Thunder picks #002

This week at down at Thunder Towers, I am mainly concerned with the seemingly never ending stream of fantastic new records filling the shops and emptying my bank account. Its actually getting a little bit out of hand – what happened to all those hackneyed ideas that lazy arse funky/minimal/whatever producers used to churn out, clogging the racks up with two bob tosh that robbed us of the will to live and drove us down the pub? All this amazing new music is driving me to the brink of destitution

So with value for money at the forefront of my mind, all of the records mentioned this week dont just have a single decent track but contain wall-to-wall pumpers across both sides.

Oh and the other thing that is concerning me is the name of this column, Thunder Picks. Not sure its doing it. Thunder Pingers maybe? Hmm, maybe not. Let me know if youve got any better ideas though.

Right, now heres some stuff that definitely is doing it.

Its a DJ Sprinkles Xtravaganza!

Terre Thaemlitz is, without a doubt, my favourite Japan based cross dressing ex-pat American deep house DJ in the whole damn world right now. Hes also one of my favourite two makers of modern house music. Im not quite sure how he does it, but he has that special extra something that set him apart from the crowd and this week hes gone record-putting-out crazy. Later this month, Mule Music release Queerifications & Ruins: Collected Remixes by DJ Sprinkles on CD but this week sees the release of 12 samplers to proceed the main release The first to the two features his Oh, Yoko 'Ambient Ballroom remix' and the 'Deep Breath remix' of Parallax Beat Brothers, and second has his two versions of June Lost Area. Every single one of the tracks is immense and the original pressing of June goes for a few bob too, so its a bargain. And if that wasnt enough, hes done a remix of the new Mole record Lockdown Party on Perlon, which is also essential.

NDATL Special Edition 2013

NDATAL, Kai Alc label in Detroit, has put out their third annual Special Edition release. Whats so special about them? God knows, I mean other than the music of course. This addition to the series was available only during Movement Festival in Detroit and then via the Wild Oats webshop. Wild Oats, why dat?! I hear you all cry. Possibly. Well, theres three tracks on the 12, one from Kai Alce (of course), another from the mega Norm Talley, and a third Mr Wild Oates himself, Kyle Hall. All three tracks are brilliant, so good in fact, I cant make up my mind which one I like best. In fact, it might be the most solid release Ive heard year. There is some bad news though, its limited only 200 copies, no repress, once theyre gone theyre gone and they were gone from the Wild Oats site in the blink of an eye. The good news is, Juno should be getting a handful next week, so keep em peeled.

Mike Huckaby Re-presses Deep Transportation Vol.1

Im normally a grumpy about re-presses. When you hunt a record down for years and finally find it in some dusty crate somewhere, you treasure it because you toiled to find it and that makes it special. Then some git comes, re-presses it and you hear a DJ playing it in your local wine bar (if wine bars still exist, but you know that I mean). I guess the internet put the romanticism of record shopping to the sword years ago, so for the purposes of this column, Im going to embrace re-repressing the of rare records. Which is great, because Mike Huckabys re-pressing Deep Transportation Vol.1, which I dont own and now Im down with all that business, I can buy a copy that doesnt cost the best part of a hundred quid and sleep easy! He re-mastered it too and he says its, sounding like I should have done it in the first place. No date for release just yet but out real soon.

Terekke Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Im going to try not to bang on about this one too much because like me, youre probably sick to the back teeth of hearing about L.I.E.S. and lets face it, in reality it really blows hot and cold. In fact, I felt for a while its in danger of becoming the Guerilla Records of this generation music for blokes to stand around not dancing to, albeit the pony tails and wearing leather trousers in clubs have now been  replaced with beards and wearing wooly hats in clubs. The previous release, Dolo Percussion, was probably the all-time low. Four dull as fuck drum tracks devoid of even the slightest hint of funk, a proper Emperors new clothes moment. Then what does Morelli follow up that steaming turd with? Probably the labels best release to date. Ill let the music do the talking but check all three tracks out.

Bank 3 –

Piano –

Amaze –

London Housing Trust LHT003

Okay, thats enough of all that American stuff, heres another EP chuck full of great tracks but as the labels name, London Housing Trust, suggests, its from the town I call home. Its a bit of a mystery who is behind the label itself but three releases in, Jamie Blanco seem to be coming to the fore and returns with another polished effort on this EP. However, the track that pushes my buttons is warm bubbling acid of Alphonses Learning To Breathe. The previous two releases disappeared in no time at all, so dont drag your feet if you want this one too.

If you cant wait till next week for more of the same drivel, you will find solace in the Thunder Group on Face book
 

Miles Simpson