// Clever Music 005 - Various Artists - "Soft then Hard LP"
http://www.clevermusic.net
1. Panmonu - Mitopa - 05:02
2. Enssei - City Yeah! - 06:29
3. Anders Ilar - Simplicity - 04:56
4. Datassette - Malfunction - 08:35
5. Johnatan Traffic - Earthstream - 08:39
6. Random Tag - Swing - 08:04
7. Popkan - Bulb Knob - 07:29
8. Gurtz - Hibrid Song - 05:28
9. DNCN - Notsoclevermusic - 04:35
10. Lunar Selector - Roquile - 05:11
11. Ali Khan - To A Better Place - 04:41
Release Page
Hey… it’s our first mammoth-sized V/A. It started as a little baby V/A which grew and grew and soon was bigger than Clever Music’s Alex and Mark put together and twice as ugly. So the V/A introduces some new artists that we hope you will like and reintroduces some more familiar faces who you have probably forgotten as you looked mashed when we last introduced you. We have included links at the bottom of this lengthy review which you probably won’t read so you can fill up on ‘uber’-knowledge.
Drawing influence from Basic Channel, Panmonu’s ‘Mitopia’ explores low-key dub minimalistics, deep bass-lines counterbalancing evocative shimmering pads. Great production and use of subtle sequencing throughout makes this track perfect for warming the winter dance-floor if cranked up and soft enough for a wine and cheese evening with your family should you ever find yourself in that sorry position whereby your mother asks you to play some of that ‘odd music that you like’. Turning things up a notch, Enssei’s ‘City Yeah’ smacks of Perlon, with jibbering samples, crazy effects and boomingly effective tribal-inflected drums. Perfectly suited to impromptu post-club binges with strangers who you are desperate to ‘educate’, having drawled on to them in the club that morning that the DJ sucked and you had better tunes.
If you are throwing a house party and have invited some nerds in order to provide some fun, perhaps try the following: take two unsuspecting geeks into a dimly lit, smoky room and stick on Anders Ilar’s ‘Simplicity’. Force feed the geeks several loaded bongs, until they are unable to talk. Turn up the music and watch them freak out to menacing beats laced with freaky snippets of nasty robots talking bollocks. Not to be used at family functions of the wine and cheese variety. Download Datasette’s ‘Malfunction’ onto your mp3 player and take it to the local karaoke evening. Ask for the video to whatever Phil Collins joint they have, without sound or subtitles, and get your mates to sabotage the pub lights. Stand on a table wearing sunglasses and whisper ‘Malfunction’ into the mike at the appropriate junctures and get your mates to stop anyone attacking you. Congratulations, you are cool as fuck.
Sounding a bit like early Lowtec stuff: dirty grinding beats and quirky funking samples. Johnatan Traffik’s ‘Earthstream’ should be well suited to any variety of house chores from weeding, to cleaning the bathroom. I usually like to get dressed in a little red rubber dress with my yellow rubber gloves (it’s so in at the moment) and snort about half a glass of vodka before ironing my smalls with this pounding piece of robot jive egging me on. As soon as we heard this one we just had to try it out on the tube. Get your mp3 player on and try it for yourselves on any form of public transport. Crank up Random Tag’s ‘Swing’ so that everyone sat near you can hear odd synth-washes overlaying repetitive funky swinging drums and try and stare anyone out who makes eye contact with you. We guarantee that you will win. Any complaints please send them to [email protected] and we will let you know where you are going wrong.
OK so if you like tracks with funky ass bass-lines, abrasive beats and f*cked up noises pay attention. That means you! Popkan will be doing a noisy bang bang EP for us later this year featuring weird stuff that goes bluuuurgghwaaaar over jacking funk tracks of the highest order. ‘Bulb Knob’ should wet your appetite. OK so your mum likes the Panmonu track and wants more...step in Gurtz with a delightfully deep melodic shuffler: ‘Hybrid Song’. You can’t play her anything else on this LP but fear not, we anticipated your mum’s almost primal love of minimalist dub aesthetics. Failing that, if your mum is one of those keep fit aerobic mothers you might want to try the next joint…
No stranger to the aerobic class, DNCN we understand wrote this entire track wearing a leotard and leg warmers. Interesting fact for you fact fans: insert two ‘u’s’ into the artist’s pseudonym to discover his real name! ‘Not So Clever Music’ is vintage DNCN with funked-up minimalism brought kicking and screaming into the Manchester artist’s visionary world of catchy bass-lines, film samples and leotards. Lunar Selector’s ‘Roquile’ throws a curb ball, ploughing the listener back in time to some kind of hands in the air Detroit-ish party with growling bass-lines and huge stabs. If the bouncer tries to mess with your shit just tell them that you know the DJ and that he is shagging the bouncer’s sister.
What better way to close the LP than with the big wig of whigged-out freak music: Sir Ali Khan’s ‘To a Better Place’. Snappy beats and an almost Underground Resistance-like hook underpins another anthemic vocal track that will sit well in any super-cool DJ set. Super-cool, man.
www.panmonu.tk
www.ali-khan.org
www.sinergy-networks.com
www.shitkatapult.com
www.hippocamp.net
www.datassette.net
www.randomtag.com
www.popkan.com
www.non-stop-djs.com
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We hope you enjoy!
As usual, we are always on the lookout for new music so drop us a line to get involved.Cheers.
Clever Music
http://www.clevermusic.net