Early Autumn Charts

Early Autumn was a good time for fans of contemporary electronic music (preferrably with lots of bass in it). We saw a few heavy releases, which more or less lived up to the expectations (Robot Koch, Rustie, Modeselektor, Martyn, ill.Gates, Zomby), my pet labels, Saturate! Records and Robox Neotech released fantastic debut EP's (Raadsel, P-Fang), many quality tracks floated around the interweb. Meanwhile on my local scene, U Know Me Records confirmed their status of the best label for contemporary, twisted hip-hop beats made in Poland with very fresh and 'vintage' release Futura by a talented producer Galus. I hope my next charts will be equally rich with interesting contents.

Dr. Krank's Top Tracks (Early Autumn)

1. Kidkanevil – Robot Carnival (First Word Records)
2. Robot Koch - Nitesky  (Project Mooncircle)
3. Raadsel – Resurrection (Saturate! Records)  
4. Zomby – Things Fall Apart (f. Panda Bear)  (4AD)
5. Galus – Futura (U Know Me Records)
6. P-Fang - Graveyard (Damscray remix) (Robox Neotech)
7. Starkey – Eris (Adult Swim)
8. Cardopusher feat. Sensational – Papusa (kid606 remix) (Tigerbeat6)  
9. Rustie – City Star (Warp)
10. Raadsel & Luisterwaar – Tissue Box (Saturate! Records)
11. SaBBo – I’m Ready (ft. Onili) (Generation Bass Records)
12. Modeselektor – Pretentious Friends (Monkeytown Records)
13. Tilman Ehrhorn - Sat (Himuro Yoshiteru remix) (Mad Hop vol. 3)
14. Ill.Gates, Mat the Alien & Dash – Otoro (Muti Music) 
15. Kraddy – Black Box 
16. Martyn – Ghost People (Brainfeeder)
17. Speaker for the Dead – Illusionaire (Digital Self Release) 
18. Ott – Squirrel and Buiscuits (Autonomous Music)
19. Ugress – Coffee (Pushwanger edit) (Uncanny Planet) 
20. MC Zulu – Festival Madness (Perception 2020 Recordings) 

Werk Discs present Zomby vs. Actress

Werk Discs released a couple of tracks from Zomby and Actress. Well, 'tracks' seem to be an excessive term in this respect, but anyway nice little joints to immerse your senses in.  Though I was pretty disappointed with his One Foot Ahead of the Other EP, I'm still a big fan of Zomby and his sonic textures always work for me. Try it at home.  

Zomby vs. Actress

The Brown Acid - Try Humanity (Zomby & Starkey Remixes) [via rcrdlbl]

What a double feature! Two of my top produces joining forces to produce a remix of the Try Humanity tune by the Belgium's electro outfit The Brown Acid (never heard of them).

The Brown Acid - Try Humanity (Zomb's Vitamine E Remix)


Zomby applies his typical old-school garage beats plus ravey air-horns and stuff. Retro and good! Nothing fancy, but quite a nice little joint.


The Brown Acid - Try Humanity (Starkey Remix)


Philly's street bass king Starkey delivers a spacey and ravey dubstep tune relying heavily on neon synths (twisted in a typical Starkey's way, which I really really like) and wonky bassline. This edit wins the direct clash against Zomby, or rather complements the former one.

Unreleased Zomby joint - Velodrome

An unreleased Zomby house joint - Velodrome.

SONIDO DEL PRINCIPE MUSIC MIXED BY DJ UMB

Speaking of "cumbiasing" diverse tracks by Sonido del Principe, mentioned by me in the previous post, just listen to this mix of DJ UMB of Sonido del Principe's productions and edits. Benga & Coki's dubstep anthem Night as a cumbia dub or Box Cumbia in collaboration with Samiyam (!) sound quite weird but how would you describe Sonido del Principe's cumbia treatments of Zomby stuff (!!!!!!!!!!!).

Tracklist:
1.Sonidoe Del Principe vs El Hijo de La Cumbia – La Mara Dub
2.Sonido Del Principe – Sexy Rod Dub
3.Sonido Del Principe – Wu Cumbia
4.Sonido Del Principe – Sole Rock Cumbia
5.Sonido Del Principe – Watch Dem feat. Horace Andy
6.Sonido Del Principe – Cumbia Curry
7.Sonido Del Principe -Horario de Verano
8.Coki n Benga – Night (Sonido Del Principe -Dub)
9.Sonido Del Principe vs Samiyam – Box Cumbia
10.Zomby vs. SDP – Shake that Strange Fruit
11.Zomby – Godzilla (Vince The Prince remix)

Zomby - Mercury's Rainbow video

y.o.u.'l.l a.l.l.l.o.v.e.t.h.i.s.m.y.m.i.n.d.h.a.s.b.e.e.n.t.o.t.a.l.l.y. w.o.n.k.e.d..... o.v.e.r.

sKewn - Wonky Kong Mix

sKewn - Wonky Kong Mix

Wonky, hit-parade, mix by sKewn from Columbus, Ohio. The playlist has practically no surprises and there are even some pretty dated tracks there ***oh Gosh, I really, really shouldn't post old stuff on my ultra-modern-and-all-the-time-up-to-the-beat blog, forgive me mateys ****.

But there is a saying: "We like only the music we have already heard" and this is exactly the power of this nice little purple wonky ting here. Joker, Zomby, Rustie, HudMo, Mike Jones plus 'straight' dubstep big names like Distance or Tes La Rok - and voila you have a spacey, melodic and pretty weird rocket full of contagious anthems and intelligent beats you've definitely heard before. DELICIOUS!

TRACKLIST AFTER THE JUMP

Playlist:

RUSTIE - Tempered
MIKE JONES - Back Then
TES LA ROK & DESTO - Low
JOKER - Hollybrook Park
HERRMUTT LOBBY - Lessevicesavielsalm
JOKER - Digidesign
ZOMBY - Kaliko
ZOMBY - Aquafresh
HUDSON MOHAWKE - Overnight
ZESTROCK! - Multi-Billion $ Negro
FOOL - Drama NAME & RELUCTO RMX
SP/MC - Trust Nobody
MIKE JONES - Still Tippin' feat SLIM THUG & PAUL WALL
DISTANCE - Night Vision
JOKER - Stuck In The System

Rouge's Foam fantastic article on aesthetics of "wonky" and much much more

Loving Wonky by Rouge's Foam

Through Zomby's myspace I caught an absolutely amazing, (if a bit too academic - not a criticism, but rather a statement of fact) article about wonky / acquafresh / psych-dubstep by Rouge's Foam. The premises for the article are very interesting and really work: to make an attempt to show the phenomena in its various shades, approach it from a theoretical angle, yet without trying to explain everytyhing (which always assumes some form of taking sides or pigeonholing). The author asks the dear readers to digest the contents and synthesize their own opinions out of the ocean of threads presented there. Although the sheer volume of details and diverse clues made my head spinning when reading this fantastic piece of music criticism.

The following paragraph is probably the best introduction to the enormous text awaiting you on Rouges' Foam blog.

As ‘wonky’ (also known as ‘w***y’ - I’d suggest ‘the music formerly known as wonky’) is one of the main fronts in the aesthetic-generational value war that rages on, I thought I might try out some of that ‘magnified listening’ on the music involved to find out what can be described as going on in it with a view to exploring the sorts of aesthetic significance (value, if you like) that it can afford. More than just an exercise in appreciation, this could shed some light on differences among the value-judgment criteria that pull the strings in discourse of/on UK popular music (that is, popular in production rather than destination) and put ‘wonky’s’ adherents and detractors into a cultural and ideological context.

Loving Wonky takes Zomby, Hyperdub, Rustie, Lucky Me crew, Ikonika, Gemini, Joker and dissects them into in an extremely comprehensive way while putting the entire avant-garde movement into so many contexts that simple listing of them would be the size of an average post on a typical music blog.

The musical characteristics of ‘wonky’, is my favorite part, which is quite obvious as being a fan and avid listener of this type of stuff, too many times had I made futile attempts at grasping the essence of my listening experience and trying to verbalize it into some coherent and comprehensible written form. Fortunately, now I have a solid basis and a reference for my future streams-of-consciousness rants about purple wonky universe.

"Simply put, ‘wonky’ features a wider range of moods and styles than the mono-mood of classic dubstep and other genres in the nuum or popular music at large. Joker really brings this aspect to life with his eloquent mood-music (I’d love to see him do a film soundtrack), and played through, collections such as the Zomby EP and Starkey’s Ephemeral Exhibits take us on a tour of assorted affects and stylistic configurations. The latter’s exquisite contemplation ‘Miracles’, bringing to mind different-ball-park acts like Boards of Canada, seems to be our chillout room - but there’s a subtly ill look on the faces of the punters gathered there. Such stylistic cornucopias/smorgasbords (oh me, I just can’t decide between those two deliciously pretentious words) seem to point to IDM’s ‘home listening’ illustrated encyclopaedias of style, suites such as Aphex Twin’s Drukqs being a prime example. "

And the real killer comes in the comments section by the author himself where he makes a sort of aesthetic associations between music and visual arts, assigning painters to each main icon of the wonky scene :)) I think I see the direction in which this comparison goes. Check it out:

Zomby - Kandinsky (agree 100%!!!)

Ikonika - Picasso

Darkstar - Paul Klee

Joker - Edward Hopper

Starkey - Boccioni

Burial - JMW Turner

And don't forget to check numerous links of the article, in particular the ones referring to "hardcore continuum" debate started by Simon Reynolds. But this is a subject for another discussion.

Finally, to all the Twitter Headz out there: BEWARE - this article is definitely not for your short-attention-span minds!!!! You cannot skim or scour through it, you have to go deeply, which means wasting your precious time. Just don't complain I have not warned you....

Boomkat: 14 tracks in Hypercolour: a synthfunk sampler

14 tracks in Hypercolour: a synthfunk sampler

After 14 tracks in search of wonky, boomkat enters again a very promising yet not fully defined ‘wonky’ (or purple wow, yaackkk!!!) territory. The ESSENTIAL set of tracks for any fan of new dope beats / bass heavy electronica. Just 6.86 GBP for tracks worth 14 GBP in monetary terms at least, but the creative and inspirational value of this selection is priceless.

Boomkat says: Wonky's uglier, ruder cousin, the new wave of hyper-coloured synthfunk is fast becoming the definitive sound of 2009. Situating itself somewhere between Grime, classic Dre productions and arcade machine / 8-bit eruptions, the 'Purple Wow' styles of Joker, aided and abetted by the likes of Gemmy, Guido and Jakes has spearheaded a new movement in bass music that references West Coast G-Funk classics like Dre's "Deep Cover" or Above the Law's "Livin' Like Hustlers" while utilising a distinctly Uk/Urban palette. There's considerable crossover with Dubstep too, but this is a scene dominated by a multicoloured vibrancy far removed from monochrome wobble and halfstep templates played in dark rooms, instead injecting a sense of urgency, sleazy excitement and danger back into the dance.

Apart from some obvious ‘anthems’ like: Joker’s - Do it, Zomby’s - Aquafresh, Rustie tracks, the 14tracks also offer among others such fantastic synth wonkiness:
F…g great Saturn’s Reply by Jamie Vex’d who once again shows his creative skills (also check his fantastic mixtape for LuckyMe).
ESKMO – Hypercooler. SF style 8bit funk – this year we’ll see (or already has seen) lots of fantastic music gems.
Dorian Concept – The fucking formula. Future abstract electronica from Vienna. TIP!
Various Productions - Bside it’s good to see the duo back in top form after a disappointing The Invisible Lodger (my personal views).
A track from Neil Landstrumm’s revolutionary second longplay Lord for £39 for Planet Mu – Little help from Rustie – deconstructed wonky, downtempo, heaven!!
Kotchy remixed by Seclusias’ Dev79 – crunky electro step.
Gemmy – Supligen. Another heavy-weight player from Bristol in purple work / crunk dubstep department. Outer Space Experience par excellence! The sound of the future is already here.
Debruit – Look 22. Actually this name came to my radar for the first time on 14 tracks in search of wonky by boomkat. I see that was no coincidence. After another release you should definitely check this artist if you are into laidback wonky dope beats like e.g. Hudson Mohawke, Flying Lotus, Daedelus etc.

BTW – I don’t know about you, but the term wonky was / is not very fortunate to describe the music produced by Joker / Rustie / Lucky Me / etc. But Purple Wow ??!?!? – wtf? – please gimme a break. This IS ridiculous name! (and yes, I know the background).

14 tracks in search of wonky

14 tracks in search of wonky part two

A very good boomkat’s set of "14 tracks in search of wonky". Good selection and very good music.

My personal highlights:
Chris Sattinger’s Timeblind – Strategy decay – Beautifully decaying track indeed!
Debruit – So Bayla – never heard of this artist. But with this track he (she/them?) goes to the top of my list of names to look for.
Modeselektor – The Black Block (Rustie remix) - Rustie’s show-off at his best.
Zomby – speceman - Yes yes yes pure wonky heaven !!
Starkey – gutter music – another classic track (also check the version with Durrty Goodz)
Dorian Koncept – Chocolate milk - nice beat
Dr Who Dat – Bumpy bum face – nice little roller
Joker – Digidesign – another great track from Joker, whatever he touches, turns into gold instantly!
Dabrye – Smoking the edge – the track from 2001 and still sounds great.


PS. If the number of highlights (or really worth recommending tracks) of any given compilation exceeds 60%, such a release is a must-have. Now, do the math.

Wonky Ketamine Dubstep Zomby WTF???

A well known journalist and writer Simon Reynolds, which has quite an impressive record of publications about diverse music styles and theories, focusing quite often on the role of drugs in the circles of music-lovers, went much much too far in his theoretizing about the role of Ketamine in the 'wonky' music scene. What a total pile of rubbish!

In the Guardian's article "Feeling wonKy: is it ketamine's turn to drive club culture?" he proposes a theory about ketamine being the drug of choice for producers and listeners of wonky music (I will leave aside his definition of wonkiness). He mentions producers from Hyperdub label and adds Hudson Mohawke from Lucky Me on top. His stupid (yes, quote me on that) argument follows the logic along such lines, more or less: "And how about the fact that Zomby is the name of the genre's leading producer, while "zombies" is the most common description of K-heads made by people who deplore the drug's effect on the vibe in clubs? Just coincidences, maybe" Ohhh purleeeeasseee give me a break man .................

Dusk & Blackdown Rinse FM 260209 w/ Zomby Entropy Sketches mix

-------- POLSKI TEKST W ZAKŁADCE PONIZEJ -----

dusk and blackdown on Rinse FM download

Great show by one of my favorite crews from UK. I wish the quality was better (it is 96kbps, mono) as the show includes fantastic gems of new, intelligent, hard and heavy, yet very beautiful music. I mean here, most of all, Zomby’s “Entropy Sketches” mini-mix. Beautiful, haunting, light, full of delicate synth-beats, weird melodies and strange, typical Zomby-style ‘retro’ sounds. Very cinematic indeedI wish somebody made a movie with Zomby’s soundtrack! Gosh, I love this guy. His full-length release on Hyperdub (??) will be maaaaasive. BTW – listen to the description of the way Zomby sent this mix as presented by the host of the show – I laughed my ass off!
Another great highlight is a preview of Kryptik Minds material from Loefah's new Swamp81 label. This label looks very very promising and definitely will mark its presence this year. All the featured tracks by Kryptik Minds have hard and heavy sub-bass rolling through the darkness to deliver an ultimate sonic pleasure to any fun of low-frequency electronica. Organica is my number one here. I will eagerly wait for this release. Another highlights of the mix are: unreleased, yet already a classic tune by Starkey – Gutter Music VIP, plus Dusk and Blackdown and Martyn’s remixes.
Enjoy – Doktor Krank’s Recommended Mix!
Tracklist in the comments session:

WERSJA POLSKA

Świetna audycja jednej z lepszych ekip z UK. Szkoda, że jakość nie najlepsza (96kbps, mono), bo można posłuchać kilku fantastycznych perełek, nowej, inteligentnej, ciężkiej ale cholernie pięknej muzyki. Myślę, tutaj przede wszystkim o mini-miksie Zomby’ego “Entropy Sketches”. Piękny, czarujący, pełen światła i delikatnych syntezatorowych bitów, dziwacznych melodii i zakręconych dźwięków 'retro' tak typowych dla stylu Zomby'ego. Bardzo filmowy materiał! FAjnie by było jakby ktoś nakręcił film z muzyką Zomby'ego. Jak ja lubię muzykę tego kolesia! Jego pełnowymiarowa płytka na Hyperdub (??) będzie absolutnie fantastyczna. BTW– nie przegapcie i posłuchajcie w jaki sposób Zomby przesłał swój mini-mix - nieźle się obśmiałem!
Kolejne ciekawe momenty audycji to przede wszystkim preview materiału Kryptik Minds z nowej wytwórni Swamp81 założonej przez Loefah. Label wygląda bardzo bardzo obiecująco i z pewnością narobi zamieszania na scenie w tym roku. Wszystkie prezentowane kawałki Kryptik Minds charakteryzują się ciężkimi i głębokimi sub-basami toczącymi się przez nieprzenikniony mrok, dostarczając prawdziwych sonicznych rozkoszy wszystkim fanom elektroniki niskich częstotliwości. Organica to zdecydowanie numero uno w tym zestawieniu, jak dla mnie. Czekam z niecierpliwością na ten wypusk. Inne ciekawe numery audycji to: jeszcze niewydany a już klasyczny kawałek Gutter Music (wersja VIP) Starkey'a, plus remiksyDusk and Blackdown i Martyna.
Posłuchajcie - Miks rekomendowany przez Doktora Kranka!

Tracklista w komentarzach

Zomby - Back to '92 mix

ZOMBY_Back_to_92_mixtape_download

Keep it real. Can't beat the system, go with the flow.

With this mixtape Zomby brought back fantastic memories from the times long gone. Kudos! RAVE ON!

Expect a bigger feature on my blog about this super-talented producer who has recently bombed the market with a bunch of absolutely amazing releases. Memorize this name carefully (of course if you lived e.g. in a secluded hut in deep forest on Madagascar for the last year, and has never heard about him, which I really doubt). He is big and will be bigger!