Cosmic Handshakes are Detroit producers Dial 81 and Todd Modes. This collaboration project churns out a supreme delicacy of meditative and primal jams. Song titles accurately narrate the genre surfing gems that Cosmic Handshakes offer throughout. Enjoy the magical, galactic cruise of The Delicate Details.
OCH has a strong pedigree of collaborations with fellow underground stalwart Jay Bliss the latest to share space on a Autoreply record with the label boss. Bliss should be known to many as the co-owner of Electrique Boutique alongside Markus Homm, for a long time the only vinyl outlet in Romania, and his discography makes for impressive reading these days. Recent times have seen Mr Bliss share record space with the likes of Skudge and Petre Inspirescu on respected imprints like 20:20 Vision, All Inn, Hudd Traxx and Fear Of Flying. AUTO 015 kicks off with a bouncy rework of OCH’s “Scammell” from Bliss featuring sub-aqua sound-scapes and sonar blips on an instantly playable US inspired groove. OCH’s original has a distinctly liquid approach possibly referencing the work of LTJ Bukem and Good Looking over techno framework. Jay’s main offering “Men Are From Mars” is sexy controlled acid which OCH shifts up a gear for peak time floor-play layering the original TB303 patterns to thundering climax. Road-tested on Eleven Club, Tokyo’s Alpha System’s custom speakers.
Here we have a very special installment of The Hipodrome Of Music podcast series, featuring a guy that I was hunting for a long time to get it on Hipodrome. Iulian Cazan aka Jay Bliss is one of the persons and djs that had a great influence on my evolution in the electronic music, opening my mind to new musical horizons when moving to Sibiu 8 years ago.
Since then, Iuli has moved from being one of Romania’s youngest dj talents to one of the most respected Romanian producers and djs, with releases on labels like Diynamic, Hudd Traxx, Fear of Flying, All Inn and 20:20 Vision and collaborations with fellow Romania starlets Mihai Popoviciu, Petre Inspirescu and international artist like Och, Markus Homm and Skudge. Also he had shows all around Europe, from UK and Spain to Germany, Holland and Russia.
ItaloJohnson are hitting you up with the seventh ITJ installment and as you might have guessed, they present you once more with three tracks on a fine piece of waxxx.
Luca Ballerini with the 2nd release on Musical Methaphor. This time slightly on a Detroit tip with some classic house tracks with some light melodic topping, and an additional Rio Padice remix who adds some jazzy and funky sample flavor.
The official reissue of ERB, a collaboration between Braxton Holmes and Ron Trent on Clubhouse Records from Chicago. ’92 style deepness – when things really started to get musical again. Soulful and jazzy vocal, and one for the house heads.
This is the first of two 12s containing one of our absolute favourite tracks from prolific producer Ken Duke aka DJ Duke. Closer was orginally released back in 1994 on Dukes Power Music Records and the amazing Klubb Kidz mixes quickly found its way into many DJs record bags, including label boss Mad Mats who rates the Flava Dub as one of his favourite deep house cuts of all time. If u ever heard Mats spinning a house set chances are big youve heard this mix blasted loud! First up for remixes duties this time is Mark Seven, Parkway/Parkwest label owner, a true DJs DJ, a passionate music lover and record collector extrodinare. The So Close Mix of Closer is deep house at its finest, an homage to the classic Prescription sound keeping it ultimately atmospheric. The Stalker mix continues on the same vibe yet develops into something more meaty and pumping during its course. Together with the original Klubb Kidz Flava Dub and the Mark Seven mixes this release got everything a true deep house head needs.
The Essentials of Techno! It’s been twelve years since the first and last Mike Parker album called “Dispatches”. 12 years later, Prologue is very excited to host the second album from Mike and this time it’s all about techno performed as a kind of ritual. Let us open the secrets of Mike Parker’s “Lustrations”. The title has multiple meanings and stands also for clarity. Clarity is in general the attitude of Mike’s tracks. He has the massive aptitude to bring techno back to the essentials. Mike’s music has clarity in sound structures, bass lines, drums and arrangements. Everything is lead by puristic sound engineering and exactly this kind of unique and authentic Techno can be discovered on “Lustrations”. 12 hypnotic driven tracks designed to be timeless, produced to be played in techno temples in order to set the audience in hypnotism and to clear the mind.
When I opened my eyes it seemed that something has changed, the same people, the same place, the same climate, but a different situation to which I adapted by inertia, lay before us a new dimension. Thick, intimate, felt. Music as nexus. Industrial banging techno from the Spanish NX1 label.
Marco aka The Riss Jr. Zenker is back with a pumping 3 tracker right before the Bavarian summer holidays. Excellent, tough jacking, classic 1990s US Techno reminiscent EP.
The 9th release in the Truncate series featuring some solid warehouse techno tracks. This time from labelboss Truncate and Luis Flores.
Naif returns with 2 bass line-killers here on number 005, delivered by Tobias. from Berlin and o.utlier from Ireland.
LDNwht, London White is a new London based vinyl only. For the first release they lineup four tracks by Charlton, Viktoria Rebeka, Bleaching Agent and Espen Lauritzen. Hard hitting, noisy, acidic Techno mini compilation.
Nick Lapien’s debut release as Metropolis garnered little attention when it materialized last year. A skeptical yet dedicated network of underground heads built up a subterranean buzz that has yet to spread into the daylight. That initial transmission was thick with the raw analogue flavors that have become ever-present in dance floor fare recentlybut his is a sound that is dedicated to the emotive, narrative aspects of electronic music rather than simple fetishization or passing curiosity in the days of yore. This, his second release as Metropolis, shows a more focused and patient hand at work. The titular track on the A side is a deep, psychedelic groover. Melodies, textures and sequences undulate and intertwine within a lightless atmosphere guided by Lapien with optimum restraint. Equally pensive and gorgeous, The Flood serves as a Machine’s beat-less foil on the reverse. Made up of little more than feedback and two slow, echo laden arpeggiated sequences, this is reminiscent of Jean Michel Jarre’s more sinister moments: a brilliant paradox of economy and indulgence.
Italian newcomers Hiver continue to explore the crawlspace between US and European styles of house and techno on the Blue Aconite EP for Belgian imprint Curle. Brandishing a crisp and icy sound that makes their name all too fitting (it’s French for winter don’t you know) Hiver impress from the off with the breathless, subtle deep techno of the title track By contrast, “Egaltine” is more European sounding, its dubby groove revealing tantalising acid licks and a broadside of hi-hats as the filters build and drop, whilst “Teasel” demonstrates Hiver’s capacity for soulful productions. This later track is remixed by Tobias, with the German choosing to implement some shuffling, metallic drums and ponderous bass.
Parassela is the studio and live project of Blawan and The Analogue Cops. The project lands on Restoration, featuring the appearance of Pariah on track A1, a crossover monster of techno and garage. Getting darker, A2 is an unfriendly radio-activity with a gloomy chicagoid reminiscence. Side B displays two dystopic cuts of massive sci-fi acidic techno. There are no titles for the tracks, just insurgent grooves, by men and machines, coming from magnetic tapes.
Paradise sees minimal Detroit techno icon Robert Hood exploring the Floorplan concept in more expansive style. The Floorplan project was founded in the mid 90s, as Hood looked to merge his minimalist approach with elements of house, disco, funk and gospel. Explored intermittently over a six year period, Hood put it to one side and it was a reissue of the Floorplan debut by Rush Hour that inspired him to revisit the project in 2011, scoring a bonafide gem in “We Magnify His Name”. Explored in album format here, Paradise is a mixture of all new material and tracks culled from these recent M Plant 12″ releases, lending the album a sense of continuity. It’s all the more impressive when you consider the fact Hood’s been releasing one highly conceptual album a year since 2009.
Features 2 tracks taken from The Third Man’s debut album Beyond the Heliosphere with Legowelt remixing Pipes of Helios Canyon, with the addition of the growling Techno tune The Tracker.
Mystic Ep is made by one of the most confidential producers in Spain. His rarity and his value are like a noble metal : Eduardo De La Calle sounds are warm, elegant and meticulously cuted. Eduardo De La Calle comes with 3 tracks that oscillate between deep and dubtechno in his typical style.
Eduardo De La Calle’s Cadenza debut is a terrific example of the forward thinking, musical vision of the label. Having released a steady stream of vinyl 12”s on his Analog Solutions label, the Spanish DJ and producer flexes his other-worldy electronics on Luciano’s ten year old imprint. .Pink Water’ takes a minimal groove and splashes analog drops over a searing synth background, its melancholic melodies snaking in and around the joyous spring reverb FX of the machines, creating a very unique and commanding track. On the B side, .Madhusudhana’ is built upon a feint jazz funk loop, with shuffling hats and breathy atmospherics working off the heavy oscillations, coming over like a long lost Planet E release. Third track, .The Sneak’, continues the .Precursors’ theme of .machine music’, a rubbery beat welcomes in the trippy and psychedelic synth work, a delicate melody plays behind a heavy, groaning wave, pinging against the reverberating hits, providing another memorable and abstract track.
