Crosstown Rebels
earPIPE’s “Probably Too Late” Off Sonar 2010 Guide
Monday, June 14th, 2010 | Event Preview | No Comments
All pictures from Resident Advisor
Update – Check out the earPIPE Sonar Disco Map Here.
This weekend Barcelona becomes the centre of attention as Sonar festival rolls into town. The festival itself is a jam packed 3 days and 2 nights of music and art featuring the likes of Plastikman, The Chemical Brothers and Roxy Music. However its not just the festival that garners all the attention, as for the same weekend Barcelona turns into a thriving party city with what are now known as the Off Sonar parties. This year we’re spoilt for choice in terms of party venues. We’ve got parties on beaches, on rooftops, on terraces, on boats and at secret villas. There’s even a few parties happening in them there nightclubs. There’s a lot to pick from so here’s what we think is looking pretty hot for the weekend. › Continue reading
All This Summer Dancing Meant I Forgot to Tell You About These Albums
Sunday, July 12th, 2009 | Album Review | No Comments
June to July has been a particularly lost couple of months. Mainly due to being found on various dancefloors in the UK and abroad. But as I stumble between the parties with that crazed ‘I Need Crack’ look I have been listening to a few good albums that came my way. The moment may have passed for most, but I’m still going to tell you anyway.
Robert Hood – Minimal Nation
When I said the moment might have passed I wasn’t talking about the one back in 1994 when this seminal classic was released. Instead I’m talking about Robert Hood and Planet M’s decision to re-release Minimal Nation to another generation of techno lovers and re-school the kids on where manipulating a minimal set of elements comes from. › Continue reading
Butane – Mutation | Single Review
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 | Single Review | 1 Comment
It’s good to hear Butane return to our speakers with this single from his forthcoming album on Crosstown Rebels. Its been a good year or so since his last release, but the wait was worth it. New track Mutation is a fantastic slice of glitchy hypnotic minimal techno. It begins with a murky hypnotic bassline and a spattering of electronic twitches. Every so often the murky bassline would raise its head above the water line as it filters out into a clean synth trickle before quickly diving back below into the murky bassy depths. It’s interesting how Butane uses the bassline as the melody for the breakdown. Its pretty one dimensional in its execution, but the shear depth of sound gives it all the kick it needs.
On the same release is two remixes from some heavyweight up and coming producers. Sety of Circus Company fame reworks the dark original into a more bouncy shuffling number. Sety fills in the minimal gaps with quite an infectious horn hook which sounds like something out of the King and I. Musical prejudice aside it seems to work, giving it a catchy and infectious edge the original didn’t have.
The other heavy weight remixer is man of the moment SiS. He also uses the original’s bassline but pads out the space with a clichéd minimal tap drip and samples of an Indian sitar. Add the skipping beats that SiS is so good at and the result is another infectious shuffling remix of the original. Another great release from the Crosstown stable.
Tracklist (Click for Mp3):
1. Mutation (Original Mix)
2. Mutation (Sety Mix)
3. Mutation (SiS Mix)
Adultnapper – Anglia EP | Single Review
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 | Single Review | No Comments
New York’s Adultnapper debuts his Anglia EP for digital spin off Crosstown Digital Rebels. The former punk rocker delivers a two track EP entrenched in tripped out electronic sounds. First track You Just Arrive manages to fill every crevice of the low end spectrum with an incredibly warm and spacious bassline. That bassline lazily lugs itself around whilst an infectious pattern of castanets pop and click alongside a haunting piano hook and an occasional wailing outburst from a vocal sample. Its dark and moody overtones do well to engulf you in what is a deep and infectious work out.
Second track Other People keeps with the eeriness opting for a shuffling beat to compliment another fine and full bassline. Multiple synth lines of a haunting flavour descend on to the track creating a dreamy and mysterious atmosphere. It’s a murky mixture of basslines and synths scored with sharp animal sounding stabs equals another decent deep and moody house track.
Tracklist:
01. You Just Arrive
02. Other People
Riz MC – Radar Remixes | Single Review
Saturday, January 17th, 2009 | Single Review | No Comments
Last year Crosstown Rebels released an electronica cross pollination track with Riz MC called Radar. To start the New Year Crosstown have come back with the remixes. The first comes from Ashley Beedle of X-Press 2 Fame. His Ill Communication mix starts with the angry, thundering percussion taken from the original. But it rather quickly transforms into a mellow and luscious track as sweeping strings soar to neutralise thundering percussion. The vocals awkwardly sit somewhere in between the two. And when the track fully metamorphoses into its cloud nine form, the vocals seem like they’ve been shoe horned in like a fat Essex girl in tight hot pants. If anything this should be a dub mix. EDIT – according to the press release there is a dub mix for the digital release only. So hopefully that will do the track justice.
The other mix in this package comes as a little venture into the Dubstep world. Sukh Knight uses a synonymous mechanical dubstep beat accented by light reggae/dub notes. Knight then excellently works the vocals in by taking snippets of the chorus, adding a vocoder effect to bring it inline with the mechanical nature of the track. The result is a raw and well worked remix.
Riz MC – Radar Remixes is released on vinyl 26th Jan/digital 9th Feb. Buy other Riz MC tracks from DJDownload
Tracklist:
1. Radar (Ashley Beedle’s ILL communication mix)
2. Radar (Sukh Knight remix)
3. Radar (Ashley Beedle Dub) (DIGITAL ONLY)
Dyed Soundorom – Naked/Beautiful Eva EP | Single Review
Sunday, January 11th, 2009 | Music, Single Review | No Comments
The latest and only second release on Crosstown Rebel’s digital label comes from Parisians Dyed Soundorom. They’ve also roped in long time Detroit producer Aaron Carl for a vocal work out. A side Naked is a laidback deep house track where spaced out chord stabs are punctuated with the slightest of sonar blips. Aaron Carl lays down some breathy spoken word vocals in true US house style to produce a typical but effective deep house cut.
On the flip is Beautiful Eva, still keeping very much in the house vein, Dyed Soundorom turns to punchier percussion and quaint vocal samples as landmarks on a pretty flat house track. It has a great groove but lacks some spark to differentiate itself from the others.
Released 19th January exclusively on Beatport
Tracklist:
1. Naked
2. Beautiful Eva
Riz MC – Radar | Single Review
Thursday, November 13th, 2008 | Music, Single Review | No Comments
Crosstown Rebels goes leftfield on their latest release with Riz MC, combining raw electronica sounds with thoughtful rhymes. He’s being hotly tipped as one of the UK’s bourgeoning talents with a growing list of advocates from the likes of Massive Attack and Nitin Sawhney. And when he’s not doing music he’s having a crack at being an actor for BAFTA winning TV. Pretty talented eh? Well that’s not the end of it.. A friend of a friend tells me he graduated Oxford with a first and had the pick of all the top finance jobs in the city earning crazy money.
But rather than go down the disgustingly rich route, Riz MC decided to follow the path of what he loves. His effort for Crosstown Rebels is a two track effort. First is Radar, a raw electronic thudding track which subtly supports the pacey lyrics. Heavily distorted static noises and striking electronic sounds denote verses, choruses and words adding a hidden level of emphasis and oomph. The second effort People Like People has a heavy breakbeat come Baltimore breaks feel, think M.I.A but more electronic. This is undisputedly raw output for the Crosstown Rebels.
So not to make the release to out there for Crosstown fans, Loco Dice is called in to completely strip the track down. Muted beats flutter with tight percussion as Mr Dice twists Riz MC’s vocals in to a garbled sample. It’s such a contrast to the original, but that definitely gives it big crossover potential for the house and techno fans.
Jamie Jones – 911 Review
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 | Single Review | No Comments
Does anything not turn to gold when Jamie Jones touches it? You just can’t fault his raw edgey tech house productions. His latest release 911 sees Jamie return to Damian Lazarus’ label Crosstown Rebels where he slides in haunting space aged blips with a classic growling tech house bass which centres on quite a comical 911 call about a marijuana freak out. It’s rough round the edges and has a great raw feel. Its simplicity and directness has one thing in aim and that’s to rumble a dancefloor to pieces.
Jamie Jones – 911 is out now on MP3
Jennifer Cardini & Shonky – Tuesday Paranoia EP Review
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 | Single Review | No Comments
After their seminal Mlle Caro remix of Far Away, the French duo return with their own EP Tuesday Paranoia on Crosstown Rebels. The title track is a dark and twisted mental workout. The old skool drum programming brings in classic elements of acid house whilst the bassline rumbles away in the sub bass. The track switches between the eerie sirens and the bright string washes hanging you in a state of confusion as you decide whether the tracks is dark and brooding or bright and colourful. Come Down to Earth the second track on this release is sure to be a winner with most people. Reminiscent of their Far Away remix, Come Down to Earth is a slow ominous track. Life support machine blips echo through the track as the sawtooth bassline vibrates the low end. The track takes its time in developing adding in new elements ever so slowly. Sure to be a hit for the summer.
Jamie Jones remixes the title track and comes out with an evil tech house monster ready to eat your mind. He cuts and stutters the vocal and uses the sirens sparingly for a proper dancefloor shaker. One of his best yet. Great dark tracks to lose your mind to.
Jennifer Cardini & Shonky Tuesday Paranoia is out now on Beatport
Tracks we missed back in June – Monika Kruse, Chic Miniature, Brendon Moeller and Jennifer Cardini & Shonky
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 | Single Review | No Comments
EarPipe was a little bit busy through June and July with all the festivals and nights going on which meant we missed out on telling you about these tracks. But with out further ado if you haven’t already purchased them, here they are:
Brendon Moeller – Electricity
Release number seven on new label Leena comes from Brendon Moeller, a bit of a stalwart on the scene with releases on Third Ear and Echocord over his ten year career. His Leena release Electricity covers the spacier house sounds currently out there. Title track Electricity is a smooth and relaxed house beat awash with harmonies and synth stabs. It slowly sweeps over various synth swirls to create a deep and dreamy house mover. B-Side Sweet Decade is a little more abstract. The bulk of the track resides mainly in the bass regions as it rumbles and bubbles with the occasional synth stab that breaks through into the higher frequencies. Its an interesting concept, but I’m not sure if it would work well on the dancefloor. Maybe as a warm up track.
The final track on this release is Tiger. Another spaced out house number with bright synth washes and a shuffling Chicago-esque percussion. The dubby synth in the foreground reverberates and adds intensity as the splashes of synths in the background tickle your senses. Warm deep tracks for the warm up/wind down slot but lacks something to really grab me.
Brendon Moeller Electricity is out now on Beatport
.
Monika Kruse – Changes in Perception Part 2
Monika Kruse seems to be pressing the right buttons at the moment as her popularity begins to grow outside of her native Germany. This release on Terminal M is the second part of her Changes in Perception series. The first track Spank Me Later is a raw track. It has a rumbling saw bassline which changes from short stabs in the intro to elongated gut rumbling notes after the break. Typical percussion and noises syncopate through echo effects to create a hypnotic but raw sound. The second track Morgana loops a chant sample over a warmer house sound to create a latino feel similar to your Luciano’s and Villalobos’. The round and bassy winding synth riffs make the track easy to follow and will definitely entertain the masses.
Monika Kruse Changes is out now on Beatport
.
Chic Miniature EP
Crosstown Rebels re-emerge from the winter with this delightful Chic Miniature EP. Escandalo is a hypnotic house track with glistening harpsichord riffs in a similar style to Luciano’s infamous “Father”. Chancita on the other hand is its beefier brother. The rolling bassline and vocal stabs rustle about in a peak time pot whilst intricate percussion twitches and scats around. On Kimono, Chic Miniature lay down another couple of a piano riffs with a menacing bass and beat, everything is left to revolve around the piano occupying the high end whilst the beats and bass jostle in the bass regions. Great release.
The Chic Miniature EP is out now on Beatport
Search
Links
Share!
Recent Posts
Categories
Tags
Archive
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006