WERK

This new Slava vid is mandatory viewing, featuring an amazingly pristine office environment, Slava brand vodka, and a matrix-like digital vortex, it only has me anticipating his upcoming full-length Raw Solutions even more. Premiered today by, of course, Dis Magazine.

Raw Solutions is out April 22 on Software.

Tim's TOP TRACKS OF 2012

This year my music listening habits fragmented even further; listening to most things online first, often at work, is a great way of forgetting about some really great stuff, and it was quite a task reconstructing and recollecting my year's disparate listening through old blog posts and soundcloud faves. Albums were drastically less important to me this year than previously, although there were many excellent full-lengths and EPs released this year. I don't especially want to enter into deep reflections on the year in music, but a few things/trends really stood out. There have been some truly excellent high-concept albums that seem to be looking for ways of resisting the interfaces of contemporary networked capitalism, and which find answers in a re-articulation of our (post-human?) bodies, in particular the Laurel Halo, d'Eon and Jam City ones. I'm a huge partisan in favour of everything James Ferraro has done this year, including Sushi, which while not as bracing as Far Side Virtual was when it came out last year, has really consolidated his position as an aesthetic-leader within the contemporary underground and as a result has proved to be more subtly divisive. And finally, I'm so happy that so many producers are doing breakbeats again, and I've been drowning myself in old Hardcore and Jungle mixes this year trying to catch up on received wisdom.

Huge s/o to the hottest labels of 2012 for releasing so much good stuff and being such pivotal sources of orientation in an often confusing, badly-curated sea of content: UNO NYC, Hippos In Tanks, Software, AM Discs, and L.I.E.S., you have all killed it.


1. Kuhrye-oo - Give In (For The Fame)
from Kuhrye-oo EP [UNO NYC]

A skittering and mournful 2-step beat provides the anchor for a song that is probably the closest distillation of what I was after musically in 2012. A stunning tribute to and re-evaluation of club music's past, from easily one the best labels of the year.



2. Autre Ne Veut - Counting
from Anxiety (forthcoming) [Software]

There's nothing like a new track from one of your favourite artists of 2010 to remind you how much things have changed in two short years, but Autre Ne Veut has updated his sound just enough to take it to the next level, with tighter production giving the track an r&b grandeur his older, lo-er-fi records could only aspire to, and featuring a guest verse from 2012 it-boy Mykki Blanco.



3. Triad God - I Never Told You
from NXB [Hippos In Tanks]

Just a really beautiful track built around a slow, housey piano loop and Cantonese-speaking Triad God's beguiling singing/rapping.



4. Physical Therapy - Drone On
from Safety Net EP [Hippos In Tanks]

Physical Therapy's steady stream of mixes have been carving an oblique path at the vanguard of NYC's club culture for a little over a year now, and his first release of original productions was kind of a revelation. Highlight "Drone On" is one of the more ecstatic examples of a heavy jungle/breakbeat influence that is certainly a notable-2k12-trend.



5. Le1f - Go In
from Dark York [mixtape]

Dark York is a deep, complex and at times, uh, dark listen; what I love about "Go In" is those chiming arpeggios that run in the background, and the way at certain points in the track it syncs up with the subtly rapid-fire snares to create this lighter-than-air feeling. Le1f's flow is amazing too, this guy is so talented.



6. Girl Unit - Ensemble
from Club Rez EP [Night Slugs]

Squeaky, crystalline production not unlike label-mate Jam City (whose Classical Curves, incidentally, is my album of the year), "Ensemble" is impossibly uplifting.



7. Bwana - Baby Let Me Finish
from Baby Let Me Finish EP [somethinksounds]

A completely addictive footwork-indebted slice of UK Bass; the vocal sample is a total earwormer.



8. Slava - File
from Soft Control EP [Software]

The footwork influence was pretty pervasive this year (not to mention some terrific, career-defining full-lengths from Chicago veterans Traxman and DJ Rashad), but no-one had such an elegant, high-fashion take on it as Slava did with "File".



9. Waka Flocka Flame - Bill Russell (Ryan Hemsworth's 情報デスクVIRTUAL Mix) 
from Collected [mixtape]

An already pretty blissed-out song is made in even more so; I've lost count of the number of times this on repeat was the soundtrack to me zoning out at my desk mid-afternoon, forgetting to do any work.



10. Inc. - 5 Days
from No World (forthcoming) [4AD]

Impossibly slick, their full-length is much anticipated round these parts.


Other favs:

Huerco S. - No Jack
Jeremih - Late Nights
Bookworms - African Rhythms
Key Nyata - Bring Me The $$
Lol Boys - Changes
Arca - Manners
Wundercastle vs How To Dress Well - & It Was U
Dean Blunt - Track 2 feat. Inga Copeland (Narcissist II)
Image Circle - Pinkfox
Window - Stasis
Fatima Al Qadiri - Ghost Raid
Ultrademon + DJ Kiff - Yr So Wet 3.0
House of Ladosha - Bel Ami ft. C-Breezy

RQ GUEST MIX 011: SLAVA

MP3: RQ Mix 011 - Slava

Slava's Soft Control EP on Software earlier this year was a glistening exploration of the interplay between elegance and rhythm. Each syncopated, sometimes muddled element glistens with a certain luxurious sheen, which anchors the poignant, deceptively emotive vocal samples. Exhibiting a clear indebtedness to his one-time base of Chicago with its use of frenetic footwork rhythms, the EP gives the style a unique slant, using digital-era tropes of a sensual spa-music luxury (you only have to look at the manicured nails on the cover to get a sense of this) to evoke an uncanny, appropriated sensuality.

Although Soft Control is perhaps the Moscow-born and now New York-based Slava Balasanov’s most fully-realised statement thus far, dig a bit deeper into his back catalogue and you’ll find records on venerable US dance labels such as Future Times and Mathematics. Taken together his output shows a controlled range, and Balasanov is able to tackle not just footwork but also the classic 4-4s of gritty techno and pan-global house.

Slava’s mix for us encapsulates his interests in a range of contemporary club-styles, recalling the diversity of similarly globe-encompassing avant-electronic acts such an Nguzunguzu. Despite the selections ranging in genre from footwork to grime to slick NYC house, it is also a very spatially-cohesive listen, beginning and ending on relatively ambient notes, and with each track’s strength lying firmly in its attention to surface, texture and rhythm.

Tracklist:
Napolian - Ascension
Fur - Hands
Abel - Girls
Ynfynyt Scroll - Ynfant Son
Beek - Its Ovah
Kingdom - Seven Chirp
Corcovado - Trippin
Gremino - Drumbeat
Terror Danjah - Morph2
Bangladesh - 100
Verse Simmonds - Keep It 100
Exeter & Naphta - Junk
Rizzla - Psychoton
Jeremih ft Fabolous - Ahh Shit
Chits - Barry Sanders
Dj Rashad - Drop Juke Out
D'Cruze - Lonely
Relaxxxmurf (aka Craxxxmurf) - Whalesmurfs

SOFT CONTROL

Continuing a welcome trend of footwork-derived artisan post-techno, this new EP from Brooklyn-based Slava is hitting all the finest 2am luxury zones.

The Soft Control EP is out now on Dan Lopatin & Joel Ford's dopest new label, Software.