Vibert

It must be one of the most unlikely collaborations in electronic music, but producer Luke Vibert's collaboration with pedal steel master B.J. Cole actually turns out alright, though the fusion is not quite as surprising as it originally sounded. On most tracks, Cole's shimmering, fluid guitar lines are simply assimilated into Vibert's kitchen-sink production style, and the results don't sound vastly different than Vibert's last full-length, Tally Ho! (recorded under his Wagon Christ pseudonym). It's good to see an excellent producer pushing himself - and all of electronic music - into new territory; Stop the Panic just doesn't sound quite like the revolution it should be.

Despite the fact that Wagon Christ-related releases started to pile up for various labels, Luke Vibert wasn't in danger of repeating himself - his productions on Sorry I Make You Lush differ stylistically and thematically from any material he's issued under any other alias, while still being less a genre holiday than his previous YosepH for Warp. Still pushing his beats and basslines farther into funk and soul territory even while he pulls his effects from the realm of experimental electronics, Vibert may play the dance technician while producing his tracks, but he's become much more a natural trackmaster than in the past. "I'm Singing" may be his first vocal feature of all time, but regardless, it is a vocal track, and one that shows him integrating sung vocals into his hipster funk very well (a later track finds him sampling a female folksinger à la Jacqui McShee to good effect)…

Warp20 (Chosen) placed the track selection process in the hands of fans, who voted online with the option to add messages like "This song makes you feel like a proud parent, à la John Hurt in the movie Alien," as reprinted throughout the booklet. The ten tracks (+ bonus track for Japan) that received the most votes make up the first disc. After track five, the disc makes a swift transition from covering exemplary material (Aphex Twin's bent lounge-porn single "Windowlicker," Boards of Canada's eerie yet blissful "Roygbiv"), to looking more like a sampler of recent releases (from Plaid's "Eyen" to Clark's "Herzog," all 2001-2006 territory). The 14 tracks on the second disc were picked by label co-founder Steve Beckett…

On "Steamdome II: The Hypogean", Ola Kvernberg presents an even more souped-up crew than last time, still shamelessly mixing genres and with a newly-won desire to jolt you out of your home office and give you an hour of music therapy, free of pandemics and global disasters in general.