A compilation of fresh music

It's been a while since the last column and even though the run up to Christmas and New Year is a time when people focus on spending their money elsewhere, this hasn't stopped labels dropping some fantastic material over the last couple of months.

Jason Fine is one of a few artists that first got his break on Omar S' FXHE label, and just like Jus Ed and Kyle Hall - moved on to other labels. In Fine's case it is the Swedish Kontra-Musik label, who've housed him ever since. After the brilliant remix double header "K-M-Mixes" featuring Heinrich Mueller and A Made Up Sound (that I reviewed previously), Fine finished off last year with the "First Thought" album, which was split up into 2 Eps.

There is a large spread of styles across the 2 Eps from brooding electro, high tech funk to techno and house, with no 2 tracks sounding similar, bar an obvious Detroit influence coming through on the arrangements and musical inflections. At times he's not afraid to keep the BPMs up, which is a nice respite from the current trend of keeping things slow and deep. Multi-faceted and as enjoyable to just sit back and listen to without wanting to step up to mix around with, 2010 should see Fine move on to even bigger and better things.

Omar S also capped off another excellent year with the "Here With Me" 12' which he released as Alex Smith. "3 Blind Rats" starts off as a mellow piece of minimal house before some shuddering percussion suddenly appears, driving the song in a much more aggressive and danceable direction. "Running Around" is barely a formed track, little more than a beat less jam with a throbbing low-end bass. As strong as "3 Blind Rats" is, this release belongs to the b-side. "Sign and Drive" & "Here With Me" pretty much work as one single track. It starts off with a few minutes of creaking ambiance before a warm, deep electronic bass arrives, to be joined in succession by lilting female vocals, a piano and rhythm section with acid lines sneaking up in the background before the strings appear in the distance. It echo's the likes of Smith's earlier "Just Ask the Lonely", a sparse and melancholic piece of affecting house music.

A surprise hit from last year was M Pittman's Unirhythm Green release which sold out in a flash, even though his earlier work had never caused a similar furore. It already costs a pretty penny to buy second hand. His latest on new imprint Fit, "Erase the Pain" comes across as that little bit more un-accessible than the last, so it will be interesting to see how it is greeted by his new fan base. It is a dark, rugged lo-fi release for the most part, the title track and "Sync" designed for only the darkest of house and techno dancefloors, with eerie banshee vocals thrown in on 2nd cut. He slows it down and adds a lighter touch on "Illa 5 Ella", closing the release off on a soul tip.

Rounding up all things house for this month is the Scotts; Ferguson and Grooves. On Ferguson's "Revolution" on his own Ferris Park imprint we get two treatments of the title cut, which carry a retro-ish funk idea with a flute refrain and a heavy, near tribal groove before some keys bring it back into the now. Like Pittman, he slows things down on the closing "Evolution of a Revolutionary" and while its deeper grooves may not grab one's attention like the other songs, it's an equally satisfying adventure into American soul music. Scott Grooves delivers a double pack this time which is a follow up to his Coco Brown/La Riddum 12 on Clone from 2008, titled simply "Riddum Collection", which leans heavily on African and tribal inspired rhythms. As of late Grooves has focused heavily on percussion and rhythm in his music, bringing it to the forefront in a fresh and exciting manner, and yet on the likes of "Coco Brown" or "Flute Riddum" can accompany the beats with some superb harmonious touches.

Next : More new Italo from Kenny

I also checked out two new releases that come from an Irish producer on an English label followed by an American artist on an Irish label. The Parallel appears on the new-ish English label Komisch, and delivers a superb 4-tracker of Detroit infused techno. While much of today's deep techno has gone for a gritty sound, The Parallel is not afraid to display his love for the likes of Rhythm Is Rhythm and Juan Atkins, with a crisper edge to his production than the likes of what we see from Marcel Dettman and the other big players in Europe. It doesn't mean that this isn't heavy music either. For much of it a dark shadow hangs over its programming and if you are craving techno, like Jason Fine, with a little bit more going on compared with much of what is around, one could do a lot worse.

On an electro tip we have, hailing from Texas, Submersible Machines making his debut release on Dublin's Lunar Disko Records with a self-titled 5 track Ep. With a name like Submersible Machines and track titles like "When Wales Fall", the hat-tipping to electro's underwater obsessive’s, Drexciya is almost inevitable and it turns out to be so. It would also be unfair and unwise to dismiss this off hand as nothing more than a Drexciya knock off. Electro of this style and quality is a rare breed these days, and the Texan slots into a place somewhere between Gosub, E.R.P. and the aforementioned Drexciya. Off setting electro bass and hand claps with lilting musical excursions, "Upwelling' and "Braving Bethnic" are two of the stand out moments and the release closes with the brilliant "Cold Seep" which delivers a Chicago house backing track into the electro mix, giving the release that little something different.

Stepping back in time for a few moments there is also some interesting re-issue action going on at the moment. David Vunk of Moustache records has teamed up with one of Italo's most famous collectors, Fleming Dalum, who's dug through his vaults to sort out a full 12inch repress of the uber-rare Magical Electronic by Body Electric, which was previously only available on 7 inch. While it's not a particularly bad song by any means, it is not one that I'd rate as a lost classic, as for one the vocals can be a bit trying on it, and while the bright, catchy synth lines are fun, a couple of other sounds clutter the track and one gets the feeling this was pushed more for it's rareness than anything else.

The Minimal Wave label from New York has been busy over the last few months doing some digging too, coming up with early 80's electronic works and repressing them on 180gm vinyl with some impressive packaging (which has also resulted in them being not very cheap). The highlight of these endeavours is the Dutch artist Das Ding's album "H.S.T.A". Here we have proto-electro merging with a clanging industrial edge underpinning the dark, cold synths, giving us a very 80s European sound (which is hardly a surprise, all things told), but boy does it rock. While it may lack the sheen of more modern dance music, the likes of "Take Me Away", "H.S.T.A" and "Triffid Farm" could slot themselves into an electro set today with some ease.

I.D Limited is one of the premier labels for re-issuing Italo gems, whose latest is a 3 tracker from Sensitive aka Sergio Bonnzani. Opening with "Driving", this is prime Italo, arpeggio'd bass-lines, big drums, bigger keys and lyrics about eh something or other (the deciphering of Italo lyrics can be tough going at the best of times, even if in English). It gets the props on this release due to this version being unreleased but it is matched by the 3rd cut "Don't Stop", which keeps up with the melodrama of Driving. They might not convert anyone to Italo but those who get it, should find pleasure in this release.

I've not been too nice to Carl Craig in this column, but when someone has such an awe-inspiring back catalogue it's hard not to expect the best from him, which in recent times I don't believe he has delivered. But regardless of a recent dip in quality you see someone like Craig attached to a release you will always feel compelled to give it a go. He is given a producer credit on the debut solo effort from Zombie, Zombie's Etienne Jaumet. A long(ish) player titled Night Music. It references back to the sounds of the burgeoning European electronic scene from where the aforementioned Das Ding appeared while also stretching further afield into more abstract, psychedelic machinations. Yet for the most part it is driven along with solid 4/4 kick drums, helping lock in the listener.

It kicks off in quite spectacular fashion with the sprawling techno of "For Falling Asleep" (which clocks in at a massive 20 minutes) with mutant saxophone fused with pulsating synths, and unsettling vocals not dissimilar to those in M Pittman's release. Such is the intensity and unrelenting nature of the piece (the beat never drops once it appears, until it finally relents before the end) I can't really see how anyone could fall asleep in a comfortable manner with it on. The flip-side contains four shorter works kicking off with the soothing (relatively speaking) "Mental Vortex" and "Entropy" before picking up in the intensity stakes with the acid and violin collage of "Through The Strata" before closing on the ambient "At The Crack of Dawn". Craig certainly hasn't lost his interest in the more leftfield side of electronic music even though it's hard to know what input he had in this. Either way Jaumet's work is an interesting and at times brilliant experiment.

To close off just a quick note that the Anthony Shakir's Frictional retrospective entitled "Frictionalism 1994 - 2009" on Rush Hour that I mentioned over the last couple of articles finally dropped near the end of last year. It's a superb collection jam packed with amazing cuts from one of Detroit's lesser known heroes. For previous fans or newcomers there is much to enjoy here as Shakir displays his unique take on techno and house music.