Alèmayèhu Eshèté is no less than one of the great voices of the heyday of modern Ethiopian music, the swinging sixties which, in this country, went on until the fall of the Emperor Haile Sellassie 1 in 1974. On a par with Tlahoun Gèssèssè, Bzunèsh Bèqèlè or Mahmoud Ahmed, Alèmayèhu is a star at the top level of the constellation that once lit up the wild nights in the capital.
Amateur Dramatics is Awkward Corners AKA Chris Menist’s second LP in the space of a year. In 2020 – a time when the global pandemic gave artists more time and space to think about their music – Chris took his collaborations and compositions to a different level. Having already collaborated remotely with Sarathy Korwar, as well as Kitty Whitelaw through Karthik from Flamingods’ Isolate/Create/Collaborate community, Chris turned his thoughts towards a new project. Amateur Dramatics is influenced by the events of early 2021 and alludes to the general atmosphere of political life in the UK right now where we are chivvied along by people who seem woefully unqualified to be commanding authority. Musically, the LP builds on foundations of the meditative, devotional electronic aspects of previous LP Dislocation Songs but this time frames it more in a jazz context with significant collaborations with Collocutor and Maisha’s Tamar Osborn on four tracks.Vocals (from Kitty Whitelaw) feature on an Awkward Corners track for the first time, as well as double bass provided by David Leahy.The result is a thoughtful and deep listening 40 minute listening experience.
Axodry was founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1983 , the founding members were Talla 2XLC and RaHen aka Ralf Henrich. This is a remastered of the 1991 release on ZYX Music.
Luca Cucchetti & Massimo Berardi on KMA60 Rezpektiva with four Italian cosmic deep house tracks.
DJ Surgeles is back again on Eclectic Limited with a solo EP. 4 powerful tracks on clear orange colored vinyl showcasing his uniquely appreciable recognizable way of making Techno.
Storming modular techno set from Møller on the 5th episode of the Vinyl Only limited series of Lost Episodes.
Lately, Levon Vincent has begun to serve up especially long tracks. At the start of the year, he delivered the 14-minute techno opus ‘Cyclops Trx’, following it up with two more stretched-out dancefloor workouts (‘Riding Alongside The Ocean’ and ‘So Good’). He’s at it again on ‘Enchanted Cosmos’, a 13-minute slab of deep space techno in which echoing, dub techno style riffs ride a sweaty drum machine rhythm and a driving, acidic bassline. Turn to side B and you’ll find the ‘Reprise’ mix, a stripped-back and even more mind-altering interpretation to adds glacial synth sounds and wilder acid lines to the long-serving producer’s heavy techno beats.
Following up from Amadeezy’s wildly successful East Side G-Ride earlier this year, Nite Fleit beams onto the International Chrome starship to bring us four tracks of extra-terrestrial electro that will blow your sensor readings.
South African born, London based producer Kai van Dongen appears with a four tracker on Cyberdome, spanning lo-fi electro, gabber-influenced techno and Detroit acid.
Edanticonf with the first album since the “Forest Echo” that was released back in 2012 on Silent Season. “The Story Of Q” is a fantastic album and a great follow up, another timeless journey in fine style.
Ilian Tape presents the debut of MPU101. Poetic hovering synth tinkerer on 180g heavyweight vinyl out of the heart of Bavaria.
After a long hiatus, Discos Atónicos returns with its tenth release. Presenting a various artists EP with a focus on dark & banging electro, it features tracks by CYRK, Nite Fleit, Rogue Filter & The Spy.
The third release for this Brussels-based organization (Label Deviate records and Deviate parties) run by False Identity. This one focuses on Wavish Techno, body aktion and epic EBM bass lines from Years Of Denial, Mind Matter, Maedon & Downwell.
The new digital exclusive Squirrels On Film release is from Floridian squirrel funk master Chris Mitchell, four potent doses of lysergic cyber boogie for putting bodies in motion.
Toy Tonics presents 8 reworks of rare and unexpected Italian disco and funky pop music from the 1970ies. Not the usual electronic Italodisco classics, but here come some more organic sounding band-disco music from the time of 1976 – 82. Positive vibrations and high quality dance pop reworked for today’s advanced dancefloors by Toy Tonics head honcho Kapote and his Italian friends BPlan and Paul Older. Some of these edits already have been released as bandcamp only, but because of extreme demand for vinyl Toy Tonics did this limited edition double vinyl release.
Italo group Aleph’s epic 1988 album “Black Out“ finally get’s, after 33 years, the re-issue it deserves by Dutch High Fashion Music. But not “just” a re-issue. This one only contains the extended or 12” versions of the original Aleph album tracks, including the famous Dutch remixes of “Fire On The Moon” and “Fly To Me” by Dutch Peter Vriends (previous released on Italoheat and Streetheat).
Detriti presents “Miscellanea” from Tuxedo Gleam, an electronic/darkwave duo from Modesto, California (US), composed by Aunt Gleam (synthesizer, drum programming, voice) and Angel Marie (synthesizer, voice).
Storming electronic disco anthem from 1982 on official repress. Patrick Cowley and Sylvester’s megaton bomb of a record is often cited as being one of THE definitive disco records from the dawn of the 1980’s. Influencing everything from the burgeoning house sound to Italo disco, synth-pop and way beyond, ‘Do You Wanna Funk’ is simply a classic in every respect. Released on the seminal San Francisco 80s Disco/Hi-NRG label that Cowley had founded, it found it’s way onto the turntables – and in turn – onto the dance-floors of every self-respecting disc jockey and nightclub for the next few decades. This is it, pure energy, uplift, body shocking electronic funk of the highest order. On the flipside of this very special reissue you’ll find Sylvester’s ‘Don’t Stop’ lifted from the ‘Do You Wanna Funk’ long player, yet another roof raising, slamming and soulful performance from one of the most influential disco performers and figures of all time, an unmissable 12″ for real.
Blueprint continues to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2021. James Ruskin returns to one of his regular cohorts and fellow UK techno luminary, Mark Broom with the follow-up to their ‘Basement Jams’ release. ‘Basement Jams 2’ is comprised of five new slices of scorching techno from this distinguished duo, who in the past have also brought us dark experimentalism as The Fear Ratio and inspired hip-hop as Deadhand. Now returning to their techno roots, ‘Basement Jams 2’ is primed with dance floor destroyers.
Detroit pioneer Robert Hood returns to Rekids with a four-track EP of his trailblazing minimal techno.
The Hipodrome Of Music 