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Anton Zap Water
Label: Apollo

R&S's reboot of Apollo, its chillout-room sub-label, has not exactly matched the vitality of the imprint's original run. Both labels have long been known for their range, but the new Apollo has degraded, barring a few exceptions, into a wallpaper of tiresome guitar music and limp, played-out UK bass tropes. The astral-pastoral sensibility that marked essential work by Aphex Twin, Sun Electric, Locust, and more, is rarely even glimpsed. If there is a contemporary artist that understands this original ethos, however, it is Russia's Anton Zap. Once associated with Jus-Ed's Underground Quality stable, and now head of his own, frequently marvelous Ethereal Sound outpost, the Muscovite producer has etched a fine catalog of fathoms-deep house. If recent Apollo releases have put off its longtime supporters, Water, Zap's debut album, ought to win a few back. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/18/2013

DJ Haus Thug Houz Anthems Vol. 1
Label: Hot Haus/Unknown to the Unknown

DJ Haus' output has always had a refreshing, scattershot weirdness. Under a variety of aliases (DJ Haus being his most prominent), as one third of the unapologetic UK garage throwback trio Hot City, and as head of YouTube channel-cum-record label Unknown to the Unknown, the London-based producer has been instrumental in re-injecting some of the energy of the rave era back into UK bass music. His solo full-length debut arrives in the form of a mixtape—a format that seems appropriate enough given the quasi-official status of many of his online-only releases—and is a selection of mostly new tunes recorded over the last 12 months. The release therefore seems to be caught between fulfilling two roles—as a full-length debut and statement of intent it has a slightly haphazard feel, but its tossed-off nature is very much in keeping with the messiness of the producer's modus operandi. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/18/2013

Holden The Inheritors
Label: Border Community

The Inheritors is not the kind of Border Community release one might expect. At first, there's hardly a nostalgic melody, much less a steady beat on label boss James Holden's psychedelic sophomore LP, which punctuates the long silence that followed his 2006 debut, The Idiots Are Winning. Compared to the first album, it's tough to get oriented in The Inheritors' swirling, mid-fi stew. It takes him until "Renata"'s fuzzy synth riff to evoke the idealized prettiness most associated with the label—and even the beauty here is of a wilder, murkier kind. But it's worth being patient while listening to the LP. There were hints of something weirder and freer lurking beneath Idiots tracks like "Lumpette" and "Quiet Drumming"—but The Inheritors mostly sounds vast, like the kind of album it would take seven years to make. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/17/2013

Natasha Kmeto Crisis
Label: Dropping Gems

While there are plenty of producers who sing and singers who produce music, Natasha Kmeto is rare in that she owns both credits equally. From 2009's 9 onwards, the Portland-based musician has put both her voice and beats on equal footing, presenting herself as a singular package of studio talent and vocal prowess. Crisis, Kmeto's latest full-length, is the most clearly distilled presentation of her talents yet, serving as a slick vehicle for her varied songwriting. Over the LP's ten tracks, Kmeto moves from skittering beats to soul-saturated R&B while managing to maintain a relatively cohesive vision. The result is an album that's both structurally diverse and strangely unified in its aesthetic.
Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/17/2013

Siriusmo Enthusiast
Label: Monkeytown

When the news of Enthusiast, Siriusmo's first full-length release since 2011, arrived, so did the possibility that the record could also be his last. If Monkeytown's cryptic and convoluted press release for the album is to be believed, the Berlin-based producer has decided to end his 18-year career by retiring "with enthusiasm." But whether or not Enthusiast is indeed Siriusmo's swan song, it's nevertheless a solid offering from the Monkeytown mainstay, who manages to pack a multitude of influences and genres—including disco house, jazz, and space-age hip-hop, to name a few—into its 13 tracks. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/14/2013

Polysick Under Construction
Label: 100% Silk

Rome's Egisto Sopor is multitalented, making his name as a prolific video artist and a composer of new-age music as TheAwayTeam, in addition to his principal project Polysick. Polysick has so far maintained Sopor's wide-ranging interests, ranging from short, beatless cuts of twisted, hypnagogic synthesizer to more accessible takes on house. As its record label might indicate, Under Construction finds the producer in dancefloor mode, though he manages to inject a decent amount of oddball character into these tracks as well. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/14/2013

Close Getting Closer
Label: !K7

Will Saul has been fairly quiet on the production front for the past five years, apart from a smattering of collaborative EPs. One the surface, it might appear that the twin responsibilities of his labels, Simple and Aus, have been taking up all his time. As it turns out, he's been ensconced in his Somerset studio, committing that time to a hugely ambitious collaborative album, Getting Closer, released under the pseudonym CLOSE in an effort to distinguish its sumptuous and often melancholy sound from the more rough-and-ready house he puts out under his own name. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/13/2013

Ossie/PhOtOmachine/Palace The Love Below 002
Label: The Love Below

An offshoot of the Berlin/London-based label somethinksounds, and an imprint devised as a home for limited-release edits, The Love Below opened for business earlier in the year with popular young Swiss remixer Cyril Hahn's highly hyped house versions of Solange Knowles and Destiny's Child. This sophomore release finds a diverse trio of artists being reworked by three up-and-coming London house producers. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/13/2013

Cromie & Sage Caswell "Vines" b/w "Pyrex"
Label: Peach

The world may not be so familiar with Cromie and Sage Caswell yet, but the pair of producers has managed to acquire some choice names to remix its debut EP. Peach, the label behind "Vines" b/w "Pyrex," is a new venture of Rem Koolhaus, a former design director for XLR8R and the co-founder of New York City's TURRBOTAX® party. The remixers include Detroit's Kyle Hall, San Francisco's Ghosts On Tape, and South Africa's DJ Spoko, and each leaves his imprint on one of the originals, with varying results. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/12/2013
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