Innerspans

It's an unwritten rule in the techno business that a track has about a 3-month life span. But if you wait long enough, you can actually still spin some of those outdated tracks under the guise of "classic". This contrasts sharply with pop songs, which can still be heard on commercial airwaves years after their release. This morning for example, "Maneater" was my wake up call, followed by "Where The Streets Have No Name". It seems that in the techno bizz, people scowl at just about everyone who dares to remain idle longer than three months. You have to keep producing, remixing and it's even better if you come up with an album or get a chance to compile something.


Don't get me wrong, this is also the case in other niches of the music industry. I just have the distinct impression that the techno branch evolves faster than any other musical branch. Take the nü-rave scene, which is very dear to me, for instance: The sound of flag bearers such as Boys Noize (him again) and Justice is rapidly evolving. The former has created quite a mellow (for his standards at least) remix of Feist's "My Moon My Man" and an epic, genre-blending remix of Apparat's "Arcadia"; the latter's sound is getting increasingly poppy with singles such as "D.A.N.C.E" and "DVNO". Furthermore, the entire nü-rave scene is no longer the novelty it used to be about four years ago and I reckon that in a few years, this trend will get pushed to the outskirts of techno town by a new one.

Sometimes though, contemporary producers get nostalgic and huddle together to reminisce on how extraordinary some of these past trends really were. This is precisely what Innervisions honchos Âme and Dixon did during a trip to Japan. They even decided to revive some past glory: in May, an ambient compilation will be released on their label.


“At the beginning of the 90s it was normal to have an ambient floor on every bigger techno or house party", say the twosome. "This culture got lost in the new millenium though. It became a niche and went more into cultural activities. When we returned from Japan we spoke about that with some friends and artists, and all of them were inspired to make a contribution to this project. Even Klaus Schulze, one of the pioneers of electronic music.”

"Muting The Noise" comes together with a 60-page book and will be released on May 19, 2008.

Tracklist
01. Mark Pritchard & David Brinkworth - Sentience
02. Karma - Kon Tiki
03. Âme - Doldrums
04. Henrik Schwarz - Arthur
05. I:Cube - Nuées Ardentes
06. Tokyo Black Star - Kagura
07. Stefan Goldmann - Life After Death
08. Terre Thaemlitz - Get In And Drive
09. Kammerflimmer Kollektief - That's How The Light Gets In
10. Koss - Negai
11. Klaus Schulze - Invisible Musik

Promising...

Basic Soul Unit: "I knew this day would come for you. Great releases." Beat Pharmacy: "Your time in the sun is coming." Quarion: "I love your new release." Zo luiden alvast enkele - dikverdiende - complimenten die de Brit Tony Lionni in bosjes krijgt toegeworpen. Daarenboven wordt hij reeds nu al op handen gedragen door niemand minder dan Chateau Flight en Âme Frank. Van een binnenkomer gesproken dus! De rookie -wat je bij het beluisteren van zijn tracks nauwelijks kan geloven - heeft nog maar 2 releases op zijn palmares prijken, toch heeft hij voor de buitenwereld reeds nu al zijn kunde geëtaleerd. Op Mule Electronic heeft de man uit Liverpool een van de spannendste tracks in een tijdje afgeleverd en recentelijker op Gilbert's Versatile records scheerde hij opnieuw hoge toppen.

Better Chance op Mule Electronic is een 3-tracker die je ongetwijfeld op zwier neemt op de dansvloer. Met zijn hypnotische, diepe piano- en synthtoetsen weet hij als geen ander die welbepaalde emoties bij je los te wekken. Een lust voor het oor, en dan vooral die Atjazz-achtige track Better Change!

Lionni gaat echter nog een stapje verder met zijn release Papaia/Shuffle op Versatile. Voor Papaia keert hij terug naar de essentie van house en minimal: een simplistiche beat en weinig pistes. Geleidelijk aan voegt hij er dan een lichte acid sound aan toe en wanneer je denkt dat je al het goede hebt gehad, slaat de melodie in als een bom. Prompt schieten me dan beelden te binnen van het alomgekende alle-handen-in-de-lucht-moment. Een absolute winner.

De B-zijde, Shuffle, weerspiegelt dan weer de diepere sound van Lionni. En opnieuw is het die stevige bass die je meteen naar de keel grijpt en zich samen met de subtiel gekozen percussie ontpopt tot een beestige nummer. So keep an eye on this guy!

Wondering-while-Wandering mixtape 01

As you may already know, we've started a monthly mixtape series called "Wondering while Wandering". For those of you who don't have a clue on what's going on, check this.


This mixtape series is kicked off by Gweilo, who's not only a congenial fellow but also a good producer. The London based record label Dissident recently released his "Acolyte" on 12" and since there's only 200 copies available, you best hurry. Much like "Acolyte", all releases on Dissident are pretty much top quality. The label, which is ran by Andy Blake, has made sure all tastes are catered for so far, and it's making quite a furore since it's already receiving support from critically acclaimed deejays such as Ewan Pearson, Skull Juice and Monica Electronica among others. And what better way to discover some Dissident releases than listen to Gweilo's www-mixtape?

Now, we gave Gweilo carte blanche for this mix and the result was very much to our liking. The debut mixtape in the www-series has become a delightful mixture of italo, elektro, house and even minimal. Some fine Dissident records, a few classics (Ron Hardy! Steve Hurley!), an unexpected, minimalish LoSoul edit of "The Siren" and Larry Heard's concluding, blissful "The Sun Can't Compare" is all you need to feel on top of the world. You can download the first www-mixtape here

Tracklist
1.Naughty - Slave to the Dub (Moodmusic)
2.Alexander Robotnik - Made in China (Créme)
3.Truffle Club - Gone Blue (Dissident)
4.Gweilo - Acolyte (Dissident)
5.Marcus Mixx - The Spell - [Ron Hardy Mix] (Let's Pet Puppies)
6.Orgue Electronique - Stairway to the Ocean [JTC Remix] (Créme)
7.Ron Hardy - Muzic Box Classics V3 (Partehardy Records)
8.Valaree - I Love to Love (Diablo Records)
9.Baby Oliver - Hypochondriac (Environ)
10.UnknownmiX - The Siren [Losoul's Hot Edit] (Playhouse)
11.Midnight Steppers - Locked Out (Dissident)
12.Steve 'Silk' Hurley - Jack Your Body (DJ International)
13.Larry Heard - The Sun Can't Compare (Alleviated)

so... amaze me

Although it's a little irritating to type, Justice's "D.A.N.C.E" is an amazing track. Unlike some other electro tracks("Hustler" and "Bodyrox" anyone?), it also had a massive videoclip made by So-Me. His talent didn't go by unnoticed and recently, he made a video for Kanye's "Good Life" which was even better than the D.A.N.C.E clip.

So just when you think the dude won't be able to top his former work anymore, he raises the bar once more and makes this absolutely magnicifent clip for my favorite track on Justice's album:

Justice - DVNO
Uploaded by machinemolle

And guess what: rumour has that he's working on a live-action feature-length film. I know, me too.

Hi, my name is..

The friendly peeps here at Raveslave recently asked me to join their club, which came as quite a surprise, since I have no blogging experience. Ignoring the fact that I absolutely do not have the time for it, I still decided to go for it as I had already figured out earlier that this site offers quality posts. In other words: I’m honored to be the new contributor, and to kick things off, I’ll post my top 5 chart for this month.

N°1. Hercules & Love Affair: Blind
Last weekend while driving around, stereo somewhat ‘cranked up’, I suddenly found myself going berserk on a song which had been lurking about in my iPod for a few weeks, singing along to the coolest vocals ever (thank you Antony) with enthusiasm one can only afford within the safety of a car (or shower cabin when absolutely certain you’re the only one in the house).
At the red lights I noticed a blond girl in a mini cooper in the lane next to me giving me a “what the fuck?”, upon which I instantly replied with the Steven Seagal look: the fastest way to let somebody know you’re 100% straight.
But it was too late, Hercules & Love Affair’s latest disco anthem Blind had totally taken over my hormones, and it’ll do the same to you! For more info scroll down a few posts cause I’m pretty sure this song has already been introduced in this blog.

N°2. Mimo & Schmahl: Sometimes (Dapayk Remix)
I could fill a few lines praising the Craft Music label, but I won’t, since this remix on their latest release doesn’t sound Craft at all. All the same, it’s pure genius in all its simplicity. Words are useless for tracks like these, so I’ll just leave it up to your curiosity to seduce you in checking out this pearl.

N°3. Popof: Elektric Circus
Purchased this one on Beatport at 7pm, opened a set with it in Holland at 1am. 15 people got killed in the dancefloor mayhem that followed, and apparently this is happening all over Europe. Interpol already scrambled their best agents to find Popof, whose latest promo pic is a clear stab at European governments. Touché Popof, touché.

N°4. The Subs: Papillon
Just got off the phone with Wiebe aka Tonic aka Ginger Sub, who told me that Brodinski “finally” dropped off his remix for the new Subs bomb ‘Papillon’. I gave it a listen and think I’ll have to buy Brodi a drink at Breakdown XL this weekend, cause it absolutely kills. Production can now begin so expect this one to hit stores in about 3 months.

N°5. Sound of Stereo: Nic Nag
I’m probably the only person on the planet who doesn’t love fidget house producers Crookers (Big Money Comin is a great track though). Brussels based producer duo Sound of Stereo have clear similarities, but their forthcoming debut release ‘Nic Nag’, which I’ve been playing for a while now (I’ve known these guys for a long time), is absolutely worth mentioning. It’s been picked up by MTV to back up a commercial for their new mobile phone network, which is totally irrelevant, but pretty cool nonetheless.

Shack up

Skull Disco's co-founder Shackleton is back with another mesmerizing track, called "Death is Not Final". Uniting minimal, dubstep and breaks, Shackleton's productions don't exactly fit into a particular category.


This track takes off where "Blood on My Hands" left us: the hypnotising percussion interweaves in such a complex fashion with the steadily present kickdrums that you need to turn the volume up all the way to fully comprehend the complexity of this track. And even then, you probably won't discover all its secrets. "Death is Not Final" is probably Shackleton's most grim, and yet most amazing production ever.

T++, Torsten Pröfrock's alter ego, is on remixing duty. He has created a much more dubbed version by omitting most of the percussion, which is by no means a bad thing. In fact, this version is equally good, if not better than the original.

The only thing I, and I'm really weighing my words here, loathe about this production is the artwork. It's drawn by someone (or something) called "Zeke". And all along I thought it was drawn by some 14-year-old goth chick who ventilates her misunderstood thoughts by sketching shite like this. Boy, was I wrong...

I’d like to share four things with you.

1. I'm proud to announce Cait Sith will be joining the blog posse. Cait is an up-and-coming Genk-based DJ and graphic designer who once in a while will drop his views on minimal/ electro bangers. In order to be admitted to Raveslave he had to complete the quest we had assigned to him: he was to fight five dragons while preparing a five-course dinner in Playdoh. Cait pulled it off and, although he is still suffering from severe burns, his first post will be appearing this week.

2. Wandering on Myspace, I stumbled upon this gem: Dave P- Sunday nite in Glasgow. This is bloody trash, and yet again it isn’t. It’s trash in that way that it’s hard, filthy and that it rocks, but it isn’t in that way that it hasn’t got that typical overpopular nü-rave feeling to it. The track will come out in the near future (yeah, I don’t know when) with a Brodinski rmx, haven’t heard that one yet, but it sure does sound promising!

3. Sebastien Tellier’s lovely new album, called Sexuality, is now in stores. After the cooperation with Sebastian, Tellier has clearly gone into a new direction: this album is more dancefloor-oriented (it contains 4/4 beats instead of no beats) and sounds more poppy than his previous solo album, but it’s still got that sugary, melodic Tellier sound. I tip my hat to you, sir!

4. I've lost my favourite handkerchief.