ASCOLTARE
Mutiny In Stereo
MCDR002
3” CDS
Tripel Records 2004

Following Ascoltare’s impressive debut album, Visceral Vendor, Tripel Records's sister label Dubbel now brings Mutiny In Stereo, the second single from ex-Gwei-Lo Dave Henson. Published as a limited edition three inch CDR of 250, this single follows Ascoltare’s previous foray into conceptual EPs, Drugs, controversially released in a zip-loc bag containing white powder. Drugs was a collaboration with rapper Keith which saw Henson twisting the man’s lyrics and incorporating the remaining slices into his sharp glitch-ridden electronica. For Mutiny In Stereo, Henson has turned his attention to two major rap and R&B artists and treated the original samples to the point where they are totally changed. Of the two tracks featured here, Bodyrock My Boat, which opens this EP, is the most accessible. Found scavenging on the remains of Aaliyah’s Rock The Boat, Henson builds a surprisingly engaging beat pattern and layers the original vocal, only slightly lowered, over some rough metallic noises and scratches, leaving the song largely recognisable. The second track is a far more abstract and complex affair. Revisiting 50 Cent, slashing his diatribe and placing it over a comatose industrial hip-hop beat, Henson takes his electronica to the brink of oxygen starvation. Here, the lyrics are distorted, considerably slowed down, detuned and processed through ring modulation to become simple textures. If this sounds slightly clichéd, it also works impressively well, especially on the second half of this seven-and-a-half minute long journey to the centre of Ascoltare’s radioactive sound processor.
If Visceral Vendor wasn’t remarkable enough, Ascoltare’s mercurial side releases are proving even more daring and unsettling, with Mutiny In Stereo adding to the discomforting treatment of Drugs, making Ascoltare one of the most exiting acts heard this year.

WAGON CHRIST
Shadows
ZENCDS153
12” / CDS
Ninja Tune 2004

One of Wagon Christ’s recent Sorry I Made You Lush’s most accessible tracks, Shadows is served here with three previously unreleased compositions and the video for the title track.
If some of Luke Vibert’s fans of old have voiced their concern at his overkill release schedule of the past year and his happier, funkier, ‘disco-er’, sound on his last couple of albums, they are very unlikely to get reconciled with the man’s work here. For the rest of us, this EP is a further intrusion into Vibert’s luxuriant nugget factory. The title track can actually be interpreted in two ways: for the Vibert virgin, it will be no more than a bucolic pop song, complete with Lemon Jelly soft tuning, or worse, Zero 7 pre-formated Ibiza friendly chill out melody, and the gentle video will only comfort them in their belief that Wagon Chris is the next whatever. Yet, for those who have followed Vibert through the years, this is typical Wagon Christ tongue-in-cheek treatment, only pushed to the maximum. Either way, this remains a charming little easy to approach song, which could even get Vibert played on MTV. Now, wouldn’t that be lush? The three remaining tracks, The Groove (Souled Out), Loose Loggins and Deux Ans De Maïa, are all in the vein of the album; funky and melodic, with hints of Kerrier District in the background, especially on The Groove and Deux Ans... Once again, Vibert’s sleazy listening is confronted with raw electronic sounds and funked-up hip-hop beats infused with slight acid jazz references, sometimes reminiscent of his mate’s Mike Paradinas’s Jake Slazenger guise.
If not Vibert’s most thrilling or serious release of the last year, this EP gives the man a chance to flog some more of what has got everybody talking this year. Worthy or not? It all depends if you have had enough of it all or as still gagging for more…

MILANESE
1 Up
WAP175CD
12” / CDS
Warp Records 2004

Milanese’s first release came in the shape of the Vanilla Monkey EP, released on Warp’s Arcola sub label, and showcased the sharp rave sound of London-born, Birmingham-based Steve Milanese. Taking its title from a gamers’ phrase, 1 Up is as playful and hard-hitting as one could imagine. Incorporating elements of ragga, hard-house, garage, grime, dancehall and jungle into tight, this mini album is an effervescent piece of dance floor mayhem which will have fans of the harder side of Rephlex getting their knickers into a twist or three. Far from typically creating these out of sheer ignorance, Milanese is actually a fully trained musician, with thirteen years spent studying piano. His obvious understanding of music (he also plays the trombone and a multitude of other instruments) could give his work an interesting depth, but this is certainly not the case on most of 1 Up. In fact, this mini-album seems to entirely results of an enthusiastic outburst of energy, nurtured while the man was regularly deejaying at squatters parties during the nineties.
All along the six tracks of this mini album, Milanese scans a variety of dance floor influences, from jumpy garage on Billy Hologram, which opens, to the junglist Cowboy or the scary electro of Head Boc, there is something for everyone. If Cowboy can appear slightly conventional with its sirens and burst of synthetic bass, it is also perhaps the easier track to reference, not mentioning one of the highlights of this record. Iacon and Flex show more aggression, with the beat speeding up over the length of these two tracks, while Milanese applies increasingly dense sonic backgrounds, culminating in the threatening closing track. While Iacon is consistent enough, Flex nods at the more complex side of Squarepusher and acknowledges Tom Jenkinson’s genius through tight beat processing and melodic chaos.
Uncompromising, hard-hitting and slick, 1 Up is also incredibly stylish and classy, and is likely to propel Milanese way up into the elite of dance floor terrorists.