Let's talk about Alex Smoke's 'Incommunicado' album...

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... Because it's really great, and because I can't think of a more consummate survey of the microhouse/electro-house divide, and because liking Alex Smoke will get you into DJ Martian's good books. It's like Villalobos/Luciano pinpoint precision meets Koivikko/Inaqui Marin-style ghostly menace meets the sparkling melodicism of Closer Musik's "Departures" or "Maria" meets Matthew Dear's lightness of touch meets the murky shoegazer electro-house of M.I.A. (the SubStatic one) meets Steve Bug-style compulsive funkiness. That's a lot of bases covered!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 5 March 2005 07:04 (twenty years ago)

Seeing this thread in bold makes me sad, so I'm gonna have a conversation with myself about how good this album is. I'm really shocked by how beautiful it is. Most of the previous Alex Smoke I'd heard had been minimal dirty electro-house, very much in the Sub Static/Sender tradition although more M.I.A. style gloominess than Jake Fairley/Misc anthemism, and spiked with the sort of shifting psychedelic approach of "Cosmic Sandwich" (see the brilliant "Strange Attractor", "Simple Things", and above all his astonishing dub of Envoy's "Move On"). An album of that sort of stuff would have been fantastic, but he's totally caught me by surprise by swathing everything in these gorgeous, melancholic melodies that tremble with vulnerability. It makes everything feel deliciously tentative; it's very much a "micro" album, whereas his 12 inches are usually more physical.

It is pretty diverse though. "Chica Wrappa [Mejor Edit]" is like a collaboration between DJ T and Sasha & Digweed; "Recess" is the most rhythmically unusual schaffel track since the T. Raumschmiere mix of "Ich Weiss Warum", and almost as good; "6am" is a stringswept, guitar-tingling epic (almost balearic if it wasn't so sad), only with shivering fractured beats that Luciano would be proud of... it's all so brilliant!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 5 March 2005 14:27 (twenty years ago)

if i ever hear "brian's lung" out, i will die on the spot. killed by endless stuttering hardcore breakdowns - a good way to go

― fe zaffe (fezaffe), Saturday, 5 March 2005 14:39 (twenty years ago)

Yes! "Brian's Lung" is bizarre and brilliant! Mentasm attack! (that track and "Don't See The Point" and "Chica Wrappa", plus a few others ha ha, make my statement about this being a "micro" album a tad inaccurate).

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 5 March 2005 14:51 (twenty years ago)

I'm not as enthousiastic as Tim. I really liked the single, "Don't See the Point", but the string sections on the album became too much for me. Let's say that I got a few Unkle flashbacks. "Brian's Lung" is the only other track that I would want to play.

― JoB (JoB), Saturday, 5 March 2005 15:40 (twenty years ago)

JoB remember I'm a lot cheesier than you.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 5 March 2005 23:38 (twenty years ago)

I'm really feeling "Don't See The Point" yeah, I just bought the LP yesterday so it's still sinking in. "Don't See The Point" is just lovely though, I've been mixing it with the Superpitcher M83 remix all evening.

― Ronan (Ronan), Saturday, 5 March 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

(or trying to)

― Ronan (Ronan), Saturday, 5 March 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

Ronan you should definitely hear some of the stuff not on the album. Did you ever download this Matt Coleridge mix?

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 6 March 2005 00:34 (twenty years ago)

I can see what JoB means about all the emotive strings etc. but if anything it's more a throwback to classic prog a la Sasha & Digweed than UNKLE yeah? Also the problem with UNKLE for me has always been the topheaviness, the piling of drama-signifiers onto a groove too weak or insipid to support them. Everything here though is so obsessively multilayered, you could take the melodies off most of these tracks and they'd still sound more "finished" and rounded than yer average Perlon track.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 6 March 2005 00:39 (twenty years ago)

The new Dirk Leyers on Kompakt is very heavy on the strings too actually.

Not got that mix yet, I got the more trashy electroey one, I may check that too though.

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 6 March 2005 00:50 (twenty years ago)

Ronan download it! I've been listening to it constantly.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 6 March 2005 00:54 (twenty years ago)

it's more a throwback to classic prog a la Sasha & Digweed than UNKLE yeah?

Possibly, I've not made myself too familiar with the stuff, happy to avoid "prog" house for the most part... :-)

― JoB (JoB), Sunday, 6 March 2005 15:05 (twenty years ago)

That mix is really good Tim, thanks. I swear I nearly walked home from halfway to my friends house when that Oxtongue Remix of "Spacer Woman" by Charlie came on! It's unbelievable, I love the original but that mix just blew me away, it's like the machines are crushing themselves in romantic agony!

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 20 March 2005 01:57 (twenty years ago)

I love this damn record. Plus there's so much Depeche Mode (circa Violator) in it, which is always a brilliant thing. Just listen to those pads in "Chica Wappa (Mejor Edit)" (which truly is way mejor than the original 12" edit)... they're straight outta "Policy of Truth!"

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Sunday, 20 March 2005 21:17 (twenty years ago)

Ronan there's another more recent Matt Coleridge mix at his website http://www.mattcoleridge.com/

I think you'll like it, it gets a lot housier than the first mix (although it doesn't quite match the first's dark thrills). This is the tracklisting:

01 Alex Smoke - Solitude - Soma
02 Trentemoller - Physical Fraction - Audiomatique
03 Lucien-N-Luciano & Pier Bucci - Stone Age - Cadenza
04 John Spring - Strange - Sub Static
05 Style of Eye - Back to Basic - Classic
06 Error Error - Music, Music, Music - Einmusik
07 Dirty Minds - Death of Brian - Eskimo
08 Andre Krami feat. Shad Privat - Safari (Alex Smoke Tink Mix) - Crosstownrebels
09 Spirit Catcher - Voo Doo Knight - Moodmusic
10 Blondie - Fascination (The Idiots Mix) - White Label
11 Unknown - Manga 03 - Manga
12 Princess Superstar - Do It Like A Robot (Danny Howells Mix) - White Label
13 Buick Project - Chancer - Saved
14 Spirit Catcher - Street Hawk - Moodmusic
15 Trentmoller - Rykketid - Audiomatique
16 Andre Krami feat. Shad Privat - Safari (Pier Bucci Mix) - Crosstownrebels
17 Misc. - Ballet - Sender
18 Dole & Kom - Fast Lane - Death by Disco
19 Trentmoller - Beta Boy - Out of Orbit
20 Green Velvet - La La Land (Carganoid) - White Label
21 Timo Maas - Feedback Welcome - Warner
22 Mike Monday - Ca$h (Dub) - Freerange
23 KC Flightt vs Funky Junction - Voices (Tom Middleton Cosmos Vocal) - Hooj

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 20 March 2005 23:08 (twenty years ago)

The Style of Eye and Dirty Minds tracks are amazing.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 21 March 2005 12:29 (twenty years ago)

late to the party as usual, but i see what JoB was asaying. its sounds a bit like Bola, if Bola woke up and realsied that it wasnt 1998 any more.

at least this track "ok" does

btw Alex Smoke is playign Leeds with Funk D'void in April i think so look out fo0r him playing elsewhere

― ambrose (ambrose), Monday, 21 March 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

"Death of Brian" (and "Life Of Brian") is a real classic at our club!

14 Spirit Catcher - Street Hawk - Moodmusic
09 Spirit Catcher - Voo Doo Knight - Moodmusic

love this 12 too.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 21 March 2005 21:13 (twenty years ago)

Alex just did a remix of the new Radio 4 single too! Sounds nothing like the original...

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Thursday, 24 March 2005 05:01 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

late to the party as usual

Not as late as me. This album finally clicked for me this evening. It's great.

― a real live British pub hooligan (nordicskilla), Monday, 27 June 2005 00:44 (twenty years ago)

Hm, I R intrigued.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 June 2005 00:47 (twenty years ago)

It's brilliant, Ned.

― a real live British pub hooligan (nordicskilla), Monday, 27 June 2005 00:47 (twenty years ago)

I know I'm altogether untrustworthy, but look! Tim Finney likes it! You trust him!

― a real live British pub hooligan (nordicskilla), Monday, 27 June 2005 00:48 (twenty years ago)

'6AM' has been slaying me for a while but this thread inspired me to go out and have a (green) smoke and check the other suggested tracks. mmm...damn. yeah, good stuff.

― jergins (jergins), Monday, 27 June 2005 01:20 (twenty years ago)

This is a great album BUT Alex really needs to make an album/comp of his harder stuff because he's even better at that. I always talk about his dub of Envoy's "Moving On" but there's also two awesome tracks on his 12 inch from a few months ago (which is called something like Ring Click Tick Tank) that are just brilliant and nasty. One of them is a schaffel track which is just unbelievably crammed with detail, a bit like the one at the end of Incommunicado but much darker.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 27 June 2005 04:28 (twenty years ago)

I immediately liked "Brian's Lung" and "Don't See the Point" and the rest just didn't set me on fire. I dunno, I want a bit more weirdness/perversion, but I will listen to the whole thing again. Maybe I didn't give it a chance . . .

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Monday, 27 June 2005 06:58 (twenty years ago)

He also KILLS it live, I caught his laptop set on Friday, highly recommended, although I was marginally disapointed he didn't bring his cello along - mmmm, feedbacking cello in loud club! Andy might remember more about it than me, however, I was dancing my arse off and grinning like a loon.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Monday, 27 June 2005 11:58 (twenty years ago)

Not sure I remember that much. But the whole night was the dogs testicles; banging from the moment we walked through the door.

I wasn't expecting that much from him; the records I've heard have been a little on the energy-sapping side, ahter than the energy releasing. Good when done well (superpitcher) but can drag a bit if the DJ doesn't give you some release.

But there was none of that nonsense. Some deeper stuff, but mostly maximal music for dancing. Respect too for Lee and Mark who kept the temperature up all night. Will check out the LP methinks.

― andy foopfoop (foopfoop), Monday, 27 June 2005 12:09 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

why didn't more people shit themselves over this album on ILM?

― cutty (mcutt), Saturday, 10 September 2005 23:48 (twenty years ago)

Alex Smoke is fairly specialist still i think cutty, and perhaps released his album too early all things considered - I think people like him and Trentemoller will see their rep expand enormously over the next year or so.

I think when I look back on electro-house in 2005 it's gonna be that particular intersection of psychedelic minimal stuff (Smoke, Trentemoller, Dominik Eulberg, Luciano, Cosmic Sandwich...) that really stands out as being somehow very representative and very dominant, sort of hegemonically rearranging everything else around it.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 11 September 2005 06:38 (twenty years ago)

God I wish I could download stuff so I can hear this. I am so behind on this stuff!

― fizzcaraldo (Justin M), Sunday, 11 September 2005 07:15 (twenty years ago)

Yeah I want to thank Tim for the intro description (in what now seems like waaaay far back in March) to this, one of the reasons I love ILM ... went out and bought this promptly afterwards. Have been thoroughly enjoying & proselytizing ever since.

― Dare (Dare), Sunday, 11 September 2005 07:20 (twenty years ago)

Haven't heard his music (yet) but I'm intrigued. He's playing here at the end of the month, has anyone seen perform him live?

― willem (willem), Sunday, 11 September 2005 09:20 (twenty years ago)

i totally missed this thread - downloading now, pretty excited...

― toby (tsg20), Sunday, 11 September 2005 10:39 (twenty years ago)

Beatport.com has a ton of Alex Smoke work from both the Soma and Vakant labels, at US $1.49 a track.

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Sunday, 11 September 2005 11:49 (twenty years ago)

FWIW, my top ten weird minimal electro-house tunes of the last 12 months or so:

1. Envoy - Move On (Alex Smoke Dub)
2. Golden Red - Tumble
3. Nathan Fake - The Sky Was Pink (Holden Mix)
4. Luciano - Stone Age
6. Yoshimoto - Do What You Do (Trentemoller Mix)
7. Dinky - Acid In My Fridge
8. Le Dust Sucker - Mean Boy (Dominik Eulberg Mix)
9. Andre Kraml - Safari (Kiki & Silversurfer Mix)
10. Alex Smoke - Neds
11. Trentemoller - Polar Shift
12. Triola - Leuchttern (Wighnomy's Polar Zipper Remix)
13. M.I.A. - Sweet November
14. Andre Kraml - Safari (Alex Smoke Mix)
15. Dub Kult - On And On (Guido Scheider's On And On Remix)
16. Steve Barnes - Cosmic Sandwich (Dominik Eulberg Mix)
17. Andre Kraml - Safari (James Holden Remix)
18. Trentemoller - Physical Fraction
19. Luciano - Bomberos
20. Nathan Fake - Dinamo (Dominik Eulberg Mix)

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 11 September 2005 13:12 (twenty years ago)

Look at that list. Just look! At! That! List!

― Adam in Edgware (nordicskilla), Sunday, 11 September 2005 13:23 (twenty years ago)

I felt a bit odd putting 3 of the 4 "Safari" remixes on there (and the Pier Bucci one is great too anyway!) - but fuck it they're all so ace.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 11 September 2005 13:25 (twenty years ago)

I also love it that your top ten has 20 tracks...BECAUSE THAT'S EXACTLY HOW IT SHOULD BE!

― Adam in Edgware (nordicskilla), Sunday, 11 September 2005 13:26 (twenty years ago)

his remix of "safari" is indeed wickedly good. i love "don't see the point" too and have dutifully played the shit out of incommunicado. one of the year's best moody bastard electronic albums surely.

― tricky (disco stu), Sunday, 11 September 2005 20:32 (twenty years ago)

really great and really beautiful in places

― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 17:03 (nineteen years ago)

Do Crosstown Rebels sell their tracks online? They are not on beatport ....

― nocure, Tuesday, 13 September 2005 17:31 (nineteen years ago)

four months pass...

new album!

"paradolia"

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 01:15 (nineteen years ago)

don't want to start a new thread on it until i've actually listened to it and have something to say. ha.

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 01:16 (nineteen years ago)

i like his remix of Alex Under's "Las Bicicletas Son Para El Verano".

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 01:34 (nineteen years ago)

that was quick?

― phantasy bear (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 01:44 (nineteen years ago)

He seems to have cranked out a lot of records in the last year. I'm still very keen to hear a new album from him, thrashed Incommunicado and a lot of his stuff on vakant last year.

One older thing he did which hasn't got a mention is his remix of Funk D'void 'Way Up High', his dub of that is excellent, very clicky and lots of wooshy echoes, but it's driving and funky at the same time, I play it a lot still.

― Bn1 (Bn1), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 05:21 (nineteen years ago)

Is it at all like his (mindblowing) dub of Envoy's "Move On"?

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 07:15 (nineteen years ago)

It's a bit more straightforward and a little more menacing and minimal than his envoy dub, doesn't have the electro/arpeggio features.

― Bn1 (Bn1), Thursday, 26 January 2006 09:32 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

new album is AMAZING.

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 16 March 2006 17:47 (nineteen years ago)

it really, really is. total sleeper.

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 16 March 2006 17:48 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, on subsequent listens (and let's say, in a More Definitely Malleable Attitude) that sucker really opens up quite nicely. looking forward to spending much more time with it.

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Thursday, 16 March 2006 17:58 (nineteen years ago)

I hate to be the designated Smoke-hata here and I really give his albums time but the new one is as boring as Incommunicado. I don't know why I don't get it...there are some good tracks on the new one but even those aren't actually memorable.

(I even tried the "imagine this was released on Kompakt" trick...that didn't work either :)

― Omar (Omar), Thursday, 16 March 2006 20:28 (nineteen years ago)

omar, in what way do you find it boring? there's so much going on in each alex smoke track that i can't really imagine ever finding it boring! it's so, so hooky and anthemic.

'prima materia' is astounding.

i'm interviewing mr smoke when he comes to play in london. anything anyone wants asked?

― The Lex (The Lex), Friday, 17 March 2006 13:03 (nineteen years ago)

It's hard to tell, certainly I don't think it's hooky because nothing here hooks me, everything just escapes into mist, i almost would call it techno-as-perfume (but not a really seductive perfume at that). It sounds pretty good riding a bike with headphones on but all house does really. I like 'Meany' the best on the new album.

Again this should be right up my alley, sort of minimal detailed techno with hefty nods towards Detroit. Maybe it's just too derivative, for instance 'Persona' is pure Aphex Twin circa SAW 85-92 but airless.

― Omar (Omar), Friday, 17 March 2006 13:40 (nineteen years ago)

I like this album way more than Incommunicado. Maybe Lex could ask him why he has gone easy on the orchestral arrangements this time, a good thing btw. Having said that, "Prima Materia" is my favourite and I'd be interested to hear how he writes/records such tracks. P.S. "Meany" also comes with a great Matt John remix...

― JoB (JoB), Friday, 17 March 2006 15:23 (nineteen years ago)

four months pass...

very very nice stuff. crisp, thick, sparkly, deep, weird. isolee fans should be all over this.

― jermaine (jnoble), Thursday, 3 August 2006 11:36 (nineteen years ago)

that's 'paradolia' i'm talking about btw.

― jermaine (jnoble), Thursday, 3 August 2006 11:44 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

I warmed to Incommunicado slightly after initially finding it quite a snooze, but I was never too impressed by it. Only got round to listening to Paradolia today, it's excellent, ploughing the same field but with a swankier combine-harvester. Will be in the end of year list I make in my head.

― struttin' with some barbecue (jimnaseum), Thursday, 21 September 2006 21:13 (eighteen years ago)

nine years pass...

Not heard anything since "Paradolia" but his name has just come up in conversation ... What have I missed?

― djh, Monday, 23 May 2016 21:55 (nine years ago)

Man I had forgotten how hard Alex went in on "Neds" and "You're A Bit Rough".

― Tim F, Monday, 23 May 2016 22:54 (nine years ago)

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