The Last EverWe Actually Like…

It had a good run, but all good things must come to an end. So, after much deliberation and the calling out of the emergency COBRA group to make a decision, we’ve concluded that the time is ripe to put We Actually Like out to pasture. Fear not, we’ll still be reviewing new records that we actually, err, like, but they’ll all be in one place in a shiny new weekly regular, forming a beautiful amalgam with Mr Joe Europe’s current Singles Club article. Below, then, is the final throws of We Actually Like….

Huerco S Colonial Patterns

Affixing concepts centred on Paulo Soleris idea of Arcology (a fusion of archaeology and ecology) colonialism, and ruralisation of the historically urban music of Midwestern dance music seems a tall order, one Huerco S (aka Brian Leeds) is purporting to fulfil in Colonial Patterns; his debut full length for Daniel Lopatins Software label following promise exuded and momentum developed on releases for Opal Tapes and Anthony Naples Proibito imprint.

How do you subsume these issues? This isnt something answered outright over the course of the 14 tracks which feature, not in the sense of any overriding arc, or consistently recurring theme or motif. Its less a case of overtly confronting or actively integrating these heavy concepts, more a case of adjoining these concerns, using them as catalysts for imaginative courses that veer openly in multifarious abstraction.

Those prone to taxonomy might classify Colonial Patterns as akin to Actress RIP; the concept album as considered by producers associated with an off-kilter strain of experimental dance music,

but the connection with the root concepts is looser in this case, more ambiguous. Whereas RIP seemed to tread some kind of lapsarian course and its sound wavered fluidly between something palatial and something slight, appropriate to the mythological grandeur and profundity apparently confronted, Colonial Patterns signature seems micro and interstitial; a design of telescoped grain and smudge. In terms of a grander scope, as a whole its as if urban machinery has been transported to a Midwest terrain. Sleek futurism consistently coarsened by the environment with flecks of dust continually gathering in the spool.

There is a sense that the concepts outlined in the promotional prcis are reflected in Leeds general sound on Colonial Patterns in as much as theres an expansive panorama conjured, built out of continual sustain and acoustics with a purview which extends beyond urban nightlife to something perhaps more rural. But youd be hard pressed to offer anything which explicitly affirms how Arcology or Colonialism is specifically manifested. So the conceptual basis on the whole might be a little too peripheral in Leeds execution, but this matters less when the results are often captivating. Plucked from the Ground, Towards the Sun perhaps encapsulates best the idea that Leeds has taken the velocity of house and techno outside of the confines of the city. Its backbone like the residual, pounding echoes of a distant nightlife, the force of which diminishes in the emptier wilderness Leeds takes it to. And with Skug Commune theres curtailed samples of guitar and vocals unnaturally polarized in pitch, and a gritty corruption of the usual rudimentary, metronomic thud; a rougher environment with surface luster eradicated. linzhiid too, is one that fascinates with falter and misstep, and elements which reverberate as if created and contained in some abandoned gas tank.

But despite these absorbing accuracies, Leeds efforts are not a success in every sense.

Its hard to discern a clear cut thread which achieves the initial ambitions and concepts surrounding Colonial Patterns. Even so theres still ample reward for repeated listens. Its also encouraging to see a young producer broadening the scope, taking the sound of often exclusively urban dance music that is too often dictated by the spectacle of one night, in a regulated space, to another place and other contexts, where that familiar reality is forgotten in new, seemingly endless tracts. (Tim)

Ghost Culture – Mouth – Phanta

Friend Within – The Renegade

Friend Within’s bass heavy rework of Wildchild’s ‘Renegade Master’, ‘The Renegade’, has been floating around for a while now, and it’s one of those songs that truly makes you reminisce of summer. The rest of the The Renegade EP has now been released on Method Records and I must say I’m very impressed, the whole EP really instills those feel good vibes that dance music is all about. (Jake)

Bryan Ferry – Don’t Stop The Dance (Todd Terje Remix)

My favourite Roxy Music track gets the remix treatment – loads of producers get a crack at it but all fail miserably bar Todd Terje who goes a little bit Moroder with an arped bassline that compliments old Tory shitebag Ferry’s sublime vocal and transforms the track from the perfect set closer to more of a peak time banger. It’s been knocking about for a while but just been put out as a deluxe 180 gramme vinyl edition, so qualifies as new-ish. (joe)

Farwell, WAL….