I guess this post serves as some sort of coming out of retirement with regards to my writing here on ISM. It has been over 2.5 years since I wrote about new releases on here or anything else for that matter – bar a couple of posts on mixes / recordings. I’m not going to waffle on about any specific reasons for this, but I do plan on writing somewhat regularly again, so here goes…
Any escape from social media at the moment is a good thing, it is quite clear that Covid has affected engagement on these sites. I see a lot more people on edge, confrontational and generally fed up. Tempers are fraying both – rightfully – due to what is going on in the world (and this is not about having to wear a fucking mask for 10 minutes of your day, you children) and just in a general way. Not really surprising when there is so little for people to do at the moment. So while I am going to touch on some cultural & societal topics, I also hope that you find some new music – I know I’ve been buying quite a bit of music this year, both new and old.
I don’t have a huge amount to add about the attempt to refocus people’s attention on music by POC in the wake of the growing Black Lives Matter movement. The mainstream (?) dance music press has consistently aided and abetted in the whitewashing of dance music for all of this century so I’m not hugely enthused by them bending over backwards to fix a problem they helped cause – I read and engage less than ever with these sites. But any change is good and it better be maintained in the long run.
The death of Erick Morillo seems to be advancing further a reckoning in club culture over the behaviour of male DJs and the general treatment of women in both the booth and the dancefloor. The idea of PLUR has always been codswallop to me, so any dispensing of the notion that club culture has been a haven away from bad behaviour is a good thing, and that these issues can be addressed more honestly – hopefully bringing about a better attitude when dancefloors re-open. Even the most “safe” of clubs have issues and while cocktails of drugs and alcohol will never entirely eradicate unwanted advances or worse, when dance-floors reopen we should be more grateful than ever for them and remember to let people dance in peace.
The one issue I will directly address is that of Michael James’ campaign to bring a reckoning on Derrick May. It is becoming clear that May is possibly more than just the sleazy creep many of us knew he was already, but someone willing to over step boundaries into that of the threatening and dangerous. James may have helped bring this issue to the public forum but I also think he needs to step away from it now too.
Over the last year I have continuously found his treatment of the issue to be self serving and disrespectful to that of the alleged victims. Drip feeding vague, salacious details on a personal Facebook page all the while reminding us that he played the piano riff on Strings of Life is not how you go about things. He has stated himself that he initially started writing his yet unseen tell-all on May over bitterness due to how May acted towards him and then took it on himself to bring to light May’s behaviour with women after he was contacted privately over it. We know all too well at this stage how difficult it is to correctly challenge alleged offenders and his bitter blabbering will not help anyone’s case – any possibly mistruths he has decided were fact will be jumped on by May and his team, helping to discredit anyone connected to James. His recent treatment of Ashleigh Lauren makes it clear to me that women, and the treatment thus of them, are not his main priority. This situation needs to be fully removed from people who have a personal axe to grind if it is to be taken as seriously as it should be.
That is enough commentary for now…on to some music. This isn’t upfront just-dropped-on-bandcamp coverage btw – I’ll be going back across all of 2020 so far (some may even be from 2019, but y’know, great music lasts longer than a few months, and it still qualifies as pretty new to me). I’ll be adding to this with forthcoming posts too, along with some further commentary on the state of play clubbing now finds itself in.
Nick Araguay – EP
I don’t have much information on this UK based producer, other than he runs the Peur Bleue label and also records as Gohan. This 12″ on the Finnish Sähkö Recordings is my introduction to him, and it’s a beautifully 0ff-kilter & hazy mesh of deep house and electro with a hint of jazzy influences. Opener Gédéon is my highlight, which takes it’s sweet time revealing a lush, twisting bassline over skitter-y drums and haunting, dream-like pads. The rest of the EP continues with the same late-night funk – crisp, minimal and full of patient swing, breaking out most notably with the awesome soloing that brings the B1 Sous-Marin to a close.
Intergalactic Gary – Casting Shadows (Various Artists) / Signs of Disarray
Intergalactic Gary is one of the best DJs in the world. Idiosyncratic and with a wonderful way of weaving genres and decades worth of music into one sensible whole, if one was the trainspotting type you’d be hung over the booth half the night. It makes perfect sense that Brokn Toys would choose him to head up their latest Casting Shadows release, whereby they ask a DJ to present a selection of lesser known gems from their collection. This collection is headed off by what, for me anyways, is a first on record. Sprawl’s Nueral Acid was originally released in 1992 under the New Acid Generation guise, but the song is originally at a much higher tempo. Instead here it is presented using that ol’ favourite trick of mine, the 45rpm played at the wrong speed. Now, instead of being a high-octane electro-acid ripper, it becomes a far more tripped out affair and something easily imagined being played within the context of one of I-G’s sets. Cheeky.
GAG’s Flyin’ Bolero is a fun little side step, a jaunty, cosmic Italo Disco slice of funk. In classic Italo style the original release was a once off from GAG. The compilation is rounded off with Quad’s Spires ‘n’ Tours. Again, I’d never heard of Quad before but I think this is my highlight of the release. The breakbeat-ish drums really roll on this with one, with a great bass riff keeping the tension up as some very 90s cosmic synths ride over the top.
Solo material from I-G is very very rare so I’m gonna take a moment to mention his Signs of Disarray 12″ that came out last year (that I picked up myself earlier this year) on the always interesting Midnight Shift label. I’m especially into the title tracks brooding wave-ish / ebm techno and the 80’s-tinged disco-doom of Invisible Intruder.
Generation Next – The Pines Collective V1
Detroit’s Big Strick is keeping it in the family with the most recent EP from Tre Strickland, and this is certainly my favourite Generation Next release to date. Dance Bitch is the obvious choice, with its simple vocal refrain, big, catchy chords and riding percussion. I’m definitely missing dance floors whenever I put this on. The record then veers off into deeper territory, again wearing it’s Detroit influences on its sleeve, Bundy is all woozy and cumbersome, but in a good way, and similarly to the following Butterfly Effect eventually reveals itself fully. The latter especially comes really alive with a squiggling synth riff that dominates the 2nd half of the cut. The closing, electro-tinged Now and Forever returns to the open, anthemic synths of Dance Bitch but in a less direct way.
Hidden Spheres – 1985
We’re back in left-of-centre house territory – combined with some down tempo – with Hidden Spheres’ 1985 12″ on the Brooklyn label, Scissor & Thread. We’re also well into the late night again, as loose, jazzy drums, saxophone and enveloping keys wrap the listener up all snug. Tom Harris goes for a live feeling across all five tracks, with generally great results. King Tutt possibly over-eggs the smoky saxophone vibe into Lethal Weapon territory before My Names gives the EP more of a kick-start (well, relatively speaking) with its laidback broken-beat drums and wonderful key-play. Karl is the most direct cut on here, but Harris is still throwing weirdo jamming over the top whenever he feels like it. The title track and closing Soon We’ll are both standout, the playful percussion of 1985 is beautifully complimented by a droning melody and emotive pads while Soon We’ll dispense with the drums entirely, leaving us with a much more effective – compared with the earlier King Tutt – composition of mood that one could imagine playing on the jukebox in the lonely café of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.