EP Review: Horizon EP - EJECA

​Garry McCartney unleashes three tracks of 90s influenced dance on this new EP through Needwant under the pseudonym EJECA. Growing up in Belfast McCarthy's entry into dance music came through the house and garage popular at the time - a fact clearly evident on his new EP.

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EJECA - Horizon​

'Horizon' sounds like mid-nineties garage - tracks like Roy Davis Jr's 'Gabriel', released before the concept of a UK version of New York's "Garage" was even a concept. The bass is raw and hollow sounding, the vocals pitched slightly up and samples tweaked to perfection. If you were there at the time it's hard not to feel a twinge of nostalgia - you can almost smell the smoke machine kick in. On the flip side 'Dazed' is deeper but equally inspired by the recent past. Progressive keys build a gentle tension before a snappy house beat and driving chords.

Final track 'See Through You' is actually the most contemporary of the three, influenced as much by dubstep as 90s garage and house. The beats are more complex yet softer, the bass deeper but more rounded and the vocals submerged in layers of noise. It contrasts well to the immediacy of Horizon's opening in being a little less obvious.

Horizon is released through Needwant on Monday, available for pre-order on MP3 from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].​

EP Review / Download: Shell - Ursa Minor (Little Bear)

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​Shell - Ursa Minor (Bear)

​Ursa Minor's new EP opens with the warm and featherlight title track 'Shell'. It's a dreamlike pop record with a slight Eastern influence and a rave sensibility. Vocalist Little Bear's vocals are slightly Björk like - similar to the worldly operatic vocals wrapped in lush electronics that made much of Début so good. It feels all too brief at a little over five-minutes but it is immediately worth this EP's ticket price.

Much of what remains is in juxtaposition to that opening song. 'Ha!' features thick, chunky bass and short, sharp drum beats. The vocals remain extravagent but the wobbly bass, 'Blue Monday'-esque drums and acid patterns are from an entirely different place.

'WTF Is Love' is similarly heavy and thick with acid whilst 'Wild Flowers' is closer to the EP's opening; whilst it is less dark it lacks the lightness and rave influences of 'Shell'. Ular Gray's Bearhouse Dub of 'Shell' rounds the EP out with a reduced, minimal take - deep basslines and cut up vocals transform the track into something nearing IDM. It retains the tracks core appeal but lacks the same immediacy.

Check out the dark Ular Gray ​mix of 'Shell' below via the Soundcloud stream - there is the option to download it too if you like what you here:

Shell is released on 1 October, you can pre-order it from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 here [affiliate link].​

Album Review: Another "Bugged Out" Mix & "Bugged In" Selection - Erol Alkan

Erol Alkan encapsulated the spirit of the times back at the beginning of the last decade, a period when dance music seemed to fracture - trance got harder, house became more and more commercial. Supermarkets were overrun with 'funky house' compilations and trance CDs emblazoned with nightclub logos that had long since ceased to properly exist.

Honest music played with a guitar seemed to get a lot cooler. The Strokes and The White Stripes proved that rock music could still be interesting. Even in their fairly  derivative approaches they were still, you know, good. A void was left in dance music, and into that stepped the movement that ultimately triggered this blog - acts like 2 Many DJs played music for dancing that rocked harder and was far cooler than anything played by bands live.

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Another "Bugged Out" Mix & "Bugged In" Selection - Erol Alkan

The London night Trash, hosted at The End, became a key location in this transformation of electronic music. Within Trash you would find Erol Alkan spinning records by !!!, hosting gigs by a fledgling LCD Soundsystem and wearing skinny Batman tees.

But one thing you wouldn't generally find Erol doing is releasing mix albums in the supermarket. Or anywhere in fact. For some reason he seemed to be opposed to them, only ever releasing two - one as a cover CD to long defunct dance mag Muzik and one for the club night / cultural institution Bugged Out.

That last mix album was released in 2005 and now, seven years later, we have a follow up. Like the original this is an album of two halves - one disc is 'Bugged Out' (i.e. a dance mix) and the other 'Bugged In' (at home, chilled listening).

Other than that not all that much has changed. The first set is pretty strong - crunchy techno fused with grimey electro - but it could almost have been released in 2005 itself. Maybe that says more about electronic music than anything. There is the occasional nod to how things have changed - Scuba's warm, loved-up, soulful dubstep epic 'Never', for example, and Factory Floor's excellent (but also rapidly aging) 'Two Different Ways'.

There is still plenty to love - particularly Jimmy Edgar's scarily passive-aggressive rant 'This One's For The Children' and Erol's own dowdy post-punk-techno closer 'Forever Dolphin Love'.

The last time Erol released his Bugged Out compilation it was actually the laid back 'Bugged In' set that kept us coming back, and here it remains the one that is likely to age the best. It is little more than a standard collection of obscure left field tracks gently massaged together but Alkan can sure pick them - his music collection must be quite a thing. So from Jan Hammer Group's psychedelic soul opening 'Don't You Know' Erol barely misplaces a step.

Jai Paul's 'Jasmine' demo is disconcertingly claustrophobically sexy, throbbing bass and faint vocals seemingly calling out through the locked door. The synth line comes in more than halfway through like a chainsaw - it's a pretty much perfect pop record. Space Dimension Controller's 'The Love Quadrant' is equally funky - dense and filtered but nowhere near as creepy. Things end with the gentle jazz influenced 'Soaring and Boring' by Plush, a fittingly decadent end with an audible hum as the record stylus reaches the inside track.

Regardless of what you think of the passing of time since Erol's last compilation you can't really deny the quality of music here, nor the mixing. If you were a fan then, I would wager you still are now.

Another "Bugged Out" Mix & "Bugged In" Selection is out now, the full thing is available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, hiighlights on LP and the "Bugged Out" Mix is on MP3 [affiliate links].

EP Review: Love Somebody Else - Maceo Plex & Jon Dasilva

​Every new release from Maceo Plex these days sounds just a little bit more infatuated with standard house music of the Balearic variety. This latest EP might be the culmination of that trend, for it is inspired on a remix by Jon Dasilva, a DJ pretty synonymous with that sort of Balearic house.

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​Love Somebody Else - Maceo Plex

Inspired by a Dasilva remix from the early 90s, 'You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else' by Colourblind (itself a cover of the original disco track by Jones Girls), Maceo Plex headed into the studio with Jon Dasilva to record a new version. They have even managed to track down Joi Cardwell, the singer on the original cover.

The result, 'Love Somebody Else', is a lovely warm house record. It's perfect for the end of the summer season. Maceo's influence is audible in the tough, elastic bassline and big, ambient pads in the background but other than that the duo play it straight.

The other side of this release is another cover. 'Future Musik' is a tribute to a Closer Musik track that never got released. The Closer Musik duo Dirk Leyers & Matias Aguayo released a number of tracks through Kompact ten years ago. Maceo's take feels closer to this taught sounds of his debut album - a calm disrupted by a prominent bassline that gives the whole piece a feeling of robotic soul.

Love Somebody Else is released through Ellum Audio on 24 September, preview both tracks on the snippet below:​

Album Review: Solo Piano II - Chilly Gonzales

Chilly Gonzales is a difficult artist to pin down. Eclectic doesn't even begin to cut it - over the years we have heard him to rap, electro, soul with Feist and Jamie Liddell and he even performed with Drake last year.

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Solo Piano II - Chilly Gonzales​

​Most surprising of all however was his Solo Piano album of 2004, that focused solely on his piano playing. Despite the fact it is his best selling album it was relatively hard to come by for years, a collection of classical and jazz influenced piano pieces that at its best was utterly beautiful. 'Overnight' in particular is one of the most magical pieces of music I've ever heard - sometimes almost straining under it's own weight the music will accelerate and decelerate, stumbling blind with emotion (you can see it live here).

Last month Gonzales followed the album up with that rare thing in music - a sequel. And ultimately it's just more of the same... But when your album is called Solo Piano II it would seem churlish to expect anything else: just more of the same is exactly what I wanted.

If anything II feels a little more consistent - the stylings occasionally wavered a little on the original and yet here each piece feels like it has its own place. It is more wholly jazz influenced. I may not have found my 'Overnight' yet but I've found something pretty close - 'Kenaston' is delicately crafted with a gentle melody picked out against beautifully soft chords. It feels like the perfect music for late night fireside chats, walks in the snow and strong coffee, but it is also so beautiful that it deserves all of your attention.

There is a child-like wonder to parts of this album - 'Escher' sounds like Vince Guaraldi, the soundtrack to youthful abandon and adventures. There are moments of pure drama too. 'Wintermezzo' feels like the calm before a storm, full of pregnant pauses and bold crescendos, whilst 'Papa Gavotte' is helplessly romantic, full of memories and whimsy.

Solo Piano II is an album that you owe yourself to hear properly, but it may fade away if consumed too quietly in the background. Instead you should throw yourself in and let the atmosphere consume you. There really isn't enough music quite like this.

Solo Piano II is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links}. Stream it on Spotify below [account required]​: