the cracks...

Time to move on... I dont know about you, but I've had this strange nagging prejudice about digital labels for some time. It's obviously born out of my chronic love for vinyl and while I have nothing against wav's and mp3's as such, it's when they exist without a more credible partner release on the black stuff, that i loose interest. Of course I am aware there are many labels doing great things via the digital medium and I'm aware that I have probably missed out on some very special music as a result of my narrow minded thinking. As there is so much music about these days, I guess, in the end, some sort of selection criteria is required, certainly there seems to be one already in place. Perhaps it's worth noting also that i have a similar prejudice against laptop dj's, so getting through to me on this level is always going to be difficult.

Anyway then along came uk based Audio Parallax Records. With one hand in the edits scene and two feet in original Deep House territories, this digital label has quickly (in just over a year) signed and released a huge amount of very lovely, deep music by various players from these terrains (both heavyweight and lesser known). Lets see, the list of contributors includes Volta Cab, Mannmademusic, Cole Medina, 78 Edits, Andras Fox, Andrew Clarke, Matthew Kyle, Legendary 1979 Orchestra, Joseph Terruel, Another Project, Quiet Fish, James Johnston and Simon Weiss amongst many others. I think there are 31 ep's in all and many of them are excellent. There does seem to be a thread which loosely connects the music on offer; it's all pretty underground, quiet a lot of it is mid tempo or even slo mo, it's often atmospheric as f*ck, and it looks to be a furtive breeding ground for creative endeavors. Not having released any vinyl so far has allowed the label to move quickly and perhaps make freer choices, it hasn't however, like so many other digital labels, meant that quality is compromised. 

I've meant to do several posts about the label before (thankfully they don't rely on me for their publicity), but their recent EP from Chubbie Boots (their fifth from a Melbourne based artist) has forced my hand in getting on with it. Chubbie Boots is Gavin Walsh, originally a guitar player; his musical journey from 60's and 70's Rock through Krautrock and Drone, eventually led him to left field modern electronica like Caribou and Flying Lotus. It's this journey that filters profoundly into his music and it's why the results are so individual. "The Cracks Are Starting To Show" is a strange and beguiling hybrid of Hip Hop, Indie, Cut Up Disco and Electronic Psychedelia, the opening track 'Adlerwerke' is a beautiful, sun drenched and hypnotic un-anthem (very the theme from Brokeback via some sort of Canadian electronica outfit). But then there's also the blunted boogie of the title track,  a backward sliding melodic workout called 'We Don't Want No Stinkin' Wurli' (which may be impossible to really describe) and the Slo Mo slice 'n dice quickie  'How Could I Forget'. This may be the label's finest moment so far... it's an opinion... Anyway the extra good news is this looks to be coming out on vinyl quiet soon. Which is having your cake and eating it as they say... check their site for more...