EarPIPE

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

Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 | Music, News | 1 Comment

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

Mike Shannon – Memory Seed EP Review

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 | Single Review | No Comments

Mike Shannon marks his decade of active service with the release of Memory Seed on Richie Hawtin’s Plus 8 label. The full LP is forthcoming, but this little EP gives you a little taster of what’s to come. The EP starts with Mercury Mile a twisted electronic workout. Its long beatless intro slowly builds amidst a wash of static noise, warbling bass and twisted synths before slipping into a shuffling beat of tinkering percussion. In contrast the X Flex mix of Dr. Flex skips along with an elastic beat and bass, keeping few elements involved. This makes the track simple yet quite effective. Each element makes an impact on their individual introductions which creates a hypnotic robotic vibe.

The final track on this release is The Love Fry which comes in two flavours. Both versions work around an electric organ riff which phases in and out in a Doppler effect manner, increasing in intensity before the pressure value equalises the track back to the skipping beat. The original flourishes into some summer vibe synth riff whilst the Raw mix does without keeping to the original organ elements.

A varied and interesting release from Mike Shannon showing the various shades from his forthcoming LP. Love Fry is definitely our pick on this one. Its twisted and warped organ synth is sure to play havoc with the altered minds on a dancefloor.

Mike Shannon – Memory Seed is out now on Beatport

Tags: Memory Seed, Mercury Mile, Mike Shannon, Minimal, Minus, Plus 8, techno, The Love Fry

Slam – Sci Fi Hi Fi Vol.5 Review

Monday, July 7th, 2008 | Album Review | 2 Comments

It’s been a long time coming but finally the purveyors of Scottish techno have finally released their own Sci Fi Hi Fi release. The Soma bosses follow quite a great line of DJs from Luciano to Ewarn Pearson and Alex Smoke, all of which have churned out some incredible mixes for the series. The most recent in the series was from Funk D’Void who tingled our senses with his new sound of deep and melodic house taking the series away from the predominate techno route. All tough acts to follow, Slam have decided to try and emulate their club sets and have even deemed this a tribute to their Return to Mono nights at the Sub Club in Glasgow. The CD features some of the bigger and older tracks that are popular at ‘Return to Mono’ as well as unreleased material from the duo which is forthcoming on their new and more experimental label Paragraph. The boys somehow condense a Slam DJ set/ night into 70 minutes, starting from the more restrained and minimal, building on a steady and gradual gradient to climactic peaks, a difficult thing to do in 70 minutes.

The CD begins slow and chuggy with Claro Intellecto’s ‘Kiss The Sky’ mix which effortlessly glides into Loco Dice’s mix of ‘Class’. The moody and restrained groove of both tracks sets a gentle precedence easing the first small steps in. The mix takes baby steps in progression. SiS’s ‘Organsa’ drives the mix to the next level with its organ bassline and looped hypnotic vocal stabs. As Slam slowly drip feeds the tension by each track, Beutkickneu3’s Tout Va Bien releases some pressure through its build of woodblock hits and bright synth trickles before allowing the percussive nature of Tanzmann’s ‘Keep On’ lifts you on to the next step up.

The consistently good new comer Prompt brings the mix into the main peaks with his track ‘Evolve’ which has been big for many DJs this year. Whilst on tracks from Decimal and Funkwerstatt, hypnotic electronic sounds ring out over steady and chunk techno beats all the time keeping a steady groove before dropping down into the mechanical blips and round basslines of Claude Von Strokes brilliant remix of Poxy Music’s ‘War Paint’.

Things take a turn down tripped out lane with Slam’s new track ‘What’s On Your Mind’ an eerie and raw Minus-esque track. Whilst Danton Eeprom’s ‘Face Control’ regresses you back to dark times with its synth sighs and brain infecting blips. Blips of the type that make you question whether you’re actually melting into the floor.

The final push to the summit gathers pace through the scaling and intensifying synths of Tigerskin’s ‘Push the Patton’ and the drilling percussion of Mauro Picotto’s ‘Flashing’ before ending on another Slam exclusive ‘City Destroyer’. Its layers of short synth loops and masses of reverb add a depth and darkness which ends the CD on a high of frenzied techno.

The way the CD progresses in small steps with its carefully programmed tracks make the mix enjoyable to listen to as a whole. It’s good to see that being upfront hasn’t prevailed and that Slam has taken the cream of their DJ sets to create a club styled set that represents them. Another fine addition to the Sci Fi Hi Fi series.

Slam – Sci Fi Hi Fi is out now. Buy on CD

Tracklist (Follow links to buy individual tracks):
01 Rom1F – PI Kiss The Sky (Claro Intelecto Remix)
02 Social Material – Class (Loco Dice Mix)
03 SIS – Orgsa
04 Plasmik – Pearls On A String
05 Matthias Meyer – Tout Va Bien Butkickneu3
06 Matthias Tanzmann – Keep On
07 Anderson Noise – Londrina (Daniel Carboni and Alessio Mareu Remix)
08 Jandroide – Grande Coracion
09 Prompt – Evolve (Original Mix)
10 Decimal – Eleanor
11 Funkwerkstatt – Sputnik
12 Poxy Music – War Paint (Claude Von Stroke Mix)
13 Slam – What’s On Your Mind?
14 Danton Eeprom – Face Control
15 D’Julz – Just So You Know (2000 and One Remix)
16 Cle – Nomads (Mathias Tanzmann Remix)
17 Tigerskin – Push The Patton
18 Mauro Picotto – Flashing
19 Slam – City Destroyer

Tags: Minimal, Sci Fi Hi Fi, Slam, Soma, techno

Argy – Focus On (Pokerflat) Review

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 | Album Review | No Comments

Argy first came to my attention way back in 2005 just as I was getting into the whole, dare I say, “minimal” house thing. His track Love Dose was blowing up all the usual hang outs from Sonar to DC-10 and Fabric. Its slow and sexual pace and warm round bassline epitomised what was happening in the dance music scene. Fast forward a few years and the man has a whole album out.

Argy’s Focus On is a kind of artist album come mix compilation, similar to what Villalobos did with his Fabric release. He mixes his productions or remixes, old and new to produce a deep and sensual tribal soundtrack. Intricate percussion and warm basslines course through the CD as it glides effortlessly through a dark and winding journey.

Argy teams up with Jerome Sydenham of Sandcastles fame for track three, In The Mist. This track is exclusive to the mix and combines the deep, dark and tribal powers of both producers. The dark and hypnotic track slips into the eerie but familiar Love Dose. Its acid squelches and alien synths continue the subtle and tribal mood.

The darkness is lifted for a brief moment as Argy and The Mole collaborate on another exclusive for the CD. Cantstandlovegetaway is classic house reminiscent of the late 90s. Funky loops and disco-esque beats urges some ass shaking before dropping into the DJ Gregory collaboration Our Drums. The result is an old style big room tribal track and it’s good to hear this sound again. DJ Gregory’s penchant for African rhythms and percussion ooze out and form a formidable sound with Argy’s dark and hypnotic sound. Tribal is surely going to make a come back this year!

His dubby remix of Ryo Muraki’s Down The Sky takes influences from that classic prog sound of yesteryear. Its dubby synth stabs and chugging bassline injects some bright energy as the mix begins to wind up to Argy’s recent organ lead ‘1985’. The organ creates a perfect sound to round the CD off.

This mix has shown Argy’s ability of creating great house music from across the board, be it tribal, minimal or straight up classic house. This man can do it all. It’s a great mix which showcases what a talent he is. Lets hope we see more and more from him. 8.5/10

Download Argy – Focus On from Beatport

Buy the CD from Amazon

Tracklisting (* exclusive to CD):

01. Jerome Sydenham, Texu, Romantic Couch:
Ebian (Argy‘s Legendary Bonus Beats)
02. Argy: The Storm
03. Argy & Sydenham: In The Mist *
04. Argy: Love Dose
05. Argy: Malena
06. Argy & The Mole: Cantstandlovegetaway *
07. Argy & DJ Gregory: Our Drums * /
Argy & Bayoga: Under No Illusion*
08. Argy & Solomun: Anemone *
09. Ryo Murakami: Down The Sky (Argy Remix)

Tags: Argy, Focus On, house, Minimal, Pokerflat, tribal

Simon Baker – X Y & Z EP (Remixes from Smagghe Vs Matt Folfrey & Marc Ashken plus Frankie)

Thursday, June 12th, 2008 | Single Review | No Comments

Simon Baker returns after his seminal Plastik release on Playhouse from last year. For this release the DDD resident unleashes his brand of techno come house on Tolfrey’s label Leftroom, which has been going from strength to strength.

The original track is big and ballsy techno. An energy filled intro clicks and blips its way through to a simple 4 tone synth cycle, which changes in length, upping the intensity of the track until in crescendos into a brash breakdown of distorted reverberating synths. The track simmers back down to its intro component parts to gently pass you on to the next track. Hypnotic and ear catching this track is sure to cause explosions on the dancefloor.

Two remixes are in this package. The first is from Frankie who cuts and loops the original into a more frantic busier techno track. Shorter loops create a busier sound as all the elements from the original play a part. Frankie takes the original breakdown too, but again cuts and chops it up this time off key creating a wall of noise which will most likely ruin you on the dancefloor. High paced, loud and brutal. Use with caution!

The final remix comes from label owner Matt Tolfrey teamed up with Leftroom artist Marc Ashken as they go verses against the Jesus looking Parisian Ivan Smagghe. Between them they’ve restrained the intensity and switched to an evil bassline as bleeps ping out over the top and echoed vocal sighs slide in to create a moment of madness until it is briefly struck down with a silent break. This brief silence of clarity is short but needed as the track drops back in and continues its spiral down the bleepy hole. Trippy and eerie, this track is made for those dark underground rooms and makes for the best track in the package with the original coming in a close second.

8/10

Simon Baker – X, Y & Z is out on Leftroom Limited,

on vinyl now and on digital from 7^th July

Tags: ivan smagghe, marc ashken, Minimal, simon baker, techno, Tolfrey

Shlomi Aber – In Theory Yes/Efrat Review

Thursday, June 12th, 2008 | Single Review | No Comments

I don’t know whats happen but the last year or so Shlomi Aber has just come out of nowhere and started knocking out quality tracks like nobodies business. He ravaged the scene back in 2007 with his release Freakside on Ovum and this time he returns on his own label Be As One.

Side A is titled In Theory Yes. It runs with a subtle tribal rhythm and a warm round bassline that wobbles about the beats. Simple synth stabs hold your attention in the foreground periodically settling down to allow the warm bassline to rise through. Its straight forward in idea, but the simplicity creates its infectiousness.

Side B takes more of a summery deep house route in Efrat. Shlomi resurrects a combination of deep and prog house across a similar format seen in ‘In Theory Yes’. Bright synth stabs pop open over a routine house and shaker beat to create another simple and effective mover. To be honest this second track lacks imagination but Shlomi’s production skills deliver such a clean and smooth sound you’d be hard pressed to find better quality in other productions.

Great tracks if not a little formulaic. But it will certainly entertain the dancefloors out there. 7/10

Shlomi Aber – In Theory Yes/Efrat is out now, Download from Beatport

Tags: deep, Efrat, house, In Theory Yes, Minimal, Shlomi Aber, tribal