The Rubber Room column is a weekly look at recent and notable releases that don’t fall into the rubric of traditional reviewed material—namely 7”’s, 12”’s, 3” CDs, EPs, cassette-only, DVDs and MP3-only releases.

The Go Find
Over The Edge
[Morr Music, 2004]

Over The Edge highlights two outstanding electronic pop songs from Dieter Sermeus’s (aka The Go Find) recent Miami, the perfect complement to Arne Van Petegem’s (aka Styrofoam) upcoming and equally accomplished Nothing’s Lost. That there are sonic similarities between the recordings isn’t surprising given Van Petegem’s production presence on Miami. The rocking pulse in the original “Over The Edge” can’t completely obscure the song’s root melancholy that Sermeus’s “Late Night” remix brings to the sleepy surface. Opening in similarly dreamy mode, “What I Want” builds towards a gorgeous finale of vocal counterpoint, while Styrofoam’s elastic “Perfect Time” remix trades melancholy for a whirring glitch-funk makeover. Highly recommended to connoisseurs of electronic pop.
[Ron Schepper]

Beezel & Juvenile
Luggage
[DJ SMALLZ - SOUTHERN SMOKE 13 Mixtape, 2004]

Pulling away from the rest of the pack on this mixtape are Juvenile and Beezel (Def Jam South, apparently) with the ubiquitous Neptunes machine on the boards. This is like their own “Superthug” production stuffed with about eight different hooks as opposed to their usual one or two. Cycling skillfully through cowbells, old school synths, moaning looping females, breathy males, bloops and bleeps this shows a greater range than their last few efforts. “Luggage” is two minutes that needs to be on repeat.
[Scott McKeating]

Andreas Tilliander
Dutty and Digital
[Ideal, 2004]

It’s rather clear at this point that Tilliander is a dilettante. Adept at nearly everything he tries, it’s sometimes hard to see past the myriad projects that he has up in the air at any given time. Luckily, the title gives it away, it being a 4 track 12” full of the digital skank mastered by Pole and Basic Channel years ago and now updated and reconfigured by this Scandinavian. It’s a bit cleaner and easier to figure out than the aforementioned precursors, but at the same time does more towards making your head move than either of them as well. With the speaker-busting bass of “Ideal Chant” roiling through my eardrums, I can’t help but think that Tilliander has conquered another genre. Where to next?
[Todd Burns]

Caro
My Little Pony
[Orac, 2004]

Home to Bruno Pronsato and his highly regarded Silver Cities album, Orac has been quietly pumping out some of this year’s best Perlon-styled microhouse. Caro, spell it backwards, comes in with a third 12”, this one perhaps the funkiest of the bunch. The disappointment lies in the various mixes offered by what should have been an exciting group (Ben Nevile, Beckett and Taylor and Pronsato). The best one of the bunch is Pronsato, which retains the danceability of the original but still is too prone to chopping, in favor of letting the music work on its own. That’s the problem, but to a much larger degree on the Beckett and Taylor mix, but in all fairness you expect that out of them. Worth it for the A-side, but I’d hardly venture past that.
[Todd Burns]

Clint Mansell of PWEI and Andrew Collins
Reformation Interview
[Pweination Download, 2004]

In case you hadn’t heard Pop Will Eat Itself are back. There is nothing as likely to make me feel like an old fart as bands from my youth reforming for one last hurrah. It seems like only yesterday that I was jumping up and down like a prize arse at Newcastle Upon Tyne’s glorious (and now deceased) Mayfair venue in 1992. Without giving it all away there appear to be a handful of UK dates, new t-shirts and some new material soon to be on offer. Head for the above link for the story in full Technicolor Brummie audio.
[Scott McKeating]