by the School, George Washington Brown
(Slumberland)
The last thing I figured would help make my 2009 brighter was New
York indie-pop label Slumberland. But everything I sample seems to have
something to it I wasn’t expecting, while, of course, remaining
securely soldered to a shambling, C86-style template. That’s true of
the most recent volume of Searching for the Now, the label’s
series of various-artist 7-inches (also digital). It leads off with
Welsh band the Schools’ version of the Left Banke’s “And Suddenly,” as
gray-sounding an ode to sunshine as there is, while on the flip, George
Washington Brown offers a pair of psych-pop goodies, one fast and fuzzy
(“End of the…”), one midtempo and alternating between glittery and
stomping (“Twin Towers”), all fetching.
by the Juan MacLean
(DFA)
In which six new remixers take on a year-and-a-half-old club
chestnut that shows no signs of aging. The “Radio Edit” simply chops
the 12-minute original down to 3:08—not something I figured to
like, except that it accompanies the best video of the year, which
frames vocalist Nancy Whang and a selection of instruments with
eye-popping color before a full-on dance party erupts. The
reconstitutions each offer a snazzy variation: classicist disco from
VHS or Beta, Chateau Flight’s lean tech-house, Lazaro Casanova’s
clarified trance, Will Saul & Mike Monday tightening the original
groove with rubber-band synth-bass, Paul Woolford drenching it in old
Asteroids noise, “Matthew Dear vs. Audion” (wait, aren’t they
the same person? Weird) stretching it out into a slow-rolling, slo-mo
acid buildup and freak-out. None of them tops the original 12-inch,
with its Prince Language and Lee Douglas versions, though.
by Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson
(Mochilla)
The posthumous cult of J Dilla reaches its nadir: string, flute,
vibes, chimes, and woodwind versions of the late producer’s work. The
effect is like being stuck in a series of tedious slow-motion film
montages from the late ’60s; this is touchingly bad.
by Bon & Rau
(Smallville)
From the forthcoming And Suddenly It’s Morning compilation,
the first from the Hamburg dance label Smallville, this is dream
techno: endlessly ascending four-note loop that sounds like it’s played
on glass bottles filled with varying amounts of water. The bass bubbles
up with it and helps make each of the iterations seem like a cloud
dispersing in stop-motion. 