Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (Ed Banger / Because Music)
Genre: Indie-Dance

Nina Phillips: You know what would be cool for those DJ gigs you guys’ll be going to soon? Music that girls actually like. Music that has a tension between hard and soft. Music built for the floor - and not the blog.

Michoacan - 2 Bullets (Glimmers/DJ Harvey Remixes) (Grayhound)
Genre: Neo-Disco, Indie-Dance

Peter Chambers: Are you DJ enough to like this? You’ll get cred for trying.

Oto Gelb / Daniel Wang - Magical Yellow Sound From Germania / Look Ma, No Drum Machine! (Balihu)
Genre: House, Disco

Tensnake - I Say Mista (Mirau)
Genre: Neo-Disco, Minimal/Deep

Gui Boratto - Chromophobia Remixe Part 1 (Kompakt)
Genre: Minimal/Deep, Progressive/Trance

Riley Reinhold - Light In My Eyes (My Best Friend)
Genre: Minimal/Deep

A Mountain Of One - EP1 / EP2 (AMO)
Genre: Balearic

Nick Sylvester: A lot of this stuff sounds to me like “Talk Talk covers the Dances With Wolves soundtrack,” at best when people actually believed rock & roll was something spiritual and not just a backdoor to preteen booty.

Beatzcast #36: Crambe Repetita

Derek Miller reviews Matthew Dear’s Asa Breed
Peter Chambers’ take on Get Physical’s 5th Year Anniversary Compilation
Mallory O’Donnell takes on Bondo Do Role’s With Lasers
James Cobo reviews the compilation Kitsune Maison Volume 4

Various Artists - Shut Up And Dance! Updated (Ostgut Tonträger)
Genre: Techno, Minimal/Deep

Richard Carnes: At a time of the year where everyone’s looking to individual artists for 2007’s top electronic album, this release definitely shouldn’t be swept under the carpet.

Crowdpleaser & St Plomb - 2006 Remixes 1 (Mental Groove)
Genre: Electro-House

Marco Resmann - Watercolour (Mobilee)
Genre: Minimal/Deep

Peter Chambers: In this case, it’s easy to visualise a blue wash like an Yves Klein canvas on an overcast afternoon right before dusk.

Booka Shade - Tickle (Get Physical Music)
Genre: Electro-House

Maximilian Skiba - Beginning (Eva)
Genre: Electro-House

Prinzhorn Dance School - Up! Up! Up! (DFA)
Genre: Indie-Dance

The Skull - Enter The Skull
Genre: House, Minimal/Deep

Peter Chambers: “Sensuella” continues the run of apt track titles by paring things back a few notches, with a lonely lady being serenading by sine tones who appear to be telling us that the undead are holding her captive. Or she wants to be held. Or something.

Weekly Staff Charts
Beatzcast #35: Crambe Repetita

Mike Powell interviews Environ’s Kelley Polar
Todd Hutlock reviews Hot Chip’s DJ Kicks mix CD.
Peter Parrish reviews Colleen’s Les Ondes Silencieuses

Shackleton - Blood On My Hands [Villalobos Remix] (Skull Disco)
Genre: Minimal/Tech

Peter Chambers: It’s a ridiculous criticism to say that “it’s too long”, or that “it’s not a track” – these are two other undeniable qualities that make this work so exemplary, just as they point out its limitations.

Lindstrom & Solale - Let’s Practise (Feedelity)
Genre: Neo-Disco

Trusme - Brown’s (Still Love Music)
Genre: House, Disco

Nick Sylvester: The lines between jazz and funk and disco and house continue to be blurred into one gloriously incriminating mess.

Sorcerer - Surfing At Midnight (Tirk)
Genre: Neo-Disco, Balearic

Mallory O’Donnell: In the field of down-to-midtempo dreamy instrumentals with beaded fringe, “Surfing at Midnight” is dippy rather than hippy, and (quite happily) just baked rather than psychedelic, dude.

Robag Wruhme Als Rolf Oksen - Bart Eins (Freude Am Tanzen)
Genre: Minimal/Tech

Trentemoller feat. DJ Tom and Vildtand - An Evening With Bobi Bros (Kickin Records)
Genre: Minimal/Deep, Dub

Sneak Thief - G String Orchestra (Klakson)
Genre: Italo, New Wave/Synth

Thinking Out Loud: Physical vs. Digital

Thinking Out Loud developed from a series of open-ended email conversations and ruminations between Beatz staff members. In this article, Michael F. Gill and Peter Chambers discuss the merits of dance music on vinyl and MP3…

Beatzcast #34: Crambe Repetita

Battles - Atlas (Warp Records)
Genre: Leftfield

Peter Chambers: The two tracks seem to wind into each other, not so much remixes as silent halves of the other that mutually intimate, stroke, and ground. The diehard math-rockers will hate it, and it’s too weird for the functionally-obsessed dancefloors of the world, but that’s (also) why it’s one of the more interesting EPs of the year so far.

Water Lilly - Invisible Ink (Mental Groove)
Genre: Electro-House, Minimal/Deep

Minilogue - Elephant Parade (Wagon Repair)
Genre: Minimal/Tech

Nate DeYoung: I’ve been told that Elephant Parade is a snorefest, and while I’m sure that’s the case for most people, I sleep on my belly.

Solomun & Stimming - Feuer & Eis (Diynamic)
Genre: House, Minimal/Deep

Escort - All Through The Night (Escort)
Genre: Disco

John Daly - Sky Dive (Plak Records)
Genre: Techno, Detroit

Skatebard - Vuelo (Radius)
Genre: Neo-Disco

Nick Sylvester: Makes me wonder whether I would have liked that Sally Shapiro album more if there was, cough, less Sally Shapiro.

Selway and Vincenzo - Dream Stealer (CSM)
Genre: Minimal/Deep

Weekly Staff Charts
Beatzcast #33: Crambe Repetita

Pepe Bradock - Rhapsody in Pain (Atavisme)
Genre: Leftfield

Peter Chambers: You’re not going to have a lukewarm reaction to this composition—I love it, but that might be a reflection of my overdeveloped sense of the ridiculous. I’m so happy people are making fearlessly individual, expressive music like this, experimenting with the idiom of groove to make something perverted, perverting—yet still funky.

Ilya Santana - Discotized (Permanent Vacation)
Genre: Neo-Disco

Force of Nature - Sequencer / Afroshock (Mule Musiq / Headinghome Records)
Genre: Neo-Disco

Nate DeYoung: It takes a grown man to acknowledge when he goes out of his way to find dishwashing music and this time—like always—Force of Nature’s “Afroshock (Broken Rule Mix)” just fell on my lap.

Toby Tobias - Dave’s Sex Bits (Rekids)
Genre: Neo-Disco, Balearic

Shed - Remixes In Four Parts 2 (Soloaction)
Genre: Techno, Detroit

Oliver $ - Hotflash Vol 2 (Grand Petrol)
Genre: Electro-House

Nick Sylvester: When [Oliver] grooves for a few seconds on a hiccup of filterhouse, I suddenly remember how infuriating glitch can get. I want that hiccup to last forever, a hiccup that comprises the best moment on the whole twelve-inch, but Oliver’s already moved on.

Baby Ford / Benno Blome - Smoke Machine (Sender)
Genre: Minimal/Tech

Passions - Emergency (Kitsune)
Genre: Indie-Dance

Move D - Ac1D (Modern Love)
Genre: Minimal/Tech, Techno

Weekly Staff Charts
Beatzcast #32: Crambe Repetita

Nina Phillips reviews MIA’s Bittersüss

Michael F. Gill talks about the process of a creating a DJ mix on Modyfier

Phobia - Phobia (DJ Hell / Silence Mix) (International Deejay Gigolos)
Genre: Techno, Electro-House

Michael F. Gill: DJ Hell just seems to fill in the blanks in making it sound contemporary, basically giving it a sleeker drum kit and some reserved acid lines; the source material does the rest of the heavy lifting effortlessly.

Junior Boys - Dead Horse EP (Domino)
Genre: Indie-Dance, Techno

Unit Black Flight - Where Is Carlos (Strange Life)
Genre: Neo-Disco, Italo

Andres Bucci - Chocopanda EP (Kupei Musika)
Genre: Minimal/Tech

Todd Hutlock: Andres may not be the most famous of the three Chilean Bucci brothers—that distinction would go to his brother Pier—but as his debut solo release proves, he might just be the funkiest.

Chromeo - Fancy Footwork Remixes (Turbo)
Genre: Indie-Dance, Electro-House

Moodymann - technologystolemyvinyle (KDJ)
Genre: Detroit, House

Peter Chambers: The irony might be that this is worth downloading, but not buying.

Daso - Absinthe EP (Connaisseur Recordings)
Genre: Electro-House, Minimal/Deep

In Flagranti - Intergalactic Bubblegum (Codek)
Genre: Indie-Dance

Weekly Staff Charts
Beatzcast #31: Crambe Repetita

Nick Sylvester’s review of Kathy Diamond’s Miss Diamond To You

Baby Oliver - Primetime (Uptown Express) (Environ)
Genre: Neo-Disco

Mallory O’Donnell: From the “Disco Train” to the Last Train to Lhasa, the railway serves nicely as a metaphor of convenience for electronic dance music and its slowly-chugging agenda. Baby Oliver, newly signed to Jersey’s finest label Environ, maps out their program of disco-derived deviance with “Primetime,” an ode to the A & C trains of the NYC subway system.

Reverso 68 – Especial (Eskimo)
Genre: Neo-Disco, Balearic

Boundzound - Louder (Warner / Island)
Genre: House

Lopazz - Share My Rhythm (Get Physical)
Genre: Electro-House

Black Devil Disco Club - Black Sunshine (LoEB)
Genre: Neo-Disco, Italo

Joel Mull - The End Has Begun EP (Railyard Recordings)
Genre: Progressive/Trance, Minimal/Deep

Nick Sylvester: I find myself rewinding back to the beginning just so I can hear the beat drop at minute two, which is saying something.

Dominik Eulberg – Limikolen (Traum)
Genre: Minimal/Deep

Todd Hutlock: The breathtaking moment comes at about 6:45 or so, when the bottom drops out, as the bird simply glides over everything, peering down at the busy world below heard in the percussion distant in the mix.

Mock & Toof - Black Jub (Tiny Sticks)
Genre: Neo-Disco

Para One - Midnight Swim (Naive France / Institubes)
Genre: Indie-Dance, Leftfield

Weekly Staff Charts

Beatzcast #29 and Beatzcast #30: Michael F. Gill presents some of the Beatz by the Pound crew’s favorite dance tracks, both old and new.

Michaelangelo Matos interviews house/garage/2-step producer Todd Edwards

Mallory O’Donnell interviews Kompakt artist The Field

Theo Parrish - Children of the Drums (Sound Signature)
Genre: Detroit

Peter Chambers: “Children of the Drum” contains all those elements that make Parrish’s music tick—a descending mesmer-melody that’s used as backdrop for rolling percussion (beautifully played by Jerry the Cat), a vocal very high in the mix, and these crazy drum machine patterns in the distant background somewhere—bongos going quietly bonkers.

Lovebirds - Modern Stalking (Winding Road Records)
Genre: House, Neo-disco

Audion - Mouth To Mouth Remixes (Spectral Sound)
Genre: Minimal/Tech

Cortney Tidwell - Don’t Let the Stars Keep Us Tangled Up (Ever Records)
Genre: Electro-House

Sly Mongoose - Bad Pulse (Mule Musiq)
Genre: House, Neo-Disco

Nick Sylvester: Sped up just 8-10 BPM or so would make this hotly tipped Japanese producer’s latest a-side a primetime player at a disco-edit party, though there’s something special to how the track works at the slightly languorous tempo it ships with: the toms sound deeper and hold out with pitch, the percussive grit of the rhythm guitar scraping hits harder, the piano fills up what space is left.

Digitaline - Anticlockwise (Cadenza)
Genre: Minimal-Tech

Tiny Sticks vs. Mental Groove - Killing Your Ghost (Mental Groove/Tiny Sticks)
Genre: Neo-Disco, Electro-House

Jürgen Paape - Speicher 47 (Kompakt Extra)
Genre: Minimal/Deep, Techno

Convextion - Miranda Remixes (Matrix)
Genre: Techno, Dub

Todd Hutlock: The original mix is a damn fine piece of second-wave Detroit techno, all jumping rhythms, dubbed-out keyboard stabs, and ring-modulated riffage, but fuck, this ain’t the second coming of “Strings of Life” or something.

Weekly Staff Charts
Beatzcast #28: Crambe Repetita

Kathy Diamond - Over (Permanent Vacation)
Genre: Disco, Funk

Peter Chambers: Both the first fantastic All Woman EP and, now, “Over” intimate a collaboration that could see one of the year’s most accomplished syntheses of house, funk, disco and ’80s-inflected pop.

Substance & Vainqueur - Reverberate / Reverberation (Scion Versions)
Genre: Dub, Techno

Kavinsky - 1986 (Record Makers)
Genre: New Wave, Synth

Redshape - Dog Day (Millions of Moments)
Genre: Chicago, House

Michael F. Gill: Specifically, the aura here is towards the lesser-mined sounds of ’90s Chicago house, when artists like the Foremost Poets would detune, stretch, and staccato-ize a synth burst, and then repeat it until it became a viable, body-moving loop that sounded fresh over a kick.

Bobby Davenport - Time (Has Come Today) (Flexx)
Genre: Italo, New Wave

Antonelli - The Name of This Track Is Bobby Konders (Italic)
Genre: House, Techno

J.T.C. - Take ‘em Off / D’Marc Cantu - No Control / X2 - Barely A Track (Creme Jak)
Genre: Acid

Vulva String Quartett - Cranberry Song (Combination)
Genre: Minimal/Deep

Weekly Staff Charts
Beatzcast #27: Crambe Repetita

Knight Action - Single Girl (Clone Classic Cuts)

Nick Sylvester: One of those missing link-type tracks you’ve heard about or just plain intuited to have existed—one of those synthpoppy bridges from Moroder-ripping disco to early house’s heavy jack. It’s as if this track invented the very sweetspots you’re looking for; it probably did and you didn’t even know it.

Metope - Braga/Breep (Areal)

Joakim - Lonely Hearts (Versatile)

Kotey Extra Band feat. Chaz Jankel - Sooner Or Later (Bear Funk)

Heartthrob vs. Troy Pierce / Gaiser vs. Heartthrob - MVS1 (M_nus)

DJ T - Lucky Bastard (Get Physical Music)

David Garcet - Redemption (Dirty Dancing)

Lazy Fat People - Pixelgirl EP (Planet E)

Claude VonStroke - The Whistler (Remixes) (Dirtybird)

Peter Chambers: I don’t mean to suggest this is a cynical release, but this EP strikes me as being cheekily “designed” to achieve a certain response from a certain set of ears, to position itself as some of “the stuff you hear in clubs.”

Weekly Staff Charts
Beatzcast #26: Crambe Repetita