| #698 |
|
2004 |
Perilous 698 The three labels that were the central core of the ‘intelligent dance music’ and ‘ambient techno’ era of the mid-90s – Rephlex, Warp and Planet Mu – have all been undergoing processes of renewal. As Warp has moved into hip hop (Anti Pop Consortium, Prefuse73, Beans solo project, Jimmy Edgar) and post rock (first with Slum and Broadcast, Savath & Savalas), both Planet Mu and Rephlex have also diversified mining back catalogues and venturing into strangely ‘related’ genres. Rephlex currently is pulling in many different directions. There are new disco releases – Luke Vibert’s tongue-in-cheek Kerrier District, all cowbells, handclaps, and liberal use of those staple disco samples; and the real gem, a reissue of 1978s Disco Club by Black Devil. The Black Devil release, originally from Paris on Out Records, represents a middle point between disco and punk which hints directly at early New Order, ESG, Cabaret Voltaire as well as trumping the whole NY punk/funk thing. There is also an upcoming foray into ‘grime’ – the darker, more hip hop oriented splinter from UK garage which is entering the mainstream via Dizee Rascal & Wiley – with a soon to be released compilation as well as further moves down a dancehall influenced path started with the sensible release of The Bug last year. This distorted dancehall and electro dancehall path sees several interesting new releases in the next month. Planet Mu have also diversified with a continuance of new releases from Venetian Snares, but more excitingly the release of original junglist, Remarc’s dubplates from 94-96, which follows hot on the heels of Mu’s other Remarc compilation. This is a collection of dubplates that never reached actual release from two crucial turning points – the first (94) when UK hardcore was becoming more rhythmically complex and ‘becoming’ jungle and continuing to mine Jamaican samples; and the second (95/6) when jungle splintered into substyles – jump up etc. Remarc has/had an uncanny ability to shred amen breaks into crazy hyper-complex rhythms and textures whilst maintaining a dancefloor pressure and funk that was lost in many of the ‘avant-jungle’ experiments from Squarepusher, AFX and others around the same time. Also, on Mu from a similar period is an very different collection, Meast, of unreleased material from label boss Mike Paridinas (U-Ziq) in his guise as Kid Spatula. Probably the best Kid Spatula stuff was never actually released on Planet Mu but was for the now defunct San Francisco ambient label Reflective (run by Jonah Sharp), so its interesting to hear a double CD of ‘extra’ tracks from the same period (94-98) refreshingly free of dsp trickery and other diversions. More predictably, Mu also has a new release from Shitmat – a noisy, abrasive, pisstake of jungle which raises only a wry smile. Frigid, Sundays, at the new venue (@Newtown, 42 Enmore Rd) has Shuey on a d&b tip coupled with Uncle Ho from Elefant Traks on March 28 then Meem on April 4. Also, in a related vein, the Kid Koala and RJD2 show on April 14th are now on sale at the Gaelic Club. $38.50+bf. Until next time. Yellow Peril (www.snarl.org)  Goto
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