P058: Cabeza de Vaca – Dub techno

No voice over this week as tpart pf the studio had been removed to do some live recordings and due to the busy schedule elsewhere, there was no time to re-record. But there is an unmixed dub techno special this week on Cabeza de Vaca and Scanner FM  instead of the promised Laurel Halo show which will be next week if all goes well.

Not too much needs to be added except that there was enough material for two dub techno shows so the extra material I will highlight here, plus one or two details from this week’s show.

First up is Santiago Naura aka Bleak, another promising Spanish artist with releases on Delsin, Deeply Rooted House and recently on Secret Sundaze as well. His opening track comes from a various artists 12” on French label Concrete Music. His other tracks are less dubby perhaps, but his take on dub techno gives a bit of tempo at the expense of a bit f patience maybe, especially the opening. But the arc of the tracks evolution is excellent.

Also from Spain is the recent Reeko vs Architectural album, a concise, direct and brilliantly crafted modern techno album. It switches styles without seeming lost and it focuses on the dance floor without losing a home listening cohesiveness and flow. One of the year’s highlights for sure and more tracks from this coming up in future shows I hope.

Staying on the Peninsula s something new from Downliners Sekt. Their debut album will be out early in 2014 on InFiné and judging by their recent 12” it should be an interesting release. Both tracks on “Balt Shakt” are much more mature than their previous 12” on InFiné which was well made, but perhaps a bit derivate. “Balt Shakt” works with the same elements but feels more mature.

The Spanish label Non-Series (NON) have also delivered some good tracks lately. On the show we play something from German producer Savas Pastilidis who is also running the Lasergun and Sweatshop labels.

The hypothetical second show was going to feature something more recently from Spanish artist Maan aka Manuel Anós in the form of several remixes of his earlier single for the label. There is also a new Eduardo de la Calle out just now too.

And at last we get something from Cologne’s Telrae imprint, a sublabel of the Traum family, on the show after many attempts! This time from newcomer Andrea Cichecki. Another artist from their roster is Reimut van Bonn who has something very new out now on the label

In our hypothetical second show, he was also going to open with a track from hi “Gradient” EP, in this case the long CPH remix, shown here in extract form.

Prolific Lithuanian producer Grad_U aka Aleksandr Martinkevič has just had a pair of 12”s out on his own Redscale label, a project which started last year around the time of his last CDr on the related Greyscale label. Martinkevič has also released on some of the classic dub techno labels like ZeECc            and Entropy Records.

Lars Fenin also returned this year with another fine album of electronic dub-pop on Shitkatapult. As on several previous outings he once again works with vocalists on several tracks to excellent effect. “Heartware” also proves again that he has enough ideas to keep his sound moving and keep it interesting, although there is perhaps less dub than on previous outings and more of his own voice. I still feel he is a producer who deserves a bit more commercial and critical recognition than he is afforded ad we are always happy to have something new from him.

It is worth mention the Deepchord track “Barcelona” from their most recent album “20 Electrostatic Soundfields”.

Here Rod Modell mixes hazy late night ambience with field recordings, presumably recorded in Barcelona as there are Spanish voices, which is pretty much the method for the rest of the album as well. Not so much dub techno as soundscapes then. Modell’s work has been edging that way anyway, with his film soundtrack to “Silent World” for example, which curiously also features a track  called “BCN Dub” that also appeared on the “Liumin” album from 2010 which may be a version of the same track although far more “rockier”.

Nicole Moudaber’s album is hardly dub techno, and more a solid brand of heavy minimal, unbending and direct and full of guts and style. Yet there is a very nice dub-leaning track “Movin’ on” that would have been in the second show.

Finally, we close off from another track from Genotype who we also featured on the Drum n Bass show. This is the last track from the album which is a beautiful closer. Plenty of detail and deep vibes throughout. The rest of the album is a joy as well.

Number	Artist	Track	Label	Year
1	Bleak	What are we made of	Concrete Music	2013
2	Andrea Cichecki	Subjective	Telrae	2013
3	Grad_U	EV 3	Redscale	2013
4	Reeko w/ Architectural	Dualities	Pole Recordings	2013
5	Savas Pascalidis	Mechanic	Non Series	2012
6	Fenin	Same pictures	Shitkatapult	2013
7	Downliners Sekt	Balt Shakt Part 2	Infiné	2013
8	Genotype	Trick or Beatz	Samurai Red Seal	2013
9	Deepchord	Barcelona	Soma	2013

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P057: Cabeza de Vaca – Stellar OM Source

Someone calculated that only two of the last 50 or so covers of the Wire had been devoted to women artists and in one case the main feature on Meredith Monk had note even received a cover image. Subsequently the last two issues have been female artsists, African American jazz artist Matana Roberts

The second was Laurel Halo who will appear on the show next week as the second part of our all female electronic music artists special. The first special is though on Stellar OM Source the French-born artist Christelle Gualdi on this week’s show on Cabeza de Vaca and Scanner FM.  In this sense we go from zero specials on female artsists to two in about 60, at least the same as the Wire, but still it could be better. That said we at Cabeza de Vaca have always tried to promote female artists where possible and almost always go out of the way to look.

Christelle Gualdi’s biography makes her seem more like an international citizen rather than defined by any particular country. Although French born, she moved at age 16 to Germany where she played double bass in the Konigin Katharina Stift Schulorchester. She also studied piano, violin, saxophone and more at a conservatory and has lived in several countries from the US to the Netherlands and has learned first-hand with very many important musicians. In addition to a strong musical background, she also has training in architecture.

Her interest in electronic music and improvisation lead her to self-release three albums “Ocean woman”, “Alliance” and “Crusader” which were ultimately collected on the Olde English Spelling Bee compilation “Trilogy Select”. The sound was in many ways typical of the wave of synth lead experimental works at the time, particularly Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never who collaborated on the track “Rites of fusion”. In return, Gualdi designed the cover for OPN’s album “Zone’s without people”.

Her change in direction from beatless synth work-outs to rhythm comes by chance. Someone inadvertently sold her a mint-condition Roland TB-303 for €25. Over several years she adapted her sound to the machine, maintaining a live imporovised approach to composition eventually premiering her new direction with a 12” on Rush Hour’s No Label sublabel called “Image over image”.

The album “Joy One Mile” which followed was incubated during the same period, but before its final release it was turned over to Kassem Mosse for some final touches. Its ultimate reception has been exceptional. The tracks are free-flowing and dynamic, liberated from a feeling of programming and matrices, wheres Gualdi’s classical and somewhat outsider gives her sound a novel edge that dance music insiders often do not have once they are caught in the mind sert of producing strictly for the dance floor, particular set designs or even clubs.

Mosse’s work is pleasantly understated, audible but not suffocating; it is not his album after all. But his contribution was not only just behind the scenes, but extended to providing a remix of the first single.

As the album was allegedly recorded some time ago it could be reasonable to expect some more material in the near future and hopefully a few more festival appearances.

For more biographical information, here is a short interview from the Eco festival  in Madrid (in English, but subtitled).

It is also worth a quick word about Valerie Maryino aka Unicorn Hard-on. The review of her album “Weird universe” at Resident Advisor received quite an interesting discussion about her looks.

The reviewer Justin Farrar wrote: “Like a high school glamour girl who also happens to be the class bully, the New Englander cuts a figure that is both alluring and imposing. Hunched over a heap of tangled electronics, with Desperately Seeking Susan-style locks swinging across her face, she unleashes basement-party tracks that conflate electro and acid confection with harsh-noise belligerence. The result is an experience that is fabulous and sassy, yet utterly pulverizing.”

In this senses he was referring to her image rather than her beauty per se and also her live presence:

There was quite a marked response suggesting that her likes had nothing to do with a recorded record, to which Farrar responded:

“Martino's persona (looks + fashion + attitude) are inextricable from her amazing music. All of it emerges from a singular sense of style, and it's a sense of style that balances glamour and toughness. This really comes out in her live show and how she carries herself as an artist. In my opinion, it's central to understanding her aesthetic.”

In this sense his response is somewhat valid: it helps to know how Prince is an looks like to understand his music. If it was made by Cliff Richard, or vice versa, there would be a serious incongruity that would affect the music somehow, making it ironic or perhaps even sinister. David Bowie should also be mentioned as an artist who changed his look to change the music, and vice versa. The process is inseparable. Looks are a costume for a theatre after all. But clearly the issue here is when is it okay to mention how a woman (or man) looks? Clearly he is not saying anything misogynist to suggest “I like her music because she is hot” but at the same time is there or is there not a need to mention looks to understand her album? Do reviews of male music ever consider looks? Ben Klock is more handsome than Marcel Dettmann so his music must be better?

One of the other artists on the show, Rebekah Teasdale from the Midlands in the UK has previously worked in glamour model shoots  and the photos are on her main website. Is her beauty and modelling past a positive impact on her career? Are the erotic connotations negative? Sasha Grey of course is another artist to come from a similar background in pornography that is not always socially accepted and has potential to over shadow artistic ambitions.

A recent viral video perhaps explains why such issues are still important and why they are so thorny.

Number	Artist	Track	Label	Year
1	Clara Moto	How we live in each other	Infiné	2013
2	Stellar OM Source	Magnetic depths	Not on label	2009
3	Stellar OM Source	Universal export	Not on label	2009
4	Stellar OM Source	The sky pilot	Black Dirt Records	2009
5	Unicorn Hard-on	Night diamond	Spectrum Spools	2013
6	Virginia	Pulse	Ostgut ton	2013
7	Stellar OM Source	Elite excel	Rvng Intl.	2013
8	Mary Velo	Manhattan Project	Frozen Border	2013
9	Rebekah	Equilibrium	CLR	2013
10	Helena Hauff	Actio Reactio	Werk Discs	2013

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P056: Cabeza de Vaca – ASC

Sometimes it is hard to judge the success of an artist, especially prolific ones like James Clements or ASC, the focus of this week’s show on Cabeza de Vaca and Scanner FM . Sometimes ASC tracks seem to everywhere and nowhere at the same time. ASC is the go-to artist on some of the biggest left-field labels around such as the first Exit records compilation "Mosaic 1", the two epic Samural Music and Samurai Horo compilations from this year, as well as his own releases often on his own label’s like Auxiliary music and his new imprint Veil. ASC has been prolific and critically lauded. Yet why doesn’t his name come more quickly to mind when thinking of electronic music? Where is his presence on the festival scene? Maybe there is an element of politics somewhere there or the absence of a bonafide hit that somehow keeps Clements glued to the fringes? Perhaps it is an artistic choice? Certainly his cross-scene movements make it more difficult for media and electronic music’s micro movements hard to pin him down.

As usual, our show finds ASC at a crossroads. We use one of his tracks to sign post the mighty and unmissable Samurai Horo compilation of abstract and ambient drum n bass which feels closer to glitch and a missed offshoot of ~scape than something likely to come out of Metalheadz or the like.

Last years “Way of the samurai 2” compilationfrom the same label family, and of course featuring ASC,  was a little more traditional, although built from the same sparse tool kit with plenty of dub elements.

ASCs own Auxiliary label released a compilation themselves earlier this tear and collecting some of the highlights from the labels roster including AnD, Fis (who also has his own links with the Samurai Music roster), Sam KDC (ditto and a long-term collaborator with ASC) and the man himself:

Not content with that Clements has also recently debuted a new sublabel Veil to complement Auxiliary Transmissions and Diode. As well as Sam KDC and Christine Vaccine who will appear in a future show, the first of the Veil label collection 12”s features another collaboration between ASC and Synth Sense, the drum n bass duo from Ashford in Kent in the UK who have contributed to the other sublabels.

ASCs only album release to date in 2013 has been a recent double CD set for Canada’s Silent Season imprint from the middle of the year, but arriving in my hands just too late to feature on the show.

If some of these tracks sound a little similar to Bvdub it may also be because the two collaborated several years ago on a split single for Auxiliary.

And ASC does not stop it appears. Even since putting the show up he has released the second Veil split single

As well as a new EP “Programme 02” on Auxiliary.

Try to keep up if you can…

Number	Artist	Track	Label	Year
1	Ed:It	Ideology	Commercial Suicide	2013
2	Geiom	2-4-6 featuring Terrible Shock (Desto Remix)	Well Rounded Records	2013
3	Tessela	Hackney Parrot	Poly Kicks	2013
4	Randomer	Need U	Not on label	2013
5	ASC	The noncolour entity	Veil	2013
6	ASC	Karma	Halo Cyan Records	2013
7	ASC	Oracle	Samurai Red Seal	2013
8	ASC	Dragnet	Samurai Horo	2013
9	Djrum	Blue on blue	2nd Drop	2013

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