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LP
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DIAG 033LP
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Dance Tracksz is the body-checking return of Prostitutes, aka James A. Donadio, to Diagonal; a no pretenses rave set built minimal and raw for hard worked 'floors. The label's Cleveland, Ohio ambassador has cut out any sentimentality and gone straight for the rave jugular with no concession to ascetic consistency, knocking up one of his fiercest examples of brutalist funk in the process. It's Prostitutes' third and most substantial release for Diagonal, a swaggering and unzipped affirmation of the styles on 2013's Shatter And Lose and Ecstasy, Crashing Beats And Fantasy from 2015 (DIAG 015EP), and clearly catches the label's close ally in the mood for getting wasted. Prostitutes' Dance Tracksz are schooled with the sort of street knowledge and bluntness that perhaps comes from life as a techno-punk in a blue collar industrial city such as Cleveland, OH: the bullish, PCP-style hardcore bookends of "Ah Yeah" and "War Goes On" say their piece in no uncertain terms, whilst "Bottle Smashing" spits pure industrial street funk and "Prey" deals in riot-inciting jungle-techno. Even the album's sole moment of sentimentality, "I Luv U Bruv" - a gesture of affection for his label boss, Powell - is delivered with an acrid lash of electro-techno, but at least you know he means it. In a sound world spoilt for choice, Prostitutes' refusal of shiny tricks is admirable and almost subversive in the face of hands-in-the-air breakdowns, but there's something about the way he wrenches out every last drop of rusty, jacking funk from his machines that leaves no doubt about Dance Tracksz effect at close quarters. Artwork by Guy Featherstone. Mastered by Matt Colton. Edition of 500.
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LP
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SP 041LP
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After countless singles, LPs, and performances around the world, James Donadio is back with his first full-length effort since 2014's Petit Cochon (SP 035LP). Ghost Detergent is a consummate amalgam of fried gear, chunky bass, and fractured samples. Donadio's extraordinary ability to fuse his wide range of influences into a collection of lucidly executed and concise jams has reached its pinnacle. Ghost Detergent is a rhythm-centric maze of fluctuating patterns adorned with crooked fills and raucous melody. Tracks like "Nerve and Gall" and "Government Wrecker" stomp with a coarse, grinding fuss gliding on swinging, bottomless bassline turbulence. Locked-in, puzzle-like sampling patchwork collides perfectly with an array of rogue electronics, creating a sense of daring nearly extinct in the age of gridlocked, BPM-steady 12"s. Tracks like "Pregnant Toad" and "Cheap Amplifiers" play out like a Def Jam bonus beat with ripping, cough syrup-slathered DMX snare sounds. Ghost Detergent has an unhinged, unrelenting churn that stares squarely into a personal vacuum, remaining uninfluenced by the influencers and unflinching in its originality. Neither bird nor egg are relevant here. Prostitutes has managed to carve out its own tenure in contemporary electronic music by delivering in live performance and by shattering expectations on records. Never does the aesthetic outweigh the content, and Ghost Detergent delivers only the wheat and none of the chaff. Conceived, recorded, and mixed at Elbur House, 2014. Mastered by Giuseppe Tillieci at EnnisLab, Rome.
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12"
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DIAG 015EP
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Cleveland's Prostitutes (James Donadio) delivers Ecstasy, Crashing Beats and Fantasy, with four gaping cuts that dissipate heavy drug fug in favor of synapse-sparking, blistered hardwave funk. "Crawl in from Broadway" hammers out workshop percussion latticed with searing acid lines and wry, whining drones, while "Dollars to Deutschmarks" walks the walk with leather-bound friction and Linn-style snare crack. "Lovers Run Camp Africa" centers on a militant two-note bass and drum momentum, overlaid with menacing vocal stabs. "Side Effects of Living" expends shocking electro energy in what might just be Donadio's fiercest dancefloor assault to date. Pure street terror laced with swerve.
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LP
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SP 035LP
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Petit Cochon is the third LP and debut album for Spectrum Spools by James Donadio under his Prostitutes guise. From Psychedelic Black, the self-released debut LP limited to only 100, to the esteemed Crushed Interior on Digitalis, it's safe to say Donadio has crafted a style unmatched in the climate of contemporary electronic music. The top-shelf EPs on Mira and Diagonal were a small glimpse into all that has led up to the new full-length. Petit Cochon is a total burner, no exceptions. From the opening cryptic threat of "Powerful Magnets" into the serrated pummeling of "The Bluffer's Corporation," it becomes clear very quickly that no punches will be pulled and that Petit Cochon is a heavy affair. Donadio's signature sample manipulation in tandem with live electronics and particular mixing processes hit new highs with the manic clatter of "Suck Out the Reason," which shifts and shuffles between huge snare drums and whispers from the void. "Stains Left Unnamed," like its title suggests, is a grim and filthy ordeal with head-spinning delay ringing alongside jagged and fractured rhythm. This album has cuts for the club-heads and for those locked away from the rest of the world, and as a whole serves as the perfect and logical next full-length in the Prostitutes cannon. Cut by CGB at Dubplates + Mastering, Berlin. Mastered by James Plotkin.
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LP
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DIGI 052LP
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Jim Donadio's debut Psychedelic Black album as Prostitutes came out in 2012 and ended up on many year-end lists, fitting in somewhere between the post-noise abrasive techno of Pete Swanson, Container, Nate Young, etc., the roughened post-punk hues of Powell and the more precision-built constructions of the Raster-Noton label. Donadio's follow-up, Crushed Interior, arrives via Digitalis and picks up where he last left us, taking us through to the next, blackened layer of re-formulated techno templates. Opener "Coming Down Here with Human Needs" lifts slowly but eventually gets sucked down a filtered rabbit-hole before crashing out the other side on top of minimal, crushing rhythms, while "Dial Tone Degradation" pummels you into submission with a no-holds-barred assembly of industrial machinery pounding out massive rhythms that build in intensity until there's no room for the growling bass lines to maneuver. Where Prostitutes really excels, though, is in Donadio's ability to know when to pull it back and let the listener breathe for a minute. The middle duo of "Through Their Hungry Lips" and "Spiders in My Eyelids" sound like the leftovers of a strip-mining operation. The former bounces cryptically with only the vaguest hint of a beat while the latter would be meditative if it wasn't so dense, that sense of unease permeating through to the end of this excellent album.
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