Records of the Week - September 16th

All manner of interesting records being released this week, but the stand out cut, and my record of the week is from Terrence Dixon, who has been making some of the most perturbing dancefloor music for a while, but excels with his latest release under moniker Population One on Frantic Flowers.”View from Above” is warped out Detroit of the highest calibre and one of the best techno records I’ve heard this year. He also contributes a track to a very interesting first release by Meakusma that features music from Clatterbox, Pub and Peter Van Hoesen.

Jamal Moss has been busy of late, not least releasing an EP of trademark raw acid on Italian label Morphine Doser, but also introducing Analogous Doom on his Mathematics Label. Vanna Carr has had some of her unusual music played on Danny Wolfer’s Astro Unicorn Radio show, but this is her first vinyl release, which features a re-edit by Mr Moss. This is a superb record and highly recommended.

Semantica continue to release records with a very limited press run, this time it’s the second part of Vladislav Delay’s Recovery Idea, remixed by Andy Stott. 100 only with a DVD so you’d better be quick. There’s an Ed Chamberlain release on the way as well.

Elsewhere on the techno and electro front, there’s a release of Dez Dickerson’s “Modernaire”, which was on the Purple Rain soundtrack, but never available until now. Features remixes by the likes of Faceless Mind, DMX Krew and Egyptian Lover, the latter being the best. Go Hiyama has a remix on Perc Trax by Norman Nodge that perked my ears a bit, Pendle Coven produce another sleek EP on Modern Love, and the latest on Vidab by the awfully named Wouldbenice is worth checking.

All manner of minimal records being churned out right now, not least from Ricardo Villalobos, who chucks out the second part of his Vasco EP on Perlon, the flip having a good remix by Baby Ford. 

DJ Koze returns to form with “Let’s Love” on International - a curiously disorientating record that is also rather infectious, and I’m enjoying Stefan Goldmann’s latest release on Macro Recordings as well. Pigon and Marcel Dettman both contribute new tracks to Beat Street’s newest release, Dettman’s efforts being the better of the two I think. The “Soul Clamber” EP by Itzo might be worth checking as well.

I’m not a big fan usually of Hercules and Love Affair, but they have produced an excellent, if a little derivative Chicago-style remix of Bostro Pesopeo’s “Falls” on Permanent Vacation, another label that seems to be churning them out right now. The first record on Novel Sound is excellent, 3 tracks by newcomer Levon Vincent and the prolific Jus-Ed, although I’ve only seen it at Vinyl Underground so far. Mark E contributes yet another classy remix, this time on Mock & Toof’s “Brownbred” with the flip by Dissident’s Invisible Scum also worth a listen. For fans of Detroit House, there’s a new release by Recloose on Sonar Kollektiv, but it didn’t really do anything for me. Matthew Herbert returns to remix duties with a typically sharp reworking of 2b04’s Junkyard Gods, although the rest of the remixes were a bit under-par.

Finally, there’s a peculiar release by Conrad Schnitzler of some early 80’s recordings of his that are more electro than one could imagine and the latest on Scape features a very good remix by Pole of Shackleton.

Toby Frith