techno

Album Review: John Talabot – DJ Kicks

John Talabot: DJ-Kicks
Similar Artists: Andy Stott
Genre: Deep House, Atmospheric Techno
Label: !K7

Reasons why I should write a review for John Talabot’s DJ-Kicks entry:

I.) With it being the end of 2013, writing this review could act as a good opportunity to reflect on some of the year’s best dance music (Classixx, Disclosure, Gold Panda, Daft Punk).
II.) I could possibly, hopefully, desperately try to convince you that it’s better than Disclosure’s Settle, which it may or may not be.
III.) Writing is a good way to prevent myself from doing more important things, such as cleaning my apartment or buying holiday gifts for my friends/family.
IV.) If I write enough reviews this year, maybe I have a chance of getting hired at a more indie friendly/less queer friendly website that will compensate me with free music, concert tickets and wall posters.
V.) I actually bought this mix, which is more than I can say about most of the music I’ve reviewed this year.

Reasons why I shouldn’t write a review for John Talabot’s DJ-Kicks entry:

I.) I never know who to give credit to in DJ mixes, and this one in particular has an enormous roster of artists, most of whom I’m unfamiliar with.
II.) DJ mixes are almost never as notable as the artist’s full length releases, and as hip as John Talabot is right now, I’m quite certain he won’t release anything as commendable as fin for at least a few more years.
III.) I haven’t listened to this mix that much, and don’t really feel like listening to it anymore either, especially when I could be re-listening to other albums from this year in preparation for my epic year end list (due in the coming weeks).
IV.) I rarely listen to DJ mixes, and when I do, it’s usually only so I can show them to other people, or so I can use them to disassociate myself from the awkwardness of a car ride with a person whom I share no common interests with.
V.) Very few people will read my review anyway, and no matter how good it may turn out, it will never beat out the barebacking article, or any of the other top trending articles on this nonsensical website.

Track Listing:
01.) North Lake – Journey To The Center Of The Sun
02.) Pye Corner Audio – Underneath The Dancefloor
03.) Maps – I Heard Them Say (Andy Stott Remix)*
04.) Pye Corner Audio – Zero Centre
05.) Michael Ozone – Hetrotopia (Young Marco Remix)
06.) Madteo – We Doubt (You Can Make It)
07.) Harmonious Thelonious – The Grasshopper Was The Witness (Elmore Judd & Rowan Park Remix)
08.) Tempel Rytmik – Anagrama*
09.) John Talabot – Without You (DJ-Kicks)*
10.) Axel Boman – Klinsmann
11.) Joaquin Joe Claussell presents Residue Part One – Eno (Melodic Dub)
12.) Bostro Pesopeo & Pional – Bonus Beats
13.) Mara TK – Run (Moodymann Remix)
14.) Alex Burkat – Shower Scene
15.) Mistakes are Okay – Night Watcher*
16.) Unknown – #001
17.) Round – Glass*
18.) Max Mohr – Old Song*
19.) Samo DJ – Tai Po Kau
20.) Motor City Drum Ensemble – Escape To Nowhere*
21.) Paradise’s Deep Groove – Innermind
22.) Abby – Streets (Wraetlic Remix)
23.) DJ Jus-Ed – Turn Of The Century
24.) Genius of Time – Juno Jam
25.) Kron – Silikron (Jürgen Paape Remix)
26.) Talaboman – Sideral*
27.) Pional – It’s All Over (Locked Groove Rendition)

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: The Field – Cupid’s Head

by Rio Toro

The Field: Cupid’s Head

Similar Artists: Gas, Gui Boratto, Jon Hopkins, Loops Of Your Heart

Genre: Trance, Techno, Loops

Label: Kompakt

Whenever a new record by The Field comes out, the rest of my life stops in its tracks. My daily routine becomes rescheduled, I purposefully take the longest train routes to arrive at my destination, and I walk around aimlessly at dangerous hours of the night for the sole purpose of maximizing my listening time. Surprisingly, this obsession of mine has less to do with the actual music and more to do with a desired effect. Sure, The Field makes great tracks — few artists know how to stretch a loop as well as Axel Willner — but the real reason I find his music so endlessly addictive (and continuously interesting) is because of how his tracks act as a sort of cleansing for the mind.

This is music that is entrancing enough and layered enough to be able to absorb everything within its path; all thoughts, memories and worries are stored in a compact folder in the confines of your brain to be dealt with at some later date. It’s music just begging for you to get lost in, and if you leave those headphones on for long enough, you can even begin to feel the elements of the track synching with your brainwaves, becoming one with your conscious mind. The surface area of these tracks — while aesthetically pleasing in its own right — is nothing compared to the shifting backgrounds and hidden doorways that the most dedicated listeners will find. Personally, I’ll often listen to The Field continuously for such a long stretch of time that I become unable to decipher whether the patterns I’m hearing are actually within the track or are just being created by my own warped mind.

So that’s just a taste of what The Field has been doing to me ever since 2007’s From Here We Go Sublime. Axel Willner is an artist who has admittedly evolved very slowly since that wondrous debut, but then again, I would have eaten up every one of his releases even if he changed nothing at all. Despite some only moderately enchanting detours on his second full-length, Axel Willner has triumphed in creating denser and more accomplished loops with each passing album, culminating with 2011’s Looping State Of Mind. With the epic, powerhouse worthy music he’s making now, it’s funny to think back to when people were calling this minimal techno.

Cupid’s Head — the fourth album by The Field — is another slight but welcoming continuation of the artist’s trademarked repetition, ethereal vocal snippets, subdued bass, and shoegaze atmospherics. Opening track “They Won’t See Me” immediately drops us into the driving 2-chord pulse and chugging, krautrock-lite drumming that was perfected on Looping State of Mind standout “This is Power”. However, Axel doesn’t happen to have help from any multi-instrumentalists or drummer friends like John Stanier this time, which makes this his first true solo album since his debut. The more isolated approach has certainly suited him well, because Cupid’s Head happens to be the most consistently satisfying set of tracks he’s put out since FHWGS.

If you can tell from the cover alone — which is black as opposed to beige — this is supposed to be a darker Field than we have heard before. Although it’s hard to imagine an artist whose body of work has been so consistently fluid to have writers block, Axel Wilner has spoken about how he was at a loss for where to go with his music until “No. No…” suddenly arose from the ashes. It’s a beguiling track, and with its overwhelmingly dense vocal samples and mangled percussion it may be the wooziest thing in the artist’s discography. Similarly, during the last few minutes of “Black Sea”, the elegant, free floating bells fade out into a menacingly nocturnal synthesizer that is simply inescapable in its intensity. Aside from these tracks though, It really is arguable whether the album as a whole is any darker than previous ones. “A Guided Tour” sees Axel recapturing some of the cosmic charm from his Loops of Your Heart alias, and while the title track sounds powerful enough to smash through a brick wall, any impending sense of dread becomes evaporated within the gently strung textures and buoyant atmosphere.

After four albums of similar sounding techno, writing about The Field is not the easiest thing to do. It even causes rabid fans like myself to wonder what it is that makes this music so special. Questions of formula are always bound to come up, because when it comes down to it, each of Axel Willner’s tracks are formed exactly the same way. You can imagine him making these loops one microscopic and inconsequential piece at a time until they start to evolve into a compelling whole. Sure, he’s learned quite a few tricks on his journey, but his basic principles remain unchanged. For me though, this fact makes it all the more impressive that his style has yet to wear itself thin. Despite my struggle to find adequate words to express myself when writing about The Field, there is one word that always happens to find its way into my brain; that word is magical.

Track Listing:

1.) They Won’t See Me*

2.) Black Sea*

3.) Cupid’s Head

4.) A Guided Tour

5.) No. No…*

6.) 20 Seconds Of Affection

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: Blondes – Swisher

by Rio Toro

Blondes: Swisher

Similar Artists: Andy Stott, Basic Channel, Surgeon, Anthony Child

Genre: Techno

Label: RVNG Intl.

It might seem at first that NYC’s Blondes are just your standard, moderately talented electronic duo with an absurdly google-proofed name — it also doesn’t help that they bear the unfortunate and misleading tag of being “Hipster House” — however, they happened to prove that they were much more than a product of the blogospheric hype machine with their excellent singles compilation last year, the self-titled Blondes. That debut LP stood out for a lot of reasons, but first and foremost, it showed that Sam Haar and Zack Steinman were two youngsters who were immensely enticed by the powers of dance music; their destiny and purpose was only to find new ways to make us move. Since neither of the members had a background in producing, they created their music largely through experimentation, and in doing so, they happened to bypass many of the common dance-floor cliches. They concocted a refreshing take on the genre, but perhaps the best part about Blondes was that it remained innately techno, and therefore appealed to the hardcore IDM crowd as well as EDM newcomers. Blondes make no-bullshit, dance till you drop, instrumental bangers; there are no ambient interludes, no extravagant genre hopping, and despite what you may have been lead to believe, no pretension.

On their 2nd album, Swisher, released by surprise a few weeks back, Blondes have matured in more ways than one. These aren’t the singles of the first album, and because this is more of a singular piece — recorded during a finite time period — some immediacy has been lost (it must be said). However, now their kosmiche influence feels more cemented, which gives many of these tracks an astronomical edge. Additionally, the music here is more difficult and less formulaic, which really helps it come into its own after a few listens. Take opener “Aeon” for example, which is far more restrained than anything off of their debut — we keep expecting the disjointed bassline to break into a tribal thrust as it did on “Lover”, but that moment never comes — instead, the glistening, ethereal synthesizers come into full view and drift along as though they are part of a living breathing organism. It doesn’t take long to realize that Blondes have become a more dense and texturally minded group than they were before. Thankfully aside from the cleansing opener, they continue to remain firmly rooted in dance music.

Second track, “Bora Bora” is where the action really kicks off; with it’s clanking steel drums, dubby bassline, and cold atmospherics, it recalls the best of Basic Channel and the Chain Reaction label without falling into copycat territory. Blondes know how to play homage to beloved genres by embarking on them from varying viewpoints and adding their own interesting twists. Like “Bora Bora”, much of the album can be considered techno of the “minimal” variety, as the transitions throughout a track are precise and often nearly imperceptible; quite the achievement seeing how many tracks run upwards of 10 minutes without once becoming the source of fatigue.

Although they have always worked with a rather broad array of sounds, their palette has expanded in some interesting new directions. “Clasp” is accompanied by comforting organ drones and “Poland” sounds like an updated version of something off of Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works. The tracks contain a humanistic touch that is transcendental and meditative yet tribal and raw; I still can’t manage to decide whether Swisher is an album more suited towards a summer or winter themed environment. While we are taken on darker territory on “Wire” — a track that recalls the eerie soundscape of Andy Stott — the next song, “Elise”, happens to be just about the most ecstatic thing the duo have recorded, and the two tracks happen to work perfectly together in unison.

As I see it now, Swisher is one of the best techno releases of the year — scratch that — it’s one of the best techno releases in recent memory. While their debut may have been more accessible and party oriented, this comes off as more intelligent and more consistently interesting. It’s varied in terms of sound, yet unified in terms of approach, and it proves their early singles weren’t the fluke many thought they were. In fact, Swisher is so naturally flowing and immersive, that if anything, it sounds like making it was no sweat for the duo. If that’s true, we are sure to hear plenty more in the way of excellency from this group down the road; let’s all hope these artists turn out to be prolific ones.

Track Listing:

1.) Aeon

2.) Bora Bora*

3.) Andrew*

4.) Poland*

5.) Clasp

6.) Swisher

7.) Rei*

8.) Wire

9.) Elise*

Album Highlight – *

DJ DIRTY SOUTH ALBUM RELEASE; Art Design Contest

by Ryan Shea

Talenthouse recording artist Dirty South just announced he will be releasing his first full-length studio album, Speed of Life. This Serbian-Australian DJ/Producer has been on the house music circuit for a few years now and has racked up plenty of positive recognition and attention. In 2008, he was nominated for a Grammy, in the Best Remixed Recording category for his recording of, fellow Tech-House DJ, Kaskade’s Sorry, and then again, in the same category in 2011 for his collaboration with Axwell for the Temper Trap’s Sweet Disposition.

Since his recording career began, Dirty South has been racking up merits from a number of respected house music sources. He is well known in the acclaimed InTheMix 50 DJ Poll’s, voted “Most Popular Producer Nationally” in 2007 as well as ranking 2nd in the 2007 InTheMix 50 DJ Poll. Let’s not forget that in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJ poll every year since 2007.

So now that you know a little bit about this insanely talented DJ/Producer (just in case you) let me get to my point…In honor of his album release Dirty South is inviting artists to compete to design artwork for a limited edition tee-shirt that will be sold through his online store. Having a design on an internationally sold clothing item is a great accomplishment for even the most seasoned artists, but even if you are just an aspiring artist or just have a talent for design and art this could be your open doorway! Not only will the winner’s design be printed and sold, they will also receive a trip to VEGAS, a two night stay at The Wynn Las Vegas & Encore Resort, and a meet and greet with Dirty South himself.

To enter view Talenthouse‘s website at:

www.talenthouse.com/design-for-dirty-south

Winners will be announced March 5th and the deadline to submit is Tuesday February 26th!

I’m very honored to be the one to let you all know about this exciting opportunity and, as an art lover myself, look forward to voting and seeing the winning design! And don’t forget the winner will be announced the same day as Dirty South’s album release!!

Dance Music at the Grammy’s

by Ryan Shea

Dance music has come a long way in the past decade. From music you could only hear at 5 am in NYC at clubs like Sound Factory and Crobar, to now being played out by commercialized mainstream radio. Dance music is beats and vocals dubbed together by artists who can hear melodies where others do not. Having said this, it is amazing to see these artists being honored, as musicians, at the Grammy awards.

The nominees for Best Dance Recording are all very talented DJ’s. Avicii is a great DJ who brought dance music to the mainstream when Flo Rida remixed his song Levels. Although he should be recognized for helping bring dance music to the forefront of American radio, I don’t think he deserves the Grammy this year. The Best Dance Recording, in my opinion, belongs to Swedish House Mafia featuring John Martin, Don’t you Worry Child. This song mixes beautiful vocals and lyrics with genius melodies and beats. Not only can you sing along to this track but you can also get lost in its atmosphere. Swedish House Mafia is a trio of talented DJ’s and ingenious producers. They mix just the right amount of commercial feel to get radio air time and still keep the respect of dance music lovers around the world.

The Grammy for the Best Dance/Electronica Album hands down belongs to Kaskade Fire and Ice. Kaskade is one of the few American DJs and producers to draw followers around the world. In 2011 Kaskade was voted America’s Best DJ 2011 by www.djtimes.com. The Fire and Ice album peaked at #17 on the US Charts and #1 on the US Dance Charts. Kaskade brings together different artists and other DJs in this album and still manages to keep his authentic sound. The album includes two discs’ (Fire and Ice) which contain the same tracks but mixed in two completely different ways. Fire is smooth and alluring, while Ice is loud and hard. Although the same songs, each disc feels and sounds completely unique. Kaskade deserves this award, in my opinion, and I believe will take home the Grammy this year. Although the other albums in this category are all great none has the originality and range of skill like Kaskade Fire and Ice.

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