BETH Round 1 - Vocalcity vs Innovator

[Jimmy Dread]

Best Ever Techno & House Album Round 1:


Vocalcity by Luomo

Nominated by Hayden

[Jimmy Dread]

A quick word here seeing as no-one's really playing along. Oddly enough this was the first time I'd heard Vocalcity and it's bloody fab - minimalist, soulful, deep, funky. Probably one of my favourite discoveries of the tournament so far (along with Eurotechno and Ammnesia) and instantly added to my shopping list...

...but it's up against a collection of Derrick May's timeless Detroit classics, and in "Strings Of Life" one of a handful of tracks from any genre that genuinely makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Just before Britpop burst and as a mere teen I had a mate who DJed at Guildford's Wok Club (upstairs in a rundown old cinema), and when I first heard him play this with its piano-looped intro, the random machine noises that come at you from all angles, and then the 4-to-the-floor pound of the TR-909 drum machine it was like busting down the doors to a sweat-drenched Shangri-La. It's as essential a house and techno classic as they come... but that's not all that's here, as you've also got the twists and turns of "Sinister", the Kraftwerk-kidnapped-by-a-Commodore-64 genius that is "Nude Photo", the relentlessness of "Wiggin'"... it's all genius. Pure, adulterated, synthetic, hedonistic, otherworldly fucking genius.
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[Tap]

have been busy, but yeah Innovator is one that I'd never heard in full (tho stuf like Strings of Life had popped up before), and it's one I've grown to love a lot and I'd be happy to see it win the whole thing. Vocalcity is cool but I've never felt as strongly about it as the consensus.

[Hayden]

Wow, I don't even remember nominating Vocalcity

Both are really good unfortunately.

EDIT: Went with Vocalcity, but both definitely deserve some love.
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[Tha1ChiefRocka]

While I enjoy his work as Vladislav Delay better, Sasu Ripatti's Luomo project is nothing to dismiss either. It had been awhile since I had heard anything from it, and it's essentially a little more lively version of the music that he makes under various other pseudonyms. It's great, but after listening to the 6 quick tracks off of Derrick May's record, including the classic "Strings of Life", I'd have to pick that one for this matchup.

[Kool Keith Sweat]

The toughest matchup of this round. Derrick May is someone I'd be very happy taking #1, but Sasu Ripatti is a lowkey genius that I'll always vote for (even if I prefer his Vladislav Delay stuff).