soon up on forcefield
Nu Era - Broken Techno ep - 12" - Archive - doc9
After some silence, one of my favorite labels return again, with the
anticipated new Nu Era twelve inch. Nu Era is Mark Mac, who is together
with Dego mostly active as 4Hero. Nu Era is the pseudonym for the more
techno oriented output. The twelve takes of with raw 909-programming,
together with some nice twiddling synths. 1979 brings some more nice
freestyle jam. Side b goes further into the deep. Fragile strings, go with
raw beats in Titonton/Nubian Mindz way. Very funky. NIce and smooth goes
last track Cydonia, in a very fine blueprint techno way. Gorgeous stuff all
together.
Blaze - Elevation - 12" - Lite Line - ll-1014
An absolutely perfect example of the fresh sounds of Blaze. The track comes
in two versions, Shelter vocal and Dub (instrumental) one. Especially the
vocal mix brings an exotic mix, which hardly can be called just house
anymore. Lots of percussion, fine strings, organ stabs and most of all some
smooth uplifting vocals. All with a very smooth life feel to it. House
live? Shouldn't be too difficult anymore in a Blaze way. Very, very fine.
Moodymann - NMYwagon - 12" - Peacefrog - pfg003
Almost togther with his absolutely wonderful album, this new 12" comes. A
nice analog twiddling mix of Don't you want my love? is on it. And
furthermore two new tracks, one untitled goes with very fine lofi beats,
smoothly and softly jammin' house. The other is more raw, with a strange
vocal sample in it. Very fine housey tunes, but that's probably already
known. Smooth stuff.
Blaze - Productions - lp - Playhouse - play30
Two full lenght albums by Blaze are coming at the same time, both on German
labels, this one on Playhouse. Blaze hardly needs further introduction,
around since too many years and responsible for too many gorgeous music.
Again with this album, house as basic sound, but that's somewhat too easily
said. With their exotic mix of vocals, percussion and lots of other
ingredients, it goes far beyond. Very relaxing, warm music.
Millennium to Millennium - Timeline - 12" - UR - ur2001
Fourth in episode of the ' .. ' to '..' sersies, after Nation2Nation,
World2World, and most wonderfully Galaxy2Galaxy, with the real start of the
new millennium comes this new 12". Side b brings a to me somewhat
dissappointing remix by 4Hero of Amazon. Somewhat too leightweighted. Side
a brings Timeline, a real beautiful track in the best Mad Mike tradition.
This is technosoul at top with the uplifting string chorrds, along with the
twiddling funky synth lines and spacey beats. Very, very fine!
Quiet Daze - Viewing a decade ep - 12" - Transmat - ms-24
The Transmat label stays alive although it's pretty in slowmotion. Quiet
Daze is by Ian Pooley and his twelve inch brings us two more dancefloor
cuts, and twice more experimental techno. November is still known from the
smooth Time:Space compilation, and gives nice synth twiddlings. Being Quiet
sounds pretty much like CiM, very nice, fragile electronica all around.
Coming Full Circle is a straight in your face techno slammer, with a not
too orignal bassline. Last track takes the things most smooth. Deep
strings, very dreamy, in a very Carl Craig-way. Nice twelve inch.
Slam Mode - Clouds - 12" - Spiritual Life - slm378
And how is this to be called? Ambient NY House, maybe? Well, whatever, but
Joe Clausell and Kamati Pinkston drop down these fine sounds. Mostly fine
is Stratospheric Mix, on side b. Deep long ambient strings, along with very
slow rolling percussion make it a beautifiul journey. The Atmospheric Mix
goes some more down to earth. Very nice record.
Boards of Canada - In a beautiful.. - 12" - Warp Records - wap144
Michael and Marcus of the Boards of Canada finally return after their album
'Music..'. They continue in the same dreamy, sweet way as they left us.
Four tracks, Kid of Today is mostly a thick pack of strings, coming very
nicely. Second track goes more minimal. Personal favorite is on side b,
with the more uplifting title track. NIce use of vocoder makes them almost
sound like Air. All very beautiful.
Common - Geto heaven remix - 12" - MCA - mca13860
A very typical remix 12" with five versions which pretty sound the same.
And of course the original is nice, but most lovely on this record is the
instrumental version, which goes in deep dubby downtempo house mode, think
of Theo Parrish, somewhat more cleaner and you're there. Lovely stuff.
Various - Did you see? - 12" - Defocus - foc361
The UK deFocus label is around for a year, and celebrates this fact with
the compilation album Did you see? At mid-range price some of the
hightlights come by. Nice cuts by Lackluster, Aphelion, +One, CiM, and
more. Also very nice are the intervals by CiM, even presented as tribute to
Transmat. Fun! Another nice year to come, from this nice and sweet
electronica label.
.. . :: http://nomorewords.net
