Stellar Om Source

Elite Excel

RVNG Intl.

Teaser 12-inch for Christine Gualdi's upcoming LP on New York institution RVNG Intl (Max D, Blondes, Sun Araw/Congos). Stellar Om Source's recent Image over Image 12" saw her integrating tough beats into her synth vistas -  on Elite Excel, Gualdi combines raw, adroit drum programming with the time-warp qualities of her earlier work. Everything is in its right place - at 2:30 a pristine C2-esque synth vamp emerges over the hazy acid. The momentum picks up as the track spans on, Gualdi continuing to strike the balance between rough acid techno and synthetic mind-music. The remix finds Kassem Mosse  exploring the cubist funk he pulled off so well on 2D. Buy Elite Excel

Kyle Hall

The Boat Party

Wild Oats

Assured full-length debut from the producer whom many expect to carry Detroit's legacy forwards. What's on display here is not a producer buckling under decades of dance music history, rather, a singular talent who began his career taking risks and continues to double-down. KMFH's use of isolators is unparalleled. The first half of this album holds skittering drum tracks, yet remains compelling due to Hall's nuanced filtering and effects work. "Flemmenup" welds the recent footwork fixation onto classic Detroit electro-styles, while "Crushed" shows the producer can cut a sample alongside legends like KDJ and Terrence Parker. "Finnapop" is a Dancemania tribute which ends in a solid 2:30 minutes of spooling noise, emphasizing the experimental nature of Hall's production and listening (Hall enjoys shopping for outre records at Windy and Carl's "Stormy" records). The final track, "Measure 2 Measure" shows Hall effortless skating around a pair of soul samples, juggling insane hi-hats and morphing the soaring female vocal into an endless, abstract delay trail. There is a perfect sloppiness to what Hall does on the record, light years away from marathon Ableton sculpting sessions.

Svengalisghost

Vicious Circle

L.I.E.S.

Twisted new entry from Chicago's Svengalisghost. "Hidden Cities" comes off like a tape-hiss Drexciya, also bearing similarities to the recent uncompromising output on Morphine Records (Container, Metasplice). The final track, "Judged By Machine", is the record's highlight, with what are presumably Svengali's vocals creating a kind of claustrophobic post-punk a la Ike Yard or Liasons Dangereuses. 

Buy Vicious Circle

Elizabeth Merrick-Jefferson

Urban Off Road

Argot

Amped-up debut from Elizabeth Merrick-Jefferson, a new Detroit producer whose only other credited track is "Bubo Blakistoni", used by Alex Israel in his LWE podcast. Fitting then, that Steve Mizek, who helms both Little White Earbuds and Argot is the one to introduce this talented new producer to the world. This is an extremely assured debut, drawing heavily on Detroit's overwhelming legacy, especially Kenny Larkin's propulsive ouput. The nuance applied to these tracks is stunning. "John Krunk" takes a memorable piano-riff that most producers would leave as is and takes in one further, dropping hypnotic, circular synth over the mix.

Container

Treatment

Morphine

Nashville producer Ren Schofield continues his strange odyssey with his strongest tracks yet via Italy's Morphine records (Morphosis, Hieroglpyhic Being). Previous releases forSpectrum Spools have shown the producer (and admitted techno outsider) plying the tough sounds issued by labels like Stroboscopic Artefacts,though his formatives are the legendary early-00s Providence, RI noise scene. Here, Schofield has found the perfect drum sounds for his uncompromising tracks. The rhythm tracks in "Saturated" have as much to doThis Heat or even Arab On Radar as they doJamal Moss- the end result feels like a more incisive version ofAphex Twin'"Didgeridoo". The title track starts with martial post-punk drums before taking a brutal trip into delay and dynamics that would give any industrial-techno producer a run for their money. Closer "Obstruction" sounds a bit likeKassem Mosse mixed by Wolf Eyes.

Buy Treatment

Commanchee's Revenge

Commanchee's Revenge/Tetrahedron

ADR

Chunky Monkey

Hippos In Tanks

While visual artists have been quick to adapt to the internet's Babel of information, musicians have been slow to comment directly on the vast digital buzz. Hippos In Tanks, as a label, has admirably pushed this conversation forwards while also displaying a fierce devotion to the traditional mediums of CD and vInyl. James Ferraro's "Farside Virtual" (Hippos In Tanks, 2011) was seen as a comment on emerging personality types in the face of rampant technoconsumerism, but in retrospect, can be seen as Ferraro's first step out of the cassette underground into sleeker rnb/hip-hop influenced production Gatekeeper's "Exo" had them abandoning the Carpenter-esque VHS aesthetics of their previous releases, even hiring internet artist Tabor Robak to create a playable game for reach song. The most successful effort in creating a musical analog to endless internet-meme driven communication is ADR's "Chunky Monkey". 

The record succeeds first and foremost because Aaron David Ross (1/2 of the Gatekeeper) is a completely badass producer. I woudn't be suprised if legitimate pop production is in his future based off of the seemingly effortless genre tourism on display here. Opener "Casual Friday" places  samples of sitcom saxaphones against a loping 303 and eerie processed piano that could be lifted from a Prologue release. "Sumo" seems to be an oblique comment on 90s boom-bap, while "What It Takes" could be lifted from a sinister Sprite commercial. "Stray Dog Strut" could be seen as ADR's reading of Sly and Robbie digidub, but in this tune, the comment on internet culture is palpable. In the midst of innocuous and expertly produced genre-exercises, ADR is prone to interrupt with unsettling samples (e.g. a screaming chorus of roller coaster riders) to fray the edges. The effect has an uncanny resemblance to cruising through life with 15 tabs open.

Miles

Faint Hearted

Modern Love

Expansive debut full-length statement from Miles (aka MLZ, half of Demdike Stare and Pendle Coven). This album builds on Miles Whittaker's dub techno pedigree, but also pulls liberally from jungle, corroded big room techno and all manner of experiment esoterica. Opener "Lebensform" pits dub atmospheres against a massive breakbeat recalling a more blown-out version of Pan Sonic's transportative music. By contrast, the meditative "Sense Data" is a drone in search of a drop that eventually comes not with drums, but dubby, plaintive chords. While "Rejoice" recalls AFX's lucid ambient work, "Queuing" takes the beatless formula down into the dungeon, it's reverbed darkness blackened  by sheet metal samples. "Loran Dreams" takes things out on a positive, new-age note, its pristine arpeggios recalling Steve Moore or Ricardo Donoso. For travellers.

Buy Faint Hearted

Virginia

Loch and Hill

Ostgut Ton