Five Records: Current and Upcoming
Rebolledo feat. Matias Aguayo, "Pitaya Frenesí" (Cómeme)
FACT recently featured the video for this song, shot on a tropical beach with a stumbling Aguayo rapping into an ice-cream cone which proceeds to melt in the course of the 9-minute shot, but there's plenty more where that came from. Based in Buenos Aires and with operatives stretching throughought the Americas and Europe, Cómeme is a new label from Matias Aguayo and Gary Pimiento; the first release, out shortly, features vocal and instrumental versions of both "Pitaya Frenesí" ("cactus-fruit frenzy") and Aguayo's "Bo Jack." Cómeme 002 finds the label continuing to experiment with deep house, techno, electro, cumbia, kwaito and more, across weird, jubilant tracks from Rebolledo, Diegors, Petro, and Aguayo featuring Lerato. (Don't waste too much time searching for those brightly covered 7"s featured on the label's website; they're only decoys.) 2009 just got a lot more interesting.
DJ Sprinkles, "Brenda's $20 Dilemma"/"Ballr (Madonna-Free Zone)" (Mule Musiq)
There's so much to say about the DJ Sprinkles album, so much to say about each track here, but let me just single out the way he uses high-frequency digital clipping in place of hi-hats—it's not just a holdover from the Clicks + Cuts days; it's an uncomfortable sound, almost physically painful, which I think cuts to the heart of the album's entire theoretical (and experiential) framework: house hurts, even when it's all flutes and limpid pools of piano. I don't mean to overstate the discomfort caused by those clips – it's subtle, almost unnoticeable, but that's also part of its power. It's a subliminal pain, masked by the lushness all around. "Ballr" is even more disorienting, shot through with outbursts of a shouted collective moan that sound not just unearthly, but even a little terrifying. (Don't miss DJ Sprinkles' podcast, posted last month at Little White Earbuds.)
Andy Stott, "Brief Encounter"/"Drippin" (Modern Love)
Molasses-drenched house and dubstep, rubbed with rosy synths and turned inside out, these tracks are among Andy Stott's very best—and a fruitful continuation of the subtle stylistic shift taken with the launch of the Daphne label. If they don't sound that distinctive at first, keep listening (and loud). Essential.
Seth Troxler, "Aphrika" (Wolf + Lamb)
Maya Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman" set to one of Troxler's dry-hump grooves. There's no way it should ever work, but with Angelou's voice pitched down and digitally transgendered, the whole thing enters a grey area where camp, identity politics, essentialism and hedonism swirl together into a sly, sensual, body-moving mindbender. (Also highly recommended: Wolf + Lamb's "If U Had (Shaun Reeves Edit)," from Wolf + Lamb's Brooklynn EP, is a killer graft of disembodied soul and slow, detuned house music.)
Moodymann, "Desire" (KDJ)
A track so special, so intimate, that my first impulse is to keep it a secret. Whatever happened to house heartbreakers like this?