House Is A Feeling

There’s no interesting way to title a chart post is there? Even puns on “heart” are as exhausted as Welsh coalfields. So I’ve gone back to basics.

1. Mike Grant-The Struggle Of My People-Mr G There’s Hope Mix (Moods and Grooves)

Mr G releases are always a bit different, and just a bit erratic too. But when he’s good, he’s really good, bringing a grizzly slapped up take on house music. There’s a raw quality to his sound that a lot of 2008 artists are trying to bring back into house music. This track is from 2001 (in the current climate, who can even tell what year a track is from?), and if you liked this 12 on Careless (I loved it) then you’re bound to be into it. If you like this, go to his website here for a block party style acid house tune, which is free!

2. Two Armadillos-Hamlin-Sascha Dive Mix-(Déssous)

A vocal can make such a difference. Here Frankfurt’s Sascha Dive takes a sliver of the originally sampled singing from “Hamlin” and loops it really effectively. Who’s singing it, what does it mean, why does it work? I guess the heart of this music is that mysterious power that comes with emphasising just a few sounds and repeating them. The originals are great on this EP too, the first release on Steve Bug’s Déssous label I’ve bought for AT LEAST two years. The last was some acid track by Zoo Brazil that was very badly warped when it arrived in the post, but even worse, wasn’t actually very good!

3. Lazar-Deep Minsk (Sthlmaudio)

Do you like Mountain People, Cassy, Sascha Dive, Baaz, andAgnes? In that case just go and buy this EP immediately. This isn’t revolutionary or a work of sprawling genius but you know, these records are the glue that hold the electronic music universe together. All four tracks are a little like Agnes’s remix of “Catch the Beat” which came out on the same label last year. I also liked this release by Langenberg a lot.

4. Blackpocket-Ure A Star-Martyn Mix (Fat City Records)

I’m going to admit that the first I heard of Dutch dubstep producer Martyn was when he linked to this site from his own. So I felt it was only fair to check out some of his music after this. So I did. And although I listen to practically no dubstep except Burial, I really like some of the tracks, and this is my favourite. I think I’d even play this track, if I could work it into a set.

It’s funny when you listen to almost all electronic music how it’s almost easier to go off and enjoy something utterly different, than a sort of supposed near neighbour like another dance genre you’re not familiar with. I still can’t quite fully enjoy dubstep, except bits and pieces. Though it seems in the last few months a lot of people in house and techno like Martyn’s music. I can remember speaking to Clom from Boomkat/Modern Love for this article and he felt a mix of dubstep and techno was where dance music is going. I’m still not so sure.

For me something like the above track is a lot more deft and interesting than some of the ultra serious fusions I’ve heard. There’s only so much sinister clanking I can handle after a few years of listening to “minimal”! Any dubstep fans want to educate me about what dubstep parties are actually like?

5. Guillaume and the Coutu Dumonts-They Only Come Out At Night (Musique Risquée)

Each release that Guillaume puts out lately I think “this is great, maybe the best thing he’s ever done”. So I’m going to avoid superlatives here. This one is great though, maybe the best thing he’s ever done, and certainly Guillaume has the midas touch at the moment. It’s just so ultra catchy and goofy, and I actually think sounds a bit like what Booka Shade would make if they could swing.

I don’t know what it is about slightly reverbed keys like this that is so evocative, maybe it’s just a memory of other records that make you feel the same way. But this is definitely one of those wistful pieces of house music that will have you thinking of balmy Saturday nights gone past and ones that are still to come. You can practically reach out and grab the night when something like this plays.

6. Mihalis Safras-Interafrica (Trapez Ltd)

I always check Mihalis Safras releases in the same way I always check Dachshund releases. I guess the two are linked in my mind because of their work on Material Series. If I feel the need for a psychedelic ketamine laden techno fix with a bass drum then these are the guys I go to. On “Interafrica” there’s something shared with his Safras’s Greek compatriot Lemos, though sampling gypsy brass sections is popular all over the techno world.

This is also quite proudly MINIMAL (it felt good to say that again), as is Onur Ozer’s new Watergate mix in fact. I have to say I found myself enjoying the extremely grey feeling of that Watergate mix quite a lot too. This is a little less grey, but it still has that comatose feeling of good old minimal. One thing though: if somebody doesn’t start giving these gypsy innovators their dues then I for one will be absolutely furious. Haven’t they seen “Into the West”?

7. Grimes Adhesif-Fearless Fun (Curle)

I know so little about Belgium’s Curle label but I always listen to their releases, and have bought a few over the years. This one is a slow burner actually, possibly cos it seems to be mastered very quietly. But eventually it reveals itself as a sort of wonky Villalobos style freak-fest. There’s something quite fucked about this track, like it’s unfinished but could never be finished. It’s just an insane jumble of noises but it’s got an amazing rhythm that grabs you through the haze. Much more of this please.

8. The Asphalt-8 Mile Road-Dubbyman Mix (Deep Explorer)

I checked this release for the Sascha Dive remix but ended up buying this instead, it’s pretty low key late night stuff, with soft percussion and jazzy keys. Some day I’ll make a mix of all the slow and melancholy records I have, like this, some John Daly, Break SL etc. Some day!

9. Telespazio-Telemetric-Arto Mwambé Mix (Tiny Sticks)

An Arto Mwambé release is a rare happy day, and here he once again makes a strange connection between happy hardcore, disco, and house. There’s a solipsistic energy to his records, a real sense of individuality even as he drops the ultimate house music trigger; the big happy piano! He still manages to push the buttons that make people want to smile and party in a different way to others. You can expect to be lost in this one many many times before the year ends.

10. Poppcke and Alex Niggemann-L’Aurora-Agnes Chicago Take (Moonpool)

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So the first release on Moonpool, which is associated with Daniela Stickroth’s Meerestief, is a cool three tracker with a good original and remixes from Russ Gabriel and Agnes. I’ve streamed the Agnes one here, which gives you a nice refresher on that 6am Swiss house sound. The Russ Gabriel mix (hear it on the Moonpool myspace) is also well worth picking up. It’s actually sort of goofy, a bit like 2000 and One’s remix of Lazy Fat People on Perspectiv last year with that church bell chords thing going on.

I’m actually really feeling the Swiss stuff again lately, with two new Baaz EPs both sounding great in clips too, and the Lazar EP mentioned above.

Honorable mentions: Andres Garcia-No More Tears-Quarion Mix-Connaisseur (sounding like that gobsmacking Henrik Schwarz mix the title of which I can’t remember, you know the one I mean, is no bad thing!) The Armaberokay-The Hype-Marc Schneider/Ralf Schmidt Remix-Einmaleins (Marc Schneider doesn’t do many releases, and doesn’t do any bad releases!) D’Julz-Yo Momo (Intacto) (So nobody necessarily needs another ultra taut 12 minutes of dub-techno, but it’s still got a certain appeal hasn’t it?)

And that’s it for this chart. Let me know how you find these or what I’ve forgotten.