Guest Mix: Moth - Dawn Sketches

The third in our guest mix series turns to sun-soaked house, but focuses on 6am sunrise constellations rather than sweaty bangers. Enjoy the jazzy vibes and the tracklist exclusively on White Noise. More to come.

Tracklist:

Leon Vynehall – Midnight On Rainbow Road

Jack J – Something (On My Mind)

Local Artist – Feelings

Jodan GCZ – Crybaby J

New Musik – Warp (ILO Edit)

Merwyn Sanders – Mimi Likes 2 Dance

Project Pablo – Movin’ Out

Lord Of The Isles – Ultraviolet

Daniel Jacques – End Of My World

Pepe Bradock – Deep Burnt

Florist – Final Bounce

Kerri Chandler & Jerome Sydenham – Powder (Deep@Legends Mix)

Laguna Ladies – Egyptian Bag (Moomin Remix)

Damiano Von Erckert – Work For Love ft Tito Wun

Damiano Von Erckert - Also Known As Good

Label: ava.

Damiano Von Erckert has built his ava. imprint into a goldmine for soulful grooves, concentrating on the funkiest breeds of house and hip hop. Much of this success is down to Damiano’s own excellent productions, where he shows an excellent retro sensibility – sunny melodies and catchy vocal turns – without ever resorting to pastiche or recycling.

His first album, Love Based Music, was a tour de force of colourful house and winning sketches, and while there are many great moments to be found on this follow-up, it lacks the consistency and energy of Damiano’s debut.

We Flow feat. Amalia

Part of this seems down to some odd mixing choices. Love Love Love is an unsatisfying opener, Miles Bonny’s voice strangely treated and distant, while the promise of a funky organ line is never really developed. Hustle With The Big Boys’ riff sounds crushed and flat, while the relatively experimental Infinity’s shuffling drum patterns sound disconnected from May’s vocal line, the track fading out abruptly, its mournful melody not even allowed to complete the bar.

That said, one can’t expect an album to be perfect from top to bottom (though Damiano’s last LP came close), and when he gets into a groove midway through the LP, he’s on as fine a form as ever. We Flow lays clean jazzy keys under a gorgeous vocal turn from Amalia, a simple construction which gives off a perfect dancefloor glow. The run of great tunes continues with Jai Alai’s airy disco collage and the propulsive BUBBLES, which builds operatically to a great funky twist. These cuts show off not only Von Erckert’s melodic chops but also his skill at structure, crafting a great deal more drama than your average disco-editor.

Work For Love

A run of shorter tracks lead the album to a satisfying conclusion, with highlights in the woozy lust of hip hop sketch New Ehrenfeld Swing and the funky bass licks of There’s No Wrong. Yet it’s only when you get to closer Work For Love, which reunites Von Erckert with long-time collaborator Tito Wun, where you realise what’s missing from much of Also Known As Good – the feels. Sure, there’s club joy and sultry funk aplenty, but few tracks emote as effortlessly as this closer, with its bittersweet keys and rumbling live-style drums.

Aside from a slightly uneven opening salvo, there’s little that’s actively wrong with AKA Good. But that last track reminds how powerful Von Erckert’s music can be, for your mind as well as your body, and it might just send you scurrying back to some of his wonderful back catalogue.

7/10

Guest Mix: Moth - Mist Sketches

New guest mix for y'all from our main man Moth. This one is mostly ambient and dreamy house, the same mood we explored in our Deep House Introspective. We've also got the tracklist exclusively here on White Noise. Enjoy!

Tracklist:

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Moomin - Valentine

Arnaldo - With You By The Lake

J Albert - Come Across

D. Tiffany - Tranq Moon

Lnrdcroy - I Met You On BC Ferries

Tuff Sherm - Burglar Loops

DJ Koze - XTC

John Roberts - August

Nick Holder - Feelin' Sad

DJ Richard - Vampire Dub

Vril - Torus XXXII

Oneohtrix Point Never - Chrome Country

Dan White & Khotin - Split

Label: Normals Welcome

Although Candian club night-cum-label Normals Welcome has been releasing music since 2005, it’s only in the last couple of years that it’s turned to dance EPs, and so far they’re doing it with style. The imprint’s latest is a split EP between two producers geographically distant but sonically intimate, Normals Welcome resident Khotin and rising Australian producer Dan White.

The two producers are indeed excellent bedmates, dealing in forms of subdued, machine-fed house soaked in melancholy. Both issued debut mission statements in the past year, Khotin for Normals Welcome and White on an ace EP for fellow Canadians Forbidden Planet, and here they both sound as evocative as ever.

Dan White’s tracks are more melody-driven, with a fluid feel to his music as if the synths are rising through water. Grey Bishop’s spare rhythm clicks along at a fine pace, but it's the aqueous synths and melancholy wash that prove most striking. No No No is grounded in a series of echoing chimes, flecked with the restrained acid lines that find their way into most of his music.

Khotin’s tunes are more rooted and club-focused but don’t skimp on the melody, starting with the superb Sorry Sequence. Here searing acid and a revolving synth motif is welded to a tough kick, taking off into striking harmony in its second half. AT07 is a subtler beast, as an uncertain synth note pushes reluctantly forward under bubbling 303 meditations. Both artists adeptly conjure a sound both propulsive and moving, ushering Normals Welcome assuredly towards a bright future.

8/10

Florist - Phenomena

Label: All Caps

Glaswegian outpost All Caps are the latest to draw on the current obsession with Vancouver’s house scene on the debut single from graphic artist and DJ Flørist. After a two-year gestation on Soundcloud these tunes have been begging to be committed to wax, and now they sound just as good as they did on first listen.

Flørist’s style is not as warm and upbeat as many of his contemporaries, but this difference works to his advantage on Phenomena. He comes straight out of the gate with Final Bounce, a hybrid of aquatic dub-techno chords and stripped, intricate drum patterns. The hook is a soulful choir that rises over the track’s second half, never quite breaking the surface, eerie and seductive as a half-remembered dream. Marine Drive is just as indebted to overcast skies but more colourful, with new age flourishes and lapping chords over a subdued breakbeat.

Both cuts come with a more restrained alternate version (we’re getting pretty damned restrained by this point). Neo Image flips Final Bounce into a serene glide, adding a gentle break and a warm synth wash, while Flørist gives his own Internal Dub for Marine Drive, drowning the drums in tape hiss and letting those jangling chords float free. Flørist’s debut is supremely accomplished with its misty aesthetic, a serotonin-depleted glow angled for the best after-parties.

8.5/10

August / September Roundup 2015

Here's White Noise's favourite songs of the last two months, including a few that slipped through our net earlier in the year. It's a bumper package spanning all our favourite styles, get stuck in.

We kick off on the sunny side, with top soulful house from Damiano Von Erckert, Braque, Chaos In The CBD, and new blood Flørist. Things get deeper and stranger via new material from top producers John Roberts and DJ Richard, alongside new slices from 45 ACP and CAll Super. Bicep and Midland keep the heat up in darker waters, before we descend to full-on electro with Helena Hauff, Aurora Halal and intriguing new voice Rita Furstenhof.

Tracklist:

Leon Vynehall - Midnight On Rainbow Road [LP Review]

Damiano Von Erckert - We Flow ft Amalia

Flørist - Final Bounce

Laguna Ladies - Egyptian Bag (Moomin Remix)

Braque - Diners En Ville

Chaos In The CBD - Midnight In Peckham [EP Review]

Bell Towers - Hyper - Realised - Self [EP Review]

DJ Richard - Vampire Dub [LP Review]

John Roberts - Orah

45 ACP - Fjm

Call Super - Meltintu

Jayda G & Fett Burger - Velvet Vortex (Sleep D Rainforest Version)

Severed Heads - Greater Reward (Piano Power Edit)

Paradise 100 - Heat.Wav

Lipelis - Weirdshit Xu Paelk (ft. Simple Symmetry)

Khotin - Sorry Sequence

Midland - Stop (Don't Let The Beat)

Bicep - Carmine [LP Review]

Rita Furstenhof - Hadron Collider

Helena Hauff - L'Homme Mort

Aurora Halal - Shapeshifter [EP Review]

Andrea - Outlines

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As ever, here's the one we couldn't find on Youtube:

Kasra V - Last Orders