Sunday morning we were eager to come back as early as possible to the Utopia 126 for the last day of the festival, so we managed to arrive by midday again. At the Ombra Stage, Vinilette was about to finish her vinyl set for the Frigio showcase.
Continue reading “Ombra 2021 – Day 3”
After a few hours of sleep by midday we started our second day at Ombra. Ofra was already heating up the cold warehouse of the Operator Stage, offering one of the best dj sets from the festival.
Continue reading “Ombra 2021 – Day 2”
Friday on the first day of the festival we took the floors of Ombra, loaded with enthusiasm and eager to dance our hearts out, after almost 2 years of not being able to attend any proper live event.
Continue reading “Ombra 2021 – Day 1”
“Daevas”, meaning divinities of chaos and disorder in the Zoroastrian faith, is the combined effort of SARIN x Scarlit Port recorded in Berlin during the lockdown of 2020. The six track 30 minute EP is a winding journey that dives into both artists’ shared Persian heritage by referencing ancient pagan Gods, mysticism and the more recent tragic histories of colonialism, dictatorships, longing and a sense of being uprooted. These unwinding stories and artefacts are imprinted within a dark cascade of sounds incorporating and combining each artist’s influences to create a total work that encompasses elements of techno body music, acid, industrial and the subtle application of more traditional Persian musical forms.
New self-released album from Morah, producer, DJ and head of Phormix Records from Athens, Greece. ‘Bizarre Beauty’ consist of 10 tracks on cassette and digital and a limited vinyl EP on Filmmaker’s Body Musick. Ferocious beats and hits for corporal and metaphysical experience.
Spammerheads is a Valencian duo formed by Ana Escudero and David Garrido. An audio-visual project forged in 2019 under the punk concept “do it yourself” in which both sound and graphic creation (videos and covers) have been developed by the duo. “Bricks for Reconstruction” is their new album released on cassette by Soil Records.
The year is 1981. The Kiel-based PostPunk / Wave underground outfit NO MORE releases their second ever single „Suicide Commando“ and their world changes forever. Well, not only their world – THE world. What began as an independently published 7“ single became a cult classic, a genre defining – and defying – song, an all-time dancefloor favorite of many, a timeless signature piece that escaped its original realm of PostPunk x Wave x Indie x Alternative to also become engrained in the DNA of modern electronic dancefloor culture most prominently in the beloved late 90s permutation presented by DJ Hell which became a classic in its own right. Now the year is 2021. Four decades have passed and NO MORE’s „Suicide Commando“ is back once again. And staying true to the underground blueprint this 40th anniversary re-release edition once again is put out on the circuit through a small independent label: the Intrauterin Recordings offspring El Caballo Semental.
Let’s Dance – 08PM – by Reda Saiarh is a 10” release on AM Records. Four oddball “New Beat – not – New Beat” tracks produced by this young dj from Geneva (of the duo Ramin & Reda) for renewed appetite for dancing after the lockdowns… title track Let’s Dance is Reda’s 2021 take on the classic Bowie song, followed by an original new production Quinz Lord, in which he samples his girlfriend’s cat. On the flip he worked with Thomas Lavanchy on E-O, a song constructed around traditional Gabonese chanting before finishing off with an ode to Yello medley, mashed up to the deepest kick of the record.
The EON label’s fourth vinyl release features an original from Birmingham producer Jayson Wynters with Chicago innovator Hieroglyphic Being on the remix. Wynters invites us ever deeper into his nebulous deep techno world with a superb new single ‘Filtered Xploits.’ It’s a punchy but dynamic cut with lush ambient pads smeared across a cosmic sky while chattery percussion and lithe synth power onwards. It has a futuristic soul that recalls early Detroit techno and might be his best work yet. Jamal Moss is on reworks and in his hands, ‘Filtered Xploits’ becomes a brilliantly raw and textured track with layer upon layer of fractured melody and gurgling acid. The prickly, jacked up drums will make an impact on any floor, and as the chords shine through the mix they bring a sense of hope and optimism.
In the summer of 1989, when Trevor Miller’s ”Trip City” was first released with a five-track cassette EP by A Guy Called Gerald, there had been no other British novel like it. This was the down and dirty side of London nightclubs, dance music and the kind of hallucinogenic drug sub-culture that hadn’t really been explored since Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Maybe this is why Trip City is still known as “the acid house novel” and an underground literary landmark. For 2021, Trip City is back and the original soundtrack by A Guy Called Gerald is also being reissued and all five tracks are available on vinyl for the first time.
Versalife with the second installment of his Shape Shifter series on the Delsin electronic series. Fresh harbour city electro jams.
“Lloyd Stellar X The Droid – Rise of the Machines” is an exciting debut collaboration between Erik Griffioen & Ben Evans. An impressive maxi EP, loaded with cutting edge electro brimming with musicality, sound design and expert production.
Second release on the new Rawax West Coast Edition comes again from The Arabian Prince & The Sheiks.
It’s the 1986 hit ”Situation Hot” originally released on Street Kut Records.
Spanish label Drivecom presents the third and last episode of the Generative Operation series by Boris Divider. Completing the same style and vision, cinematic, technical and minimal concept trying to push forward a contemporary electro in our days. Evolving synth lines with a generative structure from new massive modular patches. Progressive minimalistic rhythms and sequenced tracks with different results as always elements can change every time they are played back again as a unique listening. A rare topic this time is that two 303 basslines have been addedd in the track GenOp10, they are interlaced with different step lenghts patterns as a tribute to put this classic synth from roland into a spacey environment and not always in the raver side of the music. The limited edition vinyl has been pressed in 180gr. keeping up theanalog character sound in this format, meanwhile the digital version will be a clearer and clinical one.
Martin Matiske’s renaissance continues as he delivers another fresh EP as Blackploid for effervescent Sheffield imprint Central Processing Unit. In keeping with the German producer’s other recent material, we can hear echoes of his classic, mid-2000s Blackploid material. Strange Stars also continues his interplanetary theme, delivering a quartet of sci-fi powered cuts full of squelchy acid bass, star-fall electronics, Kraftwerkian melodies and beats so crunchy you could probably eat them for breakfast. Our picks of a very strong bunch are probably pulsating opener ‘Star Patrol’ and the turn-of-the-80s sci-fi movie feel of ‘Unseen’, but to be honest all four tracks hit the spot.
Always hot on the hard-as-steel plates and murky subterranean atmospheres, Public System turns in a haunted double package from the crypt. Spanning hi-octane indus bullets, half-baked mutant salvos and shadow-clad juicers from a host of reputed names and rabid underdogs, this new comp collates ruff’n’tuff joints from gritty techno don Container, genre-unbound explorer E-Saggila, Berlin’s electro arsonist Privacy, acid-spitting hydra DJ Loser x Penelopes Fiance, basement guerilla Yabboq Penuel alias Le Syndicat Electronique, neo-punk beat thrasher Crave, Yves Tumor collaborator and sine-wave crusher Anthem, expert circuit dissector Beau Wanzer, Liquid G as remixed by Mick Wills, Night Gaunt’s Lower Tar, occult machine funk preacher Maenad Veyl, DJ Chupacabras under new guise 110, soundwaves cross-pollinator DJ Richard, vibrant mood-scapist Gavilán Rayna Russom, as well as label boss Myn going ubiquitous with studio fellows Kluentah as Myntha, and NYC’s R Gamble under their Fade Accompli moniker. A much desirable feast of raw, unhinged, all-round spine-tingling jams for both inside and outside the club.
Futurepast welcomes for their sixth release the Swedish trio Frak. On their ‘Formless Obstruction’ EP, Frak have provided a window into the sinister twists and turns of their work. On the A-side, you see creeping Detroit stylings of ‘Scientific Bella’ set against ‘Wrong Owl’ with it’s EBM underpinnings and industrial inflections. On the flip, ‘Concentrated Feed’ bubbles next to the razor sharp ‘Capacity Faun’, both are filled with characteristic machine quirks and experimentalism.
The Hipodrome Of Music 