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Music

The Last Record: Olin Picks House and Techno-Heavy Gems

The Smartbar talent buyer and producer shares the last records he purchased.
Photo courtesy of Jason Garden

As the talent buyer for Chicago institution Smartbar and a producer in his own right, Jason Garden (aka Olin) has a busy second half of the year. Besides booking a highly-curated selection of progressive house, techno and electronic music performers from across the globe, Garden will embark on a small US and European tour in November. The first release from his new label, Boundary Monument, will also drop sometime this fall or winter.

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We asked Garden about the latest music he purchased. House and techno heads will especially love his three selections which include deep cuts, new releases and personal favorites from within the genres.


1. "A Liquid State" by Tom Liem

I kinda feel I'm kidding myself by owning this record. The A-side I can see playing during the deep portion of an early morning set or to start the night off at Smartbar. However, the B-side is pure hubris on my part. Like, when am I realistically going to carve out 10+ minutes of a set for this and not have it be a total disaster or chicken out and only play like four or five minutes of it? I can only really think of a handful of places where I could just let it ride. You could probably guess them. The moment when the melodic elements start to break through the cracks of an otherwise atonal wall of sound around, though are absolutely gorgeous and totally worth the risk (easy to say from my desk chair). I really enjoy tracks that simply and effectively juxtapose textures and feelings like that. Here's to the philosophy of buying music now and trying to figure out how the hell you're going to play it later. Wish me luck!

2. We've Got A Love by The Jason Nevins Movement

This is one I picked up recently that just really checks all the house boxes for me. It's got a nice jack to it, but with lots of forward movement and a nice baseline here and there. The track that really caught my ear is "I Need Ya." That drone-like bass line gets you right in the gut while the no frills percussion relentlessly moves things along. I love tracks with real a decisive two and four element such as the clap/snare on this. It borrows a lot from early Detroit techno and house, both sonically and philosophically, and I could for sure hear Derrick May or someone similar playing this to great effect back in '93.

3. Good Morning Passengers by Albrecht La'Brooy

Melboune-based Analogue Attic is one of my favorite labels going right now. I caught on to them when they released AAR003 (Victoria Park by TUC) and have been diligently collecting the entire catalog ever since. They do a really great job of blending atmospheric sounds, field recordings, modular noodling, and the occasional filtered out kick drum to create music that is surprisingly not masturbatory or meandering (which is quite a rare thing when it comes to this sort of music, in my experience). This one is mostly ambient, but "Louis'" is a beautiful and deeper house-y number that I got a chance to play last weekend at Smartbar. Catch them feelings, y'all.

Britt Julious is on Twitter.