001.Features
UNIVAC – Chernobyl Tracks [MST040]
Electro and atomic sequences from hell, dark future baselines. Psych energic rave and tunnel acid from 1986. Four tracks, 1 system from the underground city of Barcelona. Half the amount of drugs in the world got consumed here.
Thee J Johanz – Extraterrestrial Interventions [BALL109]
Pumping West Coast electro in a new jacket, with bouncing 808’s, driving acid, and old school futuristic vocoders. Justin Cudmore (Bunker NY) is taking it to a darker space in his more abstract and highly effective remix.
Gruppo D’Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza – Niente [ROMA111LP]
Founded in Rome in 1964, ‘Il Gruppo D’Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza’ was a collective of noted and noteworthy composers who challenged the very structure and performance of music itself. Today the most celebrated of its members is the renowned film composer Ennio Morricone but each contributor has an intriguing history in Italian music. Drawing on Jazz, Serialism, Musique Concrete and other extended techniques, the group performed on many of Morricone’s experimental soundtracks of the 1970s including, A Quiet Place In The Country and Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura). The collective improvised live (according to strict exercises) and in the studio (recording for RCA, Deutsche Grammaphon, General Music and others). In 1970 ‘Il Gruppo’ (as ‘The Group’) recorded The Feed-back (for RCA Italy), an insane amalgam of avant-improvisation and motorik Krautrock-influenced beats that understandably has become one of the most collectable ‘Library Music’ related LPs ever issued. In 1971 ‘Il Gruppo’ returned to the studio to record a sequel. This is that record. For reasons unknown Niente was never originally issued but one listen will convince that not only is it the sequel to one of the most sought after LPs of all time, but it is also by far its superior. Brain melting jams collide with unhinged intensity in a hothouse of Italian avant-improv. You have been warned.
Terkel Nørgaard – With Ralph Alessi [WJLP12]
Danish drummer Terkel Nørgaard presents his trio consisting of some of the key players in the Copenhagen scene and American star trumpeter Ralph Alessi on the lineup. Not merely a ”feature”, Alessi and the Danes form a coherent band unit capable of producing memorable and highly inspired contemporary jazz which links to the Nordic tradition of dynamic sound ranging from delicate minimalism to powerful avantgarde eruptions. The album Terkel Nørgaard ”With Ralph Alessi” is released by Helsinki’s We Jazz Records. On the new album, the Danish trio plus Alessi achieve something that can always be regarded a remarkable feat. They deliver a highly inspired set of music which links the album onto the ever-evolving lineage of jazz music, and at the same time introduce a new band capable of stunning the listener in the here and now.
Giovanni Damico – The Boogie Tracks [SC1215]
Star Creature continuing it’s pursuit of bold LP’s, this time teaming up with Italian disco don, Giovanni Damico. With recent major dance floor releases on Lumberjacks In Hell & Kalakuta Soul, Damico shifts gears to his Italian roots to give us a modern funk twist on Italo & space time boogie.
Project Gemini – Forest Creeper / Monsters at Gardens End [APDLT012]
Project Gemini is the brainchild of West London-based musician, producer and music journalist Paul Osborne. It makes its debut on Delights with a spooky library-influenced psych-funk double-sider, recorded by Osborne at his home studio, Gardens End, with contributions from the prolific Haifa-based producer Shuzin on drums, and the label’s main man Markey Funk on lead keys and production duties. With its otherworldly electronics, fuzz guitars, sinister cinematic groove and sharp funky drums, the new 7inch is ticking all the boxes that define the Delights label’s distinctive aesthetic.
Zed – Plastic Love [ERZ-004]
The Italian Fuzz Dance! Just said almost everything about the global dance music scene. One of the most prominent labels to connect the old Continent to the new Continent. For many top players it is considered the blueprint of Italo-disco, for many others the beginning of the House sound. Some of the records on its catalogue are merely timeless and in the history forever. And ”Plastic Love” is definitely one of those.
JD Twitch – A7 Edits Volume 2 [A7E002]
A7 Edits is back with its second installment from JD Twitch (Optimo). Volume 2 offers two edits alongside their sought after original counterparts from Africa Seven favourites’ M’Bamina and Tala AM.
Artefakt – Monsoon [SEM107]
Artefakt returns to Semantica to present their second album entitled “Monsoon”. It would be fair to say that Artefakt have not succumbed to the pitfalls of “difficult second album syndrome”. In fact, “Monsoon” is arguably an even stronger and more entertaining set than their lauded 2017 debut on Delsin, “Kinship”. Its genius lies in the Dutch duo’s ability to craft atmospheric, dancefloor-ready techno cuts that prioritize mood and melody as much as bustling beats and rhythmic intensity. While their inherent grasp of atmosphere is best personified by the album’s opening and closing ambient cuts, it can also be heard in the broken techno hypnotism of “Inverted Forest”, the trance-influenced grooves and dreamy electronics of “Monsoon” and the yearning, early morning throb of “Vertigo”.
Tadeo – Zilog [SYMLTD004]
Symbolism Ltd returns with four tracks from Tadeo which aptly display the Spaniard’s ability to create perfect hypnotic grooves whether they’re simple, abrasive numbers or melodic, textured kickers. Zilog 89 is made up of the sort of cuts that stay in the box (and mind) for a good while.
SSTROM – Drenched 1-4 [ROSTEN8.1]
SSTROM is back on Rosten with ‘Drenched’, 12 tracks for the floor, divided on 3 EPs, each to be released three weeks apart. SSTROM is the project of Hannes Stenstrom, once part of Swedish band Slagsmalsklubben, and one half of enigmatic techno duo SHXCXCHCXSH (SHX).
Intrinsic – Firewalls [EMP019]
Steven Tang’s Emphasis returns with the reclusive Intrinsic on Firewalls. ”Firewalls” builds soulfully techno syncopated synths & rhythms while the deeply modulated ”Falling” is thick & smoky filled with delayed synth madness that coalesces with a brooding bass line. Includes ”Bonus Beats”.
Alessandro Adriani – Morphic Dreams [SALP008]
Mannequin boss Alessandro Adriani returns with his second full-length, ‘Morphic Dreams’, this time on Stroboscopic Artefacts. Throughout eleven cuts painstakingly executed but lacking not an iota of the fresh, spontaneous oomph that made his sound stand out of the crowd of techno producers to have emerged over the past decade, Adriani lays the foundations to a suspended sound imaginarium, governed by its own rules and principles of gravity. Revolving around the notions of sublimation and quest for inner balance, ‘Morphic Dreams’ is comprised of four distinct sequences, conceived and designed as reflections of four mental states, each of them linked to the four alchemical elements – i.e. Water, Earth, Air and Fire.
Cardinal & Nun – Cardinal & Nun [LIES132]
Cardinal & Nun from Marseille delivers his debut EP for L.I.E.S. with a four track no holds barred synth punk assault. Injecting energy into the dead, channeling chaos and turmoil into his music, he rips through four tracks with a rough yet somehow elegant approach…raw to the bone yet flawlessly arranged. Synths that sound like guitars, guitars that sound like synths, metallic drum machines with a human touch and deranged vocals fuel this record til the end. Think Screamers meet Chrome meet Liasions with a healthy dose of southern California gutter punks on meth and you’re in the right place.
TV.OUT – TV.OUT [LIES131]
Hard hitting duo TV.OUT return to L.I.E.S. with their 2nd EP for the label. Clocking in with four tracks, these guys move with ease from classic Frankfurt style New Beat to teeth grindin, lower bpm EBM and Hague style electro, all tracks suited for the club. Head right to the opener XTC for an immediate 8 minute expansive modern day lesson in dancefloor drama- strings and claps perfectly placed as the bassline drives you insane. Fast forward to ”Black Out” for a slower paced harder hitting beating, air raid sirens scream as the metalworks clang on. TV.OUT at the top of their game with this one.
Larionov & St Theodore – Bleak Warfare [RET006]
Cold and sinister combat electro by Russian pourvoyeurs Larionov & St Theodore. Infectious analogue rhythms emerged deep down the hearts of these young souls. The Bleak Warfare EP presents five cuts with each their own desire for the dancefloors.
VA – TRB01 [TRB01]
Tribe is a record label created by like-minded artists from Barcelona, with a bold purpose of generating and sharing their idea of timeless electronic music. The debut EP Tribe01 comprises four different yet catchy and charismatic tunes that meet at the same point – the dance floor.
Fred P / Deetron – Lush Culture EP [PS002]
Fred P’s fresh ‘Perpetual Sound’ imprint continues its journey with ‘Lush Culture’, a split EP that finds the label head alongside like-minded soul, Deetron.
Telephones – From The Vaults 1998-2018 Vol. 2 [EC02/TLF02]
Digging deeper into rescued attic-material, Telephones offers even more genre-wobbly, and inspired sounds, featuring bipolar detroit techno/bongo-disco, stuttering warehouse-atmospheres and a failed attempt at making Speed Garage (without ever really knowing what that was) – instead ending up somewhere, which can best be described as balearic techno with a dutch twist, hyperactive steroid-disco and degenerate house. Originally conceived and programmed by a juvenile Mr Telephones on ancient PC-software at the turn of the 90s/Y2K – 20 years later, salvaged, exported and meticulously overdubbed, re-recorded and edited to current high standards of Telephonic Communication.
The Hipodrome Of Music 