The chugging, industrial clank of Sei A’s sharp techno beats up against whispers of winding bass provide Hugg & Pepp’s tune with an ominously dark sheen. At parts, this could be dubbed tribal techno thanks to those hollow yet metallic beats. Captivating stuff from Sei A. Thanks to Turbo Records for the freebie:
Hugg & Pepp – Sweet Rosie (Sei A Remix) [pelski highly recommends] {buy}
Cute and cuddly lyricism like this is good for you every once and a while, to steer you away from the pitfalls of, say, depressingly glum techno, or the sometimes mind-numbing monotony of percussive house. Grinning, goofy tracks like this will stop us, or perhaps just momentarily prolong us, from falling further down the rabbit hole, reminding us there’s always happier, cheerier stuff to lighten the grave austerity of our dedicated music snobbery. Here some cheerily light-footed, cheeky house beats usher in some uplifting indie vocals. A lovely collaboration between Bernard Sumner (of Bad Lieutenant, New Order, and Joy Division), Alexis Taylor, Joe Goddard (Hot Chip) and Hot City.. and that piano melody from Westbam’s ‘Old School’ is always welcome (which was recently revitalised by Simon Baker under his Baker’s Dozen synonym on the seering Piano Lessons EP).
Hot Chip, Bernard Sumner & Hot City – Didn’t Know What Love Was [pelski highly recommends]
Germany’s H.O.S.H. always delivers and this Diynamic release is no exception, revolving around a cheery, springy bassline backed up by the steady hit of organic snares and hats. Uplifting strings and a slow, assured piano melody work their way in and out. As always, H.O.S.H. gives us something intelligent but instantly likeable. Be sure to cop his album ‘Connecting the Dots’, on which this features, due October 25th (thanks to xlr8r for the mp3):
H.O.S.H. – Cash The Chord [pelski highly recommends]
Renaissance Man’s bootlegs of late have come to be a little throwaway. But this one’s a keeper, as RM take Aphex Twin’s seminal headfuck of snare-y electronica and somehow manage to retain much of the original’s creepy essence. The clean, sharp Renaissance Man sound is there too – it’s a track with a smooth progression, but with an added rat-a-tat of tightly-wound drums. Try it:
Azari & III are giving this out at 160kbps, so if you want the full copy head here. Once again Azari & III delve head-first into another love affair with Chicago house. This one has the same soul – but without any actual lyrics being uttered, a deep humming blast of reverb build ups, juddering, before shimmering disco snyths and some jacking beats enter. And of course a few
piano chords make a late appearance:
Coming on like a soundtrack to some threatening tribal war dance, this one is perhaps more of a DJ tool than a weapon. But the insistently looped tribal flurries hold a certain force. Thanks to Phonica for the mpfree:
Claude Von Stroke is handing out this typically playful edit of the equally quirky Tom Flynn:
