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ALBUM REVIEWS
Arnaud Rebotini
Mistabishi
Music Components
Drop
Process Recordings Hospital
Lowkey Ferry Corsten Richard Dinsdale
Dear Listener Twice In A Blue U-Turn
SO Empire
Moon
Toolroom
Strobe shines on Credit to drum crunching
Maelstrom
When Ivan Smagghe announced he was Mistabishi was a different person not so long Straight from the heart Serious Toolroom
leaving Black Strobe to focus on DJing ago. A New York city banker who once had the
last year, it was diffi cult to imagine envious task of writing off 24 billion dollars,
“I’m half Gil Scott-Heron
Some hit, more miss
contender
what the remaining member — Arnaud he has since invested all his creative assets
and half Talib Kweli” claims
Despite highlights such as
Provided you can turn a
Rebotini — would do next. Certainly, into digital drum & bass. Of course, his new
Lowkey on ‘The Essence’.
‘Gabriella Sky’ and the huge
blind eye to the occa-
the cock-rock gothic excess of Rebotini’s home — Hospital — have long championed
In truth, though, he’s more
Kernkraft 400 replicating
sional sniff of Camembert,
debut Black Strobe album — ‘Burn Your left-of-centre deebee and ‘Drop’ exemplifi es
like a Cockney Braintax,
‘Brain Box’, Ferry’s third
Dinsdale’s debut longplayer
Own Church’ — suggested Smagghe had this philosophy perfectly.
which certainly isn’t a bad
studio album lacks the sense
has it all. Disco infl uences
departed with all the grimy acid, moody Raw but refi ned music, just listen to the
comparison to make when it
of experimentation that
are abudant in its electrifi ed
techno and jacking funk that made the angelic strings and skipping piano in ‘View
comes to the erudite rhym-
embodied his previous work.
funk and tripped-out, big-
French duo such an exciting proposition. From Nowhere’ or the chords painting colours
ing and soul-baring honesty
Though lifted by the beauti-
room house with a sense of
‘Components’, however, suggests that in ‘Heavens Sake’ for proof. And for each light
on one of the best British
ful ambient fi nale ‘Visions Of
cohesion so often absent
Rebotini’s role may have been overlooked. melody comes a deep, dark, dirty element
hip-hop LPs that we’ve
Blue’, this is all dancefl oor,
from this type of work.
While it contains a number of dire electro- such as the evil electro groans of ‘Greed’ or
heard in quite some time.
no depth. Simon Kelly
Simon Kelly
house tracks — ‘Swamp Waltz’ and ‘777’ the rotating hypnotic bass of ‘Lean’. Tracks
Paul Clarke
being the main offenders — and some like ‘Lowlife’s Theme’ add a skanking dubwise
ridiculous macho posturing in ‘Decade of vibe whilst elsewhere we fi nd Mistabishi
Aggression’, it also features the moody, skilfully slotting household sounds like
brooding techno of ‘Conarky Filter Sweep’ windscreen wipers and printer mechanisms
and the dank warehouse jack trax of into the mixture. Clearly, the banking world’s
‘Spirit of Boogie’. Maybe Smagghe should loss was d&b’s gain. Alex C
start planning a reunion. Richard Brophy
Novalima The Subs Telefon Tel Aviv
Coba Coba Subculture Immolate Yourself
Cumbancha Lektroluv BPitch Control
Peruvian rhythm blend Dodgy vampire trance Moody electro-pop
Formed by a quartet of Aiming to infect trance with Charles Cooper and Joshua
City Reverb Shadow Dancer
producers, Novalima unite a dark, deeply gothic men- Eustis’s move to Ellen
Lost City Folk (And The Grace
Golden Traxe
traditional Afro and Peru- ace, The Subs’s debut album Allien’s label has seen them
Reunion) Boysnoize Records
vian music with electronic might recall Modeselektor’s evolve into an electro-pop
Dumb Angel
beat adding broken beats more melodic moments outfi t reminiscent of Junior
to Meringue, ska beats to but mostly sounds like high Boys, or even Depeche
Bold British robo-funk
Salsa and house to Cumbia. street electro-house given a Mode. Just check the
Chilled Balearic bliss Taking this concept further, fuzzy spray and token noisy jaw-dropping bittersweet
For a nation that has birthed countless elec-
they recently added fi ve new tweak. An intriguing but galactic disco of ‘You Are the
Having been through a series of line-up
tronic genres, Britain has always harboured
members from Lima’s black messy blend that is more Worst Thing in the World’
changes Chris Coco and Micky Buccheri’s
an inferiority complex when it comes to
music community. substandard than subcul- — included on ‘Invol2ver’ —
City Reverb outfi t seem to have settled into
sounds seeded in further afi eld — bowing
Satisfyingly diverse. ture. Allan McGrath for proof of their brilliance.
a permanent six piece structure which is as
at Detroit’s techno altar or Berlin’s minimal
Ben Osbourne Ben Murphy
good a reason as any to release their debut LP
mecca. Thankfully, this debut LP from the UK’s
proper. Featuring highlights like the blissful
answer to Justice — aka Northern brothers
‘Time Side On’ and the fl oating ‘City Of Lights’,
Paul and Alan Farrier — smashes them into REPEATTHE LPS WE CAN’T LEAVE ALONE...
which recalls the ice-cool bliss of French duo
touch by mangling the Ed Banger template
Air, the album is soaked in Balearic sunsets
into fresh, devastatingly concise robo-funk
and pastoral vistas rather than the city grime
in tracks like the gurgling synth splurge of
that is said to have inspired it.
‘Poke’, guitar stabbed ‘Soap’ and the menac-
And if the song writing is guilty of the oc-
ingly funky title track.
Milton Jackson Deekline & Wizard Mr Oizo
casional over sentimentality in tracks like
Fiercely cut-up but never losing fl uidity or
Crash Back Up, Coming Lambs Anger
‘Everything Will Be Alright’, there’s plenty
focus, the kaleidoscopic melange mangles
Freerange Records
of other highlights making up for it such as
Through
Ed Banger
everything from ‘80s synths, b-boy electro-
Against The Grain
the Lou Reed inspired ‘Ghetto Glamour’ and
boogie, R&S rave stabbage and Acid Trax
the festival head rush of ‘Star Power’. As
Driven by bold, muscular A decade since ‘Flat Beat’,
303 pulses into 13 cohesive tracks whilst the
befi ts Coco’s recent past, City Reverb is fi rmly
rhythms, soaked in mature
Speaker-smashing, arse-
Mr Oizo fi nally betters his
gliding melodic beauty of ‘Drivetime’ would
nailed to the chill-out mast but it’s destined
atmospherics and shaped
wiggling perfection that
best tune with a defi nitive
to inspire a fair few dancefl oor remixes along
sit proudly alongside the Hartnoll brothers’ by sleek, stripped-back
comes loaded with funk
album loaded with irrever-
the way. Ben Osbourne
output. No pale imitation, this shadow is as
melodies.
and classic vocal turns.
ent Ed Banger noise and
bold as they come. Allan McGrath
funk, dirty squelch.
www.djmag.com 091
DJ470.albums.indd 91 19/1/09 22:02:30
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