Up from down under, following crucial releases on his own Body Language imprint, LJ shifts gears and steers his intricate sound-world — torn between house and ambient, with Larry Heard’s Alien LP coursing through — into deeper, more techno-infused waters.
Watch out for The Centre Of Time, evoking over its twenty minutes both the arctic vapour of Vletrmx21-vintage Autechre and the expansiveness of Vangelis in full flight.
Next-level stuff from Berceuse Heroique.
This deadly Berlin—New Jersey nexus back in action, reinforced by the mighty Shifted.
F Planet itself is an in-for-the-kill stomper, husky and frantic, its sizzling bass and clanky hats inexorably dissolving in a sulphuric alarm of distortion and haywire bleeps. Astral Pilot ties you into a swirl of frequencies, rhythms and mechanical growling, before finally disentangling itself into some kind of cosmic lift-off. On the flip, grimly tightening the bolts, setting the controls inwards, and darkening and thickening its atmospheres into a kind of gut-churning possession, Shifted makes F Planet all his own.
A symphonic layering of phone-taps by Scanner and TT, aka DJ Sprinkles.
Plus some deep, glitchy Ambient by the label-boss, with piano and harpsichord.
None other than Mick Harris from Napalm Death, and his deadly Midlands iteration of Detroit techno. Transatlantic motor-funk from the mid-nineties, when Brummie club-night the House Of God was alive and kicking. Still stinging.
Deep, rootical lovers, darkly seething with one-step-at-a-time hurt and steely, vengeful self-esteem. Hypnotic, stripped and disconsolate, with implacable drums and bass, dubwise from the start, the production is classic, unmistakable Wackies, featuring Fabian Cooke’s scattered, abrupt organ stabs and minimal guitar-work, Ras Menelik’s masterful nyabinghi drumming, and harmonic commiseration by Sugar Minott and the Love Joys (with a strangled sob at intervals).
Over six minutes, the extended mix is different to the Love Power LP; and the additional dub, released here for the first time, is unmissable for its extra rawness and dubbed-out emptiness.
Plus thirteen minutes of blissful disco-reggae on the flip: two contrasting dubs of the Giorgio Moroder/Irene Cara/Flashdance cut from Love Power, both previously unreleased and a bit sick.
‘The second of our odes to soundsystem culture. Logos back-burners the weightless sound for a minute and brings forward a chop-up laced with such tasty ingredients as the Bloom-era Aardvarck white labels, Shed’s Panamax Project and Wormhole-era Ed Rush and Optical.
‘To cap it off, Ossia delivers one of the heaviest remixes of the year. The ice-cold grime sensibilities of Eska infused with the militant sound of early Aba Shanti I on that Jah Lightning album.’
Wow.
Deep, dark, synthy mixes of this anthemic, hurting masterpiece; previously unreleased.
Chilled, elevated, hypnotic, move-on-up grooving, out of the Miami reggae underground.
“I know how / to milk a cow.”
‘A new twist to the Don’t DJ sound. Leftfield tribalism at its best, with a pinch of Zoviet France fourth world voodoo for the 5am crew that wants to get hazy in the dance. A drum ritual of epic proportions.
‘Then Morgan Buckley — from the mighty Wah Wah Wino crew — takes up this deep and intense trip… and goes ballistic. He peppers the original with some live Bodhran drumming to invoke the ancient Celtic spirits. If the essence of a remix is to keep the original vibe of the tune and add a different flavour to it, Morgan Buckley nailed it in a big way.’