|
|
|
Various Artists - My Favorite Things
| Pitchfork |
|
Label comps are the stepchildren of the dance world, providing none of the functionality of your typical format: they lack the exclusivity and collectability of a new 12", the statement-making of a mix, or the cohesiveness of a proper LP. Labels like Mule Electronic complicate the situation further, as we can't ascribe to them any scene or sound specific enough to rally behind (think Kompakt's Total series or the Skull Disco comps). Despite this, Mule Electronic, which trades chiefly in varying strands of minimal and techno, has served as a worthy home for some of this decade's most productive, creative electronic acts. My Favorite Things, Vol. 2, featuring exclusive and/or upcoming tracks from artists like Isolée, Minilogue, Move D, and DJ Koze, offers a chance to delve (slightly) deeper into the catalogs of some favored artists. My Favorite Things, Vol. 2 celebrates Japan-based Mule's fifth anniversary, and it's as much a marketing opportunity as a party: In addition to the headlining acts mentioned above, MFT2 offers peeks into comparative unknowns like (recent Mule signee) Foog, Ribn (a new project from Manuel Tur), and Strategy. There's no need to search for a unifying sound or theme on a comp like this, but the mood of MFT2 is dreamy and expansive, though aggressive, tech-y pulses from Ribn ("Lum Lum") and Strategy ("My Synthetic Guitar") will snap any drooping eyelids. The sound of the comp is almost perfectly summed by "Jill", an album-track preview from Dial co-owner Lawrence. A clacky, metronomic beat taps industriously under an alternating bass figure and slurred, ambient keyboards. Newcomer Foog's "Kanazawa" is one of the track's dancier beats, featuring a tunneling bass channel and way-off, smeared blasts of Rhodes, like deep house with any trace of disco orientation beaten out of it....full text |
|
|
| Residentadvisor |
|
Mule may well be feting its fifth anniversary, but the gifts are all ours. Following Toshiya Kawasaki's imprint's first ambient compilation, Enjoy the Silence, earlier this spring, the second volume of My Favorite Things arrives just as the summer bubbles onto boil. Fitting then, as My Favorite Things 2 works as a pretty inviting barbecue starter. Constructed more as opening-hour fare than a soundtrack for the last few stragglers, the compilation blends sticky house with pretty psychedelic minimal, each given plenty of room to stretch and recline as the light heavies with night. Collecting mostly unreleased tracks from regular contributors and newcomers to the label, My Favorite Things 2 also sees Mule upping the ante a bit on last year's edition—the tracklist is a modest marvel, loaded with upper-crusters like Isolée, DJ Koze, and Âme. If the label compilation is often a scattershot affair, My Favorite Things 2 is another notable exception. Most contributors are mid-summer fit: Minilogue's "My Teenager Gang," released earlier this year, is ten minutes of the Swedish duo's disorienting jungle heat. Plump hand drums flesh out the edges of several woozy tribal samples and slinky keyboard stabs. Minilogue pals Kab turn in tidal-current minimalism on "The Search and the Breaks"—a mental wormhole that proves house ain't cornered the market on "deep"—while Âme's remix of Koss' "Earth" splices eerie bird samples into its expansive narrative techno....full text |
|
|
| Theskinny |
| Mule Electronic is a small and indeed electronic label based in Japan, bringing an array of global techno sounds to the Far East while ensuring that the rest of us hear about it as well. This compilation, the label's fifth birthday celebration, clocks in at an expansive 78 minutes and is packed to the outer limits. While the roughly translated press release does little to explain the faces behind the bleeps and beats, there is material here to merit for casual interest. The sterling tribal chants and tippy-tappy clicks of the Swedish techno duo Minilogue, with My Teenage Gang, sound heatedly exotic, as the meaty filters of Portland's Strategy echo a wet Robert Hood, alongside KaB's dark jingles. Label boss Koss pops up with a pair of tracks, repping for the East, but, as this compilation clearly demonstrates, generic techno tends to sound the same wherever it comes from....full text |
|
|
Go to "Various Artists " lyrics