A Bunch Of 12s

The year in music so far hasn't been characterised by great albums - not for me at least - so much as great singles, mainly in the dance music sphere. Sure, there's been some cracking full-lengths from debutants (Hercules & Love Affair, Quiet Village, Vampire Weekend) and reliable old hands (Bad Seeds, Supergrass, The Dirtbombs) alike, but aside from a small few, nothing has had the replay value of some of the year's 12"s.

Perhaps the single - which some commentors will try to inform you is dying out, misguidedly - is the perfect format for our times? You get two, maybe three tracks - four or five if you're lucky - and out, with no time allowed to test the patience. The single therefore lends itself to addiction more than an album does. The more commercial artists out there - they who populate the top 40 - have indeed lost sight of what makes a good single. If you stick the song on iTunes with maybe one bonus track, then that'll do just fine. The consumers like it this way because it's less unwieldy than a big, black plastic disc, or even a small, shiny plastic disc. It's iPod-ready and doesn't take up any space.

But what of those who like something a little more tactile? Something they can hold in their hands or place on a shelf. Are these people being short-changed? Not if you like your modern disco and house music it seems. By the way, I know that the mp3s I'm about to post make what I've just said seem a little hypocritical but indulge me, okay.


London's shadowy Dissident imprint is still chalking up the releases like Chris Partlow and Snoop rack up the bodies. They're also still limited, pricey and, in the main, one-sided. Now £8 for one track might seem a little too much for some (it is for me, with my paltry income), but that hasn't really stopped them becoming gradually more revered with each 12". The frequency of Dissident's releases might well decrease their collectibility in the long run, but the minimalist chic of their labels (all variations on the same theme, only the font for the artist and title change) has marked out a style at least.

Also, you can't really argue with their output so far. Mainly dealing in twilit Italo and pastoral Balearica, with the occasional tech-y diversion, they're developing a distinct in-house sound. Their 2008 releases so far have been pretty uniformly brilliant too, with particular plaudits going to Ali Renault's slo-mo, drugged-out electro-disco, 'Our World Is...' and the long-form lushness of Gatto Fritto's 'Hungry Ghosts'.

My personal favourite has come from Truffle Club though. If we're to believe the rumour (and why not? He's used the moniker more than once in the past), Truffle Club is the work of Optimo main-man, JD Twitch. The neon-flecked, Blade Runner grooves of 'Gone Blue' marks Twitch out as a producer to keep an eye on. 'Gone Blue' pulses and shimmers with bleary-eyed wonder and is a perfect end-of-nighter for those with a passion for old sounds given a modern twist.

Truffle Club - Gone Blue (mp3)


Mock & Toof have been laying the releases on a little thickly as of late too, with two 12"s on different labels. The self-released 'Big Hands For A Lady' is a doozy, but it's their recent three-tracker for Tiny Sticks that has me reaching for the stylus over and over again. A double-A with an extra remix thrown in for good measure is mighty good value, especially seeing as the two lead tracks are the best things Mock & Toof have put out so far.

'Beat Up' does the jazzy-disco thing, with sneaky Afro elements incorporated that they do so well, but there's just something about that maddening, corroded Rhodes line that screams addictive. 'Lucky' on the other hand is a gentrified little slice of moody electro-pop that still retains their ear for the unusual. Darshan Jesrani of Metro Area then sets about giving the raucous kitchen-sink disco of 'Black Jub' something of a classy makeover, turning it into an altogether spacier, more cosmopolitan affair. I await the forthcoming album with bated breath.

Mock & Toof - Black Jub (Darshan Jesrani Hot Seat Mix) (mp3)


It wouldn't be a post about 12"s without me looking in on what DFA have offered forth lately. After a veritable flurry - for them anyway - of releases in the first couple of months of 2008, they've gone a little quiet now. But while everyone was busy trumpeting Hercules & Love Affair's stellar debut album, they flung out a couple of singles from some master producers of quality dirty disco that you may well have missed.

First up, there was Syclops' 'Where's Jason's K?'. Now, whether you believe that Syclops are a band from Finland who, conveniently, "don't tour or do interviews", according to their MySpace, or whether it is just another in a long line of aliases from Maurice Fulton is by-the-by. This is his/their fourth 12" now, following one on Fulton's own Bubbletease label and a couple on Tirk and it is most definitely a Fulton joint, all wobbly, agitated synths, echoey percussion and pervasive sense of menace. Fulton's askew-view of disco, funk, soul and electro is a perfect fit for DFA and the album, I've Got My Eye On You follows pretty damn soon. Here's a taste of what's to come with the b-side from 'Where's Jason's K?'.

Syclops - Monkeypuss (mp3)


Then came 'Happy House'. Premiered halfway through 2007 on Beats In Space, The Juan Maclean's massive comeback single was an instant hit. It's not hard to see why as this is an instantly likeable piece of uptempo disco-house with an infectious vocal from in-house diva, Nancy Whang that just goes on and on and on and on, in a good way, as if powered by a pilled-up Duracell bunny. I've wrote about it before, I'm sure and I'll most definitely talk about it again before the year's out, but for now this is one of the best primers for a forthcoming album I've ever heard. Here's hoping it doesn't disappoint.

The Juan Maclean - Happy House (Lee Douglas Remix) (mp3)


Lastly, but by no means leastly, here's a tribute in mp3s to the greatest punk drummer of all-time, Krautrock pioneer, Klaus Dinger who died on March 21st of heart failure. As a member of Neu!, Kraftwerk (in the early days) and La Dusseldorf, his influence is still felt hugely in modern music. R.I.P.

Kraftwerk - Ruckzuck (mp3)

Neu! - Hallogallo (mp3)

Neu! - Hero (mp3)

La Dusseldorf - La Dusseldorf (mp3)

Kraftwerk playing 'Ruckzuck' with Dinger on drums on WDR in 1970.

I'll be back with more guff about singles and that later this week.

Five-four-three-two-one!

Okay, this is the start of a new (ir)regular feature on Yer Mam! Because I kid myself I don't have the time to write about every little thing that's shaking my musical foundations (I could. I just don't wanna), I thought I'd do something of a chart, maybe every two weeks or so, to fill you in on things that I think are worth checking out. The Yer Mam! readership being such a clued-up bunch, you're probably already way ahead of the curve on me with this stuff but if you view me as a borderline-senile old uncle, you'll at least humour me on this. Pat me on the head in the comments in as patronising a manner as you see fit...

1. Dissident Distribution

This label really came out of nowhere the other week and had the right people chattering about them online straight away. No-one seems to know much about them but the three releases that surfaced are all top-drawer stuff. Limited to 100 copies each worldwide (all gone now, full releases to follow later in the year though), these three one-sided vinyls - Binary Chaffinch's 'False Energy', Gatto Fritto's 'Clem's Bounce' and Cage & Aviary's 'Giorgio Carpenter' - are eminently playable slabs of long-form, weirdo-disco.

Superfluously in step with the Lindstrom's, Prins Thomas' and Sorcerer's of this world on first listen, upon repeat plays it's clear that the Dissident crew are on a whole 'nother tip completely. Vaguely rustic (check the birdsong on 'False Energy'), but charmingly so and clearly on speaking terms with Dr. Strange, these three tracks are certain to make many appearances in DJ sets and lists before the year's out, so I thought I'd stick my oar in first.

Personally, I think the best of the triumvirate is 'Giorgio Carpenter'. It succeeds in being what the title obviously alludes to and that's a meeting point 'tween Moroder and John. Spooky and sensual, it presses all the right buttons in the correct order and does so for a mind-enhancing eleven minutes.

As I said, very little is known about these shadowy figures but I can confirm that Binary Chaffinch is, in fact, a pseudonym for Milo from electro-metallers, Chrome Hoof. There's also talk of one-half of Cage & Aviary's former life as a member of Gay Dad, but I'm willing to take that one with a pinch of salt. Anyway, have a taste.

Binary Chaffinch - False Energy (mp3)

2. Hercules & Love Affair

Of all the great stuff coming out on DFA soon (see below), the debut 12" from Hercules & Love Affair is the one that's got me worked up the most. That's mainly because I've heard it in all its glory (next week, my opinion will most likely change). H&LA is the brainchild of NY DJ, Andy Butler and frequent listeners to Beats In Space will no doubt be quite well-acquainted with his work by now (he recently did a guest mix and a few H&LA tracks have popped up on there since early in the year).

The 12" consists of two tracks - 'Classique #2' and 'Roar' - and it will be out early next month. They're both excellent, 'Classique #2' being very Detroit-y, a little Carl Craig-y and superbly bleepy, but 'Roar' is the standout. Featuring Antony (of ...& The Johnsons fame) on vox, it's an immensely fun, hedonistic jacker. All you Antony fans would be well-advised not to come to it expecting a torch song though; his vocal consists of two repeated, treated vocal snippets made to sound as though he's on the verge of some kind of sexual awakening. It's that kind of tune.

What's mostly impressive about these two tracks though is that they sound like they've been unearthed from another age (1987 to be precise), but both sound utterly modern. Hear them for yourselves over at Hercules & Love Affair's MySpace.

3. Everything else that's coming out of DFA between now and the end of the year.

It's an exciting time for DFA records and an even more exciting time for us DFA obsessives. They've teased us for too long with all this new stuff that's been getting aired on Beats In Space for what seems like an age now, so it's time for them to give it up. And give it up they will.

For starters, next week sees the launch of Death From Abroad, a spin-off label designed to release 12"s in North America of stuff that they like that has been or will be released on other labels elsewhere in the world. The first four releases from this stable read like this; Mock & Toof - 'K-Choppers' b/w 'Brownbred', Altz - 'Max Motion' b/w 'Yello', plus Idjut Boys remixes, Gucci Soundsystem - 'Acarpenter' b/w 'Lordamercy' and 'Acarpenter (Joakim Remix)' and Bot'Ox - 'Babylon By Car' b/w 'Tragedy Symphony'. I'm not a big fan of the Gucci Soundsystem tune (it was released on Bugged Out! last year) but the Mock & Toof, Altz and Bot'Ox releases are all winners in my book.

Next up is a biggie as far as I'm concerned. Still Going is Eric Duncan from Rub 'N' Tug and Olivier Spencer from Manthraxx and their DFA released 12", 'Still Going Theme' b/w 'On And On' is pure f'in bliss. Two big old piano house monsters sure to slay any discerning dancefloor. That should be all you need to know really. Oh, that one's out on September 18th.

After that, you've got LCD releasing 'Someone Great' as a single with quite possibly THE greatest remix package in the history of music. Soulwax taking on 'Get Innocuous!'? Check. Sorcerer adding a dash of coastal charm to 'Us Vs. Them'? Check. The aforementioned Gucci Soundsystem taking 'Time To Get Away' on an amyl-stained electro-house bender? Check. CARL FUCKIN' CRAIG sprinkling some techno angel dust on 'Sound Of Silver'? Fuckin' CHECK!!! I thought the 'All My Friends' release was hard to top but, barring any major phoning-it-in, this is sure to be the one that'll make you all cream.

Oh, and somewhere along the line there'll be the Shocking Pinks album, 45:33 finally getting a proper CD release with three b-sides (don't get too excited, it's just 'Hippie Priest Bum-Out', 'Freak Out/Starry Eyes' and the Onastic Dub of 'North American Scum', all of which have seen the light of day this year already), Holy Ghost!'s long-awaited debut single, 'Hold On' and - fingers crossed - new 12"s from Shit Robot, The Juan Maclean and that Eric Broucek solo thing that James Murphy let slip about at the LCD aftershow in Manchester back in March (clang!). It's a good time to be alive, ladies and gentlemen.

Shocking Pinks - Smokescreen (mp3)

4. Kasso - Key West (Jellybean Benitez Edit)

Old as the hills but still better than most things around right now. Jellybean is God.

Kasso - Key West (Jellybean Benitez Edit) (mp3)

5. Blockhead - Uncle Tony's Coloring Book (Ninja Tune)

Currently getting a lot of play round our gaff is the new album from Blockhead (aka Tony Smith. I can see why he changed his name). He's one of those people whose work I've always been aware of - mainly through his long-standing association with Aesop Rock - but I've never really investigated until recently. I won't try to over-analyse it because it just won't stand up to it. It's just a really fun, summery, light record of instrumental hip-hop that deserves more attention than it's likely to get. So give it some.

Blockhead - The Strain (mp3)

This was going to be a top ten but I kind of wore myself out on the DFA section and I'm hella tired anyway. Might throw in some more tomorrow. Then again, I might not.

In other news: You can listen to me bore the pants off you about new Swedish balearic pop duo, Boat Club on this week's Blog Fresh Radio, should you harbour the desire to listen to a dour, gruff-voiced Manc wax lyrical about such things.