Articles
Rafael Anton Irisarri
Slow Six

Albums
Another Electronic Musician
Balmorhea
Celer
City of Satellites
Cylon
Deadbeat
Kyle Bobby Dunn
Eluvium
Ent
Ido Govrin
Danny Paul Grody
Chihei Hatakeyama
Wyndel Hunt
The Internal Tulips
Keepsakes
The Knife
Kshatriy
Lali Puna
Francisco López
Mask
Melodium
Monolake
Clara Moto
Myrmyr
Nos Phillipé
Ontayso
Outputmessage
Pleq
The Q4
Schuster
Shinkei + mise_en_scene
The Sight Below
Sphere Rex
subtractiveLAD
Bjørn Svin
Tamagawa
Ten and Tracer
Trills
Trouble Books
Yellow Swans

Compilations / Mixes
An Taobh Tuathail Vol. III
Does Your Cat Know My...
Emerging Organisms 3
Moment Sound Vol. 1

EPs
Brim Liski
Ceremony
Eric Chenaux
Abe Duque
Hieroglyphic Being
Rafael Anton Irisarri
Manaboo
Monolake
Mr Cooper & Dday One
Pleq & Seque
Nigel Samways
Santos and Woodward
Simon Scott
Soundpool
Stimming, Watt & Biel
Stray Ghost
Ten and Tracer
Stuchka Vkarmanye

Alex Santos and Chris Woodward: Village Vanguard
Buzzin' Fly

“Village Vanguard” can't help but invoke associations with the incendiary live sets John Coltrane laid down at the legendary New York club, not to mention every other jazz figure who's commanded its tiny stage. But this being a Buzzin' Fly single, no one should expect to hear too much in the way of jazz triplets and horn soloing. Lisbon-based Alex Santos (erstwhile member of Rodamaal and Darkmountaingroup) and Londoner Chris Woodward (who had a hand in recent reworks of Foals' “Olympic Airways” and L Kubic's “Voyager”) do, however, bring their own brand of swing to two treatments of the track, the first the regular mix and the second a supposedly stripped-down affair with a solo-flying Woodward at the helm.

The main mix heads out on its nine-minute trek with a delicious minimal and neo-tribal house thrust that's nudged into jacking territory with the addition of claps and voice accents. The link to the NY club surfaces in the gorgeous, horn-fueled jazz accent that swoops in intermittently, arresting the forward motion for a moment with a magnificent, near-orchestral flourish that might remind listeners of a certain age of Gil Evans, the esteemed arranger best known for his collaborations with Miles (Sketches of Spain and Porgy and Bess obviously the most famous). Woodward's equally tasty re-rub is hardly skeletal but rather a percussive-heavy stepper the DJ sees fit to sprinkle with piano and animate with a deep bass pulse and funk-house swing. He's no fool, though: regardless of whatever other changes he makes, the jazz episode remains firmly in place and never sounds better than when it explodes halfway through the track like some brilliant meteor shower hurtling across the sky. If the balance in both versions still tips in dance music's direction, with the jazz interjection appearing rather like a pit stop during the race itself, it doesn't stop the track from feeling any less artful in its integration of the two genres.

March 2010