ARTICLES
Benoît Pioulard's Précis
Label: Dynamophone
Label: Hidden Shoal

ALBUMS
Aemae
A Lily
Arc Lab
Blotnik Brothers
Gui Boratto
Cagesan
Jeremy Caulfield
Loren Dent
Do Make Say Think
Eats Tapes
Enduser
Domink Eulberg
Explosions in the Sky
Michael Fahres
The Field
Frivolous
Maximilian Hecker
Hug
Hush Arbors
Jan-M. Iversen
Espen Jørgensen
Kattoo
O.Lamm
Bruce Levingston
Tobias Lilja
Lusine
Marcia Blaine School
The Missing Ensemble
Nebulo
Ölvis
Charlemagne Palestine
Palomar
Pornopop
The Postmarks
Propergol Y Colargol
The Retail Sectors
R/R Coseboom
Sankt Otten
Scratch Massive
Slow Dancing Society
Stars of the Lid
subtractiveLAD
Sunosis
Aoki Takamasa
Amon Tobin
Tokyo Mask
Kate Wax
Wes Willenbring
Windmill

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
Chaos.Lovers
Cryosphere
Hub: 2004-2005
Rufs
Satoshi Tomiie

3" /7" /10"/12"/EPs
Agnes
AM/PM
Arctic Sunrise
Audion
Characterize 1
Dartriix
Death is Nothing To Fear
Don't Be A Stranger
Einóma
Fusiphorm
Heartthrob
Human Nature
Infant Cycle / Antmanuv
Lilienweiss
Luci
Mauve
Paco Osuna
Ben Parris
Carola Pisaturo
Portable
Sutekh
System
Aoki Takamasa
Cortney Tidwell
Andy Vaz

Heartthrob: Baby Kate Remixes
M_nus

Paco Osuna: Crazy
Plus 8

Heartthrob's psychotropic “Baby Kate,” a highlight of last year's min2MAX comp, gets overhauled by M_nus cadets Magda, Troy Pierce, Plastikman, and others on this septet of vinyl and digital cuts. Certainly it helps when the original material's so strong, but the eminently talented guests re-shape the track into memorably cubistic variations. Magda gets the party started with her “Where's My Baby's Daddy?” mix by alternating the timid burble of the tune's central motif with a distorted bass growl that shouts it down at every turn. Konrad Black morphs the tune into a hot-wired, electro raver while Sascha Funke turns it into a stampeding dynamo that grows increasingly entrancing with every buoyant skip and clap. Richie Hawtin contributes a Consumed-styled Plastikman remix that strips the tune bare, leaving a mere trace of the original's theme and replacing it with lunar blips and deep space signals. It's odd that the three digital exclusives were excluded from the vinyl version, considering that they're just as strong. Troy Pierce's aptly-named “First Day of Rehab” mix wanders about in a deliriously druggy and increasingly hallucinatory daze and Robotman's techno mix jacks purposefully, but perhaps the sweetest treatment of the seven is the snappy funk workout by Adam Beyer and Jesper Dahlbäck that's wonderfully straight-up, crisp, and tight. Heartthrob's original reigns supreme but these versions represent a more than credible complement.

Spanish DJ and producer Paco Osuna steps out with a polished quintet of combustible cuts on his Crazy 12-inch. Lead track “Crazy” at first sounds almost too minimal but Osuna quickly grabs the bull by the horns with an irrepressibly swinging gait and well-timed bleeps, pings, and splashes; best of all is an acidy riff which writhes like an insect doused with gas and set aflame. Swishing hi-hats and chugging bass lines nurture a simmering swing throughout “Joakhim” while ripples of distorted noises scuttle across the track's slippery surface. Elsewhere, “Sechamps” marries pinprick melodies to a rumbling bass pulse while the acid stormer “Cretine” (billed as an extra bonus track for download) caps the release with explosive snare splashes and an infectious jack. Despite the EP's kinetic energy level, Osuna's style is so relatively understated it's easy to underappreciate the finesse he brings to the disc's Plastikman-styled material.

April 2007

This review also appears in Grooves.