Editor’s Club

Editor’s Club

11 January, 2010 | 10.55AM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: editors club, recommendations

I’ve avoided directly reviewing music releases on Beatport since the early days of Beatportal, as our attachment to the mothership meant independence was near-on impossible to guarantee to readers, and more importantly, to writers.

Even though we’ve always enjoyed relatively free comment on Beatportal, much more so than you’d expect from an editorial blog owned by a commercial entity, convincing our readers such freedom exists hasn’t been easy.

And who can blame you, for not trusting the recommendations of a store that sells the product it writes about?

Well in 2010, I’ve decided to jump into the world of recommendations with a new Editor’s Club blog series, that is 100% wholly personal. The blog will highlight my favourite cuts on Beatport, with in-depth personal notes on each record.

These are not official Beatport recommendations, but rather personal picks that I’m playing and listening to. The aim is to highlight good club music, regardless of the label, artist, genre, or hype, because in the world of near-infinite music databases and perpetual marketing, the wood has become exceptionally hard to see from the trees.

I would love for these posts to become a discussion point for electronic music fans and DJs worldwide, so please get involved in the comments section below and let me know your own music highlights, DJ thoughts, and personal feelings.

Simian Mobile Disco ‘Cruel Intentions’ (Maurice Fulton Remix) [Wichita Recordings]

These are dark days, dark times. And as comforting as druggy techno holes go, disco-flavoured soul offers its own form of light relief.

Disco can at times, swing too far into Hare Krishna happy clap territory - the kind of forced fun land that holiday camps terrorize unwanted kids with - but producers like 2009’s big disco player Tensnake, long-serving house astronaut Lindstrom, and confused house producer Motor City Drum Ensemble have done a fine job of convincing many former beard strokers such as myself out of the shadows to discover their inner rainbows.

They did it through tougher drums, and less camp tendencies, of course. Simian Mobile Disco, through their own form of surreptitiousness, have hood-winked many an indie kid onto the dancefloor by masking their disco roots behind minimal electronic grooves and banks of synthesizers.

Their new single ‘Cruel Intentions’ is a perfect slice of synth pop, but the real dancefloor fun to be had comes via a disco re-rub from electronic floozy Maurice Fulton.

The long-serving Sheffield-based producer and DJ has for over a decade provided vinyl lovers with rare disco treats and house diamonds (most of them confined to limited runs), so it’s exciting to see this exceptional remix on Beatport.

I first heard it via his brilliant Bubbletease Communications podcast (now in its 54th episode), that focuses on only the most tantalizing of unreleased disco grooves, and was immediately hypnotized by its freshness.

With catchy live drums, funk-styled bass, and groovy synths, Fulton has turned the pop treat into a real dancefloor pleasure.

There aren’t many dance tracks that discerning clubbers would be happy to singalong to, but this is one I’d gladly join in holy vocal union. All together now - Finally, the weight is off my shoulders!

Mic Newman ‘Sizzled Sally’ [murmur]

Classic house has been back for a while now, and it’s the updated loop-based tools that have caused the majority of hand raising moments over the past 18 months.

‘Sizzled Sally’ by former electro house man Mic Newman (an Australian based in London), is a prime example of how house should sound in 2010. With a piano groove, classic house vocals, and a drum heavy template, it has everything you’d want from a house track, with a couple of other nice little extras.

A tech-flavoured sonically capable bassline, high pass filter sweeps, a lengthy breakdown with snipped vocal loops - it gallops along at a perfect mid-set pace. This is an energy keeper.

NoiDoi ‘Deep Down Chicago’ [Barraca Music]

Valencia’s Barraca Music has over the past three years, become a major purveyor of underground house and techno. A pincer movement by the Picnic Group, has seen the brand emerge as both a respected club (Picnic took over the management of Valencia’s famous Barraca club five years ago), and an influential record label.

The imprint, under the ever-watchful eye of DC10 resident American DJ Andrew Grant, has seen its musical stock flourish thanks to pin-point release accuracy, and a wealth of as-yet undiscovered artist talent.

Both local DJs, and hot Eastern European names have joined the stable, and Romanian duo NoiDoi are an example of the kind of smart signings they’ve achieved in recent months.

With a residency at both Bucharest’s Kristal Glam Club and regular slots at Romania’s growing Sunwaves festival, NoiDoi’s Robert and Nicu are destined for bigger things.

Their music causes the most flutter - ‘Chicas Latinas’ on Great Stuff, produced alongside Mihalis Safras, was one of the most underrated tech house tunes of 2009, whilst their two-tracker ‘Mamadi / Octave’ on Fear Of Flying was exceptional.

‘Deep Down Chicago’ might be their best cut yet. With enthusiastic snare rolls, old school female vocals straight out of Chi-Town beg for applause, before chunky house beats smash the groove deep down into your gut.

And because it sounds so classic, the shelf life of this baby is likely many years.

Lung ‘Time’ [Kokeshi]

At just 19-years-old, Cardiff’s Lung most likely doesn’t remember the short lived prog breaks scene led by DJs and artists like Jonathan Lisle, Infusion, and Chable & Bonnici circa 2003, but that hasn’t stopped him from experimenting with emo-styled dubby breaks.

His debut EP ‘Afterlife / Time’ is a superb double drop of dark melodic dubstep, that fuses trance-like chords with pitch-shifted vocal snippets and uplifting intelligent bass movement. BBC Radio 1’s queen of alternative beats, Mary Ann Hobbs, got very wet over this one.

With half-paced beats, bleepy soul, and the odd Burial-sound here or there, it has been tagged as dubstep, but that won’t stop Lung from breathing life into the much missed prog breaks scene.

Romano Alfieri ‘Involution’ (Marco Effe Remix) [Big City Beats Tec]

Italian clubbers are a passionate, if somewhat fickle, lot. Before you puke your pizza all over the keyboard in a fit of racism revulsion, let me try to dig myself out of this salami-sized hole.

Italians went bananas for house music in the mid-90s, and declared themselves a Chicago-only zone with DJs like Alex Neri (Planet Funk), Gigi D’Agostino, and Claudio Coccoluto providing big room hits and UK-flavoured house sets year after year.

Some said that Italy’s house scene was the strongest in the world. Then progressive house sneaked its way in through the back door, and the country went all Sasha & Digweed, with homegrown prog producers and labels popping up faster than you can melt mozzarella.

Next came an army of minimal techno DJs and producers. The country soon turned into a bloated techno monolith, hampered by too many copy-cat producers.

Of course, a lot of countries have similar dance music history, but there is something about the Italian’s all-consuming energy - their famous passion - that makes them more adept to jumping on, and off, passing bandwagons.

The good news is they’re not all tarnished by the same brush, and amongst the yawn-inducing pastiches there are some sophisticated grooves to be found.

Marco Effe is one such Italian new breeder who has begun to make an impact in the wider world with some smart movements. With forthcoming releases on tech house’s high profile labels Cecille and Break New Soil, he’s sure to make an impact this year.

His recent remix of Romano Alfieri ‘Involution’ on Big City Beats Tec inspires me at the moment.

Subtly, it glides from a soulful, small basement jam, into an arena-sized rave anthem with rolling snares and everything else you’d want from a whistle inducer. Hawtin’s all over it too.

Alejandro Vivanco, Felipe Venegas ‘La Reina’ (Petre ‘Pedro’ Inspirescu Remix) [Supernature]

There was once a genre called minimal techno,
Which was stark, bold, and smartly original,
Then one day after a successful conquest,
Its masters got bored and laid it to rest.

The story is not quite over for minimal techno though, the genre that once ruled the world.

Like progressive house before it, minimal too has become a victim of its own dominance. From a bird’s eye view, the harvest hasn’t looked pretty for a while - all the chirpers of originality fled to fields far away in house, deep house, and disco, but a few have remained, quietly sowing seeds for later blossoming.

Labels such as LTD 400, Clink, Bar 25, and 303Lovers have drip fed the die hards, and artists such as Romania’s Petre ‘Pedro’ Inspirescu have dropped some amazing future-leaning minimal house records recently.

In particular, Pedro’s ‘Intr-o Sera Organica’ LP on A:RPIA:R (limited to just 450 vinyl pressings) featured sublime minimal rhythms, hypnotic passages, and percussive trips that did everything that minimal is supposed to do - create tension, warp frequencies, and inspire head swaying with microscopically precise elements and little to no tired audio clichés.

Pedro’s music, like much of the Arpiar lot, hardly ever makes it onto the ‘inferior’ (at least, in their eyes) digital formats, so it’s always a pleasure when it does.

His latest remix of Alejandro Vivanco and Felipe Venegas’ ‘La Reina’ is a masterclass is brain magnetism and heightened suggestibility. A 13-minute odyssey that is neither empty, nor full.

Daniel Stefanik ‘2’O’clock’ [Bangbang!]

Daniel Stefanik’s house tunes have entertained smaller floors since 2005, and although his cuts have featured on a number of top-selling mix compilations by Berghain, Poker Flat, Mobilee, and his home-from-home label Moon Harbour, this Leipzig-based producer hasn’t drifted far from his core deep techy sound.

In 2008, Stefanik penned the static Detroit-styled ‘Reactivity’ album which, although sonically quite bold, lacked a certain va-va-voom. Thankfully, his studio soul search didn’t drag on for too long.

‘2’Oclock’ from disco drum camp Bangbang! is the kind of rip-roaring house groove that Stefanik should be making. With a simple female vocal disco loop, and a rolling bassline, it’ll give any DJ the goose bumps upon drop down. It’s a simple tool, that will work time and again.

The Revenge ‘Just Be Good To Me’ feat. Danielle Moore (Exclusive Revenge’s Bodypop Mix) [Needwant]

Mash-up culture was fun. Then it got rather boring. Too many cheap imitations, too much nostalgic blasphemy. It simply became too easy to knock one out. An unfortunate side-effect of technological progress, one sighs.

The Revenge’s cover of The SOS Band’s 1983 hit ‘Just Be Good To Me’ is thankfully however, not one of those uninspiring dance remakes. With new vocals from Danielle Moore that sound close to Deborah Cox’ version, and a similar synth pop personality, Revenge’s Bodypop Mix is a sleazy late-night tribute that deserves more attention.

With an easy broken beat, glittering synths, and a smidgen of darkness, it’s a breath-taking glide and a wholly different angle, to an undeniable disco classic.

So far, The Revenge aka Graeme Clark has ducked beneath the radar of mainstream recognition, but considering Fatboy Slim’s Beats International group achieved a No.1 hit with their ‘Dub Be Good To Me’ cover in 1990, the Glasgow man could go all the way this time.

16 Bit Lolitas ‘Smoke Signals’ [Anjunadeep]

Elitism pervades electronic music. It crops up at every turn, from the self-aggrandizing blog and online comment scene, to the confrontational drum & bass forums, snobby techno record stores, and competitive DJ booth, all the way to the pompous guestlist girl.

It is a web of superiority complexes, and the pretentiousness is misplaced none more so than in the scene’s perennial distrust of a good melody.

Admittedly there’s only so much note stringing you can do over a four-to-the floor dance track, but that doesn’t mean club DJs should discount anything that resembles a chord progression.

Melody, when done right, can open up a dancefloor in the most magical of ways. It can bring a heightened sense of awareness, and cause a club hug or two, perhaps even a tear.

Back in the late 1990s, there was a rumour floating about that Paul Van Dyk caused the entire dancefloor at Cream in Liverpool to blub uncontrollably, when he dropped his remix of BT ‘Flaming June’ for the first time. Of course, in those days the drugs were strong and trance was still considered an elixir. 

‘Smoke Signals’ probably won’t make them cry, but it sure is an excellent way to bring some much needed respite to the floor when feet are tired, and hearts and minds need a little encouragement.

16 Bit Lolitas’ serene classical strings and gentle piano chords are beautiful, and the break is rather special. Progressive house this may be, but techno, house, and trance fans may love it so.

Los Updates ‘Ven’ [Rebirth]

Chile must have more underground dance stars per capita than any other country on Earth. Villalobos, Luciano, Dinky, Pier Bucci, Dandy Jack, Atom Heart; the list goes on and on, and Los Updates aka Jorge González and Loreto Otero are the next Chilean producers to watch.

They’ve already had an album out on Cadenza, and have collaborated a number of times with minimal master Villalobos in the studio, and their sound is beginning to stretch into the house sphere, as can be heard from the brilliant ‘Ven’ on Rebirth.

With Daft Punk-esque chord stabs, disco fruitiness, and glittering synth-pop sensibilities (a sound most likely due to González’ former days as the driving force behind Latin American 1980s new wave band Los Prisoneros), it’s quite different to the minimal house grooves they’ve produced thus far.

Let’s hope it’s a sign of things to come, for this is house music at its finest.

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