Cellular Bits #2: Ta-ku, Horse Macgyver, Mark Pritchard, Friendships

LAWSON FLETCHER rounds up the latest Bandcamp, Soundcloud and YouTube streams from the fringes of local electronic music.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

Ta-ku
Re-Twerk, Vol. II
(LP, Sunday Records et al.)

Red Bull Music Academy alum, started his own record label, has remixed and refixed far and wide, loves J Dilla so much he made one track a day for 50 days in his honour, and sports perhaps the finest haircuts in the game. Perth’s Ta-ku is an unbelievably prolific producer, who also happens to be exceedingly nice and engages openly with his fans, whether they be listeners or fellow producers alike, in contrast to the faceless, steely anonymity that many in the scene cultivate. He has just released the second instalment of Re-Twerk – a baker’s dozen of edits, refixes and originals that ranges from lush, Low End Theory-type sounds to club-ready trap instrumentals, with Bmore and footwork side visits along the way. That’s probably only about five per cent of his total release count for the year. Perhaps the most unsettling thing is that it’s all totally on point. Underground and online love for this guy is immense – it’s only a matter of time until total world domination.

Mark Pritchard
‘Ghosts’
(single, Warp)

UK transplant Mark Pritchard has dropped all of his monikers (more than 20 at last count) but lost none of the finesse and depth that defines his work knitting together diverse electronic genres. Taken from the recently dropped EP of the same name, both find Pritchard ramping up his interest in the 160bpm zone that his collaboration with Steve Spacek as Africa Hitech flirted with (particularly the excellent ‘Out in the Streets’). Commenting on the spread of the genre outside its heartland in Chicago, reigning footwork producers DJ Rashad and DJ Spinn shouted out Africa Hitech for putting their own spin on the sound, one so codified and seductive those inspired by it can easy to fall into mimicry. Pritchard won’t have any of that – with its etched-out vocal sample, deft use of silence and revolving synths, the track is, aptly, a subtle, unsettling haunting of juke rather than a ventriloquism, stretching into an infinity both nebulous and aseptic. But it’s also a club banger. Go figure. Only Pritchard, mate.

Strict Face
‘Slow Heavens’
(track, independent)

Mild-mannered uni student by day, and face-melting grime futurist by night – Adelaide’s Strict Face, coming this way via Triple R’s heavily relevant Golden Syrup, has been making forward-facing, cosmic-leaning eski beats for a year or two now, and all recent signs suggest he is on the cusp of blowing up. He has collaborated recently with UK’s Chemist (on a track which sadly evaporated from the cloud only days after it was uploaded) and was tapped by Truants to kick-start their ‘Functions of the Now’ series on grime’s new wave, turning out a frankly jaw-dropping mix in the process. Released on the free Birthday Riddims II EP, ‘Slow Heavens’, aptly described as “melancholic grime” by whoever was moved enough to upload it to YouTube, is a little older now and showcases his kinder side, but think of it as a gentle entry point into a subterranean world that gets only more thrilling and unnerving the deeper you go.

Various Artists
The Bridge Presents: Maker
(LP, The Bridge)

For the second release from FBi Radio’s “100% Sydney Music” program The Bridge, Tim Sharp has curated a great selection of rarities and exclusives from local electronic acts. Kicking off with the formerly unreleased and instantly likeable ‘Solo Mission’ by Blue Mountains artist The Silent Titan, half of it is bathed in that warm, live glow that often characterises Australian beats culture, whilst cuts from the likes of Gardland and James IV Stewart grapple with harsher techno textures. An interesting bifurcation, and indication of a scene with plenty of productive directions to branch out into.

Friendships
‘SSLOWW’
(track, Silo Arts & Records)

Hailing from Melbourne and working with the on-point Silo Arts, Friendships interprets some of the best features of the international bass music trend – gorgeous, gloopy synths and refixed R’n’B voices – and adds his own special, dusty patina to it all. Within the space of a single track, ‘SSLOWW’ shows Nicholas Brown’s anything but a one trick pony. With its détourned Kylie Minogue (!) vocal and trapped-out breakdowns, this cut flits effortlessly between sultry and stomping, somehow all coming together. It’s from the recently re-released and free I’m an impressionist, you're dumb: a compilation of bass tracks.

Horse Macgyver
‘#WHY ARE THEY being PUNISHERS?’
(single, independent)

Formerly trading under the moniker ///▲▲▲\\, whose CD-R was some of the best little-heard witch house both this and the other side of the equator, Horse Macgyver is back with his creepy, strangulated synths and patented hollowed-out drums. Even more non-linear and punishing than his earlier work, ‘#WHY ARE THEY being PUNISHERS?’ (quite possibly not the track title) is five minutes of post-industrial run-off collected and bottled for your, um, enjoyment? Fucking around or fucking brilliant, either way you need to get on this tip.

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