Articles
2010 Top 10s and 20s
Will Long (Celer)

Albums
Bilxaboy
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma
Celer & Yui Onodera
Cepia
Dead Leaf Echo
Ferraris & Uggeri
Ernesto Ferreyra
Flying Horseman
The Foreign Exchange
Les Fragments de la Nuit
Ghost and Tape
Andrew Hargreaves
Head Of Wantastiquet
i8u
Anders Ilar
Quintana Jacobsma
Kaiserdisco
Leafcutter John
Clem Leek
The Lickets
The Machine
Magda
My Fun
Ostendorf, Zoubek, Lauzier
Part Timer
Phillips + Hara
RV Paintings
Set In Sand
Shackleton
Shigeto
Matt Shoemaker
Sun City Girls
Supersilent
Swartz
Ben Swire
Collin Thomas
Tomo
Upward Arrows

Compilations / Mixes
Exp. Dance Breaks 36
Fünf
Lee Jones
The Moon Comes Closer
Note of Seconds
Tensnake

EPs
8Bitch
Celer
Jasper TX
Jozif
Lerosa
Machinefabriek
Patscan
Pleq
Simon Scott
SHEMALE
Thorsten Soltau / Weiss
Jace Syntax & BlackJack
Weiss

Jace Syntax & BlackJack: Syntax
Soiree Records International

A fabulous four-tracker from Glasgow-based producers Jason MacCreadie and John Morrison who operate under the aliases Jace Syntax and BlackJack, respectively. Their specialty is artful house music of the purest denomination, and their first vinyl collaboration, Syntax, showcases their talents splendidly.

Jace Syntax's “Give Up”original sneaks in surreptitiously until the female vocal part enters, chirping the title mantra incessantly while the funky house pulse and tangy bass line lock in with ferocity. Synthetic details pepper the atmosphere with dabs of radiant colour as MacCreadie creates an ever more complex vocal weave. Hard-driving and scenic in the best way possible, Drivetrain's smooth remix goes for a late-night cruise of the Detroit and Chicago cityscapes where acoustic piano accents and vocal accents warm the tune's raw, acid-inflected groove.

The EP's second half proceeds with BlackJack's “Time Traveller,” an irresistibly swinging slice of high-energy house with an exuberant vibe complemented by iridescent keyboard flourishes and subliminal vocal sweetener. 2yLite then climbs aboard for a slightly stripped-down treatment of “Time Traveller” that, if anything, proves to be even funkier than the original when it digs into the track's minimal beat thrust and leaves lots of room for the bass line and reverberant melodies to shine.

December 2010