Two brand new remixes of Sparky’s eternal Numbers anthem Portland by Tuff City Kids (Gerd Janson & Phillip Lauer). Having requested the parts of the original track, the intrepid duo travelled back in time to the year 1991, set up their samplers and got busy with the breakbeats and euphoric synth pads.
Real Sool brings together a trio of heavyweight practitioners in the fine art of House Music to remix tracks from Ultrmarine’s critically acclaimed album of late 2013.
Ugly Drums again on Faces with a new EP, co-produced by Kalakuta Soul System, Chesney and featuring Detroit based MC/Producer Brownstudy. Steffen deliver a multi dimensional, raw, untainted ep, that displays a splash of all colours- House, Disco and Hip Hop.
The latest release on Abstract Forms finds Swedish electro purist Ola Bergman return for a second offering in his ongoing series of Multiverse releases as Obergman, having inaugurated proceedings with Cyclic Multiverse back in March. Much like that seven track set, there is much for fans of minimal machine funk to savour on Quilted Multiverse, and Bergman uses the album format to really showcase his full production palette. So whilst opener “Resemblance” or “Supersymmetry” are classic jittering electro with subaqueous textures and rippling rhythms, Bergman also indulges his more bugged out side on “Alkaline”, “Coma Cluster” and the rhythmically interesting “Gravitational Collapse”.
Five Deep and dark, funky Detroit Electro tracks from the Romanian producer Andrew Red Hand. Sounding like the rebirth of the legendary Red Planet/Martian project, Andrew makes his Matrix debut. The “Life-Changing Experiences” e.p. is very well produced “Detroit electro funk” composed by a master of the genre who has obviously studied and learned from the likes of Cybotron and Aux 88.
Dollkraut, Amsterdam’s analog wizard with a love for fuzzy 70’s space age records, prepares two rough and driving electro cuts for Permanent Vacation with haunting vocals that will dominate your dreams. On Remix duties are New York’s Invisible Conga People, who bless us with some of their rare outcomes and they can do no wrong: A cristal clear production with a lot of ping pong pang and swish swash swoosh.
The limited series of Frustrated Funks ever growing catalog now sees MinimalRome chief Heinrich Dressel explore aquatic territories below the surface of mud streams that rise high in the Apennine Mountains and flow to find their way to the Tyrrhenian Sea. Ancient legends of the Tiber River tell stories like the one of Rome’s founders, the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, who were abandoned on it’s waters and where they were rescued by a mystic she-wolf. Dressel tries to capture these great legends that lurk in the depth and surround the Roman area. Great music comes from great minds. Great minds are inspired by great stories. And no technical application can count or analyze the importance of that.
DynArec needs no introduction for most electro heads. Here another solid release by this french producer who remains submerged, but drops a stellar electro release from time to time.
Given the quality of his previous releases on Hivern Discs, you’d expect this ultra-limited 12″ excursion from Marc Pinol to be pretty special. It is, of course, with the Spanish producer’s original version of “Clef III” getting the perfect balance between nu-disco style, melody rich beauty and good old-fashioned, acid-flecked Chicago jack. Alejandro Paz works the drums and handclaps harder on his trippy, hypnotic take, while Capablanca hit the button marked “Balearic acid” on their spiralling, near psychedelic take. It’s a great package, made all the more alluring by the strange paucity of copies (just 99 worldwide, apparently… be quick or miss out).
The label say: ‘Its rare to hear a debut 12 single that really blows you away. Thats hardly a controversial statement; in truth, most producers take time to find their feet, developing a distinct style over a period of years, rather than months. Magnesii, then, is something special. Currently based in Amsterdam. The previously unheard of producer has delivered a stunning debut 12 for Tom Tragos Voyage Direct label. Raw, fuzzy and in turns melancholic, spellbinding and intense, its three tracks bubble and hiss to the distinct sound of vintage analogue hardware.’
The second Lobster Theremin white label comes from the mysterious Australian producer, Daze. Making his release debut with four original tracks, Daze covers varying strains of tough melodic house, ferocious acid and old school breakbeat, taking us on an experiential journey into the heart of British rave culture via Detroit-influenced electro and rough and ready tape jams.
Equally inspiring follow up to Harons debut on Tape Records, this one featuring a brilliant remix by Gifted & Blessed.
”A syncopated pattern of stabbed chords remains the benchmark of the track, anchoring a groove that initially builds using off-kilter, intentionally grating background noise. As resonators get turned up and tensions mount, the moment when the funky, hi-hat led percussion finally arrives around the 2:20 mark is met with the kind of exuberant release that dancefloor-heaven is rooted in. Lost In Brooklyn continues to ebb and flow throughout its remainder, with peaks and troughs that power through until the end and renders it more than a bit of DJ weapon. Besides Rau, Norm Talley is also back on Thema and with a kind of focused fury that only he can sustain. He infuses Raus upbeat production with his Motor City hypnotic soul and reworks it for a deeper, later hour. The motif that makes up the A-side is eschewed in favor of subdued pads, skittering cosmic washes drenched in delay, and driving drums that straddle the line between house and techno. The contrast between each side of this vinyl plays off the other nicely, but they both retain the sophisticated charisma that ties everything on Thema together.”
After their debut release by Xosar, the Belgian club night imprint ”Ensemble” returns with a 12” by ”de Ambassade”, a collective term for ambassadors Ben Sun, Xan Xoda, Raw Sketches and Sisterhood. Four strong house tracks.
Shipwrec serve up a second instalment of the American Psychosis project by pioneering Dutch producer Drvg Cvltvre. He is known for his experimental and boundary pushing sounds and it’s no different here, on either track. The first, ‘March into Nothingness’ is a truly bleak and foreboding affair with serrated synths and thick, dense fog hanging in the air above slow and purposeful drums. Like a post apocalyptic industrial estate it is a raw and arresting place to be. ‘Drown Into The Eternal Twilight’ is then an even harder edge techno stomper with angry synth lines, tough drums and tons of white noise darkening the foreboding airwaves.
Ideally in transit between yesterday and today, between adolescence and maturity, between an arcadian dimension and a more actual reality made of mirrors and metal, here it is the sonic trip for these two singular characters, Zarkoff and Popsimonova, a taste of sci-fi retro comics, as the bridge of hyena plisskinn in Carpenter ‘1997 escape from ny’ or the characters of the bridge of William Gibson, the master of cyberpunk american literature. The minimal futurstic attitude is deformed, exagerated, distorted, in some case it becomes just a cold expressionism, violent sintetic colors as the sky of Munch, but the scream this time is purely electronic… The bridge, this eternal symbol of passage, the union of opposite realities, in this case reflected itself in the music, with deep roots that lie in the past (for the analog instrumentation) and then leap into the future, materialized from essential and modernist musical structures. Each human being builds its own bridge, a piece at a time, and so it happens the magic of communication, it takes place. In Die Brucke it happens in the ideal musical dialog between this two singular characters, with their composite way to write songs. Including two L.A.S.’s Crime Remixes.
Solitude FX is no stranger to Enfant Terrible. This German Duo has been present on the great Dutch label since the first compilation from 2006. This new album consists of 10 super melancholy lo-fi minimal synth tunes for the true new wave fan…
Born from the depths of a basement show and raised on the hallowed, unrelenting beauty of the Kentucky countryside, the artist known as Live Island proves not all hope is lost in world. In fact: just the opposite. “King” is effective music for a disaffected people; transmitted by the Philosopher King guiding us into the coming Ice Age. Harboring hope with its timeless synthetic beauty, “King” promises only the shift in perspective you’ll need to survive what’s to come. Its sibling, the “Home Dub”, is an etude of broken minimalism, born of dank basements but not alien to the terrains of the dance floor.
As part of M-Plant’s 20th Anniversary, it’s the perfect time for Robert Hood to re-visit one of his other decisive monikers, Monobox. The deep and melodious tones of ‘Film’ are beautifully offset by the tougher machine groove of ‘Rectangle’, with both tracks conveying the hypnotic minimalist approach of Hood’s otherworldly Monobox sound.
