Electronic music old and new
Just in the nick of time for 2018 comes this virtually flawless collection of electro tracks by one of the most consistent cats in the game, Gerard ‘Convextion’ Hanson in his E.R.P. guise. It’s not reinventing the wheel by any means - it sounds like it could have been released at almost any point in… Continue reading 18 for 2018, #18: E.R.P. – Afterimage
Yet another one I have Rubadub to thank me for: Mark ‘Mother’ Maxwell was playing this in the shop during one of my visits this year and it caught my ear in between listening to a stack of vinyl on one of the listening posts. Beautifully packaged (with the LP including a CD copy), it’s… Continue reading 18 for 2018, #17: XVARR – Beyond Illuminism
This Japanese-inspired EP was released under a new variation of the Vakula alias, and it’s beautiful stuff from start to finish. While the opening title track is a superb slice of late-night deepness for the discening DJ, I’ve found myself coming back again and again to the psychedelic, beatless closing cut, The Eve of Metaphors,… Continue reading 18 for 2018, #16: Vakulism – Edelweiss Reflection
Lush, dreamy breakbeat house from Vancouver, by an artist I’ve been digging for a while and who put out three solid EPs this year. Urth Man is my pick of the bunch, with a perfectly weighted bassline, sharp breaks, deep chords, twanging melodies and a touch of acid. It stays just the right side of… Continue reading 18 for 2018, #15: Ex-Terrestrial – Urth Born
Shades of Ultramarine and Jan Jelinek run through this ace EP from yet another artist and label that were new to me in 2018. The most DJ-friendly cut is probably Daniel Chavez’s remix of Stiv Heks, on side A, but it’s all about the two B-side cuts for my ears. Twilight is a gorgeous slice… Continue reading 18 for 2018, #14: Wasserfall – HESP005
This week I managed to snag one of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-em represses of this phenomenal 12” after being too slow on the draw when it first emerged back in February and instantly sold out - although I probably would have ended up forking out top dollar for it on Discogs eventually. There’s a unique sound world… Continue reading 18 for 2018, #13: WINO-D
This excellent four-tracker from Glasgow, on Peckham’s always-interesting Rhythm Section label, dropped out of nowhere in April. Opening track Dirty High is the instant winner, channelling early Floating Points-style swung house drums with analogue arpeggios, live bass and light-fingered Rhodes keys, but the one I’ve returned to most is the closing cut, Lucidity, which pushes… Continue reading 18 for 2018, #12: String Theory – Modularity
Much like his former 4hero partner Dego, Marc Mac has been steadily ploughing his own personal furrow through post-broken-beat music, from the politicised hip hop of his sample-driven ‘beats & knowledge’ mixtapes to the organic Detroit-inspired techno of his long-running Nu Era project. This year’s Fourth Kind album is a hard-to-pigeonhole blend of tight live… Continue reading 18 for 2018, #11: Fourth Kind
Going Good has become a ‘buy on sight’ label for me, and this wonderful LP from Detroit duo Cosmic Handshakes, released at the start of the year, is one of the reasons why. It works perfectly as a home-listening experience, segueing from beatless interludes to hazy Balearic jams and jazz-inflected beatdown house, with a loose,… Continue reading 18 for 2018, #10: Cosmic Handshakes – In the Mist
It’s always great to discover a new artist that’s on your wavelength, and the first two EPs from Taylor Hawkins’ Flora FM project are right up my alley. Taking the current trend for breakbeats and 90s ambient house influences, and adding a slightly tougher Detroit sensibility, these hardware-driven tracks manage to sound simultaneously old-school and… Continue reading 18 for 2018, #8/9: Flora FM
Nothin' But Magic 