baze.djunkiii Charts 01/2014
01. Gorgon Sound E.P. [Peng Sound Records]
Although it's not the commonly most known fact about my musical descent it's more than true that I've been a huge sucker for Dub and DubHouse for a while back in the 90s after being introduced to this kind of sound by attending a show set up by Hamburg's former Fat Back Sound System in Flensburg around 1994 or so which had a huge impact on me for the following years. And although the musical focus has changed over the past two decades there's a deep love for Dub within in my heart and every once in a while there's the occasional Dub vinyl popping up that's so essential that it has to be added to my collection. Released in mid-2013 but only popping up in German record stores with a huge delay these days the 2x12" EP by Gorgon Sound is such a thing. Pressed on massive, heavy as fuck vinyl, released in a beautiful thick and gatefold cardboard cover, with two tunes graced by the vocals of Junior Dread and Guy Calhoun and two huge instrumental cuts this piece brings out everything I love about the style they call DubHouse. Lively, pounding 4/4 drums, huge waves of deepest analogue bass, offbeat licks, huge amounts of space, a pretty much stripped down, skeletal structure and a shitload of positive vibes - the right ingredients to make me listen to these tunes over and over again. 100% greatness.
02. A Sagittariun - Dream Ritual [Elastic Dreams]
An album highly praised by myself in the recent issue of the German FAZE Magazine and without a doubt one of the most important longplay pieces released in late - if not all of - 2013. The quite mysterious A Sagittariun caters a rich musical menu in between the realms of beautifully floating Ambient, calm Electronica, Intelligent / Armchair Techno, PostIndustrial / ProtoElectro similar to a sound once provided by legends like Cabaret Voltaire or Cybotron and, not only due to its perfect emulation of the early 90s sound pedigree but also to its broad musical variety and perfect craft, is one of the rare essential albums every electronic music fan is highly recommended to include in his or her collection. There's no way not to love this for a reason.
03. Cabaret Voltaire - Micro-Phonies [Intone / Mute]
What an essential piece to be re-issued after all these years. Cabaret Voltaire are playing with faraway echoes of PostPunk /P Funk whilst walking down the PostIndustrial, NuBeat, Electro and ProtoTechno alley. Great to hear all-time favorites like "The Operative", "Spies In The Wires", "Digital Rasta" or the notorious "Sensoria" on virgin vinyl again as this one, apart from a like 15 year old CD to tape copy received from a friend, was missing in my collection for ages.
04. DJ Rashad - Double Cup [Hyperdub]
The more I douse into Juke and Footwork and related sounds from Windy City the more I deeply love it. The abstract layers, the echoes of Future R'n'B and DigiSoul, the multiple tempos, the sweet breakdowns, the Jungle reminiscing samples, the raw vibes - all of it. And DJ Rashad and his Teklife mates bring out the best of it within these 15 tracks including the already anthemic "I Don't Give A Fuck", the huge "Everyday Of My Life", the undeniable amen party anthem "Drank, Kush, Barz", the uber-sexy "ShowU How"and the screeching "Acid Bit" - a collaboration with Addison Groove. Instant classic that's not to be missed for no reason.
05. Four Seasons Vol. 3 [Got2Go Records 004 Whitelabel Promo]
Limited to 300 12" copies pressed on blue vinyl and featuring tracks by Kat Channel, Elec Pt. 1 and Techno legend Affie Yusuf. All of them are exploring the realms of deep, raw and uncut analogue House music with a partly windy city twist that's provided by Kat Channel whilst Elec Pt.1 steps out into mindbending, darkly scintillating Acid(House) and Affie Yusuf focuses on a tense and pumping Crime Scene House attitude. Great.
06. Daniel Avery - Drone Logic [Phantasy Sound / Because Music]
Masterpiece? Yes, indeed. Daniel Avery's debut is one of a rare and hard to find kind. Somewhere in between tripped out Breakstep, free floating Electro, Underworld-reminiscing Techno with an Acid twist - "Naive Response" - and Intelligent Techno, spread over two massive vinyl discs of thrilling depth and sound quality. A ravers wet dream and an essential addition to every collection. Killer.
07. Chizh - New Day [Plus Seven Records 002 Promo]
The Russian producer Aleksander Korneev a.k.a. Chizh serves his partially Soul- and mostly Acid-infused view on Slowest Motion Beatdown and SloHouse without giving up his dancefloor focus which is kinda hard when one falls below 100 bpm tempowise. But still: it's working out here and even at this low tempo these four tunes are driving and thrilling as fuck. Remarkable piece and it seems we'll have to keep an eye on this label in future times. Check "Get Out" for a proof.
08. Allen Alexis - The Other Side [Freakadelle 003]
The Austrian duo Allen Alexis comes up with its sophomore album here and kicks things off with the epic 10+ minutes runtime song - sic!!! - "Exciting" that sets the path for things to come with its longing but distressed SynthPop vocal setting on top of dark'ish PostEBM vs. ElectroClash beats that do also know about the dancefloor magic of Pop-flavored MinimalHouse or -Techno as well as about Psycho SynthPop, deep melancholia and the darkness of a nightlife-driven lifestyle. One for very special moments shortly after a long night out has come to an end. Nice.
09. Doyeq - Road To River [Moshitaka 001 Promo]
It seems like big ol' Russia is on the rise these days as I cannot recall one single chart within my nearly 15 years of doing monthlys which featured two releases from this country. Not a single one. Anyway, with the launch of the fresh Moshitaka label we see the Moscow-based production duo named Doyeq exploring the warm and decent realms of DubTechno and serving a hyperchilled hit with the A2-featured "Sine" which basslines kinda come up as warm, analogue and heavy as if they were taken and remodeled from old Jungle and Drum'n'Bass tunes. Huge one.
10. Trentemøller - Gravity [In My Room 016 Promo]
See review for details...
Although it's not the commonly most known fact about my musical descent it's more than true that I've been a huge sucker for Dub and DubHouse for a while back in the 90s after being introduced to this kind of sound by attending a show set up by Hamburg's former Fat Back Sound System in Flensburg around 1994 or so which had a huge impact on me for the following years. And although the musical focus has changed over the past two decades there's a deep love for Dub within in my heart and every once in a while there's the occasional Dub vinyl popping up that's so essential that it has to be added to my collection. Released in mid-2013 but only popping up in German record stores with a huge delay these days the 2x12" EP by Gorgon Sound is such a thing. Pressed on massive, heavy as fuck vinyl, released in a beautiful thick and gatefold cardboard cover, with two tunes graced by the vocals of Junior Dread and Guy Calhoun and two huge instrumental cuts this piece brings out everything I love about the style they call DubHouse. Lively, pounding 4/4 drums, huge waves of deepest analogue bass, offbeat licks, huge amounts of space, a pretty much stripped down, skeletal structure and a shitload of positive vibes - the right ingredients to make me listen to these tunes over and over again. 100% greatness.
02. A Sagittariun - Dream Ritual [Elastic Dreams]
An album highly praised by myself in the recent issue of the German FAZE Magazine and without a doubt one of the most important longplay pieces released in late - if not all of - 2013. The quite mysterious A Sagittariun caters a rich musical menu in between the realms of beautifully floating Ambient, calm Electronica, Intelligent / Armchair Techno, PostIndustrial / ProtoElectro similar to a sound once provided by legends like Cabaret Voltaire or Cybotron and, not only due to its perfect emulation of the early 90s sound pedigree but also to its broad musical variety and perfect craft, is one of the rare essential albums every electronic music fan is highly recommended to include in his or her collection. There's no way not to love this for a reason.
03. Cabaret Voltaire - Micro-Phonies [Intone / Mute]
What an essential piece to be re-issued after all these years. Cabaret Voltaire are playing with faraway echoes of PostPunk /P Funk whilst walking down the PostIndustrial, NuBeat, Electro and ProtoTechno alley. Great to hear all-time favorites like "The Operative", "Spies In The Wires", "Digital Rasta" or the notorious "Sensoria" on virgin vinyl again as this one, apart from a like 15 year old CD to tape copy received from a friend, was missing in my collection for ages.
04. DJ Rashad - Double Cup [Hyperdub]
The more I douse into Juke and Footwork and related sounds from Windy City the more I deeply love it. The abstract layers, the echoes of Future R'n'B and DigiSoul, the multiple tempos, the sweet breakdowns, the Jungle reminiscing samples, the raw vibes - all of it. And DJ Rashad and his Teklife mates bring out the best of it within these 15 tracks including the already anthemic "I Don't Give A Fuck", the huge "Everyday Of My Life", the undeniable amen party anthem "Drank, Kush, Barz", the uber-sexy "ShowU How"and the screeching "Acid Bit" - a collaboration with Addison Groove. Instant classic that's not to be missed for no reason.
05. Four Seasons Vol. 3 [Got2Go Records 004 Whitelabel Promo]
Limited to 300 12" copies pressed on blue vinyl and featuring tracks by Kat Channel, Elec Pt. 1 and Techno legend Affie Yusuf. All of them are exploring the realms of deep, raw and uncut analogue House music with a partly windy city twist that's provided by Kat Channel whilst Elec Pt.1 steps out into mindbending, darkly scintillating Acid(House) and Affie Yusuf focuses on a tense and pumping Crime Scene House attitude. Great.
06. Daniel Avery - Drone Logic [Phantasy Sound / Because Music]
Masterpiece? Yes, indeed. Daniel Avery's debut is one of a rare and hard to find kind. Somewhere in between tripped out Breakstep, free floating Electro, Underworld-reminiscing Techno with an Acid twist - "Naive Response" - and Intelligent Techno, spread over two massive vinyl discs of thrilling depth and sound quality. A ravers wet dream and an essential addition to every collection. Killer.
07. Chizh - New Day [Plus Seven Records 002 Promo]
The Russian producer Aleksander Korneev a.k.a. Chizh serves his partially Soul- and mostly Acid-infused view on Slowest Motion Beatdown and SloHouse without giving up his dancefloor focus which is kinda hard when one falls below 100 bpm tempowise. But still: it's working out here and even at this low tempo these four tunes are driving and thrilling as fuck. Remarkable piece and it seems we'll have to keep an eye on this label in future times. Check "Get Out" for a proof.
08. Allen Alexis - The Other Side [Freakadelle 003]
The Austrian duo Allen Alexis comes up with its sophomore album here and kicks things off with the epic 10+ minutes runtime song - sic!!! - "Exciting" that sets the path for things to come with its longing but distressed SynthPop vocal setting on top of dark'ish PostEBM vs. ElectroClash beats that do also know about the dancefloor magic of Pop-flavored MinimalHouse or -Techno as well as about Psycho SynthPop, deep melancholia and the darkness of a nightlife-driven lifestyle. One for very special moments shortly after a long night out has come to an end. Nice.
09. Doyeq - Road To River [Moshitaka 001 Promo]
It seems like big ol' Russia is on the rise these days as I cannot recall one single chart within my nearly 15 years of doing monthlys which featured two releases from this country. Not a single one. Anyway, with the launch of the fresh Moshitaka label we see the Moscow-based production duo named Doyeq exploring the warm and decent realms of DubTechno and serving a hyperchilled hit with the A2-featured "Sine" which basslines kinda come up as warm, analogue and heavy as if they were taken and remodeled from old Jungle and Drum'n'Bass tunes. Huge one.
10. Trentemøller - Gravity [In My Room 016 Promo]
See review for details...
posted by baze.djunkiii at 1:37 AM
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