EarPIPE

EarPipe Has an Even Hazier Look Back at the Music Through 2008

Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 | Music, News | 2 Comments

I normally struggle to think what tunes have been and gone in the last month, so trying to remember what I was listening to back in January is a mountainous mission in itself, which is probably why I’m going to write this avoiding any specifics and will talk around the subject pretending I know what I’m talking about like any good politician would do. But from what I can recollect “minimal” became housier (or maybe I became housier?), Dubstep collided with Techno and Disco has undergone a massive revival

So lets start with the shift towards the housier sounds. We noticed a lot of DJs ditching the repetitive and bland “minimal” sounds that were starting to stagnate and instead nudging more towards the house end of the spectrum. This meant a bit more funk and soul embedded into tracks, more vocals and jazzier samples. It may sound like we’re harking back to the funky house days circa 2000-02, but this was slightly different, it was more an amalgamation of what came out of the “minimal-tech” sounds which dominated ’05-’07 with older house music sensibilities as seen from the Chicago deep house days. A perfect example of this is probably My My, their remix of Djuma Soundsytem’s Les Dijnns ’s typifies where the sound was during 2007 whilst their latest release Everybody’s Talkin’ is a glimpse into the house sound doing the rounds at the moment. The same goes for Josh Wink’s Stay Out All Night and Matthew Styles We Said Nothing, both distinctly Chi-town influenced numbers which bebop’s to a fun and funked up skipping rhythm. In a similar vein who could forget Johnny D who’s had a fantastic year. His track Orbitallife was causing raucous everywhere through the summer not to mention all his other releases.

But then it wasn’t all fun funked up house, this year saw a lot of dub style house and techno music with heavy basslines at a relaxed pace. Tracks like Trus’me’s W.A.R Dub particularly stood out as did a lot of the output from Gedde’s new label MurMur which had artists like Bearweasel pumping out deep and hypnotic house. One of the best tracks of the year for me was the highly elusive Wax1001. There was no artist or label, just this white label containing the rawest house track ever. A simple track with clunky beats, classic hi hat patterns and a dark raw bassline made Wax1001 show how less is definitely more.

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Tags: Afefe Iku, Ame, Appleblim, Bearwesel, Disco, Disco Bloodbath, Dixon, Djuma Soundsystem, Dubfire, Dubstep, Fabric, Geddes, Henrik Schwarz, Hercules and Love Affair, Horse Meat Disco, house, Innervisions, Italo Boyz, James Murphy, Johnny D, Josh Wink, Laurent Garnier, LCD Soundsystem, Lindstrom, Metro Area, Minimal, Mulletover, Murmur, My My, Mymy, Osborne, Pat Mahoney, Prins Thomas, Quiet Village, Radioslave, Ricardo Villalobos, Secretsundaze, Shackleton, SiS, Skull Disco, Smalltown Supersound, Stimming, techno, Trus'me, Villalobos, Wax1001

GPM 100: Happy 100th Release GetPhysical! Review

Thursday, November 20th, 2008 | Music, Single Review | No Comments

It seems like yesterday when GetPhysical first broke onto the scene with MANDY’s Put Put in 2002. So I don’t know where that puts their world takeover with Body Language and Manderine Girl in 2005. That was release 27 and 29 respectively. Since then until now the GetPhysical clan have notched up 100 releases on their bed posts. To mark this century milestone they’ve brought in all their favourites to collaborate with each other on a nine track monster EP.

MANDY rekindle their partnership with Bookashade to come up with a Donut. No that’s not a derogatory term for the track it’s the title. They use some round beats and a bit of healthy wood percussion with whirling synths to create in moody bobbing monster. Its eerie and quirky but with a little funk to get down too. Its no Body Language, this is MANDY Vs Bookashade 2.0.

Two of my favourite producers the Italoboyz and Noze get together on Double Trouble. I’ve loved the way the Italoboyz cleverly sampled old jazz and jive records whilst the quirkiness of Noze is hilarious in a good way, however when they go head to head on Double Trouble its just disturbing. There are jazz drum and sax skits left, right and centre which make for an extremely scatty track. Then add the freaky vocal samples from Noze make for a sample martini shaken to hell. That said I’m sure the silliness of this track will find its niche at some German after after after party.

On Funkshovel, Lopazz and Heidi hit back with some attitude laden grooves. A ghetto tech bassline oozes attitude as basic yet intricate tom toms fidget along with a sporadic vocal sample. Its simple and o so diiiiirty. In a similar vein, Dakar and Siopis’ Dubai has the filthiest saw tooth bassline ever, combined with its big splashing drum hits results in a down and dirty mechanical boogie.

The other efforts from the other collaborations are also worthy, Einzelkind and Meat creates the simple and driving Gin which hums away brilliantly. The Djuma Soundsystem and Raz Ohara take on a slow italo disco form with piercing vocals, twinkling notes and a galloping electro synth. DJ T and Thomas Schumacher produce an intricate bubbling track with round bass and scatty woodblocks. And finally Patric Baumel with Cathlin Devlin and Tiger Stripes with Audiofly both create dark driving numbers.

Tracklisting
A M.A.N.D.Y vs Booka Shade – Donut
B1 Italoboyz vs Nôze – Double Trouble
B2 Dakar vs Siopis – Dubai
C DJ T. vs Thomas Schumacher – May Contain Nuts
D1 LOPAZZ vs Heidi – Funkshovel
D2 Einzelkind vs Meat – Gin

Digital
Patrice Bäumel vs Caitlin Devlin – 7 days
Djuma Soundsystem vs Raz Ohara – Zillion Lights
Tiger Stripes vs Audiofly – Hundra

Tags: Audiofly, Bookashade, Caitlin Devlin, Dakar, DJ T, Djuma Soundsystem, Einzelkind, get physical, Heidi, Italoboyz, Lopazz, M.A.N.D.Y, Meat, Noze, Patrice Baumel, Raz Ohara, Siopis, Thomas Schumacher, Tiger Stripes