- A label releases a limited edition vinyl EP. It quickly sells out, and record buyers furiously demand a repress. This monotonous song-and-dance could hardly be more common in electronic music today, and in the minds of indignant record buyers, few labels are worse offenders than Berceuse Heroique—after all, it's not often a piece of vinyl causes a brouhaha worthy of Black Friday comparisons. But to their credit, the London label has at least found a novel way of playing its hand: Berceuse Heroique Presents The B-Sides, a digital mini-EP, collects highlights from three of the outfit's sold-out EPs, bringing music to the people while preserving each original record's collectability.
And each of those original records was, in some way, collectable. The Healing Force Project's "Cloak Device" first appeared on a collaborative EP with the label Nous made specifically for an in-store at Rush Hour Records during Amsterdam Dance Event. As usual for the Italian producer, the track is impressively out-there, a cosmic mess of throbbing synths and fluttering percussion. "Chewy" is a wonderfully hazy UK garage tune by the American producer Max D (AKA Maxmillion Dunbar of Future Times). It originally appeared on a split with Cousin Cockroach, complete with an excellent poster by Ken Sortais.
Coincidentally or not, the best track here is taken from the most expensive record—Beneath's "WIP" is a UK techno banger with a snare pattern that's at once vaguely Latin and absolutely fierce. (Max D designed the poster for the original 12-inch, which may have helped push it into the €50 bracket on Discogs.) Whatever your feeling on the limited vinyl game, these tracks prove Berceuse Heroique have something special going on.
Tracklist01. Max D - Chewy
02. Beneath - WIP
03. Healing Force Project - Cloak Device
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