Records of the Week - September 24th

RECORDS OF THE WEEK - SEPTEMBER 24th

It’s not been a week for truly great records if I’m perfectly honest, and as such finding a suitable release for the accolade has been difficult. This time though I’m going for the mysterious Jake Williams or Rex the Dog as he’s otherwise known and his latest “I Can See You, Can You See Me?” on Hundehaus. Verging on stomping irksome electrohouse territory at times, it’s inflected with that modulated Italo tinge and one can’t help but get swept along by its poppiness.

Keeping on the Italo/Synthpop side of things there are reissues of Crystal Castles vs Health’s “Crimewave” on Different  and the excellent “Everything is Changing” EP on Souljazz by Bogdan Irkuk. I also like the Joakim remix of The Chap’s “Ethnic Instrument” on Lo Recordings..

There’s certainly plenty of House music being released this year, but I’ve struggled to really find anything that has stood out from the crowd. Dave Moufang is certainly one to always listen to, and his collaboration with Benjamin Brunn on Smallville has been one of my favourites of 2008 so far. There’s a new 12” called “New Horizon” that is worth checking, although it’s on the lighter side of things. They’ve also contributed to the label Workshop, who release their 6th record, this time with Lowtec, although that one didn’t really make a big impact for me. Echochord’s latest with Luke Hess and Mark Fuerstenberg is worthwhile if you like things all dub-orientated (I must admit that my love for this side of house and techno has drained considerably over the years) and the Ike release on Philpot has some good moments. I like Philpot a lot, but for me they’ve never released a truly great record yet. Arto Mwambe’s latest on Brontosaurus is also good, if not as stellar as his previous efforts, although check the flip “Btwo”.


Moodyman turns remixer for once for Brownswood’s Jose James’ “Desire”, and the latest Detroit Beatdown release on Third Ear features a great track by Keith Worthy. The prolific Brothers Mixx have been chucking out NYC tribal house for years, but their latest, the “Platter Sugar EP” is a bit deeper and maybe worth hearing.

It’s a bit thin on the ground for decent techno as ever, but we do have some recognisable solid quality in the form of the latest X-102 offering, the “Flyby EP” featuring old and new tracks from Mills and Banks. Former member Robert Hood contributes a couple of remixes to the latest EP by The Black Dog on Soma for “Detroit vs Sheffield” yet they’re somewhat middle of the road for him and to be honest apart from a release on Music Man earlier this year he’s not made a interesting record for a while. There’s Detroitesque Techno from Aroy Dee on M>O>S and the newest by the prolific Arne Weinberg on Matrix is a step up from him. Last but not least it’s worth checking the Chicagoesque leanings of  the “Inner Voice EP” by Obsolete Music Technology on Emphasis.

Toby Frith