PRE-ORDER: Subeena – Wrong For Me/Space Of Flow/End Of Reason [Opit]

With a retrospective album, ’23,’ out last week, the latest platter from Opit boss lady Subeena lands on her fledging label. Harbouring three tracks it shows a different side to the producer who worked with Jamie Woon on ‘Solidify,’ with a trio that jumps from spaced out ballads to brooding tech-house and jackin’ acid. The looped strung melodies on ‘Wrong For Me’ are luscious and warm, sounding a little like Addison Groove’s latest sample excursion on the A side of his forthcoming 3024 12”, giving Subeena’s mid range heavy vocals the pillow to fall back on as the scattergun snares pit er pat into being. It’s an odd pairing - the two melody lines fight for life atop the fizzing bitcrushed hi hats – but once the final revolution of drums comes into effect you can see where the track was all the time building to.

‘Space of Flow’ draws on a blend of UK flavours, pairing that UK funky flutter with a hard tech-house kick drum and surging saw waves. The snares add some rudeness but overall it’s kind of restrained given the brashness of the components. Full of brooding and slow melodic tension it has an uneasy air, but benefits wholly from the harmonic progression and drum detail. ‘End of Reason’ bumps like a bastard hybrid of funky and Chicago house, playing of that muted bass tone that Egyptrixx harnessed so well on his debut full length ‘Bible Eyes.’ Squiggling with acid (a vibe that, along with Blawan, Subeena looks to be bringing back this year) it’s not a million miles away from something you might hear from Altered Natives - it’s got that same knowing swagger to it.

It’s hard to place Subeena with the styles presented on this 12”, and that’s something that after a few listens you can tell she’s aiming for. With a more militant discography sitting in the wings it’s fascinating to hear her using her voice as a new element and with a multitude of styles at her fingertips it’ll be interesting to hear where she goes next.

Words: James Balf & Oli Marlow // Out: 29th March 2011

DOWNLOAD: Spencer/Subeena/Ben UFO - Various Mixes

Co-founder of Wireblock and subsequently the Numbers label, Spencer, helms the latest FACT Mix featuring stone cold Glaswegian classics and plenty of forthcoming material on their new conglomerate label.

DOWNLOAD: Spencer - FACT Mix 143

Tracklist:

The Jonzun Crew – Space Is The Place (21 Records)
Mr Fingers – Distant Planet (Jack Trax)
DJ Gregory – Don’t Panic (Gregory and Karizma Dub) (Defected)
Cybotron – Cosmic Cars (LP version) (Fantasy)
Sully – In Some Pattern (Keysound)
Kraftwerk – House Phone (Warner)
Autechre – Eutow (Warp)
Deadboy – If U Want Me (Numbers)
MJ Cole Crazy Love (Todd Edwards Underground Remix) (Talkin’ Loud)
Roska – Time Stamp (Rinse)
Karizma – Beat Dis (R2)
Sticky – Jumeirah Riddim (Mixpak)
Altered Natives – Raaatid Einstein (Fresh Minute Music)
Ultradyne – E Coli (Warp)
Jan Driver – Rat Alert (Music Man Records)
Roska and Untold – Long Range (Forthcoming Numbers)
Deadboy – Easy (Maybe Forthcoming Numbers / Lost On HD)
Yonurican – Boriken Soul (Yonurican Club Mix)
Mosca – Nike (Club Edit) (Night Slugs)
Anthony Shakir – Spectre (Seventh City)
Addison Groove – Dumbsh*t (Swamp 81)
SRC – Brakedance (Forthcoming Numbers)
Rudekid – London Town (Forthcoming No Hats No Hoods)
Terror Danjah – Limbo (Planet Mu)
Taz Buckfaster – Future Funk (Forthcoming Numbers)
Macabre Unit – Lift Off (Terrorhythm)
Addison Groove – Footcrab (Swamp 81)
Hakan Lidbo – Walk Away (Todd’s Tell Someone Dub) (Loaded)
Untold – No One Likes a Smart-Arse (Hemlock)
Kavsrave – PClart (Forthcoming Numbers)

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Opit Records boss lady, Subeena, weaves together a mix exclusively comprised of her own productions, which she's never really done before, for the FADER. Reportedly a mix of old and new ish...

DOWNLOAD: Subeena FADER Showcase Minimix

Tracklist:

Subeena – System Message
Subeena – 2080
Subeena – Excuse me
Subeena – Neurotic (Instrumental)
Subeena – Don’t call it anger
Subeena – Unconditional (Instrumental)
Subeena – Analyse
Subeena – Call it Anger
Subeena – Dual
Vaccine – Radiate (Subeena Remix)

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New mix from Ben UFO for the Austrian Rave, Disko 404. Mixcloud only business at this time... but new bits from T++, Joe, Starkey (remixing Terror Danjah) and Rossi B & Luca are all there...

*UPDATE:

NOW AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD: Ben UFO - Disko 404 Mix

Tracklist:

1. Wookie - Saturn [Manchu]
2. Lemonade - Lifted (Shortstuff Remix) [Unreleased]
3. T++ - Allied [Erosion]
4. Oris Jay - Trippin (2010 Dub) [Gusto]
5. Dong - Sazuran (LV and Quarta330 Remix) [Forthcoming Hyperdub]
6. James Lavonz - Inpractical [FFK001]
7. Joe - Digest [Forthcoming Applepips]
8. Masterstepz - Melody ('98 mix) [Outlaw]
9. Falty DL - Because You [Unreleased]
10. Skream - Untitled [Tempa]
11. Ruff Sqwad - Pied Piper [White]
12. Mala - Level Nine [Hyperdub]
13. Rossi B and Luca - E10 Riddim [Planet Mu]
14. D1 - Murky [Tempa]
15. Hindzy D - Target [White]
16. Shackleton - Shortwave [Skull Disco]
17. Terror Danjah - Air Bubble (Starkey Remix) [Unreleased]
18. Plasticman - Shockwave [Slimzos]
19. Drop It Like It's NOT (Harmonimix) [Unreleased]

PRE-ORDER: Subeena - Picture/Spectrums [Opit]

London based Subeena is another one of those producers that floats between the margins of several genres, seemingly taking delight in confounding any simplistic attempt to categorise her music. Ostensibly connected to dubstep, in so far as its skeletal percussive framework and focus on low-end motion were touchstones, her recent Planet Mu release ‘Solidify’ was essentially a standalone creature. Its strongly defined song narrative and gauzy synth melodies, along with Om’Mas Keith and Jamie Woon’s honeyed vocals, brought the final result closer to a kind of slo-mo electronic soul. She follows a similar path on the follow-up for Opit, but the pace has been upped considerably, tracing similar lines to the cosmic house and garage vibes of her similarly minded contemporaries on the Eglo label, Floating Points and Alexander Nut.

In fact, ‘Picture’ sounds a little like the cousin of Floating Points’ mercurial ‘Vacuum Boogie,’ built around thick, blocky chords and heavily filtered backing ambience that weaves in and out of a hypnotic percussive figure. The London connection is evident once again, in the track’s bubbling sub-bass and the spacious nature of its house-tinted rhythm, but it’s the pulse of London’s pirates shot into orbit with a headful of Lindstrom’s space disco. If anything, ‘Spectrums’ stretches even further from earth, its constantly shifting dynamics and eddies of reverb tapping into some otherworldly, pleasantly dissociated headspace.

Although driven by the ebb and flow of dance music, and with more than a little deep house in their genetic code, it’s hard not to feel that a little of these tracks’ charm would be lost in the mix. A little like most of Floating Points’ recent material, Subeena‘s productions are so defiantly musical that not to listen to them in their entirety would do her a disservice – further evidence that there’s far more churning in the melting-pot of London’s ever-shifting bass scene than simple floor-filling fodder. Space is the place, man.

Words: Rory Gibb
Out: "still not sure when it's out exactly but should be very soon"

Link:
www.myspace.com/subeena