textura

Albums
36
As Lonely As D. Bowman
John Atkinson
Tom Bell
Big Bend
The Black Dog
Celer
Nicholas Chase
Chronotope Project
Mario Diaz de Leon
Ricardo Donoso
elintseeker
Brian Ellis Group
Ellis & Grainger
Gurun Gurun
Stefano Guzzetti
Heathered Pearls
Helios
Hidden Rivers
Michael Hix
Wayne Horvitz
Indigo Kid
Jerusalem In My Heart
Chad Kettering
The Last Hurrah!!
Legiac
Gary Martin
Josh Mason
Lorenzo Masotto
Andy McLeod
MultiColor
Phaedra
Qwanqwa
Thomas Ragsdale
Reanimator
Steve Roach
Michael Robinson
Steve Roden + Mem1
Santiago Salazar
Dirk Serries
Serries & Zuydervelt
Slow Meadow
Sarah Kirkland Snider
Cara Stacey
Stendeck
Phil Tomsett
Waxwing
Jeppe Zeeberg

Compilations / Mixes / Remixes / Reissues
Deep Love 15
Graveyard Tapes
Photek / H. Agen. / W. Doc.
Positive Flow

EPs / Cassettes / DVDs / Mini-Albums / Singles
DJ Madd
Dragontime
Elika
Henning & Ringler
Ki Oni
Radioson
Danny Scrilla
Selaroda
Rick Wade
Erik Wøllo

Book
Stefan Goldmann

Rick Wade: Strong Arm
RYMD Records

Any new material by Detroit legend Rick Wade, whose 2008 Yore full-length The Good, the Bad, and the Deep remains a textura favourite, is cause for celebration in these parts, even if it amounts to two tracks only. Issued on London-based RYMD, the release, available in twelve-inch coloured vinyl (300 copies) and digital formats, backs two prototypical Wade cuts with remixes by Berlin producer and 12 Records owner Deep88 and London producer Emotion.

Part of what makes Wade's music so appealing is that he goes his own way, indifferent to trends and paying little attention to what's currently fashionable. A funky deep house roller such as “Strong Arm,” which lithely lunges from the gate with string stabs and a stoked bass line leading the charge, could just as easily have lit up a disco thirty years ago as fill a club floor in 2015. Wade slows the BPM ever so slightly during the aptly named “Funkopolis” to allow its starlit, Rhodes- and horns-accented groove to sparkle ever more radiantly, resulting in a swoon-worthy jam sprinkled with smooth jazz swing and bass-pulsing funk.

Under his expert guidance, Wade's breezy music unspools so effortlessly, the B-side material can't help but seem secondary, though there's still much to be said for the remixers' efforts. In an admirable exercise in refined moodscaping, Deep88 strips “Strong Arm” to its essence and then sweetens its attack with handclaps, elongated string accents, bright synth textures, and a jaunty rhythm pattern, after which Emotion peels back the sleek surface of “Funkopolis” in his “One Take Jam Edit” to reveal the raw heart beating at the original's earthy core. Both are perfectly credible treatments, but it's the Wade cuts that are naturally the EP's primary drawing card.

September 2015