Test

Here’s a taster from the aforementioned album, including  The Very Last Resort and the dark side of the conceptual moon, Snowflake . As always, please only use these for evaluation purposes only and buy the real (or digital) release - we wouldn’t want to see anyone go hungry as a result of my actions. Speaking of action, what do you make of this? ? I didn’t think much of it to be honest and can’t see it working on any dance floor – not sure what Minus were thinking when they released it. There’s a new Alexi Delano due on that label that knocks the shit out of it too. Will keep you posted on it (no pun intended)…

Resort To Inspiration

So Trentemoller has finally achieved what he has been banging on about for ages and released a body of work that transcends what he feels is techno’s narrow focus. ‘The Last Resort’ is the name of his debut album, but it doesn’t reek of desperation or come across like a cry for help. Rather it sounds like the Danish producer has finally found that indistinct place that he can finally call home. I’ll probably annoy a few people when I say that I could never really understand what all the Trentemoller hype was about. OK, ‘Physical Fraction’ and ‘Polar Shift’ are bloody good club records, but the standards on the accompanying ‘best of’ singles CD that you get for free with the album quickly dip into samey, bleepy dross. It’s the kind of stuff that people who come from a ‘dirty house’ background think is proper techno. These are the philistines who would have turned their powder-encrusted noses up at ‘Minimal Nation’ or ‘Losing Control’ ten years ago, or would have shunned Basic Channel. The same fools who’ll play whatever Azuli or the other bloodsuckers tell them is fashionable. Last year it was filthy electro house, this year it’s filthy minimal…
Anyway, I digress. Most techno/dance producers usually express an ambition to make a ‘real’ artist album as opposed to a collection of dance floor tracks. It’s a line that gets trotted out all the time during interviews - no, I’m not going to name names – but suffice to say, whenever I hear the interviewee saying, ‘yeah, I’d love to work with vocalists and make some down tempo stuff’, or words to that effect, a frozen smile automatically forms in an attempt to hide my disgust. Trentemoller has succeeded where so many of his peers have failed: for starters, he plays nearly all of instruments on the album - as opposed to paying some faceless guy in a hoodie to drop some flat guitar and drum samples – and his ability to combine flailing, crashing drums and guitar bursts with twitchy, glitch rhythms that suddenly fall apart to reveal smooth woodwind passages is impressive. But he doesn’t confine himself to experimenting with hybrids for the sake of it: there are some really hypnotic Basic Channel style dub techno tracks, a few soothing lullaby melodies, a blues track from the film that Tarantino has not yet made and even a plinky plonky Pink Floyd stoner track. I’ve only given ‘Last Resort’ a few listens, but I imagine it’s the kind of album that grows and grows on you with repeated listens as you drive around a city centre at night. I made the last part of that sentence up -  it’s the kind of cliché that reviewers love to use -  but I think you know what I mean…

Grand PRix

I realise that times are hard for independent labels, especially for those that have stuck to their guns and still release underground electronic music, but in the past few months I have been inundated with a certain type of e-mail from PR companies and small labels that is beginning to really piss me off. I would like to point out at this stage that I try as best I can to support emerging labels and acts, through my various writings, and believe me, it is often a thankless task, but there is no need for those in the music business to start mimicking the behaviour of the mainstream PR / marketing industry and engage in some ‘viral’ marketing. For those who aren’t aware of the term, it means that a piece of content, be that text, video or audio is presented as a genuine piece of information, and not a shameless plug. Sandi Thom used viral marketing to launch her hopefully short-lived career, and there are loads of examples of evil bastard corporations using graffiti artists, flyering etc to get their message across. However, it’s regrettable that independent artists feel the need to adopt these dubious tactics. I present ‘exhibit A’, an e-mail I received a few weeks ago from a US indie label. To save blushes and the all-important credibility factor that the label was more than willing to sacrifice for some all-important internet eyeballs:

Hey,

My name is _ and I’m a new employee at_ , an independent
label based in Chicago.  I saw that you had some posts on Spectral and Minus
artists, who have similar sounds to some of our artist.

_ veterans _ recently performed as part of the _ showcase at
the brilliant Sonar Festival in Barcelona. Their live set was recorded and
now we are making the full set (almost 50 minutes) available in podcast
form! This set features material from their recent _ digital
release as well as UNRELEASED material.  Feel free to share this with your
audience. Their new full-length comes out in 2007.


Also, _ will be releasing new material in August!  Go to _ for more information on  _ and our other artists.


We're putting out more releases this year and I hope we can work together on
those to.


Thanks!

Either the person who sent this e-mail has had an irony bypass - the posts that they refer to slag off Ryan Elliott from Spectral for being Sonar 2006’s biggest gurner and poke fun at the yes-men (and women) that surround Herr Hawtin -  or they must have been naïve to believe that I would actually  write something positive about their label and not post the e-mail. Anyway, on a less bitchy note, here’s my own piece of (non-viral) marketing: make sure to come and join us at the lovely Life Bar if you’re in Dublin city this Saturday night. It’s myself, Skkatter, Eddie Brennan and Dan McElligott on the decks and laptops. It’s free in and there will be a powerful rig brought in for the night. Cheap beer and a nice smoking area too: what more could you ask for?

Pop: The Question

Like anyone, there’s only so much faceless, instrumental club music that I can listen to. Not that there’s anything wrong with all the amazing techno and house coming out of Europe at the moment - while I’m on the subject, has anyone noticed a shift away from the bare bone essentials to more musical and varied releases from all over the UK and the continent of late? It warrants a long, long post, so I’ll return to it at a later date, but a quick heads up to new works by Deetron, Claro Intelecto, Andy Stott and Shinedoe should give you some idea of what I’m talking about. Anyway, at some stage, it’s inevitable that I have to say no to the relentless beat and retreat to the world of pop music.
When I say pop, I don’t mean heiresses with a penchant for pursuing vanity projects or bands manufactured by men in suits (no, not Senor Coconut), but real, credible music that lodges itself into your brain with just one listen. I’ve listened quite a few times to the new Junior Boys album, and it certainly fulfils that part of my needs that remembers a time when popular music was dominated by angst-ridden, earnest young men in long coats, but for sheer good, silly fun, please let me point you in the direction of 'Shake & Pop' , the new single by Green Velvet. Some people loved ‘La La Land’, his last genuine stab at pop stardom, but I found it at best insipid and at worst incredibly annoying, and not a patch on ‘Flash’.
This time, Cajmere has reinvented himself as an early 90s hip-house big cheese - one of my esteemed colleagues who emailed me the link to the video on YouTube astutely noted that it looked like an early 90s C&C Factory video  - and it’s this flagrant disregard for what anyone else is wearing or sounding like that will hopefully see Cajmere get some chart action. Eventually, the refrain will wear on my nerves  - although it would be hilarious to hear a pissed up crowd on the pull in a commercial club chanting ‘I like electro/ I like retro/I like ghetto/ house and techno’  - and I’ll get sick of the bloody thing, but in the meantime it’s a near perfect, three and a half minute act of pop subversion…

The Silly Season

The last few weeks were spent relaxing, sunning myself in the 35 degree heat, swimming in crystal clear water, eating loads and avoiding any music (apart from the sentimental folk variety). It seems that not much has changed: in my absence, the debate that refuses to go away - whether vinyl will die out or not - rages on here  and as the Berlin hoi polloi snuggle up for warmth under their designer scarves, Ellen Allien veers into self-parody of Russell Brand-esque proportions with the launch of a clothing range …
There have been some developments though: apart from trying to dodge the bullets in San An, one of our moles has also been muttering unhappily about a well known club night in Ibiza whose name starts with a C. It seems that the club’s larger than life resident has been acting up a little lately. In once instance, the main room that he presides over failed to get the numbers because everyone had gone to check out the less ridiculous music in the second room. Enraged that most of the paying guests had failed to bow down to his Teutonic bluster, he simply pulled the plug in the more popular smaller room, forcing everyone to come back inside. At least he didn’t make them watch this video …

August break

Allo, allo, thanks very much to everyone who came down to Life Bar last week to check out our new monthly residency there, and thanks to Dan McElligott and Barry Donovan for superb sets. One lucky Test regular was given the key to the minimal kingdom when he won a set of tickets to Magda at Electric City. After he won, he made us all a nice cup of tea!
This month, on Saturday, August 26th to be more precise, we have got two of Dublin’s most charming deck lotharios, Eddie Brennan and Skkatter, taking to the decks and laptops at Test for some techno, house and electro action.
Electric City and Pogo resident – where does he get his energy? Must be all the triathlons - Eddie Brennan is no stranger to Test, having played for us on many occasions. One of the city’s most talented DJs, his m*****l sets are a staggering symbiosis of man and machine.
Our second guest is definitely Skkatter approved, because it is Skkatter himself, Dublin techno’s very own Michael Palin, a man who has been in half of eastern Europe without leaving Ireland. Expect to hear a Skkatterday night mix of warped techno and electro.
Support comes from Test resident Richard Brophy and our newest addition, Dan McElligott. Admission is free, there’s loads of cheap beer, a cool smoking area and Life is one of the nicest venues in town. We’ll be bringing in our own rig and it’s the perfect way to wind down (or up?) after Mr Velvet.

Life Bar is at Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1 (opposite end of street to Traffic/Spirit).

Ok, so that's my work done here -  I'm off on 2 weeks holidays -  so don't expect to hear from me unless I spot Sven on K wearing an oversized nappy at an Adriatric resort. Unlikely I agree, but then again, you never know...

'Rej': The official version

I’ve just spoken to Kristian from German outfit Ame about their biggest release, ‘Rej’. It’s getting a re-release on house label Defected and eventually, a law will be passed obliging every cheesy DJ to play the bloody thing to death (from CD, of course).
What’s far more interesting though is the story behind ‘Rej’ (pronounced ‘Ray’, not ‘Reg’, the more common verbalization).
Its name is derived from a Japanese introduction protocol in karate - Frank, the other half of Ame, is a martial arts expert - and it was originally a collaboration between Ame and Rajko Mueller, better known as Isolee.
At this point, the plot thickens considerably. Kristian said that after working together on a track for a few weeks that Mueller didn’t like what he heard and jumped ship, leaving Ame to finish the project on their own.
Once he’d departed, the Ame guys ‘discovered’ a fragile melody amid the arrangement, and decided to focus on this part of the track. They emphasized the melody and even though they knew that it sounded pretty similar to Isolee’s brilliant ‘Beau Mot Plage’ tune, this didn’t deter
them. ‘Rej’ subsequently shifted 20,000 copies on vinyl.
Kristian said they felt it was homage to ‘Beau’ and that Isolee gave his
blessing to the release. In a bizarre twist of fate, another act, Italian house duo The Pasta Boys, who did a version of ‘Rej’ and who, using the same logic, claimed it was also an homage, have been drafted in by Defected to remix ‘Rej’. They must be confused or have some identity issues, remixing a
track that they did a version of which in turn is a version of a 1990s classic.
However, the concept of ‘versioning’ is not a new thing – it’s the basis for Jamaican dub, which, by default, is the basis for modern remix culture - and is seen by many, including Isolee, as the ultimate complement. With 20,000 units sold, a lucrative deal with Defected and countless gigs around the world notched up, it means that wearing their influences on their sleeves has allowed Ame to laugh all the way to the bank …

Wave Hello, Say Goodbye

Junior Boys are always namechecked by those who seek to hide electronic music behind a mountain of impenetrable verbiage -  you know who you are - so that was enough for me to give them a miss. Listening to ‘So This Is Goodbye’, their second album, I now realise the error of my ways and concede that the 'intellectual for the sake of it' ‘Wire’ cognoscenti were right all along to praise Jeremy Greenspan’s reflective narratives and fragile electronic melodies, which in this instance are set to a grey ground where 2-step  rhythms -  the polar opposite of his fey songsmith approach -  and electro funk precision meet. The problem all along was that I needed some perspective on this rare talent and, listened to in isolation, freed from the misleading descriptions -  apparently one of their devotees believes that Junior Boys have a ‘cyberian, etherealized, plaintive physicality’(!) – ‘Goodbye’ is pure electronic pop, nothing more, nothing less.