Italian producer Lamusa II is a master of atmospheric, synthesized concoctions that often sound like they’re being transmitted straight from a time machine out of the 1980s. The RBMA alumni’s latest release, ‘Club Mondo 2000’ on the Gravity Graffiti label runs the gamut from sleazy, break-infused house jams to hazy boogie and weightless flute meditations. “Agua Planet”, closes out the 5-track EP with a New Age feel.
Deepblak’s Chief Alchemist Aybee come with his fourth full-length studio album, ‘The Odyssey’. As befitting its grand title, this newest long-player finds him concerned with personal journeys: both the personal one that has brought him to this point – living in Berlin, 15 years since founding Deepblak in his native Oakland – and the one that beckons for him personally and creatively in future: Aybee sees himself as being halfway up a mountain, looking back on where he has come from, and to where he will be headed next – both concepts play a profound role in the emotional textures of the album, which in true Deepblak fashion draws from jazz, deep house, techno, hip hop, blues, experimentation, cinema, space, time and infinity. ‘The Odyssey’ represents a change-up for AYBEE in several ways, forged from a desire to keep expectations at bay and throw something of a curveball for those who felt they had him pegged: “a good pitcher always keeps you off balance”. This newest work saw him deliberately limit his sound palette in a creative exercise that challenged him to create a full body of work from a small pre-selected library of sonic elements. While this was restricting in some aspects, the approach to – as he puts it – “throw the ingredients in a basket and cook with it later” gave him more freedom to focus on atmosphere and groove instead of putting hours into trying out different options – “otherwise I’d still be in the studio now trying to work out which hi-hat to use on the third track!”
‘Mornin’ is a radical discoid track built with alien hoover pads and synthetic stabs that is both fresh and euphoric. ‘Clean Sunrise’ has deep feelings for South African shores and gentle Rhodes harmonies. ‘Mannam’ is a triumphant little number whilst ‘Capasa’ is a 6 min long improvised recording locked down in one take.
ASOK joins the Lobster fam proper, blasting down from the icy territories and bringing the cold winds of UK rave of yore to the front of the queue. “Universe 3” is a glistening, glacially slow-moving ambient piece that shimmers and folds through the spectrum, with small sparkles and hints of twinkling optimism peppered into it’s spacial framework. “Track Four” is a crunchy, scourged techno drum heater that bangs the drum of enchantment whilst raising the spirits of long-long civilisations through spiritual pads and alien synth work. Title track “Virtual Light” kicks off the flip. Built around a core of stolid deep house, but drawing on a solid template of NY house and central German deepness. Proper hazy, aquatic vibes into the dark depths. Lastly, and easily the artist and label fave, “I Mean You No Harm” arrives as a subtle reminder of the simplicity needed to conjure the heaviest moments. Essentially an enormous hardcore number just minus any form of breaks and stripped to the core. Nagging sirens and pitched wails sound off into the night air.
Four deejay wmds beaming in from Osaka: weird, unsettling disco-funk, guaranteed to rock the house. Kanwaza crosses ethnic roots and disco; Cross Calf Dance jacks up the quirkiness; Stormy Weather and Water lock down the after-hours crew.
Emotional Response starts 2017 with a mini-album of ambient-equatorial enlightenment by Australia’s mysterious Tropical Hi-Fi. The final record from an artist appearing on the label’s first SchleiBen series, this also points to the future. Based somewhere in the far flung Northern Territories, the music of Hi-Fi’s pre-incarnation Electric Egypt was first discovered via the note-worthy airwaves of L.A’s outstanding Dublab radio station. As the wonderfully diverse internet shows and project’s dense, hip-hop inspired collages came to fruition with 2012’s Exotica release, a dual awareness and sporadic contact was maintained whenever a signal could be established with Hi-Fi base camp. As the SchleiBen series was formed, the studio-DJ-cut-up-mix of Oceanic Mythology was warmly received as an inspired counterpoint to the dense offering from Don’t DJ. These first real solo recordings from the Hi-Fi crew – whoever he/she/they maybe – moves on from the cut’n’paste of Electric Egypt to seek a meditative vision. Ambient, drone and field recordings are all part of a drifting tropical flavour that encompasses the listener. Music truly inspired by it’s surroundings, this is not some music journal, flying in to sample a life and it’s sounds, but the real, living entity and it can be heard deep across the 8 short pieces. None is more typified than Tahiti Blue, where fellow traveler Mike Cooper layers his ubiquitous steel blues over simple, lilting drums. Mixed by Leaving Record’s Matthewdavid (with whom more to come on the label in 2017), photography by Native Finger and the ever-present encouragement of friend and neighbour, Ariel Kalma, this is conceptual album to lay back, drift off on undulating swells and simply, let go to.
Welcome to a science fiction nightmare helmed by the legend that is DJ Overdose. Alien prey, DNA in test tubes. Who is being regrown? Will the town survive? Who has been replaced? In these present times of truth vs fiction it’s easy to become paranoid. We have the soundtrack HAEX-HRLL’s Further From The Truth: An abductee saga by replicons from beyond the moon. Chiming in between hot electro, Vangelis dream scapes, XTRO drone. This is one of OD’s most fascinating records to date. Art by a mysterious figure.
Experimental LP inspired on the streets of the big city, listening to the sounds from different angles and perspective of the city. Created just for listening, not for the dancefloor.
After a gap of seven years JS Zeiter returns with the next instalment of dubby tehcno in this long running, but intermittent, series of releases.
Jeff Rushin presented himself as one of the biggest icon of Functional Effective Techno, this second EP in the catalog is going further on the sonic spectrum.
Connwax returns with another offering of bold and original techno. For this release, they have enlisted the help of a rising young talent in Berlin’s underground scene: Akme. The producer and resident DJ of renowned club ://about blank demonstrates his uncommon technical precision and emotional depth with this debut EP, drawing on his vast array of influences and experiences across all genres.
Brendon Moeller finds himself entangled in the Plan B matrix for his next release which includes remixes from Spider & Phil Moffa.
New York collective Sheik ‘N’ Beik follow up a slew of lauded 12’s with the richly emotive return of Voiski. 5th Dolphin Transmission’ kicks things off with a tense sequence tumbling through granular drums and a staggered, luminescent synth line. ‘Let Down Disco’ then dims the lights slightly with soft, buoyant melodies and flickering high frequencies that round off a nicely varied release and another solid addition to the Sheik N Beik catalogue.
Berghain residents Ben Klock and Marcel Dettmann link back to Ostgut Ton’s label launch in 2006 with their first studio collaboration in ten years and the extended Phantom Studies, on occasion of the one hundredth O-TON 12″ EP release. With Phantom Studies Dettmann / Klock channel their first joined releases Dawning (2006) and Scenario (2007) from over a decade ago with their first co-production in ten years. On this extended, 40-minute 2×12″ EP Marcel Dettmann and Ben Klock parlay their deep personal alliance and musical repertoire through emphasis on new functional Techno as much as hypnotic, melodic and soulful music by thinking outside the box. The seven new, original tracks reflect these attributions by communicating to the needs and expectations of both DJs and home audio listeners, but not neglecting one over the other.
Tadeo first released on Token in 2015 with the instant classic Terra Incognita, reminiscent of the kind of techno-futurism usually employed by some of the Detroit greats. If Terra Incognita was an interpretation of outer space, The Pit comes from deep in the ground. This is electronic programme music; bookended in distinctive Tadeo style with a modal string section that places the record firmly in the avant-garde, The Pit guides us through the moods and associations of a classic science fiction narrative. The record is consistent in its instrumental palette, with a subdued but powerful low-end to set the pace, disorienting semitone meanderings and organic percussion in the mid, and massive, crashing hats that lift statement sections beyond comprehension.
Straight white label with no more info. New mysterious side project of one of the most innovative and known techno acts. The Echelon is conceived in total secrecy. Embedded deep in the contemporary landscape, its sole purpose is to function as an anonymous observer, translating its findings into music and movement. Looped minimal techno in the best Mills tradition.
The Experience is a project by Andrea Benedetti and Eugenio Vatta released back in 1992. The track ”Madcap” was realized during the period of the collaboration of the duo with Lory D’S Sounds Never Seen period and it’s an experiment that mix techno, breakbeat and sample extravaganza at its best. The main track ”Tubes” was a deep techno monster presented in two versions. One has been recoreded live with Andrea Benedetti managing drum machine and bass, Eugenio Vatta sampling, chords and effects and Paolo Dieni on percussion. The second one has more emphasis on melodies and effects with different equalizations and volumes concerning percussion and drum machine.
Fundamental Records present a vinyl edition of the previously digital only album Cosmos by Cygnus, composed out of eleven tracks (plus two bonus cuts on the 7″). Perfectly bridging the gap between street-smart electro DJ tools and more home-listening techno, Cygnus perfectly updates this sound.
BT17 The Glowing brings together an array of fresh up and coming producers. Morah has cut his chops as a producer with releases already under his belt on Helena Hauff’s Return to Disorder, Berceuse Heroique and Lux Rec. One Conversation with a Funny Demon is pure grimy power electronics for the freaks. Solid Blake from the Copenhagen based Apeiron Crew makes her production debut with the creeping Burns. On the flip, Ivna Ji’s celestial beauty of Oscillating Universe opens up proceedings before Vertical67’s Distortion takes us deep into the rabbit hole to finish.
Cultivated Electronics celebrates 10 years as a label and the closing of CE’s collaboration series. For this EP Sync 24 has teamed up with 4 electronic heavy hitters to deliver 4 tasty electro cuts.
