COMPILATIONSREVIEWS
Various Terry Farley Presents Acid Rain:
Definitive Original Acid and Deep House 1985-1991 Harmless
10 Acid reigns!
THE first wave of house that swelled and broke in the mid 1980s is finally ripe for rediscovery and plunder. Many DJs and producers working in dance music today, either new or established, claim to be inspired by it, some going so far as to rip it off entirely. Our retromania has demanded another source to rifle through, and much of today’s house sounds like it’s been beamed in direct from the late ‘80s. It’s surprising it’s taken this long, especially surprising that it’s taken this long for a definitive compilation that aims to sum up its huge impact, but the wait is over. ‘Acid Rain’ is exhaustive, painstaking, put
together with love and real passion by one of the guys who was there the first time round and still lives and breathes proper dance music rather than EDM shit. What this gargantuan five-CD box-set proves is just how radical this music was, and in some cases, still is. Practically every track is notable for its innovation. There are some obvious classics it would have been churlish to omit, like Mr Fingers’ ‘Washing Machine’ and ‘Can You Feel It?’, or Frankie Knuckles’ ‘Baby Wants to Ride’, but many will be less familiar, and a true revelation. Ace and the Sandman’s ‘Let Your Body Talk’ could be made now and knocks all the
fakers into a cocked hat, its alternations between sinuous electronic funk and diaphanous summer haze genuinely mesmerizing; Charles B’s ‘Lack of Love’ makes use of the 303 as a melodic device, a great song that kicks it on the dancefloor. But then there’s the more abstract acid tracks, like Jack Frost & the Circle Jerks’ ‘Cool & Dry’ or Fade II Black’s ‘The Calling’ — so weird but rhythmically irresistible, still avant garde today. Imagine how they must have sounded first time around. This comp shows the huge variety and scope of house. The genuine article, there’s only one acid comp you need and this is it. BEN MURPHY
8.0
Various Mosaic Vol. 2 Exit dBridge lays down the bigger picture
Exit Records boss dBridge approaches the second round of the label’s compilation series with the same painstaking completism as the 2011 installment. Three double vinyl 12-inches catalogue — in exhaustive depth — the label’s take on future-optimized d&b. Unsurprisingly, the interesting stuff comes from the genre’s renegades rather than its stylists: Om Unit and Sam Binga sounding more like Machinedrum than Machinedrum on the footwork-flavoured ‘Triffidz’ (Machinedrum himself gives full rein to his d&b impulse with the drifting, blissed-out ‘The Palace’); Rockwell’s ‘*)*’, a record that seems to strike with the exquisite precision and concussive force of a bolt pistol. Even the less risk-averse moments, like Joe Seven’s ‘Juiced’ an homage to dystopian sci-fi soundtracks right down to the gated drums, possess a certain flair. Proof that there’s still plenty of scope for d&b to surprise. Louise Brailey
076
djmag.com
7.5
Cassy Fabric 71 Fabric Berlin is dead. Long live Berlin
When Austrian-British Cassy mixed the inaugural edition of Panorama Bar’s CD series, she opened with Shackleton’s ‘Blood On My Hands’ — a reminder of how open-minded techno was, still, in 2006. Seven years later and, be honest, who can still get it up for the Berlin sound? Thankfully, the ex-Hard Wax assistant keeps things characteristically offbeat. The frayed energy that throbs and seethes in her club mixes comes present and correct here. What’s more, Cassy’s ear for tonality, nuance — if not long-form mixing — means that serotonin-pickled house (John Talabot’s ‘When the Past Was the Present’, here in its stomping, cyclic Pachanga Boys guise, a Panorama Bar staple), rigid, metal-on-metal minimalism (Losoul’s ‘Brain of Glass’) and bunker- sized brutalism (Emptyset’s ‘Completely Gone’) are brought together with enough verve to make your jaded ol’ heart skip a (4/4) beat. Louise Brailey
7.5
Various Ten Toolroom Records Ten years, countless grooves
Breaking out a three-disc compilation is always a bold move, but a decade of Toolroom Records seems a very fair reason to indulge. Label founder Mark Knight mixes all three discs, chronologically working through Toolroom’s history via stripped-down jackin’ sounds and classic- feeling club house, a combination which shows both the underground and more mainstream personas of the label. ‘Ten’ works well as a retrospective thanks to moments that have stuck in the memory from long ago — Funkagenda’s ‘What the Fuck?’, a Knight and Martijn ten Velden remix of ‘In the Beginning’ — but things never get overly nostalgic thanks to the final disc’s roster, featuring Prok & Fitch, Kevin Saunderson, Digitalism and an opinion-dividing Coldplay rework from Fedde Le Grand. Lots to get your head round on each disc, but worth putting in the work. Tristan Parker
8.5
Bosconi Soundsystem Bosconi Stallions Bosconi Under the Tuscan sundown
Bosconi is a label in Florence responsible for murky techno/house from the likes of A Guy Called Gerald, Altered Natives and Alex Picone. Muddy, opaque but with just enough funk to avoid turgidity, ‘Bosconi Stallions’, pieced together carefully by label bosses Fabio Della Tore and Ennio Colaci, is as rustic, grubby and scenic as a Tuscan stable in autumn. A Guy Called Gerald’s off-beat throbber ‘Thu the Diehold’ is disorientating and tweaky, while Altered Natives’ ‘Legend of Neglect’ brings things to a steady — albeit heavy — trot. As moody and foreboding as an open field before a blistering storm, the skies clear with the metallic chords of Life Track’s ‘Dark Clouds’ before Nicolas’ ‘From Somewhere Else’ really takes off into a house gallop with some punchy stabs. One highlight is Fabio’s remix of Nightdrivers, a sinewy tech house twister that lands our horse-y protagonist with a dose of his favourite tranquilliser. Adam Saville
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