New Promos and Records Reviews…

Sorry for the time off, it’s been a bit of a busy time for all of us at ISM this fall. You’ll be hearing some of the fruits of our labors soon enough, though! In the meantime, I’ve gotten a bunch of promos recently as well as a bunch of dope new and used records. So without further ado…

First up is the always special event of a new Shake 12″. This one will be dropping soon on Fit (the same label that recently dropped shit by Malik Pittman and Jamal Moss) out of Detroit. The title on the white label I have is “Drummer Downstairs”, which is also the title of the A2 cut. This is a severely cut up drums-only beatdown that reminds me a bit of “Good Girls” but made in the broken beat era. The long cut on the B side is a melancholy deep techno epic that makes for a beautiful listen, though it is a bit fast to play in my sets. The one I will be beating to death is “Trackin”, which is a minimal disco loop house banger with twisted funky synths. Overall a diverse and wild EP, and like most every Shake record, dope.

My man Disco Nihilist has another new one about to drop on Construction Paper, this one entitled “It’s Grim Up North”, a KLF reference (which is always appreciated around these parts!) as well as a reference to his new ‘hood. The first thing you’ll notice upon hearing this is that the Nihilist has added a new drum machine to his arsenal. I’m not gonna blow his shit up in public, but you’ll recognize the sound from old Steve Poindexter records! The second thing you will notice is that this EP is mostly on the harder techno tip! Reaching back to the jacking acid sounds of Relief Records and mid-90s Chicago, the A1 and B2 tracks are blistering dancefloor cuts. The A2 is a straight up drum track, you can hear Steven Tang beating it up at Smart Bar with it here:

I bet that sounded amazing on that sweet Function One soundsystem! For the house-leaning heads, the B1 is a sweet and twisted melodic cut that sounds like nobody else out there. Another ill EP from the man from Maine…

Our man James Duncan continues his return to banging out releases with a new one on Real Soon (their first release in about a year!). This time it’s a four track EP called “Shades of House”, with each cut using layers of samples to create funky collage-house. Being a musician (James has played on records by Metro Area and more!) with experience playing on dance records, he keeps things harmonious without taking it into noodly territory. My favorite cut is the stripped down A2, which is comprised of gritty drums, a couple chords, and a descending jazzy bassline and not much else. The B1 is also a killer, with an almost aquatic yet soulful atmosphere, but all cuts on here are fresh! It’s easy to see that James is a music lover who has figured out how to make his love into something of his own. Definitely one for the fans of Prescription and old Detroit deepness…

One that may be out for real now is the debut release on Love’s Label out of Chicago. For this release, Bvdub and Shifty Science (a little known production group from Chicago, you can find out more about them and this release on the Love’s Label site) take turns remixing each other. The results are warm, deep, electronic house of the beautiful variety. Shifty Science’s take on Bvdub’s “Same Boat, Different Sea” is euphoric dubbed out chordy house that uses familiar elements in a not extremely distinctive manner, yet it still remains captivating due to the beautiful atmosphere. Even better is the B side on which Bvdub does a very HOUSE version of SS’s “Love’s Not Fading”. This isn’t really what Mr. Van Wey is known for, but with results like these I hope he continues doing tracks like this. Adding little vocal snippets and the wispy synth tones from his ambient work, the deep bass and funky drum programming become just as emotional as his other work. An excellent first release from Love’s Label!

Another label that just stepped into the vinyl realm is Further Records, previously known for their cassette releases of albums by cats like Lerosa. To kick off the wax onslaught, they picked two tracks from the Aybee cassette they released earlier this year and dropped them on a 12″. The b side cut “Vertigo” is a jazzy yet electronic cut that sprinkles broken beats on top of spacey electronics for a very original sound. The real dancefloor treat is the A side, “Sun of Cycle”. Kicking off deep and bleepy, repetition leads to hypnosis before the chords and dubbed out percussion come in to add more flavor. This is undoubtedly my favorite of the Aybee tracks available on vinyl thus far!

Also from Further in their initial vinyl offerings is a double vinyl version of Donato Dozzy’s album “K”. I only have Mr. Dozzy’s collaborative release with Lerosa, so I can’t really compare this to his other solo material, but this album contains some excellent music in both uptempo and slower styles. The untitled lead track is without question the highlight, a slow driving downtempo track that sounds like Burial Mix layered with Tangerine Dream. It is so nice that music like this is being released on vinyl, even though it isn’t going to have a place in many deejay sets. Other cuts mine a twitchy but still deep techno aesthetic whose primary concern appears to be setting a mood. And that it does quite well! The closing track evolves from beatless synth washes into a quirky acidic jam and back again, reminding me of the best parts of Plastikman’s “Consumed” album. This is a great album because it really works well as an album. While some tracks are definitely good for the dancefloor, this is NOT a collection of dance tunes. These songs share a similar atmosphere, regardless of tempo, and the result is a record that stands up to repeated listens very well. This is in contention for album of the year in my book!

Oh yeah, both of these Further releases come in hand silk-screened sleeves for that added personal touch. I love seeing these guys putting so much love and care into what they are doing.

While in Detroit to play records a couple weeks ago, I ran into my homie TJ Dumas who broke me off with a copy of the last edition of Rick Wilhite’s Vibes comp on Rush Hour because he has a new joint on it! On this, he teams up with Raybone to drop a sweet jazzy deep cut that fits right in with the other strong jazzy house joints by Marc King (just how many house tracks are there called “Can You Feel It”?!?!?! Derivative title aside, that’s a great track!) and another Raybone collabo, this time with Rick Wilhite. This comp has proven Rick’s prowess as a selector of new house music, every tune is dope. Also, TJ let me hear some of his new shit, some of which will hopefully be hitting the streets on wax soon. He’s got some heat lined up! Yet another producer from Detroit doing good shit…

Speaking of Detroit, one of the less prolific (but no less talented) cats making house in the D, Ibex aka Tony Ollivierra, dropped yet another solid EP, this time on Yore. If you dig his other cuts that combine soulful synth work and deep sampling, then these will surely hit the spot again. The highlight for me is definitely the B2 cut, “Mystery Babylon”. I had planned a Tony Ollivierra post going back two years ago to say “where has he gone”, but fortunately he is not banging them out at a rate of one dope four track EP per year over the past three years.

Danny Krivit has a new “Edits by Mr. K” comp coming out on Strut. The first one is now out of print and goes for crazy dough on wax! So far there are only two sampler 12″s from the new one, and I picked them both up. These dig deeper into an obscure uptempo soul territory than much of the “disco” edits he is famous for, but they are just as good. The first one is highlighted by the slow piano funk of Chairmen of the Board’s “Life & Death”, while the second one is stronger with Black Blood’s funky latin “Chicano” and pre-gogo Soul Searchers’ “We the People”. These are ones for the deep disco heads only!

While we’re on the topic of deep disco, a comp by the name of “Deep Disco & Boogie Vol. 1” is forthcoming on Rush Hour’s Kindred Spirits label. I don’t usually mess with reissues and the like, but the sampler 12″ for this comp features one of my most desired disco record (which happens to be a very, very rare British only 12″), China Burton’s “You Don’t Care (About Our Love)”. I HAD to buy this bitch. I can’t even tell you what the B side is like, because the A side is too hot to even consider turning it over without setting fire to my slipmats. Goddamn. Seriously funky and with one of the best hooks I’ve ever heard, I do hope to one day find an original, but in the meantime I’ll be banging it off of this. Those strings!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the used tip, I just wanna mention a couple long time wants I finally picked up…

First up is Giorgio Moroder’s epic electronic disco cut “Evolution”, which takes up the whole B side of his soundtrack LP for “Battlestar Galactica”. This is one of those mental, constantly changing cuts that need to be played out in its entirety, but it is well worth it. Classic shit.

Another Rheji Burrell joint crossed off my list! This may not be the most widely loved of his joints, due to the heavy jazz influence and the sampled string hits that sound pretty cheesy on some of the tracks. But I can’t help it, I just love the Burrell brothers’ style.

This one might be familiar to those of you who checked out Trus’me’s album. He did a not-so-hot cover of it, but the original is some seriously funky electro boogie shit. This one is gonna be hammered in all my sets coming up!