Description

EP Vinyl – Local Release

Free-floating jack-trax, bleepy drum workouts, machine funk, and cavernous electro… Revolver Upstairs Records returns with a release to celebrate 25 years of its infamous Saturday night, The Late Show. Unlike previous releases, this one takes a slightly different approach, focussing squarely on Revolver’s back bar and its reputation for groove-driven eclecticism.

Sparking things off is Ransom and Tonelab under the moniker, Cable 54 with their track, Bush Cow Milk. Think crunched-up drum samples, one-finger bleep lines and pulsing analogue bass and you'll be somewhere in the ballpark. Why are they trying to sell me Ponzi shares in their unpasteurised dairy subscription service? As any Late Show resident from the cage knows, versatility is the key to survival in this game.

Second up is Tony 2000 with Tec-Star; a hazy jack track of stuttered vocal chops, cassette-quality strings and SH101 bass tabs. Word is that during a physical altercation with the club’s cigarette machine one morning at 3:42 am Tony was electrocuted, catapulting him into the far far future, which as it turns out is a lot like Chicago’s south side in 1984. The morning after he found this one on tape in the toe of his left shoe.

Next is Lewis CanCut under the moniker DJ Snow Fleas with It’s Magic (this time a Ron Hardy reference for real). Budget boogie keys hover over chorused-out Juno licks, which would actually sound quite nice if the whole thing wasn’t drowning under the weight of an analogue drum machine mangled through a guitar pedal. We’re just happy he’s finally given up on his dream of starting an Arthur Russell cover act (Victoria’s RSLs and country clubs are doing it tough enough already).

Closing out the release is Paz with Rock Wilder, a cavernous electro jam from the rough streets of Melbourne’s inner South-East. Pipe bass bangs over stuttered beats, squeaking like trainers on newly polished basketball courts. 4th quarter, game on. One time I could have sworn I saw Arthur Baker walking a labradoodle-cross up the West side of Chapel St. Anyway, it’s 6 am here on the corner of Chapel and High, and everything is starting to make sense.