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

Andy Vaz: Different Times
Yore

Andy Vaz featuring Alton Miller: Different Hours Revisited
Yore (Japan)

These are Different Times indeed for Andy Vaz if the EP's three mighty jams are indicative of where his music's heading. The A-side's “Over Here (A Glance Over Prime Time Mix)” roars from the very first moment Vaz unleashes its steaming, Latin-tinged groove. A far cry from the techno the Yore label head once issued, the tune finds Vaz exploring Bodycode territory with a dizzying house pulse that straight up rocks. Melodies and voices rise to the surface of the feverish broil and then just as quickly recede, leaving room for a driving bass line to gain the spotlight.

The flip's “Hurry Hurry (Before It's Too Late Mix)” is a bit more in line with what we might expect from Vaz with, in this case, a bass-thumping pulse the motor driving the track's slinky, jazz-inflected strut. Tilman Ehrhorn's sax playing (grossly under-mixed, unfortunately) wails over waves of rollicking piano playing and spirited vocal chants of the kind you might encounter in a deep house cut. The energy level hardly flags for the disc's final track, “Bygone Times (Nostalgia Mix),” which stokes a fiery house swing with its locomotive pulse, futuristic synth patterning, and high-velocity bass lines.

On the related12-inch, the Japan-only Different Hours Revisited, “Bygone Times” gets a choice reprise that might just top the other. In this case, the house vibe that powers the Different Times version intensifies into a steamy deep house treatment once Alton Miller's multi-layered vocals works their way into the mix. Vaz's swinging pulse and the funky bass lines bubbling beneath the surface are once again the cherry on top. The tough, bass-thrusting groove of “Hurry, Hurry” also gets another workout with Miller again boosting the cut with his soulful croon. In this jamming treatment, Ehrhorn's sax and Miller's voice coil around one another while the piano bangs out staccato house chords and the background chorus punctuates the air with its mantra-like bark.

Vaz's music has never sounded more impassioned and energized than it does on these two club-ready EPs and, consequently, both, not surprisingly, feel like they're over far too quickly.

November 2008