ARTICLES
2006 Top 10s and 20s
2006 Artist Picks

ALBUMS
17 Pictures
Angina P
Ateleia
Benni Hemm Hemm
The Boats
Cappablack
Celer
Dead Letters Dead Words
Deceptikon
Deerhunter
Denzel + Huhn
Displayaz
Dollboy
Drone
Eluvium
Emanuele Errante
The Eternals
Fear Falls Burning
Marcus Fjellström
Fonoda
Funkstörung
Goldfrapp
Gyroscope
Robert Henke
James Holden
The Idealist
Anders Ilar
Landing
LCD Soundsystem
Library Tapes
L Pierre
Lullatone
Tor Lundvall
Mad EP
Mahogany
Melodium
Mem1
Daisuke Miyatani
Mole Harness
Momus
Monoceros
Mormo
Mothboy
Original Hamster
Pierson & Horton
Prince Valium
Radical Face
Retail Sectors / Yaporigami
Rylander & Elggren
Scott Solter Plays PIM
Sideshow
Silicone Soul
Skream
Splinters
Mark Templeton
Thread Pulls
T. Raumschmiere
Tycho
Ultre
Virculum
Xela

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
AudioArt 03
Cumulous
Dubstep Allstars Vol. 4
Eriksen / Toft / Utarm
Katapult VA Vol. 3
Let's Lazertag Sometime
Mr Geoffrey & JD Franzke
Skagen / Halvorsen / Toft
Tectonic Plates

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Gabriel Ananda
Robert Bardini
DAT Politics
Dead Letters / R. Sundin
Dogmixer
Benjamin Fehr
Fenin
HL
I Make This Sound
Zoë Irvine
Kyriakides and Moor
Lamont & 2tall
Ljud. & Piloten / Kama Aina
Jacob London
Sam Mcqueen
Miskate
Ryo Miyashita & Hiiragi_
[nara]
New Faces
Of / Greg Davis
Charlemagne Palestine
Phon.o vs Litwinenko
Portable
PostPrior
Samarah
Nicholas Sauser & Ditch
Someone Else
Hannes Teichmann
Tractile
Andy Vaz

IMAGES
F.S. Blumm

DAT Politics: Are Oui Phony?
Tigerbeat6

Original Hamster: Trendsetter and the Followers
Tigerbeat6

VA: Let's Lazertag Sometime
Tigerbeat6

Sonic Dadaists DAT Politics return with Are Oui Phony??, a deranged mini-album of wacky electropop. The disc's dizzying concoctions of vocal lunacy, splattering breaks, and arcade sputter are sure to cause a headache or two, especially when a screeching wailer like “Rainbow Connection” makes a brief pit-stop in the dentist's office. The dirty electro of “Motor Day” bleeps and stomps like a spoiled child (Kevin Blechdom adds suitably looney vocals) while the bleepy burner “Pekin Synth Star” is your parents' worst nightmare come to life. With the exception of “Space Kitchen Companion” (a cat, judging by the meows that resound alongside the song's churning machine noise), the energy never flags. Amidst all the madness, it's easy to overlook the fact that, buried beneath the popping beats and car-crash squelch of “Sad Snow Man” and “Rainbow Connection,” lie a handful of jubilant sing-song melodies.

Following remix work for the likes of Senor Coconut, Drop the Lime, and others, Chilean Original Hamster weighs in with the longplayer Trendsetter and The Followers, ten tracks of high-spirited, vocoder-heavy electro-house capped by a septet of remixes. Disco-funk beats, polished arrangements, and strong hooks elevate the disc's material above the norm though one wishes Original Hamster would ease up on the android vocal effect. He lets his Kraftwerk freak flag fly in the robotic “Powerpoint,” tightens the slippery funk groove in a “Burning Down the House” cover, and elsewhere samples hammerhead electro (“Next Season”), bruising techno (“Im the Law” [sic]), and acidy Latin-house (“Apet8”). The remixes are strong too: Atom™'s ‘Stereonerds' treatment of “ABC1” is so delectably sweet it equals OH's original, Krikor slices and dices “Marketshare” in a memorable French-house makeover, and kid606 soaks “Props” in a banging acid mix.

The good times clearly keep on coming for Tigerbeat fans. On the 79-minute Let's Lazertag Sometime comp, the label's artists sound as if they were raised in homes where Here Come The Warm Jets, The B-52's, Roxy Music, and The Slider were kept on perpetual rotation (White Williams' “Headlines” resembles an oddball blend of Marc Bolan and “Spirit in the Sky”). Many acts benefit from the comp format, given how much less digestible full-length servings of their work might be: 40 minutes of Quintron and Miss Pussycat's electro-sleaze would try one's patience but the 4-minute call-and-response romp “Swamp Buggy Badass” makes for a perfect opener. Strap yourself in for raucous garage punk (Clipd Beaks' “Nuclear Arab”), synth workouts (Phon.O's “313 Dumpsta Railin'”), breathy folk-pop (Dwayne Sodahberk's “Cambiocorsa”), booty-bass ravers (Kid606's “Let It Rock”), scuzzy rockabilly (Boy from Brazil 's “Pocket Rocket Queen”), breakcore insanity (Puzzleweasel's “Taliban Terrorist Training”), and more. Though much of it tests the boundaries of taste, only rarely does it go too far (Knifehandchop's lyrically offensive “Dirty New York”). ‘Cheerleaders-on-acid'-styled fun for the whole family.

January 2007