It is perhaps inadvisable to creep up behind the organ player whose fingers hammer the keys with such demonic ferocity. Yet the chiptune-baroque reverberating from the cold stone walls proves eerily irresistible. Creep you must as the trance like repetition of this ascension-music obscures the limits of the player’s awareness. His vision could be carried on the crest of the waves of sound cascading around the room. In which case, he already knows you, dear listener, are there. Or, his senses could be turned inward, journeying through the multifaceted fears that drive his fingers to such excess. The solution to this conundrum works itself out in some locked room deep within the bureaucracy of your mind – all that matters for now is getting closer to that sound.

Snares rattle the vast chandeliers suspended from the vaulted ceiling many metres about the seated player. The absence of any visible percussive instrument in the room of no concern. For now the organ player has you. Lying prone on the cold stone floor his ferocious finger continue to pound out the enticing rhythm. And then the floor falls away.

The drift of the organ player is augmented with the percussive demonic throb of the ghouls that patronise the organ player’s hall. Machine gun snares rip the medieval ambience asunder as a cacophony of squat helicopter gunships bombastically remove large chunks from the walls. In slow motion. With the dawn light seductively picking out their matt black paint. The flickering static of their rotors, all that’s left now the player is gone.

Like Michael Mann (invoked nearly as much, recently, as Lord Carpenter) remaking Le Samourai: Jonathan Kusuma‘s Days Are Numbered is another wonderful gift from Jakarta’s Spece.Rec. The record’s out now and you can hear the flip, Monyet Kota, over on Space.Rec’s MySpace here.

Jonathan Kusuma – Days Are Numbered

From medieval-Jakarta-baroque to DIY-supergroup-does-Chi-House. The One‘s Double Life EP is out soon and, as well as the title track which we posted here a while back, the EP closes with the deliciously soulful Chicago House love letter: Good Faith. After an extended intro of filtered vocal, handclaps and unfiltered overdubs we’re given keys to the city as sparkling synths open up the neon flecked urban vistas. Can you feel it? Click play and answer me that.

The One – Good Faith

The One’s Double Life EP is out on September 13th, available on CD and download through 24th Century Records and on limited tape on Suplex Cassettes.

In a week that began with our own roadmap home, a journey – at least part of the way – soundtracked by the glorious streets of Chicago, this seems like a good point to jack…

For those of you in San Francisco tomorrow, 120 Minutes will be launching tomorrow (details here). Light Asylum will be playing, and there will be DJ sets from, oOoOO, Nako (Shutter) and Josh Cheon (Nachtmusik). To give you an idea of how awesome it’s going to be, just check out this mixtape (which will also be available as a limited edition cassette from Aquarius Records).

120 Minutes Mixtape