Secondo: A Matter of Scale (Soul Jazz) - CD

I sat opposite some random customer a few weeks back at my favourite local Cheers-style tapas restaurant ("where everyone knows your name"). In that week when we had blazing sun before it all went tits up. He was sporting a bright yellow 'Soul Jazz Records' T-shirt (and he was wearing suspect shorts and flip-flops, but we'll ignore those for now). After initiating the usual "I'm a serious music lover" conversation to synchronise interests, I asked him what he thought of the label. The conversation went something like this:

"Yeah mate, wicked re-issues, big soul fan here."
"What about the new stuff?"
"What new stuff?"
"All that dancehall, dubstep and disco..."
"Didn't realise it was all new, thought it was all re-releases. They're called Soul Jazz, aren't they?"

Hearty laugh from him, smirk and head nod from me. Back to our drinks. Perfectly highlighting the identity crisis that I've always thought the Soho-based label has had. So, it'll be interesting to see where Secondo's debut album fits in to the scheme of things. Swiss-born London-based Radovan Scasascia has spent the last eight years fine tuning his fragmented take on techno via his excellent Dreck Records label.

'Kuwait' is the "eye of the duck" track. Posessing the same feverishly uptempo and dancefloor friendly qualities as his previous singles. Simultaneously triggering sonic notes from the worlds of computer-based disco, 80's funk and loop-obsessed German Techno (think Errorsmith and MMM). It's all about the positioning of that slap bass.

Couple of downtime / abstract moments, where the spaces between notes aren't so obvious, would have been welcome. Rhythm wise, nothing really veers too far off the linear route. The introductory 'Ought to say' skips and jumps in way that'll catch you out whilst the departing 'Fine Primo Tempo' hints how things could have spiralled off into obtuse tangents.

SND: 4,5,6: (SND) - 3 x 12"

Pointless me reviewing this, 'cos I think they are greatest thing since toasted sandwich makers. But hell, I'll give anything a go. So, SND. They made loads of totally ace albums when 'glitch' was at the height of fashion, including some for the revered Mille Plateaux label. Then people stopped listening to electronic music, turning their attention to guitars and haircuts. And they wisely used all their Northern intuition and stopped making records, turning their attention to life and art installations. 2008, most people still aren't listening to electronic music, but they should be....

Flying Lotus: Reset EP / Harmonic 313: EP1 (Warp) - CD

Two examples of astutely-produced 2008-edition techno masquerading under the guise of hip-hop. Flying Lotus' debut for Warp is just about perfect. This particular reviewer liking how he can zip through five tracks in about 18 minutes. The opener of 'Tea Leaf Dancers' is the one we'll all keep coming back to. I wonder if I'll manage to sustain the attention span for the album. He's related to Coltrane family don't you know....

Mark Pritchard has such a ridiculous discography spanning so many genres that you start to worry about the man's sanity. His latest project is Harmonic 313. A progression, we presume, from his previous work as Harmonic 33. The addition of the extra digit nudges references to Detroit. Both equally to the movements of Techno and to the more recent innovations in hip-hop as laid down by J Dilla. Speak'n Spell vocals, crunchy-nut beats and dollops of gloopy bass all work around highly efficient melody. The initial serving of 'Word Problems' doesn't get bettered though.

SND. Click here to view flickr.

Autechre / SND
Tuesday 4th March 2008
Hearn Street Car Park, Shoreditch, London

Despite being on for just 30 minutes, SND were nothing short of stunning. Partly decked out in standard techno issue North Face gear and resolutely refusing to engage with the audience. Their workmanlike demeanour seemed to fit, as the display of rhythmic disintegration became ever complex over the course of their set. Their unique palette of manipulated drum and MIDI melodies sounded urgent and new. Hardware / software upgraded to compete in the current climate. Abstract dancehall collapsing inwards whilst extreme frequencies re-arranged bowels. This is how dance music should be sounding like in 2008.

If SND came across as distant, then Autechre are positively dysfunctional. Partly decked out in standard techno issue North Face gear and resolutely refusing to engage with the audience (northerners, eh?). Generate your own conclusions about what the lack of any visual stimulus does to the performance as they kill all the lights....."move along, there's nothing to see here." But sonically speaking, for about an hour, the boys from Rochdale did their best to level Shoreditch.

The shock of it this time round was its deceptively accessible entry point. Taking cues from electro and mousing it apart ever so gently threw everyone off....like, we can actually dance to this? Nothing was recognisble, everything was familiar. Certainly no reference points to any historical work and nothing from the recent 'Quaristice' album either. The constant mutation, intense tempo and exemplary playback device resulted in an incredible, immersive experience.

Pita: Get Out (Editions Mego) - CD

A welcome reissue from one of the originators of mind-bending computer music. Peter Rehberg's 1999 release seems to have been influential in the sphere of modern electronic composition. Especially with regards to the use of the laptop as a creation and performance tool. Despite the occasional ear-scraping bursts of digital noise, this doesn't come close to the harsher end of the Mego spectrum. Certainly doesn't use software as a device for sonic violence or wanton aggression. It also hasn't dated one iota....

'3' is the track that you'll remember this album for: the jarring introduction of uplifting, almost euphoric strings that slowly descend into overdriven distortion still sounds great. '6' is gigabit data passing through an echo chamber, '9' takes harsh source material and moulds it into hypnotic drone. The three extra new tracks which previously appeared over a split release with Kevin Drumm extend the scope of the original work with distinctive, thematic excursions: feminine glitch ('ce3'), unreliable connections ('pe2') and distressed radio frequencies ('tr1').

Philip Jeck: Sand (Touch) - CD

One of those artists I knew I'd like....good sounding surname, has nicely packaged albums out on the Touch label, uses vinyl. But somehow I'd never managed to immerse myself proper in any one of his long players. Whilst his back catalogue has always been there for instant consumption (from a career spanning 13 years), it's nice to be presented with something 'new'.

Carefully considered loops are run through that detuned radio effect that he seems to have patented. The source material consisting of filmic strings, bells, chimes and most effectively brass instrumentation sampled from Emerson Lake & Palmer's 'Fanfare For The Common Man'. It all sounds pleasant enough but the sudden shifts as frequencies pile up from the decay can jolt you. Low-end notes dissolve into weighty fuzz and speaker-troubling distortion whilst high end artefacts can cut through the recording with a burst of white noise.

That's Folke Rabe up there. An important figure for those even remotely interested in all that drone, experimental tonal weirdness that some of you youngsters listen to. His 1968 piece 'What??' is a seminal piece of electronic music. Hardly a recognisable figure but he seems to have the likes of Jim O'Rourke frothing at the mouth. And you couldn't really call it a prolific discography, but feel the quality, not the quantity.

Here's more from the O'Rourke: "For me, one of the most mysterious composers was Folke Rabe. I had gotten his “Was??” and was from that moment, hooked. I can honestly say there is probably no piece of music I have heard more in my life than this one. Those 20+ minutes were all that existed for me. Fittingly, those minutes became eternal."

So I guess now you have some background information and I'm sure some will try to find the recordings on the p2p networks (don't bother), failing that you'll try to seek out the recently (2006) released 'Argh!' CD on Kning Disk (worth it for the inlay photo's alone). The next logical step would be to try to see him perform live.

Well it's like waiting for buses, you wait forever and then two performances come at once! As part of No-Signal's ambitious Swedish Outsiders mini festival here in London on the 17th - 18th May. Saturday sees everything kick off at the ICA, whilst Sunday sees the action relocate closer to the 'kids' in Dalston's Cafe OTO. Rabe plays the early afternoon session on his tod, but is joined in the evening by the likes of Mats Gustaffson, Evan Parker and (the excellent) Tape. I'll be DJ'ing AIFF files off my Macbook in the cafe bit.

Sunday's stint has Hans Appelqvist, Phil Durrant and Henrik Rylander, who impressed me the last time I saw him play at Sonar. The whole thing reeks of quality (unlike Sweden's most famous furniture brand) and quite frankly you'd be a bit mental to miss it....unless you don't actually live in London.

Full information and tickets available from http://no-signal.net/SEoutsiders