Various - Sherwood At The Controls Vol 1: 1979-1984 - On-U Sound - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
A key instigator in the '80s Brit-dub scene, owner-founder of On-U Sound and creator of many a head-mashing remix, newer audiences might know him from recent dalliances with dubstepper Pinch. Thirty-plus years ago, Adrian Sherwood was tearing up the remix rulebook and crafting music mostly for his own label as well as extended workouts for the likes of Cabaret Voltaire, Primal Scream and Depeche Mode. On Volume 1 of a (hopefully) ongoing series, you'll find the infectious scratch-funk of Maximum Joy and Medium Medium and headphone-scaring electro mixes for Shriekback and long-time collaborator Mark Stewart and the Maffia, as well as a fairly straight-forward assist on The Fall's Middle Mass. He's at his most potent with reggae acts such as Prince Far I (on the remarkable Nuclear Weapon) or Singers and Players, both On-U mainstays. Volume 2 promises to be a defining document.
Various - Fresh Records Anthology - Harmless - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Part of the NYC Sleeping Bag empire, Fresh Records began as an offspring outlet for upcoming soul and rap artists with more material than its parent label could handle. Responsible for some classic electro cuts and hip-house monsters, Fresh had its finger firmly on the urban pulse from word go. Hardly comprehensive and not chronological, this triple-disc set is nonetheless as definitive as it gets. Disc one concentrates on the feet with tracks from Todd Terry, Chandra Simmons and the label's debut choon Tonight by Hanson & Davis, the second disc concentrates on the contrasting lyrical-kings T La Rock and Just Ice (many mixed by Mantronik) while the final set focuses on later recordings from EPMD, Stezo and Nice and Smooth. Misprinting the 12" of Back To Burn is a bit unforgivable but overall you get over 40 prime slammers such as Strictly Business (EPMD), Breaking Bells (T La Rock) and the under-rated To The Max (Stezo).
Various - ZTT The Value Of Entertainment - ZTT/Salvo - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
More vault-trawling for curator Ian Peel turns up material originally released thirty years ago as IQ6 Sampled. Designed to be a budget-priced primer for ZTT's by-now bulging roster and a season of concerts at London's Ambassador Theatre (included on the accompanying DVD), the original album has now been expanded thanks to the resurfacing of earlier mixes and uprooted from the annals of history. Thus you get extra versions of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's wide-eyed take on Springsteen's Born To Run, Instinct's only committal to vinyl Swamp Out and a lot of Art Of Noise. Frankie's lively Disneyland, Propaganda's rigid-dance anthem p:Machinery and Andrew Poppy's engaging The Object Is a Hungry Wolf are the highlights, while Anne Pigalle's tortured torch-chanteuse act comes to the fore more successfully when presented in demo form - Looking For Love is really rather pretty. And it wouldn't be a ZTT compilation without more and more Beatbox reassessments, now would it?
Holly Herndon - Playlist - 4AD - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Much-heralded follow-up to her debut Movement, 4AD's latest acquisition is likely to divide audiences with 2015's Playlist. Think FKA Twigs, St Vincent, Autechre, Flying Lotus and Bjork forming an ensemble and you're still nowhere near what weird and occasionally wonderful sounds emanate from Herndon's grey matter. It's as though every last drop of creativity has been drawn from this lady's imagination, syphoned into a bucket and thrown at a jet engine. Each particle has pretty much landed randomly on the tarmac, then scraped up and blown up into this album. You'll either hate it or love it. Or go back to it for more. Chorus and Morning Sun are as good as it gets in the abstract, unstructured world of Playlist.
Anthony Strong - On a Clear Day - Naive - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Yearning for the new Buble? Missing the boldness of Connick Jr.? Craving Cullum without the OTT showmanship? In complete contrast to Holly Herndon's challenging stratagem, we have crooning smoothie Strong whose oeuvre is a honey-glazed jazzy take on easy listening and soul standards. Big band arrangements with a slightly contemporary nod might not be top of your Christmas list but Strong does it well enough, even if it's all been done before. He's done well to get out of Croydon, garnering acclaim from Michael Parkinson and musical repping from Empirical's Tom Farmer (on bass) in the process. If there's one bug-bear, it's the re-arrangement of the timeless Unforgettable, transforming it from a magical ballad into a lukewarm bossa-nova parody doesn't impress. Nor does applying a similar blueprint to Don't Stop Till You Get Enough. Surprisingly, the big bold hepcat take on Bill Withers' superb Use Me isn't half bad.
A key instigator in the '80s Brit-dub scene, owner-founder of On-U Sound and creator of many a head-mashing remix, newer audiences might know him from recent dalliances with dubstepper Pinch. Thirty-plus years ago, Adrian Sherwood was tearing up the remix rulebook and crafting music mostly for his own label as well as extended workouts for the likes of Cabaret Voltaire, Primal Scream and Depeche Mode. On Volume 1 of a (hopefully) ongoing series, you'll find the infectious scratch-funk of Maximum Joy and Medium Medium and headphone-scaring electro mixes for Shriekback and long-time collaborator Mark Stewart and the Maffia, as well as a fairly straight-forward assist on The Fall's Middle Mass. He's at his most potent with reggae acts such as Prince Far I (on the remarkable Nuclear Weapon) or Singers and Players, both On-U mainstays. Volume 2 promises to be a defining document.
Various - Fresh Records Anthology - Harmless - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Part of the NYC Sleeping Bag empire, Fresh Records began as an offspring outlet for upcoming soul and rap artists with more material than its parent label could handle. Responsible for some classic electro cuts and hip-house monsters, Fresh had its finger firmly on the urban pulse from word go. Hardly comprehensive and not chronological, this triple-disc set is nonetheless as definitive as it gets. Disc one concentrates on the feet with tracks from Todd Terry, Chandra Simmons and the label's debut choon Tonight by Hanson & Davis, the second disc concentrates on the contrasting lyrical-kings T La Rock and Just Ice (many mixed by Mantronik) while the final set focuses on later recordings from EPMD, Stezo and Nice and Smooth. Misprinting the 12" of Back To Burn is a bit unforgivable but overall you get over 40 prime slammers such as Strictly Business (EPMD), Breaking Bells (T La Rock) and the under-rated To The Max (Stezo).
Various - ZTT The Value Of Entertainment - ZTT/Salvo - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
More vault-trawling for curator Ian Peel turns up material originally released thirty years ago as IQ6 Sampled. Designed to be a budget-priced primer for ZTT's by-now bulging roster and a season of concerts at London's Ambassador Theatre (included on the accompanying DVD), the original album has now been expanded thanks to the resurfacing of earlier mixes and uprooted from the annals of history. Thus you get extra versions of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's wide-eyed take on Springsteen's Born To Run, Instinct's only committal to vinyl Swamp Out and a lot of Art Of Noise. Frankie's lively Disneyland, Propaganda's rigid-dance anthem p:Machinery and Andrew Poppy's engaging The Object Is a Hungry Wolf are the highlights, while Anne Pigalle's tortured torch-chanteuse act comes to the fore more successfully when presented in demo form - Looking For Love is really rather pretty. And it wouldn't be a ZTT compilation without more and more Beatbox reassessments, now would it?
Holly Herndon - Playlist - 4AD - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Much-heralded follow-up to her debut Movement, 4AD's latest acquisition is likely to divide audiences with 2015's Playlist. Think FKA Twigs, St Vincent, Autechre, Flying Lotus and Bjork forming an ensemble and you're still nowhere near what weird and occasionally wonderful sounds emanate from Herndon's grey matter. It's as though every last drop of creativity has been drawn from this lady's imagination, syphoned into a bucket and thrown at a jet engine. Each particle has pretty much landed randomly on the tarmac, then scraped up and blown up into this album. You'll either hate it or love it. Or go back to it for more. Chorus and Morning Sun are as good as it gets in the abstract, unstructured world of Playlist.
Anthony Strong - On a Clear Day - Naive - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Yearning for the new Buble? Missing the boldness of Connick Jr.? Craving Cullum without the OTT showmanship? In complete contrast to Holly Herndon's challenging stratagem, we have crooning smoothie Strong whose oeuvre is a honey-glazed jazzy take on easy listening and soul standards. Big band arrangements with a slightly contemporary nod might not be top of your Christmas list but Strong does it well enough, even if it's all been done before. He's done well to get out of Croydon, garnering acclaim from Michael Parkinson and musical repping from Empirical's Tom Farmer (on bass) in the process. If there's one bug-bear, it's the re-arrangement of the timeless Unforgettable, transforming it from a magical ballad into a lukewarm bossa-nova parody doesn't impress. Nor does applying a similar blueprint to Don't Stop Till You Get Enough. Surprisingly, the big bold hepcat take on Bill Withers' superb Use Me isn't half bad.