DJ Alex Corton – Vinyl Reviews

Good Looking Records

Smote / Specific – Genteel Poverty / Time

2009

It’s another week sieving through the goodness of Good Looking Records, as we come to a stage where we’ll miss a few stepping stones on the label. The label was about to hit another era of uncertainty and basically mismanagement, but we will try not to slow down on the momentum of things. 

   How was everyone’s weekend? I hope that whatever you did, you had the chance to absorb some musical drugs into your system?  

  Today we have a couple of extremely impressive tunes, from Smote and Specific. Let’s get down to business.

    Smote is Thomas Banary. Thomas hails from Slovakia and I believe is still based there. For starters, I absolutely adore this tune. Out of all the black and white series, it’s the one I played more than any other on that series. I still do. ‘Genteel Poverty’ on Side A is one of the most magnetic and beautiful tunes that spirals your focus and caves walls around your being in a deep, raw and gravitational way. The hold this has is one of majestic brilliance. While the liquid scene was simmering along peacefully, you had the occasional lightning bolt like ‘Genteel Poverty’ to split the air with an intense and everlasting neutron explosion. The way the tune breathes in the acrid atmosphere and bellows out tender sprits, remains one of its prime attributes. It growls, murmurs and holds you down like the death roll of a raging croc. Once you get rolling though, it’s one of the most exhilarating and rewarding rides of your life. Smote produced a tune here that will always hit some of the highest levels of musical fulfillment for me. It burrowed inside and nests with your mind for eternity. Superb work! 

    Neil McIlwraith is the artist, Specific who made music from around 2005 to 2016. It’s a tough one to follow to be honest, after that sublime A Side. Neil does the side justice though with ‘Time’. There’s a throaty double bass pluck which works as majestically as the bubbles rising in your champagne glass. The tunes breaks trundle along, the distant vocal serenades the background wash, its riff lends a catchy enough hook, and as the music on the label continues, things behind the labels operations were taking another difficult time into the history books. 

   Today’s release is quite a major deal for me. It concludes a consecutive run of 74 releases on Good Looking as we come upto our first gap in the label. We all know the deal about GLR075 and Bukem’s ‘Atmospherical Jubilancy’ and its test press only stage of development. Calibre had the flip side covered with ‘All One Call’ which would have been his only venture on Good Looking. It was also rumored to have been possibly released as the 100th GLR track during the white label series, with hints at a picture disc..the label didn’t make it that far either. For myself, it remains elusive. We therefore move onto GLR076 tomorrow. Unless anyone wants to send me GLR075 for me to review?…no?…worth a try.  Ha ha!

I want to dedicate today’s release, in memory of Skotty Man “ Skotty SK Mannerz” who sadly passed away on Friday, Oct 3. A true devotee of the music, and a real gent. You will be very sorely missed. 

   I’m also dedicating this to Lee ‘Topsy Turvy’ who left us in Sept last year. You are not forgotten! 

R.I.E.P. to you both.