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Review: The Black Madonna Lady of Sorrows EP
Label: Argot

The Black Madonna's latest EP of rough-and-tumble disco is unexpectedly emotive. Fortified with acid lines and freighted with emotional baggage, the Chicago producer still makes sure the Lady of Sorrows EP's bleeding heart isn't too weighed down to strut. With a few records under her belt from labels such as Scotland's Home Taping Is Killing Music and Chicago's Stripped & Chewed, The Black Madonna specializes in a studied-yet-exuberant style that steers clear of polished nu-disco clichés. Looping, locked-in past efforts like "Alright This Morning" and "We Don't Need No Music (Thank You Rahaan)" were as gritty and lived-in as pleather marinated in cigarette smoke. The tough realism of that sound opens up on this EP, which permits the digressions her other records kept at bay. The result is a record that charts a more vulnerable course over its two sides without foregoing the edge The Black Madonna has been honing on her previous few releases. Despite the titles' strife-filled overtones, "A Jealous Heart Never Rests" and "We Can Never Be Apart" are peaceful, tender, and at times beautifully ADD. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/06/2013

Review: Kelpe Fourth: The Golden Eagle
Label: DRUT

Although he never truly went away after delivering a handful of noteworthy releases in the early and mid aughts, one can't help but feel like Kelpe has blossomed a second time during the past year or so. Fourth: The Golden Eagle is as quality a record as Kelpe has ever made, and perhaps because it appears on his own newly inaugurated DRUT imprint, the London producer's latest LP makes for one of the most distinctive outings of his career. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/06/2013

Review: Sabre "Bali" b/w "Ging"
Label: Tasteful Nudes

For its second release, Chicago label Tasteful Nudes turns to rising Portuguese duo Sabre for a pair of eclectic and colorful house tracks. Both "Bali" and "Ging" blend robust warehouse rhythms with larger-than-life melodic elements; encompassing the sounds of classic hardware driven techno, world percussion elements, and vibrant synth work, they form a pair of dance tracks stuffed full of warmth and personality. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/06/2013

Review: Powell Fizz
Label: Liberation Technologies

On the surface, it would seem quite easy to do what Oscar Powell does. Layer some disjointed drum loops—preferably swiped from a no-wave record—with bursts of noise and static, throw in some dissonant synthesizer and maybe a snarky spoken word sample, and one ought to have a facsimile of one of his tracks. The London-based producer has a formula, no doubt, but it is far more complicated than it appears. Powell's tracks are surely minimalist in focus, but are also, as he has attested in interviews, subject to meticulous editing. Both no wave and the industrial techno he has sometimes been grouped with are known for frenetic, one-take approaches. Powell, meanwhile, is an expert in control, and his sound harkens to jungle's tensile rhythms, or maybe even a spartan version of microhouse. Earlier records obfuscated these charms, sounding muddier and more inert than the untitled, studiously funky EP he released on The Death of Rave earlier in the year. Fizz, his first 12" for Liberation Technologies, is every bit as essential a listen, if not more. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/05/2013

Review: Gerry Read "Crave" b/w "Enjoy A Day Out"
Label: Fourth Wave

While the specifics of his background and identity are still somewhat hazy, at this point it should be crystal clear why UK producer Gerry Read is a talent worth keeping a very close eye on. His ongoing partnership with Ramp offshoot Fourth Wave has proved to be one of the more fruitful working relationships in contemporary electronic music, allowing space for Read's creative, humanized take on house and techno to develop naturally across the course of several 12"s and an excellent full-length LP (or two, if you count March's super-limited Saucepan Jams Vol. 1.) This latest outing for the label sees Read developing his style further, stepping ever-so-slightly away from his more headphone-oriented comfort zone to create a pair of tracks built around the meatier, dancefloor-ready template of classic Chicago house. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/05/2013

Review: John Roberts Fences

Label: Dial

An armchair view of John Roberts' career would presume that he has grown more worldly in the five years since his debut. The Cleveland-born producer started out merging gritty Midwestern house tropes with the Dial label's restrained, modern classical sensibilities, though for awhile the former seemed to take precedence; one might describe an early track like "Relate" as swaggering, with its pitched-down hip-hop vocals and clotted bass pressure. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/05/2013

Review: Jon Hopkins Immunity

Pick
Label: Domino

It has been over four years since Jon Hopkins' Insides was released, and from the opening moments of Immunity, it's easy to hear why. Hopkins is from a school of production that values craftsmanship over most everything else, and it's conceivable that producing electronic music with the attention to detail that can be heard on his fourth full-length requires a considerable amount of time. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/04/2013

Review: The Sonic Aesthetic New Districts EP
Label: The Sonic Aesthetic

Earlier this year, Mark Barrott stepped from behind the managerial desk of his International Feel label to release an EP as The Sonic Aesthetic. Tales from the Nocturn was a fine semi-debut (Barrott had a career in drum & bass as Future Loop Foundation prior to moving to Uruguay and starting a label), exhibiting a dusted disco-house sound that slotted nicely next to International Feel’s marquee acts. Now, Barrott is already back with its follow up, New Districts, which is set to be the first release for his new sub-label, also called The Sonic Aesthetic. Certain aspects of the record's predecessor remain, but the mood is much less smudgy and romantic. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/04/2013

Review: Pangaea Viaduct EP

Pick
Label: Hadal

On the first release for his new Hadal label, Hessle co-founder Kevin McAuley (a.k.a. Pangaea) continues to toy with the amalgamation of techno, hardcore, and jungle influences that characterize the sound of his double EP from last year, Release. But where that record occasionally sacrificed dancefloor impact in favor of intricacy and structural complexity, McAuley's latest three tracks make no such compromise; instead, they blend detailed sonics with irresistibly full-on rhythms to create some of the most enjoyable club tunes we've heard all year. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/03/2013
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