Music Reviews

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

Album Review: Mr Benn / ‘Shake A Leg’ (Nice Up!)

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Mr Benn Shake a Leg

★★★☆☆

You’d hazard a guess that Mr Benn is no good to anyone in the winter months. In fact hibernation may be to the benefit of the Bristol-based conductor, giving himself ample time to store up fair-weather vibes. So when Daisy Dukes and sunglasses make an appearance, the dub/reggae unit frontman homes in on festival season and flatbed floats at a full lick.

Amongst the bouncy, sun-powered partying and instruction to get hips on heavy rotation from gravel-voiced selectors, sassy dancehall instructors, hula contest judges and long-term operators like The Ragga Twins and Top Cat, is a concerted display of social conscience. Making you reflect seems at odds with putting your backbone out, but Benn knows tradition. “No More Guns” as rallied by Tenor Fly and the Peppery-steered “Know Themself,” plus “Stand Up” lead by Nanci Correia — a practical, sweeter opposite — have the pace braking for horns to sound off responsibly while applying a live stage chokehold. A friends close/enemies closer theme (“Shame”) sounds like all concerned have had their fingers burnt, with a little hip-hop/bashment casting Serocee (“Rising Star” showing street level prudence) giving the album a thin slice of variation in its delivery.

Is Benn’s soundsystem different to any other? Well his bass can get murkier than most, liable to twist as it boxes your ears at a traditional skank level. For his energetic and earnest endeavours, the great outdoors awaits.

File under: Dirty Dubsters, Prince Fatty, Wrongtom

Album Review: Laszlo / ‘Level Five Stage One’ (Lydian)

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laszlo level five stage one

★★★☆☆

A mini-album that’s a pick up and play killing of time over a gaming session that involves unhooking the phone and sending the kids to the neighbours, Laszlo leaves fingers clawed and eyes squared on a glitch quest targeting adversaries with boom and doom.

As “Dawn of Locrian” advises you to tread very carefully for the reward of new wave majesty and modem-chewing boom-bap, high and low ends make you jump in a digital cross between hopscotch and limbo. Vibrant synth projections team with rusted nuts and bolts, so “Dragon Quest” unfolds majestically before turning on its screwface, where Laszlo’s fantasy regularly encounters a reconstructed reality telling you not to go counting your chickens. “Final Fantasy” floats with a freedom still struggling to shake off unseen forces, in a cool encapsulation of maximalist contours.

The dungeon mastery isn’t a complete whore for edging around corridors. With “Legend of Lumbar” coveting a robot’s helmet, a burst of funk on “Crazy Cuckoo”, an incongruously bouncy platformer having Laszlo crack a window, goes with “Bass Patch Hunter IV” as niggling in their wiggly, froggy wiles, finding clearer passages through synth shines that take the pressure off the virtual shooter.

Even within eight tracks there’s an intermission/digital drinks break, while “Carousels” is a little under-developed as a promising dream sequence. Definitely room for an expansion pack then, Laszlo registering a reasonable score on the CPU disco high score table.

File under: Slugabed, Fulgeance, Eyes of March