Tag Archives: Tuff Sherm

New Music

Listen: Tuff Sherm – Smugglers Bureau

artworks-000070731499-bcygf8-t500x500
It’s comforting to know that while the world deteriorates around us, a stockpile of Tuff Sherm releases will keep accumulating in the meantime, ready to properly ring out the end times. Smugglers Bureau is the Sydneysider’s latest; a 12-inch set for release through London-based label Berceuse Heroique imminently. The record also features ‘Easy Company’, as well as a remix of said track by L.I.E.S producer Delroy Edwards.

The last Tuff Sherm release I listened to was Shrapnel Maestro, and compared to that release ‘Smugglers Bureau’ (embedded below) sounds a lot more intricately wrought and dance floor ready. There’s also an ominous industrial flavour lurking in there somewhere, but it’s neither dour nor disturbed. It’s just… Tuff Sherm. There’s a barking dog in it.

Standard
New Music

Watch: Dro Carey – Colder

I’m always relieved when a new Dro Carey track seeps into the wilderness, because as fantastic as Eugene Ward’s Tuff Sherm material is, DC’s legitimately strange approach is right up my alley. This is among the more evocative and spooked out productions I’ve heard from DC since the debut 12 inch – and it barely shows any resemblance to some of the more recently public productions under this pseudonym. There are no plans to release ‘Colder’ officially as yet.

Standard
New Music

Listen: Tuff Sherm – Scope

Picture 4It’s a new year, and little is certain except that Eugene Ward – aka Dro Carey, Fad TMB and Tuff Sherm – will continue to release new music, which is reassuring. Here’s proof: ‘Scope’ is from a forthcoming 12 inch on Templar Sound which will comprise three new tracks from Dro Carey and two from Tuff Sherm. I’m advised that one of the Dro tracks will be ‘Ditko’, except in this instance it’ll be a Oneman cut with sampled TLC vocals. The record’s release window is a bit fuzzy, but it’s looking like it’ll come some time in the first half of the year.

For anyone who downloaded and enjoyed last year’s Shrapnel Maestro, ‘Scope’ will be familiar: it’s techno that’s both functional and pop-oriented, the latter thanks to sampled and manipulated vocals. Listen out for the way Ward raises the stakes towards the end – creates a sense of climax and release – by actually removing elements. Strange as always, but reliably excellent.

Standard
New Music

Listen: Tuff Sherm – Shrapnel Maestro

Following the release of Tuff Sherm’s debut 12 inch earlier this month comes a new digital full-length in the form of Shrapnel Maestro, which is available now for $2. Tuff Sherm is quickly becoming the most prolific vehicle in the Dro Carey eco-system, traveling a more linear, 4/4 driven slipstream. In the words of the man himself, this outing demonstrates a jazzier inclination. I don’t know much about jazz so I’ll take his word for it.

If Dro Carey is more your bag, there’s a rather incredible grime 12 out just now through Templar Sound featuring MC Mercy Ace on vocals. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s the first time an MC has applied himself to Dro’s productions since that Trim collaboration back in 2011 (which is a millennium ago at the rate this guy produces music). It really does feel like 2012 is/was the year of Eugene Ward, but let’s not get too carried away because who knows what 2013 will bring. Probably more than can feasibly be digested, I’d wager.

Standard
New Music

Listen: Tuff Sherm – Pharmacy

Pharmacy isn’t the only new release Eugene Ward, aka Tuff Sherm, aka Dro Carey, has out this week. While Pharmacy is a physical 12 inch released via Trilogy Tapes, he’s also released a brand new digital-only EP under his Dro Carey name. There’s a lot of data to digest here, and I’m having trouble presenting it in a linear fashion, so just bear with us.

The new Dro Carey EP is called Westernzone. On his Facebook page, Mr DC explains that it’s meant to sound like if Stalker was set in Western Australia. You can purchase it for two bucks here.

Back to the topic at hand, Pharmacy is the first proper vinyl release for Tuff Sherm, the more rhythmically-straightforward project of Dro’s. As he told us in an interview, there have been cassettes, but Pharmacy feels like a real stepping up: there are elements reminiscent of Shackleton’s less step-infused material, but listen to when the snare kicks in here, and I bet you didn’t expect it to be right there, where it is. Anyway, have a listen.

Standard