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

Spencer Parker: Chiho
Buzzin' Fly

Already heard on the recent Buzzin' Fly: 5 Golden Years In The Wilderness comp, Spencer Parker's “Chiho” gets its own moment in the spotlight on this stand-alone release with the high-velocity original given the A side and two Jerome Sydenham treatments the B.

A bleepy martial goosestep inaugurates the “Chiho” original before a racing hi-hat pattern, bass throb, and repeating handclaps help it achieve liftoff. Though the tune's ten minutes in length, it's already flying by the two-minute mark and Parker continues to stoke its feverish broil from then onwards. The incessantly hammering four-note motif nails itself into your skull while the minimal techno pulse burns below (and don't miss the close where Parker neatly strips the track back to its skeleton). Anyone thinking the original might have posed an indomitable challenge to a remixer can think again ‘cos Sydenham slays it. In the seven-minute version, the New Yorker lays into it with an ultra-tough slam that transforms the original into a first-class club stormer replete with drop-outs and heavyweight stabs. Apparently Sydenham's christened his hard and brutal style “Blacktro” but it's fabulous no matter what it's called. The slightly shorter “Blacktro Dub” treatment works a steady house broil too though this time dub production treatments (e.g., stabbing chords swelling into reverberant waves) multiply exponentially the dizzying potential of the other two versions. Quite frankly, “Chiho” kind of gets lost when placed amidst so much other great material on the three-disc collection but presenting it this context invests it with new life.

November 2008