Articles
Ten Questions with: KILN
Nicolay's Top 10
Kate Simko's Top 10

Albums
Abrahams + Cooper
Aloof Proof
Ananda Project
Auburn Lull
Evan Bartholomew
Tomasz Bednarczyk
Craig Bethell
Christopher Bissonnette
Bitcrush
Peter Broderick
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Cecilia::eyes
City Rain
Claro Intelecto
Cloudland Canyon
Datassette
Event Plot / G L Mr Gorsky
The Flashbulb
Flica
Sascha Funke
Further Details
Carlos Giffoni
Glowworm
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James T. Cotton
Mary St John
KILN
Jasper Leyland
Ljudbilden & Piloten
Francisco López
Daniel Menche
Miguel Migs
Mochipet
Pridon
Strategy
subtractiveLAD
Kuniyuki Takahashi
Urban Soul
Rick Wade

Compilations / Mixes
Ambient Not Not Ambient
A Number of Small Things
Apparat
B.I.P.P.P.
Garden of Forking Paths
Wait til the Ice Melts
You Don't Know

3" / 7" / 10" / 12" / EPs
Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia
Dabrye
Death is Nothing to Fear 3
Manuel De Lorenzi
DINTF EP
Domink Eulberg
Simon Haydo
Alton Miller
MLZ
Nos Phillipé
Peverelist
Van Rivers
Sebrok
Kate Simko
Ralph Sliwinski
Telepaticos

Simon Haydo: Different Shades of White
Stockholm Ltd.

Van Rivers: Messed Up Alternative
Islands & Islets

Characterized by an unwavering focus, Simon Haydo's Three Different Shades of White pursues its prey with laser-like intensity. Though calling his material minimal isn't entirely off-the-mark, Haydo generously clothes his tracks in intersecting layers of clicks, pings, and ticks and in doing so strengthens their impact. The A-side's “Spinal” is a clubby steamroller powered by a relentless bass throb that Haydo spices with percolating layers of hyperactive chatter. As monotone blips spiral into alien belches, Haydo tightens the noose with well-timed drop-outs that add tension to the gyroscopic attack. A tight pulse of pumping kick drums and off-beat hi-hats lays the foundation for prickly pitter-patter and dubby chord punctuations in “Under Down,” while “The Other” awakens, catches its bearings, lumbers into position, and—shades of Dominik Eulberg—strolls through a scenic forest peppered with the busy sounds of woodpeckers, owls, and birds.

Though the Berlin-based Islands & Islets label is intended to be a slightly more experimental first cousin to Pär Grindvik's dance-based Stockholm LTD, the tracks on Van Rivers' twelve-inch storm as mightily as the ones on Haydo's. After “Messed Up” opens with percussive swishes sweeping the floor and a slinking and rather disheveled groove, the tune kicks into gear and morphs into a royally swinging colossus that's got dance floor written all over it. A flip-flopping conga opens “Alt.” but the shape-shifter quickly becomes a metronomic pounder, almost a jacking goosestepper in the way it mercilessly flattens everything in its path. The bass drum's occasional hiccup gives the cut a funkily elastic feel that's bolstered when a grandiose backbeat attack takes charge.

April 2008