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Below are some of Marcus’s thoughts on his favourite releases of 2008 – 12″s, LPs, and remixes. Some of them are well enough known – You’d have done well to escape the hype surrounding Flying Lotus this year – but others, such as Sten, the Long Lost, and Headhunter - you might be less familiar with. In no particular order . .
The Long Lost – Luckiest Charm 12” (Ninja Tune)
Finally, and at last, Daedelus’s project with wife Laura Darlington on vocals came to fruitation this year with a 12” featuring the two lead songs from an LP which was long ago recorded and finished – with two Flying Lotus remixes on the flipside. The Art Of Kissing is unmistakably West Coast, psychedelic, sunny, and before you have time to glimpse at pictures of the pair and their unmistakably blissful air of melancholy you’ll already be in love. The artwork, lyrics and title of Luckiest Charm all tie in to form a romantic allegory that’s both touching, quaint, and unmistakably Daedelus – or should that be Darlington. If only we were all so lucky in our quest to please our heart’s longing.
Andy Stott – Unknown Exception (Modern Love)
Listening to 2006’s Merciless, the signs of Andy Stott’s potential were obvious, and anyone who witnessed, as I did, his appearance at the following year’s Sonar Festival in Barcelona, would have found themselves only more intrigued. Tracks like Florence demonstrated an uncanny talent for techno with a sentimental air – similar to that of Lawrence/Sten, whose Dial Records has done much to shape the innovative streak shown in the techno of the last few years which keeps headphone listening primarily in mind. So, then, a few years later, and a long series of 12”s on the Modern Love label confirmed Stott’s place alongside Claro Intelecto as being two of the biggest names in dub techno. With every new production their sound mutated and grew to new heights and senses of subtlety. The Resident Advisor podcast of 2007 remains my favourite to date and is an hour’s worth of deep, widescreen techno, best enjoyed on a train ride in content solitude.
Unknown Exception may only be a collection of these already released tracks, but put into LP form they, as mentioned, transcend the dance floor format of most techno and become a piece of work with a body that is whole and complete. Replace and Credit in particular retain an industrious aesthetic of cold, hard drums, best associated with his native Manchester. Yet he manages to transcend these sterile notions with some of the most heart warming, sentimental and emotional piano and synth melodies you’re likely to hear in a genre more used to 12”s being handled by DJs rather than romantics.
Appleblim / Peverelist – Soundboy 12” 2008 releases -
Soundboy’s Ashes Get Hacked Up and Spat Out in Disgust
Soundboy’s Suicide Note (Skull Disco)
Underlying the aggressive, Ralph Steadman-esque artwork of these two most recent 12” releases is the genre-defying quality of the work that exhibits outstanding subtlety from both producers Shackleton and Appleblim. Indeed, before the beat kicks in on both sides of ‘Soundboy’s Ashes’ you would be excused for thinking the two tracks were the ambient works of a melancholy and pacifying quality, the nostalgic synth of ‘Over Here’ signalling the beginning of something almost romantic. Yet the two (and Shackleton’s tracks in particular) retrace their steps to an all more disturbing and unsettling sound – with surely *thee* dirtiest bass heard in 2008 on ’Circling’, before the final few minutes revert to a blissful sound more akin to the works of Kompakt’s Pop Ambient series. Accomplished, professional, yet raw and unnerving – the intricate drum programming of Shackleton’s Shortwave rushes through a six minute shit storm of ferocious drumming before you have time to make sense of it all. A recent gig in Bristol confirmed that the man is as physically in touch with his music as it sounds – furiously swaying in time whilst simultaneously having a go at the sound engineer to turn it up. Soundboy’s Ashes contained my two most played songs of the year, with both truly outstanding artwork and a memorable title to boot.
Martyn / Marcus Intalex – After Seven 12” (Revolver)
It would be easy to single out Martyn’s Broken Heart remix for TRG as maybe the track of the year, but then again the Ramadanman refit of Put You Down is exemplary rather than exceptional, and if this is about releases rather than songs, it’s Martyn’s collaboration with Marcus Intalex which remains the most resounding. On first listen, the three collected tracks sound clumsy, hastily finished and mute. But the more you listen, the more the two separate influences of these great individual produces become obvious and imminent – On Storm Watch, the intricate drum programming is blatantly that of drum and bass kingpin Intalex. The piano strokes are only an accompaniment to the general make up of the track, before the chord progression strikes and it all falls into place – a method of song structure that would be very familiar to fans of Martyn’s dubstep productions – and indeed Broken Heart in particular. On the other side After Seven sounds like any other echo filled dub tune before the rhythm releases deep, shifting tones and a stomping beat. JW on a Good Night lightens up things somewhat but remains progressive in its connotations for two producers of conflicting styles. Sure, Martyn used to make drum and bass tunes, but ask any of the fans he’s made in the last year and they would swear he’s been working on perfecting his dub tech style his whole life. One of the most unique releases of 2008 right here – and probably one of the only things my radio co host / housemate didn’t mind me rinsing the shit out of time and time again.
2562 – Aerial (Tectonic)
Hailing from The Hague in Netherlands, it wasn’t until I was in line at passport control in Schlipol Airport last autumn that it dawned on me just how much I liked this album. The stern, formal action of queuing was unable to keep me from bopping away like someone who had just arrived in a club and was finding their way about. 2562 uses skeleton dub rhythms and then combines them with deep, intricate production and sampling more akin to the deeper sound of IDM or electronica. His recent side project A Made Up Sound demonstrates these qualities more clearly, but it’s on Aerial that the producer breaks the mould of dubstep, making tunes that certainly don’t sound like they could be made in five minutes as many of the genre’s pedants would have it. ‘Morvern’ and ‘Moog Dub’ are moody, brooding statements of intent from Dave Huismans, the former mustering up an air of the exotic with its bird call samples Combined with more minimal, intended-for-DJ-play tracks like “Basin Dub”, and the fact this came out on Pinch’s Bristolian label Tectonic, Aerial was one of the most forward looking LPs of the year.
Flying Lotus – Los Angeles (Warp)
Much has been said and written about Flying Lotus since the release of his Warp EP over a year ago. Many accused the basis of the album’s aesthetic values to be that of a rough, incomplete and unfinished producer for whom making beat tapes meant a likening for quantity over quality. But for anyone who has followed his rise since 2006’s
album, 1983, Los Angeles was nothing but a qualified and logical step of progression in his sound. His LP release for Plug Research opened with the hazy, disorientating sounds of the ambient title track, and ‘Brainfeeder’ repeats this trend albeit in a much more confident and coherent way. It’s these very same trademark productions that were at first steadily discounted – a dislike for quantization, a rough, unfinished sounding bass, and clumsy song structure – that quickly became the common sounds for a wider group of producers who came to the fore during 2008 – Glasgow’s Lucky Me crew (Rustie, HudMo, et al ) being amongst them.
Neil Landstrumm- Lord for £39 (Planet Mu)
If anyone could please make sense of the cover then hook me up with an explanation. Surely the best and most comprehensive electronica release on Planet Mu of 2008. I would dare say Neil Landstrumm is a man who enjoys his own company, and that you can tell by this record. It’s not his blatantly Scandanavian exterior that betrays such an influence in his personality – though he looked quite the beard-scratcher at a recent gig in Bristol, surrounded by drum machines, synths and sequencers – but instead the harsh, unforgiving sound of Lord For £39 that, though still based on a similar sound to Restaurant of Assassins – expands and varies on it greatly. Old Rabbits sounds like it’s been taken as a sketch from the Analord series, fed uppers that have been cut with headache pills and ushered on into a bloody fist fight – with Rustie and Si Begg watching his back the whole time.
Headhunter – Nomad (Tempa)
The young Bristol producer has seen his bookings expand to the worldwide market since the release of this highly entertaining and varied LP. Finely treading the line between dub tech and dubstep, this release defies genres and undermines their importance as a reference.
Sten – The Essence (Dial)
The only reason this isn’t higher up the list is because I’m much, much more fond of his productions under the Lawrence alias. With Sten, he tears apart all notions of the experimental in terms of electronic music as an art form, and instead fuses together pure dance-floor focused minimal fury. The Essence is a grower – the more you listen, the deeper and more intricate it appears and sounds – a tone shift here, the smallest of changes in the high hat there – amplified to great effect. It’s one of those albums that you wouldn’t recommend as a starting point for someone unfamiliar with techno. I think an analogy I swear to god I made up in one of my dreams is most valid here – Introducing a techno newbie to The Essence would be like trying to tempt a vegetarian with Panda meat.
I will stop myself there.
