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The Hip Replacement

Due to financial constraints and gig activities, I didn't make it to Sonar this year, but I did have a look at the list of off-parties that accumulated online in the months and weeks leading up to the festival. Whatever about the line-up for the festival proper - which contained some interesting acts, especially Jeff Mills' attempted return to the rings of Saturn - the names that stood out were Dan Bell and Rob Hood. I have been a fan of both producers for a long time, but it was notable to me at least that they had been booked to perform as part of a series of events that is perceived to encapsulate contemporary electronic music. In this sphere, transience abounds, so the notion that two veterans - of the non-haircut and laptop variety of course - would have enjoyed such a visible presence.

On consideration though, it all makes perfect sense. While both have been as busy as ever for years, the resuscitation of Hood in particular this year has been impossible to ignore. Spurred on by an admittedly excellent mix for Fabric, his profile has shot up, with wall-to-wall interviews appearing with the normally reticent producer. There is no sense in this re-emergence that Hood or Bell are ‘getting their dues’, because both have received adulation before and have kept busy when the media chose to ignore them. However, it is tempting and not inconceivable to posit that the reason why they are in the spotlight now is because they represent, unwittingly of course, a groundswell of opinion that will hopefully turn into a backlash against poorly-produced, soulless electronic music; the homogeneity that comes from digital music buying; the lifestyle-driven, hipster mush that has been sold as techno and the consensus-driven coverage thereof. Hood and Bell have always made raw, peerless music, still spin with vinyl, emphasise quality over quantity in their releases – in stark contrast to the two releases a week net label-loving laptop warrior - and don’t give a damn about fads and trends. It makes me happy when I see a cheesy house DJ I know saying on a forum that his Sonar highlight was Rob Hood. Maybe he’s just sheepishly following trends – and was all over hamster’s fart-style mnml last year - but maybe, just maybe, people are finally sick of being bombarded with pap and, for once, the media has helped them to make the hip replacement.

Going undercover

I wonder if any of our friends who shall remain nameless and who infiltrate various forums to pimp their dull musical wares have been reading this?

Parallel universe

Here's a great live set from The Parallel to get us in the mood for his show at the Underground in Dublin tomorrow night. I still have some limited guest list places if anyone would like to come along. Maybe see some of you tomorrow night...

Ze after party!

Hi, we have limited guest list places for our Sonar after party at the Underground this Saturday featuring EC resident Rian Ryan and hot techno producer The Parallel. The night is being recorded for broadcast on Dave Clarke’s White Noise radio show, so if you would like a chance to be heard screaming in the background of Europe’s most popular techno shows, then this competition is for you.

 To be in with a chance, please email the correct answer to the following question to testpromotions@gmail.com

Which one of these labels has The Parallel released on:

 

a)     Exhibit B

b)    Atrocity Exhibition

c)     Stop Making An Exhibition of Yourself

We'll notify the winners later in the week

Sounds of the summer

Apologies for the lack of updates lately, but I haven’t had much time to dedicate to the joys of blogging. Consequently, the site has become like techno tumbleweed, with a chill wind blowing through the domain. But hang on a second, what’s that I spy on the horizon - surely not some sunshine? Every year around this time - well, it’s usually a bit earlier, but forgive my slackness -  there is a brouhaha about what will be ‘the sound of the summer’. Invariably, it ends up with an array of different opinions and choices, but in the interests of avoiding a Moebius strip-style debate, I’ll be self-indulgent (well, it is my blog after all) and just list my candidates so for the sound of summer 08. Updates will be made regularly until the autumn leaves arrive.

If you plan to spend the rest of the summer months in darkened rooms, then the new release by Marcel Dettmann, ‘MDR04’, on his own paper-sleeve, hand-stamped MDR label is for you. Opening with a rush of white noise, it quickly descends into the heavy, fathomic and dense techno that has become the German producer’s trademark. A cursory listen may prompt the listener to dismiss this release as simplistic, but there is a very clever interplay at the heart of his work. Sure, the beats are ‘boombastic’ and the arranging is inspired by the dense, late 90s/early 00s loop aesthetic, but the tempo is considered and takes its cue from more recent techno developments. Add to this Dettmann’s penchant for clanging, metallic percussive elements and it’s clear that he is charting new, albeit dark territories.

Sleeparchive is also operating in isolation and ‘Hadron’, his latest hand-stamped EP on his own, eponymous label - noticing a trend here? – focuses on what he does best. Austere and unflinching, the dance floor tracks are powered by gradually tone-shifting bleeps, which in turn are underpinned by waves of bleak percussion. It’s not accessible, there’s not a hint of melody and yet there is something utterly hypnotic about it, the atonal cacophony sounding like a thousand space invaders games malfunctioning in unison on fading batteries. Just in case the repetition gets too much, one of the tracks ends abruptly in a wall of white noise.

Providing a counterpoint to these releases is Tobias’s ‘I Can’t Fight The Feeling’ on Wagon Repair. While the eerie, creeping minimalism of ‘Go’ does little to dispel the dark mood, the title track is a sun-kissed deep techno track, underpinned by rolling drums and featuring a sweet, playful female vocal. Tobias has produced some of my favourite records of the past few years, including ‘Dial’ and the now impossible-to-find ‘Street Knowledge’ – if anyone has a copy, I’m in the market for it -  but this is the moment where he could finally and , I’d wager, unwittingly, have a ‘big’ tune on his hands.

The other producer who is destined, or at least deserves, a big chunk of success is Osborne aka Todd Osborn. I’m a bit behind the times - there’s that slackness raising its slack head again - because he has released an album that is meant to be great, but so far I’ll be content with his ‘Ruling’ EP, a thing of immeasurable beauty. Based on a classic house and techno heritage, it’s the prevailing lightness of touch and breezy, infectious melodies that make every track such a delight. In particular, the discoy-house title track recalls 90s Chicago Relief/Sneak stylings and made me jump for joy as the needle dropped and the sun started to shine today…

Dopplereffekt tix

Hi, just a quick heads up that tickets are on sale now in Big Brother (aka Beat Finder), City Discs and Spindizzy for Dopplereffekt's debut Irish show in Dublin's Sugar Club  on Saturday, July 5th. They are priced 21 euro (including 1 euro booking fee). For those who live outside Dublin,  we can also accept payment by Paypal. We have an account set  up at electricitypromotions@eircom.net.

Dopplereffekt will be playing an early evening show. Doors are at 7pm with support from Decal. As capacity is limited, we advise people to buy tickets in advance for the show.

Thanks!

Curtin Call

It's great to see that Delsin are re-issuing some of Dan Curtin's music from the 1990s. I have praised Curtin's work elsewhere - most recently, his latest release on Leena was one of my final posts for Beatportal - but I can't emphasise enough what an influence his three albums from the 90s had on me. I remember hearing 'Silicon Dawn' soon after it was released  -  in 1993 if memory serves me correctly  - and it made my jaw drop. I was already listening to Detroit techno at the time and was discovering Black Dog, but the arranging and sounds that Curtin deployed were so unusual and freeform that the album had as much in common with abstract/off the wall jazz as techno. 'Dawn' was followed by 'Web Of Life' and 'Art & Science' in my collection -  'Web' could have been issued after 'Dawn', I'm not sure, but I bought it later - and both continued this deranged, off-kilter, unpredictable approach (although 'Art' less so). I also liked te fact that Curtin is from Cleveland, which kind of nullified the rather precious argument that only Detroit producers could make innovative or even sci-fi-themed techno. Curtin then focused his efforts on the house-based Purveyors of Fine Funk project, but to my mind, it doesn't come close to scaling the freaky heights of his 90s album trilogy. The new single on Leena makes some attempts to rekindle his madcap glories, but if you are looking for the real deal, track down the reissues...

Cubism

4four's members have outdone themselves with a day's worth of hilarious posts about techno's most famous cubist. We should expect no less from the creators of the classic Ubercoolische and the more recent Cubercoolische. Troy, if you're reading this, get to the back!

Dublin in Effekt

OK, so there has been quite a lot of speculation about this for a while, so it's time to make a formal announcement. Dopplereffekt are playing their debut Irish gig  -  an early-evening show - on Saturday, July 5th at the Sugar Club in Dublin. It's taken a lot of wrangling and negotiations to sort this one out, but it has come together. Dopplereffekt don't do that many live shows and they may not play any more after the summer, so this will be a rare opportunity to check them out. We're doing pre-sale tickets for the show because it's a small venue, and I will post some information about that when we have it sorted out.

Spinning out of control?

As anyone who has even the vaguest interest in the media coverage afforded to elections, wars and any other major events will be aware, spin now has a large influence on exactly how stories are covered and how news is 'broken'. So if the dark arts of the public relations industry has infiltrated the news room unhindered, what is the situation like in the music sphere? With print mags in decline and the internet becoming the primary source for fans to read about artists and labels to promote their artists, has new technology made the voices more questioning or merely provided a greater weapon for the PRs to get the angle on the story they want? By now, we are all aware about Hawtin's cube. While the debate continues to rage about whether it's all just a bit of tongue-in-cheek fun or a serious attempt by Minus to emulate the Jedis, there is no doubt that Hawtin has already won the PR battle. People are talking about it and clearly the exercise was to make people aware about and promote the Kontakt parties. In this instance, the maxim that there is 'no such thing as bad publicity' was adhered to. However, there is a more stealthy, creeping invasion by the PRs both offline and online and to my mind, this is a phenomenon both fans and critics alike should be more concerned about. As their pulling power wanes, it is more common to see print mags devoting acres of glowing reportage to major festivals and super clubs, or to bandy about absolutist terms like 'genius' or 'masterpiece' when reviewing or profiling mainstream acts. The concept of paying for editorial is nothing new, but at least in the past, the print media had more freedom to actually critcise the big acts paying the bills -  now some of the features read like a crash course in the art of the press release. Online, the PRs participate in forums, posting 'information' , ie press releases, about their artists and calling anyone who criticises the music they are being paid to represent  a crank. Recently, on an RA thread, I said that the new Josh Wink single wasn't very good. Straight away, the PR, who hadn't told any of the users of her vested interests, started calling me overly negative because I had criticised the single. This is just one of many, many examples of internet users being vilified by PRs for criticising an event or release. In some instances, the PRs have succeeded in getting threads deleted because they told uncomfortable truths. So free speech on the internet is under threat. Is this anything new? Not really. Seven years ago, Josh Wink - maybe he's just particularly sensitive -  was under pressure to explain the 'similarities' between his new release at the time an an old Dan Bell record. I was writing a piece about the conflict and in the interests of fair, even-handed journalism, I decided to ask both sides for their version of events. Dan Bell happily obliged, but when it came to Wink's turn to provide an explanation, all I got was a phone call from his PR at the time, explaining that any similarities were entirely conincidental and that if I printed anything to the contrary, then myself and the magazine it was to be published in would face the threat of legal action. Naturally we ignored him and printed the story. Thanks to new technology, it is easier to spread the spin, because as any good PR person will tell you, the more things change, the more they stay the same...