One from the archives, transferred from a cassette recording made long ago.

Artist - Track (Label)

1. Logic - The Warning (Strictly Rhythm) Buy

2. The Sound Vandals - Feel It (Nu Groove) Info

3. Logic - The Final Frontier (Strictly Rhythm) Buy

4. Alternations - Feel It For You (RCA) Info

5. Sueno Latino - Sueno Latino (BCM) Info

6. Dv8 - This Beat Is Over (Strictly Rhythm) Buy

7. Underground Solution - Deep In My Mind (Strictly Rhythm) Buy

8. Robert Armani - Circus Bells (Dance Mania) Buy

9. MD Connection - Laser Scan (Muzique Records) Info

10. Lil’ Louis - Blackout (FFRR) Info

Direct download: JGM_80_-_The_Final_Frontier.mp3

Direct download: JGM_79_-_Best_Of_2011_1.mp3

Guest mix from m50.

Artist - Track (Label)

1. Exos - Frodi Ambience (AE) Info
2. D5 - Floatation Tank (Delsin) Info
3. Mark Broom - Stairway Skank (Ifach) Info
4. Torul V - La Mont (Thule) Info
5. Ford & Loveday - Dead Eye v.1 (Ifach) Info
6. Alex Cortex - Reticarga Part 1 (Klang Electronik) Info
7. Paul Mac - Back And Forth (Primate) Info
8. Monolake - Linear (Imbalance Computer Music) Info
9. Paul Mac - Not My Strong Suit (Fragmented) Info
10. ø - Twin Bleebs (Sahko) Info
11. Mr. G - U Askin’? (Marcel Dettmann Remix) (REKIDS) Info
12. Black Jazz Consortium - What’s Up With The Love (Soul People Music) Info

Direct download: JGM_78_-_m50.mp3

Artist - Track (Label)

1. San Laurentino - Magnetic Steps (Mathematics) Buy

2. Gunnar Wendel - 578 (FXHE) Buy

3. Robert Hood - Upon A Millenial Moment (Peacefrog) Info

4. Andy Stott - Made Your Point (Modern Love) Buy

5. Theo Parrish & Marsellus Pittman - Selector’s Theme (Sound Signature) Info

6. No Smoke - Koro-Koro (Warriors Dance) Info

7. Chris Perez Project - Singularity (Coco Soul) Info

8. Tevo Howard - 60660 (Beautiful Granville) Buy

9. Untitled 2 - Kassem Mosse (Workshop) Buy

10. K-S.H.E - Double Secret (Skylax) Buy

11. Instant House - Dub House (Jungle Sounds) Info

12. Glenn Underground - Storm Raiders (Eargasmic) Info

13. Five Deez - Fifth Degree (Rapster) Buy

Direct download: JGM_77_-_Magnetic_Steps.mp3 ]]> http://www.popyourfunk.com/2011/10/jgm-77-magnetic-steps/feed/ http://www.popyourfunk.com/2011/09/jgm-76-musique-de-ve/ http://www.popyourfunk.com/2011/09/jgm-76-musique-de-ve/#comments Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:30:43 +0000 Cez http://www.popyourfunk.com/?p=1464

Direct download: JGM_76_-_Musique_De_Ve.mp3

Artist - Track (Label)

1. Ike - The Mojo (Philpot) Buy

2. Benjamin Brunn - I Took Her Out For A 707 (Ashes) Buy

3. Brawther - Asteroids & Stardust (Balance) Buy

4. The African Dream - Young & Free (Eightball) Buy

5. Herbert - Resident (Phono) Buy

6. M.K. - You Brought Me Love (Area 10) Buy

7. Farley Jackmaster Funk - Jackin’ The Trax (Trax) Buy

8. Jack Master - Bang The Box (Jack) Buy

9. Missing Linkx - Lovin’ Dubbin’ Feelin’ (Philpot) Buy

10. Instant House - The Beginning (Jungle Sounds) Buy

11. Cleavage - Barah (Studio) Buy

Direct download: JGM_75_-_Asteroids__Stardust.mp3

Direct download: JGM_74_-_John_Heckle.mp3

Unlike most techno albums, Parabolas is noteworthy because it unfolds like an actual album, rather than a collection of singles repackaged in album form, emphasizing subtlety and nuance. Opening with the smooth, mid-tempo house-leaning “Farther and Fainter,” the moodiness of Parabolas first reveals itself via the next track, “The Dream” – an eerie beatless ambient track that actually may have been better off as the first track. “Mechanized” is, for me, when the album really begins to pick up steam, a sparse, perky melody punctuated by a series of chords and haunting, ethereal textures that feels influenced by Detroit techno – a style Tejada has long acknowledged as a driving force of his inspiration as an artist. “Subdivided” continues on the moody path, its crisp, electro-style beat offset by smooth synth stabs, while “Timeless Space” slows down the tempo and beefs up the twinkly emotional elements with a vintage feel via the use of the Roland TR-808. Tejada drifts back into warm ambient land on “The Honest Man” before propelling forward again with the upbeat track “The Living Night,” its percolating beat offset by dreamy textures and nuanced melodies. Both “Unstable Condition” and “Hollow Hemispheres” feel like salutes to Detroit techno with a similarity to early Orbital, the former incorporating vintage percussive elements amidst a thumping kick drum and chirpy synth textures while the latter delves a bit deeper via subtle polyrhythms. The album closer, “Uncertain End,” feels aptly titled, emphasizing percussive intricacies without much of the emotion that pervades throughout most of the album. It’s a surprising choice for the final track, only because so much of Parabolas seems to bleed emotion. More than 15 years into his recording career, Tejada continues to evolve and reinvent himself, and the fans are the beneficiaries.

- Tim Pratt

Buy Vinyl/CD | Buy Wavs

PYF: What’s your earliest musical memory?

JH: Recording some shouty covers of The Beatles with my brother when I was about five or six. We had a tape recorder and some headphones in the mic socket to record, and some pans for drums.

PYF: Your sound has quite an affinity with Chicago - what was your first encounter with house and techno?

JH: Again I think my brother (Bill) had a lot to do with that. He took me to my first rave when I was thirteen, to a night called Bugged Out in Liverpool. He got me into a lot of the music I still listen to today.

PYF: Who are some of your influences (both musical and non-musical)?

JH: I find a lot of bands influential, such as The Smiths, The Beatles and The Doors, and artists such as Bob Dylan. In terms of electronic music, artists such as Larry Heard, Jamal Moss, Jeff Mills, Surgeon and Regis have been massive influences. Also some local DJs (such as Mark Forshaw, Sam Baron, Scott McGill, Binny and my brother most of all) have had a big influence on what music I play now.

PYF: How did you get into producing music? Was there anyone in particular that inspired/ helped you on your musical path?

JH: I started making music on a computer for fun in about 2003, which eventually led to the release of a track on RSB records a few years later. I would make tracks and play them in sets during my residency at Liverpool’s Alcatraz night, which was run by my brother and the guys we lived with at the time. We would spend most weekends hammering music in the house anyway, so making music and starting a night was a sort of natural progression. Anyway, it was at this night that Bill booked Regis to play. Regis forwarded a track I had just made to RSB and it was released a few months later in 2006. That is what inspired me to get serious about music. I think 2006 may have been a little early for me though as I was still only at the stage of teaching myself how to produce the sounds that I wanted to make. 
So I guess after a while production took a back seat. It wasn’t until a friend showed me the record The Sun God ‘Ancient Echoes’ that I got inspired to make music again; I’d never heard anything like that record. Soon after I started buying the Mathematics records. I was taken by the rawness and unpredictability of most of them; they were something exciting at a time when I was disillusioned with a lot of current trends.

PYF: Your most recent releases have found quite a suitable home on Jamal Moss’ Mathematics label. How did that connection come about?

JH: Well in 2009 me and a friend traveled to Antwerp, Belgium to see Surgeon and Jamal Moss play at a club night called Sub Scape. Jamal’s live show really changed my perception of how music could sound in a night club environment. Soon after I got back home I made four tracks and sent them to Jamal a few months later. They eventually became the tracks for the ‘Life on Titan EP’.

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PYF: Mathematics is also releasing your forthcoming debut album, ‘The Second Son’. There’s a little more variation in styles - did you approach writing tracks for the album differently than the singles?

JH: I normally never have any real approach when beginning to write a track. It’ll start as a jam until an element sounds interesting, then I’ll build the rest of the track around that. However, there are two or three tracks on the album that came about through suggestions from Jamal himself. For instance, ‘The Voyager’ and ‘Nothing Can Last Forever’ came about after he suggested infusing some italo and ambient into the project. This was the first time I had to really think about what I was making.

PYF: Your sound is firmly rooted in raw analogue, although there seems to be a bit more going on. What’s your studio comprised of? Do you use a combination of both analogue and digital? and how do you approach production?

JH: I do prefer the ‘analogue’ sound, and tend to lean towards that sound when jamming out the beginning of a track. But I won’t swear by analogue just for the sake of it – I will use digital sounds if they fit with a current project, and so do tend to use a combination of digital and analogue equipment. The majority of the equipment is, however, analogue – with the likes of the Juno 106 and the Roland tr-707 quite heavily involved a lot of the time.

PYF: There are quite a few UK producers, including ones that are usually associated with other genres (Lone, Joy Orbison, Floating Points), that are producing Chicago influenced tracks but with their own twist. What’s your take on this? and who are some of your favorite current producers?

JH: I can only speak for myself, and I find that dance music has not greatly improved since the early incarnations of Chicago House (and its Detroit counterpart). Lots of great music has been influenced (directly or indirectly) by those early tracks, but has never completely surpassed them in terms of innovation or sheer rawness in my opinion. I guess this is why so many producers find it so influential. 
In terms of favorite current producers, I think that there are a lot of talented producers doing great things at the moment but I couldn’t decide on any favorites. I sometimes miss out on a lot of the new records and producers.

PYF: What else do you have coming up?

JH: A CD version of the Mathematics album which will be full of brand new tracks. An EP on Tabernacle Records called ‘The Extrovert/Introvert EP’. A few more exciting projects I am yet to complete, but which should see release come late 2011 and 2012. And aside from that I will be doing various live performances and DJ sets throughout this summer and beyond.

PYF: Tell us a little about the forthcoming mix you’ve provided for the podcast?

JH: It’s just what I was feeling at the time of recording. A lot of records I hadn’t played for a while in there, a lot that never leave the bag… hope you enjoy.

Second installment from the Night Gallery crew, Kuri Kondrak and Shawn Kralicek.

Artist - Track (Label)

1. Ra.H - Fall Of Justice (Morphine)
2. Juju & Jordash - Tattoo Island (Philpot)
3. Gegenheimer - 21:4 (Ratio)
4. Fred P - On This Vibe (Esperanza)
5. Kassem Mosse - Untitled (Workshop)
6. Marcellus Pittman - The Mad Underdog (Seventh Sign)
7. F.U.S.E. - Approach and Identify (Plus Eight)
8. Chip E - Like This (DJ International)
9. Boo Williams vs Glen Underground - Mayday Funk (MAAD)
10. Common Factor - Get Down (Planet E)
11. Disco Nihilist - Relentless Drums (Construction Paper)
12. Dijkhuis - You Can Bring It (Night Gallery)
13. John Heckle - The 4th Dimension (Mathematics)

Direct download: JGM_73_-_Night_Gallery_Pt2.mp3

Direct download: JGM_72_-_Night_Gallery_pt1.mp3

A couple of Detroit pieces I’ve been enjoying. First-up is a killer Scott Grooves remix of Norm Talley’s ‘The Journey’ on Third Ear. I had to check to make sure the credit was correct, as the remix sounds very much like Mike Huckaby rather than Scott Grooves. Omar S gets long time collaborator, Shadow Ray, to remix ‘Here’s Your Trance, Now Dance!‘. Shadow Ray doesn’t deviate too much from the excellent original, adding a rugged bassline and more bottom-end to great effect.

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DJ Qu unleashes ‘Gymnastics’ in the form of three 12″s (as well as a CD that combines all tracks). Lush deep house and raw rhythmic workouts that Qu is known for. Each record has great tracks, but my pick by a hair is ‘Part A/B’. Oakland’s Deepblak label is keeping the releases flowing too. Forthcoming in June, is Aybee’s ‘11:11′ vinyl only EP - deep electronic soul that has a similar vibe to his release on Further. Also forthcoming is an Afrikan Sciences 12″, which takes tracks from the excellent album, ‘Means and Ways’ and includes a remix from Aybee.

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Stuart Li, better know as Basic Soul Unit, gives us a second release under his Herman guise on Fine Art Recordings. Herman’s ‘Rock Your Body’ is a solid track, however, Vakula’s remix takes things up a notch, and in my opinion outshines the original - great to see this track getting a physical release. Vakula also gives us a fine re-interpretation of Steve Reich’s ‘2×5: Movement 3 Fast’. Other producers efforts at remixing Reich have often given mediocre results, however, Vakula subtly approaches ‘2×5′, turning the track into a piano driven deep house affair. Laid gives us it’s first non-vinyl release, in the form of it’s forthcoming label compilation. A solid offering, however, I can’t help but feel a missed opportunity. Key tracks such as Lawrence’s ‘Dwelling On The Dunes’ and John Robert’s ‘White’ are omitted. The compilation does include Kassem Mosse’s excellent ‘Untitled’ track - that alone is good enough reason to pick-up the release.

Joy O, aka the artist formerly known as Joy Orbison, continues his strong track record, with his latest release on Hotflush. ‘Jels’ is a heavy acid-tinged track, and is a great example of the current crop of music coming out of the UK, by producers who are giving their own twist to the sound of the windy city. On a similar tip, Boddika (one half of Instra:mental) gives us ‘Warehouse’, taken from the excellent ‘Back & Forth’ release (also on Hotflush). The compilation is chock-full of other great tracks from the likes of FaltyDL, Scuba, DBridge etc.

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A couple non-dancefloor orientated releases that I’ve been enjoying recently. First-up, Moritz Von Oswald Trio’s sophomore album ‘Horizontal Structures’, which was released a few months ago now, but releases like this take a little time to fully sink-in. The album continues in the same vein as the trios debut album, however, for myself it’s a little more approachable than ‘Vertical Ascent’. Moritz has his trio and Vladislav Delay has his quartet. Although treading a similar jazz-based approach, the ‘Vladislav Delay Quartet’ album (also released via Honest Jons), musically is quite different from MVO3. More harsh and noisey, the album is certainly a challenging and interesting listen.

Finally, a couple of less familiar names that warrants some attention. Mo Kolours gives us his debut, ‘Drum Talking’, via One Handed Music. As the title suggests, the drum of Mo Kolour’s native Mauritius is dominant through-out. Quite a few tracks sound like Theo Parrish productions - molasses slow, soulful rhythms. Kuri over at Energy Flash, along with Struggle bring us the Night Gallery label. The first release is from an established artist working under the pseudonym of Dijkhuis. There’s a good range of styles on the release, with my pick being the infectious ‘My Love Is…’ track. The second release on the label (also by Dijkhuis) is forthcoming, and is equally as good. Kuri and Struggle have provided a couple of great mixes, which will be available on the podcast over the next few weeks.

Direct download: JGM_71_-_trackwerk_pt2.mp3

1. Joy O – Jels (Hotflush)
2. Norm Talley – The Journey (Scott Grooves Rmx) (Third Ear)
3. Ben Klock – Goodly Sin (Robert Hood Rmx) (Ostgut Ton)
4. Daniel P – Discomadley (Cabinet)
5. Chicago Skyway – Heaven (Aroy’s Edit) (M>O>S)
6. Rick Howard – I Won’t Lay Back (Instrumental) (Rush Hour)
7. Omar S – Here’s Your Trance (FXHE)
8. Ricardo Miranda – Urbanism (Rush Hour)
9. Rare Earth – Happy Song Or Dance (Rated X)
10. Bruce Ivery – Bruce Falls (Stilove4music)
11. Kerri Chandler – Syntax Error (Deeply Rooted)
12. Earth People – Dance (Underworld)
13. John Heckle – The 4th Dimension (Mathematics)

Direct download: JGM_70_-_trackwerk_pt1.mp3

Artist - Track (Label)

1. Tin Man - Nonneo (Absurd) Info

2. Throbbing Gristle - Hot On The Heels Of Love (Mute) Info

3. Fred P. - Somewhere (Soul People Music) Info

4. Theo Parrish - Voice Echoes In The Dark (Ndatl) Info

5. John Heckle - What Once Was (Mathematics) Info

6. Afrikan Sciences - Ejercicios (Deepblak) Info

7. The Oliverwho Factory - Galactic Transit (Rush Hour) Info

8. Joy Orbison - BB (Doldrums) Info

9. Delano Smith - Direct Drive (Mixmode) Info

10. DJ Qu - Secret Place (Strength Music) Info

Direct download: JGM_69_-__What_Once_Was.mp3