A Ton of Good Music

The past week and a half or so has really been an outstanding week for new music for me. From brand new joints, to reissues, to finds in the used shops, shit’s been firing on all cylinders.

Let’s get down to brass tacks.

The “Vertical Ascent” LP by Moritz Von Oswald Trio is everything I could have wanted from one of my favorite musicians. I’m not even sure what the appropriate comparisons for this music really are, but it made me dig out my Ike Yard “Night After Night” EP (which made me order their recent CD collection of all recorded material as well as previously unreleased and live joints) as well as Rhythm and Sound. A combination of those two seems pretty spot-on: dubby and driving live drum patterns combine with spacey atmospherics to create the perfect soundtrack for a night time drive through the city at high speeds. If anything, this release suffers from being too short! I want it to keep going and going, despite each track being between 8 and 14 minutes in length. This release will be taking its place alongside all the Basic Channel related releases for constant repeat listens, and Pattern 3 will likely be hammered in all of my deejay sets for a good long while. Amazing, brilliant music.

When the Burial and Four Tet collaboration 12″ dropped a little while back, the online sound samples were not enough to coerce me into buying the record. I decided that if it was ever available for me to buy in person without trying to mailorder what was sure to be an elusive and expensive import, I would pick it up then. Luckily for me, that happened this week! The 2-step joint (“Wolf Cub”? There seems to be confusion online about which track is which on this…) is only alright, it doesn’t come close to the abstracted heights of Burial’s solo material. It is on the gorgeous deep house jam “Moth” that this record earns its place in my collection. Simple old-school house chords form most of the harmonic component, while ghostly voices and percussion give it away as a modern record made by two guys whose sound relies heavily on such tricks.

Pépé Bradock returns with “Swimsuit Issue 1789” his third record in the last year, continuing a release rate that is his highest since 1998-1999. As usual, he throws together high quality tracks with diverse sounds into a single EP that stands very well on its own. On the B-side, “CU @ Minna & Lafayette” is a deep dark driving house jam, while “Unapologetic Weightlessness” is a weird atmospheric track. Dancefloors this summer, however, will be ablaze with the greatness that is “Path Of Most Resistance”. Continuing in the vein of “Intriguing Feathered Creature” and “Mandragore”, uplifting but glitchy harmonies set the stage for Pépé’s atmospheric touches. In this case, it is electric piano and wild synth screeches that add to the man’s subtle melodic sensibilities to create another anthem.

My man Jwan dropped this ridiculous 12″ by Solomun and Jackmate when we played on WRCT a couple weeks back (see imminent post for audio!) and it had me bugging out in the studio. This is the perfect combination of European and US dance music styles, creating tracks that have the proper feeling of deep house but with the sheen and production common to modern minimal techno. These cuts are beautiful, if only more people could get it right like this (and like the Pépé, Burial, and MVO records) I might not have such animosity towards so much European music.

Much lip service is paid these days to the Prescription and Balance catalogues. The 90’s heyday of deep Chicago and Detroit was most definitely a high point in house music, but Ron Trent and Chez Damier have made dope music since the 1980’s up until now! Chez recently launched Balance Alliance to continue his vision. The first EP, “Unite Therapy Volume 1”, features producers and remixers from around the world combining to keep it deep, while the second release is a 12″ by French producer Brawther that takes deep house into outer space. Looks like there’s a third one on the horizon as well! Ron Trent’s Future Vision Records is keeping up its ridiculous release schedule with new and old tracks by Ron across a number of 12″s. It’s good to see both of these guys banging it out still; in 20 years we will be hearing lip service paid to these records as well. House music is one of those genres where the musicians and producers actually get better with time!

ISM had an interview a few months back with the man like Speculator where he mentioned his new label W.T. Records. The first release is out now, and I have to give it a big TIP! $tinkworx’ style continues to mature, this time manning the piano as well as the synths for a melancholy house jam, probably his best track yet. On the flip, Kinoeye keeps it dirty and lo-fi on the deep house tip, you really can’t go wrong with either side.

Bvdub’s tracks can leave me a bit underwhelmed. He claims in a recent interview on Resident Advisor to not have anything to do with “dub techno”, but when the results are so similar to that subgenre does it really matter what the intent was? His mixes are another story altogether, utilizing beatless ambient and soundscapes to take you on an emotional journey. When I heard he was putting out a CD album of ambient under his real name, I anticipated something reminiscent of those captivating mixes…. and that is exactly what he delivers! What I didn’t anticipate was that the Intrusion remixes that came packaged with the album would be brilliant as well. I dug the Intrusion album, though that was definitely more straightforward dubby techno with a bit of a tropical feel to it that make it stand out. His interpretations of BVW’s album tracks are good enough to be a classic ambient release on their own, which makes this a two-for-one that is pretty much essential for ambient lovers.

Also on the double CD tip, I made the executive decision to pick up the double disc re-release of Robert Hood’s “Minimal Nation” on M-Plant. I felt this was the better choice for me as the tracks are generally much faster than what I play when I deejay, the vinyl version comes on white vinyl which degrades much too quickly especially with music as bare as Hood’s, and the CD came with a mix by Hood featuring many Minimal Nation tracks as well as other cuts from his more recent releases. If you’re a minimal techno fan, you don’t need me to tell you how awesome the album itself it. If you think you don’t like minimal techno, I strongly recommend you go out and buy this immediately as it is one of the best representations of the genre. Hood’s mix is short but sweet, and makes this a nice little package to celebrate one of techno’s greatest albums and producers.

Though it is now three years old, it is new to me and I bought it in new condition so it counts as a new record: Maurice Fulton’s remix of Alice Smith’s “Love Endeavor” is a ridiculously classic track. I first heard this around two years ago on Dixon’s RA podcast when it caused a bit of a ruckus amongst my friends and I. Seeing as how it was still not coming back out this much later, I caved in and paid good money for it, though it was definitely worth it. Maurice Fulton takes the dope soul jam and adds to it a spaced out 80’s boogie beat that compliments the Latin piano and vocals very well. It’s all about the chorus!

For the neo-soul heads out there, Maxwell finally came out with a new album! It’s only been 8 years since his last one, “Now”. The new one is not what I expected; instead of a weirdo electronic sounding atmospheric record, this one is straight up funky. Reminscient of Amp Fiddler at time but with a bit more smoothness, the final track sounds like it could have been a UR live hi-tech funk jam. Also, my wife and I bought tickets to go see him in Pittsburgh next Saturday. We were there in October ’01 when he was touring for his last record, and it was an awesome show. My wife was pregnant with my son at the time! That guy went from a fetus to 1st grade inbetween Maxwell concerts. Insanity. Now we just need D’Angelo to drop another album!

I’ll wind things up here with a quick rundown of some of the used shit I’ve been happening upon:

Ecstasy, Passion, & Pain “Touch and Go” Roulette Records 12″ – This is an early Tom Moulton 12″ mix of soulful disco, an all time classic that I’ve been looking for on original 12″ for a hot minute.

Ralph MacDonald “Sound of A Drum” Marlin LP – Contains the great “Calypso Breakdown” as well as many other jazz-funk style disco crossover tracks that have awesome percussion and memorable melodies. I need to get the 12″s from this!

Fat Larry’s Band “Act Like You Know” WMOT 12″ – Awesome early 80s boogie funk shit, singalong vibes. Been looking for this 12″ for a while!

Woods Empire “Sweet Delight” Tabu 12″ – Another synthy boogie jam from the 80s, this time with a bit of a P-Funk vibe to it. Perfect summertime music.

Voyage “3” Marlin LP – Picked this up since the 12″ of “I Love You Dancer” is so insanely expensive. That shit is one of my favorite disco tracks ever, and is easily the highlight of this album.

Patrick Cowley “They Came At Night” Ram’s Horn 12″ – I’ve been in a bit of a Cowley mood recently, and I happened upon this one that I had never heard. Really nice deep electronics with a female vocal, I believe this only ever came out on 12″ on this specially remixed Dutch version.

World Premiere “Share The Night” Dauntless Records 12″ – Metro Area played this on their Fabric mix CD, and I’ve been trying to hunt it down for a hot minute. Dope drum machine electro-boogie.

Pharoah Sanders “Summun Bukmun Umyun” Impulse! LP – Thanks to my man Andrew Burger (whose new record label straight out of Pittsburgh you will be hearing about here VERY SOON! My man.) for grabbing this up for me. Awesome album from one of my favorite jazz players, also featuring Gary Bartz and Lonnie Liston Smith.