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Editor: Push
Deputy Editor: Mark Roland
Art Editor: Mark Hi
Commissioning Editor: Neil Mason
Soles & Marketing: Yvette Chivers
Contributors: Andrew Holmes, Anthony Thornton, Ben Willmott, Bethan Cole,
‘Cat! Griffin, Chri Roberts, Cormo Gadfree, Danny Turner, David Stubbe,
Ed Walker, Emma R Garwood, Fat Roland, Finlay Millgan, Grace Lake,
Heidegger Smith, Jack Dangers, Jools Stone, Kieran Wyatt, Kris Needs,
Luke Sanger, Mark Boker, Martin James, Mat Smith, Neil Kulkarni, Ngaire Ruth,
Potrick Nicholton, Paul Thompson, Robin Bresnerk, Simon Price, Stephen Bennett,
Stephen Dalton, Steve Appleton, Tom Violence, Velimir lic, Wedaeli Chibelushi
Published by PAM Communications Limited
SamsinMy fist column written in 2016 and it’s taking a lat to stir
‘much enthusiasm in the wake of Bowie's passing, Next to his
‘monumental past endeavours and "Blacksta’ (destined to be
the year’s best album, even if he was stil here), everything
tlse sounded redundant... at frst, But some light started
Coming through the clouds after @ while, beginning with this
Intoxicating low-fi masterwork, recommended by Metamono's
Jona Podmore, a man who knows his electronic onions. Recorded
‘onto cassette In Germany using just organ and distortion pedals,
It's one of those tantalising outings shrouded in mystery, which
tealy capture the attention when they appear All| know is
it's the follow-up to last year’s Telephone’ and it’s mastered
by Matt Colton, the go-to engineer for everyone from Kylie to
‘Aphex Twin. Make of that what you will. Otherwise, it stands
‘on the compelling form shown by its three tracks. ‘Lou’ sparks
Into crackling life with meandering organ wedges, drenched
in drone and distortion, given underlying rhythmic undertow
by what sounds like @ giant grasshopper zipping up his flies in
slow motion. ‘Lou Gone Out’ harvests deliciously intertwining
flotation melodies over tin tray percussion, before “See Through
‘This injects rudimentary, muffled percussion over which the
keyboards flare and morph into ghosts of acid house riffs. A
lovely, evocative work in @ world ofits own making and well
worth tracking down,
DAN SARTAIN
Century Plaza
ONE LITTLE INDIAN | cD
One of the key elements in early 80s synthpop was 2
vulnerable desperation that breathed emotion into the:
‘machines, to hot them up rather than cool them down,
‘Although Dan Sartain halls from Alabama and has moved in
blues circles with White Stripes’ Jack White, the unmistakable
hosts of Suicide and Depeche Mode hover over his latest
album in the soulful vocals, resonant pulses and nagging
‘melodies. Its especially evident when he throws down
2 faithful replication of Alan Vega's "Wipeout Beat” and
‘commences Gahan-homaging with 2 gripping trawl through
‘Walk Among The Cobras’. British synthpop Blueprints from the
80s imbue the funereal inner city blues of ‘Cabrini Green’ and
Soft Cell-recalling “Sinking in The Shallow End’, while Moroder
Icicle soundtrack ambience coats “Feigning Ignorance’. Equally
‘at home sending in heavy metal guitar widdle and sending
Up trashy US teen-radio anthems, it's 9 work of invigorating
‘mischief, made all the more remarkable for being recorded last
year in the Deep South,DAN CURTIN
Galaxies Merging EP
EPM MUSIC | DOWNLOAD
Halling from Cleveland, Ohio, Dan Curtin was already becoming
‘techno royalty over 20 years ago after unleashing a string
of ethereal floor-demolishers on his Metamorphic label, plus
landmark outings on Buzz, Strictly, Peacefrog and Some. A
surging stonker to seduce the sternest rectum, the title cut
rampages onwards and upwards via sky-climbing riffs and
merciless beats. 'Mind Sweep’ plants alien carrot frequencies
over a jacking clap-stomp before "To Modify’ injects frenzied
vocal clips and skyscraper stabs over another shorts-savaging
‘turbo- groove
TEVO HOWARD'S
BLACK ELECTRO
ORCHESTRA
Holiday EP
BEAUTIFUL GRANVILLE | DOWNLOAD
It’s quite amazing the effect some undiluted, spiritual house
music can have on a arlef-torn soul, but a few bars of Tevo's.
lustrous, respectful remake of Madonna's ‘Holiday’ were all
it took, Sound unlikely? Not if you're at al familiar with the
contagious epoch-making original and Tevo's prolific output.
inthe last few years, which have included three albums and a
welter of sparkling 12-inches. Here he takes the timeless bass,
riff and melody of the original to turn it into a late 80s-style
Strletly Rhythm instrumental, with disarming results. ‘What
Hove | Done To Deserve This?” traverses 2 similar path, with
subtle electro beats underpinning the shimmering house
‘textures, before "My October Symphony’ whips up 2 deeper
beast swirling with classic deep house pads nd textures. Tevo
iginally created the Black Electro Orchestra as an alias for
collaboration, but has turned into his own covers project. I'l
be interesting to see how this develops
WOODY MCBRIDE
VS TIM TAYLOR
Clone Dancer
MISSILE 2.0 | DOWNLOAD
During this column's first stretch through the 90s, the testicle-
shredding emissions from the fearsome Missile Imprint topped
the Greatest Trousers charts with every rip-snorting missive,
0 its immensely pleasurable to report the labels first ralease
after a seven-year absence. ‘Clone Dancer’ sees the reunion of
two acid maniacs as Minneapolis’ Woody MeBride and London's
Tim Taylor fire up the analogue kit and launch into @ brace
‘of 303-lashed acid flashbacks, vole-on-the-bowel techno
warfare and gut-busting beats, blessed with the deadly magic
ingredient which always characterised this most illustrious
‘of labels. Equally great news is that flagship name the Pump
Panel is back, still brandishing their monolithic, silver-glistening
‘acid warheads.
PANORAMA CHANNEL
Chloe's Dream
BIOLOGIC | 12-INCH/DOWNLOAD
Russia's Panorama Channel duo have produced a perfect winter
record, lead cut 'Akosva’ setting up a jingling groove over
which they build glistening sonic snowman, with a 10-foot
‘marrow where it counts. As the treetop melodies unfurl, the
warmth and passion being injected into every sweeping melody
threatens to boll into meltdown, but it is expertly kept on 3
simmering plateau of unleashed euphoria. The set also boasts
2 cloud-bursting remix from Elliah Simmons, currently causing
2 ruckus in the pure techno hen house with “Otavio's Dream,
the unfettered Kek-detonation of ‘sland Simple Dream’ and
Unleashes Detvolt leanings In the pulsating whoopee of *Kinly
Estella’
DETROIT’S FILTHIEST
Shake It Baby
MOTOR CITY ELECTRO COMPANY | DOWNLOAD
Rarely a column goes by without 2 new missive from Julian
Shamou, aka DJ Nasty and his stripped down style of jacking
Detroit ghetto-house. This latest outing doesn't divert from
the formula of sharp title sample planted over stark, jacking
beats, with keyboard ritfs goosing "French Kiss" in a back alley.
‘Steamy, sexy row groove music for shaking booties to which, 25
fever, comes in Original and Instrumental incarnations.LANDMARKS
SCANNER
"RUNAWAY TRAIN; a stark live recording of radio
communication between the driver of derailing
Canadian train and his controller, appeared on vinyl in
1993, uncredited on the Ash International label. It was
of course an early SCANNER release. Robin Rimbaud
talks us through the extraordinary release.
Interview: JOOLS STONE
“The story of ‘Runaway Train’ stretches all the way back to
childhood. I've been collecting sounds since | was about 11
‘Runaway Train’ was a direct result of my cassette archive,
some 400 recordings I'd amassed. I'm still archiving and
gathering new sound material all the time. | had 12 workmen in
‘my house recently, so 've been recording all thei drills and the
scaffolding going up.
| spent last summer digitising my whole collection. | recorded
quite 2 lot of films, long before the days of video recorders,
‘and | even used to record myself reading the Spiderman credits
‘loud from the television. | came across a tape of my brother's
2Ist birthday. He died a year ago, my mother died the year
before, my grandmother 10 years ago, but listening back to this
tape, suddenly all my family were brought back to life. It was
{an incredible moment, To actually hear these volces, hear the
Space, the kitchen sounds, the acoustics, the television on in
‘the background, that’s something remarkable
Much of my history is compressed into this archive of tapes. |
‘also kept a diary and I've never missed a single day since the
‘age of 12, $0 I could go back and dig out whatever I'd taped on
2 certain day. Those cassettes played quite an important role in
iy life and ‘Runaway Train’ was one of those cassettes.
‘There was a huge “social network" In the 70s and early 80s,
of people swapping cassettes. 1 don’t want to sound too
nostalgic, but it was an amazing time, it was just you, on a
very individual path discovering obscure things. Some guy |
Used to swap tapes with, but never met, sent me a cassette
from Canada in the late-80s that his dad had passed on to
him. When | heard it | just thought it was incredible. It was
‘Runaway Train’. It was recorded in 1848 and it’s essentially @
conversation between the controller and the driver of a train
‘that was rapidly slipping fram his grip. It's a piece of theatre, 2
moment of high drama caught on tape
‘Around that time | had just set up a label celled Ash
International with Mike Harding from Touch Recordings, who'd
released many eclectic and beautiful recordings. We decided to
set up Ash to release these tapes from my personal archives. A
lot of my work at that time was about capturing conversations,
these indiscreet signals that float around in the ether which
‘we tune into for a moment, so ‘Runaway Train’ followed that
thread, The tape was one of those legendary bootlegs that hed
been circulating for years, but because of the sender's fami
connection | felt very clase to the source recording, which
‘was hugely exciting, though I never heard from any of the
protagonists families
‘There was something perverse about releasing a record with
ho music on it, The audio wasn't treated in any way, all | did
‘was clean up the tape a bit and edit out a section because it
1was 2 very long recording with a big gap in the middle, when
the communication had cut out. We just made sure that it ran
the length of one side of an LP. It was uncredited because
of the early Scanner recordings were conceived as the outputs
of some kind of unknown, corporate entity. It was only when,
I started to become a bit more composed and musical that |
‘thought Id better put 2 proper credit on my records
We felt that we were providing a type of public access service
in a way and it was always intended as a copyright-free release,
Many people used the track in DJ sets and I'm not sure how
many times it’s been sampled. I'd only find out when someone
told me, but | know Richle Hawtin used it, which was a very
‘hrlling moment for me. We made a few similar things around
the time, like ‘Bling’, taken from black box recordings of plane
crashes. We did talk about doing a record of car crashes too,
but we never got around to it.
For me, "Runaway Tian’ is stil quite a magical thing, it
captures a mament in time that could have disappeared forever.
{And because it's caught on a vinyl record it takes on more
of a collector's aesthetic, | know that many trainspotters are
keen collectors of audio recordings, and I hope the record Is.
‘an interesting artefact for them too. There's a magic about
somebody capturing the sound of a train and 2 unique moment
that's significant to them
‘There ate certain things you collaborate and work on and you
can step back from and think, "Actually, this had an impact”
What we did with Ash International and "Runaway Train’
certainly had an impact in terms of pushing what 2 record label
can release. We shook those ideas around.
“Scanni’ by Scanner & Anni Hogan is out now on Cherry Red,
for more info visit www.seanni.co.uk