Reviews

Mark E - Selected Works 2005 - 2009

At the risk of laboring a point that has been made for ever, there is only good music and bad music. Whatever style, or type of music floats your boat, there will be good and there will be bad. There will be songs that are universally accepted as brilliant, and of course those that are universa...

Riva Starr - If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade

Released through Jesse Roses' Made To Play label the debut album of Riva Starr is an exercise in functional music for the 21st century, with the obligatory curve ball or two along the way. Hailing from Naples Riva Starr, aka Stefano Miele, has unsurprisingly been courted by the nu-skool house el...

Toro Y Moi - Causers Of This

Yes, ok, I admit it. Toro Y Moi’s Causers Of This sounds similar to Animal Collective and Panda Bear. But now that we’ve got all these narrow-minded pop references out of the way, we can focus on this fun and fascinating D.I.Y. album. With the heavens currently opening up for Bundick's h...

VA - Vienna Scientists V The 10th Anniversary

Various Artists - Vienna Scientists V - The 10th Anniversary

Let me start out by saying what a solid compilation this is - silky smooth and downright sexy. The Vienna Scientists Recordings have decided to release the quintuplet of acclaimed label series, Vienna Scientists V The 10th Anniversary. Originating from Austria, music from the applauded...

Pantha du Prince - Black Noise

Continuing to try and redefine the borders between the natural and the artificial, the dark and the light, Pantha du Prince brings us his third solo-album Black Noise. While releasing his previews two albums on Hamburg-based Dial Records, his third appears rather unusually on London’s Rough Trad...

Thomas Hammann & Gerd Janson - Live at Robert Johnson Vol. 4

Modeselektor’s massive Body Language Vol. 8, the dark and deep Panorama Bar 02 by Tama Sumo or Dixon’s visionary Temporary Secretary, all go to show that 2009 was a year of quality compilations. French DJ/producer Chloé kicked off the year with the first instalment of Robert Johnson’s 1...

Psychonauts - Songs for Creatures

Originally released in 2003, Songs for Creatures was the debut album from Paul Mogg and Pablo Clements under their Psychonauts moniker. A lot has changed in the intervening seven years, and although the album made a distinct impression on the likes of James Murphy and DJ Hell, who both name chec...

Maps - Turning the Mind

Northampton’s James Chapman – aka Maps – might not exactly be a blockbuster selling musician, but his work is very highly regarded among critics and his solid, steadily-rising fan-base. As a mute signing he has a nice line in ever so slightly retro-sounding synth pop, reminiscent of the tasty po...

J Dilla - Dillanthology 3

Dare I admit: though I knew much of J Dilla’s influence, I wasn’t overly familiar with his productions? I guess I just have, and for someone with an apathetic interest in hip hop, at best, I was completely mesmerised by the third instalment of his posthumously released beats. ‘Glamour Sho75’ is...

Daniel Metro - Working Class

Shitkatapult are one of a handful of Berlin-based labels that aren’t absolutely awful, and in the last decade or so they’ve produced some pretty smart wonky electronics. Step forward Daniel meteo, who kicks off his working Class LP with an easy club beat, the foundation for him to build in some...

Birdy Nam Nam - Manual for Successful Rioting

I kinda guessed I wouldn’t like this. And I was kinda wrong. most ‘bass’ music is formulaic, boring and enjoyed by kids from Croydon who think they live in the ghetto. It’s jungle for the new generation, with all of the shock and none of the awe. Birdy Nam Nam are a different prospect entirely,...

Blank and Jones / Mark Reeder - Reordered

Blank & Jones are hardly an unknown commodity here in Germany, given their background producing electronic music for more than a decade. Mark Reeder has also been a long-time fixture in the German music scene, having toured with New Order, managed malaria, produced the last ever LP in Commun...

Fuck Pony - Let the Love Flow

Flashes of inspiration, tempered with a lot of average-sounding electronic music. There is absolutely no doubting the skills that Jay Haze possesses, and if you read interviews with the man he seems like an interesting, thoughtful person that cares a lot about the world we live in. So it does pa...

KZA - Dig and Edit

Edits, reworks, remixes, new songs. Drawing on his huge record collection, force of Nature’s KZA crafts a diverse selection of songs that had their DNA forged on other people’s records. The relent- less bass-line of marianne faithfull’s Broken English is extended over and over, and the p...