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

Lusine: Podgelism
Ghostly

Given its especially elastic and fluid character, Lusine's music lends itself better than most to remix treatments. Though nominally techno, Jeff McIlwain's glitch-heavy approach is spiritually kin to dub in its obsessive focus on sonic minutiae and its open-ended production style. As such, the Seattle-based producer's groove-centric material invites others to liberally impose their individual stamps upon Podgelism's tracks, such that the same original engenders remixes that sound almost entirely unrelated. Cepia's propulsive take on “Flat,” for instance, offsets its central bass line with the staccato fire of rambunctiously snapping snares, while Dimbiman's version skips with a jazzy house swing coloured by swooping vocal accents, electric piano burble, and fusion-flavoured guitar noodling. Not to be outdone, McIlwain also tackles the tune, greasing its techno machinery with a mighty groove, plus gives “Falling In” and “Still Frame” crisp funk makeovers.

Most of the producers—A-listers all—give us pretty much what one might expect, not that that's a bad thing: Lawrence's version of “Everything Under the Sun” is as dreamily elegant as anything else in the Dial artist's oeuvre, Deru's texture-heavy “Auto Pilot” drapes its slow-burning pulse in smears and ripples, and John Tejada converts “Make It Easy” into a sleek setting of future dub-techno fueled by a low-slung bass kick. Though there's not a dud in the bunch, two in particular stand out: Matthew Dear's “Flat For You” mesmerizes, especially when Dear's baritone croon barrels forth dramatically amidst the psychotropic patterns that churn below, and Robag Wruhme's (Wighonomy Brothers) “The Stope” dazzles as a hellacious, high-velocity club burner. If there's a downside to Podgelism, it's that its release likely means a collection of all-new Lusine material won't be appearing time soon, but the remix set's ample pleasures should nicely tide the Lusine devotee over until then.

April 2007

This review also appears in Grooves.