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

Lerosa: Façade EP
Uzuri Recordings

Leopoldo Rosa's third Lerosa release on the Uzuri label, the twelve-inch Façade EP, should serve as a harbinger of what's to come on the full-length he's currently readying for the label, as the EP's four tracks were recorded in tandem with work on the album. It's a classy affair that by design exemplifies Rosa's love for Chicago house, and specifically Trax material issued during the late-‘80s.

An acidy bass line gets “Facade” rolling, after which other elements move in rapidly. Sizzling hi-hats and claps deepen the Chicago house feel while synth smears and echo effects inject the tune with futuristic and dub-wise ambiance. Mutiple synth melodies criss-cross as the track grows ever more intricate without losing its basic forward momentum. In its opening moments, “I Care” appears in its micro-voice sample to riff off of Kraftwerk's “Boing Boom Tschak,” but the track's focus quickly shifts to its slinky groove, with Lerosa coupling a bubbling bass line to prototypical house piano chords and a near-subliminal vocal presence. After a stripped-down intro, “Rex” overlays its jacking pulse with a glowing synth theme, double-time hi-hats, and an undeniably funky dance feel. Throughout its six-minute run, Lerosa keeps things interesting by switching up the arrangement, playfully adding details here and dropping them out here. “Tanned Legs” distances itself somewhat from the other tracks by trading the Chicago feel for a less fixed location—until, that is, Lerosa augments the tune's skipping drum track and voice samples with a gurgling 303 and claps. If the proposed full-length can match the quality of the EP's material, it should be a splendid album indeed.

December 2010