Riot Music

One victim of the London riots was PIAS Music Distribution who had a lot of their stock in a warehouse in Eltham which burnt down. Lost in the blaze were releases from such labels as Soul Jazz Records, Fabric, Poker Flat, FourTwenty, and many many more. Blissblog have pointed to suggestions of how to help out these fledgling labels linking to a Quietus Feature on recommended purchases. I'll second them and say buy these:

Various: Invasion of the Mysteron Killer Sounds (SJR) - praised here.

GAS: Nah Und Fern (Kompakt) - absolutely essential classical-ambient-techno collection reviewed for RA here.

Robert Hood: Fabric 39 (Fabric) - Fast and furious Detroit techno.

Various: Forward to the Past (Poker Flat) - cheeky collection of retro Chicago-esque house.

And while it won't help Pias it's a fine time to dig this out:

Good Generic Minimal Tech House 2: Sebo K

After my Maya Jane Coles appreciation/generic minimal tech-house moan , I'm going to sound hypocritical commencing a series of posts praising the very generic nature of this music, but what the hell... this is pretty darn good. Sebo K makes strong tracks, and was among those responsible, along with Efdemin, Lawrence and doubtless a bazillion lesser-known-and-unsung others, back in the mid-late naughties for championing bigger housier sounds within the pervading mnml scene of the day, and it's a sound he's hardly altered. Indeed like everyone in minimal house land its one they do nothing but refine. I first heard him on Mobilee's Back to Back comp with the still stunning 'Moved' with Prosumer, then via his podcast for RA in early 2007. This, along with Efdemin's two podcasts later, seemed to signal a shift in mainstream-underground minimal house, at least as sign-posters like RA documented it.

Sebo K feat. Prosumer: 'Moved'

Sebo K: RA Podcast 55

I saw Sebo K and Efdemin play shortly after their 'casts at RA's June '07 off-Sonar party in Barcelona, and while too wasted to actually remember anything danced my socks off from open til' close. Philip Sherburne was there too, playing to an empty room upstairs, but when he heard Sebo K he rushed to the front of the floor and danced all night too. As we see today, it's an endearing sound.



Four-and-a-half years later and the variants of minimal house have actually narrowed, with more tracks than ever trading on the basic template these - and yes many many others - housey minimalists have been hammering for years. We're at the asymptote of the development of a kind of perfect dance music, or at least a perfected form of minimal house, but one that, of course, can never be reached. It's this kind of fruitless pursuit, this Quixotic quest for the unattainable, that good generic minimal house sets capture, driving along that endless highway, on a dead-straight road, devoid of the kinds of heights and dips that come with more dynamic, and less focused, sets. Even mnml jerked and twitched in ever so annoying ways.



So, to Sebo K's mix at the 2011 Mobilee Off-Sonar Party: 3 hours of sleak, streamlined, bumpin' generic minimal tech house. All changes are slight, with each track offering subtle variants on the tools and structures of its neighbours. Like the digi-dancehall instramentals praised here these tracks are (for the most part) cookie-cutter jigsaw pieces, pure 'tools' with little identity outside of the group (but where I celebrated the isolated oddness of those dancehall tracks here there's little to get excited about individually). Where Sebo K is good is in his restraint, holding back the tension such that you're always (almost) on the edge of your seat but, it being the kind of wishy-washy genre it is, you never are, really... This teetering contradiction is the whole point and one Sebo K does well here - avoiding boredom by embracing sameness, celebrating it. Like Cage said: If something is boring for one minute do it for ten, then an hour, then two hours... Sebo K does it for 3 and it pretty much works.



In its fluid linearity this reminds me of stellar microhouse sets like those by Kettenkarussell , but with a different agenda: Sebo K - and most/all minimal tech house DJs - is more about funk, groove and sashaying movement, albeit in a compressed and blankly repetitive manner, with a shallower expression of emotion, more warmth, greater diversity, more by-rote and perfunctory (all intentional and not necessarily pejorative), whereas Kettenkarussell... is another story...

Sebo K - mobilee & friends - Sonar 2011 - Hotel Diagonal Saturday by mobilee records

Invasion of the Mysteron Killer Sounds

I'm rather new to the digital reggae and dancehall thing, although my entrypoint to reggae proper was via the digital techno-dub of Pole, Basic Channel, Kit Clayton and co. There was a big ignorant Bob Marley stigma to overcome, but from there the floodgates opened...

I'm still hesitant with vocals, but after hearing the Honest Jons + Mark and Moritz's Basic Replay comp I was sold on digital production methods, heck, more than - enthralled. My boredom with contemporary house and techno has led me more and more into dubstep realms without ever being quite sold, but these earlier strands of bass heavy digital Jamaican sounds have become very appealing.



The whole package of Soul Jazz Records' Invasion of the Mysteron Killer Sounds is enticing, particularly the focus on hitherto critically disregarded digi riddim tools, as highlighted in the cheesy sci-fi ad emblazoned full page on the back cover of July's The Wire:

Invasion of the Killer Mysteron Sounds brings together the most exciting electronic producers in Jamaica with current sound artists in the UK and beyond who all create music based on revolutionary sounds in 3D – Dancehall, Digital and Dub.

The Wire went on to review it finding it simplistic and lacking in this exposed, unmixed format, but I find the very nakedness what makes it so weird and appealing. The oddball pinball bleeps and clunky computer basslines are thrilling from the get-go with Steely and Clevie's 'Streetsweeper':




Highlight is King Tubby's 'Fat Thing' riddim, much better without the vox.


The contemporary tracks are good, but like contemporary Chicago house remakes lack the historic roughness.


As a taste of what's in store, get Tubby's Fat Thing Version here.

Shamelessly uncritical and promo-heavy this post, but jeez its good. Listen more and buy here.

New Orleans Part 2

... and episode 2 of Treme features Allen Touissant no less! Here's 'Night People' from Motion which I picked up from a used furniture store for $1.



And from 2009's The Bright Mississippi



That is where Elvis Costello linked in. Here he is playing 'Holy Cow' on Costello's Spectacle:

Takes, Dubs & Versions

Been listening to Scratch over the past few days and stumbled upon the numerous versions of the 'Underground' rhythm he worked on. Not being a complete dub obsessive (although I certainly like it, and a lot) this was something of a revelation, they're all fantastic!

Here's the original (apparently), 'Underground' from Super Ape, 1976, prime Black Ark production:



And a trio of independent dubs, here strung together, also from 1976. Clive Hylton is involved somewhere...



Also appeared in a weirder, scratchier version as 'From Dub Four', perhaps a 'Creation Dub 4'? on the recent Sound System Scratch collection from Pressure Sounds. Not on Youtube but this is, and is equally impressive:



The Return of Sound System Scratch is even better. The Wire tried to link these to hauntology, what with all the disembodied crackle and spectral space; initially straighforward productions spun off their axes, ending up decayed husks.





Studio One recordings do riddims to death, but given how good they are it's hardly surprising. Here's Delroy Wilson, Jennifer Lara, Bobby Crystal and George Nooks playing with Errol Dunkley's 'Movie Star' riddim:









On a similar note I've also been listening to the boxset of Miles Davis' Complete Jack Johnson Sessions. It was one of those trophies I thought I couldn't live without at the time, but must confess to having barely scratched the surface. 5 discs of takes and edits that made up the original album, it's intimdating. But, having given it some time of late, there's a real charm to this approach, revealing aspects of the sessions which were subsumed by the whole in the finished product. The guitars of John McLaughlin and Sonny Sharock are particularly interesting, each taking different approaches, Sharrock usually just adding the odd distorted smear here and there, shot through with Echoplex.





The seemingly bottomless reserve of tape offcuts and unreleased material here functions as a positive deconstruction of the final production process. The appearances of multiple takes of various tracks allows listeners to attempt to piece together the final takes, and even construct their own edits. The Silent Way box was more consistent and complete, but these fragments possess more interest, I'd even be curious to see it stripped down to soloists. Imagine what Sharrock's spurts would sound like surrounded by nothing but space...

Detroit Nu Wav

Bought some records recently including the weirdly hyped Detroit Nu Wav collection on Planet E.

Unlike the above promo none of the tracks mindlessly slather the word 'Detroit' over them in a shallow attempt to gain cred, but they're all employ Detroit tropes - searing neon synths, heavy percussion, bleak electro-inspired melodic patterns - in varying degrees. 'Another Place' by Reference is particularly impressive:


But they're all solid:


Earlier tracks by Monty Luke and Ezana Harris also pretty good:




Detroit techno hardly needs my support, from the opposite arse-end of the world no less. I'd say that I'm immune to the promotional angle, actually antagonistic to it, but I do so like the music, as this tracklist attests.

Also picked up the latest on Steffi's Dolly label by another Detroit youngster, Jared Wilson. Four tracks of vintage Chicago-esque acid, the following is my pick. Vocal is kinda silly, inane club-set antics targeted to goofed up dancers, but tweaked into gloom and menace and very catchy.

On Sale

Sales are depressing things. All the enthusiasm and hyperbole of the "new" reduced to a desperate attempt to offload surplus units. Items that looked so fresh and irresistible mere months ago now wear the hangdog look of a dying man. Obsolete cultural detritus which failed to deliver on its promise, clogging up the warehouse, unwanted. Beware: most everything makes this transformation.

Utterly enchanting pop music from Austin TX's Sleep ∞ Over, readied with a remix from ethereal electronic auteur, Laurel Halo... Another impressive drop from Hippos in Tanks - Highly recommended!

*LP version limited to 500 copies for the world, pressed on high quality virgin vinyl at RTI with a free download coupon redeemable from the label*

**Lavish foil-embossed 5LP boxset limited to just 600 copies including individually numbered certificate of ownership.**

**3LP + 7" + DVD lavish boxset with individually-numbered certificate of ownership - limited to an edition of just 600 copies for the world**

Another precious document from the mighty Vinyl on Demand - don't miss it.

This is the gut stuff, make no misake, and thanks to this timely reissue, you don't have to sell your gran to get hold a copy.

Unless your gran's worth £2.95.

Maya Jane Coles & Good Generic Minimal Tech-House

Minimal Tech-House is a hard genre to get excited over but it's also one capable of giving me some of the biggest thrills... sparingly. That there's so much, oh so much, bilge to trawl through doesn't make the rewards any better, but the prospect of foraging for them too daunting to bother with. Anyone viewing charts from tipster DJs and listening to them will realise how predictible, perfunctory, samey and boring they mostly are. I DLed a couple of chart lists - Steve Bug and Loco Dice - recently to check out what the kids were digging and my how bored I was. I'm sure these pieces fit together adequately and get the drugged-up young feet shaking on the floors (they'd have done it for my younger feet), but how bland, blank and aesthetically neuter these sets must be.

I know little about Maya Jane Coles aside from that she's 23 and British with an RA podcast under her belt. With minimal tech-house it's a fine line between generic button pushing and outstanding but somehow she wrings noticeable quality from tired formula; nothing earth shaking but, like the ol' Raymond Chandler analogy, genre work done very well. There's a deep house girth to the rhythms and she's fond of nice rotund bleeps, as heard in Anja Schneider's 'Belize', which she crafts into bright groovy melodic shards. Read more from one of her current homes Mobilee here which put out her excellent Beat Faster 12", and they seem the right place for her sound. But she's done plenty and it's mostly very good:







... And Anja Schneider's influential 'Belize':