ALBUMSREVIEWS 8.0
Benjamin Brunn A Sun Life Third Ear Water music
Making his name among the Berlin house glitterati with 2008’s collaborative LP alongside Move D, ‘Songs From The Beehive’, Benjamin Brunn is back after efforts for the likes of Mule Electronic and Smallville, with an LP for Detroit-inspired British imprint Third Ear. Still using the trusty Nord Modular and Roland TR707 as his main devices, ‘A Sun Life’ sees Brunn focus on fluidity over functionality. Less about the dancefloor but more about exploring liquefied texture and harmonic frequency in a way that evokes the natural, organic world, the album ebbs and flows in and out of consciousness without defining any real sense of direction. Instead, its charm lies not in its comprehension as a linear journey, but more in the depth of its matter, surprising throughout with its inventive interaction with both the extraordinary sensibilities of Berlin and the Motor City in equal measure. Adam Saville
Pete DaFeet Family Affair Lost My Dog Papa does preach
This is Lost My Dog founder Pete DaFeet’s third Family Affair mix compilation. It’s actually more like an artist album in fact, featuring all original tracks — some remixed, some not — blended together in a seamless mix (or not, of course, if you’re discussing the unmixed version). DaFeet comes from that deep house lineage that was at its most febrile towards the end of the ‘90s and beginning of the ‘00s, and to be brutal, little — maybe even nothing — appears to have audibly changed in that time. The grooves are as lush and as deep as ever they were. The likes of Pezzner and Moodymanc have swung by to provide their interpretations of tracks like ‘Hit Em Up’ and the ravey highlight ‘Stutter’, but this isn’t likely to draw in too many new fans. Rather, it preaches to the converted. Ben Arnold
7.0
Bambounou Orbiting 50Weapons Paris is brooding
Happy to be functional, this debut from Parisian producer Bambounou knows how to map the peaks and troughs of good album-making without sacrificing its club appeal. Finding depth in minimal rhythmic details, the YoungGunz member disjoints grooves before gluing them together, giving ‘Orbiting’ a chewy funkiness at its core even when cohesion doesn’t appear to be high on the list of priorities. From a cavernous breakbeat, ‘Let Me Get’ looms with crunk menace, relaxes into crisp, glacial ‘80s R&B, then finally arrives at a footwork exercise that, if a little too meticulous to trouble kids in Chicago, is still impressively ambitious in its genre- hopping. ‘Orbiting’ doesn’t quite escape its air of fun pastiche — there’s little sign of much happening under the surface. But it’s easily one of the most pleasurable and playful sets of its kind. Bambounou understands that dance albums work best on their own terms. Sunil Chauhan
7.0
Errors New Relics Rock Action Unmistakable
Recently there was an ‘It’s Alright To Be Bright!’ campaign aimed at clever kids who might be worried about showing off their talent for fear of being bullied. For which Errors should have written a theme tune, since this Scottish trio have never been shy of showing off their learning on albums of post-rock and electronica that felt like watching a maths prodigy speedily solve a Rubik’s cube, yet which leave you wanting to slap them on the back rather than in the face. Like the similarly-minded Animal Collective, Errors also follow their muse on lateral tangents; where this year’s ‘Have Faith In Magic’ was more about rigid rhythms and tight corners, this slimmer follow-up is a soft drift around synth-drenched curves. ‘Grangehaven’ could be a mellower Fuck Buttons and the title track sounds like Slowdive doing house, but wherever they wander, Errors are never short of dazzling. Paul Clarke
8.0
Egyptian Hip-Hop
Good Don’t Sleep R&S
8.5 Pyramidal punk
PROBABLY the most misleading band name we’ve ever encountered, Egyptian Hip-Hop are neither hip-hop nor from Egypt. But that’s not the half of it. Recently making the switch from hip indie label Moshi Moshi to Belgium-born (UK-based) techno titan R&S, they’ve turned our heads by stepping up to the plate with an impressive debut LP transcending indie boundaries. Previously the stuff of jingle-jangly art-pop, this fresh-faced four-piece in baggy vintage shirts had
more in common with The Klaxons than Juan Atkins’ staple for the imprint, tracks like ‘Rad City’ echoing the strung-out adolescence of The Cure at their most saccharine. On ‘Good Don’t Sleep’, however, there is a newfound maturity on display, no doubt garnered by the influence of a dance label as veritable as R&S. That’s not to say they’ve swapped their heartfelt pop sensibility for a barrage of body music. Quite the opposite. Undergoing a process of refinery, their
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sound — still guitar-based — embraces the nebulous ambience of My Bloody Valentine or Jesus & Mary Chain with effective use of cosmic synths and generous helpings of spaced-out DFA disco punk throughout.
Highlighting the direction of a label that brought us Teengirl Fantasy’s excellent pop-dance experiment ‘Tracer’ early this year, it’s a treat watching the courageous R&S continuum on course. Adam Saville
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