Second Surfer

A new two track release (digital and 12″) from Toby Tobias, Second Stimulus and Syncro Surfer using up all the S alliteration. Second Stimulation is an eight minute journey through staccato synths and a machine pulse with intermittent bass. Syncro Surfer is a Detroit-esque rush of sirens and hi-hats, clattering percussion and bleepy pulses. This sort of thing is really pushing my buttons right now.

Sensation

Trax was the legendary Chicago label that put out early house records, tracks like No Way Back by Adonis, Jamie Principle and Frankie Knuckles’ Your Love, Can You Feel It by Larry Heard, Marshall Jefferson’s Move Your Body and Phuture’s Acid Trax- pretty much the records that invented the scene.

In 2011 with the involvement of Bill Brewster, a DJ and writer who knows his onions, they put out an album of re-edits. Seven years on the album is a bit hit and miss although some of the reworkings sound pretty good (it’d be difficult to make a complete mess consdering the source material). Some of the re-edits are a bit too safe, missing the weirdness and WTF-ness of the original tunes, too reverential. In most cases you’ll want to hear the original straight after, just to confirm its mid-80s brilliance. The re-edits also tend to sound a bit samey, using the same kit and software that was then the cutting edge in 2011. But there are some worthy efforts in the double cd. Ron Hardy was as much as anyone at the centre of the mid-80s Chicago house scene, DJing with twin turntables and a reel to reel tape-deck and producing tracks too. Richard Sen’s re-edit of Sensation is a juddering monster with synth stabs…

Sensation (Richard Sen Re-edit)

Toby Tobias and Sean Johnston’s Hardway Bros add some sparkle and shimmer to Adonis’ We’re Rockin’ Down The House…

We’re Rockin’ Down The House (Toby Tobias and Hardway Bros Re-edit)

Treasure Hunting

Those of you that come here for the dirty, dancier, electronic stuff will want to get a copy of this. Treasure Hunting, a compilation of three years of goodies from French label Astrolab, came out digitally last week with the cd to follow next week and a vinyl version in September. It’s a beauty with not a bad track on it, making a good companion piece to Andrew Weatherall’s Masterpiece compilation for Ministry of Sound. As well as Weatherall’s remix of Timothy J Fairplay there’s Justin Robertson’s Deadstock 33s, Daniel Avery, Scott Fraser (soon to be the number 2 release on Weatherall’s very limited Bird Scarer label), Mugwump, Hardway Bros, Marc Pinol,  Ana Helder and others. This is the album opener from Toby Tobias. Caution; could cause dancing.

Sauna Fauna