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“Render unto Freshtunes.ca what is Fresh”

Rupert — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 10:17:58 +0000

Dieselboy’s Render is an astounding track from America’s most famous D&B DJ/producer. It can be found on the The 6ixth Session, an otherwise uninspiring release. I much prefer his older mix CDs, like A Soldier’s Story, but between 6ixth’s dope cover (I’ve blown it up into a huge poster on my wall) and this one track, I feel I got my money’s worth.

Absurdly funky, yet calculated and synthetic, this track is both organic and flowing, and yet, technological and unfeeling. Beautiful! Try not bopping your head to this unadulterated freshness as you listen… it can’t be done.

Dieselboy – Render

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Killa Bites D&B 2XCD

Rupert — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 09:40:40 +0000

Dom & Roland’s Killabites 2xCD is an excellent mixed UK drum & bass album, from the glory years of drum & bass, back in 2000. Hard, nasty and raw, this foray into synthetic urban sounds is perhaps the best compilation of its kind.

nCode’s track Spasm is my all time favorite nasty drum & bass track, and Dom’s mixing of it is beautiful. Everything I look for in D&B… flawless!

nCode – Spasm

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Other favorites on this album include Bammer’s track Device, a weird, quirky and playful track with hard hitting bass notes and floaty, ethereal overtones finishing the piece. Also, Exile’s Fatal Exception is caustic and nasty… pretty much just distorted stereophonic noise pulsing and flashing and twitching.

Bammer – Device

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Exile – Fatal Exception

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The beauty of this album is that I’d never heard of any of these tracks prior to buying this album several years ago. Dom avoids many of the usual, caned-to-death classics of the time and offers a well mixed, eclectic but excellent 2 CD compilation. This album earned my respect for Dom.

Maurizio: more Berlin-style minimalism (1996)

Rupert — Tue, 09 May 2006 23:37:26 +0000

Maurizio, aka Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus, is what immediately springs to mind when I think of Berlin-style deep, minimal techno and house. While stripped back and minimal on the surface, there’s so much craft in what Maurizio does that I find his songs are repetitive but in a good way. While it is essentially the same loops of sound over and over, there’s ample analogue knob-tweaking and more snaps, crackles and pops than a Costco-sized box of Rice Krispies. Moreover, the short loops themselves are so hypnotic, funky, and just plain “right” that listening to them over and over as they progress is like scratching some deep itch in a satisfying way over and over.

Maurizio – M6B

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Stripped back mad freshness; simple on the surface but with layers of depth and subtlety.
While intentionally adding analogue hiss and vinyl pops and surface noise to music often seems clich�, with Maurizio’s work it is his signature sound, and an homage to his favorite medium (vinyl, the traditional medium for electronic music and the medium on which his music was released in 1996). It also reflects his roots and passion for Dub, a music genre characterized by sample-based analogue remixes of Reggae music. The flaws and character of the medium are intentionally amplified and brought to the fore, and made an integral part of the music. A brand-spanking new Maurizio vinyl release sounds like an ancient, second-hand, scratchy dusty record.

I recommend the entire MCD release, available through either Amazon, or as MP3s from Beatport.

Maurizio – M4A

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Maurizio – Domina

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