Few people are onto great records as quickly as a great record store.
After years spent discovering gems in Phonica’s end of year lists, it made sense to give them a regular space on FACT. Every Saturday, staff from the Soho institution pick out the five vinyl records you should grab this week.
CARIBOU
Mars (Head High Remixes) 12″
(Jiaolong)
With its deep sub-bass and tumbling rhythms, ‘Mars’ was one of the clubbier tracks on Caribou’s Our Love. This pair of remixes from Shed’s Head High alias make the track even more suitable for dark, confined spaces, with the ‘Core’ remix turning up the rhythmic pressure and the ‘Venus’ remix turning it into a chord-heavy house banger.
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Crumbs 03 EP
(Crumbs)
The mysterious Crumbs outfit have treated us to two killer 12″s of top-tier edits in the past year, and now their third arrives with four more under-the-radar classics sliced up for DJ use. This third is their best yet, with a killer afro-disco number, a lost cosmic gem and a Muzic Box classic all flipped for modern floors, though our pick is the infectious bassline of ‘Transulto’.
PAKI & VISNADI
Imaginary Choreography LP
(Antinote)
Antinote’s latest is a vinyl pressing of a chance find in a Parisian flea market, recorded in 1984 by Venetian artists Paki Zennaro and Gianni Visnadi. Originally intended as a cassette for use in dance schools, Imaginary Choreography is a six-track collection of meditative, proto-Balearic synth grooves of a dusty vintage that sounds like it could be a companion piece to Manuel Göttsching’s E2-E4.
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Decon/Recon 1 EP
(Noise Manifesto)
For the second record on her Noise Manifesto label Paula Temple recruited Oni Ayhun, Planningtorock and rRoxymore to contribute musical parts to an archive, which each artist reassembled in turn with no knowledge of who made what. The result is one of the freshest, most colourful techno records we’ve heard in ages, channeling Underground Resistance’s hi-tech jazz and wonky minimal as much as the industrial bangers Temple is known for.
THE PHANTOM/SAD CITY
Schleißen 2 12″
(Emotional Response)
Emotional Response’s continues its exploration of contemporary ambient and minimalism with the second part of its Schleißen series, with The Phantom channeling John Cage across two tracks and rising producer Sad City taking inspiration from Hassell and Eno on his contribution. Highly recommended for all the floatation tank-dwellers out there.
