Spring ’11 New Records Pt. 1

So yeah. I’ve been slacking yet again on new record posts, and it has really backed up enough that I’m not even gonna try to do them all in one go. I imagine this will take two or three posts, so bear with me.

Pictured above is Chancho Via Circuito at his debut Pittsburgh appearance a couple weekends back. I was fortunate to be tipped off to his album Rio Arriba in time to guarantee I wouldn’t miss his set! This album is one of the best things I’ve heard so far this year: deep hypnotic drum patterns combined with native South American folk instruments and a bit of echo that end up sounding like Rhythm and Sound doing Latin music! The opening track, a remix of José Larralde’s “Quimey Neuquén” is stunningly beautiful, and though a bit slow for house, those who like to play deep slower joints will definitely love this.

Chancha also steps in with a wonderful remix of “Ayaya” on Peabody & Sherman’s “All Your Bass Are Belong To Us” EP. Another VERY slow Latin flavored jam, though this one is actually around 60 BPM allowing for seamless double-time transition into more standard dance tempo business. DJ DRM also adds a nice house flavor to “Last Drunk” while retaining deep afro-latin vibes. Beautiful summertime music!

This is one that makes me feel really proud. The man like Disco Nihilist was officially unleashed on the vinyl-buying world by me about two years ago with the debut release on my Love What You Feel label. Since then, his releases on Construction Paper have been gaining more and more popularity, resulting in this new EP about to drop on Running Back very soon. A few of these six tracks feature the customary grinding acid and drum machine workouts that Disco Nihilist is known for, but one two cuts he takes a different path that leads to some of his best work. “A New Job In A New Town” and “Coffee and A Worn Paperback” are both long titles for sweet, simple jams that combine chords and echo as the primary elements alongside the drum machine, and with no acid to be found, beautiful deep house music is what these are all about. Overall, this shows the many sides of his sound on one record. I love seeing this cat have success!

Continuing in the beautiful music vein, Danny Krivit drops another installment of his Edits By Mr. K series which includes one of my favorite soulful disco joints, Milton Hamilton’s rare LP only cut “We Have All The Time”. He tightens up the arrangement, keeping it focused on pure ecstatic dancefloor action. Also on the edit tip, some summery edits of Fela jams courtesy of the Afro Breaks label. The only problem with these? How unfortunately short they are on the 7″ format, it would be nice to have some more of these on a 12″!

Now for a record I slept on from last year, Lone’s “Emerald Fantasy Tracks” double LP. Upon first checking the samples last year because of recommendation by some friends, I was not super impressed. The “Detroit” and “Chicago” sounds are most definitely heavily present, which can be a turnoff: why buy tracks that sound like that when I can play the originals? It was only after coming across some YouTube videos of full tracks from Emerald Fantasy Tracks that I began to see that this album was more than homage. Taking those classic sounds but adding heaps of nostalgic melodies to the equation gives a distinctly British vibe that reminds me at times of early jungle/hardcore mixed with techno and house. The album works well as an album, despite being mostly dancefloor friendly material, because of those dreamy melodies. After loving this, I have checked out other Lone releases in full, none of which manage to capture the kinds of feelings that this album is ram packed with. At the very least, this is his worthwhile contribution to dance music!

That’s all you get for now! Look out for parts two and three later this week…