ALBUMSREVIEWS 7.0
youAND: THE MACHINES Behind Ornaments The dad-house daddy
Grammar Nazis, look away now: youAND: THE MACHINES is the new side-project of Martin Müller, one half of youANDme, the deep house-and-techno duo who’ve found fans amongst the high-ranking likes of Moodymann, Seth Troxler and Radio Slave. As you’d probably expect, ‘Behind’ deals in soulful 4/4 electronics of the most tasteful and refined kind. It’s all shuffling 808s, shimmering 303s and melancholy synth-washes, with occasional vocal interjections (Robert Owens is here) and organic-instrument flourishes. Sure, there’s nothing revolutionary happening, and slow-burning, subtly building tracks like ‘Sansula’ and ‘Sway’ aren’t exactly rippling with unbridled dancefloor energy, but allow yourself to zone-out and glaze-over to them and you’ll be handsomely rewarded. You may also walk into lampposts on account of having zonked your brain to wobbly blancmange. Joe Madden
Karizma Wall Of Sound R2 Records Up the wall
It’s been four years since Baltimore’s DJ Karizma’s last album. So he decided to take some time out of his solid DJing schedule, and emerged from the studio some six weeks later with 43 finished tracks following something of a purple patch. For the final tracklisting, this was pared down to a scarcely more acceptable 31, spread over two discs. There’s no earthly reason to unleash such an indigestible glut of music at once, other than perhaps a reluctance to edit. The many overt J Dilla homage moments, while great had we not experienced the master himself, feel like pastiche. But still there are moments of utter inspiration, like the juddering ‘Rude Boy Rub’, the stunning ‘A Set Purpose’ with Sean McCabe, the dirty jazz of ‘Just A Thing’ and ‘Rimaniss’, and the Donald Byrd fuckery of ‘2wice’. Like an all-you-can-eat buffet, just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Ben Arnold
6.0
quIckIES
Oneohtrix Point Never
R Plus Seven Warp 9.0
e-motion sickness
Grandiose organ synth work return from the Brooklyn-based soundscape and drone producer, ‘R Plus Seven’ is more ornate than anything we’ve heard from him before. Phosphorescently digital, its fragmented, angular compositions are playfully decorative and unpredictably emotive. Adam Saville
Drumcell Sleep Complex CLR
8.0 Tactile techno
Big-hitting main room techno outlet CLR serve up a debut from LA’s Drumcell here, and a decent one it is too. The LA man toys with tempo, going slow and sludgy and frantic and future in equal measure. Some of it comes to you, some of it requires you to peer deep into its inner abyss, but all of it excels in fine analogue texture. Kristan J Caryl
Georges Vert An Electric Mind Melodic 9.0
Vert-I-GO!
Cosmic prog with flashes of dub from a French producer borrowing as much from original Giorgio Moroder as throwbacks such as In Flagranti and Cage & Aviary. If your preferred definition of disco is a Prins Thomas mix over the latest Daft Punk album, look no further. Adam Saville
Joy Wellboy Yorokobi’s Mantra BPitch Control 9.5
Joy done well, boy 8.5
Ultramarine This Time Last Year Real Soon Agrarian grooves
Ultramarine shone in the electronica/IDM movement in the early ‘90s, producing the classic albums of organic, agrarian grooves ‘Every Man and Woman Is A Star’ and ‘United Kingdoms’, the latter featuring the amazingly soulful vox of legendary folkie Robert Wyatt. They toured with Björk and Orbital, but then seemed to disappear in the run-up to the Millennium. So have they ‘gone EDM’ now that they’re back? No, thank heavens! Ian Cooper and Paul Hammond evidently still slo-jam organically before tweaking electronically, so that twangy jazz guitar, old drum machines, found sounds and electric bass produce soundtracks for mosquitoes over hazy reservoirs (‘Decoy Point’), percussive Chick Corea dreamers (‘Passwords’, ‘Even Then’) and ambience for fly-fishing excursions at dusk (‘Imaginary Letters’). It’s a welcome return for their homespun twilight lushness. Carl Loben
07
djmag.com4
Fat Freddy’s Drop Blackbird The Drop Chunky, funky winner
‘Summer listening’ has become one of those weary, vapid phrases, but there’s no denying its relevance for the third album from New Zealand dub-soul-electronics band Fat Freddy’s Drop. But whereas the phrase might be old and tired, ‘Blackbird’ is glimmering and fresh. Things sound at their most fluid and inviting when the group go deep and dubby, letting riffs and vocals lead the way, such as on the sublime title track, spilling over with rich, gorgeous melodies and dub jams — almost worth the price of the album alone. Luckily, there’s more than just one song to enjoy the hell out of, with tracks like ‘Russia’ and ‘Mother Mother’ providing further upbeat grooving. A few songs don’t quite hit the mark, such as the clunky electronic workout in ‘Never Moving’, but there are definitely enough sun-kissed strikes to make up for it. Tristan Parker
7.0
BPitch has always leant towards a darkened pop cum artful indie strain of dance and French/Belgian duo Joy Wellboy fit in with that aesthetic perfectly on the evidence of ‘Yorokobi’s Mantra’: it’s an album of dark new- wave anthems, uplifting post-Kraut and shadowy synth songsmithery that’s pretty damn faultless. Kristan J Caryl
Chip Jacks Woods Murge Recordings 7.0
Mr Chips
Synaesthetic electronica from a Portsmouth producer touching on two-step, techno, wonk and IDM, ‘Woods’ is a debut LP with an overall form as wayward as the individual tracks themselves. At times kaleidoscopic, others orchestral, Peter ‘Chip’ Jacks playfully scrambles together varying dancefloor sounds into a mosaic that’s as confused and fragmented as often as it is idyllic. Lisa Loveday
Pretty Lights A Colour Of My Soul 8 Minutes 20 Seconds Records 7.0
Needs-to-chillwave
Cut-and-pasting jazz samples and layering elastic frequencies in a way not too dissimilar to Toro Y Moi, US “EDM”/ pop upstart Pretty Lights proffers a sound that’s basically chillwave following a dalliance with Skrillex. Now fit to fill an Olympic-sized stadium, imagine Bonobo in the grip of an exceptionally aggy ecstasy pill. Lisa Loveday
repeAtTHE LPS WE CAN’T LEAVE ALONE...
Ikonika Aerotropolis Hyperdub 9.0
Stuck in an arcade game and trying to get out? Must be listening to Ikonika...
Floorplan Paradise M-Plant 8.0
Robert Hood in the HOUSE.
Fuck Buttons Slow Focus ATP/Recordings 9.0
Epic techni-colored electro-rock from that potty-mouthed noise- dance band.
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