Author: Matt Oliver

Album Review: Keenhouse / ‘Four Dreams’ (Binary Entertainment)

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★★★★☆

Whereas Four Dreams sells itself on a bedrock of ’80s electro-pop and keyboard-kissing ambience, Ken Rangkuty is more advanced than just that. Were you to label the Indonesian/German/L.A. producer as complex, that wouldn’t make him an awkward, retro-fixated diva either. The opening exchanges of Keenhouse’s sophomore record are lighter than air, with a vocal sounding like a chauffeur for neon-togged magic carpet rides (keeping it cross-legged on “Taura”) setting up shop on the fluffiest of kitsch-sprinkled clouds, and making pop smoothies (“Twilight Bridge”) minus any unattractive, self-serving gloop. Easy to typecast then, and easy to ruin the vibe should one slippered foot step out of place.

“Diary 11” is arguably the most 80s sounding and yet begins the album’s most contemporary run, teasing with a resolute march hopping down from the skies before it re-saddles upwards. “Emergence” is well named and “Can’t Sleep Since” takes the hint, Keenhouse now aiming for housier dance floors as the electro is now fully dialled into modern thinking, and more’s the point showing how close the gap is between old and new. At no point does Rangkuty abandon the gleam – “Median of a Moment” reverts back to a meditative nook – and that little bit of flexibility added to retro fandom never going out of style, holds him in good stead.
File under: Housse de Racket, Human Woman, Amirali

Album Review: Archive / ‘With Us Until You’re Dead’ (Dangervisit/Cooperative)

Matt Oliver 1 Comment

★★☆☆☆

A bit of a white elephant in their native UK despite having made a habit of rocking most of Europe, Archive have long held a tenuous trip hop residency. Impassioned, organic, string-swept electronica and blustering leftfield/rock-lashed pop sees them racing to a run-for-your-life heartbeat, hurrying headfirst into walls of sound, lashing out before retreating like a wounded animal in a bid to find unsettling peace.

The death metal-style title is downgraded to a scrutiny of a love-hate relationship dealing with crashing highs, muttering lows and vice versa. The poetic scribbles of “Stick Me in My Heart” confirm the with-or-without-you frame of mind, both sadistic and too numb to feel pain. The sentiments can get feistier and more explicit (“Violently”, though “Hatchet” comes off with the force of a Florence Welch right hook) and it’s a well realized conflict of interests between male and female vocals, particularly with the former not being an especially macho lead for the latter to dominate.

Unfortunately a lot of it musically is outright ordinary. Despite all the elements being there – an adventuring theatricality, a hidden back story acting as the album’s engine room and a personality clash being at the forefront, its powers of captivation are not strong. For while there’s a solid film soundtrack in there somewhere, Archive may have to stay a strictly fans-only event.
File under: Kosheen, Hidden Orchestra, UNKLE

Compilation Review: ‘1Trax Three, mixed by Huxley’ (1Trax)

Matt Oliver 1 Comment

★★★★☆

Huxley is hot right now, handling deep and dirty house and garage that hustles to the bounce and grubbiness of bass and offers full phatness where you don’t care how many pounds Michael Dodman’s set will add to your winding waistline. For B-line gluttons, Luke Solomon stumps up a pretty ridiculous one for Iz & Diz, and Nyra’s “Best Of” will get all up under your ribs with a bitchy, pre-millennium garage beast. Suggestive until it’s going at you nose to nose, as if the DJ is giving you the eye all night long before wading through the crowds, Huxley charges from settled beginnings into throwback NYC sounds with Todd Terry and Kenny Dope as inspiration. So upfront that it’s grooving towards the past, so cool that sentences like that don’t have to make sense, its peaks see the mirrors on the glitterball steam up.

Gavin Herlihy’s “Get Loose” and Huxley’s own “Let It Go,” apart from being instructions requiring no second invitation, throw out rapier-like synth segments, symbolizing the mix’s button pushing being alive with vibe. AND.ID weighs in with extra pressure, Baunz adds a sampled monologue to move to that was probably always on the cards, and though the grooves cool at the back end of the mix, Sebo K and Julio Bashmore return to wrenching the thermostat.
File under: Matt Tolfrey, Subb-An, Shenoda

Album Review: Mungolian Jetset / ‘Mungodelics’ (Smalltown Supersound)

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★★★★☆

Passport, suntan lotion, sunglasses, Mungoldelics – sorted. Anything to declare? Well in quickly following last year’s Schlungs, progressive deep house and cosmic disco heads for the secret inlet slash tourist trap selling you a pittance of eight tracks, but pledging magic in the air from the get-go. The Norwegian pair’s showdown with Jaga Jazzist on opening act “Toccata” has the potential to be this year’s sun-hits-the-sky moment, where Knut Saevik and Pal ‘Strangefruit’ Nyhus carry a friendly, stick-with-us vision (forgive the titles for sounding goofy) within the happy phantasm of the Mung science.

Fleetwood Mac-ish house pours casual drinks on the balcony before stepping onto the dance floor with the ready and set “Smells Like Gasoline” – deep house 101 admittedly, complete with breakout piano chords, but integral to developing a spirit matched with a doggedness. “Mung’s Picazzo” inserts a dubby, ‘find yourself’ trudge that seems kind of inevitable, but again fits the grand scheme in always keeping the lounge open.

“People on Strong Stuff” disappoints with its pasty vocal and is not the sung encouragement that would top the album off (not sure about the soft rock screeching involved either). “Ghost in the Machine” redeems with a stepper that’s hard-nosed, bassy, bouncy, mind-opening and with a great funky switch-up all in one, and “The Dark Incal” gives an end-of-the-night performance locking onto ravers’ spheres of emotion. Don’t leave home without it.
File under: Lindstrøm, John Talabot, Knights of Jumungus