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

Lee Jones: Watergate 07
Watergate Records

I'm not as familiar with Lee Jones' work as I clearly should be, if the bumping mix he's fashioned for Watergate is representative of his output. An early resident of the Watergate venue, Jones personalizes the label's seventh mix outing by including tracks of his own as well as collaborations (Mymy, Daniel Dreier) and contributions from friends (Matthias Meyer, Ray Okpara, The Cheapers, Acid Pauli). What comes out the other end is an elegant hour of melodic tech-house that's got enough dancefloor mojo to satisfy the most jaded clubber.

The mix begins in low-key manner, with Jones overlaying a minimal pulse with emotive musings by Frazey Ford and a voice sample lifted from a documentary about the infamous Watergate break-in, but the second track, “International” by Buzzin' Fly outfit Flowers & Sea Creatures, elevates the mix mightily when the song merges its uplifting vocal melodies with Jones' swinging remix treatments. Sequencing the album so that the track's transcendent vibe comes early suggests that Jones isn't interested in treating his mix as a single, protracted build.

One of the most appealing things about Jones' set is its occasional melancholic bent, something that's fully exploited during the Cheapers' “Being Eaten” when a simple two-note theme and mournful chords imbue the metronomic groove with an emotional gravitas that calls to mind Peter Kersten's Lawrence style. Other highlights include the sultry serenade “Mymorial,” an apt title for the final track produced by Jones and Nick Höppner under the Mymy name, and “Basic Chord Tool,” a pumping slice of hard-grooving swing that Jones and Matthias Meyer sweeten with deliciously chunky chords. Jones also collaborates with Patrice Bäumel on a head-scratcher called “Voice Scatter,” where treated male and female vocal fragments spring like bouncing balls off of an infectiously funky and clap-happy base. Jones' own “Kreuzberg 61,” a string-kissed homage to his Kreuzberg and Watergate home bases, takes the session out on a suitably atmospheric tip.

December 2010