Already in the second quarter of the year, the time it’s well passed to have a look back at what happened in terms of music production by Romanian artist in last year and what to expect in 2023.
2022 was pretty dry and chill year for the Romanian producers, with not many impressing achievements. We are still revolving around the same few figures, with very little coming forward besides the rominimal scene, but 2023 is looking more promising.
As Jeff Mills returns to his third deepest obsession after 909s and UFOs, he presents an addendum to his renewed Metropolis Metropolis soundtrack which doubles down on three of the themes and gives them a different framework through the lens of a 12″. This is still the more cinematic end of the Millsian spectrum, but there’s some intensity which may well be of use to the more dramatic or daring techno DJ. Another great serving by the maestro from Detroit.
Second time around for Chez Damier’s superb remixes of Simoncino classic ‘Inga’s Creme’, which first surfaced way back in 2011 as part of The Warrior Dance Part 2 mini-album. On the A-side you’ll find Damier’s ‘Club Mix’ – a superb chunk of Prescription style peak-time deepness in which hazy, echoing synth sounds, ultra-deep pads and echoing spoken word snippets cluster around a locked-in, late-night groove. Side B opens with Damier’s ‘Morning After Mix Part 1’, an even deeper and more dubbed-out interpretation tailor-made for misty-eyed sunrise sessions. It’s followed by the ‘Morning After Mix Part 2’, a previously unreleased ambient house style interpretation built around gorgeous chords, bubbly melodies and slowly building percussion.
Heko Records welcomes Innershades to the fore for a new “dreamatic” house music EP that refreshes the style for the present, with heaters like ‘Summer Love’ seeming to take direct inspiration from the aforementioned track, while adding a modern flair. Things slowly get more bloopy and hard, as ‘Mutant’ squelches and hat-scratches away against a bed of yet more pads, while ‘909 Voices’ similarly lulls us into a hypnotic state with a slow tapering-off into ravier territories. Summer vibes guaranteed.
Perseus Traxx presents the second Secret Gang release, with a trio of dusty old tracks from his hard-drive, available now on Bandcamp.
The track “Visitors” from 1985 is probably one of the best songs of the Italo Disco era and is now going to be released in a new guise on colored vinyl in a strictly limited edition. An absolute must-have for all die-hard fans of the Italo Disco and Spacesynth scene.
Martin Matiske returns to Bordello A Parigi with a track that first appeared over a decade ago. Released on his first album on Stilleben, “Dimension Phantasy” has been dusted down and given a new lease of life. This extended version bubbles with the same energy as the original. Steady kicks give way to scaling chords as a racing piece of future gazing brilliance takes hold. Melodies are addictive, yet cold, with a common ground between disco and electro being forged. Sharing the 12” real estate are two good friends, each offering their own remix, Captain Mustache and Play Paul.
Having featured on the Riviera Disco compilation series it’s time that Donald Dust returns to Bordello. This time the Scottish artist is back with a five track EP in the form of Nausea. Bending ideas and styles, the Edinburgh producer serves up a sample strewn, italo-infected grenade. Clean chords and percussion are sullied by hoarse vocals as arpeggiators grind and growl.
Foundation is set in the future when the world is barely remembered and humans have colonized the galaxy. The record introduces Donnie Ozone, a brilliant visionary rapper and psychohistorian whose job is to use lyrics and rhymes to predict the future. It is divided into six chapters, each showing a part of the bigger picture portrayed on the outstanding cover by Infidel. Teslasonic gathers together the galaxy’s top scientists and artists on a bleak outer planet and sets out to preserve the accumulated knowledge of humankind and begin a new human galactic empire based on Art, Science and Technology. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation and designs it to withstand a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that he predicts will last for a long time.
We’ll never tire of Gerard Hanson’s individual take on electro, where vast swathes of pads and finely balanced melodies ensure a smooth trajectory into the outer realms of what machine funk can be. This latest EP appears on Spanish label Apnea, and it leads in with the bubbling bass and celestial vistas of ‘Lake Bachman’ before swerving to the lightly Italo-tinted melancholia of ‘Summer Springs’ – a fast but delicate trip to unknown regions. ‘Myrtle’ is a knottier transmission from Hanson’s tangled studio circuitry, while ‘Station Wagon’ completes the picture with some consummate Moog-esque basslines and star-gazing chords that speak volumes without saying words.
Raw Takes offers up exactly that – perfectly imperfect electro jams direct from his machines. He takes charge of all six cuts on this new Zement EP. ‘901 Area’ opens with wobbly sheet metal synths and zippy pads that eventually coalesce around a nice snappy electro breakbeat. ‘Sxx’ pairs ambient pads with machine gun laser fire and ‘JMS’ then brings a more deep and reverential viber. The rich variation continues on the flip so that there is everything from tripped-out acid to hard-hitting and ear-drum-shattering electro-tech.
Rude 66 dusted off some of his vintage digital samplers and came up with this release on Pinkman. In these tracks you can hear influences of early 90s Meat Beat Manifesto and Coil weaving with the typical West-coast vocoder and synths, making “Fragmented Living” sound like it could have been produced anytime from the early days of industrial music to a few decades ahead from now. Special edition on red vinyl + bonus 7″ with two vinyl only tracks.
British veteran of beat tracks, Si Begg make his debut on Central Processing Unit. Begg’s casual mastery of his sound is shown off by the fact that he doesn’t over-egg the pudding of the Energie Electrique EP. Rather than doing sonic cartwheels to get people’s attention, Energie Electrique is characterised by the way Begg adds or subtracts elements to sturdy grooves. It’s an approach which makes for a collection of tunes that manage to bring the boogie from the off while they also hide all sorts of aural Easter eggs amidst the mix.
French label Nocta Numerica clocks up a quarter of a century of releases with a suitably stylish electro trip from Martin Matiske. “Eternal Reality” is an electronic listening experience to the inner self while it was created in a state of deep consciousness. Unforgettable moments of beauty and peace.
Stepback Records next release sees the Moot Tapes and Made Magnetic boss Polytunnel making his debut for the Edinburgh based label. Polytunnel goes deep into electro made for dance floors, with his style of melodic electro mixed with breakbeat influenced acid.
Milano’s Uabos and Slow Motion Records member Andrea Tempo join forces for a thunderous EP combining their powerful signature sounds. Includes remixes from Altieri and Armonics.
Pu.ca Sounds join forces with Telephones and Audrey Danza for a hot package of remixes of PUCA001.
The Hipodrome Of Music 