This is an overview of the music that the 909 crew are feeling this month. Not focused on new releases, it serves as an insight to our musical journeys and the discoveries we make on the way.
EOD – Swurlk (Snarlfingercroak Mix)
Haven’t really stopped listening to this since it came out last month. I’ve always been a fan of EOD’s stuff (especially this one), but this is on a different level. The lad has always had a knack of churning out some decent melodies but the intelligence and melancholy of this one is absolutely killer. The chords are somewhat reminiscent of releases by guys like Inigo Kennedy or The Exaltics, but they are far simpler and more transcendent than anything those guys have made and their effect is brutally effective. The accompanying erratic synth line is also an absolute madness and sounds like something dreamt up in a mad scientist’s lab. I’m really impressed by the quality of this release and in my opinion it rivals the production of AFX in terms of being a straight up emotional electro banger. Huge tip right here!
Lusine – Rubberbands
The first thing that strikes you about this tune is the sharpness of the sound design; so clean and so damn tight! The best comparison in my mind to exemplify this sharpness is Objekt’s Theme From Q, and considering we all know how sick a producer Objekt is, this is a compliment of the highest order for Lusine. I found this song nestled in a Nicolas Lutz set from a few years back, and am relatively surprised that I haven’t heard more DJ’s giving it some with it. It’s some prime fodder for those emotional closings, and I for one would be very pleasantly surprised to hear this in the early hours to break up the havoc that usually precedes closing sets. I absolutely love the organ chords that incrementally burn throughout, as they provide some serious warmth and direction for the song’s progression. It adds a distinctly human feel to the coldly electronic synths and really complements the 808 beat snapping beneath. Songs like this make me remember why electro is the best genre in the world cause this is just so fucking sick. It has absolutely everything that I’m looking for in a song and then some. You want a song that encapsulates what I’m all about, then check this out right here.
Hallucinogen – LSD
This is just an absolute trip. Literally cannot find a better tune for the rave than this. Play it super slow; play it at fuckin’ gutbusting speeds and this will do the job. Killer weirdo acid lines and the huge trancey synths provide the drama and spectacle, and then the hardworking bassline underneath keeps everything moving and allows the rest of the song to shine. My favourite way to listen to this song is to slow it right down and play it at about 121bpm, much like most trance. Trance synths when slowed down become super euphoric and the lack of speed makes it less cheesy in my opinion. It’s the same technique that Lena Willikens does when she slows down big room techno tracks to make them sludgy, chuggy bangers. By slowing down trance it turns them into really cool progressive house cuts, and for me it makes trance really bloody exciting to play because I bet there’s there’s so many people who won’t realise how much they like trance until they hear it played at a house style tempo, or maybe it’s just me… but either way I win so who cares. Once again, I’ve found this tune from man like Vladmir Ivkovic. Hopefully he doesn’t sue me for stealing all his bangers, but what can I do? The man has an ear for a big tune!
LNS & DJ Sotofett – Soft Peak Mix
DJ Sotofett literally cannot do anything wrong in my head at the moment. His new release with LNS and Jesse on Wania is a gem, with a cool percussive number called Pohja on the A and this tribally ambient cut on the flipside. I wasn’t sure which song to include here, but I almost had a mental breakdown trying to mix Pohja because it was recorded with live drums and thus wasn’t particularly rigid in its bpm, which means it’s a total fucking nightmare to beat match… So I decided to excommunicate it from my life and include this bad boi. As proven with last month’s inclusion of Solar Mixxx, Sotofett can make ambient with the best of them. This offers something a bit different from his previous outlets, as there is a lot of tension in the song’s build up and it feels almost deliberately undeveloped. It still has that dreamy, ethereal vibe that he’s so good at creating, but that delicate synth line that comes in about halfway through feel slightly threatening, kinda like it’s slowly entrancing you to do something evil. For the record though, I want to confirm that I didn’t do anything that evil once I’d listened to this. Moving swiftly on, there’s just something about releasing a song on 10” wax that is really cool as well. DJ Paramedic and myself were chatting about how wicked some of the Sex Tag releases are, with our collective favourite being Sotofett and Fett Burger’s 7” release to commemorate their tour to Japan (with this one as a standout) and we were both so jealous about being able to just do that. It’s stuff like that which makes the Sex Tags umbrella one of the most exciting outlets in the scene, and Sotofett is leading by example by consistently churning out absolute slammers like this beauty.
Four Tet – Two Thousand And Seventeen
Potentially saved the best til last here with Four Tet’s absolutely amazing new release. Everything that he produces is just absolute magic, whether it be house to tug on the heartstrings like this (which blew me away when he opened with it at Dekmantel 2015) or the eternal banger that is Love Cry, the man can do it all. There’s something about Two Thousand And Seventeen that feels like it is something special. The song starts out being a super slow swoon with a burning longing and soft pads that scream afters music. Then, out of nowhere, he pulls out a Santoor and changes the game just like that. With song’s like this, anything is possible. The hyperbolic emotion, the madness and beauty of the Santoor sound, it’s just absolutely perplexing that something like this hasn’t been done before. This is transcendent of electronic and underground music, and will no doubt permeate the mainstream within good time. It’s just one of those objectively amazing songs that doesn’t require an impressive knowledge of Underground Resistance or Ricardo Villalobos’ nasal cavity to acknowledge or understand the greatness of this track. Your mum will like it, your nan will like it (depending on how much of a Brexiteer she is… it is pretty foreign sounding) and it at last allows some Indian heritage to be championed in popular, Western music; which can only be a good thing. However, the most exciting thing of all is that this is just a teaser for his forthcoming album, which means that there is more music from Four Tet to come!! Hallelujah!