Urlaubshits

Joakim’s label Tigersushi is 10 years old this year, and in celebration, the label has just seen the release of More G.D.M. X, a compilation featuring some unreleased tracks, and some label classics, as well as a continuous DJ mix by Joakim which delves into the more experimental side of the label. Although Joakim is most notable for his dancefloor reworkings of, well, pretty much everybody, it would wrong to say that Tigersushi is a dance label (or even an electronic label), rather, Tigersushi encompasses an anything goes attitude to its musical family, forging a unique identity that encompasses a range of niche genres from avant-garde pop to mutant electro, something that has allowed them to survive across a decade which has seen tumultuous musical change. The compilation provides an excellent introduction for those who aren’t up to speed with their output, and for those who are, it may just trigger warm memories of Tigersushi parties gone by. However, the compilation barely scratches the surface of Tigersushi’s output over the last 10 years, so I thought I’d offer a list of my own personal top 5 Tigersushi tracks which aren’t on the compilation.

1) A Mountain For President (feat. Sebastien Tellier) (Joakim Remix) (from the Mountain For President EP, 2007)

With an obvious love for John Carpenter-esque horror movie synths and krautrock, Principles of Geometry employ an extensive analog arsenal to create their bewildering array of sounds. Some tracks, like “Colfax” have a Boards of Canada style ambience, with melodies which have a radiophonic quality, some, like “Golem” use skittering breakbeats with a hefty crunch. But it’s the Joakim remix of “A Mountain For President” which I really love. It takes the slow, thick, quality of the original and transforms it into something altogether more urgent and brittle, with Sebastien Tellier’s vocal transformed into a robotic lament from the abyss. The combination of woozy, melody and arpeggiated bass creates an imagined dystopian landscape, all building up to a glitchy breakdown halfway through. It’s one of Joakim’s finest remixes, and the reason it’s so good is undoubtedly the fact that when he’s remixing something for Tigersushi he has absolutely free reign to create the most challenging and unconventional productions he possibly can. Most people probably prefer the poppier Joakim remixes of acts like Goldfrapp and Friendly Fires, but this is the Joakim that pushes my buttons.

2) Poni Hoax – Budapest (from the Budapest EP, 2005)

Poni Hoax are one of the quintessential Tigersushi acts. Combining Italo synths with a cinematic flair for balladry (see the To The Bones edit of Antibodies on More G.D.M. X), their combination of Lynchian lounge music and disco-punk is one that has aged extremely well. However, it’s , Budapest, which remains their finest in my eyes. Breathy, barely sung vocals sit atop a detuned guitar and menacing bassline, all building up to a noisy crescendo. Just love the flange on the bass too.

3) DyE – Imperator (from the Imperator EP, 2009) A relative newcomer to the Tigersushi stable, DyE released one of my favourite records of last year. Perhaps the best example of Tigersushi’s commitment to the DIY approach to electronic music, the Imperator EP was recorded in his bedroom with a few analog synths, drum machine and MPC, with no laptop or MIDI. The title track from the EP is pure minimalistic future bass, in which crushing beats fight over a backdrop of wobbling synth drones and gurgles. It’s pretty much undanceable and unmixable, but then its not a track made to move the body (for that you have the proto-acid track “Neige 606″); rather to engage the brain with its bleak sci-fi vision of electronic music.

4) K.I.M. – Kim Kong (from the Kim Kong EP, 2003)

A duo consisting of Joakim himself, or more specifically as his alias “Jimi Bazzouka”, and one Flokim Lucas, (who could for all I know be completely made up, given that they describe themselves as an “activist vegetarian consortium”) K.I.M. appears on the More G.D.M. X compilation twice, once with a quite dark vocoder cover of The Smiths’ “Meat Is Murder”, and again with the dark, space-drone percussive jam “Kimchi”. However, it’s the track “Kim Kong” from the EP of the same name which I really love. Released at the same time as the relatively minimal (by Joakim’s standards) album “Fantomes”, “Kim Kong” is a fairly poppy nu-disco jam with an 80s feel to it. What with its rubbery Moroder-esque arpeggio and upbeat guitar licks, it’s almost as if at some point after 2003, these two halves of Joakim’s style met somewhere in the middle to create the style we know today. The EP is also notable for including a song by another band (“Sex Beat” by The Gun Club), something that they also did on their album, which was part original material, part compilation. It’s this bizarre combination of invented mythology, musical didacticism and great production that make K.I.M. so compelling as a concept. And as a track, “Kim Kong” still sounds ridiculously fresh now, even 7 years on.

5) Panico – Guadalupe (An Optimo (Espacio) Remix) (from the Guadalupe EP, 2007)

Optimo have long had a relationship with Tigersushi; the label released the seminal Optimo mix How To Kill The DJ Part 2 through their sublabel Kill The DJ back in 2004, so its unsurprising that Optimo have been one of the few trusted to provide a remix for a Tigersushi act. This track seems almost like a semi-meta remix, in which the DJs Optimo remix a band called Panico, who make music that seems inspired by Liquid Liquid, who themselves wrote a song called “Optimo”, but I digress. Panico have a really urgent quality to their music (which is fairly obvious from their name) and this remix doesn’t hold back, combining driving beats with filtered synth stabs which ripple throughout. It’s unashamedly 90s, and a lot of fun with it, especially the synth toms. Definitely a tune worth digging out if you want to play something absolutely ridiculous, and now that Optimo have ended their weekly parties, a remix to remind us that the increased productivity it will bring them in terms of production is something to look forward to.

More G.D.M. X is availible now on Tigersushi

Buy the album from Juno