The Squirrels from San Francisco are back and they’re wearing white after Labor Day — pressing up a limited white-label 12”, full of the throbbing electro, altered-states body music, and head-in-the-clouds techno you’ve come to expect from Squirrels on Film.
Black Merlin aka George Thompson with his second release on Berceuse Heroique. While previous releases were influenced by Thompson’s field recordings from e.g. Papua New Guinea, this release is more focused on club oriented sound. Five different tracks from banging stompers to EBM and uplifting Techno.
The superb ‘Forbidden Planet’ is a shiny early electro cut with a great funk bass line, a real instrumental groove and fantastic melodies that shimmer like a hot sun. It’s filled with joy and sounds as fresh today as ever, the way it ducks and dives and offers real warmth. The Francisco Remix keeps the funk vibe but changes the groove to be a more Chicago house style cut. As such it has a rasping bassline, big drums and coarse percussion that make you want to jack. The masterful Ali Renault—a go-to disco and synth specialist who runs Cyber Dance Records, Human Shield Record Company and most recently his own Vivod imprint—then turns out a hypnotic version that is more driven and direct for the dance floor, with robotic bass and epic reflective synth lines. It’s a cinematic track with great analogue textures that goes back to the future. The last original is the excellent ‘Stay With Me’, a cosmic love song with breezy trumpets and dreamy disco vibes as well as soulful vocals. Italo melodies and infectious percussion finish it off and make it an instant crowd pleaser.
The Revolving Eyes, aka cult DJ duo Rob ’n’ Zoopsie should need no introduction to the more discerning fan of underground European disco. Having recently resurrected their own Moderne Recordings label the duo bring their sophisticated party manoeuvres to Wrong Era for the first time. A five track E.P that touches on the classic sounds of Chicago, Electronica and Wave with a distinctly European twist the Belgian duo are a much welcomed addition to the family.
It’s with two kisses and a hearty handshake that Bordello A Parigi welcome stalwart of electronic music: Mr Pauli. Schooled on the West Coast, this pivotal figure has worked extensively with likeminded visionaries to create iconic tracks as the Novamen, Matzo & Pauli and Sumerian Fleet whilst producing his own unique works on labels like Moustache and Viewlexx. After such successes Pauli returns as a solo producer, delivering to the Bordello mansion two tracks of pure class. “At Night” is big, bright and brilliant. Hooks grip as soon as the needle lands. Vintage vocoder lyrics, a particular favourite of this trailblazer, tell a tale of twilight romance while crisp beats snap and notes sail. The flip keeps the fires burning. Synthlines are soaked in Mediterranean sunshine, an Italo Disco influence coming to the fore, with lovelorn vocals used to balance this cheer-filled creation. Golden sounds from a true pioneer.
Following the extremely well received re-press of Pasteur Lappe’s second album “Na Man Pass Man”, Africa Seven are heading back to the beginning with Pasteur. It is a another fine repress. The debut album “We, The People”. The story begins in the 60’s with a charming 19 year old Nicolas “Pasteur” Lappe becoming a sensation on Radio Adele in Douala, Cameroun. He goes on to become the editor of the Douala Gazette newspaper and become friends with other African music stars such as Tala AM, J Moboule and Fela Kuti. He also works tirelessly promoting new and upcoming local Cameroonian talent. After moving to Paris, a stint in journalism school and publishing a book of poems “Chansons Negres” he finally settles into a new life of music in Paris. Pasteur’s first album was recorded in 1979 with the backing band and production collective called the Zulu Gang, which include Douglas Mbida (who went on to release several top flight albums himself) and Jacob Desvariaux (who went on to form Kassav). The album is full of diverse sounds, from driving funk, sweeping disco grooves, syrupy ballads, reggae, Jackson-five-esque pop to finger-lickin’ soul. At its core though is the custom “Sekele” groove… a movement to encompass the dance, grooves and vibes from his native Douala. The nostalgic poet, with Africa at his essence Pasteur Lappe.
These days, Hanad Kalkaba is a retired Army colonel and track and field athletics administrator in his native Cameroon. Yet back in the mid 1970s, he was a musician with dreams of potential super-stardom, trying to update traditional Cameroonian “Gandjal” music for the funk generation. To that end, he recorded a small number of singles and EPs alongside his backing band, the Golden Sounds. It’s those thoroughly obscure and overlooked releases that make up Hanad Kalkaba & The Golden Sounds, a retrospective of his pioneering work. Sitting somewhere between Afro-beat, Afro-funk and Afro-jazz, with a distinctively Cameroonian rhythmic swing, the music showcased on the album is undeniably special.
Sterns Edits returns after the sell-out success of its debut edition with another two catalogue reworks from Ben Gomori. This time he turns his attention to Burkina Faso’s much-loved taxi-driver- turned-singer, Amadou Balake´.
This project is a cutout t of the Prescription Underground sound. The 3 cuts written and produced by Chez Damier and Ron Trent. Morning Factory , reworked edit k by: BS As Deep, with ( Love is the Message) and (I come here to be Happy) By: Kai Alice (DJ friendly idiots). The New cut on this recording is a demo version From the H2H (Chez Damier and Ben Vedren) , Berlin Nights in Paris A track inspired from the Prescription record days.
Bliq continues its quest to mine the deepest shades of techno with this release from Iakovos, who had previously appeared on the label as LowJac and in the formidable duo Deemonlover. This is sharply focused mind music layered with subtle detail and rich textures perfectly honed for hazy hours at the far reaches of the party. “Singers” melds hypnotic pads with gossamer-light threads of breakbeat and warm synth pulses, while “Evil Flower” pushes a tougher rhythmic agenda without losing the ethereal atmosphere. “Adidas People” rides on a surging kick drum pattern, but leaves ample room for a distant drone, and then “Hackney Tower” heads into edgier territory with all manner of obtuse angles and unnerving sound effects pivoting around the insistent drum core of the track.
Munich’s TRAP10 start their own label and the debut is a versatile dancefloor EP through and through. While unmistakably influenced by classic 1990ies era techno, the detroit schooled tunes resemble the duos flexibility – an interesting yet effective dj EP to add to your record collection.
Amsterdam’s worst kept secret makes it back to Unknown Precept with his long-awaited album and first solo output since the acclaimed ‘Divine Bovine’ tape mini-album. Inspired by an evening spent in a restaurant next to a car demolition site, Eindkrak’s long player debut echoes the distant sound of steel being crushed and cars pressed into cubes. All this noise, in combination with the taste of good Italian food, lead to the eleven tracks making up for the aptly titled ‘Brullend Staal’ — loosely translated to weeping steel. A leisurely stroll on crumpled metal sheets, the acidic hints of oxidized metal and the smell of gasoline. Inaudible and distorted vocals as if smothered by the clatter and smokestacks of steel factories. Eindkrak’s first full-length is all about this disquietude made of melted and straightened scrap metal. A resounding and tumultuous din. Try to eat some nice gnocchis while listening to this album, and you’ll see what it is all about.
Adalbert C. Kupietz (aka Adalberto, Fatjack, Crime Scene) is a using his Hieroglyphica moniker again, for some more cerebral techno, but he is lauching a new sublabel called Pseudo Science. Limited edition of 100 copies including a transparent insert with spacial “burned” coverart and punched numbering.
Back by popular demand, the same unique spirits that brought forth the sound of Detroit streets and turned it into the futuristic soundscape known as ”Techno-Bass”, The Original members have collaborated to re-issue their catalog 25+ years later. Starting with their 1st double pack LP, ”Bass Magnetic” (considered to be a mesh of influences between Miami bass and Detroit techno), AUX88 established themselves in an effort to stay true to their roots in the streets and the clubs creating their own genre into a global dance culture. Harkening back to its first days on cassette tape to revive a future generation of vinyl aficionados.
/DL/MS/ are Daniel Lodig aka Lok44 and Martin Sovinz aka Dibek, two of Vienna’s electro elite.
One year after its first release, Nagual Drift is back on the radar, exploring a panel of emotions and a wide range of sounds and feelings. This Various Artists compilation features contrasting atmospheric shades of the dance floor. From acidic house tools to blooming ethereal soundscapes, bright and buoyant breakbeat to melancholic cuts from the left field of house to deep, dark and sorrowful techno. NDFT002 is a drifting, shifting landscape of collected emotional music from a pool of talented producers.
Analogue sounding techno tracks with a touch of acid and electro all blended together, on the 3rd release from Dark Circles on their own London based label DC Trax. Three tracks of new material aimed directly for the dancefloor at different stages during the night.
Stephen Lopkin’s singular doses of electro-tinged house music have pretty much become Glasgow’s ‘finest”. While everyone else is out snoozing to some deep house and mild-mannered tech, this dude packs a punch each and every time he drops a new release onto our charts. Just in time for the year’s end, Lopkin drops Southside Engineering on the sublime Bokhari imprint, and these five metallic dance bombs are enough to make any serious Drexcyia fan think that, yes, there might be a way forwards after all! Full of adrenaline and electrifying swing, you can count on this gear to keep you up and running all night long – even the Ikpathua remix of “Light From Light” has its own particular way of expressing energy and a solid groove.
“Japonaiserie was the term the Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh used to express the influence of Japanese art. Artists including Manet, Degas and Monet, followed by Van Gogh, began to collect the cheap colour wood-block prints called ukiyo-e prints” A mini LP by Benoit B, the boss of Banlieue Records , on which he creates a futuristic environment influenced by the Japanese electronics of the ’80s. A musical “Japanaiserie” that can melt your cold cold heart.
The Hipodrome Of Music 