Warm, balearic tinged deep house tracks from the italian house master Kekko Montefiori who became immortal with his 1990 Calypso Of House release. Here we have some tracks recently found on some unreleased tracks found on old tapes recorded in that same era by Kekko.
Toby Tobias can be found in the shadows of South London. This is his first offering for the ESP Institute. On side A, ‘Gravitator’ evolves slowly over ten minutes from a somber intro of supernatural sighs, pulsing machine feedback and techno squelches into an ethereal landscape peppered with dissonant fragments of synth. With side B’s ‘Right Turn To Nowhere’, Toby stretches out even further, flexing a tasteful programming of the 808 while taking the long road to a reverb-drenched crescendo of distortions and expansive string swells.
From Nursery to Misery were three teenagers who grew up together on the same street in Basildon, Essex. Formed in 1987, the band was comprised of vocalists (and identical twins) Gina and Tina Fear, along with keyboard player and producer Lee Stevens. Lee invited the twins to over to record some music with him, suggesting they try singing over some instrumentals he had written and recorded on a newly purchased 4-track. They played a sum total of four gigs before splitting in 1991. Their recorded output, however, was relatively prodigious, with the band appearing on over 22 compilations, as well as self-releasing two album-length tapes ‘The Oak Tree’ (1989), and ‘Equilibrium’ (1990), and a split EP with Germany’s Nostalgie Eternelle, ‘Art is the Tool’ (1990). All these releases were home-produced, hand-made cassettes distributed and swapped via the Mail Art scene. ‘Pixies In The Woods’ is a 13-track career spanning compilation including three previously unreleased tracks. Tracks range from no-fi synth pop overlaid with ethereal, child-like vocals, to audio collages of animal noises and harrowing, double-speed monologues. Lee’s expansive synth productions, informed by the Blade Runner soundtrack, early electro records, and 4AD acts like Dead Can Dance, provided a rich, spacious platform for Gina and Tina’s sung-spoken introspective lyrics. Their songs are disarmingly direct and unfiltered, the product of three self-confessed misfits exploring difficult, often intensely personal issues.
Suction Records presents the 2nd volume in a vinyl reissue/remix series by Toronto’s Digital Poodle: “Revision! Vol2 – Soul Crush”. Formed in 1986 by Heiki Sillaste, Digital Poodle began self-releasing experimental/EBM tapes in the late-80s, and by the early-‘90s had several releases licensed to international labels like Hyperium, Cleopatra and Ninja Tune. “Soul Crush” was an underground hit in EBM/alternative clubs around the world – particularly in Toronto, but also making an impact was Zoviet France’s Virtual Mix… This hypnotic, 13-minute psychedelic techno trip, actually a live-in-studio jam between Digital Poodle and industrial music legends: Zoviet France:, became an unlikely rave staple. Both mixes are featured here, alongside a killer revision by none other than Adam X, one of this legendary techno producer’s rare remix appearances.
One day back in end of the Eighties, a pair of friends began sharing a deep love for music, the music we have been supporting, playing and now, able to put it out for your listening pleasure: ‘Mind Merge LP’ is a beautiful quintessence of Detroit electro, funk and techno, partially blending with contemporary electronic contaminations and we believe it’ll be as timeless as many of their records before.
A voyage into the outer reaches of immersive, ambient techno and electronics where boundaries are blurred between 80s bedroom boogie, Detroit electro, broken beat and Warp golden-era bleep. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Rory McPike has been putting out analogue and hardware-led sounds for a couple of years under both his techno and jungle orientated guise Dan White and Rings Around Saturn.
Jason Letkiewicz isn’t some fashionista. His efforts predate whatever you want to call the current wave of interest in club music. For his first release on Valcrond Video he offers two tracks as Steve Summers. “Always” builds up as a web of metallic syncopation pulsing with threat. A dangerous motif swerves in like pissed-off porpoises, slick with black grime after an oil spill. Vocals show up: they sound like somebody kidnapped a larynx and forced it to MC at the center of a badass board game. A disembodied voice box in the middle of a cardboard landscape. On “Resist” that same captive voice rings through a metal hockey mask, as the instrumental elements seem to narrate an assault in progress. We’re taping you down to the table, don’t bother to resist. On the B side a Torn Hawk remix takes “Always” to never-never land; the malice of the original track gets dressed up with puffy orange clouds (Cheetos). Traditions go in the toilet, return to the fundamental river, only to wash up in the reeds, fresh again . A melodic explosion hides at the center of the progression under hospital-grade gauze; C-4 strapped to the chest of a stuffed bunny suicide bomber.
P-Balans is activating again all its current accomplices in order to reinforce the heretic electronic scene of Bucharest. A first collaboration of Khidja, masters of psychedelic depths, and Delusion Men (comprised of Holy Fix and Utopus), the reliable founding persons of Future Nuggets. All together delivering a smash techno-punk EP uplifted by an enchanting slowburner remix signed by Borusiade.
Deep88 on 4 tracks jammed live, direct recording, no editing, what you hear is what he plays. That border between techno and house.
Acid is the name of the game on Magic Waves’s twelfth release, an undercover excursion from one of the UK’s most eminent masters of the genre. ‘Borrowed Fogs’ on Side A is a 303-driven odyssey into dark and rapturous realms of analogue jamming, taking the listeners and dancers on a far-reaching flight to tweaking peaks on the far side of their minds before Side B bumps us back down to Earth with two hard, slamming, raw, sweaty, dusty and downright dirty basement-shakers in the shape of ‘Empty Warehouse’ and ‘R.T.F.M.’
Mystica Tribe is the musical alias of Tokyo-based producer, Taka Noda. Drawing on a wide range of influences from dub, soul, bass music, rhythm and blues Mystica Tribe has quickly been developing a very distinctive sound that exists in a weird, freaked out zone between dub and techno. Noda is especially interested in deep, psychedelic music, and this is reflected in his productions, which are equally suited for late night listening sessions or bent, broken in dancefloors. Now he heads over to Canadian label Silent Season for his debut album, capitalising on his emergent career in the field of dub-influenced downtempo with his most complete artistic statement to date. From the spacious stalk of ”On The Lookout” to the edgy piano delay of ”Peek-a-Boo”, this is the work of a man who has immersed himself in the tradition of classic dub music, but not at the expense of bringing things up to date. The loose, live and natural feel of the album is testament to Noda’s skills in the production department, not to mention his instinct for a killer sub-heavy rhythm.
The third release on Outlaw imprint is coming from Matthew OH, with a Echologist Dub version.
Having begun the year with a 12″ of dub techno and ambient tracks that all boasted titles beginning with A, Vakula has decided to move onto the letter B. Musically, the script is similar, with glistening and slowly-shifting opener “Bikote” sitting somewhere between dub techno and ambient techno. With its lilting, echo-laden chords, galactic reggae shuffle and flotation tank chords, “Bifurcus” is a deep space treat, while “Biofenosis” is an altogether bolder, cheerier and more forthright trip into dubbed-out house territory (with a dash of techno thrown in). For those seeking more horizontal fare, the ambient dub epic that is closer “Binarity” should safely ease you into the required position.
If you walk into a record store you might discover Peter’s recordings filed under the usual headings: Electronic, Ambient, Experimental or New Age. Peter has long loved blending sounds from around the globe, with both Asian and European classical influences often finding comfortable spaces beside his synth pop sensibilities within his soundscapes. In the record stores of our minds you might also file some of Peter Westheimer tracks like ’Walking On The Edge’ or ‘Elastic Smiles’ under Mutant Disco or Divergent Dance Music.
The last Music From Memory is a mini LP of works by Denis Mpunga and Paul K. Combining elements of traditional African music with experimental electronics, the Belgian/Congolese duo released only a handful of tracks, scattered across a few rare LP and cassette compilations that were put out in the mid eighties by obscure european labels . This release also includes a few previously unreleased songs that were found on the original master tapes.
Never before reissued, this legendary 1968 EMI recording is a revered Indian jazz rarity; a collectors’ holy grail. Raga Jazz Style is an original Indian excursion into Indo-jazz fusion. A one-away recording from the almost unknown Bombay jazz scene, it is among the few jazz LPs to hail from the subcontinent. Raga Jazz Style takes the melodic, scale-based raga system of Indian classical music and marries it with a swinging jazz rhythm section assembled by Bollywood’s most highly acclaimed musical directors, the soundtrack composing duo Shankar Singh and Jaikishan Panchal. Singh and Panchal were a dominant force in Hindi film music from the late 1940s onwards. Shankar had been trained in classical tabla, while Jaikishan was an expert harmonium player. They worked together on well over a hundred films, and their innovative compositions and orchestral scoring revolutionised the music of the nascent Bollywood industry.
The Hipodrome Of Music 