ALBUM REVIEWS
Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas Exercise One
II In Cars We Rust
Eskimo Recordings Mobilee
Deep psychedelic delight Last year’s model
Quite why they decided ‘II’ should have 99 As minimal started to implode, Berlin duo
track marks we don’t know, but whatever the Exercise One — aka Marco Freivogel and Ingo
motive, we can’t help feeling it’s a bit of a Gansera — began work on their debut album.
needless pretentious indulgence. While they should be lauded for expanding
Musically, it’s much as you’d expect with lots their sound, the end product really disap-
of off-kilter clattering percussion, juddering points.
guitars and low-slung psychedelia. Yet the The spacey ambience of ‘Circeo’, the chiming
narrative constructed is much more cinematic deep house on ‘1994’, the mellow techno of
than any of their former musings — the ‘No News Today’ and the insistent acid on
layering and use of crescendo particularly ‘Sleeper’ all promise great things, but too
impressive. often Exercise One rely on their trademark
Aside from ‘Rothaus’’s crazy, metallic synth, tracky, linear techno or go off on a tangent
creativity does lack in the sound department, with ill-conceived ideas like ‘It Is Happening
but the pair do excel at designing some Again’ — a bleepy breaks track that’s reminis-
ingenious and engaging avenues to take cent of the worst big beat excesses.
the listener down, as well as crafting some Maybe their second album will deliver but
beautiful melodies. ‘Cars’ sounds like a great EP trapped inside a
It sounds like an album that could translate mediocre album. Richard Brophy
onto the live stage too. But with its century
MONE
Y
knocking track count, we’re not so sure about
SHO
T! the Beatport market. Dan Kinasz
Manuel Tur
0201
Freerange
Dial M for music
When Mark Pritchard chose to call his Kenny Glasgow Faze Action
latest alias Harmonic 313 after the area Taste for the Low Life Stratus Energy
code for Detroit, it was his tribute to a No 19 Music Faze Action
city that changed the course of electronic
music forever. In contrast, by taking the The 24-year-old Tur might be best-known Tasty debut Disco minus the nu
area code for his hometown of Essen as for the deep house and techno of his
the title for his debut LP ‘0201’, Manuel Smokestack label and remixes of Jaz- With an electronic music history that dates For Simon and Robin Lee the family business
Tur is referring to somewhere that has had zanova and Ian Pooley, but ‘0201’ is an back to the early -’90s, it’s no surprise that has always been disco. When it came out in
about as much infl uence on dance music altogether dreamier affair. There’s still Kenny Glasgow’s debut album borrows heav- 1997, their ‘Plans & Designs’ LP was probably
as Tunbridge Wells. a strong propulsive pulse to tracks like ily from classic techno and house. the best album of that genre in the past
Berlin, Cologne and Munich might have the euphoric ‘Radial’, ‘Shady Trees’ or Clearly, Glasgow is a fan of early-’90s Nu couple of decades, although we all called it
made Germany synonymous with cutting- ‘Pastelize’, yet elsewhere Tur seems more Groove house and the predatory basslines deep house then.
edge styles, but Essen is more notable for concerned with exploring his inner space of Kevin ‘Resse’ Saunderson and Suburban Now the world is fi rmly on their disco
its annual international car-tuning fair than either the dancefl oor or the world Knight, as the superb, moody grooves of ‘The revival hymn sheet they can really let loose.
than any actual tunes! around him. Keeper’ and the utterly bleak subs of ‘TWAM ‘Goodlovin’ kicks things off and signals we are
Yet just as the likes of Derrick May, ‘Patchwork’ begins by rising from a soft 2009 (The War Against the Machines)’ dem- worshipping at Cerrone’s altar this time out.
Jeff Mills, et al, were inspired by their beat with echoes of voices and tinkling onstrate. However, he also has a soft side and And a decade after ‘In The Trees’ there are few
Detroit environment to make aural sci-fi ivories and the album really doesn’t the chilled dubby techno of ‘System Overload’ better placed to craft a cosmic disco album.
fantasies that still bore the dirt and grit descend from cloud nine thereafter, as provides the perfect counterbalance to his There’s more synths than ever, as well as
of the decaying cityscape, so too has Tur tracks like the zero gravity soul of ‘Golden dark side fl irtations. spacey vocals, but that live bass and those
transformed the sterility of his surround- Complexion’ and ambient atmosphere of Ironically, the only weak link on ‘Life’ is real strings still take centre stage.
ings into music that is as polished as the ‘A40’ prove Ian Brown’s adage that “It’s Glasgow’s explorations of neo-trance and Faze Action’s time has come and that time is
windows of an anonymous corporate not where you’re from, it’s where you’re electro-house on ‘Sandman’. If he focuses his the late-’70s. James Kendall
building, but which shimmers with refl ec- at.” Paul Clarke efforts on bassy house and evocative dub,
tions of real soul. Glasgow could become a world-beater.
Richard Brophy
LONG RANGE
136
www.djmag.com
Madness and Me
Long Range Recordings
DJ474.albums.indd 136 5/5/09 14:54:46
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