Tight for time for this week, but nothing you’re not familiar with here. A solid selection, with legitimate headliners Thursday right through to Saturday, and strength in numbers for all your supplementary acts. Enjoy!
Moving right along on this prolific run of locally-sourced talent, our next vestige invokes the latest from local DJ/producer & friend, Michel Fournier, aka Meech, and his solo effort for Demento Mori. We should mention that the EP doesn’t officially drop for another 10 days, so consider this fair warning before the digital-distribution firestorm ensues.
Combining a classic house essence, with an even more groovy, lounge-inspired tech-house romanticism, the lone original on the release, I Want, presents a solid argument for classic, well-conceived, 4/4 dance music. Tasteful vocal and percussion samples bring this one to life from the very beginning, leaving you wanting more (pun whole-heartedly intended). From there, the remix efforts by D Fine, Raziek, Square Mode & Olibusta carry the original idea cross multi-dimensional terrains, touching on climates and attitudes both hostile and sensual.
A classic example of strength in numbers here, with Olibusta‘s rendition standing out as the sleek, slow-moving black Cadillac of the bunch, granted the others are certainly not far behind. Raziek recreates the piece with an entirely new set of R&B-drenched samples; D Fine keeps it sexy with a fun, free-wheeling house vibe; while Square Mode delves a little bit further into the shadows.
We’ll allow Crosstown Rebels to do the honors on this one; great stuff from the famed TO duo:
Art Department are back on the mothership Crosstown to kick off 2012 in lurid style with a slice of slow burning, chugging disco-tech and pendulum beats in new single ‘Touch You Gently’. The B-side is taken care of with a powerful Brenann Green rework of ‘Tell Me Why’, from the much lauded album ‘The Drawing Board’.
Fresh from topping the RA poll for best labels in 2011, Crosstown Rebels are launching the year with one of the finest duos to emerge out of the trailblazing Toronto scene, Jonny White and Kenny Glasgow aka Art Department. After two years of tearing up the global scene with their inimitable sound, one passionate debut album and stream of killer club tracks including ‘Living The Life feat. Seth Troxler’ and ‘We Call Love’, the duo earned a place as one of the years major success stories.
A-side ‘Touch You Gently’ is an embryonic blend of spooky synths, gliding, sexy basslines and futuristic bleeps offset with the ever-presence of Kenny’s hypnotic layered vox, as ever, a true testament to their individuality and off-kilter spirit. It’s deeper than deep and a sensual brainteaser that shifts up a gear with a floaty melodic breakdown in the final phase.
After attracting an impressive bag of remixers for 2011, including DJ Harvey, Daphi (aka Caribou), DBridge and TEED, It’s no surprise that Crosstown have matched one of the most well-respected disco dons in the game with this release. Unlocking deeper dancefloor potential for ‘Tell Me Why’, NYC DJ and producer Brennan Green delivers his timeless groove with arpeggiated synths, syncopated drums, lush balaeric piano licks and whistles to boot. This remix is simply fantastic… come to that this single is simply superb!!
Other Heights has been a label that we’ve been quietly yet incessantly keeping tabs on for about the last eight months, featuring artists like Ghostek, Kowton, Conforce & several others — and it’s now crystal clear that this once well-kept Belgian secret has been blown into techno taste-maker posterity. The reason for our sudden treatment today stems from this imprint’s latest offering, their eighth extended-player, featuring the masterful work of Toronto via Hong Kong DJ/Producer, Stuart Li, aka Basic Soul Unit, released earlier this week.
Adding to the well-documented fast & furious start to 2012 for Toronto-based electronic music artists, this one arguably represents the gold standard up to this point, offering two originals by Li himself, entitled “Come On” and “Growing Pains”, alongside two spaced-out renditions of each, by Unbroken Dub. The A-side begins with a lurching, and almost unorganized, kick, snare, clap ensemble that reluctantly makes its way toward a silent descension into the distorted, and much more aggressive lead, eventually layered with the mellifluous strings of a violin/cello. The B-side offers something much more in the direction of sultry house groove — ambient pads, pinhole synths, and charming wispy tech house percussion, all in a charmingly unconventional fold.
Lots of fun in store for this weekend, including the JOT5 EP release party Friday at Wrongbar, and corresponding afterparty at a location yet to be announced, featuring some of the finest local acts money can buy. Furthermore, the weekend’s real deal-sealer is your Saturday evening, with names like Brodinski, Gesaffelstein, French Fries, Bambounou, Lee Foss & several others all in town at respected venues across the city.
Today marks the notable release of the JOT5 EP, on A-Trak’s renowned Fools Gold record label, for the Toronto-based duo of DJ Booth & Chameleonic aka Jokers of the Scene. Cleverly delivering on the prophetic number five which graces the EP title, this pentagon of production does well to explore the very broad terrain of dance music — no track more indicative of this than “In Order to Trance”. Touching on some really convincing techno to begin the eight and a half minute voyage, the piece proceeds with a series of delicate ambient notes, only to be shattered by shredding electro-esque distortion, resounding cymbals & “hoo-hah’s” from the one and only Lyn Collins. A real coalescence of musical style that comes together quite seamlessly, a theme pervasive throughout the entire release, with harder vestiges by way of “Black Mountie”, alongside epic low-bpm vestiges in “Killing Jokes II”.
All in all, nothing too ground-breaking here to be fair, but the JOT5 record is a thoughtful and well-produced number from a pair that have certainly withstood the test of time, improving & evolving in a punctual fashion. Sure, their moniker isn’t mysterious and/or understated, nor is their label astonishingly sexy, but these renowned purveyors of conscious techno make good on some quality dance music, emblematic of some of their most iconic peers.
Two of this page’s most seasoned veterans, in Poupon & Prince Club return, this time in a collaborative capacity, on the silver jubilee release for Riva Star’s Snatch Records. A solid triumvirate of tech house production showcasing some well-balanced, cleverly-conceived grooves & an unmistakable appearance by Christopher Wallace aka The Black Frank White aka Biggie Smalls. The EP includes two collective efforts, entitled Platinum and La Nuit, as well as one solo effort by the Montreal-duo alone, entitled Everybody. The release marks a big win for the Toronto-based Faceless Management, the first of many exciting prospects in 2012, including releases by Urulu, forthcoming on Exploited, in addition to Meech’s much anticipated I Want extended-player, coming out on Demento Mori.
What’s Good Wednesday returns to its conventional prominence with a real nice array of events for this upcoming weekend, including some big name bookings in Buraka Som Sistema, Plastic Plates, Tanner Ross, Prince Club, Poupon, Axel Boman, Derrick Carter & several others. A whole bunch of options outlined below, where the headliners could have realistically gone a number of ways, enjoy.
The fifth release off of London-based imprint, Orca, (released earlier this week) features Toronto-native, XI. Two tracks showcasing the broad scope of garage music, and XI’s malleable, dynamic approach production. We’ve had the pleasure of catching him play a number of times, whether it’s funky, d&b, whatever really, it’s always conscious, and always educational. Yet another concrete example of Toronto’s sparkling start to 2012.
Today, the sinister, brooding techno textures posited by our good friend Gaunt have officially become embossed on the Divided Recordings catalogue. Such a natural fit for the monicker put forth by homegrown DJ/producer Brandon Sprouse, joining lofty artists like Linda Swallow & Memnock, among others, on this Italian imprint founded in 2010 by Stephan Barnem and Johnny Aemkel. Needless to say, a splendid start to 2012 for our dear city’s techno contingent; one that easily garners our stamp of approval. Do your part and support the release exclusively through Beatport.
