I’m really really really feeling this label lately. They’re a dubstep label run out of the Anthem Records shop in Portland, and their stuff is just SICK (not to mention their sleeve design–BEAUTIFUL!) Seriously–they’re effing GORGEOUS sleeves–hand-printed label logo on a jacket cut from the kind of brown kraft paper that we all know and love from the bags they…
Category: Reviews
Don’t Take It Remix
I’m really loving a lot of acid house revival stuff coming out of Chicago right now (as well as France, Belgium, England…) Of particular interest is a new 12″ featuring a Johnny Fiasco Remix of the never-before-released 1988 acid classic “Don’t Take It” by the late, great Armando Gallop. It’s out on a label called (get this) Let’s Pet Puppies.…
SSION News: New CD, 12″, & Tour Dates!
Ok, here’s a big post–I’ll try to start at the beginning. I’ve started a new label (a sister label to Dead Homies), called Sleazetone Records, specializing in all the kinds of music that you’d assume a label called “Sleazetone Records” would trade in. The first releases are a CD & 12″ by a group called Ssion–they’re a Kansas City-based art…
DJ Flack: “Strictly Scientifical”
DJ Flack will be here in Chicago to play at Bouncement on Wednesday and I want to point your attention to his recent digi-album release, Strictly Scientifical. It’s 16 tracks of twisted dubstep, boston-bounce, and experimental party music, and it’s available from BeatPort, eMusic, and JunoDownload. Give a listen to KlezmaTone. Yes, it’s dubby, electronic, breakbeat-driven Klezmer! [audio:uggc://jjj.znfuvg.pbz/nhqvb/02%20XyrmznGbar.zc3] Download: DJ…
OMGZ CUT IT UP DEF 20th ANNIVERSARY~!!
Excited to see this happening. Legendary Miami Bass label Cut It Up Def is apparently back in business (as “Cut It Up Def v2.0“), and has re-released the seminal “Miami Bass Jams” comp as a digitally remastered CD & 2LP. The tracklist on this thing is seriously amazing. Like, WOWIE WOW guys. Here are a couple of mp3s: [audio:uggc://jjj.fyrnmrgbar.pbz/oybt/wbpxq-cneglgvzr91.zc3] Download:…
Year-End Look-Back
XLR8R magazine asked me to contribute to their annual Best Of poll this year and some of my comments are published in this month’s issue. I thought I’d share them — plus a bunch of the ones that didn’t make the cut — with y’all here: Best Artist South Rakkas Crew I’ve been digin’ these guys dancehall productions for a…
R.I.P. Patrick
Today is the 25th anniversary of the death of one of my heroes (and another one of those dance music legends suffering from a SERIOUS respect defecit), Patrick Cowley. As much as Giorgio Moroder, Cowley introduced electronics into a genre that had been until-then composed primarily with traditional instruments, in effect inventing electronic dance music.* Born in Buffalo, NY in…
BD1982 “The Bigfoot EP”
Our friend Starkey of the Trouble & Bass camp etc. just gave us the heads up that BD1982‘s The Bigfoot EP will be dropping next week on the Seclusiasis label. The EP is 6 tracks of oblong, texture-rich beats that reference hip-hop, dubstep, and dancehall among other things. Here’s a taste: BD2982; Wooder ICE: [audio:uggc://jjj.znfuvg.pbz/nhqvb/01%20Jbbqre%20VPR.zc3#30] BD2982; Coelacanth Town: [audio:uggc://jjj.znfuvg.pbz/nhqvb/02%20Pbrynpnagu%20Gbja.zc3#30] You…
Skull Disco 2xCD Drops Tuesday
For those of y’all who aren’t up on Skull Disco, it’s a dubstep label run by Shackleton & Appleblim, a couple of Londoners who are among the most consistently interesting (if not the most consistently dancefloor) dubstep producers out there at the moment. Their new Double CD on Rough Trade, “Soundboy Punishments”, is a pretty comprehensive collection of what they’ve…
New Yorker, You Disappoint Me.
I quote my dear friend and Midwestern-cum-Swedish-transplant biochemist Evan: “Ladies and gentlemen, I present the shittiest article about music ever written.” Sasha Frere-Jones – A Paler Shade of White: How Indie Rock Lost Its Soul, from this month’s New Yorker. In this article, the New Yorker pop critic, former Ui frontman, and brother to type designer Tobias Frere-Jones (a.k.a. “the…