For the week ending 18/01/09

First up is another shuffly, technofied dubstep outing from 2562. This one out now on Martyn's 3024 label:
Embrace / Hijack

The new Math head 12" is one for the dancefloor if you can handle the metal as fuck guitars. And if not then the final track ('last') takes it down a notch with a kind of plodding, oriental sounding halfstep affair. Other samples are available on his myspace:
Stab City

Worth a mention is the latest Earth616 sampler. The First track named 'License' by Rapid comes with both vocal immitations of gunshots and actual gunshots and is, expectedly, murderously dark. Having said that it's probably not worth the 7 quid fee alone:
Earth616 sampler Vol. 3

For the week ending 11/01/09

I think just about everyone has shaken off their festive malaise and started releasing music again so here we go...

7even Recordings coming out of France continue to build up an impressively consistant catalogue with this one from F. Both sides are great but side 2 is the real killer, bringing almighty bass hits and echos (no pun intended) of Basic Channel, which drift through the track like some kind of German ghost:
F - The Untitled Dub

From dubstep-techno to... dub-techno, here's a really nice 12" from Intrusion. The second release on the Intrusion imprint (a sublabel of Echospace). One for the Rhythm & Sound heads:
INTRUSION - The Seduction Of Silence

Accompanying that last one from Intrusion and also released this week is the CD of the same name:
INTRUSION - The Seduction Of Silence CD

And lastly a really nice minimal house joint from Max Cooper. Harmonisch Serie is the one to check on this one:
COOPER, Max - Harmonisch Serie

Where's Amon Tobin?

Apart from releasing all kinds of free shit on his website (a live recording of the foley room album and a brilliant hendrix/velvet underground mashup amongst other things) Amon Tobin has been working on a project with Doubleclick called 'Two Fingers'.

The first release, What you know (feat. Sway), is out this week on Big Dada and has been humourously described by the press release as sounding like 'Blade Runner re-enacted in Tottenham'. On the flipside is an Emalkay remix which surely indicates the direction this project is set for is somewhere near Grime and Dubstep on the compass. A full length album, largely featuring Sway on the vocals, follows this first 12" and is set for a March release. This is the tracklist:

1.Straw Men feat. Sway
2. What You Know feat. Sway
3. Better Get That feat. Ms Jade
4. Two Fingers feat. Sway
5. That Girl feat. Sway
6. Keman Rhythm
7. Jewels and Gems feat. Sway
8. Bad Girl feat. Ce'Cile
9. High Life feat. Sway
10. Doing my Job feat. Ms Jade
11. Not Perfect feat. Sway
12. Math Rhythm

Apparently not included on the album, and arguably the best of the lot, is a track they did with Durrty Goodz on the vocal which can be found here. Nice to hear a big dubstep influence on that one, not sure if it's getting it's own release as it was featured on the latest Ninja Cuts CD almost a year ago now.

mr chop

Last week I accidently found mr chop. His tunes remind me a bit of early Diplo productions that sourced from crazy psych, funk and prog rock material (chop uses session musicians rather than digging through thousands of old records, however). It's good shit, and although it seems he has been around for a good few years with very little output, in 2008 he stepped up with two pretty solid releases on Stones Throw subsidiary Now-Again Records and German label Jazz & Milk Recordings.

The Caveman!