Author: Matt Oliver

Album Review: Fur Coat / ‘Mind Over Matter’ (Crosstown Rebels)

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★★★★☆

Masterminding an invitation to a polysexual masked ball with everyone’s Eyes Wide Shut, Fur Coat parade like a lip-biting peacock. And not in a naughty but nice way either; insolence is a punishable offense, and enjoyment will be laid down in spite of that sleeve wanting to give the game away. Taut deep house using bossy bass babbles, emptiness and space as a method of mind control (there’s not much going on, but therein lies the intensity) turns the dance floor into a blackened reserve (one dimensional though it may be) of unspoken decadence. As Crosstown Rebels do with snapping regularity.

From stiflingly humid (“You and I” serving the type of chain-smoking, Mia Wallace lyricism that marks the album’s pleasure-pain points) to comfortably musty (“She’s All Good” inching towards the back with a summoning falsetto, the funky for all seasons “Falls Away”), you always feel at the beck and call of Venezuelans Sergio Munoz and Israel Sunshine, rather than the two welcoming you into their den of inequity. “Change Resistance” increases the pressure by dropping the beats back down, “This is the End” finishes by sourly sealing fates, while “Space Ballad” is suitably robotic. You have every right to feel nervous around Mind Over Matter, its refusal to loosen up treating the club like a trial by fire, so get equipped for the most nigglesome grooves by night.
File under: Jamie Jones, Damian Lazarus, Craig Richards

Album Review: Tussle / ‘Tempest’ (Smalltown Supersound)

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★★★★☆

Back in the days of Kling Klang and Telescope Mind, San Francisco punk-dance power source Tussle got down to the bare bones and nitty gritty of primal house. As if struck by an epiphany telling them that a myriad of effects lies beyond their basement-jam bass and drum formula, Tempest takes their sound out of a two dimensional clench. While their bass scales and drums thumped with caveman command remain, the assistance of JD Twitch means freestyled and improvised meetings with pedals and knobs warms to a scuzzy, post-Cream Cuts psychedelica.

Tussle’s appeal through a scorn for sound levels and keeping inside the lines, now has “Moondog” and “Yellow Lighter” seeing brightness and opportunities. It’s still raw and funky, stubborn and chisel-cheeked, but better rounded, and that’s not to say they’ve become all musician either. They’re trying new things out, letting instinct guide them and making things fit. “Cat Pirate” fills the sound bed with as much old skool computer hardware as it can handle as if holding up a thrift store — the beat goes on while Tussle ask what does this button do, and what happens when they slide this lever. “P44” is DIY disco with a siphon of funk confusion, like rock stars snorting moondust, and “Eye Context” is the punk-funk getting harder and slicker. A change for the better, all while still shaggily throwing instruments around.
File under: Optimo, Liquid, Gang Gang Dance

Album Review: Mala / ‘Mala in Cuba’ (Brownswood Recordings)

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★★★★☆

Dubstep royalty Mala, with worldwide explorer Gilles Peterson as his travelling buddy, aims to turn the hip gyrations of the Caribbean into a London-hardened party. Can Havana handle having giant basslines and screwface scaffolding upon it?

The postcard details how quickly day can turn into night, making the sightseeing a sobering experience. “Mulata”’s visit to an ancient temple rouses the wall-adorned gargoyles, “Revolution” and “Ghost” break from the touring party to go sleuthing into the unknown, while the filmgoer in you screams at them to watch their step. Bass is never extravagant but always lets you know that it’s not sunning itself with its feet up, and the pace is rarely ponderous. It can sound ice-cold, but always reflects a brisk lifestyle twined with tension, with “Cuba Electronic” extending the show of thrills to be had from the fearful.

As if pining for London, “The Tunnel” goes for home comforts with a B-line monster, and it’s not until “The Tourist” that you feel Mala is totally trying local cuisine. Bringing a piano into dubstep is like what the ivories did for house music with Marshall Jefferson: skeptics might argue he didn’t have to go all the way around the world just to add keys and bongos to everything, but the live sense of community, with Mala drawing from and giving back to the locale, means his Cuban travails are exclusively accomplished.
File under: Digital Mystikz, Benga, Silkie

Compilation Review: ‘DJ Marcelle Meets Further Soulmates at Faust Studio Deejay Laboratory’ (Klangbad)

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★★★★☆

The eclectic mix nowadays needs something to jolt you out of your headphones – every man and his dog can now put new jack swing next to a cult TV theme next to a long-lost dub 7”. When you’re a Dutch native regularly referred to as the female John Peel, the mash-up sales pitch writes itself. Been there-done that DJ Marcelle van Hoof breaks down her third batch of disarray into the usual four episodes-in-one, a practical move allowing you to pick and choose, with a touch belying the notion she has all manner of play buttons on various machinery set off by egg timer and tripwire. Three turntables operated by an overactive imagination doesn’t ever seem enough, although not getting its tangles done digitally or automatically shows Marcelle’s appreciation of the art.

The labels are pretty much representative, though “The Contemplative Mix” is a 20-minute wrestling match of sounds, and “The Optimistic Mix” is more a dance floor player – with added whale noises. The segments run a haste of ’80s curios, unspecified species, random dubstep meets even more random library cataloguing and field recordings, and modern flyers under the radar in electronica, dub and house. Happy, improbable drunkenness, without Marcelle being one of those ‘zany’ mix and blenders. Where to play this mix? Hmm…well it’ll make your headphone commute more interesting for one.
File under: Coldcut; Holger Mertin; Kid Koala