Another quality release on Hotmix Records, featuring tracks from Fabio Monesi, KMTR, NLXLP, Ricardo Baez.
Author: hipodrome
Gene Hunt – Volume One [CTX010]
Chiwax presents “Volume One” EP featuring some unreleased 90’s treasures from Gene Hunt. Furthermore there will be another two releases out in 2021 from the Chicago Master.
London Modular Alliance – Stray EP [CELTD004]
London Modular Alliance make their CE debut with the ‘Stray EP’ for Cultivated Electronics Ltd. The EP includes three intricately crafted modular Electro tracks, featuring soaring melodies and dappled beats that manage to extract depth and soul out of machines, alongside a punchy remix by Sync 24 that delivers a tough metallic groove to close the release.
Die Gestalten – Kämpfen und Gedenken (Live) [DIEGESTALTEN013]
Arnaud Rebotini – Shiny Black Leather [MNQ144]
Mannequin Records presents a new killer release from the legendary French producer Arnaud Rebotini. Whether as one half of Black Strobe or in his own material or just busy receiving a César prize 2018 for best film music, Arnaud Rebotini devotes his career to mindblowing electronic productions. Passionate about analog synthesizers, and with a strong taste for electronic music of a dark and brutal hue, the new EP ‘Shiny Black Leather’ pushes to the limit his EBM-influenced electro-goth side, making the most doomy goth clubber happy.
Sepehr – Crown Jewel [SHAY001]
For it’s inaugural release, label boss Sepehr provides the first electrified soundtrack for Shaytoon records with “Crown Jewel”. Listeners should expect visions of monoliths, obsidian mountains underneath blood-red soaked skies and freaky soundwaves while listening. “Crown Jewel” EP should be listened to while hitchhiking across the country with only a bottle of wine in a knapsack, dreaming of dancing to the drum.
Chino @ 20ft Radio 22.01.2021
OorsprongPark – Dark Marble [MTROND008]
Drenched in gloom and gloss, OorsprongPark’s soundscapes hexed our minds once again, and we couldn’t be happier to welcome back the Utrecht-based producer for his second release on Mechatronica. Dark Marble is bleak, gleaming and doubtlessly fluid, a sublime followup to his 2019 debut album Velvet Curtain.
Moist 96 – S/T [LIES166]
NYC by way of Miami, Moist 96 is a new project of Rene Nunez, mostly known through the years for his work under the name, Horoscope. Culled together from decaying tapes, bled out and dubbed one too many times over, Nunez took pieces from these 4 track demos drawing back on the music of his youth; Miami bass, freestyle and coked out funk to create this record. The LP being a raw in your face snapshot which is the musical equivalent of a pit bull being locked in a car for hours during a heatwave with the afternoon mix show on full blast.
As the artist says, “This is not trying to be some jokey-ironic-funny-costume-campy bullshit. It is trying to be on some real illegal pre-internet bootleg rush-hour mix; 808’s on blown-out car systems; cassette tapes melted in the center console speeding by Hot Wheels and Club Madonna’s neon signs; pants-shitting bass frequencies, like a roundhouse kick to your chest type shit. If you’re tired of all this cum fast video game techno you might enjoy this project. And if you don’t, that’s cool, too. I hope everyone keeps their head up, Releasing music right now can feel stupid and unimportant, but hopefully this record can take your mind off shit for a second and have some fun. Thanks for taking the time and listening. ”
PRZ – Red Material [HIL009]
PRZ reports for duty for the 9th release in the Hilltown Disco series with six no-nonsense, commanding, electro-cuts, delving into intergalactic territory with “Red Material”. Chateau Royal boss, Tel-Aviv based, PRZ aka Gal Perez spent over a year finely-tuning ‘Red Material’, flexing his rich and extensive production levels. The 12″ features some of the most intense and twisted, bass-heavy tracks the label has released to date. With fizzing drum machine beats, deep, space acid-lines, and the occasional disgruntled cyborg, Gal creates certified future-classics for the Hilltown Disco imprint.
Mantris – Souvenirs From Imaginary Cities [SFIC001]
It has been almost 30 years since Mantris, real name Dirk Eggermont, shared music with the world. A driving force of pioneering Belgian house outfits The Black Sun and Brown Hardware Inc, Mantris had a productive music career forecasted, but he vanished into thin air and no more music was ever heard of him. Mantris is now transmitting again from his small apartment in Bombay, India. Completely insulated from hypes and scenes, these 10 rich, phantasy provoking cinematic jams are the inauguration for the Souvernirs From Imaginay Cities label, started by Kong DJ and Hill Men.
Amandra x Mattheis – Lettre Ouverte [NOUSLP005]
Two artists who have carved out their own niche in todays techno universe join forces for their first collaborative full length. Ten tracks across two vinyls demonstrate the unique synergy between these two friends. In their collaboration they each focus on their own expertise, combining best of both worlds. Amandra on drums and Mattheis on synths – creating overlapping, constantly shifting patterns, like an endlessly captivating moire effect as result.
Steven Rutter – Riddle Me Sane [FS027]
B12 was originally a duo before Steven Rutter took over the alias as a solo artist, but after a string of, he decided to start producing under his own name. Steven Rutter kept his sound the same, but shed the skin of B12 to mark a new point in his musical career. Battling with personal demons, the B12 sound had become dark and introverted, and the Steven Rutter style keeps that same moody atmosphere, while adding upbeat rhythms and more jovial chord progressions without losing focus of the core sound that’s made his music so influential. “Riddle Me Sane” is the third album Steven Rutter has done under his own name. Cosmic melodies and sci-fi influenced textures with dystopian sound design, the thought provoking album paints pictures of alien landscapes, while its down tempo grooves also have the key elements needed for the dance floor.
Mohlao – Cut [SERUM4]
For the fourth edition of the Serum series Hypnus Records shares three pieces of deep dubbed out techno by Mohlao (aka Multicast Dynamics, VC-118A). The record is then completed by an atmospheric tribal interpretation by Dorisburg.
VA – Spiritual Jazz 13: NOW! [JMANLP126/JMANLP127]
Modern sounds for the 21st century featuring modal, progressive and esoteric contemporary jazz. The 13th volume of the Spiritual Jazz series turns our attention to what’s happening NOW. Over the course of 24 tracks and spanning 2 x 2LPs, Jazzman presents an overview of the contemporary exponents of Spiritual Jazz; musicians who are intent on bringing something personal to the table, as much as they recognize the importance of those who have paved the way for them. This is music recorded within the past 20 years and from 15 different countries, including modern classics from veterans Steve Reid and Idris Ackamoor, providing a vital link between the past masters and the enlightened new generation. It’s pioneers such as John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders et al, with their innovations in reaching another plane of consciousness that was and remains uppermost in the minds of exponents of Spiritual Jazz. Fittingly, several of the artists featured on this compilation, such as Cat Toren and David Boykin, are practitioners of the art of music therapy and sound healing, and have absolute conviction in the role of song as solace. The pioneers may no longer be with us, but their saintly selves loom large, shining a light in the darkness, inspiring many a brave new disciple today, as this album will testify: the new wave of jazz is gathering pace and still sounds fresh, vibrant and as relevant as ever.
Nahawa Doumbia – Kanawa [ATFA039]
Nahawa Doumbia’s new album Kanawa concisely captures this current moment in Malian history. The singer, whose storied career spans more than four decades, reflects on the immigration crisis from the Malian perspective in the title of her new album Kanawa. Across eight songs recorded in Bamako with a band including traditional and modern instruments, Doumbia merges her early work that relied on a spare expression of her trademark didadi rhythm with the bombastic range of contemporary Malian pop. The beautifully complex musical accompaniment that results is courtesy of the large ensemble she pulled together with producer and arranger (and day one collaborator) N’gou Bagayoko. The band features two highly expressive Malian string instruments, the ngoni and the slightly smaller kamalé ngoni, as well as a variety of percussion, drum programming, karignan (a metal scraper) and acoustic and electric guitars. Doumbia weaves together a roadmap of her psyche when it comes to the good and bad life has to offer. She talks about marriage and women leaving home to join another through the metaphor of a tree in the garden; she includes gunshot samples in the song “Foliwilen” to honor the bravery of hunters, soldiers and other courageous people; she uses a bird in “Djougoh” to talk about lazy people; and, in “Ndiagneko” she advises people to ignore critics, just do you. Mali has gone through an intense period of regional strife and terrorist incidents over the last ten years and Doumbia roots the album in tragic local concerns with deep global implications.
“The meaning of Kanawa is so simple. We see our children trying to cross the ocean all the time. I said that many of our children die in the ocean and some of them die while crossing the Sahara. But I ask them why do they leave their country? They said that they leave because of the family situation or problems like poverty and unemployment. I ask them to stay and work in their country. I call on the UN and African leaders so that we can coordinate our efforts to find a solution, to create jobs for them so that young people stop leaving. That’s why I chose it as the title of my album so that everybody can learn from it and also so that there is a reduction in the number of people emigrating. So that some will hear the message and stay home and grow the land. Leaving is not the only solution. My message is to help the youth find jobs.”
Alostman – Kologo [STRUT234]
Strut present the brand new album from Alostmen, led by Stevo Atambire, a band at the forefront of kologo music in Ghana. Formed by Stevo and Wanlov The Kubolor (Fok’n Bois) at the suggestion of co-producer Percy Yip Tong, Alostmen’s music is based around the Frafra traditions of the kologo, a stringed lute and uses purely traditional instrumentation in entirely new ways. “I always like to do something “out” withmy instrument, I like to force it to work,” explains Stevo. “I’m a yout’man and into different kinds of music: commercial, rap music, reggae, Malian sounds. I add all of it to the band’s sound in different ways.” Wanlov continues, “The kologo is traditionally played a certain way but Stevo will play it at the shortest end of bridge and accentuate, almost Hendrix-style! He plays with a pedal sometimes and can keep it an octave down with a bass sound. He has evolved the instrument in his own way.”
Traxx – Passage 2021 (a Dance Tunnel Selection)
Traxx(Nation) created a 6-hour selection dedicated to Danny’s in Chicago where he held his monthly party Passage. Curated and programmed musically by Traxx, transporting us to a full night of music from 9-pm til 2am. Passage focuses on the new wave/new beat era with a personal collection of music fashioned to alleviate your senses discovering different outtakes and unknown songs. It’s a lengthy journey that hopefully people will enjoy…
June – Horizons [AD012]
Half of Manie Sans Délire, June, turns up on Artificial Dance with his anticipated new mini-album, ‘Horizons’ – following on from his studio companion Trenton Chase’s ‘Planar Array’ released earlier in 2020. True to the signature synth-splattered sound of his and his duo, June’s newest wave-imbued manifesto has us swimming amidst an organized chaos of roughly extruded keyboard wizardry, punk-minded drum programming and a retro-futuristic headspace. Scanning out the gap between Italo, new wave, EBM and new beat, ‘Horizons’ shifts seamlessly from forward-moving, arpeggio-laden circuitry (‘JW’, ‘Infinity Room’) to hi-intensity body music (’New Horizons’), through ambientoid spaced-out sonic explorations (‘Uncharted Territories’) and quirky downtempo chuggers (‘Reverie’, ‘Psychic Process’). A kaleidoscope of rhythmic tricks and shape-shifting mirages, June’s scope-expanding six-track voyage vows to play mind games with its listener till all lights have gone off.
Karel – The Work [MAG153]
Magnetron Music presents Karel’s second EP “The Work”. Karel is known for climbing up things, swinging in on a rope and other signature moves. He has a John Maus like, synth-pop/ wave/ 80s sound and creates a warm vibe wherever he is playing.
The Hipodrome Of Music 