Q3A - Space Chamber

Hungarian producer Gergely Szilveszter Horváth, better known as Route 8, has made an impressive name for himself over the past few years with his melancholy brand of deep house. Combining raw drum workouts with subdued, emotive melodies, his best work for Lobster Theremin and Nous hits a sweet spot between the dancefloor and the heart.

Last year Horváth first donned his techno-leaning Q3A moniker (apparently a reference to the influence of videogame Quake 3 Arena) on promising new label Black Venison. Now he picks up where he left off for Delsin, on a functional four-tracker that showcases all his best traits.

Horváth’s blueprint is clear: a machine-fed rhythm with fearsome low-end is layered with a dreamy ambient wash and subtle flashes of brighter melody. Each untitled cut here plays out this formula with slight alterations. The A1 is as glacial as they come, with a mammoth kick and glittering keys, while the B1 rides on a swift elastic bassline and a synth melody that soars past like so many shimmering birds in sunlight.

The EP’s other two cuts toy a little more with the recipe. The A2 is the toughest club cut on show, with a crunchy breakbeat and a melody sunk deep into the mix, while the standout final track uses an 808 electro snap and a growling bassline to keep things fresh. Space Chamber’s tracks are solid club cuts but they lack the emotional punch of some of his best work. Still, while they may not break the Route 8 mould, they certainly continue to prove why that mould was so appealing in the first place.

7/10

Guest Mix: Moth - Night Sketches

We've got a darker-than-black guest mix for you today from Moth with some of our favourite recent techno and electro tunes. This one's for late-night skanking, and we've got the tracklist exclusively here on White Noise.

Tracklist:

Kasra V – Last Order

Dan White – Death Flutes

Khotin – Sorry Sequence

Hodge – I Don’t Recognise You Lately

Surfing – Surfing

Aschof Mal – Untitled

Olerton – Nolact

Basic House – Cones

Asusu – Serra

Pev & Kowton – Raw Code

Luca Lozano – End of Line

Aurora Halal – Just Tell Me

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

2 8 1 4 - 恢复

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

Kasra V - Last Orders

DJ Richard - Grind

Label: Dial

Much great art comes from conflict. Whether it be a corrosive relationship, sudden loss or psychological crisis, tough times push us to emotional extremes that seem to result in a striking artistic clarity and power. The driving force behind DJ Richard’s debut LP seems to be displacement, a move from the States to Berlin and the loss of a familiar natural landscape.

Far from his native ocean, the White Material co-founder populates his album with titles evoking the rock formations, fauna and natural phenomena of his native Rhode Island, yet the dark industrial sonic traits of his new home in Berlin are never far from the listener’s ear. This contrast is the power of Grind, a collection of kinetic electronica on the border between house and techno, its moods and rhythms in constant flux, the product of a mind that churns like the sea.

Nighthawk

The level of refinement and cohesion to these tracks is perhaps not a surprise given its context – this album has been made twice. A burglary cost Richard a laptop with a near-finished version of his debut LP, and so he was made to rebuild, using almost no samples in the process. This perhaps explains why Grind feels so full and engaging, each track a marvel of mood and detail. 

The mood across the album is decidedly ominous and brooding, particularly on the heavy, contemplative ambient interludes No Balance and Ejected, yawning abysses poised to swallow the listener whole. Yet outside of this foundation many other emotions take hold. On Nighthawk a delicate two-note tweet may be subdued but still feels optimistic against a rhythm that sounds like the cracking of a great insect’s exoskeleton. Following is Waiting For The Green Flash, the first in a pair of references to rare optical phenomena, which glitters menacingly, its intentions shrouded in mist.

Bane

The album then enters a run of accomplished and otherworldly dance tracks, kicking off with the tumbling arpeggios of Savage Coast and the soaring harmonies of Screes Of Grey Craig. The brightness that lights the corners of these tracks comes to the fore on surprising highlight Bane, where a burbling melody skids joyously over a splintered drum pattern, occasionally rising to the boil and cascading all around. The album’s deep centrepiece is I-Mir, as patient as Bane is effervescent, largely composed of a raw tunnelling bassline, a stammering kick and a swelling ambient wash like a ghostly choir roiled by the waves. Four minutes in enter a set of clattering metallic snares, marching forward with martial precision and threat.

While DJ Richard’s previous EPs showed music more sophisticated than typical club music, they were calibrated for dancing, and Grind is a departure from that. DJs will find some great club tracks if they choose to skim it for parts, but that would be to miss the holistic effect of the album. This is narrative techno, and in typical artistic form, the narrative of conflict draws us inexorably towards reconciliation. This is heard on Vampire Dub, a confection of twinkling synth work, gauzy keys that leave behind calming jet-trails, and bubbling mechanical accents. Here the feelings of displacement are left behind, resolution can be found in a composition which is nakedly beautiful. This is the deserved conclusion to a great artistic accomplishment; a dance album with no fat, no misfires, every tune essential, surprising and rewarding. We hear darkness and conflict resolved through artistic expression, and we find peace.

9/10

Read the original review at Inverted Audio.

Aurora Halal - Shapeshifter

Label: Mutual Dreaming

Aurora Halal has been expertly curating Brooklyn’s Mutual Dreaming party since 2011, hosting the crème of modern electro, techno and house DJs, but it was only last year that she began to release her own music. On her debut Passageway EP was a producer fully formed, offering gritty rhythms packed with drama, synthesising techno’s new and old schools into a consuming vision.

Now for her second solo outing Halal has shifted style, swapping grimy distortion for a polished sheen. Here she sketches svelte figures that recall Detroit’s star-gazing techno legacy, which accentuates her talent for dreamy, hypnotic melodies. Opener Shapeshifter goes down smooth, its twinkling melodies skirting a swift electro pulse, while Sunlight stalks over mesmeric keys and a diving bass hit, oozing Bladerunner drama.

Sleep Distortion lives up to its name, a slackened pace drawing attention to the gently shifting bass patterns which conjure a delicious broken groove, drawing us into the melancholy harmonies of highlight Just Tell Me. The only misstep is second cut Death of Real, whose burbling acid line seems strangely buried, its stripped woodblock rhythm not given the heft to really hit home. The added Version of Death of Real gives some much needed juice to the drums but somewhat loses the ebb and flow of the original’s melody.

That Halal would attempt a sharp stylistic change after only one EP is a credit to her production talent, a true shapeshifter. What’s more the decision to downplay the rhythms works wholly to her advantage, allowing both the percussive subtleties of her arrangements and the dreamy melodies she weaves to shine bright and clear.

7.5/10

Minor Science - Whities 004

Label: Whities

If you spend your days as a music critic, it can’t be easy to transition into the role of a producer and DJ. If you spend your life analysing the music of others, how are you supposed to edit your own? Angus Finlayson’s first outing as Minor Science, an EP on Trilogy Tapes, didn’t quite hit the mark except on the mind-melting Hapless, but for his sophomore release he’s really struck a solid note.

This slab’s out on Young Turks’ surprisingly good Whities sub-label, drawing out two confident hardware excursions that toe the line between house and techno. There’s a meandering, Actress-type quality to these tracks, but a melodic spontaneity and sure-footed drum work mean that the experimentation never dissolves the groove. Closing Acts is a very strong look, reigned over by a square bassline that struts rudely up and down the scales, adorned by cascading synthwork and the animal cries of otherworldly species. Glamour cuts the air with a starker machinedrum rhythm and more digitised squeals that sound like lives long lost in an infernal machine.

Finlayson’s soundfield may be decidedly synthetic but there’s an organic quality to how these melodies evolve, constantly subject to unexpected effects and abrupt left-turns. It means you can never get comfortable with these tunes, but that’s far from the point: this is heady, atmospheric dynamite just waiting to be wielded by the right hands.

7/10