Irishman Derek Carr makes his mark on the Romanian imprint Why So Series with the “Liquid industries EP”. Starting off with the loopy and hypnotic deep house of “Theta” he then gets stuck into some vintage hi-tech soul on the energetic Solar Storm”. On the flip, “Sub System 7” follows in suit channelling the vibe of greats like Aril Brikha while “Exodus II” gives you your fix of sunny swing fuelled tech house.
Berlin’s resident Electroid funkmeister Vertical67 is the latest release from the Magic Waves label with a 4 track EP of ‘Positive Vibes’ to get your summer into gear with. Vocodered electro builder ‘Clacid’ opens proceedings before we’re hit with the summery anthemic and futuristic Italo sounds of ‘Back In The Groove’, while on the flip ‘Let’s Dance’ continues that feeling before we’re whisked off ‘Into The Night’ with the closing track in pure aquatic Detroit styled bliss.
Another side of Steve Rachmad. Preceeds and album of archive tracks that shows the far reaching talents of this master producer. Some things are just too good to be hidden from view. That’s certainly the case with ‘Things To Think About’, the first album from Dutch electronic music legend Steve Rachmad’s lesser-known Sterac Electronics project.
Mytron & Ofofo debut on Bordello with an intoxicating blend of sleaze and synth, disco and depravity. “Airforce One” smoulders. Dripping in funk, samples and smooth keys are bolstered by burbling bass for a track that glides and slides in glazed steps. “Hewa Kenya” keeps the vocal snippets, building them into fevered points as rhythms rumble. Medlar strips back the original percussion, crisp snares forming a base for shimmering synthwork and cascading chords in a shifting remake.
The latest transmission from the world of Gunnar Haslam, Kalaatsakia wildly sprawls across the intersections of techno and more abstract sounds to take us on a wideranging journey from the subterranean to the coastal, from blown-out dub tones through fractured rhythms. An incredible work that is not easy to pigeonhole, Kalaatsakia is a full length album that navigates and sketches landscapes where new languages are created from old, dead ones to emerge as the lingua franca of interconnected immersive zones. Haslam is an avid home listener of dub, dancehall and calypso, and that influence is quickly felt as Kalaatsakia launches with a tight electro snap and dubwise crash. Kalaatsakia advances and retreats seasonally, tightening up for the floor with the chrome-plated ‘Broadcast’ and ‘Kjolle’ while splintering apart on ‘Kalapuyan’ and ‘nxbound’. Its constituent parts are often left to collapse in on themselves, smearing themes into residual trails. As the narrative of the album disintegrates and unfolds into more deconstructed territory, it stretches out even further with a striking skittering mental tease, settling into burbling sub-audible vocals and resonant spaces that all form a part of Haslam’s self-created subconscious language.
Tabernacle Records presents Bill Converse’s first release outside of the U.S. is spaced out over a double pack format, focusing on his lengthy, trippy jams.
Next up on Gravitational Waves, Dj Nephil brings four unrelenting bangers designed for peak hour play. A collection of tough drums and arpeggiated synths is a unifying theme and will serve those djs who want to highly energetic EBM tinged weapons.
Previously unreleased full edition for this explosive jazz-funk score by Italian Maestro Riz Ortolani, created in 1973 for the crime-movie Si può essere più bastardi dell’ispettore Cliff’ (also known as Mafia Junction’). Only two tracks from this OST were published at the time in a now extremely rare C.A.M. 7-inch, but that was enough to create the legend. Four Flies had access to the original C.A.M. master tapes, so to present here the complete session for the first time. Just expect one of the funkiest piece of the whole Ortolani’s career: car chases, sex scenes, vicious kills are served here by amazing drum breaks, fat bass lines, captivating horn section and wonderful guitar effects. Totally outstanding session, and a real new classic for all crime-funk lovers.
There are many ways for a band or an artist to compile an album: some make it in a week and some let the process go on longer. The latter approach does often mean that that the record will not be better than had it been recorded and mixed within a short amount of time, rather the contrary. However, there are those albums that just could not be made within in a week or a month, those compilation of songs that needed the time to melt together to form an album. Fontän’s third album titled ‘Fontän’, released on Hoga Nord Rekords is that kind of an album. Put the opening track ‘Mangsebung’ on, then stay with the record until the closer ‘Shadows’ rings out and you will go clear, sharp, and mildly messed up by the listening experience because this is an extremely well directed trip in mind-altering music! This album needed time to reach such heights. With Johan Melin’s and Jesper Jarold’s love for music and non-sentimental creative approach, this album proves that the band never gets hung up on trying to sound like the past masters, but to develop what they once started.
Kalita Records announce their first release, the three choice cuts from NST Cophie’s 1980 private press Ivory Coast Afro-disco album ‘Mon’Da Center’. After moving to Paris in 1976 and having played with other well-known bands such as N’Bamina, Osibisa, and with numerous artists including Jimmy Hyacinthe and Papa Wemba, ‘Mon’Da Center’ was Ernest’s first solo album. Pretty much unknown except to the most hardened of diggers, ‘Bian Kou’, ‘E Clolo’ and ‘Mioukouna’ are guaranteed to set any dance floor alight, with hypnotic Afro-disco grooves, killer drums and angelic female vocals.
A regular triple-figure fetch on the auction sites, it was only a matter of time before Henry Thomas & Rise’s beautiful 80s soul doublet experienced the strong-armed justice of Fryer. Not just reissued but sourced and tracked down – this is just the start of what will hopefully be a whole load of criminally slept on and unreleased soul from Henry and his troupe. “My Dreams Are Clouded” is a verified club banger with its FM synth ripples and low-down bass bumps while “Don’t Wait Too Long” is the ultimate come home record. Slinky, swooning and soaked in raw dollops of emotion – Henry Thomas is, once again, on the rise.
New to the Stay Underground It Pays gang, the tenth release on the label comes from one of the hotest & experimental french producer from Marseille : Donarra. The EP includes 6 cuts, which is almost a mini album introducing us to his astonishing sound. It could be described as dreamy, raw, completely analog, well some kind of proto-techno Chicago new-wave belter.
Pelvis Records returns with a breakbeat trip around the train yards of New York, coming to you care of Klasse Recordings’ Luca Lozano. Entitled King Blade, the record is an ode to the eponymous NYC writer, famed for his prolific painting of trains during the late 70s. Featuring an alternate mix from Lozano and remix by Eargoggle.
After a couple of releases for the label, including many notable remixes, Jamie Paton returns to the warm glow of Especial for a collective vinyl only EP of 4 ‘unreleased’ remixes for the likes of Sexy Merlin, Guy Schalom, Gatos Negros and Blancmange.
5th Birthday comp featuring a host of artistst who’ve graced the label over the perioid.. Exclusives from Tolouse Lowtrax, Geena, Iueke, Domenique Dumont, . Inoue Shirabe, Raphael Top-Secret and more… Gatefold Sleeve. The music on this compilation covers a wide spectrum of moods and atmospheres, from the dark and raw excursions from Tolouse Low Trax or Iueke to the lush instrumental crafted by Nico Motte and Syracuses Antoine Kogut; however as the listener gets deeper into the compilation, the whole of the tunes, sitting side by side on the records, start to make sense as they all seem to point towards the same direction. If one should try isolating a common trait from all these songs, one might come to the conclusion that it lies in the way they all speak directly to the listeners emotional receptors, unvarnished and without abusing of producers tricks.
Adballons (made-up word from ‘advertising balloon’) was a duo formed in Tokyo and active only between 1986-88. Equipped with some gear (Casio CZ-5000, Teisco S-110F, Roland MC-202, Roland TR-909, Korg KPR-77) they released just one 7′ in 1987 and played some shows in local clubs before disappear and become part of the obscure and inscrutable Japanese underground scene.
Though he may still be tweaking the space laser to perfect album ‘Numero Twomero’, Terje has still found the time to tease us with a sneak preview of what’s to come in the form of this body moving, brain grooving cover version of a Norse synth spectacular from the dystopian dance floors of ’82. Inspired by his Dansbar diversions, Todd took to the studio for a little multitrack mania, replaying every part of this doomy dancer with all the Olsen sparkle you could ever wish for. Luring Det Gylne Triangel back into the booth for the first time in 25 years, Terje topped off the pops with a newly recorded vocal from the original lyricist, closing the temporal loop and opening the door to dance floor nirvana.
New York native Shawn O’Sullivan returns to Avian as 400PPM with debut LP, ‘Fit for Purpose’. As an artist, O’Sullivan has long since explored the juncture between hard-hitting, functional dance floor material and more lofty, conceptual work. From a purely structural standpoint, the artist’s return to Avian bears all the hallmarks of previous output under the alias, utilising the same palette found on early EP’s for Guy Brewer’s label. Stripped back and driven, the music marries caustic drum-machine polyrhythms with warping, pitch bent leads and characteristically atmospheric use of reverb. It’s a decidedly dance floor offering, but the music comes refracted through O’Sullivan’s own lens, with plenty of elegant references to a career spent exploring much of the Techno genre’s periphery, from Noise to New Wave. Crushed vox bubble up from beneath wrought-iron percussion and the artist takes time to step away from high energy 4×4 workouts to explore more complex rhythmic structures and harsh, low tempo grooves. While O’Sullivan’s music as 400PPM might eschew the colour and vibrance of some of the unabashed hedonists that made up the Club Kids scene – who reinvented the DIY spirit of punk rock and incorporated Sci-Fi and the circus, there is on the one hand an undeniable sense of both the rising hysteria that comes with the pervasive and unbridled drug use for which the group were as infamous as their outfits and rejection of then societal norms, and on the other, a further anxiety regarding the notion of machine-made music in a contemporary society swiftly approaching a new and daunting technological age.
Roog Unit is the new production duo fusing together the talents of Luke Slater and Ø [Phase] a.k.a. Ashley Burchett, the music being the result of many months of discourse and growing connection. The full dose of “Mesh” shows two producers clearly at their most focused and precise. Like their best work to date, it will get fans’ active imaginations churning – and leave them wondering what this collaboration has in store for the near future.
The Hipodrome Of Music 