Test

Remixed up

I have been asked to compile a list of my favourite remixes of all time. Here's the start of my list - which is by no means exhaustive.

Robotman: Do Da Do (Plastikman Acid house remix)
Robert Armani: Circus Bells (Hardfloor remix)
Azido Da Bass: Doom's Night (Timo Maas remix)
Joey Beltram: Forklift (Luke Slater remix)
Domina: Domina (Maurizio remix)
DJ Hell: Allerseelen (Jeff Mills remix)
System 7: Alphawave (Plastikman remix)
Esser: Forces (Resse Remix)
Vainquer: Lyot Reshape
LFO vs Fuse: Loop (Fuse remix)
My Bloody Valentine: Glider (Weatherall remix)
St Etienne: LIke A Motorway (David Holmes remix)

I'm sure I'll think of more - these are all from the 90s - but what are yours? What remixes made you drop your drink and go 'what the fuck was that?' when you heard it for the first time I'd love to hear some other peoples's choices. Right, I'm off now for a few weeks holidays in the sun and a much deserved break. If you need a dose of electronic music invective go and start a fight with Pipecock on Little Detroit or Romo practically anywhere on the internet:)

Piercing sounds

Troy Pierce is Minus’s secret weapon: he doesn’t get as much publicity as M*gd*, Marc Houle or indeed Herr Hawtin himself, but he sure deserves it. I’m a bit of a late convert to his music, but the mix CD he did to accompany the label’s greatest hits album was the best thing about that release, and now he’s applied the same approach to two new Minus EPs. The first, his own double-pack, ‘Gone Astray’ is full of noisy (not glitchy) percussion, low-slung basslines and sick acid tweaks. It ambles along at an unhurried pace and at times, it almost feels like Pierce himself is debating what direction to go off on. My favourite is ‘Lost On The Way To DC10’, the sound of a very frazzled partygoer losing their bearings and quite possibly their mind on the way to the Ibiza after-hours club to the sound of a wild 303 freakout. Acid is also audible on Pierce’s remix of Ambivalent’s ‘R U OK’. To be honest, I found the original version, which contains a one-way conversation with someone who is in a very frazzled state, kind of lame, but you can almost smell the stale air and feel the sweet sweat of the environment where Troy Pierce’s version was intended for: muddy off beats, dank acid and a lurching off-rthythm see Pierce perfectly capture those ‘my hand is where my mouth should be’ kind of moments. I know that there has been a big discussion about the ‘state of minimal’ etc, but this remix as well the ‘Gone Astray’ EP  present a  distinctive if totally out there take on stripped back electronic music.

More of the same?

This is an interesting article, but one thing I felt when reading it is that we’ve been here before. From about 1990/91 onwards, Berlin was the capital of techno worldwide. Sure, all the people who were making the great music – May, Hood, Craig, Baxter, UR, Mills etc etc -  were from the States, but Germany and in particular Berlin was their bread and butter, the place that launched their DJ careers in Europe. Loads of these guys were used to playing in bars and clubs in Detroit for 50 dollars or so, and then suddenly, they found themselves playing for thousands and to thousands. Berlin was the springboard, the beachhead if you will – we might as well use military analogies, seeing as we are talking about Mills and Mad Mike -  for their assault on European cluband. Tresor was the label for these artists and Hardwax, which is celebrating 15 years in business this year – was the shop. There was even a compilation of US techno released on Tresor called ‘Detroit/Berlin: The Techno Alliance’ in the mid-90s, which seemed to formalise the relationship.  If you look beyond the media froth -  and I assume that the UK media is being refered to in this piece: you’d be hard stretched to find an article about John Digweed in De:Bug  - people like Mills, May and Craig were and still are DJ superstars, earning huge fees for their services.
By the late 90s, the situation had changed: UK and European producers had caught up and US techno was no longer in vogue. This is especially ironic, as the current wave of minimalism was directly influenced (some would say it merely ripped off the first wave) by the US variant. Without trying to sound disingenuous, I’m sure that in another ten years time, we’ll be reading more pieces hailing Germany as the capital of electronic/techno music. The more things change, the more they stay the same…

Sonar Stories

Ronan provides a nice round up of the Mobilee/Spectral roof party, which sounded like one of the highlights of the unofficial party events. For a far more deranged, gonzo-like take on last weekend in Barcelona, have a look at this account from someone I know in the UK, who for a whole raft of reasons, will forever remain anonymous. This is his response to the simple question: 'how was last weekend?"

"Mental. Even though our apartment got robbed, my mate nearly got mugged and I got the trots (diarrohea) the last two days, it was wicked! We just went spastic for 4 days solid. Got thrown in the pool at the dedbeat party and that was just the beginning of that day! I could go on but there were just too many mad incidents involving the seedier edge of nightlife. Stage diving to Ellen Allien, collapsing
in the middle of a drug deal, one of the buses coming back from sonar by night got hit by an oil tanker and all the windows shattered, our taxi going to a beach party was nearly involved in a five car accident and a moped with the moped passengers face down on the floor with blood pouring from everywhere,
my mate who nearly got mugged saw it was about to happen and did the 3 muggers over, I think there was some great music in between all of that...it seems to get more and more insane! I think my missus is getting worried about me going again!"

I'm not surprised!

Redshape competition

Hi we've got two passes up for grabs to see techno's very own mystery man, the red mask wearing Redshape make his Irish debut at Test at the
Cavern, Dublin, this Saturday, June 23rd.

Just e-mail your answer to this simple question to
brophyrichard@eircom.net and a free audience with the man in the red
mask could be yours! Check your inbox at lunchtime tomorrow to see if
you've won!

Which one of these record labels has Redshape NOT released a record on:

a) Delsin
b) Music Man
c) Pounding Grooves

Check out Redshape playing live:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV0SBRFwqxM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URsXM1SLi3Y

Listen to his live show from the Amsterdam Dance Event at
http://www.shapedworld.com to get you in the mood for this show.

Here's some more info about him:

  With a string of acclaimed EPs on Delsin, Music man and Styrax to his
credit, Redshape's fusion of deep Detroit techno and jacking Chicago
house has won him fans all over the world.

His identity a closely guarded secret, Redshape will be performing his
first live show at the intimate Cavern venue for us in his iconic red
mask.

DJ support comes Test residents Jay Galligan, Dan McElligott and
Richard Brophy.

Space for this show is strictly limited, so we are doing pre-sale
tickets through Spindizzy in Dublin for 13 euro (12 euro & 1 euro
booking fee). If you would like a cheaper 12 euro ticket, please
message me privately.

Doors are at 10pm, get there early!

www.testindustries.com
www.shapedworld.com

Catalan hospitality?

I missed Sonar last weekend, but it looks like the post-festival who did what to whom gossip is starting to spread online. I wonder if this is true? If it is, my sympathy goes out to Mr Hawtin: no one deserves that kind of treatment, not even Paul Oakenfold, but at least he didn't have to suffer as much as one of the other party goers at City Hall (scroll down)! Idle internet gossip aside, has anyone heard the new Neil Landstrumm album yet? It's my favourite album of the year so far. I love the fusion of Chicago house, cheeky 'ardkore rave references and grime/dubstep riddims, but I can't say I like the 'ravestep' title. Knowing Landstrumm, it's just another smart cultural dig at techno's less civilised past -  like the meaning behind the title of the album (from an interview I did with him today)...

The album title sounds suitably surreal: where did it come from?
“I was playing an old 1930s-style club in Paris and there was a painting on the wall of the ‘Restaurant au Assassins’. It was a place where gangsters and wrong ‘uns used to hang out in Paris and do substances. It was like an 1800s version of a rave, so I thought it was ideal.”

Beats and pieces

As promised, here are some more reviews: I don’t spend much time in Berlin, but apparently Beatstreet is a well-known after party in that city and this new affiliate label, which opens with a split release, aims to capture its ‘essence’ (hopefully they don’t mean the sweat and chemical farts). First up is UK ex-pat Gerald Simpson, whose drunken beats and muddy bass on ‘Bodecka’ suggests that he has soaked up the Berlin sound, but to be honest, I found this track far less inspiring than his album on Laboratory Instinct last year. Cassy’s ‘Some Light…’ is much better: OK, so it’s somewhat derivative, featuring old school house key, but the way that her gorgeously soulful vocal ‘do do dos’ its way through the track makes even a cynic like myself feel good about the world and not ashamed that I’m breaking out in goose bumps.
On the subject of house music, Sasse and Nick Chacona’s The Green Men alias has yielded a spaced out track, ‘Fog’. Its loose beats ride a raw analogue bassline and Chacona’s slurred vocal vies to be heard above the
arpeggiated synth sounds. Mood Music also deserves props for getting Metro
Area’s Darshan Jesrani to do the remix, who gives it some subtle tweaks and drags into a jacking direction.
Kompakt is an erratic label, but they were shrewd to sign The Rice Twins. ‘Can I Say’, the duo’s new release on offshoot K2 is a beautiful, warm affair. The chords are just slightly out of tune and the beats are rough and out of time. It sounds like they stumbled home one night with a belly full of vodka and started jamming and the result is the best thing to come from Mayer’s empire since Partial Arts’ ‘Trauermusik’. K2’s other new release, ‘In The Moog For Love’ by Steadycam isn’t as good, but its tone-shifting bass is the ideal accompaniment for the accompanying analogue chords.
Finally, Bremen duo Goldfish & Der Dulz are an underrated act: sure, they release the occasional dodgy record, but last year’s ‘Uhu’ on Boxer Sport was an animal, and they come close to reaching the same heights here. ‘Closer’ features their usual combination of scorched acid and minimal and the shaking percussion, dank, shuffly drums and pulsing 303 rhythm builds to a noisy climax. It’s not deeply intellectual music, so ‘Wire’ readers will probably sniff at it, but it rocks hard and that’s all that really matters.

Funked if I know

Me on Funk D’Void’s deep house alias Francois Dubois and what he plans to do to make Barcelona club scene as exciting as it should be for the 362 days of the year when Sonar isn’t on…..

Striking a chord

OK, so it has been way too long since I last posted any reviews on the site, so here’s some inane ramblings about some of my favourite new records. Deepchord aren’t very prolific, but they’re finally back with a new release on Modern Love - surely a contender for one of those label of the year award awards that magazines seem so pre-occupied with. Modell and Schommer’s ‘The Coldest Season Part 1’ EP for the Manchester label is, as you’d expect, a heavily textured techno release, with more layers than that infuriating ‘Lost’ TV show.
‘First Point Of Aries’ isn’t much use for the dance floor and will probably scare off the casual listener: consisting of ebbing and flowing reverberating noises, the death march kick only starts near the end. There is some concession to the notion of club music on the lurching bass of ‘Celestialls’, but the pace is restrained. Can’t wait to immerse myself in the second installment, which is sitting in a pile of new records in my house. The excitement of it all… speaking of layers of techno sounds, I stumbled across a label called Pastamusik a while back. Its name suggested that it was a house label, but the release was by Quietpoint and is called ‘Vertex of the Parabola (Point Part One)’, which sounds like the name of a Drexciya B-side. It turns out that the title track is more of a  moody techno sound scape than fathomic electro, but it is pretty serious stuff all the same: the record is based on mathematics and the theory of cloud formation and ‘Cumulus Nimbus’ is a deep techno roller, the kind of clubby track Detroit artists like Claude Young used to do so well, with yelpy outer space-style FX.
On the subject of Detroit, or to be more precise, artists who have been inspired by the city’s electronic music, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the 65D Mavericks’ ‘Wire Tap’, their contribution to the ‘Faith Is Fear’ EP on Dust Science, is a widescreen electro cut inspired by classic UR. It goes without saying that Belgian Fabrice Lig would drop an acid-laced, jerky groove, but Regis and Female’s ‘C/Chaos’ is also surprisingly celestial and evocative  - and only Auterform’s version of Carl Taylor’s ‘Scanner’ ups the ante, a busy detuned heavy techno track that’ll make your brain rattle around your head and make you feel like you’d just drank 12 cans of Special Brew.
Matthew Dear has been on this site so often recently that one poster suggested, not unreasonably, that he is in fact its owner and maintains it as a form of viral marketing. He has a point, but it’s mainly due to the fact that Dear has been so consistent, no matter what name he works as.
This time the Ann Arbor producer has made it back on because he gave me a substantial cash bribe and some strong glue* to sing the praises of his latest False EP (*not true). ‘Face The Rain’ is a laid back dubby track, which (very) gradually reaches a climax of sorts, but all eyes (and ears) are on ‘Fed On Youth’: a gradually unraveling groove that rides a resonating bass, midway through, Dear drops a droning noise that dominates everything else. It’s like a slowed down version of the terrible whistling sound an aerial bomb makes as it delivers its payload on an unsuspecting target. Finally, I know that everyone is probably raving about Cobblestone Jazz’s ‘DMT’, but I found it to be a competent, rhythm track, but not really much else. Sure, CJ’s attention to the finer details are audible again - especially the twitchy percussion and the slivers of ‘India’-style droney trance melody -  but it doesn’t really deserve all the hype it has received. The second load of reviews will be available later in the week.

Just the tonic

Now here's an interesting piece of news: it turns out that Lars 'Funk D'Void' Sandberg is going to open a club in his adopted hometown, Barcelona. Called Antidote, it will be situated just off Las Ramblas and will have a capacity of 300 people. The venue will also boast a cocktail bar, which seems to be one of Sandberg's other current passions. Don't expect it to open in time for next week's Sonar festival though -  Antidote is scheduled to launch in September. Sandberg is also launching a range of T-shirts -  anyone who went to Sonar last year will remember his 'Fuck Berlin, Barcelona Has A Beach' limited edition, but all of this activity is because he may (or may not) hang up his headphones in five years' time. Speaking of the Catalan festival, I won't be there this year (only my second no-show in the past 8 years - this time because an old friend is getting married on the same weekend, a valid excuse I'm sure you'll agree), but if I was to go, I'd check Narod Nikki as well as the  Wagon Repair and Mobilee parties - especially the semi-private 150-capacity pool party where Mobilee will be unveiling a 'partnership' with Spectral. Check krass.com for more off-Sonar fun and games...