FABRIC
A Sort Of Radiance
SP001
Spectrum Spools 2011
09 Tracks. 32mins59secs

BEE MASK
Canzoni Dal Laboratorio Del Silenzio Cosmico
SP002
Spectrum Spools 2011
02 Tracks. 28mins45secs

A Sort Of Radiance
Amazon UK: LP | DLD US: LP | DLD Boomkat: LP | DLD
Canzoni Dal Laboratorio Del Silenzio Cosmico
Amazon UK: LP | DLD US: LP | DLD Boomkat: LP | DLD

Set up in collaboration with Editions Mego, Spectrum Spools is a new imprint from Emeralds’ John Elliott dedicated to ‘current, past and future electronic music works of the highest quality’, presented in glorious vinyl-only releases. With an inaugural set of releases counting the most recent efforts from Chicago-based musician Matthew Mullane, who, while best known as a guitarist, is also regularly found toying with electronics, and the latest installment from Chris Madak’s Bee Mask, Spectrum Spools positions itself as an imprint with a taste for sprawling electronic works. Both demonstrate an undeniable affinity with experimental electronic music as it was in its early days, when mavericks such as Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry or Karlheinz Stockhausen were pioneering new forms of music in the fifties, sixties and seventies, or when the following generation was bringing it to the masses through the kosmische movement of the seventies. But it is what Matthew Mullane and Chris Madak do with these influences which is remarkable, each using vintage electronic forms into very contemporary settings. Continue Reading »

RICARDO VILLALOBOS
Fabric 36
FABRIC 71
Fabric 2007
15 Tracks. 74mins13secs

It’s funny to see Ricardo Villalobos as a superstar DJ. Listening to one of Villalobos’s live sets (such as the half-hour live at Fabric mix that was released to radios in advance of this release), there are no bangers, no sudden beat drops, no satisfying moments where it all comes together. Villalobos’s music fits on the dance floor, but it can also soundtrack life’s more contemplative moments, and tends to reward the listener who can pay special attention to its subtle changes.

And, subtle change is the name of the game on Fabric 36. Instead of releasing a mix primarily of others people’s tracks, as every other DJ has done for the Fabric series, Villalobos mixed a set composed entirely of new, original material. Continue Reading »