In a world where experimental electronic music exponentially splinters into a multitude of rogue genres that slowly shuffle the globe from demilitarized dance floors to sleeper cell bedroom studios and back, a team of disparate scientists tracks this solanum-like pandemic while desperately trying to interpret cryptic field recordings of Samhain’s past, not one day at a time, but from Amen to Zombie…
AMEN
Ahhh, finally the spring heat has subsided and summer has people lazy in the shade sipping blood orange margaritas. It also means that most working DJs are out working the festival circuits. Which generally means that whatever is going to be the summer hit has already been released and the 12″ tap starts to squeeze shut and releases drip out.
However, Klute just put out Music for Prophet and ASC finally dropped Nothing is Certain in early July. Both albums vie for top spots on the Juno bestsellers chart. And not much more in the way of good beats on the top of that list right now.
Icicle‘s Xylophobia is out on promo on Shogun Audio, a flash in the pan, been wanting a release of that one for a while.
Anyway, d&b as a genre has its summer persona and it’s all out in smooth vibe style. Let’s check out the Juno catalog in our journey through C:
Read the rest of this entry »
LTJ Bukem
AMEN
Back into the Juno catalog, just about finished with the Bs. The sands of Juno are ever shifting, so my new strategy is to actually go through one letter at a time, instead of looking at the whole catalog. Hopefully I won’t miss as much of the new stuff as the changing stock list pushes or pulls records in their position in the catalog with this new strategy. And speaking of new stuff…
Loads of new albums coming out this spring. On Hyperdub, Ikonika‘s debut long player, the mighty ASC with the first album on the impressive NonPlus+ label, and Fly Lo comes back to Warp with a new album and headlines MAH’s stage @ the Sonar festival with a live PA gig. It’s always sort of a naive thing to say that this year will be a big year for music, but any fan of underground electronic music would be excited about any of those albums. Let’s hope that the album will continue to be a viable format for electronic artists.
Read the rest of this entry »
Whaddya know? Blue.
AMEN
In a world where experimental electronic music exponentially splinters into a multitude of rogue genres that slowly shuffle the globe from demilitarized dance floors to sleeper cell bedroom studios and back, a team of disparate scientists tracks this solanum-like pandemic while desperately trying to interpret cryptic field recordings of Samhain’s past, not one day at a time, but from Amen to Zombie…
I won’t put them below in the notable releases, due to the fact that they are only noteworthy as cautionary tales, but on this page we’ve got releases by Aphrodite and Steve Appleton. Prime examples of how you can listen to something that is labeled d&b and leave with a bad taste in your mouth. First let’s start with Aphrodite. As far a street credentials go he passes muster. Been down since day one, somewhat self proclaimed “Godfather of Jungle” has charted singles in the UK consistently since around 2000 (not sure if he’s charted anything in a while though). Music still sucks. Probably one of the more important DJs to bring d&b into the main room at a time when huge raves were happening all over the US and people like DJ Dan et. al. were killing it. Music still sucks. To the point that I wouldn’t even recommend his music as an entry point (despite it’s availability in most Electronic or Rave sections) for those who maybe don’t really dig the harder more aggressive stuff, or are put off by atmospheric minimal stuff. His sound is d&b, true. But it’s the type you might find when you open up a greeting card. You listen and it just sounds like he’s a carpetbagger, despite the fact that he’s been in the game of building d&b for longer than some of today’s producers have been on this green Earth. Like some guy who just discovered trucker caps and pulls up to the bar with a brand new Nike trucker cap. He knows that there is some sort of vocabulary that he should be using, but he can’t help but look like a completely incompetent tool while trying to speak. He’s got to beat you over the head with a louder than hell snare, so that you know it’s d&b. The flip of “The Time The Place” is “Blue Mystique.” The center label has a blue alien disco dancer. Most of us know that Mystique is blue after all the X-Men Hollywood hoop-a-la. ”But that record was released in ‘o1″ Exactly, at a time when those of us who would have been listening to d&b would have already know that Mystique is in fact blue. Right next to him buying buttery nipple shots is feminine hygiene product Steve Appleton. He’s on SONY, He’s holding a Clint Black acoustic guitar on the front cover, it’s frankly embarrassing that it’s even available for purchase at Juno. Let’s move on.
Read the rest of this entry »
