his time on Beatz, we’ve got new reviews from Fred Falke, Black Strobe, Duoteque, DJ Koze, Headman, and SCSI-9, plus a new mix by Mallory O’Donnell, and clubbing reflections by Michael F. Gill.


“My heart in time.”

That’s the phrase I’ve been saying over and over in my head recently. It’s sort of a calming mantra as one looks over the engulfing terrain of dance music. Possibly more than any other popular genre, people who love dance music are notoriously picky, finely tuning their desires to a specific sub-genre, where only a certain set of sounds, textures, production values, and emotions will satisfy what they are looking for.

But it is the alternate meaning of the above phrase, the one that reminds me of the journey to find this perfect alignment, which has been comforting me lately. For if you look at it on the surface, keeping up with dance music sounds like a nightmare-ish job no one should force upon themselves. With hundreds of new pieces of vinyl out every week, and three decades of potent disco, house, and techno music hidden inside a deluge of 12 inches behind us, there is rarely a time where you can pause to catch your breath, or for your wallet to recuperate from taking a chance on mail-ordering a Finnish double album of minimal electro. And if you thought file-sharing would provide some relief to sorting things out—think again. Users can share hundreds of pieces of ripped vinyl in the same directory, with no notification as to what genre it is or what year it came out. Not to mention the number of possibly killer singles that I’ve never seen physically or digitally (Reverso 68’s “Piece Together” single comes to mind).

To actually illustrate how ridiculous things get, let’s take a trip to one of Brooklyn’s most notorious vinyl/thrift shops, The Thing. You walk downstairs and are greeted with many, many tall shelves of discarded vinyl that are nearly unapproachable due to the amount of crates and boxes on the floor.


You turn to the left and can barely walk down the aisle, because the crates are stacked so high.


And then you end up turning to the right because the quasi-organization looks initially soothing, even if the sheer volume induces a sigh or two.


So why would one want to become a fan of dance music? Who has the energy and the time to sift through the millions of disco and house records found at places like The Thing, hoping to find those few nuggets that could mean so much to them? To me, although dance music is notorious for changing on a micro level at a maximum pace, the key is patience, letting time pass, and understanding how much more you will be able to hear in the next few years (or even decades!) at a relatively slow, but constant pace.

When I was in college one of my music teachers told me, in regards to creating music, that every note is a tiny dripping of emotion, a little fragment of yourself that may or may not be sharply defined. Therefore, the idea behind creation is that you have to constantly pour out a torrent of notes, textures, or sounds in order to find the pieces of inspiration among the litter. It’s not too drastic a shift to make the same comparison to trying to find the music that you love.

Now of course wheat-from-chaff sorting occurs in every musical genre, but dance music’s functional nature enforces this notion to a personal and artistic level. Dance music works for you, it works for DJs to create an uninterrupted flow of disparate musical pieces that nevertheless work together as one. That’s why being a good DJ can be so damn hard: you have to think at an individual track level as well as in terms of the overall mix. It’s like crafting a perfect mixtape in real-time.

But with greater ambition can come greater rewards, and to me there is so much rewarding artistry in being able to orchestrate a DJ mix, to create a study in composite sonority. There is also something humbling in finding people who produce music that can gives up part of its notoriety in order to become a small, sometimes anonymous part of something bigger (it’s no wonder why DJs often have bigger egos than producers.) What brings things full circle is that despite the hyper-individuality of a DJ mix/set, in the end he or she is nothing without the community of producers. Both groups are riding on the communal exchanges of influences, the diverse emotional smears, and the reactions each provoke out of each other. So when I question myself on why I bother going to intimidating places like The Thing, endlessly listening to one minute web-clips of vinyl, or searching thoroughly for information on record label X, scene Y, style Z, I rationalize myself by saying:

“I collect feelings, I travel to find pieces, fragments of desire, pain, love; feelings that ignite me and open me, open myself up to new experiences. I’m trying to build a bibliographic control of my life and identity, and combing through rubbles of vinyl, and sorting though a flood of emotions is one way I can help achieve that.”
[Michael F. Gill]


Featured Release

Fred Falke - Omega Man
Label/Catalog #: Work It Baby / 010
Released: March 2006

Fred Falke moves out from the Braxe & Falke umbrella with his first solo joint, two tracks indebted to disco (no surprise there) and full of warm string-based resonances. If "Omega Man" is not referencing the classic weird dystopian sci-fi film from 1971 starring Charlton Heston then it's a shame, though innocuous as it is, it certainly doesn't bring to mind the absurdity of the movie. With all the intimate ambient sound applied to the samples, I suspect it would sound a whole hell of a lot more engaging in between Linus Loves and a Royksopp remix at 2 AM, so final judgment will be reserved until that happens. "Wait for Love" is an entirely different matter, and an indication of why one should always preview both sides of the vinyl when shopping in your trendy little DJ store. Epic, emotional and delicately (ahem) progressive, it sounds a lot like New Order given a deep house remix that doesn't suck. In fact it's brilliant, an updated take on the classic disco dub, with enough instrumental variance to keep you tuned and enough basic oomph to drive a crowd. This one goes in the crate.
[Mallory O’Donnell]

The Consensus
A Beatz by the Pound Roundtable Review

Duoteque - Daki EP
Label/Catalog #: Boxer / 038
Released: April 2006

Nate De Young: Duoteque are a couple of Italians that made their first big ripple last summer with analog bass-waves gone wild on “Drug Queen.” The song was massive, but also completely predictable—with breakdowns and build-ups signaled from a minute away. The Daki EP takes a hard left and finds the duo loosening up: lead track “Daki Theta”’s chorus goes, "I am a kid who feels fine / I want a pill that makes one smile." If the grammar is a little awkward, it makes it that much harder to tell if you’re smiling about the lyrics or the music’s series of sonic gags—with pitch-shifting synths jumping every which way over a rubbery bassline. While the source material is an insta-setup for remixing, The MFA doesn’t paint by numbers. They can take credit for both a captivating take on filter-house and an 8-bit Contra-style breakdown.

Mallory O’Donnell: Brushing on Italo and New Beat textures while employing some of the squeaky goofiness of Gomma and the playfulness of Playhouse, "Daki Theta" is a proper headrush-inducer disguised as novelty number. "I just forgot your postal code," indeed. This is primetime material for me—immediately bracing, but dense and original enough to go the distance, with extra points awarded for actually yelling "bass!" "Kyra" makes it clear that Duoteque have come here for one reason and one reason alone—to blow some speaker cones and kick some ass. Tomorrow we might all be gone, so there's only so much time to strip down to our undies, dance before the beach bonfire, and experience the transcendental revelation that can only come through booming bass, synths cascading off into whirls of color and vapor and—oh shit, I've run out of synonyms for "throbbing." The MFA remix of "Daki Theta" unites the two approaches—funk gets stronger, killer kilometer-longer version. Present in both vocal and instrumental flavors for added fun, play 'em both together and watch the trance bunnies run.

Black Strobe – Last Dub on Earth
Label/Catalog #: Crosstown Rebels / 027
Released: March 2006

Weren't these guys supposed to put out two albums last year? Instead we got an EP filled with recycled cuts from their early vinyl, and we began to wonder if the notion of scary, big-floor electro-acid thumposity was just too good to last. Black Strobe have always purveyed a singular dynamic—like a dance AC/DC. "Last Dub On Earth" doesn't exactly upset that notion, but it does break up the hegemony of dark, fucked-up beats by giving us something a good deal warmer—though I wouldn't go so far as to call it human. "Nazi Trance Fuck Off" as remixed by James Holden on the flip clicks back the niceness even further, but it repaints the Strobe in psychedelic hues potent enough to be worthy of a potential flashback. Is there such a thing as Nazi Trance? Is it a Dead Kennedys cover? The answers to these questions could quite possibly drive you insane. So, too, might this schizoid cauldron of bubbling analog bleeps and hallucinogenic echoes, the sonic equivalent of being chased down blind alleys by PCP-wielding French lunatics with an Orb fixation, bent on raping your mind with their delirious near-ambient noodlings. Shiversomely delightful
[Mallory O’Donnell]

In Flagranti – Genital Blue Room
Label/Catalog #: Codek / 010
Released: April 2006

Maybe I'm just a lover of B-sides, but this three-track EP is another release that only comes near to catching fire on the flipside. "Genital Blue Room," which gets knocked for the awful title alone, sounds like a castoff Felix b-side from three years ago, and the second number, "Subvariety," is nothing more than an annoying drums-and-bass loop that recalls the lamest thirty seconds of a genero-house single bunched into three minutes of pure displeasure. "Uncanny Hinting," on the other hand, has a querulous name and an undeniable groove—chopped-up disco breaks whacked together with military precision, served hot to order. Unfortunately, like its two predecessors, it does almost nothing over the course of six minutes and you spend your time scratching your head, knowing you've heard the various songs it samples / rips off, but unable to work up a groove strong enough to remember exactly what they are.
[Mallory O’Donnell]

Oxia – Speicher 34
Label/Catalog #: Kompakt Extra / 034
Released: March 2006

I may very well be the only electronic music fan or DJ in the world that doesn't think the Kompakt label wakes up every morning, fixes some coffee, and then shits solid gold, but so be it. Not to say this latest release from Michael Mayer's uber-hip imprint is bad, and certainly not to imply that they haven't put out their share of straight-up bombs, but I've heard this tired shuffle-house groove way too much and I'll doubtless repeat that experience countless times before I've gone the way of trip-hop and Goldie. If I was dancing and either one of these personality-less tracks came on, it'd be a perfect time to go pee or get a beer. If I was sitting in my living room I'd just tap on that handy right arrow key. Oh, look, some disco claps come in near the three-and-a-half minute mark. Yawn. It's called quality control, folks. Look it up.
[Mallory O’Donnell]

SCSI-9 – Puzzle EP
Label/Catalog #: Phlegmatek / 001
Released: April 2006

Ah, those Russians... If I've learned one thing from the constant stream of new techno I've been privileged to hear via this column, it's that I listened to SCSI-9's debut album in entirely the wrong circumstances (while at work) and relegated it to second-tier status far too quickly. Each release I hear from these cats adds a new layer of energy and accessibility, and this three-track single is no exception. Slick, trimmed-down beauty is the order of the day, juggling aesthetic validity with an untrammeled purity of motion. Minimal electronic music is not something that normally motivates me to do much besides nod along, but the way SCSI-9 lay it down, moving my body and my head aren't mutually exclusive.
[Mallory O’Donnell]

Headman – Rong Hands Dub
Tomboy – 3 EP
Label/Catalog #: Gomma / 062 / 063
Released: September 2005 / November 2005

A fresh German 12" in an American store arriving months after its initial release? $9.49. Two new Gomma joints on the same Tuesday? Priceless. First up, Headman brings us the "Rong Hands (Dub)," previously aired on the Gomma Gang 3 compilation, a fine old belt of the acid-house your daddy kept hidden in the cabinet above the stove. But if legendary rock producer Bruce Dickinson heard the flipside, "Upstart," he might have to acknowledge the presence of not more but most cowbell. Add that to what sounds suspiciously like a Corey Hart sample and you've got bonehead roller-disco heaven. Tomboy brought some sick-ass bootyfunk dubplates to bear on the aforementioned Gomma Gang 3, and his / her / its new 12" is naught but more grist for the naughty mill. Opening with "I/U," which revolves clappity-clap drums around a ridiculous blurty bassline, it only gets better on "Finale," a more overtly "micro" number that answers that age-old question, "What would the Tom Tom Club do if they were locked in an Argentine jail with nothing but two fingers, an aging Casio, and an echobox?" On the flipside, things get even (is it possible?) hotter with "Itchi Feet" and its 'extra beats' corollary "Itchi Beat"—the bastard child of someone's sick mating of 2005's Tiefschwarz remixes with 1985's Chicago House. Thank you sir, may I have another?
[Mallory O’Donnell]

DJ Koze – Kosi Comes Around (Remixes Part 1)
Label/Catalog #: Kompakt / 136
Released: March 2006

How do you revisit a critically acclaimed album noted for its eclecticism, homemade quality, danceability and humour? If you’re Stefan Kozalla, aka DJ Koze, you enlist the remixing services of talented cohorts Jan Jelinek and Matthew Dear. Up first, laptop crafstman Jelinek steals the show, looping "My Grandmotha" into a gurgling brew of pneumatic stutters, clipped cymbals, and exhaled vocals that chug atop the deep fried fumes of an infectiously dubby bass beat. But while the track’s gorgeous groove is sure to prod hips toward this summer’s dance floors, it thankfully retains the original’s Saturday morning cartoon innocence. Herr Kozalla wraps up side A with loungey bonus track "Bobby," employing a warm, revolving melody and a rhythmic, granular sway as if he’s panning for gold under the gentle radiance of a midsummer sunset. Gears shift and unfortunately grind on side B’s "Raw," as Matthew Dear—working under his revved-up Audion moniker—scatters and then reassembles the original’s jigsaw pattern for what proves to be a sometimes jarring, sometimes stagnant seven minutes. To me, it seems that the Michigan boy-o’s poppier, Leave Luck to Heaven sensibilities would have been better suited for this otherwise excellent release.
[James Jung]




Stacy Kidd - "I Wanted You"
Label/Catalog #: Yellorange / 1019
Released: 2001

First heard on the Idjut Boys killer "Saturday Night Live, Vol. 2," and about half of the reason I bought the unmixed vinyl, this has since become one of my favorite house tracks of all time. Let's just say when I become a world-famous jetsetter DJ and Azuli asks me to make a Choice compilation, this will be on it alongside Eddie Kendricks' "Girl, You Need a Change of Mind" and Prince's "Erotic City." Matthew Yates' vocals consist of nothing besides "I wanted you, and you wanted me" and a thrilling, tingling bit of vocalese, but over a beat this sweet, that's all you need. The combination of melancholy, longing, sensuality, and 4 AM hedonism is impossible to resist—a jazz-based, deeply progressive track reveling in tribal drums, near-acapella vox and some sweet George Benson-style guitar. As good as house music gets: all magic and no cliche.
[Mallory O’Donnell]


In The Mix: DJ Camille (aka Mallory O’Donnell)
“I Hired Ninjas to Redecorate My Living Room”

Tracklisting
Out Hud - It's For You (Rub 'N Tug's Panarva Mix)
Matmos - Steam & Sequins for Larry Levan
Black Strobe - Nazi Trance Fuck Off (James Holden Remix)
Jimmy Edgar - I Wanna Be Your STD
Jichael Mackson - Charmin'


Michael F. Gill
Byron Bogues – 2 B In Love (Gabriel Ananda Remix)
J. Dahlback – What Is The Time, Mr. Templar?
Aphrohead – Morning in Mexico
The Sunburst Band – Garden of Love
X-Ray – Lock It Down
Soave – Crying Over You (Dub)
Claudja Barry – Down & Counting (Emulator Dub)
TLC – Hat 2 Da Back (Extended Remix)
Queen – Body Language
Meta Roos – Feel Like Making Love

Nate De Young
Luciano - Yamore
Nhar - Hexoflip
GummiHz - Select & Bounce
Duoteque - Daki
Tekel & Tim Paris - Marketel & Marketim
Burial - South London Buroughs EP
Bruno Pronsato - Wade in the Water, Children
G-Man - The Way You Move

Mallory O’Donnell
Soylent Green - Camera Obscura
Sparks - Tryouts for the Human Race (DJ Kafka Edit)
Fred Falke - Wait for Love
Linus Loves - VH1
Tomboy - Itchi Feet
Lindstrom - I Feel Space (M.A.N.D.Y. Remix)
Julius Kammerl - Dromedar
Electronic - Free Will (Extended)