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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P043: Cabeza de Vaca – Dub techno special.

It has been a long time since we had a dub techno show on Cabeza de Vaca, but that is the subject of this weeks show over at Scanner FM .

Though it must be said that several of the artists on the show this week approach the sound, rather than really recapitulate it to its true definitions and indeed this has been one of the advantages and disadvantages of dub techno over the years. It has been a limited genre in many ways in that it necessitates adhering to a particular formula to work at its best and its esching of dance floor for atmosphere has often led it to be marginalised from the clubs to home listening. While this dependence on formula is necessary to maximise the advabtages of its particular mechanisms, it has also lead to a lack of innovation at times. The opposite is also true however, that the lack of club expectation allows it to grow in different directions and its dependence on atmosphere instead of rhythmic mechanisms also gives it greater scope for silene, experimentation and even emotion.

There is a little bit of everything on this weeks show.

Freund der Familie are a good case in point. Their recent album “Alfa” on their own label almost totally ignores the dance floor and looks only to mine a lot of atmospheric space at low BPM and using a different array of beat templates. The track we play is more dub step in approach, but the album is a diverse affair with plenty of other highlights like the vocal lead “Goldie Wilson”.

One thing that FDFs album has in common with S|EXP (Shaded Explorer) is a good balance between long and short tracks. One of the mistakes of dub techno in the past ahs always been of the notion that longer equals better when quite often the tracks have said all they need to say after 4-5 minutes. Of course there is nothing like a long, monged bliss out to dub techno, but you still need special tracks to go long distances and it is nice to see a few artists try and piece their albums together in a more considred way. “Shade’s Journey” (Eclipemusic, 2013) has one long track, “Atlantis” and the rest come in at much less. The flow is thus a bit faster and also varied, with a constant flux of textures and beat pressure.

There is also a few Spanish artists and/or labels on the show today. Exium also deliver a short and sweet track to open the show, also the opening track off their recent album “A Sensible Alternative to Emotions”. The album is a lot more vigorous than the more atmospheric opener “Dronid” as we also saw last week.

There is also something new from BLD an otherwise unknown Barcelona-based artist. His track reminds me a lot of the early Basic Channel track “Lyot (Maurizio mix)” for the rhythmic interaction, but BLD is a bit smoother and modern, whereas the original has that classic crashing warehouse drum sound.

Barcelona’s Subwax BCN label also continues its steady release run. We feature at rack from their dub techno label by SAM who has connections to the Fathers and Sons Productions label.

Orlando Voorn also had an album out recently on the Subwax house sublabel Subwax Excursions.

Sweden's Skyscaper  (Anders Peterson) also has a recent and fascinating album called “Atmospheric Stratification” of which we will play another track in the near future. Again, a little unconventional as far as albums go, with five original and five remixed tracks.

Skyscaper – Atmospheric Stratification album preview

Number	Artist	Track	Label	Year
1	Exium	Dronid	Pole Recordings	2013
2	S|EXP (Shaded Explorer)	Distant horizon	Eclipsemusic	2013
3	BLD	Before deep	BLD Tape Recordings	2013
4	Subjected	Concept 3	Vault Series	2013
5	SAM	Nangilima	SubWax BCN	2013
6	QY	Hokus	Blank Slate	2013
7	Freund der familie	Colombia	Freund der familie	2013
8	Skyscaper	Atmospheric Tide (Mindspan Remix)	Ghost Sounds	2013
9	Refracted	Along a ghostly trail	Silent Season	2013

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P042: Cabeza de Vaca – Eduardo de la Calle special and interview.

Another interview tie-in this week on Cabeza de Vaca and Scanner FM . This week’s show is all about Eduardo de la Calle, a figure of folk-lorish proportions here in Spain and who I just talked to for Resident Advisor . There were many things that didn’t make the final interview, including the opinions of many who I asked before talking to the man himself. Certainly he was painted in colourful words by those I asked, from a recloose, to a sage-like figure living in the mountain, whereas to some he is something of a charlatan. After having talked to him I can quite equivocally confirm the opposite: that he is perhaps one of the most genuine and authentic figures in modern dance music. He has a rich spirituality that influences all his work and it is both far fetched, as any belief should be, and tangible enough to keep you pursuing.

There is a couple of essential points on the video interview he did several years ago for Victor Santana’s Chaval Records label that are worth a look in. It is in Spanish with English subtitles.

Eduardo de la Calle from Chaval Records™ on Vimeo.

One thing that doesn’t get entioned much on the radio show is the Beatz documentary which just had the premiere in London and will apparently be shown in Barcelona in early September.

Beatz - Divergences & Contradictions of Electronic Music from Analog Solutions Rec. on Vimeo.

There is also plenty of other good Spanish music on the show this week, giving more fuel to the fire that the scene is raging and very much alive here. Above all is perhaps the continuing run of the Soullless Lab Recordings label who have just released Isometric Axis 2, another essential compilation that you can grab for free if hard up, though as always, better to support the artists and label with what you can. I t would be great to see some of this stuff on vinyl if possible.

Number	Artist	Track	Label	Year
1	Skaar	Reminiscent	Soulless Lab Recordings	2013
2	Hinode	Waiting for the sun	Monkey Bar Records	2013
3	The Knight Cats	Feeling It	Luv Dancin Records	2013
4	Eduardo de la Calle	Karanodakasayi (Original Mix)	Chaval Records	2010
5	Eduardo de la Calle	Untitled B1	Analog Solutions	2012
6	Eduardo de la Calle	Madhusudhana	Cadenza	2013
7	Eduardo de la Calle	Skeletalism	Semantica	2013
8	Exium	Nucleoid	Pole Recordings	2013
9	Adriana Lopez	Sequel	Grey Report	2013

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P039: Cabeza de Vaca – Sonar 2013 round-up.

As well as the aural/oral summary of Sonar 2013 that you can listen to here on Cabeza de Vaca and Scanner FM  my official written report should be out sometime soon at the site of Australian magazine Cyclic Defrost. The magazine has just announced their last ever print issue, but the website will continue for the time being. Good luck to all involved and thanks very much for the chance to contribute, however slight it might have been.

I will include a few extra things here that will supplement not only the show, but the review when it comes out. First up are some artists who didn’t make the review just for space reasons mostly. That said, many of them I also felt I didn’t spend enough time with to really give a knowledgeable opinion. Most of them were those who played at the Sonarcar stage, particularly the Rush Hour guys on Friday and the 50 Weapons people on Saturday. There was a couple of reasons for not spending time there, despite most of these artists being the ones I most wanted to see. One reason was to avoid moving around so much. If there was something good on, it seemed a shame to waste time filtering through crowds and losing parts of two sets. Better one than none. Also the Sonarcar stage was hard to be drawn into, partly for its small size and partly for its poorer sound system. Unless you were really close it was hard to feel the intensity. Couple that to the dodgem cars right behind and you have a poorly respected stage and I have heard that some artists have even declined invitations to play there as they know it isn’t good enough. This is clearly one of the most important questions to answer for future episodes: how to get more out of this stage. It cannot be easily overlooked either as it is essential, even if for nothing more than adding some avant garde names to the line-up. On paper at least the artists on show there certainly make a big difference to how you perceive the billing.

Of the artists I did see there I thought the young Italian DJ Vaal was quite interesting. Her selections were minimal leaning, but with a skeletal sparseness that was kind of fascinating compared to some of the bigger sounds on offer. Maybe they lacked a punch at times and the BPM felt slightly lower, which was both good and bad, but it may also have been normal and just seemed slower as an illusion of the lack of guts in the speakers. One of the other surprises of this is that DJ Vaal was a woman. Why a surprise? Sonar’s artist guide  clearly says:

“Vaal is the mysterious alias of this unusual dj, one who rarely reveals neither face nor identity, and whose background lies within rock'n'roll and jazz rather than in electronica and black, dance-oriented music. According to his biography, Vaal is unaware of the rules that guide the work of a modern dj, and as he isn't aware of them, he isn't scared of breaking them.”

There’s obviously two things there: “rarely reveals face nor identity” and also “According to his biography”. Would the real Vaal please stand up?

I also saw the beginning of Anstam which kind of confused me as well. His albums are great, but like many artists he is now leaning towards a 4-4 sound and maybe he hasn’t quite shed his past enough yet to dominate a new style. He started with some vocoder-led ambience before jacking in the beats. Due to the lack of power in the system and it was quite hard to get what he was trying to do. The set he did a few years ago at LEV in Gijón was exceptional, so I know he can do it if he tries, but this year, from what I saw, it wasn’t paying off.

The same can be said for San Proper. He has some great tracks, but he made a bizarre decision to put vocals on nearly every track on his debut album “Animal” which is probably why it disappeared pretty quickly. Live as well he came across a bit seedy and almost more aligned with Not Not Fun than Rush Hour with his long hair, unkept appearance, vocals and guitar playing. It wouldn’t be a bad collaboration for him in that sense as he is far from a dud, but imbalance is again a key factor.

I only saw a bit of 50 Weapons artists Phon.o who looked brilliant, Benjamin Damage who was winding down and Bambounou who was a lot more direct and 4-4 than his album would suggest. His album was decent enough, but the abstraction was sometimes alienating. Damage looks like a bigger crowd and a darker venue would have helped. Same with Phon.o although his sound was helped by the necessity to come forward and listen closer.

I play a Darkstar track (which should never otherwise be mixed with Karenn) in the show this week, but I cannot emphasise enough how different their live sound is to their discs, and better for it. The muffled and droney “shoegaze” psychedelia is much more gripping than a well-polished pop sheen. Besides, the tracks were also longer which opens them to exploration. The last track, which I think was “Hold me down” which I play on the show, was exceptional.

Just after them was Dominick Fernow aka Vatican Shadow. His performance was ridiculous and poignant at the same time. He spent half the time behind his machines and the other half at the front of the stage punching the air, jumping and egging the crowd on. The mix was so loud, probably intentionally, that it clipped the sound system. The beats were forceful and relentless, but beautifully dubbed to bring out nuance and evolution. But it was his over the top stage presence that really twisted the knife.

An easily pleased techno audience is one who expects and needs a bass drop (i.e. Richie Hawtin et al). You break a track down and then slam on the bass and somehow that is the “joy” of techno. It gets the crowd going again after a psychedelic pit stop in a more abstract sequence. There are always cheers and more movement when the bass comes back in. Fernow made a total mockery of this. Not only did he emphasise that it is just a moment of primitive power at its peak, by playing and making a buffoon of himself he simultaneously worshiped and ridiculed the excess. But he in a passive way also made fun of the crowd who are always moving anyway. And this also is the joy of techno. Its brilliant watching everyone, high on drugs, dancing incessantly even during the breakdown when there is no beat. The body does not acknowledge this fact. This is why the bass drum kick always works a treat, to remind you that you have been fooling yourself. The beat and the metabolism of the floor never stop. Fernow just reminds you who is really in control.

If anyone is also interested in other nitty gritty details, there was some interesting track choices at times. Justice opened their DJ set with “Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30” (Thus Spoke Zarathustra or Thus Spake Zarathustra) the “tone poem” by Richard Strauss, better known as the overture to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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Skream also played Donna Summer’s “I feel love” without it sounding silly or out of place which was also an achievement. There was another, bizarre classical music or 80s pop hit moment in the evening too, but I totally forget what it was! Skrillex had a countdown from around 6 minutes to zero that almost seemed like it would be interesting, but by the time one minute remained he had ruined it by showing he had a very limited range and poor sound design. His choice of using the Barcelona Olympics track by Freddy Mercury and Montserrat Caballé as one of his first was deeply misguided, especially accompanied by dodgy tourist images as if we were watching his Facebook account and Twitter feed. His sound as I mentioned lacks design and nuance, plays off hysteria and sounds like eating McDonald’s while playing video games with commercial dance pop like Rihanna playing on the radio. No need for doubts: don’t believe the hype.

Number	Artist	Track	Label	Year
1	Laurent Garnier	The man with the red face (long version)	F Communications	2000
2	Matthew Herbert	Louie Austen – Hoping (Herbert's High Dub)	Peacefrog Recordings	2002
3	George FitzGerald	Thinking of you	Hotflush Recordings	2013
4	Skream	Sticky	Tempa	2013
5	Maya Jane Coles	No sympathy (original mix)	Elite Records	2010
6	Karenn	Clean it up	Works he Long Nights	2012
7	Darkstar	Hold me down	Warp	2013
8	Kraftwerk	Franz Schubert/Endless Endless	Kling Klang	1977

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