ay the word “Beatz” twenty-eight times and you’ll be ready to join us as we dive into new releases by Copacabannark, Dominik Eulberg, and Escort, as well as the latest delectables from Diskokaines, Scion, and Crosstown Rebels. For the opening course, we’ve got Peter Chambers’ take on revitalizing the relationship between the nightclubs and dance music, so let’s get going…


From the Desktop to the Hilltop (via the Pill Drop)
A few weeks ago I put forward the proposition that clubland has become a drug culture that uses music, instead of a music culture that uses drugs. I’m still not sure if I agree. But the reactions of my nocturnal f(r)iends to the rant has been more interesting than my unresolved doubts: the beer monsters and stay-at-homes mostly agreed, saying (surprise, surprise) that the disco was too late, too hard, too loud, too taxing. The hedonists conceded a point, but felt that I’d overstated things: it isn’t just “that”—a party’s all about the people, the venue, the atmosphere—you can’t blame the essence of the problem on a substance, or separate it from the crazy tangle of elements that makes an event. But what was really interesting was the number of people who argued a combination of these two points:

a) “It didn’t always used to be like that” [historical]
b) “It’s not like that in {Hawtingrad}” [geographical]

I scanned the dark recesses of my own discotheque memory tapes for confirmation of both assertions, and found that… yes, it had been true. I’m not old school, so I can’t speak for the spirit of ’89, but I do remember where it was possible to go and see Laurent Garnier play for six hours to a room full of adoring fans and the best sound system you could imagine. Ah, Tokyo’s old Liquid Room, RIP. Sure, it cost the equivalent of forty US dollars to get in, but it was the business. But this is rare anywhere, and perhaps only metropolii that have the critical mass of both people and objects in circulation can make it happen. Tokyo of 2006 has Unit, Offenbach has Robert Johnson, Berlin has the Panorama Bar—but these places are the exception, rather than the rule.

The Rule is Rex. I have this wonderful/terrible memory of seeing Isolée play at Rex in Paris. Isolée was bringing his set to its crescendo with a speaker-blowing rendition of “Face B,” and there in the audience was this utter penis and his two mates, shirts off, fanny packs strapped across their fronts. I thought it was fist pumping. I thought it was praise. But no, these mofos were heckling the good man. They weren’t losing their shit, they were giving him shit. Now, I don’t speak much French, but it was pretty obvious what this guy was saying. I’ll offer what is probably as accurate as a machine translation:

“C’mon you pulsating glowstick, pump it up! I paid hard euro for this!”
“My pill is kicking in, you German pigdog!”
“Can’t you see my prune is pulsating—play Gehts Noch!”

Below said ‘ecklers in a small semi-circle were the discerning few, smiling that smile, dancing that dance, blowing that smoke, and all that jazz. Behind that were everyone else, not really dancing, just kinda nodding along. We could not have been listening to the same music, and yet there we all were...

All over the world (with the exception of the exceptional places mentioned), the same scene seems to be repeated. Is it Abletonitis? Is it the perennial sigh of the “misunderstood” artist casting his pearls before swine? Is it the fact that the nightclub and its needs are fundamentally at odds with the appreciation of, well, music? Maybe Isolée played his next set to an adoring, appreciative crowd the following Saturday somewhere in Hawtingrad, but my experience at Rex was typical of what I saw in Europe outside of the handful of “truly great” clubs.

It’s not just the drugs, boredom, or booze. The real enemy here appears to be habit. We need habits, no question. Repetition is our only defence against something disappearing—you wanna build something, you wanna make something happen? You’re gonna have to do it again. Try building a house, try being a drummer, try making a baby. Maybe life itself is nothing but the transformation of this repetition compulsion into pleasure, and our fear of death is simply a fear of breaking the habit of living.

But the problem with habits is that they brook no breakage—once established, their inertia will outlive common sense, boredom, even the end of the organism itself. Like Matthew Dear’s lyric from “Dog Days”: “Tell another story to your body so it makes sense / The reason for this story is to give away your last chance.” Indeed. And clubs, being what they are, are the final resting place of our deepest habits, the zenith/nadir of our bodily needs wanting to step on the good foot and do the bad thing again and again and again. It’s good that we have a space for our habits to prance about, but the problem for creativity is that habit will have its needs met, and nothing else. The drinkers want to keep drinking, the DJ wants to keep playing, and the dickhead hassling Isolée… well, he just wanted to “go off” in a timely fashion. They’ve paid hard euro, they came to get wasted, and your job is to satisfy their urges. Hey, they work all week, this is their only outlet, have some compassion! Point is, we may never “give up” our habits, but the thing we need to cultivate, more than anything else, is a sense of the “exceptional.”

The Greeks had the Dionysia, the Romans the Bacchanalia, the Haitians have Voodoo rites, and if you’ve seen Borat you know that even evangelical Christians get to freak out and speak in tongues for a few moments every week without guilt. Maybe we can leave the serpents, satyrs, and bloodlettings for another barbecue and just take the lesson that all these events dip their lid to a seemingly immutable human need to lose it without the fear of guilt or recrimination. It seems to me that we’ve inherited a potentially fantastic idea from Jamaica in the form of the sound system. Monsters and misfires aside, from Coxsone Dodd through the Wild Bunch to rave kidz and their rigs, a mobile sound system retains the greatest potential as a spacemaker. Alls you got to have is a kick-ass PA, some great DJs, choose your space carefully and imaginatively, and make sure you invite the good peepz. Mix, stir, and voila: instant party. Kids, if you’re listening, consider getting access to a sound system and throwing your own parties. It sure beats bitching about other peoples’… or does it?
[Peter Chambers]

Ost & Kjex
How Not to Be a Biscuit
Crosstown Rebels / CRM 032
November 2006

The silly titles of this Crosstown Rebels release conceal one of the finest tech-house records to be let out the gate this year. Starting slowly and with some trepidation, the opener "How Not to be a Biscuit" gradually escalates in its combination of tweak-tech and video game sounds to broker a stunning compromise between Booka Shade-type depth and Perlon-esque hallucinations. By midpoint one is raving hard on the back of several crosscut waves piled atop each other, given gravity by the dense landscape of sounds both warm and fearful. "Cottage Cheese in Cantonese" is an equally heavily-populated but much more atmospheric number, with plenty of "oriental" sound effects. While it might have become tawdry exotica in lesser hands, Ost & Kjex sculpt with a real reverence for pure sound, resulting in excellent soundtrack music paired with a propulsive grace. "Zwei Jahre Aus Kloh" is a strange reshuffling of the two cuts together: it starts abruptly with the heavy electro of the title track before falling apart beautifully. Highly recommended.

[Mallory O’Donnell]

Jamiroquai
Runaway
Sony BMG Music Entertainment UK / 88697 01600 1
November 2006

To be clear: Besides being a longtime NBS fave—and christ, say what you will about A Funk Odyssey, like you can even begin to understand what "Little L" is really about—Jamiroquai are easily the most fucking incredible "hardworking dance band" out there. If there is an act worthy of the title "Lenny Kravitz of acid-funk," it's these guys. Jay Kay can sing, the string arrangements are always smart and gorgeous, the rhythm section grooves busily but never overwhelmingly, and most times the lyrics are both catchy and insightful: "Now we got emergency / Oh we got emergency on planet Earth." Recognize those lyrics? That's the chorus from Jamiroquai's hit song "Emergency on Planet Earth." What were you listening to in 1993? As for "Runaway," what can I say? It's probably the best song of 2006. Just like "Virtual Insanity" was the best song of 1996. Just like "Canned Heat" was the best song of 1999. Sensing a trend here? I say "Runaway" is "probably the best song of 2006" because Grant Nelson's deep house remix has some pretty bad-ass horn parts, which combined with the bigger kick might put it on top. No comment re: the stiff, no-fun Braxe/Falke remix except wow, talk about two guys who really don't get Jamiroquai. Haters, eat your hat.
[Listen/Watch]
[Nick Sylvester]

The Diskokaines
Rock-A-Boogie
Diskokaine / DK004
July 2006

The original is all over the place—everywhere from big apple rappin' to electro to Chicago house to hard techno—and in the process wastes a pretty-OK vocal hook, which at one point bites the phraseology of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm." I know a lot of dudes are writing tracks like this, just stringing together a bunch of totally different sections and hoping the song will get mistaken for some kind of brilliant mini-epic. Me, I think it’s lazy songwriting, plus I'm bored, especially since no one section really bangs on its own anyway. Regardless, I was pretty curious to hear the In Flagranti RMX, since the Brooklyn duo has done a few nice electro-goth remixes recently (cf. Kudu's "Bar Star"; WhoMadeWho's "Out the Door") and their own "Bang Bang" is pretty great. Their cut is definitely the winner here: they commit the hook to just one backdrop, a really dark, somewhat funky electro-house beat [which is based on a sample from Macho’s “Not Tonight”], and work in all these other conga sounds, treble-rattlers, and something that sounds like a didgeridoo. Definitely on my "remixers to watch" list.

[Nick Sylvester]

Mysterymen
Infrared
Lektroluv / LL2
February 2006

Gary Numan is hard to pull off. The Mysterymen are trying, really they are—and this is both a good and a bad thing. On the one hand, this could pass as vintage Numan, caning the wonderful melodies and fat, fuzzy synth chords that made his early work so fantastic. On the other end, The Mysterymen have taken the riffs and run with them over dance music distances, which leaves time enough for DJs to redeem a drink card or make it to the facilities and back before the next mix, but leaves us poor home listeners hanging for more of those wonderful melodies, more of Numan’s interesting lyrics and more pop structure. If only they’d taken a bigger hunk of Gary, or less. Either that, or it’s a well-executed rationalisation of a classic sound.

[Peter Chambers]

Copacabannark
Les Sables de… EP
Minibar / mb006
September 2006

Copacabannark (Cabanne and Ark) are both adherents to that wonderfully strange, hectic, sample-overloaded incarnation of microhouse made famous by Circus Company, Karat, Katapult, and the like. It’s a hypermosaic of house, electronica, and hip-hop, and it’s the antidote to every type of boring, uniform or cheesy form of house music you can imagine. “Les Sables de…” follows on from the sound signature forged through their respective releases on the abovementioned labels and consolidates on the quirky, bouncy tracks they released together on 2004’s “To Beach or Not to Beach” on Perlon. All four of the workouts are good, solid cut-up numbers that use layers of kicks to ground the manic microsampling above, but it’s both of the B-sides that take the cake—especially “Ouane Forzeshow,” which has a nice string sample running through proceedings and a touch of the deep. It’s hardly a break with their previous efforts, and if you don’t dig the sound you’re unlikely to be converted, but for those already enamored of this bounciest of tomfooleries, here’s another four fine slabs of creaturefunk.

[Peter Chambers]

Dominik Eulberg
Bionik
Cocoon / COR 12 027
October 2006

Originally released as a limited edition, one-sided picture disc, the massive “Bionik” gets a second life on shop shelves and dancefloors worldwide with this standard release complete with a new Guy Gerber remix on the flip, thus ensuring that those lucky enough to find it the first time will just have to buy it again anyway. Even for the prolific and talented Eulberg, “Bionik” stands apart as a notch above most floor fodder, building from a stripped-down beginning to a Frankenstein’s Monster of a cut, featuring all the hallmarks of minimal, techno, and even some trance elements that somehow come to life and stomp around once the electricity is added. It shouldn’t work, but it does, as the big breakdowns, chunky bass riff, call-and-response percussion, and swirling backdrops shift and shade each other to make a rumbling, rambling whole that deftly crosses new and old school lines. Gerber’s “Red Light Rmx” is a bit more streamlined and modern sounding, taking a similar construction approach in building from the bottom up, but keeping things a bit more dark and menacing than the original, including lots of subtle, shuffling percussive snaps and shakes. Eulberg had a great 2006, but looking back, “Bionik” should be the tune that people remember, and now that it’s more widely available, I expect it will be.

[Todd Hutlock]

Escort
Love in Indigo
Escort Records / ESCRT 002
October 2006

Those anticipating the party behind this summer's "Starlight" to be a one-shot deal will be hugely disappointed by its follow-up, "Love in Indigo." If anything, it's less Chic Corporation, more West End Records, with a series of shiny horn and piano breaks that pepper brilliantly-restrained percussion while taut, simmering strings play underneath. B-side "Karawane," on the other hand, is an unexpectedly earnest and funky afro-boogie gem with Paradise Garage leanings. It struts like a glitter-covered paratrooper boot: rugged, fab and just the right side of silly. Escort are quite rapidly becoming a serious force to be reckoned with in the crowded world of post-2000 disco.

[Mallory O’Donnell]

Super Flu
Lady in Pink EP
KarateKlub / KK 011
October 2006

Containing three shimmering cuts of precision electronics, the Lady in Pink EP grooves impeccably but still provides the listener with a slight flash of menace. Consider them tactical dancefloor weapons—"Ein Tag Em Meer" could be deployed to enliven a minimal set with its percussive fluidity and see-sawing synths, while its brother "Der Wohltemperierte Bass" might leaven the madness of a psyche-house rave without feeling too out of place. The title cut is the real heavy artillery though, evocative of the EBM-inflected style so popular of late, it displays an almost childlike sense of glee while it's pummeling you.

[Mallory O’Donnell]

Substance & Vainqueur
Surface / Immersion
Scion / SV 01
November 2006


Colin James Nagy: In terms of sound and style, there’s nothing particularly new or groundbreaking here, and that’s fine by me. The tried-and-true formula of Basic Channel-style dub techno doesn’t get old to these ears, and this instalment on Scion—seen as a successor to the Chain Reaction imprint—consists of two impossibly deep constructions created from a restricted palate of sounds. Per the style of the sub-genre, there are no clearly defined tones (i.e. discernible hi-hat) in the sound field, but rather everything is blurred together in a wet, spinning haze. "Surface" is the more up-tempo of the two tracks on the release, anchored by a deep, driving kick and space-echo drenched static clips and tones. On the flip, "Immersion" is absolutely essential. It is much more dynamic, building into a swirling crescendo with pointed, golden synth stabs and a bass line that keeps driving deeper and deeper then you thought it could possibly head.

Peter Chambers: There’s a rumbling about in the dubbier parts of the Berlin techno underground—first the See Mi Yah remixes, then the recent Monolake “Alaska Melting” reworks, and now this puppy. Are we witnessing the productive rebirth of Basic Channel, or perhaps even a new sound alliance between the deepest of minimal techno and the maturing dubstep sound? René Löwe and Peter Kuschnereit may still be preoccupied with “nothing much,” but what a wonderful “nothing much!” Ten years on, and nobody (except the rest of the Basic Channel crew) produces dub techno that sounds so beautiful, deep, and timeless. Working with the barest of palettes and the sharpest of ears, the duo have here managed to blend Vainquer’s sound (which tends to a liquidity, the sound equivalent of a pint of Guinness slowly developing on the bar) and Substance’s clangier, mineral/metallic tone palette. The audible result is another two pieces of time-and-space conquering heaven, the very essence of techno stripped of all its tinsel and glowsticks. Amazing, once again.


Lizzy Mercier Descloux
Zulu Rock
CBS Records / Ze Records
1984 / 2006

Call it synergy: Lizzy Mercier Descloux’s self-titled third album (repackaged here as Zulu Rock) paired the urgent optimism of the French singer with the sweet, sunny sounds of local South African musicians. Predating Paul Simon's worldbeat excursions on Graceland, Zulu Rock expanded on the funky Afro/Caribbean flirtations of Mambo Nassau, adding in bits of reggae, French pop, and African highlife, while removing the last traces of the atonal post-punk bite Descloux showed early in her career. Throughout the liner notes of all her reissues on the Ze label, Descloux is described as someone that empathically embraced the culture she was in, whether it be Paris, Manhattan, Nassau, Johannesburg, or Rio de Janeiro. But don’t call it dilletantism, call it an infatuation with music and life. And that's something inspiring.
[Michael F. Gill]


BEATZCAST

01: Future Forward – Time for Livin’ (Alexander Robotnick Remix)
02: The Diskokaines – Rock-A-Boogie (In Flagranti Mix)
03: Jamiroquai – Runaway
04: Echo Club – Senor Pasajero
05: Justus Koehncke – Faults‘n‘FX
06: Melon – Spring
07: Oliver Koletzki – Follow Up
08: Ost & Kjex – How Not to Be a Biscuit

BEATZ STAFF CHARTS
Todd Hutlock
Substance & Vainqueur - Surface [Scion]
Ricardo Villalobos - Africolaps [Perlon]
Robert Hood - Still Hear (Los Hermanos Rmx) [Music Man]
Tractile - Silent Movie [Minus]
Depeche Mode - Everything Counts (Absolut Mix) [Mute]
Dominik Eulberg - Bionik (Guy Gerber Red Light Rmx) [Cocoon]
Todd Sines & Natacha Labelle - Cum Closer (C² Mix) [Planet E]
Super Flu - Lady In Pink [KarateKlub]
Thunderground - Canz [Infonet]
Altern 8 vs Evelyn King - Shame (Hardcore Mix) [Network]

Michael F. Gill
Sierra Sam – Perfume (Quenum Remix) [Surprise Records]
Luna City Express – Mars Attacks [Moon Harbour Recordings]
Melon – Spring [ratio?music]
Ken Ishii – Extra [R & S]
Kevin Blechdom – Me Saw Me Momma [Chicks on Speed Records]
Bobby Konders – A Lost Era In NYC 87-92 [Gigolo]
Raze – Break 4 Love [Champion/Grove Street]
David Howard feat. Jhay Palmer – U & I [Locked On]
Strikers – Body Music [Special Instrumental Version] [Prelude]
Elijah John Group – Keep A Little Love For Yourself [Keylock]


It’s the most wonderful time of year. That’s right: list season. For the second annual Beatz by the Pound year-end round-up, however, we’re not only polling our writers, we’d like to hear from you as well. On December 22nd, we’ll unveil your choices for:

-Best Producer
-Best Artist Album
-Best Mix Album
-Best 12”
-Best Remix

That is, as long as you send your picks to Michael F. Gill by December 20th. In the words of Gwen Stefani: what you waiting for?