MUSIC REVIEWS
CIRCLESQUARE “Songs about Dancing And Drugs”
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DJ SPRINKLES “Midtown 120 Blues” (Mule Musiq)
(!K7)
First coming to the attention of the music-loving community at large with a series of sought after releases on Trevor Jackson’s Output label Circlesquare, or Jeremy Shaw to his postman, actually recorded this, his second album, over a year ago. In the quickly shifting ebb and f low of the world’s musical arteries, a year is long enough for a trend to be created, saturated and over before it filters down to the wider public. And it’s usually, creatively questionable –remember Nu Rave? Happily, Circlesquare seems as interested in musical trends as I am in football. What interests Jeremy is “future music”. And where I may challenge the use of the word future, I would be reluctant to challenge anything else he says, as Songs About Dancing And Drugs (they are) is at turns, melancholic, sad and ref lective. There is more than a dose of the Magnetic Fields woven into the electronics, but with a more playful outlook, a nod and a wink, if you like. Sad music to make me happy. Go
As the T-shirt says: house, house and more fucking house. DJ Sprinkles, also known as Terre Thaemlitz, hailing from New York, presents his first full-length album on Mule Musiq, in the vein of that city’s most famous label, Strictly Rhythm. Inspired by the sanitation of Times Square and the difficulties facing the city’s gay, trans-gender and alternative communities, Midtown 120 Blues soundtracks a sad time for clubbing in the city that never sleeps. House music may be having its perceived renaissance, but the clubbing institutions where it was nurtured have long faded into distant memory, and it is that sense of sadness that prevails through this album, continuing themes explored in 1998’s Sloppy 42nd’s. This is sure to make a lot of people happy with its slinky beats and jazzy passages where the depth of feeling is ref lected by the quality of the sounds. No boundaries broken, but then, that was never the point. Go
FILIPPO MOSCATELLO “Pagliaccio” (Moodmusic)
The man once known as DJ Naughty has thrown off his alias, ditched the electrodisco shenanigans, and come up with something distinctly more grown up. Having put the naughty boy to bed, Filippo Moscatello has now turned his focus to the richer, deeper house and techno sounds that were his first love. Released on Sasse’s Moodmusic imprint, Pagliaccio picks up the story where the World Of A Woman EP, released last year, left off. Where he doesn’t quite succeed in erasing the disco (if, in fact, that was really what he wanted to do) this is certainly more hypnotic in nature, but no less engaging than his previous releases. In fact, tracks like ‘Loft Co Loco’ engaged me quite intensely, with its unsettling noises and metronomic bleeps. Go
JESSE ROSE “What Do You Do If You Don’t” (Dubsided)
Debut artist album from one of the UK’s hottest producers. Often credited with the creation of what is loosely known as fidget house, Jesse Rose’s sonic palette reaches much further than just glitchy delays, brash bass lines and relentless beats (though it has all of those in buckets). How this album will stand the test of time – a future classic, or 2008/9 time capsule – is still not clear, though for my money I would bet on Jesse being around for a long time to come. Go