A Pair Of Portmanteaus

Parvale = Neil Parnell & Ian Vale

Jezebell = Jesse Fahnestock & Darren Bell

I do love a portmanteau name and when Nein Records label head Neil Parnell teamed up with Ian Vale, Parvale was created and new EP Breaker City the first fruits.

The lead track is an unashamedly heartfelt love letter to Acid and Breakbeat, blending the best of both into 345 seconds of compelling body music. 

I've greatly enjoyed Neil's releases and remixes as Tronik Youth and relatively recently caught up with Ian's work, so I was pretty much bought into this concept before hearing the track. That first listen sealed the deal.

Who else do you turn to for a remix than Jezebell? In their own words, Breaker City is "gone cut'n'paste and pop 'n' lock", dropping the tempo but not the attitude. A recurring sample of "nice 'n' slow" provides the remix with its name and, as you might expect, it's a slick, groovy six minutes that thrills from start to finish.

Closing track Drip Dry brings the BPMs right back up, another consumate and confident example of Neil and Ian's ability to pull from the past whilst reaching forward. At once evocative of the late 80s/early 90s and fresh as a springtime flower, it's another winner for me.  

Breaker City was released on 21st February but if you hang on to Bandcamp Friday to buy, even more of your hard earned pennies will reach the artists. And whilst you're at it, check out more of the Nein Records and Jezebell back catalogue too.

Elect Tronik

Today's selection features Tronik Youth aka Neil Parnell, and is a follow up of sorts to last Wednesday's spotlight on recent purchases from NEIN Records, the label Neil co-founded with Ian Considine over a decade ago.

 

In a 2018 interview celebrating 5 years of NEIN, Neil described the label's mission as "trying to spread some dark magic around the worlds dance floors" and this brief, C90-friendly mix attempts to reflect some of that in his own remixes and releases as Tronik Youth.

Most of the tracks are from the last few years, but I have included Tronik Youth's debut in 2006 with a remix of Listen Up! by Gossip. At the time Neil, a record shop boss and DJ, got involved with a friend who ran Back Yard Records. The two discovered and signed Gossip, Neil had a go at doing a remix and the rest is history.

 

If you're new to Tronik Youth and like what you hear, head first to NEIN Records on Bandcamp, where you will find a fair few Tronik Youth releases, re-edits and remixes of other label artists for your listening pleasure. 

However, a quick online search will also throw up a vast catalogue of music released on other labels and with other artists in the past two decades, as 2014's Suicide Doors on tici taci (included here) illustrates.

 

1) Cult Haze (One Of Us) (Tronik Youth 'Ritual' Remix): Dan Wainwright (2021)

2) Wrong System (Jay-Son Remix): Tronik Youth (2024)

3) Suicide Doors (Inaigo Vontier Remix): Tronik Youth (2014)

4) I Say Yes (Tronik Youth Remix): Cosman (2024)

5) Listen Up! (Tronik Youth Remix) (Edit): Gossip (2006)

6) Red Shift (Tronik Youth Remix): MAN2.0 (2022)

7) Serpens Caput (Tronik Youth Remix): Celestino (2023)

8) Ghosted Me: Tronik Youth (2024)

 

2008: Rework It: 5

2021: The Universal Energy Within EP: 1

2022: Red Shift EP: 6

2023: tici taci Decade Volume 1: 3

2023: We Are Nothing But Space Dust Remixes EP: 7

2024: I Say Yes EP: 4 

2024: Tronik Youth Club Edits EP: 8

2024: Wrong System EP: 2

 

Elect Tronik (45:28) (KF) (Mega)

Flowers Don't Get Old...At Least, Not The Ones You Sent Me

Sticking with last week's Bandcamp Friday haul, this is a 45-minute selection of remixes from one-off singles and EPs, including a couple from last year that I missed first time around. 

in celebration of Liz Truss being confirmed as Prime Minister (this immediately sprang to mind), I've dropped a few Truss-isms into the mix.

More BF goodies tomorrow.

1) All That You Want (Joe Goddard Remix): Ibibio Sound Machine (2022)

2) "Cheesy Truss" (2014)

3) Looking At Your Pager (Solomun Remix): KH aka Kieran Hebden (2022)

4) "Literate Truss" (2013)

5) Flat Strings (Tronik Youth Remix): Cosmosolar (2022)

6) Sub Spacial (A Space Age Freak Out Dark Paisley Mix): From Beyond (2021)

7) Red Shift (Jezebell's Inner Child Mix): MAN2.0 (2022)

8) Safesurfer (The Machine Soul Innerworld Dub): Julian Cope (2021)

9) Cherokee (Dennis Bovell Remix): Animal Collective (2022)

10) "Awkward Truss" (2022)

Flowers Don't Get Old (45:42)