Having enjoyed my old-fashioned "record shopping" trip to ye olde Berwick Street the weekend before last, I just couldn't resist heading on down there again. It's over ten years since I started frequenting the shops of Berwick Street, and by now the smell of rotting vegetable matter (from the street market) is firmly linked, in my mind, to the experience of acquiring new vinyl. And what website can assault your nostrils with such a pungent stench as you're browsing their online catalogue?? None!
Again, I bought a few records "randomly" alongside the ones I'd been specifically looking for - what with all these end-of-year lists that have been published, my want list is becoming fairly lengthy, but that doesn't stop me from buying the odd thing I've never heard of just for the excitement of discovery... Shawn Rudiman - Deal With It (Eleventh Hour) The first release from new London label Eleventh Hour makes a clear statement about the direction we can expect the label to pursue - well-produced, colourful, club-oriented but still highly listenable techno music. On this EP, it's the first track on each side that does it for me; "Bluesky" reminds me of "Star Dancer" in a way, with its slowly developing chord static over a pacey rhythm, while "That's What I'm Talkin About" on the flip is my favourite cut with its variety of sparkling synth sounds floating over another insistent club rhythm. The other two tracks blend electro and broken beat influences, with "Welcome to the Junkyard" doing it most effectively IMHO. Rei Loci - Faction EP (Seventh Sign) The question is, is there a place in the world for high-quality dancefloor techno which is influenced by old Orlando Voorn and Black Dog records? And the answer to the question, on the basis of this release, is a resounding "yes!". The range of influences on display here is staggering, and I find it difficult to think of other producers who come up with tracks which incorporate that much melodic variation and complexity into solid, heads-down techno so effectively. I was expecting a lot from this release after reading more than a few positive reviews, and was not disappointed in the least. What are the other Seventh Sign releases like, by the way? K-Led - Tomorrow In The Morning LP (Force Inc) I'd picked out the 12" of "Detroit City" to listen to in Koobla, but the staff member tasked with tracking down the stack of vinyl I'd picked out said I may as well check the album instead, so I did. Pretty stunning stuff I have to say! Really proper techno, wearing its Detroit influences on its sleeve, with that perfect balance between atmosphere, funk and rhythm that characterises most of my favourite techno records. Haven't had enough time to give a track-by-track rundown, though - I've only scanned through it once, and I'm really looking forward to sitting down and listening to the whole thing later on tonight (although I don't know if I'll be able to remain sitting all the way through the LP!)... Trolley Route - A Occhi Chiusi (Pure Plastic) A random purchase, this one. I got it home and had a look at the back of the sleeve, which told me that this album had been produced by Oscar Mulero. Without any real preconceptions about what it might sound like (not being overly familiar with Mr Mulero's material), I put it on, and had a weird flashback sort of experience. Years and years ago, when I was still discovering a lot of 313-type techno music, I'd go to Fat Cat records in its little basement cupboard underneath that menswear shop in Covent Garden, and while I was flipping the racks in search of records by people I'd heard of I'd hear these techno records which combined dirtily shimmering chords and strings with pacey but measured drum programming - which sounds like a lot of techno when described like that, I guess, but was in fact a particular sort of sound that I've always find hard to actually track down (back in those days, the closest I was able to get was "Cosmic Movement" on Red Planet 2). Anyway, this album is *very much* that sort of sound - the sound that I first latched on to as being *serious* techno back in the days when I was still a relative newcomer to the scene. The drums are nicely compressed with a metallic rusty texture to the higher percussive elements (ride cymbals, open hi-hats etc); there are a lot of strings, all of which have that nice dirty sound to them which complements the heavy sound of the drums perfectly. Some of the tracks are more explicitly funky, with house-style stabs and chord progressions working extremely well against the punchy drum production. Definitely a 2x12" set that'll be in my record box for a good while! Paul St Hilaire - Faith (False Tuned) I was on the lookout for this release after Matt MacQueen's "Quadrant Dub III" comment, and was lucky to find one - it seems to have been flying off the shelves! Matt's description is bang-on as well. I don't think it's possible to describe, in prose, that sort of sound without resorting to a set of established clichés (the strings "billowing"; the sound a "cloudscape"; vocals "refracted through heat haze"; etc). But what I *can* say is that, just like Matt, I am now wondering what I may have missed by having slept on the first two False Tuned releases! It looks as though these old-fashioned record-shopping trips haven't been happening anything like as frequently as they should have been, because I've missed way too much stuff recently... Brendan
