Various Artists – Ed Rec Vol. 2 [2007; Because Music, Ed Banger Records, Vice Records, Wagram Music]

image

Released the same year as Justice’s debut album, this compilation features tracks from them and their label-mates on the French label of Ed Banger Records, with French house
being the primary flavor,

while hip-hop, electro, hard techno, and turntablism influences float about freely.  Stiff buzzes, glossy touch-ups, manic percussion, and odd-beat but funky rhythms fill the music, most of it eschewing vocals. 

Tone slides, lo-fi samples, and over-amping lend things a generally buzzy feel, which helps mask the heavy amounts of production that went into the electronic pieces with gritty patinas and forceful kicks.  A good tour through the electronic stage of the era, with most of the tracks still sounding ahead of their time, and an enjoyable batch of lively electronica even without that context.

Various Artists – Camping [2005; BPitch Control]

image

Twenty tracks of off-beat techno pack this label sampler, with chill vocals, dribbled beats, stiff clicks, and melting synths drifting together.  Bits of chipbreak, acid house, electro, and other flavors bubble up from the dozen or so contributing acts, and while the tempos and action occasionally become frenzied, the music rarely loses its sense of controlled cool.  That also helps bind the diverse tracks together across their range of fluctuations and stutters, building a sense of the label’s style on the whole (extensive sampling of Kid Rock associate Joe C. in Housemeister’s “Do You Wanna Funk” aside).

One of the strongest points in the compilation’s favor, though, is the openness the musicians show to bringing in single points of divergence to the rest of the song’s shaping, like the injection of Mediterranean strings into electro, or post-punk bass lick loops combed into house rhythms.  Though few of the featured artists have stuck with the label to the current day (with owner Ellen Allien’s plentiful output being the prime exception), the general attitude of the music gives a clear sense of how BPitch Control presented themselves at the time, even with the quick turn-about offered by the musical switch-ups.