Records of the Week - October 10th
Toby Frith Friday, October 10, 2008 at 05:47PM 
RECORDS OF THE WEEK - OCTOBER 10th
This week we have a rather interesting release from Brazilian duo Pink Monkey Flower. The “Nothing Venture Nothing Again” EP features breaky disco (it sounds better than that, honest), atmospheric house, and some other weirdness that is closer, if anything, to someone like Danny Wolfers. It’s a mixed bag, but the spirit is in the right place, and it’s quite unlike anything I’ve heard for a little while, and as such is the deserved winner this week.
Keeping on the Italo/Disco front, I’m glad to see Skatebard back in action, with an interesting taster ahead of his new album. “Vuelo” was one of my favourites from 2007, and “Kosmos” on Digitalo promises to be as epic. The latest by Bumper on Flexx is very good, and I also like the strange sounding U 1988 EP by Entertainment. If you’re a fan of cold-wave electronics, then thehttp://www.clone.nl/item13675.html Inestable EP by Medio Mutante on Cititrax is worth picking up. The re-edit by Serge Santiago of the classic “The Force” by Droids passed me by though. Why does everything have to have a booming bass kick in it?
Lots and lots of House this week. For Detroit fans there’s two Theo Parrish 12“‘s, Love Triumphant and Going Downstairs, both on Sound Signature. I have to say that I’ve not been that taken with his newer material, but “Space Bump”, the flip on the former is good. The latest by Mike Edge on Sistrum gets a nice mix from label owner Patrice Scott, and if you’re awaiting the release of “Freaky MF” you can console yourself with Mr Dixon Jr’s remix of Sascha Dive on Ornaments. There’s more Detroit from Reggie Dokes on Philpot, but my favourite this week is from the Motor City Drum Ensemble, having that extra element that bubbles over. Definitely worth checking.
On the European front, plenty of action if not quite the same quality. Stefan Goldmann is making some nice records right now, and “Wolverine” is another solid release. Ann Aimee don’t often release records, but they’re usually pretty good, although I’m still in two minds about the latest “Schmuts” EP by Markus Enochson, being a bit dry. Now, Get Physical are a label that I usually steer a million miles clear of, as the likes of Booka Shade et al conjure up images of people in sunglasses at some horror story of a party listening to a CD thats stuck, but the “Backroom Entertainment” release by Tiger Stripes is ok, I suppose. There’s more interesting stuff from Ray Valioso, combining some playful ideas with chunky house, but I’m a bit wary of producers following the lead of Villalobos. Portable gets on the vocal tip for his new one on Perlon , but my pick from this bunch is Jagged’s “Hello Kool Nice” which comes with a great remix by Quarion.
Things are a bit bare in the cupboard of new techno and electro I’m afraid. Cosmic Force teams up with Keith Tucker for his latest on Creme Eclipse and Mujava’s “Township Funk” gets a rerelease on This is Music. If you missed it earlier in the year, it’s well worth picking up if you’re a fan of early Warp bleep/LFO/Sweet Exorcist style material. New London electro label Cultivated Electronics has put out two 12”s with tracks from the likes of ADJ and Sync24, and keeping on the electro tip Irish label D1 have a nice, if somewhat tracky EP by Annie Hall out.
If you like your techno chunky, then I guess you couldn’t go wrong with Octave One’s latest on 430 West, but it was a bit middling to my ears and not that impressive. The classic “Starlight” by Model 500 gets yet more remixes, this time from Mike Huckaby, and if you missed them earlier, then Louis Guilliaume has had his two previous records rereleased as a doublepack called Soulpoint. The Syncom Data remixes are worth it alone, but I believe it’s limited to 100 copies. Finally I’ll give the recent remixes of classic R & S tracks a brief mention, if only to say that they all sound awful, in particular the quite shocking Lindstrom edit of “Outlander”.
Toby Frith
Reader Comments (1)
hey there .. quite same taste here .. but i think you've missed the new Aroy Dee - Summer ep on M>O>S .. especially the track "All that remains"