Electronic Browse All

Harmonious Thelonious, Listen

2012 | Label: Italic / Morr Music GBR

02.03.12 Harmonious Thelonious are a dance geek’s dream, so rich is their music in resonances and intermingling echoes. In “Argwöhnische Muziek,” the track that opens Listen, you might hear the melodic patterns of West African highlife guitars echoed in tumbling synthetic pianos, Terry Riley’s minimalist compositions in its phased repetitions, or the cosmicChicago house music of Jamal Moss (aka Hieroglyphic Being) in its raw production tics and relentlessly funky drum programming. Or perhaps you might think “A.O.,” later in the album, recalls both the distorted thumb pianos of Congolese troupe Konono No.1 and the most nihilistically druggy mid ’90s European techno. Or maybe you will think of none of these things. This is music so immediate, so obviously full of wild… more »

The 2 Bears, Be Strong

2012 | Label: DFA / Revolver

02.01.12 America may have invented house music, but it was in Britain where dance culture really took root. Be Strong, the debut album from The 2 Bears — aka Joe Goddard of Hot Chip and his equally cuddly and hirsute DJ partner Raf “Daddy” Rundell — is an extended celebration of this culture, the bonds it forges and the comfort it provides in tough times.

It’s a shamelessly nostalgic record, deliberately incorporating familiar sounds and samples that will push the buttons of aging ravers, but the beats are crisp and inventive enough for it never to feel indulgent or anachronistic. It’s an album about the dancefloor as much as for the dancefloor, so each track has a distinct character: There’s the daft… more »

Shigeto, Lineage

Label: Ghostly International / IODA

01.31.12 Electronic music is a truly international language these days, but the upshot is it can sometimes feel a little rootless. When producers across the world fromTorontotoTokyoare using the same plug-ins and drawing from the same pool of influences, there’s always a danger of homogeneity.

Not for Zach Saginaw, though. As the title of his latest mini-LP makes clear, his music is very much a direct expression of who he is and where he comes from. His Shigeto pseudonym is a tribute to his Japanese grandfather, and Lineage‘s cover shows a sepia-toned photograph of a boy pushing a bicycle across the courtyard of a dojo, emphasising his heritage. Meanwhile, the richly evocative music on tracks such as “Ann Arbor Part 3 &… more »

Various Artists, Permanent Vacation: Selected Label Works 3

2011 | Label: Permanent Vacation / GoodToGo

01.30.12 Kids these days — they think “disco” lasted all the way up until house music came along. Thing is, musically speaking, they’re not wrong. From Michael to Madonna to underground labels like Prelude and West End, disco never really went anywhere, and in mainland Europeit’s essentially what pop music was until — you guessed it — house music came along. That wider sense of what constitutes the genre means that a lot of club producers are playing with a big swathe of stuff, and the third collection from one of the best of the ’00s disco labels, Permanent Vacation, is a showcase for just how big.

Sometimes it goes well past house music’s birth, too — note the “Ashley’s Roachclip”-style breakbeat,… more »