Articles
Spotlight 15
Favourite Labels 2014

Albums
Poppy Ackroyd + Lumen
Avec le soleil sortant ...
Balmorhea
Brooklyn Rider
bvdub
Cern
Del Sol String Quartet
Nick Gill
Stefan Goldmann
Hammock
Chihei Hatakeyama
Robert Honstein
Jonas Kopp
David Lackner
Last Ex
Neil Leonard
Little Phrase
The Mark Lomax Trio
LA Percussion Quartet
Manual
Near The Parenthesis
Newman and Cox
Nuage
Pan & Me
Bobby Previte
Marc Sabat
Hein Schoer
Wadada Leo Smith
SPC ECO
Subotika
Tape
Templeton + Armstrong
Ken Thomson
Ulterior Motive
Joris Voorn
Andrew Weathers
Ezra Weiss Sextet
Stefan Wesolowski
Keith Worthy

Compilations / Mixes
Aphelion
EPM Selected Vol. 3
Universal Quantifier

EPs / Cassettes / Mini-Albums / Singles
Balmorhea
Blu Mar Ten
Michael Jon Fink
Oceanic Triangulation
Northumbria and Famine
Total Science
Simon Whetham

Blu Mar Ten: Famous Lost Words Remixes: Part 2
Blu Mar Ten Music

That this second set of Famous Lost Words Remixes doesn't exert quite as strong an impact as its predecessor is easily explained: as solid as the three treatments are on the new EP (vinyl and digital), none is as stunning as the first's “Break It All Apart” overhaul, as memorable for Break's beat thrust as Agne Genyte's vocal performance. No matter: Kid Drama, Anile, and Conduct all rise to the occasion in their own way as they tackle three different tracks from the 2013 album.

Up first, Kid Drama recasts “Thin Air” as a moody half-stepper whose jittery skip'n'snap is darkened by a pitched-down vocal by Robert Manos that in places registers at a more subliminal than conscious level. Awash in synthesizers, Kid Drama's deeply atmospheric rendering offers a dramatic and sweeping entry-point to the twenty-minute EP. Anile then takes the controls for a punchy re-imagining of “Remembered Her Wrong” that sees a lithe drum'n'bass pulse battered by swaths of echo-drenched guitars. Tougher than Kid Drama's remix, Anile's wails with bass-powered determination. Pitched somewhere in the middle is Conduct's Calibre-esque “Hunter” treatment, which is characterized by sultry, piano-laced elegance and crisp beatsmithing. As atmospherically effective as it is, the track's strongest feature is arguably its drum groove, which turns hypnotic in Conduct's hands.

November 2014