Mothball Record presents the first collaboration between Hysteric (Public Possession, Fuego International, Bordello A Parigi) and Shelter (from Plaisir Partagé and International Feel), who are now working together as H&S. Both known for their edit skills and obscure taste, they now bring us dark balearic versions of two underground Italo killers. With strong new beat influences, and two versions of each track for added flexibility, this record can fit easily in different sets.
Elsewhere MCMXIII is a 12 track journey of future retro oddities that navigates through different waves of electronic territories, all that with a taste for experimentation while being great to dance to. Put together carefully by DJ soFa for débruit’s ICI label, the track listing’s emotional depth balances between retro and modern, lo-fi and high end, warm and cold… make the listening experience an exciting, surprising journey. Genre-wise the music floats between borders of disco, new wave, synth-pop, kraut and trad elements.
Jasss makes her head and body-turning album debut with Weightless, an absorbingly stark and spiky set of industro-dub concerns riddled with heavy inspiration from African rhythms, jazz and concrète electronics. iDEAL give Jasss room to consolidate and expand her grizzled dancefloor structures to a full length episode that brutally dovetails with Joachim Nordwall and co’s unforgiving but compelling take on contemporary noise and industrial musics.
MST032 Cute Heels. This 4 tracker EP comes Strait from the White Mountains of Bogota after Transmissed to the dark streets of Berlin. After a mindblowing 12inch on darkentries Cute Heels delivers a new one for Moustache Records. This 12inch listen to the name Bella EP a renaissance new wave techno electro banger. dark strings and live feel with enough fist pumping energy for your unisex body machine tekno party.
Former masked techno crusader Adam Rivet started the Kess Kill imprint a couple of years ago, to showcase some lesser known talents from the ’80s scene in Europe. French producer Guy Clerbois began his musical career by transforming sounds: creating rhythms with scratched vinyl records and altering their playing speeds plus detuning his guitar. In the mid eighties, he began what would become the very concept of Vitor Hublot, making shifted reworks of existing ones. All compositions originally issued on the ‘185 Millions De Francophones Et Moi, Et Moi, Et Moi…’ LP via his own Psoria Discs in 1986.
OTTO – whose last album ‘Greatest Hits’ created furore not only with their female fans – have just backed it up with a new self release. Quirky krautrock influenced tunes by Alexander Arpeggio and Cid Hohner.
This is the debut album of Swedish producer Daniel Andréasson, an artist that has both a sonically and artistic resemblance to the Skudge family of labels and artists. Pushing his eighth year of releasing records, Andréasson has accomplished the task of creating a debut album that seem to tie together the sound of his previous EP’s. Andréasson’s sound is in line with a more outsider approach, but with a dance floor focus. A sound that he has been pushing since the beginning. This approach shines through at the most on the tracks such as ‘Mc35I# Rushup’, ‘Stay’ and ‘Dreams’ as these specific tracks shows Andréassons more accomplished style. In between, the album keeps a perfect concept throughout. Taking breathers with its interludes and in general “shorter” tracks that hints of a ambient leaning urge to express himself, he never loses focus.
Chino is Krakow, Poland’s Artur Oles. Artur is into Polish Brutalist architecture, poster art, 80’s drum machines, FM synthesis, tape hiss, obscure eastern electronics, Tatra mountains. Following a series of impeccable records, this is Chino’s debut on cassette. Eight tracks of perfectly studied techno with edges of the abstract.
Brokntoys opens its Monochrome series with a debut EP from Gamma Intel. Across 4 tracks, the Dutch producer presents a workout in jagged body music. Power Plant Tales sets the scene with suspenseful driving rhythms and Theorem X rolls on through sweat-dripping grooves. On the B-side, Post Factum navigates through weird contortions while Self-Denial takes no prisoners as the fierce and menacing finale.
The sound of ‘2020’ is new jazz and old funk with an electronic city pace, brought to you by duo The Colours That Rise. Made up of multi-instrumentalists and producers Simeon Jones and Nathanael Williams, their ‘2020’ EP is a confident guide through future sounds and past histories from a time yet to come. Created using analogue synths and acoustic instruments, the 4 track EP works as the score to a yet to be created animation. Nathanael’s background is creating soundtracks for films, while Simeon plays with UK jazz prophets Yussef Kamaal and featured on Henry Wu’s ‘Negotiate’ 12′. Providing groove for the dancer and hidden meanings for the listener, ‘2020’ is plugged in to the pulse of UK dancefloors and the resurgence of funk audiences. With their fusion sound, The Colours That Rise are another welcome addition to the new ‘UK Jazz invasion’ alongside their friends and colleagues Yussef Kamaal and The Comet is Coming. ‘2020’ is an experimental electronic voyage that emerges from the ambient and arrives on the dance floor.
‘Grey Fades To Green’ is the first album Oscar Mulero has released under his own name, after two acclaimed LPs under the moniker Trolley Route. This is the second part of the album. ‘Road To Pleasure’ is in the same vein. Out of this world drum programming, scientific labours on the synths and again a complex and mutant arrangement for this floor filler. ’46 (re-work)’ and ‘Repeater’ are the soundtrack to a post Blade Runner futuristic city, where everything is hidden under the acid fumes and the sunlight has never been seen. The sound of asteroids falling on a deserted city. Pure techno from outer space.
Figure Jams is back with a another fresh and exciting pairing of artists. This time the record is a collection of pure analogue goodness, sparkling ripe with synthesizer magic. The A-side comes courtesy of duo TWR72, who happen to distill perfection through simplicity in their stripped-back productions. While ‚Polished’ is a pulsating bit of beatless yet captivating clean-cut loops, their other contribution shows their talent at crafting something lean, dry and punchy, which is still undeniably driving and hypnotic. Picking up on the synth-heavy theme of this release is St. Petersburg’s finest Aleksey Niktin aka Nocow. Inspired by the endless baltic winters, the producer packs his tracks with emotions that feel cold but not icy, engulfing the listener in winching waves of melancholic Electronica.
Perm has turned just the right knobs to give you the perfect soundtrack for your personal journey into Techno wonderland. The Leipzig based wizard simply knows how to leave dancers both dizzy and beatific. When those strings in “03-VIII” come together to its climax you’re more than ready to embrace the night. The focus in “03-IV” is more heavy on the drum work with just the right amount of subtle tripping hazards. “03-III” builds and builds without ever bubbling over while the mighty “03-VIII” comes with a Boom-Tschak-Electro feel to it.
Rawax welcomes Mr. Joey Beltram to the Family, with a timeless masterpiece from 1990, Technical Onslaught “The Calling”.
The Delsin c-series welcomes Sawlin for a new EP that finds him in a housier mood than you might expect. He has become known as a techno producer, but this proves he can do much more. Opener ‘Motion Keeper’ is a deep underground affair with swirling pads adding scale to the heavy, churning drums. It’s soaked in ethereal pads and will suck you right in when played on a large sound system. ‘Easiness Supplier’ gets a little more trippy, with mastery synth droplets dancing about above busted, frazzled drum loops. It’s edgy and tense builds to a seriously weighty groove over time. Last of all, ‘Wired Evening’ is a dark, gritty dubbed out house cut with snaking hi hats, gurgling synths and menace in the air. This is shadowy and physical house music at its finest.
Shipwrec is 50 releases old. No mean feat and to celebrate the dutch label is returning to one of its stalwarts, Ed Upton aka DMX Krew. For this very special 12″ the veteran audio alchemist conjures up five tracks of machine music magic. Squirming, acid soaked electro forms and melts in “Bush Baby Bug Eyes” before the shapeshifting “EQShift Trak.” “Language Reponse” goes up a gear, rhythms zipping along on a highway of bright bars as synth lines beam warmth. The flip skids into the corners for the chiptune freshness of “Irrational Momentum” before the wave funk wizardry of the title piece. Ed Upton cracking open the champagne for this Shipwrec milestone and once again proving his undeniable prowess behind the machines.
The Hipodrome Of Music 