Review: The wonderful Er + Er imprint has a knack for getting some of the biggest names in electronic music together and jamming the hell out! Some of the works by Ricardo Villalobos for the label have been simply sublime. This time, we got legend Carl Craig going head-to-head with the supremely talented Francesco Tristano in a sort of classical techno vibe. "Luder Pre" combines a mid-tempo percussive beat with some seriously twisted piano work, twisting and contorting into a right old spin. It's a one-sided gem, it's 300 copies limited, so you better get yourself one quick!
Review: Sure Thing presents Well of Sand, its second compilation. Six tracks from the label's friends and favourites, each new to the roster, offer bold, untempered explorations of tempo and weight, a concise yet expansive collection recalling the deliberate cadence of rippling sand and the sheen of shimmering oases. From Command D's subtly groundswelling, but snappy 'Half Blue (Violet Mix)', to Foreign Material's alarmingly alien 'The Living Planet' and Third Space's supremely stereoized, lowercase opus 'Push (Part 2)', this is a release for that large intersection of audiophiles and techno-philes.
Review: San Franciscan soul crooner and multi-instrumentalist Kelly Finnegan shares the 7" vinyl edition of his 2023 single 'Leave You Alone', following on from its original cassette and digital release. A lo-fi testament to unrequited love, moving on and giving in, regaling a love story from the femme perspective and recalling the soulful themes of singer Bettye Swann. This time, the record also comes backed by a B-sider, 'Thom's Hartbreak', is a sonic thank you letter to Thom Bell & William Hart, two names synonymous with the 60s-70s Philly Sound.
Review: The first anyone heard from Robert Fleck was an early drop on Well Street back in 2018, and it's been quiet since then. Anyone following Well Street knows it's a hot tip for upfront artists in the fractured fissures of the UK underground, and Fleck makes a welcome return to prove the point. There's a lot of different touchstones you could point to on this release, from nimble-footed broken beat and a whiff of nu jazz orchestration, not to mention a bass music sensibility and an appreciation for deeper strains of UK techno. But more than all that, Fleck merges his unique spread of influences into something fresh and unique, comfortably slipping between conventional genre markings with the kind of flair we've come to expect from Well Street.
Review: Queeste welcomes FMVEE with a hugely singular collection of sounds. Though this is idiosyncratic music with its very own lexicon, the feelings of which the artists speaks are familiar to us all even if the methods are not: love songs, rueful reflection and heart ache are things we can all relate to. 'EverythingUneverKnewUwanted' is a particularly dense track of abstractions that reveal more beauty with each listen. 'Seed Perfuming' is all broken bass and reflected melody that shimmers and shines in a post-dubstep fashion and 'Sobbing' is avant-pop gem with a soaring vocal from Rosie Ruel amongst heavy as you like hits and bass.
Review: The seventh in this series of 7" singles is by Bristol and Avon's Kinlaw and Franco Franco and it is a rare mix of sounds with R&B, Italian rap and twisted basslines all defining the tracks. 'Crocs On The Plough' is industrial and experimental in its production - earth-shattering bass, police sirens, and soot-black synths, but background chords bring light as the vocals are delivered with guttural rawness. On the flip, the OSVMVSM version slows things right down to a crawl and the distorted synths and crunchy textures take on even more otherworld character.
Digital Justice - "Theme From "It's All Gone Pearshaped"" (12:12)
Dorothy Ashby - "For Some We Loved" (4:04)
Frantz Tuernal - "Koultans" (5:55)
Review: Melodies International is a real favourite label here at Juno HQ, headed up famously by Floating Points and finds including Mafalda. The third volume of their Melodies record Club is as good as anything the label has put out to date: it features a trio of jazz cuts selected by the one and only Hunee. First is Digital Justice's 'Theme From "It's All Gone Pearshaped"', a 13 minute live jam packed with synth action. On the flip is a spiritual piece from harpist Dorothy Ashby and Frantz Tuernal's 'Koultans'. Says Hunee, "these three distinct pieces of music tap into different layers of my memory."
Review: Sometime member of The Knife, Karin Dreijer, has excelled since they started delivering solo albums as Fever Ray. Sadly, releases have been rather thin on the ground, with 'Radical Romantics' - their third solo album - arriving almost six years after its predecessor. It has, though, been worth the wait, with the gender-fluid star unveiling a set of songs that consider love from a variety of angles - all while showcasing a musical style that takes glacial, off-kilter electro-pop in a variety of attractive directions. Highlights come thick and fast throughout, with our picks of a very strong bunch including 'What They Call Us', the mutant rhythms and sparkling, alien-sounding melodies of 'Kandy', and the future dancefloor rush of 'Carbon Dioxide'.
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