Few people are onto great records as quickly as a great record store.
After years spent discovering gems in Phonica’s end of year lists, it made sense to give them a regular space on FACT. Every Saturday, staff from the Soho institution will pick out the five vinyl records you should grab this week.
MOODCUT
Tame Cuts EP
(Nous)
Wonky, handmade house from Greece’s Nous imprint, who look to Manchester for this batch of crunchy late-night jams from producer Moodcut. Primitive drums and bossy claps interlock with smudgy, funkified bass on ‘Late Night Ham’ and ‘Stuck In Socks’, while celestial synth smears keep things druggy’n’dreamy on the seductive ‘Space Dub’ (even better in its Coni Version).
FRANK & TONY
‘You’ 12″
(Frank & Tony)
Spaced-out, almost indulgently beautiful long-form house from Francis Harris (Adultnapper) and Anthony Collins, whose 13-minute collaboration with the inimitable DJ Sprinkles is worth the price of entry alone. The flip offers a lachrymose sad-house cut featuring the evocative vocals of Denmark’s Gry Bagøien plus a dub cut of ‘Faded’. This is the final installation of a trilogy of vinyl EPs containing tracks from Frank & Tony’s debut album You Go Girl.
WILLIAM ONYEABOR
William Onyeabor Vinyl Box Set 1
(Luaka Bop)
The biggest release so far in the second coming of elusive Nigerian synth-funk star, this box set contains five of the albums self-released by William Onyeabor between 1977 and 1985, plus a 7″, two booklets and an ad insert. All the music has been remastered. If you haven’t yet discovered Onyeabor you’re in for a treat.
RICARDO DONOSO
A Song For Echo LP
(Kathexis)
Digitalis regular Ricardo Donoso inaugurates the Kathexis label with a typically ambitious, richly atmospheric album (or rather, song cycle in seven parts) inspired by the myth of Echo and Narcissus, which weaves field recordings and glistening digital textures into waves of metallic noise and abyssal drones.
THE INVARIANTS
‘TI001’ 12″
(The Invariants)
This freshly minted project (and label) from Amsterdam is as low-profile as they come, but the four untitled tracks do all the talking, with the A-side offering heady ambience and subtle, gently propulsive hypnagogic vibes before the B-side brings the hi-hats for a humid, groove-led duo of club tracks.
