Every January we scatter old bones across a dancefloor and slaughter a raver for their fresh blood to thus determine who’ll be colouring our dance floors. Last year we were talking about L-Vis 1990, Jai Paul, Seams, Pariah and Julio Bashmore. This year we are talking about these ten bright noise mongers.
Eats Everything
One man intent on bringing back electro, Eats Everything has the jacking spirit to nail a renaissance in terse funk. Referencing everyone from Keith Tucker and Directbeat to European treasure like Clone’s Dexter, Daniel Pearce has lit his fire with EPs on Catz And Dogz and Dirtybird. Perhaps his greatest trick is layering old soul samples into his breakdowns before dropping slabs of unstable bass with lazy but razor sharp snares. He is THE party. Expect releases on Pets, Hot Creations, big appearances at WMC and a PMR collaboration. We’re hungry.
Five Years’ Time: Everyone is re-listening to ‘Red Planet’ 12” and Eats Everything is our Martian lord.
Joe And Will Ask
Joe And Will Ask know how to keep an audience eagerly baying for the full rocket ride. As the perennial electro upstarts of the last two years, the buzz around the raw grind of the ‘Mongozo’ EP caught the attention, and the host of follow-up singles for the Gulp Communications and Deadly People labels held it. Big remixes for Groove Armada and Booka Shade have kept their star status in the ascendency. Next year their debut album finally drops. On the strength of the singles, it’ll be worth the wait.
Five Years’ Time: They might even have released a second album. No pressure…
Fatima Al-Qadiri
The gaudy rich-man’s pleasure-zone replete with pillars and plasma screens on the sleeve of her ‘Genre-Specific Xperience’ EP does much to illustrate Fatima Al Qadiri’s overarching vision of synthetic nihilism. Her world is a weird one where Gregorian chant meets pounding steel drums, sweeping oriental synth-soundscapes and ultra-saccharin cyber-pop, all whilst forming the soundtrack to a gang of rap heavyweights pampering themselves in their hip-hop spa. The Kuwait-raised visionary also makes music under her Ayshay alias and explores more pan-cultural frequencies; haunting and ethereal and submerged in harmonic depth.
Five Years’ Time: Fatima al Qadiri will be hosting nudist raves in the deserts of Kuwait.
Ado
With labels like Numbers, Luckyme and a beastly bass sub-culture, it’s safe to say Glasgow has monopolised Scottish dance. Or has it? On the East coast, lies Dundee. Traditionally associated with jute, jam and journalism, now it can add ‘jacking house’. Hailing from “Scumdee”, Ado has be come the DJ DJ’s love, and his ‘Ultra’ EP release has set off ripples, that in 2012 shall soon become waves. Three dancefloor detonators that bleep, boom and bang in all the right places. Boys Noize drops it, Malente wants it, and the mutoid magus himself, Mr. Oizo, has been left declaring “Who’s Ado?”
Five Years’ Time: Kicked out the VIP tent for taking his top off and screaming “Mon then!” at a petrified David Guetta.
Mord Fustang
Another in an endless line of horribly young, frustratingly talented producers, Mord Fustang enjoyed more than your average 2011. Describing his sound as “an adventurously nude fluctuant immaculate rainbow-coated thunderstorm with arpeggios, 1-up mushrooms and disco basslines, plus a wobble or two,” his vocabulary is just as imaginative as his effortlessly decadent tracks. Five singles released through Miles Dyson’s Plasmapool label was a neat seal of approval, taking his place at the top of the Beatport Top 100 with ‘Lick the Rainbow’ was the confirmation. 2012 can’t come quick enough.
Five Years’ Time: The soundtrack to our retro, eye-bleeding game nights. F-Zero X just got better.
Karenn
2011 saw both Blawan and Pariah have exceedingly good years. For 2012 their bass super group delivers emphasis on near-industrial yet skanking techno. A white label 12” led by the track ‘Auflan’ appeared from Basic Channel’s pressing plant. It was credited to their new label called Works The Long Nights and gave us a coarse insight into how few rules this pair will be following. Happily departing from a place near Vogel, Landstrumm and a more frantic LFO, Karenn attack us with stripped-back anger but scratched with obsessive detail. The age of tough shit is back.
Five Years’ Time: Opening a church on the outskirts of Sheffield, dedicated to the living spirit of Mark Bell and Gez Varley.
Daniel Avery
Fabric resident and the current driving force behind the Kill ‘Em All night and label, Daniel Avery’s literally been making noise in all the right places. Remixes for Metronomy, DFA1979 and In Flagranti showcased his ear for “cosmic drones, post-punk angles and mutant new wave” but it was when he finally (partially) stepped out of the booth and into production with the ‘Wrapped In Plastic’ EP indulging in effortlessly insistent tech-tinged indie disco and follow-up, the ‘Rattle’ EP, packing a renewed punch, we only saw one single, prospective star.
Five Years’ Time: When not dominating dancefloors, he’ll be performing a neat side-line in stunt and body double work for Tiga.
Rocketnumbernine
Rocketnumbernine can be broken down relatively simply: one rocking a bank of synths, one surgically hitting a drumkit; the pair bringing the rolling thunder of the infinite. From the glorious Four Tet-associated ‘Matthew & Toby’ to the gargantuan ‘Steel Drummer’ and the skewed ‘Lone Raver’, it’s a seismic dynamic that pulls you deep into the eye of their melodic, post-rock storm. Progressive, indulgent and wonderfully human, the contrast between acoustic drumkit and gleaming electronics gives Rocketnumbernine a wide-eyed honesty you’re either seduced by or in awe of.
Five Years’ Time: A residency in Area 51, tasked with bringing UFOs down-to-earth through sheer force.
Dro Carey
Another young wonderboy bursts forth into our consciousnesss, still yet to even arrive at his twentieth birthday, but already in possession of a deft hand on the controls. Dro Carey, also known as Eugene Hector, makes oddball house music for the solitary late-night listener. His ‘Journey With The Heavy’ EP, out on Ramp Recordings, was a disjointed yet weirdly coherent bout of euphoric awkwardness - think twisting patterns of impulsive melody, deep rolling bass lines enriched with thick fuzz, pin-point analogue drum programming and enough soul and jazz to dissipate the introspective dissonance of his formula-beating vision.
Five Years’ Time: Considering his old-beyond-his-time maturity and sleep deprived sounds, probably napping during Coronation Street.
Deptford Goth
Over-saturation of a certain sound can flood a genre in the most destructive manner. Post-d****p, anyone? Nu-rave madame? A dribble of witch-house on your wobbling blancmange, sir? Yes, bedroom producers are ten thousand a-penny, but don’t let abundance get your ears pissed, and turn them into a pair of dismissive old drunks. Pick out the gems. Deptford Goth is shining. He’s a twenty-seven-year-old teacher’s assistant, that likes to wrench synths of their smoothest sighs, and flit from breakbeat to R‘n’B like a bat in the loft.
Five Years’ Time: He convinces Aphex Twin and Mariah Carey to duet on the series finale of The Len Goodman Show.
Words by Reef Younis, Laura Humphries, Joe Zadeh and Matthew Bennett