Forthcoming.

Retro Stylings

Two seemingly disparate articles looking at similar tendencies in disparate musics floating around just now.

Philip Sherburne's column on Pitchfork looking at the return to analogue prevalent in the post-minimal climate. He's got some interesting points, most notably about Clone's increasing quest to refine and redefine the electronic canon, looking at the (small c) "continuum" of musics that have been growing out of the roots of disco/house/boogie/techno/acid/etc. Talk of innovation (although Sherburne uses the neat phrase "sonic novelty" in addressing the excesses of the minimal boom) has moved to talk of authenticity, a phrase that in all cultural forms is loaded with as much baggage as i've seen being lugged through the streets of Edinburgh this week.

Michael Tumelty's piece in the Herald looks at the Edinburgh International Festival's current programme and the furore over the sheer volume of Early/Historical/Authentic music in this years lineup. His point being that after a number of years where Historically Informed music was percieved as a niche, specialist pursuit it is now ready to go (for want of a better word) mainstream.

There's a lot of pleasure to be gained in seeing artists who've grown in relative obscurity getting plaudits for their mastery of their chosen form. I'm eagerly anticipating watching Legowelt break out his boxes at Substance this weekend just as Tumelty seems excited at the prospect of seeing Bach Collegium Japan.

So this is really just a wee screed, saluting all the interesting music programming this year in all its forms in Edinburgh's festival this year. It's a welcome relief from the depressing uniformity of a lot of the fare on offer at the major Fringe venues- acres of posters on boards plastered with easily recognisable visual references on posters.

Waxy treats.

Things that are making my life worthwhile.

Nacho Patrol- Futuristic Abeba- Danny "Legowelt" Wolfers' new album is getting a lot of attention and i'm looking forward to checking it out but this, his second release as Nacho Patrol, is a surprising beautiful slice of african influenced, organ-soaked joy. Everything is so organic, summery, warm and delicious. Quite different to last years spiky imaginary soundtrack "The Maze of Violence" (a record my wife forbids me from playing when we have company round!).

Juju and Jordash- Dekmental 001 12"- Dutch producers first release on their own new label. Great, bit more driving than usual but retains the interdimensional galaxian feel that they always bring to the table. The end of "Super Blue Meanies" stopped me in my tracks when the lads in Underground Solushn played this when I asked for it. Made me go immediately to Levon Vincent's "Six Figures" from earlier in the year. Lerosa remix on the b-side is a loping dubbed out treat too. Online mixes provide a superb introduction to their sound, a rich, varied no-boundaries style that i can't get enough of.

Hieroglyphic Being- So much noise 2 be heard- Impeccable future machine jazz. Geniunely mindboggling emotion and feel from pretty much everything on these two 12"s. Hard to classify, there are just so many ideas. Everything feels so, so, so right. Sensational in every sense of the word. Checked out the Les Aeroplanes 12" on Mathematics that's getting a lot of attention just now. It's also very good but times is hard and I had to leave it.

Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics- Inspiration Information- Was really looking forward to this and not disappointed. Saw Heiliocentrics live a few years ago at Headspin and was really impressed with the way they manage to keep it weird as all hell and so tight at the same time. Reminds me a little of the underrated Up Bustle and Out when they went to Cuba and really opened up their sound but there is a lot more depth and experimentation here. I always get the sense that UB&O were never given the credit due to them, especially for the slightly demented feel of their later, live sessiony stuff. Mulatu Astatke is a complete legend, there's a nice piece on him (and further stuff about Soundway, Strut and Analog Africa) here.

Banda los hijos de la nina luz- Dejala Corre/El Sapo/Crees Que Soy Sexy- Demented Afro/Latin medely version of If you think I'm sexy on Soundway 7". Woot!

Oh sweet suffering...

Archived music press' feature on early live UK techno.

My particular fave is Reynolds' contention that "Yank Dj's can't compete with Brits when it comes to building peaks and plateaux".

Peerless and utterly groundless snarking from the 'nuumfinder general, along with some supreme prime high-hattery about "regressive strain in rave culture...exacerbated by the fact that half of them look like they're only 13".

So much, so little

Apologies for lack of action in recent weeks. My work life has taken a turn for the hectic. In all a good thing, but exhausting.

Hoping to get some time over the weekend to write up a few things.

In the meantime here's a haul of some recent, thoroughly irresponsible purchases.

STL- 51 North (Something): Gold. Absolute gold. Insistent, hypnotic, mysterious house music. This completely transports you without seeming to actually go anywhere. Was looking to get some STL having heard the name discussed in end-of-year discussions. Was buying the doublepack and my local record dealer told me to take this too. Gorgeous. To such an extent I sent an incoherent gushing and obviously drunken email to all the staff at the record shop about how much I loved it. So now.

Zomby- Rumours and Revelations (Brainmath): The usual high quality from someone who's going to be huge next year. I'm very, very annoyed that I couldn't find a copy of "Liquid Dancehall" earlier on this year. Eagerly awaiting spending more of my dwindling funds on Hyperdub 16.

$tinkworks- Coelacaenth (strange life records): *Blub*. This record makes me feel funny.

Mikkel Metal- Peaks and Troughs ep (part3) (Echocord): Bought the last one for the Pole remix. And this for Mike Huckaby. Beautiful stuff,

DJ Stingray- Aqua Team 2 (WeMe records): Don't really know what to say about this yet. The usual Drexcian malarkey but I think records like this give up their secrets slowly. Or something. *Update* This is superb. The second record has a stateliness and poise that's all too rare these days. Like being in a deserted church at midnight. For fans of Tri-Repetae period Autechre.

Reggie Dokes- Rain Redemptive Love EP (Philpot): Class. Bought as a few people on InfiniteStateMachine were boosting it as one of the tracks of this or any year. They're not wrong. All three tracks are superb.

Moodymann- KDJ23: I've passed over this record loads of times thinking "Nah, I'll just get it some other time". Having missed out on a couple of beauties this year I decided not to leave it to chance. The bells on A1 remind me of being surrounded by pealing bells while walking through a park.

Peverelist- Clunk, Click, Every Trip (Punch Drunk): Sweet. Yet more goodness from Punch Drunk high heid yin, Peverelist. Serious Underground Resistance business going on here. A sister piece to his Shackleton remix earlier from this year. And he released Gemmy's fantastic "Bk 2 the future". Is there nothing the man can't do?

I'm off to the Giant Tank/Missing Twin Christmas Party tonight for some Usurper/Muscletusk insanity and the drinking of strong beer.

~Scape sound

Thanks to everyone who came down to the Voodoo Rooms last night.


Great turnout for a Monday night. TR I/O FON were absolutely fantastic, scrambling brains with scattergun clatter early doors. Inspired me to pull out Autechre's Envane EP to follow up.


Played Donnacha Costello's newie too before Araya followed on with a gorgeous set of bright shiny shimmer. Really looking forward to forthcoming releases. Then a few more tunes, Photek's 2 sword technique giving way to Peverelist's awesome remix of Shackleton on ~scape, those technoey kicks sounded brilliant over the Voodoo's sound system.

Then Pole came on and flattened everyone with a great set, starting with his rework of Shackleton's Shortwave and blasting through some Steingarten goodies and the forthcoming 12" "Alles Gut/Alles Klar". A great set from an absolute gent that neatly dispelled the notion that Betke's music is all about the sound design, really physical and great fun. Dancing amongst Edinburgh audiences is as rare as hens teeth and it was nice to see the floor moving!

Superb photos of the night by William Stark.

Pole, Dancing

Exciting weekend coming up, between going out to see Prins Thomas at Ultragroove for Kris Wasabi's birthday and then playing records between the acts at Pole in the Voodoo Rooms on Monday.

Support on the night from Benbecula's Araya as well as dub techno trio TR-I/O-FON. I've never heard of them but if there's a phrase that gives me a warm tingly feeling just saying the fucking words it's "dub techno trio" so get there on time.

Your ticket also entitles you to go along to Pole's production workshop at 2pm in Alison House at the University of Edinburgh.

On sale in Ripping, Underground Solushun and for our wild western buddies Rub a Dub and Monorail.

Thanks to Gav for asking me to do this, I'm a big fan of Betke and his superb ~scape label.

Droids, Slugs, Riddims.

The wearie-curated Blogariddims series is coming to an end, the second last installment is just up.

Droid and Slug joining the dots between todays fractured dubby electronic output and a previous pulse of fractured dubby electronic output.

Just get along and get listening.

"Krib" off Autechre's Cichlisuite EP retains to power to alter my reality.

Which begs the question...

Is it really worthwhile charging 12 quid into Optimo's bi-monthly do in Edinburgh if you know it's going to have an effect on the crowd? Especially given that it's usually half the price in Glasgow?

Is it time to introduce club etiquette lessons to the secondary curriculum? Lots of shoving. And couples mauling each other.

If someone you'd never met before accidentally gave you 20 quid instead of a fiver to add a pint to your order would you correct the mistake?

What kind of a bawbag thinks it's funny to deploy stink bombs in an underground club on one of the muggiest nights of the summer? Twice? Seriously dude, you're a gowl.

Aren't Joakim like a really neat amalgam of Sonic Youth, Franz Ferdinand and Scion?
Ok, that's not really a question. More an observation.

Matthew Bourne loves the sex doesn't he?

Why have all the good techno records gone so expensive?

It lives...

No updates for over a month.

Naughty, lazy, feckless wastrel.

Work's been busy and I've been on holidays.

Recent Underground Solushun acquisitions:

Four Tet- Ringer EP (Domino)
SL Break- Laguna Seca 12" (Philpot)
Luke Hess- Real to Real 12" (FXHE)
James Pants- Welcome LP (Stones Throw)
Daedalus- Fair Weather Friends EP (Ninja Tune)
Terrence Dixon- Climb EP (Nightvision)
Sub Club- 20 years underground CD (Soma)

Absolutely loving the Luke Hess and Terrence Dixon 12"s.

The subculture CD on the Sub Club compilation has me happy as a clam.
The Martian, Steve Poindexter, Jimmy Bo Horne, Galaxy to Galaxy.
*Sigh*
Harri and Dominic are just dreamy.

Anyways, enough guff. It's the Leith Gala today so that means heading down the Links this afternoon for some food and cold beer in the sun listening to Stevie Messenger's good time selections. The weather's looking good so it should be a nice afternoon, at least until the local heid the baws start getting surly.

Then it's off to Techno Matt's 30th birthday party and the inevitable dawn of random.

Nooz Rekirdz

It's payday friday, the missus is off away for the weekend.

All this means an hour was spent in record shops buying new tunes!
I've was seriously broke last month but there was lots to keep up with.

Sterac- Rond Bot EP (Delsin)
Theo Parrish- That Day/How I feel (Archive)
Darkstar- Need you/Squeeze my lime (Hyperdub)
Juan McLean- Happy House (DFA)
The Clone Machine- The Clone Machine (um, Clone)
Moodymanc- The preacher (Moodymanc)

oh, and finally found a copy of Omar S- Psychotic Photosynthesis!

WOOO!

When the cat's away...

...the mouse will go through to the Weej, buy records and go to gigs.

With the wife back in ireland this weekend I toddled across to Glasgow on Saturday for some record buying and gig going.

Started at Rub a Dub and spent a lovely hour going through a big stack of vinyl. Made some good purchases and heard probably the worst house track I've ever come across in my life. Was interested in hearing it as it's very early and thought it might be worth investigating. Enormous mistake. The years have not been kind to this forgotten slice of House history. Maybe I'm missing something here but it was disappointing.

Ended up picking up some good new stuff there and the staff at Rub A Dub are dead friendly and helpful.

New purchases include:
MLZ- Crossed Swords (Modern Love)
Nubian Minds- Africa Man EP (Delsin)
Gescom- A1/B1 (Skam)
Shackleton- Death is not final (Skull Disco)
Deep Chord- Coldest Season EP2 (Modern Love)
Dubbyman- Dubtroit EP (Deep Explorer)
nsi.-Non standard institut (Cadenza)

Pretty varied stuff there- I'm most happy with the nsi. and nubian minds releases- both are really up my street. I love the bonkers satie-esque piano sounds on the nsi.

Then it was on to Monorail where my pal wanted to pick up an import CD of Japanese Geniuses/Idiots Afrirampo. I saw them live a few years ago and they were fantastic- a really fun witty show by two absolutely amazing musicians. While I was there I found myself idly browsing through the racks and couldn't resist picking up remixes of Delia & Gavin Russom "Revelee" and the new LCD Soundsystem 12" "Confuse the marketplace". I'd promised myself I'd buy these for a while, largely for the Carl Craig remix on the former and "Hippie Priest Bum-Out" on the latter. There's a really good dubby remix of "North American Scum" on Confuse the Marketplace too. I also bought a couple of 7"s because they were conveniently located on top of the cashdesk. I can't help myself sometimes, especially on the weekend of payday and I'm off on my own with no-one to rein in my excesses.

With the record buying part of the mission over it was on to the gigs...

Started with Monade at Nice n Sleazys. This is a side project for Stereolab's Laetitia Sadlier and some of her pals. Support was from the Phantom Band. I wasn't overly impressed with the Phantom Band, they were ok but tracks meandered on trying to take in lots of ideas and influences without really going anywhere. Suggestions of Neu, Gram Parsons, David Kitt and Sunburned Hand of the Man. Which unfortunately promised more than it delivered. Maybe it was just one of those evenings and they're actually fantastic.

Monade came on around ten and played for an hour. They're not enormously different in sound and tone to the poppier end of the Stereolab spectrum. They reminded me a little of Deerhoof but loungier. Loungehoof so to speak. The deerhoof similarity comes largely from the fact that a lot of the songs feature radical time and key changes which gives a real sense of dynamism and spring to some of the songs. Everything was beautifully balanced with Marie Merlet and Sadlier harmonising sweetly along to spirals of choppy guitar and neat tones from Nicolas Etienne's keys. The last few numbers, from new album Monstre Cosmic were really good despite the crowd seeming quite distracted. You hear a lot of guff about Glasgow crowds being more up for it than boring old tweedy Edinburgh. Tonight wasn't one of those nights with people standing around chatting rather than really engaging with the band at all which was a pity, because Monade are a fantastic grown-up dreamy pop band that doesn't need to hide behind sexy design and arch theatricality.

Then it was off to the Art School for Numbers birthday party and Autechre in all their live glory. I'm an Autechre nerd and have been throughout their many incarnations so i was very excited about this. A charge often levelled at Booth and Brown is that their music is too "cerebral"- I've always taken issue with this, yes the later records from LP5 through to Untilted have been quite process-heavy and contain tracks that require repeated listens to unpick their secrets but Autechre in concert have always been an exhilarating and eminently danceable prospect.

SND started the night off and were diverting for a while. I prefer the whole glitchy thing on record a lot more than i do live. Although I did have a bit of a boogie to a couple of the more funky electro moments. Then we were treated to Skam head honcho Rob Hall lashing out a scatter of clatter which seemed to warm up the crowd a little. There was little of Glasgow's fabled ambience here either- although I did meet one cheeky wee west coast headcase who was completely out of his knackers with his t-shirt tied around his head well before midnight. I love these guys. Particularly at gigs like this where everyone's got their big serious faces on.

By the time Autechre came on the room was pretty full but strangely there wasn't a huge amount of movement from the crowd with the majority of people content to just stand about. This is surprising because straight from the outset Autechre seemed determined to get people dancing. The hour and a half live show used much of the source material from Quaristice but put it through the distinctive Autechre live blender- everything is slightly hectic, twitchy but still distinctively rhythmic. We were even treated to a rare suggestion of humanity with actual human voices breaking through the clattering storm of breakbeats on Quaristice's "IO". What a bunch of sellouts! The insistence amongst critics of Autechre's post-Tri repetae material that it's too cerebral but in the live arena Autechre completely destroy this notion- on this tour it appears they're casting off the mythical stereotypes of them as unsmiling mad-professors running their equipment for days and inventing their own software to generate the music from nothing. This is Autechre in more relaxed form and enjoying the live environment- to which their music is better suited than people seem to assume.
This was what they did from the outset; the material has always approprated elements of dance music before scrambling it out of shape then pulling it all back together again. Live versions of "Perlence", the dark digital hip-hop of "Rale" and particularly the chiming musicbox chords of "Simmm" from the new album have echoes of older material like Envane, Cichlisuite and Chiastic Slide. It's interesting that Autechre critics who decried their move away from the original sound are now the ones who are down on the new albums conservatism. Basically Autechre are caught between a rock and a hard place, unable to make all their fans happy all the time and therefore deciding to please themselves. Listening to them tear their way through a rumbling version of the dubby "90101 51 1" you'd need a heart of stone not to smile and get that ass bouncing. (Update: There was an interview with Autechre on the (gawk)Today Programme which covered their gig at a car park in London. A lot of overintellectualising from the journos but the punters seem to have enjoyed themselves. Still, at least the Beeb journalists made an attempt to engage with the music unlike Dave Simpson's mean spirited Guardian gripes.)

Following on from a discussion about men and women dancing in clubs over at House is a Feeling I was inspired to make a random headcount of the split. The stereotype does have some basis in reality as there was a hefty 70:30 split in favour of the boys. I have extensive data on the ubiquity of square spectacles and architectural t-shirts that are available on request. Despite conforming to all the sneering demographic stereotypes about an IDM/Glitch night by the time Autechre had hit their stride there were at least some people (of both sexes) interested in getting down. In fact, the area in front of the stage the split was down to about 50:50. Unscientific it may be but it seems the dancefloor, heady as it may have been was where the majority of the ladies appeared to be. What does this mean, probably that women would prefer to dance in a club than sit around trying to figure out how the music is being made.

It's been 16 years since I'd first seen Laetitia Sadlier and 12 since I first saw Autechre. Time passes so quickly! Both Autechre and Sadlier have been around a while and amassed a phenomenal body of work, it's encouraging to discover that neither seem to be stepping off the gas in terms of developing new ideas and new ways of working.

Then Rob Hall was back on with more clattering acid before a brief stop off in the bar for an ill-advised last pint and a bit of a boogie to the Castaways "Liar Liar" before taking to the insanely windy streets of Glasgow.

I am now looking down the barrel of a very lean month during which i will eat nothing Spaghetti Hoops on toast.