Reviews

Compilation Review: ‘Fabric 68 – Petre Inspirescu’ (Fabric)

Matt Oliver Leave a Comment

Fabric 68 - Petre Inspirescu

★★★☆☆

This is a dark, long, self-showcase of deep house that if spun any deeper would bypass the earth’s core and tumble out the other side of the globe. Leave this to hum in the background and it’s hardly the most immediate, dynamic mix bearing the Fabric name, never mind the argument of whether mixing all your own material is any sort of challenge or spectacle. Yet conversely showing an individuality that the flagship craves of all its contributors, Petre Inspirescu is a character of sorts. Half the time he cowers from the audience having not adjusted to the light that frames him; otherwise you visualize the Romanian scrabbling away, happily oblivious to his surroundings as he organizes a subterranean science slash archaeological dig for beats and pieces.

The mix is veiled in the unspoken and the unknown yet poses a sunken funkiness, a backbone of non-nondescript 4×4 against minor key scrapes and chimes, the slightest hint of the folk-based and the theatrical, the contradiction of the jet black against faraway pipers, after hours percussionists and random rhythm enhancers. “In Miriste” sounds as if it’s keeping its head just above boggy water; “Anima” and “Seara-n Crang” get closer to the truth and more from Inspirescu’s introversion, but contend with mournful or inquisitive orchestra extras. When in full stride, it clutches the straight and narrow hard (the grappling “Murgul”), but it may take time to get inside your head and stay there.

File under: Luciano, Steve Bug, Lee Gamble

Album Review: Mano Le Tough / ‘Changing Days’ (Permanent Vacation)

Matt Oliver Leave a Comment

mano_le_tough_changing_days

★★★★☆

Aside from seeming to have invented or borrowed his stage name from a third-rate wrestler, the acclaimed collector of compliments Mano Le Tough is one to wear his heart on his sleeve at the same time as showing a softened shrewdness. With an understanding of electronic songs and pseudo-folk fusion, deep house to think to, and wavily-colored looks into a Balearic wishing well, it’s a debut record that has Niall Mannion moving around the dancefloor just when you think you’ve got him settled in one position.

There may be shrugs at the album’s early and returning pallor, such as on opening track “Cannibalize” and “Primative People” playing like a porch Jose Gonzalez with a little more electronic arsenal at his disposal. Progressively there becomes a selection of narrow yet expressive grooves to get into — “Everything You’ve Done Before” comes together like a patchwork orchestra — and a development of cosmic disco-themed color (“Changing Days”, the late check-in of “The Sea Inside”). With Mannion’s enigma coming to the fore, playing wary lookout on “Dreaming Youth” and humming sweet deep electro house nothings on “A Thing From Above” — and with, of course, a fit of vocal acting lethargically captivated, it becomes a good session of thoughtful headphone house able to tilt your sofa’s incline. Not a maker of big statements, but a creator of an accomplished presence and persona.

File under: John Talabot, Deniz Kurtel, Blackbelt Andersen

Compilation Review: ‘Art Department Social Experiment 003’ (No.19 Music)

Matt Oliver Leave a Comment

art department social experiment 003

★★★★☆

The usual deep house majesty from the Art Department and No.19, but this time there’s a pressure pushing down on Experiment number three, a feeling that all connected are trying to keep their cool and enjoying the challenge of keeping the flustered at bay. A little tetchiness here and irritability there, a reoccurring state-of-the-union address, and in some cases, seeing if the warpath is clear for takeoff, it keeps moving forward the ethos of Jonny White and Kenny Glasgow. Darkly sophisticated, bass loaded (Brigante’s mix of Ali Love’s “The Jungle” forcefully using the feel-by-sound model), and anything but casual as it puts slashes into the session’s urbane upholstery, joints and muscles are rarely given a chance to loosen throughout.

Robert Owens takes over AD’s mix of “Tomorrow Can Wait,” dulcet tones reflecting ghostly-like upon Luca C & Brigante’s iced waters across nine minutes of back to ‘88 instruction that baby may want to ride — an illusion repeated on Jakkin Rabbit’s tech-enforced “Full of Dreams.” Jamie Jones’ “Doctor Blue” attempts to outrun a flickering synth cell, and Bryan Ferry’s suaveness becomes cautionary on Carl Craig’s testing, bubbling remix of DJ Hell’s “U Can Dance,” while the doldrums are most mined on AD’s authoritative “Robot Heart”. All told it’s a fairly unrelenting mix, building on its own brand of persuasion and only easing off a touch come its finale. Style and sweat in perfect harmony.

File under: Gregorythyme, Catz n Dogz, My Favorite Robot

Album Review: Benjamin Damage / ‘Heliosphere’ (50Weapons)

Matt Oliver Leave a Comment

benjamin-damage-heliosphere

★★★★☆

While hesitating to use the word focused, Heliosphere is techno that seems more settled, even at its most aggressive, than when Damage gets together with partner Doc Daneeka. A uniter of calms and harbinger of storms, his dream casting banishes the velocity of when he’s at his hardest, taking a higher plain tenure that truly makes him the master of his own destiny. Benjamin O’Shea, a producer giving you bang for your buck and who becomes a locksmith sent to pick at the gates of 4×4 fury, packs lots in for a product that on the level is a relatively short and uncomplicated experience.

“010X” is a clipped shuffle that’s motorized with funky edges or vice versa, a dual arrangement that permeates the album the same as where deep can also mean headstrong. “End Days” is near enough post-dubstep, a cautious threat as much as it is a nicely nudged surprise to the left and with a valuable role to play in the album’s drifting through space – “Light Year” is techno at daybreak right the way through to nightfall – and subsequent plummeting out of orbit. And boy will you feel the Gs: there’s the Detroit head-clamp of “Delirium Tremens,” “Extrusion” tip-toeing through a Twilight Zone with lead boots on, “Spirals” cartwheeling down a black hole, and “Swarm” a slave to the metronome. On form, on target, and another 50Weapons fast start to the year.

File under: Sigha, Fear Ratio, Kevin McPhee