
New release on Fachwerk by Roman Lindau, featuring one bare killer Berlin flavored techno track and a more house flavored track.

New release on Fachwerk by Roman Lindau, featuring one bare killer Berlin flavored techno track and a more house flavored track.

The Aula Magna team proudly presents the label’s second release, a solo EP by Seph. A mind dazzling odyssey through the artist’s breaks and techno obsessions, exploring new dance realms of his sonic world. On the A side, Temporaria kicks off the record with dancefloor intensity and Reflejo grooves on a funky edge, with layers of modulated dub synths and bells. The energy doesn’t stop on side B, shifting into a more introspective feel: Navi drives forward with its warm glitchy breaks and sets the stage for the mysterious Zoom (Bi), an epic dream that deconstructs it’s melodies over a sci-fi rhythm and ghostly distorted whispers. The journey resolves with the shimmering evolving synths of the digital exclusive track Glow. We hope you enjoy the ride.

Delsin’s sister label Ann Aimee has unearthed another techno talent here in the form of Yan Cook, heavy dancefloor techno with haunting atmospheres. ‘Rhomb’ is as heavy and subterranean as they come. Apocalyptic sounding searchlight synths pan over the whole arrangement as microbial sounds busy them selves in the foreground. Vast, echoing claps seem to hang in the air and you can imagine someone like Dettmann dropping this in Berghain to a rapturous reception. ‘2×2’ bangs the box even harder – the kicks hammer the same spot over and over rather than rolling onwards, where the gradual forward motion instead comes from the rattling, melting synth chords that flood the arrangement each bar.

Delsin’s house series is back once again, this time with mysterious producer Low Jack. His Free Pyjamas EP is house, of course, but thick, dense, gauzy textures fill every inch of the airwaves throughout. The title track is a big barrelling loop of warehouse music that has rattling drum fills, muffled r&b vocals and plenty of noise in its heart. And flipping to the bside, ‘LJs Jam’ is even more fucked up, with harsh, raw drums hidden under layers of dust, static and hiss. Various synths add some ethereal light to the backdrop and a vocal struggles to be heard in the midst of all the chaos. Finally, ‘The White Towel’ is a crunchy groove, with melancholic melodies dampening down the sonic destruction all around. Light yet dark, heavy yet groovy, it closes out a wholly arresting EP from this little known talent.

Lucy makes a return to Curle with Finnegan, a 12″ release made all the more intriguing by the presence of two Pariah remixes. “Finnegan” is a prime example of Mortellaro’s trade, lurching forebodingly through the dark recesses of chugging, industrial techno for nearly eight minutes. Pariah’s two remixes retain the dubby aesthetic while transplanting the track into more relentless, driving territory. The Dub mix is markedly harder in execution, sounding like a halfway point between his solo productions and his techno-focused Karenn project with Blawan.

The Appointment crew (Emg, Marieu, John Swing and Lucretio) add another file in their already bulging folder marked “buy in sight”. “Track 1” from the Les Appointment Royale EP features all the lo-fi brilliance the label is know for by the way of cut up vocals, Roland symbol crashes and a thrumming bass lines. “Track 2” hits up jazzy party loops whereas “Track 3” gets deep and dirty with a gritty and circular groove. Broken beats, distortion and industrial sensibilities are employed in “Track 4” which rounds out one of their most versatile EPs yet.

Volume 2 in the ‘Compiled Pleasures’ series, featuring some underground key figures and tastemakers. ‘Aim Vinyl’ labelhead Tristen delivers an ultradeep and rolling deephouse track in his very own tradition. Dario Zenker’s ‘Dining’ is an uncompromising lecture in clever simplicity, straight in your face and stomach. Freestyle Man, the finnish oldschoolmaster drops a big synth-peaktime bomb. And British newcomers Dax J and Chris Stanford deliver a dubby and deep dancefloor shaker.

Deeply Rooted House presents the Kern Exclusives, featuring 3 exclusive tracks included in DJ Deeps latest mix CD on Tresor Records. Some fine dubbed out tripping Techno/House cuts by Bleak, Dj Gregory and a remix by Kerri Chandler for Rootstrax.

The Oliverwho Factory on Dolly. The mysterious duo from Detroit delivers a relentless techno/house workout in two versions, with all trademark Oliverwho elements present including soulful vocals. Raw, deep, funky, soulful, futuristic… in other words: Detroit techno as it should be.

Ben Klock hypnotizes you with his signature style on Trus’me’s most popular club track to date ‘W.A.R Dub’. Ryan Elliott takes you on a similar journey, looping the fundamentals of Trus’me’s debut release ‘Nards’. Closely followed by an acid workout of huge proportions of another popular Trus’me hit “Need a Job’ by the ever shape shifting Vakula.

Willie Burns and Aroy Dee on remix duty. Sequencias is slowly building their profile with their outsider house, acid and chicago rooted tracks. “Another Place, Another Time” is an epic track and Willie Burns stepped over his shadow. Trippy and full of tension, slow building without taking the paved path. Aroy Dee is delivering a remix, more in the Chicago direction and adding dramatic strings.

Sweet sweet vocal Chicago-house pureness by Tevo Howard featuring Rick ‘Poppa’ Howard on vocals, reminding of the early Beautiful Granville days. A highly emotional and intimate track which the label is honoured to have aboard. Label head Paul du Lac on remix duties delivers two stripped-to-the-bone jackin’ trax for devastating club abuse, one vocal version, one instrumental version.

Lady Blacktronika shared for us an entire EP for free download on soundcloud with three new tracks, idiosyncratic soul singing, straight grooves, the ineffable feeling deepe house. The EP appears to Sound Black Recordings with the catalog number SBPROMO2012.

Madteo serves up his debut album on the Finnish imprint Sahko. With a deep love of hip-hop, boogie and beatdown running through his veins, the NYC-based Italian has never been a conventional house producer, and sure enough, he’s made a thoroughly unconventional album. But Noi No doesn’t jump from one style to another so much as suavely weave a path between styles, creating its own eccentric sonic language the process; what’s more, it’s brilliantly cold and dissolute, as if Madteo has really absorbed the rarefied Scandinavian chill of his new label.

‘Quarter Turns Over A Living Line’ is the long awaited debut album by Raime. Moving away from the sample-based strategies that characterized their early work, Joe Andrews and Tom Halstead have looked increasingly to live instrumentation for their first full-length work, mounting intensive recording sessions for percussion, guitar and strings before painstakingly piecing the album together at their home studio. The gothic and industrial signifies in their music remain, but more submerged and oblique than ever – no less pronounced as influences than jungle’s rhythmic dynamism and doom metal’s oppressive weight or aspects of techno, modern composition and dub. ‘Quarter Turns Over A Living Line’ is the first original artist LP on Blackest Ever Black.

“Ornamented Walls” is the most intense, brutal and, in many senses, most substantial work from Dominick Fernow’s Vatican Shadow project yet. Released to coincide with his first tour of Europe, the album incorporates the live mix rehearsals of “Operation Neptune Spear” with tracks made in their aftermath, recorded straight to tape and mastered by Matt Colton at Air Studios. Anyone familiar with Fernow’s live set-up will recognize the distinct nature of this material — making use of stems and partial tracks separated into a cassette system which is then re-layered and mixed, effected with electronic processing. In short — Fernow uses his tape machines like turntables in a mix, weaving a hazy and intuitive narrative of sounds that never quite head in the direction you expect, all imbued with an almost feral attitude that’s exhilarating to witness, their limitations and their mechanical machine qualities used to devastating effect. Side A features all three parts of “Operation Neptune Spear,” originally made available in a measly edition of 17 cassettes and sold at the first-ever Vatican Shadow live show in L.A. back in May 2012. Side B features an additional 25 minutes of previously-unreleased work made in the aftermath of the show and using the same set-up, including an astonishing revision of “Cairo Is a Haunted City,” dis-assembled and re-wired, lending it a shortwave quality that’s nothing short of revelatory.

The heavily sought after “Ghosts Of Chechnya” cassette finally sees a digital release. Vatican Shadow is unstoppable at the moment, his alchemistic beats and military themes marking him out as a singular talent. This LP champions the sound of Vatican Shadow, with its dubbed-out, reverberant noises, that make him stand out among his peers. The aptly named “Voices Came Crackling Across A Motorola Hand-Held Radio” is another beast, where chugging kick drums meet ominous pads and crackling static. “Chechnya’s Ghosts Loom Large In Death Of Former Spy” is another fine example of his creative ability to mould techno into any shape he sees fit; but it’s the filling spaces made up of eerie melodies and stripped beats, like “Snipers As A Breed Tend To Be Superstitious” which make his recordings so enchanting. Highly recommended as usual.

John Daly is back to feel after a series of awesome releases on his 1track label. Here is a 4 track ep with beautiful dreamy tracks on Feel Music imprint.

Toby Tobias makes his debut on Burek. Running away is a classic house peak time tune with a 90’s bass line, wonderful melodic synth stabs and a vocal sample which at its peak simply drives people crazy on the dance floor. Tres Mal wins the listeners almost instantly and has all the requirements to become a hit. Cleverly made arrangement, fat bass line and high quality production are filled with an exquisite vocal of Toby’s close friend Be Atwell. On remix duty we have Croatian house talent Homeboy a and Liverpool’s John Heckle.

Rush Hour present a new EP including two remixes by Andres and The Oliverwho Factory and a new original track by Recloose. Andres remixes ‘Electric Sunshine’, which originally appeared on the Saturday Night Manifesto EP in 2011, into a laid back and smooth house track for which Dez is so well known. The Oliverwho Factory touches up Magic, which came out earlier this year. Recloose swings back into party mode with his new track, ‘Chamois’.