IKE YARD レコード& CD

Review: By now, we should all know what to expect from Lack of Afro, AKA veteran funk, soul and hip-hop producer Adam Gibbons. This fourth studio album for regular home Freestyle Records is being pitched as his most eclectic yet. Certainly, there's plenty of variety in the textures, styles and tempos, from the disco-funk stomp of Herbal T hook-up "Brown Sugar" and sweet Northern Soul blast of "The Contender" (all fuzzy guitars and pleasing horns), to the soft soul shuffle of "Making It Right" and Breakestra-ish hip-hop funk of "Here We Go Again". Despite the variety, Gibbons is still at his best when really cutting loose, as the superb opener "Freedom" adeptly demonstrates.

Review: Whilst remix EPs are by no means the most original of concepts, French label Desire should be applauded for their set of Ike Yard Remix EPs due to the calibre of those involved. Previous editions have seen contributions from Regis, Monoton, Tropic of Cancer and former Ike Yard synth player Fred Szymanski and this third and final EP sees the label turn to a younger generation with equally compelling results. Diagonal boss Powell might be new to remixes (this is only his second after reconstructing Silent Servant for Jealous God) but he's evidently willing and capable to dissect the source and reassemble in his own style. Put simply, little of "Half A God" remains here but Powell's remix will resonate immediately with anyone that consumed his original work last year. Elsewhere The KVB essentially throw down a cover version of "Cherish 8" whilst Vessel's accompanying mix of the same track should sound deafening on a big system and much the same can be said about Bandshell's refix of "NCR".

Review: Having teamed up with the like minded Blackest Ever Black to release a record of Ike Yard reworks from techno doyen Regis and veteran multimedia artist Konrad Becker, Desire return to the iconic No Wave band's discography for more remixes. Much more diverse in scope, this 12" sees Tropic of Cancer, Arnaud Rebotini and the band's own former synth player Fred Szymanski rework the Ike Yard canon and the results are just as salacious. The presence of Tropic Of Cancer is particularly interesting as Camella Lobo's project have previously only ever completed one remix - a 2011 digital effort of Fostercare should you be wondering - and in her hands "Half A God" is transformed into some suitably chilling and ethereal. Szymanski remixes the same track under the Recombinant guise, and his resultant effort has been adeptly branded a piece of "musique concrete-inspired electronica". The finely coiffured Frenchman Arnaud Rebotini offers up something a big more immediate with a pulsating techno revision of "Cherish 8? under the familiar Black Strobe name.

Review: Remixes of iconic New York no wave act Ike Yard by Regis and Konrad Becker's Monoton project feature on this joint release from Blackest Ever Black and Desire. Technically a complementary release to Desire's soon to drop reissue of Ike Yard's eponymous debut set from 1982, this 12" has the Downwards boss and Becker tackling tracks from that album. Led by Stuart Argabright, Ike Yard's brand of avant garde electro minimalism is not something you can easily digest, but both remixes here work as fine complements to the source material. Regis' take on "Loss" is a pattering, skeletal affair that develops ripples of uneasy analogue pulses without ever forgoing Ike Yard's paranoia inducing intentions, while Becker's Monoton Dub take on "NCR" is equally respectful, if much more foreboding in execution.