I have been a subscriber to Groove magazine for 5 years now, and it’s the only magazine that has survived with me since the mid-nineties rave age. I absolutely recommend it. It’s in your mailbox always a few days before the official sale, and you got a cool compilation on top of all. So let’s have a look at the current comp, N° 67 from issue number 158.
Benedict Rugar is the designer of the cover this time. “Rugar creates a fantastic panopticon with his drawings, shaped by absurd looking characters and his abysmal humor.” There is nothing to add. His top drawer list of clients include the New York Times, the Gestalten Verlag, Berghain, Watergate, and of course Groove magazine.
TRACKLIST
01. “Always Crashing” – Acre
02. “Hope” – Red Axes
03. “What You Won’t Do For Love” – Junior Boys
04. “Nuiton” – Flashback feat. Diel
05. “Wither” – Man Power
06. “Wasteland” – Delta Funktionen
07. “Lets Do It” – Nina Kraviz
08. “Line Up Meltdown” – Paranoid London
09. “Front Load” – Arca
10. “Moving’ Out” – Project Pablo
The starter is “Always Crashing” by Acre, a beautiful collage of samples as well as deep and wonderfully melodious sounds. You will be completely ready and curious to dive into the mix after this opening.
“It’s All True” from 2011 was the last album of the Junior Boys, now they are back with “Big Black Coat”. Borrowed from that is a cover of the 1978 soul track “What You Will not Do For Love” by Bobby Caldwell, probably his best-known hit. The boys succeed with creating an airy synth-, almost pop song that contains a playful lightness and at the same time stirs the desire to delve deeper into this world of sonority.
“Wither” from Man Power is my personal highlight. Acid meets the horn section, all based on a foundation of deep bass. An uplifting track.
Than the mood changes, “Waste Land” of delta functions walks gloomy and apocalyptically into the room. The slow synthetic bassline reminds me a little of Daft Punk’s “The Grid” (Tron Legacy Soundtrack) – dark monk chants trek slowly through deep space and create an incredible tightness that dissolves in a deep dance track.
The next well-known artist is Nina Kraviz. Her track “Let’s Do It” in one word? – Hypnotic. A tension is built very slowly with repetitive vocals and this typical techno arp synth, which is finally unloaded with the use of the second and much heavier kick drum.
The next song reveals the humor of the compilation creator, “Line Up Meltdown” from Paranoid London with mutado Pintado. “Whats going on here?” you will ask yourself. Has an early and never released track of the 2Live Crew found its way on this Mix CD? Paranoid London demonstrated on their debut album its great handling of the Roland classics 303 & 909, everything combined with vocals that perfectly embraces these minimal structures. Here, however, they kick over the traces. And they work it out.
If you know Arcas style a bit, it is not difficult to identify him with his track “Front Load”. A very nice and harmonious track in contrast to his quite experimental stuff, which is able to convince in its brevity. Of course a little glitch here and there, otherwise it would not be Arca.
The final “Moving Out” from Project Pablo of course is the perfect outro, title and mood fit exemplary. You are led jazzy and uptempo to the exit.
Conclusion: An supremely felicitous compilation. Beside all the great pieces of known and lesser known artists, its the perfectly structured story that satisfies, running through in an excellent manner.
