A lot of things has happened this fall. There has been so many unbelievably good releases, and I’ve been to lazy to post anything. So here is a small digest. The best of the fall 09 (click the images for info and purchasable downloads):

The Clonious – One At a Time (feat. Muhsinah) (download)

Autopilot – She Says (RDubz RMX) (download)

Paul Frick – Would You (download)

FaltyDL – Pressure (download)

Antislash – Life Is A Bitch (download)

Luke Vibert – Belief File (download)

Tuneboxii – What You Make of It (download)

Besides all these beautiful releases, DR. Strangeloop has announced a new audiovisual lp (what is a audio visual lp btw?), which I am awaiting very impatiantly. I saw him VJ’ing for flying lotus in Copenhagen some months ago, and he blew my mind with his pixelated lunar landscapes and shit. Can’t wait for that one.

Chase & Status – Eastern Jam (Strangeloop Mix) (download)

Ciao a tutti, come al solito la mia è una lotta contro il tempo

Comunque a breve, spero, il post completo con il link al mixtape.

Per il momento è possibile riscoltare, per chi l’ha persa, la puntata di Ritmo del 7 novembre  http://bit.ly/27ByMw

Tracklist Ritmo 07.11.09

BLACKPOCKET – CYBORG
LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS – THESE MOMENTS
CHARMELS – AS LONG AS I’VE GOT YOU
JIMI TENOR/TONY ALLEN – SELFISH GENE
MR. CHOP – MAIN INGREDIENT
STONEY JACKSON – GET STARTED feat. Talib Kweli
BUSDRIVER – LEAST FAVORITE RAPPER (Anti Pop Cpnsortium remix)
LUKE VIBERT – WE HEAR YOU
TITA LIMA – ESQUIZOFEVRO (Fulgeance “Luv’N'Hate” Remix)
DANNY BREAKS & DJ ADLIB – THE SOUND
SHARP – MY LITTLE PONY
FALTY DL – DISCANT

I’ve talked about Wisp earlier on the jacket, but I still feel that he should have some more attention. He is the coolest thing since sliced bread. Especially his quite early, yet outstanding, virtual album In A Blue Face has been getting a lot of playtime in my flat for a while now. There are some really amazing tunes on it, and it’s really consistent throughout the entire album.
Here are a few tracks for you to sample Wisp’s insane talent.

Wisp – Daffodil (download)

By the way, if you happen to be in merry olde England by late September or early October, you could go and check his live gigs in either London or Manchester. He is playing a couple of Warp gigs with electronic mastodons Aphex Twin and Luke Vibert

kerrier district is the acid inspired alter ego of luke vibert. luke vibert has a crazy output of music and thus creates alter ego’s to suit each type of music, wether it be aciod houd, pure acid music, drum and bass or what have you.

kerrier district was the soundtrack for me a few years back when i was trying to find a job closer to l.a. peep below for a few more tracks.

Ωραίος και πάντα αυθεντικός, με νέο album ονόματι We Hear You (και τριπλό LP παρακαλώ!).

Εδώ στο “Receiver” που πολύ μου αρέσει.

I’m so tired at the moment I can’t be arsed to do shit. This is what a bit of music writing is like with no research, and very little effort, e.g. what people would actually like to write.

I know you’d have to be pretty blind not to reKognize the house revival recently, but really really, we feeling it?

Yeah we are, feeling it like a man with a hernia can feel his last three meals, that is. TOP 5 RECENT HOUSE RELATED FANTASTICNESS INCLUDE.

1. Luke Vibert album

This album is weird. It could easily be taken as sheer comedy, and it’s kind of hard to enjoy on first listen. BUT ENDURE, it’s worth it, and if you enjoyed his recent remix of Falty DL’s ‘Human Meadow’ you will love it.

2. Karizma’s ‘Groove A’K'Ordingly

This tune is heavy, but the remix by Simbad on the flip is even harder. Who is Simbad? His Brainfeeder mix has been my alarm clock for months, and everything i’ve heard by him is amazing.

3. Pearson Sound

Not straight house, but it’s definately THE NUTZ. Read!

4. Martyn tracks of unsure newness

Electric Purring and For Lost Relatives off the Aus music compilation release thing. Pretty heavy.

5. Anything Roska touches. Espesh his remix of N.B.Funky

Not too far detracting from the orig, but the orig was pretty basic. That’s why it hit so hard.

Maybe it’s just me, but after a long weekend, I always have a hard time getting going on Monday. I do a dance that consists of self-medicating with coffee (multiple cups) and contemplating calling in sick or uninterested. I read the news. I shuffle around the house. I think about all of the things I need to do today in the office. I am grumpy. This is everyone, right? (Nothing too special about this Monday morning shuffle, right?!)

However, one ritual that always eventually helps in motivating me is: Listening to old chill-out electronica (circa mid 90s). Can’t explain it, but it works. This morning I am listening to old Luke Vibert:

What do you wake up listening to? And do you find it varies depending on the day of the week?

Luke Francis Vibert y su estilo proveniente de diversas influencias que  licua dentro de su mente para crear su propia expresión nos trae un nuevo album titulado We hear you , ya con sus 2  albumes más influyentes Yoseph y Kerrier District nos tenía encandilados y esperando con ansias el tercero, pues bien en este disco ha abarcado más géneros aparte de su acostumbrado Ambient, dubstep, hip-hop, drum’n'bass  y acid house elevandole la consistencia  de muy buen corte idm, ya lo notaran cuando escuchen temas como “Pretty old acid music” o “hot stick”    

01 *Belief File 
02 We Hear You 
03 De-Pimp Act 
04 Hot Sick 
05 *Square Footage 
06 Batting For England 
07 *Pretty Old Acid Music 
08 Dive And Lie Wrecked 
09 *Computer Complex 
10 Porn Shirtwee 
11 House Stabs 
12 Marvellous Music Machine 
13 *Arrogance

Dale click  aquí para escuchar el preview del disco.

Descarga el album  aquí!

El Homovidens ::)

Some might claim that an artist who jumps from genre to genre is just trying to find themselves – but in the case of Luke Vibert i think it can truly be said genre is nothing but an artificial cage most other musicians confine themselves to. Known under many names like Wagon Christ, The Plug, Kerrier District or just plain Luke Vibert, he’s produced everything from drum and bass, disco, chill-out, trip-hop and acid house. I fell in love with a discoesque track of his Kerrier District album years ago but it wasn’t until a chance internet encounter with an Aphex Twin article that i really started to get an appreciation for his talent and range. Having toured together for the Big Day out in 2004, Luke and Richard’s relationship goes back much further – apparently they worked together on two projects which ended up being released solo by both artists. Luke’s was called ‘Lover’s Acid’, a great acid-synth romp akin to some old chemical brothers track with a more skittery drum beat; and Aphex Twin ended up releasing ‘Analord’. Analord was Vibert’s name but Aphex liked it and there was plenty of mutual respect bandying around the place. In honor of Mr. Vibert, one of my favorites among too many favorites to count – here’s a few samples…

I found this mix on NSB via the Allez Allez blog and it’s a belter, Luke Vibert rinsing it Ardcore style for the Bangface crew.

 Play VERY Loud !!!

http://www.allez-allez.co.uk/vibert.mp3

Shades of Rhythm – Homicidal
HHFD – Total Confusion
Blapps Posse – Don’t Hold Back
DHS – Number 9 Bad Acid
Mundo Muzique – Acid Pandemonium
White Label
White Label
Perfect Rhythm – Trip Into The Future
Friends of Matthew – The Calling
Ragga Twins – Wipe The Needle
Code 071 – Stand Together
Rum & Black – Wicked
After Dark – RAW
Hackney Hardcore – Dancehall Dangerous
White Label
White Label
Prodigy – Your Love
White Label
Ibiza – Music with a Beat
JJ frost – Pornography
Ghetto People – Static Substance
Jonny l – More Life
Higher Sense – Cold Fresh Air
N.U.T. 10 – Soundboy
Jonny L – Sam
Bizzy B – Check One
Remarc – Ice Cream and Syrup
Don of Dons – Babylon
Alec Empire – The Destroyer
Lowkey – Chopsticks
White Label
DJ SS – Rollers Convention pt.3l
White Label

Versione Sintetica: IDM ai massimi livelli + locale esagerato = serata garantita.

Versione Estesa: il KOKO (di fronte alla stazione metro Mornington Crescent sulla Northern Line) doveva essere in precedenza un teatro e ha conservato un’ottima acustica, l’interno è in stile barocco, pareti rosse e rifiniture oro, un buon palco, e varie balconate proprio come a teatro.. davvero beautiful place.

Gli artisti della serata organizzata dalla Warp si presentano in questo ordine:

- Grasscut: gruppo a me sconosciuto ma fanno una buona impressione, è una specie di folk elettronico IDM soft… non so se ci avete capito qualcosa, cmq il my space è qua, fateci un giro e capite, da tener d’occhio mentre si spera di trovare l’album da scaricare.

- Tim Exile: dopo averlo scoperto e subito preso in simpatica allo STRP, si conferma un grande nel suo campo, ripete in buona parte la stessa esibizione con pezzi tratti dall’ultimo album “Listening Tree”, sto parlando di Don’t Think We’re One, Carouselle e naturalmente il singolo di lancio Family Galaxy. Niente da aggiungere, belli i pezzi e bravo lui.

- Plaid: nome storico della Warp e “capi” della scena IDM (almeno così mi dicono), fanno un set che è al limite dell’ipnotismo mentale, io entro in questo labirinto musicale e ne esco solo a esibizione conclusa, visionari nella musica e nel risultato.

- Clark: altro grande nome, buttano lì un altro set con apertura “mentale” qualche stacco più fisico da ballare e forse verso la fine perdono un po’ la melodia e “svaccano” un attimo ma chiudono comunque bene. Bravi anche loro, sicuramente all’altezza della serata.

- Luke Vibert: causa malessere di un membro della comitiva e relativa indifferenza al laptop set già visto allo STRP decidiamo di saltarlo e uscire direttamente per tornare a casa.

Ripeto: IDM ai massimi livelli + ottimo locale = serata assicurata!

Milanese es un juego dentro de su escena, que es el dubstep. ¿Juego en qué sentido? Juego entendido como libertad para trastornar las normas del género en el que trabaja y salir con algo completamente diferente, que se identifica con el resto del gremio más por lejanía que por proximidad.

Milanese fue señalado, cuando publicó “1Up” en Warp –corría el año 2004; antes de eso había colado un maxi de orientación más 4×4 en el efímero y añorado subsello Arcola que fue su bautismo ante los aficionados a la electrónica con grosor–, como el Squarepusher del grime. El hombre tenía ramalazos drum’n’bass por entonces, pero lo que mejor se le daba era entrar a cuchillo en esa práctica amorfa que es la ‘bass music’ y reventar sus leyes y costumbres desde dentro y sin darle mucha importancia. Su receta era la clásica: incrementar la dosis, más ruido, bajos más obesos e inflados, brocha gorda. Cuando llegó el primer álbum propiamente dicho –“1Up” era un mini–, fue cuando no tuvimos más remedio que conceder a Steve Milanese el título de grande de la electrónica freak. “Extend” (Planet Mu, 2006) era palabras mayores: era grime con carga radioactiva (“Mr. Bad News”), era grime revolucionado e irónico (“Peggy Flynn III”), incluia aquella revisión de Various Production (“Caramel Cognac”) que iba de lo truculento a lo deliciosamente emo y, en definitiva, Milanese se consagraba como uno de esos francotiradores de la electrónica individualista a los que había que tener tan en cuenta como a veteranos como Luke Vibert.

“Lockout”, de entrada, no es tan espectacular como “Extend”, pero sí prolonga una manera de hacer que confirma un estilo Milanese. Él no va a rebufo de nadie; él decide cómo y cuándo hace las cosas, y lo cierto es que no se le puede compartimentar en ningún cajón preestablecido del mapa urban inglés. IDM la hay sólo en la intención experimental, meticulosa y deformadora de sus temas, y el dubstep es únicamente una excusa para sembrar el pánico: para él sólo resulta útil el bajo como material punzante, y los tensa tanto como la cuerda de un arquero; allá por donde se pisa, cada subgrave estalla con la virulencia de una bomba de racimo. El grime está más cerca por ética –producciones rasposas y futuristas, rastros de guarrería post-digital aplicados a bases rítmicas para rapear, cantar o echar la pota–, pero también hay algo de ragga y dancehall, como si “Lockout” fuera una versión oscura y autista del “London Zoo” de The Bug. Y lo que tiene éste disco también es que cuesta verlo como un LP, ya que su fundamento está en la colaboración y el remix, sin ser un disco de remezclas ni de colaboraciones. O sea, que empieza con un tema de Al Haca (“Baby Blue Remix”) en el que escupen efluvios ragga RQM y Oliver Grimball, y que Milanese decide remezclar especialmente para el disco, como si ese fuera su lugar natural. Lo mismo ocurre con los padrinos del vetusto sonido bleep (“Take this Love”, remix para Unique 3), y a la inversa, Milanese permite que gente como Booty Cologne le remezcle “The End”, y la operación es como meter un maxi, o dos, dentro del álbum, todo a bulto. De hecho, en Planet Mu lo describen como “doble EP”, pero en realidad debería ser triple o cuádruple.

Está hecho muy a bulto “Lockout”. Es un disco sin estructura, pero con forma: las versiones de los tracks están tan bien ordenadas, tan estratégicamente alejadas unas de otras –la toma vocal de “B Sharpa” está en la pista 9; la instrumental en la 12, y el remix en la 4–, que no se tiene la sensación de estar escuchando un refrito, un reciclaje. Entre medias aparecen tóxicos cortes nuevos, como “Fun With Robots”, “Wonderful World” o “The End”, e incluso de “The End” luce otra remezcla pausada, inquietante, un descanso en la jaqueca continua que significa el todo, a cargo de ese emergente científico del dubstep llamado Untold. Cruce de “Extend” y “Adapt” –el mini álbum de remixes que publicó Planet Mu en 2007–, “Lockout” es un potaje, pero un potaje nutritivo y muy reconstituyente, con sus garbanzos, su caldo espeso y, por supuesto, su chorizo, porque vaya morro se gasta Milanese.  

Aparentemente, todo lo que rodea a FaltyDL consiste en un derroche de estilo. Se llama Drew Lustman, vive en Nueva York y trabajó, en sus años jóvenes, de amasador de sushi para un restaurante al que iba la gente guapa. Cuando abandonaba el restaurante, también por no perder otras habilidades, lo que amasaba eran breaks escupidos a ritmo de metralleta en su home studio, un apartamento diminuto con el ordenador, máquinas y el sueño de, algún día, figurar entre la plana mayor de la electrónica, junto a su querido Squarepusher: “Beat Lumber” (Unfun Records, 2007), uno de esos discos tan raros y limitados que para escucharlo hay que rastrearlo durante días en Spotify, tiene poco que ver con éste que ahora entrega a Planet Mu para lanzar a lo grande una carrera en la IDM. Aquél era un ejercicio de jungle estrepitoso, algo primitivo y tirando a bestia, en el que se intuía que Lustman había escuchado mucho a Tom Jenkison, y a ratos también a Venetian Snares. Le atraía, posiblemente, la velocidad como forma rápida de causar impacto. Sólo consiguió ser uno más en el montón del breakcore.

Pero, aparentemente, todo lo que rodea ahora a FaltyDL consiste en un derroche de estilo, y “Love Is A Liability” es un álbum con un particular toque de elegancia. Por ejemplo, si a quien observa le gustan las mujeres de ayer, la mirada puede solazarse en una portada –y una contra, y unas imágenes interiores– atiborradas de pin-ups de los años sesenta, de hembras con poses eróticas y vestidas sólo de bragas y sostén, enseñando muslo. Y en el momento en que suena el disco, el estilo se vuelve a percibir en la manera de componer y producir que tiene este FaltyDL rampante, elegante, felizmente en su sitio.

Está  claro que es uno de los hombres del año. No sólo por este álbum, sino por la ristra de maxis que está publicando –de momento, uno en Ramp Recordings, “To London”, y otro de remezclas del tema inicial de este LP, “Human Meadow”, en Planet Mu, con la participación de Luke Vibert, m-Ziq y Boxcutter–. Estamos ante el típico clásico del artista que, sin esperárselo, alcanza su momentum y todo le cuadra. El gran acierto de Drew Lustman habría estado, a tenor de los resultados, en olvidarse del drum’n’bass tosco y en relajarse –tanto de tempo como de cuerpo– en busca de una cadencia más propia del UK Garage. Es muy similar este “Love Is A Liability” a los dos últimos discos del que ahora es su compañero de sello, Boxcutter: ambos construyen fantasías rítmicas a partir de breaks complejos en los que se percibe un freno a la velocidad, y a en los que, abriéndoles el espacio, entra aire e iluminación. FaltyDL practica una IDM sexy, con interés estético por el pasado, en el surco del vinilo resuenan el drum’n’bass arty, el primer dubstep de El-B y Hatcha, y la voluntad de pronfundidad emocional en las texturas de un Burial.

Drew Lustman no es un talento puro. Su música parece que nazca de la imitación, de quedarse con la copla de lo que está haciendo otra gente a la que lleva tiempo siguiendo la pista –sería el suyo otro caso Mount Kimbie–, y aún así es difícil tildarlo de copión, porque el disco suena suyo: aunque sus breaks y los de Boxcutter parezcan próximos, FaltyDL tiene un fondo más IDM, de latigazos melódicos y texturas muy estudiadas, y a su manera ha creado su microescena, aquella en la que por ahora sólo está él o estaría Wagon Christ si Wagon Christ hubiera querido hacer garage alguna vez. Cuando parece que “Love Is A Liability” da menos de lo que parece, el paso del tiempo va diciendo que es un disco diferente, especial y duradero. No llega a obra maestra por los pelos.

Haven’t updated the blograg recently, so I thought I would post a little round up of the various things me been listening to.

Big mixtapes, or if you feel the need to abbreviate – BIGTAPES! Each and every day. This is how I live my life. One of the biggest recently was Jackmaster’s Wireblock mix for WIRE. Jackmaster literally dicks on so many other DJs right about now. Nobody comes close to his selection or his rapid skills on a serato set-up. Makes me want to cry, somebody give him a radio show!

Oneman’s recent show with man like Brackles was also a delight. Best thing about this. Was that I was listening to it on my bike the other day and during the epic break of Something In Your Eyes I overtook some knob in one of those raw halfords spandex get-ups. It was real epic. I felt like a club rep fucking his first tourist of the summer season after that one.

Purchases wise it doesn’t get a lot better than Nosaj Thing’s album. The tracklist should read something like 1. Showah Riddim 2. Fiyah Riddim 3. Powah Riddim … etc.

THIS Luke Vibert remix is straight heat. It’s kind of rubbish that this remix 12″ came out before all of Falty DL’s own stuff though. Mainly because I want it so so bad.

Oh, and for the spotify. It has to be MJ Cole – Sincere. I can’t believe MJ Cole is playing Glastonbury, I couldn’t be happier.

In letzter Zeit habe ich mehr und mehr eine Reise in die Vergangenheit unternommen. Angekommen bin ich beim Acid. Ich hatte lange keine solche Musik mehr gehört und bin mir derzeit in keinster Weise bewusst wie es dazu kam. Mein Acidheld war von je her Luke Vibert. Und in folgendem Track zeigt sich warum:

This week’s mix is a small collection of tracks that I’ve been enjoying for years, well all except for track #4. It’s rather new to me. It comes from an experimental electronic album entitled Moog Acid (2007) by Jean Jacques Perry & Luke Vibert. You can snag a copy of it here.

The Flaming Lips, AIR, & Johnny Greenwood were all introduced to me during high school through my friends in Pilotdrift. And well ole John Coltrane, he just sneaks in where he ought to.

:::DOWNLOAD Friday Feel Mix 33:::

Tracklist:
1. The Flaming Lips – “What Is the Light?”
2. Johnny Greenwood – “Trench”
3. John Coltrane – “Countdown”
4. Jean Jacques Perry & Luke Vibert – “Schwing”
5. AIR – “Electronic Performers”
6. Pilotdrift – “Bubblecraft”

————————————————————————————————————————–

You’ll probably have noticed the lack of entries over the last few days. There are two reasons for this unacceptable failure. First, I have a load of exams coming up that I need to study for. Yes, I have exams. At the age of thirty. (Here’s to poor choices!)

Second, I’ve really only been listening to my excellent new The Complete Motown Singles box set for the last few days (volume 10: 1970), and while it’s fantastic, I don’t know that that’s really suitable material for an entry here en bloc, unless I was going to start talking about individual songs or something. And since there’s about 130 songs on there, excluding the various promos and alternate mixes, that could take a while. I haven’t really decided what to do about that yet.

But today I’ve been listening to this instead, which is rather more manageable.

Jean Jacques Perrey is a true electro pioneer. A former accordion player who took up electronic music, Perrey was the inventor of an early analogue synthesizer, the Ondioline, in the late Fifties. He collaborated with Gershon Kingsley (who would later write Popcorn) on two bizarre early synth-pop albums, 1966’s The In Sound From Way Out! and its follow-up, Kaleidoscopic Vibrations: Spotlight on the Moog, one of the first pop records to make heavy use of the new Moog synthesizer. Nowadays, I find a lot of this early stuff is somewhat difficult to listen to. Perrey has an ability to produce weird, other-worldly sounds and some excellent tunes, but is equally happy to noodle about making plinky-plonky lift muzak which doesn’t need to be listened to a second time. His reputation today rests largely on his incredible 1970 single E. V. A. which is all kinds of fantastic. You’ve almost certainly heard on some advert or other, or on one of the many, many records which have sampled it.

A digression.

This album makes me think of Johnny Cash. Now, Johnny Cash is awesome, you already know this. But he was always in need of an editor, a guiding hand, someone to filter out the pap; someone to separate the ferocious, heartfelt, darkly-humorous stuff, the extraordinary wheat, from the throwaway chaff. (“Extraordinary Wheat” is a great name for a band, now that I think about it.)

Cash’s career was fraught with pitfalls for today’s listener; primarily a country artist, he knocked out a lot of perfunctory covers of standards, and often tended towards the whitebread or the cloyingly religious; consequently, there are a lot of naff records in there, and modern best-ofs tend to whitewash this side of the man in favour of what might best be termed “the cool stuff”. Now, I have no problem with Cash or anyone else making overtly religious pop music, as long as it’s done with full-on conviction; I like his Spiritual a great deal, for instance, because I like to listen to people really going for it, whatever it is they happen to be going for.

I like to think Rick Rubin recognised this when he brought Cash in from the wilderness to make American Recordings. The album isn’t shatteringly different from the best stuff he’d been doing since the Seventies; it’s just a matter of having a good editor. Rubin knew what was cool about Johnny Cash, knew that guy was still in there, the guy who’d convincingly boasted about how he shot a man in Reno just to watch him die, the funny, self-deprecating author of Cash, and played up that side of him, at the expense of cheesy MOR country pap with fiddles and religious platitudes and right-wing patriotism. This supposedly alienated much of his country fanbase, presumably because his country fanbase were retarded, but resulted in a superb record (and then four more of them). Rubin’s approach seems to have been – based on the evidence of the Unearthed box set – to strip away unnecessary bells and whistles, let Cash record whatever songs he wanted with his guitar and his pickup band for accompaniment, and then to get together and pick out the best ones, gently guiding Cash away from cheesy standards and towards the gold. (A similar approach to another one-time rebel drowning in MOR fondue resulted in Rubin masterminding Neil Diamond’s best album for 273 years.)

Some readers might be a little confused by now. Wasn’t this entry about Jean Jacques Perrey? Why have I spent several paragraphs going on about Johnny Cash? Because this album, Moog Acid, is the electro equivalent of American Recordings, and Luke Vibert is Perrey’s Rick Rubin.

Luke Vibert is a Cornish DJ/producer with several excellent albums of what’s best described as uptempo ambient techno to his name; I highly recommend Lovers’ Acid and Chicago, Detroit, Redruth. He’s also the producer and arranger of this album. It’s a perfect collaboration; Vibert’s own brand of techno, heavily influenced by Seventies analogue electro records (most noticeably and overtly by Kraftwerk), often slips into the silly and the analogue, and so Perrey and Vibert are a natural pairing, a match made in heaven.

The extent to which one is more responsible for Moog Acid than the other isn’t really clear; the opening Intro, before it speels off into a delirious downward spiral of analogue beats, begins with both of them introducing themselves to the listener by giving some basic CV information (at the same time, one in one speaker, the other in the other), including listing their occupations. Vibert describes himself as a “composer and producer of music”, while Perrey noticeably omits the producer part, calling himself simply “composer of music”.

Further, once all the introductions have been made, Perrey continues on alone: “The name of this project is Moog Acid. Moog Acid means a lot of work for Luke putting the sounds together and making this fantastic music, and a lifetime for me to record these sounds one by one.”

From this, it’s easy to envisage a situation where the octogenarian Perrey simply provided some noodling muzak Moog loops for Vibert to craft into songs; certainly, Moog Acid sounds nothing like Perrey’s early records. It doesn’t really sound that much like Vibert’s own records either, though, and if it’s hard to imagine Perrey turning his hand to something so vibrant, it shouldn’t be forgotten just how much E.V.A. fucking rocks, never mind it being made 40 years ago. So, given the choice, I choose to believe that Jean-Jacques is still switched on, and that he was an equal partner in making this album. Whatever the truth is, I suppose it doesn’t really matter; this is a fine, fine record.

The second track, Schwing, complete with its silly jokey title, might send people running from the record for fear of it being a lot of knowing ironic studenty toss, but in fact it’s wonderful – that jokey title is simply an acknowledgement that yes, this draws from basic sounds that are a bit like 70s porn party music, and now that’s out of the way the song ignores the silliness and just gets down to the floaty, sexy music. It’s redolent of louche, sexy Seventies electro, without ever quite slipping into pastiche, and it’s really, really lovely. Probably the best song here, it’s not really what the rest of the album is about, but it’s the perfect summation of the best bits of both Luke and Jean-Jacques’ own records, and I love it to bits.

Analog Generique, track three, comes complete with another knowing title. It opens like early Broadcast before a rollercoaster of beats come rocking in; it’s not generic analog, but it’s the closest any song on this album comes to sounding like Vibert’s solo records; further, it’s probably better than any of those, as though this partnership did as much for Vibert’s creativity as Perrey’s credibility. It’s eminently danceable and very fine.

From here on in, things take a somewhat stranger turn. The nastier, dirtier beats and grooves of Dream 106, replete with sitar and a recurring sample of Perrey’s voice (“My favourite colour is blue, the colour of planet Earth from space. My favourite dream is to dream that I am dreaming”), take a few moments to come back to more comfortable analog synth territory, the two elements eventually coming to some sort of groovy ceasefire. Then there’s a phenomenally fucked-up version of Frère Jacques, festooned with singing babies and Donald Duck vocal noises, which is like a sort of theoretical collaboration between Autechre and N-Trance (does anyone remember either of those?), accidentally commissioned by some sort of Satanic clerical error to make a children’s record. It’s completely unexplained, very silly and yet completely earnest at the same time, and it’s almost hypnotic in its simplicity, a genuine “why didn’t I think of doing that?” moment.

A brief comedy interlude – the deranged JJPLVDNB, sounding like something from Kaleidoscopic Vibrations directly remixed by Vibert in drum ‘n’ bass style – threatens to derail proceedings in favour of the silly, before we get back on track with Ye Olde Beatbox, which opens with muffled beats and Tangerine Dream clouds of Moog noise before settling into another hypnotic groove. There are moments here – moments lasting just for a couple of seconds, but definitely glimpsed, as out of the corner of your eye – where this sounds like the genuine continuation of a long-abandoned thread, an avenue of musical exploration given up as a dead end thirty years ago in the quest to develop tomorrow’s electro sound.

Vision For The Future is kind of a companion piece to Ye Olde Beatbox; where the latter is soft, relaxing, intriguing, playful, Vision For The Future is confrontational, harsh, conceptual. If Ye Olde Beatbox is the record Kraftwerk might have made after Autobahn, Vision For The Future is what they should sound like now, a perfectly plausible glimpse of what might have happened straight after Tour De France Soundtracks. It’s as compelling as that makes it sound – I mean that literally. If you’re someone who wants to hear what the record after Tour De France Soundtracks would have sounded like, this is for you. Otherwise, it’ll probably leave you cold.

The closing stretch of the album moves from the shimmering Messy Hop – Perrey’s waves of analogue sounds set to a hip hop beat, rather than a straight electro pattern as on much of the rest of the LP – through another straight “remix”, White Knight (Black In The Day), which again like JJPLVDNB just sounds like Vibert doing a remix job on one of Perrey’s “proper” records, and is far less interesting than the songs which surround it, and then on to the all-but-closer You Moog Me, which turns out to be one of the best songs on the record. It’s as if Perrey had signed to Motown (hey, full circle!) and made a gorgeous, lush, expansive pop-hop song which can’t even be ruined by the strident “Clap your hands!” chanting which comes in at one minute and threatens to mess it up; it somehow turns into a bewildering example of Seventies stylophone analogue hip-hop, a brand new genre I just made up that seems to have been invented on this record. It ends with walls of discordant pianos before the “Clap your hands!” guy remarks “The record is over”, and it is – the *actual* closer, Outro, is six seconds long and consists of Perrey’s manipulated voice saying “moog acid” again.

What to make of this? It’s the most interesting album either Vibert or Perrey has yet made. (Oh, I should note here – the cover art is spectacularly stupid. It’s a set of perfect, tiny scale models of early analogue synth equipment, but you can’t tell by looking at it – there’s no indicator of scale, unlike the inner booklet where someone’s gargantuan fingers creep into frame, so the front cover just looks like an unremarkable moodily-lit photo of the real thing. (Or – ha ha – Moog-ily lit. Oh ho ho ho ho, I do make myself laugh sometimes). Anyway, they’re idiots, because this would have had some of the best cover art ever if only they’d put a normal-sized object on there. I digress. Again.)

I should say, it’s the most interesting album either Vibert or Perrey has yet made, or sounds that way at the moment. Here’s the thing: Audiences’ tastes, popular tastes, are transitory things. Right at this moment, it sounds as though Perrey needed Vibert’s guiding hand to create a truly remarkable record, largely free of inconsequential noodling fluff, just as Vibert probably needed something like this collaboration (with a man he refers to as a living legend in the liner notes, no less) to focus his talents. But it may not always sound that way. So many mid-80s records are ruined, to my ears, by slick, soulless production, when at the time that sound was the last word in modern credibility. Just as the time might come around when American Recordings‘ sparse earnestness falls out of favour, so the time might come around when Moog Acid sounds like good ideas swimming in a sea of unnecessarily programmed 2008 production, and Luke Vibert will be blamed for ruining the album. Who knows? Right now, though, to me, right now, this sounds fantastic.