Haven't You Heard returns after a brief hiatus, with another grab bag of recent tunes from alternative club culture, the North West scene and beyond. What can we say? There's been a lot of music released in the past month, and this is definitely some of it.
High Places - Barnt (E-Mix)
Jamie XX’s album might have split opinion between the 6Music/’serious dance heads’ earlier in the summer, but nobody could really deny the power of lead single ‘High Places’, one of two collaborations between himself and fellow xx bandmate, Romy. A sunset primed festival anthem laced with bittersweet euphoria, it's now been remixed by an impressive collection of producers including Matthew Herbert, Paul Woolford in his pounding Special Request guise, and John Talabot, whose slow burning ‘Loud Synths Reconstruction’ has arguably garnered the most attention thus far. But it’s the typically clinical German producer Barnt who surprises most, allowing the fragile vocals of Romy to speak for themselves before producing another of his deeply satisfying industrial basslines, reinterpreting the original into something both heartbreaking and fist pumping.
Life’s Track - Call It You
Combining house, breakbeat, soul and techno Life’S Track (note the all important capital S) is the collaborative project of Italian producers Duwka and Herva, in their own words, producing based on a futuristic and freestyle ethos. Their debut LP, Venere, out now on the very Italian sounding Bosconi Records, certainly zips through styles and tempos with abandon, but hits it’s peak with the gritty but soulful ‘Call It You’. Arguably one to capture that last shot of energy when the lights come up.
Gwenno - Patriaceth (Ewan Pearson Mix)
Calling all fans of politically minded, native language Welsh psychedelia and folk, your moment on the dancefloor has arrived. Ewan Pearson, one of the UK’s finest producers, remixers and theorists, turns out a groovy, rolling rework of ‘Patriacaeth’ from this year’s absorbing if not somewhat beguiling Gwenno LP ‘Y DYDD OLAF’ (In Welsh: The Last Day). For any other producers who fancy tackling it, there’s also some Cornish spoken word on the album. Come on, let’s push things forward.
Cervo - No Nna
One of the two lead DJs at one of the North’s finest regular parties, Banana Hill, Cervo has only recently and cautiously turned his ears to production and edits. Any nerves need not have been necessary, however, as his acute understanding of the dancefloor has leant itself to a series of delicate, tasteful edits. It’d be easy to imagine the likes of former Banana Hill guest Giles Peterson rolling out the bubbling ‘No Nna’ in a DJ set. It’s one of two Cervo productions available from Sheffield clubnight Thrillhouse, who’ve knocked up the second edition in a series of free edits and productions from a new school of DJs associated with the city. You can find that, here.
James Booth - Unknown (A2)
James Booth’s Unknown (A2) is perhaps the highlight from another recent, vinyl only compilation, this time from zeitgeisty Berlin label Nous. Confidently melting slowly, subtly and with no small measure of melancholy, like the last Cornetto of the summer, the track’s been picked up by cult selectors such as Jeremy Underground Paris, who reckons it’s “the best piece of deepness I’ve heard in a while”. And who are we to argue? Given the hi-NRG, hands in the air, classic house chaos that Paris tends to conjure in clubs each weekend, we can only assume he consciously spends Monday to Friday living as deep as possible, possibly within a subterranean network of tunnels he’s slowly dug of his own accord.
Damon Jee - Cuir Rouge
Manchester clubbers of the disco and house oriented variety will likely be familiar with the sounds and sets of Chris Massey, a regular at sweaty spots such as Homoelectric, and soundtracking the carefree beach clubs at festivals such as Electric Elephant. As well as repping Paper Recordings, responsible for this summer’s Weatherall approved Flash Atkins album, he’s now started his own, digital only label, Sprechen. The initial release comes from Damon Jee, and promises to “make your dopamine levels boil over.” You can hear the supremely wiggy 'Cuir Rouge' below.
Percussions - Digital Arpeggios
Four Tet continues his run of delightful releases under his Percussions alias with ‘Digital Arpeggios’, a tune that’s been kicking around in DJ sets from the man himself, as well as the aforementioned Jamie XX for some time now. While on his recent ‘Day/Night’ LP recorded under his usual title, Kieran Hebden exhibited his ability to draw out incredibly complex ideas from a single sample, Digital Arpeggios somewhat reverses that process. Instead, an incredibly catchy and beautifully simple melody unfolds slowly, effectively resolves over five minutes or so, and then (spoiler), returns again, this time accompanied by a massive kick.
