My First New Records Post of 2011

This would have come a lot earlier, but an order I made from the UK in late ’10 took until about two weeks ago to get in. Since I already had waited that long, I figured a couple more weeks wouldn’t matter while I waited for more new shit to arrive. Now it’s all here!

I’m going to start off though by referring you over to the always fun Pop Your Funk blog for reviews on new ones by Kassem Mosse (both the Kinda Soul and Workshop joints), Omar-S’ “Here’s Your Trance, Now Dance!”, Delano Smith’s new Mixmode 12″, Theo Parrish’s “Sketches” CD, and the G-Strings reissue on Seventh sign. To me, these are all pretty much essential if you’re reading this blog.

Moving on to some more new shit…

I’ve been obsessing over the works of Moritz von Oswald recently, especially his work with the trio. The new 12″ with “Restructure 2” on it is pretty much amazing, adding live guitar and bass to the electronics the they already do so well. On the Restructure, they take things in a very dancefloor direction as opposed to “Structure 2” from the album, which is more abstract. Both versions are worth having, and I am eagerly awaiting owning “Horizontal Structures” on vinyl as it is pretty much already a classic for me. I hope the MVO3 keeps up this level of releases as well as doing different sounding music!

I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but Chicago is really doing a ton of nice shit right now. I probably buy twice as much new music from the 312 as I do the 313!

There’s a crew of friends of mine and ISM who have been banging out good music in Chicago, and a bunch of them came together to make “The Pancake Sessions” for Altered Moods. Chicago Skyway takes things deep on “Pilsen Sunrise”, with long evolving pads over a restrained bongo led beat. Specter keeps it deep with the slow headnodding cut “Short Stack”, which adds horns to the mix. Steven Tang’s “Over Easy” is also brilliant late night/early morning house, less mechanical than the music he is best known for, but still with nice 909 snare action. Label head Malcolm Moore also makes an appearance with “Red Eyes & Blueberries”, a soulful track that fits right in with the theme and feeling of this release. Describing music like this is always going to sound redundant; how many times can I really use the words “deep” and “soulful” in one review? But the reality is that these cuts execute the feeling and sounds that so many are currently trying to achieve, but ultimately fail at. Malcolm Moore also recently dropped his own EP on Altered Moods entitled “Yours In Deepness Vol. 1”. On this, he takes a varied approach to that deepness, from the downtempo “Juswannabeclose”, to the swung hi-hats and almost broken beat feeling of “T’estimo (Just A Ghost To You)”.

Another ISM homie from the windy city m50 has recently stepped into the world of DIY vinyl releases with his debut release on his own Kimochi label. Max made this record by raising money preselling the release, and then handpainted the sleeves himself and is even taking care of selling it mostly by himself through his bandcamp page. As for the tunes, Max is one of those guys whose music gets overlooked because of his moniker (“Area”) and the fact that he is a softspoken guy who likes to make lots of different sounds. He’s had releases on Francois K’s Wave imprint (as well as played at his Deep Space night at Cielo!), remixes for Echospace, Mathematics, Sean Deason’s Matrix Records, and now Anton Zap’s Ethereal Sound. This release however focuses on his brand of emotional electronic music, whether that be deep techno or even ambient as featured in the above video, it is all tied together through thick atmosphere. Keep an eye out for a mix we’re gonna drop here on March 14th that features all original productions by Max!

I only got hip to Ricardo Miranda through Rick Wilhite’s VIBES comp last year, but now he has a bunch more of his own releases dropping and many are cool in different ways. The highlight (and one of my favorite tracks this year, in fact I have been looking for it since Rick Wilhite played it off of CDr in Pittsburgh last fall) is “Future Foundation” on Neroli. Featuring Glenn Underground on keys, this is a deeeeeep acid joint that peaks with dubbed out horn blasts that make this a very distinctive joint and a really fresh twist on old styles. The rest of the EP is more in a jazzy deep vein, but also really well done with “Soul Late” being another highlight. Switching it up entirely, he also dropped an EP with K-Joy of “Like This” fame entitled “Chicago House Sessions” on Noble Square (which I would guess is either his own, or that he is very involved with). This one takes it back to an almost Jamie Principle-like 80s vibe with the originals, slick electronic pop music with underground sensibility. The remixes make it much more soulful sounding, but it’s the original mix of “77 Monte Carlo” that is my pick of the bunch.

A few more Chicago names that are familiar to ISM readers have recent releases that are noteworthy:

Further Records continue their cassette tape domination tour with The Urantia Project by Jamal Moss aka Heiroglyphic Being. This was all produced in the 1990s on suitably limited production equipment, and in it you can hear the roots of the abstracted jack sound that Moss is now well known for but without the heavy distortion. You can preview the whole release as well as purchase it direct from Further! This is limited to only 100 copies, if you’re a Mathematics fan jump on it quickly! I hope to see a couple of the more dancefloor friendly joints get a wax release…

Tevo Howard’s “What Is Noise” EP on Permanent Vacation is a return to form for him. After a run of many releases in a short time, he took a break and came back with this diverse but cohesive record that reminds me more of his early Beautiful Granville releases than the recent Rush Hour ones.

Rahaan has been productive on the edit tip, with a new one on Stilove4music (that I don’t have yet! This one has that one joint you will recognize from Ron Hardy mixes as well as an edit of Mach’s “On & On”) and another one for KAT that features a dope edit of (according to Discogs) the Intruders’ version of the soul classic “Be Thankful For What You’ve Got”. His mix of “Mr. Bump Man” is very different from Theo’s (see later on in this post), but also not as useful. “So Good” is another beautiful uptempo soul/disco jam.

Chez Damier and Abacus recently dropped “Dance or Die Essentials” on Balance. I’m not sure if these are new, old joints never before heard, or re-releases (with so many of those old joints being “untitled” it is hard to check, even with YouTube) but these are four bumping 90s style Chicago house jams that range from acid to soulful deepness. If you’re looking for that sound, there’s no need for emulations when you can easily get the real thing!

I’m gonna group all of this stuff together, even if it doesn’t make immediate sense as to why! Future Times was named RA’s “Label of the Month” recently, and for very good reason. Slava’s “Dreaming Tiger/World of Spirits” 12″ is very distinctive, taking beautiful sounds and injecting them into house and techno music in an original manner. The best point of comparison I can make is that these sound kind of like Reggie Dokes, but more aggressive and freaked out. Also very nice is the new one by Protect-U called “World Music”. On this, they take their trusty 707 and use it to make tripped out psychedelic house cuts that (unlike way too many records out there right now) aren’t simply stealing old Chicago house’s sound. So Future Times are friends with the owners of the great PPU label, whose reissue of Minority Band’s “Tasty Tune” is AWESOME. Giving a full side pressing to this tune is a godsend to say the least, this is definitely worth hunting down. And on PPU they have released edits by “Disco Tom” aka Tom Noble, who just dropped a sweet 12″ of edits on Whatchawannado. “Goldie’s Boogie” is exactly what you’d guess it to be, a funky ass instrumental boogie joint. The real winner though is “I Wanna Take You For A Ride”, which chops up drums and vocals into a percussive disco banger that is absolute fire. Ron Hardy would have beaten this joint up!

I’m always happy to see more of my friends start their own vinyl labels. Kuri, the proprietor of the great blog Energy Flash has set up a new label called Night Gallery with his boy Shawn Kralicek with the goal of releasing quality music. The first release on the label is coming from “an established artist working anonymously” according to them, and it is a very well orchestrated affair. Ranging from soundtracks to soulful chords, this touches a number of bases one on record. My favorite is “My Love”, with its funky synth lines and vocal loop. Check out sound samples here in anticipation of the release later this month! This is a good start for a new label…

Proving that indeed I do just listen to tons of music trying to find shit that I like (there just isn’t much of it outside of the shit you see me write about here!) is Jamie XX’s remix of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”. This is the kind of tune that just a few years ago would have been produced by the Neptunes or Timbaland and would have been a transcendent pop song. Now, it will be some underground shit for us to beat up when we play slow sets. For me this is pop perfection! Other Jamie XX mixes have left me cold though, like his remix of Gil Scott-Heron which was pretty much just boring dubstep. Oh well, at least he got it right one time! Warning, watching this on Youtube will likely lead to repeat viewings and then purchase of the 12″…

Heading over to Detroit for a second, Theo Parrish’s “Traffic” with IG culture is a wacked out jazz-fusion jam that travels at a very high BPM. Not really a straightforward jam in any way, this is one for the hardcore Theo fans who really love the funky fusion shit that he plays a lot of. He also finally dropped Ugly Edits 11 which contains his wonderful edit of “Mr. Bump Man” by Jackey Beavers which has been a staple in his sets going back at least a year or two. The edit of B.T. Express’ “Peace Pipe” is not at the same level, I much prefer Kenny Dope’s version from a few years back.

The Dirtbombs’ LP “Party Store” also dropped, which we discussed a bit a month or so ago. First off, I must say that the artwork on this is outstanding. Its a gatefold triple vinyl set (very reasonably priced for that as well!), with each of the six gatefold faces featuring a photo of a dilapidated party store (this is what they call shops that sell beer, wine, and liquor in the Detroit area for those who don’t know!). Moving on to the music, there are definitely some misses on here. “Bug in the Bassbin” is very long and not all that interesting, while “Strings of Life” and “Jaguar” fail to capture the ecstatic nature of the originals. The best results are on the electro-ish vocal cuts “Sharevari” and “Alleys of Your Mind”, both of which are made more grimey and which will become staples in my sets. Most interesting, though, is the cover of “Good Life”, which makes wonderful use of the vocals and chords, placing them over a rough and loose beat. Tough to mix for sure, but I think that just dropping it will get the results you need perfectly fine! The only original (the tune with the Japanese title, I’m not even gonna try to reproduce it here) is also really cool as it features a take on minimal techno but done with rock instruments. Very dope and also playable!