EP Review: I Like Disco - Lonely Boy

Futureboogie are kicking off 2015 with I Like Disco, a new release from Lonely Boy, real name Joshua Heath.

The title track is an funky electro cut full of elastic bass and clean lines that feels modern whilst drawing on plenty of memories from the past. There are hints of mid-noughties tech-house, the Get Physical label and early Crosstown Rebels... It's slick and catchy without spilling its guts. Emperor Machine provides a remix that toughs up the original, pulling back on the whirling synth melodies and beefing out the sharp basslines and chunky drums - it is distinctly Emperor Machine in other words.

B-side The Subtle Frenzy is a slow building track, percussive elements echo and bounce like ping pong balls whilst a progressive groove is gradually layered on thicker and thicker to create something clearly created for peaking dancefloors.

The release closes with digital exclusive Take Your Time. It is a more measured, slower building track with a melody that loops whilst a set of loose percussion shuffles on. It is a more ominous and less certain conclusion for the release, but just as good as everything else here.

I Like Disco is out now through Futuireboogie.

Everybody likes disco, but not as much as Lonley Boy. LA based Joshua Heath makes his debut on the label with a nod to his love of vintage disco grooves, putting together a finely crafted house cut that does the business but doesn't take itself too seriously. Dropping on 27th January via the Bristol based Futureboogie imprint, the release comes complete with a killer remix from The Emperor Machine and a B side that'll give this one a run for its money. Press play if you like disco too. https://soundcloud.com/lonelyboymusic https://soundcloud.com/futureboogie Connect to i-D's world! www.facebook.com/iDmagazineofficial twitter.com/i_D http://i-d.co

Album Review: Late Night Tales presents After Dark 2: Nightshift - Bill Brewster

After Dark: Nightshift is the latest release from Late Night Tales stable and the second instalment from Bill Brewster under his After Dark banner. The first After Dark album came out a little over a year ago and focused on exactly what Brewster does well - carefully curated songs brought together to make you move. I wrote a brief summary of Brewster's history in that original review so I recommend checking it out if you want to know more.

Nightshift attempts to continue that journey with a fairly extensive 18-track selection that spans from Typesun through to Justus Köhncke via Emperor Machine. The whole point of these albums is the rareness of the tracks and the flow and journey of the album listening experience - the latter being something that isn't fully realised in the unmixed MP3 promo version I was supplied.

The first After Dark album cunningly weaved in a couple of rare mixes of tracks you may know but to my ear Nightshift  doesn't have anything you are likely to have heard, making it a exploratory listen. Particularly in unmixed form, at 110-minutes, it feels a little overwhelming - something that is sure to be addressed in the shorter mixed form available once the album is released.

But Brewster knows his onions, and there are some gems to discover. Neurotic Erotic Adventure by the Neurotic Drum Band is a bizarre electronic funk disco number full of swirling disco strings and robotic voices. Day Outside's Faraway Sensation is a elastic Madchester sounding indie punk-funk shuffle. Not Yet Not Yet from Crowdpleaser & ST Plomb jiggles with an overtly confident strut, analogue bass and a swinging percussion line bumping up against funky synths as vocals pay tribute to a variety of classic tracks.

But it feels like for every strong cut there is another here that is filler. Köhncke's Tell Me is gloriously warm and starry-eyed, but it is bookended by relatively flabby moments in Asadinho's Haiku and Daniele Patucchi's People Come In... And these are just a couple of examples. Some of this is undoubtedly addressed by Brewster's DJ mixed version, but it begs the question why the version previewed is unmixed.

After Dark: Nightshift ends with General Lee's Magic, a swirling and psychedelic disco soul prog-rock track that is everything Brewster can deliver... Entrancing, surprising and beautiful. It's just a shame there wasn't more music here as surprising and enjoyable.

After Dark 2: Nightshift is out tomorrow, available to pre-order on CD and MP3 from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate links].

Album Review: Like A Machine - The Emperor Machine

Andy Meecham's new album as The Emperor Machine follows a slew of slinky singles featuring his new vocal partner and it mostly delivers on the promise of those releases that led us up to this point.

Meecham has specifically highlighted his love of the album format, paying tribute to the fact that albums enable you to get 'weirder' in a way shorter forms of music do not... That combined with that new (still curiously unnamed) vocalist gives Like A Machine a left-field analogue component that certainly benefits his sound.

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Opening with the evil bass-heavy sounds of Theme From Magical Ring, Like A Machine initially sounds like a bad-ass sci-fi funk exploitation flick. It screams out for someone to create a version with some rhymes dropped on it - the thick and sinister and slow melodies the sickest hip-hop track you never heard.

Theme From Magical Ring is quickly followed by a stripped back, more raw and punk influenced version of the title track and lead single. It is another similarly aggressive and foreboding piece, full of the sensuality it always had but back here with added vitriol. At three-and-a-half-minutes it will leave you wanting, but perhaps that is a statement in itself.

The first six-minutes of Like A Machine are almost certainly its best, but that says more about  how electric they feel than it does of the rest of the album. Current single RMI Is All I Want introduces a disco swagger that re-occurs a couple of times through the album, particularly on the Todd Terje featuring So.Ma.So - expect plenty of analogue synth and bass lines that make your backside bounce. Both are playful yet grimey.

Free from the constraints of the single format The Emperor Machine concept benefits in exactly the increased expansiveness Meecham has alluded to. That rework of the title track would never lead a single, and there are moments of psychedelic weirdness - as on the slow and cosmic Sonique. Varied and assertive, Like A Machine is a weird, but enjoyable, trip.

Like A Machine is out on May 19 through Southern Fried. Pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links]. Preview RMI Is All I Want on Soundcloud below:

Buy on Beatport: http://bit.ly/RMIBeatport Buy on iTunes: http://bit.ly/1f9OP2v Buy vinyl: http://bit.ly/RMIvinyl Taken from the album 'Like A Machine' coming soon: http://bit.ly/EMLikeAMachineAmazon http://www.facebook.com/theemperormachine

EP Review: Hey! - The Emperor Machine

Following on from his rather filthy Like A Machine EP earlier in the year Andy Meecham is cued to drop this new release Hey! on Monday and if anything it only builds on the scuzzy sound of that last release.

This new EP precedes a return to DJing in 2014 and a planned full-length album and new live show. Michelle Bee is shaping up to be a key partner in the forthcoming plans for The Emperor Machine, lending vocals to not only "Hey!" but a number of tracks on the new album. Much like on "Like A Machine" the vocals here provide a dramatic sense of sultry humanity to the jacking robotic rhythms. An extended vocal and extended dub provide two flavours of the original, a track built around a stripped back 80s house inspired hook that borrows a little from Adonis' "No Way Back" and gives it a strutting punk-funk rhythm embellished with scratchy snatches of guitar and some heavily arpeggiated synths.

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Hey! - The Emperor Machine

Three remixes come from Ewan Pearson. The first, the "Skronk Disco Mix", features sleazy jazzy brass getting rough with a some seriously elastic bass and clattering drum rolls. In combination with Michelle Bee's vocals it results in a heavily layered and busy track but the sax, played by a guest musician from The Rapture, gives this a real backstreet New York vibe that's intensely depraved and slightly psychotic. A "Skronk Dub" does it all again but without those vocals, and with such excellent production it's better for a modicum of restraint. The final remix is Pearson's "Dubstramental" and it's slightly tighter still, reigning in the disco flourishes of the "Skronk" but amping the dark psychedelic acid feel in their place.

Finally the EP also includes a second original track, "Mandy Mutron", which comes complete with a low slung bassline and greasy guitars. It's another track that will go down a treat in the more twisted establishments and it has me excited for the forthcoming album.

 Hey! is released through Southern Fried Records on Monday, available to pre-order on MP3 and 12" from Amazon.co.uk, though the latter is currently posting a later release date [affiliate links].

EP Review: Like a Machine - The Emperor Machine

The filthy undertones on this new release from Andy Meecham never manage to sit far below the surface.

Back with the first Emperor Machine release in almost four years, Meecham's latest release comes through Norman Cook's Southern Fried label and precedes a new album, due later this year. Work on that album has focused on collaborations with a new vocalist, who somewhat bizarrely remains nameless on the press release and replaces Meecham's previous (occasional) vocal partner (his wife).

Judging by the content of the title track here Mrs Meecham has every right to be worried... Like A Machine is a big, sensual monster of a record. With glorious arpeggiated synths and lose punk-funk drumming it melds cosmic disco and electroclash to create a record built on the best bits of house and techno's last ten years. It's a long, expansive and chaotic record. And if you want evidence of what was on Meecham's mind when he made it, just check out that ridiculous cover...

The EP opens with the Extended Erotic Vocal but also includes an instrumental version and the Stretched Erotic Dub, a more experimental, loser take on the opener that edges closer towards the sort of acid funk of a DFA release. Andrew Weatherall provides another version (ironically for Weatherall, it's actually shorter than the a-side). It is much more minimal in comparison, and with additional male spoken vocals it feels darker, full of fuzz and analogue synth.

Digital versions of the release also feature bonus track System Seven Hundred, a menacing groove that builds into a strung-out hypnotic monster... It's less immediate than the title track but potentially has more longevity. It's clear Meecham is trying something a little different here - let's keep an eye on what happens with the album.

​Like a Machine is out now on Southern Fried Records, order from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 or Vinyl [affiliate links].