Articles
Rafael Anton Irisarri
Slow Six

Albums
Another Electronic Musician
Balmorhea
Celer
City of Satellites
Cylon
Deadbeat
Kyle Bobby Dunn
Eluvium
Ent
Ido Govrin
Danny Paul Grody
Chihei Hatakeyama
Wyndel Hunt
The Internal Tulips
Keepsakes
The Knife
Kshatriy
Lali Puna
Francisco López
Mask
Melodium
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Myrmyr
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Ontayso
Outputmessage
Pleq
The Q4
Schuster
Shinkei + mise_en_scene
The Sight Below
Sphere Rex
subtractiveLAD
Bjørn Svin
Tamagawa
Ten and Tracer
Trills
Trouble Books
Yellow Swans

Compilations / Mixes
An Taobh Tuathail Vol. III
Does Your Cat Know My...
Emerging Organisms 3
Moment Sound Vol. 1

EPs
Brim Liski
Ceremony
Eric Chenaux
Abe Duque
Hieroglyphic Being
Rafael Anton Irisarri
Manaboo
Monolake
Mr Cooper & Dday One
Pleq & Seque
Nigel Samways
Santos and Woodward
Simon Scott
Soundpool
Stimming, Watt & Biel
Stray Ghost
Ten and Tracer
Stuchka Vkarmanye

Stimming, Ben Watt & Julia Biel: Bright Star
Buzzin' Fly

Bright Star is Buzzin' Fly's fiftieth single and thus a justifiable cause for celebration. As such, the release finds label head Ben Watt collaborating with Hamburg's Stimming and folk-jazz vocalist Julia Biel, who guested a short while ago on Watt's own “Guinea Pig.” Having started out as a musical sketch by Stimming for which Watt wrote lyrics, Biel ultimately contributed her vocal to two contrasting Stimming productions.

“Sunrise Mix” first digs into a slinky, percussion-heavy pulse before adding in synths, ringing guitar textures, and a smokey vocal by Biel that seems to channel Billie Holiday in lagging so languorously behind the beat. The melancholy cut draws its tension from the contrast between the instrumental part, whose surge continually escalates, and the unhurried drawl of the vocal, and the trio recounts a delectable narrative that reaches its peak with Biel's repeated utterance of the title. Pursuing a less urgent and rather dub-like pace, the “Sunset Mix” strips the backing down to give Biel's soulful vocal more prominence, which emotes radiantly during the gloriously ascendant chorus (“Lead on, bright star / Lead on to the night”). The instrumental touches present on this torch song treatment—the piano accompanying the chorus, the horns that unfurl after the chorus, and the constant stream of percussive textures—give it a richness that makes it equal in impact to the other. If the less clubby “Sunset Mix” is the more moving of the two, the “Sunrise Mix”  showcases Buzzin' Fly's talent for crafting dance tracks of distinction and personality, with nothing else sounding quite like Bright Star . (To celebrate its fiftieth release, the label will issue the twelve-inch version with a pull-out poster and lyrics insert.)

March 2010