Records what skkatter bought so far this year (part five)

I’m never gonna get them all reviewed before the end of the year, but I’m damn well gonna try!

Youngman & Landstrumm - Who Stole Bill’s Jacket EP (Feinwerk)

Poor Bill Youngman, somebody nicked his coat! In response to this shocking act he’s teamed up with Neil Landstrumm for another EP of wobbly breaksy techno, similar in style to Landstrumm’s frantic live sets. I really like this kind of spastic sound they’ve got, it’s definitely one for the more open minded dancefloors out there.

Redshape - Shaped World EP (Delsin)

The a side’s “Shaped World” is a chugging, slightly discordant techno number that remind me a bit of Misc. There’s a stripped down version of the track on the a side which does away with the bits that makes the track work (silly!), the “Coffee and Cigarettes” track is filler, the A side is great though!

Martinez - Dark Room Rising EP (Out Of Orbit)

The title track here is a slightly electrohousey number that plods along and doesn’t really catch my ear, the flipside’s “Meta Beat” is a dark and deep techno affair, similar to Oliver Lieb’s recent Solieb records, well worth giving a spin.

Robag Wruhme - Jena Makks EP (Milnor Modern)

More of clicky glitchy stuff from Herr Robag, combined with the usual sparse beats you’d come to expect, this isn’t one of his best things but there’s lots of little edits going on in the background that I like (I like crazy edits all over the shop!)

Roko Dragonbreath - Jumpin 2 Conclusions EP (Black Label)

Black Label is an amazing Dutch label which I think is run by Comtron, I’m not sure. Anyway they’ve released a load of great Dutch electro stuff, this isn’t the label’s strongest record but well worth checking out for the title track alone, which is the catchiest piece of cheese thing you’ll hear in ages. The rest of the EP contains some respectable electro numbers, most of which have an 8bit sound to them, but nothing that stands out quite like the title track.

Justin Martin - Cicada (Dirtybird)

This is a collection of four remixes of Justin Martin’s “Cicada” track, none of which are very special except for the Claude VonStroke remix which appeared on Frank Lorber’s “In The Mix” mix CD on Cocoon earlier on this year. I was listening to it in Giles Armstrong’s car and it caught my ear so I went off and bought it, and it’s great!

Paul Birken - Speaker Freakin’ 2006 (Tonewrecker)

A collection of remixes of Paul Birken’s classic techno track that originally came out in 1997 on Communique Records. The original sounds as dirty as every but it’s the Tony Rohr remix here that does it for me, while not quite as nasty and hard as the original he manages to make it sound more driving and a tad bit funkier. Birken does his own remix on the other side along with one from Mark EG & Chrissi.

Gaiser - And Answer (Minus)

Were Minus one of the most fashionable labels of the year? Well their style of music was definitively in vogue, and this release from Gaiser easily falls into the “m” word genre. The “And Answer” track stands out from this four tracker with deep, echoing pools of reverberating tones and drones that sounds a bit more darker than your average Minus fare. The b side’s “Egress” falls back to that classic Minus sound of plinks and plonks, the kind Sunil Sharpe gives out about. An interesting EP but not strong enough to find its way into my record bag that often.

Heckmann & Henze - Out Of Mind 2006 (AFU)

What’s what all these techno artists putting “2006″ after their release titles? Anyway, Thomas P. Heckmann teams up with Jorg Henze here for a hard, fast and pounding techno number that’s ripe for a sweaty basement rave. The b side has a remix from each of the collaborators, Henze’s mix packs a bit of added omph.

Gosub - We Are Still Searching (Kondi)

And finally to round out this section of record reviews, some more electro! Gosub’s latest release follows Dynarec and Rutterford’s example, which means this EP is an homage (or a rip off?) of that classic Dopplereffekt electro sound. They do inject a lot of fresh ideas into the sound, and I’m such a sucker for that spooky synth action over some freeze-dried 808 beats. No new ides here but a well produced nod to the masters.