Ghostly International Presents Michna

Sweet forget-me-not

Allegedly an exemplary piece of schaffel, Michael Mayer's Amabile (from Touch on Kompakt) is anyway a brilliantly syncopated, exquisitely taut, twinkling - &, yes, in a way, time-shuffling - bleep-fest... 

Note to self: will have to find room for MM [perhaps his almost equally awesome track X] in a new instalment of LMYE's recent-ish fantasy remix series (here, here & here so far). 

Water treatment

Maybe not quite as mesmerisingly fluid & subtley slippery as in his current incarnation (his performance with Jan Bang &, er, DJ Strangefruit at Wired to Sound is my live highlight of the year so far), but Water [from ER, & also An American Compilation] still shows off what I'm coming to appreciate in Nils Petter Molvaer: his muted, melancholy tone & the densely layered post-jazztronica it floats over, his acute sense of pace & drama, his willingness to throw found voices & sound into the brew...

Urgent bubbling

There's much to love about this minimal version of Pockets, the Kieran Hebden/Four Tet lure to bring ears to his 2006 DJ-Kicks compilation - its urgency, the richness of its bubbling palette, its stabs & rough swathes, its pauses for breath, that sawmill in the background... 

Oh, & it's a giveaway (these days, anyway).

New album with Steve Reid next month...

Right Herbert

On the road & revving up the Herbert post-o-meter: playful...organic...intricacy...Dogme-type rules...compositional mastery...witty...glitchy...micro-house...sampletronica. 

Well, it may not be the LHC, but this thing more or less works - though perhaps it doesn't quite express the warmth & sheer joy of early Herb (& the intense satisfyingness of it).

Anyway, try Back to the Start & Freeze - both giveaways with some kind of connection to last year's extras-festooned rerelease of the landmark 100 lbs (or via k7.com), though I don't see the latter in any track listing...