Category Archives: On record

Switched On: Panda Bear & Sonic Boom – Reset in Dub (Domino)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Panda Bear & Sonic Boom revisit their 2022 album Reset in the company of dub royalty, producer Adrian Sherwood. Sherwood took the album through his On-U Sound studios in the company of musicians Doug Wimbisch and Skip McDonald.

Panda Bear (aka Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox) and Sonic Boom (Peter Kember) wrote the original downtempo album with strong Caribbean influences, and Kember spoke of how Jamaican rocksteady played a big part in his thinking for the original Reset album. When the opportunity for a dub album arose he immediately thought of Sherwood.

The artistic respect is mutual, as Sherwood himself is a fan of Animal Collective. He describes how they wanted to keep “all the elements of trippy fun, but with added menace, groove and an ultra-active mix for the ‘heads’.

What’s the music like?

Rather special – and in some cases it transports the listener overseas almost immediately. That much is clear from the lead single Edge Of The Edge, where the sighing motif sounds like the tide lapping gently at the shore. Elsewhere Sherwood gives us a mind-expanding treat, whether attending to the saxophone sound on Gettin’ To The Point Dub or overseeing a healthy dose of funk to the mix for Everyday Dub. There is a lovely breezy disposition to this music, especially in the likes of In My Body Dub and the dreamy piano of Go On Dub, where the wide open textures complement Panda Bear’s rounded tones.

Danger Dub is especially good, firing up a quicker tempo, while Whirlpool Dub is full of cleverly worked sonic displacements. Livin’ In The After Dub has a folksy melody with a harmonica which gets the Sherwood reverb treatment, the drums setting us in a woozy fireside spot. Perhaps the best is saved for last, Everything’s Been Leading To This Dub an epic production, booming low vocals twinned with glittering guitar and bright brass.

Does it all work?

It does – effortlessly so. This is music that creates its own hot weather, and the stripped back approach works a treat. So too does Sherwood’s instinct on when to throw the perspectives wide open or bring them up close, using Lennox’s voice to its full potential.

Is it recommended?

Enthusiastically – but only on the assumption that you’ve already purchased the original album!

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Switched On: Various Artists – Shapes: Collide (Tru Thoughts)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

The ‘Shapes’ compilation series has been an integral part of Tru Thoughts’ make-up throughout their 24-year history. Robert Luis’ label continues to bring a wide variety of music to the table, and this is the ideal platform on which to showcase it – whether soulful, song-based, cosmopolitan or beat-driven, a flavour of the label is here.

Luis curates the selection, bringing a healthy mixture of label staples, remixes and a few rarities to spice things up.

What’s the music like?

Eclectic and open-minded, as the label themselves describe.

Among the many highlights are a couple of sassy numbers in MELONYX’s Melanin Queens, which is soul music with an edge, and The Sindecut & Ijeoma, whose club mix of Stand Tall is firmly uplifting. The combination hit the jackpot a second time with Different, where multilayered vocals combine with a big screen backdrop.

Meanwhile Running Loving Something contribute the breezy I Love The Feeling, while there are two rather special remixes of Anchorsong – the Salamanda take on Windmills and the Azido 88 Remix of Common Ground, which makes a play of the wordless vocal and broken beat.

Label stalwart Rhi impresses with the close-up intimacy of Craving Your Love, while Luman Child – via the North Street West Vocal Remix – sing out a gospel house treat with Robert Gee in Grateful. Sunny climes are explored by STR4TA in an excellent remix of Anushka’s Bad Weather, while once the sun goes down Bruk Rogers impresses with the nocturnal LDN 313.

Does it all work?

Pretty much. There is such a wide variety of music on show here there is something for everyone – and to be honest there are many more hits than misses.

Is it recommended?

It’s a no-brainer – 2 hours and 40 minutes of the best of a wide-ranging label, available for the cost of a pint of beer. What’s not to love?

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Switched On: Speaker Music – Techxodus (Planet Mu)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Speaker Music is the work of writer and producer DeForrest Brown Jr., who describes his work as “abstracting Blackness through information overload” or, in the first track, “Black music that sounds technological, rather than music made with technology.” He does this through a combination of live and pre-edited music.

Techxodus is designed as an epilogue to Brown’s book Assembling A Black Counter Culture, or – as he describes it again – as “an extension of the Drexciya Mythos; researching  and reimagining the artefacts and stories of Drexciya with new maps, ideas and music, in particular reflecting on the ‘Seven Storms’, seven albums that came out in quick succession around the death of Drexciya member James Stinson, which seemed to herald Drexciyans in the attack mode.”

What’s the music like?

Brown Jr. sets out the principles behind the album over a single, thickly textured chord – an oceanic drone, if you like, and the ideal way into the album. Gradually the wholeness starts to break up, with muted trumpet and flickering percussion that carries into Techno-Vernacular Phreak. The percussion cuts loose, the harmonies start to wander, and a certain tension is introduced.

The treble lines have a piercing, acidic qualities that Brown offsets with these lovely, deep-dive drones such as the one that starts Holosonic Rebellion. This track grows into a depiction of an uprising, thrilling on one hand but disconcerting on the other. The intensity grows through Dr Rock’s PowerNomics Vision, threatening to spill over as the drumming becomes more insistent and the vocals edgier. Jes Grew brings this to a peak, with thrilling walls of sound from the brass that sound like insistent train horns, broken up by the frenetic drumming. Our Starship To Ociya Syndor returns to the rich drone-based approach, with wordless voices borne on the airwaves beneath shrill sonic signals. The intensity subsides – but only a little – before the scattergun drumming and distortion combine to bring Feenin’ to a coruscating peak. Finally Astro-Black Consciousness returns us to the mood of the opening, journey complete but with the wailing of gospel voices in the middle ground.

Does it all work?

It does – because Speaker Music has a style all of his own, a fascinating intersection of experimental jazz and techno that proves difficult to break down. New technology provides part of the thrill, but also a hidden menace.

Is it recommended?

It is indeed. Techxodus is a powerful and highly emotive listening experience, which only grows in stature the more you hear it.

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Switched On: Sean La’Brooy – There’s Always Next Year (Analogue Attic)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

There’s Always Next Year has a very English feel to its title, though its roots lie more accurately in shattered sports fantasies. It is, says Sean La’Brooy, ‘a tribute to the misguided hopes and dreams of a sports fan. Field recordings and commentary from a range of codes weave between silky saxophone lines and piano chords in what is a textbook showcase of the classic Analogue Attic downtempo and early evening sound we’ve come to know.’

It is La’Brooy’s second solo release, a complement to his work in tandem with Alex Albrecht as one half of Albrecht La’Brooy.

What’s the music like?

One of those silky saxophone lines can be heard early on in Offseason Getaway, courtesy of Greg Carleton – who allows the instrument to wander above active yet sensitive drumming from Leo Yucht.

The music has a wider, outdoor span thanks to La’Brooy’s roomy production – and that comes into its own for the beautiful scenes painted by Curse and 3rd and 28, where the commentary field recordings only heighten the ambience. Carleton returns for a delightfully lazy contribution to the atmospheric 140 to the Pin, where the pace quickens and the style switches to deep house. There it stays for the much busier Let, with bell-like melodic loops and urgent beats.

Finally we return to a trio with Carleton and Yucht for the regret-laden title track, with airy consolation found from keyboards too.

Does it all work?

It does. Consolation for sports fans is close at hand!

Is it recommended?

Very much so – if you’ve been following La’Brooy or Albrecht, you will find much to enjoy here. It is music to slow the pace and soothe the fevered brow of modern life.

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Switched On: Thomas Fehlmann – Umdrehen (Edition DUR)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Umdrehen is a word that denotes a twist, a turning around, a reverse – and the name of Thomas Fehlmann’s new album.

It is effectively a title that gives Fehlmann free musical rein on a 40-minute set of musical experimentation. He refers to his approach as ‘generative music’, with the element of chance playing a role in his choices.

What’s the music like?

Not as playful as the above description might suggest. In fact some of this album operates under a dark cloud, wrapped in an ambience that can be cloying.

That said, there is a good deal of invention here that makes its best impression on headphones. Having established the dark, brooding textures, Fehlmann adds a shuffling beat and semi-industrial field recordings to Gelbe Kurve. There are some unnerving moments, such as Steinwurf, while Doppelherz opens out to a much wider expanse, offering a halo of light around the music. By contrast Feuchter uses mottled chimes, which prove to be comforting yet weirdly eerie. The delicate exchanges of Gehupft suggest the chance elements more, with a cold intimacy, while the soft hues of Prenzlau an sich are complemented with foreground chatter.

Does it all work?

Largely – though the feeling does persist that Fehlmann is in search mode, never quite pinning down a style of music to settle on. Because of that Umdrehen has a fleeting, fitful ambience.

Is it recommended?

It is – and Umdrehen is certainly an interesting addition to Fehlmann’s impressive discography, if not perhaps the most successful.

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