Gerstaffelen – Night Flowing North & South [MOSDEEP021]

GERSTAFFELEN - Night Flowing North & South

Still no one knows who Gerstaffelen is, but with this release the producer becomes a regular on the MOS Deep label and is now back with four more of the rawest cuts you could imagine. Wasting no time in getting gritty, ‘Bombara’ is a frazzled and gauzy deep techno cut with muffled voices, beams of melodic light and lots of percussive hustle. ‘Invisible Ghosts’ is a less urgent but equally monstrous track with dark groaning bass, prickly hi hat patterns and frenzied synth lines. ‘Night Flowing North’ actually offers a slightly lighter sound, with celestial and heartfelt melodies darting about between ping ponging drums and percussive hits before ‘Night Flowing South’ comes over like a classic jack track from Chicago, with a quick baseline riding up and down the scale and propping the whole track up

listen

Gerstaffelen – Night Flowing North & South [MOSDEEP021]

VA – Parallax 1 [PRLX001]

TV OUT/PHARAOH/YOGG - Parallax01

Debut release showcases 3 of Tel-Aviv’s emerging electronic music producers. A-side is defined by Tv.Out’s hard-driven machines and Pharaoh’s hard jackin’ house miniatures. Stamp-side features two deeper House cuts by Jerusalem’s Yogg followed by a killer Fred P remix.

listen

VA – Parallax 1 [PRLX001]

Tinfoil – Tinfoil 2 [TINFOIL002]

Sunil Sharpe and DefeKt unwrap more electrified madness with a second release as Tinfoil. More Sunil Sharpe techno than DefeKt electro comes through on this EP with “Foil 9” battering down the hatchet for a synth heavy, hi intensity hit of colourful industrial beats. Snares are added to the mix in “Foil 8” create a syncopated concoction of R&S rave mechanics mixed with detuned Drexciyan similarities. “Foil 10” sounds like something you’d image Oscar Mulero playing in Tresor while “Foil 5” is stripped back and sinister.

listen

Tinfoil – Tinfoil 2 [TINFOIL002]

Florian Pellissier Quintet – Biches Bleues [HS114]

FLORIAN PELLISSIER QUINTET - Biches Bleues

Timeless, Florian Pellissier Quintet journey through jazz from Paris to New York. A rule of the game is to find the flavor of New Yorkers groups from the 60’s to mix with European musicians of the time. Organic, inspired, it would take ten years of concerts and two albums to reach the goal: ”iches Bleue” promises to be a gateway album, a hidden passageway between eras, a scientific miracle. A sax, trumpet, piano, bass and drums, no artifice, a simple sound.

listen

Florian Pellissier Quintet – Biches Bleues [HS114]

Dollkraut – Schimanski’s Black Lullabies [THEGYMLP002]

Accurately describing the sound of Dollkraut, aka producer Pascal Pinkert, has always been tricky. Over the years, his sporadic 12″ singles have variously touched on analogue disco, krautrock, deep house, Italo, nu-jazz and beatbox electro. This belated debut album – released some five years after his debut 12″ dropped – continues this theme. It flits between styles at will – bold African rhythms, post-punk, soundtrack schtick, Serge Gainsbourg style sleaze, odd guitar-laden lo-fi rock sketches – whilst retaining a unique dustiness and aural sensibility. It’s a fine set, all told, and in the circumstances holds together remarkably well.

listen

Dollkraut – Schimanski’s Black Lullabies [THEGYMLP002]

Mind Fair – Mind Fair [CHANNEL029]

Having impressed with a variety of weird and wonderful singles on International Feel, Golf Channel and their own Rogue Cat Sounds imprint over the last three years, it’s probably about time Ben Shenton and Dean Meredith dropped their debut album under the Mind Fair alias. Predictably, it’s an impressively wonky, off-kilter and dubbed-out affair, effortlessly joining the dots between dub disco, hazy punk-funk, heavy African rhythms (see stand-out “Voodoo Train”), slo-mo chuggers (“Neon Carnival”) and bluesy Balearica (“Sunny Carter”). Blessed with plenty of live drums, guitars and bass, as well as vintage synthesizers, it’s an attractively loose affair, with great ideas and beautiful mood pieces complimenting the low-slung, out-there experiments.

listen

Mind Fair – Mind Fair [CHANNEL029]

Tapper Zukie / The Warriors – Visions Of Love / Love Dream [SRE010]

Reissue of this super rare 12inch from the legendary Tapper Zukie. ‘Visions Of Love’ is a vocal lead groove fest, with bumping bass lines and throwback house beats, whilst the B-side lays out a dubbier version of the original. Proper floor filler material here.

listen

Tapper Zukie / The Warriors – Visions Of Love / Love Dream [SRE010]

Dunkeltier – Rising [MME4004]

DUNKELTIER - Rising

Dresden don Dunkeltier (aka Sneaker aka Gino ‘Der Hammer’ Galan) is next up on the Macadam Mambo flex, dipping into his personal armoury of EBM, industrial and post punk favourites for a premium set of edits. If you dug his Rat Life edits this year or got blown away by a Traxx session then you will definitely levitate towards the sounds here as Dunkeltier tweaks Kozmonaut, Absolute Body Control and EM. Do check the mind altering Phase Adjustment of “Tanzmusik” from cult Belgian crew Absolute Body Control which is exactly the sort of fizzing power electronics that will provide a welcome deviation into absolute beat down territory for the more adventurous selectors.

listen

Dunkeltier – Rising [MME4004]

Ike Release – Noir [MOSLP003]

IKE RELEASE - Noir

Debut solo full length from Chicagos Ike Release. Ike is an accomplished solo producer as well as being one half of acclaimed duo Innerspace Halflife with Hakim Murphy, and has a long and fruitful relationship with MOS Recordings. For the last five years or so, Ike has been releasing a mind-expanding brand of analogue rich music that continues in his native Chicago’s fine traditions without resting on the usual tired tropes. Labels like MOS, Machining Dreams and his own Episodes have released it to date and now this full length, Noir, comes as a fully formed artistic statement that lays out his sound in all its glory.

listen

Ike Release – Noir [MOSLP003]

Mark Forshaw – Explorer EP [CC001]

Computer Controlled Records is a vinyl only electronic music label operating out of Belfast, Northern Ireland specializing in the raw analogue sounds of techno, house and electro keeping a DIY ethos with screen printed sleeves. The first release comes from Mark Forshaw who has previously released on Tabernacle, Mathematics, III Rivers and Apartment and is one third of Phantom Planet Outlaws alongside Binny & John Heckle. This EP delivers 4 tracks of raw analogue acid and Detroit techno funk.

listen

Mark Forshaw – Explorer EP [CC001]

Paperwork – BAROC002 [BAROC002]

German based imprint BAROC return with their second instalment. Paperwork steps up with three untitled cuts of properly raw, atmospheric house and techno. Drums thump whilst synths and fx float around the perimeters. Comes hand stamped, limited copies with inserts.

listen

Paperwork – BAROC002 [BAROC002]

December – In Advance of the Broken Arm [A14001]

Pronounced Ay One Four, the A14 label is a new offshoot of Blackest Ever Black dedicated to issuing everything from “serpentine breakbeat reductions to straight-up terminator trax” in the 12″ format. The debut release comes from December, the recently adopted alias of Parisian producer Tomas More whose earlier material for Correspondant and Items & Things is far removed from the music he now makes. If you picked up the December tape for Where To Now? issued back in August you should have an idea of the abstract textures More now deals in, and there’s something a bit Beau Wanzer about the wave-indebted techno of lead track “In Advance Of The Broken Arm”. Proceedings get a bit more bugged out on the flip with “Collapse” accurately summed up as “khat-crazed small hours death-dub” by the label.

listen

December – In Advance of the Broken Arm [A14001]

Chicago Jim – Chicago Jim LP [LT008]

The Lobster Theremin label is finally ready to make the move to the full-length format. Interestingly, this first LP – a double album, no less – comes from a largely unheralded source, former Vancouver resident Chicago Jim (AKA Space Jim). Chicago Jim replicates the contents of his self-released 2012 cassette of the same name, bringing his blend of Larry Heard-inspired analogue deep house and stargazing ambience to vinyl for the first time. With nods to Heard’s recently reissued Alien LP, early Transmat and Virgo Four style acid house, it’s an analogue-only set – recorded mostly using vintage kit – that ebbs and flows with great emotional intent.

listen

Chicago Jim – Chicago Jim LP [LT008]

Privacy – Hypertext EP [LT010]

Lobster Theremin debut yet another young Berlin talent in the form of the electro and new wave future-son Privacy. Drawing on a rich heritage of Detroit and Dutch staggered soundworks and beat engineering, Privacy’s debut is a spectral reminder of the power of the swung beat with roaring synthesizer mechanics and industrial leanings all present and correct.

listen

Privacy – Hypertext EP [LT010]

Paradise Box – Reel Nitty Gritty EP [EVR016]

Fresh from his outing on Inkswel’s Hot Shot Sounds label, ex UK now Melbourne based artist Paradise Box brings four freeform Nu Groove style excursions to Echovolt, flipping the quintessential house acapella on Reel Nitty Gritty into a Burrell Brothers style banger. The other tracks touch on Virgo Four, Mr Fingers and classic WBMX style hardware soul, making a virtue of idiosyncrasy and showcasing the fallibilities of the human touch. The whole EP harks back to an era where having limited means meant that loose and expressive soulful endeavor was pursued over high production values and rigid conformism.

listen

Paradise Box – Reel Nitty Gritty EP [EVR016]

Joey Anderson – Head Down Arms Buddha Position [TANSPLAN005]

New Jersey’s Joey Anderson joins the TANSTAAFL family in fine tripping, jacking & twisting style. Body & soul music for the headstrong. Joey ‘s take on techno and house – sparse and mechanical, but heavily influenced by both classic Detroit futurism and the twisted pulse of Chicago acid.

listen

Joey Anderson – Head Down Arms Buddha Position [TANSPLAN005]