Water Borders: 'Akko' / 'Rome'

A review I wrote for FACT magazine. View the original here.Witch-house has been used as a cumbersome catch-all tag to describe a range of artists with often little discernible connection, so it’s refreshing to find a pair of musicians who appear to have adopted the term as a statement of intent instead of convenience. Rather than use the sonic signifiers of goth as a gimmick, San Fran duo Amitai Holler and Loric Sih aka Water Borders clearly intended their debut 12″ on Hungry For Power to be a deeply unsettling experience, and in this respect they have succeeded.

Opener ‘Akko’ gets off to an atmospheric start, with an ominous intro leading into an uncompromisingly bleak soundscape complete with cod-Bela Lugosi voice intoning menacingly through a shroud of reverb. The beat is industrial in a literal sense, composed of scattershot metallic samples and a reverberating bass note. The duo have described the track’s subject matter as “men engaged in dangerous and taboo sexual liaisons” and there is certainly a sense of voyeurism here, the result of an intense and uninvited intimacy.

‘Rome’, a collaboration with Glasser, continues the theme but throws the singer’s seductive vocals into the mix to make for a more palatable listening experience. By turns hypnotic, disturbing and palpably erotic, it features various discordant effects fading in and out to create a feeling of unearthly chaos that is only heightened by its contrast with Glasser’s dulcet tones.

Both of the remixes help lift the tracks from the graveyard onto the dancefloor. Petal grounds ‘Akko’ with a throbbing 4/4 rhythm and monotonous bassline, perforated by otherworldly screeches and later looping the original vocal to head-nodding effect. In contrast Merlo transforms ‘Rome’ with the aid of UK Funky-esque beats and guttural bleeps which, while holding little in common with the rest of the EP, rounds off the package nicely. This is certainly a promising start from the duo, and you won’t forget any of the four productions in a hurry: each one is genuinely unnerving, and the 12″ is all the more enjoyable for it.

Games: ‘Everything is Working’

A review I wrote for FACT magazine. View the original here.

Dan Lopatin seems incapable of putting a foot wrong at the moment. Earlier this month we reviewed his poignant acoustic collaboration with Antony Hegarty under his most prominent guise, Oneohtrix Point Never, and now this. Games is Lopatin’s partnership with Tiger City’s Joel Ford, and represents yet another chance for the synth wizard to demonstrate his remarkable versatility. The duo have already garnered a reputation for themselves through a series of acclaimed mixtapes and now finally offer us a 7” release.

The results do not disappoint. ‘Everything Is Working’ retains the intricately layered production values and barely discernable murmurings that have become Lopatin’s trademark, but the introduction of a beat early on immediately makes the track feel more substantial, fitting comfortably alongside early Boards of Canada or the loosely defined chillwave of acts like Neon Indian or Toro Y Moi.

Like the video, which features a girl holding a one-sided conversation while eating a Choc Ice, the track slowly progresses while also seeming to remain frozen in one glorious second of catatonic bliss, exuding a warmth that mirrors the vague optimism of the title. Anyone who’s listened to Tiger City’s Ancient Love will know that the band aren’t ashamed of their infatuation with the ‘80s and Joel Ford seems to have carried this passion across to ‘Everything Is Working’. The result is a track that sounds like the instrumental to the best power ballad never made, and that can only be a good thing.

Andy Butler & Jason Kendig: ‘And I’m (So In Love With You)’

A review I wrote for FACT magazine. View the original here.As individuals we all need a purpose, a driving force that imbues our lives with a sense of meaning and gives us a reason to drag ourselves out of bed in the morning. The same is true for record labels. Countless imprints are set up by producers each year with no remit other than to release music that they find vaguely interesting, the result being that they often lack a true sense of identity or cohesion, and as such fail to sustain either their interest or ours. Andrew Butler is clearly a man who doesn’t abide by this “whatever works” philosophy and has vowed that his new label MR.INTL will focus exclusively on music made in the spirit of first wave house and techno. In fact the Hercules and Love Affair head honcho has gone so far as to state that he doesn’t want “anything that sounds pre-’85 or post-’94.”

Working within such strict confines also appears to have liberated Butler as a producer. ‘And I’m (so in love with you)’ is a collaboration with Detroit techno veteran Jason Kendig, who evidently shares Butler’s zeal for re-creating this golden era of dance music, and it’s reassuring to know that it was entirely recorded on pre-1992 vintage equipment. Not surprisingly the use of these analogue machines adds a warmth and depth to the track that is noticeable from the opening bars. Taking modern dance sensibilities and feeding them through outdated equipment is always an interesting experiment, regardless of whether the results are revelatory or simply for nostalgia’s sake. ‘And I’m (so in love with you)’ falls somewhere in between, taking full advantage of an elasticated bassline and a classic dance vocal intonating “this house” to create a bumping groove that effortlessly evokes the golden era of the Chi-town box jam. There are also clear elements of early Detroit techno in the zig-zagging analogue bleeps that emerge halfway through.

Neither of the remixes stray too far from this formula. Deetron submerges the bass for much of the track, giving the synth waves space to rise and fall and making for a more intense listening experience, while Bulgarian producer KiNK throws some harder percussive elements into the mix to create an edgier track with arguably more dance loor potential. The end result is an EP that should fit snugly into any self-respecting house aficionado’s record box. With such a promising start, let’s hope that Butler has the courage to stick to his convictions on later releases.

Katy B: 'Katy On A Mission'

A review I wrote for FACT magazine. Read the original here.Unless you’ve been hiding in a sound-proofed cave for the last few months you’re probably already familiar with the Benga-produced anthem ‘Katy On A Mission’. The track sees 20 year old Katy crooning soulfully over an accessible version of dubstep: light on the bass but with vocal hooks you could snag your hoodie on. Katy has the eloquent delivery that you’d expect from a BRIT school graduate with a degree in popular music and it perfectly complements the mid-range drone and energetic beats supplied by Benga.

B-side, the Zinc-produced ‘Louder’ features Katy singing about partying into the early hours over a watered-down version of the producer’s trademark crack-house. Both Zinc and Benga have modified their sound for maximum radio exposure, but while the purist in me wants to sneer at any music that wears its commercial agenda so openly I can’t deny that both productions are scarily addictive.

The South London vocalist is currently riding the crest of the UK Funky wave, cannily turning down a number of major label offers to sign with Rinse earlier this year. Since then the singer has lent vocals to The Count and Sinden’s Mega Mega Mega as well as collaborating with dubstep supergroup Magnetic Man on forthcoming single ‘Perfect Stranger’. You don’t need a degree in popular music to see that Katy B is at the vanguard of the UK dance scene’s continuing assault on the mainstream, and with tracks like these she might just succeed.

Robyn: 'Body Talk Pt.2'

A review I wrote for FACT magazine. Read the original here.
I’m not sure exactly what’s happened to Robyn in the past to make her so distrustful of emotions, but her fans should be grateful that it’s provided such a deep source of inspiration for the Swedish singer. 2010 is shaping up to be a prolific year for the synth-pop icon, with the second of three mini-albums to be released this year picking up where part Pt. 1 left off, a quantity-focused approach not hindering Robyn’s knack for penning a catchy melody.

Euphoric opener ‘In My Eyes’ sets the tone for the album, with Robyn’s voice surfing waves of synths underpinned by chunky beats. While there’s a recurrent theme about staying guarded against strong emotions and the dangers of blurring the boundaries between friendship and love, the songs themselves are genuinely upbeat and the album flits seamlessly between the Rihanna-esque electro-r’n’b of ‘Criminal Intent’ and the out-and-out pop of ‘Hang Out’. Body Talk Pt. 2 reunites Robyn with past collaborators Diplo and Kleerup and there is a keen awareness of the dance floor that was occasionally lacking in Pt. 1. The unlikely duet with Snoop Dogg on ‘U Should Know Better’ also shows that Robyn is still capable of surprises, even if it features her unconvincingly trying to persuade us that “even the Vatican knows better than to fuck with me”. The fact that the track itself is only a handful of snares away from the electro-drum’n’bass of John B shows that she’s still trying to push the boundaries of pop music.

As with her acclaimed self-titled debut, Robyn manages to strike a balance between sincere reflection and mischievous fun that’s as enjoyable as it is endearing, and it’s hard to dislike any album where the singer offers up the platitude “this one’s for the grannies, take a bow”. Eight tracks is about right for one sitting, ensuring that the pace doesn’t let up until we reach the acoustic finale of ‘Indestructible’. In essence this is another short, sharp dose of Robyn and just enough to keep her fans satisfied until she releases Pt. 3.

FunkinEven: 'Heartpound'

A review I wrote for FACT magazine. View the original here.
FunkinEven is a producer who can’t help but let his personality bleed through onto each of his productions. An encyclopaedic knowledge of electronic music allows him to meander down the aisles of dance history, selecting genres at will and adding them to his machine-funk shopping basket. This time it’s the turn of old skool rave, hardcore and classic electro to be affectionately co-opted and re-sculpted by the West Londoner. Nostalgia isn’t always a bad thing, and that’s certainly a philosophy that FunkinEven has applied generously to the tenth release on Eglo.

‘Heartpound’ revolves around an acid bassline, orbited by a tongue-in-cheek vocal and insistent piano keys. The producer’s intensive work ethic shines through here and the end result is a fun and competent – if not exactly groundbreaking – number. It’s B-side ‘Another Space’ that elevates this single above efforts from FunkinEven’s peers: another track that wears its old skool aspirations on its sleeve, its relentless hardcore stabs and some scarily effective drum programming are liable to make you jerk like an electrocuted zombie. Detroit-esque strings and an unashamedly over the top vocal pleading to “let me take you off” are the other winning components to a cut that the producer clearly enjoyed making.

Neither side of the EP takes itself too seriously, which in a world of po-faced dubstep and routinely soulless house is almost certainly a good thing. With a remix of Hyperdub’s Ikonika and appearances as part of the Fatima live band in the pipeline, this single secures FunkinEven’s reputation as a versatile and talented addition to the Eglo family.

Holy Fuck: 'Red Lights'

A review I wrote for FACT magazine. View the original here.

Improvisational electronica can often be a difficult child to love, but Holy Fuck have already shown that they’ve got a knack for breathing new life into a genre that can sometimes seem obsessed with navel-gazing. The second release from their recent album Latin on Young Turks, ‘Red Lights’ is no attempt at high art but is instead a textbook example of how to pair a simple guitar groove with an insistent drum beat, especially if that textbook was written by a disco casualty who recently discovered Primal Scream’s Vanishing Point. There’s a scuzzy, funk-fuelled energy that propels this track through ever-mounting crescendos, and Brian Borcherdt’s keyboards do an ample job of lending ‘Red Lights’ a rough texture, creating something that commands you to stomp like a jack-booted storm trooper. The B-Side continues the seventies theme, with a distorted bass that possesses more than a hint of a Blaxploitation soundtrack.

Set amongst the other tracks on Latin, ‘Red Lights’ stood out as the most outright danceable and emotionally upbeat number and listening to the track in isolation imbues it with an added sense of vitality. It’s hard not admire Holy Fuck’s strict adherence to their remit of creating electronic music without laptops or computer programming – the results are often surprising and always entertaining, and ‘Red Lights’ is no exception.

Review of 'Returnal' by Oneohtrix Point Never and Antony Hegarty

A review I wrote for FACT magazine. Read the original here.
The most inspired collaborations are often those that would never occur to most people, and who would have thought that putting modern day synth maestro Oneohtrix Point Never and Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons fame in the same room would have such revelatory results?

This reworking of the title track from Oneohtrix’s most recent LP finds him effortlessly swapping synthesizer for piano to show that he’s far from a one trick pony. While the original was an elegant example of the ethereal soundscapes that have become Oneohtrix’s trademark, this reinterpretation is decidedly more tangible. No longer smothered in intricate layers of synth modulations, Oneohtrix uses the piano to scoop out handfuls of the melody and lay them out in front of the listener.

The same can be said for the vocals, where Antony draws out meaning from Oneohtrix’s indiscernible murmurings. While I still might not understand Anthony’s references to the “internet as a self-atomising machine”, his poignant declaration that “you’ve never left, you’ve been here the whole time” reverberates in the air long after the final piano chord has dissipated into the ether. The wavering vocals also lend the track a sense of vulnerability that is, if not missing, then certainly camouflaged in the original. Between them the pair extract a disarmingly emotive and ultimately human piece of music, a thing of fragile beauty that is a testament both to the chameleonic talents of Oneohtrix and confirmation of Antony’s status as a vocalist of understated power.