Melanie C
Melanie C

Pionneer album. in great shape !

*2022 2LP Version *Seven years after the classic ‘Theater of a Confused Mind’ (as Population One), Detroit techno phenomenon Terrence Dixon is back on Rush Hour with a new album, this time under his own name.It would be a massive understatement to say we’re proud of this one. After all our whole operation was named after one of Dixon’s early tracks (‘Rush Hour’ originally appeared on a double EP called ‘Hippnotic Culture’ on fellow Detroit legend Claude Young’s Utensil Records in 1995) and ‘Reporting from Detroit’ again finds the maestro in outstanding form.‘Reporting from Detroit’ is another prime example of the distinctly unique sound language Dixon has developed over the last three decades - defiant, forward-thinking afrofuturist techno that could only have been made in the Motor City. But this is not just mere Detroit techno - it’s a sound language that’s unique to Dixon. An instantly recognizable high-octane sonic language fueled by frantic funk that’s constantly pushing the boundaries of machine music without ever losing the connection to the magic of the Detroit streets at night.

great soul in this lp !!!!

Le Cliché - 7' single on clear vinyl on Polytechnic Youth Records, London.250 copies.Second of this June’s PY releases as another absolute gem; a killer double A side 45 on clear wax, again released as an edition of 250. This time from the mighty LE Cliché. “Production Line” with its (aptly timed) homage to Kraftwerk, and it’s flip, “Vicarious Life”, a tribute to the best of early 80’s minimal synth DIY cassette culture, (so revered and key to PY’s existence in the first place). Le Cliché is Barcelona-based, Limerick-born, Gerard Ryan; who studies consumers by day as professor of marketing at the Rovira & Virgili University, and writes music about consumer behaviour by night. Ryan released his first LP on Seattle’s finest independent label, Medical Records, in 2014. He followed that with a collaborations album on Barcelona's Cold Beats Records, which saw him work with some of his cult synth heroes such as Gay Cat Park, Mick Milk, Moss Garten, Mark Lane and Effetto Joule. After two further albums of songs about observations on consumers and academic life (“The Product is You” and “Look at my Powerpoint”), a support slot for Wolfgang Flür, a conference on the future of electric music- and a warm up for Andy McCluskey (omd), the Le Cliché sound evolved from clear crisp synth pop to more obscure, lo-fi, minimal synth. In 2018 he released “Nothing is Original” on Berlin’s Detriti Records, followed by 2019’s Post Plagiarism on Belfast’s Tonn Records. Ryan is also notable for his artwork, in particular the lavish limited editions he prepares of his music releases. In 2019 some of his work appeared in a V&A Museum exhibition at the National Museum in Belfast on 'The art of selling songs'. This new single on Polytechnic Youth places both sides of Le Cliché back to back, with the clean electronic, Kraftwerkian melodies of “Production Line” on one side and the colder, experimental, minimal synth of “Vicarious Life” on the flip.

Lowkey but pivotal Bristolian duo O$VMV$M supply No Corner with their first 12”, some 6 years after their debut ‘Memoryz Ov U’ in 2015Part of the sprawling but loose knit Young Echo collective, Amos Childs (Jabu) and Sam Barrett (Neek) have been in the shadows recently, producing for Manonmars and Rider Shafique, but ‘Weekend Saviour’ marks their sultry return to the fray via six slow and eazy downbeats in signature style. Chopped & screwed rap instrumentals, R&B, and dancehall inform the vibe, although skewed with a lilting South Western accent and perfectly skudgy, stoned appeal that oozes from every cut, working with a paucity of ingredients in an unshowy manner that’s made them clear favourites of red eyed night owls.The ghosts of Avon’s trip hop and heritage gloam large over proceedings, with perhaps obvious comparisons to be between Portishead and their dusty, creaking opener ’116 Greystoke,’ but there’s also something more fugged out to the likes of their dungeon bunkered title cut that’s more intimation, not imitation, as they pursue a perpendicular style of bluntedness between the slompy ‘Deathphone,’ plus the pastoral dancehall of ‘Bird Ride’ nodding to Equiknoxx, and an outstanding closer of cartoonish samples and groggy groove like a Metal Fingers meets Wiley screwball in ‘Codzilla Outro’ pointing to new angles of their sound.