Yet another annual unplanned hiatus from blogging, re-focussing the business and dealing with life stuff. Considering a radical change of scenery for new ventures, but in the meantime I have a gap in my diary. Which means that I get to backtrack through the (ever diminishing) trickle of new music coming into Muswell Hill and apply some words. Lucky you....
Africa Hi-Tech: 93 Million Miles (Warp) - Rhythmatic techno from Yeovil (Mark Pritchard) and London (Steve Spacek) via Sydney that's polished, punchy and is achingly the sound of now. The style that is known as Footwork / Juke (still on the fence on that one) rattles the speakers via 'Out in the streets' whilst 'Do u wanna fight?' is DSP aggro. But its the post-future pop vibe of 'Our Luv' wins out with its tender vocal and warm melodic hooks. With repeat listens, the oh-so-clean production that exudes from this album can get on your tits after a while. But there's no doubting the propulsive sub-bass driven urgency of the whole thing. Yeah, go and buy it.
Actress: Splazsh (Honest Jons) - Ended up in everyone's end of year lists in 2010 and it's easy to see why. An electronic album entirely devoted to exploration of the mid-range. Beats are inventive and always seem to wrong-foot you and a sideways nod to rave via atonallly stabbed melodies gives the a whole thing an undeniable British vibe. Err, except for the John-Carpenter doom on 'Maze' and the P-funk homage on 'Purrple Splazsh'. Nothing here is in focus; wonky, woozy, muffled....call it what you want. I liked it cos it sounded a little bit like Drexciya and Drexciya are fucking supreme.
Aril Brikha: Deeparture in Time - Revisited (Art Of Vengeance) - Nothing ages you more than when you realise an album that you considered recent was actually released 11 years ago. Such is the case with this, possibly the best Detroit Techno album ever.
