01: BREACH
‘FATHERLESS’
(PTN 12”)
“That’s the beauty of ‘Fatherless’ – in one sense it’s dead simple, a long ominous intro and a drop that’s not much more than drums and flutes, but there’s something deep in that undead lurch that makes it completely unlike the rest of the drum-driven tribal house about right now. And even better, the quality doesn’t drop once on this three-track single – Doc Daneeka’s remix speeds things up while adding some seriously heavy subs, while Breach own’s ‘Man Up’ will probably end up one of the year’s most unfairly neglected B-sides.” – full review
02: QNS (QUANTITY NOT SUFFICIENT)
QNS2
(HIDDEN HAWAII / QNS 12″)
Spindly, bad-ass drum ‘n bass minimalism from Berlin, this one-sided 12″ has helped fill the void left by the decommissioning of Torsten Profrock’s T++ project. It sounds like the kind of mutant music that we thought would come out of the Autonomic scene, but which never really materialised. The third instalment in the series came out this week, and while impressive, it tends rhythmically towards dubstep, lacking the manic dynamism of the strange and singular QNS2.
03: FIS-T
‘NIGHT HUNTER’
(502 RECORDINGS 12”)
“It’s great to hear a track that deploys its wobble this effectively. And I do mean deploys; that bassline’s got purpose, it’s there to seek something out. Whereas the bassline on say, this sounds like someone working out their short man syndrome through music, this one’s packing SAS-style efficiency, and you’d never dream of trying to fuck with it.” – full review
04: HYPE WILLIAMS
‘OOOVRRR’
(SECOND LAYER 12″)
“‘Ooovrrr’ sees Hype Williams rip Drake’s bars from the garish orch-soul setting of ‘Over’ and pitch them down in a manner that inevitably recalls Salem, even more so when dry 808 drum-cracks and withered synth notes enter the fray. Thickset subs give the track structure and bounce; for all its drag trappings, there are moments where you feel you might be listening to a genuine ’96 rap tape left out in the sun. It remains to be seen whether Hype Williams can maintain their current form, but right now they really are outclassing every one of their pop culture-percolating peers.” – full review
05: GAMES
‘EVERYTHING IS WORKING’
(HIPPOS IN TANKS 7”)
“Retains the intricately layered production values and barely discernable murmurings that have become [Oneohtrix Point Never]’s trademark, but the introduction of a beat early on immediately makes the track feel more substantial, fitting comfortably alongside early Boards of Canada or the loosely defined chillwave of acts like Neon Indian or Toro Y Moi.” – full review
06: 19.454.18.5.25.5.18
UNTITLED A
(HORIZONTAL GROUND 12″)
High-speed, tensile house packing all the ghetto whoomp of vintage Cajmere and Dancemania, this is the most essential entry in Horizontal Ground’s white label series since Szare’s shimmying ‘Snake Cave’. We’re having trouble cracking the numerical code which masks the producer’s identity: unless, er, ‘SR E DREYER’ means anything to anyone?
07: WATER BORDERS
‘AKKO’
(HUNGRY FOR POWER 12”)
“Rather than use the sonic signifiers of goth as a gimmick, San Fran duo Amitai Holler and Loric Sih a.k.a Water Borders clearly intended their debut 12″ on Hungry For Power to be a deeply unsettling experience, and in this respect they have succeeded.” – full review
08: HOLY OTHER
‘WE OVER’
(TRANSPARENT 7”)
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“This Berlin-based bedroom producer has a smattering of tracks to stream on his Soundcloud, including slo-mo remixes of Mosca and Boyz II Men. The one that’s really catching our ear though, is ‘We Over’, a gothic space station paean that owes as much to gospel music as it does the usual reference points of Oneohtrix and Salem.”
09: WHITE CAR
‘REALITY BEAT’
(from NO BETTER, HIPPOS IN TANKS EP)
“We could’ve chosen any track from White Car’s No Better EP, but closer ‘Reality Beat’, with its killer robo-funk sequences, is particularly noteworthy, coming over as it does like a more suave and serpentine Stereo Image. “No more physicality,” declares singer Elon Katz, somewhat ironically given the sheer vigour and presence of his music, before asking,”Don’t you feel safe with me?” The answer to that question is yes, and no. ‘Reality Beat’, like No Better at large, is warm, welcoming and rooted in the familiar, but its atmosphere of dank sexuality and paranoia makes it anything but comfort food.” – full review
10: RAMADANMAN
‘GRAB SOMEBODY’
(WHITE LABEL 12″)
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A grimey, hard-snapping call to the dancefloor from the producer of the year (seriously, who else is there?). Airy techno synths and helium vocal loops add colour, but as ever with David Kennedy it’s all about the percussion – mind-bendingly complex without being fussy, and built with a deep-seated understanding of how to make bodies spasm.
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