Music:HelenDonlon Playlist Spring 2010

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We’re just before the real opening of the summer season here in Ibiza, although beach restaurants are now pulling up the shutters with their 2010 parties one by one, and next week sees the start of the International Music Summit, already in it’s third year. The summit will run into the club opening weekend with the ever-important Space opening party which goes on for two days.

To get in the mood I’ve compiled a selection of new and forthcoming electronic tracks which are in permanent rotation here in Siesta. I’m saving the chillout vibes for midseason when they will be needed most and have compiled instead a small selection of more uptempo vibes from various artists either about to pass through in person or have their tunes heard on the dance turntables across the island; during warmup sessions at Mambo and Sands, in the mix at Amnesia and Pacha, or at one of the countryside after-parties.

My current favourite French DJ, Chloe Thévenin, has just released a tenebrous and beautiful album called One In Other (label: Kill the DJ) the title track of which, Diva (featuring chanteuse Etyl), I’ve started the playlist with. This album, along with her previous Live At Robert Johnson are well worth checking out for fans of techno with a dash of psychedelic musing. Chloe will be at the Melkweg (Amsterdam) on the 27th May.

Pascal Arbez-Nicolas’s 2005 debut OK Cowboy was everywhere on its release, and I think that was largely due to the return of the disco beat that was just starting to happen that summer in house sets all over the Med. His latest album Flashmob (label: Different), once again released under the moniker Vitalic is a further foray down that road, and marks a moment in a certain type of revivalism he shares with Britain’s Alison Goldfrapp. I’ve chosen the characteristically uptempo Poison Lips from Flashmob to share here. Vitalic plays at Sonar (Barcelona) on Saturday 5th June.

Next up is the track Sonar from the magnificent Aufgang’s (label: Infiné) new self-titled album. This might be my favourite new track on the whole list. Two grand pianos and a bunch of electronics make up all of the fine tracks on the album. I’m currently positioning Sonar somewhere between the best song to get ready for an evening to, and the best how to do the housework with a sense of humour track. Either way it’s very hard to stay still when it’s coming at me through the speakers. Aufgang are at Sonar (Barcelona) on the 18th June.

As I’ve mentioned in the playlist column before, Charlotte Gainsbourg’s new album IRM (label: Because Music) was inspired by her recent head injury and subsequent MRI scans. Produced by Beck, it’s her most mature work to date. The album was completed around her filming schedules in Germany with Lars Von Trier for Antichrist. Gainsbourg performs at La Cigale (Paris) on 16th June, and at Benicassim on July 17th.

The first time I ever heard LCD Soundsystem was the pitch perfect dance track Get Innocuous! from the popular Sound of Silver and I was blown away. The man behind the moniker, American producer James Murphy co-founded dance label DFA Records with Mo’ Wax’s Tim Goldsworthy, and signed acts like Hot Chip and The Rapture along the way. The new LCD Soundsystem album This is Happening is a new DFA release this month, and I’ve featured my favourite track from the album, the rapturous Somebody’s Calling Me. LCD Soundsystem performs at Sonar and Glastonbury in June, and Rob Da Bank’s Bestival in September.

Everyone’s talking about the new Massive Attack album Heligoland (label: Virgin) and for good reason. It’s their most sincere work since 1991’s Blue Lines and sees the return of several key players, including Grant “Daddy G.” Marshall. Martina Topley-Bird’s wistful vocals feature on the reflective ballad Psyche, one of the standout tracks of the album, featured here. Massive Attack start their European tour in June.

The next track This Unfolds is from Kieran Hebden’s Four Tet and features on the new album There Is Love in You (label: Domino Records). This Unfolds does as advertised, into what I’d call a proper little builder with sunrise-appropriate prog/Krautrock overtones gradually trickling through. This track keeps coming back to haunt me in quiet moments as the summer is slowly unfolding around me. There’s an air of languid beach promises and full moon magic about it that causes it to stay with me long after it’s gone. Four Tet will be performing at Space, Ibiza on August 1st, and before that at the Body and Soul solstice gathering on 19th June in Ireland, and at Glastonbury, T in the Park and Benicassim.

Now for something more louche, straight from the solar plexus of veteran deep house artist Henrik Schwarz. A favourite of DJ Gilles Peterson, his recent 2am set at Miami’s Electric Pickle was described by the Miami New Times as “a continuous string of jacked-up tech-house bangers, punctuated by his signature melodic jazz sensibility…demonstrat[ing] he is more than capable of rising to the challenge of keeping a roomful of sweaty Miamians bouncing all night.” Featured here is the outstanding Leave My Head Alone Brain, one of the most played tunes in my house these last few months. Henrik Schwarz will be performing at the Cadenza Vagabundos opening party at Pacha, Ibiza on June 6th.

Stuttgart’s Schwarz brothers Ali and Basti of Tiefschwarz were springboarded to respectability when their track Music was picked up by Francois Kevorkian’s Wave Music label back in 1999. Since then, they’ve become a staple of the global dance party circuit, and have remixed a whole selection of interesting artists such as Chikinki, 2raumwohnung, Alter Ego, Groove Armada and Fischerspooner; as well as producing ten years worth of their own 12 inches. The fine track I’ve chosen here is the new single Find Me from their new album of 16 previously unreleased tracks, Chocolate (label: Souvenir). Find Me is a winning track, featuring vocals from the Berlin Panorama Bar’s Cassy, and some assuringly confident arrangements. Tiefschwarz will perform on both Saturday and Sunday of the grand season opening party here at Space, Ibiza; at Playkula and Wilde’s Sonar boat party across in Barcelona on June 20th; Cocoon, Frankfurt on March 2nd; Kehakuma at Space, Ibiza on 7th and 28th July/18th August/22nd September; Mysteryland @ Floriade, Amsterdam on 28th August and Cocoon, Ibiza on 6th September.

Now a welcome reissue in the form of a Recoil complilation. Recoil was Alan Wilder’s post-Depeche Mode project and the best tracks have now been reissued on Selected which is available on CD and limited edition vinyl box set. I wonder how limited the edition is as I can only imagine it will be a real flyer. Wilder’s guest vocalists included Diamanda Galas, Maggie Estep and, as featured here in the playlist, Toni Halliday from Curve. This single (or was it a single… I just know I played it, possibly as an album track, a million times when it was first released in 1992) is still one of my favourite electro-ballads of all time, and clearly set many precedents. Here’s hoping the reissue will mean younger electronic music fans will get a chance to discover it...Wilder has just performed a few Selected dates in Ekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, Mexico City, Austin and New York.

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©Helen Donlon 2010