George Fitzgerald – The Let Down/Weakness [Hotflush Two]

The debut release from George Fitzgerald comes in the form of two slinky deep house/garage hybrids that keep it slow and emotional, rewiring the circuits between genres in that neverland that the dubstep scene has created in its search for dance floor bliss. He shares similarities with Joy Orbison, which is no surprise since he’s been picked up by his Doldrums label as well as sitting next to him on the Hotflush roster. They both have a way with melody and a meditative slinky bump to their music. Its pretty smooth stuff that comes alive in sets with its bitter-sweat emotional pull and punchy, bumpy beats.

Organic rhythms and warm, soulful tones usher in the first track ‘The Let Down’, it’s like a mini melodrama in the way it builds with the focus on melody and dance floor sadness before releasing that tension through big house stabs and bumping drum patterns. The flip opens with teasing melancholy pads ‘Weakness’ and a slight dub techno air before a bumpy groove slips into its stride with a head nodding smoothness that flips and twists as it rolls making you move without even realising. Its subtle stuff that builds to a nice meditative drop where things get a little bumpy with chopped up vocals taking a more prominent roll, weaving between ascending synth tones and bursts of deep bass that reach out of the grooves and really give some impact.

Two really quality, slinky little numbers from what looks to be an already pretty accomplished producer. Look out for this one, he’s bound to have more where this came from.

http://www.myspace.com/georgefitzgeraldmusic
http://www.manmakemusic.com/
http://www.hotflushrecordings.com/

12"

More picks from my bulbous record bag… this sporadic feature seems to have slowed down a bit since I got a new pair of 1210s and I’ve started using ustream for even more sporadic shows. But here is another selection of music I didn’t get around to writing about elsewhere but just couldn’t help mentioning…

Non Person - Presenser / Mi Empress [Channel Zero]
After turning in one of my favourite recent mixes for Sonic Router the Finnish producer drops two twisted hip-hop infused dubstep gems for Clouds Channel Zero label. Mesmerising and dense but with an experimental playfulness these tracks shift and bubble in strange ways, seriously addictive.

Mark Pritchard – Elephant Dub/Heavy As Stone [Deep Medi]
Elephant Dub does exactly as it says on the tin, sounds like an elephant creating it’s own dubplate. Its such a heavy, plodding beast it makes you wonder if the complaints about half-step seem like a distant memory, until you hear a boring half-stepper… The flip channels FlyLo’s ‘Tea Leaf Dancers’ and an epic sense of soul into a deep heads down number.

Shortstuff/Taylor – Regression/Squeege [Wigflex]
Sublime 12” from Wigflex upping the game once more with Shorstuff bringing a flexible slinky ‘what you call it?’ number that echoes uk funky, broken house, grime, Detroit techno and dubstep all in one cohesive dance floor bomb. Taylor rolls out a slice of seriously blissfully melodic techno that feels like early AFX but built for the dance floor, playful, hypnotic with a pinch of melancholy.

SCB – 20_4/3_5 [SCB]
Scuba takes a brake from making techno infused dubstep and makes dubstep infused techno instead, and its way more different to how that statement sounds. He drops one of my favourite albums of the year so far and still has the pace to drop a couple of slow burning deep nuggets of techno bliss.

Desto – Disappearing Reappearing Ink/Broken Memory [Ramp]
Finally you can get hold of these tracks: bleepy computer game soundtrack eski-beat grime meets broken dubstep, again in Finland. Equal parts uplifting and playful as well as intense and heavy. Arpeggios squiggle and bass tones shake your chest plate. Both tracks nail it, more Desto please!

Rossi B & Luca – E10 Riddim/Police Are Come Run ft. Killa P [Planet Mu]
Massive riddim that fuses a funky carnival vibe with a hard hitting grime intensity to great effect, just like Lil Silva takes grimy bass into funky Rossi B & Luca switch it the other way around and absolutely nail it. Killa P turns in a hard as hell vocal version too completing a tough 12” that will be in my bag for some time.

Africa Hitech – Blen/Rmx/The Sound Of Tomorow [Warp]
Mark Pritchard joins forces with Steve Spacek for a brand new project that is looking very promising. Blen is a fuzzy digital dance floor beast that fuses an African house style party vibe with a Harmonic 313-like electronica, while the remix plays up the funky vibe more and turns down the digital aspects, both kill it. The flip flows on a meditative tip with an epic dreamy song.

LV & Untold – Beacon/(Mount Kimbie Remix) [Hemlock]
Big collaboration that I first heard in the mix Untold did for us at Sonic Router way back… A deep and warm dub style workout that clicks and winds with an organic eyes down dance floor experience. Mount Kimbie up the good time vibes and add a smidgen of glitch addled garage along with their addictive melodic sensibilities.

Scuba – Triangulation [Hotflush]

The second album from Paul Rose the man behind Hotflush, Berlin’s Sub:Stance club night at the legendry Berghain but as well as being an excellent curator he can create too. Producing deep and techy dubstep for many years, he’s been a main player in the scene releasing tracks as Scuba. There are many 12”s I adore from this producer but Triangulation steps up the game and shows scope that he’s only hinted at before on last years Aesuanic EP. From deep ambient passages through rolling techno and dubstep to spaced out minimalist d’n’b variants it takes in various tempos and vibes seamlessly.

The techno pump of ‘On Deck’ and ‘Heavy Machinery’ see Scuba coming at the sound from two different angles the first a big room shaker and the latter a more spaced out Berlin/Detroit experiment with wide screen bass and space age synth melodies. The one two punch of ‘Traces’ and the deep roller ‘You Got Me’ are the sounds of a dark dance floor that is happy to embrace dubstep sensibilities into techno. Big deep dub bass tones and hypnotic driving synth hook.

The sublime ‘Before’ and ‘So You Think You’re Special’ are the sound of melodic slow burning euphoria. Not unlike Hotflush stable-mate Joy Orbison. Lush synth pads, deeply moving female vocal samples, light ambient crackle and a restrained slow burning build make these tracks really shine. Closing tracks, ‘Glance’ and ‘Lights Out’ take blissful dub techno sounds and seep them in melody for an epic finale.

Scuba talks of being inspired by the divers sounds of dBridge and Instra:mental’s Autonomic project and you can hear the open yet cohesive nature of their vision taking hold with Triangulation. He’s happy to explore all sides from low-slung house, rolling dubstep and d’n’b but makes it firmly his own by creating a mood or style rather than an exercise in genre. Where as some artists fall down when they try and open up their sound Scuba really seems to thrive, he sounds inspired and free, which makes the different tempos, vibes and influences melt together as one singular vision.

Scuba - 'Before' from FACT Magazine on Vimeo.

Download: Scuba – Before (via Xlr8r)

http://www.myspace.com/paulhotflush

Scuba – Aesaunic EP [Hotflush]

Aesaunic is a five track two 12” EP from Hotflush main man Paul Rose aka Scuba, where he explores his rolling dubbed out Berlin techno infused dubstep sound over many tempos from techno through dubstep all the way to a half-step D’n’B experiment and it may well be the best slice of Scuba this year.

Opening track ‘Aesaunic’ rolls with an assured, punchy garage-techno skip with some seriously deep dub chords and a subtle progression, before you know it your vibing out and too far-gone, lost in sound. The breakdown is sublime with gentle swirling pads and a four to the floor kick ready to snap you back into action.

‘Flesh Is Weak’ may sound like the name to a Shackleton track, a man who also knows his way around the UK/German hybrid sounds, but this isn’t as scary as Shack. It’s a smooth house tempo number with dubby atmosphere and a seriously jarring glass smashing sample that signifies the drop into a subtle bubbly post-acid-house synth line.

‘Reverse’ comes on a little like Skream’s quality ‘Backwards’ on Deep Medi with a groove that feels like it’s both propelling forwards and backwards all at once. Scuba’s reversed vision is of the smooth and sinister, technofied kind though. The keys that make up the main motif are full of soul and urgency.

‘Golden’ reminds me a little of Hessel Audio’s Joe this track shares the tight percussive grooves that he has on ‘Grimelight’ they both use a deep house pallet but with a grime sensibility, Scuba gives it all a really deep shine that really manages to hypnotise and gives it a whole different vibe mind.

The real curve ball is ‘Sybiosis’ a minimal half step d’n’b track that’s been getting plays from dBridge and Instra:mental who are currently paving the way in that field with the fantastic Nonplus+ label and their own productions. Scuba takes his deep techno pallet of sounds and locks them to a loose swung groove that feels so different to the rest of the EP. What really makes this track is the female vocal sample over the mournful organ-like tones while wood block fills bring a little energy.

Dub-techno-dubstep productions can be so slick that you sometimes want an injection of rudeness plus some of it’s now not quite as fresh as it was this time last year due to saturation and ideas running out a bit but Scuba manages to stay head and shoulders above, along with some other purveyors of the sound like Appleblim, 2562, Ramadanman and Peverelist to name but a few and keep things fresh, interesting in that department and ready for the floor. The Aesaunic EP just oozes quality and shows Scuba experimenting so successfully over a number of tempos, settle in a feel this one.




http://www.hotflushrecordings.com/

http://www.myspace.com/paulhotflush