Floatinghead's ramblings about music and music-related themes interspersed with various interludes and home of Cabeza de Vaca radio show on Scanner FM, Barcelona.
Brooklyn-based
producer and DJ Anthony Naples has had the dream career start, as Jordan Rothlein
points out in his Breaking through feature for Resident Advisor from November last year. After one
12” he already had the ear of Four Tet enough to be asked for a remix for the
track “128 Harps”. From there it was label contact and plenty of positive
praise. And yet he has still only released four 12”s, so few that we can
actually feature one track from each on this weeks Cabeza de Vaca show over at Scanner FM.
But there will plenty more to come from him you
imagine, with a rumoured album for Trilogy Tapes in the pipe. He is also
working on his DJing and has contributed this recent warm-up set over at the Fader which is also available for free
download.
There are also a lot of other new comers on
the show this week, such as Ex-Pylon who open the show with a long psychedelic
jam track, the type of which we love on Cabeza de Vaca. One curiosity of this
track, and several others we played recently, is the heavy use of EQing. It
seems almost becoming a stylistic trend of a lot of modern house. We have seen
a lot of it in the work of Torn Hawk on LIES,
with Mr. Tophat and Art Alfie on Karlovak and Dense and Pika on Hotflush to name but a few. I have even seen a little discussion in comments pages about
it and its relation to modern digital DJing as on one level, bringing the track
in and out so much is one of the DJs jobs, and now with digital beat matching
and so on, it is more and more possible to have an automated feel.
I mention as well the “other” group Pylon
who were contemporaries of early REM in Athens, Georgia in the early 1980s. Legend
has it that Pylon’ second album “Chomp” came out around the same time as REMs
debut EP “Chronic Town” and REM were despairing that Pylon were so much better.
Pylon are hardly forgotten, but there is a certain irony in thinking of these
petty jealousies given the immortal status that REM went on to achieve and
where Pylon ended up.
Watching this video from 1981 it is also hard
to accept or remember that even REM was considered a “dance band” before the
release of “Murmur” in 1983. Almost the only gigs available in the quiet
university town of Athens and the surrounding area where student parties, which
meant beer and dancing. This is why so much of the music from this area and era
adds more funk to the post punk edginess, including Pylon, The B52s and early
REM. In fact, there is a certain amount of music to be reclaimed here and
recontextualised in club culture. There is always such a hidden wealth of
guitar-pop-funk waiting to be championed again and re-used in a party/dancing
context, from REM to INXS and beyond. This will be half the theme at least of
next week’s show, but in the modern context.
REM of course covered the Pylon song “Crazy”
as a B-side that ended up as the opening track on the collection “Dead Letter
Office”.
After a couple of heavier techno shows we make
a return to the smoother, sultry world of deep house and Christopher Rau for the new Cabeza de Vaca show on Scanner FM this week.
Quite a simple story behind the man which you
can find elsewhere, which is not to say that the music is dull or predictable. Quite the
opposite. Simple broad strokes and an impressionistic finish are the signature
of his sound here, but the elements are always well chosen and in balance. For
example, you can find the usual elements of jazz, velvet and crimson piano bars
and the hour permanently poised close to midnight, but they are invariable
always used with restraint and at the right moment. But much like Manuel Tur’s
album “Swans reflecting elephants” there wasn’t much press around “Two” which
is strange given the very high profile afforded to “Asper clouds” two years
ago. Moreover, Smallville ended up with quite a good critical score at the end
of the year, despite the relative lack of focus.
We have a lot of different shows planned for
the near future, hopefully with some interesting treats, but we will see what
will fall into place and when. So stay tuned to Cabeza de Vaca and Scanner
FM!!!
New radio show is
now available at Scanner FM.
All deep house this week with a focus on Manuel Tur. No need to say too much
more, but I previously posted
on a lot of these tracks recently if you need more information.
Next show will be a mixture of post-punk
influenced electronica, some trip-hoppy sounds and more, but details once it is posted next week.
The beginning of the year seemed
a strangely quiet time for the major quartet of deep house labels Drumpoet
Community, Freerange, Dial and Smallville. Of course there were a few scattered
releases, but it wasn’t until clocks changed to summer time and May warmed up
with the first promises of festivals and beaches that the releases started to
flood out on all labels. Perhaps just as surprising is that some of them
slipped through the cracks of the usual channels for whatever reason.
John Daly – Sunburst [Drumpoet
Community]
Of all the releases getting
covered here, it is perhaps Irish producer John Daly’s fourth album and first
for Drumpoet Community that best sums up the hunger of deep house for summer. Strange,
as I don’t remember much sun in Galway, but a run through the track list
suggests that “Sunburst” is a kind of concept album for outdoor parties. The
names give the game away, as does the consistent medium tempo that runs from
beginning to end, perfect for grooving without breaking too much of a sweat on
long hot nights. Ironically it is also the consistency that tends to reign in
the album as a whole, especially when stacking it up against Manuel Tur’s more
uninhibited album discussed below. This is not to say that it is a poor effort,
not by any means, merely that as a listening experience it can lack a jolt or a
run of curves and hills to wake you from the hazy dreams it so effortlessly
invokes. More so since all the tracks seem aimed at the floor rather than the
stereo. There’s no ambient filler, no down tempo tracks, no experimental
leanings, just suave and catchy house. In many cases this might not work at all
and could be just a tedious dirge, like a beautiful woman who talks too much
without saying anything. But Daly’s strength are in seductive melodies that are
never overblown or overused and, just as importantly, his dub leanings give him
plenty of dynamic range and textural spaces to play with even when working with
a relatively narrow palette of synths and pads. The stand out track is the
appropriately named “Deep heat” though honourable mentions also go to the
tougher rumble of “I got bells” and “All night”, both of which use vocal samples
and epitomise the labels signature sound.
Manuel Tur – Swans reflecting
elephants [Freerange]
Manuel Tur’s 2009 debut album “0201”
for London’s Freerange was a disjointed affair and was something of a letdown
after such a long run of great singles that has still gone unabated. His latest
full-length “Swans reflecting elephants” is perhaps the album everybody had
wanted, elegant and also eccentric, drawing inspiration from surrealist
Salvador Dalí not only in the title, but, in a way, also in the stylistic
shifts from track to track that make it such a fascinating listen. But why it
should have failed to make a mark on the usual websites is also strange.
Perhaps one reason is that so far it has only been released as a CD and
download, with no vinyl or lead singles to stoke interest, only a single 12” of
remixes. In any case, “Swans…” opens with the charming, but almost girly pop of
“Back to me” that could be a dangerous sign of things to come if it was not
directly followed by “Phantom ride”. Here, the fragile innocence of the female
vocals become the inner voice caught in a circular question, tormented by a
heavier kick drum and clusters of high piano notes the rattle over a menagerie
of menacing sounds. So from track one to two you have an abrupt shift in style
and psychology. By the time the powerful drive of “High needs low” kicks in you
realise that Tur has really opened himself up on this album and that there is
plenty to be afraid of. The rest of the album ranges from the dark piano licks
of “Feel”, to the vocal-driven disco drone of “Maybe next time” and the
beautiful down beat crawl of “Just love” with vocals by Elina Monova. One final
highlight is the melancholy and exotic ambient piano vignette “Mirrors” which
is also a track that further emphasises the differences between Tur and Daly’s
albums, in that Tur sacrifices some of the party mood for something altogether
unexpected.
If you want more, check out the
excellent compilation of tracks collected under the “Fingerprints” title on
Manuel Tur, Dplay and Langenberg’s Mild Pitch label.
Small People – Salty days
[Smallville]
There was one deep house long
player that DID get a review and
ironically, for me at least, it was probably the weaker of the three. Small
People is the duo of Julius Steinhoff and Just von Ahlefeld and their “Salty
days” debut on their own Smallville imprint bares more than a similarity to
Moomin’s “The story about you” and arguably its predecessor “Asper clouds” by
Christopher Rau. Here, maybe the issue is not so much that they sound familiar,
but they feel familiar and even share
a template to some degree. This is not surprising since they all come from the
same label, but for me at least, I find it hard to get caught up in the hype
that seems to engulf these releases, elevating Moomin to near the summit of
last year’s album polls (position 12), for example. My criticism of the music
goes not so much against its quality, but its homogeneity. “Salty days” and
“The story about you” are both great releases, especially for DJs. Faultless in
the sense that they have no dud tracks, no cringeful moments and they drift
along just fine. Yet in a blind test I would find it hard to pick them out of a
crowd or extract them from the flow of a set. But give me John Daly and I would
tell you who it is. Give me Manuel Tur and I would want to know who it was. I mention feeling and here the depth of
feeling seems muted sometimes in favour of control and a sort of dressy ambience.
Indeed, one of the biggest problems with Small People and some similar artists
is that they sometimes seem to wear the same clothes: they use samples and a
palette that doesn’t stray far enough from the safety zone at the centre as if
they were all buying their clothes in the same mall. The high hats on this
album for example, sound just like high hats and follow traditional patterns.
There are a few gurgling bass lines that sound Chicago enough, but don’t really
threaten to break the mould. Perhaps one reason for this is that they prefer
not to let loose, giving you little to distract you from the details. In fact,
the spaciousness of the music asks you to look at it and this is where the
problems lie. In fact, the two highlights of “Salty days” work in the opposite
way, giving you something to unburden the pressure on the mechanism of the
music. “And you and you” is easily the most atmospheric track of the album,
working the wistful synth line into a lost moment of recollection. “Black ice”
seems to have been most people’s favourite and for good reason, with a more
rugged tangle of bass and high hats, and a moody synth line that demands you
watch over your shoulder for surprises and not stare into the music. This is
perhaps a harsh criticism to make of ostensibly a solid album, but given the
sheer volume of dance music, it sometimes seems a bit unfair to take attention
away from the innovators, the ignitors of the flame, and give it only to those
who keep it burning.
Bon and Rau – Morning funk
[Smallville]
Speaking of Christopher Rau, he
has had a relatively prolific time of late, releasing the “Cat litter” EP on
Japan’s Mule Musiq, “Just love baby” on Brooklyn’s Thema, a track “First haza”
on split 12” for new label Ava. Last but not least was the “Morning funk”
single on Smallville as Bon and Rau with Jacques Bon. The latter is of interest
if only for its sampling of Pete “Sonic Boom” Kember’s spoken word introduction
to “How does it feel?” from Spacemen 3’s “Playing with Fire”. The track itself
doesn’t really stand out as a classic otherwise, just a decent lazy day house
track full of cosmic synths and bustling, crisp rhythm section that doesthe job.
John Roberts – Paper frames EP [Dial]
Far more interesting is the new
12” from John Roberts on Dial. Silent since the critically acclaimed album
“Glass eights” in 2010, also on Dial, the return of Roberts is something of a
second coming given the material on offer. The four tracks on two sides are all
short; two of them would be almost incidental if they weren’t so interesting.
“Untitled II” is almost like Gamelan music the way it is arranged. Piano and percussion
mix with stabs of string and less recognisable sounds. “Untitled IV” is
similarly dissonant and more spacious, the melancholy piano brought directly to
the foreground and the overlapping noises breaking the introversion like a
thought that cannot be erased. The two remaining tracks aim more for the dance
floor, but still clock in at around 5 minutes and work from similar palettes.
The title track weaves chimes and jazzy samples with crunching break beat percussion
that couldn’t be further from typical deep house if you tried. The longer
“Crushing shells” works a similar avant-garde angle, cutting and pasting
different plucked string and more chimes and cello into a fractured melodic
landscape all underpinned by an off kilter four-four beat. Everything on this
release is a little striking, making it one of the most original releases of
the year so far.
B.D.I. Paper tears [Running Back]
B.D.I.’s “Decoded message of life
and love” is already nailed on as one of the tracks of the year despite
sneaking out in the cold light of December 2011. His follow up single for Gerd
Jansen’s Running Back label is quite a different affair, however. Not as heavy
or industrial, it fits more the quieter label aesthetic of Running Back than
“Decoded…” would have. Indeed, the fractured vocal neatly merges with the
almost synth pop textures, making it almost a John Talabot-style track. Yet
B.D.I.’s mark is all over it: sounds coming in and out of focus, repetitive
drums that are given just enough EQ to bring them up or pull them down and a
lasting dizziness after it has all gone. The “Tribal tears dub” is a nice
contrast too, bringing the polyrhythms and veiled ethnic elements to the fore.
R.A.G. – Black Rain EP [M>O>S.
Deep]
Delsin’s new house label seems to
be struggling a bit, having been unable to garner many overtly positive reviews
so far without ever having delivered a real turkey, although Andy Vaz’s new
single did get a caning.
However, Aroy Dee’s label M>O>S Deep which is essentially feels like a
Delsin sublabel at times seems perpetually able to find a winner. R.A.G.’s “Black
Rain EP” is certainly a case in point. Opener “The Fog” sounds bleepy and in
many ways retro, with the Ghosts and Goblins-style theremin and the hazy
production that gives it that, well, foggy edge. Put another way, it is an
almost Workshop sound on offer, which is no bad thing. The ambient and analogue
remixes of the title track are also sublime. The latter lays down a traditional
Chicago house back bone and then smears it beneath menacing analogue noise and
more retro horror movie sound effects. The ambient mix takes the same and
strips away the rhythm section, but its inherent tension gives it a lot of
potential for creative DJs to weave it into a mix. This release may straddle
the line between techno and house more than the other releases here, but worth
a mention for quality and originality.
Bicep & Ejeca – You [Aus
Music]
Playing off old rave archetypes
now seems one of the most staid features of “modern” dance music, with faux
rave sounds and post-Burial stretched vocals seemingly everywhere. However,
Northern Ireland duo Andrew Ferguson and Matthew McBriar with collaborators
Ejeca and Omar Odyssey show that there is still life and freshness in this
blend on their latest 12” for Aus Music. “You” in particular is a slow burner,
not jacking the house, but simmering and drifting like a lost flame. The vocals
in particular cut both ways, at once hopeful and mournful. Steffi’s remix picks
up the pace a little, but without losing the ethereal qualities while the
second track “Don’t” is a little more straightforward, with a heavier, spongy
beat and nice dub decals to decorate.
The Reboot Joy Confession –
Absolute II Way Harmonious Enterprise [Philpot]
This is perhaps one of the most
surprising albums of the year for a lot of reasons. Foremost amongst these is its
arrival from way out of left field. This is a genuine headcase of a an album,
eccentric, diverse and very self-conscious, forged somewhere between DJ Shadow’s
“Entroducing”, classic deep house, more experimental house a la Mathematics and
goofy break beat. Its spread over two records with each side lovingly sequenced
into a greater collage with humourous and surreal interludes, field recordings and
weird electronics. That’s not to say its all superficial entertainment without
genuine sentiments. There is a bit of everything here, but always leaning towards
the unexpected or less obvious sounds. This album teaser gives some idea of
what to expect and features the track “Awake or sleeper” from the second side.
House wise, there are a few
little pearls here, like “The Rise” from the first side and “Bless you so high”
which opens the third side in classic Philpot style. The album is also
interesting for what it suggests about the geography of house music. Although Philpot
is a German label, the sound is more distinctly “American”, like Mathematics,
with links into spiritual and transcendental jazz being very important. The
ancestors may be Chicago, as always, but they are not the neo-Chicago favoured
by the Dutch artists. The aforementioned skeletal deep house of Dial and
Smallville has brushes with jazzy sounds, but more cocktail and cool jazz than jazz
with religious connotations. Drumpoets Community almost feels like a strange exception
then, being somehow more overtly “electronic” than either.
