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Mas y Mas were introduced to me by a certain ex-waitress-at-a-strip-club on a recent jaunt down to Richmond. Let me set the scene: walking to the gas station for cigarettes you might see a dude sitting on his porch blowing on his digeridoo (thusly named Digeridude), too many cute girls riding bikes to count, and if you’re lucky, girlpants’ good friend Will in a dress, trying in vain to score a Craigslist Missed Connection.
Mas y Mas, hailing from nearby NoVA, were a perfect soundtrack to this scene. They’re at once fidgety and disaffected, smart enough to know that the best of kind of fun, maybe the only kind, is the stupid kind. On this point check out the (um) pointedly titled “You Can’t Play Without Ice.” It kind of reminds me of the first time I heard the Thermals, all lo-fi and pissed off at posers, but these guys are a lot funnier about it, partly cause I can’t really tell if they’re joking or not. There’s a savant tunefulness too, even though Vinny often tries to hide it behind his Mike-Skinner–as-snotty-American-kid impression.
And the lyrics are golden, as anyone unfortunate enough to follow my Twittrrr barrage will know. On “Sunday School Hymn,” they tackle that freshest of topics—fucking religion, dude—and somehow manage to land it unposed. “Now who here’s had his grandma pass away and wonders why she is still sleeping, and who here’s read a little Walt Whitman and wonders why he is so happy?” Maybe because I’ve wondered both those things, maybe cause there’s some real melancholy in his arch schoolboy recitation, but it’s the most moving thing I’ve heard since Joel got drunk and read some of his poetry at the last gpants staff meeting.
Mas y Mas — “You Can’t Play Without Ice”
Mas y Mas — “Sunday School Hymn”
Mas y Mas are magnanimously giving away their album, Proud Sponsors of Pepsi, here.
Well, it’s been several weeks since this album came out to 
Probably every homegrown publication has these embarrassing teething problems, but in Pitchfork’s case this Terrible Epoch coincides neatly with the time when Founder and Editor-in-Chief Ryan Schreiber was a regular contributor. In the course of the site’s slow, stumbling crawl from sub-Geocities design and sub–
On Monday, March 15th 2010, I found myself in the intimate front lobby of New York venue Joe’s Pub (4th Avenue between 7th and 8th Street, New York), standing around awkwardly bumping into patrons on the top tier of the jazz club-y space with my media juggernaut 
On the 8th of March, Vivian Girls played 
“Carsten Jost actually co-runs the Dial label with Lawrence. To be honest, I wasn’t all that wise to this sound a few years ago but by all reports he was a pretty big deal back then and released a bunch of really great tracks. Up until now he’s been on semi-retirement and focusing on running the label, but now he’s back! This is the other track on the Dial split 
Buttrich had a great 2006, so I was looking forward to this release. The original track was a little disappointing, but this Serafin remix more than makes up for that! Serafin is another guy who I really admire because his productions are just so well done technically. Listen closely to the sounds used on this track: how complex the hi hat is, or how the first hook and synth very loosely wrap themself around the bassline in a way that’s almost out of sync. The track sounds like it’s going to collapse on itself but it stays together. And this is only the first 4 minutes of a 12 minute tune! He doesn’t even introduce the main hook until 6 minutes in and it’s a ripper of a hook containing some beautiful multi-layered melodies that if tweaked a little wouldn’t sound out of place on an Aphex Twin track. We then get some more rising synths and all the top notch percussion and beats are brought back in. It’s a perfect track and highlights how great this guy really is.” 07. 
I think it’s safe to say that Seph is still on fire. While he’s still delivering the deep dark Argentinean techno, on this track we can find a little more funk than his previous work. There’s a few reasons for this, firstly the structure isn’t as rigid and this results in a looser, more elastic feel. Also, the effects/samples used are more stretched out and textured and the deep bass appears to be along to party rather than just creep everyone out. So overall it’s much funkier than the old Seph sound, which suggests some development in his sound and is good to see. While artists like Seph and the others in the Argentinean brigade were brilliant in 2006, sometimes these localised sounds can get stagnant rather quickly–tracks like this one suggest otherwise for their scene.” 06. 
From Karaōke To Stardom have pretty much come from out of nowhere with 2 EPs in the space of 2 months, and every track is stellar. On this track they deliver a tasty slab of slow burning nasty techno. Everything about this track is stretched out, tense and sinister. Long drawn out static and eerie sounds fill the mix which are underscored by a deep bassline and bubbling echoed minimal pings. I’ve mentioned how there’s been many examples of tracks being stripped of reverb and made “dryer” but nothing could be further from the truth here. Everything about this track is wet and drippy. Once it has settled into its groove we learn why this track is called “Big Bad Swoosh,” as we get hit with a big swoosh of static which ushers in a temporary release of tension. The bass gets punchier and the eerie sounds are removed and replaced by some more dancefloor friendly percussion. But parity is soon restored as the tension returns and some new Minus-esque paranoid pings arrive. This is a really fresh tune and the sort of track that I’d expect to get played a lot for the next few months. I don’t see how anyone couldn’t lose their shit to this one, especially when that swoosh hits!” 05. 
Everyone is waiting for the M_nus bubble to burst. There’s been some people saying they are overrated and perhaps a couple of their releases are. It’s like when Warp were on top of their game, anything they released would get more attention because it was on Warp, while there were some better 
Half Hawaii are my tip for best group of 2007. This 
This is probably the most uniformly loved track so far in 07. I haven’t heard anyone say a bad thing about it yet and for good reason. The beats are comprised of various forms of live percussive sounds and glitched out digital beats which are given just the right texture to blend well with each other. This combination delivers both technical precision and raw funkiness to the mix which is a lethal combination if the right balance is reached as it is here. Herein lies the secret to “Cluster Fuck“‘s appeal: by utilising both organic and non-organic sounds in the same track it manages to bring both warm funkiness and cold mechanic moods, which are 2 of the best routes to take a track. But rarely (if ever) do you hear both these paths taken in the same track. Once the platform has been set by said organic and digital beats, some dubby bass is added which is soon joined by cut up vocals for a while. Then things start to get dark and trippy as the vocals disappear and the once funky and clean bass transforms into eerie deep acid and some spooky melodies creep into the mix. As this happens the percussion becomes more urgent to complete the 180 degrees shift in mood. Then, as if to make sure you are kept permanently off guard, the vocals return in what sounds like some sort of schoolgirl chant and the funk is not only restored but brought to new heights. Once this phase is over the track once again plunges into new depths of darkness, never to return to it’s bright funky climax again. This one is an epic in length and journey as it brings you up, takes you down, then up then finally down again.” 02. 
I really don’t know what else to say about Ricardo. He’s probably the most important guy in electronic music at the moment and he’s a genius. But enough about him and more about the track. This is Ricardo in loose funky mode. He’s taken the percussion and the vocals (i.e. the only good elements) of the original and shaped them into the Ricardo format then just rides it out for 15 minutes of funked out minimal goodness. In some ways it’s a similar approach to his “Sinner In Me” remix from last year with its deceptively complex percussion, smoothed out bass then halfway through the introduction of a second funky bassline to get you moving. The main difference is this track is bouncier, brighter and less minimal which is possibly a reaction to Beck’s brighter vocals. It’s interesting how on both the Depeche Mode and Beck remixes Ricardo has chosen to isolate the vocals and make them more of a feature of the track than the original did. This isn’t really something that is done very often in a remix but in this case it works brilliantly. Actually, this remix has made me appreciate Beck’s vocal performance more. I always felt that there was a good track buried somewhere in the original. Beck has always been that little bit off the mark recently even when he has a good thing going. So in retrospect this track was ripe for the remix treatment. Out goes the ill advised samples and crowded production and in come what beck has been trying to rediscover for the past 10 years, funk and energy!” 01. 
Read the recent ‘This Month In Techno’ column at Pitchfork and you’ll see another example of someone jumping on the Klock bandwagon. This sound right here is where techno is going. It’s minimal yet it’s big and beefy too. But it’s also using minimal’s love of technology to push it up that extra level. So you could say the phrase “the best of both worlds” applies here. I’ve always enjoyed weird frequencies in my music and Klock uses frequencies in ways I’ve never heard before. It sounds like you’ve stuck your head inside a mechanical underwater beehive. These sounds are joined by a piercing high hat, deep thudding bass and a simple yet catchy hook. Once these sounds have been established Ben just variates and brings each element in and out at different point for the duration of the track. It’s quite a subtle track and something that really has to be heard to be fully appreciated but it really is clearly the song of the year so far. So deep, penetrating and downright hypnotic.” 
“Quite a few bootleg remixes come out every year and most of them sound fairly cheap and generic, with little regard or respect given to the source material. So when I saw this one (a remix of The Cure’s “Lullaby”), I really wasn’t all that optimistic. I can picture it now: rising, string-drenched crescendos and horribly cheesy use of the guitar riff. Come to think of it, I’m surprised there hasn’t been an awfully cheesy trance cover made already, as it virtually writes itself. But the track is surprisingly tasteful. The original’s main melody is what the track is based on, while the strings and guitar are sped up a little and used intermittently just to remind you what you are listening to. It’s a little on the proggy side, especially when the strings come in midway, but it shows enough restraint to stay sweet without going sour.” 19. 
There’s a lot of buzz around this guy right now, probably because he’s only 18 years old and has put out two very good EPs already. This one is from his 
Here we have a very busy track. Often these sort of tunes grate after the novelty of all the production bells 
I’d say Sleeparchive has the most distinctive sound in techno right now. Anyone with even a slight knowledge of minimal could quite easily trainspot one of his tunes. 
Despite the talk of a return to the classic techno sound, there’s still plenty of deep dark minimal being released. Here we see deep and dark blended with tougher techno. This is one of the reasons I love techno so much. In the space of 2–3 months the scene has undergone a pretty significant shift. If this came out in mid-2006, I doubt many would have gotten into it, but in early 2007 it’s got a big buzz behind it. This tougher stuff is just as minimal (i.e., amount and structure of sounds used) but they are 
Fans of Efdemin and Dial will probably be as surprised by this track as i was. The name “Efdemin” brings blissed out melodic techno to mind so when I saw this on a split 
The Swiss producers have been making some noise in minimal house recently, but here Benelli appears to be more interested in Argentinean deep minimal and Swedish tech-house. I love the old school techno vibe on this tune. The acid synth takes me back to the days of warehouses packed with 10,000 ravers off their skull on god knows what shuffling madly on talcum-powdered floors. That’s not to say this track is strictly retro though, the droning deep bass and drippy effects are straight out of the minimal 101 textbook and the acidy hook is given that trademark reverb treatment on occasions for the buildups. Chalk this one up as yet another example of beefed up minimal. What sets this apart from the others is how well the deep bassline is effectively incorporated with what is a fairly busy tune without stepping on the toes of the other sounds. Classy stuff.” 13. 
Two of the biggest-hyped releases of 2007 so far have been the remixes of Vonstroke’s “Who’s Afraid Of Detroit?” and Heartthrob’s “Baby Kate,” but I’ve found both quite disappointing, which is a shame because both sounded ripe for the remix treatment. So when the Mouth To Mouth remix 
Still not sure about Bodzin, but this track is 
To their defense, Dr. Dog do mention dogs fairly often in their songs (doctors, not so much). Still, I’m not sure if that’s reason enough to give themselves such a name. Furthermore, I can’t help but be reminded of 
Dr. Dog are from Philly and they’ve put out several albums prior to this one, but I have to admit this is the first I’ve heard. The band members have been in all sorts of other bands, ranging from punk to indie to other 50s/60s-influenced pop bands. One of the guys is a trained jazz guitarist. They’ve toured with M. Ward and My Morning Jacket and even Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and the Strokes. They had a song on the soundtrack for Fast Food Nation. They’ve been attacked by some reviewers for stealing the Beach Boys’ playbook and doing nothing new with it, but for me that’s kind of the point. Bill over at 
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