Author: Matt Oliver

Compilation Review: ‘Cocoon Heroes mixed by Joris Voorn & Cassy’ (Cocoon)

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★★★★★

The classic double disc face-off of house against techno, the rough and the smooth, deep massages and strident face-slapping, the contrast of the heat of the day and the heat of the night, all taking place on the infamous Cocoon canvas.

Joris Voorn morphs funkiness and fear-calming through a fog machine, creating a forever penetrating vibe you can only sink into with scuba apparatus on. Sections allow you to try it on from the dance floor’s outskirts, though Steve Lawler and Ronan Portela’s tribal booms insist on deserting the margins as Voorn gets into a metronomic stride, delving into a cocktail of styles, angles and sneak attacks that come masterfully merged with no small amount of quiet determination.

On names alone Cassy’s mix is impressive. Pearson Sound, Sigha, Paul Woolford (whose Psycatron hook-up “Stolen” is absolute fire) and Mr G are the pinpoints for techno at its crunching, funk-flattening best, and for mix statisticians, disc two goes through a roll call half the size of that of Voorn’s. Allowing herself the slimmest of organization time before getting into the belly of a supremely well-oiled mix, it’s a vast machine (the drums of Shed, Wax are a case of no demolition job too large), dominating with barely a second’s rest.
File under: Lawrence, Stefny Winter

Compilation Review: ‘Leftroom presents Laura Jones’ (Leftroom)

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★★★☆☆

It’s not unreasonable to liken Laura Jones to the queen of deep house following releases on Crosstown Rebels and Visionquest. Does such a title translate into quieter and stormier quiet storms, and are queen and ice queen one and the same? Well, the Leeds-based spinner does do textured grooving keen to defy typecasting. Soulade’s excellent, deep to the point of sounding disgusted “Fora da Chuva” is a sure way to get noticed straight away, well followed by a Burial-like remix of Homeboy’s “Halfway” by Youandewan as dimensions and boundaries receive assertive pushes.

After such an exceptional opening, there is a pullback cooking on a lower heat, fixing heads into the accepted downward position as bass rhythms settle into fading to the black of the arena or the hazy orange of the setting sun (step up, Ultrasone’s “Here and So Far”), and the remainder of the mix, tightly prepared as it is, never quite gets back to its opening heights. At least intrigue persists elsewhere, where a thin air of mystery circulates My Favorite Robot’s storybook electro vanquisher, Polyrhythmics’ desire to float and Studio B making things go bump in the night. Overflowing with classiness for dusky stalkers and evening shade-seekers, even if, dare it be uttered, it’s a little more conformist than the opening sequence lets on.
File under: Tevo Howard, Matt Tolfrey, Ryan Crosson

Album Review: Mike Dehnert / ‘Fachwerk 25’ (Fachwerk)

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★★★☆☆

Bustling through with little time to waste, Mike Dehnert sets about most techno styles as if he’s in for a windfall should he tick them all off. The German connects the dots in logical fashion as well, starting off exploring melody (he does appear to have all the time in the world to go voyaging, especially when supplemented with ambient fragments), before realizing there’s a race to be won and the clock is ticking. The title track is kick drum heaven as it strips back to a techno for beginners guide — hi-hat whiplash and chords shaking like a leaf — showing Dehnert turning on the brutality with tap-like ease obliterating the album’s groundwork. “Grundform” is as muscular, if a little more drunken-sounding (or possibly even abstract), as its grainy, lo-spec layout makes it appetizingly rough and ready, sneering with disdain as it argues that using high definition production values is tantamount to cheating.

The ambient fragments having now become all-or-nothing snapshots of disorder, techno trademarks chaperon the solid if unspectacular “Panel” and less bogged down “Resize,” as the album begins to steady itself again. Dehnert completes the mission with the housier “Granulat,” that’s either a natural conclusion or has swung too far the other way. If you think it’s over too quickly, simply play it again on repeat.
File under: Mumu Boy, Sacha Rydell, Delta Funktionen

Album Review: Fish Go Deep / ‘Draw the Line’ (Go Deep Recordings)

Matt Oliver 2 Comments

★★★☆☆

Funky, smooth and with no mess or fuss – that would be the veteran Ireland pair Greg Dowling and Shane Johnson. The two have been prolific in 12-inch format, but find themselves with only a sophomore album on their hands, and this knowledge of how they work best has Draw the Line coming eight years after their first LP as well. Bearing house and soul insights whose lightness on the ear is summer-streaked, with a gumption to them so the Fish don’t blear and disappear, opening cut “Being Supreme” heads off at a good rate of knots, before “Two Wheels” and “Find a Way” turn on the style while keeping modest.

The duo’s need to take their time and hitting brass tacks on the head is all over “All Change,” which cuts down the tempo on a smoky funk burner that tempts you into filling the dance floor with cushions and pillows. Both have no qualms about withdrawing the vibe, which can become an issue for when the album leaves it chair to put on its dancing shoes, then kicks them back off and settles back down. Additionally, there’s nothing as addictive as “The Cure and the Cause”, as that particular richness finds itself seeping through the trip hop-soul of “Blue Flame” and icy calmer “Rub You Out” instead.
File under: Smoove & Turrell, Tracey K, King Britt