Staff Picks w / c 27 January 2020

Review: Berlin outlet Libertine Records welcomes the mysterious but increasingly relevant GOSUB for a fantastic double 12" that offers up the artist's most complete electro release yet. This comes just ahead of further outings on Blkmarket and after split EPs on this label in cahoots with Brighton-based Furthur Electronix. Opener "Without You" is an old school gem with deadpan vocal delivery and cold, stark chord sequences. Things get more unhinged on the freewheeling "The Key Holder" and acid laced "The Above" before an all out intergalactic assault on the kinetic drum programming of "Enter You." Cosmic influences take hold later on and mark this out as an accomplished package indeed.

Review: One of the pleasing by-products of the recent electro revival has been the return of Aux 88, a legendary Detroit quartet whose armour plated, bass heavy take on the style made them one of Michigan's finest musical exports in the 1990s. "Counterparts", their first new album in ten years, is therefore big news. After opening with their warm, funk-fuelled take on Motor City techno - the sci-fi brilliance of "Intel" - the four-piece rushes through a range of killer, club-friendly electro jams in their trademark style (tough drums, funky bass, vocoder vocals). Highlights include the moody "My Electro Visions", the foreboding "Stereolized", the ghetto-tech influenced "Pothole Paradise" and the far-sighted, Cybotron-meets-Kraftwerk style goodness of "Electro In Key of Funk".

Review: While Tom Jenkinson has kept himself busy over the last few years with a variety of projects, there's been little as frenetic, mind-altering and exciting as his previous Squarepusher work. It's for that reason that "Be Up A Hello", his first full-length under his most famous alias for five years, is such a welcome development. From start to finish, it's a thrill-a-minute white-knuckle ride full of fizzing, high-octane acid lines, skittish up-tempo breakbeats, buzzing electronic melodies and surging bass. It's a sensory overload in the best possible way, with early forays into melodious, kaleidoscopic positivity making way for darker and nervier workouts later in the album. By the end, you'll be breathless and twitching, eager to press play and experience the madness all over again.

Review: BBE wrap up their four part reissue series of Sidiku Buari's unique and in demand body of African Disco albums with final instalment, Revolution (Live Disco Show In New York City). It is thought that disc one here is a fully live recording from 1979 complete with bells, whistles, molten Moogs, bass heavy rhythms and plenty of party starting lyrics. On the second disc are four tracks that vary in style from cosmic disco to afro and include perennial crowd-pleasers Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. This has been a refreshing series and it is now completed in style.

Review: This is the second part of Virgin Ubiquity: Unreleased Recordings 1976-1981 and is again packed with tracks that are far more than unreleased findings from the cutting room floor. Each one serves as another feather in the bow of the virtuoso Ayers, who combined jazz, funk, soul and disco in magical and unique ways throughout his career. In doing so he laid down a precursor to acid jazz and hip hop. These are tracks that show off his dynamic, liquid rhythm sections and mellifluous keys, as well as the vocal talents of a range of collaborators who touch on soaring and sensuous highs as well as more gravel and earthy lows. Essential.

Review: Seattle-based producer Taylor Hawkins is Flora FM, and now follows up his 2019 solo EPs Chaos Light and Mycelination with a new one on London label Exotic Robot. as always he brings curiousness to his electro, particularly on opener "Softest Moon". It has big breakbeats and sci-fi pads, but a whole eco system of little alien sounds that add real vitality to the beats. "Magic Pebbles" is another trippy and colourful cut with a soft acid bassline, "Cross Antennae" is slick and futuristic tackle and "Bronze Teeth" is an all out old school rave with bells, whistles, the lot.

Review: Mid '90s veteran Crazy Bank is back with the label he dropped his original heat on, Blahh! Records. Al Temper has been otherwise engaged since the turn of the millennium, but now he's back in action with some heaters that carry a torch for classic garage but don't get lost to nostalgia. "One, Two" is a 4x4 bumper with some deadly diva chops and organ keys to die for, but it's also fresh in its execution. The "Beforethebeatsbreak" remix of the track nudges the key down and makes for a slightly more sultry affair, while Perception's take sends the original in the direction of mellow, soulful 2-step. CB Step completes the set with another chilled version that works a little house shuffle into the mix, not to mention some artfully chopped breaks.

Review: The Lisiere Collectif trio have clocked up some pretty impressive credits so far, not least on Mike Grant's Moods & Grooves. For their next trick, though, they return to their own label LSR for a fourth EP of dreamscape tech. Fist out of the blocks is the intergalactic adventure that is "D - 2403 - 19" with its warped acid bass and twinkling melodic rain. "H - 2403 - 19" is more melancholic, with pensive bass and a nagging lead bringing a sense of loss. "K - 1205 - 19" is the most kinetic of the lot, with brisk drum programming and a whole eco-system of deft sonic details making it as colourful as it is compelling,

Review: After the widespread success of the first Minimal Vision compilation on the resurgent Vibraphone Recordings, The True Underground Sound Of Rome return with a second volume that takes in tracks made over a 23 year period. What comes across is how consistent the sound is, whenever an individual jam was made. The same heavy-lidded melodics and easy-funking rhythm sections prevail across all nine cuts here, at times hitting the uplifting pace of "Vertigo" or heading into the meditative pastures of "Sea Bird", but always maintaining that quintessential Vibraphone feeling. The diggers will be happy to snag the reissued tracks as well as discovering completely fresh material from Rome's premier deep house institution.