RECOMMENDED: V/A – Tax Haven 1 [Iberian Records]

Conspira, 23Hz and Numaestro’s label, Iberian Records – those who gave Octa Push an outlet with their eponymous EP – step out once again and bring out the good time vibes with their latest collated 12”, Tax Haven. Featuring a track a piece from Relocate, Mr Gasparov and Nehuen the three producers all bring a different vibe to this pre-emptively tropical release, providing cut-up, sample heavy break-laden garage, laid back, loved-up, sun blazing dance floor soul and raw, colourful UK funky hybrids.

Relocate turns in an energetic diva blazing bumpy garage number with ‘Soul Survivor,’ the beats kick hard and relentlessly like a cross between UKG and jackin’ Chicago house. The bass is deep, the samples euphoric and its all brought together with cut up horn stabs and disco strings. It’s all pretty reminiscent of hey-day 4x4 UKG and thankfully it’s addictive as hell, thanks in no small part to the beautifully percussive drum breakdown. The summer time vibes really shine through on Mr Gasparvo’s cut with vocalist G.Rina ‘Transient Love,’ It’s a punchy dubbed-out shimmering, tropical gem that sounds like a laid back beach party replete with Care Bear waiters and bubble gum fixtures and fittings.

The flip is the all out dancefloor track on the EP and Nehuen’s ‘Between Love and Hate’ is made up of the raw artefacts of UK funky: relenteless snares and bass that just never gives in. Those bass tones make me wonder if I’ve heard it in Petchy set (though I probably haven’t) especially when they’re played off by the heavy handed beats. There is an eerie urgent air to the production brought on by that swirling grime-esque dubby mouth organ melody but it’s all brought back down to earth by warm chord stabs that bubble along in their own blissful way.

Words: James Balf
Out: Now


Relocate - Soul Survivor [Iberian]

Links:
http://iberianrecords.bandcamp.com

PRE-ORDER: Octa Push - Deixa/Baila Mundo/Dubshh [Iberian]

After the one-two blow of Relocate’s ‘Hard Boogie For Dub Swingers’ EPs, Iberian Records’ next release steps up to deliver the decisive knockout blow. Stylistic miles from Relocate’s delicate dubstep-house infusions, Octa Push share certain similarities with fellow Lisbon disco-wreckers Buraka Som Sistema – all grimy bleeps and rough-edged bass drive. Yet while Buraka operate with at least a semblance of subtlety at times, the three tracks here are relentless in their quest for thicker, faster dance floor thrills.

Lead track ‘Deixa’ pitches itself somewhere in the grey area where kuduro’s high-speed bounce meets the balls-out aggression of grime. MC Toni Clean’s highly percussive vocal utterances are further shredded by the duo’s blender-like approach to production, creating a disorientating maze of gutteral grunts and pants around which bursts of hard-edged sub-bass gather pace. The overall effect is senseless but cheekily compulsive, its restless energy leaving little room for anything other than motion.

On the flip, MC Zulu at least provides a little more comprehensible sense in his chat, even if it mostly consists of dancefloor hype and breathless exhortations to an imaginary crowd. The track in question, ‘Baila Mundo,’ continues where ‘Dexia’ left off, with a relentless stomp reminiscent of a continental version of The Bug’s gritty digital dancehall.

Best of the three tracks here though is the last, the appropriately named ‘Dubshh,’ which strips away the chest-beating factor provided by the MCs, leaving behind a pulsing house-influenced instrumental not a million miles from UK funky’s darker regions. Its stop-start dynamics are curiously offset by a fluorescent synth theme that drifts slowly across the track’s length, leaving something of a confused taste in the mouth – neither totally testosterone-fuelled nor entirely contemplative, the result is a track both weighty on a big system and strangely relaxing. Not the easiest contradiction to come to terms with, but a welcome one.

Words: Rory Gibb
Out: Now

Link:
www.myspace.com/octapush

PRE-ORDER: Relocate – Origins/Dot Dot Dash (Buraka Som Sistema Remix) [Iberian Records]

The third plate from Lisbon and Barcelona-based Iberian Records (so an appropriate label name then) is part two of Relocate’s cheekily named ‘Hard Boogie For Dub Swingers’ EP. The first part emerged earlier in the year, at around the same time as he released a gorgeous house-infused dubstep remix of Kontext’s ‘Plumes’ on Immerse.

Continuing where the first plate left off, lead track ‘Origins’ is dusky and understated, a nocturnal excursion thorough that well-tread middle ground between dubstep and techno with its metronomic kicks and delicately bristling snare patterns. There’s a certain Bristolian element buried in its monochrome synth stabs and echo-drenched voices – this brittle, metallic quality is occasionally reminiscent of Appleblim’s early material for Skull Disco, and wouldn’t sound out of place on Tectonic. Still, its very subtlety marks it out: less a disco-wrecker than a slow-building, hypnotic roller, the ever-present rumble of sub bass pressure is as warm and cocooning as it is propulsive.

By way of contrast, then, the Buraka Som Sistema remix of ‘Dot Dot Dash’ on the flip is a beast: the Lisbon collective take the original’s four-to-the-floor pulse and rebuild the groove over the top entirely, subverting the techno elements with muscular, gritty aggression. Its repeated melodic motif and sudden bursts of feedback are all that remain, but are dragged along by a sinewy, elastic bassline that stretches almost to breaking point before snapping back for the drop. It’s minimalist in structure but deadly in its execution, limb-twitching kuduro percussion married to a grinding low-end that through a big system is liable to cause the gut equivalent of tinnitus.

Despite the wildly different nature of the two tracks here, it is to Buraka’s credit that they preserve Relocate’s tonal palette even as they up the energy levels. It exposes a successful shared goal – to bring a little European twilight to the dance.

Words: Rory Gibb
Out: 21st September ‘09

Link:
www.myspace.com/relocatebeats
www.myspace.com/iberianrecords