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Mahjongg The Long Shadow of the Paper Tiger
Label: K

Mahjongg's lead vocalist, Hunter Husar, was once quoted as saying, "When you're in your early 20s, you want to take on the world and take over a city." The Chicago band appears to have been successful in achieving their objective, which they continue to cement on their third LP, The Long Shadow of the Paper Tiger. Honing their own particular brand of hybridized post-punk dance music and dub-electronic to a near-OCD level, Mahjongg's tone on their latest disc is intricately planned, genre-splicing, and dance hall-ready.

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  • Filed under: review
  • 08/24/2010

Ost & Kjex Cajun Lunch
Label: Diynamic

Obsessed with the cheese on their plates and the cheese on their turntables, Petter Haavik and Tore Gjedrem (plus recurrent guest vocalist Tracee Meyn) forego the usual expectations of cool to create joyful music that is both frequently ridiculous and frequently ridiculously good. The oddball Norwegian production duo has claimed that their debut, Some But Not All Cheese Comes From the Moon, was, implausibly, based on a Matthew Herbert-style appropriation of cheese and biscuits (as the band name translates) as its sound source. Read more » 

The Books The Way Out

Pick
Label: Temporary Residence

At the beginning of The Way Out, the fourth album by found-sound-obsessed duo The Books, a man says, "Welcome to a new beginning." It sets the tone for one of music's most indescribable acts to reinvent itself—a strange task for a group whose work is sometimes called "a genre of one." And yet that is what's kept The Books' music beyond comparison for over eight years; the more they change, the more they stay the same.

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  • Filed under: review
  • 08/10/2010

Oriol Night and Day

Pick
Label: Planet Mu

There's a special rush one gets driving down the freeway en route to a club or concert on a Saturday night. White and red brake lights blink and glow in traffic, wind rushes by, and fluorescently lit buildings create a halo above the city. You arrive at the spot energized and ready to plunge into music. Oriol Singhji's debut for Planet Mu, Night and Day, takes you on that journey from twilight through sunrise on an album well suited for automobile excursions. Read more » 

Kode9 DJ-Kicks
Label: !K7

Kode9's relationship with dubstep has always been an uneasy one, but with this latest DJ-Kicks installment, his avoidance of the genre is as much a political statement as it is an issue of taste. Only three tracks in the mix even somewhat resemble the one-drop cliché the genre has settled into: Ikonika's "Heston," Digital Mystikz's "Mountain Dread March," and The Bug's "Run"—and even those seem like brilliantly fringe elements compared to the cartoonish wobble most often heard in the trenches.

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Guido Anidea
Label: Punch Drunk

For all the talk in 2009 about Bristol's next generation of dubstep producers—largely centered around the hip-hop- and G-funk-influenced "Purple Trinity" of Joker, Gemmy, and Guido—it's almost shocking how quickly the bass music landscape has changed. Read more » 

Jeremy Jay Splash
Label: K

The intriguing, undersung indie pop of Jeremy Jay's first few records feels wholly of another time and place. Sauntering somewhere between Del Shannon, the Field Mice, and the Left Banke, he ties together the wistful, romantic pop sounds of yesteryear for an alluring end result. In 2009, Jay ventured abroad from his hometown of Los Angeles to London and recorded Splash, his third LP and arguably his most satisfying artistic statement to date.

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Booka Shade More!
Label: Get Physical

Sometimes less really is more. Where Booka Shade's highly acclaimed second album, Movements, epitomized the duo's low-key, approachable beats and dappled, warm synth melodies, the German tech-house producers' fourth full-length intends to provide exactly what its name suggests: More! In this case, cohorts Arno Kammermeier and Walter Merziger mean more energy, more ornamentation, and more friends along for the ride. Read more » 

The Sight Below It All Falls Apart

Pick
Label: Ghostly International

Despite lulls in popularity, dub-techno has never really left us; after all, Fluxion, Echospace, Andy Stott, and Bvdub continue to release records full of the atmospheric, crackling beatscapes pioneered by Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus. But while Fluxion and Wolfgang Voigt are still drowning listeners in oceans of loop-based ambience, finding a producer who can combine the emotional resonance of Stars of the Lid with the techno prowess of a Kompakt record is a more difficult task, and one which illuminates what can be considered a gap in current electronic music. Read more » 

  • Filed under: review
  • 06/15/2010
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