‘When the money started to roll in, I went to this record shop I loved and asked to see every piece of expensive vinyl I’d ever lusted after. “I’ll take them all!” I said’
Back in 2005, the French house producer Alan Braxe released his much-loved compilation The Upper Cuts. The record captured a moment in time, sweeping up tracks like Stardust’s landmark smash “Music Sounds Better With You” — Braxe was a member of Stardust, who only ever released that one song — as well as Braxe’s collaborations with Fred Falke and his remix of Shakedown’s “At Night.” Now, Braxe is coming out with a newly remastered version of The Upper Cuts with a whole lot of bonus tracks, including a couple of brand-new ones.
The birds peck out the eyes of the stepsisters, the sister locks the witch in the oven to save her brother, the mother decapitates her stepson and cooks him in soup — such grim familial imaginings are fit for songs by Katie Gately, who for nearly a decade has been making delightfully twisted sonic fables of her own. Gately’s electronic music is theatrically expressive; her clanging, clamorous soundscapes have always had a flair for the dramatic. On her new album Fawn / Brute, she roots those soundscapes in familiar myth: bedtime stories and nursery rhymes that are mischievous and dark-sided.