Articles
Terrence Dixon
Ten Favourite Labels 2012

Albums
1982 + BJ Cole
Oren Ambarchi
Balmorhea
Alexander Berne
Born Gold
Carlyle & Cox
Kate Carr and Gail Priest
Paul Corley
Deison
Roland Etzin
Yuichiro Fujimoto
Glissando
Godspeed You! Bl. Emp.
Ivar Grydeland
Hakimonu
Hammock
Sophie Hutchings
Kane Ikin
Jeanne Jolly
Paul Mac
Michael Mayer
David Michael
Moskus
David Newlyn
No Regular Play
Numina
Oskar Offermann
Olan Mill
Padna
Pelt
Rone
Roomful of Teeth
Bruno Sanfilippo
Valgeir Sigurdsson
The Sleep Of Reason
Jessica Sligter
Slow Dancing Society
Prins Thomas
The Use Of Ashes
Maarten van der Vleuten
Stian Westerhus
Wires Under Tension
Woolfy vs. Projections

Reissue
William Basinski

EPs
Elektro Guzzi
Glacis
Porya Hatami
Maps & Diagrams
Stephan Mathieu
Michael Trommer

Rone: Tohu Bohu
Infiné

Erwan Castex's sophomore Rone collection, Tohu Bohu, makes good on the promise of his also-strong 2009 debut Spanish Breakfast. The new release upholds InFiné's rep for well-seasoned and polished electronic dance music, and its forty-eight minutes offer a solid argument in support of Castex's wide-ranging talents. The now Berlin-based Castex recorded the album in his newly adopted city and drew inspiration from its (in his own words) “combination of serenity during the day and effervescence at night,” qualities that emerge in equal measure in the album's ten pieces.

“Tempelhof” plays like an overture for the album but is no less strong for doing so, especially when it immediately re-establishes the synth-heavy gleam of Rone's sound while also firmly setting in place the powerful rhythmic drive of the material. Moving away slightly from the opener's melodic techno style, “Bye Bye Macadam” serves notice that Tohu-Bohu will be more than variations on a single theme by coupling its chiming synth swirl with a head-nodding chug more indebted to hip-hop than techno or house. The later “Beast” likewise shows off Rone's tougher side, while the project's hip-hop flirtation is rendered most explicit when High Priest (Antipop Consortium) drapes his flow across the hard-swinging “Let's Go,” clearly one of the album's high points.

As the dreamlike “Fugu Kiss” makes clear, Castex often infuses the material with a transporting and ethereal quality without sacrificing its raw, beat-driven attack. His affection for Warp comes through loud and clear in “La Grande Ourse,” whose gleaming melodic figures and children's voices bespeak a heavy Aphex Twin influence. “King of Batoofam” and “Parade” add a more epic tone and luscious quality to the album and in doing so neatly capture the understated grandeur of the Rone style (“Icare,” on the other hand, is so grandiose in design and arrangement, it almost comes across as overblown).

November 2012