Fabric 45: Omar-S DETROIT

The next instalment for the fantastic and I must say well back on form Fabric mix series is from Detroit native and FXHE owner Omar-S. This guy is all at once a bit of a throwback and a pioneer. His productions hark back to the hay day of Detroit techno with it’s high tech soul edge yet there is something kind of new and refreshing by this approach in this day and age.

All sixteen tracks in the mix are original Omar-S productions from his FXHE Music imprint. I suppose you could compare the approach to Villalobos’ on his Fabric mix in which he pretty much made an original album that would probably be a bit lazy though. Plenty of DJ’s will play exclusives to keep their sets fresh and in demand, and Omar-S has a lot of freshness of his own that really needs some hype.

You really can hear echoes of Chicago house and Detroit techno throughout the whole mix. Tight punchy retro beats play off warm tweaked out synths in a really organic old sounding way. You can hear little quick edits and lo-fi glitches at times that just make the mix sound more human. It sounds like it could have been made any time between Strings of Life and the invention of the Gameboy.

The whole mix is a highlight to be honest but some stand outs have to be, piano led ‘Oasis 13 ½’ which sounds like a long lost E-Dancer number which then blends seamlessly into the brooding darkness of ‘1 Out Of 853 Beats’ with it’s bubbling synth lines and building beats. Tracks like, ‘Psychotic Photosynthesis’ are just irresistible and draw you in with their beautiful melancholic robo-soul chords.

Omar-S really knows how to get you hypnotized in the mix, clicks, bubbles, blips and a whole array of tricks skip around the tracks with a warm minimal sound. Then to throw you out of that collective mass all swaying to the techno beats a soulful vocal comes out of know where like on, ‘The Maker’ and makes you look around and feel that human side to the dance. It’s a living breathing beats he has managed to create here.

Kwaidan

Space age techno maneuvers from the Highpoint Lowlife crew from London. Kwaidan is a one off project from Fisk Industries and I for one hope that it becomes more than just that, as these two tracks are something else.

Kwaidan melt together the feel and space of dubstep with some of the aesthetics and tempo of techno to make a deeply hypnotic, dark piece of work.

Plenty of dub techno just takes the four to the floor kick and dubs out some synth chords but the Kwaidan project spaces things out further by brining a swing to things with a stepping rhythm. Kontext and A Made Up Sound do similar things in this tempo.

A fairly aggressive techno synth growl drives things about half way through on ‘Hoichi’ and pulls you out of one hypnotic state of all the echoed samples, into another bass faced one, before both moods lock together and your really move with the track.

The deep down swagger of ‘Masaki’ follows a similar trend with a subtle build that just gets dirtier and dirtier as the bass locks and pumps with glitching minimal beats.

Two epic slices of dark and spaced out dubstep infused techno from Kwaidan, check it.

John Tejada – Fabric 44

Minimal and techno have been around for what seems like an age now and come to think of it so has John Tejada and Fabric. Even when sometimes as with all genres over time a formula starts to appear, Tejada has always managed to stay fresh and skip around tempos and styles at will as a DJ and producer. So a full mix from him in the excellent Fabric series is an interesting prospect.

John takes tracks new and old from all over the genre and mixes them with a hell of a lot of his own productions and material from his label Palette. This gives the mix a really cohesive sound that is unmistakably Tejada.

The mix opens with subtle and musical Detroit vibed minimal techno that builds with lush pads and creaking synth tweaks. It’s pretty hypnotic stuff for the most part but you can snippets of what’s to come as a sort of jacking European electro sound creeps in.

There is a warm timeless feel to a lot of the tracks here, it sounds like it could be mixed at anytime since techno’s inception in the 80s. It’s got all those lush, melancholic soul feelings that the early stuff had but with a really contemporary electro or minimal undertone. I guess it’s just quality in the end.

Some of the stand out tracks for me are the more subtle minimal affairs, such as the simple yet effective, ‘WAX10001’ by WAX. It just pumps along with drums not to dissimilar to old Trax On The Rocks material from Daft Punks Thomas Bangalter. But instead of kind of looped out funk vibe there is a nice dub synth hook that makes you want to move. Another track from the same label Hardwax also makes my ears prick up in the mix, this one by EQD called ‘Equalized001’ it has a similar kind of tone.

The tracks from Palette All-Stars pick the pace of the mix up a little and take it into freaked out acid state of mind with a growling bottom end and those mad acid tweaks that techno does so well.

Throwing in the Orbital classic ‘Fahrenheit 303’ is a nice touch as not only had I not heard it in a long time but it gives the mix a really old skool euphoric rave feel, which is never a bad thing.

Apparently Tejada heavily edited a lot of these tracks to make the Fabric mix a more solid flowing piece of work compared to his in club mixing. He wanted it to come across as a whole. I think he achieved this very well indeed. By the time your half way through you really locked into the vibe of it all and ready to get taken where ever Tejada feels, and he doesn’t disappoint with the final third which is maybe the best. Tejada himself with Arian Leviste kill it with the subtle raver ‘Forbiden Planet’ before a nice Shed remix brings it down a bit in his own wonderful dubbed out style.

Fabric mixes are always quality and John Tejada really doesn’t disappoint, grab this if you’re a fan of the more subtle end of electro, techno and minimal. I doubt very much you will be disappointed.

Neil Landstrumm – Lord For £39

Landstrumm has been around for ages now on the underground electro bass margins he may even been one of the pioneers and even ahead of the game at times. He is damn good at cooking up a sort of techno / electro / breakbeat / rave / dubstep thing even before dubstep was called dubstep. So can he keep it up with his new album for Planet Mu?

Well I’m slightly torn about that, Lord For £39 has its moments for sure but there seems to be a little something missing.

The production is really top quality, as you would expect from Landstrumm. Full on bass sounds, bleeps a plenty plus punchy, crunchy drums are all over these tracks.

So it’s not the sounds, it must be the songs. There is nothing really bad about them by any means. They revive a low budget (hence the name Lord for £39) bleepy rave electro sound, but the tracks don’t really stick in your head for to long. Don’t get me wrong there is a sense of cheeky fun to the album and some of the tunes will no doubt shake a dance floor.

I just get the feeling it has all been done before, by the likes of Si Begg who even appears on some of the tracks or even electro heads like The Hacker or LFO. I can also hear echoes of Radioactive Man in tracks like Nike Volume.

Highlight include the big booty number Shit Daddy Bass with it’s large low end, gritty dancehall breaks’n’bleeps plus Carlton Killawatt toasting on top. Old Rabbits has some balls I guess in a Robokop kind of way. One of the more dreamy tracks The King Of Malta works pretty well, the twinkles and blips move into some dirty electronica to make a nice track. The driving Gameboy dancehall number The Dose with Ebola is also pretty effective. The final track Ross Kemp as Pixel needs a mention just for it’s massive bass tones and the icing on the cake that is a John Peel sample.

Lord For £39 leaves me a little bit cold overall like a tramp stuck out side a club asking for a smoke. The odd moment catches you and takes you on an electro rave journey but there is nothing revolutionary about it.

Beat Pharmacy - Wikkid Times (3Barfire Review)

More 3bar business in the form of this review of Beat Pharmacy's Wikkid Times, it's a really nice album check it out now!

Octogen - Gindofask (My 3barfire review)

Anothe review for 3barfire by me...

http://www.3barfire.com/index.php/Album-Reviews/Octogen-Gindofask.html

check out the links above, then if you like read the DVD extra's bellow:

Octogen – Gindofask – Out on Soma now

Marco Bernardi is Octogen and Gindofask is the second album under this pseudonym on Soma records, which is the legendary Techno label from Scotland that deals in anything from minimal to full on balls to the wall techno via some techy business. Bernardi, a Glasgow native that dabbles in the deep and soulful future funk techno hybrid that originated in Detroit all those years ago, is bringing some melody and feeling into his dance floor productions.

His debut 2five0nine was well received and Gindofask aims to progress its themes further. He’s worked with other artists such as Percy X in which jackin’ ghetto style electro was the name of the game, Bernardi’s Octogen is a lot more subtle than that though, we get deep…

Octogen manages to both sound retro and futuristic all at once in fine Detroit techno fashion, its like watching an old episode of sci-fi hit Buck Rogers and the robot dude (Twiki?) that loves to say, ‘biddi-biddi-biddi’ all the time; Well you know what? He has learnt how to dance. So put on your tinfoil hat, tie up those moon boots and press play, its robo funk all the way.

The juxtaposition of metallic beats and other machine sounds with the idea that such cold devices can convey emotion and deep soulful feelings is an effective one. Tracks such as, ‘Square Bells’ with their reverberating warmth and melancholic tones play off the clunking blip funk of the drums and bassline, to make your head, heart and body all work as one in some kind of hypnotic dance floor state of bliss.

You’re not really meant to listen to Track three, ‘Sphyxomite’ as the voice warns us at the beginning, we just don’t have the clearance. For all you cheeky lot who decide to ignore this advice, you are in for a detached female vocal track that reminds me of Kraftwerk’s Hall of Mirrors.

The techno two parter, ‘The Emperors Apprentice PT1 & 2’ is a deep and mystical bunch of tracks with bubbling synth lines and half time drum patterns in PT1 and four to the floor kicks in PT2 it bookends the one two punch that is, ‘James’ & ‘Saturn Sun’ in style. The deep ‘Saturn Sun’ is a wonderful slice of pure techno soul music with warmth and emotion (Think Mad Mike & Speed J floating in a bath/space).

The tune, ‘James’ really speaks to me, but that might just be because that’s my name. It’s the closest Octogen gets to the bouncing ghetto electro that he made with Percy X. The 808 drums set the tempo with a slight breakbeat feel as a growling yet subtle bass hums one off in the background.

Octogen’s Gindofask is a top quality release for Soma, with much depth, atmosphere and some good dance floor credentials. The flow of the tracks make this an album to listen to as a whole instead of a collection of singles with some filler, the mistake that so many albums tend to fall into.

The Dubstep-Techno hybrid: DubTek, Tech-Step, Dub-No, Who knows?

Along with the Wonky revolution in dubstep that is being championed by the likes of Fly Lo, Rustie and Samiyam there seems to be another side bubbeling away that take influence from techno, tech house and minimal. I’m going to call it Tech-Step maybe, any way the purveyors of this sound seem to be people like 2562, Ramadanman, Martyn and maybe the main figure head Appleblim. Of course Kode 9 has his feet in pretty much all camps at once with his supurb Hyperdub label. But I will no doubt do a post dedicated to him some other time.

On with the Tech-Step AKA DubTek! I guess I first became aware of this sound when hearing Ricardo Villalobos dropping dubstep in his minimal mixes and that opening my eyes to the possibilities; Ramadanman’s Blimey was dropped recently as the opening track in one of his sets. Also the Villalobos mix of Shackletons Blood On Your Hands is phenomenal and well worth its wait in the dubstep/minimal hall of fame, if that existed. In the mean time this sound has been bubbling under and brewing some brilliant sounds. Villalobos has been making more tunes that slide nicely between the two genres since as well.

Appleblim’s Dubstep Allstars Vol.6 may well be the definitive document of Tech-Step-Dub-No to date, I will talk about that one another time though, as I haven’t heard it very much yet, to do it justice. I have however heard an amazing mix he did on Sub FM, which I will put a link up to at the end of the post. It opened my ears fully to this dubstep movement and got me pretty excited. He effortlessly mixed between minimal sounds and dubstep tunes you often couldn’t decide what was which it was brilliant. Appleblim owns Apple Pips and co-owns Skull Disco too with Shackleton.

Martyn has been making some noise and stiring some genre spanning all of his own. He is a Dutch producer and DJ who owns 3024 Records and releases on Apple Pips as well. Martyn’s sound is techey and stepy hence the name I guess, he is similar in some ways to 2562, yet not as deep and dubby. He is a jack of all genres; he has shown this by not only playing awesome tech infused dubstep sets but by also warming up fabric with a four to the floor techno set. Examples of these brilliant mixes bellow.

2562 has made an amazing album called Ariel that I reviewed right here on this very blog not long ago. So I wont go into to much detail right now, but its techno style dub beats echo great sounds from Detroit to London.

Explore the sounds bellow and enjoy your Tech-Step (Well that name seems to be taken, so any takers on DubTek?) journey as much as I have done and will continue to do…

Appleblim’s Sub FM mix

Track list:

01. Ghislain Poirier - They Wanna Know [Tax Records]
02. Keith Worthy - Deep for Days [Sistrum Recordings]
03. Radio Slave - K-Maze [REKIDS]
04. Intrusion - Intrusion (CV313 Reduction) [echospace [detroit]]
05. Ricardo Villalobos - Electonic Water (San Proper's 'It Ate My Quarter' Mix) [Perlon]
06. Shed - Warped Mind [Ostgut Tonträger]
07. CH-Signal Laboratories (8003 Lucerne) - Hypnotica Scale [Sandwell District]
08. Peverelist - Clunk Click Every Trip [Unreleased]
09. Footsie - Pissed [White]
10. Geiom feat. Marita - Reminissin (Kode9 Remix) [Forthcoming Berkane Sol]
11. Jus Wan - Action Potential [Unreleased]
12. Martyn - General 73 [Unreleased]
13. Pangaea - You & I [Unreleased]
14. Spherix - Look Back [Unreleased]
15. Headhunter - Physics Impulse [Unreleased]
16. Burial - Pirates [Hyperdub]
17. Jus Wan - Affletic [Unreleased]
18. DLX - ??? (Breakage Remix) [Unreleased]
19. Unknown - Untitled [Unreleased]
20. Digital Mystikz - Misty Winter [Soul Jazz]
21. Ramadanman - Bidding War [Unreleased]
22. Sharmaji - Qalandar [Unreleased]
23. Martyn - Vancouver [Forthcoming 3024]
24. Appleblim & Geiom - Shreds [Unreleased]
25. Joe - Grimelight [Unreleased]
26. DJ Madd - In The Lounge [Unreleased]
27. Ramadanman - Untitled [Unreleased]
28. Instra:mental - Futurist [Unreleased]
29. Komonazmuk - Light [Terminal DUsk]
30. Unknown - At Dub [Unreleased]
31. Peverelist - Gather [Unreleased]
32. Burial - Exit Wounds [Hyperdub]
33. Distance - Fallen [Boka]
34. Cyrus - Banshi [Unreleased]
35. Gemmy - Back 2 Da Future [Unreleased]
36. Joker - 80s [Forthcoming Kapsize]
37. RSD - Prophecy [White]
38. Joker - Snake Eater [Unreleased]
39. Mala - Da Wrath (Souljahz VIP Mix) [DMZ]
40. Unknown - Murderah [Unreleased]


Martyn’s Rinse FM mix

Track list:

1. martyn - natural selection (3024)

2. slaughter mob - no snare (?)

3. skream - trapped in a dark bubble (?)

4. martyn - suburbia (applepips)

5. geiom - reminissin' kode9 remix (berkane sol)

6. trg - broken heart martyns dcm mix (hessle audio)

7. horsepower productions - hand of death (tempa)

8. benny - jahroel (?)

9. pantha du prince - florac juswan remix (tube)

10. martyn - vancouver (3024)

11. shut up and dance - epileptic martyns no strobe mix (suadrecs)


Martyn’s Fabric techno mix

Track list:

01. Omar-S - Untitled (FXHE)

02. Recloose - Soul Clap 2000 (Planet E)

03. Tikiman - Spend Some Time (Burial Mix)

04. Ripperton - On Falling (92 edit) (?)

05. Robert Owens - Bring Down the Talls (Trax)

06. Sonja Moonear - 99 Erikas (Karat)

07. Westpark Unit - Blaxrotation Suite mix (Farside records)

08. The Timewriter - Never Stop (Plastic City)

09. Roy Davis Jr. - My Soul is Electric (Large)

10. Ripperton - Tainted Words (Connaisseur)

11. Marc Schneider - Sniper Heat (Wasnotwas)

12. Theo Parrish – Can’t Take It

13. Agnes - Hi Murda (Perspectiv)

14. Ame - Basic Track (Innervisions)

15. Andomat 3000 & Jan - Entr'acte Music (Cadenza)

16. Andy Stott - Fear of Heights (Modern Love)

17. Common Factor - Get Down 3 (Playhouse)

18. DJ Minx - A Walk in the Park (Villalobos and Cassy remix) (Minus)

19. Frivolous - Sooo Savvy (Scape)

20. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - Mederico (Oslo)

21. Jobim's Causin - Comerte (Cargo Edition)

22. Loco Dice - A Chico a Rhytmico (Cadenza)

23. Atjazz - For Real (Version mix) (Innervisions)

24. Cobblestone Jazz - India in Me (Wagon Repair)

25. Dennis Ferrer - Son of Raw (Loco Dice remix) (Objektivity)

26. Junior Boys - Like a Child (Carl Craig mix)

27. Kenneth Graham - Love Dialed In (Visage Recordings)

28. John Shananigans - Charles on the Dancefloor (Cynosure)

29. Ricardo Villalobos - Fizheuer Zieheuer pt 2 (Playhouse)

30. Maurizio - Domina edit (M)

31. Deadbeat - Abu Graib Reconfiguration (Scape)

32. Mike Shannon - Ghost Writer Blues (Cynosure)

33. Mark August - Old Joy (Connaisseur)

34. Sid le Rock - Naked (DJ Koze mix) (Cereal/Killer)

35. Matthew Dear - But for You (Ghostly)

36. St. Germain - Rose Rouge (Rhadoo edit)

37. October - Homo Sapiens (Caravan)

38. Pole - Duesseldorf (Mike Huckaby’s SYNTH remix) (scape)

39. Substance & Vainqueur - Surface (Scion Versions)

40. Beat Pharmacy & Tikiman - Hot Spot Splash (Deep Space Media)

2562 – Aerial

Dubstep is making my ears prick up this year, well I guess Burial gave me a love for it with Untrue at the end of last year, but its coming on leaps and bounds recently. Dubstep is starting to encompass many styles of other genres of music, more so than ever before. This excites me, as I love to mix up the genres when I spin dance music. 2562’s Aerial is a full album of tech-house influenced dubstep with a smidgen of breakbeat in there to for good measure. I have been a long-term convert to breakbeat and tech-house as its what I learnt to DJ with. So hearing this style having a legacy in the dubstep arena makes me smile. I can hear echoes of Adam Freeland’s more dubby numbers here and stuff from techno label Basic Channel too. Some people might not even say its dubstep, but I like that, music that jumps genres and does it well is well worth a listen.

Aerial is superb the bass is so big it really throbs and goes through you. The beats are punchy and the dub elements come draw it all together brilliantly. This is dubstep that has come out of London and gone on holiday to main land Europe in which it gathered a wider pallet of sounds to draw from. The tunes lack a little emotion and are kind of cold but there is plenty of deep emotional stuff from the likes of Pinch and Burial out there. I mention Pinch as he stuck out 2562’s first 12” and is also releasing this album on his Tectonic label. So Aerial is ten tracks of dubstep filtered through Berlin, London, Holland, Detroit and Kingston it’s a worldwide affair this.

The stand out tunes are: well all of them really but I will just choose a few, or maybe all of them...

Redux is a swooshy dub influenced Basic Channel infused tech-step beauty. It’s a slow and brooding number and the synth parts really bring it alive, as does the massive bass. Wonderful stuff.

Morvern has some punchy drums and a faster pace, I love that 2562 brings new sounds to each track and a whole new thing can be heard in front of you. I would spin this one with some techno for sure. Its moody yet quite perky to.

Moog Dub is a beast and maybe my favourite track on here. When the synth cord progression comes in like some proto dub rave line and the bass kicks in this tune is pure magical dance floor perfection.

Channel Two is a skitting 2-step kind of effort. I think this was on one of the two highly acclaimed 12” that Pinch released. You can see why it caused a stir on the dubstep scene its phat.

Techno Dread sounds like its name the wobbly relentless bass and high tempo make it sound like Techno has something to worry about as this is on its way. Again the Basic Channel dub synth lines are here and work a treat.

Basin Dub is a mellow track after the last one. The mellow sounds are cut through with some big sounds mind with a punchy kick and bass.

Greyscale has a heartbeat style kick drum at its core The techno sounds are reinterpreted through dub ears, the 808 click echoes through you as synths sweep around.

Enforcers is a energetic little number with breakbeat drums and a throbbing bass line that is well and truly meant for a dance floor. This might be the closes tune to a breakbeat record on Aerial.

Kameleon is an irresistible 2-step breakbeat digital bongo work out. Really bright and the bongo line will really move the floor. It adds a nice slab of funk to this album. A great track, and maybe one of my favourites for sure.

The Times brings Aerial to a close with sparse drums and a mellower mood to the last track. A real dubby number with echo injected drums and deep bass. Slow dark and dirty, to draw everything to its end.

2562 doesn’t have the same heart as people like Burial and Flying Lotus who have a more organic sound but if you love techno, tech-house and dubstep this album is a real treat. Its addictive I can’t stop putting it on, each track has something to offer. He makes me want to dig out my Detroit techno, Minimal, 2-step and breakbeat records and see what storm I can stir up. 2562’s Aerial is brilliant.

P.S. Last night it hit me that this album sounds alot like Phil Kerian's Pill Hearin' mockier and specificly the track 146 Ways from 2002, which is a techno/electro crossover with some heavey dub elements. The tempo would even fit to dubsteps.

diskJokke – Staying In

Now I’m a fan of dance music and I love it when there is a really good dance album that is a whole package that you can listen to all the way through. diskJokke has pulled this off with style; with Staying In, its just so damn addictive and ace. I would describe the sound as maybe 8-bit-trance-electro-beat or something. Apparently diskJokke is a classically trained Violinist and this shines through on some of the compositions here. The beats are all full of fun and the bass is phat and a little old school rave in places. The Guardian give the quote, "Emotional club tracks with the kind of sadness that seeing a melting polar ice cap evokes." And I have to agree with that statement I think, it sums up the sound quite nicely. There isn’t a track as mental, cheesy and ace as Popcorn on Staying In but maybe that is a good thing and some of it isn’t far off that kind of sound. This is playful techno with a little bit of a sad heart too its completely adorable and danceable to boot. His remix work is also top notch; I really like his rework of Lykke Li’s Everybody But Me. Bubbling synths and drum machines combine with a beautiful euphoric sadness and joyful ping all at once its quite special indeed. Each track is solid on Staying In I’m not even going to pick a stand out, they all work together really well and flow in and out of each other with ease. Ok so the album may not be perfect it is a little samey and doesn’t really go to far in the way of different moods, but the mood it does take is damn enjoyable. diskJokke has made one of the best dance albums this year for me so far.