Published on
May 29, 2020
Category
Features
Rallying cry dub, David Lynch love songs, synthesizer odes and more.
This week’s rundown is by The Vinyl Factory’s Gabriela Helfet, alongside Jesse Bernard, Lucie Stepankova, James Hammond and Emily Hill. Five EPs and five albums to add to your collection.
Singles
Dub Invasion Records
‘Run Come Rally’
(Dub Invasion Records)
The week’s been heavy, perhaps one of the heaviest since the beginning of lockdown especially for Black people across the world. ‘Run Come Rally’ offers equal parts catharsis and fire for your belly, thanks to Black Omolo’s vocals and Humble Brother’s production. This is a record for the regular rotation. – JB
Tammo
Easy To See
(Nous’klaer Audio)
Following Tammo Hesselink’s contribution to Nous’klaer Audio’s Summmer Sampler 2019, he returns to the Rotterdam label with his own EP. Easy To See sees Tammo moving shimmering dub into a minimal techno sieve. Oscillating through various states of chug, the 5-track offering lifts up sonics throughout thanks to its variations of ethereal synth builds. – GH
David Lynch & Jack Cruz
‘The Flame of Love’
(Sacred Bones Records)
Exploring David Lynch’s collaborations in sound design and music creates a veritable record collection in and of itself. An ever-expanding and fertile zone of that collection is his work with Dean Hurley. As songwriters, this latest release from the duo – ‘The Flame Of Love’ – welcomes in another protagonist, Jack Cruz – a capuchin crooner from a parallel dimension. The A-side comes straight off the short film starring Cruz as a murder suspect, with the flip further fleshing out this suitably Lynchian formula for slanted love songs. – JH
Lack
Inside
(Livity Sound)
Hailing from Manchester, spirited UK producer Lack makes an appearance on one of Bristol’s most-loved labels Livity Sound, following his releases on London-based outlets Cong Burn and Blank Mind. Inside sees the rapidly emerging artist expand his repertoire with an experimental dub techno cut on the eponymous opening track, followed by a long-form trip with flavors of deep house and techno on ‘Machine Club’. On the flip, Lack delivers his sparse, surgically designed and highly dynamic odd rhythms on restless ‘Rrrush’ and skippy ‘Shifter’. – LS
D. Tiffany
Cruel Trance
(LKR)
Canadian producer, DJ and planet Euphorique label head D. Tiffany shows no indication of slowing down as they delve into a psychedelic voyage for Reptant’s LKR label. The 4 tracker EP aptly titled Cruel Trance pivots charmingly through a trance of danceable sounds from serene ambient techno through to the bouncy electro drive of the title track. The EP starts meditatively with ‘Low’, which twitches across broken techno bubbling with electro-tones towards the end. It is followed by ‘4 Leaf’ – a dubbed-out double-time number with contemplative percussion The dance-floor piece de-resistance comes in the face of the B side, the title track’s cutting electro chord progression adding a decisive edge to the music. Rounded off by the slowest track of the EP, ‘In Conga R’ which holds a candle to elements of house sensibilities, deep sounds from an incredible producer who continues to make exciting sounds. – EH
LPs
Soulwax
EMS Synthi 100
(The Vinyl Factory / DEEWEE)
Soulwax, aka David & Stephen Dewaele, celebrate iconic synthesizer the EMS Synthi 100, with a new release of the same name. “A living instrument producing a living sound,” the duo recorded EMS Synthi 100 when they took care of an EMS Synthi 100 for a year. Its package also includes a 48-page book detailing the synthesizer’s history. – GH
Preservation
Eastern Medicine, Western Illness
(Mon Dieu Music)
It’s a good day for gutter rap bars over soul samples, especially when the project features some of the most versatile and impactful MCs of the past decade, such as Roc Marciano, Quelle Chris, Ka and Mach-Hommy. Each song feels as though it belongs in a scene of a modern Blaxploitation, imagine Omar from The Wire walking the streets of West Baltimore, seeking out his next mark, with Medicine Drawer playing in the background. – JB
Diamanda Galas
The Litanies of Satan
(Intravenal Sound Operations)
Taking performance to the “limits of madness” and placing a three and a half octave voice at the forefront of her sonic assault, Diamanda Galas’ 1982 debut is as intense as they come. A return to the source of her extraordinary discography and the first in a batch of planned reissues on vinyl, The Litanies of Satan electronically transforms Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal, and flays half-hearted efforts at every turn. One of the most harrowing and “all in” debuts of the era, if you’re looking for something to blow the cobwebs away this one takes a flamethrower approach to the idea. – JH
DYL & DB1
Ecou
(Re:st)
Swiss ‘peripheral rhythm & bass’ label Re:st continues its spree of flawless releases with Ecou. This double LP hosts a collaboration between Romanian experimentalist DYL and an English D’n’B connoisseur DB1. Across its twelve-tracks, the duo dreams up a lucid sonic world inhabited by bold textural experiments, tight bassline rhythms and gently energising percussions – all reinforced by theirr razor-sharp production. Ecou opens with a moving, undulating drone piece of soft metallic noise swells, a theme recurring on ‘Track 5’ and ‘Track 9’. It then rolls its way through variations on dub-infused d’n’b, and closes with a gentle deep techno roller, rich in echoes and pulsating harmonies, dusted with celestial noise sweeps. – LS
Aleksi Perälä
Oscillation 2
(Clone)
Finnish producer Aleksi Perälä stepped-up for Clone’s Basement Series imprint with a double-album offering this spring. While Oscillation 1 (another VF favourite) steered through experimental techno, the second edition Oscillation 2 swerves deeper into the vault of inventive new territory. Across 6-tracks Perälä touches on acid, EBM and emotive synths, each loop building a distinctive soundscape. Repetitive driving drums paired with dreamy swirling chords creates a perfect illusion of sounds that sometimes feel like they could be at odds with each other, though always manage to end up coming together in perfect symbiosis. Some tracks such as ‘NLL561908700’ put forth a weighty dance floor feeling whilst the abstract nature of ‘NLL561908702’ and ‘NLL561908703’ approach more meditative states. EH
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