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:

Steve Mills, Benji303, Tik Tok & Tassid – Interstate One (IO 001)

Interstate One is a brand, head-spankingly new vinyl-only Acid Techno label from Russia. Though homegrown artists will be featured on the forthcoming Interstate Two, this debut release features all UK-based producers. Here, you’ll find the emphasis is very much on the 303 here: these tracks bang, but they don’t bludgeon.

Waveform from Steve Mills begins things with a rolling beat and an acid line that builds, with another, higher-pitched one skronking away behind it. It’s classic Mills, his ability to hit the sweet spot and stay there remaining undimmed.

Warped is the sound of a producer really finding his feet. In this case Benji303, who gets all lab technician, laying down a base solution of tough techno and tweaking acid over the top. A breakdown at around the 3.00 mark sees the various elements dissembling, but this isn’t about fireworks so much as elegance. Benji’s tracks are always marked by a total love of the 303 sound, and so he lets the acid build again to the outro.

Tik Tok’s been on a bit of a roll lately. I never got around to reviewing Rave On but thought it was an ace tune. Like that one, Angry Villagers lays off on gimmicks and concentrates on  heads-down bangerishness. Unafraid to explore new ideas, it shares a common quality with his best tracks, where although you feel as though they could spiral out of control at any second, they never quite do. Ace.

Lastly, Tassid, who couldn’t be dull if he tried. Asylum uses echo-treated vocals and found sound for that genuine scary sanitarium quality, and when the acid comes in at 3.03 (yes, really) it’s scuzzy and funky as hell. A superb way to end a flawless EP.

Get it from: Stay Up Forever

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

A.P., Josh Inc., MK303 & Tassid – Skuxx003 (Skuxx)

All your favourite Acid producers have tucked away their 303s for this Skuxx release. First A.P attacks Tassid’s awesome Raw ‘n’ Dirty on the remix. The original is a beast of a track, a coachload of screaming, terrified cheerleaders hurtling towards a cliff edge as the driver clutches at his chest and slumps dead to the wheel. Cleverly, A.P saves the cheerleaders. He even has the cheerleaders celebrating at the precipice as he reforms the tune into a bouncy party centrepiece. And it’s a cracker.

Meanwhile, Paranoia by Josh Inc. is a bit of a Marmite track, which is all I’ll say about that. Next, things get real filthy for MK303’s Section 6. Industrial-revolution era beats, metal-on-metal sparking: the man like Matt Knight lays down some extra-special powerage here, and the ‘section 6’ vocal gives it a focus, although it never quite develops as much as you wish it would. Lastly, Wretch is another hard-assed torture-chamber tune from the ever-dependable Tassid. It’s hard, it’s filthy, it sounds like demented tramps playing with operating-theatre equipment and it has a series of late-period breaks that keep the energy levels high.

Get it from: 909

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:

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

Tassid, A.P. & Josh Inc – Impact UK 001 (Impact UK)

Impact UK is a new techno label from A.P. – and would you look at that? The last three reviews on here have been predominantly acid producers making techno cuts. Could there be something in the air?

Tassid’s Pest Infest (148 BPM) is typically fast and has a grotty bassline underpinning a filthy kick and marvellous, clattery percussion, like an orchestra of demonic children thrashing away at dustbin lids. A vocal gives way to itchy, agitated riffage and the end result is glorious filth of the first order. Highly recommended. Suck My Stomp Box (144 BPM), meanwhile, is pure metallic funk, thundering away like an explosion at an oil refinery. My absolute favourite, however, is Toilet Pervert (145 BPM). Here, liquid drums are almost perfectly weighted, then come ravey horns, which are soon stretched and mutated into cackling, leering shapes, speeded up and slowed down. Here is a place where sounds start as one thing then end up another, creeping in and out of a mix that’s gratifyingly busy and full of little tweaks and events, but not overloaded, while a vocal sample from Gil Scott Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised adds texture and also some unexpected gravitas. How it ended up with the title Toilet Pervert is one only A.P. and Josh Inc. can answer, but it’s an ace tune, and fully deserving of this, horror queen, Linnea Quigley with a chainsaw.

Get it from: 909

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

Various – Corrosive 90902 (Corrosive)

Cat no: Corrosive90902
Release date: 15/10/11
Get it from: 909 London

Let Me Know – A.P & Josh Inc.
BPM: 148
The funk is well and truly brought here, thanks to a grimy rap and general sense of busy-ness that keeps things bouncing along – so much so that you barely even notice the lack of 303. Fans of the duo’s last release on Cluster should like this one.

Recharge Remix – Tassid
BPM: 150
Tassid gets his hands on Austin Corrisive’s Recharge and the result is a deep and dark techno workout. He’s taken out the acid patterns but retained the sinister, tribal beauty of the original as well as the chanting, which he ghosts in every now and then. Also new is a ‘recharge it’ vocal sample, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss the 303.

Roll Em Phat – Mobile Dogwash
BPM: 146
Okay, so far this latest release from acid overlords Corrosive has been noticeably free of acid. A 303 free jamboree, you might say. But Mobile Dogwash put that right with a set of fat, filthy riffs that bark like angry guard dogs in the night. Powerful and dirty, filthy McNasty, it’s awesome stuff.

Raw ‘n’ Dirty – Tassid
BPM: 145
Tassid foregoes the acid for a techno sex workout. ‘Dirty!’ it goes, ‘Raw ‘n’ dirty, hot track!’ alongside a sleazy, hip-rolling kick that breaks down to the rap at 3.43 and resumes with even more power. Irresistibly funky.

Day Off – Zoid
BPM: 145
Itchy, bug-eyed acid flits in and out of paranoid percussion, then breaks down at around four minutes with samples of a news report (from what? I’d love to know) before firing back up into kaleidoscopic patterns. While the rest of the EP is pure head-nod, this one invites you to really listen, and you can tell Zoid’s stretching out here. In place of power is texture and the track has an urgent feel to it that extends beyond the demands of the dancefloor. We likey much.

Incidentally, Tassid, Zoid and Mobile Dogwash all feature in the Autumnal Acidity mix.

2011 Autumnal Acidity

Some NEW acid in the mix, mainly from the last few months.

Tracklisting is:

Alex Kenji & Luigi Rocca – Acid Monks
F+S (Franz & Shape) – Acid One
Adam Derry – 130 Jam
Woo York & Vegim – Bass Machinnen (DAVE The Drummer dub mix)
D.A.V.E The Drummer & Marcello Perri – Purpose
Justin E – Resistance
Freethinker – Release The Scud
Freethinker – 401
Chris Liberator & Sterling Moss – Acid Corrosion
Steve Mills – London Acid Techno
A.P & Josh Inc – Pure fuzz
Nitronoise – Drink & Drive
Zoid – Day Off
Tik Tok & Turtle – Boxed Up
Tik Tok – Fucka Hooka (2011 mix)
Justin E – Jacob’s Ladder
Mobile Dogwash – Roll Em Phat
Acid Chochi – Running For Fun
OB1 – A Little Something
Subutex & DJ D8 – Fuck That
Austin Corrosive – Recharge
Tassid – Recharge Remix
KitShunt – With A K (1st Edit)