Esa returns with the final instalment for this Highlife World Series which included previous releases Cuba and Kenya. Having been invited to attend the East Africa music conference DoaDoa in Jinja, Uganda back in 2014 and again in 2015, Esa shares the sounds of a new breed of talent and ideas emerging from East Africa and beyond, showcases music not only from Uganda but artist from Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa who all attended the conference.
Belgian techno powerhouse Token welcome back another label regular in Ø [Phase]. This Versions 12″ represents an interesting move for Surrey-based Ashley Burchett, a chance to delve into his back catalogue and offer up some versions of some of the heavy hitting cuts that helped establish him within the techno community. Versions opens with an ‘Enhanced’ and buffed up take on “Flyby / Falling” from his 2006 Espresso EP for Ingoma, complemented by an unreleased demo take on “Bulk” from the same year. Another Enhanced version, of “Obscura Mix 1” is perhaps the finest cut here though Token completists will find much to savour in the stripped mix of Mass, the title track from his 2007 label debut.
Ad Rvina Imperii is the first chapter of a series of various artists compilations co-produced by Kapvt Mvndi (Blackwater) with Love Blast Records and Stirpe 999 Anti Label. Fire At Work – Spartacvs is a slow motion track with increasing melody. A hypnotic industrial piece made with modulators. Somatic Responses – Dark Ervption is an experimental track mixing Drone and Rough music. On side B comes single track Luciano Lamanna – Giammai Per Sempre, a rough techno track with very deep influences and experimental sounds all made via modulator machines.
Three monstrous tracks straight from the basement feat. one of the original house music creator Ron Hardy. Set the tone – Dance sucker, Starflight – dance to the beat, Electronic Drums# 5.
Four monstruous tracks straight from the basement feat. one of the original house music creator Ron Hardy. Connie case – Get down, R.E.M. – Computer communication, Electronic Drums#3 & #4.
Amazing italo re-issue for the hardcore italo lovers with extended edits made by the notorious Flemming Dalum and Hysteric.
Prior to joining up with Lobster Theremin for this volume of their white label series, Qnete’s output had largely consisted of powerful but spacey tracks in an intelligent techno-meets-classic Detroit vibe. While hints of that style are still present on his first Lobster Theremin outing, there’s a much more “classic deep house” feel throughout. Opener “A Luv Jam” comes across as the sort of expansive, star-gazing, Larry Heard inspired jam that moves the head just as much as the feet, while “I Might Be Wrong” doffs a cap in the direction of the Motor City whilst retaining an early ’90s feel. As for flipside “Dresden”, it offers a magical fusion of fizzing, Chicago-inspired drum machine rhythms and spacey, almost endless deep space chords.
Eugene Efimenko aka Muzikalist, is a DJ, musician and promoter based in Kaliningrad. Here he makes his debut on Flight Recorder label with four deep acidic Chicago tracks.
Light Sounds Dark’s steady plummet into the 5th dimension continues in earnest as the label reach their 14th release. A rather special unit, certain to dissipate as cleanly and as smoothly as a 150mics dose of Sandoz’ finest; best to pay the admission and take the trip now if you want in. Fortune favours the brave and fearless exploration is surely required. Gone are the boogie, cosmic and Balearic coloured fractals, replaced now by dark industrial menace, no-wave bleakness and post-punk tribal space music. Painstakingly sequenced and arranged over three discs to give you a truly immersive journey; fasten those seatbelts and take a trip on the rainbow super highway.
The origins of these enigmatic VHS-scrambled prog-techno explorations are so true and tripped they’re worth quoting in full from co-chairman Christopher Hontos: “Night Court was recorded in July two summers ago (’13) in a remote cabin on Lake Namekagan (located on national forest grounds in northern Wisconsin). We usually do these ball-busting weeklong recording sessions up there with a good group of folks and a grip of mushrooms. For this one we had this idea of setting up our synths on the deck and doing a trippy somnabulistic overnight open-air recording sesh that would be called “Night Court.” However when the time came and the crew got together we interpreted the name literally and ended up jamming out an album of legal system-themed tracks. We recorded the entire album in one day every song in one take and with very little post-production. Track after track flowed and we never drifted from the theme nor spent time diverting our focus (with the exception of Farstad being vetoed after trying to start up a footwork-style track). After the session we were all so burnt-out and fried we thought little of the recordings. But as time passed we went back to them and realized we had struck gold. Italics ours – this is rare ore. A freaked fusion vision, flowing cold city collectivist synths interlaid with executioner guitar, ambulance/TV samples, alley haze, and flashing sirens sax. Insane music for insane times. Its meanings are manifold: political (a sweeping overview of the nothing-specific nature of humanity via the American legal system), metaphoric (tongue-in-cheek turns to fist-in-air, and we realize that life imitates fiction less than fiction imitates life), realistic (at the time of recording none of us had ever seen an entire episode Law & Order).”
Second Layer was a side project of Adrian Borland and Graham Bailey, members of post punk band The Sound. The music was bleak, detached, and desolate, but very beautiful. Honest songwriting and a harsh sonic backdrop set them apart from their peers. Second Layer’s World of Rubber, first released on Cherry Red way back in 1981 – some two years after the duo’s first outing on 7” – has long been considered something of an industrial classic by those in the know. Here, it gets a deserved re-press from the folks at Dark Entries. 34 years on, it still retains the power to shock, with Adrian Borland and Graham Green’s raw, weighty mix of post-punk basslines, sharp guitars, fuzzy electronics, tape loops and basic drum machine grooves still sounding deliciously fresh. Certainly, it’s comparable to many more celebrated releases of the time, and arguably more spontaneous in feel.
The first of the OMNI.VA series, featuring Barker & Baumecker, The Friend, Schmutz and Space Fresh. A dark territory.
Never a label to be afraid of bucking expectations, the 20th Acido releases sees founder Dynamo Dreesen collaborating with regular colluder SVN and, surprisingly, Dave ‘A Made Up Sound’ Huismans. Of the three untitled tracks, it’s the A side where the production touch of A Made Up Sound is most discernible, thanks to the skipping, stripped back rhythmic kicks that propel the cut forwards. You can totally see Ben UFO getting plenty of mileage out of this one. It is the B side where the abstract inclinations of SVN and Dreesen come to the fore, with “Track 2” sinking meandering drums in a thick, foggy soup of sonics and delayed modular bleeps whilst the final track is jittering, minimal electronics at its most paranoid.
Mörk continues a hazy run of releases with a hard-driving, dream-techno 12″ from Romansoff. Known for raw and battered techno excursions and curation through his Raw Tools labels, Romansoff continues his recent stellar run with a more wandering, daylight-dreaming four track EP. The light-splintered techno of ‘Beyond The Self’ melting into the looping shuttered-blind house of ‘Infinite Dreams’. While the flip explores a visceral washed-out 5am sound palette, with ‘Seven Sins’s drowning modems and the incessant clattering rhythms of ‘She Forgives’.
After releasing his music on the labels like Mathematics, Macadam Mambo, Hotmix and Snuff Trax, Takeshi Kouzuki, Japanese producer currently based in Kobe, starts his own label Man Made Mechanical Culture. The first EP is delivered with his own 3 raw house tracks mainly made of analogue synth and rhythm machine sounds.
After landing his malfunctioning PX-4000 on the purple planet, Captain DMX steps out of the smoldering cockpit. After barely setting foot on the dusty landscape, the Captain is startled by deep thudding from over the hills. Dragging his oxygen pack with one hand and his atomizer with the other, he sets off in search of the other-wordly din. Over the hill his pupils adjust to the stroboscopic lightning and below him lies a sea of strange creatures moving together as one body. A cosmic sermon takes place under the three suns in the sky, mechanical and stuttered frequencies set a manic pace and drive the dark creatures back and forth. Captain DMX sighs a heavy breath and starts to descend into the fray….
Under his Chemotex alias, Marcos Cabral has been one of The Trilogy Tapes most productive artists in recent times. Thulsa strives to get a balance between becalmed techno hypnotism, skuzzy grooves and gently melodious intent. This blend is perhaps most satisfyingly mixed on the industrial-tinged clank of “Delta City”, though the woozier, scuffled late night warmth of “Music For Security” pushes it close. Twice he heads towards deeper territory; first on the title track’s trance-inducing synthesizer loop groove, and secondly on the dubby, locked-in tech-house majesty of “Lorentz”.
Bookworms and Max Ravitz aka Patricia team up as Pulpo and givimg you some dusty Brooklyn haze. While it may be challenging for most dancefloors, the guts and murk of these tracks are sure to get you in the proper headspace for a night sinking deep into the couch.
The Hipodrome Of Music 