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Minus the Hate

Poor Richie Hawtin isn't getting much internet love at the moment, is he? While it's not surprising that he has incited the ire of techno fans on forums, blogs and websites thanks to his succession of great ideas, it does feel like he's become a bit of a whipping boy of late. In true contrarian fashion, I've decided that today is Be Nice to Richie Hawtin Day on this here internet website, and what better way to give some mad props to minimal's multi-tasking entrepreneur than by posting this four-year-old set from Berlin's Tresor? I forget what the occasion was, but this performance sees the plastic one go head to head (or should that be mouth to mouth? You can never tell these days) with horse (tranquiliser) fancier Ricardo Villalobos for a two and a half session that takes in Dan Bell's 'Losing Control' the Lemon8 reissue on Plus 8, the acapella part of UR's 'Transition', which features a few times and Slam's eternal 'Positive Education'. Speaking of which, there are a few sloppy parts of the mix, the most notable of which involves the aforementioned Slam tune. Having mixed in and then segued into a new tune, the track suddenly rattles its way back into the mix -  it sounds like one of our fearless duo inadvertently pushed the wrong button or faded in the wrong channel. Anyway, it's all good messy fun -  grab it here - unfortunately there's no Twitter facility to check the tracklist yet. Check back next week for the second part.

13 Deep Years

The weather turned in the past few days and as I type this, the grey clouds light drizzle that are the de facto conditions where I live have returned. I'm not going to make a habit of doing weather-related posts, but my listening soundtrack for the past few days, 'Delsin 2', has suited the shift back to less sunny conditions. It's hard to believe that it's been 13 years since Marsel set up his label, but what's more difficult to comprehend is how Delsin has almost without fail managed to consistently release great techno music -  my feeling is it's down to the fact that it has never followed trends and just puts out music that Marsel himself loves. While they have drawn inspiration from Detroit, Marsel's observation that this music acted as a "starting point" for the label is spot on - as the 'Delsin 2' compilation shows, deepness of all hues and shades is represented, be that Redshape's ominous bass killer 'Misc Usage', Quince's more slamming 'Contracting' or Vince Watson's string soaked 'Ethereal'. Just as importantly, the label has allowed its roster to indulge their caprices, not always forcing them to release music that has to specificially work on the dance floor. This is what acts like Nubian Mindz, Aardvarck, the excellent Newwworldaquarium and his 154 side-project (responsible for one of my favourite Delsin releases, the 'Strike' album) have been allowed to achieve, while Marsel has also kept his ears open to new acts -  with Shed, Chymera and Rolando joining the roster in recent years. If that weren't enough, Delsin's offshoot label Ann Aimee put out some fine, darker, dubby techno by Delta Funktionen and James Kumo last year. It's for all of these reasons athat 13 years later, Delsin is one of the few labels that still has a 'buy on sight' target on its head. Here's to another 13 years...

And There Shall Be Justus For All...

Ah, is that summer I sense? The long, lazy days and never-ending evenings? Warm air blowing aganst my face, cool beer in my hand, people with farmer's tans on the streets? Yes, it's finally upon us, and in a moment of serendipity, I stumbled across the ultimate summer track last night when I was going through  a stack of old records. Taken from his 'Was Ist Musik' (What is music) album from 2002 (although the video also shows that it appeared on one of the Kompakt Total comps) this tongue in cheek yet emotive, wide-eyed slice of techno pop is a reminder that when it came to hummable ditties with a camp German swagger, for a few years, Michael Mayer's  Kompakt were  at the absolute top of their scarf-wearing, metrosexual game. The track's title translates into English as 'further than ever before' (if any German readers can give me a better translation, I'd love to hear it)  and I'd wager that it has been a soundtrack to many ecstasy-fuelled, love at first sight encounters. I'm too lazy to figure out how to embed it on the blog, but here's a link to the YouTube video...

Weathering the Years

Here’s a treat for anyone who is a fan of deep, sultry house or indeed the maverick genius that is Andrew Weatherall -  an Essential Mix he did for Pete Tong’s BBC radio show back in 1996. While this two-hour mix is almost 13 years old – it was broadcast at the end of October of that year – it still sounds fresh, especially given the stale whiff that is emanating from contemporary deep house. Apart from a few annoying interruptions from Tong to tell the world that it’s his show, this is a super smooth set that takes in disco, jacking and some techno elements and features tracks from Aquarhythm, Russ Gabriel and Weatherall’s own Two Lone Swordsmen project. I’ll post a full tracklist soon. In the meantime, grab it here and enjoy!

edit  tracklist...

1. Hydronaut vs Morgan Geist - Deep In The Feeling (US Aquarhythms)
2. Nimbus Quartet - Hep Cat Speaketh (US Sounds)
3. 2 Lone Swordsmen - Glide By Shooting (Emissions)
4. Stockwell Steppas - Spin Desire (acetate)
5. 2 Lone Swordsmen - Bin, Jack & Florence (Emissions)
6. Deanne Day - 1st Long Friday (Emissions)
7. Communication X - Duality Part 2 (Muzique Tropique)
8. Urban Farmers - Last Chance To Dance (20/20 Vision)
9. Aphrodisiac - Earth Whispers (BPM)
10. Nail - Try (DiY)
11. NY Connection - Bless The Funk (Evolution)
12. Q Burn's Abstract Message - Mess Of Afros [GU Mix] (SSR)
13. Boo Williams - Make Some Noise (Relief)
14. Stacey Kid - Think Of You [Paul Johnson's Party Mix] (Peacefrog)
15. Wyndell Long - She Heard Me Cry (Peacefrog)
16. Motorbass - Neptune (Basenotic)
17. Discocaine - Keep On (Zoom)
18. Stockwell Steppas - Turn The Filter Off (acetate)
19. Freaks - One For The Diary (Phono)
20. Restless Soul - Sykodelic (Basement 292)
21. Kenlou - Sensational Beats (Masters At Work)
22. DJ Camacho - The Dance Thinks (Sumo)

 

Don’t Pass (on) the Mike

After a month or two where everything seemed to slow down and I genuinely began to wonder whether 2009 was going to be see the implosion of not just electronic music but society in general, there has been a wealth of great new techno music in the past month. Apart from new releases on Sandwell District, Delsin and Offkey Industries as well as new EPs from Peter Van Hoesen, Luke Slater, O/V/R and Legowelt (to me, techno music in the broadest sense of the term, others may disagree), Berlin producer Mike Dehnert has an excellent new EP out on his own Fachwerk label. In my ignorance, I only acquired my first Dehnert EP last year (Fachwerk has been on the go since 2007) and ‘Freiraum’ was like a breath of fresh air, featuring raw rhythms, howling analogue riffs and, on ‘Black Smoke’, sleazy vocals underpinned by grainy 303s. So if ‘Freiraum’ felt like Dehnert had captured and updated the spirit and sound aesthetic of 90s Tresor, his new EP, ‘Umluft’ sees him deliver a hard-edged take on Basic Channel dub techno. Instead of languishing in echo chamber-fuelled sloth however, ‘One’ and ‘Two’, are driving, repetitive chord-driven dance floor tracks – or, to describe them in a more succinct Hardwax fashion - TIP! For a taster of Dehnert in action, head over to the Mnmlssg blog….

The Post from Hell

Some shameless self-promotion. Here's a feature I did on the always quotable DJ Hell about his new album 'Teufelswerk', one half of which ('day') is excellent and the other half ('night') I'm not so sure about yet. Still, Hell is always a great interview subject and full of opinions as usual. Speaking of opinions, I have also just done some reviews for RA, which you can read here , here, here, here and here.
What always amazes me about the reply threads on RA is that if you are critical of a release, you get flak for nor being “professional” or “accurate” (even though you are expressing an opinion) or you get told that all the big DJs love this record and how could you not? It reeks a little bit of insecurity on the posters’ side  - or do people genuinely not  like to read criticism, even if it’s constructive or pinpoints exactly why a reviewer doesn’t like a record? Do people just want to read reviews that praise their favourite artists – and never question them?