Music Reviews
Steady feat. Jaw by Guy Gerber – Supplement Facts
It’s hard to believe that Guy Gerber first production is now over a decade old, but the Israeli DJ and producer has now become such an accepted part of the electronic music fabric with his superlative Supplement Facts imprint that his back catalogue often gets overlooked. Before the label’s inception in 2006, he’d already released on a slew of labels from Whoop and Bedrock to Alternative Route and Cocoon, and following his excellent Fabric mix, he returns home for his first solo release since 2010. Enlisting dOP’s Jaw and Canadian Clarian North for a pair of suitably ethereal house cuts.
Steady has all of Gerber’s hallmarks: taut percussion, understated energy, flowing groove and subtle melodies. Trading guitar licks with wandering keys, Jaw’s breathy vocals add another layer to the jetstream, with bright notes providing contrast to the track’s centered power. Weighing in with a superb remix full of menace and weight, Midland transposes the low end, chords and vox into a muscular percussive workout, losing none of the original’s character but pitching it straight into peak time. The Golden Sun And The Silver Moon is Gerber’s second original, its spooky, spacey vibe punctuated with a cascading synth and strips of faded out vocals and choral pads, submerging the listener in sound, while his edit with North goes deeper and loopy, paring back the bpms but maintaining all of its presence.
http://www.supplementfacts-records.com
Ibiza Sampler by Various Artists – Chronovision
With so much music influenced by and inspired from trips to the White Isle, it’s reassuring to see talent that originates from Ibiza itself surface in record shops to reflect the still magnetic pull of Europe’s electronic music mecca. In the case of Chronovision, Mauritian island-dweller JP Chronic launches his new imprint off the back of residencies at Privilege and Sankeys, borne out of the hard yards plying his trade at many of the island’s dancefloors in recent summers. On the VA sampler, he’s gathered a selection of emerging Ibiza talent across five tracks, proving that there’s plenty of mileage beyond the big names that headline the famous clubs for five months every year.
Opening the EP is Anek’s Time Is Now, a laid-back chugger that rumbles with warm sub-bass, murmuring vox and bright fx, its melodic percussion providing colour and momentum through its seven minutes. Christian Viviano’s I Mean employs shuffled snare hits over a monster kick and rolling b-line to underpin reverb-laden notes and vocals, shifting from wet to dry in a well-framed arrangement. Third of five is Gauthier DM’s Return To The Classic, a tracky, 90s-influenced houser contrasts to its modern counterparts with a slow-burning groove, while JP Chronic’s own Just For Your Own Insanity takes the EP on a darker route with fierce stabs and popping percs that glide over an angry low end. Manu L and Javier Gonzalez’s Follow It Now keeps it simple with a heads-down houser that blends a two-note bassline and fills with a vocal sample to great effect, while the EP closes with Mobius Strum & Richard Salazar’s focussed, twisted Papa Told Me Not To Come, replete with looped, simmering structure that builds pressure to spooky drop, closing out a promising EP that both showcases new talent and reflects the variety of the island’s music with aplomb.
