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2007-11-16
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INTERNATIONAL OBSERVER
HEARD
DUBMISSION
DUB
New Zealand-based keyboardist, songwriter and producer Tom Bailey has been making music since you were the apple of your mother’s eye but it’s only now, with the release of the latest International Observer LP – his second under that guise – on Dubmission Records that he has both shifted up a gear and, equally, kicked back and relaxed. This is a collection of trippy dub that’s going to hold some degree of appeal to all segments of the genre’s community, from the knowledgeable, bearded festival-goer to the uninitiated world music or chillout fan. All of the hallmarks of dub are here, the echoes, the reverb and the bassline that’d blow up (well, not literally) a suitably large soundsystem but there’s also a heavy dose of melody for good measure and the resultant sound is more accessible than you might expect. In places it feels like Thievery Corporation, sounding more blissed out electronica than Ras, but elsewhere there’s enough sound processing to remind the listener what the project is really about. ‘London Dub’ stands head and shoulders above its companion tracks, with an upbeat rhythm, brassy stabs that enjoy the echo effect to its most extreme and enough blips, bleeps, blasts and whooshes to satisfy the purists. On a similar tip, ‘Hip Hop’s Final’ is like the bastard offspring of Rae and Christian at the height of trip hop and dub innovator King Tubby – an unlikely combination, but one hell of an engaging sound, albeit curious. Selector! |
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2007-11-16
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CLAUDE VONSTROKE
AT THE CONTROLS
RESIST
TECHNO
The third instalment in Resist’s burgeoning ‘At The Controls’ compilation series sees San Francisco’s self professed “sleazy weirdo” Claude VonStroke seeking to accommodate the ample shoes of former helmsman James Holden. In keeping with earlier chapters, ‘At The Controls’ is presented as a two CD package, with both discs offering quality for money as well as an opportunity for the artist to show their range and dexterity in the booth. VonStroke uses the first disc to provide fans with a smoothly mixed selection of jackin’ “ghettotech” house, dropping the listener right in the middle of things with the switch between the party-starting vibes of Meat vs. Einzelkind’s ‘Freebase Nite at Robert Johnson’s’ and the twisted bass monster of Lee Mortimer’s ‘Mush’. Mr VonStroke starts as he means to go on, with the mix developing into a full-on attack of tech-house beats and bass driven tracks like Mammerschmidt and Leatz ‘Knospen Im Ospen’, plus massive crowd pleasers in the form of Samin’s completely bonkers ‘Heater’. However, it is on the second disc where we see the true identity of this prolific producer / DJ. Taking a much deeper and more experimental tack, the whole set is drenched in the shadow of Basic Channel’s dub productions of the mid-90’s. Though perhaps not created to make everyone’s feet move, with tracks like VonStroke’s own ‘Groundhog Day’ - a brilliant mix of deep atmospherics, rattling hi-hats, warm bass pads and an off-kilter bouncing rhythm – the second disc is sure to please. ‘At The Controls’ displays more than anything why forward-thinking collections such as this are integral in providing respite for fans of the 4/4 beat more used to be being affronted with the usual droll antics of Hed Kandi et al. Deep, dark and unashamedly dirty. |
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2007-12-16
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P J HARVEY
WHITE CHALK
ISLAND
INDIE
No Polly Jean record is ever like its predecessor, and yet every record is instantly recognisable as a PJ Harvey record. Hither, she plays at being an electro vixen; yon, she’s a dripping wet, sexed up garage rock goddess; and here on ‘White Chalk,’ her eighth studio album, she’s a maudlin country songstress, fragile and pretty, a daguerreotype image of a pale widow: sometimes rocking in a chair, sometimes screaming into the winds. Lyrically and musically, this is a dark, dark record. Anyone expecting ‘Uh Huh Her’s sassy garage will be disabused of such notions when ‘The Devil’ opens the record with plunketty piano chords and disconsolate wails. Her astonishing, keening voice brings forth introspection made of glass and then shatters it, screaming “Come! Come! Come here at once!” in a brief moment of fury unleashed; the turbulence fails as her voice quiets to whisper: “…Because all of my being is now in pining,” she finishes, and we quiver at this fragility exposed so harshly. To insist upon you just how bleak and solitary this record is, one need only recount song titles: ‘Dear Darkness’; ‘Broken Harp’; ‘When Under Ether’. To insist upon you how beautiful this record is proves more challenging. It’s spectral and delicate, the voice of a dead widow haunting the moors. Arrangements are sparse: mandolins, pianos, guitars strummed gently. Polly has always been a magnificent lyricist of inner darkness, but rarely has she been quite this bleak. Loss and loneliness bring forth this image of the secluded country widow living amongst memories and bones, with a fiery sexuality frustrated and unfulfilled. In a year when everyone has wanted to take pills and dance in neon, the maturity of songwriting and emotion in ‘White Chalk’ couldn’t be more at odds, or more refreshing.
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2007-10-22
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STANTON WARRIORS
REMIXES
SKINT RECORDS
BREAKS
This is exactly what breakbeat needs at the moment. The Stantons have produced an accessible mix that acts as the musical equivalent of KY Jelly, easing breakbeat virgins into the genre that initially may have appeared too hard on the approach. Gorillaz, Basement Jaxx and Fatboy Slim get treated to that trademark screechy edge, whilst some proper classics like Azzido Da Bass’ ‘Dooms Night’ and Layo & Bushwacka!’s ‘Love Story’ ring all the right bells. They even throw in their helium fuelled production ‘Shake It Up,’ to remind us that they’re capable of creating their very own dancefloor racket. Officially the world’s biggest breaks DJs, having become record holders of the biggest selling breakbeat release of all time with the ‘Stanton Sessions,’ the duo recently scooped a Breakspoll award for best compilation with their latest Fabric Live release. Further, their ‘Lost Files’ debut album was hailed as a work of genius by Annie Nightingale. So is ‘Remixes’ going to bring more trophies to the mantelpiece? Possibly not. Although it’s a step in the right direction for our beloved breakbeat movement, it’s not got that ‘umph’ and grit that The Stantons’ previous workings held. They’ve already proved that they can smash the remix side of things; it comes easy to an act of their stature, so this latest offering could be accused of being a bit of a cop out – the pair are fully capable of bringing us something with a little more thrust to it. But that’s nothing to brood over, the main thing is that the Stanton Warriors are back and we’re right behind them. |
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