"IF YOU WANT A VISION OF THE FUTURE, IMAGINE CRAP 808 SAMPLES STAMPING ON A HUMAN FACE- FOREVER"
11. Bakey Ustl - EP1 [Unthank]
Although strictly a 10” (cheating on the rules here), AE collaborator and all round blog/bass badman Xpldr offers his thoughts on Bakey Ustl’s twisted vision of modern house. Altogether now: ”Clap your hands if you want to fuck”…
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This track isn’t right: ‘A Tender Place’ is all kinds of wrong. So wrong it comes out the other side. House/techno seems to be hitting its post-modern stride, and that’s not meant harshly at all. House is eating itself, and by doing so it’s taking itself closer to its original roots more than it has done for some time. The most exciting music in the genre right now seems to come from the producers that aren’t afraid to turn things inside out: Kyle Hall, Kassem Mosse, Kowton, Levon Vincent, MMM, Shackleton, Shed, Soundhack, Omar S, John Roberts, Wbeeza, Workshop, Actress… They all keep it a little loose and lo-fi, they aren’t afraid to strip it back and get a groove going out of the strangest elements. Plus they also love a bit of nostalgia. We’ve all grown up with the house gods: Moodymann, Theo Parrish, Dance Mania, Lil Louis, Basic Channel… No one can be blamed for getting nostalgic when you’re in the company of that lot. These cats are the cream of the crop, and for every one of them there are hundreds of others swimming in a sea of shite, re-hashing ideas until the bottom falls out. So it’s a good job another freak has stuck his head above the parapet then…
Bakey Ustl released his debut EP on Firecracker’s sublabel Unthank, an imprint that’s one to keep an eye on. The producer in question is a hazy character at this point - not much has been put down about him as yet. He’s from Estonia, hangs out in Holland and loves house. That’s all I’m willing to stretch to, to be honest. EP1 is a mad hybrid of cracked-out house vibrations. If you took Workshop’s experiments and smashed them against Actress’ more linear moments with a heavy dose of humour you might get close. He makes things bump with nature’s raw, unpredictable force.
It’s ‘A Tender Place’ that’s getting me excited. Bumping and building into shape with the vocal motif “all night long” it all sounds as if you’re tuning a radio on the way to the club. Then, before you know it. the drop comes and you’re inside… The breakdown seems to come out of nowhere: the track stops dead and throws a twist, a break that whispers “clever girl” (right in the position of Jurassic Park’s Muldoon, just before the raptors eat him)… Drums clatter, everything stops - then here comes the smile inducing climax in the form of a cheeky vocal sample: “clap your hands if you want to fuck”.
It’s perfect: the party kicks off, house pianos roll in, the vocals keep flowing in strange, perverse directions. You can feel the atmosphere coming off the record. His hodge-podge of samples fit way better than they should, it’s a balancing act that just works, against the odds.
Things get a bit mellower on ‘Nose Candy’. You get more of a lazy Kyle Hall or even Flying Lotus vibe: slow grooves and lush pads that ooze soul. Its not as schizophrenic, doesn’t induce as many smiles but its not meant to - it’s a warm, fuzzy, laid-back track. To finish off the 10” you get a vein full of ‘Heroin’…
The entire EP rolls like a party going off, bubbling along with a loved up glow then descending into paranoid frazzled mayhem. ‘Heroin’ is the sound of the latter: noise builds and melts into a hyperactive seizure of sound where bass and kicks buzz around, before it all drops off into a hazy grime-like groove and disappears, as if nothing untoward had ever happened. Driving off into the sunset with spaghetti western flamenco guitars echoing outward.
You can also grab a free download of Ustl’s ‘First Class’ at XLR8R.
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James Balf
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Postscript: ‘A Tender Place’ takes pride of place in James’ latest Xpldr mix, which you can stream from Mixcloud below. A deeper exploration of house/techno, it kicks off with Nick Hoppner and Wbeeza, rolls through Bakey and Even Tuell’s ghostly Workshop 11 contribution, before landing squarely at Stellar OM Source’s gorgeous ‘Copper Dream’. Dive in…
Vainqueur - Rangers – Extension [Scion Versions]
Airhead – Paper Street (Nick Høppner Remix) [BRAiNMATH]
John Roberts – Ever or Not [Dial]
Wbeeza – Boom [Third Ear]
Omar S - Solely Supported [FXHE]
Mood II Swing – Sunlight In My Eyes [Core]
Actress – Always Human [Honest Jon’s]
Bakey Ustl – A Tender Place [Unthank]
Kassem Mosse – We Speak To Those [Non Plus+]
Kyle Hall – Osc2 [Third Ear]
Levon Vincent – Woman is the Devil [Deconstruct]
Tazz – Lost [Underground Quality]
Braiden – The Alps [Doldrums]
Elgato – Blue [Hessle Audio]
Even Tuell – Workshop 11 Side A [Workshop]
Stellar Om Source – Copper Dream [Olde English Spelling Bee]
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