The vinyl industry is still in a state of rehab after a debilitating stroke dropped it to the floor. After years of re-learning how to hold a fork and use the stairs without grasping the railing, the market actually does resemble a real economic force again – even if it is, for some, less about product than prestige. Paradoxically, as more vinyl is sold, more new releases are pressed and fewer really have any purpose being on black wax other than conceit.

This is one that does. Rutilance is a French label developing a cult following, at least among my friends, with a series of adventurous records from people that bring something more than a name with them into the studio. Mad in Lyon is from Ortella, a producer who is also, uh, made in Lyon. “Reflex” features thunderous drums and fragments of a piano riff, building up higher and higher with a blast of crowd noise. It doesn’t go for the cheap shit – just a perfect track to set the table.

“Work That Shit” (co-produced by Rutilance’s DJ Steaw) sounds like an experiment in fusing Dance Mania-style aesthetics with some fuzzy Larry Heard proto-Deep House moodyness and a twitchy acid bassline. This is almost certainly the standout and the one that’s going to have the most widespread appeal, given the sudden ubiquity of the raw DM sound. I don’t know who Aya is but she should be pleased by lending her name to “Track for Aya”, the kind of shimmering, atmospheric House that can move bodies in dark rooms on a geologic scale.

 

5 COMMENTS

  1. I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up being the only person who expresses this sentiment, but as a devout house music fan and the son of a two time stroke victim, your metaphor definitely made me uncomfortable.

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