Abstract Index Playlist - July 29/10

One of my favourite things about being involved with the Polaris Prize is the continuing conversation with music critics from Quebec. Even though this artist didn't make a dent in the 2010 long list, Kenlo Craqnuques was the most welcome surprise of this year's process.

There doesn't seem to be an overwhelming amount of bio material on our man Kenlo, other than "born in Africa (nobody seems to know where), lives in Montreal". Brun is volume six of a series of colour themed free downloads of some of the most abstract bass music coming out of Canada today.

Straddling the line between beats and fully-fledged songs, Brun will initially impress with Madlib and FlyLo points of departure, but what keeps me coming back is his sense of melody. It's as if the real momentum of these compositions hockets between various blurps and bleeps, and requires a good 45 seconds in each one of these songs to really establish itself. Naturally, when songs max out at three minutes, one's attention is held. "Russletarrapbeat" from this week, features a slow, sharp synth undulating through the hyper-compressed mix (is compression abuse this decade's update on the delay abuse wrought by so many laptop recording platforms over the past ten years?). There's maybe a bit more unsteadiness in the momentum of the beats than much of what's coming out of LA these days, but that's not a negative thing on the ever-wobbly Abstract Index.

KenLo is super prolific - he had eight releases last year - but hopefully Brun will bring new ears to his music before it too whips by like a blur in the rear-view mirror.

Podcast

party machine - bruce haack (omni)
you don't know me - circle research (urbnet)
russletarrapbeat - kenlo craqnuques (no label)
all static - natural self (tru thoughts)
i get lifted (dub) - barbara tucker (bbe)
bushwick baile - dj sabbo (latino resiste)
hunters - donso (comet)
bamana niya - toubab krewe (upstream)
the naming - galeet dardashti (jdub)
cocekahedron - brass menazeri (portofranco)
no more blood (cosa nostra riddim) - poirier & face t (no label)
cumbia de la cerveza - grupo sonador (lourdes 68 urban)
chinatown - bobby paunetto (fania)
when will the blues leave? - archie shepp's new york contemporary five (delmark)
wander - idris muhammad (fantasy)
gbmojo - segun bucknor (vampisoul)
valley of jehosephat - willi williams (blood and fire)
7th sea dub in twilight - ras amerlock meets professor balthazar (les cristaux liquident)
future back - patrick pulsinger feat fennesz (disko b)
grandma's words/rise out of concrete - shigeto (ghostly international)
hope to meet you - anonymous (minky)