Some More New Records

It was strange, doing another order of brand new records so close behind the last one, but there were just too many dope things that dropped at the same time that it was a necessity.

Theo Parrish dropped two 12″s on the same day, one for each of my favorite tracks from the CD version of his Sound Sculptures album. First up is “I’m Going Downstairs” which I first heard at the 3 Chairs set at DEMF 07 when Rick Wilhite dropped it to ecstatically retarded reception. Consisting mostly of weird Rhodes keys and different vocals repeating the title, it’s certainly not going to be the biggest dancefloor bomb but it shows how wild Theo can be when he feels like it. The opposite is true of the other 12″ which features probably the most dancefloor jam from that album on it: “Love Triumphant”. This one might be slow (I know at least one site put it up online with the sound sample taken at 45, making it sound ridiculous) but it is one of those deep jazzy bombs that sounds awesome loud as hell so you can feel the bass in your stomach. The flip “Space Bumps” is another weirdo jazzy house jam that is more minimal than most of Theo’s recent stuff.

Kai Alcé put out the second 12″ so far this year on his own label NDATL. I wasn’t lucky enough to get one of the DVDs mentioned on the discogs release notes, but the music alone is what I wanted anyway. For me it’s all about the deep minimal sax-ed up remix by Mush, but all the tunes are quite nice.

In a trend that sees me continuing to buy records from only a small group of producers who seem to get it consistently right, I also got Ron Trent’s newest 12″ (which is different from the other two new ones I got last time. I swear he has like 10 records out this year alone!). This one caused a bit of a stir with some of my crew on Saturday night. They heard Osunlade drop the A-side years ago and had been trying to ID the tune until they saw it on the platter at the club. I have to say, Mr. Trent is killing it right now even if it is with tracks that are a couple years old!

Finally for the new jams, I picked up the new Sistrum 12″ by Mike Edge. I haven’t heard any of his other stuff before (though it seems like he did a track with Roy Davis and his Myspace page has links to all the usual deep house deejays and producers in his top friends) so I can’t say how this compares, but it is a really nice techno influenced deep house jam. A friend even confused it for a Patrice Scott track when I played it the other night! If anything, it errs on the side of extremely smooth production but the bass and atmosphere make sure it isn’t only about his production skills. I will definitely be checking for his older joints.

And to top it off, I just ordered a couple more new records! This may end up being a good year yet.

I had a lucky digging session at the usual spot where I came across a nice vein of late 70’s and early 80’s dub and reggae albums in flawless shape. They were all UK imports, and it seems like they may have never been played before. I got a few classics (Max Romeo’s “War Ina Babylon”, Augustus Pablo’s “Rockers Meets King Tubbys In A Fire House”) and some Black Uhuru albums with Sly and Robbie on production (“Chill Out”, “Anthem”) amongst others. Those Black Uhuru albums in particular are right up my alley, the production is a perfect blend of synths and live parts which give a feeling not dissimilar to the kind of disco boogie that Eric Matthew and Larry Levan are known for from that same time period.

I also had to grab a minty copy of one of my favorite disco-ish hip-hop tracks, Jimmy Spicer’s “Bubble Bunch” as well as a mint copy of El Coco’s excellent first album “Brazil”.

We will actually have the first part of Scott Ferguson’s newest deep house mix up here on Monday of next week. Really. By then my interview of Rick Wade should be up on RA as well. Things never seem to happen in a timely manner these days, sorry about that!