Articles
2008 Ten Favourite Labels
Ten Questions Celer
Ten Questions Deadbeat

Albums
Anzio Green
Ariel Abshire
Osman Arabi
Arastoo & AEMAE
Asymmetrical Head
Benoît Pioulard
Bohren & der Club of Gore
Matt Borghi
Celer
Cubenx
Anders Dahl
Davis & Roux
Deadbeat
Feu Follet
Formication
Generic
Stefan Goldmann
Gultskra Artikler / Lanterns
Hauschka
Hexes & Ohs
Koen Holtkamp
I Am Robot And Proud
Illusion of Safety
Integral
Koen Park
Akira Kosemura
Koushik
Library Tapes
Lineland
Mamiffer
Melodium
Moon
Oppressed By The Line
Pillars and Tongues
Rumpistol
Kamran Sadeghi
Sans Serif
Signal Deluxe
Skogen
Saul Stokes
Matthew Sweet
Tapage
Thursday / Envy
Windy & Carl

Compilations / Mixes
An Taobh Tuathail II
Chaos Restored 2
DFPRMX
Kuniyuki
Message Subatomic World
Pero es olor en el cuarto...

EPs
Canyons!
Budhaditya Chattopadhyay
Cubenx
Dokuro
Fraction
Lee Holman
Ikonika
King Midas Sound
Michael Lambright
Library Tapes
Lilienweiss
MRK1
:papercutz
Spencer Parker
Poratz
Spartak + John Chantler
Andy Vaz

Lee Holman: Travelling
Mowar

Spurred by a relentlessly surging attack, Lee Holman's Travelling EP is, at the very least, well-titled. The Irish producer's four-track outing on the Gent, Belgium Mowar label features pulsating techno-funk dressed up with chiming synth melodies, handclaps, and frenzied rhythms and decided Motor City and Chicago influences rising to the surface throughout its twenty-five minutes. Holman's wiry synth melodies incessantly circle in on themselves like a Worm Ouroboros while his house-inflected beat patterns exude a perpetual forward thrust.

Opener “Depart” sounds a bit too much like “Heater” for its own good—strip away the accordion and you're left with Samim's banging pulse and frenzied build-ups—but the wailing “Arrival” more than rights that wrong with its feverish swing and tasty funk slam. At the six-minute mark, the intensity level's so high the tune sounds set to explode but Holman holds it together for the duration. Cooling the pace ever so slightly without losing the funk factor, “Return” brings the EP home with an elastic, neck-snapping rhythm and spacey electronic accoutrements. Travelling is hardly genre-defying but nevertheless a solid offering of deep dance-floor artistry.

November 2008