Author: Matt Oliver

Compilation Review: ‘Fabric 65 – Matthias Tanzmann’ (Fabric)

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★★★★☆

The first half of Fabric’s 65th expo from Ibiza resident and man behind Moon Harbour Matthias Tanzmann is serious. He delivers bass-driven, eyes on the prize, hostile and hard funkin’ house, switched to a 24-hour bug of garage sickness through Tanzmann’s “Konoa,” minimal but with veins bulging from its temples, faced with being boxed in but using its fists to drive its way out. Quite the dating profile. It’s time to shine is naturally when the kick and bottom end have blown every light bulb in the building, and is the end of the week sound for when you feel like taking out some anger on the futility of your day job. Even the off-the-wall lyrics to Monkey Maffia’s “Sources from the Past” won’t stop the sense of aggravation on the tip of Tanzmann’s tongue, and the only answer to Shenoda’s “The Question” is mean mugging to a tech snarl sheathed in Bucketheads percussion. It’s not full blow vitriol, but wisps of steam are evident exiting from the spinner’s ears.

When Davide Squillace’s “Do Somebody” takes its place, the funkiness is upped but the tension has eased, Tanzmann indicating it’s time to re-button the shirt and straighten the tie. It’s hard to penalise the German for playfully lightening the mood of the party, replacing the thrust and throwing of haymakers with deep house’s marked trudge and tribalism’s ceaseless throb. The best of both worlds then, albeit a little begrudgingly.
File under: Maya Jane Coles, Alexis Cabrera, Daniel Stefanik

Album Review: Toddla T / ‘Watch Me Dance: Agitated by Ross Orton & Pipes’ (Ninja Tune)

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★★★☆☆

Not remixed, edited or revamped, but agitated, which is absolutely the right description when it comes to the prospect of Sheffield’s digi-dub blazer Toddla T laden with extra bass. Bumped, hustled and re-skinned, stretching the sound system template like ’60s Jamaica has been brought back by flux capacitor are respected hometown historians Ross Orton and DJ Pipes, at Toddla’s own request for a double soundclash that reinvents Watch Me Dance while jamming together dancehall from back to front.

Doing heavyweight speaker boxing on opening two re-skanks “Fly” and “Streets Get Warmer”, it’s “Heavy Girl” bringing the summer vibes showing its red stripes. Redefining the blueprint comes with a preservation of Sheffield’s fabled bleep scene under wraps, where Roots Manuva does his bespoke jitterbug on “Watch Me Dub,” a surefire duck and dive parading in a plastic coating. Followed by the flubber of “Lose Control” and “Cherry Pickling,” Orton and Pipes take TT’s matrix of rave-ready studio sheen to standards previously moth-eaten and lost to dust, while plating up jelly-like bassline ping-pong.

“Take It Back” is rather staid house; one throwback amongst a handful of alterations that lack something when stripping back and playing the game of bass culture. Toddla T fans may claim unnecessary interference, but as it’s only agitated and not lobotomised, there’s no harm in accepting a tweak or two to dovetail the source.
File under: Machines Don’t Care, The Nextmen, Major Lazer

Album Review: Freefall Collective / ‘Sounds Out of Time’ (Supafrequency)

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★★★☆☆

Ragga/dub breakbeat firebrands Freefall Collective get off on the judder of an ill-secured speaker rig or seeing a festival front row turn into a bruising melee. It’s an inferno that while big on tazing eardrums, does play by more rules than rebels normally allow, and eventually follows one true path when amalgamating sound system skanks and flat-out-the-traps breaks.

“Short Changed” rudely settles scores with rave chords having its back, and “Ganjaman” arrives with sirens blazing and hard-stepping, sub-garage beats blasting through. But the ideas aren’t always freshly dipped: “Kermit’s Crafty Coconut” for example dates back to 2007, and “Truth & Rights” and “Soul Vibration”, though loaded with bottom end and raise-ups, hit the ground running but are no groundbreakers. The raps of MC Manic are a little unconvincing (though he does a decent Chali 2na turn on the hip-hop reversal “My Space”), in charge of a dourness that’s too uptight to ride out the Collective’s energy.

You can decide for yourself whether you want the impact to constantly batter you, or if pulling back to show resourcefulness becomes necessary over time. No matter what, the bass goes on. “Noodlegun Dub” takes time out to realign in favour of a Kingston reality, and “Busted” and “About This Time” roll to show Freefall’s more chilled gameface.
File under: Black Canvas, Dub Pistols, Johnny Pluse, Jinx in Dub

Album Review: Babe, Terror / ‘Knights’ (Phantasy)

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★★★★☆

Achieving immersion through a meager five tracks and 34 minutes, Babe, Terror develops a messiah complex in the space of a lunchbreak. A sound that lies back and watches the clouds dance their own dance, Claudio Szynkier’s IDM, partly celestial, partly the result of a splintered subconscious that should be analysed by clipboard holders in white coats, buries ambient house with plenty of emotional tremors dispatched with it.

More than once, the chugging tempo seems to falter momentarily, showing BT really turning the screw on ears. “Lifantastic I” is a clear path to enlightenment constantly clouded, tripped up and scuffed with self doubt. “Savagestic” is plagued with uncertainty from the start but still has hopes of finding salvation as it bids to put sneaking suspicions to one side while keeping one foot in front of the other. “Cleric” is literally a gateway between frying pan and fire, with “Lifantastic II” sounding more optimistic about its prospects despite facing a wall of constant, pitched down chatter and greyscale atmospherics swirling in no given direction. “War” is the brightest, freest of the quintet, though of course worries remain, nagging until a scalpel is probing the thought process.

Of course the opportunity would’ve been to double the size of Knights and increase the mental workload with it, but BT leaves listeners wanting more while satisfying with the quick-fix of therapy they’ve received.
File under: Animal Collective, Oberman Knocks, Ital