When I read that this record was sourced from old 78s played through antique gramaphones (HMV Model 102s, if you need to know), I imagined something swathed in old-timey crackles in the manner of Philip Jeck or Leyland Kirby. Far from it: there is a gentle background hiss in places, but the key elements of […]
It seems hard to believe that this is only Isolée’s third album. There’s more variety on here than on, say, his microhouse classic We Are Monster: there are spots of gloopy acid, and I think I detected a dub techno influence in places. But it still sounds very much like Isolée. Which is, on the […]
Melissa Agate’s debut was something pretty special. She combines unconventionally played strings with unknown plucked instruments (the internet suggests the kalimba, which is a Kenyan so-called thumb piano) and various chimes and bells — and, y’know, whatever other instruments she could find, along with occasional breathlike wordless vocals. The results are delicate and beautiful. I […]
It took me a while to get my head around this record, until I realized that the best way to think about it — for me, anyway — is as highly abstract hip hop. It is a highly eclectic collection of tunes, taking in everything from electronic ambient, spoken word samples (in both English and […]
This is really nice, laidback Sunday-flavoured dancing music. I guess it lives somewhere on a line between the less cheesy end of deep house and the more chilled out end of Detroit techno — in particular, there are moments which feel just like The Other People Place. Somehow, I don’t find myself with a huge […]
I find this collection an enjoyable listen, but I struggle to get a good mental grip on it. Spread across three CDs, it takes in a wide variety of genres, including (but not limited to) ambient, a dubby sort of techno, electronic, middle-Eastern, and arty sixties-style instrumental pop. The common factor is that it is, […]
Now, this is great stuff. I’ve not heard techno quite like this before. The beats range from dubby to a hard warehouse-style techno. The dominant instrument is the piano: dissonant stabs and abrasive jazzy runs — uplifting Balearic this is not. Occasionally, the beat drops out leaving only dark swirling atmospherics, which I guess is […]
This is a huge amount of fun. Vikki Bennett and Jon Leidecker have done something quite rare: they have dug up countless old records, films, radio and television programmes, and who knows what else, and done a massive cut-and-paste job, and ended up with a work of great musicality and humour, and one which makes […]
A few years ago, I would have considered myself quite a Kompakt fan (though I did prefer the more austere Minus). I’ve drifted away from them, a bit, but I do really like this mix CD. It opens with an ambient/neo-classical string track by Danny Norbury, which is obviously going to get me on its […]
When I wrote about Leyland Kirby’s Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was almost a year ago, I mentioned his work as The Caretaker inspired by the haunted ballroom scene in The Shining. This is that record. It has to be said it takes its brief fairly literally. Snatches of old records, I guess […]
dogrando writes about some records 