Trois

Clean your plate for dessert.



Tres Demented (Laurent Garnier & Carl Craig) - Demented (Or Just Crazy)

This is about as tribal as you'll ever hear Carl Craig go, but I'll be damned if this isn't a dirty, muscular drum workout that literally shakes with a demented, ferocious energy all its own. Frequent bursts of male bellows, yelps, screeches, and gasps punctuate the track and only build the tension that the percussion churns out. This is a full-blown tribal house-fest, and when everything swirls into a crazed, chaotic maelstrom, only to have the kick drop around 3:55...this track explodes from the inside out. A pulsating, looping drone opens up and the track just...well, it just chugs right along. Few tracks ever create this much energy, let alone sustain it. A great peak-time track if used right. Hell, this could probably cause architectural damage...

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Reference - Best Night In Detroit

The B-side to this decidedly "Detroit" release from natives Reference takes a Detroit spin on dub techno that leaves you with a warm feeling all over, even after the track has stopped spinning. One half of the duo, producer Luke Hess's influence is almost immediately noticeable: lush, dub-inflected pads quiver with a depth and peaceful ebb and flow of that good ol' Detroit sound. More rhythmic than the A-side, 'Best Night...' goes for depth and warmth and succeeds definitively, with classic Detroit chords eventually bathing themselves inside this spacious, creamy bath-tub of dub. An introspective turn on a classic sound that's perfect as a techno lullaby as it is a sexy, sensuous Detroit-influenced slab of dub techno. Majestic, powerful...comforting.

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Reshuffle - The Uppershelf

Reshuffle (Guy Gerber & Niv Hadas) appear on Gerber's own 'Supplemental Facts' imprint with yet another slice of dark, ominous techno. After 'Hedonism' (my favorite track of theirs and included on my most recent mix) 'Uppershelf' takes eery metallic pads and reverbs the hell out of them as a warped, rib-crushing bassline creeps out of the ether. A dissonant looped bell tone creates even more tension until what enters? An even MORE creepy synth line that tails off into the distance before cycling back time and time again. This is the very edge of techno before we get into horror territory...but such a well-produced slice of techno that still somehow can get people to dance is a testament to Gerber's fondness for occupying his empty spaces with dissonant ambience, dark, warped basslines, and vaguely eerie synth leads. And he's done it again. This ain't no 'Hedonism', but it can still stand on its own in any set and works great as a near-peak tune. A literal machine of evil.

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Enjoy, friends.
-NL

Three's A Crowd

Absolutely.



Portable - Life Magically Is

It's always hard to get my hands on a Perlon release. For starters, it's a vinyl-only label. Well, that's mostly it. But here we have a vocal-based techno cut that builds a track around the vocal line. A drugged-out vacuous pad whooshes and spirals around the sinister voice as it goes on and on, slowly, powerfully, deeply. The vocal line was clearly not an afterthought, as everything from the hypnotic, near-dissonant bell synth, muscular bassline, and twisted metallic toms works underneath the voice, as if it's controlling all movement and change within the track. It's a journey, to say the least. A masterwork of mood and method from one of Perlon's elite.

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H.O.S.H. - Cash The Chord

The most recent single from the Diynamic camp is a buoyant, bubbly little tech house cut that features a tense, spastic percussion section underpinning a typically groovy rhythm and a somehow not-annoying piano riff. Laid-back and almost jazzy, it fits the mood and groove to a tee. There's even a lite-string section thrown in for good measure. Plenty of bounce, plenty of groove, easy to mix in and out of, not much more you could ask for from H.O.S.H.

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DJ Falcon & Thomas Bangalter do Call On Me in a big way

This sort of speaks for itself. "Call On Me" morphed into a shimmering, nine-minute summer hands-in-the-air epic that goes for elation over pounding bass. Absolutely in love with this. If you weren't tired of this song before, this won't change any minds. But it might bop some heads.

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Call it an evening. Enjoy, friends.
-NL

Hat Trick

Three more.



Gel Abril - Miranda

It's a shame Get Physical has fallen off so hard recently. This nearly two-year old track comes from a period of superb GP output, and it's easy of course to get behind such a tune as this. The Israeli producer rolls out a raucous, glittering cut of tech house veined somewhat in the MIddle East. The shimmering, clicky pads highlight the descending, stabbing main synth riff, a simple, slithering beast that creeps up on you and is gone before you get point it out. A tersely tight bassline rounds out the package on this easily-mixed, well-produced builder.

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Black Strobe - I'm A Man (Audion's Donation Mix)

As the techno-versed third of Matthew Dear's personas, Audion turns in a slow-burner of a remix here for French duo Black Strobe. A somber organ riff lights the wick that catches warm, gaping pads and a cavernous bassline, while shrill, metallic echoes click in and out of the track. The vocal line (this is a remix after all!) works well here, but, to me, it really is not that noticeable. The organ and the bassline absolutely swallow everything in their path, as the trance-esque chord stabs build to a crazed, volatile crescendo before being beaten to a pulp by the bassline and the hissing, insistent hi-hats. This is some kind of masterpiece, I'm just not sure how. Whatever the case may be, it commands attention and threatens punishment for all who fail to comply. You have been warned.

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Patrick Chardronnet - Ledge

Frequent Connoisseur, Poker Flat, and Raum...musik collaborator Patrick Chardronnet turns in a dark, melancholy slice of deep minimal with the aptly-titled "Ledge". An ominous echoing pad kicks off the track, buoyed by the ever-present clicking hi-hat, a slab of a heavy bassline rolled out soon after. Out of the ether soon comes a delicate, paper-thin pad that threatens to break under any sort of pressure. Against the pop and crackle of vinyl, a ghostly, subdued synth riff ripples into view, layered over the bassline for a solid, instantly-pleasing groove. Soon the eery synth echoes come back in, the air thick with remorse and sticky with the sweat of a satisfying groove. There's something...odd about this track. The atmosphere is dense, but it's completely danceable, playing a rocky middle-ground that it teeters over from time to time, like some kind of...ledge. Yeah. Enough said. A satisfying minimal monster from a consistent producer.

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More soon.
-NL

Morning Coffee

Breakfast in bed. A few bites for your comfort.



Gui Boratto - Atol

Gui Boratto stands as a master of warm, lush techno landscapes that never sacrifice atmosphere for emotion, making many of his productions cathartic as they are danceable. "Atol" smears a glistening, airy synth riff underneath Boratto's usual live-sounding percussion. The main synth riff hums with life and vibrance, and bringing to mind waking up on a beautiful summer morning, the sun in your face, your soul full of happiness and joy. Boratto's percussion is layered and very full-sounding, giving his delicate melody the perfect bed on which to lay as it whisks the listener across the sky through the almost-trancey breakdown. Everything here complements everything else superbly. A jubilant cut of techno that plays that middle ground of emotion and groove perfectly. Breath-taking.

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Kollektiv Turmstrasse - Eskapade

On one of their few turns on Diynamic Music, German duo Kollektiv Turmstrasse have turned in a restrained yet ebullient slice of techno that moves from subdued and focused to a controlled raucousness that slowly trickles in emotion until the curtain is torn down and the light bathes the track in light. At first glance a somber, slow-burning track, this cut slowly builds a groove that chugs along with a single note synth ringing in the background. Next, a harmonic pad slides in underneath it, and finally one more harmonic element rings atop it; a calm, beautiful peak that speaks to the quiet emotion the track carries. The melody later rings out on its own, until another layer of synth is added. While definitely taking a noticeable sad turn, the track is still lush with emotion, power, and groove. Wonderful as a builder, glorious as a peak.

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Pryda - Privilege ID

Yeah, yeah, there's no official title, sure. But that's not what's important here. Prydz is so ahead of the competition that his unreleased IDs get more views and spins that most other producers' released tracks. Speaks to the quality and power of his tracks. Here, Prydz goes with a spastic, pulsating synth build that churns with raw power behind the almighty kick. The vocal line shoots this track into the stratosphere, an epic build that accompanies an equally euphoric breakdown. But then, that's the glory of a Pryda track: epic build, epic melody, epic breakdown, rinse and repeat. Need I say more? Imagine this live...

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Enjoy, folks.
-NL

Morning Quickie

With morning comes light. Here are a few tracks I've been on to lately:



Stimming & Einmusik - Madleine

The A-side to this formidable EP is "Madleine", a groovy deep tech monster that features Stimming's prototypical unwaveringly stoic bassline, rippling percussion, and Einmusik's equally lilting chord stabs and trinkling harmonic synths. The duo gets everything right here: the right tempo that keeps this train moving without letting it spiral off the tracks, a rhythm section that bounces in true Diynamic fashion, and a precisely-timed breakdown that soothes the ears but doesn't go completely unnoticed. A wonderful builder and a perfect complement to the destructive B-side.

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Stimming & Einmusik - Magdalena

Where the A-side went for depth and a solid, creamy groove, the B-side goes for big-room in a number of ways. The rhythm crashes out of the gate with a thick, driving kick and a rumbling pad over which aqueous synth stabs are applied. The percussion is really where this track goes off; Stimming's handy-work brings a layer of hi-hats over the crisp, barreling low-end. Paired with the monstrous main synth stab melody, there's a real sense of urgency here, and around 3 and a half minutes when the hi-hats give out and come back in, you can almost feel the waves of bass crashing back into you. This is a slab of big room techno that in and one itself is the peak, a beautifully constructed piece of percussion-driven mayhem that breathes down your neck and doesn't back down for the entirety of the eight minutes it spends on the deck. An amazing cut if I ever heard one.

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Gabriel Ananda - Hyperballet

Gabriel Ananda produces a sort of techno that reminds one of a Cadenza record: crisp, organic techno, only Ananda laces his with a bit more structure and catchy little melodic hooks that give his music a bubbly, groovy aura to them that permeates through you. At least, that's what I hear on "Hyperballet". Kicking off with a shrill, high-pitched little riff, bubbles of pads burst around Ananda's crisp bassline and woodland-sounding rhythm section. But all this rolls under the atmospheric main riff, a beautiful, simple little thing that gets into your head and squeezes your heart ever so slightly. A shimmering, vivacious little riff if ever there was one, it is the track's centerpiece, and my only caveat is that it's around for too short a time. This is amazingly produced organic techno fare, and I highly recommend a listen. It nearly brings me to tears.

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More in a few. Enjoy, friends.
-NL

Panorama Bar 01] Cassy

Every musical movement has a moment. A point in time when everything crescendos; the mood, the groove, the music, it all peaks. It is in this single moment that can make or break the movement; think of it as a journey, scaling a mountain, for instance. One can either successfully reach the peak, or fall behind, overshadowed by the mountain's wake. The mix cd is a format almost tailor-made for this moment, investing a good three-quarters of an hour towards a single moment of musically, physical, and emotional ecstasy that requires that prerequisite time investment. The mountain is much the same story: it's hard to get straight to the top. To get there, one must climb. And usually, the summit is always in sight. Such is not the case for the mix cd. All one can do is allow the groove to cradle you in its gossamer, sinuous arms and hope it carries you to a better place. What truly makes a mix great? For me, it comes in the realization of climax, knowing the moment at the moment it drops, gleaning from it that monumental feeling of joy, tapping straight into the groove itself for your own slice of heaven.
One such mix that delivers on this difficult-to-recreate moment is Cassy's premier mix for Panorama Bar. Released in August of 2006, the Panorama Bar resident's mix dips its toes in minimal techno, microhouse, and deeper, dubbier tech house for the mix's 70+ minute runtime. Otherworldly voices, slithering bass, and dubby textures permeate every corner of the mix, and Cassy's mixing skills are completely up to snuff. The true joy of a mix cd (besides the aforementioned peak moment) is the inability to notice the track change until its already happened. As one continuous piece of music, it is always a testament to the mixer's skills if one is unable to pick out, with ease, the moment the next track segues in. At the same time, it must also be obvious enough that it catches your attention: useless is a mix that runs a single groove and goes nowhere with it. Luckily, Cassy does not run into this problem at all, and she expertly steers this mix from Shackleton's post-dubstep masterwork "Blood On My Hands" into deeper, spacier territory in DD5's dubby "Sides Of Space" and Thomas Melchior's deep minimal cut "Let's Go Deep".
This brings us to track selection, an always crucial element of any mix, seeing as the format basically comes down to a shortened, pre-made DJ set. With 24 tracks in total, and not a single one running for more than four minutes (by a few seconds that is) Cassy's choices range from eclectic (Norm Talley's soulful house remix of "Believe", DJ Abstract's glossy, stuttering "Touch") to blissfully deep (the Melchior and DD5 tracks) to straight-up techno (Redshape's metallic, spacey "Pink Dust", Mathias Kaden's bubbly, groovy "Pentaton") to, well, even dubstep. Cassy's crate runs deep, and her tracks go a long way to creating a seamless, bubbly, and flexible groove.
Themes differ from mix to mix, and it's sometimes hard to tell where a mix is going if the mixer doesn't make it immediately clear where they are headed. However, that lack of knowledge can sometimes go a good distance in holding your attention to the mix, curiosity becoming f]your primary motivation to listen and not the groove itself. Everything in moderation, as they say. A balance of both of these, for me, is what makes a great mix. And as previously noted, Cassy moves deftly from one corner of techno to the other in the span of five or so tracks, and the groove is never interrupted. She keeps you guessing, but never stops your feet from moving. The sign of a great mixer and a splendid mix, indeed! The groove floats along melodically, supported minimally to a steady plateau of involvement, never getting in the way of the bass or the drums, the true masters of the groove here. I listened to this mix as I took a nap and I could feel the bass as I slept. Hypnotic, sharp, and so damn groovy, Cassy's track selection will do a number of your feet, ass, and head. Hopefully all three at the same time. The groove never falters but the mood swings around a bit, giving the mix some character and personality for the dancefloor.
And that peak moment I discussed before? As I napped, the bass suddenly stopped, and some filtered hi-hats came in, swirling around one another as a synth crept into the background before the heavy, firm groove dropped back in. I bolted up and rewound the mix. That was the moment, the middle of Mathias Kaden's "Pentaton", the beginning of a thick, techno-heavy peak that trails off into a shimmering finish. Cassy's mix stands as the one to beat for me, how to do everything in a mix right. The mixing, the track selection, the peak, the groove, everything is done to a tee with skill and appreciation of the craft and the raw materials. Alone, these tracks are simply dance tracks. Together, they are a movement, a story, a groove. That, in the end, is the point of a mix, bring together many to make one, and do something with it, whatever it might be. Make it groove, make it sing, make it snarl, make it explode. As we close this storybook, remember that in the world of electronic music, the most important tool in your arsenal is the groove. Cassy has mastered it, judging by this mix. May the groove be with you.
-NL

Sor & Since We Last Met

It's been too long, friends. Sorry 'bout that. In college now, up at the lovely University of Vermont, and loving every second of it. Let's get down to business now, eh?

The first track I'd like to highlight is an oldie, but one I only recently stumbled across. It's from Chris Liebing's own label, CLR, which is known for boisterous, abrasive hard techno. This cut comes from German producer Tommy Four Seven, and it is by far the hardest-edged techno cut I have ever heard. So dense and so thunderous a tune this is, it literally sounds as if the track is coming apart at the seams. Interestingly, only occasionally does this track rely on a 4/4 drum pattern, giving it a deeper, slower, more ominous mood. The main riff, if you could even call it a riff, sounds like angry, warped white noise trapped in some kind of subspace; desperate for attention but unable to get but a few growls and snarls out. The bassline is gnarled, taut, and monstrous, an entity all its own. An apocalyptic death-march that snarls, barks, and grinds the very membrane of your skull, this is only for those few who truly enjoy techno: this is the outer limits of danceable, down-to-earth techno.



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This next track is a huge standout for me, a deep minimal disco gem that floats above headspace with a beautifully simple, honey-sweet synth riff that, however simplistic, gets stuck in your head and creeps through your body like some kind of heavenly virus. Go figure. Written by NDF (Sergio Giorgini & Bruno Pronsato) "Since We Last Met" takes gossamer synths, a flitting flute sample, a simple bassline, and a few other simple effects to create a gorgeous aural palette of music that drifts for a little over ten minutes. From time to time a disembodied voice will wander into the soundscape (which sounds like it was partly recorded in a train station) and utter a few simple verses with a similarly ethereal voice. The original is a poignant, deep, and utterly beautiful minimal deep disco cut that will remain on my chill-out playlist for a good long while. Multiple plays recommended.



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Ricardo Villalobos himself turns up on the flip to remix the original (On DFA, no less?!) and any fan of RV knows what to expect: a deep, snaking journey of organic minimal techno, and that's just what we get. Villalobos builds the groove almost right out of the gate, layering a plinking keyboard with buzzes and blips of the original's minimally lush background. Simple hi-hats compliment the rest of the sound before the vocals drop in. Before, where they stood as compliments to the atmosphere, they juxtapose it here to great effect; ghostly voices drifting slowly in and out, lost with no rhythm or sense of direction. From time to time the original's main riff lingers in, if only for a few seconds, before being submerged in atmosphere and those deep drums. A 17-minute journey, this remix might not have as much of an impression or growth as other Villalobos mixes, but its minimally chilled aesthetic and simple groove make it a worthy addition, and a great home listen or afterhours cut.






Will post more later. On to work.
-NL