textura

Albums
Vieo Abiungo
Ada
Alias
Anklebiter
Sigbjørn Apeland
Arandel
Black Eagle Child
The Caretaker
Collections Colonies Bees
Colour Kane
Displacer
DJ Phono
Every Silver Lining
Jefferson Friedman
Gus Gus
Robin Guthrie
Helvacioglu & Bandt
Robert Hood
Seth Horvitz
Human Greed
Richard A Ingram
Jóhann Jóhannsson
Marsen Jules
Loscil
Myrmyr
Teruyuki Nobuchika
Now Ensemble
Popol Vuh
Pursuit Grooves
Quasi Dub Development
Rant
Jannick Schou
John Tejada
Tobias.
Trickski
Turtleboy
Yamaoka
Winged Victory For Sullen

Compilations / Mixes
116 & Rising
Our Little Prayers
Craig Richards
Henry Saiz

EPs
Absent Without Leave
Abyss
Simon Bainton
BNJMN
Ceremony
Corrugated Tunnel
Dead Leaf Echo
Go Hiyama
Josco
M.A.D.A. & Plankton
Monseré and Youngs
Semtek
Sharma + Krause
Soundpool
Sparkhouse
Vahagn

DVD
Barbara Lüneburg

Sparkhouse: Silence and Noise EP
Doppler Records

The latest two-tracker from Edinburgh, UK-based underground house label Doppler Records comes from Sparkhouse, a rather secretive producer who's also based in Edinburgh, prefers to keep a low profile, and for whom few bio-related details are available (he has no website or Facebook page either). What can be reported is that he uses vintage hardware sequencers, 8-bit samplers, live instruments, and guitar pedal effects to create his material and that Silence and Noise is his second release, with the first a split affair with Jacksonville also issued on Doppler.

“Close Up” works a midtempo bounce into a slinky stepper with a smidgen of acid nipping at its heels. Radiant string synths crest o'ertop the tune's sleek pulse, as hard-hitting snares and hi-hats nudge the groove along until distorted voices spread their garbled spiel across the track's warm surface. Replete with dropouts and breakdowns, “Close Up” offers an elegant, seven-minute ride through clubby terra firma, after which “Silence and Noise” stretches its wings for a full-on ten minutes, taking in ample scenery as it does so. Sparkhouse nicely offsets the track's 4/4 stomp with a bubbly funk bass line, disco claps, and hi-hat sizzle, and then elevates it with repeated dashes of deep house vocal snippets and psychedelic synth swirls. If the thudding bass pulse makes “Silence and Noise” the clubbier of the two cuts, both are nevertheless floor-fillers of a particularly well-crafted kind.

August 2011