P045: Cabeza de Vaca – Anthony Naples special.

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”.

Number	Artist	Track	Label	Year
1	Ex-Pylon	Shakes	Studio Barnhus	2013
2	Youandewan	You tired	Simple Records	2013
3	Anthony Naples	Moscato A1	Mister Saturday Night Records	2013
4	Anthony Naples	La Cuarta	Trilogy Tapes	2013
5	Anthony Naples	Mad disrespect	Mister Saturday Night Records	2012
6	Anthony Naples	I don’t see them	Rubadub	2013
7	Steven Tang	Potential Light	Smallville	2013
8	Dopeus	Don't I need you	Third Ear Recordings	2013

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P044: Cabeza de Vaca – Morphosis special

Lebanese artista Rabih Beaini has been around for about a decade now, but it was only with his “What have we learned” album on Delsin in 2011 that he really cemented his place in the techno pantheon and marked himself as somewhat untouchable. There are lots of clues to this relatively slow genesis on this weeks Cabeza de Vaca show over at Scanner FM.

Perhaps the underlying message of all this and many of the other genuinely interesting and innovative artists that we have previewed on the show recently is that the best take time to make their music. They sacrifice something to develop a sound. Eduardo de la Calle best embodies this and has done his best to convey this message in the Beatz documentary, but it is something that cannot be emphasised enough. It is not only in dance music, but elsewhere that there are too many musicians almost doing their best to fit in, but who ultimately are one drop in the sea and are rarely heard or heard for long enough.

Beaini’s journey essentially begins with the Upperground Orchestra which he co-founded by chance after a double booking at a Venice venue where he was living at the time. The group continue to exist and play and record, although releases are few and far between still. We open the show with their debut release and one of the earliest on Beaini’s Morphine Records label which he cofounded with Stefano Boati aka Ksoul. Apart from the “Solaris Eremit” single there is only the “Eupen Takes” album from last year which is a lot less conventional than the first single and clearly takes in more of the influence of Sun Ra.

Sun Ra’s influence on modern electronica continues to grow and it is no surprise to find a few artists on the label that clearly draw inspiration from the great man, particularly Hieroglyphic Being, but also the pranksterisms and free form workouts of Madteo, Metasplice and Container.

The new material clearly has a lot of Sun Ra influence too and feels fresh and challenging because of it. On the “Albidaya” album the last track “Ya shatter” in particular is a feast of world music, jazz and modern electronics. A totally compelling jam, apparently partially realised in Detroit on some of Mick Huckaby’s synths.

In The Wire interview we mention on the program, Beaini also claims to have some important input from Newworldaquarium who gave him the advice to “think like a band” since as an electronic artist you are essentially playing all the instruments yourself. Beaini’s work under the Morphosis name clearly carries that sound, being equed and teased out in a direct hands-on approach, mistakes and all, and mixed with an unusual balance to the mix that requires a different way of entering the music. It necessitates a bit of effort on the part of the listener or a bit more patience to see the evolution before it makes sense. This is particularly true for the more off-kilter tracks which, as the Wire said, completely “crack[s] apart the mechanical rhythm of the loop". Indeed, some times the balance of the Morphosis sound is so original that you wonder how easy it is to mix, though that didn’t stop Lawrence or Marcel Dettmann from including tracks from “What we have learned” in their respective mixes “Timeless” and “Conducted” from 2011.

Finally and serendipitously, the day after publishing the show, Morphosis announced a collaboration and tour with Donat Dozzy , another artists we feature in the program. All bodes well.

Number	Artist	Track	Label	Year
1	Upperground Orchestra	Solaris Eremit	Morphine Records	2008
2	Rabih Beaini	Light within a light	Annihaya Records	2013
3	Morphosis	Tamrat version	Honest Jon's Records	2013
4	Morphosis	Dirty matter	Delsin	2011
5	Morphosis	They just dont care	Styrax Records	2008
6	Abdulla Rashim	Semian Terara 1	Abdulla Rashim Records	2013
7	Dense and Pika	Lack of light	Hotflush Recordings	2013
8	Donato Dozzy	200.2	electronique.it	2013
9	Morphosis	Europa (coda)	Delsin	2011

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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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