7.19 FM Carnage

It's been the first day in a while where Mr Soft hasn't posted, so I better make up for his slackness. If you haven't already, check out Tim Sweeney's 2005 roundup show on Beats In Space. As you'd expect, it's a quality selection including gems by Quiet Village, Isolee, The Juan Maclean, Padded Cell, Carl Craig, Lindstrom, and Francisco, amongst many others. I'd love to get Tim to play at Native, but it's finding a time where he's going to be in the country. Hopefully later this year....


Anyway, here's a few more aural nuggets for you. First up we have Canadian techno wunderkind Mathew Jonson with his latest release on Wagon Repair. When I skipped through '7.19 FM David' in the shop it didn't grab me at all and I thought that he'd gone downhill after the stupendous 'Return Of The Zombie Bikers', but I was glad to be proved wrong when I heard it loud and in full at Cosies. Swirling, evil synths and effects, and an elasticated bassline to bungee your brain. Wagon Repair have been releasing consistently good releases of late (Konrad Black, Loose Change) and I hope for their sakes that this isn't just a phase!

It's official - Maurice Fulton (pictured) is the fucking man. You shouldn't need me to tell you this, and probably don't; but it doesn't hurt to be reminded of something so emphatically true. Though the wonkiness-factor of his work is often pretty demanding on the listener, the man's ongoing quest to make the most fucked-up dance music possible is admirable to say the least...Mixing up elements of techno, disco, jazz, hip hop, house and punk-funk (and plenty else), Fulton has forged some of the most unnerving, insidiously funky soundscapes known to man or beast. Probably best known for his killer production on Mu's fantastic art-house rekkids, his career has been fruitful and varied, and though there's no shortage of stinkers in his back catalogue, the triumphs are too many to mention...A particular highlight for me, along with Mu's spunkin' 'Paris Hilton' and 'Chair Girl', is the linear, proto-dubstep of 'Wet & Sticky' that Fulton put out on Transfusion Records a coupla years ago...These days he's popping singles on the up-and-coming Tirk label, under his Syclops alias. Tirk's limited output so far has been exceptional - including not just Fulton's stuff, but all manner of discofied booty from Fujiya & Myagi, Sugardaddy, Idjut Boys and New Young Pony Club, as well as Greg Wilson's peerless 'Credit to the Edit' compilation. Definitely a label to watch...This, Syclops' second single for them, is a really schizophrenic excursion for the Sheffield-based American - wherein screechy, scratchy, syncopated gutterfunk warps magically into a Rhodes-draped, melancholic coda that'll make space you out fo' sure. "Like the DFA, Lindstrom and Fourtet playing to their best, all at once, together" is how the Phonica website slaveringly describes it. Seriously, it's not as good as that - but it ain't far off. --Mr Soft

Download:
Syclops - The Fly // Tirk

I think that'll do for today, but just a quick reminder about our next event:

Wed January 25th:
MATT TOLFREY (Crosstown Rebels) @System - Native

Come down early to see me and Puffin Jack raising the temperature before Tolfrey mans the decks to give you a techno workout good enough to wobble Fabric's Room 1... See you down there!