Fear of Bass
1926 drawing by Milt Gross, courtesy Luc Sante.
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July 24, 2008
Can't Trust This
July 23, 2008
Soulpointing
Quite possibly my records of the month: Louis Guilliaume, Soulpoint I and Soulpoint II, from Syncom Data's SD Records.
More here and here, from Boomkat.
Straight outta Rotterdam, apparently, with echoes of Dettinger, Robert Hood, the Field, Pepe Bradock, RA-X, and lord knows what else, but totally its own thing. I passed up the chance to buy the vinyls at Hardwax last week and am kicking myself now; good thing for Zero-Inch.
July 22, 2008
Disco Dozen
New up on eMusic, my roundup of 12 of the site's best recent disco (and Balearic, and other) releases--including recordings from Glissandro 70, Daniel Wang, G-Ha and Olanski, Chaz Jankel, Professor Genius, Quiet Village, Rong Music, Metro Area, Idjutboys, Sorcerer and the Mole, plus the Milky Disco comp from Lo.
Why don't more people know about that Glissandro 70 record? (It's the work of the always excellent Sandro Perri, aka Polmo Polpo, in case you didn't know.) For that matter, why didn't I discover it until last year?
July 17, 2008
The Month in Miserable
First of all, I'm thrilled that this week's Month in Techno column has generated so much discussion; that's just what I was hoping for. A few quick points that I wanted to clarify:
* Don't worry, I'm not such a sad sack as I may seem. (Though reading Michael Pollan's An Omnivore's Dilemma might have something to do with it; it's hard not to worry about the state of the world after reading Pollan's account of capitalist agribusiness. That being said, the book is essential reading, as is his excellent The Botany of Desire, and possibly [hopefully!] life-changing.)
* Despite the tone of the first half of the column, I'm not actually burned out on techno; 2008 has provided a bounty of fantastic releases, and spending three months in Portland gave me the opportunity to dig through my old records, which turned out to be an exceptionally invigorating experience. One of my personal manifesto points is to play more "old" records, something that's been hard to do over the last couple of years, given the geographical constraints of living in Europe but having the bulk of one's records in a basement in the US.
* I haven't been clubbing much this year, aside from MUTEK, which might have something to do with my reflective phase; then again, my experiences clubbing in Berlin in February had a lot to do with what I see as the problems with "the scene" right now. I don't mean for these to be empty complaints, but rather starting points for a discussion (an ongoing discussion, really, so I guess I'm not starting anything) about the quality of club life and what everyone -- artists, clubbers, promoters -- might do to make it better.
I'm happy to see that the column has sparked conversations in a number of places. You can read responses, and chime in on comments sections, in the following places:
* mnml.nl forum
* Ronan Fitzgerald's blog
* Bruce Sterlin's Beyond the Beyond (Wired)
Please feel to leave comments here, and if you have your own manifesto points, I'd love to hear them.
July 14, 2008
Back in stock...
A few folks have recently asked me to upload various mixes whose Sendspace links had expired. Here you have them, available via stream and/or download from Fairtilizer.