April 07 Spiel - New tunes news/WMC update

The wake of the Miami WMC over the past few weeks has seen masses of top-notch new tunes come out. As often (for me) it's not the over-hyped party tunes but the slow burning bubblers which caught my ear. Here's a couple for you to check out.

Immigrant Music has released an LP of singles, "Flight-18 Touching Down In Miami", to promote the quirky and varied styles of their artist roster. Immigrant are probably known best for their tech-edged music and this is no different. A couple of notable gems on this release for me are DJ Cocoe - Just Dance, a Body & Soul-style broken-beat house tune with afro rhythms and vocals which wouldn't be out of place on a Joe Claussell record. At the other end of the spectrum is Aldo Cadiz - Villaloca, a dubby techno tune with snappy percussion, a hypnotic groove and a video-game soundtrack vibe.

Russian duo Pak & Vak have surprised a few times in the past 18 months with their almost out-of-tune synth style. Their newest release, 'Voodoo', on Disoma is a futuristic tech-house monster which just ducks and dives through a pile of different ideas but somehow keeps it all together for the entire track – just manic buzzing noises, glitchy stabs and high-pitched keys which provide the melody for the sparse interludes.

Jeff Bennett takes a slightly different path with his latest release. "Snow Diving" (KungFu Dub Recs), is more housey with the title track having plenty of his trademark clicky style percussion noises but with a more groove-oriented arrangement. The track here for me is "Ghoramara" which is one his best works to date. It's a futuristic house number with an infectious vibe and uplifting bassline. He does a really nice job here of making a tune with just the right amount of drive and quirkiness without going too far in either extreme.

Cristian Paduraru, after a string of great releases, is back with "Emotion Comes from Motion" (Proton Music) which takes off where last year's massive "Unconditional Giving" left off. This has a simple groove with Paduraru's trademark bubbly, dark – gothic disco which the Tenaglia-esque DJs of the world love to love. The spoken vocal "emotion comes from emotion" repeats over and over until you wont be able to get it out of you head.

If old-school is your thing look no further than the 90s gem Faze Action - In The Trees which has been re-released with Carl Craig remixes on Juno Records. This is a straightforward acid burner which sounds more like mid-90s Daft Punk or a Chemical Brothers B-side. Dark, groovy and still keeping the cello which made the original so cool way back in 1996.

Hopefully there is something here which pushes your boundaries and introduces you to an artist or label you've never checked out before.

Peace