‘51717’ Schulder and Danish doom double Damien Dubrovnik. Hayden Payne, a New Yorker based in Berlin, is now given his rite of passage to present Jealous God with an all-important 10th release which is nothing short of high-intensity industrial beats, metal percussion that sounds like it’s being torn apart and ‘90s rave signatures choked by heavy distortion.
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Biosphere – Hilvarenbeek (New York Haunted)
Losing interest in Biosphere is like getting bored of sound; so even if you do consider yourself the worst of misanthropes, Geir Jensson’s got you covered. With a huge catalogue of cassette music by Ekman, D’Marc Cantu and Evol released on New York Haunted in the past, the label’s vinyl operation has only just begun following a rare 7” released in 2014 pressed up merely 20 times. Drvg Cvltvre is making it clear his platform isn’t one to be pigeon-holed too, with this Biosphere EP – which seems quite the coup – serving up a surround sound of orchestral, farm yard and naturalised ambiences, making Hilvarenbeek quite the turn of sonic in comparison to the melee of twisted beats Terrence Dixon, Pete Swanson and Hieroglyphic Being just gave the label.
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Final Cut – Deep Into The Cut (We Can Elude Control)
As Richard Brophy pointed out in his review, “Deep Into The Cut provides a unique snapshot of a period of great music upheaval.” This being 1989 when Jeff Mills teamed up with Anthony Srock to form Final Cut, a project Mills would later leave to join Underground Resistance, however Final Cut continued to put out music until the mid-‘90s. In this reissue you’ll hear UR signatures in tracks like “I Told You Not To Stop” and “Celestial VSU” but really Deep Into The Cut is a nascent boom of industrial techno that sounds like Ministry and Cabaret Voltaire made their way over to the States in pursuit of meeting Mills and Srock to create a new kind of Chicago acid track. This release isn’t the first time We Can Elude Control has dipped back into the ‘80s, with Nocturnal Emissions ‘ Accumulator 12”, inspired by Thatcher’s re-election to power, worth checking too.
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Basic Rhythm – Raw Trax (Type)
As Imaginary Forces, UK artist Anthoney J Hart has built up a considerable back catalogue of work on labels such as his own Sleep Codes and more recently Entr’acte, Bedouin and Halcyon Veil. For this new EP for Type, Hart has adopted the somewhat misleading moniker of Basic Rhythm; misleading because the beats contained within this eight-track album are far from simple. Capturing the spirit of Mark Fell’s jagged rhythmic edges and futuristic sheen, Hart has whipped up a head-spinning collection of studies that revel in finely honed digital debris and a resolutely daring distillation of soundsystem culture. For all its obtuseness this is actually a very pleasurable listening experience that satisfies as much as it teases, flinging your ear drums into exciting new realms of hyper-processed funk.
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Luke Eargoggle / Faceless Mind – Twin Paradox Series 003: Snow In June / Data Bara (Fundamental)
Over the past five years Spanish label Fundamental has pursued a vision of electronica as laid out by labels such as Rephlex. That identity is helped by contributions by D’Arcangelo and DMX Krew, but there is equally plenty of fresh European talent within the label’s reach to help mark out a unique proposition. Luke Eargoggle and Faceless Mind are pitted against each other here for a double album that revels in Drexciyan electro in all its different shades. Eargoggle is especially adept at conjuring up a taut, dystopian brew that comes on like classic Dopplereffekt, while Faceless Mind weaves in some more emotive notes in amongst the forward-thrusting machine motifs. This is classic robotic business for those who like their electro as deadly serious as possible.
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Having assaulted 2015 with the wild thrills of Acre, Filter Dread and Kamixlo, Visionist’s continued partnership with Pan on the Codes label yields yet more renegade signals as it commences operations in 2016 with the teeth-grinding constructions of Liverpool producer Ling. The influence of Visionist can certainly be felt in the wisps of magical melodies that linger somewhere in the three dimensional canvas of Ling’s work, but they’re far from the only thing to grab hold on to. Distended swells of bass and synths collide with micro-sampled percussion that shudders, pirouettes and generally darts around the stereo field with an audacious abandon. It’s nerve-wrecking stuff, but thoroughly rewarding in the same instant, pushing that amorphous new evolution of grime into a positively unique playing field where the experimentation is even further out to sea.
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Omar Souleyman – Heli Yuweli (The Trilogy Tapes)
It’s all happened rather quickly for Omar Souleyman, having been plucked out of relative obscurity in the Western world to collaborate with Bjork and release on Monkeytown, Sublime Frequencies and Ribbon Music amongst others. Now the leading exponent of Syrian music comes to The Trilogy Tapes with a track that captures the energy of his live sets. “Heli Yuweli” is rich with the simmering intensity of Middle Eastern musical tradition, shot through with an exuberant pop thump that promises much crossover potential. Some of that crossover comes by way of Rezzett, who deliver two different versions of the original track that warp and wobble with threads of Souleyman’s vocal in amongst a fine array of fuzzed out synth trails. The “Rerezz” version is especially magnificent; it’s hazy melody redolent with the whiff of a distant summer to keep you warm on winter evenings.
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Nu Guinea – The Tony Allen Experiments: Afrobeat Makers Series Vol 3 (Comet)
The collective of artists hovering around the Early Sounds crew in Berlin are surely on to something exciting at the moment. Last years Mystic Jungle Tribe record flew off the shelves, and now two of the members of this ever-shifting assembly of Berlin-based Italians are tackling the iconic rhythms of afrobeat hero Tony Allen and getting all wigged-out and groovy over the top of them. The key lines fall in bubbling, expressive formations that nod to the organic, freeform flow of classic kosmische music, while there’s plenty of space for additional live instrumentation to enter the fray. This is the kind of jam music that stops short of self-indulgence and instead provides a perfect vessel upon which your mind can rocket through all kinds of exotic locales both of this earth and far beyond it.
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