Score: 80/100
In a landscape overrun with throwback acts looking for elusive "authenticity" in their nostalgic interpretations of dance music, Kikumoto Allstars manage to rise above and deliver a tight long-player of house grooves. It's all here - squelchy acid lines, ravey sawtooth synths, liberal helpings of TR-808 and TR-909 percussion - and it all pumps.
Score: 4/5
SND return from out of the blue with an intensely sterile take on minimal techno. There's no superfluously delayed percussion or field recordings, and certainly no M-nus- / Basic Channel-esque reverb. No, we get digital percussion pounding away with FM pad stabs, drawing from the same narrow sound palette for the entirety of the release. So why do I like it? Read on!
Score: 55/100
And here I thought that Adventure album was as ridiculous as things could get in the "let's ape Dan Deacon" segment of Carpark. Ear Pwr have something really interesting going for them - namely those wonderful analog toys - but it all gets a shit-smear thanks to unfortunate (and unnecessary) hipster posturing. Did you really need to title a song "Cats Is People Too?" Or how about "Sparkley [sic] Sweater?" Ear Pwr would be so much more likable if they didn't elicit eye-rolls.
Score: 7/10
The man also known as Señor Coconut has some interesting tricks up his sleeve. In this case, said tricks include making a series of tracks based around a motif of rhythmic cell-phone interference, vocoded poetry on the nature of radio signals, and a guest appearance from the godfather of German techno himself, Florian Schneider! Ja.
Score: 8/10
No, I'm not sure why an album from 2008 didn't send out a promo copy until Spring 2009. Be that as it may, this is still a pretty impressive mix from Funke. Requisite 2008 inclusion of that one Nathan Fake track, of course.
That's not quite all for now - if you'll pick up the latest issue of Big Shot Magazine, you'll find a couple articles from yours truly; a discussion with Chris Jeffs (aka Cylob) about his homemade DJ software, the Kombine BeatHarvester, and a review of Ableton Live 8. They aren't online, but I think it's a pretty fantastic issue with some great pieces on The Prodigy, Pet Shop Boys, Peaches and more!
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