Column

Ben Lovett - The Grooveyard (March)

Stimming…. Martin Stimming…. He’s definitely got with a license to thrill this month… and, well, baffle. His new album Liquorice is the definitive ‘grower’ and well worth persevering with but accessible it isn’t and, as is the custom with material by some of clubland’s more complex and eclectic producers, you really will have to demonstrate patience and open-mindedness to reap the sonic rewards.

Born close to Frankfurt, Martin was playing the violin, piano and drums by the age of 10. In his mid-teens, he found electronic music for the first time – massively influenced by the atmospheric hip-hop of DJ Krush and muscular jungle breaks of Grooverider – and subsequently joined drum & bass crew Breakaholics, as well starting to produce ‘speed garage’ records.

Techno entered Stimming’s world just a few months later via the entertaining DJ sets of compatriots Chris Liebing and Sven Vath – its dynamism and energy hooked him, prompting the swift acquisition of some decks, mixing gear and records. DJ sets of his own followed and, in turn, a desire to produce techno tracks, rather than simply ‘broadcast’ them.

Today, Martin has a long list of quality club productions to his name – many, the offspring of a highly successful relationship with renowned imprint Diynamic; but all, in a melodic and deliciously multi-layered tech-house style that, to date, has become something of a Stimming trademark.

The last four years have been busy, collaborations with HOSH (Radar), Einmusik (Magdalena) and South American folk singer Violeta Parra (2008’s Una Pena) proving particularly popular; so too Stimming’s debut album Reflections and one-off EP outings on labels Freerange and Buzzin’ Fly.

But we’re here to talk about that baffling new album. The title is a good place to start, Martin’s choice, Liquorice, neatly reflecting the love-hate dynamic he expects his work to demonstrate. “Like the sweet itself, it’ll divide people I’m sure” he answers. “I never intended this as an album. It started as a personal reaction to a situation. But then I was walking through the local park one day with my headphones on listening to what I’d already recorded, and I was like ‘shit, this is great… no-one has heard anything like this before, I’ve got to do something more with it’. So I did, spending another five or six months adding to it and turning it into a proper album.”

The situation that started everything was a relationship split; a pretty severe one by all accounts. “I couldn’t be in our flat at the same time” he carefully confesses. “It was totally stressful and so I was sleeping on the couch in my tiny studio. It was very, very intense.”

Perhaps inevitably, Martin used his studio space as a channel for his darkest thoughts and feelings; the console had become cathartic: “I’m not sure I could make Liquorice again; it fits perfectly with that particular time of my life. But it wasn’t all anger and bitterness. I still found myself enjoying putting those tracks together, even though everything was dark and going wrong for me at home. I managed to channel the negativity.”

Liquorice is almost indescribable. Martin’s PR people call it ‘electronic free jazz’ and there are loose but discernable elements of house, minimal techno and dub in there but, really, this is improvisational soundscape anchored (in the most casual sense of the word) to left-of-leftfield percussion and the artist’s trademark use of ‘field’ recordings (and these range wildly from dustbin lids clanging to coffee machines percolating) and quirky b-line.

Martin is widely-respected for his radical musical iconoclasm but even he harbours doubts as to whether the kind of creative freedom enjoyed on Liquorice is achievable, and sustainable on a regular basis.

“I don’t care who ends up liking this new stuff” he remarks. “I was screwed up at the time and had this sort of punk ‘f#*k you’ mentality so it was very easy to let go. Usually, for sure, it’s more of a struggle to be free. I think those of us who work in the music industry today can always feel the audience’s expectation; we’re more aware of it now because of the internet and because club music has exploded so. We feel a pressure to do certain things in order to stand out and avoid getting lost in all the noise.”

One thing’s for sure Liquorice – released via Germany’s Diynamic label on March 28 – will definitely stand out.

And so on to other news….

WANT TO BE A PRODUCER?

Chic C’est la Vie producer Martin Solveig is partnering with Beatport to offer wannabe producers the chance to remix his 2010 hit Hello and have their efforts released.

Hello is Solveig’s biggest single to date, topping charts around the world. Special remix components of the track are already available to download on Beatport and remix submissions will be accepted throughout March. Overall winners are announced April 5.

The three main winners will have their remixes released on Solveig’s own Mixture imprint, as well as receiving some ‘serious’ studio equipment from manufacturers including Native Instruments, Novation and Point Blank.

The Hello download can be found at: beatport.com

The competition rules are here: beatport.com/rules

BODY & SOUL (MIAMI)

Miami, meanwhile, will host world famous club night Body & Soul for the first time when it arrives during this year’s earlier-than-usual Winter Music Conference.

Body & Soul’s Miami bash takes place March 12 at the Shelborne South Beach Resort and tickets are already flying. Guests can look forward to a special back-to-back set from the night’s three heavyweight founders Francois Kevorkian, ‘Joe’ Claussell and Danny Krivit; there are no other guests.

Body & Soul made its name, of course, on Sunday nights throughout the Nineties and ‘Noughties’ at the Vinyl club. After Vinyl’s closure, the night appeared irregularly in the Big Apple and then at various key venues around the world.

For more hit bodyandsoul-nyc.com

MOBY NEWS

Similarly revered, producer Moby is back with a new ‘electronic’ album, Destroyed, this spring.

The 15-track offering arrives over a decade after Moby’s landmark, best-selling album release Play; his last long-player release was 2009’s Wait For Me.

Destroyed was written late at night whilst Moby was on the road and aims to convey an “emotional” sense of what his constant international travelling is really like. The package is accompanied by a photo journal, based on the images taken by Moby of everything from airports and freeways to hotel rooms and backstage spaces.

Destroyed is released on Mute (as well as Moby’s Little Idiot label) on May 16.

A NIGHT WITH...

Before we launch into reviews, just one final bit of news - Chicago’s jack-house king Derrick Carter launches the popular warehouse-style A Night With... season (promoted by London Electronic) on March 19 at The Basement, 12-18 Hoxton Street, London, N1. The party runs 10pm to 6am; tickets are £10-15.

Expect plenty of sharp ‘boompty-boomp’ grooves as per Carter’s new Fabric mix compilation (review below) and, beyond the opening party, a series of quality A Night With… events hosted by the likes of BPitch Control founder Ellen Allien, German house maestros Tiefschwarz and Brit Radio Slave.

OK, OK, reviews now, and a few singles to start with….

SINGLES

Reel People feat. Tony Momrelle – Tell Me Why (UK Reel People Music)

Another wonderful song taken from the latest Reel People album Golden Lady – Tell Me Why is a slick, breezy mid-tempo groove swinging off of subtle but sassy production and Momrelle’s seriously accomplished vocals. Spring is in the air….
4/5

Tom Middleton – Cicadas (UK Lo:Rise)

This opening gambit by one of Defected’s new affiliate house labels is rather good, rolling in on a wave of infectious tribal percussion and cicada-style clicks and whistles. Marlon D and Maya Jane Coles’ solid remixes take things deeper and a tad bouncier but it’s Middleton’s original with its nose in front. Great package.
4/5

Simbad feat. Brian Temba – Come Join In (UK Hi:Rise)

East London-based ‘Frenchie’ Simbad ropes in South African singer Brian Temba for this skankin’ vocal-house jam through Defected’s other new (more soulful) sub-channel. Percussion and keys are tight; Temba’s vocals (he previously performed in the West End production of The Lion King) powerful and engaging. Synth-driven remixes from Bertrand Dupart up the dancefloor ante.
4/5

Kim Fai – Era/Supernova EP (UK Size)

Fai, the Black Country’s fast-rising techno and minimal house specialist, crafts an EP double-header worthy of stadium tours – epic drums, colossal b-lines and soaring synth-play colliding in a series of happy sonic explosions. Fai has already toured with Swedish House Mafia (this release arrives on Steve Angello’s Size imprint) and Deadmau5; and remixed for Lady Gaga. Up to usual standards…
3/5

Frankie Knuckles & The Shapeshifters – The Ones You Love (DJ Meme remix) (UK Nocturnal Groove Digital)

2009’s well polished house collabo between Chicago legend Knuckles and relative newcomers The Shapeshifters should have smashed it but somehow didn’t. Some 18 months later arrives this amazing remix by in-form Brazilian DJ Meme, a remix which is already causing positive rumblings on the download and hype charts. It’s seriously classic soul-house – a jaw-dropping acapella intro, backed by French Kiss-style b-line, making way for hot keys, euphoric piano rolls and those punchy vocals. Inspired re-visit and a column highlight this month.
5/5

Alpha & Olmega feat. Sheyi – The African Drummer (UK Tribe)

Sizzling, exuberant afro-house from two of South Africa’s rising production stars Alpha and Olmega, which is given added impetus by the vocals of Sheyi, best known for his percussive support at the Tribe label’s various club nights around London. Top remixes, too, via Fabio Genito and Zepherin Saint.
5/5

Now for the albums:

ALBUMS

Various Artists – Defected In The House Miami 11 (UK Defected)

Power-‘house’ London stable Defected offers its latest Miami Music Conference compilation, a nod to those upfront cuts likely to become clubland staples later this summer. Interestingly, the double-disc package is overseen by able Spaniards DJ Chus and David Penn; a savvy nod to the fact that, these days, over 59% of the local community is Hispanic. Expect, then, plenty of thumping, peak-time ‘Iberican house’ in the form of Chus and Penn’s own remix and production work – their Cevin Fisher production Libres Para Siempre is an album exclusive – as well as bullets from David Morales, Olav Basoski, Central Avenue and Copyright. Fully involved four-to-the-floor….
4/5

Various Artists – Remixed & Recovered: A Yoruba Records Collection (Gr Yoruba)

A delicious delve into the Yoruba vaults, this, presenting 13 previously unreleased remixes and productions in that impeccably smooth, super soulful style that Osunlade’s label has made very much its own. Highlights have to include Jimmy Abney’s bumpin’ MAW-style vocal number Crazy Love and Yotam Avni’s majestic old-school house remix of Osunlade track The Day We Met For Coffee, but not everything is deep, mellow house; the tracklisting also incorporates tech, hip-hop and mid-tempo R&B. The production standards are high throughout; the album’s flow beautifully consistent - Remixed & Recovered is in no way a ‘bonus’ disc; it’s meaningful music every beat of the way….
5/5

Daniel Steinberg – Shut Up (UK Front Room)

Berlin-based Steinberg has been producing his own rich and distinctive brand of four-to-the-floor since 1994 and Shut Up, remarkably, represents a first full-length album. It’s confident stuff, neatly reflecting the quirky, non-conformist attitude of his DJ sets and discography to-date. Steinberg artfully manipulates Berlin’s dancefloor conventions, juxtaposing a myriad of colourful soundscapes, kooky vocals, and exotic samples with stripped-down rhythm tracks and minimal grooves. The results are always engaging, tracks such as the Latin-spiced Attencion and future disco-licked Time Is Not Forever proving particularly memorable. Steinberg is well-known for his aversion to media but Shut Up will only feed his growing legend. Impressive.
4/5

Aurelio – Laru Beya (UK Real World Records)

On evidence of Laru Beya, his second album, Honduran singer and guitarist Aurelio Martinez is shaping up as a ‘world music’ star-in-the-making. Laru Beya is both light and playful, and stirringly melancholic, pivoting on the distinctive rhythms of the Garifuna community (originating from African slaves shipwrecked on the Caribbean island of St Vincent) in which he is so well grounded. There is an undeniable lean towards reggae here but the influences of salsa, Cape Verdean folk and Afro-drum (via a mentorship with Senegal’s Youssou N’Dour) are also refreshingly present; Laru Beya is all the more complex and beguiling for it.
5/5

Various Artists – Future Disco 4: Neon Nights (UK Needwant)

Sean Brosnan’s award-winning compilation series goes from funky strength to funky strength. This fourth fantastic instalment offers more in the way of loose, uptempo house, but cool, laidback nu-disco vibes - with a classic 1980s sheen, of course – still top the agenda. Old hands Hot Chip, The Revenge (with a great tranced-out cover of SOS Band hit Just Be Good To Me) and 2020 Soundsystem return alongside relative newcomers Mario Basanov and Bonar Bradberry; a contribution from Midnight Magic (Beam Me Up) summarises this album perfectly – irresistible funkiness for the digital age….
5/5

Various Artists – The Soul Of Disco Vol 3 (UK Z)

If Brosnan’s comp above is the future, then this one from Z boss Dave Lee is, lovingly, the past. In fact it’s Lee’s strongest contribution to the series yet, a series exploring the exciting stylistic boundary over which four-to-the-floor rhythm and sweeping Motown and Philly soul increasingly crossed during the Seventies and early Eighties. Volume 3 showcases another two discs of collectors’ nuggets – Jackie Stoudemire’s strident, slap bass-funked Invisible Wind , Board Of Directors’ jazz-juiced instrumental Hanging Tough and Gloster Williams & Master Control’s storming gospel-disco creation No Cross, No Crown to name a few. But the overall offering is as educative as it is entertainingly accessible.
4/5

Various Artists – Fabric 56: Derrick Carter (UK Fabric)

Chicago house king Derrick Carter is king for a reason as this intense rollercoaster ride mix from Fabric duly testifies. It’s all about his unique ‘boompty boomp’ flow – chopped-up bass, tight, loopin’ drums, wired vocals and zippy samples – which reigns supreme for 17 tracks and should, come the final drum, leave you gasping for more. Indeed, Fabric 56 is a fun but exhausting business, its compere moving dashingly through the gears and genres – soulful house, electro hip-hop, industrial tech, disco, even swing – thanks to expertly chosen cuts from the likes of DJ Sneak, Scrubfish, Cricco Castelli (with 1999’s classic sax-sampled First Love,) and Tripmastaz. Carter provides plenty of his own peppy beats too, including remixes of Cajmere classic Percolator and Green Velvet’s La La Land. This isn’t one of Fabric’s most innovative mixes, but then it doesn’t need to be in the hands of a party master adept at keeping things simple and shouting them gloriously loud.
5/5

Untill next time
Ben

...Still working the late shift!

Please feel free to contact Ben with any House & Dance news that you feel would benefit others ben@bluesandsoul.com Thank you.