Author: Matt Oliver

Compilation Review: ‘Shlomi Aber Live from Sankey’s Ibiza’ (Be As One)

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Shlomi Aber Live from Sankey's Ibiza

★★★☆☆

After a lot of dusky jabbing and skipping round in circles, Shlomi Aber’s Sankey’s campaign brings deep house that progressively lands more punches. Guiding you with block coverage of bass that bobs and weaves above skippy percussion and sub-techno deals (Macromism’s “Cavalier”), the Israeli’s Ibiza soak is heavy enough to take it out of the chatty, by-the-bar sphere of insignificance, despite there being a lot of bluster behind the scenes without much interaction going on up top. Away from the spinner’s own “Foolish Games,” which still doesn’t really have an Ibizan vocal to embrace despite trying to do a Dennis Ferrer, and an odd Sly Stallone monologue appearing on Fideles’ “Stop the Basement,” it’s a unspeaking set for overcrowded, low ceilinged affairs. All the while, Shlomi taking his time doesn’t want the involvement of slow coach socialisers, and your flip-flops best not fail you.

Overlong as the build up feels, Aber reaches a great pounding climax with Marco Faraone trying to shoo away impending sunrise turning Chicago days into Detroit nights. You’ll still have enjoyed his looking out from the top end of the thermostat, despite a middle period you may find sapping from an already pretty fan-seeking foundation. Yaya’s “Dawara” puts the mix into a tribal twist, enlivened by Chester Code & Frankie Howland’s “Mountain Dance” riding a big dipper and garage scholar Luca Agnelli twitching his way funkily into the final straight.

File under: Alci, Bimas, Francisco Allendes

Album Review: Sam Thomas / ‘Blind Theatre’ (Just Music)

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Sam Thomas Blind Theatre

★★★☆☆

Prog-rock attitude does folk-inflected, digitally bolstered instrumentalism; Sam Thomas uses his conductor’s baton as both scythe and soother for his debut theatrical spectacle. Not following a particular plot but giving 12 chapters of shyness turned lavish, emotional highs and lows rush from the ingrained knowledge of auditorium ascendancy that comes from being the rebel son of an opera singer.

Swaying like a summer breeze on “Internal Ether,” Thomas’ opportunism and musicianship humbly holds destiny in its own hands, allowing for plenty of guitar wielding and frantic drum rolls on the threshold of indulgent solos in leather trousers. The subsequent “I’m Gonna Be A Witch” sounds like it’s struggling to get out of bed, before enchantment swirls around and becomes a soaring performance underscored by child dialogue and more screeching axes that jolt the fuggy-headed stupor on a stairway to heaven – nearly ten minutes of emotional range, the six string funk and boogie three quarters in particularly wicked.

Though the subject may appear a confused brainstorm, the longer the music has to think, the greater opening of expressive floodgates. “Ojera” comes to rest as a chillout standard, but just when “Lanterns” seems to have stemmed the tide, a crashing aftershock bites, leaving final act “Isis” to make you wonder whether it was all a dream in the first place. Sometimes it’s a little difficult to determine which chapter is which, though by the same means Thomas’ talent maintains impeccable ebb and flow throughout.

File under: God Speed You! Black Emperor, Mogwait, Pink Floyd

Compilation Review: ‘Kern Vol. 2 mixed by DJ Hell’ (Tresor)

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Kern Vol. 2 mixed by DJ Hell

★★★★☆

Hell has the fury to try and best the beast of DJ Deep’s volume one, armed with bangs and basslines causing blackouts both electrical and neurological, and using cellar-gleaned cuts previously left catching dust mites with the freshly encoded. As an activist of bringing skools together (or showing techno is consistent in its (non) movements over the last 20-odd years), the German is relatively forthright with his smoothness to begin with, using the oft-repeated hollering Indians via Odori as he settles to the ‘floor before bringing out the Gigolo’s brass knuckles.

Peace Division’s “Club Therapy” and its itchy, closed circuit monologue of keeping it real, and The Horrorist’s “Wet and Shiny,” with a list of its favourite things giving the compilation a Euro edge you’re anticipating more of, are part of Hell persistently teasing the fluency he’s installed, steered towards the precipice of dirty means and uncouth ends. That touch of the unexpected, also numbering DJ Spookie’s disco diversion “Home Jam”, gets to dragging back with classic Robert Hood and tribal thoroughfares, ahead of powering back up with effortless returns of high velocity spearheaded by Inner City’s “Ahnongay” into Hell remixing Halogen. Going in for the kill is therefore an easy job from superior balance management, with acid-soaked ill will on Shivers’ “Fornax” and barrages from Lisa Cadena coming at you before Recondite starts spilling bad blood. Another Kern classic.

File under: Steve Poindexter, Kenny Larkin, Joey Beltram

Album Review: Drumsound & Bassline Smith / ‘Wall of Sound’ (New State)

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Drumsound & Bassline Smith Wall of Sound

★★★☆☆

Anchored by crossover busters “Through the Night,” “Freak” with its chorus that sounds sung by a vocodered Frankie Valli, and the Utah Saints/Annie Lennox re-up “What Can You Do For Me”, Drumsound & Bassline’s stadium-scooping, sunshine-encouraged jump ups surge like a bullet train buffed by energy drink. On a silver platter of chord changes — doubly dramatic and in tune with your body’s biorhythms, when really they’re only following a simple ABC — and with 90% vocalization for that essential festival/holiday moment to cling onto, it’s a lesson in reflex, songwritten dance.

Glad as you’ll be for Drumsound & BS keeping it strictly drum & bass rather than go into unrelated areas, predictability persists. A few warp speed basslines leave eardrums looking like a colander, giving it up for “Pull It Up Selector”, a trusted, timely old school throwback, and “All Day” taking the Jungle Brothers back to when Urban Takeover thrust them into a late ’90s drop-top wobbling D&B limelight.

As “Solitude” and “U Ain’t Ready For Me” scorch at the sharp end, the guitar-rocked “Tough Times,” doing airwaves dubstep, is a little off the pace with the thunderbolts zinging past it, and the Haduoken! typhoon “Daylight” will get purists prickly — harsh, given Bassline Smith’s long run in the game. The wall’s foundations are found rocky without much rocket science calculation – too many similar-sounding outings, put together on an excessively drawn out (the iTunes version runs 23 tracks) LP.

File under: Blame, Sub Focus, Brookes Brothers