Records of the week - July 30th

Chicago label Mathematics walks away with the record of the week, Bocca Grande’s “The Bremen Orchestra” EP being 3 tracks of sumptuous organic piano house inflected with jak madness. There’s a re-arrangement of the original track on the flip by Jamal Moss made in his inimitable style. Buy on sight. Staying with Chicago, Traxx’s Nation Label has just released some more unhinged acid in the form of The Modern Electronic Element EP. I wonder if the track “Fuk u Klaxsons” is a dig at Britain’s premier nu-rave crew? I hope so.

On the house front, Ron Trent’s Cinematic Travels EP on Prescription Classics is well worth going for, although one gets the feeling that he hasn’t neared the peak he reached in the mid-90’s for some time. Crazy Penii’s remix of Croatian band Eddy & Yannah’s “Solid Ground” on Compost is a cracking little record that you might overlook, being saturated with pianos and a great balearic vibe. The Cobblestone Jazz and Theo Parrish mixes of Kuniyuki on Mule are interesting, but I’ll admit that I wasn’t overly enthused by the latter. Trusme’s Prime Numbers label has come up with a nice little EP that includes tracks from the likes of Linkwood and Discreet Unit, and if you’ve not picked it up already, the Oracy remix of JC Freaks “The Rock” is nice. Similarly, I noticed that Clone have got Mujaba’s 2nd EP from April back in stock, and again I’d recommend snapping it up because it’s very good.

Odessa’s Polar Intrusion on the delightfully titled Disco Praline label is my italo/disco tip for this week, with Alden Tyrell being heavily involved somewhere along the line. Nicely downtempo, but with the sort of corking vocoders that one comes to expect from Rotterdam nowadays. Elsewhere there’s a re-release of the classic “Fantasy” by Johnny Hammond with a great Faze Action re-edit, and the constant supply line that is Dissident records comes up with another little gem in Naum Gabo’s “Spessivtseva”. Ytre Rymden Dansskola’s (I’m never typing that again) “Afterski” on Full Pupp is worth a gander, and from Berlin label Das Drehmoment there’s an interesting compilation of no-wave/ebm/italo/electro called Rückwärts Im Uhrzeigersinn.

I’ve only just got my mitts on it, but if you haven’t already, then the single by the mysterious Wax 10001 is a must. Clearly made by someone affliliated to Hardwax, it sounds like 1995 dub techno and house - made with machines not computers, which in this day and age, is of course a great thing. Styrax churn out more dub with the latest by Atheus, and another dub neophyte Quantec continues his explorations on the EP Distant Space Part 2. Sandwell District are a label that are growing in strength with each release, and the latest by Function is a step in the right direction for minimal techno. Talking of steps, or dubstep, Kontext, who comes from St Petersburg, has released two interesting records on Immerse. I’m not into dubstep a great deal, but these are unusual, and fall into the weird “Corridor of uncertainty” between that genre and techno. I’m also enjoying the slightly introspective sounds of the appropriately titled Finnish producer Introvert and his latest EP on Nightivision.
Finally on the electro front, there’s a very weird EP by fellow Finn artist Erikoismies, who has released on Bunker before, of off-kilter rhythms and the like. 

Toby Frith