Now Playing #

A blog to share the best of what contemporary and not so contemporary music has to offer.

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Mount Kimbie - Mayor (Live)

Peckham, London - 2014

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DJ Rashad - I Don't Give A Fuck

Double Cup - Hyperdub - 2013

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Âme - Erkki

Gerd Janson Presents Musik for Autobahns - Rush Hour - 2012

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Underground Resistance - Final Frontier Part 2

Acid Rain III - Underground Resistance - 2003

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Mo Kolours - Little Brown Dog

Mo Kolours - One-Handed Music - 2014

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FEATURE: Florian Kupfer - Lifetrax

L.I.E.S. Records - 2013

No creative process is isolated. The romantic ideal of a solitary genius is at best naive in this century: in a connected world, creation is invariably and necessarily transformation. Musical works are permutations of existing frames; the architects of music are dead. Today, musicians decorate and redecorate the structures left through history.

I imagine the creative process to be one of trial and error. A work is successful by accident, where success is measured by what is interesting. One tries out combinations, until a happy coincidence is stumbled upon. I know it when I see it. In line with Adorno, I do not identify what is interesting with what is commercially viable (but they do not exclude each other). Formulaically organising sound does not mean one is making music. This puts the artist in a tough position: it would seem all interesting structures have been uncovered, and what is left is plugging in notes in predefined positions. Modern (electronic) production software like Ableton invite the user to fill a grid, resulting in a slew of homogenous house, techno or what have you tunes. Given that the pool of novel structure is depleted, what is left to play with, to find happy coincidences in, is melody and feeling. This change of musical material offers new perspectives: what is interesting in this modern age of music is self-application of structure. Producers know what makes house music house music, but they have free reign over how to apply the rules to their musical material. Some mold samples in a tight 4/4 beat, some let the grid burst, others still test the listener's ears with challenging texture and sonics, and others just make house music.

One of Ron Morelli's many discoveries, German bedroom producer Florian Kupfer chooses the latter option. His music is not remarkable because of pushing boundaries or some wrought backstory. Little is known about his background, or how it translates in his production. It is just what is now playing, and what is good. I know it when I hear it. With less than a handful of releases on his sleeve, all on L.I.E.S. and its sister-labels, Kupfer hasn't exactly stormed into the spotlight. Dwarfed by the sheer amount of releases those labels put out every year, the German producer's unassuming profile hides a curiously intimate kind of house music. Perhaps this is what entices: the tracks and their reinterpretations on the 2013 Lifetrax EP don't feel off in L.I.E.S. catalog, but they are miles off from the raw industrial techno or kosmische typical for the label.

For example, meandering opener Lifetrax plugs a strong kick and hihat duo in the grid, but the result is a track so delicate the slightest whisper would collapse the brittle construction. The second version reintroduces the listener to spacetime: a baroque sense of urgency pushes forward a dance, albeit without direction. A personal standout on L.I.E.S. 2013 showcase compilation album, Feelin has the label's DNA throughout. A huge, stuttering and nigh distorted kick creates a platform for a saccharinely pitched vocal. I know it when I feel it.

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Shlohmo - Wen Uuu

Vacation - Friends of Friends - 2014

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Gunnar Haslam - He Came From The Border

Mimesiak - L.I.E.S. Records - 2014

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IAM - Demain, c'est loin

L'école Du Micro D'argent - Capitol Music - 1997

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Fatima - Family

Yellow Memories - Eglo Records - 2014

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FEATURE: S Olbricht - Deutsch Amerikanische Tragödie

Opal Tapes (2013)

The paradox of the centrefold: glamour to protect the model for its function. It introduces a distance in the most personal of spaces. The nude has lost its aura in the sense of Walter Benjamin; as she opens up to the viewer through the lens of the camera, man secludely witnessing, she trades in this intimacy for a veil of gloss. The event is public domain, the girl private.

With Stephan Olbricht, alias of Hungarian producer Martin Mikolai, that private element is reintroduced in the gloss. An elaborate biography stories his tragic romance with pop culture icon Dorothy Stratten, 80's Playboy playmate shot dead at the age of 20 by her estranged husband. The bizarre marriage of fictionary persona and real life tragedy reintroduces fragility, breaks apart the illusion. The narrative of a German musician falling for an unsullied model restores Stratten's aura as it breaks through the layers of legend to bring her close again. Ironically, Mikolai breaks the fourth wall to build another. The Last Act of Dorothy Stratten, Mikolai's 2012 debut album under the Olbricht moniker, is presented as found footage. It feigns an dramatic recording of the clashing of glamour and excessive violence. In its sound, abstract German industrialism is superimposed over distracted melody, barely keeping it in line. The melody wants to see places, go places, but is muffled by off beats and thick haze until finally released in S_tdr (Tape 5), album closer. Its dramatic finale has melody and rhythm aligned, only to slowly slip through the fingers. 

On 2013 tape Deutsch Amerikanische Tragödie, Olbricht has lost his muse. The resurrected Stratten has died again and is restored as centrefold. Conversely, we hear Olbricht fight the slow erosion of face and melody by latching on to the smallest note and developing it to its end. The sound is more aggressive, more desperate — tape distortion and hiss acting as charms against veneer. Opener Elaea has two independents struggling: a wrenched siren and disconnected kicks barely stand out from an unruly undertone. A dance emerges from the unexpected: abstract structure spirals in shape by the introduction of a looming note. With that, the death of melody is alluded to: Deutsch Amerikanische Tragödie centers not so much on tone, but on the absence of it. The dragged, elegiac chords of S_Tuder (Tape 6) or the splashing keys of Forkarp give away their character and form tonal pendants for the rattling drums. Even when melody is not completely dissolved, the tone of the album is one of distance. Even the relatively optimistic atmosphere of dubbed Sibu cannot compensate for Olbricht's completely killing off of melody in the monumental Ttur. Tone dissipates in a frantic web of scratches and doom, a static image of decay and solitude which no picture, however perfect, can bring to life again. 

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Oval - Do While

94diskont - Thrill Jockey Records - 1996

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Dominique Petitgand - En tête

Le point de coté - Ici d'ailleurs - 2001

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Frankie Knuckles - The Whistle Song

Beyond The Mix - Virgin Records - 1991

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Alex Burkat - Shower Scene

Brothers And Sisters - Mister Saturday Night Records - 2014

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FEATURE: Delroy Edwards - 4 Club Use Only

L.I.E.S. Records (2012 - repressed and remastered April 2014)

Repressed and remastered as a special release for this year's Record Store Day, Delroy Edwards' 4 Club Use Only hasn't lost any of its initial gritty power. Entertaining the boundaries between chaos and structured sound, Edwards' productions are a sure fit for Ron Morelli's influential L.I.E.S. label. However, by not focusing as much on sonic exploration but rather on an in-your-face ghetto house (pushed even further on his own label, L.A. Club Resource), Edwards distinguishes himself from his labelmates and their sometimes kosmische sound.

It is hard to say whether Edwards should master the art of mixing and equalisation, or whether the sometimes comical distortion is intentionally wrought. If anything, expect a grimy but catchy low fidelity throughout, for this is the joke of it all: abrasive texturing and frantic hi-hats line up so groovy that you can't but move.

Title-track 4 Club Use Only's syncopated synths and relentless beat create a canvas for a menacing acid bassline. Little happens during its over 8 minutes playtime, but sometimes little needs to happen. When the chaos eventually dismantles to make room for Bells, Edwards gives the listener some well-earned rest. Its jumpy congas and surprisingly conventional kick-claps keep the track from really going anywhere, but that dead-endedness is only a silence for the storm.

The sonic abuse in Love Goes On And On is relentless: searing highs and a rough kickdrum kickstart a staggering bass and remote alarms. What love Edwards wishes to express is a mystery, but the bruises are real.

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Steve Reich - Eight Lines

Works - Nonesuch - 2005