Stolen from the interwebs
Yeah, this has been a fucking weird one. I’m not even going to get into it here, really, because I’m over all the bullshit.
I spent the first couple months of the year holed up in the studio, knocking out what will be my first solo record forthcoming on my new label. It was supposed to be ready for DEMF weekend in May, but with that pushed back I am unsure when the release will be. I’ll keep you all updated.
Partially thanks to being focused heavily on my own music, and partly because there just wasn’t a lot of stuff I felt like I needed, I didn’t pick up a whole lot for the first two months of the year. The more recently once my head was out of the ground, a bunch of nice things dropped and I picked up a few other older things I had missed as well. Here are my highlights of the first quarter of 2020….
Linkwood & Foat – Linkwood & Foat – Athens of the North LP
Without question my favorite music released thus far this year is this LP by Nick “Linkwood” Moore and jazz pianist Greg Foat. I’ve actually had this one since the end of last summer, but my feelings haven’t changed too much from my initial listen. Building on Nick’s deep, warm house sound, Greg adds some more melodic and harmonic complexity to the mix which makes for a very strong listening album. The texture and vibe are off the charts here.
Jay Simon – MHR-005 – Must Have Records
Jay has run Must Have Records for a while now and the music on it has lived up to the name. Despite having dropped a 7” on Wild Oats before launching the label, he has not put out any of his own music until now. This one will be around later on limited white label press, but for now it is out digitally. I’ve heard these jams for a while as well, and have even played them out a bit. There are six total cuts and while some are short, they work together to create a nice selection of House vibes. From sampled jams to more acidy sounding joints, there’s something here for those with good taste. My pick is “Steel Blue”, a gritty deep joint.
Generation Next – The Pines Collective V1 – 7 Days Entertainment
ButterBandz – Legacy EP – 7 Days Entertainment
Big Strick’s label 7 Days Entertainment has for a while been split almost evenly between his own releases and those of his son Tre aka Generation Next. It’s been nice to watch Tre really come into his own, with his music retaining the family’s deep sound while adding more and more of a hi tech soul edge. Pines Collective V1 is strong throughout, maybe his best overall record so far. My personal favorite is “Bundy”, a funky acidic minimal house joint with a dope bassline.
Strick’s youngest son is also getting in on the action with his first EP under the ButterBandz alias, the Legacy EP. If it wasn’t clear enough from the title, a listen shows that he has been paying very close attention to his family’s style and sound. Deep and melodic jams that ride right on that line between house and techno, like Detroit is well known for at this point, but with a little more epic feel especially on “Hellraiser (BDB)” which almost reminds me of some of Waajeed’s recent tracks. My personal fav tho is “Monkey See”, which is a bit more stripped down and with a more broken up beat, very good for underground dancefloors.
Nothing makes me happier than seeing a new generation of youth bypassing all the typical hyped up sounds and instead putting their spin on the classic US sounds. And Big Strick is helping to quite literally keep that vibe all in the family.
Afrikan Sciences – “Have It Tall”/“Daily Gates” – ESP Institute
I first heard Afrikan Sciences years ago on Aybee’s DeepBlak label, with his very abstract album Theta Wave Brain Sync as his most standout release for me until now. On this 12” for ESP Institute, he takes things into an almost Tortoise-esque post-rock sound with tracks that sound like performances rather than hyper edited chopped up collages. On “Have It Tall” the broken house drums give it spaced out dancefloor potential, but most likely better for open minded jazz dancers.
Good Dude Lojack – Szene EP – Delicate Cashmere
Speaking of post-rock, Good Dude Lojack, a former member of Pittsburgh group Smooth Tutors, has kicked off his own new vinyl label Delicate Cashmere. For the first release he has concocted a nice set of tracks that draw from house music and beats scene type funk grooves, but adds in a heap of his own synth work and live playing sensibilities. It’s always dope to see new labels from the city that reflect some of our more underground sounds.
Chris Mitchell – Shadow Wands – XCPT Music
Chris is probably most well known for his grimy house and techno jams as former part of the Vanguard label, but on this cassette album he shows us the beatless side of his music. Thick synths and layered feedback effects give a dark, ominous feeling to the ambient cuts here, but my favorite is undoubtedly the final track “Cure Yourself and Groove” which adds some drums that quite curiously make this sound like it’s about to break out into some Robert Smith vocals at some point.
Butch Haynes – Ghost Ego – Sistrum
Small Creatures – “Black Rose (Jon Dixon Remix)” – ?????
Jwan made a trip up to Detroit earlier this year, and he stopped into some shops to see if there was anything new that we hadn’t picked up yet. These two records were what came back, and both are dope.
I’m not sure who Butch Haynes is, but his production style feels quite mature and established. Keeping with Sistrum’s more recent jazzy style, the electric piano on “Ghost Ego” switches between deep chords and more aggressive tones, crafting a laid back but foreboding jam to listen to while smoking away. Patrice Scott adds his touch to it on the remix, making things a tad more upbeat and spring time feeling.
Jon Dixon’s remix of “Black Rose” has been around since at least last May when I know Vincent picked it up (and mentioned it on here before), but despite having had it since before then digitally I had never seen the record in person. Judging by the lack of info on the web, it might be available only in Detroit. If you’ve been keeping up with Jon’s solo work or his jams with Timeline, you know what this is all about. Live key playing, sweet vocals, and an uptempo but soulful drum machine beat add up to a perfect hi tech soul number, sure to please fans of neo soul as much as deeper dance heads.
????? – East Village Edits 6 – Dailysession Records
This one appeared in my mailbox, dropping on DJ Monchan’s (of A1 Records NYC fame) Dailysession label and features edits of tracks I don’t recognize by a number of different cats. Jacques Renault does the A side with one dramatic disco vocal track followed by a more uptempo funky jam, both of which are very raw sounding and energetic. On the flip Eric Haas loops up a spacey funk jam to very nice effect, while Monchan himself drops the tempo but keeps the grime. All of these are quite good, and adhere to the old school style of edit with minimal or no addition “production” happening.
Thomas Xu – Places In Time – Steady Flight Circle
I reviewed Thomas’s first outing on his own label last year, and his second one is just dropping right now. His looped up atmospheric sound is still here, it’s honestly tough to even categorize this in a genre which is one of the best things about it. The A side kicks off with two shorter abstract jams, with “Going Public” leaning ambient and “Easin” adding some drum machines to the mix. “Tireda Being Tired” is probably the most straightforward track, with an atmospheric techno style. “Promise2” relies on a piano sample from McCoy Tyner and almost no percussion, but the Derrick May style strings give it that unmistakable Detroit soul. “Let’s Go See Roy” sounds almost like it could have been a weird early 00s r&b instrumental. Thomas is definitely going against the popular grain here yet again.
DJ Lostcat – Presence of Mind EP: Chapter 001 – Self Released B*ndc*mp
Lostcat is from the younger generation, but unlike a lot of them he is focused on working in the studio instead of trying to hang out with the cool kids. Currently based in NYC, he works across a number of genres but this EP leans towards a dubbier techno vibe. My personal favorite though is “Sweatboxx” which is a deep and melodic electro joint.
Stefan Ringer – Feels Rite EP – People of Earth
Stefan’s last two releases were both excellent and both came on his own FWM Entertainment label. Here he drops on Atlanta’s People of Earth, and the result is probably my favorite on the label thus far. His own vocals are prominent on “Be Myself” and “Club Bang”, two bass heavy house joints like you expect from him, while the B sides includes my pick “Fired Up” which effectively chops a funk jam up and makes it into a club cut.
Julion De’Angelo/Viola Klein ?– We – WE-001
According to Discogs, this is a release split amongst three labels, Meakusma, Omnira, and Viola Klein, but has one unrelated catalog number and plain black labels. I dig the mystery. The music is dope, with Julion De’Angelo taking the A side credit as “rebuilt by”. Here he lays down some grimy percussion and deep subs alongside a little choral vocal on the first cut, while the second holds the vocal back until later and makes the drums more straightforward but still heavy. The B side is “arranged by” Viola Klein, and starts with a short track of atmospheric synths and live percussion. The second cut also features Whodat from Detroit and appropriately has that hard, uptempo jit feeling, while the third goes back to the same parts as the first. Overall an unexpected but fun mix of styles.
Steve Spacek – Houses – Black Focus Records
I was a fan of Steve’s last LP Natural Sci-Fi which was more abstract soul in genre, and on Houses he takes the same kind of feeling but uses house tempo and rhythm and it works out very well. The beats wouldn’t sound too out of place in a soulful house set, but the production is comparatively sparse and minimal leaving a lot of room for his vocals which are usually soft and bathed in spatial effects. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s been listening to Stefan Ringer, Jay Daniel, and Kyle Hall from the sound of things, but it’s on the full vocal tracks like “Tell Me” and “Waiting for You” that this album really shines.