Watergate Club, Berlin

After much hassle and badgering from people who used to read Absorbola, FAIL now has a crude and rude listings page. Niftily referred to as FAIL / LIST, this'll be a simple, single page list mentioning worthy gigs and events. There's no calendar or RSS feeds, but I will be posting up pictures of girls from time to time. Scene!

Use the link on the right column or click here.

Seba & Paradox: Frost / Sound on Sound (Bassbin) - 12"

After a week of corporate hell cock suck, I had to lift myself up out of the cold grey mist that smothered me like a slightly damp and over-affectionate dog. As soon as the first snare rush passed under the needle of 'Sound On Sound', I knew all would be well. Restrains on the clever edits to allow more of a groove to emerge. New kids, fresh style.

DJ /Rupture: A little more oil EP (Kid606 and DJ/Rupture remixes) (Microsolutions to Megaproblems) - 12"

Clash of the dancehall titans! Both the Kid and Rupture are master craftsmen at making Jamaican digital just that little bit dirtier and you'd have thought that this would be 'in the red' for noise levels. But surprisingly, this is restrained, immediate and quite beautiful.

Sister Nancy's tense lyrical call plays odds against Kid606's arsenal of plug-in's on all three of his wildly different mixes. Cyclic synths and rasping Rhodes dominate on the first. The second mix offers pixel-dub artefacts hovering over twangy guitar and dominant bass. Lastly, playful delay reduces her presence to a mirage-like haze. Rupture himself adapts a reggaeton stance for his joyful jig, replete with parping horns.

As essential as anything else this label has released.

Virus Syndicate: Slow Down (Planet Mu) - 12"

"I've only got sixteen bars, so you'd better listen up real good." Manchester's Virus Syndicate manage to weave pretty coherent, intelligent street lyricism amonsgt the sparse shards of dubstep. Mark One smartly merges sneering bass with bursts of Kubrick-esque medieval prayer. Giving everything here an epic filmic feel. Amazingly, the album is even sicker....