Category Archives: On record

Let’s Dance – DJ Spen: Eye Of The Storm (Quantize Recordings)

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dj-spen

reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Eye of the Storm is a remix album, a track by track reconstruction of DJ Spen‘s successful 2021 album Soulful Storm. It calls on a starry house music guestlist.

What’s the music like?

Very, very good. In each case the choice of remixer and original song seem to fit hand in glove, with properly uplifting results.

The collection starts with a classy deep house groove from Jovonn, and the organ-led title track, before we hear from DJ Meme for a broader, funky version of You Are My Friend, vocalist Michelle John on hand to ‘turn my frown upside down’. Kerri Chandler is smooth as silk in his take on Goin’ Home (To See My Savior) before DJ Spen himself references Chicago house in a lovely, late-night take on Nobody But You.

Everywhere you look on the 18 tracks, house or disco music royalty can be found. John Morales turns in a stellar take on Wish I Didn’t Miss You; meanwhile David Morales gets a thoroughly enjoyable bounce to two versions of I Got The Love. Michael Gray does a lovely line in piano-led house for Party People, while Ralf Gum gives plenty of room to Brandon Yancey’s vocal on Perfect Timing. DJ Spen himself brings a chunky beat to The End Of It All, and while we’re talking chunky you couldn’t get much better than Mike Dunn recasting Crystal Waters‘ vocals on Party People.

Does it all work?

Yes, handsomely. When good news and feelings are in short supply, a blast of any number of these tracks will provide the uplift required.

Is it recommended?

Yes – there is some quality vocal house music here, guaranteed to lift the spirits! Even if you already have Soulful Storm, this is an ideal complement.

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You can listen to clips and purchase this release at the Traxsource website

 

 

Let’s Dance – Various Artists: Darkroom Dubs Vol. 5 – Compiled and Mixed by Silicone Soul (Darkroom Dubs)

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reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Glasgow duo Silicone Soul have been running Darkroom Dubs for two decades now, which is a lifetime in house music – and it is great to report the long running series celebrating the achievements of the label is back for a fifth instalment. As with previous releases there is a mix from the duo, which is complemented by separate unmixed tracks and a number of bonus remixes.

What’s the music like?

The mix is compelling, and as good as anything Silicone Soul have put together in their time. It is ideally paced, moving surely through the gears and upping the intensity with each new track. The strong opening section hits a peak with Sigward’s remix of Id!r’s Monday, a smoky torchbearer that has long, held drone chords and a cutting bass. This segues nicely into the Shall Ocin remix of Silicone Soul’s own Farenheit 625, featuring Franklin Fuentes on some excellent vocals, and in turn this moves to a white hot cover of the Blancmange classic Living On The Ceiling from Skinnerbox.

Things turn darker and more acidic from here, through Dino Lenny’s Chained To A Ladder, but the sun soon reappears in the heat-flecked Undo track Acid Summer and Amount’s Kreuzberg. The more acidic direction is enhanced by two tracks from Justin Robertson’s Deadstock 33s, the second one – The Music Is Madness (To Those Who Cannot Hear It) – a particular treat.

With a little more acid in the mix, it’s good to find warmth again with Undo’s Tempesta, nocturnal atmospherics from Mariano Mellino’s Mubarak, and then something completely different in the slower but sharply defined electro beats of Am$trad Billionaire’s Outer Limits (Part 1). Wrapping up the selection are two more hot weather winners, Eduardo De Le Calle’s Breatharian and the DJs Pareja remix of Alejandro Paz & Local Suicide’s quite creepy but effective Splish Splash.

The beat patterns of the mix are largely four to the floor, but as the mix progresses there is greater room for manoeuvre, especially as the keyboard lines take on strobe-like patterns.

Does it all work?

It does, especially if you listen to the mix the whole way through without swerving. Only then will you get the best sense of the pacing of these tracks, which is pretty much nailed down to perfection.

Is it recommended?

Yes – whether you have followed the Darkroom Dubs story from the early days or whether you are just pitching in to their newest chapter. Silicone Soul clearly retain their appetite for new house music, while staying true to the principles that have made their label a solid and assuring presence in British house music and beyond.

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Switched On – Amphior: Another Presence (Glacial Movements)

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amphior

reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

This was made during the first Covid lockdown, described by its author as ‘a strange vacuum of feeling lonely and isolated’. However Amphior – aka Mathias Hammerstrøm – emerged from the period with a positive outcome, connecting with himself as a person and addressing some long-held feelings on introversion and sensitivity. Another Presence allowed him to express those feelings and be more himself in the process.

What’s the music like?

Haunting. It is possible to hear what sound like disembodied voices in many of these tracks, and though they are not noticeably lyric-based there is a primeval vocal quality to a lot of Amphior’s writing.

Void, the first track, has wisps of sound in the middle ground, some of them vocal, above a distorted and cracked profile underfoot, like standing on a large geological feature in a cold wind. The voices become more ominous in the course of the second track Phantasm, as does the darker musical language. After these two heavier pieces of music, Imaginary Shelter is just what’s needed, a comforting wash of sound and soothing harmonies. Dream Traveler offers the same welcoming cushion, though is consciously on the move, with that sounds like slow footsteps in the snow. The slow walking continues, with gradually changing vistas, as Sleepwalker takes in a range of colours both dark and light, before Pathfinder pans right out again. The warm colours of Another Presence find Amphior returning to a settled harmonic base, from which What Was Lost offers thick ambience if a hint of unresolved conflict, before ultimately fading away on the wind.

Does it all work?

Yes. Through the eight tracks here Amphior captures both the claustrophobia and strange, twisted freedom lockdown seemed to offer in equal measure, the qualities complementing each other while never becoming fully satisfying. Here the music is ultimately satisfying, finding its resolution from darker thoughts and feelings earlier on.

Is it recommended?

Yes. Another Presence is an affecting and occasionally disquieting listen, moving at a very slow pace as it examines feelings and experiences held deep beneath the surface. Ultimately those examinations bring forward a positive and deeper calm, the listener able to appreciate the long form ambience of this extremely descriptive album.

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On record: Steve Elcock: Orchestral Music, Volume Three (Toccata)

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Steve Elcock
Symphony No. 6 Op.30 ‘Tyrants Destroyed’ (2017)
Symphony No. 7 Op.33 (2020)
Manic Dancing Op. 25 (2015)

Marina Kosterina (piano, Manic Dancing), Siberian Symphony Orchestra / Dmitry Vasiliev

Producer/Engineer Sergei Zhiganov
Recorded 21-25 June 2021, Philharmonic Hall, Omsk

Toccata Classics TOCC0616 [75’54”]

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Toccata Classics continues its survey of Steve Elcock’s orchestral music with a third volume that features two of his most recent symphonies alongside his piano concerto malgré-lui, each demonstrating a visceral immediacy and a quixotic individuality as previously encountered.

What’s the music like?

After the Beethovenian dialectic of his Fifth Symphony, Elcock concentrated on smaller scale projects prior to its successor. Cast in two movements (the first slightly longer), this might be felt to emulate another totemic Fifth, that by Nielsen, but Elcock’s Sixth is a wholly different proposition. The opening Molto moderato unfolds incrementally and even hesitantly from its subdued beginnings on lower strings, so making the baleful climactic processional the more unnerving when it suddenly arrives. Nor does the ensuing Allegro bring any real catharsis – its gradual and methodical build-up (via that cumulative harmonic and rhythmic intensifying found in Pettersson but which Elcock has made his own) at length culminating in a vehement peroration which would seem to fulfil the remit of this work’s subtitle in unequivocal terms.

Three years on and the Seventh Symphony sees a very different approach. Here every aspect speaks of intended equivocation, the single movement redolent of Elcock’s Fourth in variety of incident yet eschewing its tonal and textural complexity for an overt transparency abetted by relatively modest instrumentation and modally informed clarity of content. Vestiges of an expanded sonata design can be sensed in the stealthy alternation of slower and faster tempos, leading to a central developmental crux as brings in its wake less a reprise than the statement of a melody evidently heard in a dream but whose eloquence and poise seem nothing if not tangible. From here the music heads back towards its modal origins, then it evanesces away for what is the deftest and most affecting conclusion in any of Elcock’s symphonies thus far.

Placed between these symphonies as (necessary) shock-absorber, Manic Dancing is another of Elock’s concertante pieces. The integration of piano and orchestra recalls the Sinfoniettas Giocosa and La Jolla by Martinů, even if the febrile velocity of its outer Allegros could hardly be mistaken for urbanity. The central Largo in the emotional heart in every sense – its limpid opening offset by a restiveness to the fore in twin climaxes, with cadenza-like facets emerging out of the texture before the animated music resumes its designedly manic course.

Does it all work?

Indeed, not least in underlining the overt distinctiveness of Elcock’s symphonies as taken on their own terms. As before, the playing of the Siberian Symphony Orchestra leaves nothing to chance in bringing out the sheer imagination and richness of the orchestral writing, with Dmitry Vasiliev ensuring that formal cohesion remain paramount. Marina Kosterina contributes animated and resourceful pianism, and those who have responded positively to earlier volumes in this series (TOCC0400/0445) will be gripped or maybe even a little disconcerted by this latest addition.

Is it recommended?

Yes, not least with sound of clarity and impact comparable to earlier instalments, and detailed notes from Francis Pott. Toccata will hopefully continue its series of Elcock’s chamber music, while the English Symphony Orchestra has recorded his Eighth Symphony for future release.

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For further information, audio clips and purchase information visit the Toccata Classics website. For more on Steve Elcock you can visit the composer’s website

Switched On – mōshonsensu: A Strange Dystopian Tundra (Rednetic)

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moshonsensu

reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

mōshonsensu is the moniker for Daryl Robinson, a UK producer making a fresh start under a pseudonym of Japanese origin. The commentary for his new album speaks with refreshing honesty of the importance of IDM and ambient music during the plight of a depressive episode in his life.

A Strange Dystopian Tundra could easily be a description of the landscape as we currently view it, as Robinson notes. “For me it represents dark times but also better times ahead hopefully. This album is combined with glitched beat patterns, melodic beauty and ambience woven together in a heuristic nature.”

What’s the music like?

Robinson’s music is equal parts meaningful, mysterious, uplifting and just occasionally troubling. In these respects it is an accurate reflection of feelings we have had throughout the last few years, but ultimately there is solace to be found in the ambient contours of his work.

Mystical Minds is a wonderful way to start, a track with a light touch but rich colours turning golden in the mind’s eye of this particular listener. Some of the mōshonsensu titles are amusing – Tedious Cricket, anyone?! – but in fact this is a track with a slowly rippling rhythm against a more distant hook line. The Detectives Walk In The Tundra is a striking addition, featuring a penetrating vocal from Jo Joyce, her contribution becoming a concentrated vocal refrain that sticks in the head. Sea Of Sound feels just like scattered footsteps on a shoreline, its beats allowed to run free, while Feel Down Innit also has busy activity, percussion flitting across the broad picture behind, like moths unwilling to settle – in this case possibly an effective depiction of anxiety and the fight against troubled thoughts.

Tribe has a serene but uncertain treble line, while Lost & Found Tape is a curious combination of angelic voices and grubby electro beats, a kind of inner city collage between the street and the church. Disposition Intact heightens this contrast, with big beats and airy voices, becoming a longer study of remote beauty.

Does it all work?

It does. The more you hear this album the more the emotional investment becomes clear, and yet it operates well on a surface level too.

Is it recommended?

Yes. By making an album that acknowledges the importance of ambient music to counter stress, mōshonsensu successfully faces the problem and gives us the obvious solution. As its title implies, A Strange Dystopian Tundra is not an easy ride, but it leaves the listener in a better place for hearing it.

It is also a timely reminder that to describe music as ambient does not short change the effect it can have on the listener.

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