Concentric Pleasures is a blog column dedicated to the best in electronic singles: house, techno, their cousins and offspring. Named in honor of vinyl's grooves, it's a weekly roundup of new releases and back-catalog finds.
Alex Ridha's Boysnoize label has just announced its first compilation, the unobtrusively titled BNR Vol. 1. This is welcome news, and not just because it's always fun to see where Paul Snowden (of "Wasted German Youth" and "Minimal My Ass" fame) will take his Futura Bold theme and variations next. (In terms of graphic design, Boysnoize is sort of like the maximal-techno equivalent of Perlon.)
Ridha (who records as Boys Noize) and his label often get lumped in with Ed Banger and their ilk, largely for his fondness for overdriven synthesizers, and the way he makes his tracks seem to heave like a bellows, sucking all the air out of the room with every yawning chord. But Ridha, who hails from Hamburg and lives in Berlin, has a more purist dance-floor instinct than many of his peers: Chicago house and grinding German techno play significant roles in his music, which is as minimalist in its structure as it is maximalist in its attitude. The compilation is due out September 29; read on for some Boys Noize-related highlights to listen to now.
This song, by Gianluca Pandullo (aka I-Robots), initially appeared in 2004 on Italy's Elettrica label, along with a rather confusingly titled set of versions by Oxtongue and UND. (Records like this, that effectively moot the idea of an "original," are the very essence of techno.) Boysnoize picked it up in 2006, adding remixes from Boys Noize and Kid Alex. The excellent "Pandullo vs. Und" remix, retained from the original pressing, is included on BNR Vol. 1, but you can hear it here now. A delirious interplay of synthesizers bleeping in loping, three-against-four rhythms, the song is overlaid with a stony, mantra-like chorus that reminds me of an even chillier Gina X. (Check her incredible "No G.D.M." to compare.) While it doesn't sound similar, I can't help but think that "Frau" (which originally came packaged with songs titled "Spacer" and "Spacer Woman") must be somehow connected to Charlie's "Spacer Woman," available here on Afterhours 3: Global Underground. (The video really must be seen to be believed.)
True to his name, Berlin's Housemeister—a semi-translation of "hausmeister," or building superintendent—keeps the plumbing running clean with tracks that are all about the purity of essence. "Need Cash," also included on the comp, is all percolating precious bodily fluids—veins pumping, heart in mouth with every stressed back-beat—as a computer voice describes how he'll rip off family, neighbors and even the dog in search of a fistful of green. ("That would be ok, right?") For sounding so money obsessed, Housemeister, whose discography includes a slew of records for Bpitch Control and his own All You Can Beat, is a remarkably economical producer, stripping everything back to adrenaline and empty space. (Combined with Simian Mobile Disco's "Hustler", an ode to shoplifting from record stores, one wonders if the recession isn't finally finding its way into popular music.)
A bit like Bpitch's Modeselektor—whom he's remixed—Sirismo sidesteps both the 4/4 doldrums and Ed Banger bombast with a technique that gets its rhythmic inspiration from dancehall and Timbaland. His Boysnoize album, Diskoding, plays it straighter, highlighting Italo-disco arpeggios, filter disco samples and unruly sawtooth synthesizers. (At times, he sounds like a cross between the Environ and Areal labels—a neat trick, when you think about it.) But check out his excellent remix of Jahcoozi's "Double Barrel Name" to see how far he can stretch funk to its rubbery limits.
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
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