spinning drum blog

Reuniting Jerome Rocipon’s sing/speak vocals with Pierre Crube’s rough and ready synth-pop, Sport De Combat follows Numero#’s 2007 L’Ideologie des Stars with a more finessed force and funk. From the first anthemic punch of “Tonton Klazonne,” with only slight reprieve and surprise in the electro/indie ballad,“Un Tiers, Deux Tier,” Sport De Combat doesn’t deviate too far from its surefooted, at times, plodding boxer style rhythms. Keeping to the album’s combative theme, Numero#’s straight-up, self-aware and slightly gritty electro-pop brand is lushed up with a lot of fuzzy bass and pads. It adds just the right amount of analogue weight, and combined with the simple and punchy four/four, it makes for a forceful and unique backdrop to Rocipon’s level tone and lyrical autodersion.
Saboteur Records – saboteurmusique.com – myspace.com/jaimenumero
by Romina Wendell first published in Exclaim Magazine

A compilation of fourteen interpretations of Miguel Migs 2007 artist album, Those Things Remixed brings in artists such as Faze Action, Simon Grey and Cottenbelly to further expand on Mig’s funky house sound. Keeping with funk and highlighting Mig’s multi-instrumentalist sound, the organic bass lines and retro synth lines move from bumpin house, 70s disco, hip hop, rnb and reggae. Laden with a bevy of vocals from the likes of Lisa Shaw, Tim Fuller, Fred Ross, Sadat X and Junior Reid, throught-out the album’s soulful edge the beat and instrumentation remain strong, and Those Things Remixed is undoubtedly dancefloor directed. And while it does gyrate on a certain old skool booty-shaking house charm, the skilled production and solid beats maintain its modernity. The best are Mig’s own where things like the throbbing bassline and jumping saxophone of “Make Things Happen” and “Let Me Be” as well as the driving handclap beats of his “Giving It All” gratifyingly thicken the overall nu-disco sound.
Salted Music saltedmusic.com
by Romina Wendell Exclaim Magazine

Bringing the omnipresent rumble and thunder of dubstep to South London and the Fabriclive series, Caspa and Rusko shake up the dancefloor with genre classics, dubplates and white labels. Fabric 37 pounds with a serious jump up mandate, and Matty G’s “50,000 Watts” and Coki’s “Sponge Bob” of course make the cut as well as solid selection of Caspa and Rusko’s own Dub Police and Sub Solider tracks. The mix is bound to have dubstep fans raising their lighters while initiating newcomers into the best of the underground’s it child. The woofing bass is, of course, relentless, but Caspa and Rusko aren’t afraid to switch it up a bit. Bending their basslines and tempos into garage and drum and bass and throwing in the occasional melodic element amongst the the bad boy samples, tempos do rise above 103 bpm on occasion, bringing a refreshing dynamism to dubstep’s normally head nodding monotony.
Fabric Records – www.fabriclondon.com
by Romina Wendell (first published in Exclaim)