Sunday 30 January 2011

Production Unit – The Illusion Of Talent

New mix to enjoy from Production Unit: it's wrapped in mystery and tentacles for Broken20, the digital download label from TVO which specialises in "releases concerned with decay, erosion, entropy, mistakes and errors, line noise and tape hiss, hum and buzz".


Production UnitThe Illusion Of Talent


liner notes found abandoned next to a half-burnt cd-r

“…he used to be fun, Production Unit – always dropping tunes at parties, a girl on each arm, splicing acapellas with breaks and kickdrums, happy and carefree. Then in the last few months he’d changed. It all started when he found that battered, oddly stained white label 12″, stamped only with an esoteric looking symbol and the single word ‘CTULU’ etched in the run out groove.
 

After that things changed. he began listening to the record obsessively. To my ears it sounded like the murky roar of an underground river, but he claimed that repeated listens began to elicit a coded message inside. Soon he started to collect others – some I’d heard of but others came in bizarre packaging and torn, briny-smelling boxes, shellac 78s with ‘property of Miskatonic U’ on them, records with titles like ‘Nautical Nuba’, ‘Dagon’s Bells’, ‘The Starry Wisdom’, ‘Sighting in The Abyss’, ‘Glaaki/Mi-go’.
With time he became even more furtive in his habits, endlessly scrawling in a series of notebooks, diagrams of strange geometric shapes with angles that somehow seemed blasphemies against nature.
 

Tonight he invited me round to hear, he claimed, the full unveiling of the coded messages in the records. Arriving late, i noticed immediately that his turntables were set up in an odd arrangement, with two trapezoid shapes suspended above them. Offering me a drink, he immediately set to work on them. the light in the room flickered and danced with the crystal shapes, and he frenziedly began cutting from record to record, adding a snatch of noise here, a fragment of voice there.
 

Soon the sounds became aligned together, but in a horrible decayed slow morass of writhing soundwaves, as the world began to slow down to a crawl.
 

Im scribbling these notes down on the back of a discarded Dom and Roland 12″ sleeve, and before the shadows i can see on the edge of time break through I will throw these words to the street, so that other may be warned. the acapellas are starting now….the shapes, the tentacles…THEY ARE THROUGH, DEAR HEAVENS! IA IA, CTHULU FTAGHN……”

(fragment ends)

*(with apologies to HPL)


Direct link here

Wednesday 26 January 2011

January (Week 4) Clubbing Listings: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee

Ah there's so much musical goodness this weekend - it's again difficult to pick a top night. Nicolas Jaar debut, Laurent's Garnier LBS live show, Sub Focus, Ivan Smagghe; you take the pick and plan your weekend!

Edinburgh

Club: Sugarbeat
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Friday 28th January


The first Sugarbeat of 2011 will, as ever, be hosted by the fantastic Utah Saints aka Tim & Jez, and to make sure they pack the right kind of punch, special guests Erol Alkan, The Shoes and Clouds for an electro-fying adventure.

Sounds like:

10.30pm-3am, £15

Club: Techno For Breakfast
Venue: Henry’s Cellar Bar
Date: Friday 28th January


It’s been about four months since Techno For Breakfast last appeared so contain your excitement no longer! Nostra Terra and the Monkey Mind partnership team up for minimal, techno, progressive, electro and the shades in between. And if you ever fancied starring as part of the club, live camera footage courtesy of VJ S2 will see you forming part of the visuals.

11pm-3am, £5

Club: Childline Headphone Disco
Venue: Ocean Terminal
Date: Saturday 29th January


The Silent Disco is always a hit when it comes to the Edinburgh Festival - from a spectator point of view there’s nothing more delightful than people dancing in silence like an art-house montage. For this Childline Headphone Disco great music is on offer too and listeners can choose between two different DJs to tune into. What’s more, the entire thing is set in a mall. Silent shuffling, in a mall.... I think I’ve spent too long playing Dead Rising 2. With proceeds going towards Scotland’s Childline service, punters can help charity and simultaneously delight at the dance sounds of Neolithic, Monterey Jack, Eclair Fifi, Brian d’Souza, and Andrew Ingram.

Sounds like:

10pm-2am, £10

Club: Club 10-86
Venue: The Lane
Date: Saturday 29th January


Italian techno star Sasha Carassi has been gaining ground with hit releases in 2010 on Harthouse and his own label Globox, delivering a textured but minimal sound. Catch his first Scottish show at Club 10-86.

Sounds like:


10.30pm-3am, £7 / £5 before 12am / £4 students

Club: Karnival
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Saturday 29th January

 
Karnival celebrate their fifth birthday without a dodgem in sight, but there may be house music of the Farris Wheel variety! To make it a special event they invite Andrew Weatherall and Ivan Smagghe to (in the words of Harry Hill...) FIGHT! A DJ dual between two of the hottest properties in house and techno music will see a litany of styles thrown your way - prepare those moves! Supporting is Ryan Ellis, The Oxygen Junkies, Mike Pinkerton and Matt Edwards.

Sounds like:

10pm-3am, £12+bf

Club: Xplicit
Venue: Liquid Room
Date: Saturday 29th January


It’s a night of birthdays this weekend when Xplicit also celebrate a significant milestone - six years on the Edinburgh circuit as one of the few remaining drum and bass clubs. Sub Focus is welcomed back with open arms for his synth-laden sounds and melodic touches, with MC ID.

Sounds like:

10pm-3am, £12 / £10 adv.

Glasgow

Club: Symbiosis
Venue: Soundhaus
Date: Friday 28th January


Renegade Hardware signing Raiden stars with Morphy (Exit / Function) at this jam-packed full of drum and bass goodness Symbiosis, with touches of dub and heeeavvy bass, supported by Calaco Jack, Alcane, Dom D'Sylva, Whoa!gan and Altronix. Room 2 is hosted by our friends at the Phuturelabs blog for the latest electronic sounds of house, garage, techno, dubstep and electronica - you’ll all be ‘living together’ in an auricle-pleasing club!

Sounds like: Smiddy is playing the Phuturelabs room, and has prepared this killer mix in advance of the fun!

Phuture labs mix by smiddy

10pm-3am, £8

Club: Banjax
Venue: La Cheetah
Date: Friday 28th January


It sounds like a new way to insult people, but Banjax is actually the name of a new bi-monthly night from Dave Shades of Mount Heart Attack / Co-op, Tommy & McGarvatron of Bass Invaders, and Data Rape aka Full Phat of Concept Theory. To set the right wheels in motion they invite Neil Landstrumm for glitch-dub, idm, and techno.

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £10

Club: How's Your Party?
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Friday 28th January


How’s Your Party? Really good, actually. HYP invite A1 Bassline (Tighten Up / Southern Fried) and two man / one MC outfit Tomb Crew, with resident DJ NoFace for hot garage, jackin’ beats, dubstep, house and more.

Sounds like: Check out this exclusive Mixed Bizness Tomb Crew DJ mix and interview

Mix tracklisting
1. Benjamin Damage - Pump
2. Mr Tickle - Predator
3. Tomb crew - Gal U Look Nice
4. Zed Bias & Omar - Dancing (Instrumental)
5. Tomb crew & Wholesick - I Go Sick
6. Daniel Haaksman - Purr Na Na (BeatauCue Remix)
7. Nick & Daniel Chatelain - Katrinyla (Mastiksoul Remix)
8. Schlachtofbronx - Chambacu
9. Foamo - Rumours
10. A1 Bassline - Badboy Sound
11. DJ Ayres - Panty Crickets (Tomb Crew’s ‘It’s Not Cricket’ Remix)
12. Bert On Beats - Bone Dat

11pm-3am, £8 / £6

Club: Pressure
Venue: The Arches
Date: Friday 28th January


Laurent Garnier brings his celebrated Live Booth Sessions show to Pressure - fearsome and fantastic techno and house courtesy of Laurent Garnier, Benjamin Rippert and Stephane Dri - not to be missed! Silicone Soul dishes the deep house for the cherry on top.

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £15

More info: Silicone Soul are busy boys! They head to The Mothership at Aberdeen’s Snafu venue on Saturday 29th January. 11pm-3am, £6.

Club: Subculture
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Saturday 29th January


It’s a special Resident Advisor party this week at Subculture featuring a live set from Nicolas Jaar and disco sophistication from Eddie C. Jaar is another one of those wunderkids blessed with musical talent, barely into his 20s and consistently wowing with his blend of sounds for futuristic techno / electronica that tickles the internal electrodes. This is also Jaar’s Scottish debut, so get your ‘I was there’ t-shirts ready. Harri and Domenic support.

Sounds like: 

11pm-4am, £12+bf

Aberdeen
 

Club: Mix Tape v All Neon Like
Venue: Snafu
Date: Friday 28th January



Mix Tape goes head to head with All Neon Like with A La Fu and Yoin battling with techno and house.

11pm-3am, £6 / £3 before 12am

Dundee

Club: Bleep 
Venue: The Reading Rooms
Date: Friday 28th January


Bleep assemble the beats for their second birthday, featuring special guests Mumbai Science and electro-techno grooves with a tribal drum twist.

Sounds like:

10pm-2.30am, £7 / £5 before 11pm

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Vinyl and Digital reviews: Traversable Wormhole

Artist: Traversable Wormhole 
Title: ‘Traversable Wormhole Vol 01-05’ 
Label: CLR

This review isn’t here to lay any fresh critique – everything that can be said about the Traversable Wormhole series, first released in 2009 and re-released in 2010, has already been stated, and in positive volumes across the techno community. What it does review is the full-length digital album of Volumes 1-5, collected together with two remixes and two DJ mixes - just in case you were worried that it wouldn’t fill three hours.

First; the new material. ‘The Originals’ is a 68 minute mix by Adam X aka TW which, funnily enough, is a seamless mix of the original five releases – it just needs some serious mood lighting and steely-faced dancers and the scene will be completely set! An industrial, clanking and dark mix, yet it sounds quite low-key – the kick drum punches to the stomach are subtle and there’s a sense of poignancy hearing it as one winding journey.

There’s not much room to pause as another 71 mins of TW make their announcements courtesy of Chris Liebing, this time sewing together ‘The Remixes’. Featuring re-takes by the likes of Peter Van Hoesen, Function and Sleeparchive, it keeps a relatively similar flavour with a tweaked batch of material. Disappointingly, there isn’t a chance on this release to hear all the remixes as individual pieces and truly explore them, instead the mix acts as a tantalising teaser for the upcoming Remixes collection, also starring Monoloc, Tommy Four Seven, Brian Sanhaji, Surgeon, Marcel Dettman, Terence Fixmer, and James Ruskin.*

What you do get at the end of this LP is a toe dip, with two remixes from Chris Liebing and Kevin Gorman. Liebing takes ‘Where 2D Meets 3D’; the original track instantly transported me back to a powerful Adam X gig after the G8 marches – it encapsulates the sound of riled protest vibes with deep influences and the sounds of metal doors being kicked and slammed. Therapeutic bowel-shaking techno with slick production! The remix seems to dull down the ferocity but builds it back up in a minimal style with clean-sounding bass kicks for those who like their edges a little rounded. The original ‘Relativistic Time Dilation’ goes heavy on the reverb and decay, and is delightful for inspiring visions of uprising robots - you can taste the metal twang. Part of me gets the feeling that Adam X sought to align his sound with the Berlin dominance of techno, and as part of that shed some of the rougher elements of his style and sometimes ‘lairier’ feeling - perhaps reflecting a very real passage of time and growth for Adam. But enough wistful ponderings and on to Kevin Gorman’s remix; he goes deeper and lashes on a minimal restraint, inducing a shuffly texture to the beats, and what I like to call ‘velcro techno’ – the sound of fabric tears, or perhaps that is the sound of time splitting in a ‘Relatavistic’ manner.

This digital album version will be great for digital DJs, but vinyl enthusiasts will need to work that little bit harder for the full collection! Nevertheless, if you didn’t get your hands on the underground phenomenon of last year, this is an excellent catch-up and taste of what’s to come.


*Something to note however is that it’s not clear whether ‘The Remixes’ mix involves the aforementioned artists or remixes by Chris Liebing and Adam X.


Release Date: December 6th 2010

Wednesday 19 January 2011

January (Week 3) Clubbing Listings: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee

 
Featured Club of the Week: Mungo's Hi Fi
Venue: Stereo
Date: Saturday 22nd January

Mungo’s Hi Fi prayed to Jah for a new venue and were resurrected at Stereo, or so it was foretold when the club moved to their new stomping ground and announced not only Disrupt for their first January event in Scotland, but also Soom T launching their new dub-heavy and Jahtari-riddim LPs, Ode to a Carrot. Dancehall, ragga and dub fans, unite!

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £8 / £6 advance

Edinburgh

Club: Axis
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Friday 21st January


Get ready to spin on your Axis when the barely legal 18 yr old Dem Slackers makes us all feel decrepit with his brand of squelchy acid and upbeat club techno.

Sounds like:
11pm-3am, £7 / £6

Club: StepBack
Venue: Wee Red Bar
Date: Friday 21st January


StepBack relocates again like a musical nomad, helmed by Wolfjazz and Eclair Fifi, and joined by special guests Duck, G-Mac (Volume!) and Taz Buckfaster. Amongst the StepBack’s traditional culture is basement house, sophisticated dnb, reverbing techno and a party atmosphere.

10.30pm-3am, £5 / £3

Club: Wee Dub Festival
Venue: Studio 24
Date: Friday 21st January


Exactly what is says, Studio 24 hosts the Wee Dub Festival, featuring dubstep, dnb, reggae, dancehall and dubplates from Radikal Guru, Vibronics, Jammin’ J, Brina, Selecta Mania, with MC RasIsta Lion on MC duties and Robert Motyka on visuals.

Sounds like:

10pm-3am, £16 / £12

Club: Definition
Venue: Sneaky Pete's
Date: Saturday 22nd January


If you want to add Definition to your body, forget the taped workouts and stretch those muscles with residents Mark Balneaves and Martin Lightbody and their energetic tweaks of electro, minimal, techno and underground house.

11pm-3am, £3 / members free

Club: Devil Disco Club
Venue: Bongo Club
Date: Saturday 22nd January


A gap has been left by the decline in Benbecula showcases, but DDC fill the void this month with a live set of synthtronica with a dash of grime swing by Ben Butler & Mousepad. Stroking my imaginary trendy beard already! More dirty disco, proto house and Studio 54 beats spin out from Simonotron and Kris Wasabi.

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £7 / £5 before

Club: Ally Meldrum presents... Trilogy
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Saturday 22nd January


One man presents a night of breaks, bass, and bouncing beats with Sugarbeat’s Trilogy and Meldrum’s friends on the DJ circuit, not only for your benefit, but also as a celebration for LeBouf’s birthday. If the electronic beats aren’t your thing, slide on through to room two for rock action from The Mighty Flik

11pm-3am, £5 / £3 before midnight

Glasgow

Club: Co-Op
Venue: The Sub Club
Date: Thursday 20th January


The Co-Op concept for this week is ‘The Future’, and a breadcrumb trail of music in the form an exclusive mix by Lono of Mount Heart Attack, one of the four clubs part of the Co-Op team. The theme so far seems to be bleepy future-hop, full on synth-laden electro, funky deep house with a disco tinge! Mediaheroic will be providing visuals.

Sounds like:


11pm–3am, £3 / £2

Club: Point 4
Venue: Soundhaus
Date: Friday 21st January


New club for the Soundhaus: Point 4 is a new event similar to Co-op, in that it combines several club nights for a range of music and styles covering house, techno, electronica and more. They describe themselves as having a “penchant for the unusual and most cerebral of dance music”, and clubs tipped to be involved are Sunday Circus, Sensu, Kreep Krew, Hot Box and Slabs of the Tabernacle, headed by Animal Farm. Your hosts will be Simon Stokes and Rufus Fook.

10.30pm-3am, £6 / £5 members

Club: Sensu
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Friday 21st January


Tobi Neumann returns to Sensu as the house and techno club goes monthly at the Subbie. The Sensu loved the house and electro Cocoon artist so they’re kicking off the year with their pick of previous top-notch guests.

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £8 / £5 before midnight


Aberdeen

Club: Let it Bleed
Venue: Snafu
Date: Friday 21st January


Fake Blood brightens up the North with catchy electro, and fuelled tech-house for Let It Bleed. Get there early, there are very limited tickets on the door.

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £12

Thursday 13 January 2011

January (Week 2) Clubbing Listings: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee


Featured Club of the Week: Subculture
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Saturday 15th January

If you dig the soulful and deep house sounds of Âme (Sonar Kollektiv), absorbing Detroit and jazz influences, then you’ll be excited about their first ever live show in Scotland! The German duo head to Harri and Domenic’s Subculture to wow Scots crowds with their smooth sets.

Sounds like:

11pm-3am, £10


Edinburgh

Club: Animal Hospital
Venue: Sneaky Pete’s
Date: Thursday 13th January

Ease yourself into the weekend with techno, minimal and house in the Animal Hospital - minus the sickly beasts, but there’s no accounting for finding some wandering the streets of the Cowgate!

11pm-3am, free

Club: Bedbug
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Friday 14th January

This is the kind of bedbug you want to find! New dubstep, techno and baaaaassss club with special guests Hostage and Jigsaw to suck out any blues.


Sounds like: Hostage December Mix 2010 by HOSTAGE

11pm-3am, £tbc

Extra: What happens if you get there and are not sure about the music? Then head upstairs for other new club, Bound For Glory, taking over the Speakeasy. This new monthly night features Fudge Fingas, Kris Wasabi, Colvin Cruickshank, Beefy and Flyin’ Saucer with funky house and electro fare to raise funds for Oxfam. 11pm-3am, £4 / £3 before 12am

Club: Big’n’Bashy
Venue: Bongo Club
Date: Saturday 15th January

Reso (Pitch Black) and Doctor P spin four decks of dancehall, jungle, reggae, dubstep and big’n’bashy hyperactive bass through the Elecktrikal Sound System, teaming with lasers and dancers! It’s like a Major Lazer comic strip come true. I’m still not sure which other clubs in Scotland, if any, have pole dancers onstage.

Sounds like:


11pm-3am, £10 / £8 before midnight or if you have a vagina.

Club: We Own
Venue: Liquid Room
Date: Saturday 15th January

There’s been surprisingly little press about this event, which is a shame since Tempa T and Shy FX are coming to town! Grime MC Tempa and dnb star Shy get the beats on for a night that owns!

Sounds like: I apologise for the inclusion of Tim Westwood in this video. However, the idea of him sleazily ordering prostitutes tickles my funny bone.


11pm-3am, £tbc

Club: Ultragroove
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Saturday 15th January

Ultragroove returns for their first event of the year, spinning, deep, funky and soulful house, disco and electro with special guest Harry Bennett.

11pm-3am, £8 / £5 before 12am or students


Glasgow


Club: Hispanic Panic Presents Jungle Fever
Venue: Stereo
Date: Friday 14th January

For something a little bit different, the Glasgow Hispanic Society have organised ‘Hispanic Panic - Jungle Fever’, bringing some sunshine into winter months with live music, tropical DJ sets and themed decoration.

11pm-3am, £5 / £4 in jungle themed fancy dress


Club: No Divide
Venue: Soundhaus
Date: Friday 14th January

The new nights just keep rolling in! Soundhaus welcome another techno night, courtesy of resident Soundex Phonetic.

Sounds like: Southsider by SoundexPhonetic (Espee)

10pm-3am, £tbc

Club: Return to Mono
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Friday 14th January

Slam dominate the schedules in Glasgow, and have done so for several years, so it’s no surprise that for their first RTM Jan date, the duo are treating house, techno and electro fans to a special four-hour set!

Sounds like: Slam - Hot Knives (Slam Remix) by Slam :: Paragraph

11pm-3am, £5

Club: Death Disco
Venue: The Arches
Date: Saturday 15th January

Get your electro-house, post-punk and disco loop needs filled with the arrival of French talent Yuksek, while Acid Washed makeover dance fusions with vintage machines and Visions of Trees get you all woozy and high on nature, man, dreamscaping their way through lo-fi psychedelics. It’s another packed Death Disco, scouring the roster of music’s next big thing. In fact, maybe change their motto to ‘you heard it here first’? Hush Puppy and Josh Jones support.

Sounds like:


11pm-3am, £14 / £7 with a half price pass.

Club: Loop
Venue: La Cheetah
Date: Saturday 15th January

Loop are back for the first bi-monthly show of 2011 with house, techno and more from Polymath, Mykol Blyth, Jamie Knox, Neill Murphy, and John Clark.

Sounds like: Slicefnk by POLYMATH

11pm-3am, £4


ATTENTION, SOME PRESS HAVE LISTED MUNGO’S HIFI WITH SOOM T AND DISRUPT AS THIS WEEKEND. IT TAKES PLACE ON THE 22ND, AND NOT THE 15TH AS STATED.

Thursday 6 January 2011

Vinyl and Digital reviews: Luke Abbott & Tripswitch


Luke AbbotTrans Forest Alignment (Border Community)

Taken from his acclaimed debut LP ‘Holkham Drones’, ‘Trans Forest Alignment’ features the original and two remixes by Rocketnumbernine and DFA’s Gavin Russom, as well as bonus track ‘A Caucus Race’. If you haven’t already caught the congratulatory reviews of the ‘Trans Forest…’, amongst the layer of sounds lies medical equipment bleeps and drones; some flatlining, others fluctuating, and eventually beginning to communicate as one. Like a vacuum cleaner meeting delicate chiming melodies, ‘Trans Forest…’ would be excellent as a Manga soundtrack and embraces the idea of white noise as a melodic and atmospheric layer. Unfortunately for me, I have an excellent hearing range, and the higher tones went through me like a dog whistle – mosquito alarm, eat your heart out! Nevertheless, this is great left-field electronica to show shapes to. Rocketnumbernine add a more definitive rhythm than the looser arrangements of the original and there’s a tangible focal point amongst the driving drones and disparate noises. It also tones down the higher mosquito bites of sound so that the tonal changes can be heard with more clarity. Gavin Russom draws on this more lowkey sound, filtering for a delicious haze and concussion of rhythms. ‘A Caucus Race’ nicely rounds off the b-side with a completely different tact and a squelchy bass arrangement – it’s a strange feeling to be invigorated by the last track on a release, but this dainty dirge (if there can be such a thing) steadily wins the race.

Released: 24th January 2011


TripswitchStrange Parallels EP (Section Records)

Seven remixes and the original included for context, this isn’t so much a Tripswitch aka Nick Brennan release as a romp in remixes by Purple vs Tim Healey, Shiloh, Aurtas, Codemonkey, Koan, Indidginus and ODT. I’m not keen on the original track - after a great beginning experimenting with textures and metallic shimmers, it’s rudely interrupted by what can only be described as a Tiesto floorfiller key melody that drags over downtempo trance with soft rock and shoegaze hints. The keys and guitar have a souring effect on the promising start. Purple vs Tim Healey infuse some life into the track with an electro-house makeover, and the kick drums help dust off the wishy washy theatrics. Shiloh and Aurtas approach with their progressive house hat on, but it’s Aurtas who wins the battle by diminishing the dramatics of the original with a repetitive edge for focus. Codemonkey puts considerable effort into taking ‘Strange Parallels’ to markedly different territory, bringing a ‘Supernova’ deep dubstep context and adding spoken word to complement and change the original’s downtempo intentions; this is the best interpretation of the remixes. Interestingly, Codemonkey is the alter-ego of Tripswitch, which leaves Lo-Quality wondering why he didn’t go with the dubstep interpretation in the first place! Koan’s trance remake, which immediately follows, is disappointingly indulgent, but Indidginus and ODT round off the release with acidic psy-trance remixes, and again, that extra ‘squelch’ texture helps sharpen up the wooly dream-scapes.

Released: February 2011

Vinyl and Digital reviews: Octave One & Spoek Mathambo

Octave One - Revisited Series II (430 West Records)

430 West Records is revisiting its’ back catalogue of the past 20 years and handing them over for 2011 reworks by top techno artists. Next up in the Revisited Series are Octave One’s 1990 Transmat debut, I ‘Believe’ and ‘Daystar Rising’ released on Underground Resistance / 430 West Records. Sandwell District step in on remix duties for ‘I Believe’, and it sounds exactly as you would expect a Sandwell remix of Octave to sound! Second-gen Detroit meets Basic Channel, its’ tight and compressed clicky rhythms are joined by an increasing number of counter-rhythms; the song morphs and grows with each additional layer to a peaktime groove, gradually lifting filters to reveal crisp vocals and sharper melodic swells. There’s a nice flavour to ‘Daystar Rising’, remixed by Aril Brikha, who also releases his excellent Deeparture in Time Revisited this month, and he takes the track to warmer territory while keeping that old school vibe. I have to concede that I prefer the ‘oomph’ of the original, but it’s a nice wee chance to visit techno ancestry (albeit only 13 years of history for this 1998 release!).

Released: 31 January 2011

Spoek Mathambo.- Don't Mean To Be Rude ft Zaki Ibrahim (BBE)

Taken as the third single from Spoek Mathambo’s debut solo LP ‘Mshini Wam’, this release features three remixes, the original, and a clean radio version to make sure you get your money’s worth and genre satisfaction. The original is a quick fix at 2 mins and 51 seconds, but it’s a busy song with a lot packed in; skankin’ bass-fuelled quickstep is embraced by tweaks of electro, crunk and off-beat soul, and kept moving by the chord stabs, all the while punctuated by Spoek’s slick and buttery consonants. The Toadally Krossed Out 3ball remix strips off the skanking for banging straight electro - some reviewers have suggested it’s dubstep-infused but I’m still at a loss as to where they accrued this idea. The Scratcha DVA is notable by it’s complete lack of Spoek’s lyrics, replaced by the softer female tones to accompany a deep and dubby swathe of house. The least impressive of the bunch is Don Rimini’s Doo Doo Remix which slips too far down the generic commercial dance scale and away from the original’s intentions. Interestingly, it’s the Toadally Krossed Out 3ball remix which has been getting most attention ahead of the official release - in part this may be because the original lacks length for a sustained club mix, whereas the remixes - at double the length and with powerful bass drums - can be mixed in and out while still getting that filth-infused fix from Mathambo.

Released: 10th January 2011

Tuesday 4 January 2011

January (Week 1) Clubbing Listings: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee

This is always the quietest week of the year after the late license madness of Hogmanany, so here's a few selections to ease you into the new year.


Edinburgh

Club: JungleDub Special
Venue: Bongo Club 

Date: Friday 7th January

JungleDub start 2011 with a special Friday night edition (usually Wednesdays) of dubstep, reggae, hip-hop, ska and more, with the Righteous Realm upstairs, hosted by Brother Most Righteous looking to “moisten your musical danglies!”

11pm-3am, £3


Sounds like:

Club: Tokyoblu
Venue: Cabaret Voltaire
Date: Friday 7th January

If you didn’t spend the festive season tending to those less fortunate, make it up in a way you know how - Tokyoblu’s John Hutchison and Iain Gibson lay on the funky house, Chi-town vibes and loved-up electro in aid of raising funds for Edinburgh Sick Kids Hospital.

11pm-3am, donations requested


Sounds like:   Bottletop by tokyoblu dj's


Club: Musika
Venue: Liquid Room
Date: Saturday 8th January


Musika start the year with a residents special of house, techno and electro at a bargain price of £0 pound for early entry.

9pm–3am, £5 / free before 11pm

Sounds like:

Glasgow

Club: Co-Op
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Thursday 6th January


Orderly Disorder, Dirty Noise, Mount Heart Attack and Scrabble join forces once again for their co-operative concept, and start the year curated by Dirty Noise and their ‘Horney’ theme.

11pm-3am, £3 / £2

Sounds like:

Club: LuckyMe vs Numbers
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Friday 7th January


Two of Glasgow’s dominators, LuckyMe and Numbers, host a joint party to celebrate Rustie (Warp) and Jackmaster’s birthdays with extra dance reinforcements from The Blessings and EclairFifi - all the latest electro, house and bass-filled beats.

11pm-3am, £8 / £5 / free before 12am


Sounds like: