FUNKY/GARAGE REVIEWS
Montesa EP Sneaker Social Club 6.5
Jay Weed
Tunnel 2084
8.0
Lyon-based Frenchman Jay Weed says a lot with a little. So far he’s only really had the ‘Prism’ 12” on Oneman’s 502 Recordings, but just like on ‘Tunnel’, it’s how he uses the minimal elements that really matters. The choked creep of his almost-acid groove on this debut for 2084 is the focus puller, even when it’s just trickling out behind the shallow drums. A weird outlook, but a fucking jam no less.
Alex Coulton
Adventures In 4x4 Hype LTD 6.0
If I called an EP ‘Adventures In 4x4’, I’d probably start the record in exactly the same way as Alex Coulton does; heading straight into the brittle, linear nearly- plod of ‘Dance, Max’. The other tracks follow that template — all very clean, clinical and kind of dry — until ‘Function’, whose pulse emerges out of the reverbed snippets of conversation with a real gumption. Other than that, it all feels pretty polite and a little thin.
Biome
Mindset 13 Mindset 8.0
Listen to Biome’s ‘Driveway’ and then tell me the guy isn’t some kind of producer savant. Merging the menace of that contorted bassline with trolling hints of melody and a stepper’s beat that never once really lurches into a gallop, he makes the space between sounds really sing. I know people say it a lot when talking about dubstep, but it’s in the gaps where he’s saying little that Biome shines.
70
Landstrumm’s latest return on Sneaker Social Club features a menagerie of styles, but it’s ‘Super Mousse (Is On The Loose)’ that feels the most fully-formed, flipping from clipped grime, to half-step and back again. A joy to have him back.
Ogris Debris
Next Life Affine 6.0
Bondax
Gold Just Us/Relentless 5.5
Hype can breed contempt, but actually taking the time to listen and form your own opinion can do well to alleviate all of that. Still, there’s something about Bondax’s ‘Gold’ that just feels a little bit too autopilot. A strong, smoky, almost awkward vocal delivery over tightly wound bass, shattered vocal samples and a clean, almost-house beat feels like the new formula. Still, it does sound neat when it breaks.
Don Froth
REflex EP UNO NYC 7.0
The ‘REflex EP’ is four slices of unrelenting, jacking house from ex-pat Don Froth that hinges on acid basslines as much as it does sampled kicks. ‘Tunnelvision’ feels like an adopted take on the funky template once it finally settles into the drop at two-and-a-half minutes, with that simplistic ascending melody, but Froth manages to excite it with layers of metronomic hi-hats and lashings of power bass. No guff, Chet.
Indigo
Celestial Apollo 7.0
After tapping up a wealth of new talent this year, the regenerated Apollo imprint takes ownership of a little bit of Manchester producer Indigo’s discography, with the four-track ‘Celestial EP’. And as the title hints, it’s a bit more of an explorative work from
the producer. ‘Sea Of Stars’ is intricate and unpredictable, and ‘Azha’ has this lovely chug to it, but the whole EP coalesces into a swamp of delayed dub textures perfectly.
Maxmillion Dunbar
Woo RVNG Intl 8.5
When you start thinking in comparative terms, picking out the aspects and designs the funky movement appropriated, you can’t help but hear it everywhere, but ‘Woo’, Dunbar’s first single from a forthcoming album, is infectious in a different kind of way. Lush and lo-fi, there are moments on ‘The Drift’ when you forget what you were expecting and just lock into the snare drum gunplay. ‘Woo’ itself is the aural equivalent of falling through a cerulean sky.
Mr Mageeka
Flex Diskotopia 6.5
Relatively silent since the bandy- legged, crossover-knee-inspiring dance of ‘Different Lekstrix’ on Numbers, it would appear that Mr Mageeka’s simply been honing his output, and here he continues to refine his particularly clean blend of keyboard-driven 4/4. ‘Jus Get’ has got one of those irrepressible grooves that could keep on and on, going forever and a day, plus the dub version of ‘Flex’ is a delightfully stutter-bound thing — a perfect anti groove.
Vienna-based producer Debris has always excelled in merging organic textures and instruments with dancefloor-ready grooves, and that’s what he does on ‘Next Life’ incredibly well when it blossoms up into a jaunty, vocal-led roller.
OLI MARLOW,
info@sonicrouter.com Neil Landstrumm
QUICKIES Primitive World
Danceteria Black Acre 7.5
Lazy journalism ahoy: Black Acre always seem to come good and the newest three-tracker from Primitive World merges house, hip-hop and grime brilliantly. ‘Danceteria’ feels like dusky disco done right, and ‘Run Interference’ is poignantly bleak.
Utrecht
APC Good Years 5.5
The club edit of Utrecht’s ‘APC’ is as direct as they come: a vocal-draped piano house cut that sounds incredibly like London. It bounds with real poise through the little turns and breakdowns, and even though it’s kinda predictable, it’s mad workable.
SOUTH LONDON ORDNANCE HOTFLUSH
01. NAUTILUSS ‘Depth Charge’ Turbo “I’m relatively new to Nautiluss, but I’ve been running loads of his stuff of
late. Definitely a personal fave.”
02. DENSE & PIKA ‘31’ Hotflush “Lovely big room groove on this one — functional, but more than enough
peaks and troughs to keep punters interested.”
03. TESSELA ‘Monica’ CDR “Been a staple in my sets for a while now – never knowingly not wheeled.”
04. LOCKED GROOVE ‘Wear It Well’ Hotflush “Oozes class — classic house sounds from one of my favourite producers.”
05. GEORGE FITZGERALD ‘Every Inch (Deetron Remix)’ Hypercolour “Features without doubt my favourite bassline of 2012.”
06. DARLING FARAH ‘Body (Jimmy Edgar Remix)’ Civil Music “I love all Jimmy’s stuff, but this remix is definitely one of my favourites.
Trademark top-end hits FTW.”
07. TREVINO ‘Under Surveillance’ Apple Pips “Just builds and builds — so moody. Keep coming back to this in my sets.”
08. FURESSHU ‘All I Want (Shifted Remix)’ Project Squared “Nothing new about this, but still does the business every time. Reliable,
club-ready sonics.”
09. SIGHA ‘Ascension’ Hotflush “The choice cut for me off the new album, ‘Living With Ghosts’.”
10. METRIST ‘Icarus’ CDR “Choppy techno from a new producer — does very serious things to a dance-
floor. Redlining in all the right places.”
www.djmag.ca
MONEYSHOT!
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