Mobile Dogwash, DJ No Comment, OB1, Jared Blyth – Chase Yer Tail 009 (CYT009)

The label you can  trust to meet your filthy needs, Chase Yer Tail once again come up trumps with a great four-tracker. It kicks off with Like Water from label dons Mobile Dogwash and DJ No Comment, who’s otherwise known as Aaron Higgins, from Dublin party fiends Transformer sounds.  It has a bowel-shaking bass, looped 90s techno chords and – of course, this being Dogwash – one of their patented scruffy acid lines. The eponymous quote from Bruce Lee introduces a manic third section from which you emerge, bloody and bruised.

OB1’s sound is cleaner, more separate – and funky as all hell. Indecent Exposure has a repeating siren throughout, but it’s in the acid lines where this is really happening. There are three or four of them blasting away. They build up to a breakdown where if you can imagine the acid lines like monstrous snakes and OB1 like a riot cop beating them back with a baton until ultimately he is overrun, then you’ve got the picture. By the end of the track they’ve taken over completely, rising in pitch and intensity until your veins explode, bloodying the pristine driven snow . I’m telling you, from the breakdown to the outro this is pure acid heaven. Round of applause for OB1.

So – what a great idea to have Indecent Exposure remixed by Twisted Tyrants (which the last time I looked was Mobile Dogwash and Dave Atomizer). As expected they bring the sleaze. Meanwhile, to take us home, is Jared Blyth, who usually appears as Nesbit. Reptiles comes with samples from Fear and Loathing and a suitably headbanging acid line, though as so often with Jared’s tracks it’s in the atmospherics where the real treasures lie. I especially like the looped horn, giving the track a 90s SUF feel. Bonzer!

Get it from: 909

MK303, Austin Corrosive, Tassid & D.A.V.E. the Drummer, OB1 – System Rejects 02 (System Rejects)

MK303’s Drugged Up is an outstanding track. Coming straight from SR’s no-nonsense division, the acid fires up right away, but it’s at around 1.40 that a riff begins blasting away behind the main acid lines, and it’s a total doozy, elevating the track from the realms of superior acid workout to something way better. A lot of tracks would happily rely on that one riff – not this one.

Meanwhile, Austin Corrosive breaks out the fatter, philthier acid for Sharks With Lasers. Austin’s recent tracks have had a real machinery-in-crisis sound to them, a feeling that they could, at any second, spin completely off the grid, and it’s an exciting, distinctive sound – the sound of a really in-form, confident producer. It’s a feeling that pervades the entire release, in fact. You get a sense of everybody involved stretching their wings.

Next, Tassid and D.A.V.E the Drummer on Sexual Advance. The track is basically a rework of the Adam Freeland track, We Want Your Soul, complete with the eponymous vocal and Bill Hicks’s ‘you are free to do as we tell you’ routine during the breakdown. Freeland’s track is a classic and it’s a brave man who evokes its memories, even in a new context, but Christ, this track thumps. Here the BPMs rise to Tassid levels, rather than drop to DtD levels, and Tassid tracks always bang. But this one? Whoosh.

Lastly, OB1 is, as ever, applying advanced acid techniques to his 303 on Fight War. First he has fun with drums, setting up a rolling, funky sound before laying down the first of the acid lines at around 1.40. The 303 are whipped to a frenzy, and with the looped ‘fight war’ vocal sample sounding suitably psychotic, the result is a truly breathless and relentless piece of acid techno, a stunning end to what is easily one of the best EPs of the year – if not the best.

Meanwhile, you can catch all of the Rejects plus various other ne’er-do-wells, including Rabbits fave Bad Boy Pete,  playing live at at Soitiz-organised bash in aid of the Headway charity. The party takes place at a secret location in Worcestershire on 7th December, and for tickets you’ll need to email soitizswifty@hotmail.co.uk. It promises to be epic.

Go to System Rejects’ website here.

Listen to the tunes here:

OB1, Austin Corrosive, MK303, Tassid – Digital Rejects 001

Though the System Rejects crew are sticking to their original philosophy of keeping it vinyl, they’ve launched an offshoot  label for exclusive digi releases. There’s no crossover, they promise, and on the evidence of this first outing, no dip in quality either. Oh, and they came fully tagged.

Things kick off in fine style with Acid.647  by OB1. It has cantering percussion and a lovely echo-soaked kickdrum, with a brutal acid line acting as a framing device of for high-pitched squiggly sirens. A metallic riff not dissimilar to the breakdown in Unlucky Punk by Magnum Force completes the picture. Like a lot of the best London-style Acid out this year, it nods to the past while sounding bang up-to-date – with the emphasis on bang.

Next, Austin Corrosive’s Head Off finds him in a discursive mood, letting one of the acid lines meander down interesting melodic avenues before pulling it all back into shape where it tussles with another, both vying for supremacy of the track. Think of The Oracle by Cosmic Trigger given a sprayjob and you’re almost there.

Meanwhile, MK303’s Hero Challenge is as hard as nails. I dare you to listen to the intro without clenching your jaw. Jagged sounds drop in at will, intensifying what is a brutal, thrilling experience, while at the 2.47 mark there’s a break that is absolutely not to be missed, before a monumentally epic, transcendentally headfucking outro. There’s only one word for it, and that word is ‘Whoosh.’

Rounding out what is clearly a thoughtfully constructed release (two total bangers, two more idiosyncratic tracks) is Only Some Will Understand by Tassid. A breath of fresh air, it more or less dispenses with the usual structure, serving up a machines-in-crisis sound that not only rewards repeat listening but sounds brilliantly disruptive in the mix.

Get if from: System Rejects

Austin Corrosive, Tassid, OB1, MK303 – System Rejects 01 (System Rejects)

System Rejects is a new label, an “autonomous collective of techno artists and producers” united by a “passion for stomping techno music and  freethinking nonconformism,” which are all things we like here at Rabbits. The stomping techno, the freethinking, the nonconformism –bring it on, we say. What’s more, the label’s founders are none other than Austin Corrosive, Tassid, OB1 and MK 303, who you’ll be  familiar with – or you bloody well should be, at least – by virtue of their considerable talents at making kick-ass Acid Techno.

System Rejects 01, then, and slice my still-beating heart from my chest if it’s not an absolute cracker of a release. The Rejects all take a turn and first off is Austin Corrosive’s Nothing, where thuggish declamatory vocals speed up and slow down before dropping out completely and introducing epic acid of nuclear winter proportions. Meanwhile things get dirty  for Tassid’s Eat Your Own Face, a methylated-spirit-drinking tune, with echo-strewn riffs bouncing off another in their bid to escape an insistent high-pitched siren. The word I’m looking for is ‘cavernous’.

Next, and I’ve talked before about OB1‘s almost surgical precision with the old 303. Here on Factory Grade, he layers them across a patchwork of ravey noises then whips them onto a lithe, funky climax. I think it’s one of the best things he’s ever done.

On a similar high is Matt Knight aka MK303, whose Three Oh Three is very, very phat indeed, letting no-nonsense drums do the heavy lifting while a deceptively strolling bassline is attacked by high-pitched acid lines wielding razor-sharp tomahawks.

So. All good then. Frankly, all brilliant. The ever-so-slightly bad news – especially if you’re a digital Doris like me – is that System Rejects are sticking to their principles of keeping the releases strictly limited and vinyl-only, which means that… well, it means that they’re strictly limited and vinyl-only. You will want these tunes. You will want them a lot. Good luck with that.

Go to System Rejects’ website here.

Listen to the tunes here:

OB1 – SUF Projects 012 (SUF Projects)

New from OB1, aka Olly Berry, comes this double-drop from SUF Projects, and it’s the business. As ever, Berry delivers a commanding, dirty-but-funky 303 experience, announced with a rush of far-off sirens and the main vocal line ‘Basic Chemistry’,  a sample from Breaking Bad. It’s used brilliantly here, too; rather than simply lift it, Berry’s attacked it with a pair of garden shears, buried it in the garden for a week, then exhumed it*, so it’s got a real distorted, decayed sound, and when the track breaks down at 2.50 into an extended sample it’s as though we’re hearing it from within the depths of a nightmare trip. Fantastisch!

Clearly Berry’s been caning the Breaking Bad, cos the flip The One Who Knocks rolls out a second quote, this one with an even more fearful edge to it. Pair it with a more ravey, drum and bass vibe and this is choice material. So choice that there’s very little to choose between this and Basic Chemistry, but if you forced me to choose, if you really forced, like, if you threatened to take away my eyeholes, then I’d pick The One Who Knocks.

Get it: 909 London

Hear it:

* Because that’s how you achieve that effect, right?

Digital goodies on the Braingravy train

So, Braingravy, one of the most exciting of the new labels, has now gone digital, which is great for those of us with mothballed decks, even more so when you consider what a tasty line-up label boss Steve Mill has managed to secure, past present and future.

To kick things off Mills has reissued Braingravy 01 to 03. I haven’t sprung for 01 yet, but I can say that 02 and 03 rule – six tracks of engine-room Acid Techno featuring a mouthwatering array of talent, old and new. In the new camp, Jamie Taylor’s Tik Tok and Olly Berry’s OB1 both feature, with the latter on Braingravy 02 providing the scintillating, Jello Biafra-sampling banger Won’t Get Fooled Again. Keeping him company on 02 is Rene Reiter’s 18 Years Old Cat on Acid, a hard but quirky track with a broken beat feel to it, as well as Sterling Moss and Steve Mills’ Electric Landlady, which boasts an almost eerie, echo-flavoured break. Meanwhile, on 03, the aforementioned Tik Tok drops That’s Got to Change, a clean-lined banger. No More Fucking Rock n Roll by Dave the Drummer, Chris Liberator and Steve Mills is phat but still isn’t the highlight, that honour going to the hideously addictive Acid Underground from Mr Mills himself.

Meanwhile, number 04 is ready for take-off, with tracks from Jack Wax, Sterling Moss & Steve Mills and Mobile Dogwash – an utterly superb line-up if ever there was one, and due out January 21. Braingravy take control, indeed.

Get it from: Juno Download

Lady Sybil’s Last Words Mix

In memory of the lovely Lady Sybil Crawley, I present a mix of a few recent favourites, a couple of old ones…

Tracklist

Chris Hawkins – Canarian Island (Trevor Benz remix)
Mobile Dogwash – Usual Pharmacology – Mobile Dogwash Remix
Temperature Drop – Mosquito’s Tweeter 2012 Remix
OB1 – Random Act
Osmo – Fuck Your Lies
Starsky & Hutch feat Fazmo – Bitches from Brighton
Chris Liberator & Sterling Moss – The Swarm
Tassid – It’s Ridiculous
Jye Feelgood – Acid Swamp
Tik Tok – 303 Brotherhood
Nesbit – The Game
Fantompowa Meets The Geezer – Dadawas
Convection Criminals – Fajitta Swing
Mobile Dogwash – Lucy Int Sky Wi Dogwash

A.P, Josh Inc., Bonz, Graham Acidic, OB1, MK303 – CDJ303 03 EP (CDJ303)

Conspiracy by AP & Josh Inc. kicks off the EP with two acid lines that tussle and scratch like fat lady wrestlers, before another one joins them and things get real messy. Meanwhile in the background a sampled John F Kennedy talks about being opposed to secrecy and secret societies. I used to love it when Acid Techno felt like a political force as well as a party on plastic, and this is a return to those happy, happy days, when hangovers only lasted till Wednesday.

What’s to love on No Idea by Bonz & Josh Inc.? Everything. The lowness, the fatness of the riff, not to mention some effects that remind me of playing GoldenEye on the N64. Along comes more acid, more fatness. It’s one of those tracks that if it was a dog would be a big rabid one. This, ladies and gentleman, is the sound in Cujo’s head when he’s lying in the yard waiting to maul Donna and Tad to death*. Oh and then, joy of joys, a classic Marky Mark moment from The Departed. My favourite of the EP.

Get Ready by Graham Acidic & OB1 shimmies into view and it’s time for your acid-line workout here. As ever where OB1’s involved, the 303 is tweaked and manipulated to perfection. It soars, it swirls, it fizzes like an over-carbonated bottle of Soda Stream ready to shower the kitchen in a sticky residue of something that’s supposed to taste like Coca Cola.

‘A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having’ begins Acid Revolution by MK303, as a sprightly kick lays foundation on which multiple, old skooly acid lines build and screech and bicker and whine. If I say this’ll put you in mind of The Rabbit’s Name Was then you’ll know we mean that as the highest praise it is possible to confer upon a tune. And that’s before a positively stunning breakdown and squirly climax.

*Interesting fact: Donny Pintauro, who played Tad in the film, now sells Tupperware.

Get it from: CDJ303

Mobile Dogwash, Pablo Sonic Terrorist, Tik Tok, The ‘Atchet, OB1, MK303, Zoid, Tassid – Corrosive 909 04 (Corrosive Digital)

Not only is Corrosive 909 04 a showcase for some of the best of what you might call the new guard of Acid Techno, but you can’t get a crusty credit card between the tunes, they’re that good. But, oh my God, someone’s put a gun to Cynthia’s puppy’s head and they’re forcing me to choose or the dog dies!

Well, Northern Monkey by Mobile Dogwash vs Pablo Sonic Terrorist plays host to one of Dogwash’s adamantium acid lines, and we always like to have a supply of those in the fridge in case of unexpected guests. So that’s a contender. Then you get Grim Reaper, courtesy of Tik Tok and The  ‘Atchet, which has a superb, fierce drop, fidgety acid, possibly the best break of the EP, and easily the best vocal sample of the EP. So that’ll be there or thereabouts.

Urk.

Meanwhile OB1 & MK303’s You Are a Machine has the old skooliest acid line of the bunch, alongside a dirty synth riff and an outro that’s as squealy and ace as The Rabbit’s Name Was, and will be getting a whole lot of play round here, so that’ll be in the running. While Zoid’s Spaced Out, on the other hand, is the EP’s most intense experience: industrial, hard and fast, downright scary, actually – so much so I was surprised to hear the Human Traffic sample halfway through, expecting something sci-fi or horror  – and then a thrilling machines-in-crisis end. For sheer, out-there insanity, when you need to frighten an old lady to death and claim the inheritance for example, it simply can’t be beat. Which also makes it a favourite.

And then you have Tassid’s Sketchie Fecker. And we love Tassid. We love Tassid because he in turn loves big BPMs and highwire acid lines, and never disappoints. Here he offers up the above in spades, with the addition of an insanely addictive synth melody which gives the track a really distinctive edge, underpinning some seriously agitated 303 work.

So, no. Can’t do it. Can’t choose between them. Sorry, Cynthia.

Get it from: 909 London

Tik Tok feat Lady Reload, OB1 – The Beginning EP (CDJ303 001)

Cat no: CDJ303 001
Get it from: CDJ303.com

Fentek 303 and sister label Coaxial are no more, sadly, but from the ashes has arisen CDJ303.com, for all your Lincolnshire-based headfuck needs, and the output so far is top notch. The brainchild of Jamie Taylor (aka Tik Tok) and Olly Berry (OB1), the aim of the label is to bridge the gap between the vinyl and downloads markets, and guess what? It’s started at a lick, producing two EPs, a mix CD from Jamie and a very reasonably priced MP3 CD featuring the entire Fentek and Coaxial back catalogue as well as a few bonus tracks.

Lose Control – Tik Tok feat Lady Reload
BPM: 145
Riffy, trippy and very, very insistent, Lose Control builds beautifully and has a deep, industrial sound as well as a kind of buried-sounding 303 line that’s really unusual but works. Jade Rose’s ‘lose control’ vocal is suitably alluring and the whole thing rips along, with all the ferocity you’d expect from Jamie Taylor, while on the strength of this, I’ll be listening out for solo Lady Reload material for sure.

Lose Control – Tik Tok feat Lady Reload (OB1 remix)
BPM: 148
If you ask me, Tik Tok and OB1 go together like peaches and cream. Tik Tok brings the roughness, the filth, the sleaze; OB1 has the clinical surgeon’s eye. Thus it’s when they collaborate or remix each other’s tunes that you get the real gold. Here, OB1 does the track equivalent of tidying up the wires behind the back of Tik Tok’s TV, straightening the tune out into a series of suites, speeding it up, and developing the acid line into something approaching 303 nirvana. Put it this way, if you like the full-on acid wig outs of A.P you’re gonna love the final section of this: Mister Berry’s really excelled himself here.

Pure Junk – OB1
BPM: 146
OB1 brings the acid fatness on track three with a low, growly 303 line that breaks into shards around the introduction of a vocal sample, then reassembles, with another, higher, acid line layered on top. Irresistibly groovy, of course, and a good tool as they say, but maybe just a bit too locked-in and buttoned-up to truly shine. You can’t help but wish for some of the same madness of his Lose Control remix.

Pure Junk – OB1 (Tik Tok remix)
BPM: 145
Proving my peaches-and-cream theory, Tik Tok takes Pure Junk and loosens it up a bit. The drums are tribal, there are horns, and he makes better use of the vocal sample, letting it dip in and out of the melody. The acid, too, takes on a life of its own, as though refusing to be herded into predictable, manageable chunks and as a result the whole thing has a funkier, more freewheeling feel. Top stuff.

Lose Control – Tik Tok feat Lady Reload (OB1 remix)

EP Previews