Fish.Cloud is dead! Long live Fish.Cloud!

Update your browsers, kids...Fish.Cloud is on the move! After a long period of inactivity (please forgive us, things have been crazy busy), we've take up residence over at our new domain and are busily pulling the robots back online. We're back in the game, so keep an eye out. Big things are coming in '08!

Suckaz Runnin' Scared!

Just to clear up any rumors right away, I DID NOT die in Detroit. On the contrary, as this video clip of Audion's set at the Spectral afterparty shows, we had a most delightful time:



OOF! We're in there somewhere jumping around like idiots, you'd best believe! We found Detroit to indeed be nothing to fear (well, parts of it at least!), and my experiences there left me with a profound appreciation for techno's history and intrinsic culture. Ever since our return from DEMF, I've been acquiring records at an alarming rate, going to far more parties than I should and generally immersing myself in music. Not only that, I've also started contributing to the venerable online magazine Resident Advisor, as well as the up and coming publication Big Shot out of NYC. You can peep some of my work for RA here (scroll to the bottom of the page and you'll see a whole list of reviews), and the first issue of Big Shot sporting my critical ramblings should be hitting newstands at the beginning of next month, so be sure to pick up a copy!

Anyway, we're back, and even though we may have left you a bit high and dry at the beginning of the season - and for that you have our deepest apologies - but we come back to you with mountains upon mountains of tasty treats to satisfy your lonely eardrums! Don't hate! Appreciate! First up is a reworking of Claude Von Stroke's now classic "Who's Afraid Of Detroit?" by Chicago's Soultek. Aligned with the Basic Channel obsessives of Detroit's DeepChord collective, Soultek's productions are few and far between, but this particular remix was one of the summer's nicest surprises. By rinsing the hook out with heaping doses of delay and dropping it recklessly into milky pools of endless reverb, Soultek manages to space the track out just enough while still maintaining the original's irresistible dance floor thrust. If you can track a copy down on vinyl, snap it up immediately! Not only is it pressed on deliciously marbled purple vinyl, it comes with a seriously massive DeepChord remix on the flip. Tip!

Sucka:

Claude VonStroke, "Who's Afraid Of Detroit [Soultek's Suckaz Running Scared Mix]" (YSI)

Our second offering for the day comes courtesy of our favorite UK label, Modern Love. With huge twelves dropping from Andy Stott and Pendle Coven, not to mention their acclaimed showcase at Barcelona's Sonar Festival, they've had a ridiculous summer, but their release schedule has been absolutely dominated by a four-part series of singles titled "The Coldest Season." Credited to Echospace, these releases are the result of a collaboration between Soultek and DeepChord's Rod Modell. Meticulously constructed from banks of vintage synths, tape delays and analog goodness, these productions pick up Basic Channel's dub techno mantle and run with it, the end results range from driving, kraut rock inflected Detroit bangers to excursions into deep, effervescent ambience to purely blunted dub cuts. Having all been cut from the same aural cloth, they hang together immaculately, coasting through your speakers on lush swells of delay feedback and sub-aquatic pads. A CD release compiling the singles (with bonus material, of course) is out at the end of the month, but head to Boomkat and cop it now as a set of glorious 320kbps MP3s! This biz is going to go down in history as classic, so don't sleep!

Pass The Dutchie:

Deepchord Presents: Echospace, "Empyrean" (YSI)

Finally, before I run out the door to check out the weekly Pop Ambient night down here in Philly (info here, if anyone is interested), I leave you with another mix I've cobbled together under the DJ Fresh Kills moniker. It focuses on more blissed out sounds a la Kompakt and Dial, and I think it's a smoother mix than my last offering. Enjoy! For Amanda: DJ Fresh Kills' Panda Bliss Mix (SENDSPACE).

Tracklist:
1. Ulf Lohmann (Kompakt), "Because Before (Orb Rmx)"
2. Pantha Du Prince (Dial), "Steiner Im Flug"
3. The Field (Kompakt), "Silent"
4. Dominik Eulberg (Traum), "Klangteppichverieglur Wolle"
5. The MFA (Border Community), "The Difference It Makes"
6. Gui Boratto (Kompakt), "Beautiful Life"
7. Ada (Areal), "Maps (Michael Mayer & Tobias Thomas Mix)"
8. Kaito (Kompakt), "We Were Born Here"

For now we must leave you, but don't you fret your pretty little heads! We'll be back soon with more gifts for each and every one of you. Trust us. We're back in the game. Bring your friends!

Artwork: "Sacred Avocado," by Dan Lisowski of course!

Detroit Is Nothing To Fear

Whoooooooo! Back in the saddle! Last weekend may have brought us the massive Dubwar party - with dubstep soldiers Kode9 and Shackleton reppin' their bass weight - but Memorial Day weekend is finally here, and with the long weekend comes the relief of our anticipation for the Detroit Electronic Music Festival! My humble self will be well on my way to the Motor City at this time tomorrow, getting ready to dance my face off and generally peep scenes. Truth be told, I don't know how I'm going to manage to check out all of the artists I want to see up there...but I will find a way! WE WILL OVERCOME! As promised, I'm coming straight at your dome piece with a sampler of sorts...a preview, if you will, of the weekend's highlights and the performances that we're most excited for.

For us, Saturday is all about dub. Not only does Pole have a showcase performance on Beatport's sidestage, German minimal dub pioneers Rhythm & Sound will be playing a 6-HOUR SET on the Detroit waterfront, featuring a mixture of DJing and live performance and a host of exclusive vocalists like Bullwackie and Milton Henry. Cot damn! Considering Rhythm & Sound's resumé, which includes work for Basic Channel and under the Maurizio moniker, this is sure to be an absolutely essential performance. I'm already naming it my experience of the weekend. Of course, for those of you on the east coast not lucky enough to make it to the festival, you can always catch them up at NYC's Deep Space the following Monday...

JAH:

Rhythm & Sound Feat. Love Joy, "My Best Friend" (YSI)

I don't have to tell you just how much we love the folks up at Ghostly International, just page down a couple posts and check our gushing remarks about the latest Matthew Dear single, but we never give any love to their electro bangin' sister label: Spectral Sound. For years these kids have been churning out blast after blast of molten hot minimal that easily rivals the best that the Kompakt's and Perlon's of Europe have to offer. On Sunday, Audion (Matthew Dear's over-sexed monster of an alias) and Ryan Elliott (Spectral's ultra-suave in-house DJ) play a mid-afternoon tag-team DJ set, where they're sure to be reppin' the Spectral team hard. Here's a little taste we dug up out of our hard drive, a promo mix by Ryan Elliott constructed exclusively from tracks off of Audion's last full-length release, "Suckfish." With any luck, this is just what our ears are in store for!

RAW DOG:

DJ Ryan Elliott vs. Audion, "Audion MegaMashUp Promo Mix" (YSI)

Oh, but if you're really itching for a Spectral fix, check out their Detroit Is Nothing To Fear afterparty on Saturday night, which will feature live sets from Audion, TNT and Claude VonStroke, as well as DJ sets from Ryan Elliott and some unannounced special guests. I mean, I'll be there, so you probably should be too! Look for the kid dancing like an idiot.



Now, if we survive the first two days - which is actually maybe just a little bit doubtful - we'll be treated to an absolute rager of a line-up on Monday, with Kompakt showing off its impressive stable, a hugely anticipated performance from Vladislav Delay (!), and the token festival closing set from minimal overlord Richie Hawtin, but what we're really stoked about is the live set from Booka Shade. We slept on their party at Studio B a couple months back, but this time we're all over it! They've been tipped as having one of the hottest live shows around, as far as techno performances go, and we can't overstate enough how hyped we are to be treated to their full on electro attack. Whoop! Whoop! If you don't know, here's a cut off last year's "Movements" LP, just to clue you in.

OOF:

Booka Shade, "In White Rooms" (YSI)

FINALLY! As promised, I bring you a DJ set I pieced together over the past few days. Featuring a dose of electro, minimal and a dash of dub, this li'l guy is sure to get your head nodding. There may be a couple questionable transitions and technical details, but it's a first effort! Cut me some slack! Anyhow, here it is, warts and all: DJ Fresh Kills' Dub Bot Tech Disintegration Mix (SENDSPACE). Enjoy.

Tracklist:
1. "Dem Never Know (Sleeparchive Remix)" - Rhythm & Sound, See Mi Yah Remixes
2. "Immersion" - Substance & Vainqueur, Surface 12"
3. "Untitled" - Marko Fuerstenberg, Surphased EP
4. "Hi-Rise" - Andy Stott, Merciless
5. "Breast Milk" - Molder, Tongue In The Hole 12"
6. "Hanged Man" - Alex Smoke, Hanged Man EP
7. "Future Will Surve (Rene Breitbarth Remix)" - Maetrik, Future WIll Survive 12"
8. "Peace Of Mind (Electrosoul)" - Claro Intelecto, Peace Of Mind EP
9. "Wayfaring Stranger (Burial Mix)" - Jamie Woon, Wayfaring Stranger 12"
10. "Smile (W/ Savage)" - Rhythm & Sound, S/T

We'll see you next week with a full field report from Detroit! Enjoy the holiday weekend, suckas!

Artwork: "Green Bot Mind Spank," by Dan Lisowski.

"I've Got To Find My Way..."

My, my! We simply can't keep from slacking, can we? Regardless, we're in a dubstep state of mind 'round these parts this week, getting hype for this weekend's Dub War party up in NYC with Hyperdub mainman Kode9 and Skull Disco's Shackleton! With Skull Disco's massive two disc label comp "Soundboy Punishments" having dropped its bass tonnage on both sides of the Atlantic and Kode's new 12" spreading some serious heat throughout the dubstep massive, anticipation is running high. On that note, we're going to give all you NYC kids a li'l taste of what's going to be destroying the soundsystem at Club Love this weekend...

First up, Kode9 reversions the dancehall skank of Massive Music's classic "Find My Way" ryddim. As squawking melodica chords and a ghostly melody lurk beneath a filter scrubbed vocal mantra, burbling synth clusters and Kode's trademark rolling bass and dry beats carry the track headlong into a field of raw synth blasts. This is some purely blunted dubstep emitting deep from within the bowels of South London. I can't wait to hear this beaut on a proper system this weekend. With the bass at critical mass, this biz is going to no doubt destroy the dance floor...

SERIOUS:

Massive Music, "Find My Way (Kode9 Rmx)" (YSI)

Next, we've got an absolutely crucial blast of bass weight from Skull Disco's Shackleton. This appearance is apparently both the producer's first and last American appearance, whatever that's supposed to mean; but if tracks like "I Am An Animal," with its middle-eastern flavored percussion and ominous ambience, and the electro dubstep of recent single "Hummdrum" are any indication, it promises to be an essential performance - not to be missed! In fact, while you're at it, do yourself a favor and head over to Forced Exposure where you can cop yourself a copy of "Soundboy Punishments," which collects all of Skull Disco's 12" singles to date. Boi betta know!

"I WANT TO EAT YOU":

Shackleton, "I Am An Animal" (YSI)

Finally, we bring you the first ever FISH.CLOUD RELOAD! A couple posts back, we brought you a truncated version of Ricardo Villalobos' now-mythical remix of Shackleton's "Blood On My Hands." Now, in the interest of full disclosure, we're bringing you the full-length 18 MINUTE version of the track! This is some serious business here - not to be taken lightly. As Ricardo's raging sheets of delay feedback spiral off into the ether, you can picture the towers falling against a blood red sky, the survivors plodding off into the sun to the tempo of his crisp skeletal ryddim...

RELOAD:

Shackleton, "Blood On My Hands (R. Villalobos Apocalypso Now Mix)" (SENDSPACE)

Keep an eye out later this week for the first official fish.cloud DJ mix from myself, under the freshly minted DJ Fresh Kills moniker, and watch out for a special series of posts next week building up to Detroits Movement Festival over Memorial Day weekend, where I will be in attendance - dancing my face off fo' sho'! D.E.M.F.! Just peep that line-up, son!

Artwork: "Mr. Bloo And His Cumulonimbus Crop Harvest" by Dan Lisowski.

"You're Still Here, And My Head's Spinning..."

I was going to come at y'all with a couple choice cuts from Lil Wayne's new mixtape (which is ace, by the way), but all of a sudden something much, much more crucial has dropped into my lap. Yessir, fresh from the interweb we're coming at you with the absolutely shit-hot new Matthew Dear 10"! On the A-Side we've got the lead single from his forthcoming "Asa Breed" LP, "Deserter," with Four Tet's hella awesome remix on the flip. Having pre-occupied his techno demons with the hyper-sexualized Audion moniker, Dear's pop tendencies are allowed to freely bubble to the surface. With delectably funky beats, new wave overtones and Dear's best vocals to date shading in the mix, "Deserter" is by far his finest moment. In just shy of four minutes, Dear manages to make the entirety of his back-catalogue seem obsolete and even, dare we say, amateurish. Enjoy this. Play it often...and don't you dare sleep on "Asa Breed" when it drops on Ghostly International in June, ya heard?

Can't Stop The Funk:

Matthew Dear, "Deserter" (YSI)

Matthew Dear, "Deserter (Four Tet Remix)" (REMOVED)

I can't seem to track down the name of today's illustration for the life of me, but rest assured it's by Dan!

"Come Out, Come Down, Fade Out, Be Gone"

Well, well, well...it's been a little while since I've had a chance to post any new magic up on fish.cloud for y'all, but we're getting back on the horse! Seriously though, the past few weeks have been a whirlwind of shows and parties raging up and down the east coast. We've seen Ellen Allien and Miss Kitten absolutely destroy NYC's Studio B, danced giddily as Simian Mobile Disco plunged Philly's Making Time monthly (although it's been more like a weekly, lately...) into sheer ecstasy, yawned at Datarock and the Presets' limp attempt to bring the rock to the City of Brotherly Love, and wrecked ourselves at the absolutely bonkers Klaxons/Soulwax/2manydjs über party last weekend at Transit, not to mention the blur of dance parties and weeklies we've battled through on the off nights! We're taking a breather this week to regain our footing and let our aching bodies rest up, but that hasn't stopped us from seeking out nothing but the dankest tracks around to serve up - piping hot - on a platter for your listening pleasure.

First up, we've got a very special remix of 120 Days' awesome krautrock-by-way-of-New Order rave up "Come Out, Come Down, Fade Out, Be Gone," coming straight from the hard drive of Kompakt's current it-boy: The Field. He gently massages the raging synths and pounding rhythms of the original until they dissolve into a gauzy haze of sun bleached drones and glittering hi-hat propulsion. We can't stress how great his recent "From Here We Go Sublime" LP is, so, if you haven't done yourself the favor yet, get yourself in line and scoop that biz up, son! Mind meltingly good ambient techno patterns cycling off into the mist...mmmm...

Danktitude:

120 Days, "Come Out, Come Down, Fade Out, Be Gone (The Field Remix)" (YSI)

Second, we've got some upcoming weight coming from Chilean minimal god Ricardo Villalobos. He's been on a quest to merge the realms of dubstep and minimal techno here lately, having already seriously repped Skream in his vaunted all-night DJ sets, but he's really taken it somewhere fresh with this remix: a re-imagining of Skull Disco soundboy Shackleton's "Blood On My Hands" as a minimal slow burner! He rips the bass weight right out from the original's core, leaving nothing but a skeletal skank of a ryddim behind to support the amorphous mass of skittering snares and clouds of dubbed-out delay drifting across the stereo field. Like most of Villalobos' production, it feels like it could unravel at any moment and run totally off the rails, but the track maintains entropy throughout - if just barely. The vocals straight kill it though, perfectly coupling dubstep's dark post-apocalyptic paranoia fantasies with minimal's hypnotic euphoria.

"We Left The Corpse Behind":

Shackleton, "Blood On My Hands (Villalobos Remix)" (YSI)

Oh, and you may be wondering what this giant link that's appeared over to the left of the page is. 80108 is a company I now write and report for. They're a mobile media start-up based out of Boston who offer text message subscription channels to help keep people up on what's going on in their city. I'm handling the "indie rock" channel for Philadelphia, where I'm repping new releases, as well as parties and shows every week. It's a free service, so you've really got no excuse. Join up, and soon enough you'll be getting texts from me all the time...and you know you need that in your life! Do it, do it, do it!

Today's illustration: "Lunatic Zen Bones," by Dan Lisowski