01: PANTHA DU PRINCE
‘STICK TO MY SIDE’
(from BLACK NOISE, ROUGH TRADE)

Most talk about Hamburg’s Pantha du Prince revolves around the highs of his sound – those frequently beautiful chime-driven melodies to be precise – but Pantha excels just as effectively with the lows; the highlights of his classic This Bliss album in particular driven by tunneling basslines. The same is true of ‘Stick to my Side’, a growling highlight of new Pantha album Black Noise that features a selfless vocal performance by Animal Collective’s Panda Bear, Panda slipping into the track’s groove and being looped along with it.

02: MOSCA
‘NIKE’
(NIGHT SLUGS 12”)

“At 10 minutes, lengthy flipside track ‘Nike’ verges on becoming a full blown musical voyage. Its gradual metamorphosis from rambling pitch-bent Gameboy-step to delay-drenched house is so natural and staggered that it barely registers. A moderately peaceable track, ‘Nike’ is easy to become immersed in, but even though on the surface it’s a simple amalgamation of standard elements, its ethereal delay and eerie vocal snatches render it strangely removed from the familiar.” – full review here

03: DVA
‘GANJA’
(HYPERDUB  12”)

“Better, though less experimental, is ‘Ganja’ which follows a 4/4 pulse more closely, adding a weird key lick, cascading astral FX, echoey house stabs ‘n’ claps, and “ganjaman” vocal samples. A versatile dancefloor weapon that recalls South Africa’s kwaito as much as it does sounds more readily associated with London and Europe, Scratcha’s splicing of the house genome is taking the genre into brave new territories.” – full review here

04: LINEAR MOVEMENT
‘WAY OUT OF LIVING’
(from THE MINIMAL WAVE TAPES, STONES THROW LP)

You probably think that ‘cold wave’ music is just bored Eastern Bloc existentialists doing bad impressions of Joy Division over primitive Casio beats. And generally speaking you’d be right. But this strange, retrospectively formed genre – celebrated on Stones Throw’s brilliant Minimal Wave Tapes compilation – occasionally throws up the odd sky-scraping pop number. One such is Linear Movement’s sublimely funky, utterly infectious ‘Way Out Of Living’, the work of cult synth wizard Peter Bonne and guesting vocalist Lieve Van Steerteghem. It’s an absolute belter.

05: PANGAEA
‘SUNSET YELLOW’
(HESSLE AUDIO 12”)

(skip to 2.15)

“Even better is ‘Sunset Yellow’, the climax of which, with its rave divas crammed together into a demonic, wailing ghost-song just takes me over, each and every time. Vocals are critical here, lurking in the background, then jabbing out in frenzied grunts like Trez Demented lost in the tunnels somewhere below Berghain.” – full review here

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 2:21 pm and is filed under Features, Lists and tagged with Tracks of the Month. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.