June 2011
14 posts
Vessel / San Proper / La Pena
It’s a beautiful evening here. The sun is slipping out of view with a wispy whisper, hikers are sweating their way through bracken, and Today at Wimbledon is playing out on the TV. It’s been an exciting day with Tsonga beating Fed, Djokovic silencing the yellow army, and Mardy Fish straining Nadal’s ankle. In fact, the only thing spoiling the view is the grim facial of Andy Murray, the man who...
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Falty DL - Make It Difficult
This year marks the nineteenth anniversary of the Castlemorton Common Festival. In May 1992, amidst the acid house-rave epidemic, police blocked the attempt of thousands of gypsies, travellers and ravers to reach the Avon Free Festival near Bristol. In response, around 25,000 revellers pitched up at the village of Castlemorton to hold a week long party. The event, stimulated by continuous music,...
SBTRKT / REVIEW
First emerging as a breakbeat and nu-jazz artist, the man behind the mask Aaron Jerome has finally brought us his long-awaited debut album on Young Turks. After a collection of singles, EPs and high-profile remixes, it is Jerome’s first major work, and one which has already earned such privileged accolades as ‘this decade’s Timbaland’. Unsure whether this was a positive cognition of SBTRKT’s new...
Burning Detroit
Many producers have sought to include the Motor City in track titles, aggrandizing its importance to the music industry or seeking to score indelibly the dark, bleak roots of Detroit techno. In this instance, Spanish producer Ernie auralizes the birthplace of Motown burning, a voyage which – says the press release – takes one ‘into the abyss’. We are not plunged into darkness, however, until a...
Barry Davies / A Peck and A Pawn / Love & Hate /...
Feeling a little fatigued this afternoon, I was completely rejuvenated by the unexpected appearance on television of one of the great sport commentators. One of my earliest memories of sporting competition was the Holland v. Argentina quarter final at WC’98, when the tie was locked at 1-1 with a few seconds left. Then, out of nowhere, Frank de Boer launched a huge cross-field ball over the great...
Awanto 3 and Tom Trago, Ame, and Berlin’s Bar 25
Dinner party, anyone? I bet Bar 25 would tell some pretty good stories…
…So, apparently, Bar 25 is closing down! For the twenty-first time. It closed twice in the same year, once. I’ve been. Also once. In the daytime. When our company was two disgruntled bar staff (probably still awake from the night before), a group of scantily clad Berlin teenagers who absolutely should have been at school but...
Blawan
There are some tracks which come to define a period of electronic music. These are tracks which make you reach instantaneously for memories of dancefloors and mix CDs, remind you of listening habits and conversations, and represent trends in your mind. For instance, it is my belief (humble, of course) that Mount Kimbie captured the early, true, and bare essence of post-dubstep with ‘Maybes’ in...
Emeralds: Candy Shoppe
In a world of micro-technology, unrelenting worldwide capitalism, inescapable social media, incessant online conversation, confusingly difficult stresses, tracking cookies, brutal subconscious and conscious pressures to make yourself as popular, beautiful and thin as possible, Apple, and ultimately keys over pencils, mouse clicks over arms, and pixels over mouths, it is reassuring to find an...
Bon Iver, 'Bon Iver, Bon Iver' Stream on NYT
I’ve spent many a frustrating hour this weekend trying to find streams of awesome tech and house releases from the last 48 … without success. On one hand, this means that I’ve got a huge list of total bangers lined up for next week, but on the other it means that I can offer this to soothe your Sunday hangover. Thoughts?
Deep Space Orchestra / San Proper / Reggie Dokes
The Carton’s favourite Nottingham, UK, producers Deep Space Orchestra return with another set of deep house bangers this week. After their recent releases on Hometaping Is Killing Music (‘Louisville Slugger’) and Winding Road (Inside Out EP), they return to Delusions of Grandeur to send out Lo Pan. The b-side, ‘Disarm’, is among their strangest work yet, a low bass rumble juxtaposed with jazzy...
Paul Kalkbrenner - Icke Wieder
Paul Kalkbrenner. The man is, to many people, many different things. He is, at first, an easy way into electronica. Those raised on pop, indie, electro-house and the rash of electro blogs on the hypemachine use Kalkbrenner as a catheter. His efficient, vehicular and simple 128-beat harnesses attractive hooks and the lighter elements of Berlin’s rough, semi-industrial leanings – an attractive and...
Lake People / Mike Slott / Roman Flügel
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Carton has been out of the game. It has been deprived of its sweet, natural, electronic nectar, and found resolve in previously plied predilections. But today the Carton indulged in three hours of the purest, newest and most joyously adulterated cuts. It was a relief, no doubt, and among many it unearthed the following…
A Forest – ‘A Listener’ (Lake...
