on’t panic, Beatz by the Pound is here once again to help guide you through the very busy fall release season. This time we’ve got reviews of Villalobos, Luicano, Roy Davis Jr., and Rude 66, as well as new stuff from Clone, Gomma, and Planet E. There’s a lot to read, so let’s get started…



Various Artists / Various Artists
Vintage Future [Mixed by Serge] / ReCloned
Clone / Clone# cd8 / Clone# cd9

Two handy state-of-the-union addresses from the Clone family, Vintage Future is a mix of recent releases and reissues, while ReCloned offers the best remixes from the label. Serge does a nice job of showing how easily the old (Marshall Jefferson, Mike Dunn, Egyptian Lover) mixes with the new (Alden Tyrell, Lindstrom, Dexter), blurring the lines of electro-funk, italo, and acid house with a fast-paced mix. The best rediscovery is the recently reissued "Every Sunday" by Crazy Gang, an electro-vocoder romp with lyrics about overbearing parents that make their child go to church every Sunday. ReCloned is unmixed, but shares the same family of artists and range of sound. Standouts include recent releases like Charles Webster's spacey deep house version of Delgui’s "Highlights," and Elitechnique's mix of Alden Tyrell’s "La Voix," as well as established classics like the Carl Craig remix of "Hand to Phone" and Tiefschwarz's remix of Unit 4's "Body Dub." You might have to deal with a lot of "I Feel Love" style arrangements, but both mixes are great palette cleansers in a market currently cluttered with minimal and electro-house mixes.
[Listen / Listen]
[Michael F Gill]



Vince Watson
Renaissance
Planet E / PE 65288-1

Carl Craig’s Planet E imprint sprang back to life in 2006 after holding a relatively low profile for the last few years, and this label debut by veteran Scottish artist Vince Watson is the next in a line of straight-ahead dancefloor techno releases that have done their poppa proud. Starting with a low rumble and a clutch tambourine rhythm, “Renaissance” builds the groove for a few minutes before the bottom drops out, things get mellow, and then start to build again, this time with some riffing keys soloing over the top. The build-drop-build pattern continues throughout, lending a journey-like feel to the track that works best if you let it go in its entirety, although enterprising jocks will surely want to use those nice transitions to mix in and out of. On the flip, “Rendezvous” starts in reverse with the ambient bits at the front, then finally kicks in with a mellow congo-led groove.

[Todd Hutlock]

Ricardo Villalobos
What’s Wrong My Friends?
Perlon / PERL 59

What do you do on the heels of a monumental 37-minute track that set the electronic dance community on its ear (and perhaps at the dawning of a civil war)? If you’re Ricardo Villalobos, you release a 50-minute double-twelve. This isn’t unfamiliar territory for Villalobos, as last year’s Achso double-pack weighed in even longer, and so in some ways, this seems a little dialed back, despite the fact that the track times run well over 10 minutes on average. Still, you can’t complain about the rhythms. The man knows how to program, and while he doesn’t feel the need to work one groove into infinity as he did on “Fizheuer Zieheuer,” there is still plenty of room to roam. The title track here even features what might be some leftover horns from “Fizheuer,” as well as some jazzy piano stabs, over a percolating percussion riff that shifts and tweaks itself over some synth blurbles and a titular Stevie-Wonder-on-crack vocal refrain. Then, about halfway through, the rhythm gets more kinetic and hits double time, exploding into a funky, fuzzy conga line. The other three tracks tread similar territory: “Gugga Sempa” features twisted, echoing beats with xylophones chiming for 13 minutes; “Africolaps,” the shortest thing here at eight-and-a-half minutes, is a looping trip to the Rainforest; and closer “Drummolator” adds some acid and hummingbird synths to the by-now-standard percussion mix. Brilliant, maverick genius? Aimless, drug-addled savant? Decide for yourself. I go with the former.

[Todd Hutlock]

Tomboy
4
Gomma / Gomma 084

This summer's been a tad quiet for the gang down at Gomma—after a parcel of sweet twelves and the stellar GommaGang 3 compilation, I suppose everyone deserves a rest. Still, things are looking up this winter: Nick from Franz Ferdinand's solo project Box Codax makes its debut, there’s a Who Made Who's acoustic disc on the horizon (!), and of course, we have a new 12" from label stalwart Tomboy. Again, it's three cuts of disco dub-plate influenced house, and again it's ultra-solid all the way through. "I Kill Guitar" starts things off, a sweet 1 A.M. churner that plunks Tomboy's trademark organic drum sounds atop rotating Berlin-esque sinewaves that come in and out of focus. "Young Enough to Know" is pure heavy heat—a static-y intro breaks into martial stutter-step rhythms and electro wickedness, before laying into it with the assorted metallic percussions. Sheer wiggy wonder. The beautifully-titled "Ist So Hot" rounds things off nicely with a digital dancehall-esque series of percussion rolls and bass-heavy rumblings, punctuated by monstrously sick gaps of silence.

[Mallory O’Donnell]

Thomas P. Heckmann
Tangents
BPitch Control / BPC 140

Another three-tracker here (the triad EP and the album-length single seem to be one of the unspoken agendas of 2006 techno), this time it’s ropy electro-tech from long-serving label-head and tech-guru Thomas P. Heckmann. This is pungent stuff, but a bit minimal for my tastes—though, unlike much of what gets hit with that label, it's far from boring, and develops quite nicely as it plays out. Consider it set-building material of the highest order, then: propulsive, intriguing lines of percussion and synth that builds and builds but never quite explodes. "Tangents" plays the middle ground, somewhere between Detroit tech and light-handed electro. "Medusa" is a bit more of a stormer—I would plop it in between a more anthemic BPitch track and something from Clone, or perhaps a classic Italo instrumental. "Strobe" is decidedly warm and stirringly-layered, more of a home-listening track but still tasty for an early dancefloor. Quality tracks that get better and better with each listen.

[Mallory O’Donnell]

20:20 Soundsystem
Tape Remixes
20:20 Vision / VIS137 / VIS137-A

20:20 Soundsystem made electro/disco/house for years before Get Physical made it hot. Their pristine, squeaky clean sounds and lines belie a dancefloor muscularity that only seems to come to the fore when the floor is dark and the moon is high in the sky. Likewise, Ralph Lawson’s label 20:20 Vision has always sat easily between its sometimes-brilliant electro-leaning output by Carl Finlow and its housier offerings like Fred Everything’s fruity “Light of Day.” This massive remix project is another well-considered move, pairing the original with Dirt Crew and Prins Thomas. Dirt Crew’s sound sits perfectly here as the “filthy other” to 2020’s sparkles, while Prins Thomas takes a pinch of the same grime and flings it into hyperspace disco mode. To tell the truth, the original is no masterpiece—it’s one of those tracks which stays in your box for its qualities as a “gear changer,” the B-side between A and C, useful for moving a house set into electro mode or vice versa. Dirt Crew’s mix smears a little disco mud on the original licks, but ends up underwhelming—it’s the Prins Thomas you want. All three versions, even the seemingly throwaway “bogus bonus version” prove yet again why this Norwegian is justly touted as one of the most creative productive forces in current dance music.

[Peter Chambers]

Audision/IVF
Vanish / Celine
&nd / andmusic 0 10

A high-school friend of mine once quipped, without intended hyperbole: “Did you know Shellac is a hobby band? Imagine: if they went full-time, the music would be so good, it would kill you.” Without forcing a comparison few artists could withstand, Audision have always occupied a similar space in my soundmap—there’s something so wonderful about their music, and years after other releases have begun to sound stale, tracks like “Gamma Limit” and “First Contact” have slowly found a permanent space in my box. How is it that these guys aren’t famous? Well, maybe it’s that, like Shellac, Audision also seem to be a hobby of sorts, with their releases trickling out without fanfare at the rate of one a year or so. Having explained all that, it has to be said that this isn’t exactly an Audision record, but a remix of their “Vanish” by Sascha Funke and another piece by the unknown (to me at least) IVF. Funke’s remix of Audision begins like a new school take on the old, not unlike some of Prosumer’s recent tracks for Mobilee or 240 volts, but then the synth melody calls the tune, humming a delayed melancholy through metallic filters, you can almost hear the sound of the original’s heavy mood evaporating into a dark lightness. IVF’s contribution follows in the same blue vein, tapping some of Pantha du Prince’s recent material on the (cold) shoulder. If you’re a fan of Hanseatic gloom & the depths of minimal deepness, this is another wonderful EP from the slowest working masters of the mood.

[Peter Chambers]

Luciano
For Disco Only
For Disco Only / 430 U

Luciano is an artist with three faces; his work either aims at melodically rich kaleidelectro pop [as on the marvellous “Capricciosa” EP on Bruchstuecke], epic mnml on Cadenza, or slamming, stripped back, percussive techno business on his live and DJ releases. This “For Disco Only” release, as the name suggests, falls into the third category, and is some of his best work in ages in this mode. The A-side is a long, tripping, rolling batteria of drums with a lightly placed female vocal, care of Mercedes Sosa. It’s not nearly as dramatic as his mix of Salif Keita’s “Yamoré,” but it has a wonderful playability and the same bouncing drumfunk that distinguishes his studied, careful minimalism from the lazy Abeltonitis of other less talented producers. The B-side adds a great male vocal [ed. note: from Pharrell!], this time with strong “soulful house” overtones and a slight hip-hop sensibility, a little like Jay Haze’s “Soul in a Bottle” set adrift and swinging its way toward Santiago. This being a bootleg, availability might be an issue, but if you can get your hands on a copy, you’d be well advised. This is the goods.

[Peter Chambers]

Rude 66
Strings of Death
Vynalogica / Vynalogica 09

Rude 66 (aka Ruud Lekx) has made a name for himself over the last decade producing dark acid and vintage machine electro for the Dutch label Bunker. "Strings of Death," his latest single, sharpens his pop edge a bit, with two vocoder tracks that play heavily into the mystique of sci-fi italo and disco. The sickly sweet "Break the Silence" could probably only be made in such a conscious era of revivalism, but taken as is, it's the best Daft Punk/Data 80 hybrid I've heard all year, with a transparent sheen that rivals the best production work by either of those two artists. Balancing things out is "A Message from Heaven," where an industrial-like gloom enclose a speech by a preacher in South Carolina warning everyone to repent and prepare for the second coming of God. What's peculiar is this preacher naturally speaks in very even segments, rarely altering the tone of his voice, and tells his message in such a methodical way you'd think he was just reading it out of a book. How appropriate though, for an EP focused on robots and machines.

[Michael F. Gill]

Roy Davis Jr.
This Is How We Do It (House Music)
Large Music / LAR-107

Can you say "Dad-house?" I've long been a fan of Davis' soulful, often spiritual Chicago house, but here he seems a bit creatively spent, detouring towards the lounge with an abundance of smooth jazz saxophone, tepid percussion, and easy, nagging hooks that repeat without much sense of development. This is a bit surprising considering Davis' recent albums Water for Thirsty Children and Chicago Forever found him comfortably easing into a mature mix of uplifting R&B, soul, and house. What's worse: if one were to listen to this single blindfolded, you'd surely think the included Andre Harris remix was the most authentic Davis production of the bunch.

[Michael F. Gill]

Kudu
Playing House
Nublu / NUB 12005

Nublu Recs doubles as this pretty slick bar in Alphabet City NYC, serving as homebase for label ops and a performance space for most of their kinda-jazz, kinda-dub, kinda-afropunk, kinda-funk NY-based acts, the best of which is this here three-piece Kudu. Frontwoman Sylvia Gordon has these massive firelined pipes—we know that from "Bar Star" and other burners from Death of the Party—but when the words come out her mouth on "Playing House" she's smooth operating. I mean, totally frenzied as usual, but there's something sweet and sirenic about it too. It works well with the song, which has got a propulsive afro-punk vs. trip-hop beat whose soaring figures atop will remind old people of Siouxsie and young people of theSTART!. Remember theSTART!? Christ.

Given the track's “heavy stomp with lots of stuttering percussion in the background” routine, I'm not surprised the DFA's Juan Maclean and Eric Broucek abstracted it into hard techno. The duo give Gordon's vocals the hiccup loop treatment not unlike what Kompakt's the Field is making a killing off of, and if you can get behind that warm synth loop, there are all these IDM twinkles that remind me of early Mouse On Mars. The Lopazz Remix further contorts Gordon's vocals, cuts them up, and sprinkles them among stuttering claps and a steady round thump—it's OK but, for better/worse, not the go-to.

[Nick Sylvester]


BEATZCAST

01: 2020 Soundsystem – Tape (12” Edit)
02: Audision – Vanish (Sascha Funke Mix)
03: Plasmik - Ahead
04: Mike Uzzi and Ben Recht – Talk You Down
05: Tiga – 3 Weeks (Troy Pierce Move Until You Leave Mix)
06: Skat - Nightwalk
07: Klein & Zenker – Delusion
08: Partial Parts - Trauermusik

BEATZ STAFF CHARTS
Todd Hutlock
Pier Bucci - Instinct [Crosstown Rebels]
Radioactive Man - Itisanditisnt [Rotters Golf Club]
Vince Watson - Renaissance [Planet E]
Baby Ford - Beach Bump (Wildflower Mix) [Rhythm King]
Point Blank - Frug [Phono]
Loco Dice - Vamos a Cali [Cadenza]
Thomas P. Heckmann - Strobe [Bpitch Control]
False - .Wav Pool [Plus 8]
Hecker - Untitled (KIT 001) [Rephlex]
Compass - Gliding [Cabinet]

Mallory O’Donnell
Tomboy – 4 [Gomma]
Ost & Kjex - How Not to Be a Biscuit [Crosstown Rebels]
Thomas P. Heckmann – Medusa [BPitch Control]
Bangkok Impact - Aus Birgittes Tagebuch [Crème Organization]
Kudu - Playing House [Nublu]
Escort – Karawane [Escort]
Luciano - For Disco Only [For Disco Only]
Smackos - Waiting For the Red Bear [Strange Life]

Michael F. Gill
Daniele Baldelli - Cosmic Sound [Mediane]
Ricardo Villalobos – Africolaps [Perlon]
Dirty Minds – I Want U (Dub) [Eskimo]
John Dahlback – Our Song [Pickadoll]
Rude 66 – Break The Silence [Vynalogica]
Bertine Zetlitz – Girl Like You [EMI]
DJ Assault – Crank This Mutha [Booty Wax]
Jimmy Ross – Fall Into a Trance [Quality / RFC]
Walter Gibbons – Mixed With Love [Salsoul]
Philip Glass – Prophecies [Nonesuch]


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?