Contemporary 0.1 & Classics by Luciano

Cadenza Records en Luciano – 2 namen haast synoniem met de hedendaagse minimal/tech-house – komen naar buiten met hun eerste compilatiealbum Cadenza Contemporary 0.1 & Classics. Een dubbelaar die niet alleen de pure essentie van het label weerspiegelt, maar tevens een subtiele knipoog is naar wat in het verschiet ligt en zo alvast mede de toekomst omarmt.

De eerste CD – gemixt door Luciano zelve – omvat Cadenza’s afgelopen releases met daarenboven Luciano’s track Tonerres van het album No Model No Tool dat uitkwam op hun sublabel Cadenza Split Composition.
De ‘minimalguru’ steekt van wal met de kleurvolle housy tracks van respectievelijk Argenis Brito en Digitaline, gevolgd Petre Inspirescu’s psychedelische Racakadoom. De donkere winterslaap wordt dan plots verstoord door het funky trompetgeschal van L delay dat op zijn beurt weer plaats maakt voor Rhadoo’s Woa Ovuls. Stek 7 op het album is opnieuw voor Inspirescu met z’n bleepy Galantar dat op de voet gevolgd wordt door de ‘jungletrack’ Madre Tierra van Alejandro Vivanco. Eindigen doet Luciano in stijl met het diepe, ‘it makes you wanna move’ Fango van Pikayou en zijn eigen experimentele 12” Tonerres.

En de hoogtepunten blijven zich maar opstapelen op de tweede CD. Wat volgt is een overzicht van het repertoire aan wat men bestempelt als ‘classics’; vereeuwigd in de memoires van menig liefhebber van Cadenza’s sound. Woorden schieten tekort om de tracks te typeren, dus zal ik wijselijk de muziek voor zich laten spreken en jullie zelf op ontdekkingsreis sturen doorheen het ‘minimalwoud’.

Het prille begin en het denderende heden, – the beauty and the beast – vastgelegd op een CD.
Contemporary 0.1 & Classics is een mijlpijl voor het label en een must have binnen ieders platencollectie.

faut le faire...

After escaping its maker's clutches in October, it had wandered around the globe. Some say they saw it at Cheops' piramid, probably because it looks like Daft Punk's infamous piramid, whereas others believe they saw it pissing down Will.I.Am's neck. I myself got an angry call cause it was standing in Iraq to see the hanging gardens of Babylon ( history isn't its strong side )but ended up almost getting shot by Americans who took it for a suicide bomber. After that unfortunate event, it decided that its creator wasn't such a bad guy after all and took the first plane home.

Some call it a masterpiece, others (the Iraqis I presume) say it's a poisoned gift from the heathens but we like to refer to it simply as Liss's October mix which was made with pleasure to please people like you and me.

Tracklist:
Kraftwerk – Aerodynamik (Hot Chip rmx)
Cobra Dukes – Leave the light on (Fredo & Thang rmx)
Dirty 30 – Roman steppe
In Flagranti – Nonplusultra (Sex Schon rmx)
Michel de Hey – Compound (Shinedoe rmx)
Alter Ego - Why not (Joakim rmx)
Smith ‘n Hack - Falling stars

You can download it world exclusively here

"Pilooski", I said to the garden-gnome,"do you know Pilooski?"
And he just went like: "..."


The man is playing Ghent's Make-up club tonight (Chris forgot to mention this below), so here's a little intro: Pilooski is from Paris, France and he speaks French. He makes nonchalant, slow, disco-ish, jazz-infected music and particularly likes sprucing up old classics. I've made a top three of his oeuvre for you:

Pilooski - Love is wet
Frank Valli - Beggin' (Pilooski re-edit)
John Miles - Stranger in the city (Pilooski re-edit)

When my pals first heard these tracks, they cummed all over the place, love is wet indeed. And for the record, Pilooski's next record, the Discodeine Ep in colab with Pentile, will be out soon on D-I-R-T-Y records.

Glowstyx with glowsticks

Tons of great parties this weekend: Groovecity, Freeform Five and Pitchtuner at Petrol, Kiki at Café d'Anvers and a free party at Silo with Trish Van Eynde and Mugwump.Nice, innit? We are opting for a different one though...


This Saturday, in an attempt to bring back real rave, a new party concept named Rave Our Souls takes place in the illustrious Muziekodroom in Hasselt. Headlining in the "Old Skool Room" is Glowstyx. Their debut album was released last October on the US-based Cock Rock Disco label and definitely needs checking out if you're into rave. The headliner seems to fit the description of this party perfectly.So, what about the rest of the line-up?

Well, Body to Body resident DJ Dan is spinning too and given his predilection of raw electro, he should be a ball. Furthermore, Goldfox, practically a celeb at parties in this region, will be at the controls next to two promising youngsters from my hometown: Disko Drunkardz. Trust me, their Beatz & Bleepz set is something you want to listen to, which is why you can download it here.

Oh, and if you're into DnB: there's also a DnB room with Remarc, Bong-Ra, Riot, Stykz and MC Doc.

AND they've got gadgets. What more can one ask for?

Italo is alive!

Een aantal weken geleden viel mijn oog op het hippe New Yorkse label Italians do it better, kind van Mike Simonetti, dat - ondanks het nog niet zo langdurige bestaan - z'n naam letterlijk aan het waar maken is binnen de italo scene. Met full support van Tim Sweeney van DFA Records en host van het gerenommeerde muziekprogramma Beats in Space releasten ze dan ook onlangs hun eerste compilatiealbum After Dark waarmee ze een meer dan waardig visitekaartje hebben afgeleverd. Enkele veelbelovende namen uit Simonetti's stal: Mirage, Farah, Glass Candy en Chromatics (ook terug te vinden op de Body Language compilatie van Dixon) bekend van het geprezen In the city.

Maar niet alleen hun After Dark deed bij menig muziekliefhebber de disco fever van weleer herleven, ook de recentelijke releases van Professor Genius sprongen uit de band. Naast La Grotta op Italians do it better, kwam deze ook nog met een andere voortreffelijke 12" op de proppen, meer bepaald Pegaso op Citizen Kane's Disques Sinthomme . Beide tracks worden getypeerd door de klassieke Italo baslijnen, opzwepende synths en subtiele drums. Let's swing!

And you say I'm not underground?

Il y a deux gars un peu bizarres qui viennent de Paris. Non, je ne suis pas en train d'écrire quelque chose sur Justice, il s'agit en fait du Benjamin Boguet et Julien Briffaz. Ils sont respectivement dans les groupes Cosmo Vitelli (ceci n'est pas vraiment un groupe car il consiste seulement en Benjamin)et [T]ékël. Mais de temps en temps, depuis 2005, ils se rencontrent pour collaborer ensemble à un projet qui s'appele Bot'Ox. Ils ont déjà lancé quatre disques sur lesquelles on trouve chaque fois deux chansons. Les disques de Bot'Ox sont indéfinissable, ça c'est un understatement! Leur plus récente parution est sur le label parisien "I'm a Cliché" et les chansons sont titrés "Babylon by Car" et "Tragedy Symphony".


Apparemment, James Murphy (n'oublie pas d'écouter et d'ACHETER son disque "45:33") et Tim Goldsworthy du célèbre label américain "DFA" aiment les chansons assez pour les lancer sur leur sublabel (qui vient d'être fondé) "Death from Abroad". Le disque sera mis en circulation dès le 11 décembre.

History lesson.

Last October, Rapster Records released the latest edition of its illustrious "Kings of..." series. Following in the footsteps of Laurent Garnier and Carl Craig who mixed the previous edition named "The Kings of Techno", Playgroup (aka Trevor Jackson) and Alter Ego have the opportunity to present their views on respectively electro from the good ol' times and contemporary electro.


Rather than making a mix containing well-known classics, Playgroup has carefully selected obscure tracks that were ahead of their time, such as opener "This is Me" by Chris & Cosey (I know, who?).With its banging synth sound and oppressed vocals, they sound kind of like a pre-21st century version of Fischerspooner. What makes Playgroup such a unique artist is that he finds the perfect balance between bodyrockers, such as "Report to the Dancefloor" (what's in a name?) by Energize, and more relaxing tunes, all poured into a solid entity.

Albeit the fact that Alter Ego's CD is entitled "the Present", Roman Flügel and Jörn Elling Wuttke refused to insert current electro hits by the likes of Justice, Boys Noize and other Tigas into their mix. Instead, they opted to offer us a reduced history of techno, presenting tracks by amongst others Daniel Bell, Robert Hood, Acid Jesus (aka Dopplereffekt and Alter Ego themselves) and the master himself, Richie Hawtin under his Plastikman pseudonym.

This mix offers a delightful trip into long forgotten gems and doesn't only want to make you party, it also makes you think about how indebted current artists are to the pioneers of the genre. "The Kings of Electro" has broadened my view on the genre I love so dearly and when I come to think of it, not a great deal of compilations manage to pull that off and get away with it like Playgroup and Alter Ego do.

Fizzmann/ Barren space

Next to the American Diabetes Association and the American Dental Association (that’s quite confusing, isn’t it?), Ada also is one of my favourite producers slash DJs. She first came to the fore in 2004 AD, when her track Blindhouse was featured on Areal’s Bis Neuhnzehn comp and from that day on she’s been one of the label’s key artists next to Metope and Basteroid. In the meantime Cologne-based Ada has amongst others delivered the grating Our love never dies (which was lauded on Grandmaster Alkan’s Bugged Out mix cd), her dashing debut album Blondie and a few EPs on her new label Cereal killers. What makes Ada’s sound so compelling is the mélange of beauty and beast. On the one hand she crafts moving melodies and on the other hand she makes use of raw beats and noisy effects. Ada’s new release is a continuation of this recipe, but with even better ingredients. If you ask me, the Fizmann EP on Areal is the best Ada two-tracker yet.

Stateless

Niet alleen dansvloermateriaal geldt als uithangbord bij !K7 Records, ook de alternatieve weg blijft er niet onbewandeld. Het Berlijnse label lijkt zich alsmaar meer toe te spitsen op een diversiteit aan stijlen. “To release the brightest, most interesting sounds from the digital leftfield", klinkt het er zowaar in koor. Getuige hiervan is de recentelijke release van het album Stateless, van de gelijknamige Leedse groep.

Na het beluisteren van hun debuutalbum lijkt het mij zeer waarschijnlijk dat deze band, bestaande uit Chris James, Justin Percival, David Levin, Kidkanevil en Rod, nog heel wat brokken zal maken. Menig muziekliefhebber én artiest zijn er alvast heilig van overtuigd.
"The Best album of the year full stop", “Defines a new level of possibility in brilliant, durable and genuinely popular music”, zo luiden enkele van de vele complimenten die de band toegeworpen worden door muziekmagazines.

Volumineuze strijkers, pianoflarden, diepe baslijnen, subtiele turntable beats en daarenboven de zeemzoete stem van Chris James lijken bij te dragen tot het succes van dit multi-etnische vijftal. De track bloodstream – een narcotisch lied die de kracht van liefde bezingt: “I think I might have inhaled you…” – wist mij alvast het meest te bekoren. Wat mij betreft lijkt een nieuwe nuance binnen de muziekwereld in de maak.

Please believe the hype.

"oi": "used to call someone or attract their attention in a way that is not very polite"
"oi oi oi": "a Boys Noize maximal version of the original exclamation"


Boys Noize released his debut album over a month ago. Unless you've been living under a rock, you'd already know this. Why would I even bother writing something about it then? Well, first of all, it's because I don't mind being slightly behind on everyone else. Unlike most bloggers, I don't always feel the need to write something about the latest or hottest release, the so-called "Ultimate Release of the moment". I guess I sometimes need some time to let things sink in first before I really feel the need to get them out of my system. And that is why only now I feel comfortable to write something on Boys Noize's debut album Oi Oi Oi.

As some of you may think, this isn't really Alex Ridha's first album. He's made another one under the name Kid Alex, named Restless, and this album was destroyed by the critics. I am thrilled to say that "Oi Oi Oi" is of a different level. On this album, Ridha pulls out all the stops. The album begins with "& Down" which immediately sets the tone. From there on, Ridha shows no willingness whatsoever to slow down the pace of the album and keeps firing one dancefloor filler after another at you, going from "Arcade Rock" (Robot Rock, anyone?), over "Shine Shine" (which reminds me a lot of that typical Digitalism sound with Justice vocals incorporated) to end with a track that couldn't have summarized this album better: his remix of "Spacer Frau".

This is the kind of massive album that Justice was supposed to release for Ed Banger Records, but they kinda mistook themselves and Digitalism's "Idealism" wasn't very consistent either. Ridha however, is the conductor of a very consistent as well as coherent album that keeps on giving you body blows and ends with an uppercut, just to make sure you got the message. And oh yes, I got the message loud and clear. If I were to be on a quest for "the Ultimate Release of the moment", I needn't search further. I've found what I was looking for right here.

The night is ours. Partly anyways.

Tomorrow, another Stereo edition of Ed&Kim and Murdock's celebrated concept Breakdown is taking place at Muziekodroom, Hasselt. Next to Ed&Kim themselves (duh), Fred Nasen and Guy J will also be there for your amusement. Some of you may recall Nasen from his residency at the "At The Villa" parties. Nowadays he's a resident at the famous Kozzmozz parties in Ghent and has his own label, Dogtown, which has already released tracks of the likes of Guy Gerber and Guy J. Speaking of Guy J, this young Israeli talent will also be present at this edition. 2007 has been his year so far: last July, his massive track "Agent Blue" was released on Azuli Records and soon, Bedrock, John Digweed's label and Turbo, you-know-who's label, are releasing tracks of his.

As usual, we shall be present ourselves. Not only as members of the crowd but Raveslave homeboy Liss will be at the controls from 10 to 12 pm, along with Klitza, another promising talent from our hometown. Some of you will experience the thrill of watching them spin. And if you're really lucky, you might catch a peak of his asscrack as Liss bends over to fetch a new vinyl!

A night not to be missed, that much is clear. And for the record, there's also a DnB room but since I don't know fuck about DnB, I'll wisely shut my yap on that matter.