Massive Record Reviews Post

I have been slacking on writing about records for almost two months. Currently, I’m trying to get back in the writing groove a bit so I’m just gonna run down a BUTTLOAD of ill shit that I have picked up recently.

I’m gonna kick things off with some records that came to me through some of ISM’s mix contributors, Mr. Red D. and Mr. Scott Ferguson.

By now, you should all be down with the most recent We Play House 12″, the excellent “Vocals For Everyone” by FCL which was featured in my most recent mix (you better go grab that one if you haven’t already!). The man San Soda has another new record out on Lany Recordings, this one a slightly more techno tinged outing with Just Nathan that easily lives up to the high quality of his other releases.

I also got a bunch of recent Ferrispark joints, one of which I had been fiending for: Scott’s epic “Warehouse Dream” from the end of last year. Things start out atmospheric, but then a nasty acidic bassline comes in to round out a deep banger. Solid! The most recent Marvin Belton, “The Letter EP”, is also super-hot with the minimal “Any Day Now” which is sure to be a summertime anthem in my deejay sets. It’s funny to me that Scott doesn’t like vocal house tunes so much, since some of my favorite jams of his are when he has Marvin on vox.

I know that I tend to go on and on about certain producers, but it is usually because their music is almost always top-notch. Reggie Dokes is one of those guys. After having my favorite track of ’08 (“Love” on Philpot) as well as one of my favorites in ’09 (“Chicago Pimp” on Clone Loft Supreme), it should be no surprise that he is in the lead with my favorite track so far in ’10, the insane “Until Tomorrow” on Royal Oak. This is one that I was IN LOVE WITH just from the online sound samples that popped up around the end of last year, but since being able to bang it out on a nice soundsystem my opinion of it has actually gone up. This is crazy voodoo house music, complete with “live” instrument sounds and a banging beat. If you don’t love this track, I’m not sure why you’re reading this blog.

At a gig a few weekends ago, I pulled off a great mix between that Reggie Dokes and another track that you should be familiar with by now, Tevo Howard’s “Move”. Tevo has been a favorite here at ISM since early last year when we picked up on “Without Me”, but I was not initially into “Move”. After a couple plays on a serious sound system, it has possibly become my favorite of his tracks. Super-deep, soulful acid that always gets people coming up to ask me what it is, that’s my kind of record! I had a bit of a similar reaction to Tevo’s new album “Crystal Republic”, but again after many plays I am starting to really feel it. Despite less variety in synth tones than is present in his other work (especially compared to the very diverse “Everyday House Music” EP), there are some gems on here that recall old-school Chicago acid and even italo instrumentals that were foundational material for house music in the windy city, but with soulful overtones.

I am still big into albums, the whole “shuffle” lifestyle has not rubbed off on me. In recent years, soul singers have been bringing the LP heat, and it seems as if 2010 is not going to be an exception. Sade’s newest album “Soldier of Love” dropped during the insane 24″+ snow storm in early February. Thankfully, the internet still worked so I was able to get the music while waiting for the vinyl to finally come out weeks later. This album is, like pretty much all of her records (such as one I picked up used yesterday on 12″, “Cherish The Day”), beautiful and sublime. It is a bit heavy on ballads, but her band is so tight and the songwriting is so good that I think everyone can find something to enjoy on it, not least of which is the awesome lead single “Soldier of Love”.

Erykah Badu’s new one just dropped last week, and it was also just as good as I had hoped. The single “Window Seat” is a sweet and simple soul song that skips the left-field hip-hop production of most of her recent work but still manages to sound fresh. Other album highlights include the Sylvia Striplin/Junior MAFIA cover “Turn Me Away (Get Munny)” and the minimal echoed-out electric piano cut “20 Feet Tall”.

Moving back into house a bit, but with heavy emphasis on soul are two new releases featuring production by Detroit legends Moodymann and Theo Parrish. Kenny lends his hand to an original production for Jose James (whose cut “Desire” he so excellently remixed two years ago) on his new Blackmagic EP, which also features a relatively straightforward jam by Flying Lotus. KDJ’s joint is a sultry live jazz jam ala his recent productions, but at a slow enough tempo to fit in both soul and slow house sets.

Theo produced four cuts for a double 12″ EP on Sound Signature by Detroit stalwart Billy Love. I’ve been a fan of Billy’s since I picked up “It’s the Life” years ago on my first trip to Rick Wilhite’s now-defunct (but about to be memorialized in compilation form, look for the review of part 1 here soon!) Vibes record shop. Of course he has since worked with Rick on the excellent “My Voyage” EP, and now he has this excellent release under his own name. All four tracks have that abstracted jazz and funk to them that make the best Theo jams, but “U Bring Me Up” really takes it to another level. Simple drums, a live bassline, and a little electric piano set a sparse stage for Billy’s echoed and overdubbed vocals which make the track. My only qualm is that it should be MUCH longer than the slightly longer than 5:00 mix that made the record. Otherwise, this is another contender for track of the year.

Todd Osborn’s productions under his Osborne alias have almost all been dope, from “Daylight” through to “Ruling”. It seems that he has the same magical touch on his remixes, three of which I have recently obtained. My favorite so far is his mix of BLK JKS’ “Mystery”. Without having heard the original (which is by a lo-fi rock band, whose music is pretty dope itself), this is just a gorgeous warm house record. The only comparison I can find in terms of how uplifting music like this is is with Stardust’s “Music Sounds Better With You”. He takes a similar approach with his remix of Arto Mwambe’s “Love Lift”, which was on Red D.’s most recent mix for us. For Jared Wilson’s “Bangkok Four Seasons Hotel” remix, he goes the acid route, echoing Wilson’s slightly acidic original, but surrounds it with lush synth tones that keep his trademark warmth. A perfect way to round out another excellent EP by Jared! I still can’t believe it took me so long to get a hold of this record…

There’s been so many good deep house records coming out from everywhere, it’s hard to keep up. Protect-U dropped a weird 707 led jam “Double Rainbow” on the Future Times label that is right up the alley of those loving the old abstract Chicago styles but with heavy atmospherics. The flipside “Toughen Up” is synthed out downtempo bliss, another very solid record out of Washington DC on this label. The new Soul People Music record is a compilation called “Earth Tones”. Move D gets the long side, and I have to say that I am not 100% into it. Laid back dubby house beats, which I think almost EVERYONE has had a bit much of recently, kick things off for way too long before the atmospherics kick in. Not a horrible record, but not nearly as good as both B side cuts. Steve Oh grabs the “Work that Shit” sample (from an old Dance Mania record? I can’t place it for the life of me, but I know I have it somewhere…) but drops it over some weirded out minimal house beats. I’m not even sure what you can compare this cut to, but I have been banging it out and people seem to be down with the juxtaposition. I love it! Then Fred P. checks in with his Black Jazz Constitution (printing error, or a variation on “Consortium”? we may never know…) project and a nice synth solo over his customary deep beats. I also managed to finally track down an obscure record with production and a remix by Kai Alce, the Latin Fire EP by Sandman. Kai’s mix is the real winner here, a smooth latin influenced piano house track that I imagine will work really well for outdoor sets. I can’t wait to test it out this summer!

A quick Detroit round-up:

Shake’s already classic “Frenchie” finally dropped on wax on the new Thought Processes/ EP on Frictional, you better buy this before it goes out of print! Otherwise you’ll have to wait for another retrospective to come out to get these cuts on vinyl. Shake is as brilliant as ever on this one with a nice variety of sounds sure to fit into many kinds of sets.

Andres strikes again with “Jack City” on Prime Numbers. This time he is making music for rollerskating and sampling “Planet Rock” to do so. This guy can’t do any wrong, and this shit is as hot as anything off of his essential II album. Mr. Scruff & Kaidi Tatham also aren’t joking around on this 12″ with the jazzy house of “Fresh Noodles”. I’m not really into the MCDE jam, but the other two are easily good enough for me to say that this is an essential record.

Chez Damier continues his relationship with Mojuba on the Time Visions 2 EP, this time featuring a previously unreleased Carl Craig mix of “Help Myself”. It is almost physically painful to listen to old C2 mixes and how brilliant they are while he continues his string of blandness that seems to be taking over Planet E. Sad, but this mix demonstrates why people continue to care about him. C’mon Carl, let’s take it back to the days when you were the man!

Pirahnahead is mostly known for his soul-drenched house music on labels like Mahogani, but for his new release on Third Ear he takes it straight up Chicago-style! From the drumtracks+twisted vocals of “Self Con-Science (Opus 72- #37)” (which also draws inspiration from a Chopin piece deep into the track!) to the twisted acid cuts “Mirror Muse Internal Inspiration” and “Disconnected Dissed Connection”, his versatility and musicianship are on display here.

A quick Chicago round-up:

Jerome Derradji, owner of Still Music and Stilove4music, teams up with disco champion Rahaan for the first volume of Concrete Reservations. I’m not sure exactly how to classify these as to my ears they sound like disco edits combined with original production, but the A side in particular is a smoking boogie jam that rolls out into some acid. Rough, rugged, and raw house and disco are what this is all about.

I’m not sure who is behind Late Invitation’s EP on Mathematics, but it takes a detour from the typically grimy and distorted beats you would expect and instead substitutes slow, deep house with live instrumentation. Beautiful late night jams!

I don’t usually mess with reissues, but I made an exception for a bunch of my favorite Chicago house releases that are both expensive and hard to find in their original release, as well as of inferior sound quality. Rush Hour is of course behind the EXCELLENT Virgo album that contains some of the most emotional synthesized house ever committed to wax, and the reissue of Ron Hardy’s classic “Sensation”. Clone throws their hat in the ring by collaborating with Larry Heard’s Alleviated to rerelease this stunning EP by Mr. Fingers. It’s amazing that 20+ years on these are still some of the best house songs ever recorded, but thankfully they will lead an even longer life now that they are widely available.

Speaking of Trax, I also dug up a mint original copy of Marshall Jefferson’s “House Music Anthem” yesterday to replace my beat-as-hell copy. And a Theo Parrish set I caught a couple weeks back in Washington DC (it was a great set, I saw Ron Trent the night before and he was also dope!) had me running to buy a copy of Marshall Jefferson’s “Open Our Eyes” from Discogs, another classic deep Chicago anthem.

To finish this craziness off, here’s a couple other choice records from my extended digging session yesterday:

I picked up two excellent live jazz records, one the classic Coltrane “Live at the Village Vanguard” the other a lesser known Pharoah Sanders album from the early ’80s simply titled “Live…”.

Also on the jazz tip, I grabbed two albums by the awesome Chico Hamilton: “El Chico” which is absolutely bad as fuck, and the also dope “The Dealer”. I only recently got hip to Chico, but I love almost everything I’ve heard so far. I also got a nice Art Ensemble of Chicago release from 1980 on ECM called “Full Force”.

On the disco tip, I grabbed a minty copy of Gary Byrd’s “The Crown” (to replace my slightly beat copy), a Stevie Wonder produced track that was an anthem on the South Side of Chicago back in the early house days. Similarly, Plastic Bertrand’s “Stop Ou Encore” was rocked in edited form by the man Ron Hardy, I was pleased to find a minty copy. Taking it a little more boogie-ish are Brandi Wells’ “Watch Out” and Marlena Shaw’s “Never Give Up On You” which came out in ’81 and ’82 respectively. The Marlena Shaw is particularly ill:

So that just about wraps it up for this time. I should be getting another bunch of things in very soon, and I’m not gonna let them build up like this again!