ARTICLE
2006 10 Favourite Labels

ALBUMS
aMute
Art Ensemble of Chicago
Asphalt Jungle
Joseph Auer
Avia Gardner
Tommi Bass
Caural
Cdatakill
Christ.
Conjoint
Contriva
Cursor Minor
DJ Soul Slinger
DJ Wally/DJ Willie Ross
DoF
Electric Penguins
Encre
Flashbulb
Fuckpony
Funckarma
Cedric Gervais
Eglantine Gouzy
Greater Than One
Greg Haines
François Houle
Housemeister
Jan Jelinek
Eleni Karaindrou
Kode9 + Spaceape
Takagi Masakatsu
Mini
Move D
The New Law
Nuuro
Qwel & Meaty Ogre
Rant
Max Richter
Janek Schaefer
Svarte Greiner
Thighpaulsandra
Unwed Sailor
Geoff White
Wilt
Yellow6
Jesse Zubot

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
4 Women No Cry Vol. 2
Analog for Architecture
Assemblage Sessions
Jimmy Van M
King Unique/Nubreed
Monza Club Ibiza
Pop Ambient 2007
Rub-N-Tug
Thankful
The Rorschach Suite

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Baseheadz
Big Toe
Franco Cangelli
Richard Chartier
Deadbeat/Monolake
Depth Affect
Diebombshelters
DJ Koze
Eltron
Johan Fotmeijer
Hellothisisalex
Mitsuaki Komamura
Múm
Ozka
Seekers Who Are Lovers
Strategy
Tandem 5
Andi Teichmann
The Twilight Sad
Ray Valioso

Ray Valioso: Einladung
Real Soon

Agnès names his debut Ray Valioso 12-inch Einladung, German for ‘Invitation,' and the disc is certainly inviting enough. On three pounding cuts, Agnès, who operates the Geneva-based label Sthlmaudio Recordings and co-runs the new label venture 60Sec, enlivens his passion for deep minimal techno with tech-house swing and dubby production effects. A classic slow builder, “Get The Strings?” opens side one with syncopated metallic percussion accents rising over a heavy bottom end. The Swiss producer twists and stretches the percussion sounds into elongated shudders before a high-pitched string tone similarly moves to the forefront, signaling the tune's metamorphosis into an insistently lurching, dub-funk pulse shadowed by faint vocal fragments. The B side hews to a more purely minimal template: “Keep It” opens promisingly with a joyously swinging strut and owl-like garble but adheres a little bit too much to its one-note groove, while male and female voice exclamations ricochet over a pounding, dubbed-out tech-house pulse in the more satisfying “ Rhodes Island .” A classy tech-house trio.

December 2006