We dig through the latest arrivals at Filter Musikk in search of some favourites in another cut with Filter Musikk
How do you find new dance music today? Before my time it was fanzines and mix cassettes. Back when I started digging into this music, it was magazines, radio, M.T.V. and eventually the night club. With the growth and efficiency of the Internet, independent blogs and forums took over from the magazines and broadcasters.By the time social media and music streaming came to be, many of these independent blogs and forums were laid to rest.
And what are we left with today? AI algorithms influencing listening habits? It has become such an isolated and insular experience and any sense of community has dissolved with this experience.
It has become a perpetual feedback loop based on the listener’s tastes and anything beyond that is ignored. There’s no surprise; nothing to penetrate your comfort bubble and expand your musical horizons, and lately nothing outside of what is already or has been a commercial success. It’s always the safe-bet, and even if you find yourself with eclectic tastes this feedback loop will never challenge you. It will always only want to satisfy your tastes, never mind how broad.
It’s only in a true community that we challenge our listening habits. At its simplest that community is two friends discussing (or mostly arguing about) their latest musical discoveries while at a macro level, its writers and online commentators proliferating their favourite music to an audience, hopefully independent from how many readers/watchers/listeners it will attract.
That’s why places like Filter Musikk need to exist. The record- and dj equipment store has made an everlasting contribution to the scene in spreading the music that is often overlooked, and giving you options beyond your listening habits. Filter Musikk has been the nucleus of this music and its enthusiasts for a couple of generations in Oslo.
You’re likely to find records in the store that you might have dismissed offhand, and you’re always going to find something that you’d never heard, but instinctively like. Here are some of those records.
Ex Generation – The Napoli Exchange (LP)
Napoli’s disco scene is the thing of legends. It’s a breeding ground for some of the most exciting electronic dance music artists on the scene today and a paradise for all kinds of selectors. The mediterranean city has long been the haunt of music enthusiasts and collectors. The record stores of the region have been pawed over extensively by some of the world’s leading DJs and producers like Lewis Moody and Ziggy Zeitgeist (Ex generation/ Energy exchange records).
These two have formed a particular intrinsic bond with the city and in a new collaboration with local producer, DJ and Label owner, Federico Galotti, they’ve channelled it into an album of original music with a host of artists, many from the region
It’s so easy to get lured into those familiar tropes and use metaphors like sunkissed synths and undulating waves of bass, but that’s the only way to describe this music. Paolo Petrella’s bass slaps against the formidable shore of 80’s drum tracks, while synths bubble through uplifting melodies. Beguiling atmospheres evoke the shimmery imagery of a beach at dusk, with the sun setting on a nascent dance floor.
Ex-Generation expanded their sonic purview beyond the stereotypical Neapolitan sound, modernising the sonic palette and incorporating touches like the soulful vocals of Allysha Joy on Hurting Lies and the wispy enchantments of Honeylips on Holding Your Heart. Napoli’s heart beats strong throughout with Ex-generation and Federico Gallotti joining the likes of Nu Genea in channelling those old records into new sounds.
Obscure sci-fi references, 8-bit cover art, and 16-bit sounds. Is this the nineties? NOS would us believe nothing has changed since the mid nineties and he would be right. Electronic music still uses the same machines (albeit virtual versions), the same tropes and the context remains on the dance floor. (Well in Caves of Ix’s case it’s more about the 2nd room or afters.)
Elements fade in like their being hand-manipulated from a mixer, while patterns spiral out of control as if the machines are trying to tell us something. There’s layer upon layer of classic synth sound, embarking on some retro-futuristic journey to the possibilities of music without challenging the listener.
It’s instantly familiar and comforting, but unlike most of today’s variations on this sound, it goes beyond a simple loop. There’s a general progression on Caves of Ix that touches on anything from serene ambient to gnarlin acid. The Swedish artist doesn’t forego that original appeal of these styles of music, but asks; where else can we take it. And the answer is; back to its roots because if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Lately there’s always a new Norwegian cut in the mix, and it’s not just one style of music either. Whether it’s Hip Hop, Tech-House or Techno, Norway’s contribution to Filter’s shelves have been consistent and it’s really inspiring to see it happening on vinyl to this degree.
Here we have something new coming out of Bergen. Placed around the Techno common denominator, Skolopender’s debut record Polakk isn’t that stereotypical either. Elements of Noise, abstract field recordings, Psytrance and even some tribal elements peak through the hazy three-tracker.
Sound seems to seep out of some primordial ooze, with no inclination of what form it will eventually take, a continuous metamorphosis of sound. It’s only the appearance of some four-four kicks that some familiar structure appears, but for the most part the destination is illusive.
It reminds this writer of the early days of labels like Stroboscopic Artefacts or Semantica when they were undermining the conventions of Techno with something truly experimental.
E.R.P. is back in the LP format. It’s his first since 2019’s Exomoon and it’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since that last record. For a while E.R.P was such a constant at Filter Musikk, always there with a new EP at the very least and quite often a new album.
Looking into his various aliases, it suggests that he might have been on something of a hiatus between 2018 and 2023. Perhaps, like the rest of us, he was merely taking a break to re-asses everything after the pandemic, but it’s good to have E.R.P back in the fold. A Filter Musikk with an E.R.P record just makes sense and it’s good to have something familiar in a world fraught with strangeness.
Instantly recognisable as an E.R.P. record, the American producer and artist’s sound continues to be steadfast on Faded Caprice and you can tie a red thread from even his earliest records like Ancient Light to this one. There were never any teething issues with the creation of E.R.P or any of Gerard Hanson’s other aliases. It always arrives fully formed in the specific moniker’s gestalt.
Faded Caprice is a luxurious bed of textures from which sparkling rhythms careen manically to the edge of Electro’s event horizon before it gets swallowed into IDM territory. Melody and harmony tease at becoming earworms before dissipating into a miasmic cloud, everything imbuing the atmosphere of the tracks across the album and the album as a whole. There’s an altruism to the elements, none are allowed to stand out ahead of the others in an all-consuming sound.
Some motifs you feel that you’ve come across before in E.R.P’s other work, like a continuation of thematic material that impregnates Hanson’s designs for this particular artistic pursuit.
Burroughs – Half Light EP (12″)
Club music doesn’t often get as immersive as this, except maybe when it’s E.R.P. You feel like you’re engulfed in a pillowy bosom of sound, while deep bass movements pull at your gut. Burroughs’ arrangements expand and contract. Elements clatter against the backdrop, creating a sonic veil from which leading melodies and bass themes emerge.
Whether tantalising on the edges of Trance or breaking familiar rhythm patterns with an Electro beat, Burroughs keeps touching hedonistic heights. Melody and texture dominate, but never overwhelm and it’s only on Carl Finlow’s remix of Sigler where things get stripped back to the starkest elements. The three original tracks hardly waver from the dance floor, but there’s a little more on the bone, an allure that is left to be discovered just beyond the functional.