The third release on Greek imprint Nous comes from Hungary based producer Route 8, offering five cuts of serious house music. It makes subtle allusions in places to 90s era minimal masters such as Carl Craig, while at other points paying judicious homage to UK trailblazers from Sheffield’s golden era; beyond the canny reference points however each track on the Elada EP is underpinned with an obvious love for the slow-burning soul of deep house.
Nice atmospheric piano house to techno driven peak time to raw dance floor killers. Another nice Finale Sessions.
Christopher Rau strikes back with another Smallville episode of dreams that money can buy. After a couple of diverse releases lately on Office, Dérive and Junk-Yard Collections, he proves his unique exposure to deeply diving with the machines again on Smallville. Christopher Rau’s aural works feel like an outer world’s embrace, an analog kiss from the beyond. Here it is the soundtrack made for our favorite places to escape reality: a magic club, a deepest dream.
Following a five-year hiatus the #Stockholm based label, Finest Blend makes its return. With previous releases from the likes of Orlando Voorn, Shawn Rudiman, Terence Dixon and label head, Kenny Black it became synonymous with hi-tech grooves, breaking barriers, crossing genres and developing new ones. For its re-launch Finest Blend turns to Santiago Salazar with three tracks of his characteristic house / techno sound. His new EP for Finest Blend opens with the upbeat ‘Galactic Stomp’ full of shimmering flourishes and a tough bassline, before the funked-up shuffle of ‘The Twang’ makes its hit, ending with the spacey electronics of ‘3000 Northend’.
New York House meets Detroit Techno, melted together in Berlin. Fierce funk driven techno with a killer bassline on the a-side and some deeper slowly building tracks on the flip.
Staffan Linzatti returns for his second release on Chronicle with another uncompromising selection of linear techno constructions sculpted with an unfaltering vision of how hypnotic body music can transcend simple rhythmic needs. Icy atmospherics and razor-sharp production make for one of the strongest manifestations of Linzatti’s distinctive sound.
Florian Kupfer is back with a new ep diverging from his previous efforts and delving interesting results. Nasty one from this very talented young upstart. This Society turns out to be a massive floor board ripping cut in a similar to old Acid Planet or Bunker tracks, no bells and whistles just bare bones warehouse mayhem. Resistors teases in start/stop fashion throughout pushing to the point of no return and never getting there leaving the listener in limbo. Finally, taking up the entire b-side, Reach Another System is an autistic 909 driven piano track in the most unconventional sense which implodes upon contact.
Hamburg’s saviour of the Reeperbahn darkness, ‘la belle dame sans merci’ from the notorious ‘Golden Pudel’ club, her menacing and ruthless sound strongly reminiscent of ‘Beverly Hills 808303/Interr-Ference’ from The Hague’s sinister ’90’s
Flowing acidic lava from new Abstract Acid discovery, Etcher, who we have absolutely no prior knowledge of, but this matters not as this is solid acid-techno through-and-through, reminiscent perhaps of an early nineties European sound, which of course we favour greatly here at Interstellar HQ. Quite simply really, really good acid.
Second release on the Cos_Mos label, with 3 ritual dark house tracks by this ‘mystery’ artist. Danny Wolfers all the way!
3rd Part of the tribute to Spencer Kincy’s ‘Gemini Traxx’ series, bringing his legendary 1997 album fully remastered.
For his follow up to certified underground hits “Tonite” and “Enter the Fog”, Fit Siegel retains a firm embrace of both melody and rhythm. “Cocomo” is Siegel’s most delicate, and beautiful track to date. While, “Seedbed” snaps the listener back to the dancefloor with a syncopated acid earworm. For his label’s tenth release, Fit presents two fully-realized, divergent sounds, obviously able to harness the energy of his unpredictable DJ sets in the studio. This marks the return of one of Detroit’s most exciting young producers and further establishes Fit Sound as a hotbed of fearless dance music.
An explosive caustic acid concoction awaits from within the grooves of this gargantuan twelve inch from Chicago heavyweight, Hieroglyphic Being. ‘Free the Energy (No Vocal Energy)’ is highly volatile, with severely unforgiving and distorted drum programming, this violently radioactive adventure is nothing short of brutal and certainly not for the squeamish. Title cut, ‘Acid Rain Under the Stars’ paints a dreamy landscape, while the acidic protons and neutrons busily rebound in the background on this elongated, hypnosis-inducing and beautifully mind-distorting headtrip.
Louis Guilliaume has come a long way and with his every release he has proven to deserve his space amongst the finest techno producers out there. Unknown Forces EP is a straight forward techno EP which shows influences from his hometown Rotterdam to Detroit and back to Berlin. The EP opens up with ”Digital Stone”. A sensitive acid sledgehammer which bounces gently on to your head. ”Ghost In The Shell” is no different with its massive basslines and dark synths drenched in that typical uncompromising Guilliaume flavor. With ”X-11-101”, mr. Guilliaume didnt hold back. This here is what you call an instant peak time floor filler. Bigroom techno, sinister and compelling all the way. After that we finish with the tense and dark title track ”Unknown Forces” which balances somewhere on the edge between hope and desperation.
Spaced out 4 track project from duo of Hakim Murphy & Ike Release. Emotional & cosmic tunes that focus on outer space themes & share common thread of infinite possibilities. Neo-acid house to straight deep house.
Layered rhythms force these tracks forward to an unspoken conclusion, although there cannot be any doubt about the tracks’ intentions! Roger 23 has a reputation for producing music that combines great intuition with a roughness that is equally as challenging as it is soothing. ‘Future State’ is no exception to this rule. Bursts of melody and atmosphere draw the attention to relentless, yet not straight rhythmic patterns and vice versa. These five tracks are a remorseless leap into what dance music can be. Made with optimism and an open mind, they explore darker territories in an inviting and open-ended way. The last track on this EP being a short, blissful Ambient piece that abstractly channels the energy of the other tracks serves as one last lap on the rings of Saturn. ‘Future State’ plays with meaning, intention and focus and in the process refocuses itself time and again. It is an extremely versatile exploration that is as engaging and believing as can be.
