EP Review: Lunatic Fringe - Lee Curtis

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Lunatic Fringe - Lee Curtis​

Curtis' new release on Visionquest is due for release next week and on it he embraces his sleazy side, creating a selection of three tracks that at times push hard against the boundaries of taste and decency. But that's probably the point... Just be warned that if you don't like pussy you may want to give this one a miss.

A-side 'Body Twitch' is the source of a lot of male libido but when Curtis isn't threatening to make your lady-parts twitch or "working like we're making kids" the track itself is a sweaty, heavy work horse. The deep vocals are almost a distraction from the booming synthesiser that wobbles with acid and lustful ambition whilst a simple drum pattern caps it off. It feels like Curtis is going for crossover appeal here - the lyrics are slightly obvious but the track is carved out of pop gold, as influenced by hip-hop as house or techno.

'Freaks' is a bit less intense on the lyrics front and a little more conventional in its production style. There is still a vocal in place, the sound of deranged dance floor desperation, but it is less overtly confrontational. The music is less immediate - electronic sound waves rush forward whenever the song picks out the melodies that signify the break but there is still a dirty sounding beat-orientated sound to the whole track.

Final track 'Haters' is reminiscent of Curtis' brilliant 'Candy' from last year. The track layers big synthesisers to create giant swaths of ambient noise and gradually building distortion. It isn't as outwardly optimistic as 'Candy' however, infected by the darkly distorted worldview peddled by the rest of Lumatic Fringe to make a swirling whirlwind of mildly psychedelic techno.

Lunatic Fringe is released on 10 September through Visionquest​

EP Review: Werewolf EP - Rework

​Five years have passed since Rework's last release but this new EP for Parisian label Meant sees them pick up more or less where they left off. They are probably best remembered for their releases through Playhouse that straddled the divide between electro-cool and techno exemplified on 2007's 'Love Love Love Yeah'.

Rework's return is slinky and effortlessly cool. Like a high class sordid Euro techno road trip on spring break, this is an EP with its sights set of the dark arts of seduction - warm, analogue bass and clipped drum patterns create an intensely close experience.

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Werewolf - Rework​

The EP's title track starts with a slow build that takes more than half the track's duration to reach a climatic acid crescendo and it is from here that the track proper begins. A mélange of Electroclash style unaffected vocals and a bassline with a swagger 'Werewolf' oozes cool. An impressive feat after five years off. Magda turns in a remix that may not quite have the same punch but creates a sharp edge with a throbbing bassline strumming away in the background and plenty of reverb. 

'Touch Yourself' retains the chic European vibe but whilst the looping vocals echo around your head it is the electro inspired bassline that proves irresistible, providing the foundation to a series of shuffling layers of beat foreplay. The Remain remix feels like a much loser, dub-influenced take - crisp hand clap and fuzzy chords provide a sharp contrast to that bassline. It's a druggy trip and the headstrong intensity marks it out as a highlight on this release.

The digital release also comes backed with bonus track 'That I Like'. In comparison to the two main tracks that make up the release it is a less glamorous and ultimately less exciting offering, a mishmash of vocal cuts and looped beats. That slight unnecessary misstep to one side The Werewolf is hard to resist.

The Werewolf EP is released on 10th September on 12" and MP3, both through Meant. You can pre-order the digital release on Amazon here [affiliate link].

EP Review: You Can Have More Happiness - Greg Sawyer

Given Greg Sawyer's list of commitments - resident DJ and writer for London's GetDownGood, PR and Editorial Manager at record label Defected and contributor to Resident Advisor - it's a wonder this EP even got made. Obviously he did find time however and so we have the pleasure that is his first release for Falk following releases on Kevin Yost's I! Records and Endemic Digital.

You Can Have More Happiness is a deep and contemplative house release made up of three tracks. Opener 'Let Me Sleep' is made from layers of chimes, seductive vocal snippets and warm pads - less forthcoming than the other tracks here it gradually builds to the climatic bridge, where much of the focus on the vocal work comes in before Sawyer drops the bass back into the mix.

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You Can Have More Happiness - Greg Sawyer​

'Can't Stay Alive' is a blues influenced electronic track, full of thick, fuzzy synths, warm bass and a tortured female vocal. It is more immediate than 'Let Me Sleep', the piano that centres in the bridge adding a strong emotional charge.

Final track 'Mine' is similarly bruised although this time it features a male vocal. A pulsing synth line is used to sympathetically frame the vocal to create a minimal and surprisingly delicate track.

You Can Have More Happiness is an apt title - this this is a deep, considered EP. Yet by embracing his dark side Greg Sawyer has made this a great release.

You Can Have More Happiness is released tomorrow on Falk, available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 [affiliate link] or visit the Falk Store on Bandcamp.​ Check it out in the Soundcloud player below:

EP Review: The Picture - Tiga

It has been some time since we last heard something fresh from Tiga so it is a double pleasure to see Crosstown Rebels celebrating their 100th release with this new track from our favourite camp Canadian techno enthusiast.

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The ​Picture - Tiga

It being on Crosstown Rebels 'The Picture' is unsurprisingly Tiga at his most dance floor focused. A tight barrel of drums, glitchy rhythms and skittering bleeps and beats create a dark atmosphere. It is capped off with Tiga's vocal - drenched in reverb he brings his own personality to a Prince vocal. The track reflects Tiga's love of techno and, well, Prince, though I can't help but miss his more flamboyant side... The vocal here may have started with Prince but little else did.

Accompanying 'The Picture' is Subb-an's remix of one of Tiga's best records, 'Pleasure From The Bass'. Here it is given a similar feel to the A-side - a tense analogue bass line chorus and near-ultrasonic white-noise glitches provide the main foundations and that original killer bass hardly gets a look in. It's a contemporary take on a track that never really aged anyway, but it is a joy to hear it again even if it is the inferior version.

The Picture is a decent release for Crosstown Rebels' centenary, but if only we could have had Tiga at his best - we are a long way from the mechanical fury of 'Burning Down' and it feels like the music world needs a little more of that Tiga these days.

Album Review: Late Night Tales - Metronomy

​Metronomy's third album, seaside inspired The English Riviera, never quite outshone their second album as far as I'm concerned. The slightly grimy autumnal melancholy of Nights Out felt far more British than the riviera to which the last album harks... That album upon which so many critics slathered patriotic love.

Which is not to say it isn't a good album, just a symptom of press arriving at a party already in full swing. The English Riviera won Joseph Mount and his increasingly band-shaped band a lot of applause. It is little surprise then that the glistening coastal feeling runs through much of their new compilation for Late Night Tales. The Late Night Tales albums tend to exhibit a little incorrigible wildness - an unwillingness to behave that is all too absent here. If they are created for nights of acid and too much cannabis then Metronomy appear to prefer to drink fine wine and enjoy the white powder.

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​Late Night Tales - Metronomy

In other words this is the smoothest Late Night Tales in a while (Music For Pleasure aside, of course), and it comes as something of a relief on that front. Recent entries to the series have been very strong but each album can feel a little dense.

But here Mount opens with Outkast's 'Prototype' - a track that still feels as instantly fresh and clean as the day it came out. It is a shame André 3000 is on semi-permanent sabbatical because just one of his productions feels so staggering on its own. The transition into Tweet's 'Drunk' is perfect - thick and unbelievably slow, like the power got cut from the record player but it somehow just about kept playing. Throw in Sa-Ra Creative Partners' jazz trumpet and clattering percussion on 'Cosmic Ball' and you have quite the album opening.

There are similar clutches of greatness elsewhere too. Alessi Brothers' 'Seabird' is dizzying gold plated-folk, a slightly psychedelic take on Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac. It shouldn't be able to smoothly transition into Autechre's glitch-ridden 'Fold4,Wrap5' and yet somehow it does.

The album closes with a maudlin duo of folk records - Herman Düne's damaged 'Winners Lose' and Cat Power's terrifying 'Werewolf'. It's an end you wouldn't dare stay past even if you could - if your late night party guest is playing heart-stopping blues music then it may be time to make an exit. As a close to Metronomy's mix album though it is pretty much spot on.

Late Night Tales ​by Metronomy is released on Monday, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].