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.
DUNCAN GRAY
The No Safe Word EP
(Bird Scarer)
Back in the early noughties Duncan Gray was one half of The Sons of Slough with Ian Weatherall (brother of Andrew). After a hiatus he resurfaced in 2013 with a string of tracks on his own Tici Taci label, and now he delivers four tracks of kooky, downtempo, electro-shaped tunes drenched in sour acid riffs, insectoid synths and whirring bass – the perfect thing to puff some fresh air onto the floor.
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Rhythm Trainx Vol. 1 EP
(Running Back)
This off-kilter and unusually diverse selection of drum tracks from Running Back is the third in a series. Manuel Tur, I:Cube, Blank Spanner, Disco Nihilist, Âme and Radio Slave provide some ingenious material for the discerning DJ’s toolkit in a range of styles and BPMs – you’d never know they were “just drum tracks”.
GLENN ASTRO
Throwback 2xLP
(Tartelet)
Essen producer Glenn Astro looks defiantly backwards on his debut album Throwback, matching up radiant synths, shuffling percussion and jazzy drums to craft an album of careworn beats that occupy the hazy space between house and hip-hop.
THE PARADISE BANGKOK MOLAM INTERNATIONAL BAND
Kwang Noi Chaolay (inc. Manasseh & Rabih Beaini Remixes) 12″
(Studio Lam)
Bangkok label Studio Lam has called in British dub veteran Nick Manesseh and Lebanese producer Rabih Beaini, better known as Morphosis, to remix The Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band. The group’s 21st century take on Thailand’s indigenous Molam style is given the lightest dusting of dub by Manesseh, while Beaini lifts ‘Sao Sakit Mae’ into cosmic drone territory.
ZNR
Barricade 3 LP LP
(Superior Viaduct)
Hector Zazou and Joseph Racaille’s 1976 debut as ZNR was weird enough to get them on the famous/infamous Nurse With Wound list, comprising 15 experiments in analogue electronics, avant-rock and jazz from an era when genre boundaries were being happily bashed down by a generation of free-thinkers. Fans of Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers should find something to enjoy, and the vinyl reissue reproduces the original artwork by one Don Van Vliet.
