As Longitude is the illuminated brainchild of Eva Geist and Laura ODL. Together they explore sonic waves in an exiting world full of spatial drum machine rhythms and sequenced riffs. Some of those trips feel like earth bound rituals, while others seem to be nothing less than ceremonies of stratospheric magnitude.
Jasss returns with an instant-classic second single for Death Of The Machines. ‘Es Complicado’ is a percussive a-side driven track, a passionate industrial/futuristic wink to the past, while ‘No Chanche’ on the b side is opening a new path for her productions. The mind sick samples from the 1966 Bergman’s masterpiece ‘Persona’ leave the track – as the movie itself does – in a climax wrapped by a variety of interpretations, moving from tribal new beat rhythms and ending into an acid nightmare.
Petre Inspirescu delivers ‘Vîntul Prin Salcii’ – another longplayer enlarged with seven, up to epic twelve minutes long arrangements. They all listen to the name ‘Miroslav’ and only differ numerically in their title. You can call them ambient. You can call them minimal music in the sense of classic compositions by Steve Reich or Terry Riley. They groove – sometimes more, sometimes less. and they spread the sounds of flutes or saxophones, delicate piano figures, organic jazz drumming, arpeggiated analogue synth-lines, mesmerizing strings, choral singing, alienated looped vocals and spaced out new aged spheres. What unites them all is the way, the melodies dance upon and in each single tune. Their beautiful tex-tures ensnare and they are continuously engaged with experimentation. A mystical album full of evolutionary music to which each listener is able to paint his very own emotional picture. Moody, dark and at the same time light-flooded shape-shifting compositions – made for those who love to surrender them-selves to a gentle dance between experimentation and attractiveness.
Amsterdam based artist and creative technologist Andeh Lang is back on Will & Ink. After debuting on this label in August 2016 with an uncredited black label, he now serves up three more tracks that show off his interest in shaping and sculpting sounds for the main imprint. All these tracks were created with his own custom made software and self-programmed audio algorithms. Three experimental techno excursions that go by the name of ‘Susskind’ showcase a wide variety of deserted techno landscaping by a creative mastermind.
Field Records welcomes a new name into the fold with its next EP. That name is Kiyoko, and it pertains to the UK duo of Jack Lever and Joe McBride. They offer up four more ambient electronic cuts that again suspend you in a blissful sonic world.
Next up on Spazio Disponibile is a pair of artists who played the party of the same name at Goa, Rome last year, Crossing Avenue. They present a four tracks EP. “Crucial” is first and is a big, warm open space filled with tiny little flecks of sound, delicate synth flashes and rolling rubber drums that truly hypnotise. “Malandra” is another bit of burrowing mind music that is hugely atmospheric yet notably sparse and economic in design. The drums roll below as watery droplets, ghostly pads and haunting organic hooks all roam and snake about in the mix. “Rimbalzo” is darker and more direct, with a supple techno groove forcing you to move as flashes of synth, alien life forms and subterranean ambiance all colour in the airwaves. Last of all, “No Coasts” traps you in another underground cave with only desolate drones and bulbous bass lines for company. It is eerie, but beautifully so, and rounds out another fascinatingly cinematic release.
Making his Tortured debut is Liverpool based Techno DJ and producer, Binny with his ‘Devil’s Orchestra EP’. He delivers a refined EP from the striking and demonic strings of the aptly titled opener, ‘Devil’s Orchestra’ via the multihued tough groove of ‘Alternative Methods’, before the Tech-funk of ‘Roll With It’ and on to the Sci-Fi tones of ‘Untitled’ which closes the vinyl 12″.
Suburban Avenue welcomes two other great artists in its team. SAV007 is a splitted EP between the German-based djs and producers, Johannes Volk and Savas Pascalidis. Volk delivers two works: A1, “Dont Be Afraid, Theres No Hope” is a an elegant and minimalistic techno tune, that seems to reveal his dystopian vision of the future, A2, “Wrong Prophecy” is a proper Detroit banger track. Pascalidis gives his contribution to this release with other two amazing cuts: B1, “Night Force” is a perfect track, ready for the big floor: noisy, boomy with a straight groove. B2, “Strobe” is a classy and effective techno tool, lost in space.
New school electro wunderkind Privacy makes his debut on Klakson with a dark four tracker that checks all the right boxes. The EP kicks off with “Four IO”, a haunting, spacey dubbed out acid roller with lush pads throughout. “U Can Tell” and “NCSC” are both specimens of the finest EBM tradition, re-interpreting the sound for 2017, while “Shove” on the B2 effortlessly transports us into deep, uptempo aquatic electro territory.
New UK based imprint aiming to bring you atmospheric and emotional treats that toe the line between bass heavy, electro leaning, house & techno and everything in between. The label’s first outing comes from the duo Thread.
The ninth release on Midligh brings to light Exhausted Modern, the new alias from Layup, the co-founder of Endless Illusion.
Umek continues his Zeta Reticula series for Billy Nasty’s Electrix with ‘EP 6’. The bass-quaking ‘Reticulum’ opens the EP and the release instantly sparkles and explodes into electrofunk action, followed by ‘Solar Analogs’, like a ticking time bomb. ‘Rotating Protostellar Cloud’ heads up the B-side with its more Moroder / Kraftwerk era sound that’s epic and melodious, before ‘Circumstellar Debris Disk’ completes the quartet, with a flurrying filmatic soundscape approach.
New year, new start and a long overdue introduction of some female sensibilities into the Slow Motion stable. System Olympia hails from Calabria and was formerly part of London based Royalty. You know the drill by now, tear jerking synths, chest crushing bass and that indefinable slow-motion disco swagger that we have made all our own.
Black Bones’ debut release is really something. From the Daphni-esque full throttle Afro A Side, to a duo of lost classics on the flip, this one’s a keeper…
Dark Entries present ‘A Tape’, a double LP of early work by Helena Hauff. ‘A Tape’ is a compilation of Helena’s earliest recordings from 2011 and 2014, originally released on limited cassette by Handmade Birds in 2015. Clocking in at over 50 minutes, this collection spans Hauff’s musical universe, from jacking acid-techno to krautish zone-outs and scuzzy feedback interludes. It’s tempting to consider it Helena’s debut album, but she views these tracks as mostly forgotten sketches left on the cutting room floor. It a gripping collection of deep, sinister analog synth sequences, industrial dissonance, and heavy percussion. Her equipment set up was a Roland Alpha Juno 2, Juno 60, TB-303, TR-707 and TR-808. Both of the discs end with Hauff stepping outside of the intentionally stiff, robotic rhythms, instead showing her skill at crafting less conventional electronic sounds.
BANK Records 7 series continues with a two tracker by Steve Summers and Bookworms. Side A features a track from long time collaborators Jason Letkiewicz and Nicholas Dawson who have showcased their signature free form sound on Letkiewicz Confused House imprint. Side B is a solo cut by Bookworms. The menacing sound of this recording is reminiscent of Dawson’s work you may have heard on his Nord release, Compact Visual Nature. Classic tracks from two of BK’s finest.
Safe Trip releases Welcome To Paradise, an expansive retrospective of the Italian dream house sound co-compiled by label founder Young Marco. At the tail end of the 1980s, a new take on deep house began to emerge from Italian studios. ‘Dream house’ drew inspiration from key U.S deep house records of the period – the spacey melodiousness of Larry Heard’s productions, and the rich jazziness of tracks originating in New Jersey in particular – but sounded distinctly different. Its’ ‘head-in-the-clouds’ feel – all rich chords, tactile basslines, fluid piano lines and starry electronics – made ‘dream house’ a uniquely Italian proposition.
Safe Trip releases Welcome To Paradise, an expansive retrospective of the Italian dream house sound co-compiled by label founder Young Marco. At the tail end of the 1980s, a new take on deep house began to emerge from Italian studios. ‘Dream house’ drew inspiration from key U.S deep house records of the period – the spacey melodiousness of Larry Heard’s productions, and the rich jazziness of tracks originating in New Jersey in particular – but sounded distinctly different. Its’ ‘head-in-the-clouds’ feel – all rich chords, tactile basslines, fluid piano lines and starry electronics – made ‘dream house’ a uniquely Italian proposition.
The Hipodrome Of Music 