Something rather unique is happening right now: there are enough awesome new releases coming out that I can’t even keep up with them all! I honestly can’t remember the last time this happened to me. This comes at a very annoying time as I have been having really good luck at the local used shops recently; digging has been my one salvation from the school overload I am also currently experiencing. Being a broke student and having to choose between awesome old records and awesome new records is not fun!
On to the new stuff: yesterday I picked up the new Baby Oliver 12″ on Environ (totally insane mid-80’s style dance jams, the B side “Shot Caller” is my cut on this one. I’m not sure what kind of drugs they’re doing over at Environ HQ, but it seems like they’ve taken a turn towards the dark side….) and yet another Tony Allen remix 12″ on Honest Jon’s, this one by Carl Craig (and of course it is totally amazing, breatbeat afro-funk with some deep house beats and synths later on in the track. An epic like only C2 can do!). And today I got probably the first record on Warp that I’ve cared about in years and years, Flying Lotus’ Reset EP which is some very soulful hip-hop with an experimental edge, “Tea-Leaf Dancers” in particular is just stunningly beautiful. I was rocking out to that on his myspace page just a couple weeks ago. Also, the late 70’s Roy Ayers produced band Ramp (whose sole album Come Into Knowledge is a much loved classic for their cover of “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” and the awesome “Daylight”) has licensed some previously unreleased soul-disco cuts produced by Roy from the same era as the album to Ubiquity, the 12″ for “The Old One, Two” and “Paint Me Any Color” has seen consistant rotation since I scooped it up a few weeks back.
The sad part is, there’s still so much I need to catch up on! Osborne’s “Outta Sight” is still calling my name from some far off record store, the Reggie Dokes cut off of the newest Detroit Beatdown 12″ will be in my top 10 of the year as soon as I can get my hands on it, DFA of all labels is bringing some deep Chicago influenced house with the awesome new Hercules & Love Affair 12″, and Terrence Dixon’s Train Of Thought LP on Yore is one of the most serious TECHNO record I’ve heard in ages. They just don’t make them like that anymore! Plant43 also recently dropped the heavily melodic electro Grey Sky Cracks 12″ on Ai that I’ve been waiting for since he posted soundclips on disception months ago.
To add to this craziness, Burial has an upcoming LP and the sound clips from it sound absolutely awesome, ISM favorite Lerosa is providing the debut release for yet another label Uzuri Recordings (check the soundclips for it on their myspace), Juju and Jordash (ISM favorites as well) have tracks dropping on Keith Worthy’s Aesthetic Audio and German label Juju Music in the next little bit, the soundclips for the Galaxy 2 Galaxy remix of Raiders of the Lost Arp sound amazing, and word on the streets is that Convextion is running a new sublabel of Down Low Music that will be dropping some serious deep techno jams in the near future.
I’m sure there are records that I’m forgetting here, too! This definitely seems to be a high point for excellent deep electronic music on vinyl after a few lackluster years. Hopefully this will continue and will help wash away all the memories of electro-house and mnml 😉
Edited 10-15-07 @ 4:45 PM to update link for Burial album soundclips to a site that has clips from all the songs…….
35 Comments
lucky finds today in the 2nd hand bins:
http://www.discogs.com/release/3149
http://www.discogs.com/release/1875
sooooit!
the one on relief is actually a bit rubbish…dego’s is tops though.
i agree on the terrence dixon lp, really funky and out there lp, proper techno imo.
i don’t have that one, the first 2000 black record! love the early releases from that label, i need the titonton one on 12″ as well.
Cheers for the tips Tom! Some stuff I definitely would’ve slept on in there.
those carl craig remixes on honest jons is excellent but DO NOT MISS the waajeed versions of it also on honest jons…serious stuff
And yea that yore 12 is killer too..
check this shit also
http://www.discogs.com/release/1028058
Brilliant dub
some nice ones there, that Gary Bartz album is brilliant, really like the Detroit Beatdown Vol 2 EP
that Burial release sounds REAL hot. the stuff i’ve heard referred to as dubstep doesn’t sound that soulful…that “archangel” track sounds like some 2step run through a haunted house. i feel it.
oh, and…i was underwhelmed with the detroit beatdown vol 2 ep on first listen. maybe it was because i got it at the same time i got “i’d rather be lonely”, but it just seemed too slow and uninteresting.
“that Burial release sounds REAL hot. the stuff i’ve heard referred to as dubstep doesn’t sound that soulful…that “archangel” track sounds like some 2step run through a haunted house. i feel it.”
yeah, for me Burial is the only “dubstep” i’m down with. his music is so much better and more interesting and deep than anything else in the genre.
that beatdown shit is definitely more dj tool type tracks aside from the reggie dokes. reggie is one of my favorite producers, his music is so weird and psychedelic and deep. his album is wonderful and his track on that 12″ is similar in vibe to the album but even more beautiful.
the decision whether to spend one’s limited budget on old or new records can often be a painful one. it’s the curse of the vinyl junkie. but better to be drowning in a river of greatness than paddling in a stream of mediocrity. possibly..
some really good recommendations there, love that osborne thing and the terrence dixon album sounds amazing too, although i wish he’d knock a few bpms off some of the tracks… i’m consistently hearing about brilliant new music i wasn’t fully aware of on this blog, i hadn’t even heard of lerosa before i starting reading here, so cheers to all involved.
Struck it lucky myself with 3 GSH LP’s for a tenner in the second hand shops last Saturday – two were presents though.
Really feeling alot of the stuff coming from that whole LA beats camp too, BTS radio is a miss at the moment – wtach out for woolies massive clothing too.
I’m not a massive fan of the dubstep, slowly getting into burial but you can pick some absolute belters from Skream’s and the DMZ back catalogue.
at least you bastards have a budget to buy records. there’s no methadone programme for vinyl junkies
Oo I could do with that Dego 12″…seems the only thing worse than buying lots of vinyl is waiting for it to arrive 🙁 . UK strikes must’ve caused a massive backlog or something, weeks behind.
Seems an exciting time to be a music lover, cheers for the heads up on some future doings Pipecock. BTW you mention an album by Reggie Dokes, believe he put out two, Afromation and MyElectronic Mind as well as a couple CDRS. Haven’t got em all, ALan from interstellarsounds mentioned Reggie has moved which might explain why the label went quiet. Here’s hoping he’ll be back up and running in 2008. Anyways also wanna mention I few things I’m feeling right now;
Nubian Mindz – Black Soul (Bagpak)
Jenifa Mayanja – Fragments (Bu Mako)
Microworld – This is my World (Styrax)
DJ Qu – Passing States (Stength Music)
Juzu aka Moochy 12″ on Scared Rhythms which is actually affordable. Yay!
Terrence Dixon – Train of Thought – agree with you all, a very strong release, his Population One 12″ is being reissued by Rush Hour soon, looking forward to checking that…
Scared Rhythms? Lol sorry I meant the Sacred Rhythms label run by Joe Claussell.
“BTW you mention an album by Reggie Dokes, believe he put out two, Afromation and MyElectronic Mind as well as a couple CDRS. Haven’t got em all, ALan from interstellarsounds mentioned Reggie has moved which might explain why the label went quiet. Here’s hoping he’ll be back up and running in 2008.”
well, i guess technically reggie could have as many as 4 albums: “a piece of afro”, the 2 “Vault” CDs (which are not CDrs, theyre production CDs with very minimal packing (i only have 2.5, its good!), and then that “my electronic mind” which was japan only to the best of my knowledge. and yeah, reggie is in atlanta now, has been for at least a year or so. i emailed him when the psychostasia site was still up as it mentioned 4 white labels being around. he said the white labels weren’t around yet, and i havent seen or heard of anyone having them. but im superpumped, psychostasia stuff is so great.
thanks for the other reccomendations! i like that people seem to interact not only with the authors of ISM but with the other posters, its becoming a nice little community here. ive heard the soundclips of the microworld, very nice stuff. and nubian mindz is the man in general, we’re trying to hook something up with him for ISM. i really like how he’s going to selling his music himself in addition to putting out stuff on other labels, that kind of distribution is going to be the future for alot of people! you all should have had that population one already! 😉
Haha showed me wrong, I always assumed my 2.5 was a CDR, gonna bump it in my ride and confuse the masses. He moved to Atlanta? Daz-I-kue moved there too, must be getting tax breaks or something ^_^ Actually I recall mailing Reggie Dokes about his page, had CDs available but no way of buying them, gave me a response with vocoder precision:
“They are available. We have paypal.”
Shame he didn’t tell me who do transfer the funds too :(. Community vibes are important, good mix of producers and general listeners posting on this page, helps to win the information war of interesting music to peoples ears.
Only just clued onto Terrence Dixon with ToT, grabbed his Background material (Detroit City Lights, tune!) and working my way backwards to Claude Young’s Utensil label.
without wanting to bring the thread down, has anyone checked out the new attias 12″ on planet e? i’ve checked out the clips, and i have to say, i think it sounds really poor – very euroey and soulless. tbh i haven’t been that impressed by much planet e stuff of late, it remains one of my fave labels but recently has been missing the mark for me. also found the new c2 mix of tony allen a bit on the cheesy side (and i’m a massive craig fan), but others seem to be digging it?
havent checked the clips, but im a fan of alex attias from years and years ago. this record is really great from last year: http://www.discogs.com/release/638917 and his stuff as mustang on 2000 Black was good as well as the stuff on compost that i’ve heard.
as for other planet e’s, i didnt like the buttrich one, i only liked the c2 mix on the lazy fat people, and i will only pick up that kevin saunderson if i find it cheap and only for the c2 mix on that. that said, the vince watson was surprisingly good, IMO his best record. that ican was a super dope record. and the shez satan record is a nice changeup, too. and those live tracks are hot hot hot. surely its not the greatest hour in planet e’s history, but its not all bad.
that rmx of tony allen is just ridiculous though, i cant find any faults with it. i like the breaks in the beginning and the 4 on the floor parts later. really wonderful record.
hmmm I’m not a big fan of dubsted either. That Burial album sounds really good though… I passed on his first one, but this one has already gone on my want list.
I would also recommend stuf by A Made Up Sound (also 2562) and stuff by Peverelist (particularly this release: http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=28640)
I think you will dig these
cheers
nobody’s mentioned the 4×12″ comp on Jus-Ed’s Underground Quality http://www.discogs.com/release/1059550 . more of a DJ pack really than home listening, but a really nice deep house package IMO
also, as Moodymann revealed on BBC the other week, he’s got a new album out soon along with a new album from Andres too
I really like the Jaymz Nylon and JuJu/Jordash tracks on that 4×12″ comp. Other faves right now are:
DJ Marin : Love Fantasy – Rondenion Remix (Treble 0) – Rondenion’s going to be huge if he keeps releasing such quality tracks. His Still Music 12s are superb too.
Oliverwho Factory : Future Funk (Madd Chaise) – A recent discovery for me – had to snap up all the 12s I could find straight away. Love their raw sound.
Terrence Dixon : Train of Thought (Yore) – Especially like the more organic sounding tracks on this – remind me of Steve Reich.
Aaron Carl : Wallshaker (Millions of Moments)
M.Pittman : There’s Somebody Out There (Unirhythm) – twisted acid. Like Movable Parts meets Trax.
DJ Qu : Passing States (Strength)- This is some moody deep shit!
Soulomon : Hi-Q (Recondite) I have no idea who Soulomon is, but it sounds like deep house made by a past master.
Xenogears/Lucretio : First Mission EP (Restoration) – cool Detroit inspired techno tracks on Buzz Goree’s new label.
I also can’t get enough of the Beat Dimensions stuff on RushHour Records – some great forward thinking HipHop. Anyone got suggestions for something on a similar tip?
Real good stuff there Mark, keep meaning to check Oliverwho. On the Beat Dimensions tip, good place to start is with Rush Hour affiliated labels such as Nod Navigators and Up My Alley have started a Beatnik series which may be worth as look. I’m not sure if you were asking for instrumental hip hop such as Flying Lotus and Lukid (who will probably have a podcast up for trebleo soon) only but here are a few ideas for recent release you might wanna try;
Poobah label (Ras G etc)
Breakthrough – Breakthrough (Pantone reissue)
G&D – Message Uni Versa (Looks)
Shapes of Broad Minds – Craft of the Lost Art (Lex)
Oh No – Dr No’s Oxiperiment (Stones Throw)
Percee P – Perseverance (Madlib’s production on this is incredible) (Stones Throw)
Super Smokey Soul – Cycling (Circulations)
Also I need to get round to hearing the new Ohmega Watts album – Watts Happening as well as the debut from Take.
oliverwho factory was a discovery for me 3 years ago digging around in detroit. i picked up their first 2 12″s, really distinctive stuff. ive since picked up madd chaise 4 and 7 on wax as well, the only one im missing is the j’david one. and yeah, that aaron carl and malik pittman are killers for sure.
as for instrumental hiphop, ive picked up these in the last little bit:
j dilla – ruff draft instrumentals http://www.discogs.com/release/1069931
dr who dat? – beat journey http://www.discogs.com/release/764523
ta’raach – raach city riot http://www.discogs.com/release/982318
as well as that awesome flying lotus 12″. ive picked up some other things as well, i just cant think of them offhand. also, its a couple years old, but this is really nice: http://www.discogs.com/release/153639
Thanks Akaten – some good selections there. I can feel a vinyl binge coming on any minute now! I was listening to ‘Message Uni Versa’ earlier today – will deffo be picking that up soon. Sounds like a worthy follow up to Muldrow’s ‘Olesi’ LP. Flying Lotus is a must buy, and the Madlib as always.
Back on a house tip I picked these two up today which are well worth checking:
Black Jazz Consortium : God’s Promise (Soul People) – hopefully the CD album will make an appearance on vinyl soon too.
Rick Wade : Night Tactics (Yore)
I’ve been havin some luck finding stuff myself lately…
Got a charlie parker album featuring tracks recorded live from birdland and with mingus on the bass
Got an original copy of Dizzy gillespie’s live in Paris ’52
Lee Perry & friends – Give me power..some excellent max romeo stuff on it
The kings of jazz part A(compiled by giles peterson and jazzanova) http://www.discogs.com/release/644574
This collection of tracks is amazing, it also contains one track by Nikki O (aka Sky Covington from Detroit) who has released a mega rare album on mahogani which was originally given away on the mahogani tour of japan…
The track on this album “butterflies” is absolutely amazing deep soul, you NEED to check this shit.
Her album on mahogani(http://www.discogs.com/release/1081316) seems quite hard to find so if ANYBODY reading this knows where i might get a copy then give me a shout. I NEED this album
got Amp dog Knight – im doin fine (mahogani 1)
Rhythm & sound – The versions/the artists
Simone White – I am the man (honest jon’s) i would also highly recomend this. people might call it folk music or folk rock or some shit like that. i would call it soulfull, jazzy edged truth. theres amples in hardwax online (go to honest jons section or just type the title in)
Peace
Was only able to buy the Nikki-o album with the Mahogani Music compilation, finding a copy of that CD might still be possible. Best hope is that Moodymann will repress some of the Mahogani material when he starts putting out new releases this winter and inthe new year.
I’m just glad the label is coming back soon, been too long. Actually it seems quite common now for a small independent label to put out several releases one minute, and then going silent the next…an issue for another topic methinks ^_^.
Yea probably but i need it on wax! Allthough he has already done a repress of it (last year) and i missed that so its not looking too good. Definately cant wait for the new stuff, new andres album, moodymann album and eps… mahogani is a brilliant label
Thank You 😉
On 10.23.07 at 3:34 pm Mark Forshaw said dis shit:
Soulomon : Hi-Q (Recondite) I have no idea who Soulomon is, but it sounds like deep house made by a past master.
You’re welcome! Have you got any more releases lined up?
Not yet, but working hard to make that happen soon
hey soulomon, i like the stuff you have on your myspace page. is that 12″ of yours self released?
Pipecock, thank you, yes it was released about one month ago, RushHour distribution http://www.rushhour.nl/distribution_detailed.php?item=42129
BTW, Great Blog!
Some more great 12s out at the moment – picked up this lot:
Newworldaquarium : The Dead Bears (NWAQ) Quality LP from start to end – especially like the closing track “Kirana’s Lement” – I could listen to that groove for hours.
Mr Fingers : I’m Strong (Clone Classics) – I’ve been after this since hearing Dan Bell drop it at the Cavern Club a few years back. It really sounds like nothing else.
Mike Huckaby : My Life with the Wave (Synth) Some nice beatdown tracks alongside the BC influenced main cut.
Soul Designer : Rockit (Third Ear) – Ridiculously funky cover version of the Hancock classic. People are either going to love this or hate it I think.
Kenny Dope/Terry Hunter : Monopoly (Ill Friction) – proper old school jackin business.
Also picked up a compilation EP on Up My Alley records – thanks for the recommendation Akaten – just the kind of hiphop I was searching for.