ITAL TEK Midnight Colour (Planet Mu) cd 14.98
We're beginning to think if it wasn't for Planet Mu, we wouldn't be hearing any dubstep at all... Can't really figure out why more labels aren't getting more of that stuff over here, hundreds, maybe thousands of killer 12"s, DJ mix tapes, proper albums, and only a trickle actually makes it over here, bit the folks at Planet Mu obviously have great taste (or at least taste a lot like ours) cuz the stuff they do put out is the cream of the crop: Starkey, Vex'd, Distance, Milanese, Legion Of Two, Boxcutter, Pinch, Virus Syndicate, MRK1 and now Ital Tek. Not sure how we missed the last Ital Tek record, cuz this one is a doozy, not super dark or sinister, instead this definitely falls somewhere closer to stuff like Clubroot, Ikonika, Zomby, Burial, Shackleton, warm and fuzzy, the beats low slung and laid back, the usual dubstep bass warble toned way down, still thick and fuzzy, just less warbly, disembodied female vocals adding a subtle soul element, some of the tracks are super lo-fi and 8-bit sounding, others are more new wavey and sound a bit John Carpenter-ish, while others are dark and skittery, and still others are haunting and nearly ambient, but Ital Tek's unique vibe is the thread that runs through all the tracks, a little washed out, a little eighties, dreamy and dubby, shimmery and skittery, the lighter side of dubstep, with just enough darkness to keep things interesting...
MPEG Stream: "Neon Arc"
MPEG Stream: "Trails"
MPEG Stream: "Moon Bow"

ITAL TEK Midnight Colour (Planet Mu) 2lp 17.98
NOW ON VINYL!
We're beginning to think if it wasn't for Planet Mu, we wouldn't be hearing any dubstep at all... Can't really figure out why more labels aren't getting more of that stuff over here, hundreds, maybe thousands of killer 12"s, DJ mix tapes, proper albums, and only a trickle actually makes it over here, bit the folks at Planet Mu obviously have great taste (or at least taste a lot like ours) cuz the stuff they do put out is the cream of the crop: Starkey, Vex'd, Distance, Milanese, Legion Of Two, Boxcutter, Pinch, Virus Syndicate, MRK1 and now Ital Tek. Not sure how we missed the last Ital Tek record, cuz this one is a doozy, not super dark or sinister, instead this definitely falls somewhere closer to stuff like Clubroot, Ikonika, Zomby, Burial, Shackleton, warm and fuzzy, the beats low slung and laid back, the usual dubstep bass warble toned way down, still thick and fuzzy, just less warbly, disembodied female vocals adding a subtle soul element, some of the tracks are super lo-fi and 8-bit sounding, others are more new wavey and sound a bit John Carpenter-ish, while others are dark and skittery, and still others are haunting and nearly ambient, but Ital Tek's unique vibe is the thread that runs through all the tracks, a little washed out, a little eighties, dreamy and dubby, shimmery and skittery, the lighter side of dubstep, with just enough darkness to keep things interesting...
MPEG Stream: "Neon Arc"
MPEG Stream: "Trails"
MPEG Stream: "Moon Bow"

IZUMI, KIYOSHI (Rephlex) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Mr. Richard D. Aphex Twin James discovered this on his last jaunt to Japan, the weird, funky, out-there electronica of a guy who is reputed to have been an early member of none other than the Boredoms. Pretty darn great, and, the cd is packaged in a freaky octagonal jewel box! Very advanced.

IZUMI, KIYOSHI (Rephlex) 12" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Mr. Richard D. Aphex Twin James discovered this on his last jaunt to Japan, the weird, funky, out-there electronica of a guy who is reputed to have been an early member of none other than the Boredoms. Pretty darn great, and, the cd is packaged in a freaky octagonal jewel box! Very advanced.

IZUMI, KIYOSHI Orange Sunshine: Selected Works 1998 - 2000 (Childisc) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Kiyoshi Izumi may or may not have had anything to do with a really early incarnation of the Boredoms, although his previous outing for Rephlex a few years back made such claims. "Orange Sunshine" is Izumi's most recent collection and has nothing really to do with Rephlex or The Boredoms for that matter. Released on the twee electronica label Childisc, this is an album of playful Mego like glitches with none of those harsh artful concepts to get in the way. Just warm jubilant digitized collages.
RealAudio clip: "Ride To Prism"

J ROCC Minimal Wave Edits Vol. One (Stones Throw / Minimal Wave) 12" 12.98

J ROCC Minimal Wave Edits Vol. Two (Stones Throw / Minimal Wave) 12" 12.98

JAAR, NICOLAS Space Is Only Noise (Wordsandsound / Circus Company) cd 17.98
We had never heard of Nicolas Jaar before, a well renowned techno producer apparently, but we were immediately blown away by Space Is Only Noise, which seems to be only tangentially 'techno', to our ears it's more a collection of brooding electronic ballads, exploring the world of slo-mo soul already being mined by folks like Burial and How To Dress Well, but In Jaar's hands, that sound becomes something else entirely, just have a listen to the opener "Etre", after a minute or two of lapping waves, and some strange samples, Jaar creates a gorgeous landscape of mournful melody, and strangely clipped and stuttered vocals, the remove most of the sound and render those voices more as rhythm, the combination of the two is so mysterious, and so otherwordly, and when he then introduces the sound of children playing, it ends up being gorgeous and creepy, as the piano grows more dissonant and chaotic. Heck, we would have been happy with a whole record of just that. But there's so much more going on. "Colomb" takes some Pop Ambient swirl and adds a strangely stuttery handclap beat, and some strange autotuned vocals, the resulting croon, both warm and sensual, and strangely alien. Elsewhere, like on "Too Many Kids Finding Rain In The Dust", Jaar channels Gainsbourg, and creates a dark rainy day ballad, that is techno only by merit of the programmed rhythms, "Keep Me There" is another sultry soundscape of skittery beats, liquid samples, dramatic melodies, handclap rhythms, and strange processed vox.
We could go on, track by track, but you should have a measure of what's going on here, and how much we're digging it. A mix of French pop, minimal techno, slo-mo soul, downtempo electronica, with a heaping helping of strange samples, moody warped vocals, lush textures, subtly twisted percussion, and smoldering moodiness to burn, is making this a new favorite for sure. Fans of Blue Daisy, Burial, How To Dress Well, Holy Other, Kode 9, Swarms, Balam Acab, Shlohmo, as well as dark brooding electronic pop music, would do well to check this out!
MPEG Stream: "Etre"
MPEG Stream: "Colomb"
MPEG Stream: "Too Many Kids Finding Rain In The Dust"
MPEG Stream: "Keep Me There"

JAAR, NICOLAS Space Is Only Noise (Wordsandsound / Circus Company) lp 23.00
Now also on vinyl!!
We had never heard of Nicolas Jaar before, a well renowned techno producer apparently, but we were immediately blown away by Space Is Only Noise, which seems to be only tangentially 'techno', to our ears it's more a collection of brooding electronic ballads, exploring the world of slo-mo soul already being mined by folks like Burial and How To Dress Well, but In Jaar's hands, that sound becomes something else entirely, just have a listen to the opener "Etre", after a minute or two of lapping waves, and some strange samples, Jaar creates a gorgeous landscape of mournful melody, and strangely clipped and stuttered vocals, the remove most of the sound and render those voices more as rhythm, the combination of the two is so mysterious, and so otherwordly, and when he then introduces the sound of children playing, it ends up being gorgeous and creepy, as the piano grows more dissonant and chaotic. Heck, we would have been happy with a whole record of just that. But there's so much more going on. "Colomb" takes some Pop Ambient swirl and adds a strangely stuttery handclap beat, and some strange autotuned vocals, the resulting croon, both warm and sensual, and strangely alien. Elsewhere, like on "Too Many Kids Finding Rain In The Dust", Jaar channels Gainsbourg, and creates a dark rainy day ballad, that is techno only by merit of the programmed rhythms, "Keep Me There" is another sultry soundscape of skittery beats, liquid samples, dramatic melodies, handclap rhythms, and strange processed vox.
We could go on, track by track, but you should have a measure of what's going on here, and how much we're digging it. A mix of French pop, minimal techno, slo-mo soul, downtempo electronica, with a heaping helping of strange samples, moody warped vocals, lush textures, subtly twisted percussion, and smoldering moodiness to burn, is making this a new favorite for sure. Fans of Blue Daisy, Burial, How To Dress Well, Holy Other, Kode 9, Swarms, Balam Acab, Shlohmo, as well as dark brooding electronic pop music, would do well to check this out!
MPEG Stream: "Etre"
MPEG Stream: "Colomb"
MPEG Stream: "Too Many Kids Finding Rain In The Dust"
MPEG Stream: "Keep Me There"

JACASZEK Glimmer (Ghostly International) cd 11.98
Norwegian label Miasmah has long been home to a stable of artists creating the sorts of sounds we can't ever seem to get enough of: dark, brooding, electronic flecked hauntological cinematic soundscapes, and late night mysterious classical infused dronemusic, artists like Elegi, Macus Fjellstrom, Gultskra Artikler, FNS, Kreng, Jasper TX, and of course Jacaszek, aka Polish electro-acoustic composer and soundscaper Michal Jacaszek, and while Jacaszek only made one record for Miasmah, it was such a perfect fit, that it was easy to imagine Jacaszek as emblematic of the label's sound. But here we are a few years later, and Jacaszek has already moved on to a new label, but thankfully taken that 'Miasmah' sound with him. And if anything, this new one is even more fully realized than Treny, which was already a unanimous aQ fave. And really how could it not be? Like Treny before it, Glimmer unfurls a ghostly world of blur and shadow, of hum and thrum and glitch and crackle. Operating in a darkened world not that far removed from the Caretaker or Philip Jeck or Demdike Stare, albeit with a bit more of a classical bent, Jacaszek conjures up haunting brooding soundworlds of lush shimmering strings, of echo drenched harpsichord, of woozy loops and hazy staticky record crackle, soft slow swells, that grow so distorted and intense, they slip easily into the red, transforming into something much more harrowing than the music of many of his sonic brethren. The sound threatening to collapse or explode, an urgent pulsing, nearly grinding buzz, that as quickly as it blossomed, seems to slip right back into languid expanses of soft focus drift. Horns and strings, acoustic guitars, all layered delicately into creaking faded stretched of hushed mesmer, an old timey chamber music, transmitted from the other side, much of the sound damaged and decayed as it crossed over, resulting in some darkly alien dronescaping, that slips easily from warped, looped murky moody ooze, to lush, almost pop flecked cinematic post classical drift, the sound at either end of that sonic spectrum flecked with bits of glitch, and audio detritus, the sound seeming to gradually fade and flake as the record spins, almost as if on the next play, it would sound even more washed out and hazy.
There are moments where the sound coalesce into something much more polished, and more traditionally musical, but even then, the music is underpinned by an ominous foreboding, wreathed in strange muted loops, and mysterious sonic fragments, as if being listened to through some sort of dusty old sonic veil, loveliness gradually darkening, shadows lengthening, melodies unwinding and growing subtly more menacing, the recording revealing more and more crackle, swirls of hiss like little dustdevils, all woven into some sort of otherworldly funereal threnody, dreamlike and lovely, but always on the verge of drawing the listener into the mysterious dark place from which these haunting sounds emanate...
MPEG Stream: "Goldengrove"
MPEG Stream: "Dare-Gale"
MPEG Stream: "Pod Swiatlo"
MPEG Stream: "Windhover"

JACASZEK Glimmer (Ghostly International) lp 17.98
Norwegian label Miasmah has long been home to a stable of artists creating the sorts of sounds we can't ever seem to get enough of: dark, brooding, electronic flecked hauntological cinematic soundscapes, and late night mysterious classical infused dronemusic, artists like Elegi, Macus Fjellstrom, Gultskra Artikler, FNS, Kreng, Jasper TX, and of course Jacaszek, aka Polish electro-acoustic composer and soundscaper Michal Jacaszek, and while Jacaszek only made one record for Miasmah, it was such a perfect fit, that it was easy to imagine Jacaszek as emblematic of the label's sound. But here we are a few years later, and Jacaszek has already moved on to a new label, but thankfully taken that 'Miasmah' sound with him. And if anything, this new one is even more fully realized than Treny, which was already a unanimous aQ fave. And really how could it not be? Like Treny before it, Glimmer unfurls a ghostly world of blur and shadow, of hum and thrum and glitch and crackle. Operating in a darkened world not that far removed from the Caretaker or Philip Jeck or Demdike Stare, albeit with a bit more of a classical bent, Jacaszek conjures up haunting brooding soundworlds of lush shimmering strings, of echo drenched harpsichord, of woozy loops and hazy staticky record crackle, soft slow swells, that grow so distorted and intense, they slip easily into the red, transforming into something much more harrowing than the music of many of his sonic brethren. The sound threatening to collapse or explode, an urgent pulsing, nearly grinding buzz, that as quickly as it blossomed, seems to slip right back into languid expanses of soft focus drift. Horns and strings, acoustic guitars, all layered delicately into creaking faded stretched of hushed mesmer, an old timey chamber music, transmitted from the other side, much of the sound damaged and decayed as it crossed over, resulting in some darkly alien dronescaping, that slips easily from warped, looped murky moody ooze, to lush, almost pop flecked cinematic post classical drift, the sound at either end of that sonic spectrum flecked with bits of glitch, and audio detritus, the sound seeming to gradually fade and flake as the record spins, almost as if on the next play, it would sound even more washed out and hazy.
There are moments where the sound coalesce into something much more polished, and more traditionally musical, but even then, the music is underpinned by an ominous foreboding, wreathed in strange muted loops, and mysterious sonic fragments, as if being listened to through some sort of dusty old sonic veil, loveliness gradually darkening, shadows lengthening, melodies unwinding and growing subtly more menacing, the recording revealing more and more crackle, swirls of hiss like little dustdevils, all woven into some sort of otherworldly funereal threnody, dreamlike and lovely, but always on the verge of drawing the listener into the mysterious dark place from which these haunting sounds emanate...
MPEG Stream: "Goldengrove"
MPEG Stream: "Dare-Gale"
MPEG Stream: "Pod Swiatlo"
MPEG Stream: "Windhover"

JACKSON AND HIS COMPUTER BAND Smash (Warp) cd 14.98

JACOBS, HENRY'S VORTEX Electronic Kabuki Mambo (Locust Music) cd 14.98
Well, it would be nice to see as well as hear what's documented here, but it's still pretty interesting... this Harry Partch-ish music was part of a audio-visual Planetarium show, and was originally released on LP by Folkways in 1959.

JAGA What We Must / Spydeberg Sessions (NinjaTune) 2cd 16.98
Considerate, slightly pensive, intelligent, emotionally-balanced, fun-loving, stylish, SCANDINAVIAN, really into lying in a beautiful field on a clear night staring at stars, and really REALLY into lavishing you with loads of attention. Sound like a pretty sweet boyfriend? A boyfriend named... Jaga??
Hmmm, I know that was pretty weird, but it just seems like this double cd album from Norway's mega 10-piece band, Jaga (formerly Jaga Jazzist), is the perfect mate for plane or train travel, curling up with at night to read by the fire, afternoon painting sessions in the studio, and, oh, I don't know, dining on smoked salmon by the sea at sunset in a futuristic floating space-bar made of ice.
Jaga's latest -- a limited edition 2cd album, What We Must/Spydeberg Sessions -- is a stylistic culmination of their cosmic space jazz form. AND NOW! With more guitars! What We Must (the first disc) takes this trippy dippy blissful ride through a jazzy cosmos that doesn't seem TOO many light years away. Definitely their/his most mature and well-formed album to date. Every instrument, including all those electronic, is perfectly balanced in the mix. At no point does one speak more loudly above the others. That is, until the second song on the second disc!
All I Know Is Tonight (on disc 2) apparently is a "rough rough mix", but I love it! A nearly raging guitar lashes out at you in the first few measures before settling down into the musical pit. We must say, the roughness is really quite wonderful. The polish of their proper album songs almost lacks character in a way, leaving you to float around intelligently in their prozac'd smooth-space-jazz blissdom. It's nice to have both here. Glad they included this second disc! Other treats on it include demos of "Mikado", "Stardust Hotel" and "Swedenborgske Rom".
Fans of Sea and Cake, Tortoise and other like-mindedly thoughtful Thrill Jockey post-rock type artists should truly love this record. For you, it will take that sound to a new level. Level '05. Fans of Jaga's earlier works should be radiantly pleased with this. Tres recommended!
MPEG Stream: "All I Know Is Tonight"
MPEG Stream: "Oslo Skyline"

JAMES DIN A4 Fistel Rose (Pingipung) cd 21.00
The name James Din A4 is a new one to us, but most likely not for longtime fans of minimal techno and leftfield electronic music. This disc collects a whole mess of previously released tracks, all culled from super limited self released vinyl lps, on cd for the very first time, and is really pretty difficult to describe. Opener "The Seaside" is quite possible our electronic jam of the year, and pretty much displays the best of what James Din A4 has to offer, crammed into a single track. From the opening fuzzed out loop, which could have been yanked wholesale from a Field B-side, to the skittery super minimal click track, to the spaced out electro groove that follows, various strange chopped samples and vocal bits, over the course of the first few minutes, the track gets less and less minimal and more and more playful, all sorts of beep and buzz, the melodies all sunshiney and bubbly, but still all wrapped around that warm whirring intro, finishing off with a snippet of the sea shanty that gives the track its name.
This is definitely lo-fi minimal techno, but there's some electro going on, some definite nod to the 8-bit side of electronica, that opening track is so warm and whirry, especially the main loop, that we can't help but think of The Field, but the rest of the record not so much, more sort of playful and goofy, definitely plenty of dancefloor silliness here and there, the sort of sounds that could easily spawn their own ill-advised dance, but for the dancefloor averse (like some of us) this is total headphone ear candy, that slips from wild and wooly and weird to muted moody and minimal, some tracks sound like fractured exotica, others like skittery Oval mashups, still others are just gorgeously minimal and dark, while still others are groovy and playful. Maybe our favorite track is "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me", a way too brief song constructed from chopped and looped fragments of sixties jangle pop, reminding us a bit of Terry Riley's "You're No Good", and similarly would have sounded amazing expanded to fill up a whole disc.
This year has been crammed with amazing electronic music, and with less than two months to go, Fistel Rose has surfaced just in time to join our list of 2008 favorites...
Packaged in a 6 panel black and white digipak, with a huge booklet filled with all sorts of crazy artwork, from back and white line drawings to eye popping full color collages, all done by Mr. James Din A4 himself!
MPEG Stream: "The Seaside"
MPEG Stream: "Der Frosch Mit Der Maske"
MPEG Stream: "Rudolf Scharping"
MPEG Stream: "Er Hatte Ihr Keinen Trip Gegeben, Ihr Aber Bedeutet Dass Er Sie Heiraten Will"

JAMMER Are You Dumb Volume 3 (Neckle) cd 14.98

JANE Berserker (Paw Tracks) cd 15.98
Jane is a collaboration between Noah Lennox (a.k.a. Panda Bear of the Animal Collective) and long time friend and fellow record store co-worker Scott Mou. The title track, "Berserker", is a dreamy number with some sort of strumming guitar and cooing vocals soaked in gobs of reverb. It sounds equally like a lo-fi reworking of Cocteau Twins production techniques circa 1984, or a possible inclusion on the next Kompakt Pop Ambient comp. If that don't bring you back, wait to you hear the second track -- "AGG" Re keyboard melody closely resembles a slowed down version of the first half of the riff from Mr. Stewart's most famous of tunes). The third track, "Slipping Away", begins with a crumbly bass line, with echoing vocals that builds into a chugga-chugga train-like huffing paint experience not disimilar to some of the nicer dance beat tracks from Polmo Polpo's first record, before decomposing into a glistening soundscape of spacey goodness like some early Tangerine Dream record. "Swan" picks up from this soporific state with a 24 minute organ drone and heavily echoed vocals not unlike if Owen Ashworth (of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone) got really, really, really stoned on some of that super potent B.C. bud and started singing whale songs. It's that good! (And we mean that sincerely.)
MPEG Stream: "AGG"
MPEG Stream: "Swan"

JAPANESE TELECOM Virtual Geisha (International Deejay Gigolo) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Second long player from the moonlighting project of the mysterious Detroit duo known as Dopplereffekt (first act on Detroit's Intuit-Solar). Cold, rhythmic electro grooves circa 1984, very reminiscent of New Order's "Confusion" sans vocal track. Nothing specifically interesting here, just another one of way too many new electro acts from the too-hot-for-its-own-good International Deejay Gigolo.

JARBOE & JUSTIN K. BROADRICK J2 (The End) cd 13.98
Apparently this album hit the Billboard "New Age" charts! Not sure how or why, you wouldn't think that a collaboration between one of the Swans and a member of Godflesh would qualify as New Age (and it really isn't!). Downtempo electronica with some avant-garde elements, more like, with hints of doomic menace. If you're looking for the crushing metallic guitars of Godflesh, you won't quite find them, though many passages are deep and dark and spooky enough to remind us of Broadrick's current project Jesu.
The deal with this perhaps inevitable collaboration (inevitable given Broadrick's obvious Swans fandom, and Jarboe's openness to collaborative ventures, witness her earlier disc with Neurosis), is that it's JB making mostly electronic backgrounds for Jarboe to do her thing vocally... operatic excesses, and mewlings and moanings... so obviously you've got to be into "her thing". Some are, some aren't. The ambient, layered and looped wailings of the opener, "Decay", should separate the two camps pretty clearly. Some will find Jarboe's vocals to be full of mystery and emotion, others, simply irritating (though it's only on "Tribal Limo" that we really got annoyed with her, the track featuring weird Diamanda Galas yodelling over junky Gang Gang Dance-ish beats).
That said, for those into Jarboe, there's a lot to like here. And we can kind of see how, New Age or not, this could crack the charts on the strength some of the better cuts, like "Let Go" which sounds a lot like Portishead or Bjork, Jarboe effecting a babygirl voice under a blanket of crackley drone, accompanied by a spare snare thwack...
MPEG Stream: "Let Go"
MPEG Stream: "Tribal Limo"

JARRE, JEAN-MICHEL Les Granges Brulees (OST) (Dreyfus) cd 11.98
Somewhere right now Thom Yorke is blushing, now that this 1973 soundtrack has been reissued. Well, that's our speculation anyway, 'cause the main theme sounds SO MUCH like a Radiohead song (which one, we haven't quite figured out. Not "Paranoid Android" but close.) At any rate, this was either a big inspiration to Radiohead or it's just a marvellous coincidence. You'll hear it for yourself we're sure. Thom certainly needs to hear this if he hasn't already (as we suspect). And it's not just the melody of this soundtrack's main leit motif, but the singing voice itself. A French female doing wordless ah ah ahs -- play it back to back with Radiohead and you'll swear it's Mr. Yorke's famous falsetto. But that's only part of the reason this soundtrack is so fascinating. It's also a very very early electronica effort by a young Jean-Michel Jarre, later in the '80s to become well-known as a New Age superstar famed for spectacular multi-media shows. In the seventies, though, his output could be considered credible electronica pioneering. 1977's Oxygene is a pretty cool album after all. But this was before even that, and it's way more extreme. Truly jarring electronic sound that's hard to reconcile with the idea of "background" music in film! And Les Granges Brulees was not, as far as we're aware, a horror or science fiction flick where such might make sense. As far as we can tell, this Jean Chapot directed movie was a mystery / romance (staring Alain Delon btw). Certainly the vocals are romantic, and much of the rest of Jarre's crankier-than-Kraftwerk electronics are suspenseful, a la Goblin. One track breaks the mood a little bit -- "Zig-zag" must be from a scene where the characters visit a circus or something, as it's got that Jean-Jacques Perrey zaniness to it. But most of this is interplay between the haunting theme and freaky electronic fx. A very cool, out of the blue reissue, forshadowing Kid A some thirty years ago!
MPEG Stream: "La Chanson Des Granges Brulees"
MPEG Stream: "Une Morte Dans La Neige"

JATOMA s/t (Kompakt) cd 16.98
Ah, Kompakt! The current kingdom of electronic music has produced another exceptional album from one of its citizens. There's not much to be said about Jatoma, as this Danish trio seems to be flaunting an air of mystery through a half-hearted attempt at anonymity. Regardless of their backstory, Jatoma are impressive magicians when it comes to their eccentric techno productions that recall the best of Four Tet, Matthew Herbert, and even Matmos from time to time.
With an opening sequence of sparkling digitalia on "Little Houseboat" that teases at a precious melodic phrase in the same way that Oval captured our imaginations with his impeccable Diskont 94 album, Jatoma is clearly onto something quite special. This becomes obvious when they push through a jumble of electronic squiggles and clockwork clicks into the soft whump of a techno pulse and accompanying bass groove that fleshes out just the first number on the very impressive debut. References to Animal Collective have been offered in comparison to Jatoma, but their sound relies less on lithium-addled bubblegum electronica and more on a chimerical synthesis of Pop Ambient dreaminess and the tech-house dramatics of build-and-release. It's no wonder that Kompakt signed them! "Durian" and "Bou" are both curious anthems with their auto-tuned, chill-wave melodies and warbled acid motifs fused onto thumped deep-house rhythms and hi-hat swing. While there are distinct tracks which stand on their own as the singles amongst the album, Jatoma take the time to subvert the iPod listening experience with very short interludes, codas, and intros of transitional squelches and tuned melodies that bridge the moods and atmospheres of Jatoma's varied tracks. Yup, it's an album that works best when listening from beginning to end!
Like many of the recent Kompakt releases, the vinyl comes the cd of the same material found within.
MPEG Stream: "Little Houseboat"
MPEG Stream: "Bou"
MPEG Stream: "Paper Lights"
MPEG Stream: "Permafrost"

JATOMA s/t (Kompakt) lp + cd 16.98
Ah, Kompakt! The current kingdom of electronic music has produced another exceptional album from one of its citizens. There's not much to be said about Jatoma, as this Danish trio seems to be flaunting an air of mystery through a half-hearted attempt at anonymity. Regardless of their backstory, Jatoma are impressive magicians when it comes to their eccentric techno productions that recall the best of Four Tet, Matthew Herbert, and even Matmos from time to time.
With an opening sequence of sparkling digitalia on "Little Houseboat" that teases at a precious melodic phrase in the same way that Oval captured our imaginations with his impeccable Diskont 94 album, Jatoma is clearly onto something quite special. This becomes obvious when they push through a jumble of electronic squiggles and clockwork clicks into the soft whump of a techno pulse and accompanying bass groove that fleshes out just the first number on the very impressive debut. References to Animal Collective have been offered in comparison to Jatoma, but their sound relies less on lithium-addled bubblegum electronica and more on a chimerical synthesis of Pop Ambient dreaminess and the tech-house dramatics of build-and-release. It's no wonder that Kompakt signed them! "Durian" and "Bou" are both curious anthems with their auto-tuned, chill-wave melodies and warbled acid motifs fused onto thumped deep-house rhythms and hi-hat swing. While there are distinct tracks which stand on their own as the singles amongst the album, Jatoma take the time to subvert the iPod listening experience with very short interludes, codas, and intros of transitional squelches and tuned melodies that bridge the moods and atmospheres of Jatoma's varied tracks. Yup, it's an album that works best when listening from beginning to end!
Like many of the recent Kompakt releases, the vinyl comes the cd of the same material found within.
MPEG Stream: "Little Houseboat"
MPEG Stream: "Bou"
MPEG Stream: "Paper Lights"
MPEG Stream: "Permafrost"

JAUMET, ETIENNE Night Music (Domino) cd 14.98
We love it when something unexpected, unknown, and essentially totally off our radar shows up and then completely blows us away! Which is exactly what happened with this chunk of epic cosmic psychedelic space-out by French artist Etienne Jaumet. By the looks of his photo on the cover we first thought this was going to be some sort of smarty pants singer songwriter, Jarvis Cocker sort of thing, but talk about about how you shouldn't judge a book by its cover! Instead, Night Music is one of the most satisfying and fully realized analog synth driven discs we've heard in ages. Imagine Goblin and Kraftwerk gliding through cosmic space, as the record's opening 20+ minute track really does evoke some sort of interstellar autobahn, the listener whirling through the stars and sky, Night Music a deep rich and nuanced soundtrack for that late night cosmic excursion. We also think about some of our fave modern psych-space rockers, like try to imagine Expo 70 remixed by Jonas Reinhardt, or Arp channeling Franco Battiato or Subway stretched way out into a sonic stratosphere pioneered by Conrad Schnitzler and Klaus Schulze. Folks who dug the Altres record we listed last time should definitely dig this too. We'd also bet the Black Devil Disco folks and both Zombi and Zomby lovers will find loads to love on Night Music. Oddly enough when we starting doing some digging to find out more about Jaumet we discovered he was in a group called Zombie Zombie (not however, related to the above Zomby/i's).
You can tell that Jaumet also has a deep love of cosmic free-jazz as he introduces subtle saxophone on parts of the record with perfectly understated results, bringing to mind Herbie Hancock's Sextant album for sure, and also Sun Ra as reimagined by Four Tet, particularly on that epic opener "For Falling Asleep" - the very next track sure says "wake up", though, bringing in more of a techno thump to the proceedings, but still staying wonderfully spaced out. Pretty much every time we play this in the store either a customer or one of us who works here asks if this is a reissue of some long lost kosmiche gem, maybe from Germany in the 1970s. In fact we found out that Jaumet based the sequencing of the record on many of those same amazing cosmic psych records from the '70s, where first side of the vinyl is one long track and the other side is filled with shorter tracks. Jaumet also has such an obvious understanding of composition, especially how to stretch tracks out without letting them overstay their welcome, and thus Night Music is just long enough to totally transport us to another dimension, yet focused enough to stay listenable and sonically complex the entire time.
Something which only makes us love this record even more was the discovery that long time AQ favorite, '70s French folk-psychstress Emmanuelle Parrenin adds her voice as texture on a couple tracks (sounding very Yoko Ono, at times) as well as playing harp and hurdy gurdy. Furthermore, the mix was "directed and imagined" by none other than Carl Craig and you can totally tell, as the whole record flows with such a lush layered sound and driving pulse that is both immediately satisfying and utterly hypnotic!
MPEG Stream: "For Falling Asleep"
MPEG Stream: "At The Crack Of Dawn"
MPEG Stream: "Mental Vortex"

JAUMET, ETIENNE Night Music (Domino) lp 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We love it when something unexpected, unknown, and essentially totally off our radar shows up and then completely blows us away! Which is exactly what happened with this chunk of epic cosmic psychedelic space-out by French artist Etienne Jaumet. By the looks of his photo on the cover we first thought this was going to be some sort of smarty pants singer songwriter, Jarvis Cocker sort of thing, but talk about about how you shouldn't judge a book by its cover! Instead, Night Music is one of the most satisfying and fully realized analog synth driven discs we've heard in ages. Imagine Goblin and Kraftwerk gliding through cosmic space, as the record's opening 20+ minute track really does evoke some sort of interstellar autobahn, the listener whirling through the stars and sky, Night Music a deep rich and nuanced soundtrack for that late night cosmic excursion. We also think about some of our fave modern psych-space rockers, like try to imagine Expo 70 remixed by Jonas Reinhardt, or Arp channeling Franco Battiato or Subway stretched way out into a sonic stratosphere pioneered by Conrad Schnitzler and Klaus Schulze. Folks who dug the Altres record we listed last time should definitely dig this too. We'd also bet the Black Devil Disco folks and both Zombi and Zomby lovers will find loads to love on Night Music. Oddly enough when we starting doing some digging to find out more about Jaumet we discovered he was in a group called Zombie Zombie (not however, related to the above Zomby/i's).
You can tell that Jaumet also has a deep love of cosmic free-jazz as he introduces subtle saxophone on parts of the record with perfectly understated results, bringing to mind Herbie Hancock's Sextant album for sure, and also Sun Ra as reimagined by Four Tet, particularly on that epic opener "For Falling Asleep" - the very next track sure says "wake up", though, bringing in more of a techno thump to the proceedings, but still staying wonderfully spaced out. Pretty much every time we play this in the store either a customer or one of us who works here asks if this is a reissue of some long lost kosmiche gem, maybe from Germany in the 1970s. In fact we found out that Jaumet based the sequencing of the record on many of those same amazing cosmic psych records from the '70s, where first side of the vinyl is one long track and the other side is filled with shorter tracks. Jaumet also has such an obvious understanding of composition, especially how to stretch tracks out without letting them overstay their welcome, and thus Night Music is just long enough to totally transport us to another dimension, yet focused enough to stay listenable and sonically complex the entire time.
Something which only makes us love this record even more was the discovery that long time AQ favorite, '70s French folk-psychstress Emmanuelle Parrenin adds her voice as texture on a couple tracks (sounding very Yoko Ono, at times) as well as playing harp and hurdy gurdy. Furthermore, the mix was "directed and imagined" by none other than Carl Craig and you can totally tell, as the whole record flows with such a lush layered sound and driving pulse that is both immediately satisfying and utterly hypnotic!
MPEG Stream: "For Falling Asleep"
MPEG Stream: "At The Crack Of Dawn"
MPEG Stream: "Mental Vortex"

JEANS TEAM s/t (Kitty-Yo) cd 15.98
Ah, the art of fine song titling. "Asphaltvibrator", "Hi Fans". And the music? Sweet, playful techno-pop not too shy to heft a big bass beat every once in a while. Kinda silly. Almost dorky at times. Oh yeah, and if you look closely, you just might spot some members of StereoTotal.

JEGA .:Type Xero (Planet Mu) 12" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Because Jega has only produced some compilation tracks and a legendary, impossible-to-find lp on S.K.A.M., they have remained in undeserved obscurity. Thanks to Mu-Ziq's new label, they have released two new recordings. Sharp and quirky beats fusing techno, electro and 80's Euro-pop. Much appeal to fans of Autechre, Mu-Ziq, Aphex Twin and even Vince Gil. Stellar. Highly recommended.

JEGA Geometry (Matador) cd 14.98
Dylan Nathan is Jega. Who were his college roomates? Richard James (Aphex Twin) and Mike Paradinas (Mu-Ziq). Maybe he spent more time actually going to classes and got a job or got married or something, but his music career has hardly been as prolific as theirs -- this is only his second album, following up his debut "Spectrum". Released on Paradinas' label (licensed by Matador), "Geometry" is a excellent piece of electronica, with skittering distorted beats giving way to melodic, moody atmospheres and back again. It'll definitely appeal to fans of Jega's college roommates, as well as Squarepusher and Autechre fans (the Rephlex/Warp/Planet Mu axis).

JEGA Spectrum (Matador) cd 13.98
Sharp and quirky beats - a fusion of techno, electro, so-called "drill 'n' bass", 80's europop and film soundtracks...for fans of Autechre, µ-ziq, Aphex Twin, and Vince Gil. Finally domestic. Stellar!

JEGA Spectrum (Matador) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Sharp and quirky beats - a fusion of techno, electro, so-called "drill 'n' bass", 80's europop and film soundtracks...for fans of Autechre, µ-ziq, Aphex Twin, and Vince Gil. Finally domestic. Stellar!

JELINEK, JAN Kosmischer Pitch (Scape) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The world of 'dreamy electronica' has been polluted by those better aimed at selling you a Volvo then actually taking you to a different state of being, but thankfully there are still talented and lucid minds like Jan Jelinek who actually does create music that makes your mind wander and washes away your moment in time. The sound is much warmer and organic sounding then the super click n' cut sounding Loop-finding-jazz-records he released a few years back. This time Jelinek seems to be going beyond creating an amazing surface sound (referred to as wallpaper in an earlier AQ review) and has created an album that actually seeps through walls and time and space and slowly melts into your ears. Highly Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Planeten In Halbtrauer"
MPEG Stream: "Universal Band Silhouette"

JELINEK, JAN Kosmischer Pitch (Scape) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Also, now in stock on vinyl! Our recent review of the cd version: The world of 'dreamy electronica' has been polluted by those better aimed at selling you a Volvo then actually taking you to a different state of being, but thankfully there are still talented and lucid minds like Jan Jelinek who actually does create music that makes your mind wander and washes away your moment in time. The sound is much warmer and organic sounding then the super click n' cut sounding Loop-finding-jazz-records he released a few years back. This time Jelinek seems to be going beyond creating an amazing surface sound (referred to as wallpaper in an earlier AQ review) and has created an album that actually seeps through walls and time and space and slowly melts into your ears. Highly Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Planeten In Halbtrauer"
MPEG Stream: "Universal Band Silhouette"

JELINEK, JAN Loop-finding-jazz-records (Scape) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It may be a strange obsession, but The Wallpaper Lifestyle is something which has been popping up in the collective consciousness of Aquarius. It would be nice to say that it's the lust for chic Danish furniture, sharp Italian clothes, and hot Scandinavian androgynes... but let's be honest, it's clearly the fantasy of having a lot of money. Can real people really afford The Wallpaper Lifestyle?
Anyway, Jan Jelinek must have the same fantasy and has constructed the perfect soundtrack. It's a blissful electronica record full of all of the click 'n' dub that one would expect from Scape Records (run by Pole's Stefan Betke). The title is a bit misleading as this has very little to do with jazz, and more having to do with the process of creating the record (by fragmenting the sounds from his jazz vinyl collection through the sampler to arrive at the very Pole electro-dub). So clean. So digital. So Wallpaper.

JELINEK, JAN Tierbeobachtungen (Scape) cd 16.98
Seems like you can almost trace the evolution of Jan Jelinek's based on just his album covers. While his early releases were packaged in monotone no frills minimalist sleeves his more recent releases have been covered in designs with much more blur, mystery and texture. And it's pretty accurate to say that the same goes for the sounds he's been creating. Gone our the days of his crisp, clean and ultra linear creations, making way for a much more seductive world of murky and rich soundscapes. In fact, this outing's cover art first made us think that it was on the Hapna label, and it actually does have the sort of sound would be quite at home on that fine label as it demonstrates a mysterious almost field recording like sound mixed with organic electronica, which also had us wondering what it would sound like if Boards of Canada got their heads out of the clouds and buried them in the mud.
MPEG Stream: "Palmer Aus Leder"
MPEG Stream: "Tierbeobachtung"

JELINEK, JAN AVEC THE EXPOSURES La Nouvelle Pauvrete (Scape) cd 16.98

JELLO Voile (Peacefrog) cd 16.98
Peacefrog Records has typically published the more soulful strains of Detroit techno with a steady stream of releases from Moodymann, Herbert, Robert Hood, Ian O'Brien, Glenn Underground, and Planetary Assault Systems. So, Peacefrog seems to be an unusual home for Darrel Fitton, whose back catalogue as Bola and Gescom (in collaboration with Autechre) ranks very highly within IDM circles. Nevertheless, Fitton's debut recording as Jello bridges the increasing stylistic chasm between IDM and soulful Detroit techno. At the heart of "Voile" Fitton uses the midtempo / downtempo IDM rhythmic skitter that can be found on those Bola / Gescom recordings, but has smoothed out much of the dis-ease found in most post-Aphex electro-paranoia. As the album begins, Jello seems like a slightly friendlier version of Bola and still firmly entrenched within the IDM aesthetic, yet as the album progresses, Fitton gradually turns his focus towards a jazz-tinged electronica with Lamb / Portishead female vocals, digital approximations of bass-slapping, Rhodes organs melting into the alien jazz sentiments of Herbie Hancock, and stream of consciousness beat poetry.
RealAudio clip: "Vibe-A-Rolla"
RealAudio clip: "O'verb"
RealAudio clip: "Shinoque"

JENSEN SPORTAG s/t (Midisport) cd 12.98
When we think of Nashville, maybe tweaked out art damaged techno is not the first thing that comes to mind. But lucky for us, some pretty fucked up and great damaged electronic pop IS in fact coming out of the country music capitol of the world, courtesy of Jensen Sportag. With cover art and guest vocals on a track by Ariel Pink you can begin to imagine what kind of wonderful weird world Jensen Sportag inhabits. And any link to the totally nuts Ariel Pink should give you an idea of what's in store. Citing influences from Sun City Girls to Autechre to R. Steevie Moore, this is most definitely outsider techno in all its warped glory. While electronic music is jam packed with way too many posers aiming to make the cleanest, the crispest, the dreamiest and the smoothest music around, it's so damn refreshing to hear someone remember that for the most part electronic music is best when it's cheap, sleazy and out of control!
MPEG Stream: "Graves"
MPEG Stream: "Ms Violet"
MPEG Stream: "Thundercover"

JESSICA 6 See The Light (Peacefrog) cd 13.98
We first were made aware of this great New York dance floor pop group, with their mind blowing single "Prisoner Of Love", which features Antony on vocals and is one of the best modern disco burners we've heard in ages. We immediately were reminded of the game-changing Hercules & Love Affair album that Antony guested on a few years ago, and then we realized that Jessica 6 is a group led by Nomi Ruiz, one of the vocalists in Hercules & Love Affair. In fact all three core members of Jessica 6 worked on that great Hercules & Love Affair record. So it should come as no surprise that See The Light, is filled with a similar sound, yet a little more pop, and the jams here come out so damn charged. Kind of like if you took records by Cristina, Vanity 6, Culture Club, Hot Chip, and Madonna and made the ultimate dance floor mix. It's actually really refreshing to hear a great vocal filled dance record that hits the spot so right on.
MPEG Stream: "Fun Girl"
MPEG Stream: "Prisoner Of Love (feat. Antony)"
MPEG Stream: "White Horse"

JESU Christmas (Robotic Empire) 12" 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now this is a holiday record we can get behind. Originally released a couple years back, now reissued with a bonus remix, Justin Broadrick, of Godflesh, Ice, Techno Animal, JK Flesh, Final, Pale Sketcher, etc., tries his hand at writing a modern metalgaze Christmas carol, and pretty much pulls it off. Although the only real Christmas-y bits, are the lyrics, some chiming holiday bells, and the song's sort of wistful lullaby like vibe - otherwise, it's a primo slice of blissed out psychedelic shoegaze post metal chug and shimmer, Jesu style, with swoonsome swirling verses, all hushed vox buried beneath whorls of woozy crystalline thrum, and churning chugging downtuned choruses, laced with strange squiggly melodies and distant tangled melodic filigree, much of "Christmas" plays out like a slowed down, super distorted M83, which seems to a reasonable shorthand description of Jesu's sound in general. The song balances heartfelt melodic dreaminess, specifically the Christmas-y break midsong where the aforementioned bells toll over lush acoustic guitars, and the hazy dreamy vox, with some serious metallic heft, the results perhaps not appropriate for your family holiday get together, but perfect for that heavy holiday mixtape.
Broadrick tacks on three remixes, each by one of his other projects/alter egos. Up first is the new track, credited to JK Flesh, which hadn't really happened when this was first released, but in that guise, Broadrick, pushes the sound back a bit toward his bleak industrial roots, transforming the blissful holiday shimmer into a brooding expanse of grim blackened ambience, anchored to a plodding death march beat, which is soon augmented by some murky jungle breakbeats, the tolling bell drifting on long stretches of droned out minor key shimmer, the vocals too reimagined, and transformed into a strange alien chant, a serious slab of not very Christmas-y electro-industrial blackened jungle grimnity. The Pale Sketcher version heads for the exact opposite of the sonic spectrum, stripping the original down into a hazy swirl of barely there beats, echo drenched vox, lots of softly billowing synths, everything gauzy and sun dappled and so dreamily washed out. And finally, Broadrick slips back into his Final persona, originally more of a solo guitar project, and takes the original version of "Christmas" and Caretaker-izes it, blurring the sounds into ghostlike ambience, and long softly undulating tones, a smeared sprawl of drifting melodic fragments, of soft focus sonic shards, the track building to a sort of crescendo, a softly roiling, dreamily psychedelic climax, before settling right back down into something even more muted and minimal, a bleary stretch of shadowy, soft around the edges chordal shimmer.
SUPER LIMITED!! Once we run out, odds are we won't be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: "Christmas"
MPEG Stream: "Christmas (JK Flesh Remix)"

JESU Why Are We Not Perfect (Hydra Head) cd ep 13.98
Not a brand new Jesu record, instead, this ep collects the three tracks from Jesu's split lp with Eluvium from last year, and adds two alternate versions to flesh it out a bit. Folks who missed out on that now out of print 12", or those amongst you who remain turntableless, will for sure want to pick this up, and Jesu fanatics, might just find this worth it for the two extra alternate takes. First the songs proper:
Three new songs from Jesu, and as if we didn't already see Broadrick and Co. heading in this direction, they've almost entirely jettisoned the heaviness, in favor of a blissy new wave-y drift. Really! No massive sludge, no blissed out crunch, in fact, most of this sounds like Jesu doing the soundtrack to a John Hughes movie, all drift and croon and no crunch and pummel, but it's really nice, and pretty, and still suitably Jesu-like. Imagine Simple Minds or the Cure but raised on Slowdive and Chapterhouse and Swervedriver and My Bloody Valentine, doing the theme song for Sixteen Candles 2008 (which if our calculations are correct would be more like Forty Candles). The first song would be a massive hit, sort of melancholy and romantic, dark and dreamy, but still sort of catchy and hopeful, like sunbeams barely making it through grey storm clouds. The final track sounds like it could be from that last scene in Sixteen Candles 2008, the one where the boy and the girl finally make it to the dance after all of the crazy mishaps and misunderstandings and are finally sharing that slow dance... lugubrious and fuzzy, and soft focus and so great actually. It's weird, and a bit unexpected, but as much as we love the glacial crush of past Jesu discs, this new-wave-y drift really suits them, which is a good thing, since they seem to be heading even more and more in that direction with each new release.
The two extra tracks are definitely not -drastically- different, but different enough certainly to make them worth having. "Farewell" gets even more washed out, the whole thing muted and over saturated, the chugging guitars, disembodied and more textural than heavy, the whole song suffused with chiming harmonics and sun dappled soaring bittersweet melodies. "Why Are We Not Perfect", the above mentioned Sixteen Candles 2008 closer, hews closely to the original, the change more in timbre and texture than anything, the vocals still weary and woozy, the beat a loping skittery shuffle, surrounded by shimmering clouds of effervescent streaks of warm buzz, swirls of backwards melody, all whirling softly and dreamily.
Beautifully packaged in a super thick oversized Japanese style mini lp cd jacket, with a thick printed inner sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Farewell"
MPEG Stream: "Why Are We Not Perfect"

JET BLACK CRAYON Inaccuracies Of The Mind Machine (Function 8) cd 13.98
Perhaps the most mellow release to date from the already very downtempo Jet Black Crayon (aka Tommy Guerrero and co). Although the titles make references to topics of the mind / psychic phenomena (the album title as well as those for a couple of songs "The Mentalist", and "Eyes Closed, Numbers Appear"), words unread this is simply perfect listening for when the summer sun's out and it's so hot you just don't feel like moving much. Make yourself a fruity frosty beverage, let your mind wander and allow the laidback shufflin' rhythms, lazy horns and warm chiming melodies to do all the moving for you.
MPEG Stream: "The Mentalist"
MPEG Stream: "If Only"

JET BLACK CRAYON Low Frequency Speaker Test (Function 8) cd 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Local electronicists Tommy Guerrero and DJ Gadget along with Monte Vallier of Swell. A subtle, simple downtempo record, with bass, slide bass, and more bass.

JET BLACK CRAYON Mean Streets (Function 8) 7" 4.50

JIGEN Blood's Finality (Shiranui) cd 19.98
Release from the Japanese label Shiranui, which has developed a rather unique variant of drum & bass, which employs spastic asynchronous breakbeats accompanied with austere modernist jazz overtones of bowed metal, stand-up bass, and muted horns. Not at all dissimilar to the early Spymania releases by Squarepusher, though more dissonant and less groove-based.

JIGMASTAS Infectious (Landspeed) cd 16.98
DJ Spinna and MC Kriminul are together the duo Jigmastas, and they make a straight up deeply heavy style of hip hop with guests such as Sadat X from Brand Nubian and even Vernon Reid (Living Color) on guitar. This isn't strictly a super underground release since Spinna has worked with the likes of De La Soul and Mary J Blige, but nonetheless blink and you might miss this. Comes with a second limited edition disc of tracks featuring Eminem, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, etc.
RealAudio clip: "Vent"

JIRKU, THOMAS Go! Turn! Jump! Stop! (Klang Electronics) 12" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

JIRKU, TOMAS Bleak 1999 (No Type) cd 14.98

JIRKU, TOMAS Entropy (intr-version) cd 14.98
"Entropy" is a minor stumble for Tomas Jirku, whose previous outings (especially the "Immaterial" album for Subtractif / Alien8) had been some of the better recordings of clean, minimal techno along side Vladislav Delay, Chain Reaction, and Pole. Yet this album never stands beyond the formula of subdued shuffling rhythms, delicate clickery, and those ubiquitous swelling synth pads which sound like a digital cross between a ring modulator and a rhodes organ. On the plus side, the packaging with its sewn booklet is quite nice.
RealAudio clip: "Endothermic"

JIRKU, TOMAS Immaterial (Substractif) cd 14.98
Tomas Jirku's "Immaterial" makes no claims of innovation; however, this album stands way above the crowded field of electron engineers who have been peddling an increasingly mediocre and hollow form of minimalist techno. As in Jirku's previous recordings, "Immaterial" (released through Alien 8's new electronica imprint Substractif) owes a great debt to Pole and Vladislav Delay for the production of sedate techno rhythms with muted dub basslines. The differences between Jirku's work and that of his influences may ultimately remain inconsequential; however, he's smart enough to recognize how to make a pretty good record. Within the 4 lengthy tracks of "Immaterial," Jirku gives each cut a considerable amount of time to develop within repetitive phrases of Chain Reaction metallic ambience, before introducing the simple 4/4 beat. The rhythmic thump, while nothing aimed at the dancefloor, is enough to set up a quiet drama against the filtered drone sequences, making for a solid album for the armchair techno enthusiast.
RealAudio clip: "Meson"
RealAudio clip: "Baryon"

JIRKU, TOMAS Sequins (Force Inc.) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Tomas Jirku's "Sequins" is the second album from this techno reconstructionist. For the past year or so, he's been posting his work online to receive comments, criticism, and advice from anybody whose wanted to give it to him. While his first album, "Variants", kept to a techno minimalism a la Mika Vainio and Vladislav Delay, he's been listening to a few too many house heads who've insisted that he inject more "soul" into his work. But instead of soul, he put a rod up his ass.

JIRKU, TOMAS Variants (Alien8 Recordings) cd 14.98
Tomas Jirku's "Variants" involves an interesting additive/subtractive process whereby Jirku would post one of his minimalist techno pieces online at www.notype.com for a period of time, then replace it with a new composition based on previous experiments... sorta like an ongoing remix project of his own material. "Variants" is his first proper album, collecting the best pieces to date from this continuing series. Each of these post-techno excursions vary from track to track, falling at times near the moodiest minimal techno of Carl Craig, then at times sounding like Vladislav Delay's dubbed out Chain Reaction hypnosis. Jirku's finishing touches and general minimalism also recall the frigidity of Mika Vainio's brilliant album "Metri". All in all, an excellent first album.