For those of you who read the blog pretty regularly, it must be rather confusing to have Hacks’ Friday remixes along side Shaun’s constant bitching about the very same music. The thing is, we started Resonator as a place to be able to express our opinions on new and not so new music, and it would seem that with this New Rave thing, we’ve got a pretty dynamic split over here on the Res front.
For the record, I DO care about New Rave. While some of it isn’t the coolest thing I’ve ever heard, I really respect that people are embracing the word “Rave” instead of trying to seperate themselves from such a thing. I love what Studio B is doing by bringing the best artists of New Rave and those who have been around for a few years during the dark ages of electronic dance music together at a superb venue. I love that in one of last month’s XLR8R DJ mixes, their editor who mixes under the name Star Eyes dug out some classic old skool rave tracks (and we’re talking older school than Global Underground– we’re talking Two Bad Mice) and hacked them together gorgeously with the New Rave stuff.
The Ellen Allien / Miss Kittin party at Studio B last week was amazing. It was sweaty, glowstick, silly clothes, gurning amazing. It was Ellen spinning for five hours (at least that’s what I heard from those who managed to get inside early without waiting 45 minutes in line) and still bouncing up and down while she sang over Kittin’s first three tracks. It was Miss Kittin singing a vicious, sexy version of “I Feel Love” over some wicked Berlin spine-shattering bass an octave lower than Donna Summer ever dreamed.
Ellen’s Bpitch Control label (one of the few things we’ve managed to agree on here at Resonator) is home these days to one of my favorite New Raver’s, a funny-dressed fellow calling himself
Housemeister. His boshy tunes are smart little numbers to which you can lose your mind. He’s not got any dates scheduled in the US right now, but hopefully we can build a strong enough following to get him and his sideways baseball cap over to the states.First off, he’s managed to take MLK Jr.’s famous speech about peace and turn it into a twisted rave tune called “Destroy” off of his No.Games.No.Fun. EP. The deep basketball bounce of the offbeat makes it impossible not to bob your head like a chicken, so be careful where you play this.
Housemeister — Destroy
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Next up is the tripped out squiggle mind-fuck of “Need Retro” from the Need Kick EP (which I can’t actually find a link to buy online– if you’ve got one, send it along or leave it in the comments!). This ones needs a BIG room or a good pair of headphones– there’s nothing small about it. You could get lost with your eyes closed down the rabbit hole of this simple but hypnotic bassline and never come out the other side. You’ve been warned.
Housemeister — Need Retro
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So see, readers, there’s no need for confusion– there’s room for New Rave, No-Rave, and Top 40. You read us because we tell you what we think, and sometimes, that’s not the same thing. And that’s why you have more than one friend and more than one record.
Though I’m pretty sure we’re all hooked like mackerel on Neon Bible… But that’s another story, for another day.
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